FRIDAY

Ahh the weekend is slowly making her rainy approach here. UHMMM I guess I can retract that.. hours later it still has not stormed as promised... Ohh and the Israel blog is up and running..
My good friend Scale Junkie asked me if I was ready to put the pedal to the metal so to speak. In other words get my assets in gear and start on the road back to good health. The trip to Israel was a great exercise motivator.. hard at first but by the end of the the trip.. much easier so that should trigger the bell.. DING DING>.. my eating is finally getting quieter again.. better choices.. I decided the nilla wafers would be fun on occassion... We actually had airpopped microwave popcorn last night we used a microwave airpopper.. and if you used some spray butter and some salt it was not tooo bad..so I am backing off the little snack packs so that is good.. BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ we interupt this blog because the author is about to have a massive fit because:
HERE IS A SOUND I ABSOLUTELY HATE!!! that ridiculous bass sound coming from a ridiculous car.. from some dumbass kid who thinks he is a badass.. well.. F U MR. BADASS.. I am sitting in my F### ing office and I can hear your F#####ing music or lack there of and it makes me mad as HELL turn that shit off before I come out with an ax and break your stupid speakers and destroy your ridiculous car.. ASSHAT! obviously I am not that mad or I would have said ALERT!!!!! OFFENSIVE MATERIAL AHEAD!!!!!
FUCK YOU! spelled out.. oops .. which reminds me.. there was a hysterical tee shirt.. in Israel I saw.. It looks like hebrew letters on the shirt but if you read the shirt from the bottom up.. it says GO FUCK YOURSELF LOL.. I thought that was pretty funny.. I had seen those when I was a teen and had forgotten about them.. lol.. I need one of those now!
Okay back to the blog... So I am working towards getting to the petal to the metal spot.. we are getting up early tomorrow barring any storms and taking the dogs for a walk.. thats the exercise goal for tomorrow .. I plan on doing a lot of walking too.. Oh and here is a new thing I have started .. several times a day when I am at work I stand now.. and do my computer work.. I know that sounds goofy but it has to be better than sitting... I read this article about this guy that wants to see treadmill work stations in every office as opposed to cubicles.. that would be interesting.. here is another article about it.. Going to keep this post short and sweet today..
Will be back to full tilt blogging on Monday ..
Have a rockin weekend and if ya get a chance be sure and check out the Israel blog link above.
Wish me well
Wish you well too..

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING

These are the worlds healthiest vegetables :
Vegetables
Asparagus
Avocados
Beets
Bell peppers
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Collard greens
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Fennel
Garlic
Green beans
Green peas
Kale
Leeks
Mushrooms, crimini
Mushrooms, shiitake
Mustard greens
Olives
Onions
Parsley
Potatoes
Romaine lettuce
Sea vegetables
Spinach
Squash, summer
Squash, winter
Sweet potatoes
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
Turnip greens
Yams
FRUITS
Apples
Apricots
Bananas
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Cranberries
Figs
Grapefruit
Grapes
Kiwifruit
Lemon/Limes
Oranges
Papaya
Pears
Pineapple
Plums
Prunes
Raisins
Raspberries
Strawberries
Watermelon
I love this website .. Worlds Healthiest Foods ..
Wish me well
Wish you well too..

SOMETIMES ITS THE SMALL THINGS THAT COUNT

PLEASE REMEMBER I DO NOT ADVOCATE THIS AS AN ALWAYS BUT A TREAT EVERY NOW AND THEN.. IT IS FAR BETTER TO EAT WHOLE AND NATURAL THAN PRE PACKAGED AND SUGARY OR SALTY...THAT BEING SAID....
So I was perusing the shelves at walmart looking for a treat to keep at the office.. I bought a small bag of choc chip cookies single serving size and then I discovered nilla wafers 80 calorie packs.. I LOVE Nilla Wafers but had a hard time controling myself.. So I purchased both the single serve choc chip cookies 1 bag. and a box of the nilla wafer 80 cal. single serve .. here is what I found out.. In the single serv choc chip cookies.. you maybe get 6 cookies for around 170 calories.. in the 80 cal pack you get a BUNCH of cookies yes they are smaller.. but they are NILLA WAFERS and they taste good.. and its only 80 calories.. The 3 pm hungries will have a sweet treat from time to time and guess what.. compared to the choc chip cookies ( which I thought I really liked) I love the smaller Nilla wafers bigger serving less calories .. Whoever came up with that idea rocks... I can get my nilla wafers and eat them too.. and be satisfied with just the right portion. I can also pair this with 100 calorie yoplait yogurt for a really nice and satisfying snack.. for 180 calories. that rocks...Okay I admit it.. to me it is all about the serving size.. with some things.. Okay do I advocate eating treats like this over eating fruit and good for you snack ABSOLUTELY NOT!
OPTIONS are always good to have. I also like the all bran snack crackers.. with five grams of fiber / 120 calories and 18 crackers per serving its a filling snack..I tried them a while back and did not like them.. but I do now. You can pair that with an ounce of a really good hard cheese (100 calories or less) or a light laughing cow cheese for around 35 calories ... As always your best options.. fresh and clean.. fruits.. veggies.. those are always the healthiest.. but sometimes.. its the small treats that are nice.. things that can be portioned controlled with out a thought but with a little planning..
Wish me well
Wish you well too..

THOUGHT FOR TUESDAY

You are craving something... ohh.. I dunno.. pizza, chips... chocolate... good you with the halo on his/her head sits on your shoulder and says .. see you can resist this.. you dont really need it.. eat an apple instead.. Naughty comes over wacks good you on the head and takes the halo.. and well.. uhm.. puts it where the sun does not shine... wham.. good you has fallen into a vat of chocolate ice cream. Naughty you rubs his/her hands together and sticks a napkin under his/her chin.. and says .. LETS CHOW DOWN BABY in a really loud almost crazed voice.. WHO DO YOU LISTEN TOO? do you buy another bag of those Lays crunchy really yummy things ~yes I was obessed with them until I bought my second bag and had some and threw out again..~ I tried the parmesean flavor this time.. yikes too good.. ( I KNOW I SHOULD BE SMACKED IN THE HEAD) or do you hear the haunting voice of the good you and eat an apple instead.. NAUGHTY YOU VS. GOOD YOU? who are you listening too....???
Wish me well
Wish you well too

TRIGGER FOODS

To me that is such a silly phrase.. TRIGGER FOODS.. but it is a real chain of events... So here we are in our favorite grocery store, we used good grocery store habits, A list, walking the perimeter of the store first then going only in those aisles where we needed to pick up items.. but WHAM in living color there it is.. with a flashing neon sign that says eat me.. ( okay not really but well.. its like that) a new product.. the new product for me was by Lays.. it is a crispy light crackerish chip..

OH my stars, in cheddar cheese these things .. well.. I will say is that I threw out the bag.. thats how good they are.. I could not stop eating them at a serving.. In theory the serving size sounds wonderful.. but in reality .. its a handful and I have small hands.... In a short period of time I developed a strong relationship with the cheddar cheese variety .. the only way to stop it was to get rid of it.. so I booted them into the trash.... very huge trigger issue there for me.. Sometimes , I dont even understand my eating habits.. I can have a serving of wheat thins.. and be fine. I can have a serving of my favorite dessert and do the 4 bite method.. and be fine.. but every now and then I find a food.. that I just can not deal with? Does anyone else have this issue. This will be a snack that does not cross my doorstep again. I guess I thought they were going to be like wheat thins.. but apparently I was way off.. .. I still get a little surprised from time to time when I can not control myself.. It is one of those issues that will always haunt me I guess. Speaking of which.. Mom will be having heart surgery soon.. and this really has me concerned.. of course I am concerned for my mom.. but I also know what happened to me the last time she had heart surgery.. I stayed with mom at the hospital the night before the surgery and at 2 or 3 am when she was asleep I crept down to the cafetera vending machines and well.. lets just say I had a 8 course meal of Icecream sandwiches.. I had also just lost 50 pounds on nutri sytem.. that was the turning point where I began to eat and eat and eat and gain the weight back... I dealt with my moms begging my forgiveness that night by running downstairs and quelling my own guilt with food. SO what happens this go round..I guess I pray that I can be strong enough. I hope that I will be able to find support in those around me rather than in the misguided comfort of an icecream sandwich that will never say " Honi its okay" I pray for strength and mom's recovery. She goes to see the surgeon Friday the 18th of April.. I am guessing the surgery will take place shortly after that.. Its a bit more complicated this time.. but I would venture to guess yet again that after 20 years the techniques are more refined and hopefully the recovery is better.. thank heavens for my sweet husband.. he is going with mom for her surgery appointment so I dont have to miss work until her surgery time. ..

Well for a Monday thats were my head is at..

Wish me well

wish you well too

BUSY BUILDING

So sorry I have not posted much yet this week.. when I do have moment I have been busy working on the Israel blog or I have been busting my hiney to get caught up at work.. I doubt I will ever take a 2 week vacation like that again.. I think mini vacations are easier at least when you come back to work you can catch up quicker.. I still am days away from being caught up but its getting better. I have so much to share with you guys about our trip.. things that I will not put on the Israel blog. Things only you really understand. As I said before, I seldom saw heavy people in Israel, at least where we were.. and if someone was large .. well.. most often then not it was another tourist. Israel is a walking country. The best way to see it walking.. We would drive to some places and then walk and walk and walk for hours at a time. My biggest concern was slipping because we were not walking on smooth surfaces... between the rocky and broken roads of ruins through out Israel, to the sidewalks of Tel aviv and Jerusalem. In the old city in Jerusalem walking up the limestone and cobblestone steps hundreds upon hundreds of steps, or slopes.. winding in and out and around.. it is interesting to think that the old city is basically 1 mile but with all the winding about you do.. you walk far more than that just to see the different quarters. Since Easter had just past and Purim was over as well.. the city was still busy with HUGE amounts of tourist.. from all over the world.. you would hear German accents, French, Asian, American, British, Italian, EVERYTHING every denomination.. people from EVERYWHERE, NIgeria too.. just such a tapestry of people.. visitors as well as natives.. I could go on and on.. but here .. I want to talk about well.. the food side and the Honi side... I lost 7 pounds on this trip and I ATE LIKE A MONSTER,, I had dessert at breakfast and dessert at dinner. My breakfasts were huge.. Israel is big on the egg so every morning just about... You had EGGS or.. uhmm EGGS made anyway possible. I would have toast , and croissants with chocolate and fig rolled in them. I would have Cheese souffle and blintz souffle.. I would have granola and yogurt.. ( IN ONE SITTING) and sometimes another roll... .. towards the end of the trip after eating a lot of street food we decided to start making sandwiches to take for our lunches.. so that kept lunch meals to a minimum. Dinners , Steve and I smartly decided to share.... Our first meal In Tel Aviv I had a fabulous salad that was gigantic and Steve had this wonderful chicken dinner... In the cities the food was better than eating at the Kibbutzs we stayed at.. I had my share of Falafal and it was wonderful .. The first falafal we had was the best it was freshly made.. and yes I had my share of fries with it too.. They call fries chips.. and include them with everything.. .. I do have to say I am glad I am home and back to a more normal way of eating.. I proved to myself that I can walk and exercise.. even when not feeling well.. I injured my right knee and it pained me through out the trip.. but I did the best I could. Now the trick will be to keep up the working out.. maybe not to the extreeme of walking 5 miles a day.. but at least doing something...
Well gotta go get dressed and face the day..
Wish me well
Wish you well too
Have a happy weekend.

SHE'S BAAAAACK

Well here I am , back in the good old US of A. I have to say it is nice to be home.. We arrived back in Atlanta around 530 a.m. yesterday and got home to Alabama, by early afternoon, I was very happy to see my pups.. Cookie was a little traumatized and upset about our being gone so long but she seems okay.. Bazzie was happy as usual.. Cookie is still having a hard time eating unless we are in the kitchen with her. Hopefully after a few days of being back in her normal routine she will be okay..

As for our trip. well I am going to be working on the Israel blog over the next couple of weeks, and I will let you know when everything is set up over there.

One of the first things that really struck me was that in Israel , obesity is very illusive.. Perhaps it is because you do so much walking there.. I really am not sure why but I was surely in the minority there. Most days we were walking between 3 and 5 miles and an occasional 7 miles here and there. We traveresed the steps of the Persian Gardens.. 700 steps down. We walked all over Massada and walked down 4 flights of stairs in the blazing hot sun and then proceeded to walk back up. We walked down the hills of Petra to the vast temple ruins ala Indiana Jones. That day was most memorable, crossing into Jordan by foot and then touring Petra. I happened to get sick that day .. some kind of bug from the water.. lets just say while the people where nice the facilities were barely tolerable. I wont go into details but had not been for the drugs.. I would not have been able to complete the 7 mile walk .. 3.5 down and 3.5 up the hill. In Petra you can purchase drugs with out an RX , so between my two brother in laws who are doctors and my sister in law who is a nurse they got me some meds.. that helped me get better quickly. I also was host to a huge bite of some kind of flying lord knows what. My arm looked like Popeye the sailorman. but aside from some dry skin I am all healed up. We saw the ruins of Ceserea, the sea grottos of Rosh Hanikra on the border of Lebanon and Israel. In short we covered Israel from the Golan Heights down to the Negev desert. The food was interesting most of the time and very tasty. I loved the Israeli salad which consists of finely chopped veggies, cucumbers, tomato, various colors of peppers, green onion, parsley, jicama, and a host of other hearty veggies all mixed with a little olive oil and lemon juice.. very tasty .... Some of the restaraunts are good like Olive in Tel Aviv, the food was devine there. Breakfasts are unique there in that they feature all kinds of salads and cold veggies as well as more tradtionally american fare. The falafal we had was wonderful we ate our first falafal in a little village Zichron Ya akov. It was a culinary adventure.. a lot of where we ate you might have turned your back on.. but we opted to be adventurous eaters..

Thats all I have for now.. I am so tired still I can not get my internal clock to regulate yet.. Will write more soon.

Glad to be home..

Wish me well

Wish you well too

Be sure and stop by THE NEXT GREAT ADVENTURE also I am slowly adding pictures to my flickr account from the trip so stop by there too.

TIME FOR A QUICK HI

this will probably be my only time to say hi from Israel.. we are in Haifa right now.. Food is Fabulous.. People are eclectic.. and its really been an amazing adventure so far... get this .. I walked down 700 steps.. yes 700 steep steps at the Persian gardens.. yesterday ..... walked through roman ruins in Ceasarea yesterday too.. will explain more when I get home.. Hope everyone is doing well..
Wish me well
wish you well too...
ps logging onto blogger was a hoot.. the prompts are all in hebrew.. lol.. and I dont read hebrew at all except in our prayer books.. and that hebrew has vowels with it so it is easier to read... not to mention 90% is memorized after all these years LOL..