finding lori

This has been a messed up week for me.  I have been suffering with a stomach virus.  I've felt fine besides a small fever and nausea, so life has been normal except my eating and exercise.  I haven't been hungry so I haven't been eating, and that always throws me off track.  I haven't been to the gym since Monday, and I really miss it, and that is throwing me off.  I just feel off all together.  I never realized how much this new way of life is growing on me and how natural it has become.  I miss tracking my food, choosing good foods and adding in my treats.  I miss the gym, the sweat and the power.  I've been sad :(  And, I'm not even stepping on the scale because it will be a false loss and then a gain once I get my appetite back. Since I don't have much to share regarding diet and such, I wanted to share the recent book  I am reading.  This book came to me through my sister, who started it and loved it.  It is called  "The Girl On The Train" .

Hi Friends! Here is a little something that I'd like to share that I found while searching the internet. Please remember,  I am not a athletic trainer nor a dietary or health professional.  I simply thought this was a interesting article and I wanted to share it :) Top 10 Reasons For Gaining Belly Fat By Kevin DiDonato MS, CSCS, CES Walking around the gym and working with clients there is a trend that I see. Extra weight carried around the belly or people wanting to get the ripped “six pack” look are the typical gym client today. What is the reason behind weight gain and why is it so hard to lose those extra pounds? Here are the Top 10 reasons why people continue to gain weight.  10. Medications There are a growing number of people who are depressed or on medication for depression. These medications decrease metabolism regardless of changes to the diet, and the medications can change hormone levels in the body. This impacts our ability to lose weight and keep the

 Today, I am struggling with a little sadness.  Our youngest Dominic seems to be drifting farther and farther away from us.  We don't see him as much as we used to.  When he first went off to college he would come home on Sundays and do his laundry and eat dinner with us before going back.  Now, he is so busy with his friends, and his girlfriend (they have been dating for 2 years and he just recently got back together with her after a short break up).  Not only do we have to share him with school, and his friends, but now her too.  Not that I don't like her, she is a sweet girl, but yeah....Ok, so my rational voice in my head says that this is way normal, he is growing up and that is how it is supposed to be.  But my mommy voice is saying how sad it is.  How I don't have kids anymore to need me or want to see me.  I try to remind myself of the fact that we do not have children to raise them to live with us forever.  We have them to raise them to become independent functioni

Happy Friday!! Today is my grocery day.  I used to love getting my groceries, but after 30 years of doing it every week, it's beginning to become a chore.  I love the fact that I'm not at work, and that I am out and about, but just the process of thinking out the weekly menu, buying all the food, then carrying it to the house and finally putting everything away is exhausting.  I usually wear my  Fitbit  so grocery day is always my best day in steps.  That's about the only good thing about grocery day  :)  Here is today's total steps. I'm still learning how to figure out my calories burned on my computer, so I'm not sure what it was today.  But it shows you online how many calories you can eat.  I still need to figure out how to get to 10,000 steps!! Any ideas?? :)  I went to the gym this morning with my sister.  I am begining to really love being there.  I still never want to go in the morning, but once I'm there it's better.  Once I

Hi Friends! It's late for me to be on, but I wanted to post my pictures from the gym today, so I am accountable. This first one is actually my first "selfie" I've ever taken.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about the fact that I even said the word selfie let a lone took one, but I guess times, they are a changing.  It wasn't on my list of things to do before I turn 50, but maybe it should have been :)   Regardless, my sister wasn't there to take the pictures for me so I was forced to conform with the masses.   I don't know how many picture people take of themselves before they get a good one, but this was hard.  This is not my best moment in pictures, but I didn't want people to start staring while I got a good one, so this is what you get.  I don't know why I look so mad in this picture. Really I'm in a very good mood here :) Wednesday Gym Time With Lori :)  This is a new cardio machine I used today.  I really liked it a lot.  I

Hello My Friends!! Today I decided to weigh in.  It's been 3 weeks, and I told myself I would weigh in once a month, but I got itchy and pulled out the scale.  I've been doing great with my food.  A few gross slip ups on the weekends, but a lot better :)  I still allow myself chocolate, yummy coffee and cookies, but in moderation.  I am doing so much better at putting on the breaks and not over doing it so it doesn't turn into a full blown binge and a week long slide.  I think its because I have given myself permission to eat real food .  A friend, whos blog I follow, has a philosophy and its beginning to sink in.  Good for her for realizing this now, when she is young.   Here is her blog...she is just darling!!   Goal of Losing   It's taken me 30 plus years and hearing it from my sister, my mom and trying every diet out there even starvation, to realize that I can have it all, just in moderation.  This has allowed me to eat my M&M's while I watch TV.  This ha

Good morning friends!! Just sharing my Saturday morning!! Sigh......Just beautiful :)  I usually work on Saturdays, but today we have the day off because of a Benefit for a friend, that my sister and brother in law are working at.  So, I decided to treat myself to a delicious cup of fun coffee.  Now, every cup of coffee is fun to me, but this one is a yummy, sweet, cup of deliciousness.  First I wanted to show off my new coffee cup I bought.  I found it at T.J. Maxx  for just $4.99.  Yay!  I just love a new coffee cup.  For me, it just makes coffee that much better when you drink it out of a beautiful or fun cup :)  My first coffee of the morning was just regular coffee with a little creamer.  It was only 15 calories.  Now, my second cup was my fun coffee.  It has Vanilla Cinnamon Creamer, Fat Free Ready Whip, and Cinnamon sprinkles on top!  The creamer was 35 calories and 1 gram of fat per tablespoon, and I used 2 tablespoons.  The Ready Whip is just 5 calories and 0 fat

Like I mentioned,  I began my "finding myself" journey in August after I realized that I had one more year before I turned 50.  After looking at my life, I realized there were some things I wanted to change before that happened.  Things about myself physically, emotionally and mentally. The most important to me is the physical part.  That means to lose weight and get stronger and healthy.  I am a sedentary person and I know that has to change now if I want to be an active healthy older Lori down the road.  I don't want to be at the health level and weight that I am now.  I really do want to be more active and not so lazy.  Joining the gym, not sitting around as much and counting calories is a step in that direction.  Physically, I want to be the Lori Greg married and the Lori I know I can be! The emotional part I need to change is because I am a softy.  I take everything to heart and take everything personally.  I really want to take steps to change this.  Sometimes w

Friday night we had a girls night with the family.  We went to a Chinese restaurant called Chopstix.  We had such a fun time, even though my daughter Blayne couldn't be there. Unfortunately, she had already made plans to go to a Cocktails and Color event with friends.   My niece and sister in law are leaving next week for South Carolina and we wanted to get together before they left.  Anyway, I was a bit nervous about the food choices and the probability of me going over board at dinner and beyond.  Since it is Lent and I am in observance with no meat on Fridays, I knew I was looking at a vegetable dish.  I did some googling before we left and found out that the Vegetables with Garlic Sauce wasn't so bad calories wise, with around 250 for about 4 oz.  I'm not sure how many ounces I ate but it wasn't too bad I'm sure.  I also opted for the brown rice for about 220 calories for one cup.  I probably had about one and half to two cups so that's that!  I was pretty h

As you can tell, a big part of me finding myself, is my weight problem.  It is one of the things I am hoping to change this year.  It is one of the things that I feel is not really me.  I am an older, wiser, empty-nester who isn't defined by her food, and who doesn't need food to turn to.  By finding who I am now, I am hoping to change my eating habits, with no reason to binge, no reason to eat my boredom or my stress away.  On Friday I took a big step in that direction and I wanted to tell you all about it.  I was getting my groceries, which is an all day event for me because I like to shop at a few different stores.  I like different products at different stores.  Besides getting my groceries, on Fridays, I usually brows consignment stores and TJ Max and stuff too, and you all know that takes time :)   Anyway,  I went to the gym and started out great with my food.  I did wonderful actually all day, until I hit the last grocery store.  They have the most delicious cream filled

Last night I made a delicious recipe that I wanted to share with you.  It is called Skinny Chicken Fried Rice.   I am skeptical of new recipes.  You find a recipe that looks yummy. All of the comments under the recipe are positive and go on and on about how good it tastes.  Then you buy all the ingredient, make the food and umm...yeah.  It doesn't taste like you planned and maybe you don't even like it at all.  This happens to me sometimes when trying new recipes.  This time was different.  This time it was a success!!  :)    Here is the link from the site that I found it on.   http://www.skinnymom.com/2013/03/01/skinny-chicken-fried-rice/ She has some yummy looking ideas here that I am going to check out!! There are 252 calories for a one cup serving.  Let me tell you, it is worth it if you enjoy fried rice.  Now, I omitted the chicken just because I was to lazy to make it, which also eliminated the need for the broth, which lowered the calorie count for me.  I also did

Today started off like a wonderful Sunday.  I went to Mass and sang in the choir, I spent time teaching my little second graders at CCD (bible school), my sister and I met at my parents house for coffee, and I get home to find out our youngest son just slid off the road and put his car in the ditch.  He is fine.  Not hurt at all.  His car was just a junker car to begin with but my husband, who left to pull him out, just called and said he will have to get a tow and who knows what kind of damage was done.  What I am really upset about was instead of calling us for a ride, he walked home.  Now, this is a kid that wears shorts and slip on shoes every day of his life.  Thankfully it was warmer today than it has been.  It is 25 degrees, but the roads are snow covered and it is just a single lane both direction road, plus it was about 4 miles away and snowing.  I am just sad that he had to walk.  Is that silly?  He's 19 but he is still our baby.  He said he didn't want to disappoint