DONNA ~ I can understand how tiring it can be to put in a full day at work and then try to go to a gym too; that is why I do my toning exercises first thing in the AM. I feel the freshest then and it only takes a few minutes (I started out at 8-10 minutes); later, I increased them, just becuz I found them helping me so much ...
I do tummy tucks & crunches; thigh lateral squeezes (sounds weird but they work; learned these at a gym too); plus butt squeezes -- I do all these on my bed before getting up. Later on in the day, I do some chair half-situps while waiting for stuff to come up on my PC (good use of time).
I also do some hand-weights about 3 days a week; again, just for about 10 minutes. These are supposed to help increase your metabolism all day long, and strengthen your muscles too. If you don't have hand-weights, you can just use a couple of food cans instead. These are all easy things to do at home to replace the gym, if needs be.
I think I will share my daily eating menu with you all so that you can see what I am doing each day; this is my healthier lifestyle plan ... for breakfast I had about 1 cup cooked OATMEAL (that was mixed with part natural cream of wheat). I made up 3 servings of it yesterday and just nuked some for today. Sometimes, I have a tsp brown sugar or 1 tbl NSA maple syrup, and a little skim milk. I also had 1/2 banana & a coffee when I first got up.
For lunch I had two small bowls of spicy veggie chicken & rice soup with 1/2 slice whole grain bran bread; boy, filling and yummy.
For an afternoon snack, I had 1/2 cup bran flakes & the other half of the banana. Morning snack was two wg soda crackers with a tsp of low fat peanut butter and a coffee.
Dinner was turkey thighs with small potatoes, a piece of yam, and lots of mixed veggies (onions, celery, carrots, green beans, turnip, broccoli, etc). I have some leftover for my lunch tomorrow.
Tonight, I had 1/4 cup pineapple, an apple, and tea so far for my snack. On my plan, I am allowed to have a second small breakfast mid-morning if I want to; and as many small, healthy snacks as I need to feel satisfied.
Things are going well; we did fall cleaning today -- that's good exercise and got some walking in too. We had a nice mix of

and clouds today; but now it is clearing up a bit and I can see that half moon and a few stars up there right now.
Have a great Wednesday everyone ... Rosebud
