Lose the L

Salad:  lettuce from a bag, spinach from a bag. Mandarin oranges, toasted almonds, mozzerella cheese shreds. Raspberry vinagrette dressing. Yum.  This Curves diet book I have says eat a honkin’ huge salad for lunch every day, with a sprinkle of nuts (ok, a handful. Or two) and skim milk cheese for calcium.  I’ve been buying bags of sliced almonds and toasting the whole bag, so they’re available to throw on whenever.  Same with the cheese.  I reckon you could add meat to it if you wanted to, we just never have lunch meat or whatever around.  I highly recommend the bagged salads, simply because it makes it so easy to make one when you dont have to go washing or chopping.

Terry commented yesterday that my (size 18) pants are falling off. “Your ass is disappearing” said he, romantic that he is. Size 16 would be an amazing thing to behold. One can buy regular clothes in size 16. Even J. Peterman (yeah right, like I can afford that) has size 16.  And talbots (right).  I’m almost afraid to try stuff on, tho.  Let’s get past all the doctors and potential medical issues first.

I like my parents scale. It’s digital. And, it weighs me in a few pounds less than my scale at home. That’s always a good thing. Especially when it makes me go from one tens unit to the next lower. Excellent. I’m sure it’s because I was sweating it all out since our air conditioner went out during Alabama’s heat wave with heat indexes into 112. I hate being hot. But that was a nice benefit. And right now I find it most refreshing to eat a lot of fruit. However, when we arrived at my parents they ordered pizza and I had a few slices! Totally the worst meal I’ve had since we’ve started this dieting thing (or at least since I joined). I enjoyed every morsel of the pepperoni and sausage with extra cheese. However, I did feel rather bloated after it was said and done. My husband did the appropriate “honey?” to me as I finished my last piece and I told him thank you for his concern, but it was all I was going to have. I know I shouldn’t have, but I did. I felt I had deserved it after the week we had without air, spending $600 on a car repair and finding a snake in our laundry room. Crappy week. I ate the pizza. I even had a beer! Sue me. I know, I know. I’m justifying….it was wrong….but….

Y’all don’t beat yourselves up for being in the blahs. Roll with it. It’s a hiccup, a bump in the road, inevitable.

As for caffiene, I remember somewhere that it’s kinda like smoking cigarettes in that it suppresses your appetite. I amy be remembering that wrong but I know a good cup of coffee is a fine substitute for a snack, for me.

You know that Ladies workout place- Curves? Well, there’s a book by the founder, with a couple of diet plans that are astonishingly simple to follow. There’s a low calorie and a low carb diet. I sorta follow the low calorie one because I am not happy on low carb things. I tried Atkins and it nearly ended my marriage.

Anyway, I think occasionally I’ll put a recipe up.  My favorite is the one I put in the comments to Debbies last post.

 The main bit with the diet plan is that you eat as much green veggies as you want, whenever you want. If nothing else it keeps you regular.  I eat mine for lunch-4 cups or so of mixed greens, turkey meat, homemade vinagrette.

You also must eat breakfast. It can be a Slimfast shake, or a carton of yogurt, but you always always eat breakfast.  My doctor told me that one, as well.

Anyway- more recipes in the future.

She’s a friend of mine from way back when we were both skinny, and is a terrific cook!

It’s EASY, light, tasty (I think), and made from stuff you can find anywhere. (I think)

Asian style chicken slaw

1 bag shredded cabbage/cole slaw stuff

1 large can of chicken breast

1 large can of chow mein vegetables (or chop suey- either one)

1/2 cup light or fat free mayonnaise

2 tablespoons vinegar plus 2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup chow mein or rice noodles

1/2 cup toasted almonds (if you want)

Drain the canned vegetables and chicken and toss together with the bagged slaw.

Mix the mayo, vinegar and water, soy sauce and sugar. Pour over the other stuff and toss together.   Put the noodles and almonds on top, and serve.

5 minutes to put together, low fat, and not bad the next day, either.

It’s not my recipe, I got it from Semi Homemade Stepford Woman Sandra Lee.

Jessica London catalog was having a sale, so I ordered a couple of dresses I liked but didn’t want to pay full price for. And (dum dum DUM!) they’re too big! Same size as I’ve always ordered, same everything. Laa de daa! I’m happy. From a 20W to an 18W!

 Now, how do I celebrate in a way that doesn’t involve food?

 I’ve been exercising twice a day as per PT orders. And I’m exhausted. Morning is fine, but when I’m done with the evening set I just want to crawl into bed. Since it’s 7:30 or so when I finish with them, that’s pretty early for bed.  The exercises are paying off, I’ve gone from being able to lift my left leg (the bad hip) about 3 inches off the floor to over a foot! And I’m doing 4 sets of 10 on about half of the workout, up from 2 sets when I started. I’m hoping soon I’ll be able to walk well enough to start going back to Willow Pond.

 I didn’t know drinking water would help with dark circles under the eyes.  I guess I’d look like Uncle Fester if I drank less.

~Rootie2t

I cooked a bowl ful of fried okra tonight, and  ate my share. It was good. Now, tho, it is no longer in the freezer beckoning me to fry it’s pretty green self and eat um up.

See, if it’s been paid for and is in the house, I feel an obligation to fix and eat it.  If it’s in the store, I can be strong and ignore it.  I always ALWAYS shop from a list, and as long as I eat something before going to the store, I can resist temptation and avoid buying anything that’s not on the list.  I had this 1 bag of breaded okra, and while Terry and I were galivanting all over the county, I got hungry because I kept smelling other people’s BBQ and smoke houses. I didn’t feel like cooking but there was this bag of okra in the freezer. Of course, there was a bag of raw spinach in the fridge, and I suppose I could have eaten that. But you know, fried okra tastes better and doesn’t stick in your teeth.

Tomorrow-I’ll do better.

 If I knew a practical way of sending Okra to North Dakota, just so you could see what it’s like, I would.  But it spoils real easy.

And don’t listen to Ruth about Okra. She’s smart but she’s still a Yankee that way.