Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,394
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
The only exercise that I know of for triceps is where you raise and lower a weight behind your head. You can also do dips with a weight bench, but I can't do them. I think this arm exerciser I bought has a position for exercising triceps.
Right now might be the best time to find a good price on a cashmere sweater. I hate the thought of going shopping right now with the Christmas crowds. I don't like to buy clothes online because I like to try them on. There also might be good after-Christmas sales.
Stayed up late last night watching a show on my kindle. I've been so good about turning off all my screens by 9pm but the last couple of days I wanted to watch shows on my kindle. I think I'm feeling some stress and I need a vacay!! Some time off is coming up! I feel like the horse on the last leg of the journey, and I am galloping toward my free time.
B: one green banana, one whole avocado sliced up and salted, three slices of Applegate bacon, coffee with MCT oil and cream
L: a bowl of leftover stew, a Quest power bar
S: 1/4 cup hazlenuts, slivered toasted almonds and 3 squares of 78% dark chocolate
D: 4 oz baked salmon, arugula salad with evoo and vinaigrette dressing, one apple muffin, a glass of red wine
I had a long working day today, but I am feeling amazingly good and not tired at all! This could be because I am truly working at turning my screens off at 9pm, not eating for three hours before bed and hydrating well. I really worked hard at these things this week. I'm not putting honey or any other sweetener in my coffee at the moment. Trying to see if lack of sweetener helps my energy levels. So far, so good.
B: one green banana, one avocado sliced up, 2oz. baked salmon, coffee with 2 tsp MCT oil and cream
L: two sweet potatoes with butter and iodized sea salt.
S: brazil nuts, hazlenuts, pistachios, pecans, 4 squares 78% dark chocolate (kind of overdid it on the chocolate but I was hungry)
D: pastured chicken sausage from Primal Farms, Brussels sprouts cooked in garlic, butter and evoo, pressure cooked white Jasmin rice, one glass of red wine
Today, three of my classes ended for Christmas break. I just have three more on Monday and then I'm off work for three weeks. Can't wait! I have lots of new recipes lined up to try out. Super jazzed about my vacation!
Today's menu:
B: one slice of bacon, one whole avocado, coffee with MCT oil and cream
L: leftovers from last night's dinner -- chicken sausage, brussels sprouts, and white rice (The rice was a little dry so I added a little drizzle of olive oil - yum!)
S:handful of hazlenuts, 2 squares 78% dark chocolate
D:dinner at Sharkys - wild caught salmon, organic roasted veggies
Last edited by magistra17; 12-14-2017 at 11:37 PM.
wannabehealthy Thanks for the arm exercise tips! I actually tried out a couple of dips with the weight bench, and I was able to do them, but the next day my whole torso was unbelievably sore! I'm going to let my body heal and try them again in a few days. Fabulous exercise btw. Thanks!
Good luck with the shopping! I like online shopping because I can try on at home where it's more convenient and a lot of stores make returns by mail super easy. Some even allow free returns.
I've been sick all week with a bad virus, not the flu, thank God! Just a bad cold, stuffy nose, cough, etc. In the past whenever I've gotten sick, it was like a ticket to cheat on my diet, but this time, I'm actually staying on my diet because I want to. Rather than craving junk food, I am craving the foods I need to eat to get well. With this lifestyle change, my comfort foods have changed and I am so grateful. I weighed myself today and discovered I have another .8 loss. It's a Christmas miracle! Ha, ha!
The first day when I realized that I was coming down with something I made a big pot of chicken soup. That lasted me a couple days and it was so nice to have that sitting in the fridge waiting for me. I've also been eating flax-seed muffins, pastured eggs, green bananas, avocado, bacon, carrots, mushrooms and pressure cooked Jasmine rice.
I have been keeping the manuka honey regularly stocked in my cupboard. Several times a day, I find it so soothing to drink green ginger tea with a little teaspoon of manuka honey.
I have a humidifier/diffuser and some melaleuca essential oil, which I am running all day and night. It's so dry here in S. Calif. that the humidifier is necessary. As a result, I have been getting very good sleep, something that I don't usually experience with an illness.
I've been taking boswellia daily for the pain in my head. I don't have the energy to go check out other natural medicine. Basically I wasn't prepared for myself to get sick. After this I will have to look into other natural remedies. I am trying to avoid over the counter pharmaceuticals since many of them will destroy my gut buddies.
The only other medicine I am using is Ricola cough drops. I discovered that the Halls cough drops that I used to get to relieve my coughing have soy in them. Since I'm avoiding soy, I went with the Ricola brand, which has a lot of herbs in them. They even make one flavor that uses stevia rather than sugar. So glad!
Hot showers are helping to alleviate the sinuses. Steaming has been good too. I thought it was funny yesterday when I was cooking some chicken and veggies, the steam from the cooking helped me a bit. That was challenging. I would do a little cooking, go blow my nose, then wash my hands. I'm trying not to spread germs for the rest of my family. Don't know if I'm being successful.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,394
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
Hi Magistra. Sorry to hear you're under the weather but it sounds like you're handling it wisely. I always seem to get a runny nose when I eat hot food like soup, even when I'm not sick. I was interested in the Ricola drops. Because I am diabetic I use Halls Sugar Free. Sometimes my morning blood sugar is up and I have been wondering if the sugar free cough drops contain something that could be having that effect. I googled the ingredients and none of them say they raise blood sugar. But when I googled Stevia, it said it is not only good for blood sugar but also lowers insulin levels, which I really need, being insulin resistant. I have never seen the Ricola drops with Stevia, but maybe I just didn't look closely. I'll have to look for them.
I'm glad you found the dips an effective exercise. When you get soreness, you know the workout was good, as long as it's not an injury. It doesn't sound like it is. Maybe if I increase my strength I will be able to try them, too.
wannabehealthy Thank you! I'm feeling so much better today! I'm rarely coughing now. Ricola sells two types of sugar free cough drops, one is sweetened with aspartame and the other is sweetened with stevia. My daughter found both of these types at Target so you do have to make sure the package says sugar free sweetened with stevia. If it just says sugar free, then it's probably the one with aspartame. The stevia type is also sold on Amazon in liquorice and original flavor.
This morning I felt so good that I popped out of bed at 7am and made a delicious coffee cake for the family. This was a grand success in my home. Everybody liked it and it disappeared fast. Here's the recipe I used: https://elanaspantry.com/cinnamon-coffee-cake/
For our Christmas dinner we had pulled pork using my favorite recipe (I use only half the honey suggested for this recipe and find that it still tastes great): https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/re...ork-crock-pot/
And steamed cauliflower, sauteed mushrooms, and pressure cooked red potatoes.
It was a great day. I didn't crave any of the old sugary sweets I used to eat on Christmas Day. I got some See's candy in my stocking as a gift, but I read the ingredients and even the dark chocolate is full of sugar and made with soy lecithin, so I won't be eating it. Interestingly, I find that I could care less about the chocolate, and that's a miracle for me!
In the past I used to experience a lot of stress leading up to Christmas and I would often be in a gloomy mood. This year, even though I was sick with a cold, my family said they noticed how my mood was better this Christmas than it's ever been. I honestly attribute this improvement of mood to my new woe.
Deleting processed foods, wheat, corn, soy, and sugar from my diet has changed my life. It's changed my mood. I feel so happy most of the time, and I am coping with the short winter days better than I ever have before.
Goodness, five days went by and I haven't been posting my menu. Life is so full right now, it's hard to keep up.
I had a fun night at the movies yesterday with a friend. When my kids were little, I used to take them to the movies and we never got snacks. That just wasn't part of it, but then as they got older, and I got older, at some point we started buying food at the movies. It got to the point where I couldn't watch a movie in the theater without some kind of food in my mouth. When I began my lifestyle change this past summer, I realized that the food sold at the movies is no longer on my diet. So, I have gone back to the old days when I did not eat at the movies. Interestingly, I find that I don't miss it at all.
Today's menu:
B: flax-seed muffin with maple syrup, coffee with cream
L: Quest bar, pistachios, pecans
D: one broiled lamb chop, baked baby broccoli, big plate of chard and romaine with evoo and vinaigrette
D: 4 squares of Valrhona 71% dark chocolate
I've been experimenting with some new dessert recipes this week and so far all of them have been flops. I'm going to try out a new brownie recipe. I just have to get some tahini to make this one.
A couple days ago, I broiled a top sirloin grass fed steak for dinner and it was so good, everybody went back for seconds. Even though I wanted seconds too, I am sticking to the rule of eating only 2 - 4 ounces of protein per meal, 8 ounces a day total. Trying to get my family to follow that rule is really hard. It would help the budget if they would comply, lol! Grass fed and pastured food is rather expensive.
Last edited by magistra17; 12-31-2017 at 12:46 AM.
It's wonderful to start out the new year with a weight loss! I'm down .6 today. I took a look at my progress over the last few months and I am losing at a rate of about half a pound per week. This is okay with me! As long as I keep going. I had a plateau in September and even though my body needed that plateau, I felt impatient over it.
B: flaxseed muffin with a little maple syrup, one green banana sliced up and sprinkled with cinnamon, one grain free mini cheesecake (recipe below), coffee with coconut oil and cream
L: almond and tapioca flour tortilla, spicy taco meat, shredded cabbage, sriracha sauce, sour cream and one whole avocado
S: 1/2 Quest bar
D: pastured chicken cooked in butter and olive oil, seasoned with rosemary, thyme, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper, collard greens and cauliflower sauteed in butter, evoo and garlic
grain free mini cheesecake (I used Swerve granules instead of sugar and it took a little longer to cook than the instructions. I cooked the crust for exactly 10 minutes, but the custard took about 20 minutes. They turned out perfect!): https://www.texanerin.com/mini-chees...e-gluten-free/
Last edited by magistra17; 01-02-2018 at 12:22 PM.
I'm feeling a bit sluggish this morning and I know why. I watched videos until well after midnight and I had a midnight snack. I ate half of a mini cheesecake. It was so good, but I woke up this morning wanting another. Sheesh! Cheating is not worth it. However, cheating on this diet versus cheating on my old woe is so much improved! The consequences are not nearly as devastating as they used to be. On my old woe, if I ate a midnight snack, I would wake up with a headache and I wouldn't be able to get up in the morning. It would take me until noon to feel better.
And since I'm not having that blood sugar drop, it's a lot easier to get right back on track--
first rest and meditate
drink my water
today - stay away from fruit
go easy on sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, stevia, erythritol
B: leftovers from dinner - pastured chicken breast, cauliflower and collard greens, coffee with coconut oil, half tsp of manuka honey, and cream
L: sweet potato mashed with butter, salt and a tsp of sour cream
D: 2oz. grass fed top sirloin broiled, a tsp of sour cream, collard greens sauteed in butter, olive oil, and garlic
This evening I am having cinnamon tea and 2 squares 72% chocolate
I had a good day today. I put some clothes that I have shrunk out of in the giveaway bag and I cleaned out an entire cupboard in the kitchen. I needed to make some space for all my new kitchen tools; my instant pot had nowhere to live, but now it does! I also have a new waffle maker and a donut mold that I have to find places for.
My daughter couldn't get her favorite wheat English muffins at the supermarket today. They were out of stock. That put an idea into my head and I am now looking into grain free English muffin recipes and wondering if I can come up with a muffin that she likes. I love a challenge . . .
Last edited by magistra17; 01-02-2018 at 11:31 PM.
