Friday Goals

Wow, I can't believe it's Friday already. This week has flown. Busy week, and even busier weekend. Oh well, it keeps me off the couch! Goals for the weekend:

• Attend Audubon meeting
• Do the Cocoa Bird Count
• Wrap and pack all gifts
• Finish holiday cards, get them ready for mailing
• Go on walk to see holiday lights in Viera (this is a DeeMotivation event, RSVP if you want to join us!)

What are your non-couch goals for the weekend? Please share!

A Taste of Tuesday

I am really not into cooking. If the world ended in a firey holocaust tomorrow, I could easily survive barricaded in a 7-11, living on coffee, Slim Jims, and Hostess Zingers. Who am I kidding here -- I don't need a holocaust, I actually HAVE spent weeks living on coffee, Slim Jims and Hostess Zingers. I wish I could say it was during my wild college days, but it was as an adult when I was just too darn lazy to cook anything else! So, to say I'm a lazy cook is an understatement. But, I do have creativity on my side and occasionally this works to my benefit.

For example, David was away last week. As he does most of the cooking now, I was feeling kind of lost and on the verge of heading out to 7-11 for old times sake. But I found a left over bowl of his White-barbeque sauce grilled chicken in the fridge. It was already chopped up, so I took a tiny bit of Smart Balance mayo, some Sargento shredded cheese, and some pecans to make a chicken salad. Bread isn't always lap-band friendly, but David had hit a sale on low-salt Ritz crackers... So I nuked up the chicken salad, and used it for dip with the ritz crackers, and that was my lunch. It was sooo yummy. So, I present to you:

Dee's Chicken Salad

• Left over cooked chicken
• Anything you find in your kitchen that looks like it might taste good (chopped apples, pecans, pumpkin seeds, raisins are all good candidates)
• Something to hold it all together. I use a little Smart Balance mayo, but barbecue sauce, cheeze whiz or Hershey's syrup would also probably work
• Some Sargento shredded cheese

Mix together, microwave until the cheese is melted (about 30-45 seconds), and dip something into it. I suppose if you are into healthy stuff, you could dip carrots or apples. I use crackers or my fingers or in a pinch, cookies.

Motivation Monday

So, in previous posts I've talked about what keeps me (and many people) from doing stuff. Let's get positive today and look at things from the other side. What motivates us? For me, I find motivation in:

• Fear. Not in a bad way though. For example, my first day in Florida, I threw open my back sliders to find the most scary looking spider I've ever seen in my life. It was white with black spots and red spikes on its back. I was horrified. I slammed the sliders shut, and even locked them (as if the spider could open the sliders.) I decided I didn't want to be afraid, so I went out, bought some wildlife ID guides and learned what could hurt me, what couldn't, I took some classes, and today I am a Florida Master Naturalist. And, just so you know, the spider in question was a Crab-like Spiny Orbweaver, a fairly harmless little critter.
  
• Music. This is a huge motivator for me. Most of the videos linked on the twitter feed are songs I find motivational. Either the lyrics are important to me (e.g., Illuminate), or the music makes me move
  (e.g., Conga.)
  
• Other people. Many times, I find motivation in trying to motivate other people (hence, this web site.) But there are many people who motivate me in return. Wayne got me up that mountain, Jeff got me to the gym many times, and just today, I got a special present in the mail:
  
  

If that's not motivation, I don't know what is!

Share with me -- tell me what motivates you!

Friday Goals

Well, I will definitely be GOMA this weekend. Lots to do!

• Go on hike Sat morning (see events page for details)
• Take picture for holiday cards
• Take annual family holiday portrait
• Attend yoga class
• Meet Barb for dinner
• Start sorting and wrapping
• Start assembling gifts
• Start assembling holiday cards
• Write annual holiday letter

I don't think I will have to SOMA this weekend at all! Go me!

And what non-couch activities do you have planned? Do tell!

As explained in my first blog post, I created this web site in hopes that I can help motivate other people like me to get to the summit. Today, I was asked to clarify this a bit further.

Who are people "like me"?

Well, I am morbidly obese. I have struggled with it all my life. True story: Growing up, the main exercise I got was running off to hide in the woods behind the softball field during gym class. There were train tracks back there, and I remember being afraid of the trains, but that was not anywhere near the fear of being in gym class. Seriously, as a child that young, I was so filled with shame and self-loathing that I would rather have been hit by a train than have people see me in shorts, be picked last for the team and all the other joys of gym class.

I'm 45 years old, but I try not to act it. True story: I was having dinner with some (older) friends a few weeks ago. I mentioned how happy I was that I went to a rock concert at a club a few days prior, I told how great the concert was [Blitzen Trapper] and how I stood by the stage screaming and dancing and the band high-fived me coming off the stage. And the BEST part was that the bouncer made me show ID to get into the club! To which my "friend" replied, dead serious, "Really? Was he going to give you the SENIOR DISCOUNT?"

But I digress. What I mean when I say "people like me" I mean other folks who struggle with their weight, and are not neccesarilly young and athletic.

What it is "the summit"?

Well, when I think back to being in that gym class, I remember the terror, the knots in my stomach, the abject horror of the thought of someone seeing me run, having someone see my body parts jiggle and bounce, having people see me sweat and breathe hard and always come in last. I was able to overcome those fears as I wrote about previously. But for many obese people, those fears are still there, and they are what keep us not just from exercising, but from enjoying life.

For me, the summit means not just facing those old fears head on, but being done with them and putting them in the trash where they belong. Your personal summit might be coming along on that first hike or bike trip with me listed on the events page. For others, it might be replying to a blog post annonymously and saying, "I'm here, I'm reading, I'm too scared to come out to an event but I'm listening, and maybe someday..."

The Goal of This Site

My main goal with this web site is to get people who might otherwise stay inside -- out of shame, out of fear -- to get outside with me. I'm not going to turn you into a super athelete, I just want you to know that being obese does not have to mean that you have to hide indoors in shame and fear. I am proof of that. Come outside with me into the light, there is comfort and joy in numbers.

Comments from previous blog:

(Anonymous) at 2009-12-10 20:16 (UTC) (Link)

Is this thing on?

But you're my "People Like Me."

A Taste of Tuesday

On occasion, I like (well, "like" is a bit of a strong word -- more like "tolerate") using that big heaty thing in my kitchen... oh, what's the technical term for it... oh yeah! The stove! I use the Stove on occasion. The fact that there really aren't a lot of lap band specific recipes out there, coupled with the fact that I don't like any that I've found, have caused me to create some lap band friendly recipes of my own. Now, by lap-band friendly, I mean stuff that generally has some nutritional value, tastes good, and doesn't make me throw up.

I created the following recipe while trying to make chicken pie. Most chicken pie recipes call for some kind of dough or pastry, which isn't particularly lap band friendly. So I wanted to make a crustless chicken pie. But crustless chicken pie is chicken stew, which I didn't want either. So, I came up with this casserole that firms up. Then I got sick of making it with chicken, and threw in some sausage. Now I usually leave the chicken out all together, but you can do what ever floats your little boat. So I now present to you:

Dee's Not Chicken Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 packages of Adel sausage (I usually use the chicken and apple one, but any will work), chopped (or 2 packages of cooked chopped chicken (I use the boneless skinless thighs) or 1 package of each chicken and sausage)
• 1 bag frozen veggies, thawed or nuked for a few minutes (I like the pea, carrot, corn and green bean mix, but use whatever you like)
• 1 container ricotta cheese (I use fat free -- I don't remember the size, but it's bigger than the small one)
• Shredded cheese to taste (I use 1/2 bag of Sargento low-fat cheddar or the 4-cheese blend. The Kraft Free cheeses are less expensive but they don't melt well and generally taste like ass.)
• 2 eggs or 1/2 cup egg beaters
• Black, white and red pepper to taste (I tend to use lots being the spicy chick I am.)

Directions: Beat the eggs and mix in the ricotta, shredded cheese and spices. Fold in the veggies and meat. Spray a casserole dish with Pam and dump the mixture into it. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until the ricotta is set.

Note: I usually break this up into 4oz servings and freeze, it freezes and nukes really well.

Diet Tip From Dee!

Okay, I promised in the FAQ that this is not a diet advice site at all. But I do have one diet tip that I would like to share that I just discovered recently. To curb your appetite, always eat your breakfast while checking your friends page on Facebook. In recent days, I have been treated to:

• Close up pictures of a friend's infected foot
  
• Pictures of another friend eating what appears to be a cricket (apparently a delicacy in some places)
  
• By far the most disgusting, pictures of another friend eating a Windows 7 promotional 7-patty Whopper.
  

Of course, this diet tip only works if you have slightly... odd... friends, but it actually only takes one or two to help you curb hunger!

Bon appetit!