Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - December Edition

Tomorrow is the first day of my birthday month – yes, the double nickel! I love my birthday and plan to celebrate all of this month, but not excessively.  I want to continue with the good things I’ve started and get past the medical challenges I’ve had the last few months.

Christmas isn't a holiday in Japan, but some places still decorate like it was.  Here are some photos Ted took of holiday decorations at the Sapporo Factory last week.

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - November Edition

This month I am going to (slowly) add situps back into my routine.  I haven’t done any since before my surgery.  I have walked every day, but haven’t been as good as I could have been with my eating.  I blame it on all of our little trips and events, but I plan to do better when I eat away from home this month.  I had hoped to lose two kilos, but I’m not unhappy about losing only one. (It’s a good thing I walked so much or I might have gained).  I resolve to do better this month. I want to walk outside as long as I can, but I know winter is coming and I’m prepared to walk inside at the university’s new gym.

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - October Edition

Since my uterine cancer diagnosis, I’ve been reading a lot about it on the internet.  Just about every site has a list of risk factors.  Most don’t seem to have anything to do with me, but two that jump out for me are never having been pregnant and being overweight.  Even if I were guaranteed never to get cancer if I had been pregnant, I still wouldn’t change that one.  Being overweight is another story.  My BMI has put me in the overweight category for longer than I want to admit.  Although I would have preferred to be thinner, I was able to function without any problems; I even completed marathons.  I knew I was too heavy, but I didn’t feel so heavy that it was hurting me.  It looks like I was wrong.

My baby step for this month is to start to work my way back to a normal BMI.  I’m not going to diet or do anything drastic.  I’m going to try to make good food choices and watch my portion size, as well as continue to walk and work on the other changes I’ve been trying to make this year, (with the exception of sit-ups for now – maybe I’ll add them back in next month.)  My goal for the month is to lose two kilos (about 4 and a half pounds). 

If you are interested in finding out what your own BMI is, check out this calculator.

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - September Edition

Isn’t it ironic that as I am trying to make little steps to better my health, I get hit with such a major health challenge? My plan for this month is to heal from the surgery and get past this.

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - August Edition

I’m going on vacation this month and I want to keep up with my baby steps to better health habits.  I know how easy it is to eat too much when eating out, so my plan for this month is to watch portion sizes. I want to either order smaller meals or to save half of what I order for the next meal. I’m not so good about proper portion sizes when I eat at home, so eating on vacation will be a challenge for me.  Do you have any tips for me on how to eat proper portion sizes and not overeat while on vacation?

Stay tuned and I’ll tell you more about my trip in a few days.

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - July Edition

Half way through the year!  Time seems to be going by so fast.  This month I’m giving up fried foods. When we eat out, I sometimes order tempura or fried ika.  I like both, but want to eat more healthily.  I don’t eat fried food that often, so this won’t be so difficult. I want to have a relatively easy step this month so I can continue to concentrate on the changes I’ve committed to making the first six months.   I’ve been doing much better with walking, but still need to work on stretching and sit-ups more.

 

Watermelon is a good (healthy) dessert, but it is so expensive here that I don’t often buy it.  I saw this slice at Haruki for 298 yen and put it in my basket.  When the clerk was ringing up my purchases, I thought I saw 498, so I asked “kore wa ikura desu ka?” and the clerk said “298 en”, so I thought I was mistaken about what rang up. When I looked at my receipt, it said mikan 498, instead of suika 298.  I showed it to the clerk and she corrected the mistake and gave me money back.  I was pleased that I was able to use my limited language skills to buy my watermelon.

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - June Edition

This month I want to eat less processed foods and eat more fresh and raw foods.  Ted is gone on a lot of field and conference trips this time of year.  When I’m left to preparing meals for myself, I end up eating cereal and peanut butter because I hate to cook.  I’m going to try to do better.

(This is also Ted's birthday month - celebrations often involve food.)

How am I doing on my first five months?  I didn’t do so well with exercise in May, but I’m getting back on track.  Cutting back on coffee was a lot easier than I thought.  I started out drinking two cups in the morning.  Some days I only drank one cup in the morning, “saving” my second cup in case I wanted coffee later in day, then not having a second cup.  A few days I didn’t drink any coffee. 

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - May Edition

I’ve been a coffee drinker for a long time.  Lately, I’ve been drinking a lot of coffee.  I really like coffee and haven’t had any ill effects from the amount I drink, but as with anything, too much of a good thing, probably isn’t a good thing.  This month I want to cut back on the caffeine, so I’m going to limit my coffee drinking to two cups a day.  We’ll see how it goes.

 

I’ve been doing pretty well on my other baby step habits and plan to continue with them.   It's good that Ted is walking and doing situps with me.  I got this idea from the blog Zen Habits.  He had a good post recently that explains what I’m calling the baby steps to change and you can read it here.

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - April Edition

This month I’m adding sit-ups/crunches to my routine.  We’ll see how that goes. 

Check up on my first three months --- 1) My walking has been more consistent since the temperatures have been above freezing and the snow is melting instead of falling.  2) Stretching could be better, but I think that will improve because I’ll be doing sit-ups and can do both while I’m on the floor.  3) I didn’t buy or drink a single bottled tea and have been drinking more water this month.

I pulled out this barely started project from I don’t remember when.  The little tote bag is about 5” x 5”.  The tightly woven black fabric is a little difficult to work on.  If I can continue working on it, I’ll post my progress.

 

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - March Edition

This month, I want to cut down on sugar.  I’d like to say I’m going to quit eating all sugar, but I know that is not reasonable for me.  My baby step plan is to give up bottled drinks this month and carry my own water bottles.  In the US, if I bought a drink, it would be a diet soda (I know, not healthy either, but no kcalories).  Here, there are very few choices when it comes to diet drinks, but bottled teas are popular.  My favorites are lemon tea and milk tea.  I can’t read the ingredients, but both taste sweet, so I’m sure there are a lot of empty kcalories in them.

I’m walking (January) and stretching (February) more than I did before, but I still want to work on consistency.  Baby steps…

I’ve started a new project.  My plan is to finish it by the end of the month as my March smalls stitch a long item.  The whole thing is going to be diagonal rice stitches. Check back later in the month.

Twelve Months to the Double Nickel - February edition

I can only give myself a so-so grade for walking in January, but I’ll try harder this month.  My February plan for improvement is stretching.  I’ve never been flexible, but am getting less so as I get older.  My plan is to stretch in the morning and the evening.

With snow on the ground, it's hard to believe, but we are still enjoying the vegetables from last summer’s garden.  We have some onion and peppers chopped and frozen and we are still enjoying these fresh kabocha.

 

I’m still looking for a pair of Dorothy’s slippers!  This week, on the morning I needed to go to Sapporo, it was snowing and blowing like a blizzard.  The blowing snow caused drifts that closed the expressway, canceling the busses all day.  The trains started running late morning, so I missed my morning Japanese class but was able get to my part time job in time for my afternoon classes. The trains were still running in the evening, so I did get home, although later than usual.  Last winter I only worked at the university (across the street from where I live) so I didn't have any winter transportation problems.

As I was walking home from the train station that night, I found a phone in the snow. Ted took it to the university and  with the help of one of his students, reunited it with its owner, another student.

 

I have several things on my calendar this weekend, so I hope the snow doesn’t prevent me from doing any of them. If I do have to stay home, I can always stitch.  I just started stitching the beads on this needle book.

 

 

12 Months to the Double Nickel

January is the time many people make resolutions to make changes.  It’s easy to make the list, hard to keep with it.  I’m at the age where I need to make some lifestyle changes to make sure I keep getting older!  I’ve been reading Zen Habits with interest.  The author has been making changes in his life, one a month, and writing about it.  I want to do something similar this year – nothing drastic, just some common sense healthy changes, one at a time.

This month I’m trying to be more consistent about exercising.  Walking outside can be a challenge in Hokkaido in winter, but I’m taking some tips from Karen at walktalk.  The Chicago area is getting some Hokkaido-like snow and colder than Hokkaido temperatures and Karen is staying motivated and dedicated to her walking routine.  I’m reading, learning, and trying to follow her example.

Stitching Pears

I was able to put in the last two rows of stitching on this pear.   I think I have five of the 12 pears stitched.  When I have all 12 stitched, I’ll decide how to finish finish all of them.