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!!

Friday Feelings

My hairdresser is very attractive.  She is slender (in spite of having two children), has a cute figure, and dresses nicely.  I really like her and thoroughly enjoy my time with her.  She is a great conversationalist and always has a good story to tell.  


She also has a big mirror that I face as she works on my hair.  I see myself and cringe at the fat image in that mirror compared to her adorable image.  However, since I have lost a little weight, my face is not as chubby and today I didn't mind my image.  I can't say that I was thrilled, but I was much more accepting of what I was seeing.  Progress.

Have you ever had Quinoa?  I caught a segment of Giada De Laurentiis' show on the Food Channel and she was making Quinoa as a side dish.  She added some fresh herbs and it looked pretty good.  She said that Quinoa is not a pasta or a rice, but rather in the nut family.  Hmmmm.  Sounded good.  So I bought a box at Trader Joes and prepared some last night.  The recipe on the box calls for one cup, but I knew that would be too much for me, so I prepared 1/2 cup.  Even that was enough for three portions.  I didn't have any fresh herbs, but I did have some frozen "Seasoning Blend" (onions and green peppers) which I added for flavor along with some butter and salt.  It was OK as a side dish.


Tonight I heated up the leftover Quinoa but it lacked something.  So I added peanut butter.  Well, that was not so great of an idea.  It got thrown out.  In retrospect, I should have added a vegetable.  Or perhaps a little lemon zest, or maybe some beef broth.  


So my supper tonight ended up being a small dish of leftover sweet potato and a very small portion of Quinoa.  Not a very nourishing supper.  Thank goodness I had a nice green salad for lunch - full of broccoli, tomatoes, celery, and some chunks of turkey breast.

I'm back...........

After taking a small vacation from this blog, it is time to return and perhaps rethink how I will use this space.


Today I caught a few minutes of the Rachel Ray show and the segment where a doctor was discussing obesity with a young woman.  This young woman went through gastric bi-pass surgery and after losing a lot of weight was now re-gaining that weight.  The doctor did not discuss food, or counting calories, or cutting back on fat, or exercising.  Instead, he asked the young woman to think about two things:


1.  What would you do if you were at your ideal weight that you don't do now.
2.  If you give up food as your source of comfort, what can you do to replace that comfort in your life.


One of the things she said in answer to the first question was that she would like to be in pictures with her nieces and nephews.  Oh my, do I understand that.  I just hate when people bring out cameras and want me in the picture. I hate pictures of myself.  It would be wonderful if I felt better about myself, was thinner, and enjoyed seeing pictures of me.


The second question really got me thinking.  I do love food.  I do use it as comfort.  What in my life is such a distraction that I forget about food for a while?  I thought of two things right off the bat - writing and creating.  


Writing has been an on-and-off thing with me.  Once I get started I get lost in the process and thoroughly love putting my thoughts or imagination down on paper.  It is the getting started, or finding time that prevents me from doing more writing.  Poor excuse, I know.


The creating is something new that I have recently enjoyed.  Although I have been a crafter for years (quilting, knitting, stitching), I always followed a pattern and never felt like I was actually doing the creating.  However, I am now in an Artist's Trading Card group and we are given a theme each month and have to create a 2-1/2" X 3-1/2" card with our interpretation of that theme.  It takes hours of my time and I never think about food during those hours.


All this to say that I am going to try using this blog to write about my thoughts on food.  I might sometimes list what I eat, or I may just talk about why I chose certain foods, how I felt while eating, how I managed some control, and how writing is helping me.


Potato chips.  Today at lunch I had a salad.  I decided to have some crackers and humus with the salad, but as I was eating one of the crackers I realized that I wasn't really enjoying the cracker.  So why was I eating it?  I really wanted a potato chip, but potato chips don't normally accompany a salad.  Crackers or bread seem to be acceptable accompaniments to salads, not potato chips.  No one was looking, so I put the crackers away and got out the bag of potato chips.  I had three or four chips, thoroughly enjoyed crunching on them, and was then satisfied.  I put the bag away, finished my salad, and lunch was done.  I could have eaten a whole pile of crackers in order to have my taste buds and crunch need satisfied, but instead I chose potato chips and only ate a few.  I think I made the right choice.

11/3/10 - Food

Breakfast - Toast with peanut butter, grapes


Lunch - salad with broccoli, cauliflower and grape tomatoes.  A few crackers and some humus.  Jello dark chocolate mousse.


Supper - some cooked veggies, popcorn, yogurt.


Steps - 4,210


Today I saw one of my doctors and I told her about my quest to learn how to stop eating when I am full.  She approved of my quest and told me that her son is slender and always stops eating when he is full - even if there is just one piece of food left on his plate.  He just can't eat another bite if he is full.  However, her husband, who has a weight problem, eats everything on his plate and has no awareness of when he is full and/or he ignores that full feeling.  For many of us with a weight problem, learning to stop eating when we are full is something we have to learn - it does not come naturally.  


I'm taking a few days off from posting to this blog.  See you next Tuesday.  

11/02/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes


Lunch - applesauce, sandwich


Snack - popcorn


Supper - soup, Skinny Cow ice cream


Steps - 3,831

11/01/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast and an egg, grapes


Lunch - bowl of soup, crackers, a few potato chips, 1/2 Skinny Cow ice cream.


Supper - salad with broccoli, cauliflower & grape tomatoes, last two leftover pieces of pizza from Friday, vanilla yogurt.


Steps - 5,215