Guest Author: Nana

(Posted by Kathy)
My mother, Katie's grandmother, Nancy Jenkins, sent the following email to me this afternoon. Mom / Nana is 74 years old, and my father is 77. They work as a team selling real estate in the small town of Colville, Washington, north of Spokane. This is their retirement "career." Before this career, she was a 4th grade school teacher for many years.

     "Hi Kathy and Mark, we stopped in at the Colville Fitness Center this morning before coming in for our floor duty at 11 A.M. We will go back to the Fitness Center at 4.30 P.M. for a 1 hour training session. We signed up for 3 months. We have been talking about it, after Dad said it would be alright on his ankle. We’ll probably go in about 5 or 6 A.M. unless we have an 8:00 meeting or an appointment.
      I really enjoyed all the blogs on weight loss, recipes, and exercises that you, Katie, and friends wrote. I’m impressed that you, Kathy, got up at 5 A.M. this morning to go to Curves, on your first day back at school. We’re cutting back on size of portions of food, and drinking lots of water, and cutting out things that we love like cheese. Of course, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, everybody is inclined to eat too much. I also signed up for Colville Get Fit. This is a community program where you get weighed in every so often, and also have the other medical items checked. For every so many pounds you lose, Community businesses donate food to the local food banks. There are also prizes you can win, etc. Your Dad said that he wasn’t interested in that. He has until Jan. 15^th to change his mind.

     I think you were very brave to have a before picture taken, and then, to put it in your blog. I’m old enough to say, “no way!” When I’m happy with the way I look, I will put in an “after picture”.

     With love, Mom and Dad"

Nana encourages me with her words, but she inspires me by how she lives. She cooks great, healthy food, and she and my dad have lived an active, healthy lifestyle their whole lives. They would rather go out and cut wood for their wood stove than watch a movie.


Who in your life inspires you to better health?

The Marathon and Mii

I'd like to introduce myself as a long time friend of Katie. We were friends in high school--back when we joked about the ice cream diet in which I mysteriously lost weight while eating more ice cream. The truth is, high schoolers gain and lose weight for all kinds of reasons and it was probably just a crazy coincidence. Also, I never really cared about my weight until after a few years of marriage I realized I had gained about 15 pounds. It was sad to step onto the WiiFit board and see my Mii inflate like a balloon to reflect my weight. Too many of us know what that looks like. My initial goal was to be in the normal range with my BMI number. That is when I started running.

In June 2009 I hooked up with a couple friends from church (Juliette and Aubrie). They were training to run a half-marathon and I decided to train with them even though I had no intentions to run the race. I had lots of excuses for not planning on running the race, but the biggest one was that I wasn't sure I could do it. However, when August 1st came around, I had completed all the training and they offered me a ride. It would have been pointless to say no. So we ran that half-marathon and I felt great! Nine miles into the race we started talking about training for a full marathon. Then Juliette and I ran the Leavenworth Oktoberfest Marathon on October 3rd! (See photo below.) This has been one of the crowning achievements of my life so far. The best part (besides receiving a totally sweet zip-up hoodie and a finisher's medal) was that I lost 13 pounds in the training process.

So I still haven't reached my goal weight, but I'm feeling so much healthier and like I can do anything I want to. I'm so excited to get to write for this blog; I will probably check it more often than Facebook! Some things I plan to discuss are: resources I used in my training, running gear that I like (and perhaps some I dislike), general tips about training for a race, and updates about my own running and weight loss status. As of today I am happy to announce that I have at least achieved the normal BMI rating with a weight of 140. My goal weight is 135, my weight back in high school, but I wonder if my optimum weight is supposed to be lower. In any case, I will keep up my running and keep you all posted.

Time for a Workout

Got up at 5:15 this morning and went to Curves. I'm embarrassed to note that the last time I checked in at my Curves gym was on July 14! Yikes! No wonder I'm not feeling very fit. I knew it would be a little hard to get up so early, so I had my workout clothes all laid out and ready to throw on the minute the alarm went off. Ditto for my work clothes (yes, sigh...back to work today) to make a quick change after the workout. IT FELT GOOD!! I love having a body that can do things. Yay for exercise! It's hard to get started, but once I get going, it feels so worthwhile...even if I am out of shape...and the Curves machines keep giving me that stupid orange light ("Go for Green!") because I'm so flabby...one day at a time. Tomorrow: the Yoga class.

I can do this. You can do this.

Romans 8:25
"But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

I came across this verse while reading scriptures on the first day of this new year and was particularly struck by it.  How appropriate to find these words of hope and encouragement on that fresh new start of a day.  Being somewhat consumed right now with trying to get my eating and exercise habits in control, not to mention the scheduling for writers on this blog (You should all be really excited about our co-authors, by the way.  They have some really great stuff in store for all of us.), reading this scripture made me think of my goal to lose weight and be healthy.  And as for seeing and seeing not, it made me think of my quiet wish to put on my clothes and have them look good on me or look in the mirror and see a flat tummy and a slimmer face.  These are quiet wishes.  The little sighs I feel inside me every morning.  These are the things that only the Lord knows how much they matter to me.  When I read this verse I feel the encouragement of my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ telling me how proud they are of me for trying.  (They also know how much I've been wanting ice cream.)  When I read this I feel like it is possible.  And the memory of these words sustains me when I'm dreaming of ice cream and Oreos and the Butterfinger Crisp that I saved out from my stocking.  Starting out at 170 pounds, getting down to 125 pounds seems--at first glance--impossible.  Except in hope and faith, I see it not, but with patience I wait (and work) for it.

Kathy: Clarification on Vegetable Juice

Thanks for the great comments and suggestions about including 8 oz of vegetable juice in my daily menu plan! Several of your comments raised some questions.

Q: How do you tell if a juice is healthy? What if it has a lot of calories?
A: Check the ingredients to see if it's truly a vegetable juice, or if it has fruit juice or a sugar (sugar, fructose, corn syrup, etc.) added. The fruit/sugar additions add too many calories.

Q: What's in the juices? Where can I buy them?
A: "V-8" stands for 8 vegetable juices. They include tomato, carrot, celery, beet, parsley, lettuce, watercress, and spinach. Both the V-8 and the carrot juice I bought have a little bit of lemon juice added as a preservative; not the same as having a lot of fruit juice in the recipe.
I bought low-sodium V-8 in the regular grocery section. The only place I could find carrot juice was in the health food section.

Q: Have you tried freshly made vegetable juice?
A: Not yet! Thanks, Trish, for the suggestion. When I did a little looking online, the fresh-juice enthusiasts are pretty scornful of processed, store-bought juices. All of the juices in V-8 are reconstituted; the carrot juice I bought is straight juice, but it still had to be bottled/processed. So I believe that fresh-juiced would be really wonderful...I don't have a juicer, but I did notice the other day that Jamba Juice has carrot juice. Does anyone know if it's freshly made? Where else can one find freshly made vegetable juice? (Of course, a Jamba isn't going to be in my "daily" plan - but it could be a nice treat!)

Kathy: Week 1

It's Saturday, so it's my turn to check in. Oh my, it made me wince to pull out my exercise clothes (haven't been to the gym since August) and have hubby take my picture. You know, when I check myself out in the mirror, I can angle things just so, and avoid seeing the things I don't want to see. Plus I can wear clothes that are a little looser to flatter and camouflage. No such luck with the camera, as you can plainly see:

"Bleh" as Katie would say.

Weight today: 151 pounds

Ideal goal: 120 pounds (ha ha!)

Realistic goal: 130-133 pounds

My days of needing to lose "baby fat" are long gone...this is the infamous "middle-aged spread." I'm not horribly fat, but I'm carrying 15-20 extra pounds, and it's not healthy! I've been planning all week how I'm going to change my habits--for good!--to get my body fit and lean again. Here's the plan:

1. Eat about 1600 calories a day. Three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) about 400 calories each, and a fourth "meal" of 400 calories spread out through the day as snacks.

• Why count calories? Because...
• Losing weight is a numbers game, and I do much better if I know that I'm in the ballpark, without feeling guilty because I'm not sure if I'm "supposed" to be eating something or not.
• 1 pound of fat = approx. 3,000 calories. A person of my height should eat about 1800 calories a day to maintain weight, so if I drop back to 1600 calories a day, I'm losing weight at the rate of 200 calories a day. By taking in 1400 fewer calories each week, I should average a loss of about 1/2 pound per week - a healthy rate that I can maintain over time.

2. Plan my menus ahead of time so there aren't any last minute "emergencies" where I don't have a healthy meal ready to go.

• I'm a busy gal! I work full-time and I take a university class two nights a week. 
• I know that counting calories works for me, but counting every bite that goes into my mouth gets to be a drag. I've super-simplified my meal planning with 400-calorie meals planned ahead of time. More about that in my next post.

3. Keep up the fluid intake! In addition to drinking lots of water, I want to include a daily dose of:

• Milk: studies show that including 3 cups of milk a day helps build muscle mass, which helps to burn calories. Not to mention how important it is for a middle-aged grandma who wants to avoid calcium loss and bone problems. I am adding in 8 oz of skim milk with my breakfast and dinner, and 8 oz of plain yogurt (add 1/2 banana and a drizzle of agave nectar to make it yummy) at lunch. (Don't overdo! Too much milk has been linked to overweight children. 3 cups a day is just right.)
• Vegetable juice: more studies show that people who drink vegetable juice lose more weight than those who don't. I greeted this news with mixed feelings...I have gagged on tomato juice ever since I was a child! But I decided to try it again; after all, I'm 55 years old now. Hubby and I picked up some V-8 and some carrot juice (in the health food section) at the grocery store. I tried it three ways: straight V-8, half-and-half, and straight carrot juice. Good news, I tolerated the V-8. But it still wasn't yummy. The carrot juice was another story! Yum, yum, yum! Carrot juice is my new best friend. It fills me up, it's only 30 calories/8 oz, AND it counts as one of my daily vegetable servings. Hooray! I'm not so big on vegies. I'm going to keep a bottle of carrot juice in the fridge at work for those snacky-craving afternoons.

4. Exercise at least 3 x week.

• My daughter Julia has agreed to be an exercise buddy with me at the local Curves gym. We'll go on Tuesday afternoons and Friday early mornings.
• Hubby and I are signing up for a Thursday evening yoga class at a nearby elementary school.
• In addition to that, I'll try to get in some short walks at lunch and in the evening with hubby.

So that's the plan! Hooray for new beginnings and week 1! Please leave a comment and share any other suggestions with me.

Frugal Food Fridays: Fajitas

Hi, I'm Katie's sister, Polly.  I could benefit from losing a few pounds myself after the birth of our youngest daughter, so I'll have to come up with a few specific goals myself.

In the mean time, Katie has asked me to write once a week about eating healthy on a budget.  Let me warn you...I am no dietician or food expert, so this is completely amatuer advice.  However my husband has been in school for all of the nearly 10 years we've been married, so I do have some experience eating well on a budget.  We have three kids ages 5 years to 9 months, so we also have to consider what they are willing to eat when we cook (although I was blessed with some little mouths that are amazingly willing to try new things.)

The interesting thing about eating on a budget and/or eating healthy is that everyone has slightly different measuring sticks.  We've all seen someone share a "thrifty" idea on a blog and then when they tell you the price it was way out of our budget for that item...so frugal to me, might not be the same as frugal to someone else.  If you have a way to do the same thing cheaper, please leave a comment!

Likewise, "healthy" can mean different things to different people.  A "healthy" recipe by one person's standards  might not be by someone else's.  For instance, we make what we consider "healthier" pizza (with lots of veggies, whole wheat crust, and lower fat pizza meat).  However, there are still a lot of other food choices out there that are healthier than our "healthy" pizza.  So again...if someone ever feels like I'm giving misinformation...please share...I am NOT an expert!

So to start out:  Fajitas!!

My mom started making this for us when we were kids, so I don't have the reference.  These are very tastey and quite healthy.  Of course if you're on a diet, you'll want to go light on any sour cream or cheese and/or buy the low fat versions.  (You'll have to excuse the blurry picture...our camera is having issues and will hopefully be replaced soon.)

In large bowl combine:

15 oz skinless boneless chicken or lean pork, cut into ¼ inch strips
2 tablespoons orange or lemon juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (regular vinegar works okay too)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
Dash hot red pepper sauce

Let marinate for 10 minutes.

In large nonstick skillet heat:

1 tablespoon plus a 1 teaspoon olive oil.  (You can use less, or you can cook this without oil at all by using extra lemon or orange juice as a liquid.)

Cook until chicken is no longer pink. Add:

2 bell peppers, cut into strips  (It's pretty to use one green and one red if you can find the red ones on sale.)
1 onion, cut into strips

Cook until vegetables are cooked through.  Serve on tortillas

Tips for making it cheap:

• Watch for chicken on sale...I usually try not to spend more than $2 a pound for any kind of meat.  (Although that's getting harder and harder.)  When I find it on sale, I buy a lot and then freeze it in the portions for about one meal.  I also like to freeze it already cut into bite sizes, so when I'm cooking dinner, all I have to do is defrost.
• Bell peppers can be expensive so buy them on sale. 

Makes 4 servings / 260 calories per serving