Day 36

Having a good time with this "diet" I'm on.  It hardly feels like a diet when I'm eating yummy food all day long, I'm never hungry, and I'm actually losing weight.  Usually on a diet, I'm starving, I'm cranky, and I barely lose a pound.  Today I went to Panera bread to meet a classmate and get some work done.  I got a bagel with fat free cream cheese.  I ate 1/2 of the top 1/2 of the bagel and I was full!  Stuffed to the gills, actually.  I go back to school on Wednesday, and I'm hoping that I'll go back to class at 20 pounds weight loss, and I'm almost there...19 pounds in 36 days!  Can you believe it?  I can't.  A funny thing about losing 19 pounds...my panties keep sliding down, they're so loose on me.

So many things about this are so very cool!  I walk a mile each day now, and it's not a struggle!  We walk around the park twice each night, and I want to start walking into each culdesac in the neighborhood too!  I'm going to take my car tomorrow and drive around each one to see how far it would be to go into each one.  I'll also check that plus going around the park twice to see if we need to start with one and then add the 2nd one.

I only wish my allergies weren't so horrid this time of year and that the wind wasn't quite so brisk.  Oh well!

April Fool's Day!

No fooling, I lost 14 pounds in March!  I'm so excited about the weight loss, but I'm more excited about how good I feel.  I don't feel hungry.  I don't feel like I'm depriving myself.  I don't feel like I'm missing something.  I feel good.  I feel as if I can maintain this.  I feel ready to face April and see where I am at the end of the month!

Day 29

Well, I've not been that good about posting all of my food, but I'm still on track.  I got out the scale yesterday, and I've lost a total of 10 pounds!  I'm so excited!  It's so nice to know that my efforts are working.  Yesterday we also had a health scare for Billy.  He woke me up at 5:50 with chest pains.  Well, his mom and dad both passed away from heart issues, so we went to the hospital.  I was exhausted and worried, so I got a coke.  The first sip tasted heavenly!  But honestly, after that 1st sip it just wasn't exciting.  I kept thinking that it tasted bad and I wished I had gotten water.  Thankfully, Billy was ok, just a pulled cartilage in his ribs.  The doctor said it would hurt, but it's harmless.

We tried a new dish tonight.  I fixed spaghetti squash!  It was good, but a little bland.  Next time we've got to try it with more seasonings and added flavor.

We've also decided that we're going to walk on Saturday for the Easter Seals.  It's a 2 mile walk.  To prepare, we've been walking around the neighborhood 2 times on our evening walks.  It's so good to know that we're getting better at this.

Day 23

Well, we're back from our road trip and funeral.  The weather was beautiful, the beach amazing, the family great, and the funeral sad.  The diet I've been working with such dedication simply wasn't conducive to a 1200 mile road trip, so I took a little break from it.  And I'm SO glad I did.  We ate in 5-star restaurants, and I would have just cried if I couldn't have enjoyed the very delicious foods they made.  According to the scale, I weigh 279.6 pounds, so I didn't gain any of the weight I lost back, but tomorrow's a new day and it's back on the diet.

Oh, and if you ever get to Santa Cruz, the Dream Inn was right on the beach and very dreamy!

Day 14

I haven't blogged in a while because things kind of went sideways for a while.  My allergies kicked in...in a major way!  I couldn't breathe, I felt horrible.  Billy's best friend was hospitalized for being suicidal and we were worried about him.  Just as I was getting better, we got some bad news.  My mother-in-law, Rita, committed suicide.  It's been horrible and we're all reeling from the news. 

I've done well on the diet, with the exception of 3 days.  One day I had a tiny slice of pizza and 2 bites of apple pie.  When I was really sick, I had 2 slices of pizza, and yesterday, Billy wanted pizza again.  Since it was his mom, I agreed and forced myself to eat more pizza.

Exercise has been another issue.  The night we found out about Rita, there was no way, we were constantly on the phone with family, the next night, Billy went to the hospital to visit his friend.  I'm not comfortable taking the kids for a walk by myself when it's pitch black out.  Hopefully with daylight savings time, we'll be able to walk better in the evenings.

Today I ate:
almonds for breakfast
chicken and veggies for lunch
more chicken and veggies for dinner.

Days 8 & 9

Well, I forgot to post yesterday, so I'll just post for both days today.  Yesterday I went to the store and got a few more goodies to try.  I got feta cheese which was delish!  It tasted kind of like Parmesan cheese, but more moist.  I also got Wasa crackers.  They're low carb, but really high in fiber and they have a great crunch when I need that.

Today was also a fundraiser for school, so we went to dinner at Sammy's Wood-fired Pizza.  I just love their pizzas, and I had a tiny slice of a Hawaiian pizza, really dry chicken, grilled asparagus (totally yum), and 2 bites of an apple pie.  We had fun their with almost 1/2 the class and raised some money for student government.

So...today I ate:
4 3" celery stalks with 1 tsp cashew butter
1/2 small bell pepper with fat free cream cheese
3 oz extra lean ground beef with tons of veggies mixed in
2 cup salad with 1 tbsp vinaigrette 
1 chicken breast from Sammy's Wood-fired Pizza
4 stalks roasted asparagus
1 small slice of Hawaiian pizza
2 bites apple pie

today I exercised:
I walked with Billy and the dogs.

yesterday I ate:
1 cup bell peppers and celery stalks
1 tsp cashew butter
1 tsp fat free cream cheese
3 oz extra lean ground beef with tons of veggies mixed in
2 cups salad with 1 tbsp vinaigrette and a tbsp feta cheese
1 Wasa cracker with fat free cream cheese
2 cups salad
1 cup ground turkey with taco seasoning and onions mixed in
1 tbsp salsa

yesterday I exercised:
I walked with Billy and the dogs in the RAIN!  How's that for dedication?

Tonight's Recipe for Chicken in a Basalmic Vinegar Sauce

Ok, I'm really loving the veggies lately, so tonight I made chicken in a balsamic vinegar sauce with TONS of veggies.  It was really easy.

preheat the oven to 350
chicken breasts (enough to feed the family)
1 cup balsamic vinegar
3 cups chicken stock
1 red bell pepper, chopped small
1 onion, chopped small, I used purple...so pretty
2 celery stalks, chopped small
1/2 zucchini, chopped small
8 cloves garlic, chopped small
handful of frozen sliced shitaki mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil

I put the olive oil in a pan and heated it up; add chicken breasts, and brown on each side, set aside in a baking dish; add all of the veggies into the pan and saute them until they're mostly cooked; pour veggies over chicken in baking dish; in the pan, add the balsamic vinegar and chicken stock, simmer until it reduces; pour reduced sauce over chicken and veggies, cover with foil and bake until a meat thermometer reads 160

It was so very yummy!  Billy poured some of the veggies and sauce over his mashed potatoes and just LOVED IT.  Even the 4 year old was asking for 3rds!