Category Archives: Healthy Eating

More Rain!

Stephanie Stamm

It’s quite dark outside right now. Our rain is supposed to finish sometime this afternoon. All our growing things have really gotten good, thorough drinks the past few days.

Since it’s not a good day to continue work in the garden, I’m switching to INSIDE things. Since I’m such a lousy housekeeper, there is a plethora of things from which to choose on things needing to be cleaned. :0/

I am planning to try to get up to my art room today to try to finish the bookmarks I started recently. I have more ideas rattling around in my head that I would like to start when I finish the current project and get things cleared off.

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I am happy to report that I lost another couple of pounds this morning!  That gets me back to my 40 pounds off from my lardiest!

These sweet bears are from when I lost weight several years ago with Nutrisystem. As with the gold stars I put on my desk calendar for exercise, these were motivating. We stopped this program because they discontinued most of the food my husband liked.  I’m happy to have re-earned the green bear…

So far I am very happy with our new eating regimen of having our main meal of the day a frozen entrée from REAL FOOD in Greenwood. Their food is delicious, and the portion is controlled. We are skipping breakfast and eating something light, such as tuna fish salad, for lunch and then MAYBE a careful snack mid to late afternoon, if we are hungry. The careful eating plus exercise (elliptical trainer and yoga stretches) seem to have me on track again, and for that I’m truly grateful.  (We will pre-order for next week when they list the choices this afternoon. )

I hope that you are having a good day, full of love and free from stress.

Stay safe and well.

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Thoughts on a Tuesday 9-22-2020

“The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.”
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

Evgeni Evgeniev-Unsplash

Fall is my favorite season.

I love it when I am a bit too cool and need to throw on a hoodie to be comfortable. I enjoy snuggling under my throw in my recliner and nodding off when I get sleepy. One of my favorite drinks is hot chocolate. A fire in the fireplace is a luxurious, comfort thing. The colors of the leaves lift my spirits.  I hope we get a good, long autumn this year!

Gardening Know How

I got SOME of the onions harvested yesterday before I pulled one and a gazillion ants swarmed out. Thankfully, I was armed with my new 2-gallon sprayer of Eight Bug Killer and hosed down the planter box again. It’s raining today (Tropical Storm Beta) but I’ll try it again when the weather is cooperative.

 

Depositphotos

I also managed to file (or throw away) the huge pile of paper sitting on the table beside my computer yesterday. Today I will tackle August bookkeeping. Hopefully, I can get that accomplished today – since September’s stuff will be staring me in the face soon.

 

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

My husband and I enjoyed Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad for our dinner last night from REAL FOOD in Greenwood. It was truly YUMMY. We are so lucky it is so good and so convenient for us. I also lost a bit more weight! I looked at my records for South Beach and BistroMD, and I’m losing at the same – if slow – rate. If I live 100 more years, I’ll eventually reach my goal! :0)

Penn Fitness Warehouse

Another thing I love about the fall – I can use my elliptical trainer in our garage in a lot more comfort. My husband mounted a wall fan on the wall in front of it for the summer, but I still end up overheated when the temperatures and heat indices go nuts in the summer. I won’t say I look forward to going out there, but putting in the time is much more palatable now.  My yoga stretching in the afternoons is rounding out my exercise nicely.

I don’t have a big project for the day. We drove the trash down to the bottom of the driveway, and I have load #2 in the clothes washer. The dishwasher is running. I’ll go do the elliptical (hopefully doing 35 minutes) and then hit the bookkeeping. I live such an exciting life! :0)

I hope that things are good for you today.

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A Reason to Love Mondays

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

 

Real Food Co.

 

Last week we had a glorious week of EATING. We discovered REAL FOOD in Greenwood and pre-ordered things for the week. We enjoyed ALL of it, AND both of us managed to lose a bit over a pound!

They post choices for the coming week on Wednesday afternoons. You can pre-order from the website, as we do, or you can simply go into the store and choose from all the goodies in the freezer.  If you pre-order, you can pick up your food the following Monday.

They are open Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.  479-414-6337.  964 East Center Street, Greenwood, AR 72936.

Now you see the reason that Monday has become a happy day for us. It’s pick up day for the Lewises!  (We also hope to get a loaf of bread…)

 

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The Verdict So Far is “Delicious!”

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

We have now eaten two frozen meals from REAL FOOD in Greenwood. 964 East Center Street, Greenwood, AR 72936.  (479) 414-6337.

We liked last night’s meal – “Home Fries, Roasted Chicken, Bacon and Cheese” even better than the first night’s, and that’s saying a lot. :0)

I have asked the owner if she would consider posting at least ball park estimates of nutritional information on the website so that we can try to plan around the one GLORIOUS meal we’re eating each day. (We are doing a combination of intermittent fasting and very light lunches.  If we have a snack, it’s a keto-type one.)  This afternoon the choices for the coming week should be posted.

I’m also going to concentrate on my exercising more, now that our weather is cooling off a bit. I’m aiming for elliptical trainer in the morning and yoga stretches in the afternoon, with as much walking in-between as I can get in.

 

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Thoughts on a Tuesday 9-15-2020

dogspotting – Bored Panda

Isn’t this a sweet face with which to start a day?

I’ve been ill for the past two days and am very happy to tell you that I’m feeling sassy again.

Yesterday we went to have our semi-annual teeth cleaning. I didn’t go for years, having my husband take our son for checkups, etc., and going himself. I was really afraid to go. The only thing I had had done to my teeth, other than cleaning, was to get braces. I wore them for two years, then the retainers, all to end up with crooked teeth again. My husband got angry with my attitude. We finally agreed that “I” would start going to the dentist regularly if my “husband” would wear a helmet while he rode the motorcycle. I have never had a cavity.

Yusuf Belek

This all stopped yesterday. I have a small cavity – the first in 73 years – in a wisdom tooth. I will have it filled October 2nd. I will probably have nightmares the night before. I’m like a little kid about things like this. It’s a gut reaction, though, so I’ll just try to be a big girl when the time comes. Also, adding frustration to the mix – I had ordered three tubes of a tartar control toothpaste, since I seem to manufacture the problem. The hygienist has asked me to go back to whatever I was doing before I changed, since I had more than I had the last time! :0(

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

The good part of yesterday was that we picked up our first order of frozen meals from Real Food in Greenwood on the way home. We tried the BBQ meatballs with sweet potato and green beans. We also bought half a loaf of olive bread. After we ate, we looked at each other and said in one voice, “YUMMY!!!!!!”  I wrote to the lady, telling her how pleased we were. I also requested two things: 1) she consider providing at least approximate nutrition information for each choice, and 2) give recommendations on how long to heat or microwave the options. (I put the bread in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, and I simply hit ‘reheat’ on the entrees, and it worked out fine, but I would like a bit more direction, if possible, just in case.

Our weather is glorious. We have doors open and are really enjoying the breezes coming through the house. ( I DID have to vacuum the first floor tiles this morning first thing because tufts of Amber’s hair were wafting around in the breezes. :0)

Amazon Handmade

Today I THINK I registered for an account on Amazon Handmade. They finally gave me a url I could copy, instead of click on, so I could put it in my FireFox browser, instead of the Google Chrome they don’t seem to like, and I was able to fill out some information. I have to wait 24 hours, and then I’m supposed to be able to start listing products for sale. Now I will see what information I can find about how to list things, parameters, etc.  One step at a time…

I am planning to play in my art room a bit today, working on the bookmarks I started. Since I’ve been sick, I am definitely taking things easy today, trying to get my energy back. I’m looking forward to trying some yoga stretching this afternoon.

I hope you have a very pleasant day.

 

 

 

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Relief

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

 

Our last BistroMD meal last night was Salmon. It was mostly edible, but my husband and I both used lots of tartar sauce. (Usually I don’t use anything except maybe a squeeze of lemon on salmon, so I was really disappointed). Neither of us could identify the side veggie, but we each took one bite and that was it. I just looked it up online and it was eggplant with 5 spices. (Maybe it would have been better if they had used 6.) We are in celebratory mode now because we are moving on. (We still have some snacks from both South Beach and BistroMD, but time will tell if we are hungry enough to eat them.)

Today I will cook some pork chops. We will have a side salad and a celebration of small portions of black eyed peas with onion.  We will eat half of this tonight and the other half tomorrow. Monday we pick up our order from Real Food. I’m eager to try that.

As with so many things, their competitor has already sprung up in Greenwood. It’s called, Stu’s Clean Cookin’. I was impressed with the ad in the paper. They list calories, fat, carbs, and protein for each meal listed. They identified some as “low carb,” “contains dairy,” and “contains gluten.” I like that.

So – just as we needed them, we have TWO nice companies preparing frozen meals we can try! I will be doing a lot of label reading. I plan to at least have several meal options available in the freezer while trying to get back into the swing of meal planning for keto eating.

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Hooraaaaaay!

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

 

Tonight we eat the last meal from BistroMD. This program was not a good match for us, and we are happy to be able to move on. Sad to say, I didn’t lose any weight over the past week – just held my own. (I didn’t get any taller, either.

If I grew about 5 inches, I would be in MUCH better shape. I have a massage next week and will encourage my wonderful therapist to redouble her efforts to pull on my head, legs, and arms enough that my problem might eventually go away. :0)  (One can dream….)

We are looking forward to a week off. We have ordered some hand-prepared frozen meals from Real Food in Greenwood. We will pick up our order Monday. Some of our Lunch Bunch friends say their food is delicious!   In the future, we will do a combination of keto meals and meals from Real Food – if we like it – concentrating on portion control, good choices, and exercise. Fingers crossed.

 

 

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Can You Hear My Teeth Grinding?

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

 

Today is the cutoff for making changes to our next week’s delivery from BistroMD. Until yesterday, my husband’s page still wasn’t showing that I had written and asked them to remove snacks from what I thought would be the final week’s order.

When I went to the websites for each of us this morning, each said at the top, “No deliveries are scheduled.” I’m HOPING that means that our memberships are – in fact – cancelled and that we don’t have to pay for and receive another week’s worth, but it isn’t clear. At the beginning, the paperwork said we would have to get ANOTHER week when we cancelled. I’ve been on hold, and have given a call-back number several times, but haven’t been able to reach anyone yet.  All my appendages are crossed that we are finished with this company and can move on after we eat a few more meals from the first week’s order.

In the meantime, we checked out the new Real Food place in Greenwood yesterday. It was so clean it squeaked! There was a choice of four different prepared-by-hand frozen meals in the freezer, and all sounded good. The lady explained to us that now that they have an actual ‘store,’ they will move away from weekly pre-orders and will expand the offerings in the store as they can. This would be very convenient for us. I will need to check out the nutrition labels more carefully, but we could at least have some meals in the freezer for the times I go on strike and don’t have the energy to cook in the future.

I am ready to go back to our keto plan IF we are finished with the Bistro group. I think we have a day and a half’s worth of meals left from the first week, and then we can switch.

GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!   A customer service person from Bistro called me back just now. He confirmed that since it says “no deliveries are scheduled.” on each of our pages, that I cancelled the plans in time that we DON’T have to pay for or receive another week’s worth of food. HOORAAAAAAAAAY!    :0)

Now I will look at the Real Food website and see if they have choices listed for pre-orders for next week listed.

 

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Happy Labor Day 2020

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“Labor Day 2020 will occur on Monday, September 7. Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers and is traditionally observed on the first Monday in September. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894.” ~ http://www.history.com

In 1918, my dad was born on Labor Day, September 6th that year. He always said he thought it was ‘appropriate.’ :0)

This Labor Day is a bit sad because so many good people are still out of work due to the pandemic. In addition, we have people who have lost homes, businesses, and jobs due to Mother Nature and the hurricanes and flooding. Hopefully, all this will improve soon. It seems we have already started, though more rapidly would, of course, be better.

We continue to eat our way through our BistroMD eating plan. Last night we both ate a chicken, rice and cheddar casserole with broccoli. It was the best thing we’ve had so far, but neither of us was impressed. We have to accept an order for next week, but we have cancelled the program.

Our yard is looking pretty good now! (for us).  My husband got the grass mowed a couple of days ago. The day before yesterday I weed whacked what he couldn’t mow, and yesterday I used the leaf blower to clean up. One would actually think we might be civilized around here!  Today I will mix up 2 gallons of EIGHT bug killer and hose down the garden before I try to harvest the rest of the onions. I’ll also spray the trio of brick planters between our driveway area and our yard in preparation for weeding and pruning things there. I do NOT want to get stung/bitten by ants again!

I’m also thinking of checking the co-op in town to see if they have lettuce plants. If they do, I’ll take the tomato plants down in the planter close to the house and plant lettuce there. One year we were lucky, having fresh lettuce into early February!

I will call to find out if the new place in Greenwood called Real Food is open today. I interested in seeing the place, plus possible getting a couple of frozen dinners to try.

I hope that you make this a happy day.

 

 

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BistroMD – First Impressions

Caught Red-Pawed – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

 

Our BistroMD first week’s food was delivered yesterday afternoon. The package warned of dry ice, but it was all melted. The food seemed to be good and cold, though.

One thing that is different from the other plans we have tried is that they want you to take out the food for the next day, transferring it from the freezer to the fridge to thaw slowly. I do that with meat, chicken, and fish, anyway, but this is the first time we have done it with frozen dinners.

Our first meal was dinner last night. My husband had “Beef Stroganoff” and I had “Broccoli Cheddar Stuffed Chicken.”   These are both from the Diabetic Menu, since we are both trying to avoid any added sugar.

We both thought our dinners were OKAY, and certainly better than the South Beach frozen stuff. (We both had really LIKED the “White Bean Chicken Chili” and “Cheeseburger Soup” in tiny bowls from South Beach for lunch and dinner, though, so we don’t want to rush to judgment. We may still be in withdrawal from finishing those.) This is more nutritious than what we have been eating lately, with the veggies being included in the meal, rather than depending on the customer to add good choices as a side. The Beef Stroganoff included mushrooms, and broccoli, with linguini. The Broccoli Cheddar Stuffed Chicken included carrots and a barley salad with spinach, red onions, and slivered almonds.

A drawback, as far as I am concerned, is that they did not have a keto eating plan choice. Since my husband has Type II diabetes, though, and my goal is to simply lose the lard in the most healthy way I can, this is certainly worth a try. It looks like they are arranging the day’s food to be around 1000-1200 calories.  I am hopeful these good people can help us lose the lard and eat healthy.

I was able to do my yoga stretching yesterday for the first day since I got bitten/stung by the ants last week, and I’m planning to do that, plus a good amount of yard work today as my exercise.

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“Empty Box Syndrome” / On My Own Again…

Spoon University

We are now down to the dregs in our South Beach boxes.

We ordered pancake mixes a la carte to tide my husband over, but those are super-expensive. I fixed two packages for our breakfast this morning, realizing we are on a count-down until my husband starts to balk. Happily, I researched low carb pancake mix on the net and found CarbQuik, a low carb baking mix! It’s inexpensive, and can be used for things other than pancakes sometime in the future. I have it on our grocery list now.

I Can Has Cheezeburger? – DailySquee.com

This morning I made the SB pancakes, I made tunafish salad for lunch, and I have the makings for keto chili in the slow cooker for dinner. I feel like ‘Food Central’ right now, so I will get serious about making plans for the next week so I don’t face the serious culture shock of feeling I’m in the kitchen all day prepping, cooking, or cleaning up. I have my Simply Keto recipe book by Suzanne Ryan, and I will make my calendar and figure out a game plan so I spend as little time in the kitchen as possible in the coming week, yet try new recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I am grateful that the possibly severe weather from last night’s forecast once again bypassed us. We had a lot of lightning, but no damage that we have seen so far. Whew!

 

My next big project will be shutting down our raised bed square foot garden for the season. I turned off the automatic water system yesterday. I will harvest the onions, spreading them out on a trailer bed thingie so they can dry out, hopefully being good for storing in my net bags in the pantry. I will take pics to share. Part of the shutting down will be clearing the remains of the plants, intense weeding, then making Mel’s Mix and filling up each of the six 4′ x 4′ wooden boxes that are my planters. When that is done, I’ll cover each of the planters with a tarp to hold down weed production until I’m ready to start planting again.  All this will take several days. Once this is done, I’ll continue my efforts to arrange things for seed sprouting on my garage counter.

I hope you’re having a happy Sunday.

 

 

 

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Thoughts on a Saturday 8-29-2020

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My heart goes out to the people suffering from Mother Nature’s fury. So many good people are hurting, with physical and emotional damage on top of the pandemic concerns.  We just need to concentrate on helping each other the best way we can.

We are getting to the bottom of our South Beach diet boxes. I am DIYing more and more as we run out of things, gradually making my way to the point where we will be on our own once again. The two month reboot for our keto efforts has been good in many ways

  • a blunt reminder of what a ‘serving’ is – and is not
  • a more subtle reminder that we don’t need to walk around hungry. There are good choices for snacks mid morning, mid afternoon, and before bed that remind us that each meal is NOT our last. I’m stocking cut up fresh veggies, cheese sticks, hard-boiled eggs, nuts, etc.
  • a reminder that eating right is only part of the equation to being healthy. I’m am still trying to do a 35 minute session of my elliptical trainer in the mornings (though I just do it until my body complains too much and then I stop, regardless of the time – at LEAST doing 15 minutes. Lately, I have been substituting heavy yard work (cleaning up after the storm) and cleaning out our ruined greenhouse (hauling things out and taking them to the garage and/or the shop). I am then doing a good session (35 minutes +) of yoga daily. These stretches are gauged for Seniors, so are NOT trying to get you to fold yourself into a paper airplane. They are designed to help you gain flexibility, core strength, and relaxation.

Unsplash

(I have ALWAYS been somewhat stiff and inflexible. I was in an exercise class in college. We did an exercise where we were lying on our stomachs. We were then told to lift our arms and legs simultaneously up as far as we could get them, and then move them down again, over and over. I did the ‘up’ just fine. The ‘down,’ not so much. I went up, something ‘caught’ in my back, not allowing me to bring my parts down again. I was yelling in pain. They finally got two big guys to lift me up over their heads, like the prow on a ship, and carry me to the infirmary. When they finally got me fixed, I had a waiver for that exercise. Being long-in-the-tooth only exacerbates my normal stiffness, so it’s more important than ever)

  • I am gearing up to cook all the time again. I will miss the stuff the South Beach Diet people sell in tiny bowls – ‘cheeseburger soup,’ and ‘a white beans something-or-other.’ Both were delicious. We ordered a few more packages of pancake mix, because my husband really likes those, to let us down gradually. In the meantime, I will look for ingredients so I can make low carb pancakes from time to time from scratch. We also like the shakes, but won’t order more.
  • At this point, I have lost 40 pounds and 43+ inches. I will do everything I can NOT to regain any of this back, and will keep trying to lose more. I would like to lose another 30 lbs to get into a good, solid, healthy BMI range for my height. (I’ve tried getting taller, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.)

Otherwise, the ruined greenhouse is now empty.  My husband and I have agreed that we will let the shell sit until things get cooler. (Today’s forecast is 98 degrees F. with a heat index of 112) Today I will concentrate on getting my seed-starting area in the garage workable, with things either stored out of the way or taken out to the shop, and things I need easily accessible.  My husband fixed one of my lights over the counter. I found, and hooked up, my grow light, so I have a start.

I hope that you have a happy Saturday.

 

 

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Today’s Harvest

Since Tropical Storm Laura may be the last of our tomato vines, I harvested what was there a few minutes ago.

 

The larger tomatoes are no longer ‘pretty,’ but they taste really good. The cherry-tomato-sized ones taste good, too, though my husband turns up his nose at them and won’t eat them. That’s okay with ME. More for ME!  :0)

We have had a really nice crop this year despite our weird weather. I am trying to be okay if Laura tears up what remains of the plants. One cannot be TOO greedy…

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Poofy

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This poofy lady has lost pound # 8 via South Beach – (37 pounds via various methods since my heaviest). I still have more to lose before I hit ‘new territory’ on my weight loss efforts, but I feel that I am on a roll now. I don’t care how long it takes for me to lose it. I feel good that my scale numbers are going in the right direction now.

My measuring tape is showing positive signs, too, as there is less of me now – 40 inches less – than when I was at my lardiest.

 

 

 

 

 

I am going for gold stars # 13 and 14 today for the week – for my elliptical exercising and my yoga practice. I am feeling less like a fool that I ‘exercise for stars’ as if I were a little kid. There are lots of ways I haven’t really grown up, and if this works – RUN IT! :0)

-ClipartLibrary

We are on Month #2 of South Beach. I will figure out on which days I will fix DIY dinners, lunches, breakfasts, and snacks (morning and afternoon) – 2 of each during the week.

Fingers crossed the progress continues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Month 2

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Hahahahahahahaah! I love this picture. :0)

Our South Beach orders for Month #2 arrived yesterday. I have been DIYing most of our meals, since we were out of most everything, using up the dregs of what was left in our boxes from Month #1 when possible. So we started in with lunch yesterday on our renewed supplies.

I called in and cancelled our subscriptions/memberships/auto-delivery orders yesterday, once our delivery came.  She tried to change my mind. Asked me how much weight we had lost. Why we were quitting. I didn’t want to list the reasons, so just told her we needed a reboot, and were pleased that they provided it for us.  I got confirmation emails that our subscriptions had been cancelled, and there was a chance to do a survey. I tried, but it wasn’t working.

I know the coronavirus has caused big problems for everyone, and that this will continue. I’m assuming the problems we experienced were due to that:

CONS –  

  • The variety of foods from which we could choose was small.
  • I kept up with trying to change our next order for month # 2 to not get certain things we didn’t care for again. Each time I went online, (and I did this several times before the cutoff date) they had discontinued something else we liked, or had marked it with an asterisk that indicated we needed to choose something else because supplies were low and they would substitute something else when they filled our order. We ended up choosing nothing from the frozen selections for Month # 2. The things we liked weren’t available.
  • The website was annoying. Each time you change from one page to another, you had to sign in again. Some pages got 404 messages. The page where you input what you ate was great when South Beach foods were eaten, but the DIY section was next to impossible. Since you fix 2 dinners, 2 lunches, 2 breakfasts, 2 afternoon snacks and 2 morning snacks DIY each week, this is really annoying. I gave up and just logged my weight changes.

PROS –

  • We like their shakes a lot. We like a lot of the snacks. We like their cheeseburger soup and the white bean chili in a bowl. We like their pancake mix.
  • We like the convenience of just standing in front of our boxes and choosing what we would like to eat for many meals each week.
  • We got what we wanted from the two-month membership: a reboot on our efforts at keto; a reminder of what a ‘portion’ is; a chance to get our heads on straight about how long it takes to lose the weight versus how easy it is to put it back on; a redoubling of efforts to exercise as we eat right; motivation to continue our good habits when the 2nd month is finished.

I am happy that my husband will have probably met his weight goal by the time we finish this second month. (He only has about 10 lbs to go.) I wish he would exercise, but at least he is encouraging about MY efforts.

My goal is another 30 or so. I’m also using this ‘reboot’ to remind myself that just because something is in the pantry does NOT mean I have to listen to it call to me or eat it. I’m HOPING that my husband won’t go back to putting a lot of frowned-on foods into the cart, but if he insists on it, I don’t have to give in and feed my face. I will make it a priority to keep DIYing what I SHOULD be eating – including some good snacks – and hopefully that, plus my exercises will make ME healthier, too as I pursue my goal.

I love the recipe book Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan. She doesn’t use a lot of ingredients you need to scrounge to find. The recipes are simple – and to me, the less time spent in the kitchen, the better. They taste really good. My husband’s reaction when he learns I’m cooking one of our favorites, or trying a new one for us, is “GREAT!”

Here’s to Month #2!

 

 

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Frustration

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We are about to begin Month # 2 on our South Beach Diet. We have not yet received notice that our orders have shipped. We are down to meat sticks and shakes, and we will use these up while waiting for our new food. I did the DIY meals in the program (2 dinners, 2 lunches, 2 breakfasts, 2 morning snacks and 2 afternoon snacks each week) but I will be doing a lot more until we receive the next shipment.

One good thing is that my husband appreciates my cooking even more now, since we are eating strangely most of the day. :0)

Another good thing is that I am VERY aware of portions. Example: I cooked Suzanne Ryan’s “Bacon-Wrapped Cheesy Chicken” (Simply Keto) last night. We each ate one half of one chicken breast and some fresh tomatoes on the side.

A third good thing is that my exercise efforts are going well. I have done my elliptical trainer every day this week, plus a session of yoga stretches. I will finish off the week today, earning two more gold stars for my desk calendar (a total of 14 stars!)

On the 5th I will post a progress report on my efforts to lose the lard. Hopefully, we will have our new food order, and I can post some good results!

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Thoughts on a Friday, July 31, 2020

AginginPlace.org

Today we meet our friends for Lunch Bunch. Our ‘core group’ (Linda, Kay and I) have been meeting every Friday possible for over 17 years now. “Priceless”  just isn’t a strong enough word to describe how special this is.  Others come and go. Our husbands were made honorary members of the group years ago. Linda’s husband is gone, now, but we share memories of funny or touching things from the times he was able to join us. Kay’s husband has joined us recently. He isn’t working now, laid off because of the virus. He is at the age where he should have retired long ago, but loves the work. He is working now to define himself as much more than his work, and I’m delighted. He has a wonderful sense of humor and it’s fun to hear what he has to say. My husband has been a member for several years now. He presides over his ‘harem,’ ( :0) )  though now graciously sharing that fantasy with Bud now. We enjoy catching up with what the others have been doing, or hearing about plans for the future. We have borne the sad news together over the years, and have helped each other deal with whatever has happened. We had to miss a few Fridays due to the virus. Then the restaurant owner was allowed to serve us outside at picnic tables. Now we’re back in the restaurant, wearing masks in and out. It’s good to be back.

We will have to set our humane trap again tonight because it looks like we have ANOTHER raccoon. This has been a record-braking year. We have relocated 8 raccoons so far, and it LOOKS as if we will do it again..

We had quite a storm yesterday evening. LOTS of lightning, loud thunder, wind, and heavy rain for about half an hour that I was aware of. No damage, though. We are due for more today. Our grass and plants will be happy. My husband is frowning as he imagines the grass spurting up again.

 

This is yesterday’s tomato harvest. We are enjoying fresh sliced tomatoes for part of our lunches and dinners every day. It has been glorious. Even if the harvest stopped suddenly – as it sometimes does – we have been very lucky this year.

Not sure what today’s project will be. I’m trying to choose one area to ‘heal’ every day. Yesterday it was my kitchen desk and the shelves above it. I also spent a lot of time scrubbing one of the downstairs bathrooms. I have LOTS of good choices, as I am a slob. I’ll report later on what the choice is.

I’m doing really well on my exercising. Being able to add a gold star to my desk calendar is motivating for me – a person who hasn’t fully grown up. They motivated me as a child in school and I will still get off my duff and go earn one now. I’m giving myself one for each session on my elliptical trainer in the garage and each session of yoga stretches and abdominal exercises. So far, this is an 8-star week. I’ll go for 9 and 10 today.

I hope you have a wonderful day today, productive and enjoyable.

 

 

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Growing Celery

It occurred to me that I have talked about trying to grow celery in my garden, but haven’t shown you how I am trying.

When I buy stalks of celery at the store, I cut off about an inch-and-a-half to two inches of the bottom of each stalk and put them in a dish with water. I let this sit on the divider in my kitchen, making sure it has water.

The result, after about a week, is this. ‘

This evening before dark, or tomorrow morning before the heat becomes lethal, I will transfer these two to the garden, digging a hole and putting the growing plants just as you see them, into the soil.

So far, I have managed to get some leafy plants with some stalks, but not as you would see them in the grocery store with the stalks tightly together. I have read that I am supposed to tie the leafy part together, and will try that this time.

I haven’t been really successful yet, but it’s so much fun to try!

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Rich in Tomatoes

 

Yesterday’s tomato harvest was really nice. We’re still getting all different sizes of tomatoes, since the plants are stressed due to our weather. We’re getting deeply into summer now, so hopefully we can give them enough water to keep them producing. We are beyond spoiled, looking forward to having fresh, ripe sliced tomatoes with lunch and dinner every day. :0)

Yesterday we were checking on our irrigation system since it’s lethally hot and we haven’t had any rain in awhile. We found one planter that we had rebuilt recently where the holes have NOT been drilled into the PVC pipe that brings it water!  We will remedy that today. (I moved my elephant ear plants from the front porch where they were not happy to the newly rebuilt planter. It would be NICE if I also provided water.

My plants in the garden continue to get larger and produce blooms, but no zucchini or yellow crookneck squash yet. I’m starting to think the ‘plants’ are all I’ll get…

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Yesterday’s Tomato Harvest

I am happy to tell you that my husband and I are becoming completely spoiled, eating fresh tomatoes at lunch and dinner every day. Otherwise, we are eating our South Beach entrees, or I am fixing one of our DIY meals.

This is a quality of life thing for us. If I ever give up trying to have a garden, I will still put in tomato plants every spring for summer tomatoes.

A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.” ~ Laurie Colwin, ‘Home Cooking’

 

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Getting the Lard Off “Progress” Report?

We are ‘regrouping’ on our weight loss and exercise efforts. I say ‘we’ – my husband and I are on two months of the South Beach Diet Plan now, trying to reboot our efforts to lose weight. Excuses abound, but the bottom line is that we have been regaining the weight we lost previously and are trying to get our heads back in the game and remotivated.  “I” am exercising. He encourages me in my efforts, but won’t do any himself.

To date, I have now lost 33 pounds and 28 inches from my most ‘zaftig.’ I’m disappointed that I allowed myself to gain back pounds and inches, but that is in the past now. I am again losing weight and exercising. So far I am walking 10 minutes twice a day, morning and evening. It is too hot in the middle of the day. I AM working in the yard, and I think that should count toward my “30 minutes of exercise each day” goal. I am also doing another 30 minutes of Gentle Yoga stretches daily.

Our initial impressions of the South Beach food are mixed.

Anything in the small cups is good. That includes soups so far. The shakes are fine. I like a chocolate nut bar snack, and my husband likes a toffee bar.  The dinners are okay. We are eating them with a lot of fresh tomatoes from our garden. We have changed our coming order to try to find something we like…

The big thing we are getting is a reality check.

  • portions do matter
  • eating a small amount of the right things several times a day works well on keeping hunger down
  • saving something nice for after dinner snack is good for the morale
  • tracking what you are eating and drinking is a good way to stay accountable
  • watching the scales show general downward progress is a nice thing

I am personally learning (again!) that if my husband slips things we shouldn’t eat into the grocery cart, that doesn’t mean that “I” have to heed the voices calling me into the pantry. I am responsible for what I eat.

My initial feeling is that our decision to do a two-month reboot was a good one.

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Today’s Tomatoes

We had a nice bunch of tomatoes ripe today. I now have a bowl of them, plus a container of much smaller, cherry type tomatoes that I will eat with other raw veggies as snacks. This is one of our favorite times of the year. We are rich in tomatoes!!!!

 

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Tomato Harvest

Since we fixed our irrigation system, our tomatoes are getting watered each day, and we are starting to get some larger tomatoes. I read that getting the smaller ones indicated stress in the plants. I’m hoping our plants are happy now.

This is the ‘nook’ planter – beside the screened back porch and on the back of the house. (Amber is helping me harvest).

 

This is the other brick planter we converted to be a square foot garden planting area, filling it with Mel’s Mix.

We are really enjoying fresh tomatoes with lunch and dinner!

 

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AHA!

 

I told you yesterday that I felt dumb because I finally noticed – after 2-1/2 days – that “Phase 2 and enjoy with Phase 3” was printed on my husband’s package of pancakes.  Intelligent woman that I am, I thought, “Maybe we’re screwing up.” I spent a half hour or so finding some information on the South Beach website and printing it. I spent another hour or so reading the information, discovering that

  • Amazingly, we are in Phase 1
  • We are only supposed to be eating/drinking Phase 1 stuff until the end of next week
  • We are right that the DIY part (2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, two dinners, and two days of snacks each week) started at the beginning of the program

I separated the aqua-striped packages (Phase 1) from the purple-striped stuff (Phase 2) in my husband’s box, and then did the same in mine. I did the same with our frozen foods. There is a bit of confusion, as the soups don’t say what they are, and it is unclear about the prepared snacks, but I will see if I can reach someone to talk to on the website today.

I told him we are only eating and drinking BLUE stuff – except for DIY meals and snacks – until the end of next week. (Actually, we’ll continue until all the BLUE stuff has been consumed -whenever that is – before going on with Phase 2.

My husband is still upset that so much chocolate stuff was included in his box, when he carefully ordered what he wanted. He really doesn’t like chocolate, and has no patience with the coronavirus causing supply chain problems.  I have given him the vanilla stuff they put in mine – also not ordered. He will have to make do with some of the chocolate stuff if our supplies don’t last until the end of the month.

I have gone onto HIS account page and MY account page, making sure that he has no chocolate ordered and I have no vanilla – with high hopes.

My husband only has about 10 or 15 pounds to lose to get to his goal, so he is much more cavalier about the diet than I am. He wants to cancel after the next month’s order is confirmed as shipped.

I have more to lose than that, but I’m hoping that this two-month ‘pay attention’ time will remind us of things like eating something sensible every few hours to avoid hunger, to eat reasonable portions when we do eat, and to avoid things we know we shouldn’t be eating.  I will continue to use the carb tracking they provide, whether we are eating the prepared foods or not, as I am more likely to keep with the program doing that.

I am trying to walk for 10 minutes 3 times a day, as they suggest. I’m also doing a half hour of “Gentle Yoga” stretches daily. (I think that the 70+ times I have to get up and go to the bathroom each day, due to all the water I’m drinking, should also count as exercise. :0) )

Fingers crossed.

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More Intelligence Required

I am feeling pretty dumb right now.

We just started the South Beach diet after lunch on Wednesday. We are messing up, mainly due to stupidity – MINE.

They don’t include a lot of instructions – that’s on them. I read the paperwork that came with the order, but I haven’t been reading the packages and boxes of food carefully enough. They are clearly labeled, “Phase I,” “Phase 2 and enjoy in Phase 3”.  I just noticed THAT this morning when my husband wanted to fix pancakes.

He decided that it was ‘too much work’ to make for just himself, so we got out another package and he cooked for both of us.  He technically followed the directions, but I’m not really sure of that, since I was doing other morning chores. We ended up with really THICK, pretty hard – pancakes.  We decided we will not pass judgment on these until “I” cook a batch. THEN I noticed that this was a “Phase 2” food, and we shouldn’t have been eating it yet. Oh, well.

I will have to get on the website and see if I can find more information. We probably shouldn’t be doing the DIY meals, either, yet. Oh, well, again.

They sent my husband a whole bunch of chocolate stuff he didn’t want. I guess they were having trouble filling orders and just did the best they could. He immediately dumped all that out on the table, refusing to eat or drink them. (Patience and ‘going-along’ have never been his strong suits.) I went on the site yesterday and modified his order for next time, eliminating all the chocolate. I hope their warehouses are in better shape for the 2nd order. Meanwhile, I had some vanilla stuff in my box, so I gave that to him and I took the chocolate.

When we get back home from Lunch Bunch (our DIY lunch this week), I’ll get on their website and see if I can figure out what we’re SUPPOSED to be doing.

Duh.

 

 

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Help is on the Way!

Pinterest

As you can see, I have gained weight over the course of the last couple of months. I can blame it on lots of things, but the truth is, I ate the wrong things and ate too much, and didn’t exercise enough.

We ordered the first shipment of what we plan to be a two-month “get-back-on-the-horse,” “shot-n-the-arm” course of the South Beach diet,

the closest to the keto plan we have not been following closely enough lately. We are hoping that once we see the results on the scale, we will be re-motivated to act like adults and eat responsibly.

One aggravation is that we ordered on June 22nd and we still have not received our order. I got on the chat part of the website and talked to a nice lady who tried to find out what the problem was. She told me that they were waiting for parts of our orders to be delivered to THEM. I know that everyone is having problems with shortages, slow shipments, etc. due to COVID-19. They are probably trying to work with a skeleton crew, and they can’t ship until the orders are complete.

I found out recently that MY order had finally shipped on the 6th, but my husband’s had NOT. That is upsetting because if HE is unhappy, MY life is even more of a challenge. I checked this morning and found that HIS shipment was shipped on the 6th, too – apparently the his account had not been updated when I checked last time. HOORAY!

They use Fedex, but their track your order link isn’t working. I’m hoping we will get the delivery this week and can get started. Fingers crossed!

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A Visit to the Garden

The zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants are looking pretty good, though none have started to produce actual veggies yet.  I will have to make time to weed out there very soon.  The sweet red onions are continuing to get larger.

 

This is today’s haul of tomatoes. I really don’t know why we’re getting so many little bitty tomatoes, but I’m grateful we can enjoy them with our meals.

It’s really humid out today. It’s 80 degrees now, which would be wonderful, but the humidity is 78%, making it feel like a sauna the minute you go out. We have had the doors open to enjoy the morning, but are going to have to close up, or I will melt into a puddle onto the floor in front of my computer…..

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Today’s Tomatoes

Our weather has been so weird this year that I don’t know what to expect on our ‘crops.’ Today’s tomatoes look as if I planted cherry tomato plants. I planted the normal tomato brands and types that are supposed to be happy with the climate of Arkansas (read HOT and sporadic water). We try to even this out with our irrigation system, but it gets to the point that the plants simply boil away when it gets to be too much.

We have lots of green tomatoes coming, though, so I’m hopeful we will get several more regular-sized tomatoes to enjoy this season.

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Motivation is Funny

Frans Lanting Photography-John Steed via Gitta Newman via Penny Yaffee Krakow

 

During the pandemic my husband and I have gotten lax about our keto eating plan. We are eating mostly that, but OTHER things come home in the grocery bags that “I” didn’t put in the cart. I’ve been cooking healthy, but have little will power when it comes to listening to my husband crunch fritos, Doritos, or potato chips, bagels, no sugar added cookies, etc. I also get cravings for starches – particularly rice. My husband won’t eat any of the substitutes, and usually that is fine. I have mine frozen in portion sizes and can just pull one out – except that I haven’t been. Excuses abound and the pounds gradually return…

On June 22nd we decided to get more serious before things got totally out of hand. Needing something to really get our attention, we ordered the South Beach diet program of prepared meals and eating plan. Our intention is to do this for two months. They include DIY breakfast, lunch and dinner two days per week, so I will still be cooking keto style, but hopefully, we will re-learn portion sizes, good practices, plus hopefully  a recipe or six that we like. I am hoping that at the end of the two months we will be back on track for losing the lard.

Our problem NOW is that because of Covid 19, their staff is cut and they are behind on orders. We ordered on the 22nd and according to their website, our first order has not been shipped yet. I’m hoping the first month’s food will be shipping in the coming week.

A funny thing, though –

Since we made the decision, both of us have eaten more carefully – I guess in preparation for starting the actual program. I’ve lost 3 pounds and my husband has lost more than that. My opinion is ‘whatever works,’ but it’s funny – and GREAT – that the lard is starting to come off again.

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Tomatoes!

We have two tomato planters. The one above is 8 feet long. The one below is about 4 feet wide. We took the potting soil out and put Mel’s Mix in, converting them both to square foot planters.

 

This is the ‘nook’ planter that is at the back of the house and beside the back porch. It’s a bit more protected that the other planter from the elements. Both took off during the rainy season here, growing really tall and bushy before I had a chance to try to control them a bit. Now I’m just trying to support the branches as well as I can and hope we have some nice tomatoes.

 

You can see we have some green tomatoes of different sizes.

 

Today I found some ripe ones!  I also found that we had blossom end rot, so I added bone meal, food, and some blossom end rot spray to both planters.

 

 

I will try to cut off some dead stuff and neaten things up in a day or two, after the rain will have hopefully made the additives sink into the soil.

 

I’m delighted to show you the first harvest of what I hope will be a great tomato season for us. We will eat one this evening, enjoying every bite! :0)

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