Morning Bible study with a hot cup of lavender-rose Earl Grey tea in my Emma Bridgewater Peter Rabbit mug. And Boo for company, always!
The beautiful colors and shapes of my Longaberger pottery...even dirty dishes look good! I love it when I happen to have all 4 colors and 4 different shapes present together = ) Also this represents a tummy full of buckwheat cakes and pure maple syrup...hahahahahaha
I ended last time with Week #78 of maintaining...116.8 at weigh-in on December 5th
#79 - 117.4 - Dec 12
#80 - 117.4 - Dec 19
#81 - 117.6 - Dec 26 - this one was SO disappointing...I had tears in my eyes =``(( I'd made the goal at the meeting the day before Thanksgiving of being in the 116's for my weigh-ins on the weeks after Christmas and New Year's. Unfortunately, I got a cold right before Christmas and even though it only lasted a few days, the extra eating contributed to me missing my goal. I know it's less than a pound...that's not the issue...it's missing the goal that bothered me SO much. I must be the kind of person who "feeds a cold"...
#82 - 116.0 - Jan 2 - Hooray! I nearly overshot my goal! hahahahaha I started following the Simply Filling plan from Weight Watchers on December 27 and lost 2 pounds the first week!
#83 - 116.4 - Jan 9
#84 - 115.8 - Jan 16
#85 - 117.0 - Jan 23 - my birthday was on Monday and I had a few extra helpings of celebration food = )
#86 - 117.0 - Jan 30 - drank some of my shake before weigh-in
#87 - 116.2 - Feb 6
#88 - 115.4 - Feb 13
#89 - 114.8 - Feb 20
#90 - 115.4 - Feb 27
So as you can see, Simply Filling simply works the best for me!! Let me see if I can sum-up why I like eating this way so much...
- I don't have to measure or track hardly at all! Officially, you have to track the foods that are not Power Foods...if you are in weight-loss mode, you get 7 points a day (49 points a week) to spend on these extra foods. You can also earn and spend your activity points. When you're in maintenance mode, you get 13 points a day. For me, I was mostly able to earn enough activity points to cover the non-Power Foods I ate. And I only gave myself a 10 point a day balance since I'd determined that was the best for me when I went from weight-loss on Tracking (26 points a day) to maintenance (32 points a day). I was eating the 32 points but my weight started to creep up so I decided to go in the middle and do 29 points. So instead of eating 13 points on Simply Filling, I decided to go in the middle again and eat 10 points. Except I didn't always eat those! hahahaha And now, I've been able to not track at all and still have my weight creep down. I even added in some higher-fat/calorie dense, but healthy foods so that I don't lose too quickly. I have real cream almost every day and a small handful of different kinds of nuts. Of course, I've always eaten real butter...all in balance...so nice to enjoy these wonderful foods that God has blessed us with! Nothing is off-limits as long as God made it = )
- it causes me to choose healthy HEALTHY foods...which causes me to not have to fight hunger feelings...and I feel SOOOOOOOO much better and I don't have the GI issues I was having and my headaches are almost totally gone... and I still lose weight and I get to add in some foods that I normally considered treat foods but now they're every-day foods...AWESOME!!!
- and now that I've discovered that my version of Simply Filling is really the same as Eating Clean, I'm more motivated to eat this way than ever before! I say my version because on the Weight Watchers version, you are told to eat fat-free varieties of things and artificially sweetened things but if you eat real fat and real sugar, you're supposed to count those points and take them out of your daily balance. I totally disagree with that. I think it's much better to eat a smaller portion of the healthy-but-high-fat food than to put anything processed, chemically enhanced, so-called "food" into my body.
I'm continually working to fine-tune my nutrition and workouts. It's fun for me...I don't mind at all! I'm so glad I still had these Eat Clean books so now that I've made the connection, I can implement some things I've learned. I still disagree with the author over a few things, which I've mentioned before, but for the most part, very good information in these books!
And now I've done 2 blog posts in the same day = ) Here's a picture of the puzzle we worked with mom last night... making time for regular relaxation activities is also crucial for my health and well-being!
A wonderful prayer to start each and every day = )
Do you see what I see??? It's a little hard with all that clover there...
There...this is in the section I already weeded...can you tell what it is? I know Dorothy Erdely can, for sure!
The first bluebonnet blossom!!!
I surely do LOVE bluebonnets and consider myself incredibly blessed to have them in my very own front yard and flower beds! Every time I see them, I have a spontaneous time of praise and worship to my Magnificent Creator = )
What a wonderful time to live in Texas. I tried for years and years and YEARS to get just one bluebonnet to grow from seed. Every time I got a packet of seeds, I tried planting them, broadcasting them, potting them...whatever...just kept trying and trying because I wanted my very own bluebonnet soooooo badly.
And now, if we don't get a hard freeze in the next week or so, I will have HUNDREDS of bluebonnet blossoms! This will be the most blossoms I've had in any year so far.
The first year I got a seed to germinate, I think I had maybe 4 plants. When they went to seed, I planted the seed pods. That wasn't the right way to do it so I only added a few more plants to the beds the next year.
Then I "got smart" and started planting the seeds when and how God plants them = ) I waited for the pods to open on their own time and then broadcast the seeds around. The next year I had triple or more the number of plants. Last year was even more...this year is a banner year for bluebonnet plants!
I still can't get used to the fact that I can look out my front windows and see bluebonnets. I don't have to drive anywhere...I just walk to the mailbox! Last year we had several people come and take pictures of some particularly pretty bunches...made me so proud!
Today was weigh-in at Weight Watchers and I'm hoping to get you all caught up on those numbers tomorrow. Tonight we spent the evening working a puzzle with mom...AWESOME!
One of the fun things about blogging is when you KNOW someone reads your blog...that they're interested enough in you, as a person, to care what you're thinking or doing. The World's Greatest Neighbor, Shari, reads this blog. And Amy too...Hi Amy!
Today I started reading The Eat Clean Diet Recharged. I can tell you already that it's a better book than the first one, pictured above. The information is more clearly presented and expanded and it's a bigger book overall. I'm only on Chapter 3 but I can definitely tell that this Eat Clean book is better than the first one.
She has LOTS of books...I have 4 of them. After looking on Amazon, I only saw one other book that I might be interested in...can't remember the name of it but I'll let ya know = )
Another subject I'd like to post on is what I eat every day and recipes to go along. I may not include every day's menu but when I'm in the mood for it, I will. I'm in the mood for it....
Breakfast: pumpkin shake...organic canned pumpkin, kefir, greek yogurt, wheat germ, some pineapple juice from canned pineapple (in 100% juice), a bit of agave, loads of cinnamon, some cloves. Very pumpkinny, very yummy!
Lunch: mushrooms marinated in Bolthouse yogurt dressing, Caesar Parmigiano flavor, with Penzey's garlic salt; leftover chicken spaghetti from last night; about 1/2 cup of the canned pineapple and fresh blueberries in a bit of cream. Oh yeah...and a whole wheat scone broken into pieces and eaten mixed in with the cream and blueberries.
Supper: homemade chili sprinkled with a bit of shredded sharp cheddar cheese and 1/2 slice honey oat bread, the other 1/2 slice with a smear of jelly.
Here's the recipe for the chili...I got it from our Weight Watchers group and it's a KEEPER!!!
1 and 1/2 pound ground turkey (95% lean, cooked) ((I used organic chicken sausage))
1 can rinsed black beans
1 can pinto beans (not drained)
1 can kidney beans (not drained)
2 cans 14.5 oz diced tomatoes
2 cans 8 oz tomato sauce
1 tsp or more minced garlic
chili seasoning to taste
I also added a can of navy beans cause I like them and I added chipotle chili seasoning. You can season it however you want.
You just dump everything in and heat it up. It's great right away and even better the 2nd and 3rd days after all the flavors meld = )
And it's especially yummy with Honey Oat Bread! This lady's blog is great for recipes but you'll have to "health them up" on your own. I substituted all whole wheat flour, used egg white instead of a whole egg (although I wouldn't mind using a whole egg, just didn't have them in the house) and used olive oil. I didn't have any buttermilk so I made my own with milk, greek yogurt and a tbls of white vinegar. I didn't make the honey butter...real butter is good though!
Posted on November 8, 2011 by The Southern Lady
I'd also like to share my workouts from time to time...or whenever I feel like it...or whenever I remember! Today's workout was a Leslie Sansone DVD...I love her Walk by Faith series!! Petey and I did the 2 mile workout and then the 1 mile workout...averaged about a 15 minute pace for the 3 miles. Worked up a good sweat too!
I'm determined to blog a little bit every day (except Sunday) and maybe even a couple times a day if I can manage it since there is one blog that I read (Content in a Cottage) where she does that and I enjoy it so much! I'd love to think that there is just one person out there who gets that kind of enjoyment out of this blog. Which means I need to be consistent and I need to be interesting! I'm gonna work on both = )
I finished reviewing the first Tosca Reno book...The Eat Clean Diet. Turns out I AM eating clean! The only area where I disagree with her has to do with low-fat or fat-free food. If we're going to eat food in it's most natural state, why tell people to eat low-fat or fat-free food when God created it with the fat? I also disagree with Weight Watchers in this area. Weight Watchers also encourages you to eat artificial sugar, which is one of the worst things I can put in my body...sooooooo sick = (
Here's my nutrition guideline: if God created it, it's good, all in balance. That means I eat butter and cream and cheese and carrots and avocados and olives and potatoes. But in their proper amounts for a healthy balance. I don't eat margarine and fat-free cheese and Crisco. I do drink non-fat milk but that's because I prefer powdered milk. If they made whole milk powdered milk, I would use that and maybe water it down because I'm used to the "thinner" milks.
Reno promotes eating whole grains, which I TOTALLY agree with. She doesn't mention pasta very much, not even whole wheat pasta...maybe she doesn't even mention it at all, come to think of it! I understand that the goal is to eat minimally processed and hard spaghetti that you boil is more processed than eating the whole grain cooked.
But even in that I think I would say that I wouldn't swear off whole wheat pasta but maybe eat it a lower percentage of the time compared with brown or wild rice, quinoa and some other whole grains. I have a pasta maker...I wonder if Reno would consider homemade pasta healthier than store-bought hard pasta???
Anyhow, I have a whole lot more I could say on this subject...and I may at a later time...but it's late and I'm tired and maybe it wouldn't be all that interesting anyhow! hahahahahahahahaahahahahhahaha
So...I'm writing this blog post on a new app for my iPad called Blogsy which I hope will make it easy and convenient for me to blog regularly again. The dogs aren't allowed in the back part of the house...the office especially, since that's where the cat food is located. Cat food makes Piper have stinky gas...nuff said! hahaha
Anyhow, my iPad is always out in the main part of the house and with the nifty keyboard, it's really like a laptop and so handy and I'm hoping that those two factors will lead to me blogging on a regular basis. I do SO enjoy reading the blogs of people who update regularly, DAILY, and I would like to be one of those to hopefully encourage someone, in some small way, to live a healthier lifestyle.
I know I owe you a long Weight Watcher weigh-in update but that will have to come later as I really need to get to bed...church in the morning!
But I've been excited for the past couple of days at my new discovery and I don't want to wait any longer to share it with you...briefly, I hope...I'll try!...and then in greater detail as I blog regularly...I hope...I'll try!!!
Sooooooo...I've been following the Simply Filling plan with Weight Watchers for over a month now and am at my lowest weight in several years (except for when my sister died and I couldn't eat and I was losing a pound a day but I don't count that cause I was basically sick). THIS is the BEST way for me to eat! I feel wonderful, I don't have cravings, I've not been having the stomach (and lower) problems that have plagued me for a long time and I rarely get headaches anymore!
What I'm excited about and what I wanted to share with you is this discovery: the other day it dawned on me, "I think this is what is meant by Clean Eating...I think I'm Eating Clean!" Now that might not seem like a reason to get excited except that I've desired to eat clean for a long time now and wasn't exactly sure what that entailed and wasn't sure I COULD do it.
I have a number of books by Tosca Reno (sp?) about Eating Clean but to be honest, I can't remember the details...I just remember being really impressed and wanting to eat that way...believing it to be the best way to eat...but not sure if I was capable or it was a "do-able" way for me to eat in real life.
I've followed another eating plan in the past which was highly effective for health and weight-loss, but was so strict that it wasn't do-able long term in real life. I wasn't even sure Simply Filling would be do-able in the long term but now I KNOW it is and I'm convinced it's the healthiest, best and easiest way for me to stay healthy and maintain my goal weight!
Gotta stop now but stay tuned for more details...
And now I hope this posts correctly!
Posted with Blogsy