A Morning of Hiking and Photos

I'm off work this week so I'm trying to get out and take some photos.  I've always loved photography as far back as I can remember.  There's something magical about capturing a moment.  Here are my moments from my morning hike:

Why I Stopped Wearing Makeup

It has taken me a long time to win the war against makeup.  I grew up with a mother who never left her bedroom until she had her "face on".  I came to believe that I only looked my best when I had foundation on.  For decades I wore it like a mask.

The ironic thing is that so few women in my real life wear makeup.  Almost none of the women I work with now or ever have worn makeup.  I have been in the minority and yet my concept of myself continued to be attached to wearing makeup.

I have this year, for the first time begun to separate myself from that concept.  For the first time I recognize that I look perfectly fine without makeup.  I'm almost 54 years old.  No matter how much or little makeup I wear is going to make me look 20 or 30. 

So, this year I have only worn tinted sunscreen; no foundation.  And as my supply of that runs out I'm not going to repurchase anymore.  It's scary and it's empowering at the same time.  I find value in other women because of the kind of people they are, not what they look like or their makeup.  I'm hoping, as I continue to look more and more natural that those around me, who I work with and live with will do the same for me.

So, as I use less and less makeup, I've become more interested in my skincare.  I've been working on being consistent with that for more than ten year now; since I was diagnosed with recurring skin cancer.  We should all wear sunscreen all day long, but those, like me who battle skin cancer should all the more pay attention to protection their skin.

Here's what I'm using right now:

I concentrate on several areas that I think are important for women my age:
Sunscreen, Moisturizer, Fighting wrinkles and Teeth.

Neutrogena Age Shield Face Sunscreen spf 70 and spf 50 sunscreen for my body.  I've been wearing Neutrogena face sunscreen for years.  It's a formula that's not greasy and it doesn't break me out.  It's a little more expensive than the others but it's the best I've found so I keep buying it.  I also use at least a 50 spf on my arms and neck.  For that I use a store brand that's the cheapest.  I only recently started wearing sunscreen on my arms during the work week.  I realized that I sit right next to a huge window where I get natural light all day long.  That means I'm getting extended periods of sun every day so I need to wear sunscreen on all parts of my body that are exposed.

CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Lotion, plain and with 30 spf.  I switch brands of moisturizer depending on what's on sale.  I've heard good things about CeraVe so I'm decided to try the brand.  I use the one with sunscreen in the mornings.  I put a layer on my face and neck and once that dries I put my 50spf sunscreen over that.  I don't know if I get extra protection by layering sunscreen but I figure if it doesn't help it won't hurt.

Differin Gel.  This is my second tube of Differin.  I'm using this to fight fine lines and wrinkles.  I love this stuff.  I really do see a difference in the texture and overall look of my skin.  I will definitely continue to use this product.  It is a fraction of the cost of Retin-A and dues the same thing.  This product was previously a prescription product only.  For about $12 there's no reason to try this.  I get several month's use out of each tube so it's very cost effective.

Plus White 5 Minute Speed Whitening Gel.  This is another product that I've been using for years.  Dingy looking teeth can instantly age us.  I don't want to look any older than I am.  This product is inexpensive and really works.  I put a big dollop onto my toothbrush and lightly apply it to my teeth in the mornings.  After five minutes I rinse it off.  It's easy and quick and I feel like it keeps my teeth from getting yellow from the coffee I drink daily.





So this is what I'm focusing on now instead of foundation, blush and eyeshadow.  I think it's a better use of my limited income and I feel that in the long run what I'm doing now will help me look my best.

Two More Pounds Gone - What I Ate This Week

As long as I keep it tight Monday through Friday I continue to loose weight.  Not every week, but my weight gradually continues to go down. 

 For Breakfast every morning I had oats, blueberries and a sliced up banana.  This is really the only sweet breakfast that I like.  The weeks I don't eat this I eat vegetable soup.  I prefer a hot, savory breakfast, but for variety, some weeks I do oatmeal with fruit.  It's very filling.  Try to eat a cup of oatmeal.  It's dense but there's twice as much liquid as there is oats so it's very low calorie dense.  That makes it perfect for weight loss.

 This is a combination of slaw mix, brussel sprouts and onions.  I steamed the mixture in a nonstick pan.  This is layer one of my lunch bowls.

I

 Layer two was baked potatoes.  I like to eat white and red potatoes that don't need to be peeled.  I love potatoes.  I can eat them often and plain.  They are low in calories and nutritious.  Again, perfect for weight loss.

My third layer was roasted vegetables:  Zucchini, carrots and bell peppers.  All these vegetables are low calorie dense; perfect for weight loss.

For dinner each night I had sliced fruit.  I eat as much as I want.  I love fruit but it's not very filling.  The reason I switched back to eating fruit after work instead of starches is so that I go to bed feeling a little empty.  It's just part of my overall strategy to continue to loose weight. 

So that's what I ate last week.  It was a good week for food.  I was never really hungry.  I did go to bed feeling empty because I workout an hour in the evenings and fruit isn't very filling.  But I did that purposefully because I'm trying to continue to loose weight.  I'm at 137 and I want to get down another 10 pounds at least before I work on a maintenance program. 

This week is Thanksgiving so my food strategy is different than normal.  I'll post about that at the end of the week.

For right now I'm just staying the course.

November Weight Loss Update

Two things happened in the last week.  My boss's boss said to me that there seemed to be a lot less of me around the office, lol.  I said yes, almost 50 lbs. less.  He was shocked and asked me how I did it.  I didn't want to be too specific because I don't tend to get positive reactions when I say the word vegan, so I just said it was a combination of diet and exercise.

Secondly, I went to the funeral of a beloved uncle that I haven't seen in almost 20 years.  I haven't seen most of the people who were there.  At least ten people came up to me and told me that I looked fabulous; like I hadn't aged at all since they last saw me.  This time it was me that was shocked.  I just smiled, blushed and said thank you.

So, even though I'm still not where I want to be ultimately, my hard work is paying off.  I feel better than ever and apparently I look pretty good for an old gal of 53. 

There hasn't been any change in my weight.  I would really like to loose at least five lbs. before the end of the year.  At this point I think I'll either have to add exercise or subtract calories.  I'm already exercising about an hour in the early mornings and again in the afternoons.  What I haven't been doing is exercising on the weekends.  So I got up at 5 am this Saturday and walked two miles.  I'll do that again tomorrow, Sunday. 

As for diet, I'm going to tighten that up too.  I've been eating starch in the evenings instead of my usual fruit.  It's definitely more filling, but I'm going to go back to just fruit.  Fruit is much lower in calories per pound than starch.  That means I'll go back to being hungry when I go to bed, but it also means I'll probably start loosing weight again.  It's a trade off that I'm willing to make to get back on the weight loss train.  I was hoping to avoid any more food cutbacks but I have a goal and I want to get there, No Matter What.  That's the mantra that got me almost 50 lbs lighter and I want it to carry me further.

THE SIMPLE LIFE - Vegan Potato Hominy Chowder

This is the kind of food I want on damp, fall days like today.  It's hearty comforting food.  This is a simple recipe with simple ingredients; perfect because I didn't want to spend my day in the kitchen.

1/2 lb. Hominy

3 lb. white potatoes, cubed

2 onions, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 Tbl. minced garlic

2 containers vegetable stock

In medium pot Boil hominy for 2 minutes; let sit for one hour.

Put all ingredients into large stock pot.  Simmer for one hour. 

 Golden Hominy Corn is a new ingredient for me.  I haven't used it before.  I saw it at the grocery today and decided I'd try it.  The kernals soften and become creamy.

I used white potatoes that don't need to be peeled.  

They become very creamy when cooked.

 I forgot to pick up the vegetable stock at the grocery so I used a vegetable soup mix that I had in my pantry.  That's what you see floating in the top of the pot in the above photo.  It turned out very well so either will work for this recipe.

 I used a hand mixer to blend up some of the potatoes.  This makes the chowder thicker.

The Simple Life - Breaking Through my Plateau

 We did a hike at a local park today and here are a few photos.

This morning I weighed 139.  I've finally made it through the 140's.  It took me two months and a whole lot of hard work.  I credit my plateau breakthrough with the "make me skinny" salad that I posted about last weekend.  I'm not eating 2 pounds of vegetables every day.  To that I add my starches; hummus and a lentil/rice/mushroom mix.  Vegetables are so low in calorie density that it creates a calorie deficit and thus, weight loss. 

One of things I've been looking for was a fat free, sugar free topping for my salad.  I do heat my starches and dump them over the salad most of the time, but sometimes I want to eat them separate.  I can use salsa and I have, but that's not my favorite topping.  It's best to use a topping that's made from vegetables so that the whole dish is vegetables.  Well, I found these:

Wickles Spicy Red Sandwich Spread - it's made from roasted bell peppers and chilis and onions.  It's fat and sugar free; the perfect topping.  I also found Chow Chow.  I remember my grandmother making it during my childhood.  It's cabbage based.  It's also fat free and very low in sugar.  I've already tried it and I love it.

I'm thrilled with the loss and to be back to actively loosing weight, but this is a whole new ballgame.  Eating that amount of vegetables every day takes a lot of food prep and time.  Because I'm using fresh greens I am making my salads the night before.  I don't really want to do food prep every night but it is what it is.  If this is what it takes then so be it.  "No matter what".  That's my mantra with diet and exercise.  I will get down into the 120's and I will maintain it, no mater what.  If I have to eat like a rabbit the rest of my life to stay within a healthy weight range then so be it.  There are enough different vegetables and enough different ways to prepare them that I'm confident I can come up with a short list of ways that I enjoy to eat them.  As long as I have a little bit of variety I can do it. 

I have changed up my exercise a bit.  I go really hard on my weight bearing exercises three days a week.  the other two days I still do them but not as hard to give myself a little bit of recovery.  I also decided to stop wearing the weighted vest.  It was causing me lots of shoulder pain.  If I were younger I'd probably push through but at my age I have to think about staying physically fit as long as possible.  So, I've gone back to my walk/jog routine.  I still do 3 miles every morning but without the extra weight.  My shoulder pain has disappeared.  I may alternate days with it because it really intensifies my workout but for now I'm letting my shoulder completely heal.

I'm thrilled with where I am and where I'm headed.  This has been a long year filled with the hardest work I've ever done on my own health.  I'm determined to stay the course.  The holidays are coming.  It's going to be challenging but I won't give up territory that I've won. 

The Simple Life - Make Me Skinny Chopped Salad

I recently learned about this salad from one of my favorite youtubers; The Butterfly Effect.  She is a spectacular lady who has lost 300 lbs.  She eats salads similar to this every day.

This salad has everything in it that you need in a day of eating.  I divide this into two meals.  It's filling enough that I could eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner, but I just eat a little fruit in the evening and fast through until the next morning.  So this salad gives me two very large meals that contain everything I need.  It's also delicious!  It ticks all my boxes; crunchy, sweet, spicy and hearty.  Here's what's in it:

 I use two things for dressing; hummus and salsa.  I like to make my hummus from scratch so that it's completely fat free.  I put one pound garbanzo beans into my medium sized crock pot and eight cups of water.  Cook them on high for about 4 hours.  Scoop out a cup and put it in a food processor until smooth.  I have a Ninja Fit that I love and use every week.  Add some lemon juice and garlic and blend again until smooth.  I buy my salsa because it's easy to get fat free.  I use a cup of it on the salad.

 You need some starches.  This week I chose a brown rice/wild rice mix.  To that I added two cans of sliced mushrooms.

 I cooked some dry lentils.  This is two cups of lentils cooked in eight cups of water.  I added two onion dry soup mixes.  Once the lentils and rice was cooked I combined them and put a cup of the mixture in my salad.

 The foundation of the salad is one pound of greens.  Today I'm using baby spinach and kale with half a head of lettuce.  I chop this up very well.  Chopping the salad greens make it easier to eat and mix with the other ingredients.

 I put two cups of shredded carrots into my Ninja and processed them down to the minced state.  On top of that I added my cup of homemade hummus.

 Next I add one cup of salsa and 1/4 chopped onion.  I use a medium spicy salsa because it adds some zip to the overall taste of the salad.

 I slice up 1/2 a can of beets and add that.

 This is 1/2 can of chopped hearts of palm.

 This is 1 tablespoon flax seeds.  From now on I will ground them before adding.  I just became aware that is the best way to get the nutrition from them.

 I chopped up three servings of dried pineapple.  It adds sweetness to the salad.  You can add fresh fruit too; go with your favorite.  Next I put on one cup of the bean/rice mixture.  It's creamy and hearty and brings up the salad to a whole other level of goodness.

 Then I just toss everything together until it's all combined.  I divided this into two large servings for my lunch and dinner.