Healthy, Wealthy and Wise?

Well, I don't know about wise, and wealthy is a definite no go, but as far as healthy goes, I am feeling pretty darn good. As my long time readers know I have been slowly working on being healthy. Yes, I want to lose some weight but my main goal is to be healthy and hopefully not dependent on medications as I age.

For the past 18 months I have been going to the gym regularly, working out with weights and doing a half-assed job at Weight Watchers.

My weight is very, very slowly going down. VERY slowly! Part of that is the weight training. Since I started working with weights I have lost a total of 12 pounds but I have lost 15% of my body fat. Technically I am still overweight but I am feeling pretty good. I love to work with the weights and even though I am currently recovering from "tennis elbow" I have been able to continue to use weights in my fitness routine with just a few adjustments.

I have successfully incorporated exercise into my life and I am now beginning to look more closely at my diet. Because I lead a fairly social life and eat away from home at least twice a week I have been slow to look too closely at my diet. I am not willing to give up my social life so I am starting to look at ways to eat in a healthier fashion while still enjoying the meals out. I'll keep you posted as I find tips and tricks that help in this area.

A couple of months ago I stopped drinking Diet Coke. That was a painful thing for me. I love the stuff but I felt that I needed to remove those chemicals from my diet. So far so good. Since I last wrote about it I have not had a single caffeine laden soft drink. Not even while on vacation. I am really pleased with that! My main beverage is water to which I add lemon, mint or melon, to add a bit of flavor. I have reduced the amount of artificial sweeteners in my diet by a huge amount. Artificial sweeteners are the exception instead of the rule now and I have increased the amount of fruits and veggies in my diet. All changes which have made me feel great.

Now I need to work on my weekday meals at home and those pesky meals out. Breakfast and lunch are easy, dinner is a bitch! I work 10 hour days and when I get home I don't want to cook. My wonderful man cooks and he is really making sure to find healthy meals but I need to step it up and start cooking more.

Skinnytaste.com is an amazing site that I have mentioned before. I have been getting fabulous meal ideas from this site as well as Slenderkitchen.com. Both of these sites have flavorful meals that also include nutritional information as well as Weight Watcher point values, which makes it easy to incorporate the meals into my Weight Watchers lifestyle.

I have less that 20 pounds to go to reach my goal weight(I am shooting for the high end of my weight range). Hopefully I'll be doing a happy dance here soon. In the meantime I will keep on plugging away and will continue to incorporate  healthy habits into my life. I plan to share my progress and any tips, tricks and recipes that help me as I continue along my way.

Rehobeth, Delaware 

Whew, what a rush. At least I think it was, it all happened so fast I don’t remember too much! That is how the last couple of months of my life have been.  These past few months I have been in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland (OK, that was seriously all in 10 days) and then my man and I went out to California! I’ve been cleaning like a mad woman and we just recently began the monumental project of turning our backyard, which has been a lovely playground for the past 17 years, into a retreat for adults, somewhere we can go and relax, play cards, entertain... We definitely have our work cut out for us but progress is being made.

I’ve been to parties and a couple of Bar-B-Qs, hosted a party myself and have even gotten to know several of my neighbors much better. It hasn’t been a bad few months, just busy. I like busy but I have completely neglected my art and my blog which has lately been catching up with me and making me noticeably cranky!

My studio has a thin layer of dust covering it and my projects are looking forlorn in their unfinished glory.  The kitchen witch I started for my cousin is still only a head, she is waiting patiently to get the rest of her body and some clothes so she can head to her new home, Alice is really, truly, almost done. Her clothes are mostly finished, I am toying with re-sculpting her hands since I singed them when I baked her, but all she needs is to have a few minor details taken care of and her stand completed and she is done!  The fairy for my birdhouse is still just an armature and the dragon STILL needs his skin!

This is truly the first time I have spent any time in the studio in months and before I can even begin to work I need to clean and do a serious purging! I am a borderline packrat. I can’t help it. The art I create can use clay, fabric, paper, buttons, metal scraps, copper wire and feathers, and that may just be one part of the whole. I have scrapbook papers, inks, rubber stamps, wood shapes, yarn, paint, charms, feathers, stencils… and so much more and the thing that is starting to get to me is that I know I haven’t used or even looked at lots of it in many, (too many)years, AND I am starting to crowd my work space.

This coming weekend I will be putting together a box (or 2) of goodies, I’ll post it on Sunday and I’ll be sending it along to someone who wants it – details to follow –yes, on Sunday! This will hopefully help me to clear out some of the lovely things I have an excess of while making room for me to work again and at the same time I’ll be sending them to someone who will give them a good home!

That idea just hit me as I was typing and I LOVE it!

I am off to start cleaning. I’ll be posting more soon- really!