2018--Striving to Make This Year Our Best Possible
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Everyone who's seen me lately says "ooh, you would be all silver, let it grow out" but I'm just not ready.0
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Summer 2018: In name only. It should be remembered as "Rain, Rain." Spring came late and stayed; I hope this is not an indication of what Winter might be as it is like early Fall already. Some leaves are in danger of turning already. Crops didn't do well this year. So much for griping about weather but it is getting old.
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Good job to both Pam and Jean.
While I was out running errands, I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for lunch. A donut would have been nice but I bought the veggie omelet with cheese on an English muffin. I love that many places post calorie counts. The sandwich came in at 319 calories and was the best count of all their sandwiches. I was pleased with myself for making a good choice.0 -
Helene--Great job!!
I'm off to the city today for eye appointment and also to get new tires.0 -
I did a weigh in this morning. I lost the fluid weigh from after the brunch. Plus I'm down an additional pound. I've officially lost 7 pounds since I got home from FL. It's half of Jean and Pam's total but they had a head start on me time-wise. I didn't put any serious effort into this until mid-May. I've logged for 43 days so far and that's what's making the difference. At the end of the day, if my calories are near my daily goal, I've been able to tell myself I'm done eating for the day.0
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Good job, Helene! Seems like you’ve found the key to success for your weight loss in logging your food and being consistent with it.
I cooked dinner last night using a couple of low carb recipes I found on Pinterest. I realized how out of practice I’ve gotten with cooking since I’ve been dieting. I haven’t cooked much at all for the past 7 months and I found it very tiring to do last night. It turned out ok but I wasn’t thrilled with the meal. I was doing it as a trial run for a dinner I was considering preparing at the beach next month with DH’s family, but I think I’ll keep looking for an easier meal. I volunteered to make dinner the first night, which means a trip to the grocery store as soon as we get there, then prepping and cooking a meal while everyone else is unpacking and settling in. The meal will have to be something that doesn’t require too much advance prep since I will have limited time to prep, and it has to be toddler friendly as well as easy for the two elderly ladies who will be with us. And then there is my SIL and DH who think food is bland and flavorless unless it sets your mouth on fire, lol! I’m leaning toward foil packet dinners so I can customize them for individual tastes and minimize clean up as well.
Tomorrow will be challenging dietwise. I’m having a birthday lunch with 3 friends from grad school, and Happy Hour later with a different group of friends. I think I can find some low carb options at both restaurants, but I will really need to limit the alcohol intake since that is not low carb. Of course, it’s always a good idea to limit the alcohol, but not easy with my lunch group. The last time we got together I was pretty successful and I have the excuse this time of driving back in heavy Dallas traffic, so I think it will be ok. I plan to limit myself to 1 drink at each event then switch to Diet Coke or water.0 -
Pam, can you pick up most of the food you'll need for the dinner a day ahead at home and pack it in a cooler for the drive? If you can prep any components at home, you could chop and slice and put individual ingredients in Tupperware. Then you'd combine them in the foil packets just before you're ready to cook. You could pick up whatever protein you're using when you get to the beach town, on the way to the house. If you do it that way, you'll save prep time and not tire yourself out as much.
Here's the recipe I did for last week's brunch. It can be used as a salad or light dessert. I didn't have any red wine vinegar in the house so I used Marie's Lite Raspberry Vinaigrette. You could make the dressing the day before in a glass jar and bring it along. You could skip cutting the grapes or get DH to cut them. Then the only work is cubing the watermelon. Everybody at the brunch loved the salad.
Italian Fruit Salad
Ingredients
1 pound seedless watermelon, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes or balls (4 cups)
3 cups seedless green grapes, halved
2 cups fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
Directions
In a large bowl combine watermelon, grapes, blueberries, and basil. For dressing, in a small bowl whisk together vinegar and honey. Pour dressing over fruit; stir gently to coat. If desired, cover and chill for up to 8 hours. I only chilled my for 30 minute and it was fine. If it's dessert, it can be chilling all through dinner.0 -
Everyone who's seen me lately says "ooh, you would be all silver, let it grow out" but I'm just not ready.
As you saw from my description, my hair is only silver in the front. So their comments that you'd be all silver may not be true. When you get it colored next time, ask the hairdresser if she can tell by the roots how the grey is distributed over the whole head. I don't know if she can tell, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.0 -
Helene, that salad sounds delicious! Unfortunately, since we are traveling over 2 days, I don’t want to prep ingredients at home to take along. I will have limited cooler space, so I don’t think that will be an option. I think I’ve settled on a recipe that won’t be too difficult or time consuming to prepare. I’ll do a test run for DH and me sometime soon to test it out. We decided this year to have each of the adult women be responsible for one night’s dinners and the clean up. I suggested it so I felt like I should offer to take the first night. Another reason I chose the first night is because we will have a much shorter drive on our arrival day than the others, so I will have the most time for getting to the store and then putting dinner together. In the past we’ve made each meal more of a collaborative affair, but my SIL is a terribly messy cook and cooking with her drives me crazy. So I thought this year maybe we could try something different and see how it goes. At the very least, it will be interesting.0
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I didn't realize you had such a long drive to the beach. Taking turns sounds like a good plan. You can make what you like without a co-cook's opinions. I'll bet you will be pretty well organized before the rest of the group arrives.
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From our home it can be done in one day, but it’s around 12-13 hours. DH has an aunt who lives 2 hours away from our final destination, so we usually drive to her home, stay overnight, then go on to the beach the next day. She’s joining us, so that works out well. The rest of the group will do the drive from Houston in one day, which will be about an 8 hour drive. Unfortunately, check in time at the condo is 3:00, so it’s still a bit difficult to get checked in, unload, go to the grocery store, and then cook dinner. I’ll probably just get checked in, help DH unload, then go and get the groceries. That will also allow me to check the kitchen to see how well it’s equipped. We’ve been staying at condos owned by this group for years and the kitchens all tend to be equipped pretty similarly, but with minor variations. Last year we finally decided to invest in a couple of non-stick skillets and a couple of decent knives because those are always lacking in every condo we’ve rented. I brought ours home with me last year and will take them back to the beach for this trip.0
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Pam--Enjoy yourself. It sounds as if you have a good plan.
I started the day with a Premier Shake which has 30g of protein for 160 calories. These are so good, especially the caramel.
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Cute Jean:
DH has been watching this show called Buying Alaska. I'm amazed at how some folks live. While the show may not be completely real the lack of amenities apparently is:
According to the latest American Community Survey, nearly 630,000 occupied households lack complete plumbing facilities, which means that they are without one or more of the following: a toilet, a tub or shower, or running water. The Census Bureau says that the average household contains 2.6 individuals, which means that today, in 2014, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, upwards of 1.6 million people are living without full indoor plumbing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/04/23/1-6-million-americans-dont-have-indoor-plumbing-heres-where-they-live/?utm_term=.16e6c1ca7c370 -
Maryanne--I haven't seen "Buying Alaska," but I've seen one that deals with buying property in Hawaii. It amazes me the people who want to live in risky areas, off the grid, etc. Those statistics are unreal.0
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I’ve seen a few episodes of Buying Alaska and I’m always amazed by the people who actually don’t mind a house without an indoor toilet. I can’t imagine having to go to an outhouse in the middle of a cold Alaskan night, with bears and moose roaming around. Yet, for some people, that seems to be a plus rather than a negative! Just proves that it takes all kinds of people to make this world work.
I had such a fun day. I really enjoyed my three hour lunch with my girlfriends. I did very well with my food choices and alcohol consumption. I had a small side salad with a crab cake and the four of us split a bottle of Prosecco. The restaurant gave us a complimentary slice of pear tart with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, which we also shared, so I had about 3 bites of that. The girls all laughed at me when I said I hated to break up the party, but it was time for me to leave to go to happy hour, lol! At happy hour I had another glass of Prosecco and ordered the wood fired grilled shrimp with a side of steamed vegetables which filled me up. I completely skipped the bread at both places. So I think my carbs today came in the form of alcohol and possibly some bread crumbs in the crab cake. I did research the carbs in wine and found that Prosecco is the best choice there. Fortunately, I like it so I don’t mind ordering that when I go out. And I drank a lot of water, so hopefully that will help flush out the extra salt in my food. I saw another small drop on the scale today, too. All in all, a really nice day.0 -
Pam--It sounds as if you had a wonderful time, while also doing well with your food and beverage choices even with the Prosecco. Good job on passing up the bread.
Today, we had no rain and actually had sunshine which was very welcomed. I've basically spent this week as a maintaining week but will go back on the routine next week. I still logged my food with most days being very close to what I normally ate with exception of two.
I have my cardiology appointment the first Wednesday of October. I hope to be down 5 more pounds by then. I have my urologist appointment the last of August to set the date for the next bladder scope but know that I will not lose 5 pounds by then.0 -
Jean, when does school start up? Are you looking forward to it?
DH had a doctor's appointment yesterday. He usually goes in June to the office 30 minutes away. The doctor took the week off and DH was rescheduled. He was given the office that's an hour's drive. We took it because it would have been well into the fall before he could get an appointment at the closer office. The doctor only does one day a week at the office we like. Anyway, we were running late and traffic was heavy. I drove and had DH call when we were a few exits away to say we were on the way but encountering traffic. We got there about 25 minutes late. DH started to apologies and explain why he was late when the receptionist softly said to just take a seat in the waiting room. She was keeping his lateness on the down low so the other patients wouldn't object. When the nurse called us in, she said she got the phone message and it was fine. I doubt the doctor even realized we were late. And the
check up went well. I was afraid if they rescheduled, we would have been heading back to FL before they had an opening. He made his next appointment for June 2019 at the closer office. Hopefully it doesn't get messed up like last time.0 -
Helene--Glad you were able to keep the appointment. I doubt that the doctor realized you were late.
School begins Monday for staff; students on Thursday. Since we got out late from making up snow days, there hasn't been much time off for Summer.0 -
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Jean - great photo! Our current crew has never seen a tree. That spot is now taken by a huge cat tree!0
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Helene - glad your DH had a good checkup!!!0
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Well, Julie was thrilled to see me and the grey hair is gone. I got to see pics of her new dog. (Yes, my hairdresser is a dog person but she's okay anyway. LOL!)0
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I decided to try Dean Koontz's Jane Hawk series. Put the first one on my kindle. Great reviews. Half way through, I realize I'm enjoying it. But I start wondering. I'm assuming she takes down the big conspiracy by the end of the book (since there are more books so obviously they don't kill her) and I'm wondering what happens next. Does she go back to the FBI? Start a PI business? Something else? So I look at the synopsis of book 2 and some reviews. Well..... Apparently the whole series (rumored to eventually be SEVEN books) is one long story. Sorry, not interested. I stopped right where I was.0
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Maryanne--I am with you about getting hair colored. I must say that those pics are hilarious especially the "closed?" one.0
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