Tues Day 2 Week 3 Induction, 27 Jan 09

"To Thine Own Self be True, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Inspiration for Tuesday of Week 3 Induction Continues: Plan Your Work, Work your plan

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Random Thoughts: I woke up in a lot less pain - my hands weren't clenching and stiff and my shoulder and arm weren't bothering me. The scale is up. Drats on that! But I'm not going to worry about it. It does that sometimes I know and if I had done something wrong yesterday, I'd do something about it, but pretty much yesterday was very good, so I'll just keep on keepin' on.



PERSONAL HAZARD (S)- Running out of time when I have so many things to do; but I've already set up things for this evening: FitTV has a Shimmy episode on at 8 pm; dinner will be flank steak and salad (guess who went grocery shopping!); and my fiance may be home early today. If I have to adjust, I can. I can do my yoga DVD up in the bedroom, using my laptop, or my own bellydance DVD (maybe I can look for it?) and some time during the day I think Gilad is having another show or two. SO, I have plans and alternate plans for my time issues. I have to get the car to the dealer for them to fix something causing the check-engine light to come on so I can get it inspected. If I'm stuck there, hazards become boredom, hunger, and need for more water. I'll take a book and my water bottle with me. They should have coffee and water available (free or pay) and I can walk to a nearby store and shop if necessary (they're close to a shopping center or 4, plus a mall). Just need to minimize what I carry on my shoulder (!) Plans and back-up plans.



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Assignment:

Progress so far:

Doctor Appt: Did it. The follow-up checkup is already scheduled for March.

READ THE BOOK: Did what I needed, still referring to as I "work the system."

ONGOING ASSIGNMENT: Induction continues: Food, Water, Exercise!! Plan the menus, work the plan. Altering cardio and strength daily- I'm getting back to that; finally feeling a schedule starting to build that will be doable, plus building up some back-up alternatives for if the schedule won't work. FitTV has helped a lot to supplement the DVDs, the treadmill upstairs (old and needs replacing, it frightens me some), walking the dog, running the stairs (hah!) and general weights-less floor exercises. Variety and less boredom, and still closer than the gym (wading thru traffic to get there as it's on the busiest street in this city of traffic).
NEW ASSIGNMENT: .
Continuing to develop a schedule and alternatives for exercise.

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Vitals:
BP - not today
Weight: 187.5
Cholesterol: Numbers from 30 May 08 (Doctor's office):
Total: 250
Trig: 56
HDL: 93
LDL: 146
Vitals that day: Wt: 171 BP: 126/82 Pulse: 72

Exercise:
Stretching 10 min
Cardio
Strength 50 min - 25 of Shimmy from FitTV, then 25 of Gilad's Body In Motion or Total Body Sculpting, also on FitTV - both had stretching in them, so moved those minutes to STRETCHING (above)

Water: 96 oz

Food:
Breakfast: eggbeater omelet with onion powder, cinnamon, and splenda; 2 mugs of coffee with S/L & milk. Coffee's not agreeing with me lately - just not as soothing or tasteful as it's been. Added a bit of splenda to the second cup (had with breakfast).
Lunch: Kind of a mushroom mousakas: ground beef mixture with some mushrooms/onion mixture, made some of the mousakas cream sauce, poured over a layered mushroom, beef, mushroom (to be more of the mushrooms which are a good veggie, in with lettuce, than the beef), then cooked for about 1/2 hour til brown. If you remember, the mousakas cream sauce is a quick white sauce made with almond flour ilo regular flour. You brown it, then add hot milk to it, then seasonings, which I had to look up. Had parmesan cheese, which tasted really good.
Dinner: Chicken wings and BLT salad - 4 slices of bacon, crumpled, 2 cups of green leaf lettuce, 1/2 small tomato, chopped, plus both greek island dressing (2 carbs per T) and bleu cheese dressing (2 carbs per T) to give it a different flavor
Snack: about 6 oz of coke zero
Dessert:
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NOTES:

Wt: Weight is up quite a bit, but I am spotting a bit, too. Could be retaining water; could be delayed reaction to all the biscottis on Sunday, but having worked out well yesteday, am not going to worry about it. Food was good as well, so it is "one of those things" that fluctuates and it is doing so now for sure.

BP: Will take again at end of month.
Ketones: Will see later in the week - maybe Friday?

Could the diet soda be affecting my weight loss, too? I've heard it does that for some people. I have been having more than I normally do.

Sunday Day 7 Week 2 Induction, 25 Jan 09

"To Thine Own Self be True, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Inspiration for Sunday of Week 2 Induction: Is exercise the key to freeing my shoulder of pain?
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Random Thoughts:
Today I really don't feel well. My fiance gives me a good massage where my shoulder/back pain feels tighter than ever. We then both apply a massager to it, then he gives me a heat-sticky-pad for it which works really well and I take 4 advil and 2 excedrin (hoping whichever kicks in first will hurry up) and lie down.

We're debating whether exercise will help the tendinitis the most, while the advil will keep the pain from the "early degenerative stages of arthritis" at bay. So, I get inspired to do a sculpting/toning show on FitTV with Gilead. It's not so bad on my body and the moves are good. I write it down on a weekly schedule to do it at least every Sunday, and maybe to find other times it comes on and do it then, too. A bellydance exercise class called Shimmy I had tried before and I did not do this Sunday (tho it's good) as I wanted to try the sculpt class and didn't want to be too tired. I see it is on Tuesday evenings and write that down on my note card as well. I'm on my way to building a weekly workable exercise schedule. I'm liking this FitTV!

The class worked well, I get back on the couch. But I've already started into comfort foods: grilled cheese on LC bread (but 9 carbs a slice) with cream of tomato soup. The canned soup has a lot of carbs per serving, so I will need to make my own in the future, but I'm wanting something comforting and I go for the soup. Later, I follow these up with Low-Carb (Sugar-Free) jello pudding - chocolate! another 24 carbs for the whole box I ingest. But I'm feeling better :)

Low Carb Bread, btw, appears to be a locally produced commodity. In Ohio, I could find it for 6 carbs a slice; in NC, the only one I find has 9 carbs a slice. Regular bread tends to run about 20-24 carbs a slice. Some, like pumpernickel, are lower, tho I don't know why. Pumpernickel is great for fat-free yogurt by the way, tho I have not yet discovered what that is for low carb...probably a great big dessert! Add some lox and cream cheese instead and maybe that works?!?? I'll find out another day.

I try to do my (small) cleaning bit around the house. Yesterday I vacuumed downstairs and halfway up the stairs. I want to finish.

The vacuum is already on the landing, but just moving it up the stairs to finish, then to do the baseboards on the stairs and the downstairs hallway, does something to the pain in my shoulder. I put the vacuum up upstairs and lie down with the massager on my pain again. Two more advil would not be a bad idea. The massager helps and I go back downstairs and lie down for the rest of the day.

My computer needs cleaning up. I delete files I have no idea why I have so many (java) and find out later that apparently I needed one of those -if not all - in order to access my blog. I don't feel well enough to sit up at the one computer that I didn't screw up, so I keep tinkering with my laptop.

Cookies are turned off, it complains. I turn them back on.

Against my better judgment.

Still not enough.

I may just need to do a system restore, then go back and try to delete things again. This has been a frustrating day - between the pain and the computer - and I succumb to more carbs. I have a biscotti leftover from the gingerbread biscottis available only during the holidays. Already I feel better.

I have another biscotti later. Then go for a chocolate one (smaller) before I stop for the night. It should probably matter to me more because they are each about 24 carbs apiece, that I've just eaten about 75 carbs of sugar and flour...and not much else.

I'll be like Scarlett tho and worry about that another day. It's not going to undo my efforts entirely; it's just a little TLC that will set me back. As the saying goes, "Another Day, Another Dollar" and I'll be able to knock the effects off. Plus I know that in the past, when I hit a plateau, a good carb fest somehow knocked me right off the plateau and back into weight loss.

It seems also as if I am more impacted by the exercise than the food, tho I know i have to keep the carbs down. And I notice that I am just getting bored with food again (happens on Atkins).



PERSONAL HAZARD (S)- Pain in my shoulder, frustration, boredom with food, diminishing possibilities in the fridge, no romaine, no eggs

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Assignment:

Progress so far:

Doctor Appt: Did it. The follow-up checkup is already scheduled for March.

READ THE BOOK: Did what I needed, still referring to as I "work the system."

ONGOING ASSIGNMENT: Induction continues: Food, Water, Exercise!! Plan the menus, work the plan. 30 minutes of zumba daily - at least 3x a week, maybe instead.

NEW ASSIGNMENT: . Make sure I get in my strength exercises as well - focus on making sure I get these in.

Vitals:
BP -
Weight: 184.5
Cholesterol: Numbers from 30 May 08 (Doctor's office):
Total: 250
Trig: 56
HDL: 93
LDL: 146
Vitals that day: Wt: 171 BP: 126/82 Pulse: 72

Exercise:

Stretching 10 min throught the day
Cardio
Strength 30 min

Water: 96 oz

Food:
Breakfast: eggbeater omelet with onion powder, cinnamon and splenda, 2 maple sausage links, 2 mugs of coffee with S/L and milk, total carbs: 6 carbs for the meal
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwich on Low-Carb bread (9 carbs each) and cream of tomato soup (prob 24 carbs for the soup): 42 carbs for the meal (way over daily limit)
Dinner: cheese toast made in the microwave, 2 slices, second one with italian seasoning - another 18 carbs
Snack: 1 package of Sugar-Free Jello chocolate cook-n-serve pudding (20 carbs) and about 9 cashews (10 carbs? more) - at least 30 carbs
Dessert: 3 biscottis, each about 24 carbs - about 75 carbs total

What's the total carb count? 181??? My last maintainable carb limit (while exercising with a high metabolism) was 100 carbs...I will note that this time, the carb fest did not knock me out (put me to sleep).....

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NOTES:

Wt: up 1 pound - not so good
BP: not taking regularly anymore - will begin to look at it monthly
Ketones: a few more days before I check

TGIF - Day 5 (Jan 9, 2009)

"To Thine Own Self be True, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Inspiration for the Day: TGIF - Enjoy the weekend; remember this is my life!
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Random Thoughts:

PERSONAL HAZARD (S)- Fiance at home today; then he asked me out to lunch, if I wanted. A sabotage? A dare? Dare I say 'no'? (No way, out we go!)
My next hazard is still being tired - I woke up very irritable, cold, hands and shoulder sore, went back to sleep after an hour, then abruptly awoken later by workers in the street doing something. Going out for lunch - the skies are beautifully blue in NC in January, at least this year! - was good for me, which means it was good for fiance who didn't like my being so grumpy.
Also received some of that "stressful" mail that can throw me for a loop. Solution: called the xh to discuss with him, called his housekeeper as well (since I couldn't reach him on his cell), and we ended up leaving VM for each other, but all seems well. In essence, the mail said I had to be back in the state of Ohio next week- in court, and they mailed it on THE DAY that I had to let them know if I couldn't make it. To make it worse, I initiated this because of a typographical/administrative error they made on a document going to the court. The notice I received was vague about what was going on, and I was concerned my xh would think it was something more than that and get his lawyer involved and both of us would waste money when all I wanted was an error to be corrected in the document that was going to be signed by the court. I know that they are working to do the right thing, but they do have to deal with a lot of folks and I am just one of many, so I try not to add to their burden. Going to court for this is just a bit over-the-top, but how the system works sometimes. But it looks like we're going to be able to be reasonable about this, which is good.

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Assignment:

Progress so far:

Doctor Appt: Done. But I think I need to find a Physical Therapist for my shoulder, and make an appt for a massage (gift from fiance for Xmas)

READ THE BOOK: Yeah, yeah, yeah - don't I have all weekend?

ONGOING ASSIGNMENT: Prepare menu for 1 week, using book and lists of foods (induction chapter), then create shopping list. Also, learn how to read labels - both in the book.
Also: NO SUGAR and DRINK ALL MY WATER (can't forget those two). EXERCISE!!!

Vitals:
BP - after waking: 122/69, pulse 50 (2nd take, 1st was 118/66, 51) ;
Weight: 189.0 - up a 1/2 pound - see notes below
Cholesterol: Numbers from 30 May 08 (Doctor's office):
Total: 250
Trig: 56
HDL: 93
LDL: 146
Vitals that day: Wt: 171 BP: 126/82 Pulse: 72

Exercise: PRIORITY for TODAY (slacked yesterday)
Stretching 5 min
Cardio none
Strength 30 min: crunches, weight workout using wine bottles, a lighter one for my shoulder with tendinitis, and using resistance, plus some squats

Water: half a bottle (32 oz) done - so about 16 oz. ; 2 bottles now - up to 32 oz; one more to go! -EOD: Finished it all!!

Food:
Breakfast: Some bacon and coffee - about 5 slices (these are thin, pre-cooked), and 1 cup coffee, milk, S/L.
Lunch: 10 Buffalo chicken wings, a caesar's side salad (pushed the croutons to the side after offering them to my fiance who was having (carbs, we won't say what kind! shhh!) and a diet soda. I asked for splenda-sweetened (Coke Zero and Pepsi One come to mind), but these are the other kind of diets.
Dinner: Probably will have leftover stroganoff with it thrown over carbs for the carbs person in the family and with a side salad for me so I can feel smugly superior despite his attempts to sabotage my efforts by taking me out to lunch earlier ;) Anyway, where I didn't have will-power before, I am having it now. But that's the wrong word. What I really have is determination and commitment. Today, it only took determination. Sometimes it takes commitment - remembering my commitment to myself and how important it is to me to get to my goal.
Snack: 4 oz of cream cheese, bacon bits, splenda, cinnamon
Dessert: 2 Atkins' bars, one after lunch, one after dinner
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NOTES:

Wt: 1/2 pound up from yesterday. Since I am not showing (on the ketone strip test) that I am burning carbs over fat, I am probably also dealing with the low metabolism I got myself into. So, not exercising yesterday probably had a lot to do with my not dropping another pound and with my showing a bit up. So, another reason to make sure I exercise today: to see if that has an effect tomorrow (tho I know metabolism goes up and down sl-o-o-o-w-ly so it's likely just to help me sweat out some bad stuff and not actually be "up" yet).

Tues 6 Jan 09 11:30 am-EOD

Updated below for the end of yesterday

Vitals:
BP - not taken today - took it around 6 pm and had 144/85 with pulse of 72.....a bit higher on the first number
Weight: 190.5 - woo-hoo! down 2 lbs from yesterday!!
Cholesterol: HDL, LDL, Tri: ???
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Exercise:
Stretching this morning: minimal, it's a late late start today, not fully awake yet even - got several of these in during the day (still working with tendinitis in shoulder, arthritis in hands, too (mostly in the morning)- end of day: 15 min stretching
Dancing in the kitchen: hmmm, with fiance at home today not likely if he works (tho I think he called in for a personal day, not a work-at-home day) - still, I'll need to deal with someone around and who will need personal attention - probably what most of you deal with constantly, too, especially if your children are still at home. By end of day, did 15 minutes zumba!
Walking - the two of us took Bailey for a while, slow at first, but we did 20 min and I feel a bit warmed up now. I could feel the work in my muscles on the rises (hills), too. So, better than I thought after the first 8 minutes :) Total: 20 min

Water: None yet - about 1/2 a bottle now - or 16 oz. in addition to the coffee and a cup of decaf tea, but I want to count water only. Stayed up after 9:30 when fiance turned in for the night and finished water while playing text twist, hearts, mah jong, free cell, and spider solitaire - went to bed at 11 pm. Total for the day: 96 oz (plus all the coffee and some decaf tea)

Food:

Breakfast: 6 slices crispy bacon(microwave), 3-egg omelet with 2 T of the sauteed mushroom/onion mix made the other day. I'm trying my fiance's egg-beaters this time. We bought them in bulk at Sam's the other day. I also always microwave bacon, but this stuff is pre-cooked (bought in bulk also) and cooks very quickly. I made him some scrambled eggs, too. Always some coffee (:)) on my second cup now: 2 mugs of coffee w/1 T of milk & sweet'n'low (S/L)
Lunch: Pretty much breakfast is lunch today - we both got up late, after staying up late for the game last night (Texas beat Ohio State, boo hoo, tho my niece's husband went to Texas, so half of the family was against me) then Bailey got caught in the rain this morning about 5:30, so we rescued him and went back to sleep. Slept til 10:30. About to eat breakfast now at 11:30 am.
Dinner: Had the other half of the dinner from last night - Michael Angelo's Chicken something - delicious! - has artichokes and capers in it, some tomatoes, too - plus some leftover veggies (picked out the carrots - it was a Green Giant Infusion Steam-in-bag (for 2) mix I found at Walmart or Target or some-such).
Snack: 1/2 oz of melted cheddar
Dessert: 4 oz of creamed cheese with cinnamon and splenda, heated in the microwave til it gets fluffy - my fiance tasted it and turned his nose up, but for me, it satisfies the sweet tooth cravings for a while (and I'm one who likes a small piece of chocolate after a meal...) Discovered this raiding a work fridge in a conference room - we had a whipped cream cheese by Philly in the fridge, it had cinnamon in it. I was allowed cream cheese (Atkins), so I took some of that one day. Note - this was our public fridge for guests, not co-worker's stashes - I also did not take a lot, but learned I liked the flavor of cinnamon with the cream cheese. So, don't be afraid to try something new. As I told me son who had to eat meals with me - it's only one meal (which you can always spit out), and since it won't kill you to eat it one time (think of the depression-era folks, folks!), think of it as fuel and go on. Just don't make it again if you don't like it. Adventures in food! Let the games begin, hee hee....
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NOTES:

Cholesterol numbers may be called into me today; awaiting another call from doctor in Ohio's office;
Wt: happy with 2 lbs down from yesterday's weight, which was up a bunch from my last weigh-in before that (like about 5 lbs!) Maybe it was no sugar yesterday, maybe it was releasing water since I hadn't drank all my water on Sunday and I did on both Saturday and Monday. *************************************************
Assignment:

Progress so far:

Doctor Appt: I called the doctor's office in Ohio; they couldn't find my file but will get someone to find it and the numbers and call me back (at least that's their plan; I suspect the file may be hiding now.)
READ THE BOOK: I read a few of the chapters yesterday - they are hard to get thru at times, but there is so much information giving reasons why and how this diet works, that it's pretty vital that we understand. I know it helped me whenever I had to adjust the diet on the run, shooting from the hip, flying by the seat of my pants....you get all these cliches? Most diets allow no deviation, but life is not like that - stuff happens. Reading this book prepares you to deal with unexpected circumstances on your own. You will know what to do, or at least have a clue. Then you go back and read that part again, so you understand the information even better. When you get hungry, you'll know what to eat and why. You'll know why eating low-fat is not going to help you and will probably really throw off your ability to burn fat in the beginning, plus knowing how to read labels and know "low fat" usually means higher sodium (salt) and/or higher sugars.
****New assignment: Learn how to read labels! ****
Still need to read the chapter on Induction then create a menu for a week.

NEW ASSIGNMENT: Prepare menu for 1 week, using book and lists of foods (induction chapter), then create shopping list. Also, learn how to read labels.
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I still need to buy some new Ketone strips at CVS.

If you're reading this, chime in and let me know by leaving a comment (anonymous or otherwise, I don't track) letting me know if you've chosen a food plan yet and what it is. Have you made a commitment yet? Have you chosen a food plan? Where are your areas of most difficulty? Is anyone doing low carb? If so, which one did you choose?

Inspiration for the Day: NO SUGAR * NO SUGAR * NO SUGAR...It's Day TWO!

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Random Thoughts: My breakfast is getting cold, but it can be zapped in the microwave if too cold, just about 20 seconds would reheat it well without overcooking it.
12:30 pm - ate it cold, tasted great. I think I ate it quicker tho. I'm feeling cold again, and so reheated the rest of my coffee. Feeling hungry again, but know that I should not eat again yet - I had enough to eat (mentally know this), so what are these feelings that make me want to eat?
Psychological - could be because my tummy is used to being bigger, pressing against my clothes, after I eat? So, psychologically I feel I can't be done eating? Also, eating it cold and so quickly, I've eaten it but it hasn't registered yet.
Cold - it really makes me want to eat.
Not feeling full - makes me want to keep eating stuff that tasted good.
4:10 pm - not a lot of progress today. Someone online mentioned deviled eggs today; fiance morphed that into egg salad. Boiled some eggs (cover with water, boil water, then turn off and let sit for 20 minutes, simple). Added a low-fat mayo to his with salt and peppah; used regular mayo for mine, it had zero carbs (his had 1) per serving. His on high-fiber bread, mine plain. I added some dill to mine as well, then thought shredded parmesan might be good. Not so sure on that; maybe it should have been melted or room-temp first? Making some decaf tea with splenda - family size tea bag in a pitcher 5 min in the microwave, add splenda to taste (about 1/2 the amount of sugar I used to use for sweet tea - which was 1 cup before - this southern gal loves sweet tea and this is no substitute, but it does stave off cravings....hope it doesn't cause any today. --- I do need to get out and get some exercise somehow today or tonight. He slept all day by the tv (which I turned off).
PERSONAL HAZARD - fiance had bag of cookies out, some on-sale xmas hard candies. I put those in the pantry so I wouldn't have to look at them, then teased him about putting out hazards for my diet. After yesterday, I know I can do this (hey, there's plenty of cheese in the house and i have eggs, bacon, and sausage, so I should be able to find something warm and filling and full of protein if I get cravings to eat. I'll focus on those for my emergency foods.)
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"To Thine Own Self be True, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
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Planning Vacations

Recently someone on E*Diets reported she was on Day 3 of Atkins and doing well, then mentioned her upcoming vacation in August where "everyone (would be) eating pasta and drinking wine" and wondered how she'd deal with that. Here's a reply I wrote to help her, having gone through that myself - in more ways than one - during my own journey to drop 40 pounds; perhaps it can help you plan for your upcoming vacation, too!

"Hi Jazzee*,

You are right to think about the trip and vacation with everyone else eating pasta and drinking wine. Now is the time to develop a plan that works for you and that will deal with that. If you are very strict with the induction and continue til vacation time, including increasing your exercise a little bit each day (and taking a rest day or two per week so you don't feel you are killing yourself), plus drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water, you will have more leeway in what you can do while on vacation.

I would suggest the following:

1. Make a plan to ensure you get enough water per day THAT YOU CAN DRINK and work on a plan that will ensure you DO just that.

For example, if the tap water is not drinkable, can you buy bottled water for each day or the entire week or so that you are gone and label them for each day so you can keep track without having to think about it while on vacation?

If you CAN drink the tap water, do you have a system in place for vacation-time that helps you keep track of how much you drink without having to work too hard at it during vacation? I find - must be the golfer in me :) - that I cannot count past 3-4 and remember. With things that "look the same" in my memory (like the same bottle or glass), this holds true anyway.

So, I buy 32-oz gatorade bottles and either save the gatorade in a pitcher for my son or others, or empty it, so that I have a good wide-mouthed container which fits in MY van's cupholders (not my fiance's SUV unfortunately) easily.

I started needing to drink 3 per day and am down to 2-1/2, tho I am trying to up that to 3 since I am trying to lose weight (10 lbs I regained falling in love and the effects on all three areas with time constraints mostly).

2. Food - do you like chicken or steak Caesar salads? These, and those with meat/cheese primarily and caesar, blue cheese, ranch, and some italian dressings are easily found at italian restaurants (tho I can't speak for Italy itself if you're going there!). Chicken wings, meats, eggplant parmigiana, etc, can work well ESPECIALLY if you can FORGO the pasta itself.

Italian restaurants did me in back in January, starting at New Year's Eve and going to 3 such places within a month. The first one I did pretty good at, but then I gave in to the pasta.

3. Find a way to exercise daily - 10 min of stretching in the morning, racing (for you) up and down flights of stairs for 3-5 minutes at some point during the day (or just walk an extra one til your heart or breath feel it, then maybe one more if you can), and then 15 min of stretching at night.

If you can turn on a song and dance like it's 1999 thru the whole thing (i.e., full gusto of joie de vivre involved, no matter which beat you choose), try that once a day too.

If you can go dancing, do that and choose water to drink instead of alcohol.

4. Try to limit your wine to 6 oz of red wine per day, enjoying it thoroughly while you do. There are heart benefits to this, even tho it's verboten during induction. Only 4 carbs for red wine - more for the others.

5. Game plan alternatives to staying OP (cause we all know you won't, the above are ways to LESSEN the effects):

a. goal is to maintain weight loss (no gain)

b. goal is to say the heck with it, and start over when you return (remember day 3 of Atkins is the hardest, but you will eventually beat the cravings).

Remember, we do this so we can enjoy the things that matter the most to us. Weigh each bite against the enjoyment obtained with the work it will take to get that off again, assuming you want to work it off, too. Some things are worth it; some are not.

Have a great time! When do you leave?"

*Name changed.

Another thing I did not mention in my reply to her - because she had not mentioned it in her own post - was dealing with car trips, where boredom on the road can lead to road munchies and crunchies (my favorite are Carb-heavenly Combos and Gummy Bears). I learned that I needed NEW MUSIC to keep me entertained. With a child in the car, that means (s)he might need headphones so the adult(s) can play their own music without listening to whining, too. Always have back-up water sources in the car, too, in case of highway stalemates that come up in the middle of nowhere and lead to road/block parties for 1-2 hours or more. Plan for potty breaks as well.

Drinking Water

One of the frugal blogs I try to keep up with (I've Paid Twice for this Already - see related articles in the sidebar) brought up the question of whether or not anyone drinks tap water anymore. Good question!

Since water is one of the three legs on the footstool of changing to and then maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and since we are all getting more and more worried about paying for everything, I thought it would be a good time to discuss water. If you check out the "I've paid twice for this already" blog, you'll see many of these comments already mentioned in my comments there.

A few years ago, I was a member of a team of MBA students doing a consulting project that dealt with water fountains. Our research steered into the marketing area and we looked at how people (target audience) were viewing water. At that time (2002), water was just beginning to replace sodas as the money maker for the soda manufacturers, and its price was beginning to equal that of soda. As an international team, we took a worldview of the market, but also were pinpointing the US which was where the manufacturer we were working for was located.

The water that you buy in bottles is not strictly tap water, but is tap water with some flavor additives (such as sodium) added in. Given the cost of transporting water, most sodas are postponed in their manufacturing so that the major liquid element is added to the soda closer to its intended audience. In other words, water is obtained and added to the soda mixture very close to home - i.e., it's the stuff that you get out of your tap, too.

Some areas of the country will have hardened water naturally, and most homeowners deal with that by adding a water softener if they can, at least to their drinking and cooking water (who wants to scrub out a lime deposit from their pans? Or think about that stuff going into their stomach?) Bottling plants will also adjust the tap water to a palatable mixture of their own choosing, but nothing that is added tends to add those unwanted things like extra sugars, sodium or calories, and if they do, it is noted on the bottle. So be sure to become a label reader!!!

Other than that, I think one's like or dislikes of tap water are based on what they are most used to - we can pretty much adapt to anything, but decreasing our luxury level from necessity to nice-to-have is harder than increasing it in the other direction. You will have to go through a little pain to make that gain and be happy with less than what you could have (a sugary caffeinated soda that has you zipping around the office for a few hours before you hit that afternoon "lull" that is probably caused from the sugar high from lunch (sugars, carbs ingested there) suddenly being depleted.

This is why I like Atkins: Atkins avoids that by limiting those and increasing the proteins ingested because they take longer to digest (6 versus 4 hours, generally) and will keep you feeling "not hungry" longer. Using water to "fill in the gaps" in your stomach and in your mind is a great way to bridge some of those moments, but cannot overcome a sugar/carb low period. You just have to suffer through those - like a hangover - and vow not to do it to yourself again!!

So, start drinking the tap water and treat it like both a vitamin pill ordered by the doctor (in huge quantities and throughout the day), and be glad it also helps you on your pocketbook. Few restaurants charge for water, and you'll be glad for the extra $1-2 per day if you've been paying for soda. Try it iced, chilled, and straight up (sans ice) to see which works best for you. Good restaurants will suggest, but many can also provide this if you ask, adding a lemon slice to it. This might help you in your transition.

Remember that this is a transition. Your taste buds will need to change, and your bladder will also be undergoing changes. In addition, your body becomes accustomed to the increase in water, which it desperately wants, and will initially hoard the water (increasing weight temporarily, and perhaps bloating) until it accepts the fact that you are going to give it more water regularly.

Your body will then stop hoarding what you give it and release the increased water and weight. If you start to decrease later, you may be able to pick up on this when you start craving salty foods. This is a sign your body is wanting more water (salt retains water). So, drink about 8-16 oz of water within the next hour and see if the salty craving has passed yet before repeating.

If you still crave salty foods after 4 hours, then you might give in and find something healthy but with salt. The salt will affect your blood pressure, though, so it might be best to resist it completely if you can. If not, at least you tried to decrease the craving by increasing the water content of your body.

Cheers! Chug-chug-chug

3 Ways to Deal with Stress and Carbs

It's been a rough week at work - not the stress level from dealing with the personalities as just having deadlines looming and knowing we have a lot of information to process in order to produce some spreadsheets. Finished them today - but we ended up estimating something entirely different after a come-to-Jesus meeting on Tuesday. Hallelujah!

But, the point is that after my 10-day hiatus from exercising, eating right, and drinking enough water, I am still dealing with the carb addiction! I wanted something to munch on constantly.

So what did I do?

Looked for substitutes which would give me the crunch, but fewer carbs. Not sure how I did - the wasabi peas are all gone.

Kept emergency food on hand again. (So, I did keep my chocolate intake at work down to one hershey bar today. Yesterday I ate half a pack of thin mints!)

Three more things I can do and will do:

1. My own zumba at home (working on new choreographies to teach)
2. Mow the lawn (another good workout usually, not too bad, either).
3. Put air in the bike tires and hit the trail.

So, let's schedule those events.

• Mowing the lawn - if I can get the mower fixed Saturday - on Saturday.
• Air in the tires - Saturday if time, else Sunday
• Zumba choreography - Sunday

Maybe I can do the zumba choreography on my back patio. Doesn't that sound like fun?