No rest for the wicked

The flu sucks.

I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

I'm just stumbling through the days, sometimes crawling, trying to get from A to B.  I finally mustered the enthusiasm to go fix dinner (*Texan term, stay with me), when I got into the kitchen to face a sink full of dirty dishes.  By the time I got the kitchen cleaned, my enthusiasm was washed down the drain.  Literally.

Now the dog is scratching to go out into 55 degree weather I have even less enthusiam facing.  <sigh>  I can't find Jeremiah and Timothy is watching a movie in my room, so I guess it's on with the slippers and out into the air I go.

And what's really frustrating is it's not even the full flu.  It's like the almost flu.  I keep feeling like I'm going to stop up but it never quite gets there.  I have intermittant bouts of nausea and other stomach ailments that shall remain unnamed.  The muscle aches are the worst.  It's in both calves, trying to creep up the back of my legs and up into my back.  You know how it feels riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight before a charlie horse?  It's like that.  But all the time.  Not fun. 

All of this on top of PMS.  Living with me is quite the joy lately.  Maybe that's why everyone is always MIA. 

I've been eating like crap.  I mean, I haven't been overeating - sometimes I've been undereating - but what I'm eating is definitely not the healthiest cuisine in the world.  Basically if I don't have to cook it and it's cheap, it's eaten.  I'm a little nervous that I will just keep going like this after I get well.  There's always an excuse to eat the wrong stuff.  I'm always going to be busy/tired/overwhelmed.  I was going to depend on Steven bringing home dinner from Papa Johns but I think I better just find the strength to go make something. 

I think another 1200 calorie week is in order.  Maybe not a week but maybe until Christmas Eve or something just to shock the ol bod into appreciating going back down to eating the healthy stuff again.  Since I haven't felt well enough to exercise, this would be a way to compensate.  I dunno.  I don't want to stay sick either so I dunno. 

I've been debating also on trying to ride the stationary bike for about ten minutes at a time, maybe to work the kinks out.  I gotta do something, this bites.

Okay I'm rambling now.  Enough of this pessimistic depressing stuff.  Time for the Tip of the Day:  Eating This Food Helps You Lose WeightThe bad news: Diets that restrict certain foods don't work.
The good news: Eating whole grains might help you lose weight.
It comes down to this: A calorie is a calorie is a calorie.Restricting certain types of foods, such as fats or carbohydrates,won't take off extra weight unless you also cut calories and increaseexercise, according to Tufts University researchers. But a differentstudy from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that adding wholegrains, such as whole oats and whole wheat bread, to your diet may helpyou lose weight, reports Reuters.Surprise! The thinnest people on Earth eat THIS food. Click to find out what it is.

In the Tufts study, 80 overweight or obese people with anaverage age of 54 were placed on carefully controlled diets for threemonths, which they then continued for an additional nine months ontheir own. One group followed an ultra low-fat diet with just 15percent of their calories from fat, a second was closer to the U.S.average with 30 percent of calories from fat, and third group ate foodswith a low glycemic index, reports Reuters. The dieters all cut theirusual intake of food by about one-third. The participants lost the sameamount of weight--about 6 to 8 percent of their body weight--no matterwhich of the three diets they tried. The conclusion is that the bestway to shed pounds is the same old boring approach: eat less, exercisemore, and choose a diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and littlefat or meat.More than sweets, alcohol, and meat and potatoes, the No. 1 food that leads to big tummies is...

Eating whole grains may be a magic bullet to weight loss. Asecond study of 27,000 men ages 40 to 75 conducted by PaulineKoh-Banerjee of the Harvard School of Public Health showed that themore whole grains the men ate, the more weight they lost while dieting.Why? Koh-Banerjee writes in the American Journal of Clinical Nutritionthat fiber might fill people up faster than processed grains, whilehelping to regulate blood sugar levels. Previous research has shownthat whole grains help protect against heart disease and diabetes, butthis is the first study to show they also help us lose weight.Thiscould be the easiest way ever to lose weight. Find out who says you canlose 10 pounds in a year by just giving up just one thing.

How much whole grains should you eat to lose weight? If you eat40 grams of whole grains every day, you can slash middle-age weightgain by as much as 3.5 pounds. Forty grams is the equivalent of one cupof oatmeal, 3/4 cup of brown rice, or several slices of brown bread.What'sthe best diet for YOUR personality? If you're serious about losingweight, you need to find a diet that works with--and not against--yourpersonality quirks and behavior traits.     

 

Stats (yesterday)

Calories: 1950
Fat: 28%
Sat. Fat: 8%
Fiber: 28g
Calcium: 845mg
Sodium: 3300mg
Water: 72oz

Exercise: None

DAILY AFFIRMATION: It's time to get serious andtake charge of my future.  I choose.  I do not accept.