Slow, But Good Start

Well, today is the first official day of being a healthy person. Last night Josh and I were very ambitious about starting the day off early. We do not go back to most of our school and work until next week, so we are still on vacation (the joys of being a teacher and a law school student, still on an academic schedule). Anyway, we have been staying up late and sleeping in most of the break, which has messed up our regular routine. So, Josh said we should get up at 7:00 this morning, eat, exercise, then get to work on things we both need to do to get ready for the semester.

Well, when we got in bed around 1:00 last night, we changed the alarm to 8:30. Then, Josh had a hard time sleeping and turned the alarm off. I had my phone alarm set for 9:00 (planning on our laziness), so when that went off, we hit snooze until 10:00. Not quite the early morning we were planning on, but we are taking baby steps!

For breakfast this morning, I made an old favorite of mine from college. When I worked at the Outdoor Pursuits Center at Texas Tech, one of the meals we would bring on canoe trips was yogurt with granola and fruit. It is a tasty, healthy breakfast that can be made in no time. Everyone is always saying breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but when you are short on time in the morning trying to rush to work, the meal is often skipped. So, I like this because it is so fast and simple.



To make my Hippie Yogurt (I will call it this since it is from my hippie days), you will need:

• About 1 cup of nonfat vanilla yogurt-I like to use all natural yogurt so I am not getting high fructose corn syrup and all the other junk that is in many yogurts. I used Brown Cow brand this morning, which is a good find because it is all natural, so it is a little cheaper than organic, but still better than the other stuff

• About 1/2 cup granola-I love granola, but it is not always as healthy as you think. Make sure you find a brand that is low in sugar. Many granolas have tons of sugar.

• Fruit of your choice for topping-blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and bananas are some of my favorites.

Today is also the first day of my new exercising self! I put an exclamation point there, but that doesn't mean I am actually excited, I am just trying to convince myself that I am. Anyway, after my healthy hippie breakfast, I did some strength and core exercises. They actually weren't too bad and only took about 10 minutes. I pulled out these 3 pound weights, which I bought about two years ago, but don't think I actually ever used.


I found the exercises in the January issue of Cooking Light. I tried to find them online to post a link, but they weren't on their website. So you may just want to pick up that issue if you are interested. One was just lunges where you hold the weights down to your side while you are doing them. Another core workout I did is called "Superman." You lay flat on your stomach with your arms stretched straight in front of you and palms down. Then you lift your head, arms, and legs, and hold them up as long as you are able. You repeat that 2 to 3 times. There was another exercise I did with the weights called a curl press that was good. I felt like they worked out my muscles well but weren't too difficult to where I felt discouraged. I feel good now, but may be sore tomorrow. Now Josh and I are going to the rec center to walk around the indoor track for awhile. I get to use these, which I bought last week and haven't used yet. Hopefully they will get lots of use, and I will be running in them soon, not just walking!