Go Away, Mr. Munch

It's that temptation time--a few hours after lunch, too soon to eat dinner and Mr. Munch is on the loose, knocking at the doors, peeping through the windows and trying to take over my house.  I've got the electric tea kettle turned on with some of my favorite tea (Bigelow Vanilla Caramel) almost ready and thought I'd come here to enlist your aid in my effort boot Mr. Munch out of the area.

The kiddos are having a snack (beautiful little baby carrots from Costco) and watching a Veggie Tale DVD.  I've made a bit pot of turkey noodle soup that's nearly ready (my chicken soup with noodles, but I made it with turkey and added some chopped collard greens and mushrooms this time).  I'm sifting through WW recipes for biscuits to go with it and think I settled on one that has some crisped turkey bacon added to the biscuit.  Oops, the kids are both finished with snack time.  We just read Epossumondas (by Coleen Salley) and now they're doing some parallel play with a big bunch of wooden blocks.  Ella is pretending her tiny doll is Rapunzel and is walling her up in a tower with only the yarns of her hair sticking out a tiny window.  Jack is building a more utilitarian garage for his little FedEx truck.  I love their imaginative play.

I had a good week last week, for the most part, and was rewarded with a 1.4 loss at my WI on Wednesday.   It has really helped me to track my eating.  I have to confess that even though I've been continuously enrolled in and a pretty faithful WW attendant, I'm still not really conversant with the points plus of the food that I eat.  Part of that is that I followed CORE for so long, but also, because I haven't tracked.  This spate of tracking is helping me.  I'm still trying to do mostly CORE--all my pasta and rice are whole grain.  I buy very little processed food and concentrate on the lean meats, fish & poultry and fruits and veggies still.  I have, though, decided to allow some previously verboten food to make it's way into our meals occasionally--bread (whole wheat thin Pepperidge farm), butter (light) used very sparingly, for flavor.  The difference with the past few months--when my weight chart looked a lot like the Dow Jones average, dramatic losses and then huge gains, all making for a fairly flat average--is that now I'm tracking those "extras" and fitting them into my daily and weekly points.  Amazingly, this works.  Biz--over a My Bizzy Kitchen is a great inspiration.  She posts her WW meals, with pictures and recipes, every day.  Her meals are fantastic, and she doesn't stint on using whatever she needs to make them, but she is doing a super job on her weight loss goals and is keeping healthy.  I'm enrolled in her latest challenge and have challenged myself to lose 20 pounds by Jan first.  Three and a half gone, 16.5 to go!

Oh, last week I suddenly remembered my wonderful baked apple recipe that my sister (hi Missy!) shared with me last fall.  Buy Fuji apples, core and slice them 8-12 slices per apple, layer them on a large cookie sheet (use foil for no clean up mess), sprinkle generously with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes until they are tender.  These are great just for snacking on (NO points), wonderful on oatmeal, loved by the kiddos, and make a very nice dessert with a dab of fat free cool whip.  Try 'em, you'll like 'em!

DH has arrived home and is happily playing with the children.  DIL is due here any minute and then I'll get  those biscuits started and we'll eat in about 30 minutes.  I think Mr. Munch has taken a powder for the time being.  And, just to get all my boxes checked on my tracker (and, of course, because it's good for me) we'll go to the gym tonight

Stay tuned,

Off and Running

This is a snap of Ella and Jack on the first day of preschool.  Ella often had teary drop-offs last year, but is raring to go this year.  Jack is new to preschool, but seems to take after his daddy whom I remember running off to join the line of new kindergartners with never a backward glance.  Here's hoping that they're this eager every day!     I am not quite this geared up to meet my goals, but I can happily report that I'm starting my fourth week of being on program, exercise, and tracking what I eat.   

I lost 3 pounds the first week and, as Debbie wisely predicted in the comments of my last post, gained one pound last week (the day after my surgery).  Thank goodness for her counsel, because I just chalked it up to water and stress and kept on going.  Of course I haven't been perfect every day in my eating choices, but, on the whole, I'm pretty content with my diet.  I've tried lots of new recipes and bought a few new food items  to keep things interesting.  The WW online recipes are great.  I made their Classic Chicken Soup with Noodles for dinner the other night now that we're getting a hint of fall in the air.  It was a definite winner and will make a repeat appearance soon, I think.  As a side to the soup, I made a half recipe of Apricot Scones (just 4 points +) and used some of my flex points to have two!  Such indulgence!

Thank you all for your good wishes about my surgery.  It went well and I was back to my normal routine the next day.  I got the great news yesterday that the biopsy came back "all clear."  I'm not a huge worrier, but, as you can imagine, this was really good to hear.

Today I earned a gold star (well, an imaginary gold star).  I had the morning "off" and had decided to get out and do some exercise.  I woke to the patter of rain on the window panes, but got dressed and went out and did it anyway.  I went to my favorite river path and did Week One, Day One of C25K!  It's the first time I've actually run in any organized sort of way since my spine surgery in March.  Yay me!  And I didn't even melt in the rain--I guess it was only the Wicked Witch who melted.

With September, it seems like everything's starting up again.  This year, instead of BSF, I've joined another Bible study group (Community Bible Study).  They are very similar in content and format, but CBS is a bit closer to my WW meeting so that I won't be late.  

WI tomorrow and I'm hoping to lose.  

Are you off an running?

Sunny Sunday

Our deluge of last week finally ended.  We got 12+ inches over two days.  Today is sunny and beautiful.  DH is off refereeing soccer games and I'm supposed to be catching up on laundry.  Instead, I thought I'd blog a little and then go out for a walk along the river.  

I'm still going strong with staying on plan and tracking.  I've tried out lots of new recipes in the last week and a half.  Some highlights were stuffed peppers, an awesome curried chicken salad (from the WW online recipes, called Curried Chicken Salad Sandwich), and barbecued pork chops with a peach barbecue sauce.  I bought a half a bushel of peaches at the Farmer's Market on Wednesday.  I put up (froze) about half, but we've been in the land of good eating with marvelous fresh peaches.  I had the last one sliced on my cereal this morning.

I'm going in for some minor (same day) surgery on Tuesday.  Hope to get a conclusive good biopsy and be done with worrying. The surgery is one of those deals where I'm not supposed to eat or drink after midnight until my 12:30 pm surgery the next day.  I thought I'd leave a crockpot simmering with some tempting recipe (osso bucco?) so that I can eat well (and not frantically) when I get home.  Wednesday is my WI day and I'm hoping the Tuesday fast will work to my advantage.

We're going to have our bedroom and sitting room painted soon.  I've been working my way through Benjamin Moore's blues, grays, and greens and have finally found the perfect color.  It's BM 1570, called Gray Wisp, which looks definitely gray on the fan deck and color chip, but turns the loveliest gray-blue-green color on the wall.  It was a close call with another BM paint called Elemental (a brownish olive green which works well with some of our accent colors) but I really had a blue-green-gray color in mind.   We have no fewer than 12 big splotches of paint samples up in our rooms and will both be happy to have the new wall color up. 

DH and I are working on figuring out a nice 4 or 5 day fall trip.  We want to take our bikes, maybe see a little fall color, and get away for a bit.  I need flat bike trails (!).  Any ideas?

Last night I had 4 points left over (plus about 25 of those extra weekly points).  I had a bit of frozen leftover oatmeal cookie dough in the fridge--just enough to make 4 cookies.  DH and I enoyed a very nice evening snack with milk.  (Jay was already in bed, so missed out on this little treat).

For your viewing pleasure.  We have lots of squirrels who like to hang around.  This guy evidently decided to take his afternoon siesta on the deck rail.  He was there for a good 5 minutes, just laid out flat.  Have you ever been that tired?

Time for my walk along the river.

 

I Found it! Finally.

My cell phone. We have two pre-paid cell phones (besides the fancy smart phone DH uses for work). Way back at the beginning of July I lost mine. I thought I'd lost it while traveling back from Seattle, on one of the planes. Gone forever. Not so. I was driving today and slipped my fingers down between the seat and the center console and, much to my surprise, came up with my very own cell phone. That's the good news. I tried to call to have the number reinstated. Several transfers later, many explanations, many repetitions of my cell phone number and pin code and I finally got to the right agent to help me accomplish my goal. Long story short, he couldn't understand what I wanted and I couldn't explain it so that he did. His English was minimal at best. I finally gave up. I'll go into my local T Mobile and take care of it in a couple of days. Very frustrating.

Oh, and maybe, just maybe, I've found my mojo, too! One entire week of being OP, feeling confident, exercising, tracking, trying new recipes, and generally feeling good about myself and my weight loss and health goals. I was rewarded with a 3.0 pound loss at my WI today. Yay me! It's amazing the contrast in my outlook from just a couple of weeks ago. I'm an optimist--I'd wake up every morning feeling that maybe, somehow, that day would be the day I got back on track. My optimism lasted until the first temptation and subsequent bite of some non-program food. I can't tell you what did the trick. I'm just very grateful.

We had Chicken Tetrazzini for dinner tonight.  One of DH's favorites and nice and hot for a cool rainy day.  I made a WW online recipe which was yummy and only cost 9 points.

I also bought a half bushel of peaches at the Farmers' Market.  My favorite seller says this may be the last week for the yellow peaches (which I prefer over the white variety).  I hope to get some frozen while the grand babies are napping tomorrow.

One of my recent photo finds while sifting through one of the many boxes from my parents' attic (now in our attic!).  This is my mother, about two years old, in 1922.  I got none of those natural curls, BTW, nor the blond hair.  The puppy is Dis-Donc  and appears to have been her constant companion for the first few years of her life.

a Pinch of Salt--supermarket finds

I've posted before about the inevitable, disappointing temporary weight gain whenever I go out for Thai food or indulge in popcorn.  I haven't yet solved the Thai food out problem, but I'm thrilled with my new popcorn fix.

I make my popcorn in the Presto Power-Pop Microwave Popper, read this post for my review.  I still love it.  Until yesterday, I'd always used a sprinkle of Jolly Time Buttery Seasoning with the popcorn.  A quick look at the nutritional info disclosed that JTBS has a whopping 540 mg of sodium per 1/4 tsp serving.  That's what probably caused my temporary weight gain--a big jolt of salt.

Fast forward to Wednesday.  I went shopping at Wegman's, a huge, well-stocked grocery with Whole-Foods type merchandise.  I checked out their popcorn seasoning (usually located next to the popcorn) and found this!  Kernel Season's Popcorn Seasoning. 
 It came in two flavors, regular and white cheddar.  (The quoted price is for a pack of 6.)
Our friends at Amazon.com have five flavors.  Anyway, the white cheddar has 75 mg of sodium per 1/4 tsp serving, less than 1/6th the Jolly Time.

DH and I made popcorn last night.  We shared a batch.  The verdict?  Awesome!  We had the white cheddar.  It's a keeper.  I'm tossing the other high-salt brand in the trash.  Oh, and yes, both DH and I had a nice little loss from yesterday to today--who knew?  WW works if you really do it right!

The other low-sodium find was  Pacific Natural Low Sodium Chicken Broth.  I was delighted to find this at Costco.  They used to only have the regular (not low sodium).  I bought it because it was a good price.  When I checked out the nutrition info I was amazed.  My regular brand of low sodium chicken broth (Swanson) has 570 mg per cup.  The Pacific Natural has only 80 mg per cup.  This makes a big difference.  This is, by the way, also fat free, although it doesn't tout that info on the front of the box.   I'm a believer.  And, of course, our friends at Amazon have this available online in case you don't shop at Costco.

I use a lot of chicken broth in my OP cooking.  Tonight I made a herb crusted braised pork tenderloin with vegetables (carrots, parsnips, and celery).  I gladly added the 3/4 cup of required chicken broth and know I am well within my target sodium level. That recipe is from the recipes at WW online.  It was good.  I rated it a solid B.

If you're sensitive to high doses of sodium, you might give these a try.

I have no connection with any of the companies that make these products and they don't know that I exist.   I just like that they help me with my goal of healthy eating.

For your viewing pleasure.                                                      On a recent visit to Mount Vernon, I asked Jack to pose with the statue of one of George Washington's step-children.  Here he is trying to get the little boy statue to hold his hand.

Bike Holiday Report

We had a great time on our bike holiday.  We checked in early at our hotel, stowed our goodies in the fridge and then drove out to the W&OD trail's starting point in Purcellville, VA.  We found the trail-side car park with no problem (thanks little Garmie) and parked at mile 45.  We started biking about 3 pm.  DH had estimated that our hotel was near mile marker 30 so we had plenty of time.  The weather was gorgeous--about 80 degrees.  Because we got a jump on the weekend (DH took Friday off), we had the trail mostly to ourselves.

Most of the time, DH was ahead of me.  He's much faster and likes to sprint.  I go along and enjoy and he circles back to make contact every five minutes or so.  However far I go, he goes twice as far!  That's okay.  I take pictures and like to enjoy the scenery and my thoughts.  Same as running--I almost prefer by myself.  In this, picture, though, DH is behind me.  I took the picture over my shoulder.

 We saw some beautiful scenery on our ride.  Purcellville is out in the country, almost to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.  We had a nice downhill for about the first 10 miles.  There were nice long stretches where I put my bike in the highest gear and enjoyed the breeze.  I like the picture of the yellow flowers (ragweed, I think).  I like to think I was flying by so fast that the flowers are in a blur.  I also like the thistle flowers--reminds me of Wales, one of my favorite places to visit. I took that picture at a water stop.

We also saw lots of horses (lots of "horse country" in Virginia), some palatial "chateaux" dotting the rolling hillsides, and lots of cows.

The Washington and Old Dominion is a fantastic trail.  Paved the entire way, a minimum of road crossings, fairly flat  (I LOVE flat), and well signed.  Every cross street was signed, available water is signed, and there are lots of interesting information markers about the local history and the interesting flora and fauna one might encounter.   DH's estimate of the distance for the first day was short by about 7 or 8 miles, so we had a good 23 miles.  Oh and DH turned back about 18 miles in and went back ( UP that hill I enjoyed going down the first 10 miles) and got the car.  I got first chance at the shower and fancied up for our dinner out.  We went to Outback and eschewed the mega-point cheesefries and blooming onion kind of options for a nice 6 oz steak , a salad, and a sweet potato.  We stopped at a Safeway and picked up individual Baskin Robbins ice creams for a dessert splurge.  Yeah, we painted the town red! :-)

We ended up doing exactly half of the trail the first day.  We were going to do an equal distance on Saturday but were rained out by un-predicted severe thunder storms that flew through the area in the morning.  We had coffee (skinny latte for me) at a local Starbucks and enjoyed reading the newspaper in a leisurely fashion, hoping to outlast the storm, but that was not to be.          

 We came home and I was able to wave my magic wand and come up with this yummy salad for lunch.  In WW all the greens and fruit are pretty much point free.  This one just cost us 3 points for the chicken, 2 points for the olive oil in the vinaigrette, 1 points for the toasted pine nuts, and 2 points for a bit of chopped avocado. 

I'm still feeling quite strong about staying OP.  Five days, is that a streak yet??  I'm tracking my WW points  (love the iPad!) and trying out lots of new recipes.  If you have an iPad or iPhone, be sure and download the WW Kitchen Helper App.  Great recipes and a wonderful search ingredients and they find a recipe feature.  Also will transfer the points to your tracker with the click of a button.

Hope you are having a great weekend, too.  It's not over yet!  

Getting a Jump on the Weekend

DH took the day off and we're busy doing some errands and packing because we're going on a Bike Holiday today!  Last fall Sharon (Gains and Losses) and I biked the W&PD trail from Leesburg to Alexandria (34 miles!).

W & OD Bike Trail

DH was sidelined by a broken wrist, but was our support-team for the ride.  He has wanted to do this trail ever since he had to listen to us enthusing over the great biking surface, the beautiful country scenery, the trail-side BBQ place, and the beautiful towns we went through.  Well, today (and tomorrow) he gets his turn.  We're going to HQ in a hotel along the way and drive to the trail head, in Purcerville, VA.  We're going to bike over two days (I'm not up to doing the whole thing in one fell swoop).  Tonight we're going to have a 'date-night' with dinner and a movie (The Help).

Yesterday, day two of my line-in-the-sand fall campaign, went super well.  Got many errands done, ate and tracked every BLT (bite, lick, and taste), got in a nice visit with my BFF (hi, Marilyn!),  and did my weight routine at the gym.   Oh, and at lunch (at Coastal Flats, a very nice seafood restaurant) I scored big-time.  I had their Yucatan Shrimp Cocktail and a green salad for lunch.  The YSC is fabulous and BFF and I often wonder exactly what they use in the sauce.  I asked our waitress if she had the nutritional info for it and she did me one better.  She came back with a list of the ingredients.  Not the proportions, but I can guess.  I feel a Yucatan Shrimp Cocktail coming up on the menu at our house, soon.   Ingredients:  Shrimp, mango, avocado, jicama, radish, lime juice, ketchup(!), celery seed, tomato,  tobasco,  cracked black pepper, onion, cilantro and, the surprise ingredient, orange soda.  The sauce is made with the soda, ketchup, and lime juice--I'm guessing it's about 1 T or less apiece of these ingredients, not a diet-buster.  My best calculations puts this at 5 WW points plus.  Not bad!

My aunt, my mother's sister visited for a week at the end of August.  She's loads of fun! She turned 88 while she was here. One of the things we did together (besides puzzles, mending, shopping, watching movies, and talking) was to look through three huge plastic bins of "stuff" I have from my parents' attic.  I chose these because they were labelled "Lattin"--my mother and aunt's maiden name.  We had a ball.  Found lots of fun pictures (including one of my grandparents on their wedding day) and she recalled and told me lots of fun family stories.  One of the upshots of this was that she paid for me to sign up on ancestry.com so we could pursue a couple of questions we came up with.   Here's  one of the fun pictures we found-- my maternal grandparents.  On their wedding day.  They were married at city hall in Paris.  He was an officer in WWI and was shot in fighting along the Marne.  While he was hospitalized, he met a charming young French nurse.  They were married a few months later.  She was 19. The year was 1919.

Have a great day!

See you in September

Hi Friends,

Well, I've survived some really hot summer weather, an earthquake, and a passing hurricane since I was here last.  We are all fine and really enjoying the cooler weather that comes with this new month.   My summer was up & down & up again on the weight loss front.  I kept going to WW every week, but did not make any progress toward my goals and added a couple to the overall total.

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See that?  That's my line in the sand.  Yesterday after WW, my BFF and I sat down and planned a weeks worth of meals.  We used three recent cookbooks for inspiration and came up with some very good ideas.  Here are the cookbooks:

Eating Well 500-Calorie Dinners Cookbook
Cooking Light Mix and Match Low-Calorie Cookbook
Cooking Light Fresh Food SuperFast 

                                    
I know, I know . . . after I get my eating and exercise reined in, I'll need to start the 12 step program for excessive cookbook collectors!

Here are some of the recipes we chose for delicious meals.

Sage Pork Medallions with Maple Glaze
Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar Cinnamon

We had these last night.  Basically good lean, nutritious foods with 3 WW points added for flavor.  This got an A from my guys and I liked it too!

Lemon Chicken Stir Fry is on the menu tonight.  This is from the Eating Well 500 Calorie book. My copy of the book is due today (thank you UPS tracking!).  I don't remember the exact recipe, but I know I need to pick up some snow peas and some shitake mushrooms.  I think I had all the other ingredients on hand.

Upcoming menus include Chicken Breasts with Mushroom Sauce, served over whole wheat egg noodles,  Chicken Cacciatore,  Grilled Corn with Jalapeno Herb Butter, and Grilled Peach Barbecue Pork Chops.

DH is totally onboard with this.  He's a WW lifetime member, but wants to lose a few pounds to get back to his happy range.

We continue to enjoy twice weekly bike rides, Tuesday and Thursday nights at the gym, and late night walks.  Tomorrow we're starting the holiday weekend early and starting a two day Bike Holiday along the W&OD rails to trails bike path.  We're starting at the very beginning of the trail, in Purcerville and doing a couple 15-20 mile sections broken by a nice overnight at a local hotel complete with a swim in their pool, dinner out, a movie, as well as a late sleep in the next morning.  The hotel has an in-room fridge so we can have our own sumptuous breakfast--our favorite cereal with a great peach from the farmer's market.

I'm hoping to turn around an off plan summer and get back to that good healthy happy place.

Ciao!