• Priscilla Nason Shartle

hearthealthyboomer

~ Living healthy after age seventy.

hearthealthyboomer

Tag Archives: Weight Watchers

My New Year Fitness Plan – Life

02 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by prisnasonshartle in A New Year Plan

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Tags

Ankh Egyptian cross, class reunion, counted calories, Ernest Holmes, eternal life, lose weight, MyFitnessPal, setting goals, smartphone, Weight Watchers

Last year about this time I started a new Weight Watchers program.  After five or six months I quit.  Believe it or not, that is not easy to say.  I liked the program, but I didn’t see any results.  I didn’t gain any weight, but I didn’t lose any either.  And I did follow the regime right down to counting housework and gardening when it came to exercise.  But some of you may remember that I was only a few pounds short of my maintenance weight and so it looked to some that I might not belong in a Weight Watchers class.

Not only did I get questionable looks, I got remarks that were just short of unkind, and I also felt like the instructor was not up to standard.  She was kind, nice, and for all practical purposes met the needs of most of the folks in the class.  But she came ill-prepared, started the class late, and rushed through the three classes that were required for beginners.  (I forgot what they were called.)  I learned more from the website and reading the material on my own.  And most importantly, I repeat, I did not lose weight.

What happened is not pretty.  Since then I gained at least seven pounds.  The good news is I can still fit into most of my clothes but holding my breath to zip a pair of jeans is not what I call a fun time.  Therefore, I’m back where I started a year ago: needing to lose weight.  This time, I’m going to start where I did in 2009 when I lost 20 pounds in nine months.  I counted calories.

I have this neat app on my smartphone that is called MyFitnessPal.  Unlike the Weight Watchers app, I have not figured out how to add calories not in their data bank, but so far it is working well.  I know I need to eat 1200 or less calories a day and that is my goal.  I also know that I have to avoid sweets and chips, both hard to do in my case.  A couple of small glasses of red wine in the evening will do no harm, as long as I count the calories.

You may wonder what prompted this next phase of weight loss.  Maybe the “mother-of-the-groom” dress I need to wear in April or my high school class reunion in May or a beach trip with the grandchildren in June?  Who knows?  More than likely it was a gut feeling that my body is not right when I’m over weight.  Ernest Holmes wrote, “Learn to trust life…and prepare not to die, but to live.”  For me that means I need to stop doing things (like eating the wrong foods) that harm me and begin eating healthy foods that help me to live.

I inherited an Ankh Egyptian cross from my mother when she passed away.  Ankh Egyptian CrossIt is heavy and large but she wore it with pride, hanging around her neck as she dressed in beautiful turtleneck sweaters.  Known as the key of life, it represents the concept of eternal life.  I like to take the cross out from time to time and remark on its beauty and remind myself of its symbolism.  And although my mother is no longer with me, she lives eternally in my heart, young and healthy.

My body may ebb and flow, like the seasons, but I rejoice as I am reminded that I have the power to appreciate the path I am on; a path of endless self-expression and it is all Good.  This gift of life flows through me and I am blessed.

Happy New Year….Cheers to trusting life…., and Let the calorie counting begin!

Louisiana Food to Die For

28 Monday May 2012

Posted by prisnasonshartle in Eating My Way Through a Trip

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Tags

Baton Rouge, family, Fisherman Cove, food, J Alexander's, old friends, Ralph and Kacoo's, seafood, Weight Watchers, Zea's

I’m hard put to think of any food I like more than red beans and rice.  And after spending a week eating Creole food throughout the trip, the one thing I did not get to eat was red beans and rice.  Zea’s in Town Center in Baton Rouge has it on their menu.  It comes with a huge fried chicken breast served on top of a steaming plate of dark red beans and gooey rice; just the way I like it.

But I didn’t make to Zea’s on this trip.  But I did eat some amazing food while visiting family and old friends in Louisiana.  And that’s what it’s all about – FOOD.  What you ate that day; what you are going to eat later in the day; who you ate with; where did you eat; how was it cooked (grilled, baked, sautéed, boiled, and of course fried); was it a gumbo, Etouffee, or bisque; and on and on and on.  It never ended.

My first stop was a little hole in the wall just outside the Louis Armstrong International Airport (a.k.a. MSY – New Orleans) called Fisherman’s Cove in Kenner, LA.  I had the (notice the THE as that is how one refers to the food in Louisiana) fried eggplant stuffed with crabmeat and covered with crawfish Etouffee, a couple of slices of buttered French bread and a glass of Shiraz.  It melted in my mouth.  (Needless to say I didn’t count Weight Watcher points while out of town this trip.)  The portion was moderate and very satisfying.  My sister had boiled shrimp and said it was very good.

The next day we met up with two old friends from our early childhood and their mother.  We think it was my wedding, forty-one years ago this May 30th that we last saw them.  We four girls look good for our age, but their mother looked fantastic.  Unfortunately the restaurant was packed (it was LSU graduation that day and everything was crowded on that side of town.)  We could barely hear each other but we had a wonderful visit and enjoyed a delicious American meal at J Alexander’s near the Mall of Louisiana on Bluebonnet Road.  I had the Cypress Salad with chicken fingers, bacon, cucumbers and cheese.  It was very good, but huge so I ate about half of it. On a side note, when I left Baton Rouge in 1976, Bluebonnet was a street off Jefferson Highway that was part of a quiet neighborhood.  Today it is a vein in the thoroughfare that cuts through the South side of Baton Rouge, stretching from Jefferson Highway to Highland Road, four lanes of one commercial business after another.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of spending the day with three old friends.  Two of which I had known since I was a child and the third I met in junior high.  We were all good friends through high school and college and have remained close as adults.  We get together once a year when I come to Louisiana to see them.  One lives in Franklinton, LA in an old home she has renovated and filled with antiques; one lives in a beautiful traditional Acadian home in Denham Springs while the third is still in Baton Rouge in a lovely old neighborhood on the South side of LSU.  She still has her father’s season tickets to the LSU football games on the 40 yard line as well as LSU basketball season tickets.   This year we gathered for conversation in Denham Springs eating lunch at Randazzo’s Italian Market.  I had the lasagna and it was very good.  It was the charm of the couple who own the restaurant that was most endearing as they walked up to every table asking if our meals were acceptable.  Moving from Italy to Denham Springs, the chef and his wife opened the business to bring the “traditions from the hills of Italy to the Bayou country.”

As my friends talked over each other and about our choices of food, we connected as we did as children filled with the love of friendship.  Missing was one friend who had a conflict, a wedding to attend in New Orleans.  But we thought of her and others who might join us next time.  After perusing the antique stores in “Old Denham” we made a stop at the home of one of my friend’s mother.  Living in a retirement community near her daughter in Denham Springs, she looked and acted just as she did when I was a child, proud, beautiful, and always the gracious hostess.  Because it wasn’t just a visit to her apartment, it was also a visit to the dining room where we talked about the food and saw the beautiful tables and chandeliers and menu for the night.  Even retired people in Louisiana, look forward to their meals which I found in some pleasant way very consoling.

That night my sister and I joined our cousin and his wife at Ralph and Kacoo’s, a famous seafood restaurant.  I had a delicious bowl of crawfish bisque and a Sensation Salad and two Coors Light draft beers.  The salad was made famous by Bob and Jake’s, a steak restaurant very popular when I was a child.  Crawfish bisque was my all-time favorite dish growing up as a child.  The original owners of Ralph and Kacoo’s had a place on False River called the Triple Arch, in New Roads, Louisiana.  It was a favorite pastime for my parents and friends to make the trek on Sunday’s after church.  The dining room was to the right after entering the building.  The walls along one wall were covered in a mural of Southern families, horses and buggies.  The bar was to the left of the dining room and off-limits to us kids.  But not the dance hall.  It was straight ahead from the front door.  We loved to finish our meal and get permission to go the goldfish pond out back which meant going through the dance hall room to the back door of the restaurant.

The wooden floor was smooth and aged from years of dancing.  The tables were up against the wall with folding wood chairs stacked along the wall.  Outside was a round stone goldfish pond filled with lilies.  The lake (False River) was swampy and creepy and we stayed as far away as possible from it.  Back inside we felt safe, loved and protected by our parents and waiters who knew us each time we came.  Hush puppies were a specialty and a lost art, I’m afraid, but the memories of those trips to eat seafood and share a meal with other families still warm my heart.

Sunday was a day of rest with a home-cooked meal for lunch with my sister and then a visit with old family friends in Springfield, Louisiana.  Having lived most of their adult life in the Memphis, TN area, they served Memphis BBQ which was like coming home and most rewarding.  But more so was that their two grown children drove all the way from Baton Rouge to spend the time with us.  It’s not easy to leave someone you’ve known since the day they were born, three years after you were born.  Like a brother, this friend’s parents were my second parents.  His family is my family and sharing a meal with them was a blessing.

And so it ended, five days in Louisiana, and yet no red beans and rice.  But today I decided, enough is enough.  I spent the morning cooking dry red beans with onions until they were soft and perfect.  I could have added sausage as usual but I didn’t.  And just when I thought I could never replace Zea’s red beans, I invented my own recipe!  Left-over BBQ hamburgers (one and a half) and Nathan’s beef hot dogs (one) cut into pieces and added to the beans and voila, the perfect red beans and rice!  It was delicious and my vacation was complete.

In between I had some delicious strawberries and blueberries covered in real cream, some chicken and sausage gumbo, and a delicious Bishop’s Cake out of the River Road Cookbook (the Louisiana Bible of cookbooks) and my stomach was full, my appetite satisfied and my heart happy.

Good food, good friends, good God, let’s eat…Amen.

Attitude vs Weight Loss

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by prisnasonshartle in Healthy Attitude Toward Weight Loss

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attitudes, journey's, laughter, mantras, weight loss, Weight Watchers

Everyone needs a cheerleader now and then while on their weight-loss journey.  Last week I heard from fellow travelers giving me good advice.  I learned that I’m not alone; that there are many people in this world going through the same issues I’m going through whether it is the meeting place, the people at the meeting, the leader or the number on the scale.

The past seven weeks at Weight Watchers has flown by.  I only missed one meeting when I was out of town.  I could have found a local meeting, but didn’t make the effort.  I’ve lost a total of 3.6 pounds.  When I was younger I’d most likely beat myself up for not losing more weight in seven weeks, but not so today.

The leader asked us to share ways to change how we think about ourselves, what mantra we us.  I said, “How I think about myself is more important than how much weight I’ve lost.  If I change how I think, then I change my life, and changing my life gives me the power to change the world.”  For a split second there was dead silence and then a few ooooh and awe’s as if others in the class were absorbing the idea that this was possible.

Yes, it is all about taking control of our destiny and putting ourselves first.  One lady said she had always put her husband and children first and then when she was in her thirties when her sons where still young boys she jumped on her riding mower and started cutting the grass on their property.  The boys would chase after her for this or that, and she’d said no, she was too busy cutting the grass.  It was the one place they couldn’t bother her, she said.  And she added she had the shortest grass in the county, to which we all laughed.

It’s nice to laugh about yourself now and then.  It is good for the soul.  So here’s one on me.  Remember my blog last week about sitting alone and no one speaking to me?  Well, I took everyone’s advice and moved to another row sitting on the inside seat.  That row filled up almost immediately and I had conversations with the women to my right and in front and behind me.  And what about the seat that I used to sit at?  Well, a woman sat in the exact spot and no one joined her until right before the meeting started when one other sat at the opposite end of the row.  I made a point of saying hello to her before I left.  It was the seat — not me!

One Pound after Another

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by prisnasonshartle in Taking the first step to a healthy life

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

commitments, goal weight, obesity, over-weight, weight loss, Weight Watchers

Last month I joined Weight Watchers to get back to my goal weight.  It has been much harder than I expected.  Not the program, the commitment to stay the course.  There are more days than I like to admit that I just give up.

Because I’m not heavy or even over-weight, I appear in good shape, but I’m not.  I am at the high end of my BMI and therefore very close to being over-weight.  And my body feels it; in my joints, my clothes, in my attitude.

My weight loss has been like a roller coaster going up and down the past five weeks.  The slightest thing can trigger a change; a trip to see the grandchildren, a birthday lunch out at a restaurant, and even the everyday schedules I maintain with my commitments to Girl Scouts, writing deadlines, housework, and taking care of my grandchildren.

The first week of meetings I had a woman actually confront me and say, “You don’t look like you need to lose weight.”  It was disconcerting to say the least, but I explained to her that my attending the meetings was to reach my goal weight and be healthy.  She looked at me with a blank stare.

As the weeks progressed I noticed a pattern at the meetings.  Everyone sits in the same place or close to it.  Some are friends, mother/daughter, and husband/wife.  Many are life-time members and I would venture a guess that of the average twenty-five who attend the meetings on a regular basis, 90% are technically obese and of these members, 75% are my age (62) or older.

I am amazed at their grit and determination to improve their health by committing to the program.  I am proud to sit in that room and listen to their stories, their trials, and tribulations.  They are not unlike me when you take the weight factor out of the problem.  Yet, it is clear, that I’m not one of them.  They don’t see me as a partner in this journey – at least not completely.

I noticed yesterday that no one sits on my row of chairs until the last minute.  I don’t think they are avoiding me on purpose, but it happens week after week.  I thought about sitting in another chair next week to see what happens, but what purpose would that serve?  This is not sixth grade and a popularity contest.  This is my life.

The leader asked me to share a story I told her before the meeting and I noticed the ice crack a little when a few people turned and smiled at me when I shared my story.  I don’t need the other’s approval.  All I need is my own.  I know that what I’m doing is a step in the right direction and I’m going to keep on keeping on, as the saying goes – one pound after another.

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