Winter hibernation

Yes, I have been hibernating.  We had a huge winter storm, it has been cold, and I have been curling up at home, enjoying my cozy space.

The thought of writing about my eating, weight struggle, etc., has been hibernating too.  Oh boy - it is just too easy to say to myself, "tomorrow".  I have continued to stop eating when I am full, but my food choices have not been good.

Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's to get some lettuce.  I had not been to a grocery store in over a week and badly needed fresh greens.  The salad I made last night was especially good because I had not had a salad in quite a while.

Tonight I had "Reduced Guilt Mac and Cheese".

Usually I am so disappointed with frozen "diet" macaroni and cheese.  It is almost always watery and has that fake cheese taste.  This Trader Joe's item though is a different story.  It was very, very good.  I was not in the least disappointed.  It was hearty, filling, looked like the picture on the package, and had a wonderful comfort-food taste.  Some people might want more salt, but I prefer it just the way it came out of the package.  I will get this again.

Cheap Food

There were some programs on TV about using coupons and about saving money at the grocery store.  Last week when I did some shopping I decided to purchase sale items and save a little money.  I bought things that were two for one and store brand items that were on sale.


Today for lunch I decided to have baked beans - one of the store brand items that I purchased last week. When I opened the can I was dismayed to see that the beans were quite watery and pale.  I warmed them up, took my first bite, and was further dismayed to discover the taste was terrible.  In fact, there was little "baked bean" taste and more of a bland taste with a little metallic flavor.  Yuck.  It went into the disposal.  


Fortunately I only purchased two cans of the baked beans and didn't waste that much money.  The only good thing was that it really turned me off and I ended up having nothing but a few pretzels for lunch.  


Hey, maybe that is the way to lose weight.  Buy cheap food, try to eat it and get turned off.

Sensible Eating

The first day of the New Year and my quest to eat sensibly.  How did I do?  Wellllllllll.

For breakfast I had a small container of applesauce, toast with peanut butter, and coffee.  An OK breakfast.

For lunch I finished the shrimp cocktail from last night and had a few potato chips.  It was more of a snack than a lunch.

Half way through the afternoon I got hungry again since I only had a snack for lunch.  So I made popcorn.  A big bowl of popcorn.  There are leftovers since I could not eat the entire big bowl of popcorn.  (I could have, but I didn't.)

No supper because I was still full from all the popcorn.

8:00pm snack - a piece of bread slathered in peanut butter and a glass of skim milk.

What would my score be for sensible eating?  Not so good I suppose.  The quantity was OK, but no fruit except the applesauce and no green vegetables.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I have to give myself a 4.

At least I left myself room for improvement the rest of the year!

Too much honey.......

When I was growing up, my mother quite often made biscuits.  My dad liked honey on his biscuits.  He would put a dollop of honey on his plate and spread his biscuit with the sweet nectar.  Too often there would be honey left over on his plate, so he would take another biscuit to use up the honey.  Then of course there wasn't enough honey to cover the biscuit, so he would serve himself another dollop of honey - and on and on it would go.  The honey and the biscuits never seemed to even out.  


Fortunately my dad did not have a weight problem and eating endless biscuits with honey did not have an affect on his bathroom scale.


If only I had inherited more of his genes!  


Tonight I had some crackers and pulled out the little container of honey.  Hmmmm good.  I forgot how good honey tastes - and how good a cracker tastes with honey on it.  I was eating away, enjoying the sweet/salty taste when it occurred to me that perhaps I was racking up too many calories.  Blast.  I reluctantly closed up the honey container and put the crackers in the cupboard.  


I haven't looked it up, but is honey better for me than dark chocolate?

Vegetables

Every time I go to the grocery store I pick up some frozen vegetables.  I like the mixtures and look for ones with either broccoli or corn or zucchini or red peppers or onions.  


Lately I have not prepared any vegetables except fresh produce - lettuce and broccoli.  Yet I have continued to purchase frozen veggies.  


Today I couldn't decided what to have for supper and looked in the freezer.  Oh dear - there are enough packages of frozen vegetables to last until Spring.


So what did I have for supper?  Cereal.

Busy Days

The last two days have been  busy which means that my eating was kind of messed up.


Monday morning I made soup for some friends that were coming for supper. I had never made this soup before, so I kept tasting it as it simmered.  When lunch time came, I wasn't hungry because I had had too many tastes!  Instead of a normal lunch, I snacked on celery stuffed with peanut butter and some leftover popcorn.


We had the soup for supper and it was very good.  Then we went to another friend's house and ended the evening with pie a la mode - however - both the pie and the ice cream were "no sugar added".


Today I worked at church and came home very tired.  I snacked again on leftover popcorn and when it was time for supper I, once again, was not terribly hungry.  I fixed a small salad.  Before you start to congratulate me on my restraint I must add that in spite of being quite full and satisfied, I managed to find room in my mind, heart and stomach for one oatmeal cookie.


Oatmeal is good for you, right?  

Good Choices

Today I made a few good choices:


1.  At Sunday School I did not have a donut.
2.  At the coffee hour after church I did not have cake.
3.  At lunch I did not have a baked potato, but chose broccoli instead.


Questionable choice:  At the grocery store there was a new product - fudge covered Ritz crackers.  I bought a box and had three.   


Another good choice - not having the fourth and fifth of the above.


It is important to emphasize the good choices I make.  If I am proud of the good choices, then perhaps it will encourage me to make more good choices.  


Sometimes the choices are made for me.  I was munching on some of the leftover popcorn from yesterday when the bag fell off the table and the popcorn spilled all over the floor.  No five-second rule here - my floor was dirty and the popcorn got thrown out.  Sigh.

Popcorn

It was rainy and grey outside today.  I stayed in my PJs most of the morning, but had to get dressed to attend a memorial service at church.  As I drove home after the service, I became very nostalgic remembering grey November Saturday afternoons when I was a little girl.

We (the whole family) cleaned the house on Saturday mornings and did the laundry - the old fashioned way with a ringer washer and two rinse tubs, then hang the clothes on clothes lines either indoors or outdoors depending on the weather.  In the afternoon we did the weekly grocery shopping and errands.  Mom soaked beans on Friday night and cooked the beans all day on Saturday, known in our family as Boston Baked Beans.  When we got home on Saturday afternoon the house was filled with the aroma of baking beans.

Every Saturday night we had Boston Baked Beans, brown bread (the kind made in a can), and Waldorf salad.  It was my favorite meal.

As I drove home today I thought of those warm and cozy Saturdays with the family gathered around the dining room table.  I know I cannot duplicate those meals, but it is lovely to remember them.

I did want something comforting to eat.  I wanted to put on comfortable clothes, relax in my favorite chair, read a book, and munch on good old pop corn made on the stove.  So instead of supper tonight, I had popcorn.  Lots of popcorn.  Popcorn with butter and salt.  It was delicious.  Of course I made way too much, so I have a nice Ziploc bag of leftover popcorn to enjoy tomorrow.

Food is supposed to be "fuel", but so many times food is a comfort for me.  It reminds me of good times.  Popcorn was our Sunday night supper quite often.  Sunday dinner was pot roast or baked chicken served on the Haviland china.  A favorite meal on a hot summer day was strawberry shortcake made with biscuit dough, fresh strawberries juicy with sugar, and real whipped cream.

The favorite meal that I make is..................can you guess?..................toast with peanut butter, coffee, and grapes!!

10/23/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast and a scrambled egg, grapes


Lunch - salad with broccoli and crab meat, Nature Valley granola thin


Snack - popcorn


Supper - bowl of chili with croutons, a few Teddy grahams.


Steps - 1,658  hardly moved at all today.  

09/14/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter


Lunch - sandwich at a friend's house 


Snack - TJs veggie sticks


Supper - Panera's chicken chop salad (did not finish it and did not eat the bread)

09/13/10 - Food

Breakfast - This morning I decided to have something different - oatmeal.  I mixed up an envelope of apple cinnamon oatmeal, adding a dollop of peanut butter, and cut up a banana on the top.  I ate the banana, but didn't care much for the oatmeal.  I love oatmeal cookies, but oatmeal for breakfast just doesn't seem to appeal to me. So I had one piece of toast with peanut butter.


Lunch - egg salad sandwich and some chips.  Skinny Cow ice cream for dessert.


Supper -  I was in the mood for comfort food.  I had a package of macaroni and cheese waiting for just such an emergency.  However, I should have known better as I am not fond of "fake" cheese - like Cheez Whiz.  This package contained a little foil packet with gooey "cheese".  I did eat a generous helping, but as I ate I kept thinking that I should have made macaroni and cheese from a recipe, not from a package.  It satisfied my hunger, but not my craving for good macaroni and cheese.  After doing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen, I had my dessert  - half of a nectarine.

09/12/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter.  (At church there was a Continental breakfast, but I was not tempted because I was already full with my toast.)

Lunch - at Red Lobster.  I ate too much.  I had a fish and shrimp combination dinner and it was really, really good.  I just kept eating and eating until it was all gone.  This was after having a biscuit and cole slaw.  I was uncomfortably full.  I should have taken half of the meal home.  I should have...........

Afternoon snack - WHAT???? After being so full, why would I have an afternoon snack???  My excuse - I was reading and I wanted to finish the book and if I didn't snack on something while I was reading I would have fallen asleep.  So I munched slowly, one piece at a time, on some popcorn.

Supper - Not terribly hungry, but I decided to try one of these Vegetable Pancakes.  Very similar to potato pancakes, but with some other veggies included.  OK - but it sure would have tasted a whole lot better slathered in butter and salt.

For dessert I had half of this beautiful looking Nectarine.

09/10/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with an egg

Before lunch I went to the grocery store. There was an article in today's newspaper about how we (people in the USA) do not eat enough fruit. Therefore I bought some nectarines (not ripe), bananas, and a container with pineapple and strawberries.
So for lunch I had a half bowl of chili fresh from the soup cart, a piece of bakery bread with raisins, and some of the pineapple chunks and strawberries.

Supper - At the grocery store I also purchased a frozen "P.F.Chang's Home Menu" beef with broccoli. I need to stop purchasing frozen entrees with meat. The "beef" was horrible - with gristle and the consistency of formed meat. I took two bites and that was enough. The sauce was OK if a bit garlicky. The broccoli was good. I'll save the leftover broccoli for tomorrow, but the beef part got thrown out. Also had some leftover corn & broccoli from last night. For dessert I had a Skinny Cow ice cream.

Snack - almonds.

09/09/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast and an egg

Lunch - the last of the leftover pizza and some chips

Snack - a few mini rice cakes and some almonds

Supper - a green salad with tomato and cucumber, a biscuit, and a Skinny Cow ice cream.

09/08/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast and an egg

Lunch - leftover pizza and some chips

Snack - none. I wanted one, but I was in my basement doing laundry and working on a project and I lived with the hunger pangs.

Supper - veggie burger cooked with an onion, broccoli & corn, slice of chocolate angel food cake.

09/07/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast and an egg

Lunch - sandwich

Snack - small bowl of popcorn

Supper - this container of Japanese Noodles. Tasted pretty good although it is several hours later and I'm experiencing a lingering after-taste. Guess I better go brush my teeth!

Dessert - WW fudge bar.

09/06/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter

Mid-morning snack - Nature Valley Granola Thin

Lunch - 1/2 lettuce & tomato sandwich, chips

Mid-afternoon snack- small bowl of popcorn

Supper - green salad with tomato and cucumber, baked potato

Bed-time - small glass of skim milk

09/05/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter

Lunch - went out to an Italian restaurant with a friend. Had a small piece of bread, a spinach salad (ate half), lasagna (ate 1/4), and creme brulee (ate 1/2). Good lunch and great conversation ! ! !

Supper - an open-faced tomato sandwich and one cookie.

09/04/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter and a smidge of orange marmalade

Lunch - leftover lo mien

Afternoon snack - a Java Chip light from Starbucks

Supper - leftover pizza and one cookie

09/03/10 - Friday

Breakfast - toast and an egg

Lunch - out with a friend to the restaurant, Sweet Tomatoes. Had a nice big salad, a baked potato, and a dish of dark chocolate frozen yogurt with some granola sprinkled on top.

Supper - another small portion of the lo mien

Confession - I baked some oat meal cookies this morning to give as a gift to some friends at church. I've never made this recipe before, so it was only right that I taste one of the cookies to make sure they were OK. Later on I noticed that there was a "runt" cookie that was tinier than the others and wouldn't look good in the container for my friends, so I ate the little cookie. The cookies were very good. I started to reason that they really weren't so bad to have because they were made with oats (good for you), eggs (also good for you), sugar, of which I used 1/2 Splenda. Yes, yes, I know, there was also shortening, but my reasoning again leads me to believe that shortening melts and in the hot oven it must have dissipated - like liquor. Therefore, since the cookies were not all that bad, they must be good and it would be OK to have one more. My mouth and tummy are very happy.