Happy Halloween

It's a quiet day for us here, honoring those who have passed, thinking especially of Mom, would do anything to have her here for one more holiday.

Samhain Blessings,

Wrap it Up!

Plugging along here, can't believe it's only Tuesday and I'm already exhausted and looking for the weekend! Since work is super-busy you'd think the days would fly by but no such luck. Diet-wise I am doing pretty well, might have to watch my portion control a bit as I find myself mindless eating at times but otherwise I'm doing pretty darn well on the Beach!

It's Pizza Night here at the Castle but of course I won't be partaking of that - no, no, no! Instead I will be wrapping my lips around these Salsa Chickpea Lettuce Wraps courtesy of Happy Herbivore. Ooh-la-la, don't these look fabulous? A perfect light meal after a long day at the office, can't wait to dive right in!

Salsa Chickpea Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients
1-15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1-12 ounce jar of salsa
10 lettuce leaves
2 bell peppers, finely chopped

Directions:
Combine chickpeas and salsa in a medium sauce pan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until all of the liquid has absorbed and the chickpeas have taken on the salsa’s color (about 8 minutes). Refrigerate over night for best flavor but you can also serve them immediately. Spoon chickpeas into lettuce leaves and top with chopped bell pepper pieces.

Isn't it Moronic?

Beren & I watched the film I Could Never Be Your Woman and while the movie itself was ok, the real highlight was this song, so inspired that I have to share! Here are the lyrics I especially enjoyed, followed by a clip of the very talented Saoirse Ronan. I can only hope that she and her generation of young actresses actually feel this way.

a young girl, wants to be a big name,
in movies, they must all be the same,
she wont need to sing or to act,
just loose all of her body fat,
and isn't it moronic?
don't you think?

It's insane!
that they loose so much weight,
its a young nicole , with no food on her plate,
its a fat lindsey,barfing up a cake,
they think they're all cute, stick figures...



Have a Beauty-Full Day,

Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?

I'm picking up this book from the library today, have any of you read it? My friend Jersey said the author is a bit "over the top" but I'm willing to give him a chance if he's got some good advice for me.


I do know that I react very strongly to messes of any sort - emotional, physical, etc. I am more than a little OCD and become very anxious when my Life isn't as orderly as I prefer. My closet's color-coded, my bra & panties always match and I can't watch a movie unless the entire room is perfectly clean, that sort of thing. Add that to some control issues (yeah, I was in & out of therapy for years) and I'm a wreck, lol!

So, I'm wondering if my current success on the weight loss front is partially due to the part-time move to the Ormond house? I mean, we are living rather simply here with the mimimal amount of household furnishings, clothing, etc. There is absolutely no clutter which is quite different than my full-to-the-brim Castle! I think this allows me the freedom to focus on Me, what I want to do, how I can best care for my body & soul, unfettered by piles of laundry and household chores. If this is the case, I will be very very careful when we make the permanent relocation, only bringing the items I absolutely love and must have.

What do you think, dear readers, is there any merit to this philosophy?

If Mama Ain't Happy....

Beren and I are here at our "weekend/vacation house" where I am presented with different challenges than at home. First off, I am just building up my freezer/pantry so my recipe ingredients are limited. I also don't have the same cooking equipment I'm used to (no slowcooker, etc) and since we're only here on weekends I've got to be conscious of the spoilage-factor so I'm required to shop for fresh produce more often and watch my portion sizes, can't stand to throw away veggies! Lastly, Beren's girls are here and they are very picky eaters..groan...and my own children (not-so-picky but mostly vegetarian) are visiting as well so cooking a family meal is quite a feat! Add all of these issues to my new low-carb diet and you have a recipe for disaster, or at the very least a very frustrated mama!

Since I am determined not to compromise my weight loss for anybody else's convenience (call me selfish, I don't care), I'm making a shopping list and a menu plan which the Other People will just have to deal with. Now & then the Cook has to be accommodated, right? Harrumph.

I did a bit of searching and found this tasty, easy recipe for stuffed peppers which, if I substitute veggie crumbles for half the recipe, should appease the carnivores and vegetarians alike. Hope they like it, otherwise there's always PB&J. *wink*

MAKE ME STUFFED PEPPERS

2 large green peppers, halved lengthwise, 6 ounces each
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup onion, chopped, 1 1/4 ounces
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup tomato, chopped, about 2 ounces
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded (pre-shredded not recommended)
2 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded, for topping

In a large pot, bring about half potful of water to boil. Add the peppers and boil for 3 minutes. Drain. In same pot, brown the hamburger, onion and garlic. Drain fat and stir in tomatoes and seasonings. Cook until tomatoes are hot; remove from heat and stir in the 4 ounces cheese. Put the pepper halves in a greased 8x8" baking pan and fill with meat mixture. Sprinkle the extra cheese on top, if using. Bake at 350º for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 4 servings

Per Serving: 388 Calories; 27g Fat; 30g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 4g Net Carbs

Oh, Yes I Can-Can!

Forgive the silly play on words but I am dancing for joy this morning after sneaking a peek at the scale - 2 pounds down since Monday, my friends! I am so happy to see the numbers drop for a change, just the motivation I need to Keep on Going!

Also, allow me to gloat just a tiny bit, won't you? Last night we met friends at the aforementioned Mexican restaurant, cozied up to the bar where the barmaid promptly presented us with a huge basket of chips & salsa which I immediately passed to Beren, far away from my reach. Then we were offered a giant margarita, on special; again, I passed. I did enjoy 3 glasses of wine and ate a bite of Beren's spareribs but otherwise I was Perfect! Not one sip of margarita, not a tiny bite of chips! I woke up feeling proud of myself and anxious to step on the scale instead of remorseful and dreadful.

So, there you go, my little NSV for the day! Now, let's keep the scale moving in the right direction, shall we? I've already planned tonight's dinner and tossed it into the crockpot so it'll be ready & waiting for me after work, just a little bean soup that's not really a recipe, just went to my pantry and gathered up a few cans of beans, added some water, onion & spices to the slow cooker and voila! My family will be adding some brown rice to their bowls but I'm not quite ready for that yet.

Off to work, hope you all have a Beauty-full day!

Something Fishy Around Here!

So, I'm starting Day 3 of my modified-SBD-Way-of-Eating and I'm happy to report that it's going pretty well! The scale shows a tiny loss, not enough to gloat over but just enough to keep me motivated. I have a had a couple of challenges, one being yesterday's long overdue lunch date with a dear friend. We met at Applebee's which had the potential to go very badly but am pleased as punch that we both made good food choices (Grilled Shrimp & Spinach Salad) which surely canceled out the chardonnay we guzzled delicately sipped!

Tonight Beren & I are planning to meet some friends for cocktails, at a Mexican restaurant no less! *groan* No worries, though, I will not be tempted by the bowls of tortilla chips and frozen margaritas, no sirree! I'm going to cook a nice dinner ahead of time and then just sip a glass of wine or two while focusing on the company and the conversation, not the Cuervo! I'll be sure to report back tomorrow with my success story but in the meantime, here's what's on my dinner menu, courtesy of the always-fabulous Kalyn's Kitchen:

Baked white fish with Onions, Peppers, Olives, and Feta
(Makes 2-3 servings, recipe created by Kalyn.)

2 or 3 medium-sized Tilapia filets
(for best results, use fish that is uniformly thick)
1/2 T olive oil (or less, depending on your pan)
1/2 cup very finely diced red pepper
1/4 cup very finely diced red onion (or sweet white onion)
1/4 cup very finaly diced green olives
1/3 cup crumbled feta (or less if you're not wild about feta)
1-2 T mayo or lite mayo (do not use fat free)

Preheat oven to 425. Spray small glass or ceramic casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Heat olive oil in nonstick frying pan and saute red pepper and onion about 3 minutes. Add olives and saute about 2 minutes more. Turn off heat.

Put fish in casserole dish and season with salt and pepper. Spread a small amount of mayo evenly over the surface of each piece of fish. Stir feta into red pepper/onion/olive mixture and spread that over the top of fish. (Pile it on so all the mixture is used. It doesn't matter if some falls off while it's cooking.)

Bake until fish is opaque and white throughout and topping is barely starting to brown, 10-15 minutes. The mayo and the topping will keep the fish moist. Serve hot.

Doesn't that sound wonderful?! Much better for me than those nasty ol' fried burritos, right? You betcha!

Have a Beauty-full Day,

End Fat Talk - Tri Delta's Fat Talk Free Week

Let's stop the negative self-talk and learn to love ourselves and each other - "fat," "skinny," and everything in between!

Beach-Bound, Baby!

I know, I haven't posted in forever, and I apologize. It's been crazy-busy and, frankly, I haven't been focusing on my eating, exercising or weight loss goals. No, I haven't given up or lost sight of my goal, but the pursuit of a shapelier body has taken a back burner to other things. No excuses, it just is what it is. However, even though I haven't been actively trying to lose weight, I am still maintaining and might have even lost an ounce or two, as evidenced by the once-tight jeans I'm now able to get into. I'm not sure if it's the weather, the atmosphere, the different feel of it up here or what, but ever since we've been spending weekends at the Ormond Beach house something has changed in me. I'm naturally moving more, snacking less, and since I have little else to do when I'm home alone, I'm doing some thinking. It's almost Samhain, after all, the Witches New Year, the time of deep reflection, of death and rebirth. I'm figuring out what I want overall in my life, where I want to be in the coming year, how my body size & shape fits into that picture and what I need to do to get it that way. I'm also remembering the last time I was really successful at weight loss, what it took to get to goal. It's been interesting, this self-reflection, and I think I'm ready to make some changes.

I have some more pondering to do and some of my plans require the assistance of others, but in the meantime I'm working on what I can control: Me. My diet. My exercise. My happiness. All of that depends upon me, doing what I need to do to make my personal dreams a reality.

So, with that in mind I've decided to return to the eating plan that really worked for me back in 2002/2003: low-carb, no white stuff, lots of veggies & lean protein and, oh yeah, a glass of wine or two at the end of the day. *smile* I took off 25 pounds on that Way of Eating and kept it off for about a year when I got lazy & sloppy and thought I could go back to bread, pasta, etc and still stay a size 6. Anyway, at the time I formulated that "diet" I hadn't read much about South Beach but now I understand that I was in fact following a modified version of that very plan. Unlike Atkins which is a bit too meaty for me, SB focuses on vegetables & healthier protein, even a vegetarian could do it. It just makes sense to me and I feel good when I'm limiting those empty-calorie "dry carbs" and gobbling up more green stuff. So, back I go to the Beach, again with my own twist, doing it My Way. I'm sorry, Weight Watchers, you really are an incredibly great system that works for many people but apparently not me. Perhaps there's too much freedom in the food choices and certainly too much discipline in counting Points, I just can't do it anymore. Apparently, I am one of those people who simply can't eat white stuff on a regular basis, no matter how few Points is in it, it just doesn't work for me.

I'm still working all of this out so bear with me as I adjust my thinking and eating, once I get a week or so under my belt I'll post stats but in the meantime, I'm Beach bound, Rapunzel-style! Feel free to join me!