What do you think this means?

This is Abby. She's evil and she bites.



She jumped in my lap the other day and I *sniff Sniff* what IS that? *Sniff* - ah-h-h she smelled just like a French Fry. That kind of frightened me a bit.

Kind of mad and late to the party

This weekend I discovered there are shoes out there being advertised as workout shoes in that - they help work your muscles when you walk wearing them. They tilt back just a bit and have a rocker type motion which forces you to use more muscles when you walk. Theoretically, of course. I'm sure everyone else already knew about these besides me. Always late to the party.

But me being me I'm like - yeah - I hafta try these! Seeing as I'm not getting a workout on my couch, the idea of shoes that practically do it for you appealed to me. Okay maybe the claims didn't go that far. Still - I started to shop. I found one brand, MBTs that are really expensive - around $250.00 a pair. And Reebok has come up with some called Shape-ups, still fairly expensive although less than the first. I searched and searched until I found basically the same kind of shoes sold through K-Mart, basically a knock-off called Thera-shoes. MUCH cheaper. Also? NOT available.

But the worst part? I spent the better part of a day searching the internet for these things and discovered that even if I could afford them, or find them in the case of the K-Mart shoes, NONE OF THEM WOULD FIT ME! I have wide Flintstone feet and not a single one of these shoes comes in wide widths.

GR-R-R-R-r-r-r ....!!! I'm guessing I'm going to have to get off my butt and do it myself. Exercise, that is. What fun is that!?!

**OOPS. Reebok has EasyTones and Sketchers has Shape-ups. Too many names too little brain!

Lunch!

I make my lunch the evening before, I am not a morning person and I will do everything I possibly can so I have less to do in the morning. I get 2 mugs of tea ready, my meds for the morning and I make my lunch. I have lunch and 2 snacks everyday. Sometimes a V-8 thrown in. Man I love that stuff. Mostly lunch has been a salad. That's good, I've been loving my salads. But I've been craving meat so I bought some thinly sliced ham and shaved chicken. My lunch for tomorrow is a whole wheat pita with light mayo, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and chicken. Yummy! I told my daughter - I want to eat it NOW! Looks so good.

A year ago it was rare that I ever put lettuce on a sandwich and almost never used tomato. Unless it was a BLT dripping with mayo and jam packed with bacon. Mmmmm. Ahem. But right now - the sandwich I made looks awesome!

My 2 snacks will be some grapes and cherries mid-morning probably, and sliced cucumbers in a sweet and sour dressing that has a great vinegary taste in the afternoon. Yum again! If I need a little filler here or there - I have a container of Almonds on my desk. I do try to eat them in small amounts, it's hard though. We will see. This pita looks good enough that I am l looking forward to lunch tomorrow already!

My how times have changed!

Sometimes I'm amazed . .

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home, not my usual one because I’ve started driving home a using a different route to avoid the road rage (mine) and high blood pressure (also mine). So I just wanted a few things. Some fruit, and whole wheat bagels. I did add some cat food but that doesn’t count as buying something I shouldn’t have because I was hungry.

Learning how to eat healthy well better, has been really unusual for me. One thing I believed I would never ever let go of was my morning bagel (onion, toasted) with cream cheese was a huge part of my diet. It was the way I started my day. Every. day. And I haven’t let go of it entirely. I have been having a whole wheat bagel with a slice of American cheese instead of the cream cheese. Still a tiny bit naughty, but good.

I balked at getting those whole wheat bagels. Tried ‘em, didn’t like ‘em, wanted my tasty white bread bagels. Whole wheat bagels have sticks and stones in them for goodness sakes! But little by little it happened. And one day I found myself looking forward to that whole wheat bagel. Without the cream cheese. And I don’t miss the kind of bagel I’ve been eating for years! At all!

Back at the store, I picked up some cherries, some grapes, cat food, and then I went in search of whole wheat bagels. Uh uh. Nada, nill, NONE! Seemed to be a lot of cinnamon swirl bagels and “everything” bagels but no whole wheat. I found myself muttering under my breath that “this Dominick's must be the one all the fat people shop at . ..!” Which makes me laugh because I AM one of those.

But when I did not find those whole wheat bagels – I left to checkout with my cherries, my grapes, my cat food – and oh yeah, 2 containers of low fat vanilla yogurt. Not the Staufers french bread pizza I love, or my white bread onion bagels or even a candy bar. I am amazed.

I have not totally changed, I had a wonderful honey mustard chicken sub recently, and some Chinese food another day, but when I have those things – they are a treat, not my every day meals. Tomorrow I will have my whole wheat bagel (my last one) for breakfast with my tea. Mid-morning I will either have cherries or grapes, lunch will be a salad with cucumber, carrots, tomato, and chicken, and then mid- afternoon I will probably have some yogurt. Dinner may just be some more fruit. Or maybe some green beans with fat free ranch dressing . . yum! Who said that?? (looking behind me) That is just NOT something I would have said 6 months ago. I think I’m proud of myself!