New Beginnings

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving--full of kids and grandkids and family.  It really made me feel thankful for my many blessings.  Here are a couple pictures we took before everybody went home.

with our grandchildren

all our kids and grands!

All that thankfulness involved lots of food too and, as wonderful as it was, I'm most thankful that all the tempting calorific not-on-my-plan things are finally out of the house.  My weight has been drifting slowing upwards over the last two months so that I now have 7.4 pounds to lose get down to where I was at the beginning of October.  No more.  Did you notice the title of this post?  New Beginnings. That's because today is the day, now is the time that I rededicate myself to reaching my goal.

All this coincides nicely with WW's new program which was introduced yesterday.   The WW website must have been overwhelmed because it took all day before I could finally get to the site.  This is the first major change to their plan in a dozen years.  It is different because they have reconfigured the points system.  I like what they've done.  Most fruits and veggies are no points.  The new points calculator now looks at the carbs, fiber, protein, and fats.  The old one looked at just calories, fiber, & fat.  Things make more sense to me in the new plan.  And, wonder of wonders, they still allow me to follow my "CORE" plan.  They don't call it "Core" anymore, it's Simply Filling, but it's there and that's what I'm going to go back to.  For now, though, I'm doing to regular program.  I get 29 points per day plus the 49 weekly points.  I imagine I'll eat the same things that I'd eat with the Core/Simply Filling, but for now I want the reassurance that I'm eating correct portions.  After I get used to the new way, I'll switch over to the Core/Simply Filling plan, because I don't want to be tied to counting points for every single bite.

They now allow me 49 points per week over and above the 0 point Power foods (skim milk, lean protein, eggs, veggies, fruit, etc).  And they encourage you to use all 49.  My beloved Latte Bars which say 1 point on the box, are now worth 2 points.  So are the Strawberry Smoothie bars.  They will still be on my plan, but I'll save my points to include them.  I haven't been to my WW meeting yet to hear the official explanation, but this is what I'm thinking now.  I'll let you know more about it tomorrow when I understand more.

To go along with the new food plan, I'm revving up my exercise, too.  Back to my good 6 out of 7 days per week with solid exercise each day--half cardio, half strength.  Today I ran 3.5 miles (in the drizzle).  Tomorrow I think it will be the exercise bike.  

My sweet Dad fell yesterday and has a compound fracture of the hip (the top of his femur).  They were able to do the portable x-ray at his nursing home so that he doesn't have to go to the hospital which is always very upsetting to him.  It's hard to see that he's in such fragile health. I'm thankful for the good days we enjoyed with him a couple of weeks ago.

 J&E are napping right now and I need to go take advantage of this time to finish up my Bible study for tomorrow.

I'm feeling strong and confident about reaching my goals.  I'm excited about the new plan and motivated to use it to advantage.  The hardest hurdles (celebration-wise) are behind me.

How about you?  Are the T-giving temptations out of your life and your fridge now??

Post Thanksgiving Hot 100 Update

Hello all.  We had a wonderful, blessed, and delicious Thanksgiving yesterday.  The scale showed only a .2 pound rise this morning vs yesterday's weight.  There are lots of leftovers, but I have a big pot of turkey soup which is very diet friendly and the sinfully tempting things are mostly gone (the pecan pie went home with Johnny, the cranberry jello salad was a big hit with the grandkids, and the Sweetie's sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping is down to just a couple of servings left).

I'm awaiting the big reveal at WW next week when they roll out their new plan.  I hope to find it interesting enough to adopt it for the next big push in my weight loss program.  The nice thing about WW is that they are always sensible.  I'm feeling like I need a renewal in my motivation and hope that this pre-Christmas new eating plan will provide that.

Hot 100 Update

1.  Weight Loss--I did not got to my WW WI on Wednesday as two sets of family arrived that day.  Grandkids not seen in months trump my WI any day!  I will be there "with bells on" next Wednesday for sure.

2.  Exercise--Fail.  I have had 2 rest days  rather than just one this week.  I had 16 at dinner last night and today went sight seeing with Laura and her family in DC.  Lots of walking but no organized exercise.  Running tomorrow.

3.  Chocolate.  Pass--actually I haven't had any this week because I've been too darn busy to go get some!

I'm having a wonderful time with family.  I hope to get some good pix to share with you when everybody is back together on Sunday (Johnny and his gang went to visit the "other" grandparents after dinner yesterday).

Love to you all !

Friday Fly By, Hot 100 Update

Where has this week gone?  And next week, by this time, Thanksgiving dinner will be a year off.  Amazing.

I did my strength work out last night, so this morning was a cardio morning.  It was beautiful out so I went for a run on the river trail.  For a change, I set off the opposite direction.  I did a combination of walking and running for a total of about 3.9 miles.  My little Nike+ girl is happy with me again.  I only have about 45 miles left to run this year to reach my goal of 500 miles in the year.  I'll probably surpass 500 handily.

We celebrated son Johnny's birthday yesterday (34).  I made two cherry pies and cranberry bars during the day.  We had flank steak, roasted potatoes, and broccoli (all "plan-friendly") and I did have a small piece of birthday pie (because I knew it was 'special').  I was pretty good about staying away from the cranberry bars, too.  Jay helped, inadvertently.  I made a double batch because I wanted to give a tin to Johnny (he loves 'em) and also take some to my dad (who also loves them) and have some for numerous house guests next week and send a tin in with Jay on his birthday next week.  This morning when I was getting the milk for my cereal, I noticed that the big tin with the extra bars was not there.  I knew DH wouldn't have taken them, and finally guessed that Jay had misunderstood and thought he was to take the big tin in to work to share with his work team today.  That was what happened.  The tin re-appeared back in the kitchen, empty, when he got home from work.  Oh, well.  I do super well at avoiding temptation when the object of my temptation disappears!

The second cherry pie was for dessert tonight.  We had some friends from our time in Rome to dinner tonight.  They're moving back to Virginia after having lived in Rome for 20 years.  They're missing good Italian food and cappucini, but are enjoying all the ethnic restaurants.  I made steak, whole wheat orzo with spinach and tomatoes, and sauteed zucchini with mushrooms for dinner.  I confess to another small-ish piece of pie.  We're sending the leftovers over to Johnny's house tomorrow morning and planning austere eating until the first house guests start arriving on Tuesday.

Hot 100 Update:
1.  I gained weight at my WI this week.  I am having a hard time getting back in that good mind-set.  I'm not giving up and I still hope to make progress toward my goal, but this week's grade for making progress is a fail.  Semper Speranza.
2.  Yes to the exercise.  6 out of 7 exercise days this week.  Good cardio, good strength workouts and I enjoyed the exercise.  I helps me feel better about myself to have succeeded in this goal and thank God it helps with the calorie war, too!
3.  Chocolate did not stay at 1 oz/day allotment this week.  Hmm.  Perhaps there is a correlation between goal #3 and goal #1.  

I've been tagged with some interesting questions.  I'll try to get to those tomorrow.

Be strong.

To See or Not to See

With apologies to Hamlet (and Shakespeare). I knew when I stepped on the scale first thing this morning that it would not be a good WI today.  I had my breakfast, did my last chance workout (on our exercise bike), went to my BSF, and then to my WI.  I got there fairly late and went directly into the meeting and weighed on my way out.  I predicted to the WI lady that I would have a gain and she said, yes, just a bit.  I didn't look at the number and am not inclined to do so.  I'll just go through this week as well as I can and see what I can do by next week.

I'm disappointed in my results the past few weeks.  I need to cut out many insidious small variances from my plan and get back to my good zone.  I love my new smaller clothes and would hate to have them get too small.  So here's to my trying to get back. Semper Speranza.

Tomorrow E (shown in her Minnie Mouse costume, above) and I will make cranberry bars for her Daddy's birthday dinner.  Her daddy, our son Johnny, turned 34 last weekend.  They're coming over tomorrow night for dinner.  He requested steak and cranberry bars.  The bars are so good that I can't have them in the house for a moment more than necessary, so we'll make them tomorrow afternoon, save out enough for dessert, and package the rest in a tin for him to enjoy.  Johnny is the cook in his family and quite enjoys having someone else do the cooking occasionally.

Johnny, 6 years old, with his first fish.

Have a good day

???

Rainy Tuesday

My morning run

It was rainy when I got up this morning.  I briefly considered ditching my plan to run this morning, but I'm not the Wicked Witch of the West and I won't melt, so I headed out and was greeted by this beautiful sight at the very beginning of my run.  It was a wonderful run.  Not cold, not crowded, and I felt great. My new "do" does nicely in the rain, too.  I felt so good that I took a new route out to Dike Marsh--famous with birders hereabouts.  I saw lots of birds including lots of stately egrets.  This little group flew as I got near, but had returned to the side of the trail when I doubled back 10 minutes later.

Egrets at Dike Marsh

Today for lunch I made an old WW standby.  Open faced Reuben sandwiches.  I made 2 for a total of 320 calories.    

WW Open faced Reuben Sandwiches (this recipe is from the WW 365 Day Menu Cookbook)

Toast 2 pieces of Rye Bread (130 calories for 2 slices)

Spread dijon mustard on toast

Top each with with 1/2 oz turkey pastrami (I couldn't find turkey, so used regular--60 calories for 1 oz)

Top pastrami with 3 T sauerkraut (I used canned, well rinsed for a total of 10 calories)

Top each with 1 oz of thin slice Swiss cheese (120 cal for 2 oz)

Broil until cheese is melted and just begins to brown.

I don't drink a lot of soda these days, but I splurged and enjoyed my lunch with a diet A&W in an iced mug!   Yum.

Tomorrow I have BSF in the morning and then my WI at noon.  I don't want to run again (I try not to run on consecutive days), so DH is going to set up our Lifecycle (exercise bike) so I can exercise.  This will save me some time and I can get in that "last chance workout" that I've missed the past few weeks.  We've had this exercycle for a few years and I've never been on it, tho' DH uses it a few times a week.  I hope it's going to help me keep up my exercise plan this winter.

Do you let the weather get in your way?

Home Again!

My mother and her parents at the beach, 1921

Nope, DH and I didn't even get on our "bathing costumes" during our stay at the beach.  The weather was fine, but it was, after all mid-November! I think my grandparents look pretty neat in their bathing apparel, though.

We went to early church with my FIL at St. Andrew's Covenant Presbyterian Church, where my FIL went when he was a boy.  Then back to pack up.  I love how it's so much easier to pack to return home than it is to pack to GO.  We left ourselves an hour to get in one last walk together on the beach. It really is a nice beach--flat, sandy, just enough shells, nice dunes, and very uncrowded.  Here's one more picture.

The wave breaking just behind us "caught" us and totally soaked my shoes!

DH put the things in the car and strapped on the bikes and we headed off to my FIL's apartment.  He had invited numerous friends and family members to an "open house" between 12 and 2:30.  He announced that he was serving tomato soup and didn't seem to want any advice to the contrary.  I stopped by and picked up a vegetable platter and some spinach/artichoke dip at the grocery to round out the offerings.  Apparently he'd rethought his menu, because in addition to the soup he had little dishes of nuts everywhere (honestly, I'd guess there were 15 nut dishes in his small apartment living room and dining area!)  Have I mentioned that I'm a "nut" about nuts.  I found them very hard to resist, and am sure that I overdid both my nut quotient AND my salt quotient for the day (week).  Oh well.  Lots of people came and it was good to meet them and to give FIL a chance to "show off" his family.  We got off at 2:30--much later than we'd planned, but we got home by 8:30 or so with good traffic most of the way. Jay is a super traveler.  I was fooling around with my camera and taking pictures over my head toward where he was sitting behind me. This one turned out pretty well!  He was in charge of the big cooler on the seat next to him.  We always travel with baby carrots, bottles of water, bananas, and apples.  

Jay.  I can't believe he'll be 29 next week!

Let's just say that the scale was NOT my friend this morning.  Lots of cups of tea and glasses of water today in addition to my regular eating routine.  I loved having the babies come this morning. Ella was wearing a new little red corduroy dress.  I said I liked her outfit.  She replied, "Amie, this isn't an outfit, it's a dress!" Silly me.  We had baked salmon and almond apricot couscous with mint for dinner.  Then DH and I hit the gym for our strength training.  We switched our schedule so that we go on Mondays now because we have our Messiah rehearsal on Tuesday nights in November.  

I'm just starting to realize that Thanksgiving is NEXT week.  Aaaaak!  Did I mention that we're at 15 and counting for dinner that night???  (and 7 of them are overnight guests so I really have to get all my spare rooms spiffy--no piling up stuff in a "spare" room this time). Yikes.  No playing games on Facebook this week.  Oh, and yes.  We're celebrating FIVE birthdays next week--I think we're having birthday pies at T-giving dinner.  They're all clustered right around Thanksgiving Day.

I'm woefully behind reading and commenting on your posts.  I've read more than I've commented, but I'm missing that exchange.  It's part of my routine that works and I'm going to carve out some time to reclaim that part.  

Take care.

Travel Notes: Vol III, Hot 100 Update

Cora and Henry Lattin, my great grandparents

Don't you LOVE this picture?  I was finding some old family pix to put up on my facebook page for Veteran's Day and I came across this picture of my mother's father's parents BICYCLING.  Look at her outfit!  Can you imagine trying to bike in a long skirt??  They were both doctors in Albion, New York--she was one of the first several women doctors to graduate from medical school in NY.  I think this picture is probably from the mid 1890's.   See:  biking is in my blood!

Another great day.  I'm starting to sound like a broken record, here, but yes, it was another great day today.
As is so delightful on vacation, we slept until we wanted to get up.  I got dressed in my running clothes, had a quick oatmeal breakfast (perfect for a crisp fall morning) and went out for a run on the beach.  It was beautiful and sunny, a little breezy, but not too cold.  My run was a bit haphazard because I hadn't thought to consult the tide charts and I think high tide must have been reached some time in the middle of my run.  That meant that the nice "hard" surface sand kept getting washed over by the breaking waves and I had to dodge little incursions of waves trying to reach almost up to the sand dunes.  We've established that running on the unpacked sand is not fun, so I did have a lot of walking parts.

The incoming tide taking up some of the best running space.

I went 5km and had a nice run.  A couple hours after I got back from my run we went out for our bike ride.  The ride I'd read about started in downtown Wilmington and went out along the Cape Fear river to the beach.  We saw the traffic and lack of bike lane and decided to catch the trail closer to the river.  We parked in a community and were able to avoid the city traffic.  We went about 20 miles and were back in 2 hours.  It was a good ride and we saw some beautiful sites along the river, but Wilmington needs to put a little more work into its bike trail system.  The "bike lanes" were marked, but were quite narrow and the road was uncomfortably busy with trucks breezing past us as close as two feet away.  

Here are some pix from our bike trip:

A nice park at the far end of our ride.

You can see the bridge in the back ground.

A very cute covered bridge across a marshy area to a very large home.

Our bike lane.

All in all a very nice day.  We went with FIL to visit some of his friends for a late afternoon tea (I had a cup of coffee and 2 small (wonderful) cookies.

We came back to our beach house and I made a fish chowder--from scratch.  It turned out beautifully and I'll definitely make it again.  I used skim milk and skim evaporated milk and the only "off plan" things in the recipe were 3 T of butter and 2 T of flour.  It served 8, so that's not so bad.  The cornbread I made was a different story, but also very good.  I'm hoping that my 3 hours of exercise will offset 2 small cookies and a large piece of cornbread.  What do you think??

Hot 100 Update: (the quick, I'm tired and off to bed as soon as I hit "publish post" version)

I have 3 goals:

1.  I lost .5 pounds at my WI this week.  I'm headed back in the right direction.  With a few indiscretions, I have been pretty much right on plan with my eating.  I continue to weigh and record my weight daily.

2.  I am way ahead on exercise this week.  6 out of 7 days and several days with 2 sessions.  No "phoning it in" this week.  Yay.

3.  Chocolate.  I'm enjoying my 1 oz a day allowance.  I admit to doubling up one day, but I didn't have any the next day, so I'm averaging out okay.  I'm trying to stay with my 1 oz per day though and be satisfied.

Be good!  Tune in tomorrow.

Tish

Travel Notes: Vol II

What a great day!  I slept so well last night; I didn't wake up even once between when I went to bed and about 7:30 in the morning when the sun woke me up (believe me that's very rare!).  We slept with the bedroom door open and enjoyed the sounds of the ocean all through the night. Oatmeal this morning and then I went out for a run on the beach.  It felt great (especially the homeward leg when the wind was at my back).  Here's a picture I took on my way out.

Oh, this is not me.  This is the cute little guy who was my running partner this morning.

A nice lady took my picture.

DH snapped this good one of Jay and me when we all went out for a long walk after I got back from my run.

So I ran a little over 3 miles.  It's different running on the beach, I tried to stay on the "hard" sand near the water, but it's not the same as running on my normal trail.  I plan to run every morning that we're here--watch my little Nike+ girl icon and just see if I don't!

When we got back, DH went and picked up his father. They took his bike to the shop to get a new tube and then got back here.  I fixed a nice bean soup, popcorn, and orange wedges for lunch and then we went on a bike ride.  The gimp (DH, with his half-arm cast), the octogenarian (my 88 yr old FIL) and me!  Here are some pix from that ride.

FIL & DH

DH & me

FIL, looking pretty good, no? (he refused to wear a helmet)

Self portrait, while riding (nice quiet street).

We had roasted rosemary pork tenderloin, baked acorn squash & broccoli for dinner tonight and DH bought some WW latte bars for our dessert.

Tomorrow we'll do our long ride (28 miles) in the afternoon.  I want to run again in the morning.  This week will NOT be a "phone it in" exercise week!

Be good!  

Travel Notes: Vol I

Many thanks to the neighbor who has the unlocked WiFi access  :-)   We've arrived after a 6 hour drive.  The beach condo is gorgeous, I've stowed things from our huge cooler and 3 grocery bags so that we have good food choices, John unpacked the car and stowed our bikes in the garage, and Jay is happily ensconced in his bedroom with a portable DVD player and his favorite DVDs.  We have the sliding glass doors open so we can hear the ocean, the sky is relatively dark and the new moon is low on the horizon so the stars and constellations are particularly brilliant tonight.  We're sitting in the living room enjoying a nice cup of tea while I check in with my cyber world and John checks out Law and Order.  Our bedroom has a large deck overlooking the ocean and the bed looks really comfortable.  Heaven!

I imagine we'll wake up with the sun (streaming in our eastern window) and go down to the beach early.  I see oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins in my future!  I think I'll run on the beach tomorrow morning and we'll bike the island (4 miles long) and explore some of the side streets.  DH lived on the island for a year or so years ago, and he has lots of things he wants to show me.

At this same beach in 2006.  We'll get an updated version tomorrow!

I lost .5 at my WI this morning.  Not as much as I'd hoped, but with getting the car packed up, my Bible study, and the WW meeting, I didn't get in my normal Wednesday morning run, so .5 is comparatively good.  (Did you follow that?  It works for me.)

I planned our meals for this trip well and expect to stay well within my plan parameters.  Our vacation meals include a fish chowder,  roasted rosemary pork tenderloin, lamb loin chops, and a beef stir fry with red peppers, shitake mushrooms, and snow peas.  Our pantry here is stocked with whole wheat couscous, orzo, oatmeal, shredded mini wheat cereal, dried apricots, tea, and popcorn among other things.

I have our scale as well as all the electronic stuff we seem to need when we travel.  I put them all in a green fabric reusable grocery bag (ipod nano, cell phone charger, spare cell phone & charger, a surge protector to plug everything in, the download cord for the camera, the battery charger for the camera, the portable DVD player and its cords, and the nike+ thingamajig to record my runs).

How do you handle your technological accoutrements when you travel?  Do you go without  or bring it with?

Have a great day!

183.5

Fly By

In a rush tonight.  Rehearsal for the Messiah starts in 30 minutes.  We're heading off to NC tomorrow at noon, but I've got to do laundry and packing tonight as I'm going to my BSF Bible study in the morning and then to my WI at noon before we go.  Just finished a yummy pre-WI dinner (baked codfish, whole wheat orzo with spinach and pine nuts, and a green salad with a WW Strawberry bar for dessert).  Not looking likely that I'll get in my early morning run tomorrow, but we're taking the bikes and a see some great exercise opportunities ahead (long walks on the beach, running, and bike rides).  The weather's still looking fine for the next few days--yipee!  I'm thinking I'll lose several "sticks o' butter" at my WI tomorrow--send positive thought my way.

I've got the car packed with oatmeal, apples, carrots, larabars, whole wheat pasta, and lots of other things that will keep me on track.  You be good, too!

I don't think our beach condo has wi-fi, but I'll try to scout out a Starbucks and stay connected with you all.  DH will certainly help in that endeavor (finding a Starbucks)!

La-la-la-laaaa-la-la-laaaaaa.   Off to rehearsal ..

Chilly Ride

Today was a good day.  We took my 93 year old dad to church--the first time he'd been since mid-summer.  My visit with him on Friday was great.  He was in good spirits and his memory was more focussed than it's been in months.  He asked when he was going to church, so darling DH picked him up this morning and gave him door-to-door service.  Here's a picture a friend snapped on our way in.  Our church is the chapel at Fort Belvoir (an Army post nearby) and we were celebrating Veteran's Day with great patriotic music and special recognition of our soldiers, past and present.  Dad enjoyed it.  He was done when it was over, though and we nixed our plan to take him out to lunch afterward.  DH stopped by McDonald's on his way back and I'm sure Dad enjoyed his Big Mac--I'm sure the assisted living facility where he lives doesn't "do" Big Macs.

DH and I had a lovely bike ride this afternoon.  It was his "trial run," the first time he's been biking since he broke his wrist a few weeks ago.  He's now in a half-cast (his new cast stops below the elbow) and did quite well.  We biked for about 50 minutes.  It was 52 degrees when we started and got down to 48 by the time we finished.  Rather chilly.  The weather underground forecast for our time in Wilmington this week shows highs in the 70s.  I've scoped out a nice 28 mile ride along the river which is supposed to be flat, low traffic, and quite scenic.  It sounds great.

The time change has gotten me today.  It was getting dark when we got back from our ride, so I just naturally started dinner.  We're finished now--dinner was ready at about 5:30!  I'll have to pay more attention to the clock and less to the degree of light outside.

Have a great day!

Super Saturday!

This is more like it.  A beautiful fall day--crisp out, but sunny.  I went for a 4+ mile run and loved it.  My little toes are behaving themselves and feeling good--yay!  I made pumpkin spice oatmeal for breakfast.  It is sooo good.  I've made a convert of DH, too.  I'd better stock up on cans of Libby's pumpkin.  A egg-beaters omelette for lunch, and lots of cups of my current favorite tea--Plantation Mint.  My morning scale reading is moving back down toward "Green-land" (the green=good in my caloriecount chart) and that makes me feel good.

I haven't decided what to make for dinner yet, but I'm thinking of seared scallops, whole wheat roasted vegetable ravioli, fresh spinach, and baked delicata squash--that sounds colorful and nutritious, no?

A view from my favorite running/bike path.

Our upcoming bike holiday that I hinted about yesterday is actually a quick visit later this week down to Wilmington NC to visit my FIL.  He has connections that will have us in a lovely condo on the beach there and we're taking our bikes along and hoping for good weather.  FIL (88) likes to ride his bike too, so we may make quite an interesting sight, DH (now sports a half-arm cast), and my 88 yr old FIL, and me!  If you see us, toot your horn!

Hope your day is good, too!

New Do, Hot 100 Update

Did you notice?  I got a new "do" today.  I've had my hair more or less the same style for just about 10 years, but decided to do something different today.  I took some pictures in to my hairdresser and she got it just about how I wanted.  My hair grows fast and I can have my "old do" back in four or five months, but I'm liking this right now.  I also suspect it's going to be very easy to take care of.  I'm not great at taking self portraits--I snapped about 30 and almost half only had part of my face, including the one above.  Here are a couple others.  Not in great focus, but they will give you the idea.  I'll change out my profile picture as I get more shots I like.

I'm doing better at sticking to my plan. Thank you all for your encouraging comments.  No more way off track days this week and I'm feeling more like myself (my good self!)  My results for my challenges aren't going to be pretty this week, but a new week is starting and is, as yet, pristine!  I love a clean slate. 

I grew up hating Brussel Sprouts, but have lately thought they were something I should like.  Sharon (Gains and Losses) shared her method of fixing them (loved by Mr. B.) and I started with that and came up with a couple refinements via the Internet and we all loved 'em.  Not enough to make them every week, maybe, but surely several times during the Brussel Sprout season.  Here's the recipe:

Sautéed BRUSSELS SPROUTS (serves 2-3)
Ingredients:
About 1 ¼ pounds Brussels sprouts


4 shallots


2 cloves of garlic, crushed


olive oil


vegetable bouillon cube/ (I used chicken flavor)

Method:

Clean the Brussels sprouts and cut each one vertically in quarters.  Finely chop the shallots and crush the garlic. 

In a large flat-bottomed frying pan, heat enough oil to cover the base of the pan.  Place the Brussels sprouts in the pan, cut side down, in a single layer.  Scatter the chopped shallots and garlic over the sprouts.

When the sprouts are just starting to caramelize (you will smell them), turn them over and cook for another 5 minutes or so. 

Add enough water to cover the base of the pan with about 1mm of water and crumble half a vegetable stock cube into the pan (I used Knorr bouillon cubes). Give the pan a good stir and then allow to steam-fry until all the liquid has cooked off and the sprouts are tender.  Serve hot.

{sorry, I have no idea why all the little emoticons showed up!}


Okay, now that you've had your veggies, here's this weeks Hot 100 Update:


My goals:

1. Reach my goal weight by Jan 1st by following the WW CORE plan, weigh & record my weight each morning, attend weekly WW meetings.
2. Exercise at least 6 out of 7 days with varied exercise including at least 2 strength workouts and 3 cardio workouts each week averaging 60 minutes per session.
3. Keep my house and my body reasonably chocolate free.  Limit dark chocolate to 1 oz per day.  [amended 10/20]

How I Did:

1. I blew this one pretty badly for the first part of the week.  Did not stick to plan--lots of unplanned splurges.  I did, however, weigh & record my weight each day and attend my WW meetings. My weight was up and I am farther away from, not closer to my Jan 1st goal. [maybe the hair cut will help . . . .] 
2. I get credit for this one, but it was certainly not the best quality exercise on 4 of the 6 days.  Okay, but not great.
3. I blew this one too.  I splurged on chocolate over the 1 oz allowance on a few of those days.  There was also the brownie incident (I made 1/16th of my recipe and had two brownies--yummie, but not on plan--however better than the bad old days when I'd eat a whole batch. . . .) 

Tish has much "room for improvement" in meeting her goals.  


Come back tomorrow to hear about my upcoming "bike holiday."  DH got his full arm cast off today and now sports a jaunty half arm cast and hopes to be able to bike with me.


TAFN,

Wake up Call, Wi

Well, I had a week of ignoring my well-established diet and exercise routines.  Nothing over-the-top; I didn't eat any Halloween candy, but I had lots of little "splurges" every single day.  I craved brownies, for instance, and made a 1/16th recipe (two brownies).  Another day I wanted toast with my soup at lunch, so I made one piece (with butter), ate it and then made a second (and ate it, too).  I ignored my own advice and went out for Thai food on the  night before my WI, AND I had popcorn after that.  And so on. . . . I did exercise 6 days out of 7, but aside from one run and one good bike ride, the exercise was not great quality--I sort of phoned it in.  I'm here to tell you that that doesn't work.  I gained 5 pounds at my WI (and I don't even want to think about how many sticks of butter that adds up to).  My lovely little physicsdiet.com graph which was so nice and green now has an entire week that looks like the new Republican congressional map--all red.

Sooo, my WI was my wake up call.  Kind of like when we travel and have a plane to catch in the morning.  We ask for a wake up call.  I wake myself up pretty well and always wake up several times in the hour or two before the wake up call.  Then I drowse back to sleep for a bit more.  But when that telephone finally rings, I hop right out of bed and get to work.

Now is the time.  I'm awake.  I REFUSE to go back to that mindless kind of eating. I am "on track" so far this morning.  I just got back from taking E to school and tucked baby J in for his morning nap.  I'm posting this (part of my "on track" plan is keeping on blogging on most days), having my morning quiet time, and then doing my Sweatin' to the Oldies DVD.

My clothes still fit and, ironically, a couple people mentioned how slim I looked yesterday.  I'm turning the helm 180 degrees and heading this ship back safe waters and on a course to my goal.

Ciao for now