CrazyBusy Mama! (Dot Calm)

I’ve been thinking about excuses lately. I’ve personally been very good at making lots of them, thinking up plenty of reasons over the years as to why I couldn’t get in shape, eat healthy, etc. But ever since I made the choice to change my life, I’ve been blowing some of those excuses out of the water. I’d like to share them with you.

“I can’t exercise because I have this or that physical problem.” When I was 19, I had knee surgery for a cartilage problem in my left knee. I also have it in my other knee, and both can still be very noisy when take I the stairs or kneel . As far as exercise, the crackling sound makes doing lunges quite comical. When I was 12, I was diagnosed with scoliosis, and with fibromyalgia about 10 years ago. The cherry on top of all of this: I also suffer from one or two migraines a month. So what did I do? I stopped listening to myself whine about my knees (they’ve both gotten stronger, thanks to working out), I rarely notice my fibromyalgia anymore, and when the migraines hit, I lay low and allow my body to rest. When the pain lessens, I’m back to my workouts. What’s your excuse? Everyone can do something.


“I’m too tired to make healthy meals for my family.” This excuse can be scrubbed out with a little planning and effort. Do what I did: Motivate yourself by reading about all the ways healthy eating can benefit your family, and how junk food harms their bodies. You’ll find yourself more motivated to make meals that are good for all of you.

“I’m too tired…period.” If you have a physical condition that is causing fatigue, please check with your doctor before starting an exercise program. If you’re otherwise healthy, you may be surprised to know that exercise – hard work that it can be – will actually give you more energy and help you to sleep better at night. I’m living proof. I have more energy now (previously sapped by my fibromyalgia and poor health habits) than I’ve ever had in my life. I feel great! Also, make sure you’re getting enough sleep.

“I don’t have the time/I’m too busy.” You’ve probably heard the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” It’s true. If you let the trivial busyness of the day take over, hoping to fit in a workout somewhere along the line, it won’t happen. Make it a priority. If you use a planner, schedule it as an appointment.

“I’ll start exercising when my life calms down … I’m under too much stress right now.” My doctor once told me, “If you don’t let the stress out, it will find its own way out.” Ominous words, but very true. Stress left unchecked can cause a host of health issues. Exercise, therefore, is an excellent stress-reliever. During one weekend that was hard for our family, my daughter Erica and I both felt the need to get outside and just walk. We went around our block at a good pace twice (joined for a portion of it by our neighbor’s black lab), joked around a little, and felt pretty good by the time we got home. Was the stress and worry over a particular situation (my husband’s health) totally gone? No, but we both felt better able to manage it. So, really, when it comes to exercise, there’s no time like the present.

Here’s a simple thing to do: Take a few moments to think about the excuses you’ve been making when it comes to getting in shape, then write those excuses down. Next, think of a rebuttal for each excuse, and write that down, too. For example, if you wrote, “I don’t have time to exercise,” you can counter that with: “I can fit in a brisk, 15-minute walk every day.” If walking isn’t your thing, try the 10-minute workouts on ExerciseTV.tv, or through your cable TV provider (I do the workouts that I find on Exercise TV through the Sports and Fitness Channel on Comcast’s OnDemand).

Remember: No more excuses!

©2009 Sally Dinius
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Sally Dinius is writer-in-chief here at CrazyBusyMama.com, a blog created to inspire and motivate busy mamas everywhere to feel healthy, fit, and in control of their lives.

If you’ve read my post on the ExerciseTV blog about my hard-to-believe holiday plans, you know those plans include making healthy versions of the “usual” holiday dishes, starting with Thanksgiving. I’m talking about marshmallow-covered sweet potato casserole, peanut butter fudge, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. Each and every one will be getting a makeover.

Also, as you’ll see in the post I mentioned above, my daughter and I are following a health challenge to maintain our weight and gain not even one pound during the holiday season. Yikes, right? More on that in a later post!

Following is a list of each dish as it used to be (a torpedo of fat aimed straight for the hips), and what it will become (delicious and nutritious):

Sweet potato casserole, previously made with eggs, spices, brown sugar, and topped with marshmallows and canned pineapple, will now be sweetened with turbinado sugar (“sugar in the raw”), with a crispy streusel topping.

Mashed potatoes will no longer be made from baking potatoes (or, as was the case on some Thanksgivings, from a box). This year, my “mashed potatoes” will actually be made from red potatoes, cauliflower (that’s right), and roasted garlic.

As far as the gravy is concerned, I used to make it by whisking together turkey broth, water, and a couple of MSG-laden packets of turkey gravy. No monosodium glutamate on our turkey day table this year! We’ll have gravy, but it’ll be made in a more nutritious way.

The Best Life Diet Cookbook: More than 175 Delicious, Convenient, Family-Friendly Recipes I personally love this cookbook. It’s full of great recipes that can be used any time of year. (I plan to use quite a few of them myself during the upcoming holidays.) Click the link above to get it for less than half price.

Our usual homemade whole berry cranberry sauce will be sweetened with turbinado sugar this year instead of white sugar (hint: the addition of frozen blueberries makes it even sweeter).

Green bean casserole…now that will be a tough one. I’ll either use the low-fat version of cream of mushroom soup in it, or may just replace the casserole with a healthier veggie dish. I’ll let you know.

Peanut butter fudge is also stumping me, I’ll admit. I’ve made it for years from a stick or two of real butter, what seemed to be a ton of sugar, peanut butter (of course), and a jar of marshmallow cream. You know — and I know — that for someone who’s trying to get and/or stay healthy, that’s a dangerous thing to have sitting around. I’ll either make a healthier version (perhaps with turbinado sugar) or I’ll just make less, considering how my 17 year-old son begged me not to ditch the fudge this year.

And, last but never least: Pumpkin pie. I’m really pretty excited about this one. While shopping in the natural foods section of my favorite store last week, I found a can of organic pumpkin pie filling! Who’da thunk it? Organic pumpkin pie filling? I grinned from ear to ear when I held that can for the first time. It contains nothing but pumpkin, organic cane juice, and spices. I just have to add eggs and a crust. I bought a second can today because I’d love to try making some pumpkin pie biscotti with it.

The turkey, as usual, will be roasted inside a Reynolds Oven Bag. I’ve cooked it in one of those for the past 10 years (at least), and it’s been perfect every time.

I am really excited about the changes I’ll be making to our Thanksgiving menu! I plan on posting recipes all next week for you to try, so you can have a healthy (but tasty) Thanksgiving, too.

©2009 Sally Dinius
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This past weekend has been a particularly trying one for my family. While shopping yesterday, I decided to bypass my health-conscious conscience and bring home a dessert we could all “emotionally eat” that evening…nurturer that I am. And because it’s October, what naturally came to mind was…what else? Pumpkin pie.

I made my way over to the store’s bakery and quickly found the pies. In the past, I’d bought pumpkin pies without so much as a glance at the calorie declaration. Not anymore. Holding one of the pies over my head so I could read the nutrition panel, I almost dropped it when I saw the number: 350 calories per 1/8 of the pie. In other words, if you cut it into eight pieces, the slices are 350 calories each.

(Admittedly, my shock at that number didn’t register nearly as high as it did when I discovered the caloric intake in one little Hostess fruit pie: around 500 calories, give or take, depending on the pie. I haven’t bought one since.)

So, truth be sheepishly told…I bought the pumpkin pie. But because it’s something I bring home so rarely, I flicked the dancing Richard Simmons off my shoulder and put the pie in the cart…determined to find a recipe for a healthy alternative stat.

I think I succeeded, along with a couple other recipes I’ll be trying this week:

	Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Crust from Care2. After a little searching, I found a recipe I just might try. Not only is the calorie count less than half of the pie I bought the other night (just 125 calories per slice for this one), but it’s healthier. The crust is made up of graham crackers and ground pecans (low-fat graham crackers are available), and 1/4 apple juice concentrate combined with 1/4 brown sugar sweetens it. Definitely sounds better for my family than the 1 cup of sugar used in another “healthy” pumpkin pie recipe I found (and quickly discarded) today.
Apple Scones I’m not much of a fair-goer, so when I hear the word “scones,” I think of fall or cottages dotting the English countryside rather than cotton candy, rides, and petting zoos. To me, a good, healthy scone paired with a hot mug of coffee is a perfect way to begin a frosty morning. I liked this particular recipe because, while it uses white sugar, it only calls for 1/4 cup, and wheat germ is one of the ingredients (don’t bypass that one!). The recipe also includes 1/2 cup of buttermilk, but it makes eight scones, so it’s not like each person will be getting all of that fat. (And I think I saw low-fat buttermilk recently…wonders never cease!) No word on the calories in this recipe — just stick to one scone.
	Banana Crunch Muffins Tell ya what — if I make these, I’m hiding them! I go weak in the knees for banana muffins, and it looks like this recipe’s a keeper. Shrink the calorie count even more by using low-fat buttermilk and substituting the chocolate chips for walnuts (okay, okay — keep the chocolate…but do add some walnuts for extra fiber).

*Note: If you can’t imagine going for a “healthy” version of pumpkin pie, at least use Libby’s recipe for their Famous Pumpkin Pie. While it’s still a big 280 calories per slice, that’s 70 calories less than the store-made pie I brought home this weekend. (And if you can’t forego that dollop of whipped cream, at least buy the “light” version.)

I RECOMMEND:

With The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger (host of Food Network’s Healthy Appetite), you can eat that comfort food you’ve been thinking of…without all the guilt. Go ahead…indulge! 320 pages and over 200 recipes. Check it out!

©2009 Sally Dinius
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