Month: February 2013 (Page 1 of 2)

Just looked at all my saved weather spots’  forecasts (i.e. where all of you guys live), and Chetek has the best forecast over the next five days. No chance of precip. and around 32 or higher every day. Partly or mostly cloudy, but that means SOME SUN. Okay, that’s more like it!

A gal at church – slim and elderly – said that losing weight is simple. Just eat less and walk more. At first I kind of dismissed it, because it is so simple and walking isn’t necessarily the best exercise, etc., etc. But the more I thought about it, she is right. If a person, no matter what else they do, eats less and walks more, they will lose weight.

For me the eating less really is just staying on my planned menus, because when I do, I eat less than when I don’t (obviously), sometimes actually a LOT less. And walk more makes more sense than adding other types of exercise like exercise videos, etc, because just adding a couple miles of walking isn’t going to cause excess fatigue or injuries (if I don’t slip and fall!) So, I’m trying to just remember those two things – eat less and walk more.

I’m just stuck at about a 5 – 8 pound loss, depending on the day of the week and can’t seem to get moving on the rest of the 35 pounds. So, whatever helps, I’m willing to try.

If you want something that is more of a side dish than a bread, try this:

1 box Jiffy cornbread mix

2 eggs

1 can creamed corn

Mix them together and put in a greased 9 x 9 baking dish and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve with a spoon, since it doesn’t hold together quite like regular cornbread.  I didn’t put anything on it, but I suppose you could put honey or butter or whatever you want on it.

What was supposed to be a “winter storm” ended up being a nice winter snowfall, but there was nothing storm-like about it. The snow just gently fell all night and all day today. Sure, it piled up and had to be shoveled, but it is hard to complain about light, fluffy snow that covers up all the dirty snow and makes things look beautiful again.  I thought it had stopped, but it looks like it is still coming down. I would guess we’ve had about 6 or 7 inches. I’ve shoveled a number of times, but none more than 3 inches.

Yesterday’s middle school solo/ensemble contest went fine. There were a couple vocal ensembles that were not too good, but many of the kids did a great job and went away with a first. My lone class A piano student advanced to state, which wasn’t really a surprise to me, but it was to him (having never been to state before). He probably plays that Schubert that I give everyone for their first Class A solo, the best I’ve heard. It was a bit of a challenge to get him to slow down and learn it accurately, but when he finally did, he learned it very well.

Nothing too exciting planned for the weekend. I’m feeling a bit like curling up with a good book.

Well, this week isn’t going quite as “perfectly” as last week, but I have the extra weekend weight off and am working on a loss for this week. I get kind of stressed when the weather is like this – windy, cold, icy, storm predicted for later in the week. But I’ve been turning to good things when I feel I need a nibble – walnuts, fresh fruit, etc. Still, I’m not exactly on what I wanted to eat.

Yesterday we had left overs from the previous day (meatloaf, Brussels sprouts, etc.)

That is gone so tonight we are having:

salmon (poached in water in a skillet); sweet potato (my favorite!); peas and soy milk

lunch was: tomato soup; open faced almond butter sandwich; apple

For snack this afternoon I had my yogurt and tonight’s snack is instant oatmeal.

Breakfasts are the same every week, so I won’t post them again 🙂

On the plus side, we had our monthly nutrition talk (which includes samples) and I DID NOT have a sample of oatmeal butterscotch cookie or oatmeal fudge. I did have a little smoothie with oatmeal in it – no sugar, though.  And my opinion? Oatmeal in a smoothie is just wrong. As long as I eat my oatmeal for breakfast and in my bread, I’m not going to ruin my smoothies by putting raw oatmeal in them. Even ground fine, it remains in your mouth after all the other stuff has dissolved, so you end up chewing up all this ground up raw oatmeal. Weird. Then, because we had that at 10:00, I forgot to have my banana for snack. I couldn’t figure out why I was starving by lunchtime!

I just discovered some really funny short videos. I don’t have a link, but you can just google “Clodhopper Report” and there are a whole bunch of them. My favorites were the episodes
“Auction” and “Chickens” but most of them are really funny. “Graveyard” is really good, too, but not funny.

Here it is almost 7:00 and I realized I’ve been totally on my menu plan for the day. I planned to make bread this a.m., so I included in the menu a piece in the a.m. when it came out of the oven and another for lunch. Then I got really busy this afternoon and just ate what I was supposed to. So, tonight …. popcorn!

Today’s menu:

Breakfast: Steel cut oats (never had them before) with golden raisins; V8; cutie

Snack: small banana; piece of warm homemade bread

Lunch: Stewed tomatoes; bread with almond butter

Snack: Smoothie with bananas and berries and soy milk

Supper: left-over spaghetti hotdish; left over green beans; soy milk

Snack: 5 points (250 calories) of popcorn

And tomorrow I get meatloaf – I have it already put together and ready to bake. My favorite!!

And about the steel cut oats – I’d heard of them, but never bought any. I was at the Mennonite store yesterday and saw them and they were quite cheap so I bought a bag. They are really yummy – chewier than regular oatmeal – more like a whole wheat hot cereal, but with a mild oatmeal taste. Really good with the golden raisins. I made them in the same proportions as regular oatmeal and ended up with a really big bowl! They cooked maybe 7 or 8 minutes I would guess; a little longer than regular old fashioned oats.

Looks like things may not be as good as we’d hoped in Toccoa. First she didn’t deposit her weekly  check on time, as agreed to on a very legal document (so we could have started eviction right then.) Then it turns out the check she paid us with bounced, so we are back to nothing, minus the $12 fee for a check with insufficient funds. I really don’t understand why we get penalized for her mistake. Anyway, we are trying to make it to Thursday, when she legally agreed to pay us the total due (over $2500) without doing anything to upset the applecart. Once we get that money (and please pray that we do), she is out the first time we don’t get paid on time or a check bounces. I wish we could require her to pay with cash, but it is probably too late for that.  I was going to send her a very angry e mail, but Dad stopped me, so for now she just knows that we know that last weeks check bounced and that the total she owes us isn’t just the $120 she deposited (on time this week), but $132 more.

Pray for this situation. I’d hoped we could resolve it peacefully, but now I’m just not sure. And legal costs could easily eat up every penny she owes us, even if we do get the money.

My day started great with another 1/2 pound loss, bringing my total loss since I stopped eating sugar one week ago today to 5 pounds. That kind of a loss is really motivating to keep doing what I’ve been doing. My total loss is at 7 1/2 pounds, which is about 20% of what I need to lose.

I didn’t have the best day today, though. I was out shopping when my normal snack time was, so I’d planned to get croutons at the Mennonite store, which I did. But I forgot that once I start eating them, I can’t stop. I also bought some squeaky cheese curds. Now, neither of them contains sugar, so I’m alright there, but I didn’t exactly stick with my menu. Oh, well, no-one’s perfect.  I think I adjusted the rest of the day, though, so it should come out about the same, point-wise, as it would have.

So here was today’s menu, with notes where I strayed.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with golden raisins; cutie

Snack: SlimFast

Lunch: Eggs Plus, made with a diet bun, since I was out of bread: Romaine and dressing.

Snack: Baked apple and orange fizz (Okay, so here is where I had that other stuff instead, plus I can’t find the orange juice I like, so I skipped that part, too and just had pop)

Supper: Spaghetti hot dish, made with whole wheat spaghetti and ground turkey; green beans, soy milk, which I skipped because of the afternoon fiasco!

Snack: supposed to be about 5 points (250 calories) of popcorn, but I’m skipping that too and just having a small banana again. That way, my day should be pretty close to where it would have been if I’d eaten what I’d planned.

Today was a lot less hectic than yesterday. For one thing, it didn’t snow (for a change!) Oh, I forgot to say that I shoveled snow yesterday morning for about a half hour before work, too. I did go to school again and practice, but no recording with Emma and no lessons or tai chi class or choir. Just grocery shopping and starting the laundry. Now I’m off for my evening stroll with Sherlock.

Yesterday was the busiest day ever, but I didn’t eat wrong. We plan to go out for supper every Thursday and this week I only had a few minutes, so we went to McDonalds and I had a McChicken and a side salad with dressing and croutons. So, here was my other menu for Thursday:

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with 1 T soy granules; V8

Snack: Banana

Lunch: tomato soup and tuna salad on home made bread

Snack: yogurt

Supper: see above

Snack: small banana and handful of dry roasted edamame

 My snacks were a little off because I was supposed to have bread for the afternoon snack, but I’d eaten the last of it at lunch. So I had the evening snack in the afternoon. So I just had another banana when I got home after choir and collapsed into bed.

What made the day busy, you ask? Chipping away at ice on the sidewalk between my exercise classes, over to school to practice for MS solo/ensemble, record audition tape with Emma Martin, two lessons in Cameron, followed by tai chi class there, quick supper, practice with soloist who is preparing for a talent show, then choir and home.