Tag: weight management

Homemaking, Recipes, weight management

So the New Year is here…

Natalie

and I have been enjoying my holiday food and especially all of the wonderful recipes from The Pioneer Woman.  She makes delicious food, but unfortunately, neither my husband nor I expend the calories that a cattle rancher does. So I’ve spent today trying to figure out where I can come up with some delicious recipes for the new year that are delicious and healthy and not so chock full of butter and cream.

I remembered a show at one time on The Food Network featuring a chef named Ellie Krieger but she’s no longer on their network. She’s now on the The Cooking Channel.  So I navigated over there and then accidentally found “Not My Momma’s Meals” featuring Bobby Dean. His show is all about lightening up Paula Deen’s recipes. I love her recipes (another butter and cream lady), so I’ve set it to DVR regularly and started watching the first one now.

He made over Paula’s Fried Apple Pies with a baked apple pie featuring a whole wheat pie crust with flaxseed meal and pecans.  I’ll be trying it right away.  I’ve been trying to find a whole wheat crust recipe for a while.  I’ll post pics as soon as I’ve tried it.

Here’s the recipe in case you want to try it with me.  Bobby Dean’s Whole Wheat Pie Crust

How are you changing your cooking strategies for the new year?

weight management

Nothing tastes as good as…

Natalie

being thin feels! I never believed that Weight Watchers mantra until I started the HCG diet. When you’re losing 5+ pounds a week, it’s oh, so true.

I am on day 26 of my second round of HCG with two weeks left to go. I have dropped 21.5 pounds this round and more than 4 inches off my waist. I wish I could find my starting measurements for the first round so I could tell you the total inches off my waist, but alas I can’t. Since I started my first round of HCG in August, I have dropped a total of 42.5 pounds.

Based on my current rate of loss (.826 pounds per day), I will lose an additional 11.5 pounds by the end. That will put me at a total loss of 54 pounds since August.

I’m posting this today from an airline seat on my way to my grandmother’s memorial service in Seattle. The last plane ride I was on, I think I was pretty close to having to ask for an extender and I’d had to suck it in for the tray table to be flat.

Today, however, I am enjoying at least 4″ of stomach room before the seatback tray table starts and my seatbelt has an extra 9 or 10″ on it! Woohoo!!!! I don’t feel like I am crowding the person next to me, in fact there is no hangover at all!!

I’ll do two more rounds of HCG, the next one starting after Easter.

If you need to lose some weight, you need to really check this diet out!!!

P.S. By the way, my doctor whole-heartedly approves of the HCG diet and is thrilled with my progress.

debt, weight management

Discipline

Natalie

Now this is an area where I struggle.  I’ve fought it nearly all my life.  I like to think that I’m spontaneous and fun-loving, and a bit free-spirited, so discipline is not a quality I’ve sought to acquire over the last 47 years. And isn’t it interesting that when I see someone else with no discipline, I’m completely annoyed by them.  Kind of an instance where I’m trying to pluck a sliver out of someone else’s eye while completely ignoring the log in my own.

I’m finding that my avoidance of discipline in all areas has created some major issues in my life such has too much debt and too much weight. Now, I’ve been on the road to discipline with our finances and we’ve paid off 85% of our debt since January 1, but there is still room for improvement.  It’s the weight that is my biggest issue now and to which I am turning my focus.  I am 100 pounds overweight and frankly, I’ve got to change.

So, to help me on the way to a disciplined life, I’ve implemented some new game plans and asked for some things for my birthday.  A new pedometer that resets itself every day at midnight and counts my steps – a birthday gift I’ll use everyday.  Where’s the discipline in that?  I’m setting a goal this week to average 6,000 steps a day.  I will walk every day until I reach 6,000.

In addition, today is the first day of a new diet which my husband and I will be using for the next 40 days.  We both know quite a few people who have tried the HCG diet and found that it works.  So, I’ll let you know.  We began this morning the first of two gorge days where we get to eat the fattiest, greasiest stuff we can get our hands on.  Monday starts the 40 days.  This will really take discipline!

To help me stay on this diet, I am going to ask my children to participate more in dinner preparation.  So I’ve pulled out my trusty e-mealz meal plan and am on my way, as soon as I finish this post, to purchase this week’s meals from Aldi.

E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

To help me maintain my focus, I’m grabbing my copy of Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles.  Today is success principle #1 – Take 100% Responsbility.

I hereby take 100% of the responsibility for my lack of discipline and 100% of the responsibility for changing it!!