Archive for January, 2013

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January 31st, 2013

Fit in My Living Room

by Tiff

Seeing as how I’m still sniffling, plowing through tissues, and waking myself up at night coughing, I haven’t been hitting the gym this week. I feel a lot better, but my sinuses and lethargy are still keeping me down.

sleepy kitties

‘da kitties making me feel better

I’ve managed to squeeze in a few lower intensity workouts though. The at-home stuff has been great because I’m not picking up more sick-o germs at the gym, over-exerting myself too soon, or getting up too early. (The snooze button has been my friend lately.)

Monday

shivaTuesday

Wednesday: having Blogilates on the brain, I went for…

Thursday

  • Not sure yet… hopefully a walk or run outside because I need to get outta’ this house!
  • Hopefully about 20 minutes of post run/walk yoga
race

I’m hoping for a run; I’m craving a good sweat!

Friday

  • I still don’t want to hit the gym yet, so I plan to either do a more intense circuit at home though maybe not tooooo intense depending on how today’s walk or run goes for me.

Saturday

  • Another walk or run depending on what I feel like doing, how I’m feeling, and the weather

Since I’m not sure yet about Friday’s workout, leave me a comment linking up with either your favorite circuit routine or workout video. If you’ve got a good one you’ve done recently or created yourself, I wanna’ see it!

In other link love news…

Posted in Link Love | 6 Comments »

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January 30th, 2013

WIAW to Lower Cholesterol

by Tiff

Hello Lovelies! In case you missed yesterday‘s post, I talked a little bit about cholesterol and how I plan to lower mine. Before dropping the topic (getting redundant, eh?) I want to share a few foods that some researchers say can naturally lower cholesterol. Since I’m eating them anyway, what better time to do it that What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW)?

Breakfast: oats with walnut pieces, raspberries, and chia seeds (All of these are great, and oats and walnuts are mentioned in Cooking Light’s “Top 8 Cholesterol Reducing Foods.)

oats

Snack: 15 raw almonds (Mayo Clinic mentions almonds in its article, “Cholesterol: Top five foods to lower your numbers.“)

nuts

Lunch: an apple with 1/2 can tuna in water and a 100-calorie pack of Wholly Guacamole (The fiber from the apple, the omegas in the tuna, and the healthy fats from the avocado are all big players here, though salmon is widely accepted as “better” than tuna.)

lunch

Snack: carrots and low-fat cottage cheese… but after one bite, I realized my cottage cheese had gone bad (yuck!), so I had to sub this bar instead. It’s not as healthy as the cottage cheese, but I guess I could have done worse.

snack granola

Dinner: slow cooker lentil stew with cornmeal dumplings (This was good- not amazing, but good. I added some of my own extra spices and was very glad I did. I also used some heart-healthy olive oil in the dumplings. Going meat-less is definitely cholesterol friendly, especially with all the fiber in those lentils!)

lentils

Dessert: half a cup of organic chocolate ice cream… maybe not so heart healthy, but definitely heart happy!

I don’t plan on eating quite this many healthy fats on a daily basis, but I wanted to give it a whirl. However, I do plan to increase my consumption. Hopefully I’ll be able to increase my consumption of fish too, but that’s hard for someone who’s not a huge seafood fanatic… except for shrimpies. I’m always happy to have shrimpies!

  • Are you eating or have you eaten anything to alleviate or cure any specific health concerns?

Posted in Food | 21 Comments »

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January 29th, 2013

Cholesterallllll Up In Here

by Tiff

As I recently mentioned, I’ve got high cholesterol.  It’s always been sort of high, but the last numbers were more of a wake-up call for me.

For those of us who aren’t cardiologists, cholesterol is found in all cells of the body, which isn’t so bad since we need at least a wee bit in there.  Too much of it, on the other hand, increases a person’s risk of getting heart disease by building up (as plaque) along artery walls, narrowing the flow of blood.

arteries

Image from WebMD

Below 200 mg/dL is generally good.  200-240 mg/dL is moderate.  Above 240 mg/dL is quite high.  I’m at 233.  Yipes!

hdl

Image Source

HDL (good) cholesterol can actually lower your risk.  A number greater than 60 is considered good, so luckily I’m at 65.  Woohoo!  The LDL (bad) cholesterol is the stuff that causes the plaque.  Between 100 and 159 is moderately high, and I’m 142.  That’s clearly not good, but it could be worse.

pizza-002.jpg

So perhaps less of this……

Reducing bad cholesterol sounds easy, but sometimes the easy stuff doesn’t work for all of us, like myself.  Doctors recommend you increase fiber,  stop smoking, reduce cholesterol in your diet, and eat less saturated fat.  My doctor told me to exercise more.  Hmmm…. pretty sure I’ve got that part covered mmmmkaythanks.

fish

and a bit more of this (fish, brown rice, veg).

So what’s a girl to do when she’s already eating relatively well and exercising?  I could go on medication, but I’m not ready for that yet (mentally).

zocor

I don’t feel old enough for this just yet!

I think I’m going to take some of my dad’s advice (after all, excess cholesterol production runs in my family), and increase my consumption of healthy fats.  I’ll also reduce sodium, continue to eat my oats, and cook more vegan meals.  (Cheese is a serious weakness for me!)

Check back tomorrow for a WIAW filled with examples of foods that combat high cholesterol.

 

  • What’s the thing you wish you hadn’t inherited? Mine’s pretty obvious.
  • What’s one thing you’re glad you got from Mom or Pops?  Great gams run in my fam!

Posted in Uncategorized | 30 Comments »

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January 28th, 2013

The Big Snow

by Tiff

The meteorologists warned us. Counties closed schools early, and workers salted the roads. We were all prepared… for nothing. Ahhh, so is the story of the South. Not one flurry fell on my yard, though I think a few puddles may have frozen.

This was all happening on Friday. I wasn’t feeling so great anyway, so I didn’t mind chilling at home with my kitties, a movie, and a blazing fire. Kevin and I didn’t stock up on milk and bread, but I had him stop on his way home for OJ and diet ginger ale. Close enough, right?

oj

Don’t mind that champagne back there…

I felt much better on Saturday. I wasn’t back to normal by any means, but I was able to enjoy wedding festivities and a lil’ wedding after party. What’s better than party? More party, of course.

wedding photobomb

grilled cheese as the first course at the wedding – too cute!

So I was thinking about this sickness, as do most people who are sick, and I don’t think it was a relapse from what I had two weeks ago. I think my already weakened immune system let in a bug from the doctor’s office I visited Monday for my physical.

See, routine physicals really do more harm than good! (Totally jk, I just really hate those things.) Since the less-than-favorable blood test results, I’ve been doing a little homework on the matter.

tahini photos 005

off topic, but the above pics are the tahini casserole I made for Kevin’s lunch this week

I’ll be back with you on how I plan to combat those results tomorrow. Until then, happy Monday friends!

  • Have you experienced any winter weather this year? How about winter illness?

Posted in Out & About | 17 Comments »

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January 25th, 2013

Truth

by Tiff

Don’t worry.  I don’t have any earth-shattering news over here, no life-changing confessions.  Just wanted to share some truthiness.

“Truthiness is what you want the facts to be, as opposed to what the facts are. What feels like the right answer, as opposed to what reality will support.” According to Stephen Colbert and Urban Dictionary

1. I started a new routine this week, and Tuesday was leg day.  OMG.  My legs have never been this sore, at least my quads haven’t.  Stairs, toilet seats, and basically everything was against me the following two days.

leg day     leg day

2. I’m feeling crappy again.  Yup – fever, chills, and coughs kept me up last night.  No fun.  I guess it’s a relapse since I was sick only two weeks ago and have had the sniffles ever since.  I guess I need to cool it on the workouts for a while.  Perhaps I did too much too soon after I was sick?  I attended a spin class this week, but I won’t be doing it next week!

spin

3. Yesterday was national peanut butter day.  Believe it or not, my house is lacking in the pb dept.  Whaaaa?  The only nut butter is leftover Nutella from those Oreo cheesecake bars, but I put it on my last piece of banana bread anyway.  Close enough, eh?

pb

5. My blood work came back from the doc.  It’s not very good.  High cholesterol runs in my family, so despite my exercise and plant-eating ways, it’s still pretty high.  You can expect to hear a wee bit more on this next week.

6. My last truth.  I don’t love cooking.  Sure, I think it’s okay most of the time.  However, cooking with wine is a hobby.  No… I don’t mean putting it in the food.

wine

Whew – so much to share, so little time.  Ha.  Got any truths for me?

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