Listen To Your Body - It Knows!!!

My body speaks to me.

No, it doesn't actually have a voice, but it doesn't need one. My body speaks without words...and I heard it loud and clear this week.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, I didn't eat a lot - but I did consume some foods that I don't usually have. A few salty tortilla chips here, a couple of diet sodas there, even a cupcake with VERY sweet frosting and other sugary treats found their way into my mouth. It wasn't overindulgence in large quantities that did me in...it was what was in the foods I ate.

For the last three days, my body has spoken in several ways. My fingers puffed up from the extra sodium, making it hard to get most of my rings on. The migraine that followed let me know in no uncertain terms that I should have skipped the diet sodas. To complete the lecture from my body, my stomach hurt and was upset from too much sugar.

My body is letting me know that I have to stick with healthy foods and skip the stuff filled with salt, sugar, and chemicals. I'm recovering from the weekend by drinking plenty of water to flush out my system, eating nutritious foods, and working up a sweat as often as possible. I can already feel the difference.

My body knows what it's "talking" about...and so does yours. Pay attention to what YOUR body is telling you. God only gave each of us one body, and we have to take good care of it!

(Motivational) Monday Monday...Can't Trust That Day

Well, here we are at Monday once again. I was kind of afraid that today the scale might show a gain, and it did. I gained 1.6 pounds. I'm sure he (of course I give the scale the male pronoun...he's actually more trouble than a man) did not like all of the nasty names I called him this morning. I am trying to kiss and make up with him though. Wait, maybe just make up. I am not going to kiss my scale.

I went to lunch Friday with my dad on his birthday, and did very well with my veggie omelet, making sure to tell the waitress to leave off the hollandaise sauce so I wouldn't consume extra fat and calories that I didn't need, and skipping the greasy hash browns. I think my main problem was on Saturday, which was my mother-in-law's birthday. She chose lunch at the Chinese buffet. I was very good about passing up all of the fried foods, and loading up on mostly vegetables. I used a very minimal amount of soy sauce, a lot less than I used to use...but even with being as careful as I could, Chinese food is prepared with a lot of sodium. Saturday evening and all day yesterday, my fingers were too puffy for 2 of the rings I usually wear. I had a feeling the sodium would still be in my system today and show the water weight on the scale. So now, I just have to move forward from here...exercise, eat well, and watch the sodium.

I decided to make my motivational person someone that I named a few months ago, because she is deserving of another mention. For those of you who watch Ruby like I do, you know that she used to weigh 700 pounds and now is down to almost 300. Every time we see her, she shows her courage not only to live out her journey in front of the country, but also to try new things she's never been able to do before. Watching her ride a mechanical bull a couple of weeks ago made me think of my own quest to get back in the saddle and ride horses again. Please learn more about Ruby at http://www.mystyle.com/mystyle/shows/ruby/index.jsp.

When I make Chinese at home, I don't use those preservatives so I don't have all of that sodium to deal with. I did the best I could under the circumstances at the buffet, and sometimes that's all you can do. This week will be much better, and I'm drinking more water than usual to flush the sodium out of my system. Spring is just about here...and I will carry the fresh attitude of the season into this week!