Much of what I write about here on Nutrition Fitness Life deals with changing my focus from simply looking thin to improving my overall health. Part of this goal includes the desire to conquer my sugar addiction and clean up my diet.
To help me squash my insatiable sweet tooth, I’ve been following the guidelines set [...]

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• Sugar, The Other White Drug I appreciate all your comments on my previous post about sugar addiction. This topic has really got me thinking! I’d like to explore it further. If truth be told, I never considered sugar a drug, but much of my reading suggests that sugar is capable of acting like a potent......
• The Afternoon Slump Ever feel sleepy in the afternoon? I do sometimes, right around 2PM. It's actually normal and related to the natural ebb and flow of our internal body clocks. It's perfectly normal to feel a twinge of drowsiness in the afternoon. So, what happens when we're really feeling sleepy and our......
• Battle Against Sugar Cravings Step 2: Keep a Food Journal I've been eating a healthier breakfast for almost a month now. I think it's time I add another weapon in my battle against my enormous sweet tooth: a food journal. I'll be honest, the idea of keeping a food journal never appealed to me. Why do I want to put......
• Breaking the Sugar Addiction - Step 3 If you've just arrived, or you'd like a review, check out my posts about sugar addiction and the solution to sugar addiction. I'm following the 7 steps outlined in Potatoes, Not Prozac. I feel it's time for me to officially start the next step in breaking the sugar addiction, and......
• Beating the Sugar Addiction - Steps 4-7 The steps I summarize here are discussed in more detail in Potatoes, Not Prozac.  If you feel you have a strong attachment to sugar that is keeping you from living freely and healthy, you may want to give this book a read. Click on the following links if you wish to......

Continue reading → It’s Working

Earlier this week I created a goal of sorts, to be active throughout the day instead of focusing solely on the standard 30-minute exercise session.
So, I’ve been making an effort to take the occasional walking break.  I took a 10-minute break at work to walk outside the building.  I used my lunch hour to walk [...]

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• Deep in the Heart of Texas I'm back from the great state of Texas; my visit with family was long overdo and enjoyable. One of my goals during the vacation was to maintain an exercise schedule, and honestly that was a challenge! I focused more on isometric/strength training exercises in the privacy of the guest bedroom (with the......
• Getting Picky Eaters to Eat Healthy A friend of mine shared her frustration of having a picky eater in the house and asked for suggestions on how to introduce healthier foods. "He doesn't like vegetables, rarely touches fruits, and would eat peanut butter all day if up to him." The "he" she was referring to is......
• Healthy Pregnancy Tips for Expecting Mothers Congratulations on your pregnancy! Now that you are aware of the fact that you are expecting a baby, you are going to find yourself being shouldered with the truly vital task of making sure that both you and your baby are healthy for the next nine months. This may sound......
• Link Love - Talking Trash and Super Skinny Models Hey, I just joined the WOMAN Challenge (Women and girls Out Moving Across the Nation) this week. (Thanks for the inspiration, MizFit!) It's an 8-week fitness challenge for women to exercise at least 30 minutes or get in 10,000 steps each day. Registration is free, and you can progress along......
• Girl Scout Cookies - Wolves in Sheep's clothing? Girl Scout cookies seem to be everywhere these days! Coworkers bring in their child's cookie order sheet to work and encourage you to, "Just buy 8 boxes, and Jenny will get her badge!" Bubbly girls in green bombard you as you enter and exit the grocery store by displaying the......

Continue reading → My Daily Jaunts

I’m on a personal quest of sorts. Three months ago I made the realization that I am a sugar addict and decided to commit to breaking my addiction.
Following Dr. Kathleen DesMaison’s plan for sugar addiction, I started off including protein and a complex carb at breakfast. After creating my new breakfast habit, I [...]

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• My Current Health Goals I've been thinking about setting personal health goals for the past few weeks, two of them in specific. Well, after some consideration, I've come up with two personal health goals I'd like to really focus on this year. They're important to me, they would improve my health, they are a bit of a challenge (I like a......
• It's Working Much of what I write about here on Nutrition Fitness Life deals with changing my focus from simply looking thin to improving my overall health. Part of this goal includes the desire to conquer my sugar addiction and clean up my diet. To help me squash my insatiable sweet tooth,......
• Noticing Habits - Discoveries From My Food Journal Since I've been keeping a food journal I've noticed a couple of things. First, I seem to crave something sweet after I eat, but it can't be just any sweet. If I try to eat what I'm not craving - say a banana when I really want a big, chewy......
• Word Power Funny how powerful changing one word can impact your mindset. For example, when it comes to eating healthy and/or foregoing the junk, instead of saying, “I have to avoid junk food and eat more veggies,” replace that “have” with a “get,” and the sentence has an entirely new meaning and......
• Sugar, The Other White Drug I appreciate all your comments on my previous post about sugar addiction. This topic has really got me thinking! I’d like to explore it further. If truth be told, I never considered sugar a drug, but much of my reading suggests that sugar is capable of acting like a potent......

Continue reading → Food Journal – Ally in Breaking Sugar Addiction

I’ve been working on slowly weaning myself off sugar. And when I say slowly, I mean s-l-o-w-l-y. That’s just what I find works best for me. I’ve tried going off all sugar cold turkey in the past, but with disastrous results! I’m trying a completely different perspective I learned while reading Dr. Kathleen DesMaison’s book, Potatoes, [...]

• Sugar Free Candy & Chocolate Candy, Gum & Chocolate Food & Wine Home Store

• Your Food Journal, 3-Day Research Experiment Let’s do a little research that might help you lose weight. Don’t worry, this is fairly easy. Get a notebook and pen. Keep these within easy access for the next several days. OK, here’s the research part: For the next 3 days keep a journal of everything you eat –......
• Battle Against Sugar Cravings Step 2: Keep a Food Journal I've been eating a healthier breakfast for almost a month now. I think it's time I add another weapon in my battle against my enormous sweet tooth: a food journal. I'll be honest, the idea of keeping a food journal never appealed to me. Why do I want to put......
• Breakfast - The First Step to Breaking a Sugar Addiction If you're a sugar sensitive individual, you're more prone to becoming addicted to the white stuff (sugar and refined foods). If you know you're physically dependent on sugar and you truly want to end the addiction, there is hope. I'm reading Potatoes, Not Prozac, and in it, seven steps to breaking......
• Development of Healthy Eating Habits Developing your own healthy eating habits is something that should never be "an ordeal" or make you feel miserable. Many of us are constantly on the run, and we are always rushing from one place to the next or to meet a deadline or return a phone call. As a......
• Getting Picky Eaters to Eat Healthy A friend of mine shared her frustration of having a picky eater in the house and asked for suggestions on how to introduce healthier foods. "He doesn't like vegetables, rarely touches fruits, and would eat peanut butter all day if up to him." The "he" she was referring to is......

Continue reading → Breaking the Sugar Addiction Progress Report

I had an “interesting” week, as far as eating and exercising go.  I experienced the winter blahs, was unmotivated to exercise, and had a few battles with the sugar monster. 
The results:  I slept in more than getting up to exercise this past week.  I ate mini Twix and Milky Way candy bars during the afternoon slump [...]

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• Avoiding the M&Ms A large basket of candy sits on a table right next to my boss’s door. This attractive looking basket (Longaberger, no doubt) is joined by a glass candy dish filled with shiny, colored plain M&Ms. The M&Ms taunt me. Every time I walk past my boss’s office (which I......
• Day After A Binge Holidays are prime times to eat way more than is necessary with meals that are extremely rich and loaded with calories! It's fun to visit with family and feast on foods we normally would not allow past our lips, but it's not fun afterwards when we're in a food coma......
• National Flu Vaccination Week The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is regarding November 27 - December 2 as National Flu Vaccination Week to remind and encourage everyone to get flu vaccinations. The American Academy of Family Physicians is specifically observing November 27 Children's Flu Vaccination Day, reminding parents and guardians to have......
• Snow Storm of the Year! Well, Saturday was fun! We had a blizzard here with continuous snow fall from early early morning until late afternoon. My husband and I didn't  even consider venturing outside! The roads were way too slick, and the snow plows couldn't keep up with the snow. No sooner had they finished......
• A Little Link Lovin' The kind of mood I've been in this week - tropical I'd like to do some shout-outs, high-5's, props, kudos, pats on the back... whatever you want to call it. But I tell ya, it's hard to narrow down the list cause there are super great and fun posts......

Continue reading → This Week’s Progress Report

In a previous post I mentioned my goal of having breakfast with protein and complex carbohydrates. That post will tell you the “why” of my doing this.
Well, so far I’ve been keeping this goal.
My breakfasts this past week consisted of:

scrambled eggs (egg whites/egg yolk/finely chopped onions and peppers/low fat shredded cheese) and whole wheat toast [...]

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• Want to be Skinny I’ve been noticing an amount of search queries on my site that contain the phrases “get skinny,” “skinny models,” “what exercise can I do to get skinny.” I want to sincerely welcome all of you who typed such queries. So, why do you want to be "skinny*"? Will it make......
• Healthy Meals on the Go I have absolutely no time for a sit down dinner tonight, let alone prepare one! My schedule has me going from work to singing lessons and then off to a concert. I still need to eat dinner, though. :) We all have hectic schedules sometimes.  But instead of making a run to the fast......
• Development of Healthy Eating Habits Developing your own healthy eating habits is something that should never be "an ordeal" or make you feel miserable. Many of us are constantly on the run, and we are always rushing from one place to the next or to meet a deadline or return a phone call. As a......
• Healthy Eating Plans for Increased Nutrition When it comes to getting healthy and losing weight, one of the best things that you can do is to add healthy eating plans to your lifestyle. If you want to lose weight, build a healthier body or just improve your general health, then healthy eating plans are going to......
• Hey, Protein! I Like It! Ever since I started including protein in my breakfasts, the increased protein amount has been transferring over into my lunch and dinners too.  I didn't plan to do this; it just kind of happened. I have protein shakes for breakfast made with a plain, whey protein powder. (It's surprisingly good with the right......

Continue reading → My Healthier Breakfast Goal – Update

I’m happy to report The Holter monitor is off, and boy, does it feel good to be able to move without being pulled by the tape stuck to my chest! (If you’re just tuning, check out Part I of my heart monitoring story.)
The report is there’s nothing to report! I didn’t notice any heart palpitations, but [...]

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• Sugar, The Other White Drug I appreciate all your comments on my previous post about sugar addiction. This topic has really got me thinking! I’d like to explore it further. If truth be told, I never considered sugar a drug, but much of my reading suggests that sugar is capable of acting like a potent......
• "Magical" Pancake My husband occasionally makes pancakes Saturday mornings. They are tasty, let me tell you! Well, a couple weeks ago during one of these pancake mornings, my husband made a tiny, little pancake that looked like this: See the heart in the middle? I thought that was so cool! The pancake......
• A Toast to Vitamin C Vitamin C - It's the trusted, good, ol' fashioned vitamin we turn to when fighting a cold or trying to prevent one. It's the hip and celebrity vitamin of youth-promoting facial creams and cosmetics. It's the swashbuckling hero to the sailors (and their teeth) of years gone by. Here's a......
• "Marathon Challenge," TV Special October 30, at 8PM on PBS, NOVA will be presenting Marathon Challenge, a television program that documents 13 individuals throughout their weeks of training for the Boston Marathon - a first for all of them - as well as the changes that occur inside their bodies via MRI, treadmill tests,......
• Self-Defense Class I couldn't pass up a free self-defense class at the gym today. It was offered as part of April being Sexual Assault Awareness month. The class was excellent, and I wish it could have lasted all day! Not only was it a good workout, but, even more importantly, I learned......

Continue reading → Me and My Heart Monitor – Part II

As I write, I am wearing a heart monitor, a Holter monitor, to be exact. It’s like a mini, portable EKG machine that you’re hooked up to and carry around for 24 hours. Actually, “wear” all day is probably a better description. I’ve got 4 leads, complete with their different colored wires [...]

• Annual Reports Paper Railroadiana, Trains Transportation Collectibles

• Hey, Protein! I Like It! Ever since I started including protein in my breakfasts, the increased protein amount has been transferring over into my lunch and dinners too.  I didn't plan to do this; it just kind of happened. I have protein shakes for breakfast made with a plain, whey protein powder. (It's surprisingly good with the right......
• Me and My Heart Monitor - Part II I'm happy to report The Holter monitor is off, and boy, does it feel good to be able to move without being pulled by the tape stuck to my chest! (If you're just tuning, check out Part I of my heart monitoring story.) The report is there's nothing to report! I......
• Pregnancy Developing in Week 2 During this stage of your pregnancy yet, you do not have a baby growing just yet, but your body is in the preparation stages for ovulation, which is the step before conception. Are you wondering how you can already be considered to be two weeks pregnant before you have even......
• How Much...errr, Little Exercise Do You Need? Exercise is like a magic pill. It does so many good things for your body, mind, and spirit. However, we often come across the question of, “How much exercise do I really need?” Unfortunately, the answer isn’t so clear cut. How much fat you are able to burn, as well......
• Runners - I Envy You I love to run. Always have, even as a little girl. And I was fast! Oh, I may have looked sweet and innocent, but I deceived the boys and beat them in races on the playground (much to their chagrin). No one could catch me in "boys chase girls," and......

Continue reading → Me and My Heart Monitor