By the way, I just want you to know that I hate stress…well that isn’t entirely true. I live and breath in a deadline-driven environment that is stressful, and I can handle that. The stress I don’t like is that feeling that there is way too much to do, to be mindful of and not enough time. Never enough time. That’s what I don’t like because it always leads to an overwhelmed food junkie that turns to food…but I have to brag a little bit. Today really sucked. I’m not going to mince words, but every time I needed a snack, I picked up something good for me…low-fat string cheese.

So I am going to take a victory for that today. Lord knows I need one!

g

I hadn’t seen them at any of the local stores. Which has been a good thing because I really don’t need them.

However, I discovered them the other day a local store. I was grabbing some rice cakes when I saw them. There they were sitting in on the top shelf. 

They called to me.

“Ginger, Ginger. We are here. Buy us, eat us, love us.”

Yeah…I bought two bags: plain and Parmesan Garlic Herb.

That night, plain pita chips found their way into my tomato soup. Last night, they helped finish off some roasted garlic ranch dip. 

This week they have been that great and easy go to snack when I get home from work and need a snack.

But they aren’t the best choice. Nine chips is about 140 calories. I can get two servings of mini rice cakes for that. I can eat two servings of canned soup…I could have a piece of fruit or even candy.

Sigh, they are just so good and so hard to put down. 

Stupid pita chips, why did I buy you?! <please imagine me shaking an angry fist at the empty pita chip bag>

We trotted down to the beach viewing point near the house to see what the wind and rain was like with this storm that is a-brewin’

Really didn’t think it was too windy…after all, we’re from Oklahoma and are very familiar with strong winds. This will be nothing, I thought.

Yeah, windy is not the word I would use to describe the wind. The walk to the viewing point wasn’t too bad…wind blowing against you, you have put a little fight to walk against. Nothing major.

We got to the viewing point. The wind picked up and we were quickly peppered by pebbles of sand. It hurt. I don’t like this all of the sudden. We plan to walk to the point…as close as we can get.

The wind really picks up. Mr. X estimates it is probably 60 to 70 mph. Things on my jacket are hitting me in the face. I’m wondering if I still have earrings (luckily, I still have both rings)

It really starts to blow and the next thing I know, I have a death grip on the fence that keeps people from falling off the cliff.

I am not amused.

But thankful for my weight…first time ever. If I weighed a few pounds lighter I think I may have been blown to sea!

I made it through most of my burger…didn’t eat of the bun and surprisingly, I didn’t eat all of them fries. Since I don’t eat fries on a regular basis anymore, I almost always devour them when I do get fries. I made it through half, and then I just couldn’t eat anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, they tasted good, I was getting close to being full and I didn’t want to feel miserable.

I was kind of surprised that I literally pushed the food away from me — that is not a motion my hands are familiar with when it comes to food by the way.

So, now that “treat” is out of the way, I need to concentrate on my paper

g

It is also the start of a very busy week. I will be working on my 20-25 page paper on Japanese militarism in World War II. The paper is due on the 21st…wish me luck. And if you don’t hear from me a lot, don’t worry too much…I’m just stuck in World War II

g

I really feel like I screwed up, again.

On the bright side, I did get a walk in this afternoon, so that has got to count for something.

Oh, and I have decided that if I can walk somewhere, I should. If I can park a little farther way, I should. It means I am taking a couple more steps and that has to be good for me.

g

But exercise wise. I worked out for 30 minutes. I did several of the exercises that Meghan showed me…but I only did 10 minutes on the treadmill. It is my favorite thing to work out on but I just didn’t have energy I guess…or at least I didn’t feel good, something wasn’t quite right.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

g

Even more, today after lunch I wanted something sweet. Opted for a Fiber One granola bar that had some chocolate in it…thought it was better than a bag of M&Ms.

And I prepared myself….I have snacks to take to work and stash in my desk. What snacks? A tin of cashews and some Special K cereal bars (they only have 90 calories)…and some oatmeal so I will always have something for breakfast.

Now, if I could just get my post done, then I might be able to get some exercise — the exercise I missed last night

While I felt old and embarrassed, I knew I was finally taking a step in the right direction. I was actually making a serious attempt at exercise.

This effort to increase my physical movement actually started a couple of weeks ago when I was on a walk with my friend and co-worker, Meghan. She suggested getting together to workout — something a little more than a walk.

Work and out are not generally terms that I put together.

In the past, I would just say I didn’t have time between work and school. But I couldn’t use that excuse when the idea was to meet on Saturday morning.

So when we met, Meghan showed me a series of exercises that focus on the “core.” How can I describe them? Each exercise looks simple, but that is an evil, evil deception.

There is one exercise where you jump up and when you land, you land in a squat position and hold it for a minute. It sounds easy, right? It starts out easy, but later you feel pain where you aren’t supposed to feel pain.

The day after Meghan introduced torture to my life, I was in pain. As a general rule, this type of discomfort would be my reason why I shouldn’t exercise.

Oh, I thought about it. But I came to the realization that the only way to be less sore was to exercise more. I actually worked out by myself on Sunday and Wednesday. I was surprised too!

Maybe this will help me eat better and feel better.

Food Junkie Discovery

I like soup and some of the canned soups are fairly low-calorie and low-carb. Recently, I was shopping and discovered that V8 is making soups now. I tried the Southwestern Corn. It wasn’t bad. A serving (about a cup) has 150 calories and 26 grams of carbs. If you do what I did and eat the whole thing, that is just 300 calories and 52 carbs — not great but better than a cheeseburger.

It was wonderful, and I couldn’t help myself, I had to go back for seconds — and that included a second helping of rice. Was it bad, absolutely, but it tasted so good.

Luckily, I am stuffed and won’t need anything else for the rest of the day!

g