Post 50 - And Another thing!

Hello, everyone!

I know, I know, "What's this? Two days of blogging in a row?" Sorry about that - I left out so much good information in that ridiculously long blog of mine last night and I didn't want to let another day go by without writing it down and sharing it with all of you. I'm sending out a special "hello" to all of my friends at Yelp for inspiring this blog post today!

I've - once again - received so many wonderfully encouraging words from SO many of you. And with those words of encouragement, I've also been asked many questions. Hopefully, this blog post will answer some of them.

To begin with, I want to share the following changes I've made to my daily living:

Exercise

1. Zumba - two or three times per week at Dance SPA, depending on my work schedule.
2. I walk home from work (three miles) on the days I don't go to Zumba.
3. Ab Lab twice per week.
4. Strengthening/toning every other day.

Food

• For the most part (there are a few exceptions), I try not to buy anything with ingredients I can't pronounce.
• I plan my snacks. I spend part of my day cooking for others. It's been too easy to just pop a taste of whatever I'm cooking into my mouth. New rule - if it isn't a calorie I can and will track accurately, I won't eat it.
• NO MORE BUYING POTATO CHIPS. I am addicted to them. ADDICTED, I tell you. When I eat potato chips, forget portion control. I literally zone out and then suddenly come back to reality with absolutely no clue how this empty potato chip bag got in my hands. The nutritionist I met with said this "zoning out" I described is VERY common, even among people who aren't overweight. Well, that's simply not acceptable. I'm through with this zoning out business! I won't eliminate them from my diet completely but I will keep my exposure to them at a minimum.
  
• When I eat at a restaurant, I do eat fries. I won't stop eating fries. Not completely anyway. So here's what I've started doing instead. As soon as my plate comes, I remove 1/2 to 2/3 of the fries and hide them so I don't even see them. This has a dual effect. First, I do tend to be "out of sight, out of mind" about them. However, even if I still find myself wanting them... they've been removed from the warm plate and hidden in a napkin somewhere. This makes them cool off faster and everyone knows cold french fries are just nasty.
• I've also cut my bread intake (which wasn't terribly huge to begin with) in half. No white bread (except the occasional restaurant burger bun if there are no other options).
  
• And one of the biggest changes I'm just now learning to make is that I'm increasing my water intake by, like, a million oz. Okay, not really a million but, after a lifetime of NEVER drinking water (I've hated it my whole life), I'm learning to be friends with H2O. No, drinking coffee doesn't count, darn it. Water is one of the most important gifts I can give my body and, I think, this must be especially true for those of us in the "over 40" crowd. So I'm on my third 12 oz glass of agua as I write. Cheers, everyone!

This week, I'm going to learn about the food pyramid. I mean, we all learned about it in grammar school but I'm 99.9999999% sure I've been doing it wrong most of my life. So I'm going to see where I went wrong and figure out some fun options for getting myself back on track. I also want to post some sort of exercise/calorie tracker and a food chart here on the blog. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do about that. On the one hand, I do want to post this information because I think it's important. On the other hand, I don't want this blog to start looking too cluttered. So if you have any cool widgets you can share with me, please let me know!

Last but not least, I forgot to mention yesterday that Joe and I have started recording our vlogs. Our approaches are going to be a bit different - like our personalities - and I think that's PERFECT! His, of course, is going to be artistic, fun, and focused on what his body looks like and moves like as he dances his way down to where he wants to be. Mine is more focused on the information I'll be providing. Imagine me actually talking to you and saying everything in my blogs instead of writing it all down. Yeah. Like that. Once we're ready to start posting our vlogs (not for another couple of months, I think), I'll share them with you -- I'm so excited about that!!!

That's it for now -- and don't forget to watch our friends Michael, Adamme, LaToya, Corey and Stephanie on Dance Your Ass Off tonight; it's Vegas night as the contestants travel to Sin City! Can't wait to see what transpires - I'll see you all at the Live Chat; tonight's hosts are LaToya for the east coast chat and Stephanie on the west coast!


Thank you all for keeping me accountable, my virtual friends and family!!

Kelley
xoxo