Everything is A-OK

Today was a good day. It wasn’t outstanding, just nice and normal. My weight is holding steady. I didn’t really think “I’m on a diet today,” I just ate my food and went on my way.

I do have Thanksgiving on the brain. I’ve decided I’m cooking turkey this year and will have my mom and sister visit. They need to see the canary and puppy we’ve added since June, their last visit. I love this time of year for food magazines. The holidays are like the Super Bowl, with all of the publications pulling out the stops for The Best Holiday Ever! As I read them during lunch, I pretend I’m going to make all these delicacies. They don’t call it food porn for nothing.

We used to celebrate my husband’s birthday on Thanksgiving, because his birthday falls on or near it. I would make his favorite, beef Wellington, which is not difficult to make, but just takes all day to do it. But since my husband is not at home anymore, and can’t eat by mouth anyway, I’m making turkey.

The last time I made turkey, I brined it for a few days but seriously undercooked it. This year I’m getting a meat thermometer to ensure it’s done right. Turkey is a great WLS-friendly meat. My mom’s not a big eater and my sister’s on Weight Watchers, so I can take it easy on the sides and everyone can enjoy the feast. And we’ll have turkey for days.

I may experiment with some sugar-free dishes. I already make a great sugar-free cranberry sauce. I buy a bag of fresh cranberries, wash them, then put them in water and let them boil until they pop and the water thickens. Then I stir in 1 cup of bulk Splenda (not the packets). You can add more if you like it sweeter. Stevia probably would work well, but I haven’t tried it. I’ve added mandarin oranges to the mix occasionally. My next experiment will be sugar-free pumpkin pie, with a crust made of almond flour. The recipe on the can uses only 1/2 cup of sugar, so that should be easy to replace.

This year I’m excited about cooking again, which I don’t do much because it’s just me and my daughter. I’m also excited to have people visit, and it gives the daughter and me a real excuse to clean up!

See you tomorrow.

I love the weekend

Weekends used to be hell on my weight loss because a week of deprivation would cause an orgy of overindulgence, then I’d have to really cut back to make up for it.

But now, my weekends usually include lots of shopping, which means walking, which means exercise. I walked off 1.4 pounds on Saturday. I actually braved the mall, since I had some stuff to pick up. We started with lunch at Nordstrom. I got a white bean turkey chili that was to die for. Of course I couldn’t finish it, so I had the rest for dinner that night. We walked the hell out of that mall, then went to World Market and walked some more. I found Torani sugar-free syrup in Peppermint to add to my growing library of flavors.

I’ll admit we did stop at Godiva for a piece of chocolate. We got a fruity piece with raspberries and blueberries sitting in a canoe of chocolate. My daughter and I split it the next morning. I find really good chocolate so satisfying that one piece will do—especially when you only buy one piece.

Sunday found us having dinner at a barbecue restaurant. I got the pulled pork platter. The meat was so tender and went down easy. I’ll be having it for dinner the next few nights. I’ve been craving some barbecue and I’m glad I could find some to satisfy me. I’ve purchased premade barbecue before and it wasn’t the same. The barbecue sauce is always too sweet. I don’t have dumping problems, but I want meat, not ketchup.

I’ve happily figured out that I won’t need to buy Halloween candy this year because I won’t be home until late and the daughter is going to a party. We have never gotten more than a couple of trick-or-treaters because we’re a gated complex of mostly young adults. In the past, I’ve tried to buy candy I don’t like, but the problem is that there isn’t any candy I really don’t like. And kids don’t like when you give out liver.

See you tomorrow.

The *slight* downside to losing weight

There’s no downside to losing weight, if you’re doing it because you have excess pounds.

But I have now shrunk down to my last 3 pairs of jeans. I had some size 16s hanging around. Right now they fit just right. One pair’s a little snug, but it stretches so it’s not so bad. I have several 18s in excellent condition that will go to either a friend or Goodwill. Now that I’m a more manageable size, I might even find some thrift shop jeans that fit.

I don’t know what size I wore when I started. I wore lots of skirts with stretchy waists. I saved one to show off when I’m done. I had to “shrink” into some size 22s, and I was happy to get rid of those. Once I fit into jeans, I don’t think I’ve worn a skirt since.

I’ve never been a clothes horse because I was never sure what size I would be. I was always on my way to anther size, either up or down, and I didn’t want to commit to nice clothes. I have a few pieces from the 1970s that I’ll fit someday. I’m fortunate in that I don’t have to dress up for work. Jeans and Converse sneakers every day. I buy new shirts to last through each season. I get the shirts from the tables at Walmart and rarely spend more than $10 on one.

I haven’t been able to find anything just right at Target. Seems like it’s either too small, way too big, or from the maternity rack. So what’s up with Target putting the maternity clothes right next to the plus sizes? And Target doesn’t have any underwear with a size in double-digits. Someday …

This weekend promises good weight loss. The daughter and I plan to hit the mall and a few other big stores, and that means lots of walking. I do have to remember to have a shake before I leave so any mall food won’t destroy my plan.  As long as I can stay away from See’s Candy.

See you next week.

Sometimes you just suck it up

Busy, busy work day today, which is why I’m so late today. I didn’t get my food in line just right today, but everything worked out.

I bought Trader Joe’s Rosemary Apricot Chicken Salad, but didn’t have time run it through the food processor to make it smooth as I like it. I opted for cottage cheese. I was running late, and didn’t get to make my coffee, so I planned to get some when I stopped at 7-Eleven to get sunflower seeds, so I stopped at 7-Eleven, because convenience stores always have sunflower seeds. Except the one near home, apparently. Not wanting to have only bacon on my cottage cheese, I picked up praline pecans. Then I fixed up a coffee with steamed milk and amaretto creamer. Just before I checked out, the clerk found sunflower seeds. Score.

I finished my protein shake on the way to work. I have to admit I’m getting tired of the shake. I do like getting 50g of protein. Maybe next time I’ll buy vanilla, which will be easier to flavor with my Torani sugar-free syrups. I could go for a nice pumpkin spice right now.

I was too busy to get my lunch at lunchtime, so I munched on the praline pecans. Then I looked at the label—23g of fat—yikes! Mindless eating that got me in trouble in the first place.

Lunch seemed particularly satisfying with all the protein. It held me well for the long afternoon that stretched beyond my usual quitting time. I grabbed my string cheese for the drive home. I stopped at Starbucks for a mocha, and it was really hard to turn down the cake pops, but I did.

Dinner ended up being pistachios because I was just too tired to make anything. Today wasn’t a great day for eating, but I know it will get better tomorrow. I had plenty of opportunities to go off the rails and at least I avoided them—except for those damn praline pecans.

See you tomorrow.

Always at a cocktail party

I’ve been a fast eater all my life. Shoveling it in like my life depended on it. At least I was fast at something!

To counteract my chowhound tendencies, I downsized my tools. In the picture above, you can see the cocktail plate and utensils I now use at work. I’m eating the last of my chicken-or-tuna salad left over from Saturday’s lunch. The small utensils mean I can’t take too big of a bite at one time. I’ve been training myself to set aside the utensils between bites to minimalize the shoveling.

The salad was a bit bland as I ordered it, so I added chopped Bermuda onions. I love onion in tuna or chicken salad. Gives it a good tang, and the onion flavor lingers, so I continuously feel like I just finished eating.

As with yesterday, the meaty protein has stayed with me longer than the cottage cheese I usually eat. I’ll probably have Greek yogurt a little later and perhaps cheese sticks on the drive home.

The plate and utensils are available at Cost Plus World Market. The utensils are for cocktail eating and I found them near the utensils you can buy singularly. The plate is with the Asian eating ware. You could use a saucer or dessert plate. Previously I was using a pickle fork for eating. I used to call it my “cheesecake fork,” because I liked using a tiny fork when I was binging cheesecake to make it last longer, and so it would all thaw by the time I reached the end. (This was in the days before everyone had a microwave oven—yeah, I’ve been overeating a loooong time.)

So now that I’ve made lunch into cocktail time—minus the tasty cocktails—I can pretend I’m having a good time.

At least the food is fun to eat.

See you tomorrow.

The power of protein

My go-to lunch has been cottage cheese with bacon bits and sunflower seeds. It has lots of protein, I like the flavor and it fills me up awhile, and, well, bacon. However, for the past few days, I’ve been feasting on leftover egg, tuna and chicken salad from my Saturday lunch. Yesterday the egg salad didn’t go down well because it had some big hard chunks of egg white and they got stuck.  

Today it was the chicken salad (or tuna, not sure which and they looked and tasted pretty similar). I noticed something today. The chicken/tuna salad has more protein than the cottage cheese/bacon/sunflower seed combo, and today it stuck to my ribs much longer. By now I’ve usually had the first of my midafternoon snacks, Greek yogurt, and thinking about the second one, string cheese. However, I’m just now thinking about getting the yogurt from the fridge, which is a longish walk across the building. Right after my cup of coffee I’m brewing right now—Emeril’s Big Easy Bold in my Keurig brewer.

Maybe there’s something in this solid protein. I was a little less hungry this morning because I had a pretty good dinner last night—leftover meatloaf from Mimi’s Café with a little more mashed potato and gravy added. That may be a better meal choice than pistachio nuts.  

I have another day’s worth of chicken/tuna salad. After that, perhaps I’ll try mixing tuna or chicken with cottage cheese to get the best of both worlds. Oh, and bacon.

See you tomorrow.

Adventures in walking

I spent Saturday with my daughter and her friend. We started with lunch in a cute café in old town Redlands. While they got sandwiches, I ordered the three-mound salad, with tuna, chicken, and egg salad. I was able to eat about 4 bites of each before my tiny tummy filled. Luckily, we weren’t far from my workplace, so I was able to stash the leftovers in the work refrigerator to have for lunch a couple of days this week. This café also has a bakery with some of the most beautiful food porn I’ve seen in months. I got a sample of the chocolate cake in a piece about the size of a pair of dice, and it was paradise after the hearty lunch.

From there, we went to a bird farm to buy could get specialized items for our birds. It was hard not to acquire another bird or two, but our parakeets are so bitchy, we don’t need to add any more estrogen to their cage. The farm has a large walk-in aviary and lots of other places to see their featured feathered friends. An adjacent area features larger animals, such as goats and turkeys, that will eat corn out of your hand. Lots of walking.

After that, I took the girls to a deli market that’s been in town since the 1930s. This market features high-end cheese and cold cuts. We walked up and down every aisle, sampling the cheeses and salami and scoring house-made guacamole in the produce aisle.

More walking accompanied our trip to Petco for turtle food to take back to my workplace so we could feed the turtles that live in our koi pond that sits between two of our buildings. I miscalculated when I parked and we had to walk halfway across the campus to find the pond.

By then it was late afternoon, which means coffee time. I’ve wanted to sample a local coffeehouse that roasts its own beans. The bold roast didn’t disappoint as we sipped brew in the coffeehouse’s funky back room filled with quiet types hunched over their laptops.

The coffeehouse is adjacent to a shopping area of revitalized old shops repurposed to new uses. We strolled to a former department store converted to an antiques mall and explored all three floors.

Our final shopping destination was a fabric store so we could buy plushy flannel to make blankets for our Chihuahua. And we managed to walk every aisle.

You may have noticed a pattern here. We did LOTS of walking on this Saturday, and I managed to fill up with high-protein food. The next morning when I stepped on the scale, I was down 1.8 pounds from the day before. This shows me that if I were exercising all this time since I got the band, I’d probably be done by now. But I know I can’t work movement into my schedule because of the long hours I spend in my car or at my husband’s bedside. But, I also know that doing it on the weekend is almost as good. I usually have to park in a distant parking lot, and my office is on the second floor of a building with no elevator, so it’s not like I’m sitting ALL the time.

See you tomorrow.