Day 2

Day two and the progress continues. Only casualty of the day was a microwave that died for some reason. It was almost 10 years old, and I am not going to miss it. The only thing it was being used for was occasionally baking a sweet potato ( my son) or melting some cheese, and both can be accomplished through other means. I can really use the counter space for other things !

Breakfast was an Arnolds Thin topped with two slices of Provalone cheese, a Bartlett Pear and 5 Campamari tomatoes. These are so sweet and flavorful, and sizewise something between a cherry tomato and a small regular tomato. I just put these on the plate, trying to think of how to keep the tomato juice from making the arnolds mushy, and my son declared it to be a a smiling frog.On the side was my coffee with cream.I was concerned that this breakfast choice was going to be too light, but it stuck with us well.

Lunch was 1/3 cup pf black beans mixed with 2 T BBQ sauce , 1 oz Montey jack cheese sliced and placed in an Aldis Fit and Active Original Wrap (90 calories each), and then baked at 350 for 20 minutes. Yummy ! On the side was 2 carrots cut into sticks and one cucumber peeled and sliced. A can of Aldi's Diet Soda accompanied.

The school day was one filled with challenging moments(yeah, that's the word!), including my son's milestone of telling his first ever lie and cheating on an assignment. Autistic children do not understand "the rules" of interpersonal relationships like friendships and so on, so things like lying are unknown to them. What happened is that I gave my son a math worksheet to do , took the answer sheet and laid it down at the other end of the table face down and let him work independantly while I tackled a task on the computer. I glanced up and saw him racing through the worksheet with a smile, and when I walked over to the table I found the answeraheet next to him, turned to the second page, folded over, and him in the act of copying. I asked him what he was doing and he said "my math". I asked him if he was copying the answers he said "Nope- I am using my own head". Caught ! So the grade for that subject was F, and a bittersweet moment. He is recovering enough to be able to lie, which is a big yay, but it is a lie . Big boo.

Dinner was an attempt to make a classic comfort food in a more healthy and weekday friendly fashion.Turkey and dumplings in the crocopot. 2 cups of cooked turkey with 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 can of cream of celery soup and 1 can of chicken broth. About an hour before serving crack open a can of refrigerator biscuitsan slide them in. Not the most healthy because of the canned soups and biscuits, but cheap , easy and fairly low calorie. On the side was steamed rainbow chard and steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mix. I really preffer steaming veggies as opposed to boiling them ! Diet soda to accompany, and the general consensus was that chard is better in something than on it's own. A bit like bitter spinach served in this way.

In the evening I had a big handful of raw cauliflower, some celery sticks, a wedge of laughing cow lite and a Fiber Plus bar. Son was attempting to make himself a scrambled egg with steamed chard when the microwave died. At his age (17)he has a higher need of calories and protien, and so his evening snack winds up more substantial than mine or dad's.

Storms came through here last night. No damage in my neighborhood but several others got hit by downed trees and even a few tornadoes formed. At least it is not a hurricane !

Beginnings part 25434 squared

Yesterday was out with the old and in with the new. The start of a new eating plan, new organizational plan, and hopefully the start of a new (or renewed) weight loss plan. I had decided to do this about a week ago but determined that it would need to begin on this Tuesday. Biggest reason was that over the weekend we celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary and we could not come up with a definite way to celebrate it because of several constantly changing factors. And then Nick and I got sick and it added a new wrinkle. Monday was a planned field trip and so that brought Day One to Tuesday. I am taking my weigh in weight on Saturday for the starting point- 244.8. I am SO tired of being stuck in a 10 pound cycle of lose and gain, and hopefully this new plan of counting calories and exchanges-not points- will kick things into gear. It may interest some of you to know that this is Weight Watchers Old School- before the trademark name was sold to a food company and all kinds of new programs became developed every other year.

Began the day with a veggie scrambled egg 9onions, mushrooms, swiss chard) and a slice of turkey ham. accompanied by 2 little clementine oranges. Coffee and water accompanied, along with a round of supplements. 299 calories and very satisfying ! Held us very well until lunch

Today was a hot ham and cheese sandwich on Arnolds Thins wih a salad made of romaine, red peppers and cauliflower, and Wishbone salad spritzer dressing( have to use up our stash). Aldi's diet soda to accompany. I was asking myself what was I thinking planning ham two meals in a row, but the plan is not perfect right now. Lots of water throughout the day, and around lunch I began to notice that my body seems to be responding differently. Could it be the return of weight loss at long last ???

We have a planned snacktime in the afternoon, and when it rolled around we were both very hungry ! The plan we are following is a 1400 calorie high protien exchange plan which limits bread servings to 3 but allows 9 servings of protien and a minimum of 4 non starchy vegetable servings. So our snacks will feature veggies and some kind of protien, for a more satisfying nosh. Today was a container of non fat probiotic yogert( probiotics are very benificial to your overal health), celery, carrot sticks, broccoli and 17 almonds, half chocolate coated and half with sea salt.A diet soda washed it down, simply because at this point I had drank 10 glasses of water and my mouth really wanted a different liquid.

Dinner was an Angus beef burger on an Arnolds Thim with mustard, home made sweet potato fries and homemade buttermilk coleslaw. The burgers had been sitting in the freezer for a while and they needed to get used. I no longer had the package for the NI, so I am not totally sure on the calorie count of the patties, but I remeber it was pretty high ! The homemade coleslaw came in very low, as the dressing was a small amount of buttermilk with various seasonings. I like these kind of dinners- fast and non fussy ! If it is a salad I can make ahead of time, it's a winner !

In the evening I had a snack, but more out of force of habit than anything else. I never used to snack in the evening, but when we started following Weight Watchers , there entered in the pressure to use those points every day ! Evening snacks became a requirement because we could not eat all the points during the day. I noticed I was short on a bread and a protien exchange, so I had a wedge of laughing cow lite, a Fiber Plus bar( I have a love/hate relationship with these), and a cucumber. One weird thing about me- if given my absolute food choice out of everything in the world, I would opt for a tomato or cucumber sandwich on really grainy bread spread with butter, and it is something I rarely eat for a lot of reasons. A sliced cucumber or tomato all on it's own is second best and third best would be a sandwich of sliced radishes on a buttered baguette. It's been a lifelong favorite, and I think I got it from my grandmother !

So day one, ,if I calculated right , came in at 1375 calories. Not too bad- and tomorrow is going to be another good one !

Plugging along

The school year is in full swing here and we are all swimming along with our various must do's. I really struggle with exercise these days because there is such a big chuck of time devoted to school, school prep and school records. Second big chunk goes to household must do's, and a third to my reiki work. The best I can do most days is getting up between tasks and explanation times with my son and pacing the halway to get walking in. It is better than nothing and can be done while keeping all of the balls juggling.

I have been pondering some more time saving steps as I pace. One option woulod be going back to once a month cooking. You spend one day planing, ,one day shopping and one day pepping, then the rest of the month you are free. Well, pull the meals out and cook them on the serving day. Such a task is ambitious , but combining it with weight loss efforts is even trickier. In the free moments of sanity ( when not searching down a learning aid) I have been going through my files and was reminded of The Hillbilly Housewife's site. She has a grea many money saving meals, most of which are not the healtiest, but will keep the belly off the backbone , as my grandmother would say. A while back she was diagnosed with PCOS , and had to come up with a frugal eating plan that would fit within the restrictions of her medical condition. I am going to try to implement many of her meal suggetions ( have to skip the fish because of allergies) and see if I can form a 30 meals plan around it. As to my son with his dietary needs, it seems we are finally to a point where he can handle whole grains and dairy, but foods that mold fast ( melons, cucumbers and strawberries) set him off, so much of this plan will work for him. Perhaps it might be something others are interested in trying- if so here is the link
Hillbilly housewife 1000 calorie menu

What a week !

This may have been one of the most emotionally crazy weeks in a long time ! It began with news of a death, and then the start of school,then a wedding that hubby is going to officiate at, and somehow got wrapped up in too much to do and not enough hours in the day, no time to post, no time to breath and two incidents of us having REALLY serious arguments about some pretty major things. There has not been any emotional eating, but almost NO time was spent exercising because of trying to fit in the school schedule, trying to fit in ministry commitments and adjusting necessities like grocery shopping, laundry, library runs and so forth.

The Bread Orgy of last weekend showed up on the guys, but not on me. They both gained 1.6 lbs. I gained 0.2, which is one of those not real sort of gains.

This afternoon the temps hear have finally turned to summer with very high humidity, which makes outside not safe ( heat index of 105). So I am trying my best to streamline the week ahead so that we can get back to a more active lifestyle. Also considering locking myself in a padded cell and screaming to my heart's content. At least that way I will do no damage !

Getting back

Today was Baby Got Back day. Back to school, back on track, back to walking. The Bread episode of yesterday was yummy and fun, but it convinced us all of how different out systems are now, and how different we respond when we eat not so great. No one was hungry for dinner, and so we all felt like blood sugar drunk slugs from all the carbs. So this morning, enough was enough. Break out the healthy breakfast, haul out the crock pot to make a batch of soup for lunch and make movement a priority again

Breakfast was a yummy bowl of pumpkin oats topped with ground flax, coconut, crasins and some strawberry flavored yogurt covered raisins.Son was really wild about the idea of having these in oatmeal and I though the bit of natural iron might not do me any harm. We finished breakfast and got to work at school. Once again I was reminded of just how much can be forgotten over a break, and just how much can be absorbed through osmosis !

halfway through the day we broke for lunch. Cut up melon cubes, a cup of homemade lentil soup, a leftover cibatta roll from yesterday's bread orgy, carrots, celery and probiotic yogert. I keep testing the dairy tolerance, and so far we have not had any problems. This was so filling that it carried us happily till dinnertime.

Dinner was the chicken breast we meant to make yesterday and a ton of steamed veggies. While shopping at Aldi's over the weekend I found a three teired vegetable teamer for 20 buck and decided it needed to come home with me. So I tested it out tonight with a mix of green beans, orange peppers and crimini mushrooms with some garlic powder, zuchinni and red pepper with basil and a mix of baby blue and baby Yukon Gold potatoes to keep the chicken breast company. What a great, healthy , fast way to make veggies ! I think I am going to have a very meaningful love affair with this guy .

Tonight is the new season of John and Kat Plus Eight. We are going to watch simply because we are compelled to see what happens. It could be worse TV veiwing !

End the summer with bread

Tomorrow we are going to begin our school year. It seems early to many, but I have found for us one of the best strategies is to start early so that we do not get tripped up with the holiday season. With the pool not opening this year and no real plans of any kind, summer is sort of an idea who has been left on the shelf a little too long , and is starting to attract fruit flies.

I am going to try a different method this year with school, and between subjects force a 5 minute walk break. Will be good to clear the head, get the blood pumping and hopefully help to burn the calories better. Son did really well last week, and hopefully this will keep up the momentum.

Today is officially a food disaster, and one of those few times a year when it is sanctioned to be so. It is Lughnasadh, an ancient Irish harvest festival that focuses on grains. We had crockpot grains for dinner and lunch is going to be 10 different kinds of bread served with real butter, beer for the adults, and lots of berries. No use even attempting to count this one. Some hummus willo be involved as well as mozzerella balls , pesto and more. Dinner will be broiled chicken breasts and steamed veggies and any leftover bread. Tomorrow is back on plan. I am not going to feel guilty for this one- I am just going to enjoy and focus on all of the wonderful things I have harvested in my life this year.

Arrgh

There comes a time and place where you realize that it is what it is for what ever reason. For me, this is it. For more than a year I have struggled with the same 5-10 pounds and no matter what I do they will not leave. I think age and hormonal factors have as much to do with the whole process as eating and moving, and anyone who chooses not to belive so can insert a camel in their nose, attempt to breath and then arge it is not a factor.

I gained 2 lbs
Hubby ( 4 years older, MALE and not going through menopause) lost 2.2
Son (33 years younger and also NOT going through menopause) lost 5

Yes, boys suck. They do not have to go through the monthly nonsense and seem to lose weight by just giving up a soda. In an entirely female universe there would be no scales, comfy clothing that expands or shrinks with your needs and intelligent movies. There would be no slapstick or bodily humor and nothing would blow up.