Yesterday wasn't as bad as I thought

Quick update. For those of you doing Weight Watchers, my daily points value is 25 and when I wrote my post last night, I hadn't finished my log for the day so this morning, I finished it up and was quite surprised by what I saw. With all the crazy stuff I ate, I thought for sure I'd gone over my allowance but in fact, I was .5 a point under. Insane, isn't it???

Just had to post that here. PLUS, I'm down two pounds. Still over 200 (ewww) but on the way down at least. Today has started out well with cottage cheese and fruit for breakfast and a handful of raw almonds. Looking forward to the rest of the day!

First Day In

So today was my first day "back". As I said in my post yesterday, I'm trying to stay away from gluten and wheat, which was a bit more of a struggle than I thought but I did it. All I had for breakfast this morning was a small sausage patty I had cooked yesterday. It was a crazy morning as I had to get the boys up and dressed and ready to play gold with my dad at 9:30. That might not sound like much but my boys can SLEEP and my 6 year old is especially hard to wake up. Anyway, by the time they were out the door, I wasn't far behind and on my way to the grocery store. What the hell, people? I planned to spend $60. Yes, I know that was a freaking ridiculous idea to begin with but still! That was my goal. Well, apparently I needed more than I thought and then add $4.99 to my total to buy a pie for the troops on the 4th of July and I spent $152. Good Lord. That was a credit card purchase, let me tell you. Anyway, I digress.

After the grocery store, I met some friends for lunch at a mexican restaurant. I barely ate any of it because we were so busy gabbing so of course I had to come home and eat. Still avoiding gluten, I chose sour cream and onion chips and 1/2 a Cadbury bar. Mmmm. Doesn't that sound healthy? FF to dinner, I prepared baby back ribs in the oven which were to die for. I would have used the grill but it broke while it was on a couple of months ago and the fire dept came and yada yada yada, we can't use it anymore. I had a small green salad with a Ginger dressing and one small new potato roasted in the oven. I only ate four ribs. If you want to know the secret to fall off the bone ribs, it's cooking them for a couple of hours in the oven at 300 degrees, tightly wrapped in aluminum foil. Then top them with your fave BBQ sauce and put them back in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. They are Goooood.

All in all, it wasn't a TERRIBLE day. It could have been better and I used up some of my extra points but I actually do feel like I'm back on track. I'm better prepared and ready to face tomorrow and make healthy choices. Tomorrow will be MUCH different!

Giving it another go!

After an extended absence I'm back to give this thing another shot. The last few months have been busy and stressful but I've found a happy balance and am ready to meet my weight challenges head-on. My current weight is 203. Yikes. Seriously? Did I just type that number? On a 5'3" person, that's substantial. So far, I've been very lucky in that my blood pressure is great and I haven't eaten my way into diabetes. Yet. I'm feeling confused about which approach to eating I should take. It seems that no matter which path I choose to take, I have the uncanny ability to find out how to get fatter on it. I know that's totally my fault and not the diet's.

Two weeks ago, I signed back up with Weight Watchers online and kept up with my journal for two days. Stellar. My plan is to utilize the WW online journaling tool along with whatever mode of eating I settle on.

In regards to may way of eating, I'm still a believer in the Will Clower approach, all things in moderation and I'm only going to add one small change to it. Lately, I've been thinking that I may have an allergy or intolerance for wheat. I don't think I have celiac disease but I do feel yucky when I eat wheat products. For now, I'm going to go gluten/wheat free along with eating healthful whole foods in moderation. For example, at breakfast I will have one egg, a slice of all natural/nitrate free bacon, and some berries. For lunch, a sauteed chicken breast served with brussel sprouts simmered in chicken broth and then a piece of chocolate for an ender. Dinner may be Salmon cooked on the grill, served with one new potato and steamed haricots verts with some fresh fruit for dessert. I'm going to try eating this way for 60 days and see how I feel then. Any weight loss would be an added benefit.

Obviously, another thing I have GOT to do is amp up my activity level. Right now, much of my day is sedentary, sitting in front of the TV or computer. I get up to eat, pee, or do some housework. If you've ever seen my house though, you know I'm slacking on the last one. My goal at first is going to be to get up and move at a brisk pace for 20 minutes a day. Each week, I'm going to add 5-10 minutes, and then also begin adding weight training. We'll see how this goes.

Instead of taking photos of every meal, I'm going to pick one a day and more than likely it will be breakfast or lunch. Mostly because the lighting in my house is terrible and I hate the way pictures look when I take them indoors at night.

So, that's where I am for now. I'm still here and still heavy. Care to watch me wander down the long, slow, road to weight loss success? 'Cause that's where I'm heading. I'm tired of being tired, tired of not feeling cute, tired of not wanting my picture taken with my family. Something in my life has got to change and I'm the only one who can do that.

I hope someone out there is reading and I hope you will accompany me on this journey!

Taking a Break

With so many things going on right now, this blog has really fallen to the wayside. I'm officially taking a break from keeping this site current but hope to get a handle on things in a month or two.

Thanks to everyone who has been a reader here and I hope to see you here again one day. If you're interested in keeping up with me, you can visit me at my other blog HERE. It has to do with family so I update that one a lot.

Take care!

Evie

Quickly Checking in!

So Wednesday was a crappy eating day. I skipped breakfast altogether because I woke up late and had to get the boys to a dental appointment. After that, I came home and had an egg salad sandwich for lunch and a chocolate chip cookie. Dinner was pitiful. Sean didn't get home until really late so I just popped a bag of popcorn and watched the CSI Miami marathon on A&EHD. It's the cheesiest show. Ever. But I'm so addicted to it, it's ridiculous!

Thursday was a little better. I had two biscuits for breakfast along with a cup of tea. For lunch I had another egg salad sandwich and for dinner well, I can't remember dinner. I know I was proud of myself because this week I have done a great job of using what's in the fridge!

Friday morning, I woke up and had two biscuits and one egg and a cup of tea. At lunch, I made some homemade cream of mushroom soup and it was heavenly!! It's been really cold, dreary, and rainy around here and the soup seriously hit the spot. For dinner, it was leftover night. We still had meatloaf and mac and cheese in the fridge and I had some brussel sprouts that I needed to use. I ended up letting Sean have the meatloaf and mac and cheese and I ate a huge portion of the brussel sprouts. It was delicious!!

Sorry for not keeping up with things for a few days. I'm going to weigh myself on Monday and am hoping to see a 1lb loss. Keep your fingers crossed!

Meatloaf, Beatloaf, I hate meatloaf...not really

Recognize that Meatloaf line anyone? It's from one of my favorite movies of all time. Can you guess it?

Yesterday was another good eats day for me! Yaaaay! I got up and had biscuits again for breakfast and then I had shrimp and grits leftovers for lunch. You know, in my post yesterday, I mentioned that I had fixed the grits with chicken broth instead of milk or cream combined with water and for me personally, I have to say that the milk version is my preference. You try it both ways and let me know which way you think is best.

I snacked on two or three chocolate chip cookies yesterday but that was it as far as snacks went. My sister called yesterday afternoon and we took all the kids down to the park for a walk on the trail. We weren't walking at a breakneck speed but we were out for a while and we were moving and that's what was important.

In a direct response to increasing grocery prices I have been trying to figure out how to better plan our meals so I can utilize the food we buy in the most efficient way possible. A couple of nights ago, I made a big batch of Baked Macaroni and Cheese and froze half of it for another time. Last night, I took the remainder, freshened it up a bit with a couple of splashes of milk and a little more cheese and popped it into the oven with delicious results.


With that I was serving a Turkey Meatloaf. I love Meatloaf and so does my husband and nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing him enjoy my cooking. I took about a pound and a half of ground turkey and mixed in some chopped peppers and onions, one beaten egg, a Tbs of dijon mustard, a Tbs of Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp of salt, freshly ground pepper, and a half a cup of bread crumbs. Oh yeah! A generous sprinkle of dried parsley, too! Formed it into a loaf and popped it into a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, I drizzled some ketchup on the top and cooked it for about 20 more minutes. It was pretty good!!


Going along with my goal to cook at least one new recipe a week, I prepared a vegetable that I had never worked with before, broccolini. My sister has sung the praises of this veggie many, many times but I have just never bought it. After last night, it may well become a staple around here. It was freaking delicious! First, I trimmed some of the leaves off the long stalks but I actually think you could skip this. Then, after asking my sister about it, I blanched them for a couple of minutes to make them a little tender before sauteeing them in a skillet with 2 tsps of olive oil, a touch of butter and one clove of garlic put through a press. I think next time I would steam the broccolini instead of submerging it in water but oh. my. god. It was FABULOUS!


For my plate, I had small portions of each and couldn't eat it all. It was a delicious filling meal.


I'm feeling so good about where I am right now but I'm trying not to get too confident. Usually about the time that happens, I flub it up.

Have you ever had broccolini? What is your favorite vegetable?

A good day

Yesterday began fresh, as all days do, with the promise of good food and staying on course. While the kids were sleeping, I fixed myself a cup of tea and warmed up two of the biscuits I made the day before. After topping them with my favorites, butter and cherry preserves, I sat enjoyed and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the house before the day really got started.


Once the kids got up, we spent the morning hanging out, tidying up, keeping busy basically. When lunchtime rolled around I had planned to have an egg salad sandwich but decided on a salad instead. My favorite salad is one topped with chopped egg, bacon, and olives then drizzled with a bit of ranch dressing. Thankfully I had hard boiled eggs in the fridge. I don't know what it is but chopped egg is one of the yummiest things I think you can put on a salad.

This was really filling and really held me over until I had a snack later in the afternoon. Oh and what a snack it was!

One of my goals was to make homemade snacks and not buy any at the store. I bought a new cookbook while I was recovering from my surgery and was finally able to make something out of it! I chose chocolate chip cookies. They were so, so delicious! Thin, with crispy buttery edges and a chewy center. Oh man, they were good! The recipe made a ton of cookies, too.


For dinner, I made shrimp and grits, which you've seen me mention here before. This time though, I did something a little different. Instead of using a combination milk or cream with water to cook the grits, I used some homemade chicken broth that was in the freezer. I thought it would make the dish a little bit lighter. I used 4 cups of chicken broth and maybe a 1/2 cup of cream. That was the only thing I did different. It did change the taste but it was good, and the dish didn't feel as heavy as it usually does.


At the end of the day, I felt really good about how I did. The only thing I didn't accomplish yesterday was doing a workout video but that's ok. Baby steps. It's hard to make changes and if all I can do right now is change my eating habits then that's all I can do. trying to do too much can be overwhelming and self-defeating. Already, today feels like a good day. Like I'm in total control of myself and my emotions. It's a start!