#fitness – tallgirltinysteps

2/19/23. Weird dreams with carbohydrates.

I have been eating low carb/keto for the past 5-7 weeks and I was trying the technique in the book “Carb Nite Solution” where you eat what you want one day a week. Well, two things. The first being, I dont think I am really losing much weight so that is disappointing. However, its the second reason that I need to stop/modify what I am doing.

After I eat carbs and dessert (on Saturday nights), I have the WEIRDEST dreams that night while I sleep. Last night, my two cats were in the parking lot of a furniture store. I kept picking them up to bring them home and they werent my cats. They looked similar to my cats but they werent my actual cats. Then, my husband was wandering around the parking lot with no sock on one foot. When I would ask him what he was doing, he would reply with “just trying to get comfortable.” It was sooooooooo weird. Also, I slept 10 hours last night AND fell asleep on the couch watching TV before bed.

I believe this blog should be honest so I am being honest. I am not sure if I am going to continue to follow this program. Here are the things I do know for sure.

I feel better with lower carb eating.
I think it is weird (and unhealthy) that you cant eat fruit on Keto.
I am not sure how sustainable a really strict diet is for me.
If this carb nite is causing weird dreams, what else is it doing to me?
However, It is nice to feel like I have a treat at the end of the week to look forward to.

So where do I go from here? Well, I made low carb lasagna with egg wraps (my new discovery!), I ate eggs for breakfast and I will eat a salad for lunch tomorrow and yogurt for breakfast. So, at this point, I am continuing to eat a lower carb diet. I am also “upping my steps” which I will post about next week.

To my 105 subscribers and 335 social followers…THANK YOU! You give me a reason to keep writing and for that, I am thankful.

Keto week 3 update-“Carb night solution”

I have been eating a lower carb diet for about 3 weeks now and I feel a lot better. I read a book called the Carb Nite Solution and his whole idea is to eat low carb all week and then have a “high carb” meal on one of the weekend nights. Then you get right back to eating low carb on Sunday morning.

I picked Saturday night and have done this 3 times so far. Results?

Wow.

First, I have eaten some REALLY good food on these Saturday nights.

Second, the food tastes super rich and delicious (much more so than it used to taste)

Third, it is starting to become fun to pick out my “Saturday night indulgence.” Last night was Steak Frites and Apple Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream. Super yummy.

I will continue with this because I feel go0d and it is kind of fun right now. One disclaimer-I don’t eat as low carb as he recommends during the week. (He says to stay under 30). I stay under 50.

So what do I eat? Cheese sticks, nuts, caesar salads, Egg burritos with low carb tortillas, chicken, avocados. (Not a ton of variety but I feel pretty good and that was one of my goals for this)

Is it always easy? No. Some nights I am tired and would like to just eat something easy. It is especially hard when you are on the road. I had an Unwich from Jimmy Johns (a sandwich wrapped in lettuce leaves.). It was fine, not great.

However, my body doesn’t hurt as bad as normal so I am hoping that fewer carbs leads to less inflammation. We will continue to see.

To my 102 followers-I AM OVER 100! WOW! THANK YOU!. So which mode are you in right now? Burst mode (like I am with Keto) or tiny action mode? (going to talk about that in my next post.)

Have a great week!

1/1/23. Happy New Year! Easing into Keto in a tiny action way.

I feel better when I dont eat a lot of carbohydrates. I just do. I also know that my “health numbers” are better when I eat a lower carbohydrate diet. Sooooooo…back to Keto I go. However, instead of jumping in with both feet (which is a real burst that burns out quickly), I am easing into it this time. Here are the steps I have taken or will be taking.

From Dec 10-28 I drank more water and got more steps in. That is all. Very tiny.
On Dec 27 I bought a magazine with a lot of good looking keto recipes.
On Dec 28, I went to the grocery store and bought eggs, cheese, meat, avocados, vegetables, nuts and seeds, etc…
On Dec 29 and 30, I made egg burritos with low carb tortilla shells in my sister’s air fryer (it is on loan from her to see if I want to purchase my own) and cut out the chips and cookies I had been eating a few days prior. I still ate some popcorn.
On Dec 31 I ordered a steak and asparagus for dinner. I had a glass of red wine and about 3 bites of peanut butter pie.

Today is Jan 1, 2023 and I KNOW that a ton of people start diets today and a ton of people burn out by February. I had an omelette for breakfast (no toast or potato) and am heading to the treadmill after writing this post. We are eating chicken for dinner. I have already had 3 glasses of water on top of my morning coffee. As you can see, I have been “starting this diet” for about 21 days now. Little tiny actions. I am ready for the next step of cutting out carbs.

I challenge you today to try something new-DONT start the new diet today. Start the tiny steps that will prepare you to start the new diet in a few weeks. Get yourself ready. Think of it like an adventure. Take the pressure off of today and of trying to be perfect. What are all the little itty bitty things you can do to get you ready for the better eating plan? I believe it will help you to not burn out and to stay the course. You cant go from 0 to 100 in 24 hours which is what almost everyone tries to do. You will flame out. Make this year different! Make this year a “tiny action year” and keep chugging along slowly.

To my 98 followers-THANK YOU! I hope you have a restful and inspiring start to the new year! Stay tiny!

July 21-week 2 update of no sugar

It is going better. I feel better. I had a couple of “slip ups” but for the most part, I am not eating sugar. No cookies, cakes, candy, pop, etc…

I don’t know if I have lost weight but I feel better.

I have more energy.

I feel like I have more control over my hunger.

I do still miss having “treats.”

I will continue.

I wish I had more insight for you right now but I don’t. As far as “diet” my breakfasts and lunches are manly low/no carb and then dinner is sometimes low carb and sometimes not.

Like Superman, sugar is my kryptonite. I have to stay away from it if I want to be my best self and have the energy needed for my life.

To my 86 followers, keep on keeping on! If you are in the part of the world that is having a heat wave right now, do as little as possible and survive. I mean it. Just do everything you can to get through it and think about working on yourself and your goals after the heat has passed.

April 8-just returned from Vegas and am still 3 weeks no sugar-kinda

Many of you know that I am a teacher and since my husband and I work in the same school district, we have the same Spring Break. We were going to just stay home and do things around the yard of the house we bought in November. However, Michigan weather decided it was going to be about 40 and snow the whole week. So we hopped on a plane to Vegas where it was 85 and sunny for the whole week. It was awesome!

Sugar update. I only ate sugar twice (it was vacation after all) and I didn’t finish the dessert either time. The first one was watching the NCAA title game and our restaurant had a skillet cookie with ice-cream. I only ate a quarter of it.

The second time was a really special restaurant that served banana gelato and Nutella filled donuts. ( I LOVE anything banana and I love Nutella).

Can I tell you something that makes me sad? Neither one was very good. I had waited all this time and was expecting them to be out of this world amazing and they weren’t really. I read a book on vacation that said “who will you be if you give up your story?” Who will I be if I, as a sugar addict, no longer eat sugar? I know to some of you this seems silly. But Vegas was different when I wasn’t searching for all the sugary treats I would eat. It was weird. Good weird, but weird.

Step update- DEFINITELY exceeded 8500 a day. Its Vegas and there is a t0n of walking. I have not tallied in today yet but the average is about 10,000 a day. And man was I pooped! I have to continue to walk and increase my strength. I will aim for 9000 this week (remember that Vegas was a “BURST” and I still need to increase my progress toward my goals in a tiny manner)

Challenge for next week is to continue to stay sugar free (not a huge thing at this point) and eat 1 day of NO CARBS. So totally KETO. And an average of 9000 daily steps. I will keep you posted!

To my 76 followers-THANK YOU! See you next week!

March 22, 2022-which mode are you in? Surviving, Tiny stepping, Bursting or Retreating?

Recently (on the treadmill actually) I was thinking about goals and working toward them and what a convoluted process it is and that led me to this post. I think we are always in 3 stages of something that we are experiencing (4 if you count retreating-but we are going to focus on the first 3)

Survive and Advance
Tiny steps forward
Bursts forward
Retreating-but we are trying to stay away from that for now.

So let’s take the goal of weight loss. We see a magazine article or diet book that promises “Lose 30 pounds in 30 days” and we get excited. We want to lose 30 pounds! And we can do it in 30 days-YES! So we start the diet, start working out and may even lose a couple pounds that first week. Then, we don’t lose weight in week 2 and we get frustrated. We keep trying the program and maybe lose 1-2 pounds in week 3 but then week 4 creeps up and we have lost nothing. We feel like a failure. We only lost a total of 4 pounds-we were supposed to lose THIRTY! So we give up, go to the grocery store, buy an entire bag of cookies and eat them all before we even get out of the parking lot. Thats just me? Oh ok (its ok-I know you have done it too and just don’t want to admit it) Then we retreat back into our old habits and ways until we try again to lose the weight.

We were in burst mode for 3o days and when our results were not as promised, we think we have failed.

In my opinion, every goal should be attacked in 3 ways and we should avoid #4 at all costs. But that is not how we currently do things. We “go burst or go home.”

So lets take the weight loss goal to start with. First, I survived the holidays/funerals/job change/house move/ etc…for last 10 months and only gained about 5ish pounds. Success! Next, I started taking a few tiny steps in the last couple of weeks like drinking more water, wearing my Fitbit to see how many steps I am averaging, and working on my sleep (supposed to help with weight loss). JUST this week (actually yesterday) I decided to cut out sugar for 30 days. It is a burst for sure but I am not doing ANYTHING ELSE differently with my diet, so it is also a bit of a tiny step to lead me back to the low carb lifestyle that I had been enjoying before my world exploded. The other tiny step I am working on is advancing my average steps for the week from 8100 to 8500.

I am not doing this for weight loss (although that would be an added bonus). Instead I want to feel better and stronger. I know that by cutting out sugar and increasing steps, those things will start to happen.

I will update you Sunday on how Week 1 went! To my 74 followers-what tiny step could you take this week toward a goal?

January 15-two weeks past New Years (are you going to break your resolution???)

So it is 15 days into the new year and a lot of people are right on the cusp of when a goal or resolution starts to get hard. Mine hit me yesterday. Now I told you in the last post to get rid of your resolutions. I was JUST focusing on adding 1 minute of elliptical each morning to my routine. Today was 18 minutes. But yesterday (17 minutes) almost broke me, so I am here to tell you what happened and how I pushed through it

First, I woke up sweaty (we sleep at about 60 degrees so this shouldnt have happened). Then, even walking down to the basement made me winded-not a good start for a workout. Then, I got on the elliptical and EVERY SINGLE MINUTE was agonizing. It wasnt painful but it didnt feel good. I felt winded, out of shape, and just plain yucky(medical term-LOL)

I told myself to just go one more minute. I made it 12 minutes that way and felt like I had to sit down. So I stopped. I left the timer on my phone at the 4 min and 48 seconds mark that I still had to finish. All day I felt tired. But when I got home, I finished those 4 minutes and 48 seconds and they werent that bad. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in “how to workout like the magazines or trainers say we should” that we don’t cut ourselves any slack. My body STILL did the work. Am I proud of that? You betcha! And this morning, I was a little scared that I would feel the same way as yesterday but guess what? I did 18 minutes and felt not too bad-actually felt SUPER proud of myself. And isnt that the point of all of this? Feeling good?

So if you did set a resolution and are about to quit, can I ask you some questions?

Could you “break it up” when you work on the goal? (like I did with the 12 minutes in the morning and 5 at night?)
Could you “back off a little” but not stop? (just doing 1 minute instead of no minutes)
Could you “maintain” instead of trying to improve?-for example if it keeps being difficult I might stop at 20 min and only do 20 min for a few weeks until I feel stronger.

So this has been the tiny step I have been working on for 18 days. When I started back to school, I added a banana to my lunch. This is another one of my tiny steps. I am NOT dieting, but I wanted to let you in on another small healthy change that I am making. (each week I will try to add something VERY TINY and let you guys know how its going. So far the banana thing is going well -I love bananas so it was an easy healthy addition.

Good luck this week and I will see you next week!

THANK YOU to my 68 followers! You keep me motivated and smiling!

Dec 30, 2021 Get rid of New Year’s Resolutions

If they work for you, then keep going with them. However, in a 2016 study of the 41 percent of Americans that make resolutions, only 9 percent felt like they had accomplished them at the end of the year.

Top resolutions every year are to workout/improve fitness/get fit, lose weight, save money, improve diet. So that tells me something. We all WANT to be better and we start out with a bang and then something happens and we stop working toward the goals for whatever reason (I think it is because we go too big too soon and too many-hence the purpose of this blog)

I don’t know about you, but I have made resolutions for a majority of the New Year’s and I seem to always fail at them just like most people do. So I am taking a different approach in keeping in line with this website.

I started working out on the elliptical for one minute on Monday. One minute, that was it. Then 2 minutes on Tuesday, 3 on Wednesday, and I completed 4 minutes today. Going VERY tiny. It has been hard to get motivated since I had Covid. I am still very tired. My goal is to increase one minute each day until I get up to a good 30ish minutes of Cardio. But that might take a while. It might take until summer. It might take until next December. I don’t know but I do know one thing. One minute on the elliptical is better than no minutes on the elliptical.

I am not worrying about my diet at this moment. I am not worrying about losing weight or saving money or any of the other goals that I put on my resolution list. I am going tiny. Just exercise. Just one minute increases. Just that. Thats it. OBVIOUSLY, my long term plans would be to accomplish all those other resolutions but if I can get one under my belt, I know that I will feel better. I will keep you posted on this progress.

THANK YOU to my 65 followers! Keep on keeping on!

August 18- Staging vs Living

Everyone’s lives are hectic. Work, house, kids, school, illness, self improvement, self care, etc… The list goes on. Some of the “hectic” we make ourselves (feeling the need to achieve certain goals) and some of it is thrust upon us (like a loved one getting sick). No matter what your story is, you probably have at least one part of your life that is a little crazy.

I used to try to calm the crazy. I used to try to control the crazy, or brush away the crazy, or ignore the crazy. You can’t. Just when you get the crazy taken care of in one area of life, something else pops up. For those of us that are perfectionists, this can eat at us terribly. We just want things to settle down.

Well, I don’t think it is going to happen. After 42 years of life, I think it is about riding the crazy. Staging to sell a house falls into the “control the crazy” category, OR the “don’t let others SEE your crazy.”

I titled this post “staging vs living” because if you have every tried to sell a house, you usually “stage it” a little so that potential buyers can imagine themselves in the space. It involves decluttering and removing personal items. It sometimes involves very neutral decor.

Well, yesterday I decided to flip the script. We have 3 bedrooms in our new house. 1 for my husband and I. 1 for the cats (they have a bedtime and get put in the bedroom for the night so they don’t run around the house-they like it I promise!) And 1 spare room. I SHOULD stage it as a bedroom. However, my husband and I would like to have more closet space….Soooooo….I am turning it into a GIANT closet! This is NOT realtor approved by the way. However, I had to look around at what we needed/wanted and figure out how to make it happen. We have very busy jobs and so having a clean and organized room for our clothes and shoes would be hugely helpful.

Yes, minimalism would tell me to get rid of some stuff, but I don’t want to. My husband doesn’t want to. And we are paying for a house every month so why can’t we make it what we want? Thats the realization I came to yesterday. I CAN have a GIANT walk in closet. And when it comes time to sell the house, I will box up my clothes and turn the room back into a bedroom. I will “STAGE” it. But for now…I am going to “LIVE” in it.

The tiny step part will be that I can’t do everything all at once. I will slowly move some of our clothes into this room, look for dressers at yard sales, paint, get curtains, etc…but I am going to LIVE in this space.

My question for you today is where are you “staging” your life instead of living it? Basically where are you putting on a show for others instead of taking care of what you need? For me, it is with this closet. For you? Ask yourself if you are “living” or “staging.”

Happy Wednesday to my 55 followers! Hope you have a great rest of the week. And tomorrow is going to be a tough one….I am supposed to do 16 minutes of elliptical AND rip out a bunch of landscape. My body is gonna HUUUURRRRRTTTT! Wish me luck!

August 15-update on the tiny steps of exercise

I just finished 12 minutes on the elliptical. If you read my last post, you know that I am increasing time on the elliptical, every day by one minute, until school starts (20 minutes) then I will reevaluate and see if I want to stay at 20 minutes or keep increasing.

I want to tell you it has been easy. I want to tell you that if you choose to exercise in this manner, everything will be wonderful. I want to tell you those things, but I also value honesty. It hasn’t been easy. The first few days were and then I hit 6 minutes a day on the first day back of teacher meetings. UGH. I was tired and cranky and didn’t really want to do it. However, I convinced myself that I could tough out 6 minutes and I did. But I did not enjoy it.

I think this is why so many people struggle. We can come up with excuses that seem valid and at the time, make us feel better. Until we stop exercising. These were mine in the past 12 days. Too tired. Too early. My knees hurt. I’m ripping out landscape and working hard, so I can just count that as my exercise today.

NO. Its better to go back to one minute than to stop all together. That was what I told myself. I told myself that I only had to give it one minute. And it got me on the machine where I proceeded to do my “tiny minutes of increase.”

So what can I offer you for advice? Don’t give up. Do it daily and do as much as you can (however tiny it may be). The success is in the “not giving up.”

Thank you to my 54 followers! You help me to not give up and to keep thinking my words and actions matter!