I Don't Make Resolutions

Happy New Year! 2015 brought a lot of changes for me, unfortunately those changes took a lot of mental energy! The beginning of a new year is a great time to review the previous year, identify things you want to change, and take steps to improve for the next year. Most people make resolutions, but I'm going to tell you why I don't make them!

Resolutions, to me, are wishes. They're "want tos" and "it would be nice ifs" and "it's okay with me if it doesn't happens". Resolutions make me feel bad about my progress before I even start! Think about the common ones people usually make -  they're vague, or set an unreasonable expectation. Please understand,  I'm all about dreaming big! But at the end of the holiday season and the beginning of the new year, I'd rather set goals - specific, measurable, completable!

The key to great goals (and this is the downfall in my mind of resolutions) is to give them a deadline. For me, you'll see that I'm spreading my goals out over the whole year.  I'm not going to attempt to do everything perfectly starting today. That's just not feasible. And because I know myself, I know that if I can't do something perfectly I won't even attempt it!

Let's reframe some common resolutions into goals (by the way, these are all goals of mine for 2016!)

RESOLUTION: "I want to lose weight" or "I want to get in better shape"

Most common resolution of all time (I think). It sends people to sign up for gyms and classes and buy workout gear. It causes a lot of feelings of guilt when the numbers on the scale just don't seem to move,  and the clothing size is the same in July as it was in January. What if,  instead of focusing on the number on the scale or the label,  we made some specific goals about strength and fitness?

GOAL 1: Complete 1 round of PiYo by February 29

GOAL 2: Compile and complete 3 month 21 Day Fix/PiYo fusion by May 31

GOAL 3: Participate in 2 5Ks by September 30

The result of achieving these goals will definitely be improved strength and flexibility, and will likely be a smaller waistline. But even if more pounds don't come off, I can still be proud of achieving the goals!

RESOLUTION: "I want to eat better" or "I want to drink more water"

Both very vague resolutions! What does that even mean? Salad everyday? Cutting out sugars? Only eating food you grow for yourself? Walking around with a cup with a straw every where you go? These resolutions are so frustrating because you have to eat every day. And many times we sign up for a plan, or buy a book or a membership so someone can teach us how to eat. And we commit to it. And the first time we are tempted by treats in the office, we feel guilty and it can derail us. "Diet" is hard to measure because there isn't an endpoint - you can't set a deadline and at the end say, "wow I met my goal, guess I'm done eating!" Instead, food and other behavior goals fall under the "every [frequency of opportunity] is a new chance to make the right choice" category! This is where a food plan like the 21 Day Fix is so helpful - every day you have a goal of getting all your containers in,  and you know that if you do that,  you're making healthy choices that fuel your body!

GOAL 1: Drink Shakeology daily

GOAL 2: Track containers in January - hit 100% containers 3 times per week. 

BONUS GOAL: If I achieve the 3 times per week in January,  increase goal to 4 times per week in February. If not,  February stays at 3.

It's okay to give yourself a break! You're living,  you have a life! The goals are to measure progress, not to make you feel guilty!

RESOLUTION: "I want to make more money" or "I want to get promoted"

This is a great resolution.  You may even be able to map out goals to achieve it.  The difficulty is that often the decision on the raise or promotion is up to someone else! You don't control it! But you do control your performance,  which contributes to your value as an employee.

GOAL 1:  Complete training certification by May 31.

GOAL 2:  Be independent of trainer by August 31.

RESOLUTION: "Personal growth"

Haven't you stated it just like this? I know I have! You know you want something inside yourself to change, or to express yourself in a new way. But it's scary to set a goal about something personal! Because if you don't achieve it,  then what? But this is where those big dreams come in. What do you want for yourself? Break that down into action steps for yourself. I like to think in seasons or quarters - 3 months is a good amount of time to make progress on something that could be a lifelong dream! Mine happens to be writing a book about my own recent "personal growth" - here's what the goals look like for this dream:

GOAL 1: By March 31 - create chapter outline

GOAL 2: By June 30 -  begin writing (remember, I'm doing a certification course in here, so I'm giving myself a little bit of a break)

GOAL 3: By September 30 -  finish first draft

GOAL 4: By December 31 -  revise first draft and share with trusted person for review

I have stitching and knitting goals as well, but I'll share those in another post. Here's to a fantastic 2016!

7 Tips For Enjoying Holiday Food Without Quitting Your Goals

Hey everyone, I know it's the day before Thanksgiving, so if you're traveling you may have some trouble implementing these tips.  But they really work any time you are headed someplace and you aren't in control of the food!

First things first, I want to say that I LOVE Thanksgiving.  It is my favorite holiday, by far.  The only expectation is cooking tasty food, and eating it - there's no stress about shopping or finding "the perfect gift."  Just getting together and telling stories and making memories!

But for many of us who've struggled with food addiction, we have a hard time with a food-centric holiday.  If you're on a weight loss journey, you may feel like food holds you captive.  And that can make you dread food-related holidays and gatherings.  Or, even worse, give up on your goals completely during those times.

You don't have to be a slave to food!  A lot of these tips are about food, and what to eat, but the idea is to set you free from the mindset of "well, I can't have anything on the table, so I guess the food plan starts over January 2!"  No!  One meal does not have to derail you for an entire holiday season!  Try some of these ideas, let me know if they help you!

1.  If you're invited to someone's home, offer to bring a side dish that you cannot resist - then remake it to fit your plan.  Pinterest is your friend!  Try searching "21 Day Fix friendly" or "Whole 30" recipes - these terms will help you makeover almost anything.  Personally, I'm making mashed potatoes in my Crock-Pot (love this method- no draining!!!), and mixing them up with coconut oil and coconut milk to keep them dairy free.

2.  Snack!  Especially if you're travelling to your meal, pack on-plan snacks (I would do raw veggies and some hummus, or apple slices and almond butter).  Just watch portions, and time it so you're still ready to eat at meal time.

3.  Get your veggies in.  So many holiday meals are carb-heavy; try to fit in veggies in other ways.  The fiber will help keep you full so you don't overindulge at the main table, and on most plans you can eat as many veggies as you want without ruining your progress.  Watch out for veggies-that-are-actually-starches (corn, green beans, etc.) and extra sauces!

4.  Portion control is your friend.  So you're sitting at a beautiful table filled with all kinds of amazing goodness, and you really just want mashed potatoes and gravy (or maybe that's me).  You can have some!  Here are the guidelines:

• Get the veggies first - green salad, raw veg platter, easy on anything with a sauce
• Lean protein - white meat turkey is actually really good for you (just take the skin off - sorry).  A serving size is about the size of the palm of your hand.  Keep that in mind when counting how many servings of protein you had.
• Fruit - if there's uncandied or not-sugared fruit, grab some.
• Starches - mashed potatoes, stuffing/dressing, yams and sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls - use the palm of your hand as a measure again.  Not literally, because that would be weird.  But as a general idea of appropriate serving size - try to stick to one potato-type and one bread-type.  Your plate should already be pretty full anyway!
• Fats - gravy, dressings, etc. - For this, I suggest measuring with a teaspoon.  The idea is to get the flavor of the gravy without going overboard on fat.  Fats and salad dressings are the number one culprit for hidden calories - if you control it here, you will feel so much better about yourself when the meal is over!
• Dessert - you have permission.  Enjoy one piece!

5.  Get out for a walk before or after dinner.  Collect some leaves or pine cones for a craft, see some new sights, make some new memories.

6.  Refuse leftovers.  This is more difficult if you're hosting.  I'm having visions of my children doing a Jack Sparrow impression: "But why is the gravy gone???"  But here's the deal - if you can't resist it or control portions in the days following the holiday, it's not worth keeping around.

7.  Remember that it's one meal on one day.  One meal does not have to throw you off for the entire day, weekend, trip, season....  You are more than the food you eat.  You get together with family and friends to make memories - so make some!  Let go of the guilt - it overshadows the time and takes away from your enjoyment of the actual day.

And whatever happens, you will get another chance to make healthy choices.  Even if you overindulge at Thanksgiving or Christmas, you can start over at the next opportunity.

I hope you have a safe and blessed holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!

Health Focus - Sometimes It Is About The Numbers

We've all heard weight loss experts encourage us by saying "when you're working out to lose weight, don't worry if your weight goes down slowly, you're building muscle, it isn't about the number on the scale."  This is true, and it's an important idea I hope everyone grasps.  When you're training to lose fat, your body weight can actually go up as your muscles get stronger.  This is normal, and healthy, and the way it's supposed to be - please don't severely restrict calories while you are strength training just because the scale isn't doing what you want.  Definitely pay more attention to inches than the scale.  Starving your hard working muscles is not the answer!

However.  There's something I want to say to you who are in the trenches with me.  I understand that the number on the scale DOES matter to you.  It matters to me, more than I'd like to admit.  The only time it didn't matter to me was when I gave up on my health, and even then it still had power to make me feel bad about myself.

Here's why it matters - for most people, it's the only way we've had to measure our health and our progress over our lifetime.  I'm going to bet that very few of us knew our waist circumference when we graduated from high school, let alone our bicep measurements.  We may have read an article in Cosmo about how to calculate BMI, to determine if we were "healthy."  Over the course of years, the one place we've gone to see "where we are" is the scale.

When I moved to Idaho, I weighed 195 pounds.  I don't know what my waist circumference or body fat percentage was.  Over the next almost 6 years, I gained nearly 30 pounds.  Those 30 pounds were not muscle.  When I started working out on my own, I was discouraged at how slowly the weight was coming off - even though I've read more and I know that muscle tissue is denser than fat, and it has to build up before it can increase my resting metabolic rate, and that eventually my strong muscles will take over the fat burning...... that number on the scale still mattered to me.

When I started the 21 Day Fix, I knew that I was already 13 pounds below my heaviest weight.  I knew that meant 17 pounds to my "move to Idaho" weight, which was about 30 pounds above my top weight for a healthy BMI.  For me, being able to watch those 17 pounds tick off on the scale was really exciting and encouraging.  Because I could see long term progress.  I started to see the drop in my measurements (I lost 11 inches on my first round of 21 Day Fix), I felt my clothes feeling looser, but now I had confirmation of a downward trend, and I knew that I was making progress with the help of proper nutrition and sustainable fitness.

So here's the bottom line - don't hang all your hopes on the scale.  Don't weigh yourself every day.  For some people, even once a week is too often.  If you're doing a set term program like the 21 Day Fix, weigh yourself at the beginning, the halfway point, and the end.  When you're strength training and building muscle, it will mess with your head to weigh yourself more often than that.

But (separate paragraph because I don't want you to miss it) DO use the scale as one of your many tracking tools.  It's like your tape measure.  It's like your BMI calculator.  It's like your perceived exertion, and that feeling that maybe you need heavier weights.  It helps to mark your progress; just don't let it be the sole indicator.  Set your milestones and realistic expectations for weight loss, and use all the tools in your bucket to see how close you are to reaching your goals!

Recipe Reboot - Ham and Bean Soup

Recipe Disclaimer: I'm not a chef or a nutritionist/dietitian.  I'm just a mom who loves the 21 Day Fix program, and I figure out container counts for some of my favorite foods and share them with all of you!

One of my favorite comfort foods is ham and bean soup.  I love ham in general, it's a great way to feed your family for several meals when you're on a budget.  If you get a ham on the bone, one of your options for using up the leftovers is soup!  This soup is not traditional "diet" food (but what does that even mean on the 21 Day Fix??) - it's usually high in fat and sodium.  Canned soup uses a lot of starch, very little ham, and a lot of salt to make it taste ham-y.  All of that changes with what is about to follow!  It even passes the kid-test in my house - kids that usually don't like soup at all.

So you start with a bone-in ham.  When I made this soup and took pictures, it was a few days after Easter.  I had a large spiral-cut ham (the kind that comes with a packet of brown sugar glaze, a packet that promptly went in the garbage).  We had a delicious dinner on Easter, breakfast for dinner the night after, sandwiches... and soup!

The soup starts with soaking the beans overnight.  Or, if you're like me and forget to put beans in water overnight, it starts by covering beans with water, placing on the stove and bring them to a boil.  Let them boil for about 5 minutes, then turn the temp off, cover and let sit for an hour.  Drain, and set the beans aside.  Have your yellow container handy for later.

Now we get to the delicious smelling part  In the same pot, brown the ham-hock on all sides.  Butter is not allowed on the 21 Day Fix, but you do need a fat to brown the meat.  You want to avoid coconut oil for this, as the smoke point is too high.  You can use a small amount of olive oil (a tablespoon or less - when you divide into servings, the amount will be negligible).

While the meat is browning, chop your veggies.  I start with the Holy Trinity of soups - onion, celery and carrot (one green box of each).  When the meat is fully browned, drop the chopped veggies in and allow them to soften.  If you're using frozen spinach, add it now.  Hold fresh greens until the end.  For the record, I love frozen chopped spinach for soups, and I always keep a box in my freezer in case I get the urge to soup something.

When the carrots and celery are soft, add the water, seasoning, bay leaf and beans - measure them with your yellow box into the pot.  Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for an hour.

When the timer goes off, carefully remove the ham-hock from the pot and set it on a cutting board - let it cool before handling.  Check the beans to see if they are tender.  If they aren't, give them another 30 minutes of simmer time.  Mash them gently with a ricer.  When the ham is cool enough, chop it up (removing fatty parts) and measure it with your red container into the pot.

Stir in the meat, increase the heat slightly (add any fresh greens now if you want) and cook together for 15-20 more minutes.

To serve: ladle soup into your green box (per Autumn's instructions in the book).  When I measured my soup, I got 12 green boxes.  So all my calculations are done by dividing the total ingredients by 12.  I think that 2 green boxes makes a hearty soup for a main dish (see the top picture - 2 green boxes-worth in that bowl); if you're having it alongside a sandwich or salad, stick with one box. If you have 2, remember to double your container counts!

Annie was really mad that she didn't get any of this soup.  She thinks it's really unfair to have to smell ham cooking so many days and not get any.  Meanest dog-mom EVER.  Also, mean to call her over for a picture and not have a piece of ham ready.

This soup just gets better when it sits in the fridge (although if it will be more than 4 or 5 days, stick it into the freezer).  It also thickens as it stands, so add water if necessary to bring it to your preference.

Select and print this part:

Shopping:

Green
Celery, chopped - 1 box
Onion, chopped - 1 box
Carrot, chopped - 1 box
Spinach (frozen chopped, or fresh) - 2 boxes worth

Yellow
2 Cups white, navy or Great Northern beans - 8-9 boxes after soaking

Red
Leftover ham-hock, browned and chopped - 12 boxes

Free
4 cups water
1-2 tsp 21DF Multipurpose Seasoning
1 bay leaf

Cooking:
Prep: Overnight or 1 hour; Cook: About 2 hours

Soak beans overnight, or place beans in pot and bring to a boil; boil for 5 minutes, then turn the heat off.  Cover and let sit on burner for 1 hour.  Drain and set aside.

Brown ham-hock in 1 Tbsp olive oil.  When meat is browned on all sides, add chopped celery, onion and carrot and frozen spinach (if using fresh, hold until later).  When the veggies are soft, add water, seasoning and bay leaf.  Measure beans into pot.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

Remove ham-hocks and cool before handling.  If beans are not yet tender, allow to simmer for another 30 minutes.  When beans are tender, mash them slightly.  When ham is cool, chop the meat, remove fatty portions, and measure into pot.  Stir, increase heat slightly (add fresh greens if desired) and cook an additional 15-20 minutes.

Ladle soup into green box - each green box measurement gives you:
.5 green, .75 yellow, 1 red

Pi Day Catch Up Post

Happy Pi Day!  At least in the US, with the way we express dates, today is 3.14.  More than that, today is 3.1415.  I know that the next  numbers are 926.  So at 9:26 in every time zone, social media sites are being flooded with pi posts.  And images of people with pies (because of course we instinctively use pi to serve pie).  I work for patent attorneys now, I may be picking up on some of their humor.

And we use pi in hand crafts too - any time you're creating something circular.  You may not realize it but you use it!  It's one of those mathematical laws that we can be proud of ourselves as humans for figuring out.  So Happy Pi Day, everyone!

I don't have any pie- or pi-related updates to show you.  From my post on mental fatigue a few weeks ago, you may guess that I've lost a little mojo.  It's starting to come back, though.  We've had several days of sunny, warm weather (71 yesterday!) which, oddly, makes me feel like knitting socks.  So I've started a new pair, and I like them so far.  I also have plans for a new sweater/cardigan/bolero to go with my Easter dress.

In reality, I spent the first 2 months of the year working on my health.  I'm not in terrible health - I don't have any chronic diseases or muscle pain, I fight off most colds, etc.  But I had a troubling health screen last winter.  My company provides the blood draw and cholesterol screening for us and if we improve numbers or maintain healthy levels, we get a bonus in our health reimbursement accounts.  It's a great benefit.  But last year my numbers were out of whack.  My blood pressure was high (never before in my life), and my healthy cholesterol was too low and my triglycerides were in a dangerous category.  My weight was too high, and my waist circumference was dangerous.  With my family history of heart disease, these numbers were a wake-up call!

I joined a gym (another benefit of our company) and started working out but the weight was coming off slowly.  I felt stronger, but I didn't see very many changes.  In January my friend Kristy invited me to do a 5-day clean eating challenge.  I figured I could do something like that for just 5 days!  Because I'm dairy-free (as much as possibe) the changes weren't huge.  But I lost 5 pounds and an inch off my waist in 5 days.

After that challenge, I joined another challenge called 21 Day Fix - 3 weeks of portion control, focusing on lean protein and getting fruits and veggies, and daily exercise.  After 3 weeks - I'd lost another 5 pounds and 3 inches off my waist.  I went from no real results to 10 pounds and 4 inches lost in the equivalent of a month!

I just started a second round of 21 Day Fix - this may be where my increased energy is coming from!  I'm having some fun modifying recipes and figuring out "container counts" - I sort of half-promised some lactose-free recipes a couple of years ago.  I'm now planning to share some of these calculations here on the blog.

Oh, I didn't tell you the best part - we had our 2015 health screening at the end of February (in the middle of my last week of round 1 of 21 Day Fix).  I just got the results back.  Blood pressure - normal.  HDL - moved into (low end) of optimal range.  Triglycerides - dropped over 100 points, from dangerous to optimal.  My LDL was in a normal range, but it dropped too!  I'm now 5 inches from a healthy waist circumference.  I'm not using pi in any way to calculate that number, LOL.  Or pie, either!

Thanks for reading all of that, it feels good to share it.  I know that as crafters we don't always seek out fitness (yes, I know there are exceptions, and I think I'm on my way to becoming one of those exceptions).  In general, we are drawn to handcraft because it's comforting.  We like comforting food, comfortable chairs, comfortabe clothes...  I just wanted to share with you that it is possible to improve health and still have time for the comforting things you love!