Still Learning

Our Relief Society Birthday is going to be about celebrating the unique gifts and talents of the sisters. We've had a hard time getting people to sign up to bring anything to display or perform, so I told the sisters I would bring anything I have ever worked on or tried so they couldn't feel bad about their skill level. I've been working on some things, knowing that they're going to have to be displayed and looking through a lot of things, picking other things to display. It has been wonderful for my weight loss efforts. Let me tell you why... since I've been working on improving myself in other ways and looking at things I've done or even tried, I'm reminded that I'm an okay person and that I have a lot of potential. How do you treat things you think are valuable? With a lot of care! When we think we are worth treating well, we treat ourselves well. I was surprised that doing these simple things made such a difference. AND, I have been feeling happier than I have in a long time. You should all try it. Even trying something you don't know that much about helps. I tried sewing a little texture baby thing for Sarah (which is just two pieces of fabric sewn together) and it took me two hours and looked horrible, but it still made me feel like I'd accomplished something. I want you all to know the wonderful blessings I've felt this past week. Try it!

Hello Again!

It's been a long while since I last posted. I am not doing so well. We had a ton of leftover desserts because Ty's birthday was this last week and I had to make a dessert for our ward's linger longer. I've eaten cake or brownies for every meal for about 3 days. Oh, and an occasional handful of cajun trail mix. However, I have started doing Salute to the Sun 12 times a day. It has made a huge difference. I have been eating sweets for every meal, but the good part is they've still lasted this long! I hope everyone is doing well with their goals and plans. I am so excited to go see Kyla in two weeks! Maybe we'll be able to inspire one another to action!

WOO HOO!!!!

Exciting news, everyone! Pueblo has joined the rest of the world. We now have a small but existent Asian Market!!!! The Lord is just opening every door for me to walk right through. First I found Shiho's blog with all her beautiful and low fat and calorie food, now someone just decided to open an Asian market last Wednesday! Otherwise, I would never have been able to make anything on her blog. Niesa- they have whole TUBS of curry paste for like $2.50! It's too bad they opened after you left. We talked to the owner when we went in and he said his wife was from the Phillipines. Whenever they wanted to cook any native recipes, they'd have to go to Springs or Denver for the ingredients so they decided they should just open a store here. I am making curry tonight. I will post a pic on my blog of that. WOO HOO! again, just for good measure!

No More Pictures

I have decided that there will be no more pictures posted of my food intake. Mostly because I am lazy, but partly because I am reading the book that Anbo had at Sisters Weekend. It makes some valid points. It is by Kathleen DesMaisons, and she talks about sugar sensitivity and lists the symptoms, and it is totally me! I've tried the protein for breakfast thing, and I am surprised by how much this curbs my sugar cravings. I made a pan of brownies and two notable things happened. First, it lasted for three days, which is unheard of, and secondly, Tyler ate as much of it as I did, also unheard of. I am going to continue reading and implementing her suggestions and I'll let you all know how it's going. But today did not go well because it was Valentine's Day and I ate copious amounts of spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread. Plus Tyler bought me some Lindt Lindor Truffles. Yum! I've eaten all but 5 pieces. I sent two to work with Tyler and have three left. Anyway, I sure hope everyone starts posting again soon as my cell phone has been shut off and Tyler's car is not currently running so he's driving mine which means I am completely cut off from the world at present. PLEASE POST! If it wasn't for Anbo I'd forget anyone else even existed outside of these four walls!

Tues. Lunch

Lunch was some leftover split pea soup and a toasted roll. Yum!

Tues. Breakfast

I remember Anbo's book said eat protein for breakfast, so that's what I did. One egg, scrambled, one piece ham, grilled, one roll, grilled. And I did eat more chocolate cake last night.

First Day Back, cont.

Some milk to go with the satan cake.

Now starts the afternoon stretch when I get so hungry. I ate a small bowl of split pea soup I was making for dinner and a roll. BUT Tyler ate like 1/3 of my soup.

Then I had two little ham and cheese sandwiches.

And dinner was more split pea soup loaded with veggies and two rolls. That's where I am now, but I must tell you, I'll probably eat another piece of cake sometime tonight.

First Day Back

The day started out okay with a bowl of frosted mini wheats.

I ate a microwave (it just took me like 10 tries to spell that) burrito and some corn for lunch.

Tyler made this evil chocolate cake to tempt me... and it worked!

I made some rolls with my bread machine. They didn't rise so they came out small. I ate two.

Another piece of the devil cake.

Better

I feel like I did a lot better today. I still ate a lot of junk, but at least I ate something healthy, too. I probably got some vitamins! Knowing I'd have to take pictures of everything I ate really cut down on absently eating. And I had another epiphany. Shiho's food always LOOKS attractive, too. She eats off of nice dishes and the food is attractively arranged. It looks like she takes her time preparing and displaying the food she eats, which leads me to think she probably doesn't plop down in front of the TV to eat it! I imagine this makes her food a lot more... satisfying. So another new goal: I want to pay attention to HOW I eat as well as what I eat. No more plopping my turkey stew mash on a paper plate. I want to make my food pleasing to my eyes and my mouth. So get ready for some stunning culinary shots!

Today's Food, cont.

A little something sweet in the afternoon.

A twice baked potato. I always get so hungry around 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

Some orange-pineapple juice to help me not eat more cookies!

This is one of those meal-in-a-box thingy. It comes with a turkey stew and stuffing. I add mashed potatoes on the bottom and a bunch of extra veggies.

I finish off the night with some more cookies and milk.

Today's Food

Breakfast: Four cookies and a cup of milk. Figured I'd save myself the calories of a healthy breakfast, seeing as I knew I'd be eating cookies anyway!

A piece of sourdough toast.

Some carrots and dip. I only ate a small amount of dip, though.

Half a tuna salad sandwich LOADED with veggies.

I ate a handful of Ashy's french fries with bleu cheese dressing.

Mystery Solved

Ah hah! I now know why I am fat! I must say, though, we usually have something healthier for dinner. Well, now I can work on changing what I eat. And I'm going to continue posting pictures of my food because it makes me WAY more aware of what I eat if I know you all will be seeing what a fat pig I am! Not forever, just for the next couple of posts. I hope after that I will just stay aware of what I'm ingesting!

Dinner

I ate one more twice baked potato.

One more Kit Kat

Two pinches of cookie dough.

I expected to eat all 16 b/c I burned them so, of course, they only taste good fresh out of the oven. BUT, I only ended up eating 9. Way to go will power! Who am I kidding. I only stopped because my guts were about to burst.

Baby decided she wanted to eat her sock for dinner.

Pictures

I ate a whole pizza after missing breakfast b/c of a RS presidency meeting when I usually only eat 1/2. Then I had a glass of orange-pineapple juice, a fun size Kit Kat, and two twice baked potatoes.

Heather is a genius!

I was reading Heather's comment on my last blog and thought, yeah, that IS a good idea! Well, maybe not the part about taking pictures of my poop. But, what IF I took pictures of everything I eat? Even if only for one day. Would I be shocked? It's one thing to see it written down, it's another to see every bite recorded in all it's calorie-laden glory. I am going to try this experiment, and if I can ever figure out how the crap you're supposed to post pictures in a blog, I'll share my experience with you.

Inspiration

I was browsing the blogs on blogspot and came across the blog of a Japanese girl living in Tokyo. It's kind of weird in that she takes pictures of everything she eats and posts it on her blog. But the part that got her bookmarked on my comp and added to my Million Dollar Bloggers (see the Shiho link) is that the food she eats, for the most part, looks very healthy, very simple and DELICIOUS. Oh, except for the cuttlefish stuffed with rice and the seaweed jello type stuff. It inspires me to try new things and not just think that healthy food has to be boring. Check it out if you want to see all the beautiful food!

Fitness Test aka Total Humiliation

I was talking to my dear friend Lisa the other day. She was telling me about her weight loss quest and said she had started it out with the standard high school phys ed test. I decided it's nice to know what you're starting with, so I got out my timer, set it for 2 minutes and started doing sit ups with my feet firmly wedged under the couch. "Wow," I thought, "this is harder than I remember." About 8 sit ups later it was A LOT harder than I remembered! I only got to 8 real sit ups before resorting to wildly flailing my arms to get up. After a few of those I had to resort to grabbing my legs and half pulling myself up. Even with all my cheating I only got to 27 in two minutes! How sad is that! Then I set my timer for two minutes and resumed the push up position. When my full weight rested on my knees (yes, I had to do the girl push ups) and hands my right wrist popped and I collapsed! So that is a grand total of 27 sit ups in 2 minutes and ZERO push ups in 2 minutes. And now I know what I am starting with. And may possibly never be able to use my right hand again.