Day 21

Today we took a day off from strict dieting and went out to eat after church with some new friends that we met at Battle Creek Central Christian Church.

Day 20

Today I walked the same country roads that I walked last evening. I just love the country.

I saw a goose family.

My heart is heavy because of the loss of someone that was a good friend. She was in a wheelchair and on oxygen for breathing problems. I realize how very fortunate I am that even though sneezing because of pollen and sore legs, I can walk and breath. 

But I take these things for granted and allow myself to be idle and out of shape.

That is the purpose of this Rotation diet and activity log. Pops and I want to be as healthy as it is up to us.

Life should be lived and lived fully.

There are a lot of health problems in this world. Some cannot be helped, some are the result of bad choices on our part. 

All of us are in bodies that decay and are dying a little each day. But cells are amazing and also renew themselves over time.

Everyday we can take the health that we have, at whatever stage it is, and choose to die a little or live a little.

I choose life.

Day 19

We made our delivery in the state of Indiana. Our next pickup is not until Monday so we are still in Indiana slowly working our way north.

We walked in this state again today. The Truckstop offered some walking routes along the country roads. The first one was a round trip total of 2 miles so we went that way. 

Here are some pictures from our walk.

This evening after our walk we had supper. I used a bag of Tyson grilled chicken breast strips, one can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, 1 oz. grated provolone cheese and heated in the microwave. I served that with asparagus spears.

The whole meal took only a few minutes and it was so good. The calorie total was 330 for a full plate.

Day 18

I can't believe that it is Day 18 already. I cannot believe that we have done this diet for 18 days. The food is good. There is plenty of variety and no food group is banned. 

You can even satisfy your sweet tooth if you get creative with yogurt, fruit and cereal. 

And finding good choices at restaurants hasn't been so difficult either.

I am also on Day 18 of walking. Pops is beyond that. And I am up to 1 1/2 miles per day and hope to get up to 2 soon. Although today I had to stop and rest because of that horrible leg pain that I got in the beginning. I am wondering if it may be a lack of potassium?

I peeked at next week's diet pages. It is another increase in calories. They are saying that the rotating of high/low calorie weeks is what keeps your metabolism going.

I hope it continues to work for both of us. We both want to be healthy and feel good.

Week 4 diet pages

I will be making my grocery list tomorrow. I thought maybe you might too. Here are the pages for next week.

Week 3 pages

Day 17

Back into the routine. It was so nice to go home. The food challenges were always present, but we held fast to our motivations.

After we switched off driving, we did our walking in Ohio.

I can feel the heat when I walk now.  I am feeling good and not hungry it cheated. 

We can't have these yet, but they look good. I will try them when we are allowed.

Day 16

We were on call so we had to stay close the house. But we got our walking in. Pops took off first. He walks further than I do. After he was was gone for about 20 minutes or so I set out. I figured we would walk back home together but he must have gone even further because I never even spotted him. I walked a mile and a half. 

He ended up doing 3.3.

We got a load. So after supper we had to leave.

Day 15

Today is Memorial Day and it is also weigh day.

Pops lost 3 pounds and I lost 4. That is pretty good.

Week three diet is exactly the same as Week one, except now the walking increases to 45 minutes.

We are on call for work so have to stick close by the house. We both got our walks in though. I am loving walking the country road next to our house.

This is our little village. Our house is just visible on the left.

It is very hard to follow our diet when there are so many scrumptious picnic foods around. But momentum is in our favor right now.

We did have a very good supper. We saved our calories by skipping lunch, then at supper we had 3 BBQ'd chicken wings, 1 oz boiled shrimp, and 2 oz of grilled steak, 8 grilled asparagus spears and fruit. It was fantastic.

I have found a really really good sugar free BBQ'd sauce at Walmart. It is G. Hughes Brand and like I said, it is good.then we finished off our Memorial Day by watching the movie, The American Sniper.

Day 14

There are many challenges to dieting while at home on a holiday weekend. But we are doing it!

We ate supper out with our son, Tom and his girlfriend, Sophia. I ordered a steak and red skinned potatoes and sautéed squash. Pops ordered a Cobb salad with grilled chicken. 

It is so nice to be home and spend time with our family.

Pops and I walked the country road next to the house today. 

Day 13

We are home with family. That brings challenges to the diet. So today we are combining our lunch and supper. 

Instead of hamburger patty with cheese and a salad for lunch and meatless sauce with pasta for supper, we are having meat sauce over spaghetti squash combined with some whole wheat pasta and salad. 

Learning, or should I say, relearning, how to put healthy meals together and following up with reasonable exercise is doable. It just takes planning and want-to.

I have found a motivation. So I hope that I can continue to be motivated and don't settle.

Dr Phil says, "The only difference between you and the person you envy is that you chose to settle."

I have settled and I am cheating myself and my family by allowing unhealthiness to rule. I no longer what to do that.

Pops went to the woods with the soninlaw to hunt turkeys. That counted as his walk and exercise.

I took my grand dog, Boots for a walk back the country road beside our house.

From my walk:

Day 12

We are heading home for the Memorial Day Weekend. 

Diet is going ok and the exercise is about evened out although Pops cut back some today because while walking, his blood sugar dropped.

Day 11

It is Day 11. However all day, for some reason, I was thinking it was Day 12. We ate Day 12 food all day.

Oh well. So tomorrow we will eat Day 11 food.

I want to increase my walking so I walked in place, in the truck, for 1 mile while Pops was driving through Illinois. Then walked another mile with him when we reached Pennsylvania.

Day 10

We are hustling today, non-stop through New Mexico, the Texas panhandle, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Busy us! 

But we stopped to walk in Oklahoma. Pops wants to log our walking in 48 states.

Supper was meatless and that made me grouchy at first, but it was good and it was filling.

Here's a look:

Day 9

Pops and I entered California this morning for a pickup. So much of the country's produce comes from California. We passed many truckloads today. Most were carrying grapefruit.

We saw one truck pulling a double trailer of pink grapefruit. Yum yum. We love those, especially with the Mexican spice.

If you've never tried this, you should check it out. It is good on most any fruit but wonderful on grapefruit and oranges. Find it in your produce aisles. I see itin most Walmarts now. I used to only find it in Texas and New Mexico. But if you can't find it, let me know.

Day 8

Today was weigh day. I am down 3 pounds. Pops is down 5 pounds. This is my first week. He has been watching for about 3 weeks. 

I walk an average of one mile per day. He walks an average of 3 miles per day.

I was bummed a little, well, more than a little, but it will be ok as long as I don't get too discouraged.

I am real excited for Pops. His weight loss is starting to be noticeable and his energy is great. 

Day 7 and Week 2 diet pages

Today is Day 7. One week in the books. The diet part went pretty well. The exercise part, for me, is getting off to a slow start except for yesterday. Maybe I just need a Grand place to walk everyday. Pops is doing real well with his exercise.

I have noticed that both of us are a little more grouchy with each other though. I wonder if that is a side effect of the diet or just us getting older? Hmmmm. I'll go with diet and hope we get past it.

Day 6

Well it was super easy to get our exercise today.

Pops and I got to go to the Grand Canyon for an unforgettable day trip. 

And we were so excited that we didn't even notice we were on a diet. I packed our food into a lunch that we devoured once back to the car. But by the time we got "home" to our truck, we were so exhausted, we couldn't eat.

Day 5

Still in Utah.

We are deadheading today. That means we are driving with no load to our next destination. So we stopped at a nice little rest area to get our walk in. There were upgrades and stairs so it was a nice place to exercise.

Get out there and do it.

Day 4

It did not take me a short time to get unhealthy so I know in my brain that I will not get healthy quickly. Also, I do not want to see a finish line or an end zone. I want to get healthy and stay as healthy as it is up to me. 

I also know that I need to set realistic goals for myself. I am over a half century in age, it would be foolish to think that I will ever see my 25 year old body again. 

But I don't want to be achy. I don't want to be short of breath when I do normal everyday things. I don't want to have to buy clothing that come from the plus section. And I don't want to avoid get togethers because I am ashamed of how much bigger I am now then I was the last time.

Last night was bad for me. While we walked I got severe pain in my calves. I managed to get my mile in but just barely. My legs hurt so badly. I had to take Ibuprofen and wear my compression socks just to sleep. I did look on the Internet and even talked with an online medical person. I was given four causes for my pain, each comes with different courses of action (or non action) as a remedy. I am not going to even entertain the thoughts of the two worst case scenarios. 

So....

It is day 4 for us. We are having an unplanned day off work. So I got caught up on some things that really needed done. Then I was quiet while Pops slept. When he woke, we had our supper then went walking. I walked 3/4 mile before my legs began to hurt tonight. So I did do my mile. Once again I will take the Ibuprofen before I go to bed, but hopefully, it will get easier with time. One possible remedy was as simple as replacing my shoes. I just might go that route.

We are in Salt Lake City, UTAH. UTAH is one of our favorite states.

Here is a picture of our supper. I switched things around just a little from the printed menu but still stayed within the food groups, calories and choices.

I made a stir fry using chicken thighs, frozen cauliflower and broccoli, mandarin oranges and onions.

Here are a few shots from our walk.  

Day 3

The diet is going pretty well. It helps when the food is interesting and fresh.

We made banana wraps this morning for our breakfast.

Pops slept most of the day while I did the driving. I kept watching the sky and hoped that we would get our walk in before the rain came. 

We stopped in the evening and it started to downpour. So I prepared our supper hoping that the rain would slack off. And just as the food was done the rain became only a drizzle. So we turned the food off and started out to walk. 

We are in Nebraska at a rest area. We walked the sidewalks all around the building and grounds. I walked my mile and Pops went 3 miles.

The exercise is slow going for me. I am getting really bad leg pain. I believe it might be because I need my back adjusted. But I am going to keep plugging on.

Miles per state- walking

Alabama- Pops 2.25, Noni 5.4

Arizona- Pops 17.8, Noni 10 miles

Arkansas- Pops 9, Noni 5.8

California- Pops 9.5, Noni 8.3

Colorado- Pops 2.5, Noni 1.75

Florida - Pops 2.12, Noni 1.37 

Georgia- Pops 10.4, Noni 6.3

Idaho- Pops 2.1, Noni 2

Illinois- Pops 13.5, Noni 8.8

Indiana- Pops 16.3, Noni 9

Iowa- Pops 8.9, Noni 6

Kansas- Pops 2, Noni 1.2

Kentucky- Pops 2.1, Noni 1.5

Maryland- Pops 7.9  Noni 5.6

Massachusetts- Pops 4, Noni 2.5

Michigan- Pops 7, Noni 4.3

Minnesota- Pops 6.25 Noni 2

Mississippi-Pops 11.8, Noni 9.3

Missouri- Pops 3.9, Noni 2

Montana Pops 2.4, Noni 2.3

Nebraska- Pops 6.5, miles, Noni 3.3

Nevada- Pops 4.7 Noni 3.6

New Mexico- Pops 8, Noni 5

New York- Pops 20.3,  Noni 20.3

North Carolina- Pops 5.2, Noni 3.8

North Dakota- Pops 2, Noni 2

Ohio- Pops 28.9,  Noni 23.3

Oklahoma- Pops 6.2,  Noni 3

Pennsylvania- Pops 161.5 Noni 85.3

South Carolina- Pops 11.3,   Noni 10

Tennessee- Pops 7.64, Noni 4.3

Texas- 13,  Noni 10.5

Utah- Pops 6,  Noni 2

Virginia- Pops 22.9, Noni 15.5

West Virginia- Pops 2.12, Noni 1.4

Wisconsin- Pops 22, Noni 17.8

Need:

Oregon

Washington

South Dakota

Wyoming

Delaware

New Jersey

Rhode Island

Connecticut

New Hampshire

Vermont

Maine

Louisiana

Day 2

Today is our Monday and it is rude.

We arrived at our pickup location last night after dark and there is plenty of room to park, so we did. 

Our pickup time today was noon but we were awakened by loud banging on our door this morning early. They would load us now!

So we rushed around like crazy people getting ready and getting our load on. It is a hazmat load which means brain power is needed and we hadn't had coffee yet. Grrrrr.

But , time now to settle down and restart the right way, buckets of coffee and scripture.

Ok, ready to face the day.

We used yogurt in place of milk for our breakfast this morning.

For lunch I substituted Queso Fresco (Mexican cheese) crumbled for the cottage cheese and made a wrap with raw baby spinach, fresh Florida tomatoes, and red onion and the cheese. Yum yum.

We walked in Tennessee at Nickajack Lake/Tennessee River.

I got my mile, a lot of it was uphill. Pops got over 3 miles and he did a lot of stairs. I made our supper while he finished walking. 

We had tilapia filets, green beans and carrots.

Here are some pictures from our walk

This is a baby bird that was learning to fly.

Day 1

In February of 1987 I had my last child. My post pregnancy weight for my 5'4" frame was 146# and I was devastated and feeling huge.

I wish I was that huge right now. 

Sometime during the summer of 1987 the grocery store where I shopped began a community diet plan. I shopped each week and gathered each of the pamphlets but never started the diet. Recently I came across the diet and thought I might as well give it a go.

It is called the Rotation Diet. It starts out very low calorie and changes each week to keep your metabolism revved.

So I have shopped, I have weighed, and I've eaten my "last supper," so, here it is, Monday morning, let's go.

Pops is going to do it with me which should make it easier for both of us.

Along with this Diet we are doing 21/21 Walking Challenge. We will be walking at least 21 miles in the next 21 days. That is only 1 mile a day. I can do that. Pops just finished 21/21 yesterday and he walked over 50 miles!

 Do you want to do it with us? I hope so. Let's go.

We are going to try to walk in all 48 states. 

Florida - Pops 2.12 miles, Noni 1.37 miles

Tennessee- Pops 3 miles, Noni 1

Here is Week one of the Rotation Diet

Breakfast