Day 7

I know women were created to be hormonal and stuff, but seriously?  There's days when it totally gets old and affects every other fiber of our being.  It's one thing that I struggle with when it comes to food.  And.  It's.  A.  Bear.  In all seriousness.  Hormones make me feel more hungry than I really am and want things like a bunch of yucky processedwhitefloursugarytastythings and I really wish that I didn't.

Today had gone swimmingly well.  I made this delicious chicken salad for lunch today (carrots and celery and raisins and seasonings and ooh a bunch of tasty stuff).  I served it up on romaine and was quite the happy camper.  I took the girls into 'town' and ran our few errands before their dental appointment.  By the time we were done, I couldn't wait to get home and make our dinner.

My one big mistake?  The Coke Zero that I drank on the way home.  I think that it paired up with my hormone crazed body and decided that after our yummy dinner, I needed to have a few additional items.  So...I've counted them and I'm moving on to tomorrow.

Is it Wednesday yet?

So...I'll ask again...do you all have a topic in mind for me to blog about?  Or do I need to search the webs for something good? 

Also...there is this particular holiday that occurs here pretty soon and it involves the stores carrying massive amounts of chocolateyevilgoodness.  How will you avoid?

Day 5

I definitely skipped posting yesterday.  I had a lot of moments of weakness and counted every morsel.  This is me being the best sugar addict I can be.  Yikes!  Maybe at some point I can say that I'm a recovering sugar addict, but for now, I'm a straight up, hard-core, sugar addict.  Who wouldn't love pancakes made with white flour instead of wheat?  Who wouldn't love milk chocolate over dark?  *Wait...maybe there's a select few that love those subtle differences...*  Not that I had all of that mind you, it's for illustration purposes.  The point being, there are times where I like to buck the system.  Maybe you could call me evil, bad, or some other vicious name, but I'm a redhead.  There's something kind of ingrained when you're a true redhead that makes you just a bit fiery, if you know what I'm saying.

Today has been a much better day.  Then again, I've been busy.  I printed off my checklist *again* and went to town.  Nothing says wahoo like checking stuff off your list *at least for me.*  I even hung our laundry out on the line today which is so ridiculously early for us, it's not even funny.  But, this momma is trying to not have a $100+ electric bill again next month...it's just not in the budget.

We got our basket today which means trying something new *usually* for dinner.  Here was our basket from today:

So many fun things, so little time.  What we ended up trying tonight was the kale.  That is the green stuff between the carrots and the romaine on the right hand side.  I made kale chips.  Umm...it was like eating potato chips without the guilt.  I'm so there!  So tasty and so easy to make.  I will definitely be picking up kale again on our own!  We also had cucumber and banana peppers in our romaine salad tonight.  Our salad was definitely a happy one tonight.

I shared my fun new tip about regrowing the green onion with the lady picking up her basket next to mine this morning and with my friend Sarah.  I'm still using the same green onion that I bought about a month ago.  Now, I have some fresh stuff to alternate with.  And what do I mean by this?  When you get down to the white part of your green onion, throw it in a glass of water *with part of the stalk sticking out of the water*...it would look like this:

This is after just a couple of days being in the water.  Another friend of mine told me that she actually throws hers in a pot with soil and continues to grow hers that way.  I know that green onion isn't terribly expensive, but sheesh!  If only people knew of this little trick...

Oh and the kamut rolls were okay, but I felt like they might have been missing something.  They'd be good if you were dipping them in something, but they seem a little 'salty'...maybe too much baking soda/salt.  Who knows?  I'm not good about tweaking things like that in a recipe.  This is what they looked like:

And I have to say that our meal turned out so amazing that night *Thursday*.  I stuffed the chicken with lemon, garlic, rosemary and marjoram.  It was the best chicken I have ever roasted *if I do say so myself.*  The girls all had seconds.  That's how good it was!  Our chicken:

The full meal:

And lastly, after we'd enjoyed our dinner, some kickin stock got made as well.

I said to hubby after our meal was finished, that I was a pretty good cook when we got married, but I've gotten better over time.  He agreed *although, he didn't have much to compare me to anyway...except maybe his grandma :) *
Now that I've overloaded you on pictures, I'm off to put the oldest kiddo to bed.  It truly has been a lovely day today and I'm hoping that tomorrow is equally as nice with a little less of the cleaning stuff.

Day 3--Ugh!

Oh boy...trigger-city!!  I've decided that, for as much as I love my girls, they are one of my triggers for my sugar addiction.  We all have bad days, but I'm realizing that when we have those bad days, all I want to do is eat comfort foods (ie: simple carbohydrates, chocolate, salty stuff, etc).  I'm so glad that I'm beginning to realize this so that I can start to nip it in the bud.

My choices to nip it?  Some 78% dark chocolate, a Coke Zero, and 1 1/2 cups of my soup that I made yesterday.  Surprisingly, I feel full and satisfied with no desire to run back to the kitchen for more.  I'm also drinking my water.  How much water have you had today?

I tried a new recipe for breakfast.  This morning I had an omelet of spinach, onion and 2 laughing cow cheese wedges.  It was very tasty.  I also had my Kamut Puffs.  We are having a roast chicken for dinner tonight.  I still haven't decided on sides to put with it, but I'll get that figured out before I start making dinner.

Ooh!  I just found a recipe for rolls!  Yippee!  They're just 2P+ per roll.  Here's the recipe.  I'll let you know how they turn out.  We'll probably have broccoli and a salad to round things out.

Off to make rolls!

Day 2

Well, day 2 is shaping up to be a good one.  It's now afternoon and I'm feeling a little more energy than I did yesterday.  For breakfast, I made the same scramble that I had yesterday, but this time I remembered my 'greens'.  I did throw the spinach in at the end to cook it a little since eating eggs on fresh spinach didn't exactly appeal to me.

My snack consisted of light Activia yogurt and 14g of almonds *and yes, I measured those*. 

Lunch was some lentil soup that I made.  I did prepare all of my veggies that I needed for my soup and for dinner this morning.  I figured, why not?  I was standing there at the cutting board, I might as well.

Tonight's dinner will be homemade sloppy joes.  This particular recipe doesn't come from the new cookbook, but it doesn't have too many 'sugary' items in it.  I am going to have mine on nine grain bread.  The girls can have the buns. 

I've now picked up my kitchen...again.  I've got enough soup to put in the fridge and some in the freezer.  I pulled the buns out of the freezer, set up the ingredients by the stove for tonight's dinner, and I'm having a cup of hot decaf tea because it's cold today.

As for exercise, I've taken the week off.  I'm still doing my "Mad Abs" *a new challenge I started with the gals on the 1st*, but I'm just focusing on my food this week.  I need to focus on my food.  I need to find my energy.  When you are lacking energy, it's difficult to get some of the 'easiest' things done around the house.  It's frustrating.  And yes, I know that I have 3 children home most of the day, but I want to be a better momma.

Thank you for sticking with me while I get my thoughts out.  It helps me to write things down...kind of like a journal of how I'm feeling with the subtle tweaks that I'm making.  So hang in there!  If there is something else that you'd like me to discuss, don't hesitate to ask.  I don't want to bore you with my daily stuff.

Keep on friends, keep on!

Changing things up!

I'm still struggling with being tired a lot so, I'm making an effort to switch things up just a bit. If you know anything about me or my journey, I like to tweak things from time to time. It definitely keeps my body guessing what will happen next. So while I was in PHX the other day, I went through the cookbook section. Oh yes. It's another addiction...cookbooks. On the plus side, I probably could accommodate just about anyone's particular diet plan. The title of the book is "Beat Sugar Addiction NOW! Cookbook". My thinking in buying this book is two-fold. One, I know that I have problems with carbohydrates *and I struggle to stay clear of them during that wicked time of month...about a 2 week period*, and my hubby also has a problem with sugary things. 

The neat thing about the book is that there are 4 different types of sugar addicts.  They have a little 'quiz' to see which you are.  For hubby, he turned up to be a Type I sugar addict.  I am a Type III addict.  We both flirt with the Type IV part as well *since it has parts for both men and women.*  It also includes recipes that benefit all 4 types of addicts.  There is definitely a little bit of adjusting, but I think if I can stick to it, I'll lose a few more pounds and will find my energy again.

When I went shopping yesterday, I went to our 'local' whole foods store.  I was kind of excited about going since a friend of mine shared some important information.  That info?  That they have a bulk foods section in the back of the store.  Oh.  My.  Goodness!!  It was kind of like being a kid in a candy store, but with healthy stuff.  I know.  I'm weird.  It's okay, I've always known this.  Moving on.  What they had back there was numerous types of bulk hot cereal, various types of flour, various types of granola, nuts, etc.  I walked to the checkout with:  spelt flakes, Kamut puffs *a breakfast cereal--relatively cheap and pretty tasty*, 7-grain cereal for making bread, quinoa, barley *not pearly, but hulled regular barley*, and a 70% dark chocolate bar *that's one chocolate that I can have that won't set this Type III addict into a tailspin.* 

I came right home and put groceries away while I cooked some quinoa.  I have now officially had my first serving of quinoa and it was wonderful!  It was a bit like rice, but almost has a nutty taste.  It was very good.  Even the hubby liked it.  The short people didn't get a taste of it since hubby had already fed them.

This morning, I had a serving of the Kamut puffs with my almond milk on it.  I also made a scramble that consisted of 1 egg, 3 tbsp of egg whites, 1 minced garlic clove, fresh basil, green onion, some dried oregano, and a teaspoon of olive oil.  After cooking it, I forgot to throw it on top of some salad greens.  Eh...I hope to remember tomorrow.  Lunch was tofu egg salad.  Yeah, it was good.  I'm not sure what I will be adding to dinner for protein, but we're having multi-grain pasta.

Also, it is basket week!  Oh how I love basket week!  It will definitely help in the goal of eating to control sugar.

I can't say that I feel a whole lot of energy yet, but we'll see what a week or two does for my body.  It is trial and error.  I may make one of the soup recipes that's in the cookbook tomorrow for lunch.  It includes barley.  Yum!  I'll keep you all up-to-date on how it's going.

Yesterday

So I had my WI yesterday and it really wasn't terrible.  I gained .7, but it only took me .2 above my goal weight.  When you're in maintenance, anything less than a pound above goal, isn't terrible.  It's all part of the process.  And, it is a process.

It was certainly a busy day yesterday.  We had school work to do and normal house chores.  Then, my oldest and I got dolled up and headed out the door.

On our way, we stopped at McDonald's for dinner.  I ordered...a salad.  My oldest said to me, "Mom, why do you always order a salad?"  Well, because it's the best option for me and because I know how many points it is.  And also, because I'm sure if I sat down and had the greasy-ness of what they serve, my stomach would be really unhappy with me.  After finishing, we headed on our way to the concert.

If I'd known how easy it was to get to the college, I might have looked into other things there.  I followed the signs for the college and then there were other people pulling up too, so that helped.  We went to see The MozART Group.  If you don't know they are, you can check out their website here or see one of their videos like this one on youtube:



This one cracks me up!

After the show, my kiddo got their autographs and this:

Needless to say, she was thrilled!

On the long drive home, we stopped at the same McDonald's to get her dessert and me a diet Coke.  Yep, no dessert for me.  It was a truly lovely evening and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go.

To continue on with my culture weekend, I'm going to see "Wicked" tomorrow with a bunch of gals.  Whew! 

In the midst of everything...stay the course!

My Healthified Cookie

So today was baking day for my friend Sarah.  Her favorite cookie?  Oatmeal Raisin.  The recipe?  It is as follows:

Kati's Healthified Oatmeal Raisin Cookies  *I doubled the recipe, so hang in there.*

2/3 c agave nectar
1/2 c packed brown sugar & 1/4 c packed Splenda brown sugar
1/2 c homemade applesauce *unsweetened store bought or the like would probably be fine.*
1/2 c canned pumpkin *told ya I love me some pumpkin*
1 tsp baking soda
1 slightly rounded tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c egg whites *or 2 egg whites*
3 c quick-cooking oats
1 c all-purpose flour
1 c kamut flour *or whole wheat*
1 c *or 1 package* of pomegranate craisins

Heat oven to 375.  Mix all ingredients except oats, flour and craisins.  Stir in oats, flour and craisins *allowing your dough to sit just for a few minutes*.    I used a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop and made level tablespoon sized cookies.  You'll also need to use parchment paper because these don't have any butter or oil in them, so they might stick if you don't.  These didn't spread too much, so you can easily get 4 cookies across on a sheet *at least on my cookie sheets.* Bake about 10 minutes or until light brown; cool..
These came out to be 1 P+ per cookie or 3 P+ for two cookies.  They are very tasty and both the girls and the hubby give them 2 thumbs way up *so do I by the way.*  The pomegranate craisins give them a nice twist and I'd imagine you could use just about any type of craisin.  I also didn't double the amount of craisins, but you wouldn't know it if I didn't tell you.  I love being able to tweak recipes and sometimes they don't work out, but most often they do.  This one certainly turned out fantastic!  Am I the type of person to come up with something on my own?  Nope.  But, I do a great job when someone gives me a starting point.

Tomorrow is my first WI day of my maintenance.  I'm not sure how to feel about it.  It's been a rough week and I am certainly ready to put it behind me.  This weekend will also be busy.  Oldest kiddo and I will be off to a concert of sorts tomorrow evening and then a group of gals and I will be going to see "Wicked" on Sunday.  Whew!

If cookies happen to be a trigger food for you...walk...away.  If not, give these a whirl.