STILL LOW-CARBING

This has been a different weight loss journey for me.  It's very slow going.  I'm down about 10 pounds from when I posted in August.  I am amazed that I'm not really tempted to go off of this diet.  I never crave anything anymore.  Actually I don't think about food much other than to figure out what I'm going to have for meals.  I'm not perfect.  I still occasionally splurge and have something that is full of carbs.  For me this has been the easiest diet I've ever tried and I never would have believed that I could go no sugar/no bread/no starchy veggies for this long.  Well, not exactly none of those, but very limited amounts.  But it has been my goal each day to eat the least amount of those things that I can without depriving myself of something that I truly want to eat.
I've had to  break down and buy some new clothes.  The only clothes that are still in my "skinny" closet are summer clothes so I won't be wearing those this winter even if I lose a little more weight.  I have even given away some clothes that were in that closet.  Not because they were too large.  I could still wear them, but I've aged since I bought them and just didn't think I'd ever wear them.
My goal is to not ever stop eating this way.  Hopefully that will keep the weight off and I won't have to try to lose again.  Maybe I'll set one day a week to have those splurges but keep my carbs low the rest of the days. 
I'm still lifting hand weights but have stayed at the 12 lb weights since that it actually over the suggested limit for my age range.  I haven't been on my treadmill lately either.  I know I should, but I've just not been motivated to do it.

CHANGES AT THE CABIN

From the beginning, we've talked about enclosing our screened in porch so that we could use it year round.  Randy has made several trips over to the cabin the past few weeks to finally make this a reality.  Here are a few pictures of the work he's done.

Took out the back wall.

Replaced the back wall with windows!

 

Back from outside.

 

Side wall with framing in for one of the four windows.

 Knocking out more of the side wall.

From the front.  I can't believe I forgot to take a picture with the siding on it.  Oh well, will get that this weekend!!

MY WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY CONTINUES

I'd love to say that I've lost a lot of weight, but that's not the case.  I have lost some.  But more importantly I've had more energy and felt better than I have in years.  Losing weight for me this time is not a race to see how quickly I can get there.  Actually I haven't decided on where I want to get to.  I'm just taking it a day at a time and hoping it will be a life style change that I can stay on forever.  I've dropped a size.  Actually it's closer to 2 because my jeans had gotten pretty tight.  Every week or so I go back into my "skinny" closet and take out some smaller clothes and try them on.  It's been great to have some of those clothes that I haven't worn in 9 years to fit again!  I've also had a couple of dresses that still had the tags on them that I can wear now.  My sister-in-law said that it's fun to go shopping in your own closet and I agree!! 

I'm still lifting my hand weights 3 times a week.  I've gone from the 3lb weights to 5 lb to 8 lb to 10 lb to 12 lbs.  I feel pretty good about that.  I'm still only walking a mile most days.  I know I could walk more but I just don't want to invest the time knowing that I'd have to keep it up for years and know that I won't, because I didn't when I lost weight before and was walking 4 miles.  

I went this week and had my blood drawn at the doctors office for my yearly checkup.  When the doctor looked at the results he was amazed!  My numbers have always been within the normal range but they were even better this time.  I can't remember the numbers (I should have gotten a copy of the labs and maybe I'll go back later to get them).  His printout showed my results in the left hand column, the good range in the right hand column and notes in the middle where you veer off from where they want you to be.  I only had a notation and it was on cholesterol and it was LOW, and he said that was VERY good!  I'm below where they want a person who has already had a heart attack to get down to.  At the bottom it gave an indicator of your chances of having a cardiac event.  My number was only 1.6 .  I think the doctor was very surprised with the results but after all that I've read about the low carb diet I was hopeful that would be the result.

READY FOR GUESTS

Back in 1997 we purchased a double bed for the bedroom that our exchange student had been occupying for 9 months.  We replaced a twin bed with the double because her parents were coming for a visit from Denmark.  The room is rather small so we never thought about getting a larger bed.  The bed has served us well for 17 years.  After sleeping in a double bed at my parent's house when we visited, I know that it's not the most comfortable after having a queen at home.  We always managed with that so we didn't worry about it when the kids came to visit.  Recently we've had some other guests come to stay with us and we just felt like the bed wasn't very comfortable for others of our generation.  You know when you're younger, you can adapt a little better to inconvenient circumstances.  We had to give up a little floor space but decided it would be better to have more space in the bed rather than space next to the bed.  It is a little tight if you get in on the side next to the wall, but really, how much time will that be?  Hopefully, we'll have lots of guests come and stay in our guest room over the coming years!  And it will be a nice change for our kids when they come to visit.

TODAY ISN'T SATURDAY?

Today started out like any normal Thursday.  We got up, showered, had breakfast and were ready for the day.  What normally happens is my "handyman" takes off to work somewhere else.  The past few weeks it's been for Habitat for Humanity.  But today....he didn't leave!!  He actually stayed home and worked on a few projects around here!  We bought a queen size mattress to replace the double in the guest room and he had to adapt the frame to fit the larger mattress since I wanted to keep the headboard/footboard.  He had been working on it for a while, but got it finished today.  My garage floor has been emptied of all the leftover junk from projects.  Now this will be short lived as tomorrow a friend is returning a table and 4 chairs they had borrowed while their furniture is in storage in Illinois while they build a new house here.  Handyman has also ordered windows for the porch at the cabin that will be in next week and those will be stored in my garage.  Some door facings on the workshop and storage building and a birdhouse had been in dire need of paint, so they each got one coat.  My fountain had been running low again so he fixed that.  Not sure if that's all he accomplished but he worked around here most of the day. 
I normally don't get much out of him during the week, so it really did mess with my mind.  All day I've thought it was Saturday since he was here working and not out working for  someone else.
I guess this is what retirement could look like if he stayed home all the time.....not!!  I couldn't keep him this busy all of the time so I guess it's good that he has his projects away from home.
Now, when is Saturday?

BEGINNING THIS WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY AGAIN !!!!! Low Carb NOT Low Fat

I could not tell you how many times that I have started on a diet.  However, I can tell you how many times I had real success….twice.  Once when I was in high school I lost 30 pounds in 3 months.  I ate a hamburger patty for breakfast (my mother was concerned that I was not getting enough protein so she faithfully fried that hamburger for me every morning), for lunch I ate whatever was on the plate lunch menu at school.  At that time we had meat, veggies, and dessert (no pizzas back then).  For supper I alternated between a salad and yogurt.  Of course when you’re 16 it doesn’t take quite as much effort to take off a few pounds.  The second time was the year I would turn 50 in November.  I started on January 1 and my original goal was to lose 50 pounds before my birthday.  I surpassed my goal and went on to lose 70 pounds in about 15 months.  I followed a plan that was your basic food pyramid with more grains, which I rarely got all down, small portions of meat, lots of veggies, and dairy.  Along with the eating plan I did small hand weights 2-3 times per week and started walking….miles and miles and miles.  At first 1 mile was difficult on a trail at the park which had a couple of decent hills.  Little by little I would add a mile and got to where I could go 4 miles in under an hour.  I was mowing my mother’s yard and at times ours also.  Randy was working in Glasgow at that time so I had more time to myself.  I’m not sure that I would have dedicated that much time to walking if he had been here at home waiting for me. 

I can honestly say that not a week has gone by since I lost that weight that I haven’t tried to be careful with what I ate.  But without all of the walking I’ve managed to put back on a good portion of what I lost.  I was not able to maintain that level of exercise even though I purchased an expensive treadmill that doesn’t trip up me up like some of the cheaper ones did.  I’ve also had a recumbent bike that I rode for a while, but I just never could keep at it. 

We were going to the cabin for Memorial Day and I was looking at Amazon to find some books that I might like to read while were there.   I ran across a new book….The Big Fat Surprise.  I read lots of the reviews on this book and found that it was not a diet book so to speak, but it was the science behind why the low-fat diet approach, which we’ve all bought into, doesn’t work and low carb does work.  I went to the website http://www.thebigfatsurprise.com/ and began reading some reviews.  I read one by Dr. Michael Eades and found that he had written a book, Protein Power, which agreed that the right kind of fat was not a bad thing.  I purchased that book to read on my Kindle because I couldn’t wait for a copy to be delivered and they didn’t have it here in town at Barnes & Noble.  I’m afraid that I did a lot of skimming because all I really wanted to know was what I could eat on this diet.  I must go back and reread it!

Since it was a holiday weekend I decided that I wouldn’t worry about the diet until Tuesday when we got home, so I enjoyed Klondike bars, Hershey’s miniatures and some homemade chocolate chip cookies.  But first thing Tuesday morning I hit the floor and dove right in.

A low carb diet includes plenty of protein in average proportions, not unlimited as we were lead to believe with Adkins.  Most vegetables are included also.  Starchy veggies such as potatoes and corn should be eaten in very limited proportions.  For me, I might eat ¼ potato or 2 small bites of corn.  Plenty of non-starchy veggies,  Greek Yogurt is a good way to get dairy in since most of the carbs are strained out of it.  Fruits do have carbs but in varying amounts.   Grapes, raisins and bananas are much higher in carbs than berries.  Nuts & cheese are good for snacking and adding a little of a higher carb, sweeter, food with them can make for a delicious snack. 

Breakfast hasn’t been hard at all.  For most of the 41+ years we’ve been married I have gotten up and fixed bacon, eggs & toast.  I still that do that for my hubby, but I stopped eating the toast because of the carbs.  Now I eat 1 scrambled egg and 2 slices of bacon plus just a sip of orange juice to get my multivitamin & potassium down.  I don’t know about you, but our breakfasts and lunches have always been pretty monotonous so having the same thing Mon-Fri has not been a problem.  The weekends are a little harder because we did vary them with pancakes & waffles and sausage & biscuits.  I usually fix sausage to go with my eggs on the weekends and continue to fix Randy a pancake to have on Sunday mornings. 

My normal lunch for the past 12 years has pretty much stayed the same….low fat, artificially sweetened yogurt and a small ham sandwich (either ½ a sandwich, ½ whole wheat hoagie bun, or a slider bun) with just a touch of Miracle Whip and a diet coke.  Earlier this year I changed over to Greek yogurt, but I didn’t care for the $1 a day it cost so I bought myself a yogurt maker and started making my own.  I read a lot about the differences in low fat and whole milk yogurt and sugar vs. artificial sweeteners.  I tried making it with skim, 2% and whole milk and couldn’t make up my mind until I stated this diet which I wanted to stick with.  Now I make it with whole milk and I’ve been cutting back on the sugar each week, hoping to eventually not use any at all.  Presently I put 1/8 cup sugar in each batch so when you spread that out over 7 days, I don’t think it’s too bad.  A batch makes approximately 4 cups.  I have ½ cup each day blended with 3-4 strawberries.  This leaves ½ cup to inoculate the next batch of yogurt.  I’ve also been eating some hard cheese, a hamburger patty,  1 or 2 hot dogs(which I’m not sure are good for me so I’m backing off on them if I can find something else), a couple of slices ham or turkey for more protein.  I take another potassium tablet at lunch.  I’ve also cut out the Diet Coke.  I drink water…lots of water!

I bought an insulated mug at WalMart that keeps liquids cold 10 hours or hot 4 hours.  I take it with me wherever I go filled with ice and water.  When I’m shopping I can leave it in the car and it’s still cold when I get back.  No more worries with water bottles that have BPAs in them.  I keep it filled all day and other than my coffee in the morning, that’s what I drink. I don’t keep a count, but I’d say I probably fill it 8 times a day.   I’ll occasionally opt for a Diet Coke if I’m in a restaurant, but that’s very rarely. 

Speaking of restaurants, we’ve been eating out once or twice a week.  It’s not too hard to stay on this diet when eating out….just order a meat entrée and a salad.  I’ve been allowing myself 1 treat day each week.  This has been happening on Sundays when we eat out after church.  One week was at Mariah’s.  They have wonderful rolls.  I can usually down 2 or 3 of them, but I limited myself to 1.  I had their California chicken salad and fresh fruit.  It came with a cinnamon muffin, which I also ate.  It was a treat, but then I was right back on track.  This past Sunday we went to Buckhead and I had their salad that came with fried chicken fingers (breaded..yea!) and a hard roll.  That evening we went to DQ and got Blizzards (mine was small).  Then back on track the next morning.  Giving myself permission to go off of the diet one meal each week has really worked well for me.  I look forward to it and know that I can still have some of the things I really enjoy that aren’t included on the diet.  I had lasagna at Brick & Basil with a breadstick (only problem was that I was full by the time I finished half of it.  I also had some cake that our daughter, Kristy, baked and our granddaughter, Kate decorated for us --- Mother’s Day and Father’s Day combined. Yummy!!

 I had a very small piece of wedding cake when some friends married.  I also ate broccoli, nuts, cheese and meatballs (which are all good on a low carb diet) at the reception.  They had water with fresh lemon so I drank that instead of the sweet punch.   I’m trying to make mostly good choices.  I read somewhere that you needed to stay on track 90% of the time, but could go off 10% of the time.  Those ratios sound reasonable to me!

Suppers have taken more effort to prepare, trying to keep mine within my diet but having extras for Randy since he has no problem with carbohydrates.  I always have meat…pork chops, beef roast, salmon, shrimp scampi, baked chicken, hamburgers, grilled chicken, grilled streak, etc.  I eat a lot of salads….endive lettuce with tomatoes, onions, cucumber, avocado, cheese, bacon bits.  I’ve changed my salad dressing from 1000 Island, which is sweet, to Blue Cheese which is not sweet and has fewer carbs per serving.  The past couple of nights I’ve given Randy a Sister Shubert Roll.  It’s nice that you bake just 1 or 2 at a time.  It is hard trying to vary the veggies to get a variety.  We’ve had squash, green beans, broccoli, brussell sprouts, asparagus. I was shocked at how many carbs baked beans had.  They will not be on my menu for a while!

Exercise:  I’ve gone back to my hand weights 2-3 days a week and along with gardening and lawn mowing I’ve been walking 1 mile on the treadmill or occasionally walking at the park.

As of today, I have been following the plan for 4 weeks.  I can honestly say that I have never been hungry.  After about 4 days I was bursting with a new found energy and just could not sit still for a few days.  That feeling didn’t last, but I do have more energy than I had before.  I’ve worked in the garden, mowed the grass, cleaned out closets.  My scales weren’t working correctly when I started, so I don’t have numbers to backup that the plan is working, but my clothes are fitting better so I’ll take that over numbers any day.

It will be interesting to see how my blood work turns out this fall.  My cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, sugar have all been within normal ranges.  My blood pressure has been borderline for a few years so hopefully it will improve now.

So basically I've cut out or way down on white food....sugar, flour,  potatoes, trying to get more veggies.  I'm hoping that this is not going to be just a diet, but a permanent way of life for me.  If I reach my goal, I'll be able to have a few more days that I get to eat carbs, but it won't be everyday.  I think I have to say....I am a CARBOHYDRATE ADDICT and will always have to watch how many carbs I eat.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

We spent several hours with the grands yesterday and took them some candy for Valentines Day.   It's always fun to get to spend some time with them.  Here are just a few pictures from our visit.

Paw Paw seemed to be the center of attention yesterday as he ended up with everyone on his lap! 

Little Miss Ellie wasn't too sure about being there and had to be rescued from the chaos!!

 But then she went back and was happy again!

Katie took this picture of her mama, Ellie, and her Paw Paw's feet!!

I was asked to make Valentine cookies to take to church on Sunday morning, so here are my go-to Valentines cookies along with the heart basket I'm going to put them in.

 

Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!!

SLEEP TIGHT NATE

I was blessed with two daughters, then two granddaughters.  I had no trouble buying little trinkets and fancy princess things for the girls.  Then I was blessed with a grandson.  I love him the same as the girls but I have a harder time trying to find little things to buy for him.  I'm also not good at buying little boy clothes.  I'm partial to the frilly, cute girl clothes.  Sorry, Nate.  I hope you know that it doesn't mean I love you less 'cause that's surely not the case. 
A few years back we fixed up one of our bedrooms for the girls.  I got them princess sheets with princess pillowcases.  At the time Nate was in the crib so it wasn't a problem.  Now he's sleeping in a toddler bed in our bedroom when they come to visit and I have looked all over for a special pillow case to put on his bed for him to sleep on.  There just isn't  much out there for boys.  I did find a few twin bed sets, but the bed isn't a twin and he doesn't even have a twin bed at home.  It finally occurred to me that I could buy some material and make him a pillowcase.  I was lucky to find some "digger man" printed flannel.  It didn't take but a few minutes to put the pillow case together for him.  I hope he likes it!!

This "digger man" pattern is just perfect for Nate!

COLD WINTER DAYS

This is the coldest winter that we've had in quite some time.  I'm still adjusting to retirement and trying to find things that I enjoy to fill my days.  After Christmas I was out shopping and saw some jigsaw puzzles for sale.  It reminded me of days long ago when my mother, brother, and I would spend hours on cold, damp winter days at the card table putting together 300 piece jigsaw puzzles.  There were those odd shaped pieces (and I can still remember some of the shapes) that you knew exactly where they went before the border was even completed.  When I was older my brother didn't spend as much time with us but mother and I would work 1000 piece puzzles.  It was wonderful to spend long hours together.  I miss those times.  Anyway, I bought myself two 500 piece puzzles. 
A few weeks back when it was extremely cold I spent several days putting the pieces of one together.  I tried not to work on it for too long a stretch for a couple of different reasons...one was I wouldn't finish it too quickly and two..because I know if I sit in a different position for too long a period it makes me sore (I would say it was age related, but that's always been a problem for me).
Handyman came down a few times and put in a few pieces but I don't think he ever actually sat down to work on it with me.
Here is a picture of the completed puzzle.

I still have the other puzzle to put together at some point, but I'm holding off for a while.  I don't think this winter will be over for a while!!

SOUR DOUGH BREAD

I used to make sour dough bread every week.  Since my handyman husband doesn't care for sour dough bread for toast in the mornings and rarely eats sandwiches that left the majority of the bread for me to eat by myself.  I decided that I would eat less bread if I just didn't make it and it would also make less work for me.  I have learned over the past months that I miss having the fresh bread around to share with others when they are under the weather, have lost a loved one, or are just going thru a difficult time.  So, last week I started another batch of starter.  I mixed up the potato flakes, sugar, yeast and warm water....it bubbled just a little at first then died! I mixed up another batch with the same results.  I finally decided that, even though it was still in date, my yeast was not being as active as it needed to be.  I bought more yeast and mixed up, yet another, batch of starter.  When I stirred it, I found that most of the yeast was stuck to the bottom of the jar so I added a little more.  I left the kitchen for about an hour and when I came back I found the quart jar, with only 1 cup of water and the few dry ingredients, had overflowed onto the counter!!  Since I lost some of the liquid, I went ahead and added a little warm water to it and let it work....on the 4th day (you're supposed to wait until the 5th day) I thought it looked hungry so I went ahead and fed it.  It bubbled up just like it was supposed to.  YEAH

Yesterday afternoon I mixed up just enough dough for 1 loaf of bread, put it in a tupperware bowl and locked down the lid.  About and hour later I heard a loud POP!  I knew what it was the bread was working and expelled enough gas to pop the lid off of the tupperware.  That's a good sign!!  I let it rise until bedtime and then punched it down and put the dough into bread pans.  I used to get 1 medium size loaf, but since it was rising so well, I took a little dough out and made a mini loaf too.
I put the pans in the oven with the light on over night to rise and then baked them first thing this morning.

They look kind of weird!!  I'm going to knead the dough a little more next time as they didn't turn out smooth like they used to. Every new batch of starter makes the bread turn out different so there is a little adjustment period each time you start over.  Glad I only made a recipe for 1 loaf and hadn't planned on giving away any this time.  Hopefully the next loaf will look better!! (Note:  this loaf was a little too salty--I bought some new measuring spoons and it had a 1/2 Tablespoon which I used for the first time.  I think I'll go back to using a teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoon).  Now to get my feeding schedule worked out for the starter. 

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

We've never been big Super Bowl watchers.  Actually, we've never been into TV sports much at all.  I watched more sports when I was at home with my brother than I have since I've been married.  So most years we've just ignored the fact that it was Super Bowl Sunday.
This year I decided to make a mini-junk food feast in honor of the day.  The menu included mini meatballs (1/2 lb of meatballs), sausage balls (1/2 recipe),  nacho chips with salsa and cheese/Rotel dip, and a few ham sliders.  Even with the smaller amounts, we only ate about half of what I prepared. 
And did we finally watch the big game?  No!!