Trying New Things...

I feel like I have had a really productive day today!

My interview went okay (I'm not a good judge of how these things go), I am supposed to find out something by Friday. Please continue to pray. I'm definitely still praying! There were some very interesting developments which I will share later with you all. Suffice it to say that GOD IS GOOD!!! Amen? Amen!

My mom brought my kids home today. They went unexpectedly to spend the night with she and my dad last night. My parents had just come by to visit yesterday and my daughter started begging to spend the night, so I relented. Anyway, my mom was going to start teaching me to crochet when she came back with the kids today. EXCITING!!! That was new venture #1. It went okay, but about three or four stitches in, I thought it would be too hard, and considered giving up. However, my mom really encouraged me to keep going. So, here is my progress as of this evening. You all may laugh, you may think this is pitiful, but I was really pleased with my progress. I CAN FINALLY CROCHET!!! Albeit, in an amateur sort of way...

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We went to the library and I picked up lots of Spanish stuff for kids, as I'm starting to teach my kids Spanish this year. They kept asking, "how do you say that stuff?", so I decided there would be no better time to start teaching them than when school starts and while they are so young! Right? I think so too.

Lastly, I see on some of your blogs all of these little tags and pics regarding Jane Austen books, and well, please do not throw rocks at me or gasp in horror as I tell you the following truth about me... I HAVE NEVER READ A JANE AUSTEN BOOK...there I said it. I'm so glad I finally got that off of my chest! LOL! I don't have a lot of time to read, so I check out audio books as much as possible. I picked up Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma. So, please wish me well as I branch out into a new avenue of literature, not to mention a new section of the library.

After my new experiences, I came home and made a beef stew (yummy!) for supper with some buttery rolls (heavenly, Michelle!), and sat down to work on my new project - a crocheted something or 'nother...

Goodnight all.

A New Tool For Weight Loss...

I googled "calorie counter" today on the web and got quite a few things to choose from, and I'm sharing this link with you to a site I am really crazy about...

http://www.my-calorie-counter.com/calorie_counter.asp

This is a free journal site, where you can put in exactly what you eat and they calculate the calories, sodium, etc., water intake, your weight, height, activity each day (even down to housework!) It is really cool! Each day I will be trying to post my journal on my blog to show you exactly what my intake is and how my progress is going. I have put my food journal on here in the past, but this is very precise and gives me a better handle on exactly how much I have taken in. I will be posting it at the end of the day after my calculation is complete, and you can see what is working for me and what is not. BUT, I hope that you all will try this site out, I think it is going to be very beneficial!

Happy tracking everyone...

A New Day, A New Me...

Well, this is my second post for today, and I had said that I was going to go easy on the salt today. So, my intentions were good and the day ended up good, but I was at the beauty shop this morning - ALL MORNING! - and here is what happened...

No breakfast before going to the shop, no coffee since 3:20 or so this morning. Oh, and lots of water. So by the time I got out of the beauty shop around 1:00, I guess (my appointment was at 9:00), I was starving!!! Don't get me wrong though, they cut my hair and my daughter's, and colored mine, and I am so, SO happy with it! I ended up having a diet Coke while at the shop, not all of it, my daughter drank most of it for me, but sodium there. No biggie, right? When I went to pick up my son at Michelle's house, Noelle and I were both ravenous. Michelle had food for Noelle for lunch, and offered me some. I ate a delicious Tyson chicken tender - it was sooooo good, it could have come from O'Charley's as far as I was concerned! Then I had some creamy chicken enchiladas - little different from traditional, as you use salsa instead of enchilada sauce, and she used Velveeta instead of cheddar, and it was DELISH! I had two of those. I also had a really, really tiny bit of coke - my son finished that! After coming home I had some raw carrots, much better and closer to my plan for the day! I also had a cup of coffee and some more water. Could not get enough water today, it was so good. For supper I had a baked tilapia filet with no-salt lemon pepper seasoning, Yummy! For a side I had steamed veggies - broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. I did add a postage stamp size bit of regular salted butter. It was all so good. Now it is nearly 9:00 pm and I just had a cup of Suisse Mocha from GFIC, and it was the perfect end to the day. All in all, I think it was a good day. I told Michelle as I ate the chicken tender at 1:00 that that was my breakfast, and then the enchiladas were my lunch - I just ate them together. It worked!

I am posting a pic of my new hairdo, I feel like a new woman with it. Also, check out Michelle's Walking My Way to Health blog to see her new do, very nice! We had two good days of "pampering" for us!

Pass ON the salt please...

SALT should be a four-letter word! I feel so absolutely BLOATED right now, and do you want to know why? I am so glad that you do because I am about to tell you. BECAUSE OF MY SODIUM INTAKE! UUUUGGHH!

First, let me say that I am not a big "salter." Unlike my husband, I don't get a plate of food and salt it as soon as I see it, especially before I even taste it (except for eggs - I like to season them!). Here at our house we switched from salt to No Salt a long time ago. No Salt is nothing but potassium - 600 mg per serving. It takes a little bit more to get the taste you're looking for, but hey - it's potassium. So, we think we are doing so well because of using this.

...............well, maybe not so good. Yesterday I ate really well. I was at my friend's house watching her kids and was getting desperate for some food, so I had a few bites of snack food that were not exactly health food. But, it was only a few bites. The rest of my day consisted of the following... I ate popcorn (DO NOT BUY POP SECRET POPCORN - IT IS LOADED WITH TRANS FAT!!!), and of course, I seasoned it - extra salt there. It's not a "salt" that I'm putting on there, but it has salt in it. It's actually a seasoning for Mexican food - and is outstanding on popcorn. Anyway, I had half of a whole wheat bread sandwich with one slice of ham - loaded with sodium...I had a bowl of homemade vegetable soup - LOADED with sodium...I had a tuna fillet with teriyaki sauce on the side which was (you guessed it) loaded with sodium.

So, this is how my day went. I thought I was doing okay, but maybe not so much. I am typing this at 3:02 am (taking a break from my work), and my fingers feel puffy, my whole body feels fit to bust!

My plan for today is to allow some of this sodium to get out of me, some of this extra water weight I'm carrying right now. I will be skipping the popcorn today. For those of you who have been following for a while you know that I could eat spaghetti EVERY DAY!!! It is whole wheat spaghetti with sauce containing no meat, but do you know what dirty little secret spaghetti sauce is hiding - LOADS OF SODIUM!!! UUUUUGGGHHH!!! So, no spaghetti for me today. I am going to the store to get some frozen veggies, as they are not loaded with salt, and most of the canned ones are. I have already had about 16 oz of water so far and a cup of coffee. I know that sounds backwards if you're trying to get rid of water weight, but when your body is in surplus of water, it knows it can get rid of some. If you deprive yourself of water, your body retains it. So, I hope to feel much better by the end of this day, much less puffy.

As you go to fix supper or as you go to the store to get your groceries, be conscious of the fact that you may get what looks like healthy food, but it may be loaded with sodium. Not only is sodium good at making you retain water, but it is also good at causing your blood pressure to go up. Don't just grab something off of the shelf because it looks like a healthy option, be sure and check out the ingredients and nutritional info. There are so many alternatives out there now of foods that say "unsalted" or "reduced sodium", etc. So next time you sit down to eat, instead of saying "pass the salt please", say "I think I will pass on the salt, thanks!"

Sticks and Stones...Day 19

Today I am still holding steady at 23 pounds down. I did not get my workout in yesterday (Ugh!). However, there was birthday cake at church last night and I was barely even tempted. Tomorrow is my ten year anniversary with my hubby though, and I am making a pie for him, and will definitely have a piece of that! What is going to be hard is ignorning the pie as it stares at me from the countertop in the days following our anniversary. You know what I'm talking about, right?

So here is the way things went yesterday...

B – Yoplait Light Lemon Meringue yogurt (YUM!)
S – spoon of peanut butter
L – Mole wrap (turkey, mole, brown rice, wrapped in tortilla), a few chips and a slice of cheese
S – Tilapia filet stuffed with scallops & red peppers, whole wheat pasta/Prego/Parmesan, three or four mini pickles
S – 1 ½ tortilla (snack after supper instead of before)
No Workout

You will notice the addition of dairy back into the mix. Once again, the advantage of food journaling is that you have to look at what you're taking in, then you can make the changes necessary in order for your diet to be as nutritionally complete as possible. Well, in looking over my menus, I had noticed that I was not getting enough calcium. So, I bought myself some milk, and am eating yogurt and cheese during the day in order to get my three servings of dairy in for the day. I also have a calcium supplement here that I will be taking daily just to be sure that I am getting my recommended calcium each day. My mom has osteopenia, and I just accompanied her to get an MRI today because of bone/joint related problems, and I know it is very, very important to get that calcium into my body. I have never had a problem before because any time I ate something sweet I had to have some milk. But now that I have been skipping the sweets I have just not had much of a desire for milk, not even cereal. So, another change make to keep my eating HEALTHY! And as I've said so many times before, that is what it is about - not being the skinniest person around, not being the most beautiful or most handsome, but being healthy!

So my question to you today is..............................

Got Milk?