Busy Day Check In

 I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted here.  They were a good two weeks!  My brother, his best friend and my 88 yr old aunt came for a long weekend inbetween.  We had a great time together, mostly talking, playing games (NYT crosswords!), watching Maggie Smith outtakes on YouTube, and cooking and eating delicious healthy food.  You'd never believe my aunt is 88--she's loads of fun and it's always a party when she's there (and, no, there was no alcohol involved :-)).

I completed Cycle I on the 17DD and lost a total of 10.5 pounds.  Then I transitioned to a WW approach for two weeks and gained 3 pounds.  Partly overindulging in foods I'd missed (hello brown rice) and partly having houseguests for 5 days (two batches of Lori's Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies--Warning!:  don't go there if you don't plan on having them; the picture alone is enough to make you want to preheat the oven). DH and I decided to do Cycle I together for 5 days to get back on the straight and skinny.  Today's the last day, and I'm happy to report that those 3 pounds and a bit more have left the building.  Hoping for another good WI tomorrow.  I have a streak going with my WIs.  I've lost at my last 5 WIs.  There were a couple weeks when I didn't go, but still, not bad, right?

On the food front, right now I have my Slow Roasted Plum Tomatoes in the oven.  I'm planning to use them to make a Roasted Tomato and Basil soup.  I've got a big bunch of basil waiting and the tomatoes smell wonderful, they're got about 20 more minutes until they're done.  Here's a quick picture from the oven.  Wish I could send you the aroma, too!

I also made some Stuffed Cabbage.  I was thinking about my mom's cooking and remembered that she used to make Stuffed Cabbage.  I didn't have her recipe but perused the Joy of Cooking and Google to come up with some ideas.  I wanted mine to conform to my 17DD requirements (using ground turkey rather than beef), but it seemed doable.  I used lean ground turkey, chopped onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms, basic marinara sauce (Amy's), low-sodium soy sauce, Lee & Perrins,  and salt & pepper for the filling.  I browned the meat and then added the veggies until they were tender, then the other ingredients.  I steamed the cabbage leaves until they were pliable and wrapped a spoonfull of filling in each leaf.  I tucked them seam-side-down in a pyrex dish, added a bit of low-sodium chicken broth and cooked them for about 30 minutes.  I didn't write down amounts, but I wish I had.  They were dee-lish!   Here's a picture. Looks like we had roasted tomatoes at that meal, too.  I told you they were good.

Today I have an unexpected day off from babysitting the grandkids.  I'm on my 4th load of laundry, cooking my soup, catching up on blogs, and planning to get out and do a "rawk" (run/walk, borrowed stolen from Shelley). I need to load up a new audio book on my ipod as I just finished Believing the Lie (Elizabeth George, a Detective Lynley mystery).  A great book that has me gnashing my teeth that it'll likely be two years before I find out what happened to one of my favorite characters!

Oh, I'm also going to drive over to see my friend, Mrs. Elliott.  She is my choir director's mom, who moved up from Alabama to an assisted living place near to her daughter. Mrs. Elliott turned 90 last week.  She's fun and bright and always glad to have company.  She didn't know anyone here except her daughter and was missing her friends so I've sort of adopted her as my "mom" and try to see her at least once a week.  

Here's a picture of little Jack.  He was quite taken with the "real" carrots (as opposed to the baby carrots one usually encounters these days) we found at Whole Foods.  He wanted to eat one right away.  I washed and peeled it, but he wanted the green top left on it.  He ate every bite (except the green, which he tried, but declared "Yucky!)"  Don't you feel rather virtuous when you load up your grocery cart with great looking veggies and scorn the offerings from whole aisles of processed foods?  I do.

We had some snow flakes yesterday, but biking weather is coming closer and closer.  I, for one, can't wait!

Oh, not great report on the mileage project.  I finally recovered from the heel blisters and enforced croc wearing and reclaimed my Nikes a few days ago. Total mileage for the past two weeks is 26 miles.  YTD total 176.  I'm hoping to up the ante now that I can wear real shoes again!


What's your new favorite healthy recipe?

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.

The day before WI

Hi all!   I got my trip to the gym in early today and managed to add a bit to my usual routine of lifting.  Later I met Sharon & Mr. B and we stopped for lunch at a great little Italian bistro place in Alexandria before heading into DC.

We took a behind the scenes tour at the National Cathedral.  Then we drove to Arlington National Cemetery.  Here are some pix:

View from the South Crossing

Not a gargoyle (no gutter pipe) but a "grotesque."

Unbelievably beautiful fall leaves.

View from JFK's eternal flame back toward Washington

Me, beside my sweet mother's grave.  She would have been 90 yesterday.

We're eating so well--healthy, nutritious, and OP.  Tonight we had Tilapia, broccoli, & roasted butternut squash.  After dinner--Wii time!  Sharon and Mr. B were newbies to the Wii and we had a great time and laughed a lot while playing with the Wii fit and some of the basic sport games.  I think we may have gotten Mr. B hooked!  

Tomorrow we're off on our mini bike holiday.  Lots of biking.  I plan to go to my WI on the way out to our bike holiday headquarters.  Off to bed now so I can get in my Last Chance Run before the WI.  

Bye for now.

Odds and Ends

A couple of you asked for pix of my new finery.  I tried, but failed to get pix I liked. Google came to my rescue, sort of, and I found a picture of my new dress (forever after known as 10P) in a different color.  10P is the exactly the same style, but the material is in a different pattern, a mixture of dark blue/green, a little aqua, and a splash of leaf green with black.  I love the color.

I once saw the tooth fairy in the act of exchanging a quarter for the tooth under my pillow.  Yes, it was a long time ago.  Inflation has taken over.  Back to the tooth fairy.  She was beautiful.  She smelled of Arpege.  Her hair was "fancy" and she was dressed in the most beautiful dark green dress (very similar to the material of 10P) that had tiny little cloth buttons.  Many years later, while clearing out my mother's dresser after she died, I came across her button jar.  I spread out the buttons and immediately noticed a tiny, cloth-covered green button.  My mother was born in 1920 and was very thrifty.  She saved things like buttons, long after the dresses were gone.  I had totally forgotten having seen the tooth fairy until I saw that button.  She and Daddy must have gone out to a party that night and made the exchange afterward.  True story.

I got motivated (by one of you, I can't remember whom) to clean out my closet--specifically my underwear shelf.  It took me about 45 minutes.  You'd think I hadn't gotten rid of anything on that shelf for year and years.  But I could certainly tell that I'd made several expeditions to Walmart to buy a yet-again larger size.  I had 4 different sizes, and I got rid of the three largest.  I wouldn't buy used underwear, so I'm not going to put it in my thrift store box.  On the bra side, I tried them all on and was able to get rid of eight or nine of them.  One downside of being "large" is that I was never comfortable getting "fitted" for a bra.  Often, I bought them without trying them on.  Not a good or smart way to buy.  Anyway, those are gone, too (I did put the new condition ones, some with tags still attached, in the thrift box) and my shelf is nicely uncrowded and much easier to navigate.

I haven't taken a break from exercise for about three weeks.  I think I'm going to skip my gym workout tonight. I may go on a walk with DH later because it's so pretty out, but nothing strenuous. Tomorrow I'm going to take a nice long bike ride. I haven't quite decided what route I'll take, but it's sure to be less crowded tomorrow than on the weekend. I don't fancy dodging preschoolers zigzagging back and forth on the bike trail while their parents chat on cell phones 20 feet away!

How's your weekend shaping up?

Happy Anniversary

Jeannine and Norman

August 12, 1940

My parents were married on this day 70 years ago.  It amazing to me how young they look in this picture.  Mom was 19 and had finished her junior year at Stanford and Dad was 23 and one year out of West Point.  They moved to Fort Sam Houston, Texas and made their first of many, many homes.  They were the best parents I could ever imagine.  They taught me about love, and faith, and family, and loyalty, and integrity.  If I ended up  with any good qualities, they are largely responsible. Mom died 17 years ago and my Dad is in a nearby nursing home with severe dementia.  I love them both and miss them terribly, every day.

My parents were my first cheerleaders.  Neither of them (nor any of my 3 siblings) ever had any weight issues.  Yet they were always supportive, helpful and understanding.  As I once again work on conquering this life challenge of discovering and embracing a healthy lifestyle, I know that part of me is wanting to finally succeed and to justify their lifelong confidence in my ability to achieve that success.  

Thanks to you Mom and Dad, I know I can do this.