What a difference a day makes

Wednesday January 7, 2009 Phase Two Day 262:
What a difference a day makes. I feel great! Got up and walked with friends – we were all there! Ate a nectarine before and cereal after. I have packed tuna and an apple for lunch as well as a granola bar for snack. I have decided to email everyone at work to say I will provide lunch on Friday. I am doing this because, as most people that work in a office know, at Christmas everyone leaves a little something on everyone’s desk sometime during the month. It is traditional office gift giving. Well, this year in all my madness I did not leave anything. I left for Utah three day before school was out and even missed the district party. I would like to bring in lunch as a late gift. I think I will make a pot of potato soup. This time with fat free half&half. I’ll go heavier on the onions, celery & peas and a little lighter on the potatoes.

Mom & I could not get swimming lanes this morning so we will go this afternoon. I am looking forward to getting in the water again. For dinner we will have more cabbage soup. It is really good this time. I am such an inconsistent cook – things do not turn out the same twice. Well, this batch of soup is wonderful. I took left over roast and pan drippings, onion, veggie broth stewed tomatoes, a head of cabbage, water and a package of Italian dressing mix. I added some garlic and onion salt and Voila! Yummy! It is nice because I still have some pinto beans from a few day ago when I tried my hand at beans & ham hock (that’s another story), and Stephen & I both put a couple spoonfuls of beans into our soup and that was proved to be a great addition as well.

So, Mom called to say that her senior citizen singing group, The Golden-Airs, would be resuming rehearsals today meaning she could not swim at 3:00. Oh well, it will keep until Monday. Meanwhile Sonnet came by for a power walk so we headed out and got a good workout. At home we had our soup and now I am off to bed. Another good day.

Thursday January 8, 2009 Phase Two Day 263:
Ate a small nectarine then got up and out to walk with friends. Movie day was today so after a bowl of cereal I hurried into work. At noon I left to come home and get ready for Movie day at my house. I served leftover cabbage soup and beans. They were a hit. Rinez brought the best homemade rolls. She used the Lion House recipe and I ate way too many. Jami brought a frozen fruit smoothie mix, M&M’s and popcorn. I ate some of each. So I guess you could say I blew it today. Eating most of the afternoon, I was full when Stephen came home so I did not have anything for dinner. My brother Mike called to say Mom was on the phone with cousin Darla and it sounded like Aunt Meda was not doing very well. I went to their apartment to find out the scoop. Of course I had a bowl of peppermint ice cream with hot fudge.

No worries. Tomorrow morning will surely come & I will be up and out the door walking with friends. I will have cereal for breakfast and be just fine.

Friday January 9, 2009 Phase Two Day 264:
Yes maam, I was up and out to walk. We had a long walk at a quick pace this morning – very good. I had a small nectarine when I got home. Now I am getting ready for work and will eat cereal before I leave. Today is the day I am making lunch for the office as a Christmas thank you. I have a cake made but I am taking the makings for the soup and will put it together there.

OK, so I am in the office kitchen cooking the bacon for the soup. It is filling the entire office with delicious aroma. But as those of you who have cooked large amounts of bacon know, every so often you must drain off some of the grease or you will end up with a large amount of grease that will burn and smoke. You guessed it. I did not drain off soon enough and the smoke set off the fire alarm. The piercing beep was loud and obnoxious for a good three or four minutes. I opened the back door and began fanning the air. The stove top vent was already running so no help there. Coworkers came down the hall to check out the commotion and help air the room. One of the techies called the maintenance operator to make sure the fire department had not dispatched a unit. Oh yea – it is always a good time when Susan is cooking. We all had a good laugh and now the entire office knows what my family has known for years – I have no business in the kitchen. The good news is that the soup turned out better than ever and was enjoyed by all. The cake was superb. On the way home I stopped by Gaye’s to drop off leftover soup and cake. Stephen said he did not want a bunch of leftovers so I only brought home enough for tonight. Sonnet came over and we all had a bowl and roll. Yummy.

Saturday January 10, 2009 Phase Two Day 265:
What a great day but kind of challenging as far as eating right goes. Great because Stephen & I did not have one single responsibility to anyone but ourselves today. We got up and ate then began work on the closet. Stephen is building me a walk in closet. It involves some work in the attic, building an overflow and reconstructing Blake’s room as we claim some of his space for the new closet. It is quite a job, but very fun to work on together. I ate cereal to get started. By noon we were hungry so I fixed a good tuna mix. He had a sandwich and I had tuna on my wheat crackers. We worked on through the afternoon. Mostly he was constructing all day while I did laundry and worked on a quilt I am designing for Tiffany’s new baby. Also, for a time I was crawling around in the attic and managed to finish putting in the attic insulation. The project is coming right along.

Last Monday, when I stopped the holiday food insanity, I felt fine and found it quite refreshing to eat smart. Thursday, when I blew it on movie day with the Walkie Talkies followed by Friday with large amounts of potato soup accompanied by indecent quantities of rolls - oh, I don't think I mentioned the triple layer German Chocolate cake I made for the office. Just to be sociable I did have a piece or two. Well anyway with those two day of mania, it really threw me off. Today in the afternoon I started to get the munchies. I chose to have a cup of hot chocolate and that helped. Later we had dinner. I decided earlier that I would have cereal for dinner. I love it that I am very satisfied with my cereal as a meal. I wanted to have a light day and with some discipline I got threw it. No real exercise - just up and down the stairs or on my feet all day.

Sunday January 11, 2009 Phase Two Day 266:
Welcome Sunday. I slept deeply and awoke refreshed. I ate cereal before leaving for choir. The choir sang beautifully today. Everyone says they can’t believe that sound comes out of only seven people. Personally I think heaven helps. Back at home I ate a granola bar and cup of hot chocolate. (Whenever I say hot chocolate it is of course sugar free) Stephen called to let me know he was on his way home so I threw some of my leftover beans into a pot to heat up and fired up two small steaks. To round out the plate I made a salad. I had a few boiled eggs so I threw them on top of the salad but saved a couple back and made deviled eggs as well. It was a very filling dinner.

Stephen has gone to lie down. We are expecting a web cam call from Thad and family at 5:00. Tonight I will have a bowl of cereal.

Monday January 12, 2009 Phase Two Day 267:
Walked with friends this morning. Mom & I had lane reservations at the pool but she called and sounded horrible. She is sick so we canceled the pool for today. Now I am headed down for cereal. I think I will pack tuna and crackers with an apple for lunch at the office. Maybe a granola bar for a snack…..Well, I ended up buying a chicken salad from Zorba’s for lunch but I did have the granola bar mid morning.

It is 2:30 now and I am so full. I’m putting on a roast with potatoes for Stephen but I will have cereal tonight. Sonnet is coming over this evening to power walk – yea.

Tuesday January 13, 2009 Phase Two Day 268:
I started my day off right by attending my step class and a bowl of cereal. Sonnet came over and we weighed in. We were both down – Yea.

Today I traveled to Visalia to lunch with a business friend. We ate at a wonderful little bistro in old downtown. I ordered the steak salad which was wonderful! I did have a piece of bread with my salad even though I shouldn’t have. And speaking of shouldn’t haves, we ordered dessert. I was treating so I felt I should at least offer dessert and lets be honest – I wanted to get something. I had a brownie with ice cream. I could have lived with that but it gets worse. Following lunch I went on to Fresno and visited with Blake. I ended up staying until Sara came home which meant I ate dinner with them. Blake surprised me by bringing home chicken sandwiches from Burger King when he went out to pick up Sara from work. Not what I usually have but appreciated none the less. They also had some cookie dough after the sandwiches. Very good tasting – a chocolate chip recipe with oatmeal, yum. Loved the visit but my eating was deliciously terrible.