Smokers generally take more breaks than other folks because they need to go outside and huff and puff every hour or so. Although smoking itself is pretty awful for people's bodies, taking breaks from work is not a bad thing. I've started forcing myself to take bliss breaks during the day. These aren't big, long, or expensive breaks, they're just a few minutes away from my desk to regroup.
Although it wasn't smoking, a vice actually led to my bliss breaks as well. My old habit was to stop at the gas station on the way to work and buy two sodas for the day. I'd try to drink one in the morning and one in the evening, but somehow they were both gone by one pm and then I'd be raiding the vending machine for some quick carbs to keep me going through the end of the day. From past attempts at watching my calories and watching what I eat, I knew that there was going to be abolustely no way I was going to be successful if I forced myself to give up Coca Cola, but I could make myself work a little harder for it.
I thought back to when I was a kid and we rarely kept soda in the fridge, if I wanted one, I had to walk a mile each way to the little store downtown to get one. I can remember making that hike in the hot sun, in snowstorms, and any other time I needed my coke fix. When I was in college and living off campus, I continued my habit of treking for soda and I managed to maintain my weight. Could the same trick work for me now?
Luckily there is a convenience store in my building, so I could easily make the trek for soda in a quick ten minute break. I work on the fifth floor so at least once a day, you'll find me shlepping down the stairs and down to the conveinence store to get my fix. Usually while I'm there, I'll buy a piece of fruit or cheese to supplement my lunch.
Not only does the walk downstairs remind me that I have to pay for those extra (and totally non-value add) calories I'm about to imbibe, it also gets me away from my desk and gives me a chance to stretch my legs and clear my head and that's what I call a true bliss break.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Neat Bliss
Losing weight is hard work and sometimes it feels as if I'm being asked to change my entire personality and all of my habits in order to make my body shed the weight. I'm the type of person that doesn't do anything without researching it and finding out the ins and outs. Weight loss is no different and I've always researched the best diets, the best exercise plans, etc. The problem has always been that a lot of them call for you to make a complete 180 in a short amount of time and that's never been sustainable for me. I've always gotten disheartened and disillusioned and given up.
John's heart attack has given us all an extra impetus to get healthy as we want to support him and we all got a sobering wake up call that the food we eat, the exercise we do or don't get, and all of those other habits do matter and if your habits aren't the right ones, they will manifest themselves in your body.
As I was tiptoeing through the web in search of sustainable diet and exercise tips I kept coming across the term NEAT and how people who were NEATer lost more weight than those who were not. Now if neatness truly does count in weight loss, I'm in sorry shape because I struggle with clutter issues. However, the more I read the more excited that I got because NEAT refers to Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and as scientific as that name is, all it really means is building more activity into your day. A study by the Mayo clinic showed that a group of self-proclaimed couch potatoes who were NEAT had a healthy BMI versus a group that wasn't NEAT and was obese. The study showed that the NEAT people ended up burning an extra 350 calories a day just through daily activities.
I got excited by this study because it shows that little--and very doable--things do matter. I started thinking about all the ways that I could become NEATer in my daily life and I've started putting them into practice. Here are a few of the ways that I'm working to build more NEAT into my life:
John's heart attack has given us all an extra impetus to get healthy as we want to support him and we all got a sobering wake up call that the food we eat, the exercise we do or don't get, and all of those other habits do matter and if your habits aren't the right ones, they will manifest themselves in your body.
As I was tiptoeing through the web in search of sustainable diet and exercise tips I kept coming across the term NEAT and how people who were NEATer lost more weight than those who were not. Now if neatness truly does count in weight loss, I'm in sorry shape because I struggle with clutter issues. However, the more I read the more excited that I got because NEAT refers to Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and as scientific as that name is, all it really means is building more activity into your day. A study by the Mayo clinic showed that a group of self-proclaimed couch potatoes who were NEAT had a healthy BMI versus a group that wasn't NEAT and was obese. The study showed that the NEAT people ended up burning an extra 350 calories a day just through daily activities.
I got excited by this study because it shows that little--and very doable--things do matter. I started thinking about all the ways that I could become NEATer in my daily life and I've started putting them into practice. Here are a few of the ways that I'm working to build more NEAT into my life:
- I'm parking at the far end of the parking lot and walking instead of parking as close as I can to the door.
- I'm walking down stairs instead of taking the elevator at work. I work on the fifth floor and generally go downstairs at least three times a day. Eventually, I'll get to the point I'm ready to start walking up the stairs too.
- I'm trying to walk more in my daily life by parking farther away from the door, getting up and walking to see someone versus sending an email or calling.
- Sometimes I'll sit on an balance ball and watch TV instead of the couch. Although this doesn't sound like much, the balance ball forces me to constantly make adjustments to my balance. I actually moved my computer to my chair and am sitting on the balance ball as I write this. My only problem with the balance ball is that it is actually too much fun sometimes.
- Instead of sitting down and vegging while waiting for food to cook, I've been turning on some tunes and working on cleaning up clutter while its cooking. It helps my kitchen get cleaner and me get healthier.
I'm continually looking for more ways to add NEAT to my day and going forward, I'm probably going to start parking down the block and walking home when I come home between work and picking up John, walking up the stairs at work, and parking even further away. None of those are huge changes that require massive lifestyle changes, but they are things that can help me become more fit.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Bliss of the Grape
Like most normal kids, I "learned" to drink in college and after more than a few nasty hangovers, I gave up alcohol completely for a while as a realized that there was more to life than my next glass of hooch and that I felt a lot better when I wasn't going to class hungover.
My drinks of choice in my college years were cheap beer, cheaper champagne, and the occasional strawberry daiquiri. Since drinking in college meant drinking in excess, I never gave myself a chance to realize that stopping at one or two gives you a wonderfully relaxed feeling without the hangover.
Graduating meant moving into the workforce and mixing with real live grownups who were able to go out and have one or two without closing the bar down or worshipping the porcelain god the next morning. I decided that maybe I could dip my toes back into the drinking pool and learn to drink responsibly. The first thing I needed to do was ditch the cheap college booze and learn to appreciate the good stuff.
For me the good stuff is always the sweet drinks that taste good going down and give you a wonderfully mellow feeling. You can keep the hard and nasty stuff that burns going down and tastes like paint thinner (and I learned the hard way, that some of the most expensive stuff also tastes the worst). I discovered Butterscotch schapps while living on Okinawa and for a while it was my drink of choice and even today I'll sometimes order a buttery nipple (butterscotch schapps mixed with Bailey's). Even though schapps is supposedly a German drink, when I was in Germany, my German friends were perplexed by my explanation of Butterscotch schnapps. When I finally tracked some down for them to taste, they wrinkled up their noses and told me that this wasn't real schnapps.
Wine had always struck me as the ultimate grownup drink, something that sophisticated people sipped out of stemmed glasses while looking tremendously blaise about all that life had to offer. I tried wine a couple of times over the past twenty years, but no matter how expensive it was, it always struck me as one step removed from vinager in taste and smell. I tried the cheap stuff, I tried the expensive stuff, I tried red stuff, and I tried white stuff and I didn't like any of it. That is until I discovered Moscato wines. They have this incredibly sweet and light taste that is perfect for sipping in the evenings. Technically they are dessert wines, but I'll have a glass with anything and it always seems to taste right.
Moscato wines are made with muscat grapes (although as far as I can tell the terms Moscato and Muscat are often used interchangeably). These grapes are grown in vineyards around the world and are prized for their sweet and floral nature. They are used to make wines, raisins, and other yummy treats. I've tried a wide variety of Moscato wines and some of my favorites are the Moscato Allegro from Martin Weyrich winery in California and Sutter Home''s Moscato. Both of those are light and flavorful with next to no bite. Right now I'm drinking Bartenura Moscato D Asti. It has an incredible flavor and one glass gets me to mellow without going past that nice relaxed stage. 
It's not only pure Moscato's that have woven their spell around me, I'm also learning to appreciate the sweetness of mixed wines like those they make at Georgia Wines. My favorites are those made with Muscadine grapes. According to the Georgia Wines website, Muscadines are "Different than most grapes in that they do not grow in a bunch. They grow two to three together on the vine, are thick-skinned, pulpy, and have large seeds. Their flavor is phenomenal, and their aroma is heavenly. The Muscadine grape makes a most wonderfully delicious sweet wine: incomparable and delectable." After tasting a few of the wines made with these incredible grapes, I'd have to agree. My two favorites are Georgia on My Mind which is made from a heavenly mix of peaches and Muscadines and Chattanooga Blush. Both of these are sweet and fruity and incredible. Whenever I have a chance, I take a quick trip to Georgia Wines and pick up a bottle or two of these delectable drinks.
I may never be the consumate cosmopolitan sophisticate who goes to wine and cheese tastings on a regular basis, but I'm glad I've found my bliss of the vine and am at least able to understand what the attraction is.Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Nine Inches of Bliss
Get your minds out of the gutter! The nine inches I'm talking have nothing to do with bordellos, porn movies, enhancements or anything else. Okay, so now that those of you whose minds weren't in the gutter have slid down that slippery slope, I'll give you all a minute to compose yourselves. A few deep breaths should help with those naughty thoughts you're having and if you need to go and have a cold shower, we'll still be here when you get back.
Is everyone back on track and ready to listen? The nine inches that I'm talking about are nine inch plates. After John had his heart attack, we had to listen ad nausem to the doctors tell us we had to cut back, we had to lose weight, we had to completely change our lives or John was at risk of another heart attack. Some of the doctors were nice about it, but others were pretty militant our need to ditch butter, salt, and all of those other yummy things.
John and I both knew that we needed to start eating better and we needed to get healthy. We also knew that whatever changes we made had to be ones that we could live with or we were setting ourselves up to fail. A quick trip around the Internet led me to some interesting stories about people who had lost weight by switching to a nine inch plate instead of the standard 10 to 12 inch plate that most Americans use. Many people attributed large quantities of weight lost to just this simple switch.
This sounded like something we could really do and stick to, so I headed out to Goodwill to search for some nine inch plates. They were harder to find than I thought, but I managed to locate two sets of four nine inch plates that I brought home, washed, and put in the cupboard. The next step was getting rid of the supersize plates that filled our cupboards. None of them had much sentimental value, so before anyone could protest too much, I packed them up and took them off to goodwill.
The first few weeks on our nine inch diet left us a little hungry and looking for seconds after dinner, but soon our appetites adjusted to the smaller plate size and we were full after a 9 inch dinner. I also started cooking less so that we didn't have all those tempting leftovers around and if I did end up cooking more than two plates (or three if Sean was eating with us) full of food, I put it away before we ate so that it wouldn't sit there tempting us.
I've found since we've switched to a smaller plate, when I go out to eat, I'm amazed (and sometimes a little disgusted) by the amount of food that is piled on a plate and listed as one serving. If we're at home and eating out, I generally ask for a to-go box before I even dig in and if I'm traveling, I try to order something low calorie and mentally push aside anything that doesn't fit on my mental 9 inch plate. It doesn't always work and sometimes I get sucked into the eat, eat, eat, mentality, but I am making a conscious effort to watch my portions.
We're still working on the other changes and some of them are easier than others, but for now we're enjoying nine inches of bliss every night.
Is everyone back on track and ready to listen? The nine inches that I'm talking about are nine inch plates. After John had his heart attack, we had to listen ad nausem to the doctors tell us we had to cut back, we had to lose weight, we had to completely change our lives or John was at risk of another heart attack. Some of the doctors were nice about it, but others were pretty militant our need to ditch butter, salt, and all of those other yummy things.
John and I both knew that we needed to start eating better and we needed to get healthy. We also knew that whatever changes we made had to be ones that we could live with or we were setting ourselves up to fail. A quick trip around the Internet led me to some interesting stories about people who had lost weight by switching to a nine inch plate instead of the standard 10 to 12 inch plate that most Americans use. Many people attributed large quantities of weight lost to just this simple switch.
This sounded like something we could really do and stick to, so I headed out to Goodwill to search for some nine inch plates. They were harder to find than I thought, but I managed to locate two sets of four nine inch plates that I brought home, washed, and put in the cupboard. The next step was getting rid of the supersize plates that filled our cupboards. None of them had much sentimental value, so before anyone could protest too much, I packed them up and took them off to goodwill.
The first few weeks on our nine inch diet left us a little hungry and looking for seconds after dinner, but soon our appetites adjusted to the smaller plate size and we were full after a 9 inch dinner. I also started cooking less so that we didn't have all those tempting leftovers around and if I did end up cooking more than two plates (or three if Sean was eating with us) full of food, I put it away before we ate so that it wouldn't sit there tempting us.
I've found since we've switched to a smaller plate, when I go out to eat, I'm amazed (and sometimes a little disgusted) by the amount of food that is piled on a plate and listed as one serving. If we're at home and eating out, I generally ask for a to-go box before I even dig in and if I'm traveling, I try to order something low calorie and mentally push aside anything that doesn't fit on my mental 9 inch plate. It doesn't always work and sometimes I get sucked into the eat, eat, eat, mentality, but I am making a conscious effort to watch my portions.
We're still working on the other changes and some of them are easier than others, but for now we're enjoying nine inches of bliss every night.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Shoe Bliss
The stereotype would have us believe that all women are mad for shoes and that we buy them indiscriminately and life seems to mirror the image with Imelda Marcos' 2,700 pairs of shoes making headlines and Carrie's shoes on Sex in the City having as much of a role in the show as her three cohorts. As much as I dislike stereotyping this is one fable that bears some weight as it seems that most woman secretly lusts for Jimmy Choos. I can't speak for every woman, but here's some of the reasons that I find bliss in my soles:
Sex Appeal
Heels make our legs look sexy, but more importantly they make us feel sexy. Despite knowing that our feet will be aching later, there's something empowering and sexy about slipping on a four inch (or more) pair of heels. Heels put a sexy little kick in our step and convince us that no matter what our physical flaws are, we look terrific. There's a reason that stilettos are called "come F* me heels" and that's because women who strap on the heels are out for seduction. Heels alter the way we walk and put a wiggle in our hips that makes us feel incredible. I remember the sexiest outfit I ever wore was a t-shirt and a pair of four inch heels. Since my kids and mom read my blog, I won't go into details but let me assure you it was a night to remember.
Powerful Confidence
The right shoes make us feel powerful and as if we can kick butt and take names. You ever notice how the heroines have to do everything the guys do and do it in four inch heels? They say women are the weaker sex, but personally I can't imagine Bond taking out the bad guys while wearing stilettos, but Charlie's Angels did it and made it look easy. There's not a woman in the business world who wouldn't confess that at least once in her career she didn't strap on the stilettos for an extra boost of power while doing battle with the big dogs. Heels give us a boost of confidence that assure us we can do no wrong.
Mood Setting
The right pair of shoes can set any mood you want to set. I just bought a pair of Mudd sandals that make me feel sexy and fun all at the same time. There's something empowering about slipping them out and striding around the house that makes me feel like Sandy at the end of Grease when she's dancing around in her tight black cat suit. I don't have the figure for the black cat suit, but I have the shoes and they make me feel sexy and empowered. Weirdly enough, they're the shoes I've chosen to wear while cooking and somehow they make me feel sexy and domestic all at the same time. I know that's kinda strange, but I can't help it...it's the shoes. On the flip side, when I get up in the morning and lace up my sneakers, I know it's time to get down to busy and start cleaning the house or working on whatever other chores I have to complete for the day.
Flexibility
Shoes make the outfit and the same jeans and top that look comfortable when paired with loafers, can look killer sexy when paired with the right pair of shoes. Slipping on a different pair of shoes can change our mood and make us go from sexy to silly to practical.
There's no telling why women are hardwired to love their shoes, but as long as I'm a girl I'm going to be shopping for bliss at the nearest shoe store.
Sex Appeal
Heels make our legs look sexy, but more importantly they make us feel sexy. Despite knowing that our feet will be aching later, there's something empowering and sexy about slipping on a four inch (or more) pair of heels. Heels put a sexy little kick in our step and convince us that no matter what our physical flaws are, we look terrific. There's a reason that stilettos are called "come F* me heels" and that's because women who strap on the heels are out for seduction. Heels alter the way we walk and put a wiggle in our hips that makes us feel incredible. I remember the sexiest outfit I ever wore was a t-shirt and a pair of four inch heels. Since my kids and mom read my blog, I won't go into details but let me assure you it was a night to remember.
Powerful Confidence
The right shoes make us feel powerful and as if we can kick butt and take names. You ever notice how the heroines have to do everything the guys do and do it in four inch heels? They say women are the weaker sex, but personally I can't imagine Bond taking out the bad guys while wearing stilettos, but Charlie's Angels did it and made it look easy. There's not a woman in the business world who wouldn't confess that at least once in her career she didn't strap on the stilettos for an extra boost of power while doing battle with the big dogs. Heels give us a boost of confidence that assure us we can do no wrong.
Mood Setting
The right pair of shoes can set any mood you want to set. I just bought a pair of Mudd sandals that make me feel sexy and fun all at the same time. There's something empowering about slipping them out and striding around the house that makes me feel like Sandy at the end of Grease when she's dancing around in her tight black cat suit. I don't have the figure for the black cat suit, but I have the shoes and they make me feel sexy and empowered. Weirdly enough, they're the shoes I've chosen to wear while cooking and somehow they make me feel sexy and domestic all at the same time. I know that's kinda strange, but I can't help it...it's the shoes. On the flip side, when I get up in the morning and lace up my sneakers, I know it's time to get down to busy and start cleaning the house or working on whatever other chores I have to complete for the day.
Flexibility
Shoes make the outfit and the same jeans and top that look comfortable when paired with loafers, can look killer sexy when paired with the right pair of shoes. Slipping on a different pair of shoes can change our mood and make us go from sexy to silly to practical.
There's no telling why women are hardwired to love their shoes, but as long as I'm a girl I'm going to be shopping for bliss at the nearest shoe store.
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