This is not original

But I’m adding my endorsement.

Today’s tip is about something I have resisted for a long time.

I believe I’ve written now and again about wanting to lose some weight and about how moving out of the City to car country has sent my weight climbing in the opposite direction.

For a long time, I resisted the idea that I would have to actually go on a diet. I thought, maybe, if I could just motivate myself to get back into exercising that would be enough.

Diets don’t have a good reputation. People keep falling off them.

They don’t have a lot of culinary appeal. Maybe some of you like cottage cheese, but…. blech!

My sister, however, directed me to myfitnesspal, and it was a most excellent tip!

I am now, for the first time in my life counting calories. I’ve been doing it for 9 weeks, and I have lost 10 pounds.

Not bad, huh?

Myfitnesspal makes it easy to track your food intake with thousands of entries in their database and an easy interface.

Now, I will say that nutritional content has been a secondary concern for me in the early stages of shedding these pounds, but just out of necessity, I am eating more fruits and vegetables.

1200 calories is an astonishingly small amount of food, you see, compared to the contemporary diet of most people in this day and age. But, if you eat fruits and vegetables you can eat almost all day—thus, satisfying the “munchies” and still shedding pounds.

But what I like about myfitnesspal is that I can have chips and ice cream so long as I keep them within my calorie budget. Plus, in an incentive to exercise, you can eat more if you track the calories you’ve burned. (I’m walking for pizza is a thought that has crossed my mind more than once on the treadmill.)

I’ve got a ways to go, and I might hit a plateau, of course. I might fail to keep it off.

But I set myfitnessplan goal to lose a pound a week, and I’ve done better than that just by religiously tracking what I eat. I haven’t felt deprived—in fact, I’ve had ice cream every day. I’ve never eaten detested “diet” foods, and it’s been remarkably easy.

So, I’m thanking my sister, my other fitness pal, for the tip, and I’m passing it on to you.

You, too, can learn to like

Yogurt

I’m sure that many of you already do. Like yogurt, I mean.

I, on the other hand, have never been able to acquire a taste for it. I’m aware of the health benefits, of the low calorie-ness of it.

It’s just that I’m a person for whom texture is more important than taste when it comes to food. And, let’s face it, yogurt does not have an appealing texture for one who thinks that the four basic food groups are pizza, popcorn, pickles and potato chips.

I have lately embarked on a serious quest to shed some pounds, however. Consequently, I thought I’d try again to see if there were any yogurt flavors or brands that I could actually bear to swallow.

Now, I’m not saying that it’s likely to become a staple of my diet—although I am starting to appreciate the quickness and portability of it—but the miracle is I think I’ve found one.

Yocrunch Cheesecake-Flavored Yogurt.

It doesn’t taste much like cheesecake. At least, not the delicious Baby Watson Cheesecake of my NYC days. On the other hand, the calorie count is, like, a million times less.

And it’s crunchy!

Well, not the yogurt itself. But it comes packaged with some crunchy graham cracker crust bits that you sprinkle into the yogurt, thus providing some welcome relief from the sheer awful smoothness of the yogurt.

A quick 100 calorie snack.

No comparison to pizza. Or potato chips. Or even pickles.

But it’s edible.

I even selected it out of the refrigerator by choice today. The choice was a little more due to the desire for a fast and easy boost to the blood sugar than to a craving for the actual taste, but I did choose it. And ate it.

And realized that herein lies a miracle.

A yogurt I can stand to eat!

For my friends

who have trouble sleeping.

We’ve all heard it said that counting sheep is a good way to fall asleep. (I don’t know why sheep rather than cats or something. Maybe because almost nobody is afraid of sheep?)

Anyway, here is a little website that may help you out.

This could be the silliest Silly Saturday yet.

But when you’re done laughing, maybe it will bore you to sleep.

Counting Sheep.

Ruthlessness

As a job skill.

Thankful today for ruthless physical therapists.

You wouldn’t think of ruthlessness as a job skill. Maybe in a mogul, but not in a healthcare profession. Generally speaking, you think of caring and caretaking and concern.

I suppose those are still the top skills in healthcare. Bedside manner. It’s important.

And I don’t want to imply that my physical therapists are lacking in any of that. They are careful and concerned and very friendly and sympathetic.

And ruthless.

And that is a good thing.

See, you may remember, that I have this frozen shoulder thing going on. (Yes, it hurts. And, yes, I feel old. And yes, it is slightly better now, thank you.)

I’ve been going to PT for weeks. There are pulleys and Thera-bands and weights and lengths of PVC pipe and timers and doorways for isometrics and infrared heat and lots of ice in my life. Twice a week for some of the elaborate gadgets—when I go in to the office—and twice a day for the stuff I can do at home.

In addition to all that, there always comes a time in my therapy session when one of the therapists comes along to “pull on me.” I lie on a table, and he or she takes hold of my arm and gently manipulates it in various directions.

Almost all of them are painful. Some of them seriously so.

I try not to whimper too much. (Who are we kidding? I try not to scream.)

The therapists are good, though. They watch my face. They notice when, instinctively, I tense my arm in a protective resistance.

Now, me, that’s the point where I would stop—if I were working on someone. I don’t think I have the fortitude to intentionally inflict that kind of pain.

They, on the other hand, hang in there. Another few seconds. Another millimeter. Another involuntary gasp.

They’re working for tiny increases in range of motion.

They’re getting them, too.

Ruthlessness.

It may be underrated.

Stand up, stand up

Sitting may be hazardous to your health.

I saw a video clip the other day—and I don’t remember where or who—but the “expert” seemed to think that sitting was second only to smoking in terms of being a health hazard.

Now, health hazard information goes through phases. Yesterday’s cholesterol-laden eggs are today’s source of good nutrition. However, the sitting thing seems to have some common sense behind it.

Plus, anecdotal evidence.

(That’s me. I’m telling you anecdotes.)

I left one of the most walker-friendly cities in the world to live in something that’s a cross between rural and suburbia. Nobody walks anywhere. This is because there is nothing you want to go to that is less than five miles away.

In general.

We do have an excellent pizza place only half a mile away. The Park-and-Ride, when buses actually start to visit it, will be a mile and a half. There’s a shopping center a little beyond that whose main claim to fame for me is a Subway restaurant. Two miles in the other direction is a Kirkland’s, a Michael’s, a Kohl’s and, even more wonderful, a Dollar Tree.

But, quite often, the heat and humidity are just too high for a stroll to the store.

Back in the day, when I worked outside of my home office, I would walk to work, and I would walk (some) around work. Now that I’ve “retired” to become a writer? I walk nowhere.

I could ignore pop culture warnings, but it is clear to me that I have gained weight and lost energy. I have aches and pains that have multiplied exponentially—far more than one would think likely in the mere three years since I made the transition from New York to Florida.

People have been advertising standing desks, with and without attached treadmills. These seem like a good idea, but it doesn’t have to cost that much money.

Today, I am writing this blog post with my laptop on the counter and me standing in front of it.

My tip for this Tuesday is that you should do the same.

As often as possible.

Trade and Mark

The Bearded Brothers

It’s flu season and an unusually bad one, they say. Therefore, today’s Smith is really two Smiths who are never thought of separately, so perhaps they are one, after all.

Confused? You won’t be after today’s episode of Smith Sunday!*

The Smith Bros. have one of the most famous trademarks and logos in history: the two bearded brothers facing each other from either end of the cough drop box. Remember?

Coincidentally, the story goes, the word “Trade” appeared under the picture of William Wallace Smith and the word “Mark” appeared under the picture of Andrew. (Can you tell their family emigrated from Scotland?) This gave rise to one of the only bits of whimsey one could imagine from such dour-looking figures. The brothers became known as Trade and Mark and were referred to by those names by customers and newspaper articles alike.

The company, started by their father in 1847, became known as the Smith Brothers in 1866. It still exists although it has passed out of the family’s hands and left Poughkeepsie, NY. (Not only Smiths, but New Yorkers!)

If you want to know more about the Smith Bros., you can go to their website (and you should, because the thought of the Smith Bros. even having a website makes me giggle). And/or you can listen to a Talking History recording of a NYS Dept of Commerce radio program on—you guessed it!—trademarks and, of course, the Smith Bros.

Either way, you should get a flu shot, if you haven’t already, and avoid a closer relationship with the products of Trade and Mark.

* Tag line borrowed from the brilliant 1977-1981 TV comedy, Soap. Never seen Soap? What are you waiting for?

PSA

Just do it.

Today’s post is a Public Service Announcement and something about which I feel really strongly.

Mammograms.

Yes, breast cancer is a scary idea. It’s even scarier if you don’t find out about it until it’s too late.

Yes, mammograms can be uncomfortable. Have you ever known anyone in the advanced stages of breast cancer? Comfort is long gone.

Yes, it’s a nuisance to have to take time out for a mammography appointment. Chemo and radiation appointments take a chunk out of your schedule, too. The more advanced your cancer is, the more appointments you’ll need.

Yes, it costs money to get screened. Thanks, however, to the Affordable Care Act, your out-of-pocket cost will be. . .nothing! You can’t beat that.

Yes, there is some disagreement about how often women should have mammograms. There isn’t any serious disagreement about whether they should. A new Swedish study conducted over 30 years–the longest study to date–shows that seven years of mammograms made for 30% fewer breast cancer deaths down the road.

Never had a mammogram? Want to know more about it? Check out the Fact Sheet at the National Cancer Institute.

Been putting off your appointment? Pick up the phone.

Early detection is the real race for the cure.

Elaine Smith Writes

Anything She Wants