This morning we started an honest effort to get ‘back on the horse’ of our healthy diet – and for ME – daily exercise – in a real effort to continue our efforts to get the lard off, get and stay healthier. Our ‘diet’ has no time limit. We are trying to make a lifestyle change. This is not to say we won’t celebrate occasionally, or indulge in a favorite goodie when we reach our goals. This IS to say we will eat mindfully, trying to eat fresh, clean, REAL food.
I made tuna fish salad for our lunch. We had sugar free jello, and I had some black olives.
I read today that drinking broth is a good way to solve any hunger problems. I have some here at home, but will try to find a bone or chicken broth with the lowest sodium I can find. I will plan to make a cup for a mid afternoon snack.
Clipart Library
I have earned one gold star so far today for doing 35 minutes on my elliptical trainer. It’s in our garage, so I got a little cold, but I consider this a character-building – as well as physical – exercise. :0) I will try for a second gold star this afternoon, when I plan to do about half an hour of yoga stretches. I will also make note of my steps, although this is more of a monitoring effort right now, just to make me pay a bit more attention to it and motivate me to move a bit more.
My husband and I will be getting serious about our diet again on Thursday. Why Thursday, you ask? I have trouble eating right when my husband is not on board – at least with the main thrust of it. I can handle his sneaking ‘goodies’ into the shopping cart that only he will eat, but if he’s not on board with the main program, it’s a waste of time and only results in frustration and arguments. Life is too short for that. HE has decided that Thursday is the day, so I’m gearing up for that.
We’re enjoying a ‘last hurrah’ by eating some of the wonderful things we received at Christmas. We have bought other things, and have been enjoying sandwiches and other things in the bread family, plus a bit from the greasy/salty food group, plus some truly ‘awful’ things from the sugar ball food group. All this ends Thursday morning. We have agreed.
We have given away a huge bunch of stuff. We will put other things in the trash for pickup today. We will thoroughly enjoy eating our way through more today and tomorrow. We will buy good, healthy things needed for Thursday and beyond, and I will plan some healthy snacks.
OUR ‘New Year’ will begin Thursday morning, and hopefully, by the end of this month we will have made some good progress. I have re-started my yoga practice, and will do a session on my elliptical trainer in the garage on Thursday morning. I have my gold stars ready for my desk calendar – one for yoga, one for elliptical, and another for steps.
If YOU are also trying to get healthier in 2021, let’s encourage each other.
Actually, the ‘crowd’ was my husband, our dog, Amber, and our cat, Abby, and me, but HEY! – you have to take your joy where you can get it.
We have been eating the things we don’t eat at all – or rarely – in the last days before we get serious about getting the lard off again. Yesterday I made a crock pot full of beef stew. And we had rolls with it. Amber and Abby licked our bowls in the kitchen while we were cleaning up.
My husband said two or three times while eating it how good it was, and a couple of times afterward. Then, this morning, he asked if we had leftovers and if we could have more tonight. :0)
As I gathered trash this morning, I got rid of some more things that we shouldn’t be eating in preparation for our getting serious about trying to lose the lard. We should be starting formally, as well as upping my exercising on Thursday. Right now I’m doing yoga stretches, but that’s pretty much it.
We have had a nice long break from doing what we are supposed to do. Part of me is actually looking forward to being in control again. Isn’t THAT a kick in the head!
THING ONE:FOOD-DIET-EXERCISE – I raked myself over the coals about stuffing too much food into my face and not exercising enough. My sister-in-law kindly told me to give myself a break and make little changes on a regular basis to get back to my better habits. My husband is determined wait to go back on our diet on the 6th – or maybe 7th – we haven’t completely hashed that out yet. I don’t know why we’re waiting. I guess it’s because we still have some wonderfully delicious bad stuff to eat our way through, though I am determined not to buy any MORE of it for myself. I got the makings of beef stew in the slow cooker this morning. We’ll have a bowl of that with a roll this evening. I will do my yoga stretches this afternoon.
THING TWO:WEATHER – Arkansas ran the gamut on weather this past week. We had sunshine and spring-like weather, as we’re having today, with sunshine and low 50’s. We had sleet and rain and gusty wind. We had drizzles and gloomy gray days. We had a PERFECT snow – with HUGE fluffy flakes coming down while we fixed lunch, making us feel we were in the middle of our own, private snow globe. (This was perfect because that gorgeous snow, though heavy, melted as it hit the ground and caused no trouble. :0) )
THING THREE: PLAYING IN MY ART ROOM – I discovered an art form that is new to me – bleeding tissue paper art. The effect is watercolor. The sky is the limit on what you can do with it. I found it on YouTube and watched some demonstrations, drooling. I found some people who do mouth-watering art with it, giving me some really high goals to try to reach as I practice. My sister-in-law sent me a package of large sheets of the special tissue paper to get me started. I ordered some pre-cut shapes in different sizes today that will be delivered in the coming week so I can concentrate on playing, saving the sheets for larger, more complicated shapes. I’m having a BLAST experimenting. :0)
Another thing for which I am setting up is painting some wooden fridge magnets. I can play with my Unicorn Spit paint for these. I can also see what happens with my alcohol inks, my new bleeding tissue paper, and more. I have the magnets, and my wooden circles should be delivered sometime next week.
THING FOUR:SUNDAY CHORES – I don’t have a lot to do today (translated to mean that I CHOOSE to do), but I WILL spend some time cleaning my aquarium so my fish can start the new year with sparkling clean water and some different decorations, just for giggles. I wish I knew what they THOUGHT about the decorations they have. I really wouldn’t mind it if the two of them held their noses when I started to put something in the aquarium they really don’t care for. They don’t say anything one way or the other. The only thing they DO that shows me they are really interested is both of them get into the corner of the tank, wriggling their bodies and opening and closing their mouths to HINT that they would like to be fed yet again. (Seems like they, too, are on a SPLURGE eating push until the 6th or 7th…. )
I am almost finished eating my way through a lot of the ‘goodies’ (baddies?) I received for Christmas. I put a good amount of things in the freezer yesterday – WAY down deep – under a lot of things – in my chest type freezer in the garage, which is right beside my elliptical trainer. Hopefully, this will give me the perspective I need to stay away from them for the foreseeable future, maybe to enjoy a bit as I reach major weight loss goals in the future.
Most people seem to have trouble staying away from sweets and sugar. I like those things, but my biggest problems are bread, starches, and salty things. I found a recipe for some low carb bread that is pretty good and I’ll make that again. I have riced cauliflower and zoodles in the freezer in individual serving packets, since my husband won’t even CONSIDER eating those as a substitute for rice, macaroni, spaghetti, or potatoes. I am preparing myself to fix HIM some starch and I will eat my meat and sauces over the substitutes. We have a nice variety of good-for-you individual frozen meals from Real Food and from Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in the freezer. In fact, we have been eating several of those each week. I have gathered and cut up some raw veggies to enjoy as snacks. I also have hard boiled eggs and some cheese.
The main sticking point is getting our MINDS set to quit indulging and start practicing adult choices. For some unknown reason, my husband wants to wait until January 6th to start. I really have trouble not eating something when he brings yet another French Toast Fritter into the living room to enjoy between meals.
KryptoniteBlonde – Global HD – El Montagista via Tumblr – TellMeNothing
At this point I’m limping along, kidding myself about my efforts to get back to my diet and exercise regimen. Suffice to say, I’m not back yet, but HOPE to be soon. (We are still eating our way through delicious no-no’s. )
I am about to leave to do a bunch of errands. I’m leaving the trash for pickup at the bottom of our driveway, getting our mail, changing out the things I’m trying to sell in the booth at Rags & Roses in Greenwood, then stopping at Real Food on the way home to see if I can get more kielbasa frozen dinners.
We’ll eat a quick lunch and then head back out again for more errands and a couple of appointments.
Our weather is deteriorating, culminating with a cold front and LOTS of rain for tomorrow and Thursday, so getting our mail may be all we do until Friday. Since it’s a holiday, Lunch Bunch is called off for Friday, so we may just stay up here, hopefully safe and dry in our house on top of our ridge line, celebrating the new year by ourselves and getting ready to start 2021.
I am happy that we’re about to see the end of 2020. I have high hopes that 2021 will be a much better year for all of us.
AND a year where there will gradually be less and less of a more fit me! :0)
My husband and I are still enjoying our stuff-everything-in-your-face-that-tastes-good mode. We have agreed that we will miss it – and very soon – when we go back to our get-the-lard-off mode.
I have to tell you that the stuff-your-face mode has helped my general ‘downness’ of the past few weeks. The world is such an unhappy place right now, and I can’t see it getting better soon, so a handful of fritos is spirit-lifting – at least for a few minutes.
I will break out my adult pants – if I can still get in them – and deal with what IS soon enough.
My husband and I are in the middle of a gigantic splurge that we hope will cure us of the ‘wanting-to-make-up-for-all-the-things-we’ve-been-missing feelings we’ve been harboring for about a year now. We accept that the scale is laughing at us – sometimes holding its nose in derision – but the feelings have been strong.
The dog helped us toward getting temptation out of the house last night. I had fixed fried chicken for the first time in a least two years of abstention. I overcooked it, so we were less than delighted with the meal, although the deviled eggs were wonderful. My husband took his plate to the kitchen giving our 95-pound yellow lab, Amber, the remaining bites of chicken on his plate.
The next thing I knew, I was hearing ‘noises’ from the kitchen area. Amber had not only taken care of the remaining bites of chicken on his plate, but the remaining two PIECES of chicken on a platter on the island, plus TWO packages of cookies we received – his and hers – from the counter. The only thing left was the containers and a mess on the floor. My HUSBAND was in the dog house for leaving Amber in the kitchen, rather than watching her eat the largess from his plate and then bringing her into the living room with the gate to the kitchen closed – a lesson we have learned before.
We are giving ourselves until the end of the month to cure our longings and find our intense motivation again to get the lard off…
Cookies, candy, bread. Chocolate, apple fritters, peanut brittle. We’re surrounded, and we’re eating our way out. It’s delicious. I’m telling my husband that all this ends VERY SOON – as we stuff yet another wonderful thing into our mouths. It’s been a year or two since we have eaten some of this stuff. I’m blaming it all on our generous friends who GAVE this to us, but WE’RE the ones who are stuffing our faces.
I’ve decided that, since we’re adults, we are merely getting all this gorging out of the happy way, and that once it is over, we will EAT like adults again. We are talking about the fact that anything ELSE that finds its way into our house and is not a gift is on US – and should not happen. (I’m also reminding myself that “I” am responsible for what goes into MY mouth. So even if my husband continues this holiday splurge, “I” will not.
My husband and I have quarterly doctor appointments next week. We went first thing this morning to get our blood drawn for tests for which we want to see results at that appointment. After that, we rewarded ourselves by going to enjoy a huge breakfast at our favorite restaurant in Greenwood, The Dari, which just opened recently for indoor dining, limited seating.
I not only had a big breakfast – I had a biscuit with sausage gravy. It has been over two years since I had one of those. YUM!
I was impressed with all the changes they had made to keep employees and customers safe. It was almost like a different place, except for the wonderful food.
I have always had an appetite that would kill a horse.
My father did, too. He would eat humongous mounds of food, but HE had a metabolism that wouldn’t quit, also, so he always fought weighing too LITTLE. Unfortunately, I seemed to have inherited HIS appetite and my MOTHER’S metabolism.
Since I essentially stay hungry all the time, I have tried appetite suppressants – to no avail. I’m drinking enough water to make my eyeballs float and keeping healthy raw veggies and low-fat/no-sugar dips in the fridge ready for snacking. I’m exercising most every day.
It would be MUCH easier if I weren’t ready to eat AGAIN right after finishing a meal… :0)
My weight loss efforts follow a pattern that I find very annoying.
Whenever I am making a good effort to keep moving, to do actual exercises plus my normal yard work, I either hold onto my current weight or I GAIN weight.
I tell myself all the cliches’ – that muscles weigh more than fat. yata yata – but I resent it that I am eating right, exercising, drinking lots of water, and GAINING.
I know. Life isn’t fair. It will ‘all come out in the wash.’ The scales will finally catch up with my efforts….
But I would be happier if my ‘goodness’ showed more quickly…
The scales are sneering at me this morning, but I don’t care. I am thoroughly enjoying the splurge from Thanksgiving. We still have some deli potato salad and some deli baked beans. The rest is a fond memory.
I even made some chicken chunks over rice for last last night. This time I used small bowls, rather than the large pasta bowls I have used in the past, giving us each a nice portion. After we finished, I spread out the rest into eight individual servings in freezer containers and added them to the frozen meals we get from REAL FOOD and STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’ in Greenwood. I am hoping that this will allow us to enjoy the favorite meals we like in moderation from time to time without undoing our efforts to lose the lard.
I’m heading out to the garage soon to try to do 35 minutes on my elliptical trainer. I’m hoping to continue my resolve to keep good habits going with a 30 minute session of yoga stretches this afternoon. (Two gold stars for my desk calendar…)
I just melted when I saw this wonderful photo. :0)
Mother Nature provide a lovely sight this morning – the brightest sunshine on a really dense fog in the valley behind the house! I really tried to get pictures of it to share with you, but I couldn’t. :0(
Our weather is really starting to cool off now. I put the electric blanket on our bed when I changed the sheets today. It’s NICE to be able to set it to high while getting ready for bed so it’s toasty warm when we get in.
We did our errands awhile ago – after having to drive out to our shop to air up a low tire on the truck – getting our order from REAL FOOD so we could finish stocking the freezer, mailing books we sold at the post office, stopping at a couple of other places for supplies. Then we fixed lunch when we got things put away and my husband is napping now.
The main thing remaining on my list, other than finishing the laundry, is cleaning out the aquarium.
I hope that you are having a wonderful Monday, and that you have a beautiful Thanksgiving, if I don’t see you again before then.
It’s 44, bleak and rainy here this morning. A wonderful time to be inside and dry, with a cup of coffee, family, and lots of animals.
My lap has been like Grand Central Station, first with 95-pound-Amber wanting to get up in my office chair with me as I type, (we have hugged three or four times already today) then each of 2 cats – Abby and Smoke – and sometimes both at the same time!
Today’s project is to repurpose the shelves in the guest room. There are still a few books on the shelves and a stuffed closet (my off season clothes and extra bedding, etc. I’m going to try to make things more organized and accessible while doing some good cleaning.
I don’t have to cook today! I don’t MIND the actual cooking – it’s the ‘figuring-what-to-have-for-dinner’ problem always hanging over my head that gets to me. Since we have been getting lots of HEALTHY frozen meals from REAL FOOD and STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’ in Greenwood, I only cook on the weekends, simplifying my life considerably. Today we’ll have the 2nd half of the chicken fingers meals we enjoyed at Lunch Bunch Friday plus more of the sausage/egg/cheese bake I made yesterday.
Yesterday I vacuumed our first floor tiled areas (kitchen, pantry, two half-baths, dining area, and utility room) and I got an entire dog’s worth of hair along with the usual stuff. With our temperatures getting cooler, I am HOPING that the dog will decide that she NEEDS her hair to stay warm and quit tossing it on the floors with abandon.
I hope that YOUR Sunday has lots of sunshine and happiness. If not, stay safe, warm, and dry.
I told you yesterday that I ate my way through a session of being up in the middle of the night, not able to sleep. I looked just like this cute little guy – except I wasn’t eating carrots.
Today we’re celebrating my husband’s birthday, so all bets are off on our diet again.
TOMORROW we will be good little soldiers again – at least “I” will be. My husband will still be enjoying his pineapple upside down cake, I hope, since it has been a year since I baked one for him.
I think – at least I HOPE – that if I eat the way I’m ‘supposed’ to at least 98% of the time, I will reach my lard loss goals eventually…
I’m really doing pretty well on our new eating plan – EXCEPT for the times I can’t sleep. When I am up in the middle of the night I am a bottomless pit of hunger – my stomach insisting my throat has been cut and telling me I’ll die if I don’t replenish the ‘lost calories.’ Exacerbating the problem is that my husband isn’t there to look at me – making guilt curb my gluttony.
Last night was a prime example of that. I was up ‘reading’ (and stuffing my face) from 1:30 until 3:30. And the scales will attest to that this morning.
UGH.
I am telling myself that ‘today is a new day,’ and other similar ideas, but the guilt is running high today. It will take me at least a couple of days to lose what I gained last night, and THEN I can try gain new ground in my efforts to lose the lard.
Isn’t this the sweetest dog? I really like this gif!
I LOVE the fact that I am losing weight AND enjoying the food we’re eating from REAL FOOD in Greenwood, Arkansas. We will pick up our newest order today.
I’m doing a better job of staying active, too, now that the weather is more fall-like. My elliptical trainer is in the garage, and – even though I have a fan in there – I really get too hot out there. NOW it’s great. I’m trying to do 35 minutes daily. I’m doing a half hour or so of old lady yoga stretches daily that are really good for trying to building strength and flexibility, plus even some balance. It’s also good for getting rid of the sore muscles I get from doing other physical stuff. Rounding these out with the yard work I’ve been doing means that I’m getting a good workout most days.
I’ve told you that we have changed our eating habits, trying to make sure we control our portions while actually enjoying our food while trying to lose the lard.
I also told you that my husband has essentially reached his weight goal. We are still watching his sugar like hawks, since he is Type II diabetic and I am trying to encourage him to exercise – something for which he just gives me a long, long look.
I just weighed and measured this morning, hoping for some progress. I’m delighted to report that both the scales and the tape measure were only smirking, rather than laughing at me! :0)
I am now down 42.4 pounds from my lardiest, and there are 42.95 inches less of me. I would like to lose another 30+- pounds.
123RF.com
I haven’t just picked a number from a hat. It would be the middle of the BMI healthy range for my height. I also read an article that said, although the BMI charts may be ‘obsolete,’ your waist circumference is a good indication of your overall health. I would like to lose 3 more inches from my waist. (I’ve lost 9 so far).
My yard work, elliptical trainer, and yoga stretches are helping me get more flexible and improve my balance. I’m hoping to be able to report more progress at the end of the month.
Last night we ate “Braised Beef & Mashed Potatoes” – frozen meals from REAL FOOD in Greenwood, Arkansas. We like most of the food from there, but this is our favorite thus far. We are becoming addicted to Stacy’s cooking. :0)
Today we’ll go get our mail and stop by REAL FOOD and see if there is more of this meal in the freezer… YUM!
Last week we received the regular follow-up email REAL FOOD CO sends after we pick up our order, asking for feedback. This time I wrote a comment that I would really like to order the olive bread, rather than waiting for it to show up on the website as an offering for the week.
Stacy ANSWERED, asking me how many half loaves I wanted to order! I replied, and we can pick them up next Monday! HOORAY!!!!!
We went from having only restaurants – and most of them having to offer mainly take-out – to having TWO places who offer frozen meals that are good for you and taste good, too.
The other new place is STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’.
Between the two places, we are very happy campers. We have a frozen meal as our main meal of the day. The controlled portions and convenience makes it easy to stay on our new way of eating 5 days per week.
The other meal is tuna fish salad with a side of sweet pickles for my husband and green or black olives for me.
My husband has several snacks each day. I try to LIMIT mine, drinking lots of water instead, in an effort to lose my lard.
The other two days we eat something I cook. This week I’ll fix “Keto Chili” with a recipe by Suzanne Ryan of Simply Keto. That will last us all weekend.
I still have a long way to go to get to my goal weight, but my husband has pretty much reached his goal.
I guess I ate lead yesterday. The scales scoffed at me this morning, announcing loudly that I had GAINED TWO POUNDS. Ugh.
We are still doing our new eating program of using a frozen meal from Real Food or Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood as our main meal of the day. We have tuna fish salad for lunch and maybe a snack. A careful snack.
Mostly this is resulting in some slow, steady weight loss for both my husband and myself. (He is losing faster than I am though he eats more snacks. :0( )
I am trying to be adult about this, realizing that some days my body will retain water. Sometimes the scales are in a mood to scoff at me. Sometimes I’m not holding my mouth right when I get on the scales.
Today I am fixing our regular tuna fish salad lunch, and then cooking bacon-wrapped hamburger patties for dinner. We will have spinach on the side.
I will drink water until my eyeballs float. I will work outside in the yard some this afternoon, and then will do at least half an hour of yoga stretches this afternoon.
I will try to simply ‘keep on keepin’ on,’ doing what I’m supposed to, trusting that whatever caused the scales to go in the wrong direction will correct itself tomorrow morning. I will hope that the measuring tape will show some improvement at the end of the month.
BUT I WISH THE SCALES WOULD PAT ME ON THE HEAD MORE OFTEN.
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