Good morning! I’m very pleased with how I did this past week, and exercise-wise, it looks a lot like the last few weeks.

Monday- 35 minutes of treadmill. I was worried about my hip, but even though it is still giving me trouble, I seem to be able to exercise. Thank goodness.

Tuesday- I managed to get to my weights before going to bed.

Wednesday- I did the physical therapy I was supposed to do on Tuesday, plus Wednesday’s 35 minutes of treadmill.

Thursday- weights and PT

Friday- I started out on the treadmill in the morning, and realized after my warm up that it was gorgeous outside, so I went on a walk through my neighborhood. It was glorious. I was gone for about 40 minutes, plus my warm up, and went up many hills.

Today I will get in the weights and PT again. This makes four weeks in a row of good exercise. My calendar has foil star stickers all over it again. My resting heart rate is back at 60, which gives great satisfaction.

Last week I talked about how bad I had been eating, particularly since starting exercise again, and that I was going to do better this week. And I DID!

I’m doing one of my homemade breakfast shakes for breakfast and lunch and eating a good dinner. No sweets. No desserts. No refined carb snacks. It is working really well. I had intended to do more healthy snacking, but aside from the fact that we’ve been busy, I haven’t been hungry. And I think the fact that I’m eating a lot of fruit helps keep me from feeling deprived.

(I made the most fantastic spinach salad a couple days this week for dinner with spinach, grilled chicken, grape tomatoes, mushrooms, chopped almonds, avocado, and parmesan cheese in a dressing of a little bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yum, yum, yum).

At the beginning of the week, I made a list of acceptable snacks and then went grocery shopping to stock the fridge. Part of my problem is that if I hit a “desperate” time when I need to eat something, I can’t always think of a healthy option in the heat of the moment. So I made a list to go to of things I have stocked. I thought I’d need it more than I did, but I really didn’t snack much. Here’s my list, in case it’s helpful to anyone.

1 string cheese per day. I had to put a limit on it, because I can pound 5 of them without hesitation. This week, I only had two.

Freshly made vegetable juice. I made the yummiest juice this week. It was 2 organic carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 1/2 an english cucumber, and 1 red bell pepper (they’re cheap at Costco). I can’t find my notes, so I THINK that’s all that was in it, but I’m not sure. It was a little too sweet, so next time I’m going to try 1 carrot and three celery stalks. One time, I tried adding a tomato and just one carrot, but it was too watered down tasting and I didn’t really like it. I added the carrot back to strengthen the flavor.

Cut up vegetables like mushrooms, cucumber, baby carrots, bell pepper, cauliflower, grape tomatoes, celery, sugar snap peas, etc.

Grapes

Nuts

Almond soakers

Apple

A peanut butter and banana shake if I’m desperate for sweet. It’s on the list because it really saved me once before. It’s nice and rich.

A Talking Rain

Yogurt

Dried Apricots

Hummus and celery

The list is long and varied because if it were just “vegetables” for example, how boring would that be? I’m not always in the mood for vegetables. There are sometimes when I want something sweet, (yogurt, dried apricots, peanut butter shake, carrots), and times when I need something more filling or substantial, (nuts, string cheese, hummus), and times when I’m really not that hungry, but I want something, (Talking Rain). The variety of options is helpful. Having them written out is helpful. If I were just having a sweet craving, I’m going to instantly think about the ice cream in the freezer, and I won’t necessarily think about the yogurt or fruit until later.

Any ideas of things I can add to my list?

How was your week?

Oh, one more thing…. I finally ordered a soy milk maker from Soykits.com. They’re also Wheatgrasskits.com, who I ordered my juicer from, and who gave me tips for growing wheatgrass. As it happens, right now their soy milk maker is $30 off. It doesn’t say that on the website, but apparently they have a newsletter, and they’re running a special. They offered me the discounted price, which I appreciated, and said they’d give it to anyone for the next week or two. They weren’t specific on the timeframe. I bought the kit which comes with beans and a natural sweetener or something. I have beans, but figured it’d be good to try others.