Coffee -- the best part of every morning. In fact, I'm brewing a pot right now as I type this (as you can see above).
I smoked for almost 15 years, and four years ago I was finally able to quit for good (with the help of Chantix, which isn't covered by health insurance. It was certainly worth it though!) With coffee, however, I have not been so lucky.
I go through a pot of coffee every morning, and then sometimes more when I get home from work, depending how tired I feel. Now, I'm not sure how normal it is to drink so much coffee, but it obviously has a negative effect on me because it does not even make me feel more alert anymore. However, if I don't drink it, I feel tired times 5. And yes, I do drink it with a little more sugar than I should, and usually milk (preferrably cream, but I don't buy it often), but that's not the part that concerns me so much. Either way I look at it, it's not helping my situation at all, and it is clearly having an unhealthy effect on me. Therefore, as much as I hate to admit it, it has to be cut down, at least somewhat.
On the bright side, my second choice for my caffeine-intake is Stash green & white tea (I used to drink this stuff a lot in my healthy days!)
It is worth mentioning that, unless I'm counting calories religiously, I am not a Splenda user. However, for some reason, this tea tastes much better to me if I use Splenda. In fact, if I had no other choice than to drink this tea with sugar, I would probably not drink it. Interestingly, I can't say the same for coffee (I don't really like the taste of Splenda in my coffee).
It's going to be a tough couple of days while I am replacing my coffee with this tea. I don't think I mentioned before that I get migraine headaches, and I can seriously tell the difference between starting the day as I normally do and starting the day with less coffee than usual. Hopefully I will remember this next time and I won't have to go through it again.
Next on the docket:
........I mean, I'm not an alcoholic, but this is a beautiful picture........
I don't drink all the time. In fact, I try to limit it to the weekends, but when I buy a six-pack, I sit there and drink it without a single thought as to how many calories I am drinking. SO, now it's time to look at how many calories are in a bottle of Sam Adams. According to their web site, each beer has different nutritional information. I would have to say that the one I drink the most is the Boston Lager (I love the seasonal varieties, too, but it's Boston Lager by default...I wish Alpine Spring was available year-round, but anyway)...
If I mindlessly drink four bottles out of my six pack in one evening, which is usually about right, that's 700 calories!!!
Over the past couple of years, we have been choosing one day out of each week to go and eat out at a restaurant. I think it would be good if I could have that one day to eat a meal of my choosing, along with a couple of beers (I prefer not to order booze at the restaurant because it's ridiculously expensive; maybe if I buy a six-pack, I can try to make it last three weeks). I've also read that it is actually good for your metabolism to do this (very) occasional calorie spike, because it throws your body off the routine, which can otherwise cause you to plateau. I don't know how true that is, but I can say that I used to eat what I wanted throughout the entire weekend, and I still lost plenty of weight. It's kind of like when they tell you it's absolutely fine to enjoy a slice of birthday cake here and there (although that "one slice of cake" often results in the all-or-nothing mentality for me, which causes me to throw my diet / exercise routine right out the window). So, restaurant night will also become Sam Night! :)
I am pleased to say that I don't need to address the issue of soda drinking. I used to drink more soda than anyone I've ever seen when I was a kid, and into my teens. Somehow, once I moved out on my own, soda lost its appeal, which baffles me. I can rememer being 8 years old and coming home after school, walking into the kitchen, and pouring the biggest glass of Coke for myself that you have ever seen!! It was an after-school ritual. Nowadays, that would nauseate me...and I can happily say that my son doesn't like soda at all, and always says "no" when someone offers it to him. I love this, because I do have to admit that I was, for a while, deeply concerned he would end up following in my footprints.
When I worked at Foxwoods, I worked grave shift with my husband, and this is no easy task when you are a parent. Once we got out of work, we took turns sleeping while the other one watched the baby. My husband went to bed first, and I was a complete and utter zombie throughout the day. This never improved at all during the entire 10 years I worked there, on that shift. In fact, as I got older, it got worse. My husband does a lot better than I did on that shift. Anyway, I was always so tired that the very idea of cooking a meal at home was exhausting, so when my son became a toddler, I would buy these dietary disasters:
You're probably already aware of this, but these meals are so bad...and I was feeding my son this crap each and every day. In fact, whenever I took him to the supermarket, we'd walk into the frozen food section, and he'd say "mommy, I want the blue!" Like the blue box. We'd just pick out one for each day of the week, and I thought it was okay, because it's pretty much the same thing as a home-cooked meal, right? WRONG!
My son was 3 years old in this picture, and if I remember correctly, he weighed between 50 - 60 lbs. Fortunately (very fortunately) I was lucky enough to have my share of people slapping me upside the head for this, and I learned how to cook (which is something I'd never really done, aside from spaghetti and certain things that don't require half a brain). My husband and I spent a lot more outdoor time with him, and encouraged him to be more active. He has thinned out quite a bit, and he's really grown into his weight, which has remained the same over the following 3 years. His pediatrician was actually blown away by this, and asked us how we did it. I am so lucky that there is a possibility that he won't have to go through the same thing I went through at his age.
Anyway, I will start applying this to my daily routine by cutting down the amount of coffee I drink in the morning, hopefully replacing it with tea by the time the machine gets here; also no more booze except for "restaurant day", and I will also try to keep that at about 2 beers. This is my goal. :)
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