Veteran's Day

Hugs go out to all Vets today. And a big thank you for your willingness to serve. The Vets in my life are the most peaceful people I know. I am thankful for their insight into the true purpose of the military forces around the world. If there were more of this peace centered existence the need for a standing army would diminish exponentially! Thanks to all of you!!!

My Tour de France mileage is now at 665. I am still holding in there. But really, does it all count as a win if I am the only one who is crossing the finish line? YES!! The competition may no longer be there but I am working towards my own goals and that is a winning force. I am finding the colder weather a dichotomous force in this race. It is nice not to need two fans and the AC running while I pedal away. However, it would be very nice to curl up in front of the fire with a book and a blankie instead of working extra hard to break a sweat. Today begins my work outs with Kam. Weight training is an interesting event for me. I have to work myself up to get going in the gym. Then I feel strong, tough, and determined. Drawback? I end up working so hard I am sore for the next week. This does not build encouragement to continue. Playing these games with myself it is easy to understand the troubles clients have keeping their goals in sight when choosing to miss a workout or two. If desire alone were enough to build the fire more people would be burning excess fat. Unfortunately desire without action produces no results.

I am experimenting with new diet changes. I am continuing on the total elimination diet as outlined in Dr. Haas' book The False Fat Diet. However I am making some personal changes. I know that gluten is not my friend. This is one that will not be coming back. I am suspicious about soy, so it is also staying out for now. I ate potatoes last Friday evening. They were wonderful. They were not my friend either. So they are out except for those holidays when mashed potatoes are a must. (Read Thanksgiving dinner.) So what is the change exactly? I ate hot rice cereal every morning for about four weeks. I loved it. I had it in so very many different ways. My goal is to burn more fat. I am now eating veggies and protein for breakfast. I started with this yesterday. The hope is that my set-point will change. My two other large meals are veggies. I am going to allow myself one meal with rice each day. This does not mean I absolutely have to eat rice each day. This means I can eat rice once each day. My morning snack is a glass of veggie juice. This I am making fresh each day. What is it made of? Carrot, celery, beet, and apple. Do I love it? No. Beet is not my favorite juice. Will I drink it anyway? For a while. The beet is good for me and that is why I will drink it until it is gone. Apple carrot is great. Celery helps with headaches. My afternoon snack will stay a piece of fruit and some nuts. Now that I have been good for so long the fruit tastes like candy.

I was craving comfort food last week and came up with this...
Ground Turkey Gravy
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 white onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp (or less) salt
Pepper to taste
1 Tbs olive oil
Brown together then add 1/2 cup water and bring to simmer. While this is simmering mix 1 cup water with 2 tsp arrowroot powder and 1/8 cup nutritional yeast. Whisk into the Turkey mixture. Stir until thickened. Serve over brown rice. Have a green veggie and a salad with this.

Arrowroot powder acts the same as cornstarch. While working on this elimination diet it is important to avoid corn and all its derivatives. Corn is one of the hardest foods to avoid when eating pre-packaged foods. Many foods contain corn syrup or cornstarch. Diligence is the key to success in this game. Every time I am looking for something new I read the label. It takes time but in the long run it has been worth the effort. The rewards here are much greater than some fat burned. I feel better! My joints are happier. I am riding the bike and not having to sit with ice on my knees twice afterward. My energy level is going up. My overall happiness is greater. The extra effort involved in reading labels and cooking from scratch is paying off. I do get tired and want some convenience foods. This is when I reach for frozen veggies. I buy just veggies. No sauces added, no flavors added, just veggies. The prep time is cut way down and it feels like the meal is ready in a snap. One of my current favorites is sauteed green beans. I am buying the whole frozen beans. I heat 1 TBS olive oil in a fry pan and add 1-2 cloves chopped garlic. after about 30 seconds of sizzle I add frozen green beans. This is ready when the beans are hot through. I might grind sea salt and fresh pepper over just before serving.

Tomorrow...How to substitute for butter and not use hydrogenated oils.

Fall Goals

Wow that was a busy week! Amazing how much energy it takes to assist someone in a healing process. Now here we all are on the first day of September looking at a new month and before the month is out we will be in a whole new season of the year.

The season change takes place in three weeks. What a great time to get going on fitness again. Three weeks from now is half way to reaching a fitness goal. Not a huge one that requires a year of training or a monumental one like burning 40 pounds of fat, but an average goal of reaching the next level. My current level of cardio is 20-25 miles daily on the exercise bike. I am planning to add 3 ~ 15-20 minute walks to my daily cardio. I know that seems like too much. Keep in mind that the biking is done in about 75 minutes. This burns about 600 calories! (Joy Bliss) Also, Celie has put on a little bit of fat. Celie is my beautiful little dog. She thinks she is helping me by walking and does not realize that it is really her that needs the extra exercise. For me this will burn about 300 extra calories in my day. I am only biking 6 days each week but poor Celie will need to walk every day. I found this calorie counter and calculated my expenditure while weight lifting. That is a whopping 366! Weight lifting is 5 days weekly.

I am a math type person. I need to see it all broken down. On my weight training days I will be burning about 1266 calories just in my workouts! So mathematically speaking I should be burning about 2 pounds of stored energy! (That is politically correct terminology for shedding 2 pounds of fat!!) I am interested in changing some of my stored energy (fat) for potential strength (muscle). The goal is to drop 3 percentage points in my fat in the next 6 weeks. Therefore, by the time the season changes I could be down 6 pounds of fat or 1.5 percentage points in my total body fat. (You may want to watch for the smoke of the burning fat coming from east Asheville!)Added bonus to the amazingly long cardio sessions on the exercise bike? I am almost finished with the peppermint candy socks. I think I will just get another basket (hehehe) and fill it with sock yarn to keep me busy while I bike across the French countryside. There are a few babies in my life and some new ones coming too so I have a use for all those bits of "leftovers" from my grownup projects. I got the new Interweave Knits magazine yesterday. I waited patiently, it came out on August 19th and I waited until the 31st!! Well that is not going to happen again! When I got there it was the only one left! I am either going to have to subscribe or I will have to get out as soon as it hits the newsstands! So I have all sorts of stuff going and want to get going and have added more to the list of want to do! Kam is in need of cool stuff. She is always in need of me making her cool stuff. But this issue has a great vest that I want to make her for the Holiday Gift Giving Season. I think she will look handsome in it and it will help her to stay warm as the weather changes to COLD.