Learning From My Mistakes:


In an effort to lighten up on myself I have learned to focus on the idea that mistakes can be a good thing as long as you learn from your mistakes. In the past I made the mistakes of skipping breakfast which had terrible side effects on my metabolism. In the present, I let myself take the entire weekend off of using my treadmill program even though I definitely had the time to run on Sunday. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to run on Monday either due to severe cramping during my menstrual cycle. Now, I definitely wish that I had run on Sunday.

Let's Talk About Food:

Just a few short years ago, I almost never ate breakfast. I had problems with insomnia and often didn’t sleep well at night when I was able to get to sleep. I found myself getting to sleep between 2:00AM to 5:00AM often and sleeping sometimes as late as 10:30AM just to catch a little shut eye and I still didn’t feel rested. With the help of a sleep aid I was able to restore my sleep patterns to going to sleep between a more normal 11:00PM to 12:00PM and waking between 6:30AM and 8:00AM. I was able to wean myself off of the sleep aid and reasonably maintain my new sleep pattern. I’m sure that you are wondering by now what my sleep behavior has to do with food. Well, during those years of waking up late, I learned to not eat breakfast. Also, as a teenager I often went without eating breakfast. It was pretty easy for me to not eat breakfast waking up so late. When I started waking up earlier in the day, I continued my behavior of not eating breakfast. Sometimes my first meal would be as late as 1:30PM. I would get horrible headaches often, no doubt in part because I waited so long to eat. Really, I was absolutely miserable waiting so long to eat even though I didn’t really feel all that hungry at that time of the day. It seemed like not eating the extra calories would help me maintain if not lose weight. Boy was I wrong about that. Science has shown that not eating regularly slows down one’s metabolism. A slowed metabolism does not burn calories as efficiently leading to difficulty in maintaining and even to gaining weight.

The fewer calories from not eating breakfast was hurting me, not helping me. I had to retrain myself to eat breakfast again. I had to start with smaller meals and work my way up. I was never much of a cereal eater but cereal is very convenient and I am all for convenience. I had trouble with reflux with cereal and didn’t think that I would be able to eat cereal because of it. A family member introduced me to Silk and a fellow customer at the store recommended the Vanilla Silk over the regular silk. I loved the Vanilla Silk on my cereal. Before long, I noticed that they had a light version of the Vanilla Silk. We switched to the light Vanilla Silk right away. Now I keep 1% milk in the house for cooking purposes only and the entire family uses the Light Vanilla Silk on their cereal in the mornings. I also use Silk in my instant oatmeal to give my oatmeal a creamier taste. I just saw on the Today Show this morning that women are generally not getting enough vitamin D and that many dairy products do not have vitamin D in it. The Silk products are fortified with vitamins including vitamin D. Next time you go to the store, buy a carton and try it on your favorite cereal. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Our Favorite Subject: Exercise :-(

I am back on the treadmill today and feeling good about getting back into the game. I felt really bad about not being able to run yesterday after missing running all weekend. There is no use in feeling like a failure for it. I am actually a winner because I got right back on that horse and I am more committed than ever to my running program. I tried to start using my son’s pedometer but it died half way through the day. I’m getting a new one for tomorrow.

Finally, I watched the DVD that came with my wobble board and I am in the process of selecting the exercises that are the most basic with which to start my wobble board training. Many of the exercises build upon prior exercises. From what I can tell they are not ordered by beginner, intermediate and advanced. I will make the determination of what is beginner and I will share the exercises that I have selected and how doing the exercises went for me in tomorrow’s blog.

That’s A Wrap: No, I Am Not Talking About Food.

Breakfast used to be a meal that I thought that I could do without. I have since learned better than that. “Breaking the fast” in the morning is critical to maintaining a higher metabolic rate. I now eat breakfast every day.

My treadmill program is going well again and I am in the process of selecting beginner wobble board exercises to my program. I will report the exercises that I selected tomorrow.