Tao = The Way or the Path. Usually associated with more metaphysical paths.  It somehow seemed appropriate here. 😀
Title is, in part, from this scene from “Chinese Ghost Story.”
Which, if you haven’t seen it, go forth and do so.

A friend of mine was recently chosen to be a participant in a weight loss contest called the “Slim Down Showdown.”  She is blogging about her journey towards a more healthy and active self. I encourage you to go and give her a hug, a kudos, and cheer her on. She is an amazing person with reservoirs of strength that will astonish you. I cannot wait to see what magic she works with this next step in her life.

It occurred to me yesterday, as I was congratulating and jumping up and down and squeeing for her, that my own healthy eating practices have been somewhat lax just recently.
OK.
Very lax. To the tune of an added 10 pounds.  In the grand scheme of things, I know that a ten-pound gain over a semester isn’t that big a deal to most people.

But, you see, it is to me. I was starting to get all fretted up – being generally anxious and down on myself. That is, until my pseudo-husband pointed out, “Hey, you’ve been working out pretty regularly. Could it be added muscle and body rearrangement causing the gain?”¹

Hrm.

Hrrrrm.

Well, maybe.
But, still. The feeling of not having a good handle on my family’s nutrition bothered me. We have had Domino’s a bit too often recently. Pizza every now and again is not a bad thing. Pizza as a staple² is.

I have some set ideas about nutrition. My mantra is “real food; whole food.” I want to set down a meal for us where I know exactly what went into it.
I cannot afford the pricier, “organic” versions of some things. For example, almost $4 for a dozen eggs seems extreme on my budget. Especially when a dozen and a half of the ‘regular’ eggs costs $2.50.  Or corn on the cob for $1 for six ears at my local grocer; and 4 for a $1 at the big box Organic Store.
I am not going to get into a debate on the pros/cons of organic purchasing. For now³, most of that sort of food is simply beyond my price range.

Another battle that I am having on the nutrition front is with Mister Man. He is a trauma nurse. He loves and believes in the AMA. He especially believes in their low/no-fat program of eating. For him this means using the sin grasa versions of products, especially the dairy products. And while I grok what he is saying: he worries about heart health and cholesterol and fats, I worry about eating things that more rightly belong in a chemistry set.

Let me give you an example:

My feeling is – eat the real stuff. Just eat a smaller portion of it. In the example above – sour cream – most folks are just adding enough for flavor and creamy texture, right? So, 2 tablespoons ought to easily do it. Not a couple of huge dollops that take out the top third of the container.⁴

I always do better when I have a plan. A set track of what I should be doing. Because while I love and can easily do spontaneous fun eating – I am not so good at the everyday healthy spontaneity. Some people are, and that’s awesome. Me, not so much.

And it occurs to me, that perhaps I am not alone in this? That other people are looking at their eating/fitness habits and saying “Well…now what?”

I know that when I very first started hammering out an exercise and nutrition plan, it helped me to see what other people did. And NOT Fitness Guru Flava O’the Day. Regular people. People who had to get up with their kids in the morning. People who had to be at work or school, every day. People who don’t necessarily have the bazillions of dollars to join a gym or hire a trainer or buy fancy-schmancy fitness equipment.

It also helps me to have a set goal. Something concrete I can work towards. I have two at staggered intervals. GOOOALLLL!

Goal The First: I am going on a cruise in September. (I KNOW, right?) I’d like to be able to wear, sans embarrassment, a bathing suit of my choice.

 

 

 

 

Goal the Second: There is a 5k Obstacle course that I want to participate in this coming December. I have never in my life run in any sort of event. I’ve always said that running is what you do if someone is chasing you.
Well….Now I can do both. A 5k WITH people things chasing me. How fantastically awesome is that?

My plan is pretty simple. It has to be. I haven’t got the extraneous brainpower to do anything that requires me to calculate this, that, and what in the heck is THAT?

Plan: Real food, balanced meals, smaller portions, daily exercise, track everything. Wooo!

I know. So intricate! So maddeningly complicated! So difficult.  /sarcasm⁵

But really, a good plan is that simple when it is boiled down. I have my schedule and menu set. I feel calm and confident in my success. The next step, in the words of some advertising agency, is to Just DO EET.

So, that’s what I am doing.

 

~~NOTE!!~~

These are some of the people and sites that I find helpful and inspiring. Check them out! There’s fabulous information to be had. These are from a variety of backgrounds and ideologies, a little something from everyone.   Also included is the website I use to track my in/out of food and physical activity.

Fit Mama Training  :::  Every day, simple changes that have a lifetime effect.
Go Kaleo  :::  Hard training vegan with a fabulous outlook on life.
Austin Hula Hooping  ::: A great place to start looking for hoopin’ info.
Robert Gardner Wellness  ::: Thai Massage, Yoga in Everyday life, eating simple.
Livestrong  :::  Most of everything I eat already exists in the database. Easy-peasy!

 

 

 

 

¹ – Paraphrased.
² – For me, that is more than twice in a month.
³ – Only one real income, me in school full time, The Girl being a teen who eats *everything* that isn’t nailed down.
⁴ – Something that I used to do, back in the bad old days.
⁵ – Heheheh. I amuse me.