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Easter Eggs and Weight Loss Progress

April 8, 2012 by 8 Comments

I read Deb’s post about Easter and chocolate eggs on Thursday, so I decided to celebrate my Easter by eating one chocolate egg on Good Friday. You can see my chocolate egg are on the left. I was very pleased with my choice – and even though I ate 50 grams of chocolate, I still had a calorie deficit that day.

Otherwise, Easter has been like any long weekend for me. I’ve always thought of Easter as a very boring holiday, except as a child. That’s because we have a local tradition in Finland that children wear Easter witch costumes and go from house to house requesting treats (they usually get candy, chocolate or money). On Saturday evening we also burn big bonfires.

So it’s a bit like Halloween in the US, without the trick part. [Read more...]

Best Wishes,

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Back in Business

March 1, 2012 by 4 Comments
strength training for women

I'm going to go from frumpy to fabulous.. :-)

I’ve spent most of last week in the throes of migraine, so I haven’t felt like blogging lately.

Luckily I got a doctor’s appointment in a couple of weeks about my migraine. I really, really hope I’m a good candidate for preventative migraine medications like triptans. On the basis of what I’ve read so far, it’s possible my current meds are incompatible with migraine medications (or may even trigger them!). In that case I’d rather get rid of the medications or replace than suffer from migraines.

Migraine is a holistic experience. :-)

I mean it f**ks every aspect of your life and makes it almost impossible to maintain a healthy lifestyle while it lasts. You certainly don’t have much control on your eating – you either won’t eat because of constant nausea (or vomiting)  or you have powerful cravings. For instance, during my latest migraine attack I either ate nothing because of nausea or craved ice cream, chocolate, orange-flavored sodas (I usually drink Pepsi Max, but during migraines I crave orange-flavored sodas), chips and salty liquorice (salmiakki). Top diet, no?!

Of course, exercise is also out of question. I can usually walk around and even do some light errands when I’m not in the active headache phase, but that’s it.

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But enough of migraines already!

On Tuesday I received my copy of Rachel Cosgrove’s Female Body Breakthrough (FMM). I’ve been reading it here and there for a couple of days.  Rachel Cosgrove certainly knows her fitness stuff. I found the following intriguing snippet on p. 123. [Read more...]

Best Wishes,

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My Recap for Year 2011

December 31, 2011 by 5 Comments

Photo credit: Flickr/jurvetson

It’s time to recap year 2011!

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When I look back, I can more or less neatly divide the year 2011 in three parts.

The first part of my year lasted from January to early June and it could be called “Going strong”. I became a regular exerciser and gained lots of extra energy. My moods improved and I even lost some weight, as witnessed by my weight loss progress photos.

The second phase of my year (“Becoming an intuitive eater”) started in June, when I admitted I’m not happy with my relationship to food and eating. Even though I was eating better than before, I often felt stressed out and spent too much time worrying about how healthy my diet is and whether I’m eating too little of this or too much of that.

I started reading about intuitive eating on the Internet and finally bought Tribole and Resch’s book on intuitive eating. I was tired of the dieting mentality, so I decided to give intuitive eating a try.

One of my biggest insights during this phase was that I can (learn to) trust my body when it comes to how much I eat and what I eat. I don’t need external diet rules to regulate my eating. Also, my diet doesn’t need to be perfect all the time [Read more...]

Best Wishes,

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Migraine-My New Stress-O-Meter?

December 6, 2011 by 4 Comments

Do you have a physical symptom like headache or stomach upset that is a sign you’re getting  stressed out and it’s time to slow down?

I think I actually have a fresh new stress-o-meter: migraine headaches! I have never had migraine headaches before, but suddenly this fall I’ve had several tête-à-têtes with them.  It’s and understatement to say I’m not very thrilled with my new burden, because it’s not so long ago when I suffered from chronic tension headaches.

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But let’s talk about body types or physiques. I don’t know what to call them but I think there are different body types that react differently to external stimuli and stresses.

I have the kind of “oversensitive” physique that kindly informs me when something is even a little out of whack in my life. My physique reminds me of a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen. In the fairy tale, the “real” princess was so sensitive she couldn’t sleep because she sensed a pea that was placed in hear bed even through 20 mattresses. [Read more...]

Best Wishes,

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I’m A Home Exercise Equipment Junkie!

September 28, 2011 by 2 Comments

Thigh Master. They still sell them at Amazon!

Have I ever mentioned I’m a home exercise equipment junkie? Perhaps not. The fact is, I collect home exercise equipment like some women collect designer handbags.

During the last 12 months I’ve added several items to my ever-growing collection: one kettlebell, several exercise dvds, resistance bands, one pedometer, a “pilates band”, foamroller etc, etc).

For conveniences sake, I specialize in compact portable exercise stuff, not exercise bikes and treadmills. I simply don’t have enough room for treadmills and ellipticals in my flat.

One of my favorite pass times is strolling in the sporting goods section of some department store looking for new pieces of home exercise equipment. Balance boards, resistance bands, hula hoops, kettlebells – everything interests me! If I lived in US, my apartment would be full of home exercise equipment I purchased at Amazon (I guess I’m lucky I don’t).

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I’ve owned lots home exercise equipment over the years. I guess my collection habit started in my teens, when I clipped out  workouts I found in women’s magazines. After VCRs were introduced in Finland, I owned a small but comprehensive set of Jane Fonda’s workout videos. If I remember right, after that came the Callanetics phase! [Read more...]

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