The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

  

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. There wasn't really much to report.

I lost another two pounds, but I guess not really, because they're back. It's okay, I'm still down 9 pounds. My goal for December is just to not gain any. Even with all of the Christmas goodies, I'm pretty sure I can handle that.


Thanksgiving was great! My sister and I ran our third 5K, and even though it was the hardest one yet, we beat our old time by two minutes. Yay!


And now it is the BEST time of the year!!! I am a total Christmas junkie. I love all things Christmas, even the frenzy. I love Christmas music, Christmas movies, Christmas baking, Christmas cookies, Christmas shopping, Christmas wrapping, Christmas lights, Christmas trees, Christmas EVERYTHING!!!


Merry Beginning of the Christmas Season!!!

The All-Waffle Diet

I got a waffle maker for my birthday. Do you think I can make a case for waffles as the ultimate diet food? They can totally be healthy:


Whole Grain waffles (grains)

Chocolate waffles (chocolate = antioxidants)

Pumpkin waffles (vegetable)

Blueberry waffles (fruit)

Waffles & ice cream (dairy)

Maple syrup (ummm... well, maple is from nature, that has to count for something!)


Okay, fine, then, I won't have them every day. Instead I'll write a poem.

  Ode to my Waffle Iron

Oh, waffle iron! You make me

the most Beautiful Breakfast

warm waffles

soaking up warm syrup.

Maple.

I love you,

dear waffle iron.

I will eat your creations.

Happily.

With a fork.

Beautiful

I love you, waffles!

Oh, Sammy! Get thee to a bed-ery!

Good night, John Boy!

Lipstick on a Pig

I haven't been to the gym in a few days, but that's it for the bad news.

I had a great day today. I'm  not going to jump for joy yet, though, as I know how I get late at night. But so far, so good.

Dinner was...

okay, I'll say it. It was disgusting.

The other day, I made stuff in the crock pot that was supposed to be dinner, but due to extenuating circumstances (namely, soft pretzel day at school which led to the ol' "spoiling your dinner" phenomenon. Dinner was then soft pretzels and veggies & dip).  So the stuff I made in the crock had to wait until tonight. What was the stuff, you ask?

Well, here. See for yourself:

Turkey Goop

 It was this weird turkey-tomato-rice goopy stuff that sounded like a good idea when I put it in the slow cooker in the morning, but looked like a very, very bad idea at suppertime.

Well, coincidentally, my boys who are homeschooling are studying medieval times, and one of our projects for the week was to make "pocket pies" (the medieval version of a Hot Pocket).  I thought this was perfect... what a great use for the goop.

I bought two cans of Pillsbury Grand Buttermilk Biscuits, and the kids flattened each biscuit out with a rolling pin. Then they put a small glob of goop onto one biscuit, topped it with another, and sealed the edges with a fork. I put them in the oven for about ten minutes, and there was dinner.

Pocket Pies

Here's what I learned from all this:

1. Hot Pockets kick Medieval Pocket Pie's butts

2. If they had McDonald's in medieval times, weary travelers would never have packed pocket pies

3. Soft pretzels make an excellent dinner

4. Ground turkey, rice, and tomatoes should not be put in a crock pot together again

5. Goop is gross

6. You can put lipstick on a pig...

Photo from Eric Lee dot net

Yup. Still a pig.

(but sooooo good in Hot Pockets!)

Happy Weekend!!

Dieting is super hard and I hate it

I'm sooo cranky lately! My kids are determined to not let me get a good night's sleep. My one-year-old wakes me up at 5:00 am with screaming. I don't mean a sweet little cry that says, "Mommy, I'm awake, and I just can't wait to get started on this glorious day!" I mean a loud obnoxious cry that says, "MOMMY! IF YOU DON'T COME AND GET ME NOW YOU ARE GOING TO BE SO SORRY!" Seriously, she yells at me. All caps. I'm grumpy when I wake up to the sound of a one-year-old telling me what to do.


I don't mean to harp on this, but I have a real hard time sticking to my diet when I'm tired. It's so easy for me to go from "Today I am going to be good" to "Oh who cares about losing weight!" I wanted to lose four more pounds by Thanksgiving, but the scale hasn't budged. It's not going to happen now, but maybe I can still lose two.


I still haven't had sweets.


For dinner we had salsa chicken on top of corn tortillas. It was very good, but what I really want is:





or this:





or possibly this:




or maybe even this:





But, fear not. This is the last... I mean it, LAST... grouchy post that you are going to get from me! I have to change my attitude if I am going to change my eating/exercise habits. There are two weeks until Thanksgiving, and it is perfectly reasonable to expect to lose two pounds, heck, maybe even three, in that time. I can do it. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

The truth about November

I made it through 7 days without eating sweets (sort of... I did have one piece of birthday cake). I'm so glad that November is a short month! It's the only month that's only two weeks long. The calendar just says "November" because they couldn't think of a name for those two weeks between the end of November and the beginning of December.


Shhhh! Don't tell my sisters, but that isn't really true! Wink, wink!

Birthday Food Is the Best

Yesterday I ran 2 miles. In the rain. On my birthday. I am a superstar!

I don't have much to post, but I felt bad that I was so "woe-is-me" in my last post, so I wanted to write while I'm in a better mood!

I actually did pretty well with my diet yesterday.  I went over in calories, but not as bad as most years, and anyway,  everyone knows that calories don't count on your birthday. (And for the record, calories don't count the day after your birthday, either, if you are eating the second half of your Super Yummy Birthday Hoagie for lunch).

AND... I had my one sweet for the month. A huge honkin' piece of ice cream cake that my awesome husband made for me. 

But for the most part, I think I'm still doing okay, diet-wise. 

Here's a picture of my Super Yummy Birthday Hoagie (an Italian hoagie from Primo). And my Birthday Beer. Can you tell everything I eat on my birthday has to be preceded by the word "birthday?" 

Super Yummy Birthday Hoagie

P.S. In case you were wondering, this picture shows both halves of the hoagie. I ate half of what's pictured for dinner last night, and half for lunch today.  

Rice and Beans, Pink Elmo Shirts, and I Don't Suck

Why is gaining weight so easy and losing it so hard? I did well all day today until I was in the kitchen, making rice and beans for dinner, and I ate a few pieces of cheese, pepperoni, and crackers. It all happened so fast. Such a quick, small, seemingly insignificant snack ruined my calorie intake for the day. Why couldn't I have more self-control and wait for dinner?

So then after dinner I left for pilates. I had to leave early, because my husband & kids needed me out of the house so they could work on a special, secret birthday surprise. I stopped at the mall to buy myself a birthday present. I've been wanting this body cream for a few years, but could never bring myself to spend $20 on lotion, when $6 Aveeno works perfectly fine. But I decided to splurge. By the time I finished at Bath & Body Works, I only had 5 minutes to get to pilates. The class gets crowded, and if you come in late you have to go to the head of the class and be in front where everyone can watch how much you suck at pilates. So I bagged it. And I walked around Sears, trying to find an Elmo shirt that didn't cost $15 or that wasn't for boys. By the time I finished at Sears, the smell of the body cream that I put on my hands was giving me a headache, so I'll have to return my own birthday present. And then I went to Genuardi's to buy the ingredients for my birthday lunch. And then I came home to my husband and said, "I suck" and he said, "No you don't, you went to the gym!" and then I had to tell him the whole story I just told you, including the part about the Elmo shirt, which he totally didn't care about, and then he gave me a hug and said "You don't suck" and then I had a cup of tea and watched Modern Family.

And there you have it.