It's the Little Things...

There are so many big things I'm thankful for in life, like my husband and family, my personal posessions, my health.  And when I say I'm thankful for those things, I really mean it.  I know what it's like to be alone, so I give thanks for my husband's company.  I know what it's like to do without, so I'm thankful for my house, car, etc.  And I know what it's like to have health problems, so for me to be healthy is a good thing.

I came up with a list of little, perhaps trivial, things I'm thankful for:

• I'm so happy both my kids shit in the toilet now.
• I'm thankful for my husband's creative mind so I can plagerize his ideas.
• I'm glad my coffee pot has a timer on it so it's ready when I get up in the morning.
• OK, pretty much any timer on an appliance holds a special place in my heart.
• I'm glad farmers engineered those little watermelons without seeds.
• I appreciate the tape dispenser that my grandmother gave me in an odd gift moment in college.
• When I graduated college with a business degree, my mother gave me a sewing machine.  I was pissed.  What business major needs a sewing machine?  Turns out, I use it all the time.  (slink away, tail between legs).
• Thank God for the Reynolds Oven Bag my turkey will cook in on Thursday.
• I have lots of family in town so that I can dump my kids off and smoke my crack in peace.
• I like links.

Just a few of the things that make the House of H. go round.  Not to trivialize Thanksgiving, but what's the most trivial thing you're thankful for?  Something that could be taken away from you, and you'd be sorta all sad for awhile, or maybe you'd just go buy a new one, but then you'd get over it cuz you still have your family, your dwelling and your health (if you have those things).  I mean, if my kids started poopin' in their pants, well, I dunno.  I. Just. Don't. Know.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Almost forgot...I'm weighing today because we'll be up in the mountains for the next few days.  I weighed 178.2, so up .4 lbs. from last week.  Considering the falafel I ran into, that's OK. 

Falafel Bloat

Things did not go well for me weight-wise this weekend.  It started on Friday night.  I couldn't decide if I should make dinner or if we should go out.  My husband was entertaining the kids with sim city on the Wii and I was working on a new tapestry (which, btw, I don't have too many of, I'm new at it, but will post them as I make them...they take me awhile).  I wanted to keep working on it, but it was getting late and then I didn't feel like cooking anymore, so we opted to go out. 

We went to The Jerusalem Restaurant (beware!  if you click on the link the music is loud, or maybe my computer setting is just loud, I dunno, what am I, a computer whiz?).  I opted for the Falafel and Hommos combo.  I also thought my kids would like falafel cuz it's so damn delicious, so I ordered them the appetizer size.

Well, I ate my 5 falafel patties and my hommos.  The kids nibbled on theirs, so there were essentially 5 falafel patties leftover.  I was too full to eat them (thankfully), so I put them in the fridge and ate them for lunch on Saturday.

Saturday night was game night and the hosts were serving Papa Murphy's Take 'n' Bake pizzas.  I had two slices of the Classic Italian and a sliver of cheese pizza (without the crust) that my son wouldn't eat (classic "hate to waste" syndrome going on here).  There were not one, not two, but three desserts!  Turtle pie, cheesecake and cream puffs!  I'm proud to say I did not indulge in any of it.

Being at game night was really hard for me.  I don't like to go to them anymore.  It's just an opportunity to overeat, and I don't want to be that person anymore.  Saturday night I wore old clothes (laundry was in the works, so my new stuff was dirty), so I felt kind of dumpy, I was tired from carting my daughter to her activities that day, and I didn't much feel like socializing.  I will say that a good friend knew that I would not be drinking alcohol that night and she brought ingredients to make "mocktails," specifically some sparkling cider and club soda to thin it a bit.  I had one and it was really tasty, but again, don't need the calories.

I was pissed off because I felt like an addict being thrown into a cage full of temptation.  I have a friend that just told us all she's a closet alcoholic (she's in treatment).  When we had a parent's night out for my son's class, she didn't attend because there was alcohol there.  How can I get away with that?  I can't say, "Oh, there will be food there, sorry I can't come."  I just have to suck it up and find a way to pass on all that stuff.  I think I did a good job at game night this time, but it's just so draining.

Anyway, I think falafel must be sodium-laden, because my weight is back up again to 179.2 lbs.  I'm proud to say that I didn't have any binges.  I think cutting the bingeing out of my life has gotten me this far.  I'm not sure what it's going to take to make it all the way to my goal of 160 lbs.  I need to find things that work for me, and I'm in the midst of doing so.  The whole process can be so frustrating.

One of the things I'm doing is the challenge put on my 266.  Again, my short-term goal is to get to a normal BMI, which for me is a weight of 171 lbs., by Boxing Day.  If I can take anything away from this weekend, it's that eating out is not the way to reach my goals.  I'm going to be a little more selective in the future as to what I will or will not eat when I go out. 

And now, on to Thanksgiving.  Rather than focus on all the food and poor me being thrown in the middle of it, maybe I'll focus on what I'm thankful for.  Novel idea.

Oh, and don't foget to get your copy of Jen, A Prior Fat Girl's E-Cookbook for only $5.  For every copy sold, $4 is going to the YMCA.  It's really a great idea, and so easy, why would you not?

Looking to the Future - 266

I have a goal to get to a normal BMI by the New Year.  I found a challenge at 266 and figured, why not?  It fits with what I'm doing.  There's still time to join today, so go check out her post on Looking to the Future to see if you want to participate.

Diane at Fit to the Finish has a post on goal setting today, so this challenge just fits with that whole idea.  It's like the blog universe converged this morning to create this plan for me.  Right.

Anyway, thanks 266 and Diane for giving me the extra little push I need to make my goals official.  I so often don't want to set goals because I'm so afraid of failure.  That's true with this, too.  But, I think I've been lax for too long.  It's time to push myself a little. 

By the way, a normal BMI for me is 171 pounds.  I'm at 177.8 as of yesterday.  So, 6.8 pounds to go.  I lose slowly, as evidenced by my progress numbers at right, so for me, this will be a challenge.  Especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas thrown into the mix.

I can do it. 

That's More Like It...

I made Chicken Divine for dinner last night.  The original recipe is from the Colorado Cache cookbook, but I've tweeked it a bit to make it mine:

1 slice onion
3 whole chicken breasts, partly thawed from frozen
Rosemary to taste
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 pound fresh broccoli, cut into small florets
1 box fast cook wild rice

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté onion. Slice chicken into cubes (it’s easier to cut them if they’re still slightly frozen) and cook with onions until brown, adding rosemary, salt and pepper along the way. Prepare rice according to package directions.

Layer chicken, then raw broccoli, then rice in a buttered casserole dish. Pour cheese sauce over entire dish. Add more grated Parmesan on top if desired. Bake uncovered at 350˚ F for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Cheese Sauce:


¼ cup butter
¼ cup flour
2 cups milk
½ t. salt
⅛ t. pepper
1 cup grated, sharp Cheddar cheese
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Melt butter, add flour and stir until smooth. Cook 2 minutes. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly until thickened. Add cheeses and seasonings.

Now, on to my weigh in.  I weighed in at 177.8 this morning for a loss of 1.8 pounds this week.  That's more like it!

Hope you have a fabulous day!

Muffins (snicker) and Random Stuff

If you want the slang definition for muffin, click here. 

The muffins I'm referring to in my post, however, are the Banana Flaxseed type.

I make a double batch of these every week for the family.  The recipe is on my side bar (except I now use coconut oil and wheat flour).  I know, one pan is really old and scorched.  Oh well.  I can never seem to get the batter to make 24...it's always 23, hence the missing muffin.

Tomorrow I'll be back with my weigh-in for the week.  I really hope I've lost at least a pound.  Short post today.  Not much to say.  Sometimes I feel as if my brain is atrophying in this pathetic wonder-daze of motherhood. 

I made a tapestry for my kitchen called "Sometimes eggshells get in my cookies." 

Not sure what my next project will be.

I have one other tapestry that I made for my ex-husband (we're friends).  When he was about 5-years-old living in California, his parents were getting a divorce.  One day his mother packed up their car and the kids and headed out to start anew in Colorado, along with Grandma.  Grandma used a Tinker Toy for discipline.  When my ex asked his mother where they were going, she told him "Disneyland." 

I documented the scene, as I envisioned it, in this tapestry:

 The whole thing is tragically hilarious. 

May your day be more hilarious than tragic.

Snowy Weather Food

This kind of pie goes with...

...this kind of weather. 

It's Beef and Potato Pie, a recipe from the December 2009 Prevention Magazine.  Click the link to get the recipe.  I make my potoatoes with broth, so they have lots of flavor, but they're not as creamy as with butter and milk.  Still, it's a nice, healthier version of shepherd's pie, if you like that sort of thing, which my husband does.  He really loves the shepherd's pie in a bread bowl, but I'm too lazy to cook that fancy. 

So, I was feeling the need to exercise, but also feeling the need to not leave the house.  I decided to run up and down the stairs.  My initial thought was 100 times.  After thinking about it, I thought 50 would be sufficient.  Well, I made it 30 (one time is up and down) and my quads feel like mush.  Now I feel the need to make it to 50.  Will have to keep at it.

Also trying to drink lots of water.  I got it in my head somewhere that I need to drink a gallon a day.  It's really hard to drink that much water in a day.  I'm not so sure that's a good idea.  Actually, if I drink half a gallon, I'm happy.  I feel so much better drinking that much water.

That's it for me.  Just workin' it, hoping for some good results this Thursday.  What's up with you?

Quest for Normalcy

I've had to take a good hard look at what I've been doing and why my weight loss has stalled.  Here are my two main excuses...er, I mean reasons:

1) My exercise has slacked off.  I'm not getting my outside walks as much because of weather, and walking on the treadmill for an hour bores the bejesus out of me.  I took my IPod shuffle off at the gym when it ran out of juice and forgot it.  Nobody turned it in.  Somebody out there has my shuffle.  Asshole.  Anyway, I need to move everyday. 

2) My snacking has increased.  I usually have a morning and afternoon snack.  I've been skipping my morning snack because I'm either not hungry or busy doing something.  Then, in the afternoon, I make up for it, but perhaps too much.  When I started this weight loss thing I said my snacks would be fruits and veggies.  I've changed that a bit to include nuts.  I think I need to lean more on fruits, veggies and nuts and less on pretzels.

Quite simply put, my exercise is less and my food intake is more.  Not a recipe for success.

So, I think I need a short term goal.  My long term goal, of course, is to hike Flattop Mountain next summer.  Right now my BMI is 26.1, so I'm still overweight, as 24.9 is normal.  I'm aware of the arguments against BMI, but I still use it as a tool.  If I really buckle down through the holidays, I could be at a normal BMI sometime the first week of January 2010.  That would mean a weight of 171 pounds, or a loss of 8.2 pounds between now and then.  I should be able to accomplish this!

Let the quest for normalcy begin!