Staying Healthy: Food & Exercise (1/24 – 1/30)

Back before we left on our Big Adventure, before YaYu headed off to school, I told Brett that once she had left the nest I no longer wanted to cook, or at least not cook very much. It wasn’t that I didn’t like cooking or enjoy it, but I was tired and wanted a break. I told him we would be having more sandwich meals, or prepared casseroles, things that wouldn’t require me to spend a lot of time in the kitchen while still allowing us to have healthy meals.

And how has that plan turned out? Well, as you can see from the meals we’ve had below, not very well, at least not while YaYu is home. The girl likes to eat, and, as it has turned out, wants a home-cooked meal at night. I had hoped she would help out more in the kitchen, and she does occasionally, occasionally being the operative word though. For the most part she wants Mom’s home cooking. I’ve indulged her this visit, especially as she doesn’t intend to come for the summer (nothing for her to do here) and we won’t see her again until next winter. It’s meant a higher food bill, and more work for me, but she’ll be heading back to school in another week, and then it will be back to simpler meals, and less time in the kitchen for me.

Sunday: Breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs, breakfast sausages, tangerines, and toasted artisan roll); tapioca pudding with gingersnaps for dessert

Monday: Guadalajara quesadillas; tapioca pudding with gingersnaps

Tuesday: Chinese 3-Color salad; tapioca pudding with gingersnaps

Wednesday: Grilled fish tacos with cabbage and mango-peach salsa; tapioca pudding with gingersnaps

Thursday: Ham fried rice; butter mochi & white chocolate-raspberry ice cream

Friday: Costco pasta and Italian sausage casserole; sautéed green beans; butter mochi & white chocolate-raspberry ice cream

Saturday: Pepperoni & vegetable mini pizza; butter mochi with white chocolate-raspberry ice cream

Menu plan for next week will include many of YaYu’s favorites:

• Chili pork burritos
• Spicy chicken quesadillas
• Spaghetti with marinara and grilled Italian sausages
• Chicken adobo with bok choy
• Noodles with pork sauce
• Japanese curry with chicken and vegetables
• Sausage mini pizzas

We eat meat almost every day, but with a few exceptions meat is never the “star” of the meal, and I try to treat it more like a condiment. If a recipe calls for a pound of meat, for example, I will only use a half pound. We eat a lot of vegetables and fruit or incorporate them into our meals, and although we’re eating less carbs overall, our desserts, small but indulgent, provide a daily treat that helps keep Brett and I from turning to other high-carb sweets or snacks. They also give us something to look forward to toward the end of the day. 

Last Wednesday I was cleaning out my photo file and discovered a picture I had taken of myself exactly two months earlier (November 27). As I was coincidentally wearing the same outfit, I took another picture to see if I could see any difference as I weighed seven pounds less than I did in the November photo (on the left). I don’t see any change, but Brett and YaYu both say they definitely do so I’ll go with the majority. Hopefully in another two months or so I will finally be able to see a difference. I definitely look different from how I did when we arrived here last year though – even I can see that (and my baggy, loose pants confirm it). At the end of the day though, my focus is not on how I look – I am never going to be model thin with shapely legs. These days I am walking for endurance, to increase my bone strength, and for the other health benefits, and to get my weight back to where my body feels comfortable. I am average height (65″) but have a small frame, and it’s difficult and painful to carry around too much weight. I have no one but myself to blame for that happening though, but I am able to change things.

All the above being said, this past week was not a great one for walking . . . the weather was very sketchy for most of the week. We took a regular day off on Sunday, and then got rained out on Monday. We walked in fierce winds on Tuesday and Wednesday – there were times we thought we might get blown off the path! Thursday the weather was better, but we had never seen the park so crowded so we didn’t walk as long as usual. Friday would have been perfect except for the strong winds (“it was trying to be hot but the wind wouldn’t let it”), but the sun was out on the Saturday, and the wind had died down to a breeze – it was lovely. We walked through rain showers on a few days, but those thankfully didn’t last long and we barely got wet. Never a dull moment! I will have the totals mileage up for January next week, but I know we walked over 100 miles last month.