5 a day update - day 10

I have not been the best participant of this challenge I have to admit!  While I am certainly getting in more fruits and veggies than I would be without the challenge, I haven't been diligent about meeting my daily goal of 7 and of checking in with Carla with my progress!

I'd say I'm averaging 5 a day.  Most of my 5 are coming from fruits and I need to do better about adding vegetables into the mix!

On of my favorite snacks (when I'm prepared with the ingredients on hand...) is to take Melba toast, smear a bit of low fat Laughing Cow cheese on it and then top it with with tomato and perhaps a small slice of turkey.  Adding some green onion to it is also a good way to add some extra flavor.  That and a handful of grapes will usually count for 2 fruits and veggies.  And around 3:00 in the afternoon it's a perfect pick-me-up!

But have I had this snack lately?  no....

Last week I went to my GP for my annual blood work.  I "suffer" from high blood pressure and I have a hypo-thyroid.  I got a call back from his office yesterday saying that my thyroid count was higher than it should be (even with the Rx I take...) and that my cholesterol count was 230.  I was very surprised that my cholesterol was this high since I've kinda been watching what I'm eating and have been exercising more.  But...apparently kinda isn't as good as it needs to be!  This may be just the kick in the rear that I needed to get back on track with having a healthier lifestyle.  I go back in December to have it all rechecked.  So...until then, I will have to be even more diligent with what I put in my mouth and how I'm exercising.

Shortly after we moved here three years I was extremely successful at losing weight (I lost about 10 pounds in 3 months).   I was even about 3 pounds away from my "dream weight"!!  I went to Weight Watcher meetings weekly and I ran, ran, and ran about 5 days a week.  Then...I started playing tennis.  Tennis interfered with my WW meetings and it cut out 2 days of running in the beginning, and then I stopped running all together and hung out on the tennis courts.  While playing tennis is great exercise, unfortunately I don't burn enough calories for my body to lose weight.

My plan is to re-adapt (is that a word?!?)  my way of eating and exercising from 3 years ago when I lost the weight I wanted to lose.  I will find a Weight Watchers meeting that works best for my schedule and will actually follow the plan.  Just following the WW plan will force me to get in all my fruits and vegetables!  And...I will exercise more.  One of my goals for September was to exercise an average of 30 minutes a day.  Another goal was to lose 3 pounds.

By being disciplined and working on these goals, I feel confident that I can lower my cholesterol by my December appointment.

follow-up to comments:

Carla & Sft - Thanks for the encouragement!

jpkittie - not having my wine at the end of everyday is a tough habit to break...but I've gone without for 3 days now!  Am counting down the hours until the weekend!

Sharon - I'm new to the Rosetta Stone software, but so I far really like it.  It's nice to have the flexibility of doing it at home (I can do as many "lessons" as I have time for in a day).  There is a microphone that comes with it so it corrects your pronunciation of the vocabulary words.      I wish I was 142# also!!  Am hoping that cutting back on my wine and increasing my exercise, that I'll be there by the end of the month!