Football Epilogue

Image by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay And just like that, Thanksgiving 2021 is a shrinking speck in the rear-view mirror. I'm grateful for having written my previous post as it helped keep me mindful during the feast. Still, there was a mix of good things and areas of improvement. Thus, similar to my travel report card , I came up with one for social/holiday eating scenarios (again I used this handy table generator website ) so here we go: Item Score (1 to 4 with 4 = best) Notes Water Intake 4 I conscientiously chose water throughout the celebration Alcohol Consumption 4 No alcoholic beverages were consumed Appetizer Grazing 3 I started strong, but found myself making a couple more passes than necessary once the desserts came out Meal/plate 2 Considering it was Thanksgiving, I think I did okay. I took modest portions of most foods, but did go back for some seconds on the ...

One of the big challenges in staying healthy, particularly for those of us who struggle with eating, is when the outside world "pivots" on us after we've established good habits under a certain set of conditions. By this I mean anything from a prolonged change in the weather to an injury or medical condition that might keep us from getting our steps. I started Noom in May. Living in Minnesota I've had the "fair weather" treatment up to now, literally. The days throughout the summer are long. Going for a run or walk at 8:30pm still has plenty of natural light and there's plenty of warmth for generating a good sweat. Also, in doing the math for me, there are fewer celebratory occasions and close-quartered social eating situations during those months. Enter the winter plunge. The days have gotten significantly shorter with twilight around 5pm. It's mostly dark when I get out of bed and mostly dark when I head home from work. The temperature hovers ar...

  Healthy frozen lunches for the week. For this healthier me journey to work for me, I require simplicity. As on top of things as it sounds to cook meals at the start of the week, that's actually luxury talk for those who have time and don't mind the cooking and the dishes.  I don't mind the cooking, but I abhor the dishes. I also don't think there's much actual cost savings and, for me, there's diminished value in taking the extra time that I could be using to jump start my week at the gym or do the laundry. In addition the same thing all week can be kind of droll.  Now I shouldn't be all down on fresh meal prep. A home cooked meal is awesome, but as I mention it's more of a luxury than I can regularly handle on a sustainable program. The flip side is to brave the restaurants over lunch. This lacks preparation, is super expensive and adds a ton of Calories; even if you're trying to eat conscientiously. Subconsciously, I believe I also interpret thes...

Pants sizing is nearly ubiquitous with diet and weight loss. People have their "fat" pants and perhaps their skinny pants as well. I have several pairs of pants that fall into either category. Fortunately, I've now moved into the area where I'm now wearing my "skinny" pants. It feels good to have pulled them out of my closet and frankly I like the look.  One thing I'm starting to notice this time around though is a desire to wear my pants a little higher on my waist. This is particularly true for my bigger pants which now sit comfortably around my proper waist, i.e. where my belly button is. While feeling a little weird initially, as I still have a little bit of a tummy that is now in the pants instead of above, I'm finding that to be a more comfortable position. One trade-off though is I have now lost a couple inches on the inseam. This give me the Steve Erkle about to utter his "Did I do that?" catchphrase feel.  Upon doing some reading (...

Cacti can get pretty wiley. Another trip, another chance for some Noom introspection. Tucson, Arizona was the destination this time. Instead of a fairly regimented work trip, this was a mini-vacation and wedding. I had never been to Tucson and was eager to explore. Fortunately, the area did not disappoint for southwest history, art, nature and food.  This trip had some give and take as far as Nooming was concerned. There are a number of situations that I'm not really my best at as far as diet and exercise are concerned. I list travel as one of them. That said, it's important to reflect on what went well and what needs some improvement.  Two days of the trip were spent amassing over 40,000 step (20k/day) wandering downtown, the University of Arizona and up to "A Mountain". The Arizona dry heat felt good after leaving a rainy and cold week in Minnesota.  With the activity, there was some effort to stay hydrated.  There was also some effort to find the best tacos ...