Will I Ever Get Good At This?

Wednesday September 10, 2008 Phase Two Day 142:
Wow – very busy day. Today I have my Employee Wellness event and presentation. I woke up and walked with friends first thing. At home, I ate cantaloupe and mixed berries for breakfast. I started cooking as soon as I got home. I made salsa and egg salad. I experimented with the egg salad mixture. I was looking to replace all the saturated fat of mayonnaise. Mayo is 100% fat! I decided to cream some cottage cheese with a hand mixer then stir some in to the boiled eggs. It worked J I made egg mix with eggs, cottage cheese, salt, pepper, mustard and pickles. It is good. I also mixed salsa with creamed cottage cheese to make a sandwich spread. I used it on a turkey sandwich and it was great. At work, I put on the finishing touches then set up the room. It was great fun to talk with people as they came by. I had everyone sample the sandwiches, salsa, granola and fruit I prepared. I did not have time to make smoothies so I will save that for another time. By the time it was over and cleaned up I was tired. I figure I was on my feet for 12 hours straight beginning with my walk.

During the presentation, I would have a piece of granola here and a peach slice there. When I took supplies back to the office around 5:30, Pam was the only one there and still working. I made smoothies for us. It hit the spot. For dinner that night I ate some wheat pasta (it was very good) with home dame spaghetti sauce. I did have a piece of dark chocolate. Sonnet came over after Institute and we had a brisk walk.

Thursday September 11, 2008 Phase Two Day 143:
September 11, I must wear Red, White & Blue today. Gobbled down some mixed berries. Up an out early this morning. Rinez needs a ride to Shannon’s so I pick her up at 6:20. I will hit the pool after I drop her off……Had a very good swim. I also hit the inner and outer thigh machines. Next was my hair appointment. I look beautiful! On the way home I stopped back in at 24 Hour Fitness to ask about a week long pass for my Mom. She loves to swim and lately has not had a good place to swim. I thought I could take her a few times and she if she likes the gym pool.

When I got home I was hungry. I reached for my whole-wheat crackers to eat with my egg & cottage cheese mix. Delicious. I also had a bowl of Special K. Based on the new information about carbs being friends, I checked out the calorie content of my lunch. It was pretty good. The crackers and eggs were about 300 calories. And the cereal was another 250. I used to think you must eat 1000 calories or less to loose weight but now realize that you need much more that that. I think if I eat 1500 – 1800 calories a day, with my present exercise level, I would continue to loose weight and inches. So eating a 550 calorie lunch is not bad.

At noon, I went to Joel Carpenters funeral. So young to die. Number four out of ten children he is preceded in death by two sisters. The service was comforting and faith promoting. I sat by Jami who was very close to them. Now I am back home and think I will take advantage of an afternoon off to read and more importantly fall asleep – yes and nap. This does not happen very often. I think I’ll grab a smoothie from the frig and take it with me upstairs to read.

I met up with Sonnet for weight lift class. Today I added a little weight to step it up a bit. It was a good workout. On the way home we stopped my Mom’s to ask her about swimming and decided to go on Monday after walking. I hope she likes it. At home for dinner I had a bowl of a new kind of Special K. It is wheat, as opposed to rice, flake. Very good. Cereal is a good way to get milk with the needed calcium in me. I also had two crackers with egg mix. Sonnet came by to try it and really liked it. So, I had about 400 calories this evening. We were doing some research and I was wrong about 1500-1800 calories a day for weight loss. It is more like 1200-1500 so that is what I am going to shoot for.

Friday September 12, 2008 Phase Two Day 144:
Well, I got up and out the door to walk with my friends but ended up back at home. The name Walkie-Talkies was affectionately bestowed on our little group of friends by Doug Campbell for good reason. We have been known to meet for walking then end up at my house for hot chocolate. This morning Gaye showed up to say she has a sore back and can’t walk. So naturally in the spirit of compassion and solidarity for our injured sister, we decided to come to the house for hot chocolate and conversation. While they were there, I had them all try my egg mix and give me their opinion. Rinez liked it, Shannon thought it was bland and Gaye agreed. Stephen weighed in the night before with his opinion that it was too vinegar-ie and that he would not be eating it. When he came downstairs and saw us there sampling it he shared with them his objections. Nevertheless, for all his protesting, he still took a piece of bread, covered it with egg mix and headed off to work. Well, I am glad I like it! Shannon said she has tried making tuna with plain yogurt – sounds interesting. I’ll try that soon.

So far this morning I have had sugar free hot chocolate with a little mint cocoa (about 80 calories) and egg mix and crackers (50 calories). I think for breakfast I will have some mixed berries (75 calories).

OK, so yesterday I did have a nap – wonderful. There was just one little problem – I forgot I had boy scouts coming by to work on merit badges!!!! What a goof! I remembered it earlier that day but it went completely out of my mind in the afternoon. Stephen found a note on the door from the boys. I called this morning to apologize and have rescheduled for today. I should have known I did not have time for a nap!

It seemed like I snacked all afternoon. A granola bar here (130), some light chips there (75). I know I had a frozen smoothie at lunch and at 2:00 Phyllis made her banana, strawberry & orange juice smoothies for the whole office. I got home and had a bowl of cereal. My scouts came and finished their merit badge. They really are nice boys and will let me know when they have their eagle court of honor. When they left they handed me a thank you card with $50 Black Angus certificate in it. Wow. I called Stephen and of course we went out to dinner. I had a delicious steak salad and Stephen had prime rib.
Tonight we watched ‘Bucket List’ – we loved it. What a good, thought provoking movie. Made us cry. I had one hot chocolate while watching.

Saturday September 13, 2008 Phase Two Day 145:
Stephen is up and out on a bike ride this morning. I slept in a little but now am off to my office to copy the flyers for our stake fall social. I like to put them out at stake conference because it is the best way to reach the most people. For breakfast, I had a bowl of wheat Special K. I added mixed berries to it.

What a great day I have had. I copied my flyers then went to my appointment at Toyota to have an estimate for the damage from the rear-ending we had last week. I knew it would take a few hours so I took my book with me. How heavenly. I sat on a bench in the shade and read, read, read. It was wonderful to have that much, uninterrupted time to enjoy a book. After the car appointment, I stopped in at the gym to swim. I had a hard workout. Before I went in the pool, I did the inner and outer thigh machines again. I was sore so I know I worked the mussels. I came home and Stephen was on the computer doing homework. I got my book out again and sat in the rocker by the computer to read some more. When it was time for the leadership session of conference I took Steph and went on to the store, came home and put the groceries away then took the car to the stake center and walked home. I made chicken and veggies teriyaki style for dinner. It turned out very tasty.

Conference was wonderful and very meaningful to me. Now we are off to the Campbell’s for homemade ice cream, yummmmmm. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed everyone’s ice cream. Gaye brought her peppermint and Rinez made root beer ice cream. Both were very good. There were two rocky road store bought offerings, one regular & I brought Albertsons brand ‘light’. I was very pleased with the light rocky road. It is creamy and flavorful. I must admit (I say must only because some people who read this were there) I also had some Oreo’s. What a sugar and fat- I mean friendship and fun filled evening.

Sunday September 14, 2008 Phase Two Day 146:
Today is Stake Conference. We had such a nice session last night I was really looking forward to more this morning. Stephen was able to sleep in until 7:30, which is fabulous for him. He got up and fixed bacon and eggs for himself. When I came downstairs, he had saved two pieces of bacon for me. I ate them then had some protein Special K.

We both sang in the choir and enjoyed conference. President Russell gave some very good insight on the protection of marriage initiative, Prop 8. I am going to email and ask for a transcript just to help me with my discussions at work. Paula Dahl gave a rousing talk on marriage and family. Our visiting authority, Elder Trythall, said she did not need a microphone and he was right. She said the problem is when she gets excited she gets loud.

Cindy Moyes invited us over after so we went to eat with her. I had a small portion of her potato, meat & green bean casserole. I also had some salad, bread and watermelon. She served a small cup of ice cream and hot fudge for dessert. Now, as if that was not bad enough…when I came home, Stephen went straight in to take a nap. And what about me you ask? Well, no Sunday nap for me…I went to the kitchen. I can say it started off with good intentions. I went to the kitchen to make some soup for later. Stephen & I had talked about a big pot of cabbage soup so I went to the kitchen to start one. I took some sausage out of the freezer. I reached for the head of cabbage and saw it was a partial head – no worries, I have a bag of cabbage shreds I can add. I went to get the celery and found only a third of what I needed. I checked the onions and found only old rotting red ones – they will never do. So, in short, I did not have the ingredients to make a yummy cabbage soup. With that realization, there was only one thing to do. Nibble. And so it began. I started with a bowl of ice cream left over from last night rationalizing that after all it was ‘light’ rocky road. Once that finished, I moved on to a handful of almonds snatched from their can when I opened that cupboard to check for popcorn. Moving to the other side of the kitchen, I opened the bag of ‘reduced fat’ chips and had a few. Putting back the bag of chips, I noticed they shared a basket with the bread. Say, wouldn’t a peanut butter and jelly sandwich taste good right about now? Why yes, I think it would! I was right – it tasted soooooo good. I am happy to report that I am over my little binge and will be good again. I guess it is appropriate I will be going swimming with my Mom tomorrow morning.

I have an observation in all this – in fact I have noticed it over the months each time I over indulge: I feel pressure and a little uncomfortable in the middle of my upper back. Months ago, I was having a lot of pain there and had several test checking my gall bladder. The symptoms were so similar to gall bladder problems. The tests came back that I was fine and that my gall bladder functioned well. Two of my friends said they had the same problems and the tests did not show anything wrong with theirs either, however, they both had their gall bladders removed and have not been bothered by the pain any longer. I don’t know - it probably is my gall bladder but since I have improved my fat intake and reduced portions in general (well except for nights like last night), I am not having the pain like I used to. As I say, it is only when I overindulge. I felt it mildly last night, then felt great this morning, and now after the ice cream and peanut butter sandwich I feel it again now. I will keep watch.

Monday September 15, 2008 Phase Two Day 147:
I sure had a rotten couple of days as far as controlled eating goes. It is really shame too, because a few days last week I was stepping on the scale at 144 pounds. That is a little drop from where I was. I do not have a lot of confidence in that type of results when I weigh in tomorrow though. The trick is slow and steady and I am afraid with me it is slow and erratic!

Went walking with friends this morning then back home to change to my swimming suit. I ate a granola bar as I drove over to pick up my Mom. We went swimming and she liked the facility. I had a good swim. Mom swam a few laps but mostly water walked. She loved it. We are going again on Wednesday morning. On Wednesday we reserved lanes at 8:30. There is a senior’s water workout class at 9:00 so we can check it out when we are done. I think she will join. This might mean I will need to commit a few times a week to go with her at least for a while.

When I came home, I ate some strawberries and cottage cheese. I got ready and went in to work. I did not take a lunch because I was not planning to stay that long. From my desk I ate a few almonds, from the break room I had a few ‘light’ chips that were leftover form the Employee Wellness day. I also ate a leftover diced peach cup. Today is picture day for the district but after it was taken, I went to buy a few things at the store then home to make soup. Yum… it smells good simmering on the stove. I was hungry, so during cooking I ate an egg salad sandwich, a peach smoothie and two miniature York peppermint patties. Hummmmm…where did those come from? Well, they might have been purchased when I stopped on my way home from the Black Angus last Friday night to gas up the car. It could have been, that I ate four of the six mini’s on my way home and stashed the other two for later. Oh, did I forget to mention that in Friday’s entry? How carless of me.

Tonight Stephen & I had some soup. Boy, it is delicious. I never know how my meals are going to turn out but this time I did good! I had some with crackers. The only draw back was is that it was hot. I wanted something cool when I was finished so I had a bowl of Cheerios. We are finished and it is only 6:00. I like being finished with dinner relatively early. Tomorrow I will get back to step class. I need to burn calories and use the inner & outer thigh machines.

Tuesday September 16, 2008 Phase Two Day 148:
I have good news and I have bad news. Now, I always like to hear the bad news first so I can end up with good news so here goes. I showed up this morning at the gym at 5:30 and no step class. Larry had canceled it. Had I gone last week I would have know that but I didin’t so I had an unnecessary get-up. I left. The good news is I weighed 145.25 this morning. That’s my lowest so far. Sonnet stopped by this AM on her way to work to weigh and she is down 1.5 pounds also. We will see how that computes to inches when we measure this afternoon. Right now, I am having a breakfast of cantaloupe and blueberries. I have already filled a container of soup and another of strawberries for lunch at the office. Should be a pretty long day as I have over 100 immunization exclusions to mail out.

I will meet Sonnet for weight lift class at 4:30 then home to measure. Nothing much on the agenda for this evening. Maybe I will stop by the fabric store and look at baby christening gown patterns. I need to make one boy and one girl blessing outfits by November 1st……...OK, so now I am home and I do not have good news! Lets start with lunch. The soup never made it out of the house. I packed it along with the strawberries but when it came time to leave I did not want it. I wanted a salad from Zorba’s. That doesn’t sound so bad and would not have been that bad if I had stopped there. Bottom line – I had two, count them, two bowls of ice cream at work after I finished the salad. I actually left the break room after my salad and went to my desk, but then I went back and finished off the Tin Roof Sunday in the break room freezer from some party months ago. I know no one else will touch it (lucky for me) so I scooped it out and poured chocolate and caramel sauce on top, oh yea, toppings too. I took it back to my desk to eat. A little while after it was finished I went back and finished the vanilla, of course I topped it also. What is going on with me? Now I am home and need to change to run to weight class and all I can think about is having some cereal. I am so glad there is no time!!! The only thing I can think of is that perhaps I am about to start my period. I always get ravenous before my period. Time will tell.

I am feeling better about life now. I had a really good workout including the inner & outer thigh machines. Sonnet & I did the machines before we left. We just finished measuring and we both are another half inch down. Stephen is off to meetings and we are having soup for dinner…..Finally I did something right today. I had a bowl of soup and then I ate one frozen smoothie. That’s it! No cereal, no granola bar, no popcorn. Just soup and smoothie. Good for me. Cheyenne came over later and had a bowl of soup too. She’s a doll.