Walking the floor over you

I think that focusing on just taking a lot of small sessions of walking throughout the day instead of focusing on one long session once a day is working for me. Instead of blocking out an hour to exercise, I just go about my daily tasks and after each small step walk so many times up and down the hall. It sounds crazy, but I have made my daily step goal every day doing so and I am gaining more mobility. Very good things for my overall goals.

I am trying to get back to the practice of taking pictures of meals, but instead of just posting everything, I only want to post those meals that were different. Let's face it- a blog of 365 days of the same oatmeal would put everyone to sleep !


Friday's lunch was a quick attempt at something making the rounds in blogworld that i wanted to try. Take a tortilla( in this case a La Tortilla high fiber low carb tortilla), spread it with hummus, add cheese and grill. ( I am still experimenting to see just what my tolerance level is with dairy). Very yummy, and we plan on having this again for lunch today. I pared this with carrots and cucumber slices, fresh strawberries and a 100 calorie pack of Smartfood.

Last night for dinner I made something that was a favorite, but I had forgotten about. Sometimes this happens, when you get busy or in a food rut because of something. Baked eggplant with two cheses over Heartland Pasta with Omega 3's. No salad on the side because we are all totally burned out on salads !This one is very low in points but high in flavor and volume !

Baked Eggplant with Two Cheeses (2 points)

Recipe By :Betty Crocker
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 medium eggplant (1 1/2 pounds)
14 1/2 ounces stewed tomatoes -- undrained
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 cup shredded reduced-fat Swiss cheese
OR
2/3 cup shredded reduced-fat Mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 350º. Spray rectangular baking dish, 11 × 7 × 1 1/2 inches,
with nonstick cooking spray. Cut unpeeled eggplant into 1/2-inch slices.
Place in 3-quart saucepan; cover with water (salted if desired). Heat to
boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 5 minutes; drain and pat dry.

Mix remaining ingredients except cheeses in 2-quart saucepan. Cook over
medium-high heat about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until slightly
thickened.

Place eggplant in baking dish; top with tomato mixture and cheeses. Cover
and bake 20 minutes. Uncover and bake about 10 minutes longer or until
light
brown.

Description:
"You'll never believe this dish, oozing with cheese, is low in fat!"
Copyright:
"© General Mills, Inc. 1998."

Per serving: 117 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; (15% calories from fat);
9g
Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 9mg Cholesterol; 393mg Sodium

Thank you little plant friend !

One of the side affects of the herb I am taking for my knee( agrimony for those who are interested), is that it deeply relaxes you. If taken in the proper dose, it makes tissues calm down so that fluids balance out, tissues relax and the body returns to it's normal state. For some reason many have used it for cases of "the trots", and its other affects have gotten pushed under the rug. Yet the very appearance of this plant speaks volumes about what it will do. It looks much like a cartoon cat that has been badly frightened, with tiny hairs standing up all over it's body. I begain taking it on Friday , and it brought the size of my knee back down to regular size. I got in a lot of walking in short bursts, and then it's secondary affects began. I was incredibly sleepy tired. So much so that I was in bed before 8 pm, and slept till 6 am. For me that is a miracle !

Today my knee feels pretty normal, and I plan on hitting the woods for a walk later this afternoon. When I come across the argimony plants growing there, I will have to say a special thanks.

Weigh in and thoughts

So...I lost 3.8 lbs this week.

While this should be a reason to get up and cheer, I cannot help but feeling that it is not a legitimate weight loss. I began to take an herb to help with my knee, and it has reduced the swelling back to normal. In affect it is just plain water loss, much as weight gain last week was from the build up.

The guys both have seemed to found what I lost, gaining 3.4 lbs each. With my son it is due to a lack of exercising because of mom's really crappy knee. Yes he should take responsibility for his own activity, but he is still very much a creature of his surroundings. If mom is sitting , so is he. Hubby is attributing his gain to some of the choices of sides he made with this weeks lunches.

We have all mutually decided that while clean eating is healthier, for us it appears to be counterproductive to weight loss, so we are going to go back to using things like the 100 calorie backs and so forth. We were actually losing when we were using them, and when we began to focus on healthy rather than portioned we stalled. I don't know why, but there it is. And now that my knee is less painful, I am considering trying to do more tai chi insteasd of walking. Walking and yoga may be "good" for weight loss, but if it injures your joints to the point of forcing you to be sedimentary, in the long run it is not so good.

So back to the drawing board !

Rolling along

We seem to be "on a roll" here. At least for lunch of late. Son has been requesting all kinds of roll up sandwiches for lunch, and with the availability of La Tortilla tortillas, it becomes a very healthy request.
Today's creation was black beans, homemade guacamole and baby greens. Bing cherries, carrot sticks and sun chips also joined in the fun.

Dinner was an idea that sounded better than it actually turned out. It was chicken in aeromatic vegetables and lentils. The veggies were sweet potatoes ,tomatoes and leeks in a mix of white wine vinegar, bouquet garni and cinnamon. It sounded like it would be healthy and good, but turned out to be pretty bland and just too much volume !

Got a fair amount of short walks in throughout the day. Building up slow but sure !

Better Day

Woke up with my back feeling much better, but my knee still painful. As much as I would like it to just instantly be perfect, it's not going to happen. So I just ried to do a lot of small spurts of walking to ease back into a little more intense working. I took care of some studies and menu planning, and made myself get up and walk every 30 min for at least 3 min. It's wimpy, it's baby steps, but it is moving !

Breakfast was banana oats instead of pumpkin oats. My verdict ? Way too sweet ! Tomorrow morning I will go back to pumpkin oats.
Lunch was a creation designed to use the leftover pork roast from Sunday. I used a LaTortilla tortilla, some baby greens, sliced pork roast and mixed some cranberry walnut chutney with mayonnaise. Pretty good combo if i must say so myself. Carrots, a pack of smartfood and a white peach comleted the meal.

Dinner was one of the house favorites- baked lemon chicken. You coat the chicken breast with a mix of flour, baking soda and paprika, bake on a high heat and serve with a sweet lemon sauce. Green beans and mixed whole grain rice on the side.

JC asked for my gelatto recipe, and to be honest I am still working on perfecting it. The batch I made on Sunday was like this - makes 3 pints

Super Chocolate Vegan Gelatto

2 cups non dairy liquid creamer( soy)
2 cups Almond Milk
1/2 cup agave syrup ( helps to keep the gelatto from freezing solid)
1/4 c brown sugar
2 t corn starch
1/3 cup dark cocoa powder
1 T vanilla extract
1 bar lindt dark chcolate with bitter orange and almond, broken in small peices

In a pan combine the brown sugar, cornstarch and brwon sugar. Slowly whisk in the coffee creamer to dissolve the cornstarch. Place on a low heat, stir constantly and add the almond milk and agave syrup. Bring to a light boil , remove from heat, add vanilla extract and choclate bar, stir till melted. Chill in refrigerator for 8-24 hours. Process in ice cream freezer according to directions and place in freezer to harden for 3 hours

And now a miracle has occured- Nick requested that we have Jello poke cake for our splurge this week and not gelatto. I have been trying to break him of the ice cream habit for 2 years, and it looks like it may finally be happening !

A good night sleep can be hazardous to your health

Woke up this morning after the first decent night sleep in almost two weeks to find my back in severe pain. Turns out that my muscles relaxed so much and I got chilled. Ouch ! Hubby gave we a reiki treatment, made breakfast and then I was pain free enough to be functional. No exercise because I was a bit skittish about hurting my back, so i took advantage of the time today to do some personal study.

Breakfast was Pumpkin oats with ground flax, crasins, dried papaya, coconut, candied sunflower seeds and olive oil. Ah, the power of oatmeal and coffee to get a body moving !

Lunch was a La Tortilla tortilla with roast beef and assorted baby greens. Cut the one into four peices so it looks like a party and higher volume. This pared with carrot sticks, a cup of watermelon and a pack of Smartfood 100 calorie white cheddar popcorn. Sadly all of the 100 calorie packs have some kind of dairy, but so far it does not seem to be bothering me so i don't know what the heck is going on. Menopause is such a fun time of life...NOT !


For dinner I got the feeling that we might be eating too many bready things, so i made a warm chicken salad. Bed of assorted baby greens, steamed asparagus, chicken breast seasoned with five spice powder, sauted in a small amount of peanut oil and sprinkled with almonds. I should have crushed the almonds, but I got lazy.

I am hoping for a good night sleep without morning back spasms !

Rainbow Sundae

One of those days where it was just kind of lay low and catch up on projects. Still very achy, but managed to get in some easy walks. Moving hurts but not moving will hurt worse !


Breakfast was our Sunday usual- crock pot grains in pumpkin ( steel cut oats, barley, whole wheat and millet). Topped with a sort of different assortment for me- crasins, ground flax, dried papaya, candy coated sunflower seeds , coconut and olive oil. I still have a lot of fun mixing all the toppings in the bowl for some reason.

Breakfast always holds us over for a long time. Lunch was kind of at request by the guys

Roast beef on hoagie roll with baby spinach, carrot sticks, a bananna and sun chips. It's another really filling lunch !

We caught Madea goes to jail on pay per view ( cute), and while we were watching we indulged in our favorite once a week splurge- gelatto. These days I make our own - a vegan variety


Dark chocolate bitter orange homemade vegan gelato- it was very good !

Dinner was an easy crockpot meal- pot roast with colored potatoes


pork roast with carrots , baby yukon gold, baby blue and baby white potatoes with carrots. Yummy! Here is one of the blue potatoes cut in half- they are actually purple.
Going to watch some reality tv tonight and try to turn in early !

Weigh in

Had a nice but long day up at moms with the computer reformat.Sadly lots of sitting on my butt time, but kept eating to good and healthy choices in proper portions.

Yesterday morning was weigh in- and the amount of inflammation I am experiencing at the moment really showed on the scale.

Me-up 2.8 . My bad knee was almost double the size of the good knee. It is still painful today but going down a lot in size
Hubby- down 1.2
son down 0.4

Plan for today is a Sunday at home after hubby gets back from singing at services.I am going to try to do as much gentle walking as my knee will allow to help it get back to normal. A little yoga is probably a good idea as well.

Ouchy Friday

Today started out not the best. I was awakened at 1 am with a lot of pain in my knee, and absolutely no drug, ointment or trick at my disposal would get it gone. It was a serious arthritis flair, and I assumed that it was due to the level of humidity in the air. So I got up and tried to just shift things around to be able to get comfy enough to sleep, but it was no use. I tried to sleep for a while but eventually gave up. So I came out to do some reading through of my herb notes, and discovered that the reason may be the goji berries that I have been eating every morning for almost a year. Turns out in some people they can create an inflammatory response- making arthritis worse and more. So bye bye goji berries , and we will see if this helps.

So breakfast this morning was the usual pumpkin oats with flax seeds, coconut,crasins and diced prunes and figs.I really like the taste of prunes. I know- I am weird !

I managed to get in as much walking as the knee pain would allow me during the day, but I intentionally held back because I knew we were going to have to go grocery shopping, and I need ed to be functionally mobile for that. It sounds pathetic, but you do what you have to do.

Lunch was a veggie rich, tasty concoction made up of veggies that were intended for other purposes this week but did not get used and gnocci. Gnocci is an Italian potato pasta sort of dumpling, and this made a nice change from our normal sandwiches. Son requested we make it into a "Love Lunch"- meaning eat it by candlelight. I talked him into just eating together at the one smaller table in the sunshine.
Gnocci, broccoli, mushrooms, red peppers, pearl onions, a little bit of leftover turkey, cut up mellon and 100 calorie pack of sunchips on the side.

Silly me- it just dawned on me that these sun chips- and all the other 100 calorie packs we bought this time- have dairy in them. Don't ask me what part of my brain saw the word cheddar and forgot tha it is a cheese. AND that cheese is dairy. Good news is that having them yesterday did not cause any seriuos stomach issues with me or Nick, so perhaps we can tollerate some dairy. Only way to be sure is to give it a try, which explains in part the reason for my choice at dinner
As i said, we had to go grocery shopping, and our store has a deli and hot foods bar with some great pizza, stromboli and more. I decided to get some veggie pizza- it came out to a two slice portion. Another plus was that it was served at the counter , placed in a container and there was little liikelyhood of me losing my stability and spilling it all over the ground. I kid you not- my knee is THAT bad today. When we got back from the store i ste to chopping up carrots, fruit salad and wound up nibbling on some carrots as I did.

Tomorrow is weigh in, and we have an unezxpected errand of mercy to preform. My sister contracted a trojan virus on her computer and we are heading up there to do a total reformat to see if this will rid thde hard drive of the problem. if my knee is more cooperative, I may take Nick out for a walk around the very long block that he house sits on.

And a little child shall lead them

Well, perhaps not a little child, but a child none the less !

While things have reacxhed the "lazy days of summer" as far as school goes, we still continue with our weight loss efforts, and quite frankly we have all reached a point where if we see one more meal of the same old thing, we are going to run screaming into the land of wide variety , but unhealthy choices. Clean eating is good , but after a while it puts your tastebuds and sensual eating self into a coma if you are not careful. Last night I reached a point where if I saw one more boneless skinless chicken breast cross our table I would lose my mind, so we ordered out. Thankfully we have one very good, very healthy fast food option near by in Polo Loco. An order of grilled citrus marinated chicken, steamed veggies, bbq black beans and corn tortillas seemed to give us a new lease on life. And it got son to thinking.


This morning we had our normal pumpkin oats with toppings- something no one seems to be tired of at this time. Perhaps it is because you can mix in the toppings, perhaps it is because the variety of flavor. Who knows, but it still remains a keeper . After breakfast it was out for a walk and then the kind of day to tackle individual projects and so forth. I got a lot of things accomplished, and son started brainstorming out loud some ideas for lunch. I have been teaching him about healthy choices and letting hom experiment with different ideas for meals. He has a really good food sense these days, and it is fun to watch what he brainstorms. Here was what he came up with for lunch

It is a whole wheat pita stuffed with mixed baby greens, barbaqued black beans and garbanzos, homemade guacamole and black olives. Baby carrots, assorted cut melon and pineapple salad and a 100 calorie pack of sunchips on the side. It was INCREDIBLY good ! I am tickled pink- he is actually paying attention to all of this stuff with nutrition !

Later in the afternoon, more out of force of habit than anything else, we had a snack

A white nectarine and a Fiber Plus bar. Yes, bad stuff in the bars and the chips, but as I said you get to a point with totally clean eating where your taste buds consider comittting suicide due to mind numbing boredom.

Dinnertime rolled around, and no one was hungry. Us from the incredibly high fiber day, daddy from a very late double lunch. I think my son may be a food genius !

Quick note

Just a quick note- I am still here, still alive and still working on our health goals. Been trying to get in as much walking as possible, and wondering about some fine points with this whole weight loss game. For example, reading over the food blogs of so many trying to lose weight and eating very healthy( and within calories/points), exercising daily, there seems to be a universal stall happening.Does it get to the point where you can be too healthy ?

Speed bump

Enter a new speed bump in the road.

My father died of breast cancer in 2004, and since then my mom has been dealing with Dementia , and what was most likely a nervous breakdown from my dad passing. They spent 42 very happy years together and were soul mates in every sense of the word. Since dad passed, there have been numerous problems with the house, and my mother for numerous reasons kept choosing to allow my brother to make repairs. Let us just leave it at the fact that my brother may mean well, but is not a contractor and often cuts corners where they should never be cut. For various reasons we have not been able to make it up there in a while, and my sister has not been communicating with me often because of her own extremely busy life between her own girls and the day to day things with my mom. The other day we got to talking and compared notes about some really weird dreams we were both having. To my sister weird dreams can mean something, but in my practice I often receive messages from my ancestors and spiritual guides in dreams. The fact that we were both having similar dreams meant something, and I made arrangements to go up there and spend the day. There were other obvious factors to deal with as well. I went up , prepared to face one thing, and figured that it would be the main focus of the day.

Wrong ! Within 30 seconds the whole picture changed. First off, my mother no longer recognizes me and looked at me as if I was a stranger invading her home. And if that was not enough , within the next 30 minutes I discovered that they are dealing with a serious toxic mold problem. And there are no resources to deal with it. There has always been a mold problem there, but due to various moves and corners cut by my brother, the mold has exploded, and the only solution may be to totally gut the house.

It makes the whole being stuck at the same weight and dealing with dietary changes to reverse autism seem like easy problems that can be solved in 30 seconds. So last night when we had dinner at 8pm( 3 hours later) I really didn't care what I ate.

Weigh in

It's Saturday, and even if I have decided my focus is now becoming strong rather than weight loss, the scale will still come out on Saturday to measure my son's progress and to help me keep track of where I am.

Me- neither gain nor loss. Total maintain
Hubby- DOWN 1 lb ( yay him !)
Son- neither loss nor gain. Maintain.

I am heading up to my mom's house today to take care of some family business, so it does not look like there will be a lot of walking or movement today. However sometimes other matters must take center stage. Having my mom become homeless because of a decision that it would be better to go hiking than to deal with a big mess would not be a wise move for anyone. Mom has Dementia, and often it means that she is a toddler with the legal ability to get into a lot of trouble.

Better motivation than Jillian or a bikini

We take a break in this weight loss journey to introduce you to someone brand new. Meet my new grand niece Jayda Lynn, who measured in for her first weigh in at 6 lb, 12 oz and 18 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing fine.

This is my 3rd grand niece/nephew now,and it kind of makes me giggle to think of myself as a grand aunt. After all, grandaunts are these spinster sort of ladies who have houses with doilies, smell of lavender and quietly sip tea. Here I am , thinking that there will be Barbies and tea parties in the future, as well as the introduction to monster bubbles and jump rope and more in my future. I like to play with the kids !

Just one more reason to focus on my goal. I want to be able to run and play with her- and all my greats !

New Focus

Yesterday something reminded me of the person I was, long ago and far away. Sometimes such memories are funny, and other times they can be sad. This was a memory of me, at 17, able to walk on rugged terrain, carrying things like aluminum canoes, 75 lb back packs and walking for miles everyday without a care in the world. Here she is.
Today I am 51, plagued by arthritis because of injuries sustained in those days, struggling to lose weight and often needing to walk with the aid of something to hang onto. Perhaps the absolute frustration of being stuck in the same 10 pound range for a year has gotten to me. Perhaps it's the lack of a real vacation for almost 20 years. Perhaps it is something else. Whatever it is, I remembered her and thought about me now, and decided enough is enough ! I no longer care what the scale says. I no longer want to think about a weight goal. I simply want to be that girl again. I want to be strong, stable and competent. I want to be able to walk on any terrain. I want to be able to carry heavy weights. I want to go rock climbing and rafting and more.

I refuse to be limited by arthritis
I refuse to buy into the myth that aging means weakening
I no longer care about things like BMI's

Instead of exercise to lose weight, I am going to work to gain back my old muscle mass. I used to be able to press 500 lbs with my legs.Instead of toning my body I am going to make it strong. Rather than thinking about a number on the scale appearing some day, I am setting a goal to spend my 52nd Birthday hiking on the bluffs of Devil's Lake. And then if I can find the equipment, to go white water rafting on my 55th birthday. Hormones can have the stupid scale number. I claim my muscles and bones !

For some reason, those goals are infinately more appealing than a number of 130

Planning and pedometers

Nice when you get a pedometer in the right position. It says yesterday I was a worker ant. Wonder if I can make happy dancing gazelle or something today ??

Menu planing for next week, and I am trying to break out of the rut. Going to experiment making crazy pizza with a non dairy cheese and make a turkey in the crockpot because they are so cheap. I think they have gone on sale because so many people deep fry them these days here. Strawberries, mangos and fresh okra are in abundance and cheap here- perhaps I should try to experiment with okra this week ?

Personal trainer walking and dancing on TV

Pedometers can be tricky things. And fancy pedometers can be a real pain ! If you position them wrong on your clothing they will not pick up your movements accurately, and then there is always the possibility of accidentally resetting it or knocking it off and into someplace you just don't want to retrive it out of. Yet they are a tool to help us measure our progress, keep on track and become better people than we currently are, so we use them.

Over the weekend, I got the new Personal Trainer Walking for the Nintendo DS. It has the game/software and two pedometers for you and a buddy to wear. It straps on your waistband or tucks in your purse, and at the end of the day you point it at the DS and it uploads your data. From that it tells you how many steps you have taken, your movement patterns and suggestions on how to better yourself. Very convenient ! Except, there is a big drawback. No way to calibrate it to step length. Not eveyone has the same length of stride, and therefore there is no way you can measure distance.If it cannot calibrate stride but simply goes by movement, a ride down a very bumpy stretch of road in your car could register as 1,000 steps. Yesterday I had a pretty active day with cleaning the house, and i kept making numerous trips between rooms to grab and put away things. Yet at the end of te day, my pedometer said I only took 435 steps for the whole day. Come on ! I take double that each day just running to the bathroom ! According to the manual, it only counts activities of 10 seconds or longer ( definately longer than 10 seconds to get to the bathroom), and if worn in certain positions it may not be accurate. Yesterday I hooked mine onto my underwear insteat of my pants because I did not want the thing to go flying off into the toilet or something when I was making one of these inevitable mad dashes because you have 30 seconds and if you don't there will ne another mess to deal with moments. So I will try wearing it on my pants today, and see what the day brings.

I watched another episode of Dance Your Ass off last night, and I still don't get it. Oxygen Network seems to need a course in learning how to portray drama. In last nightas episode, the show opened with one contestant falling into a raging fit, tossing all contents of the cheat cabinet into the trash and screaming. Yeah, made you look. But it did nothing to show what lead to the rage. What happened that pushed her over the edge ? They had a short interveiw with her durning where she said that the food represented all the times she had been treated like a fat girl, but never showed what was the event that brought this so in her face. I just did not get it, so after the first two dancers, I turned it off figuring there are better uses for my time. Sorry Oxygen...you have a lot to loearn about tv drama.

Beautiful Sunday

Lots of walking in the woods yesterday , with some very pretty sights, sounds and smells along the way. One of the nicest things was that we got to go to some places that time and other commitment have prevented us from going for far too long. It's sad, as we live in an area that has a lot of diverse habitats, and there is always something exciting to see in the natural world , no matter what the season. Hopefully we will be able to get out and do this more often, but if not, at least the pictures and memories last.

After walking and a simple picnic lunch we headed to Trader Joes, and all decided that we really wish they were closer. We are finding so many things that are just better than other stores, and often cheaper. Did you know that Trader Joes is owned by the same company that owns Aldis ? An interesting twist to say the least. If this is any indication of things to come, expect to see more Trader Joes popping up in the future, as this is one of the fastest growing ( in profit) food retailers here in the midwest . They are burying the other major food retailers in sales.

Have to start school planing today. Back to school happens in a month for us !

It Fig-ures !

Yesterday did not go exactly as planned for us. We were supposed to get together with my family, but a serious tooth ache and two sinus headaches trumped that hand, and we stayed home. It was not a bad thing, for in the spirit of making the best of the day two good things happened in regard to our journey. The first was the purchase of the Nintendo DS Personal trainer walking game. It is a nifty little pedometer sort of device that you wear and then upload to the DS at night to veiw your activity for the day. It comes with two pedometer thingys, and you can use it on both humans and animals. At the end of the day it tells you how you did, at what points you were the most active, classifies your activity level and gives suggestions for imporving your life. Cool Beans ! Right now the hubby and I are using it, and we will purchase another pedometer device for the son as soon as we find one.

Second thing was my creating homemade Lara Bars !

I have only had these once because of the expense of them. I keep trying to find ways to do this whole thing healthier, cheaper and just plain better. So having a free day and the materials on hand, I decided to give them a whirl. They came out VERY tasty- in fact son wanted to have more and more. Here is the recipe I used

Lara type Bars - makes 4

1/2 cup whole dates
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cups whole almonds
1/4 t cinnamon
1 T black strap molasses
enough water to bring it to a sticky ball

Simply place everything in a food processor and spoon out onto plastic wrap. Form into a log and divide into 4 equal portions. Wrap individually and refrigerate.

Today we are heading out to two woods for walking, some work and a picnic. Son is excited because the "belly berries"( mulberries to the rest of you) are fully ripe and in abundance out there. For him it will be like taking a hike in a legal candy store !

Saturday at the scale

Even though I declared a "diet" free weekend, weigh in still happens to keep a handle on the overall progress. As expected, everyone gained.

Me- UP 2.0
Hubby UP 4.2
Son UP 2.4

There were only 2 slips- the pizza the other night and last night we had Angus Burgers on Pretzel roll buns(the 18 point burger), which should not cause that much of a weight gain. So look at other causes, and I find something very interesting. All this week we have had sandwiches on Arnolds Thins for lunch and dinner with raw veggies and fruit for sides. Seems like nice fare for the summer days, but not really. Perhaps too low in calories or points ( I have stopped counting either while trying to watch labels for other substances and keep close tabs on the affect it has on my son). Still the exact same snacks as always, and as far as exchanges it is the same ( an Arnolds is a bread, 2 oz of pasta is a bread and so on).

I think there is something in here to be argued for the practice of heating a real meal at dinner.A meal with a meat, a starch and a veggie or two.Even though it can be the same in calories, exchanges and so forth, perhaps it gives a signal to our brains thatwe have completed the tasks of the day, survived it and now it is time to move into relaxation mode. I don't know and have no scientific proof. Just an observation.

In either case, no worries. What is done is done, it's a new week and today is a holiday, We are going to a party with my family and then will come home and catch the fireworks from New York on TV. Call me crazxy, but they are better watched on a High Def TV without moquitos and so forth. Hope you have a good one !

Results

So what do you get when you eat a pizza, when the reason to avoid it is not simply weight loss ? A night of running to the bathroom every hour and a son who's talk box is locked in the on mode. Not good ! However it does serve to confirm that certain foods ARE indeed bad for our particular bodies, and as tired and burned out as I might feel, it could always be worse. Now in this pre dawn silence, I feel like I want to drink a gallon of water and never eat anything outside of the plant kingdom again. I am actually craving berries and salad.

It was an important step though. It served to remind me that no matter what the scale says, we are all better off for the way we live now than our old "easy" ways. Nothing worth having in life comes easy.

White Flag

Gads, I am in a horrible, horrible food rut that is making for such mind nubing boredom I cannot stay awake ! We have been completely on program for so long that I think a break is merited. No matter how bad for us it is, no matter how laden with points, no matter how detrimental it is to our over all heath, I am going to do something very reckless and order a pizza tonight. With cheese and sausage and olives and mushrooms. I am not going on vacation, it is Fourth of July Weekend so I say screw it and declare my independance by spending a weekend of eating whatever. Monday will be a whole new week and perhaps the shock to my system will get the infernal scale moving in the right direction again.You all have permission to say "I told you so" when I have a bad weigh in Saturday Moring !

Thought

Want to know the real reason exercise is so important to weight loss ?

Because a moving target is harder for those calories to find and stick to !