Thinking day

Yesterday was a kind of thinking/moving meditation kind of day. Did you know that you can meditate while moving ? Absolutely true, and sometimes it is more affective than sitting and stilling your mind. Im moving meditations you ponder questions, preform a slow, repetitive motion with this ( usually walking) , and you arrive at some conclusions. My meditation was based on something that could have ended my weight loss attempts once and for all. It started like this - I have been overweight all of my life ( began at 18 months and continued-I weighed 200 lbs my first day of school). I have never been successful at losing weight and keeping it off ( pregnancy did that), and I am now 51 years old. Is it really worth all of this effort to spend the last 20 or so years of my life thin, with tons of excess skin and never looking "hot" because of the extra skin, Grey hair and ravages of gravity, childbirth and nursing ? For the record, looking "hot" has never been an aspiration of mine, but rather a carrot used by my parents to get me to lose weight. You know the line- "You would be such a pretty girl if only...." My answer almost immediately was of course it is worth it. Just the benefit to my heath for one day at a normal weight and BMI is worth the effort. And then there is my son, who is young enough to escape the damage that obesity brings to the body. So we keep on keeping in.

That brought thought two- how will the exact execution of this plan happen. I decided to go with an average of sorts between all of the calorie counts given by all of the sources, and work from there. I get 2000 calories, Bob gets 2500, Nick gets 3100 ( now if we could all be teen boys there would be few problems !) . The menu plan I am working with is based on 1400 calories a day, so the difference will be made up in meals and snacks. I get the menu plus two 300 calorie snacks a day , Bob the menu plus 2 250 snacks per day- or break the caloric difference into meals because he does not snack most days. Nick gets 340 extra at each meal plus two 340 calorie snacks. The calories must come from 90 percent real food- meaning things like fruit, nuts, cheese, real yogurt, whole grain and so forth. Going to be a little interesting menu planning in the next few weeks.

My Breakfast was 3 Fiber One pancakes with 2 oz turkey ham and 1/4 cup lite syrup. We all prefer this one with blueberries nuked into syrup instead of the lite syrup, as mid morning this breakfast left us all feeling hungry and shaky. Yoo much of a carb rush.

My Lunch was a hot turkey ham and Swiss on an Arnolds thin, 1 cup homemade lentil soup, broccoli, cucumbers, tomato, carrots and a pickle, 10 grapes and a 100 calorie pack baked Cheetos

My Afternoon snack was another pear, a carton of pro biotic yogurt and a 100 calorie pack of nuts

Dinner- my portion was something I have come to love to experiment with ! I am calling this one coconut thai chicken lite- chicken strips marinated in ginger, tumeric, cinnamom, garlic and five spice powder and then sauted in olive oil with assorted bell peppers and onions, in coconut milk over brown rice. It's kind of sort of a mild curry with a wonderful creamy sauce. On the side were totmatoes and cucumbers. Hey, it is garden harvest in the midwest, and bags of this kind of produce sneak up to your door and beg to be adopted !

Evening snack for me was a Fiber Plus bar, an apple and a snack pack pudding. I almost forgot to snap a picture of this before I ate. I also forgot to add ground flax to any meal, forgot a critical item as I ran to the store and probably forgot a million other things. I plead distraction ! My brain cells were too wrapped up in calculating snack and meal additions on the fly and trying to remember who had and needed what . It will get easier, and soon I will be able to think these things in my sleep, and my brain cells can take up more exciting pursuits- like how to be an old lady wearing a purple hat and so forth.