We Are EarthFormed

Time on current weight loss attempt: 8 days

Weight Change: .9 lbs lost

Total Weight Change: 2.8  lbs. lost

It is interesting to feel how cathartic writing about my weight loss attempts has been these past few days.  Especially after joining the Noom 30 day challenge group and knowing others want to know what is going on with me has been encouraging.  I’ve always been a bit of a loner, a I-can-do-it-on-my-own kind of person.  After several failed attempts at losing weight and keeping it off I have come to realize that I can’t do this alone.  Even if it’s just the idea that someone is out there reading this and gaining some comfort or help from my experience is a morale boost for me.

I didn’t do any 8 minutes in the morning exercises but I did do my 12 minutes on the Wii.  Later the girls and I played scoop ball.  I had to cut the top 6 inches off a gallon milk container keeping the handle intact.  The object of the game was to throw and catch a small ball with the container.  It’s supposed to help with hand eye coordination.  The game was surprisingly harder than it seemed.

I ate A LOT of fruits and veggies today and save a headache later in the evening I felt pretty good.  No severe hunger pangs and little cravings for chocolate, candy bars, cookies, popcorn or ice cream.  Though it is rare that I keep that kind of stuff in the house (because I WILL eat it) I typically get a hankering for it later in the evening.  I did have a glass of milk with a little Nesquick in it after supper to help quell a mild desire for chocolate and it seemed to do the trick to get me over it.  Usually you’ll find me with a bowl of popcorn or corn chips with cheese after supper because I just wasn’t satisfied.  Not today.

Supper was chock full of veggies and super easy.  The idea was on a package of spinach.  Supposedly the recipe is a ‘kid friendly’ way to hide spinach in an evening meal.  I must say it did hide the rather chalky texture typical of cooked spinach which my DH hates.

I cooked a pound of regular Jimmy Dean roll sausage in a pan breaking it into small pieces until browned.  Then I scooped it into a strainer and set it aside over a bowl allowing the fat to drain off.  In the remaining browned bits in the pan I added a tablespoon of olive oil and a pound of the rinsed spinach and a little salt and pepper to taste.  In the meantime I had set a pot of salted water to boil in order to cook some angel hair pasta.  As soon as the spinach was wilted I brought the sausage back to the pan along with a jar of pasta sauce.  This mixture was allowed to heat through on low while I cooked 12 oz. of angel hair pasta in the boiling water.  After the pasta was cooked al dente it was drained and put in the pan with the sausage, spinach, sauce mixture.  Mixed all together this became our supper.  My three-year-old kept saying it was her favorite.  No one complained about the spinach and everyone walked away satisfied – including me seeing that all the plates were left clean J.

Programs, books, helpers: Noom Coach for Android, Jorge Cruise 8-Minutes in the Morning, Wii Fit Plus, Power 90, Slim in 6, Flip the Switch Lose the Weight by Dr. Robert Cooper, Buddy Noom on Facebook ( if interested and using Noom, friend them on FB and they’ll add you to a support group), Online Stopwatch , SparkPeople.com, Everydayhealth.com

January 25th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

January 23rd, 2012 | Tags: 8 minute workout, diet, diet plan, lose weight, NOOM coach, resistance training, weight loss, workout | Category: Weight Loss | Comments Off

Time on current weight loss attempt: 5 days

Programs, books, helpers: Noom Coach for Android, Jorge Cruise 8-Minutes in the Morning, Wii Fit Plus, Power 90, Slim in 6, Flip the Switch Lose the Weight by Dr. Robert Cooper, Buddy Noom on Facebook ( if interested and using Noom, friend them on FB and they’ll add you to a support group)

Weight Change: 1.5 lbs. lost

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Technically I should be starting over again since it’s been 2 months since my last post in this series.  Needless to say I had a setback – emotionally and a surprisingly painful menses.  Haven’t had one like that in a long time.  Since then I rediscovered my Noom weight loss coach program that I had on my smartphone before I had to reformat it and start over again.  Thankfully, when I reinstalled it the program actually remembered me even though it’s format had drastically changed.  I’ve read that many people are not enjoying the new format, but I think progress is good and it’s acting MORE like a coach now than it was before.  Granted, to take advantage of all the bells and whistles you have to pay for the service ($4.99/month), but they are nice enough to give you the first 30 days free to try out if you like their program.  So far so good.

I’ve been more conscientious about what I eat and how much.  Trying to focus on eating foods that will keep me full longer with the least amount of calories since the coach said dieting is more effective than exercise in weight loss.  This fact alone is probably why all my other weight loss attempts have failed.  I HATE feeling hungry and deprived, I do tend to reward myself with food after a particularly strenuous workout and I have the bad habit of jumping headlong into a workout routine that is physically too strenuous for me leading to injury and setbacks.

Noom coach actually told me that my scheduled workout routine was too ambitious.  That it would be better to promise to do 5 minutes, at least something, than try to commit to 30 minutes every day (which I have failed to do at least 2 times this week already) and that if I was able to to extra that would be great. The coach’s goal is just to make me more active than I was before; to make me commit to do SOMETHING even for just 5 minutes.  Ever hear the saying, “Every little bit counts.”? Well I guess in this case I suppose that is the philosophy.  So instead of sticking with the 30 minutes of aerobics – 6 days a week I lessened it to 12 minutes of yoga 5 times a week (that’s how long it takes to do my favorite Yoga poses on the Wii Fit Plus program).  Since yesterday I didn’t have access to the TV and thus the Wii for most of the day I decided I needed to look for something else to guide me in my workout regimen.  I remembered that I had written down some of the exercises from the Jorge Cruise 8 Minutes in the Morning book and that it had yielded results the first time I tried the routine for a 6 week period (don’t know what happened then; why did I stop?).  People actually started commenting on how my look was changing and LITERALLY all I was doing was the simple exercises for 8 minutes in the morning.  Now 30 lbs. heavier and trying to watch what I eat I am hoping that it will still have some positive weight loss results.

This morning before breakfast I found my notes and did 2 exercises that I thought would be super easy since I was sitting at my desk.  The first one is called the Push Down Hold and the second one is the Lift Hold

Push Down Hold

Sit straight up in a sturdy chair (one without wheels), with your feet flat on the floor 2 feet away from a sturdy table (desk) and place your hands shoulder width apart pressing down on the table top.  Hold this position, pressing firmly, for 60 seconds.  Don’t forget to breathe.  It’s hard not to engage your abs in this move – if you don’t feel it FOCUS.

Lift Hold

Sit straight up in a sturdy chair (one without wheels), with your feet flat on the floor 2 feet away from a sturdy table (desk) and place your hands shoulder width apart under the table top lifting up.  Hold this position, lifting firmly, for 60 seconds.  Don’t forget to breathe.  Your abs still get a workout, but you do really have to focus harder.

Alternate these two exercises for 8 minutes; 4 reps each.

After I was done my arms and abs were burning! I think that is pretty awesome for only 8 minutes of work.  If you notice I did this before breakfast and there is a reason for that.  I checked the book Flip the Switch, Lose the Weight by Robert K. Cooper, PhD out from the library and started reading about how to harness the power of our metabolic thermostat.  I wanted to find a recipe for breakfast and I came across a snippit of information about how people who commit to exercise first thing in the morning are more likely to stick with the plan compared to afternoon and evening exercisers also they burn MORE fat through the day.  The morning exercise energizes you and kick starts your metabolism.  Dr. Cooper said, before or after breakfast is fine, but the exercise needs to take place within an hour of rising – as does eating breakfast – to take the best advantage of our MetaStat.  I’m still learning more about why.

Thank you for reading.  If you have any comments of encouragement or admonishment please feel free to share.  I didn’t take seriously how having support would help and I am starting to believe that is another reason why I’ve failed in the past.  If no one knows what you are doing there is no one to be accountable to or to miss your updates.  So here I am with Noom’s coaching divulging to the world my progress.

January 21st, 2012 | Category: Personal Care, Weight Loss | Leave a comment

For some reason Monday was a difficult day. The girls and I were exhausted and could barely keep our eyes open through the afternoon. Since they got up really early I didn’t have a chance to do my workout right after DH left for work. Mid afternoon we were all so groggy we took a nap. By the time supper came around, schoolwork wasn’t done, I was frazzled and no workout had yet been done. I felt like a loser.

About 10 PM I just couldn’t take it any more. I had had a cup of coffee at about 4PM and been on my feet most of the evening cooking supper and helping with school projects. It seemed like a good idea to take a load off. The more I tried to relax the more something in the back of my head kept telling me to get off my butt. So I logged into wowy.com and started doing the 10 minute Core Cardio workout.

Man was I sweating when I was done. Since I am so out of shape there were some moments during the workout that were rather uncomfortable for my lungs and throat. I hate that feeling but I know I have to endure it and persevere if I want results. When I was done I felt better for having pushed myself to do it.

November 8th, 2011 | Tags: 10 minute workout, beach body, cardio, wowy.com | Category: Weight Loss | Leave a comment

Sunday morning since it was the day of the time change I had some extra time for myself in the morning before getting ready for going to our weekly meeting. Over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking, again, about what I can do to get in shape, feel better about myself and increase my energy levels. I dug out my old Power 90 DVDs and decided to start working out again. Power 90 has been one of my favorite workouts. Tony Horton is very cheerful and motivating bordering on annoying, but no where near as much so as Tony Little. I can’t stand Tony Little.

A friend of mine allowed me to borrow the 10 minute workouts and I’ve been using them off and on over the past month. It got me so jazzed about exercising again that I decided to start taking it more seriously instead of a haphazard arrangement. Sunday I did the Power 90 Sculpt. For some reason I thought it was a 45 minute workout. It’s only 28 minutes including the warm up and cool down. I got looking at the back of the DVD case and the Sweat is only 36 minutes. Really this leaves me no excuse to not workout somehow every single day. I even have the Slim in 6 workout routine which is only 24 minutes and has some pretty decent stopping point if you want to cut the workout a little short or even in half.

After I did the Sculpt workout I was kind of in a bad mood. I’m not exactly sure why. I hadn’t had any coffee yet which may be part of the issue, but I think the workout made me reflect on how much I hated the way I am, how out of shape I was and how alone I felt.

Recently I’ve been feeling very ugly and rather disgusted with the way I look and the way I feel – physically and how it feels to wear clothes that don’t fit. I don’t want to go shopping for clothes that are bigger anymore. I want to shop for clothes that are smaller and fit into the beautiful clothing that I’ve had sitting in my closet for almost a decade. I’m sick of feeling this way. I’m sick of hating myself.

November 8th, 2011 | Tags: back on the horse, back on track, beach body, exercise, Power 90, Slim In 6, Tony Horton, Tony Little, weight loss | Category: Uncategorized, Weight Loss | Leave a comment

I’m not sure exactly how accurate these saying origins are, but I must say they are pretty funny and interesting. If you find any information to corroborate these stories or disprove them, please, leave that in a comment.

VERY INTERESTING….!
Did you know the saying “God willing and the Creeks don’t rise” was in reference to the Creek Indians and not a body of water? It was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. He was a politician and Indian diplomat. While in the south, Hawkins was requested by the President of the U.S. to return to Washington .. In his response, he was said to write, “God willing and the Creeks don’t rise.” Because he capitalized the word “Creeks” it is deduced that he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water.
*****************************************************

Personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee’s wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman’s face she was told, ‘mind your own bee’s wax.’ Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term ‘crack a smile’. In addition, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt . . . Therefore, the expression ‘losing face.’
*******************************************************

Ladies wore corsets, which would lace up in the front. A proper and dignified woman, as in ‘straight laced’ wore a tightly tied lace.
********************************************************

Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the ‘Ace of Spades..’ To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren’t ‘playing with a full deck.’
*******************************************************

At local taverns, pubs, and bars, people drank from pint and quart-sized containers. A bar maid’s job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in ‘pints’ and who was drinking in ‘quarts,’ hence the phrase’minding your ‘P’s and Q’s’.
**********************************************************

One more: bet you didn’t know this!

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. However, how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem…how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a ‘Monkey’ with 16 round indentations. However, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make ‘Brass Monkeys.’ Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannonballs would come right off the monkey; Thus, it was quite literally, ‘Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.’ (All this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn’t you.)

If you don’t send this fabulous bit of historic knowledge to any and all your unsuspecting friends, your floppy is going to fall off your hard drive and kill your mouse .

November 8th, 2011 | Category: Food for Thought | Leave a comment

Now when I say bikers I don’t mean the Tour de France variety. I mean leather clad bad-a**es who party as hard as they ride (I say that will all due respect). Read this and you decide if creating controversy by trying to bully a group like this is the best way to get your point across.

What a wonderful coming together of two diverse groups! We need more gatherings where the idiot activists are given warm, moist, aromatic welcomes like this one. This is why PETA usually protests women wearing fur rather than bikers wearing leather. Sounds to me like the old saying, “you mess with the bull, and you get the horns”. Gee, I guess these characters thought that Bikers were going to be politically correct like the rest of the wimpy world. HERE’S HOW POLICE FOUND ONE OF THEM.

Johnstown, PA (Glossy News) – Local and state police scoured the hills outside rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after reports of three animal rights activists going missing after attempting to protest the wearing of leather at a large motorcycle gang rally this weekend. Two others, previously reported missing, were discovered by fast food workers “duct taped inside fast food restaurant dumpsters,” according to police officials.

“Something just went wrong,”said a still visibly shaken organizer of the protest. “Something just went horribly, horribly, wrong.”The organizer said a group of concerned animal rights activist groups, “growing tired of throwing fake blood and shouting profanities at older women wearing leather or fur coats,” decided to protest the annual motorcycle club event “in a hope to show them our outrage at their wanton use of leather in their clothing and motor bike seats.” “In fact,” said the organizer, “motorcycle gangs are one of the biggest abusers of wearing leather, and we decided it was high time that we let them know that we disagree with them using it. ergo, they should stop.”

According to witnesses, protesters arrived at the event in a vintage 1960′s era Volkswagen van and began to pelt the gang members with balloons filled with red colored water, simulating blood, and shouting “you’re murderers” to passers by. This, evidently, is when the brouhaha began.

“They peed on me!!!” charged one activist. “They grabbed me, said I looked like I was French, started calling me ‘La Trene’ and duct taped me to a tree so they could pee on me all day!”

Still others claimed they were forced to eat hamburgers and hot dogs under duress. Those who resisted were allegedly held down while several bikers “farted on their heads.”

Police officials declined comments on any leads or arrests due to the ongoing nature of the investigation; however, organizers for the motorcycle club rally expressed “surprise” at the allegations.

“That’s preposterous,”said one high-ranking member of the biker organizing committee. “We were having a party, and these people showed up and were very rude to us. They threw things at us, called us names, and tried to ruin the entire event. So, what did we do? We invited them to the party! What could be more friendly than that? You know, just because we are all members of motorcycle clubs does not mean we do not care about inclusiveness. Personally, I think it shows a lack of character for them to be saying such nasty things about us after we bent over backwards to make them feel welcome.”

When confronted with the allegations of force-feeding the activist’s meat, using them as ad hoc latrines, leaving them incapacitated in fast food restaurant dumpsters, and ‘farting on their heads,’ the organizer declined to comment in detail. “That’s just our secret handshake,”assured the organizer.

November 7th, 2011 | Category: Weird Stuff | Leave a comment

After having on again off again problems with my web host I’m finally back on blogging. Well, I was cleaning out some old entries and changing the status of others when out of the blue I lost ALL my entries from the past three years. Needless to say I was freaking out!

So please forgive my 404 error links from Facebook, Twitter and Networked Blogs. I’m working hard to rectify the matter. At least it was only a few blog entries completely lost as I was able to restore the rest from a recent backup.

Thanks for your support and patience.

November 5th, 2011 | Tags: backup your blog, Blog Trials, problems, reposting | Category: Blog Trials | Leave a comment

My father wants me to learn this song and sing it with Mariachis next time they come to town.  I haven’t sung in front of a crowd in ages. DH says he’s not embarrassed of my singing when we are at home alone and I’m singing to him.  He is the only one who has ever said that to me (not positively, mind you, he indicated there are times when it does embarrass him).

When I was younger I won awards for my performances and recognition for my participation in choirs.  I received accolades for my performance of Anita in West Side Story.  So I’m not sure what to believe as far .as my singing voice goes.  I have .no aspirations of grandeur or fame; I enjoy singing. At the same time I don’t want to embarrass my family.

Vicente Fernandez – Volver Volver

Este amor apasionado, anda todo alborotado , por volver.
voy camino a la locura y aunque todo me tortura, se querer.

Nos dejamos hace tiempo pero me llego el momento de perder
tu tenias mucha razon, le hago caso al corazon y me muero
por volver

‘Y volver volver,  volver a tus brazos otra vez, llegare hasta donde estes
yo se perder,yo se perder, quiero volver, volver, volver.’

Nos dejamso hace tiempo pero me llego el momento de perder
tu tenias mucha razon, le hago caso al corazon y me muero por volver.

‘Y volver volver,   volver a tus brazos otra vez, llegare hasta donde estes
yo se perder, yo se perder, quiero volver, volver, volver.

http://www.lyricskeeper.com/vicente_fernandez-lyrics/212550-volver_volver-lyrics.htm

http://www.lyricskeeper.com/php/printVersion.php?id=212550&artist=Vicente+Fernandez&song=Volver+Volver

January 27th, 2011 | Tags: entertainment, Mariachis, public performance, singing, Vicente Fernandez | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment