Accountability, Motivation and Independence for 6/30 - 7/6/14
 

OK, I'll go first

1) Plan meals and stick close to it
2) Be a stretchy mama
3) Walk 3x this week
4) 6 glasses of water, pay attention
5) You don't have to say it, listen, pay attention

Your turn.

Hi all. The kids surprised us with a 40th anniversary party yesterday and guess what, they brought chinese food. I didn't dare step on the scale this morning with chinese food two days in a row and two cakes, one chocolate and one vanilla. It was all yummy and we had a good time. Now it's back to healthy eating as soon as we get grocerys. I have been saying this for three days now. I hope every one had a great week end.

Goal this week
Drink 6 glasses of water
Eat vegetables
Dance

Good morning all! Another week to keep forging forward...no looking back ;) I picked today's quote simply because I think it's a very powerful and true statement. A good reminder to get up and get moving right!

I'm keeping my goals simple this week. I just can't (or should I say don't want to) commit to counting calories! So this week, I'm just going to do what I like to call 'the honesty diet'...eat good, healthy nutritious food in a reasonable quantity and let the chips fall where they may.

Goals
96 oz. water daily
Eat good, clean food
Get in a minimum of 5 workouts

Libby - That was so nice of your kids!! I can't believe they brought Chinese food! LOL!! I'm glad you enjoyed it and wise not to get on the scale this morning...you know it would be up and it will be a lot of water weight so no point if it will make you feel bad.

Hope - Be a stretchy mama! Funny girl! :p Good goals for the week!

Have an awesome day all!

http://www.sixpackfactory.com/wp-con.../2013/09/6.jpg

Oooooh dance, good one. You'll get on the straight and narrow. We'll whip you into shape. Or ummm gently encourage you. Whatever works lol.

Debbie, I LOVE the quote this week.

The wording for goal 2 came from the fact that I have a friend who did a lot of yoga and I would call her stretchy yoga mama.

Jenai (an anyone else who wants to try a new recipe!) - Here's the link to the recipe for Black Bean Brownies. I followed the recipe to a T except I used 1 tablespoon of oil instead of 1/2 teaspoon. I thought they may be a bit too dry and crumbly with only 1/2 teaspoon...turns out they were a little crumbly even with 1 tablespoon! Even though they were crumbly, they were soooooo yummy!! Let me know if you do try them!

Oops, I got my dates mixed up. Going to the zoo TOMORROW, not today, and my dental appointment is WEDNESDAY, not Tuesday.

Hope, thanks for starting us off with your inspirational posting of goals for the week. LOL on gently encouraging vs. whipping. Remember when we used to threaten to whip Mike? LOL

Libby, belated congrats on your 40th wedding anniversary. DH and I celebrate our 43rd July 24. Well, you only celebrate your 40th once and had great food, great company. You know what to do and how to do it, and I know you have it in you to get right back on track today. I love your simple goals.

Debbie, Thanks so much for the blackbean brownie recipe. I copied it to my hard drive and will add the extra oil as you suggested. I may try those today. I always have black soybeans on hand. I usually use recipes as guidelines, EXCEPT that for baking I need the exact measurements. I posted a couple times my chocolate mocha flaxmeal muffin recipe, but the feedback was like "they were OK, but I wouldn't make them again" or "they didn't turn out right". I double checked and confirmed I didn't make any typos while posting the recipe so the objection must be to the moistness and density. The density comes from the protein powder. I love them just the way they come out, so am not interested in lightening them or making them more dry. I can't even remember the last time I was in Onederland, maybe 2002 or 2003. Eight lbs. is a bunch of gain for just three months, I think, but I'll take your encouragement and praise anyway. LOL Aw, your sweet daughter--I hope she'll get the hang of riding the bike soon. I think most of us know a child who excelled right away at everything and then one day something harder for them was a source of frustration. Yeah, she'll get it with practice. I know (but from what I've read, not from experience) that the smaller you are, the fewer calories you burn. Heck, at my size I break into a sweat just doing housework like vacuuming, scrubbing floors, and cleaning the bathtub because that's a lot of exertion for me, so I count that "heavier" housework as exercise if I sweat a lot doing it. Sad, but true. I think it was Hope who posted a while back about how being smaller has some disadvantages like it being harder to reach final goal weight due to burning fewer calories. Counting calories drives me crazy, too--but if we eat on track as best we can, that's what's important, not the numbers in our nutrition logs--especially if we're logging the numbers AFTER we ate. Pre-logging to plan menus and portions is very beneficial to me--WHEN I manage to do that. But I think keeping our goals more simple is often to our advantage. I think that sometimes keeping track of every calorie keeps me thinking of food all day long. Thanks for the insprational quote.

Jenai, thanks for letting me tag along to the journey to Onederland. :) The best tip I ever got on snacks to curb hunger pangs (including from my doctor) is to eat something with protein and fat--like leftover lean meat with reduced fat cheese, or celery stuffed with peanut butter, stuff like that. Not that I have never binged, but that food combo does help me. Kudos on your brownie control! How you do later in the day after 1/2 plus 1/2 brownie? I did really well with birthday cake yesterday (rich chocolate cake with chocolate frosting/icing) having just a 1 1/2 inch cube. That willpower was probably due to the fact that I toted to the party a dark chocolate flaxmeal muffin that I ate before the cake, so my chocoholic sweet tooth was satisfied and the leftover cake was not at my house for me to eat more later.

DH is waiting for the computer (we have only one) so I'll quickly formulate some goals for the week, taking a hint from others and posting SIMPLE goals:

Follow as best I can my nutrition guidelines
Pre-plan my daily menus
Drink more water
Work on exercising more

Today's Menu:

I'm not in a food rut. I ate a lot of the same foods last week but they are healthful and so yummy that it feels like I'm cheating, but I'm not.

Brunch again (gotta eat breakfast!) low sodium ham and zero cholesterol egg blend rollup, flaxmeal muffin, almond milk

Snack: stawberry and cream cheese (both sweetened with vanilla protein powder) low carb quesadillla grilled in I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray

Dinner: Casserole of salmon, low net effective carb penne pasta, cooked broccoli and Classico Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and a side dish of spinach. Black bean brownie for dessert--ooh, I can't wait!

Snack: cold chicken, celery with soy nut butter.

Debbie, yea! I had all the ingredients for the black bean brownies on hand except for chocolate chips so I just chose to not add them. I used a food processor because I don't own a blender, substituted granulated artificial sweetener, and increased the oil at your suggestion. I just took them out of the oven--the raw batter tasted super yummy and my house is filled with that wonderful chocolaty aroma. :) As good as that batter tasted I can't imagine anything but very positive feedback on them after dinner.

Me again :p I booked the day off as a holiday since tomorrow is a stat holiday...Canada Day!! My favourite holiday of the year!!! I always sort of think of it as the kick off to summer. It's all about getting out, enjoying the day with friends and family and being proud to be Canadian!! No having to buy presents or host elaborate dinners...hamburgers on the bbq and cold drinks is all that's needed ;) Guess it's like the USA 4th of July!

So since I'm home with the kids (I wish I could be home with them always...but I have to work :o)) I planned a cooking morning with them. They love to be in the kitchen with me! I found an easy dessert recipe that uses wonton wrappers. We made apple pie filling and used it for 1/3 of the wrappers. For the others, we used Nutella in some and cream cheese and strawberries preserves in the others. Baked them for 12 minutes and we have a tasty treat! 4 wrappers are only 80 cals, .4g fat, 16g carb and 1 g fibre.....so not low carb (sorry Mern!), but they are a low cal treat. The amount of filling in each is about a tablespoon and the nutritional count above doesn't account for the filling.

So much fun....and lots of cleaning up for mom! :p

Debbie, your Canada Day celebration does indeed sound like the USA Fourth of July. It's wonderful that you were able to take the day off and how fun to spend time making treats with your kids! :) I love cooking with my 12 and 10 year old grandkids. They especially like making homemade soup because we dump in whatever ingredients we have on hand (no recipe) and they are so good at dumping and tasting seasonings themselves because they know my taste in soup broth. I just do a final tasting to see if anything needs adjusted. GD is the one who likes to bake with me. Those wonton wrapper desserts sound really yummy. I'll bet I could do a low carb version with my really soft low carb tortillas. I have a black bean and cocoa powder dessert quesadilla filling recipe to which I'll bet I could add peanut or soy butter to make it taste sort of like Nutella. I make mini tart shells out of my doughier low carb tortillas and fill them with lemon yogurt for "lemon tarts." I might try substituting the low carb tortillas for wonton wrappers some time.

Hi all. Cleaning fairies are here so I am upstairs hiding. I can't believe how much clutter we had that I had to move before they could clean today. Will be so nice to have a clean house.

We bought ready made chicken and dumplings at the store since they came at 3 (almost 4pm now). Not sure the calorie count but it's convenient. Going for a late birthday celebration on Wed with another VERY good friend (these 2 are the ones that I can always count on). I think I know what I am going to have for lunch. Hopefully sometime I can work up the courage to have a pedicure. I'm self-concious about my ugly feet.

I have a little rant...I put on a pair of capris yesterday and they are WAY too big (had to wear a belt). I know I'm no longer a 24 but have no idea what my true size is with the stretch in clothes. I just bought a 20 in capris. Does it make sense to be down 4 sizes if I've lost 12lb?

I will write out some goals tomorrow.
Jenn

Debbie, thanks for posting the link to the black bean brownie recipe. They are delicious! DH thought so, too, and he never would have guessed they were made with black beans instead of flour. :)

Jenn, that's lovely that you have cleaning fairies. :) Sounds like a yummy dinner. Hey, happy birthday! When is/was it? Enjoy your celebration with your friends--that's awesome! :) Mine is July 6. Major kudos on the way too big capris! Where I buy clothes in the USA, going from a 24 to a 20 would be considered two sizes down, with 10 lbs. between sizes. So if I was just into a size 24 and lost 12 lbs. I could be down to a size 20. But I totally agree with you that it's hard to judge sizes. I like the strech in my jeans, though

Jenn - Cleaning fairies!!!! **sigh**...I need me some cleaning fairies...hmmmmm :p

Mern - I'm glad you and DH liked the brownies! When I read your post that you didn't use chocolate chips...I thought OH NO!!! I think the chocolate chips really make it...but I'm happy to hear you liked them regardless!

Debbie, I'm sure the brownies would be even yummier with chocolate chips, but it saves me carbs, and they're plenty super-delicious to me "naked." :D

So much looking forward to taking our 10 month old great-granddaughter (our daughter's grandchild) to the zoo tomorrow with her paternal grandparents and paternal great-grandpa. The baby loves animals and our grandson-in-law's family are wonderful people.

Thanks for the cake Mern--no calories. Thank you also for the explanation on the sizes.
Jenn

I totally derailed. I posted yesterday how famished I was and that nothing I ate seemed to satisfy. I found the answer...sweet. I made a treat and as soon as I had a little something sweet with a little protein I was completely fine and not hungry at all any more.

The problem is, the treat I made (a whole pan full of it) was still sitting there when I woke up. That was my menu the entire day, except I did have enchilada casserole for dinner. But no Atkins shakes with milk, besides dinner no other regular food...just a mixture of cheerios, peanut butter, sugar and corn syrup. And I ate A LOT of it. Thankfully now it's gone though and Tuesday can get back to being normal.

Jenai, no sense beating yourself up over derailing yesterday. Your yummy sweet treat is gone and now you have a whole fresh new day to eat on plan. You can do this :) Big cyberhug to ya!

1) Plan meals and stick close to it - plan yes, stick to it:ish
2) Be a stretchy mama - y
3) Walk 3x this week - n
4) 6 glasses of water, pay attention - ?duhhh
5) You don't have to say it, listen, pay attention - harder than I thought

Happy Birthday, Jenn!!!

Black bean brownies interesting. The recipe does seem so strange but I want to try them.

Jenai, you'll get back on track.

Sizes are so weird. I can be anything from a 6 to a 12 at the same weight.

Mern, you brighten up the thread. One day, I too, will learn to put graphics on my posts.

Hi all. Yesterday was day three of celebrating. For supper last night I cooked rib eye steaks under the broiler with salt and pepper, baked potatoes, fried mushrooms, asparagus, a glass of blush wine and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Now it's time to buckle down and get back to sanity.

WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!! Thanks Mern! We've been out in the crazy heat enjoying the festivities all day!! What an awesome day!!

You must have all been so young having your children! My mother is only 2 years older than you and sher dranchikdren range from 6-16!!! Guess we kept her in suspense a long time! LOL!! Enjy the zoo day with your family!

Jenai - I totally agree with Mern! You enjoyed your treat, now you can get back on track. There's no such thing as perfection right! You're not perfect...none of us are...even if we strive to be ;)

Hope - I thought the recipe looked odd as well...balsamic vinegar seemed so odd?!?! But they we surprisingly good!! I think the vinegar is there to help them rise?

Libby - Sounds like you've enjoyed your anniversary..as you should!! I've kinda thrown things out the window today too celebrating Canada Day...hot dogs are not usually on my menu! There's always tomorrow right! Hope the yard sale went well today!

Jenn - Calorie free cake and cleaning fairies!! Aren't you a charmed on! LOL! :p

Have an awesome day ladies!

:eek::o

I scored a few bargoons at the sale. It was fun just to get out and walk around. I would like to go to the fire works tonight. They are always spectacular. Happy Canada Day.

Birthday is June 21. Ha ha Debbie.

GOALS will be simple this week
1. eat healthy
2. drink 6 glasses of water
3. 4 servings fruits and veggies

Monday and Tuesday report:
Follow as best I can my nutrition guidelines YES, YES
Pre-plan my daily menus YES, NO because we went to the zoo, but I still did great
Drink more water YES, YES
Work on exercising more NO, YES

Jenn--June 21 birthday--belated celebration is right! LOL--but the point is sharing a great time with others and that's what you did. :) Nice simple goals this week. I simplified mine, too.

Hope, stick to it:ish on your food plan is good. It's a guideline, not a law. You're OK. :)

Posting images is easy once you do it a few times.
1. When you find a picture you like, such as on Google or Yahoo images, right click on it with your mouse and choose COPY IMAGE URL
2. Come here to the reply box and click on the http://www.fitday.com/fitness/forums...nsertimage.gif
3. Right click your mouse again and choose PASTE to paste the image address/URL into the dialogue box. It should start with http:// or https:// There's already one there just to let you know what it should start with. I usually just delete that but just be sure you have just one http whatever
4. When you submit your post, you should see the image.


Libby, you surely celebrate in style. I'm glad you cooked such a lovely dinner. How fun to find some great bargains at the sale. I hope you get out to enjoy the fireworks.

Debbie, no I didn't start my family all that young--I was 30 when our daughter was born. She got pregnant in high school and we helped her rear the baby through high school and college graduation. But then that child got married at age 19 while in college and had a baby and is now working full time and going to college. She is the mother of our great-grandbaby that we are just crazy about and babysit two-three days a week. It's been a hard road, but the love of family carried all of us through. :) Thanks--we all had a great time at the zoo. The baby LOVED it.

Mike, I've still got the whip. LOL

Debbie, I gotta try `em out of sheer curiosity.

Mern, you're right, guidelines not laws. (It hey were I'd be under arrest lol.)
Hit paste ahhhh I think that's what I missed.

Mike, Dude, you're here! Mern, where's the whip?

1) Plan meals and stick close to it - plan yes, stick to it:ish, yes and ish
2) Be a stretchy mama - y, y
3) Walk 3x this week - n, y
4) 6 glasses of water, pay attention - ?duhhh, ummm 5
5) You don't have to say it, listen, pay attention - harder than I thought, trying and to DH it goes both ways buddy lol

hello everyone. Just a quick check in. Sam goals as last week. drink lots of water and post everyday. I have been getting my yard in shape this past few days. I finished planting everything but the onion and asparagus. Will work on getting them in the ground:) the coming week. I have been working outside lifting, bending, shoveling and to morrow mowing.
Have a great day. Nyda

Today's menu:

I'm still not in a food rut--just enjoying some faves I have on hand.

Breakfast: zero cholesterol eggs, flaxmeal muffin, almond milk

Snack: protein shake and unsalted sunflower seeds

Lunch: edited to change to rotisserie chicken and spinach low carb quesadilla, 1/2 a fresh peach

Snack: celery with soy nut butter

Dinner: tuna salad, low net effective carb spaghetti with marinara sauce, green beans, black bean brownie

Snack: protein shake, green pepper spread with reduced fat Laughing Cow cheese


Hope, nice report yesterday! -ish is always good. :) If you still have trouble posting images, maybe someone else can tell you a way that's easier. I don't think Mike's wife will let us wear our dominatrix costumes any more but here's a whip in case Mike gets out of line and gains 75 lbs. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...2gqrwIcnLR8f5w

Nyda, like you, I'm finding simple goals are easier for me to live with. With all the manual labor you do, I'll bet you don't even need formal exercise. Your work around your property surely burns a lot of calories!

Nobody wanted to go to the fire works because they had to get up early this morning so I watched the 11:30 news before I went to bed. Today I am going to make some semblance of order out of my sewing room so I can actually sew in there. That means going through lots of boxes of material and putting like things together and having fewer boxes. I am still looking for the material for a jacket that I want to sew. Have a great day.

Libby, best wishes on organizing your sewing room. Wonderful that you can sew! What kind of jacket do you want to make--material and color/pattern.

Mike, LOL on "Whip it." I'll bet Hope will enjoy that, too.

It's quiet here today....I can see I'm not the only one who's not feelin' it today! So hard to get back on track when you allow yourself to get off track for a day. Sigh! I don't feel chatty today, but I'm sure I'll be back online tomorrow.

Hope everyone is having a good day! :)

Debbie, I know it's hard to get back on track when you've been off for a day, but you've done it before and you can and will do it again--even though it's fun to eat whatever you want on occasion.

I'm doing very well today. Just have been busy--dental appointment this morning, grocery store trip and supervising 10 and 12 year old grandkids in the afternoon. I have to bite my tongue to keep from saying I BABYSIT them. LOL

How's DD doing with her new bike? Getting any easier?

Wishing you a good day and an easier time than you expect getting back in the groove

Hope was right about the role of the balsamic vinegar in the black bean brownie recipe--it reacts with the baking soda to help the rise. No worry about using the balsamic in that recipe because the flavor is masked by the generous amount of unsweetened cocoa powder. But white or cider vinegar would have the same effect according to this article at Using vinegar in baking | Baking Bites