Oh shoot! I gave in yesterday and did not go to the gym. I had so much work to do that I thought I would go later in the day. Did not happen. My eating has gone really well. I do not feel deprived as I have in past "dieting". I drink most of my water and have been trying to get veggies in. I have written in my food diary everyday. So I am plugging away. Diana

OK, I only ate one cookie instead of 6, I ate one slice of pizza instead of two or three. I ate ONE piece of chocolate instead of ... well, you see.

I ate my healthy plan all day, and then went to a friend's house to babysit - and ate. When they left. Just like I did 20 YEARS ago when the babies were my own. (the sound you hear is Cindy banging her head on the desk) I wouldn't have a problem with what I did if I was hungry when I got there, but I wasn't. It was just there. And pizza and home made cookies are two of my favorite foods on the planet. Especially when my friend makes them 'cause she is a great cook.

I wasn't prepared for dealing with food at their house. But there are always going to be times when I am not prepared for whatever - that is what life is like. So you all KNOW what the "I wish I hadn't" section has in it.

So I am sitting here today, with my daily oat bran with amonds and raisins and a nice (delicious, btw) clementine ... and now I have to shut up the voices in my head.

And on top of it, my hubby, who had two good arthritis days in a row: he had some energy, felt good enough to go to Barnes and Noble with me yesterday. We had a real breakfast date at a nice little French bistro, and last night he stopped in to visit with me for a bit while I babysat - he woke up in pain from head to toe, so the plan for the day is out the window. Now, part of the plan included dangerously close proximity to a favorite restaurant that makes from scratch, CLASSIC diner favs AND home made ice cream in every flavor you can imagine. So, not facing that temptation is a good thing, and I choose to be grateful. It also means I can walk some extra on the treadmill without putting a cramp on his day.

While at BN yesterday, as I was sipping my tall, skinny decaf, I found Getting Thin and Loving Food. Stopped at the store on the way home to pick up a couple of ingredients I didn't have on hand, and am going to make the Basalmic Chicken with Pan Roasted Parsnips and Carrots for the big family Sunday dinner.

I'm off to de clutter a closet for 15 minutes, and then I am going to treadmill some of those cookie and pizza calories off my hips, make a smoothie for hubby and have a good day in spite of busted plans.

have a great day,
cindy

I am feeling a little better today -- even though I'm still coughing a bit, my head has cleared. I have a swimming workout planned for tomorrow and I think I'll try it and see how I feel. I can always cut it short. I planned the workout a week ago with a friend I don't get much time to see.

Hi Cindy! Sounds like you are off to a great start! Good for you!!!


Sheri- Sorry to hear that you are feeling under the weather too : (

Welcome Cindy Sounds like you have really thought through what you want and how to begin to get there. Cool verse, too.

Lynne

Hi, I thought I would introduce myself. I'm Cindy, 51, married, mom of 3, grammy to 3, I work part time at a local rescue mission and volunteer in my community here in the desert. I cater small dinners for my church on a monthly basis, usually feeding about 15-25 people. My darling hubby of 33 years has a chronic, degenerative illness, and though he has a good job, the disease leaves little energy for much else. Pain and fatigue are big parts of RA.

This is the year we decided to focus on improving our health as much as we can. I have been a yo-yo dieter since high school, so I am a veteran of the diet wars, and have generally been on the losing side. THIS time, we are working on baby steps, and I think ours are smaller than any of yours,

Starting in November, I decided to do some things for myself that I only did when I was being "good" - taking my vitamins, drinking 6-8 glasses of water each day, and enjoying V-8 juice. Believe it or not, I guess I only thought I "deserved" them if I was sticking to an eating plan.

Intellectually I could have told you that I was working on an eating strategy for life, not a diet. Those were the words that came out of my mouth, but in my head I was "on a DIET!" And consequently, I could go off the diet. Which I did, repeatedly.

I plan to take advantage of all that I have learned, all I can learn from smart sources like Kathleen and YOU all. I have an accountablility group made up of friends of all ages who live in my vicinity. We walk together, or at least report our mileage to each other. Some of us go to Weight Watchers, some are eating sensibly on our own.

My hip joints have been letting me know both that I need to exercise, and that I need to be very careful about what I do. I tried upping the intensity of my walks by adding too many uphill intervals earlier this week and am in pain. So, I am back "on the level" and will stay that way for another week, I think, just varying the speed at which I walk.

Food wise, this week my goal is 3 servings of veggies and 2 fruits per day, whole grains except for our Friday date (often hard to find whole grains when we eat out) and our family Sunday dinner, when I make some special dinner rolls everyone loves that are made with white flour. I often don't like vegetables - and don't tell me that if I get used to them I will like them more. I have been eating them for my whole life. Unless I can get fresh-from-the-farm, picked-just-before-I eat-it, most of what I am able to buy just doesn't taste good. Picked and shipped quite a long distance, flavor not the priority, sturdiness and appearance are. I eat them when I am being "good" - but my commitment now is to eat them all the time. This week I have eaten spinach, cabbage, parsnips, carrots, as well as my usual celery, onion, bell pepper and cucumber.

I bought my yearly daybook yesterday and am going to try the squash soup tomorrow. I look forward to "meeting" you all.

cindy p

Sheri and Jen - sad to hear that you're under the weather. Time for some serious nurture! Mother yourselves for a while! I've been knitting up a storm, and recently realized that it is what I do to hold myself together when I have an illness or a struggle. Do you have something like that that you do for yourselves? Drag it out!

Hugs,
Lynne

quote:

Originally posted by TriGirl:
Well, just as I was doing well with exercise and the homework called for more, I got really sick.

I have had some sort of weird flu-like thing since Tuesday night. I was off sick from work on Wednesday with it...went to work Thursday but felt kinda miserable on and off all day...and today I'm KO'd again at home. I took Wednesday as an exercise off day and did balance ball yesterday, which is the gentlest workout I own. Hate to take another day off from exercise today but we'll see how the day progresses.

quote:

Originally posted by TriGirl:
Well, just as I was doing well with exercise and the homework called for more, I got really sick. But I have still been doing some walking. We've had unseasonably warm weather so I figure the fresh air is good for me.

It seems like just a cold and I think it's finally lifting, but my workouts have been pretty minimal this week.

Sorry to hear that you have been sick Jen : (
I hope you'll feel better soon (just in time for the cool down ; ).

Well, just as I was doing well with exercise and the homework called for more, I got really sick. But I have still been doing some walking. We've had unseasonably warm weather so I figure the fresh air is good for me.

It seems like just a cold and I think it's finally lifting, but my workouts have been pretty minimal this week.

Ok I said i would be back with a plan.. and here it is. I am pretty sure Mom and i will be camped out at the hospital all day. We can't get in until 11 am though so I will eat my usual oatmeal for breakfast and workout. I will pack a couple of lf pb sandwiches, 2 yogurts some granola bars and baby carrots (so I have some for mom as well). I'll make a chef salad for dinner at the cafeteria salad bar. Lots of water, not too much caffine. I don't need any help being wired right now. With a plan I should hopefully avoid stress eating.

Laurie

was a bit of an off day for me. I ate breakfast, half my lunch, and skipped dinner. Dad was not doing well today, at all. I could not bring myself to leave his room. Finally I did get home, just a little while ago. DH made me a burger (93%lean, 3 oz). Its the only meal he can make besides instant oatmeal. I keep the burgers premade in the freezer, I weighed them out when I made them. So I feel good about today's food. Thank goodness i stocked the freezer. next I'm going to work on a plan for packing some food to bring to the hospital with me, I think I'll be planted beside most of the day until the docotrs can sort this out. I will post my plan in a little while.

Laurie

Thanks for letting me know about the show. I just assumed that I was missing it. Well, I do miss it, but I am glad for this board. I have been doing well this week. I have made it to the gym everyday, today however, I just wanted to walk and not push so hard so I did. It felt great. My change in eating habits is also starting to pay-off. I feel so much better. I hate tracking WW pts. but that is what I know works the best for me. I am getting behind in my CT daybook. That is what I will catch up on after I get down online. Diana

In keeping with this weeks theme, adding quality to our efforts, I really pushed myself at spin class instead of taking the "go at your own pace" way out of the tougher sections. I really like spinning because you get the workout you go after, but I must say that I usually go easy on myself. One of my goals this year is to get tough. I know how to work, but working hard and not complaining is still strenuous! Yup, I'm a quiet little brat Getting better though!

Lynne

Hi All,

I "was" doing good yesterday until dd wanted lunch out and I was determined to eat when we got back from shopping so i didn't buy anything but instead because dd couldn't finish her happy meal ...dear mom did

But worked extra hard at Karate class because of the slip then dh bought this delectable chocolate whip cake home and instead of doing the portion of one that I "should" have did two servings instead. So need to really exercise hard today for all yesterday stumbles on my baby steps.

ttfn
Patty

I started out really well today. I got up, did 20 crunches, then did WATP 1 mile, with weights. Breakfast was oatmeal with blueberies and a small glass of orange juice. Lunch was a diet coke and a salad.... And then there was dinner.... Matt took me out for dinner after we stopped by the hospital to visit my dad. I had this absolutely lucious eggplant and chicken parmesan casserole. When I saw it I knew half would have to be for lunch tomorrow, but then wow all of a sudden it was all gone!!! At least the rest of the day was clean, and I did increase my workout a bit. I think i'll have to try to get in an extra workout this week.

Laurie

quote:

Originally posted by susanrows:

quote:

Originally posted by DianaB:
I was just watching food network today and realized that I havent' seen "Cooking Thin" for awhile. I checked the website to find a listing but couldn't. Where is the show? Diana

The Food Network pulled CT off the air last summer, I think (last year, anyway). We tried an email campaign to get it reinstated, to no avail.

After three seasons, KD was the one who decided not to continue with FoodTV and I guess they figured the reruns were getting old (even though we all still watched!)

I think there was some sort of 2 year contratural thing there. The last time I saw her here in Atlanta (last year) she said they had wanted the show to go in a direction she did not like and that she was no longer obligated to FN. Considering the direction the whole network is taking there is no telling what might have happened to the show.

You can still access the show pages but you have to go at it in a round about way.
Put "Cooking Thin" in the recipe search box and it will give you a list of all her recipes. If you go to one of the recipes you can get to the show page that went with that recipe.

We're still hoping for a new show but until then, this is the next best thing.

The squash soup was really good! We didn't think we'd like it but we really did. The cilantro was key to making it really special -- so if you don't like cilantro I'd suggest using basil, lime juice, or something like that rather than just leaving it out.

We thought it might be good pureed too.

quote:

Originally posted by DianaB:
I was just watching food network today and realized that I havent' seen "Cooking Thin" for awhile. I checked the website to find a listing but couldn't. Where is the show? Diana

The Food Network pulled CT off the air last summer, I think (last year, anyway). We tried an email campaign to get it reinstated, to no avail.

After three seasons, KD was the one who decided not to continue with FoodTV and I guess they figured the reruns were getting old (even though we all still watched!)

My husband and I have committed to trying every recipe in the daybook at least once, even if we don't think we'd like it at first glance. So we're having the squash soup tonight. We're also having tomato-mozzerella-basil panini and salads.