DAY 33

I am still feeling horrible! No exercise today. Dinner is in the crock pot cooking so I won’t have to do that later. Hopefully I will be feeling lots better tomorrow. It is weight in day.  I will leave you with this little advice to think about.

Master one new habit at a time, before going on to tackle another habit. Maybe putting some exercise in your daily routine is the first step.  Then you can start cutting out soda and so on. The objective is to develop habits that will lead us to a thinner and healthier life. 

Most people are in too big of a hurry to lose weight. I include myself in this statement.  It took years to gain the extra weight but suddenly we expect it all to come off in a couple of months. We all think that the only way we will lose weight is by totally eliminating our favorite foods--pasta, bread, cheese, or whatever. We only need to lower our calories enough to achieve gradual weight loss. The answer to losing weight is not to deprive yourself of your favorite foods but, rather, to learn how to eat the foods you love.

Talk to ya soon!!

Day 32

I have a cold! BLAH! I hate being sick. (Like that isn’t a given.) Who likes to be sick?  I guess you could say I am not full of life. I usually don’t complain too much about having a cold but this one seems to be kicking my bootie.

I had my cream of wheat and a glass of orange juice for breakfast. I did manage to work up enough energy to work out this morning. I will say I don’t think I worked as hard as I should have. For lunch, I had a left over baked pork chop and some broccoli. It was pretty good considering I can’t taste or smell much. My son even ate some “Broc” for the second day in a row. He isn’t much of a green veggie person, but I think we might be convincing him other wise.

Dinner tonight will consist of chicken and asparagus. Yummy! There is nothing like BBQ chicken in the middle of winter. I love all the sunny days we are having. If it were warmer I would be in heaven. Oh well. Guess I better enjoy the cooler weather while I can.

DAY 31

DRINKING SODA
Researchers say you can measure a person’s risk of obesity by measuring his or her soda intake. Versus people who don’t drink sweetened sodas, here’s what your daily intake means:
½ can = 26 percent increased risk of being overweight or obese
½ to 1 can = 30.4 percent increased risk
1 to 2 cans = 32.8 percent increased risk
More than 2 cans = 47.2 percent increased risk

That’s a pretty remarkable set of stats. You don’t have to guzzle Double Gulps from 7-Eleven to put yourself at risk—you just need to indulge in one or two cans a day. Wow. And because high-fructose corn syrup is so cheap, food marketers keep making serving sizes bigger (even the “small” at most movie theaters is enough to drown a raccoon). That means we’re drinking more than ever and don’t even realize it: In the 1950s, the average person drank 11 gallons of soda a year. By the mid-2000s, we were drinking 46 gallons a year. A Center for Science in the Public Interest report contained this shocking sentence: “Carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet.”

Bonus Tip: When it comes to making us fat, soda is only one of the big offenders. Other sugary drinks can add belly fat fast too. You can be slurping more than an entire day's worth of calories, sugar and fat--in just a few minutes.

Thank you to David Zinczenko of Men’s Health

I drink one soda every two weeks. I guess I am not doing too badly. At one point I was drinking 1 to 2 cans a day of Pepsi or Dr. Pepper. I really like it, but I am trying to make an effort not to drink it. Please join me!!