A weekend walk for Autism

Last week went really well.  As we get back into the swing of things, we have come to the realization that a 3-mile walk several times a week just might not work.  That is true for a number of reasons after all...life happens.  That said, it is much easier to squeeze in a 1.5 to 2 mile walk and that is still 30 mins of not sitting on the couch :)  We even got to use our walking blinking lights (You may recall how excited we were about getting those).

Secondly, we have started doing a family thing on Saturdays.  We have always tried to do family things, but they didn't always work out.  That said, with Kara doing school, kids in after-school activities, etc...we start to feel like we don't hang out as much and need to get out and about.  Groupon can be really good for this and even found ways to get out and move.  First it was a corn maze, but more importantly last weekend was a family 5K.  It was a 5K to help raise awareness and support for Autism.  It was a run/walk, which makes it perfect for the family.  We let the twins drift a little off the path and it was at a very nice little park in Greensboro.  There wasn't a medal, but we did get shirts for the walk and for being part of the UNCG team.  So that is a win.

Lastly, we wanted to try something different for dinner for Sunday.  We decided to experiment with fish...that's healthy, right?  It was my responsibility and so I bought some fresh Salmon and found a sweet salmon recipe, but I used sugar-free syrup :)  Let me just say that I thought that it was delicious, Kara also ate her whole piece, but it was still fish.  I will take that :)

Things are going well and we are slowly finding that sweet spot where it is a little bit of a challenge and a little bit of fun to be healthy (we had fallen out of that for a while)

The Weekends...

As you know, we have started to pay a little more attention to what we are eating and doing.  While we have managed to get things together a little bit...we have trouble with the dreadful weekend.  Oh make no mistake, it is not really dreadful!!! However, that is why it is also a little more challenging when it comes to making those "healthy choices" that we are supposed to make.

For the last several weeks, I believe that our weekend would completely cancel out the good choices of the week.  You know, it is your typical weekend stuff...maybe a few chips here, a little larger snack than normal there, a few adult beverages, a few more chips, cheese fries, a few more beverages, did I mention CHEESE FRIES!!! Oh how I love cheese fries, seasoned well and dipped in ranch and....oh...um...sorry about that, I sort of blanked out...

Anyhow, this weekend we did much better.  We still had fun and still ate a few things that maybe we shouldn't have, but you have to do that sometimes and our sometimes come to the weekends (some people say find a cheat meal or a cheat day, that is about what we do).  That said, we also walked a little more and made better choices than we have during the weekends for the last month.  So today we are calling it a win.  The next question is whether that allows us to get ahead on the weight loss a little.

One Year Ago...We Started Gold's Fit

Today on facebook I was reminded that a year ago, we made it to Gold's Fit for the first time.  I have to say that I am still glad that we started it.  It has been quite the experience and I believe that we will keep doing it.  That said, I do not think we are quite where we want to be...and by quite where we want to be, I mean there is still some work to be done.  OK, fine...I mean there is lots of work left ;)

Summer was a little hiccup, we both put on weight and didn't exercise as planned...Oops!  Don't get me wrong, we had fun doing it...too much fun...haha.  Our summers are a little crazy, but by August we started staying up late and playing Zelda.  Next were the snacks and maybe a few adult beverages., even made it to the Biltmore finally...they have incredible ice cream and ... I think that you get the idea.  I guess we will chalk it up as focusing on mental health.

So, we are now working on getting a balance of mental and physical health.  We are back to regular trips to Gold's Gym (one reason this slowed down was that there are very few in the midwest) and even found a chance to go for a hike in the Smoky Mountains.  We have also started walking although now it is a two-mile path.  We decided that it may be more realistic in terms of timing and squeezing it in on a regular basis.  Why is that becoming a challenge??? We have had a few changes...well probably more, but a few stand out.  Mainly, Kara has started school to get a second Bachelors (and her teaching certificate) and we found out that she has severe arthritis in her knee.  And as for me....nothing new...yeap, still pretty boring...lol


Kara going back to school has been great!!! I get to see her much more and we have started a regular routine that includes a fair amount of Subway....see healthy choices.  That said, this also means lots of homework and class time.  It took us a little while to even settle enough to understand what a schedule would look like, but I think we are getting there.  Of course, Kara had a little getting used to, but let me just say that she looks just like the 18-year old I met in her first year of college :)

The arthritis was also a pretty hard hit!!! She has taken it really well, but over the summer her knee really started hurting.  It has given her trouble for a long time, but not like this.  So she finally went to the doctor.  The doc was nice enough to give her a drawing and basically said the cartilage in her right knee is gone, but she is too young for a knee replacement.  Well, I wasn't surprised at the young part, just look at her, but this also means that running is out and he was pretty clear that cross-fit is out too.  When we told our trainer, he said, "Good news, you don't do Cross-Fit...you do Gold's Fit."  His claim is that things can be changed and modified now that they know what the problem is.  You will have to Stay Tuned to see how that goes.

So, it continues to be quite a trip...I will say this, whether we gained weight or not (and we did, but still), We have made several changes that have stayed with us and we know what has changed and what we need to get back to.  I think it helps a lot that there are the two of us.  We have started our usual pep talks on our walks...lol...yes we always say the same thing and yes we both know it, but it is great to have a sounding board, to hear it out loud, and to have someone agree and confirm that we can do it.

Where did the time go????

Wow, I can't believe that we haven't posted anything since March 7!!!! I don't really know where to begin...so maybe instead I will just say something and we can try again...

So, what happened?  Life happened.  I guess that like anything else, things can get challenging.  We continue to go to Gold's Fit about 3 times a week (well that stopped this last week because of company and things, but usually) and we have still been staying pretty good with our eating.  In fact, we had been experimenting with a few things the last time we were posting so a few things we pretty much know for sure.  Well at least when it has come to us

1) Gold's Fit, which is like cross fit is a great way for us to start our day.  It gives us well-rounded weight training and also adds in some cardio.  We still do this at 5:30 in the morning and after class we come home have a protein shake and eat a few fried eggs and some toast.  This routine is great to build general strength, but...it is not the best way to lose weight.  Don't get me wrong, we lose weight, but not as fast as we had.

2) Cardio is an absolute must if you want to lose weight.  In general, just doing Gold's Fit we were slowly losing weight (but you are also building muscle so maybe it's more lose than what shows up in the scale).  However, this spring we found 3 weeks where we were able to get back to our walks...several days a week and each one is 5K.  During these 3 weeks we lost about 5-6 lbs.  Note this is about double what Gold's Fit was doing.  Let me add.  PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS AS THOUGH I AM SAYING GOLDS FIT IS BAD.  Gold's Fit is great and we have loved it, but it is not a replacement for cardio.  We feel that finding a balance of strength training and cardio is best.  Well ok, that not just us...I think most people would say that...haha

3) Life happens.  Things got really busy for us this Spring.  When it happens you are not able to always find time to do all of the things that you want.  So what worked for us...reminding ourselves that this is a long-term permanent change, not some "quick fix".  So, yes, it may take longer than we planned, but if we keep doing what we are doing we will get there.  So, we prioritized certain things that we stick to and certain things that we keep working to add.  For example, 3 times a week we work out, during the week we watch what we eat.  These we do almost always...what we look to add is cardio or heavy weight training.  We get those in when we can, but sometimes you have to have a mental health day :)

So, in short, things are going along great!! Things got pretty hectic and probably won't stop for another month or two, but we are definitely not finished :)

A new cooking "toy"

Guess what we decided to get?? An Air Fryer...actually, it is called the Power AirFryer XL.

"What is it," you may ask?  This thing is another type of cooker.  In general, it uses super hot air to "fry" things and as a result, no (or not much) oil is needed.  As it says on the box, when not cooking with as much oil, the number of calories can be reduced.  This is important because the kids are starting to rebel against some of our choice meals.  We are trying to become more creative and it looks like this might open the door for some other options.

Today we decided to make fries, and let me say...they tasted great!! And it was only our first try!! There is room for improvement.  I decided to take pictures to document the process.  As you might expect, we had to chop up potatoes.  For our family of five, we cut up five potatoes (each was 110 calories)

After cutting them up, we needed to soak the potatoes for about 20 to 30 mins (this recipe isn't something that you do in a quick 10 mins). I am not quite sure what this does but the recipes that we looked up all suggested this be done.

After letting them soak, we took them out of the bowl and dried them off.  Next, add a tablespoon of olive oil (119 calories total) and seasoning.  In our case, we added some salt and pepper along with some seasoning salt (a staple for us) and then put in the AirFryer for 18 minutes set on 400 degrees.

If you are thinking that it looks like a big egg...that's what we think too.  While it is cooking you are supposed to stop it every so often and shake things up.  According to the manual, this does not change the cooking time at all because it heats it right back up once you start it again.

Here is a picture of what it looked like half way through

At this point, it was starting to look cooked.  It cooked a little longer and this is what it looked like.

As I mentioned before, they tasted great, but this was only our first time.  When we do it again, I think that we will cook the fries longer so that they are a little crispier. :)  We figure our serving of fries (about one potato worth) had about 135 calories.

Things to note:

1)  Using this was pretty easy although creating the food did take some time.
2) The taste of the fries was excellent!
3) This was our first try with this, but it may be true that a lot of the things that you would use this for could also be baked.
4) It may save you calories by not using oil, but potatoes (for example) still have calories so you have to keep and eye out for that.
5) It does mention that it can be used to cook a chicken, roast, baked goods, and a large number of other items :)

We will definitely try other recipes and report back how it goes.  I hear the blooming onion is great.

Running Lights!

As we have mentioned, we have been trying to add walking back into our busy schedule.  It seems like there are at least one or two days that walking will only work at night. What do you think that means?? You guessed it...we got our walking lights!! :)

They aren't anything too fancy but they are just enough for us to make a contribution to the kaleidoscope of magical butterflies (aka night time walkers).  

They are pretty cool but maybe not quite what we needed.  Based on where we walk and the fact that the time changes in a week, we may have done OK with a cheap flashlight or something like that.  That said, we do like our little lights ;)

When Works For You?

I know that it is supposed to be "whatever works for you," but for us, it was more about when does exercising work.  Of course, everyone is different.  When we started walking it was more of a "when we can get it done" type of strategy.  That was typically in the mornings, but not terribly early.
Then we decided to start going to a class (Yes, I am talking about Gold's Fit again).  We needed a time that would always work.  This meant that during the typical daytime hours was out.  Kara and I have varying schedules and it was very unlikely that we could consistently get a day class to work.  It also seemed like the evenings would work.  Specifically, the kids have different schedules of needing to be picked up and dropped off places.  It is also true that during the span of a day, I can come up with millions of excuses why I can't exercise that day and AT LEAST 10,000 of them are amazing reasons that cannot be ignored.

So, when works for us?  You guessed it.  Early morning....ugh.  I never thought that we would be getting up at 5 am for a 5:30 am anything.  The first week was rough! So, how do we do it?  I tell people that I get out of bed at 5am and typically wake up between 5:45am and 6:00am.  By then, I am already at the class and almost done ;)  Well, it isn't quite like that, but maybe closer than you might think.  Basically, the alarm goes off and no matter how we feel we get up.  After all, we usually have to pee anyhow...yeap, that's right, drink water the night before also :) We also have our clothes out so we don't have to look for anything.  Basically, minimize the effort needed to make it there. So, does it ever actually get easy, you may ask...maybe a little, but it is still early.  That said, it does become a lot like muscle memory.  You end up just doing it because it is a habit.

I guess at the end of the day...it is really finding a time that mimizes the excuses and reasons for not going, planning ahead, and following through.  It does eventually become a habit and that is what has worked for us.