Friday, December 30th, 2011

Hi Everyone, I'm still here and I'm still on the BFC.  Hoping to get back to blogging now that the holidays have almost ended.  I'm sure with the slow months of January and February I'll find lots more time.  I've just started reading over the past blogs and I will get caught up!  I'm sorry I haven't been on to comment and support you the last week or so.  It was such a hectic couple of weeks.  Christmas was very nice.  My friend and her kids came and stayed with us a couple days right before Christmas and then my parents came for a day and then we had to go to some relatives houses and then all of a sudden Christmas came!  That's it in a nutshell!   My husband took off the week between Christmas and New Years (sort of) and we decided to take advantage of the time and take a little trip down to Charlottesville, VA., which is a little over three hours south west of us.  My three youngest sons went with us.  I am also looking around for places we might like to retire to one day and have been scoping out areas whenever we take a little trip.  We had a nice time while we were there and visited Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.  It is gorgeous!  If I could retire at Monticello I would be a happy camper, lol!  For me, the rest of Charlottesville is not what I am looking for.  Nice for a visit, but I don't want to live there I don't think.   We got back this morning.

I actually think I have been doing pretty well on the BFC over the holidays.  I baked about 12 dozen Christmas cookies and didn't eat a single one!  And no cookie dough either!  The holiday dinners were not too bad with salads, ham, deviled eggs, and brussell sprouts. My brother-in-laws house was a bit harder because he made BBQ ribs, spinach salad (loaded with a sugar dressing) and cookies!  That's it!!  No veggies except that sugar loaded salad.  Luckily he dry rubbed the ribs so my husband and I ate those and water.  I was pretty hungry when we got home that night and had to much on some almonds and tea to get me through until the next morning.  On our trip to Charlottesville  I did succumb to a piece of regular pizza because we were shopping in an open aired market place that had either really expensive cafes or pizza joints.  I wasn't taking all five of us to a really expensive cafe for lunch so we went into the pizza place and got a extra large pizza to split.  I had ONE piece!  It's the first piece of "real" pizza I've had since last April and I'll tell you I ate it really slow and savored each bite.  Honestly though I don't think I went too far over my carbs with one piece but the sauce probably had sugar.  I weighed myself before our trip and I was still at 167lbs. I haven't weighed myself on the trip or since I've been back.  I might sneak in a weigh in before my official next Wednesday or I might wait.    

My usual New Year's resolution is to lose weight.  I've been saying that every New Years since I started having kids!  This year my resolution is to keep going!  I want to keep losing weight, and keep getting healthier!  I hope to be at my goal weight of 150lbs at least close to my year anniversary in April!  Anyway I just wanted to check in with everyone and now I'm going to try to catch up on some blogs.  I wish to all of you a wonderful 2012 full of health and happiness!!

Monday -December 19th

Here is the 9 ft. tree in our family room

My oldest suprised me with this little tree in our front room!

Merry Christmas Everyone!   After Christmas I will be much better about blogging, but right now my life is crazy!!  I'm sure it's the same with all of you too.   I'm pretty happy right now because I got on the scale this week and I am officially down a pound - 167lbs!  In fact my scale went back and forth between 166 to 167 for awhile before it settled on 167.  So I am happy, even for that small loss!!  I have been pretty good about keeping to the BFC so far this month.  I had the one cheat I told you about last blog and then the other night we went to Chili's and I had Salsa and Chips.  But other than that, no cheats!  To not feel deprived at the holiday time I made myself a bunch of the Mexican coffees that Dawn talked about on her blog one time.  I love it with some cinnamon and cayenne in it and then topped with Reddi Whip. Yum!  I also made a few "treats" that I could have instead of the traditional Christmas cookies.  I always make rum cakes at Christmas and thought maybe I could re-invent that into a BFC rum cake.  I took Jeri's orange pound cake recipe and changed it up by adding 3 tsps. of rum extract to it and after it was finished I made a glaze with 1/4 of butter, a few tsps. of Truvia and a glug or two of rum that you heat up and spoon of top of the finished "cake".  I think it came out pretty good! Here is the recipe if you want it.

Rum Cake-
350 degrees- 30 min. baking time in muffin tins
Mix in bowl-until well blended:
5 eggs
1/2 stick melted butter
1 C almond milk
2/3 C water
3 t rum extract
9 pkg. Stevia
1 T apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup chopped pecans for bottom of pan
In separate bowl sift:
1 C coconut flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
Mix well - wet/dry ingredients together.  Line loaf pan with parchment paper and sprinkle bottom of pan with 1/4 cup chopped pecans. Pour in batter. Cook at 350' for about 45-60 minutes,cool and flip out upside down onto plate so nuts are on top.


 Glaze:  In saucepan melt 1/4 cup butter, 3pkts truvia  after melted and hot add 1/4 cup rum.  It will steam!  Stir constantly for a couple minutes and then spoon over rum cake.

My other treat was something I found on Pinterest:  Almond flour Gingerbread Cookies!  These came out really cute.  The recipe makes twelve gingerbread men.  I don't decorate them or anything but they taste very similar to real gingerbread men and it's fun to have one when everyone else is eating cookies!   You can find the recipe for these here:http://mariahealth.blogspot.com/2010/12/gingerbread-cookies.html

The rest of this week is going to be extremely hectic!  I just found out yesterday that my girlfriend from Richmond, VA is going to come up this week with her two young kids to visit her mother.  She asked me yesterday if she could come here on either Wed. or Thursday and stay over.  Yikes!  Plus my parents emailed me over the weekend and asked if they could come for dinner on Friday after they visit with my brother, so that we can exchange presents.  They are going to my other brother's house for Christmas and he never invites ANYONE over.  On Christmas Eve we are going to my brother-in-laws house by orders from my mother-in-law.  He lives about an hour and half away from us in Virginia but we HAVE to go.  Christmas Day we just be my family for most of the day and then after dinner we will go to my brother's house for desert.  His wife prefers everyone to come AFTER dinner for cookies and punch.  (I'll bring my treat). I also have to move my son out of his college dorm on Tuesday and bring him home, so that leaves just today to get everything done!  I must mail my Christmas cards, wrap all the presents, and bake some regular Christmas cookies for guests, plus shop for Christmas dinner, and my parents dinner, and my girlfriends dinner!  I thought I had all week!!  You can be so organized and then things like this happen.  It is the norm for my life! In the end, it will all be OK and fun!(I hope)
I probably won't be back on the blogs this week until things go back to normal.  I wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, or both!!  My gift to myself this year has been getting myself healthy and my gift from all you all has been the support you've given me all this year!! Thank you!

Happy Holidays from my family to yours!!

Monday December 13

Good morning everyone!  Once again I have to catch up on the blogs since I have been away a couple days.  We went up to Lancaster, PA this weekend so I could find my Christmas spirit!  It sometimes seems we have so many tasks to do that we don't take time to just have some fun and that is what I wanted to do.  My husband and three of our boys went with me and we just walked around the little Amish towns, went into craft shops and stopped at a couple Christmas train layouts!  While we were there we went and saw the movie Hugo.  It was just so nice to slow down and have a little fun.   On the way home we stopped at the Christmas tree farm and met my oldest son and his girlfriend there to finally pick out our tree.  We ended up getting this HUGE 9' Fraser Fir.  When we came home we found that my oldest son and his girlfriend had made us dinner and a ton of Christmas cookies.  Christmas spirit found!  I'll post some Christmas tree pictures next post.

Ok, so probably because we did so much walking up in Lancaster I was down a pound when we got back.  I am sure by my actual weigh in day this Wednesday I'll be back up to my usual 168lbs.   For the first time since being on the BFC way of eating, I am having a bit of a hard time resisting... -  it's the darn Christmas cookies!  Ok so I admit to my first major cheat ever - I had one Christmas cookie when we got back and then the next day I broke off a small piece of  Peppermint bark.  So you may be thinking that it isn't that bad of a cheat, but it worries me because I started having thoughts like, "It's Christmas, am I never supposed to enjoy myself again?" "I can't go never having a Christmas cookie again" and things like that.  Luckily I brewed up some peppermint chocolate tea and added some Reddi Whip to it and it seemed to quell my cookie cravings and wild thoughts - thank goodness.   I'm probably going to drink two hundred cups of tea from now until Christmas, lol!  I can try whipping up a batch of coconut or almond flour something  to have also, but honestly, as good as that usually is, it really is not in the running with the regular Christmas cookies.   So hopefully I can keep resisting the good stuff and keep my long term weight goals in my head at all times.  We'll see.   Hope all of you are doing well!

Wednesday Dec. 8th! BFC week 34

Hi Everybody!  I can not believe an entire week has gone by since my last post! December is just such a busy month as I'm sure you all know, there are not enough hours in the day!  I weighed in today at my same 168 lbs.., bummer!  I mean I'm glad I'm not going up in weight but it sure would be nice to start losing a few again.  Earlier this week I got on the scale and it said 167lbs and I got a little excited that maybe I was starting to go down again, but alas, it was not the case on actual weigh in day.  To be honest with you I'm really not going to worry about it too much for the rest of December.  I know I'm eating exactly what I should be eating.  I don't cheat.  I even gave up snacks between meals this week.  I'm just going to keep going this way until after the holidays.  In January I may need to shake things up a bit, we'll see.  I might even get a hormone panel done to see if I'm out of whack there.
So other than the diet my holiday preparations are well underway.  Got my shopping almost finished thank goodness.  We do not buy for extended family except our parents.  It makes things so much easier and keeps the holiday in perspective I think.  We were not able to get our tree early last week like I had hoped because we had to go see my husbands parents over the weekend.  It was is mom's birthday and she has congestive heart failure and lately has been so tired and under the weather.  I thought it might cheer her up if my husband, and all the boys went down and took her out to lunch.  We did that and I think it did her some good to get out of the house, but it cost us almost the whole day, and left no time for tree cutting. This weekend we are doing a little overnight getaway to Lancaster again.  Three of my boys are coming with us and on the way home we will stop at the farm, meet up with my other son, and get the tree.
My dog, that has congestive heart failure, got put on a new medicine this week called Vetmedin.  It was a bit of a risk because I didn't have the very expensive echo-cardiogram done to be certain of what was causing his enlarged heart.  But I think we guessed correctly because he seems to be feeling better.  Yesterday he stole a newspaper and ran around the house with it, and then later stole an empty Doritos bag out of my son's trash can and tore it up.  We were all like, "Buddy, you're being bad, you must be feeling better!"  So today it's all about finding appointments for wisdom teeth removals, and finding a better deal for our self-employment health insurance which is apparently going way up come January, visiting my Aunt in assisted living, balancing the November work books, and getting the last of my online shopping done.
I hope to catch up on the blogs sometime today or tonight and truly hope all of you are doing great!!

December 1st! BFC Week 33

Hello Everybody, I have no idea what happened to my week.  One minute it's just the end of Thanksgiving and the next minute it is a week later!  Good grief!  

Anyway, yesterday was Wednesday and that is weigh in day for me.  I lost the pound I  supposedly gained over Thanksgiving and am back to 168lbs.  Will I ever be off of 168lbs, that is the question!  I only have 18 lbs left to get to my goal of 150lbs. Maybe these last 18 are the harder pounds to lose.  I don't know.  I know I still have belly fat to lose. That is the area on me where the fat collects the most.  I know I have lost all over, but why is it that your trouble areas are always the last to go?!   I started thinking about how I can tweak this diet a little to start losing again.  I really don't cheat when it comes to eating sugars or the wrong carbs.  I started thinking that maybe what I'm doing wrong is eating between meals.  Yes, I will have a handful of nuts, or a coconut flour cookie or muffin in between breakfast and lunch or between lunch and dinner, so maybe that is where my problem lies.   I am going to try to eat a bigger breakfast and a bigger lunch to see if I can stop myself from additional eating between meals.  That's the plan anyway - hopefully I can stick to it.

Today I put away ALL my pumpkins, turkeys, and Fall foilage and got out my Christmas decorations.  My husband and sons had already put up our outside lights last weekend since the weather was mild then and it was easier to do.  I like to wait until December 1st to put up the inside stuff just 'cause I'm weird like that.  More likely it is because that is what my mother did and so now that is what I do.  I told everyone at dinner that I think we should go get our tree this weekend.  Gasp!   We usually go cut down a tree two weeks before Christmas and this weekend would be three weeks before Christmas!  What am I thinking, they all wanted to know, did I think I could keep the tree alive for that extra week??  I  assured them I was up for the challenge and if I couldn't well I had certainly hauled trees out the door before that had only a few needles left on them and I could do it again if I had to.  So hopefully we will get the tree up this Sunday, and my house will smell like pine again.  I love that smell! 

You may have noticed that while I was decorating for Christmas I tried to decorate my blog a little bit too.  If I knew what I was doing when it came to blog designs I'd be dangerous!  Just for the little change you see here, there are three hours of my life that I will never see again!  Since Pattie asked us to add some pictures of our decorating I thought I'd show you this little Snowman I put up every year.  It came to me from my Grandmother after she died.  Every year she put him up in her kitchen window. When I was young my mother kept up the tradition with her own snowman that she put up every year in the kitchen just like grandma, she would say.  So when I got this guy I put him out the very first year in my kitchen to remind me of my grandmother.  He is old, and used to have a broom that got lost so I gave him a wreath to hold.  It's one of my boys favorite decorations because of the story behind it and hopefully one of them will put him in their kitchen one day.

I

 That's it for me today.  I usually do the blogs in the morning but here it is 11:00pm.  I'm off to bed!

Saturday November 26th

Good morning everybody!  I hope everyone had a really nice Thanksgiving!  Here is a little picture of my family as we sat down to dinner.  As you can see someone put a roll on my plate as a joke (they know I stay away from carbs), I passed it to my son after I sat down!  Those are most of my boys on the right and on the left is my brother and his wife and daughter.  You can't see my parents and husband at the other end of the table.  I was very happy to have everyone over.  My parents stayed the night so that my dad could do a little black friday shopping with my husband.  Jack went out at 5:00 in the morning and then came back, had breakfest and took my Dad out about 11:00 in the morning.  To be honest there was nothing out there that I felt the need to get up early and stand in line to get.  I didn't see any great deals.  My husband came home with some gadgets from Home Depot (his home away from home) and also fourteen of the 98 cent poinsettas!  I guess it's time to start decorating for Christmas.  I liked seeing my parents but they can sometimes be VERY draining!  I was actually pretty happy to see them off at about 4:00 on Friday! 

I thought I did pretty well for the holiday.  I didn't even get any of the stuffing that I was planning on having a couple spoonfuls of, but I guess that was better for me.  I ended up eating only turkey, brussel sprouts, green beans with almonds, and cauliflower gratin.  One thing I did overdo was the red wine.  I had more than the two glasses that we are allowed!   I finally weighed myself this morning and was up 1 lb.   That happens sometimes anyway so I don't think it's going to be a big problem. 

I did want to mention that I made Diana's Pumpkin Cheesecake that she had posted and it came out great!  My husband LOVED it and my boys have been into it a lot also (after the regular pumpkin, and pecan pies were gone of course).  It is very light and fluffy and not too sweet from the Truvia.

It's been such a hectic, busy week that today I'm kicking back, catching up and relaxing a bit before I start getting into Christmas mode!  Hope you all have a very nice weekend!  I'm off to read blogs!

Monday November 21

Good Morning!  Thanksgiving week has arrived.  It is a rainy, foggy day here in Maryland but the temperature is up to about 57 degrees.  I am off today to the grocery store to buy all my ingredients for Thanksgiving Day.  I have my turkey thawing out in the refrigerator already but wanted to wait to get fresh vegetables.  Tomorrow is pie making day.  I'm making a regular pumpkin pie, a chocolate pecan pie, and a BFC friendly pumpkin cheesecake.  I think that should keep everyone happy.  In the late morning of  "pie making day" I have to pick my son up from college and bring him home.  Wednesday I will clean the house and get everything ready for overnight guests.  Unfortunately my husband has still not finished the window install project.  He is down to sanding down the drywall mud (yeah, dust everywhere!!) and then painting.  Nothing like adding just a hint of stress to the holidays.

Over the weekend three of my sons and I went to a train expo at our local agricultural center.  I LOVE minature train sets and so do they!  The expo had a few train gardens set up but mainly they just had train enthusiasts buying and selling trains, parts and accessories.   I always set up a train under our Christmas tree complete with a little Christmas village.  Last year our train engine was having trouble so we were looking to find a replacement.  I am telling you that the people that are really collectors and train enthusiasts must have a lot of money, because the stuff was expensive!  We had fun going through all the rooms and looking at the vintage pieces, but we did not find a replacement.   My one son said that the train expo had the most old men he has every seen gathered together in one location!  I think I was one of the only females walking around in there.  It was still a fun day!

I wanted to tell everyone that I tried Jeri's recipes for the orange pound cake and for the spicy almond crackers, found here Orange Pound Cake Muffins and here Spicy Almond Crackers. Both of these recipes are really good!  I didn't have any orange extract or real oranges so I made my muffins with maple extract and a little more truvia than in her recipe. They were the best muffins yet in my opinion.  Tasted like the real deal!  The spice almond crackers were also delicious and make a very nice snack.  I broke mine up and put them in a little tupperware container and they lasted about a week.  I think I might make a batch as a BFC friendly snack for Thanksgiving, and maybe sprinkle some shelled pumpkin seeds on top.

I've gotten some really good ideas and recipes from these blogs!  It has been really helpful in keeping this diet interesting!  Hope everyone has a great week!

Thursday - Week 31

Thank you all so much for all your supportive comments on my huge rant the other day!  I always feel so guilty after I complain, but you guys made me feel like you could really relate.  It's so nice when someone gets what you're going through.  I feel better.

So still no loss on the dreaded scale this week.  It's the way it goes with me.  I'm hoping soon it will be time for the next pound or two to drop.  

I was thinking tonight that my cooking has really gone down hill lately.   I used to watch a lot of those cooking shows, the Barefoot Contessa being my favorite.  I would try a lot of the recipes which my family was usually pretty excited to eat.  Our meals were exciting and delicious!   Tonight I served a huge platter of stir fried bok choy, broccoli, onions, and garlic with sliced grilled London broil on the side, plus a small bowl of brown rice for those not on the BFC.   It really was not very good!  I had thought, "Oh this will be so good for us, it's mostly vegetables and I'll put the braggs in it and some minced ginger and I had marinated the beef in similar ingredients."  Blah!  Not very satisfying!   To be honest I have had quite a lot of mishap meals like this lateley.  I'm sure my family is wondering when I am going to come to my senses and start cooking some good food again.   I'm not sure why I keep trying weird things.  It's not making me happy.  A lot of my normal recipes can be easily tweaked to be BFC friendly and I think I'd better start going back to them.

One other cooking thing.  I made those little pumpkin tarts I was talking about the other day, but they were not good enough to write down the recipe.  The filling tasted just like pumpkin pie, but my almond crust got stuck in the pan while trying to pop them out, so they didn't look that good.   The crust was just almond flour (homemade), Truvia, and melted butter.  I didn't grease the pans because I thought the butter in the dough was enough, so maybe that's why they stuck?   I'll have to play with it again and see why they got stuck.   Do you guys have a good pie crust you're using for Thanksgiving? 

Well, the window has trim now, but the walls are still not drywalled or painted.  I'm sure they will get done in time for Thanksgiving.   I started looking forward to driving down to Baltimore on Saturday to drop my son off for his Praxis - the coffee and bookstore and time to myself started sounding really, really appealing!!  Then today while I was out getting supplies for my Aunt in assisted living, my son called to tell me that when he called the testing center to confirm his appointment they didn't have him listed.  Apparently the testing website had a bunch of problems on it with wrong testing centers and times, and had totally screwed up a bunch of people.    After much work Ben and I got it straightened out, but he had to move his testing time to Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving.  I'm obviously not going anywhere the day before company comes so now I've got my husband dropping him off in the morning and my oldest son picking him up in the afternoon.  I'll have to pick another time to do the coffee and bookstores, and maybe that massage Katie was talking about!  Ha!

Tuesday -November 15, 2011

I wasn't going to blog today but I realized that it's been awhile since my last blog and it isn't fair to read everyone else's blog  but not contribute.  Feeling a little bit down today and for the last few days and I'm not sure why.  My weight is the same (big surprise) and I don't think my blue mood is all about the weight loss or lack thereof.  I just feel lately that there is no fun in my life.  I get up, get things done, get things done, get things done, and go to bed.  Next day repeat!  Right now I'm in the middle of getting three months of accounting done for our business (my husband is terrible about giving me receipts in a timely fashion), also filling out financial aide forms to transfer my son from Towson University to our community college (yep - he is miserable being away from home right now and I told him to just get his gen ed credits at community college), my second oldest son is getting ready to take his Praxis teacher tests which he just found out he needs before he can register for a few mandatory classes next semester.  I spent a day with him trying to figure out where he could get the test done pronto!  It turns out he can fit into a testing center this Saturday IF he drives into Baltimore all the way to the downtown waterfront area of Canton.  He is not comfortable with driving in the city yet, so guess who gets to get up early Saturday and drive him in and then while away 4 1/2 hours in downtown Baltimore by myself while I wait for him to finish up?  I asked my husband if he could take him but "he's not sure about his schedule yet for Saturday".  My oldest son is driving me crazy just because he always drives me crazy.  It's hard having my "I know way more than you do" 22 year old son home all the time.   My husband has been working constantly and then when he is home is is either on the phone arranging things for his work (how can anyone log 2,500 phone minutes a month?) or falling asleep in his chair before 9:00pm every night.  Remember that window that has been sitting at my house?  Well he finally decided to put it in and board up the two old windows just yesterday.  That means I have construction going on in my living room for about two hours every night as he trys to fit this project into his busy schedule.

New Window & old window with drywall

Other old window behind TV/bookcase that needs drywall mud and paint

 I LOVE that he waited until the week before I'm having everyone over for Thanksgiving to start this job which will also involve painting two walls!!   So that's about it.  I spend most of my time getting things done for everyone else, and worrying about & solving everyone's predicaments.  Where is the fun???   My husband has been way too busy for the past three months for us to do anything fun together, and my"go to" boys that I always counted on to have fun with are understandably busy with school and girlfriends.   I really need to start getting out of the  house and finding something for just me to do - if I was smart that would be some kind of exercise class - but somehow that doesn't sound like fun??     What I'd really like to do is forget about all this stuff that constantly needs doing and jump in the car and take a road trip!    Well, sorry to rant and whine so much and it's not even about the BFC!!   To get back on topic, this afternoon I'm making a beef, vegetable soup for dinner and might throw in some lentils (after I check with "my fitness pal" to see how many carbs that would add).  I'm also thinking about trying to make some little mini pumpkin "tarts" with almond crust.  I'll let you know how that turns out  because they could be nice for Thanksgiving or to serve with that pumpkin cheesecake Diana posted.  Wow, I just re-read all this and I sound like such a complainer - sorry about that and thanks for letting me rant!!    Hope everyone else is feeling good!

Thursday - November 11

Well, just as expected when I weighed myself yesterday (my official weigh-in day) I was still 168lbs.  I've come to find out that this is just how my body works.  I stay the same weight for quite awhile and then all of a sudden I'll go down a pound or two.  It's been slow but I've still come a long way since last April.  I would like to get to 150lbs.  Someone asked how tall I am and I'm almost 5'7" so I think 150 lbs would be a good weight.  I'm giving myself until April to lose the last 18 pounds so that way I'm not putting too much pressure on myself.  
So I haven't had any bread for about a month.  I was doing the FT and stuck with it all the way for about two weeks and then started adding in coconut flour products and then some steel cut oats in the morning.  Yesterday I basically went back to the original BFC and for lunch I had a two pita pizzas with Delallo marinara sauce (7g,1 sugar for 1/2 cup) mozzarella and turkey bacon. It was delicious and the best part was I wasn't hungry for the rest of the afternoon!  For dinner we had chicken frajitas with grilled peppers, sour cream and homemade pico de gallo - I just eat it all on my plate and don't put it on a tortilla.  I felt great all day!  I think I missed my regular food!
This brings me to the fact that I believe,for me, the FT was a little too restrictive.  It didn't seem to make me lose any faster than I was losing before and it left me a little hungry and maybe a little unsatisfied.  I think because I was hungry between meals I was making pumpkin muffins and lemon coconut bread and stuff like that and was grabbing bites of it all day instead of just filling up at each meal with good foods.   I will probably still make the lemon coconut bread (my favorite) or the coconut cookies but will use them in place of a piece of chocolate after dinner instead of a way to keep me full during the day.

Speaking of eating during the day, does anyone else ever come up short trying to think of things to have for lunch?    I enjoyed the pita pizzas and they are quick to make but of course I can't have them every day.  I have never been a sandwich girl for lunch because I don't really like lunch meats - which is probably a good thing. I do like peanut butter sandwiches but don't want to have too many of them.  I would rely on leftovers but very rarely are their leftovers in this house of men and if there are I can't get to them before someone else does.   Half the time my lunch time is spent running around doing errands so I'm not really in the house to cook and need something quick and easy for lunch.  I remember one time Pattie posted everyone's good ideas for breakfast and I was just wondering what everyone did for lunch.

I started tracking my food again with "My fitness Pal" because I was getting really lazy about doing that.  If you eat different things, or make a new recipe you have to type in all the ingredients and stuff to get it stored.  Sometimes I just try to find something already in the program that is very similar to what I've eaten.   I have it set up to monitor carbs, sugars, fiber, sodium and calories.   I'm still trying to keep my calories decent and my sugars below the 16 allowed and my total carbs at under 80.  

I really do like hearing about everyone's great ideas and new recipes but I already feel better just going back to the basics the way I started, and think it will definitely be easier through the holidays.  I'm a little behind on the blogs and am going to read them now!  Hope everyone is doing well!

Sunday November 6

Thank you all for sharing where you are from!  I really enjoyed seeing how spread out we are across the country!  A nice little concentration up in the North West.  I've never been that far across the country and find it so interesting to hear about what its like there and everywhere else!

So it sounds like this week everyone is getting a bit down.  I think it might have something to do with the upcoming holidays.  It's that time of the year where we eat, drink and be merry and here we all are on a "no sugar - low carb" diet (or some variation)!  It sort of puts a damper on the festivities and the joy of eating to our hearts content!   My husband just told me that he would like to drop another five pounds before Thanksgiving so that he could put it back on over the holiday!   No!  We shouldn't be thinking that way!  We should be thinking about what delicious dishes we can serve and eat that will enable us to enjoy the holidays and not feel deprived!  I've been working on my menu keeping in mind that while my husband and I are doing the BFC plan no one else coming will want to be "restricted".  My menu is still a work in progress but so far I've come up with this:

Turkey with fresh herb butter basted under its skin
Traditional bread stuffing (that I will try to stay away from,but I have to have or my father probably wouldn't come, lol!)
Spinach salad
Mashed potatoes and gray (for guests)
Corn pudding (my mom's recipe - for guests)
Roasted brussel sprouts(my new favorite veggie - they taste so good roasted with bit of parm cheese & olive oil!)
Green beans w/ almonds or the cheesy baked cauliflower that Pattie had on her blog way back when.

Desert:
Traditional Pumpkin Pie
Traditional Apple Pie
BFC Pumpkin pie with an almond crust
Real Whipped Cream sweetened with stevia for all!

See, this will give me and my husband a plate of herb roasted turkey, brussel sprouts, green beans (or cauliflower), & spinach salad!  Plus a nice piece of bfc friendly pie and whipped cream for desert!  See no feeling deprived over here!

Now Christmas will be another matter!  To quote Scarlett, "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow"

November 2 - BFC week 29

I am back down to 168lbs today and if I know my body on the BFC, I'll probably be at this weight for the next month!  Doesn't bother me too much, because I'm almost down 30 pounds since I started, my sizes are smaller, I feel good (except for this darn cold I'm trying to get rid of), and I hope I will be at my goal weight of 150lbs by my one year anniversary next April.

So speaking of the months of the year,  how can it already be November!  Wasn't it just summer?   Now comes the incredibly fast paced days that occur from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas.  I feel like I'm already behind, lol!  I talked to my older brother, Steve and his family and also my parents this week and have asked them all  to come to my house for Thanksgiving.  No one in my family ever seems to organize anything and I always end up having the family get-togethers.  One year I decided to forget it, that I wasn't going to do all the work that year, and then no one else did either.  We ended up just having our own Thanksgiving dinner.  When you have your own Thanksgiving dinner with no other people, it turns into just a regular dinner at your house where you just happen to be having turkey.  At least that's how it is over here.  It really is much more fun to have people over, to talk, to pour some wine, and to laugh, even if you have to do a lot of work to make it happen.  I now have to come up with some great menu that will keep everyone happy.  Remember me talking about my sister in law that was at the beach with us?  The one that is really overweight that said anything without sugar tastes disgusting?!   Well, she will be here too.  I think I will make some BFC dishes and some old "regular" dishes and do the same with desert, one BFC and one or two "regular".   So I was wondering what all the rest of you are thinking of having?  I know Dawn is doing the Costco  dinner (smart!) but what about everyone else?  Some of you were on the BFC last Thanksgiving and I'm hoping you'll share what worked and what didn't.  I love getting ideas, recipes and inspiration from all of you.  When I get my menu planned I'll post it here also.

Off the subject of Thanksgiving, I was thinking about our recent snow (which is all gone now thank goodness).  Everyone was talking about how early it was for snow in their area and stuff.  I know from your posts where some of you live but I was wondering what state everyone lives in.  It might have been said before but I might have not been blogging then.  If you don't mind, could you share what state you live in and what kind of winters you get?   I live in Westminster, Maryland and we get all four seasons.  Snow doesn't usually start until some time in December and doesn't usually get heavy until Jan, Feb., and sometimes March.  It's interesting to hear how everyone else lives, don't you think?   Thanks for listening and hope you all have a great day!

Saturday Oct. 29 - Halloween Snow!

Well this has been a very busy week!  I've been trying to catch up on paperwork for our home improvements business and think I finally have things under control in that department.  We also run another business that involves taking care of nine rental properties that my in-laws invested in seven years ago.  We basically run every aspect of the business from checking out prospective tenants, collecting rents,maintaining the properties, and even evicting if we have to. This week two really nice college girls moved out of one of our townhouses and I've been trying to post ads, show the property and run credit checks.  We are down to two prospective tenants so hopefully we will have it rented very soon.   It was also homecoming week at my son's high school and this year because of the proximity to Halloween their theme was "Haunted Homecoming".  Fun!  My son got into it and went in different costumes for the different days of the week.  I don't think I've helped out with costumes for him since elementary school.  It was a lot of fun.  Tonight is the homecoming dance but.........we woke up to snow!!  According to the weatherman we haven't had snow before Halloween since 1979 (the year I graduated- but I don't remember it).  Anyway at about 12:00 noon we got an email from the school saying the dance has been postponed to November 12 due to inclement weather.  It's not too big of a deal for my son, but I feel bad for all the girls that were getting their hair and nails done and stuff like that.  So instead of getting ready for a dance we carved Halloween pumpkins today with the snow blowing around outside.  It's still snowing now.  I don't know what is happening with the weather in our area this year but its getting weird.  We've had an earthquake, a hurricane and now this early snow!!    Here is what my backyard looks like today:

 

I lost one of my Bradford Pear trees :(

I've been doing pretty good on the BFC.  Besides some oatmeal in the morning with a few walnuts and blueberries, the coconut bread, and of course my almond coconut "cookies", I've pretty much cut all other grains out of my diet.  I was looking up the other day about why I could lose clothes sizes and not pounds and I found this interesting article by Sonya Tilley over on Carbsmart.  I'll copy the part of her article here that explains why our bodies can sometimes lose sizes but not pounds, because I think that has definitely happened to me. 

"Let me tell you what happens when you lose a pound of fat. Your body has been saving this fat for that long hunting expedition you're going to have to go on to track, kill, dress and retrieve that huge animal. It keeps the fat in little pillows distributed throughout your body. When you start losing fat, it doesn't trust you to continue whatever insane path you have chosen that is causing the fat to dissipate. So, when the fat comes out of the pillow, it injects water as a "place holder." Sometimes that water actually replaces the weight of the fat it lost. Sometimes it replaces the volume.
Water weighs more than fat just like lead sinkers weigh more than feathers. If you stuff a pillow with a pound of feathers, you'll have a nice big pillow. If you stuff a pillow with a pound of lead sinkers, you'll have a nice (but rather hard and uncomfortable), small pillow. Now, let's say your body removes a pound of fat and replaces the weight with a pound of water. Your weight will stay the same, but you will be smaller. But, if your body decides to replace the lost fat by volume, that is a quite different story. Remember the great big feather pillow as compared to the tiny lead sinker pillow? Well, now think of a gallon of feathers and a gallon of lead sinkers. Try to pick up the gallon of feathers. Piece of (you'll pardon the expression) cake. Now, try to pick up the gallon of lead sinkers. Sucker's heavy, ain't it? So, you will be smaller, but you will have gained weight.
Eventually, your body makes the executive decision that you are not going to replace the fat you lost, and it lets go of the water. In the words of Danny Skaist: "When your body accepts the fact that they are no longer needed, the water will be expelled and the cells closed. This is known as the "whoosh."

That being said I did manage to lose 2 lbs this week and my size 12 pants are fitting perfectly.  I am still hoping to have my "whoosh" one of these days.  Tonight I'm making my husband the cauliflower crust pizza and the boys are having "make your own" night.  I do that every once in awhile on a Saturday night when everyone has some crazy schedule and also as a chance to let the boys learn to cook thier own meals once in awhile.  I don't want my future daughter-in-laws to hate me!
Hope everyone has a really nice rest of the weekend and I hope you are enjoying FALL not Winter!!

Monday October 24

Hi you guys!  I just wanted to pop on and post the cookie recipe that we've been eating a lot of over here.  I make these every Sunday so that I can put them in my son's school lunch.  I always have enough left over so that I can have one or two a day also.  They are made with coconut flour so I think they are permitted on the Fast Track too.

Chocolate Coconut Cookies

5 Tablespoons of butter or coconut oil (I use coconut oil)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup of cream
1  1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup of sugar equivalent ( I use 1/2 cup of erythritol or xyitol plus 1 truvia)
4 eggs
1 cup of unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup of coconut flour
almonds

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F

1.) Melt coconut oil (or butter)  and pour in mixing bowl
2.) Whisk in cocoa powder until blended.  Whisk in salt, vanilla and sweetner
3.) Taste.  Make sure it is sweet enough for you.  If not add more here.
4.) Whisk the eggs into mixture until well blended.  Add cream and blend.
5.) Add your unsweetened coconut now while you can still mix.
6.)Add coconut flour and blend well.  The flour will absorb a lot of the moisture and it will look like cookie dough in a minute.

  

7.)  Using cookie scoop or tsps, drop cookie dough onto cookie sheet.  You can space them pretty close together because they don't spread.

 

 8.) Push each scoop down and place an almond in middle of each

 9.) Bake at 350 F    I bake mine for about 10 -11 minutes so they are still a little fudge-like.  If you bake them too long they come out too dry (like all coconut flour products that are cooked too long).

Makes about 24 cookies  and per cookie they are 4 carbs, 1 sugar, 2 fibers  (and for those that count 92calories)


Hope you like them, and have a great day!

BFC week - 28

I had a fun day today. Instead of worrying about the family and the business (too much) I had a "me" day.  I drove about an hour to a town a couple of towns over from me and went shopping at the Whole Foods.  I've been there before but it was before I started the BFC and back then I was just admiring the store because of my love of  "Top Chef".  Whole Foods is where all the chefs always go for their food shopping (me and my second oldest LOVE that show).  Anyway  today I went there looking for BFC motivation and goodies and I found both.  I found some things that are not at my local grocery store like that I've been wanting to try like:

They don't sell this near me.  They only sell the Dairy free version not sugar free.

Or these either!  I haven't tasted either yet but I plan to

I went looking for the Apple Cider Tea but they unfortunately did not have any.    So I looked around at the other flavors.  I LOVE the Double Dark Chocolate Mate but still have a bunch at home so I decided to give this a try!  Had a cup as soon as I got home and it is SO good!!  If you like mint chocolate chip ice cream you'll probably like this.

I also saw this one there.  I like bananas but I don't miss them that much, but I know some of you said that you miss bananas so this might be the perfect tea for you!

Then I saw these!  They have 4 sugars per TABLESPOON!  They would be perfect on top of some steel cut oatmeal or on some of those pumpkin muffins or cookies!  You wouldn't even need anywhere near a TBS. 

Besides these goodies, I also found some St. Josephs sugar free crunchy peanut butter, and the St. Josephs sugar free cookies.  They also had Zevia on sale for half price so I got a six pack to save for pizza night (that's the only time I really crave a soda).  They also sold Zevia individually so I picked up a different flavor to try besides my favorite ginger root beer.   I wish we could always just try just one of something instead of having to buy the whole pack before we know if we like it or not.  The only thing I couldn't find at Whole Foods was the Nature's Hollow sugar free Jam which was a bummer, but the rest of my haul made up for it!  So, after going to Whole Foods  I stopped at the J.C.Penny's nearby and bought a pair of jeans and a pair of cords in a size 12!  It's so weird because the scale does not seem to be moving but yet I'm in a size 12 jeans.  I'm 5'6" and a medium/large build and I've never been much below a size 12 - maybe a size 10 way back when.   It's also weird because I was getting discouraged with the BFC just yesterday to the point of looking up other diets and seeing if there was anything else out there for me. I get discouraged because I'm strict about this diet and feel like the weight should be falling off instead of staying the same or coming off so slowly. The problem is that no other diet looks good to me.  I don't really want to start anything new.  I don't want to change my mind about what I can and can't eat.  I'm used to eating this way and nothing else looks good to me or feels right to me. So today when I strolled through Whole Foods I was trying to get myself motivated again and I think I did that.  Once I got my new jeans I felt good about myself. (Although I still think they must be making clothes bigger these days if I'm getting into a size 12 at this point.) I've also decided that this week I'm going to go through all my old recipes and find the ones that will work on the BFC.  I'm sure I have a lot of soups, stews, and pot roasts and things like that that would work just fine,.  I'm going to dig them all up and put together my own little BFC cookbook of things I like and things I know my family likes.  Then I'm going to just keep going. I hope I'm not being too negative on here.  I just try to be honest about my journey on this food plan.  I really do appreciate everyone's thoughts, ideas,  support and also just reading about everyone else's journey too!  You're all awesome!

Monday - Oct. 17th

Hello everyone!  It's Monday evening and I just thought I'd pop on and check in.  My 14 day Fast Track officially ended yesterday although I still have not had any grain carbs.  I think I stayed on it pretty well.  I definitely did not have any grain carbs for the full 14 days, except I did not give up my Benefiber.  I tried to give it up and get my fiber from vegetables  but I could not eat enough.  I also did not realize that green beans were not allowed on FT and I did have those the first week too!   This past week I broke down and added the coconut bread back in.  I really missed the lemon coconut bread in the morning and also the coconut chocolate cookies that I make my son.   I know coconut flour is allowed on FT but the eating of baked goods just seemed wrong.   So,all in all for me,  the FT did not seem to make much difference in my weight loss.  I lost 2lbs in the beginning and then gained them back somehow.  I haven't weighed myself again on my "official" scale since last Wednesday and will do an official weigh in this Wednesday.   I do feel like eating without grains was not that difficult to do.  I don't think I'll stick to it 100% though.  I don't think I eat that many grain carbs as it is, but I might want a piece of toast with my eggs now and then, or a pizza for lunch made with St. Joseph's Pitas.   The weird thing about this eating plan is that even though I've been stuck on a certain weight for awhile I'm still going down in clothes sizes.  How can that be?  It's weird and I don't really get it.  I think I will just keep going the way I've been going and even it it takes me a whole year or longer I will finally get to my goal weight of 150lbs.    By the way I have been loving the different recipes people have been putting on their blogs.  Yesterday I made those Pumpkin muffins that Amber had posted and I have to tell you they were VERY good.  I got 11 medium sized muffins out of her recipe and they came out very moist and delicious.  I also made the chocolate/mascarpone candies that Dawn had linked on one of her blogs.  I had to use the Simply Lite candy bar melted down for the chocolate coating on the candies though since the cocoa powder coating didn't work for me.   I also just saw a post about Republic of Tea selling Apple Cider Tea!  Doesn't that sound perfect for Fall?!  I think I might have to try it.

Wednesday - Fast Track day 11 / BFC week 27

Weigh in day today and it was disappointing.  Got on the right scale this morning and weighed in before coffee and breakfast and I'm back up two pounds - 172lbs again.   I have to say it's disappointing.   I thought this FT was going to help me move past this stupid 172 plateau, but here I am still at the same weight.  I can't even point at a particular mishap like eating something off plan, or eating too much of something.  I just don't really get it.  My food yesterday was:

Breakfast - two scrambled eggs with Canadian bacon, spinach, & parm. cheese mixed in.
Lunch - 4 slices Genoa salami, 2 slices Swiss cheese 1/2 cup pecans
Snack - 1 cup of decaff with stevia and heavy cream
Dinner - chicken fajita salad with sour cream, spinach, onions and colored peppers
After dinner - 1 cup decaff with stevia and heavy cream 2 squares of Lindt 85%

In trying to figure out the reason for the gain I looked over my food tracker for the past week.  The only thing I could come up with was the day before yesterday I had smoked sausage (no sugar in ingredients) and Amish sauerkraut and roasted Kale chips for dinner.   When I recorded that on My Fitness Pal food tracker I saw the sodium content was HUGE on that meal.  Maybe I need to start watching the sodium content more because I'm retaining water or something.  I still drink 5 or 6 glasses of water a day at least but it might not have been enough for that huge sodium hit I took.
I've also been staying away from coconut flour for the past 11 days even though it is technically not a grain.  It doesn't seem to be making any difference in my weight loss so I'm going to add that back in .., probably starting with today.
I'm not giving up but it is so hard to follow something so exactly and just maintain.  I know I have at least twenty more pounds to go.  Hope everyone else has better luck this week!

Monday -October 10

So still following the Fast Track and today will be day nine already!  As far as I know I haven't dropped anymore weight since my last check in, but I haven't weighed in on my primary scale since last Thursday - I can never get to it before my coffee and stuff.  I would move the scale somewhere else but my husband and son use it too so I leave it in the shared bathroom.  On Wednesday weigh in day I'll get up even earlier than 6:15am to see what my weight really is.  Sticking to the no grains hasn't really been that hard for me but I think that's because like I told you I've done a diet like this before and I'm a bit used to it.  I noticed that everyone has still been making coconut flour products even on the FT.  I've been avoiding them for some reason.  Even though I know coconut flour is not a grain, it just seems like it once you're eating pancakes and bread.  I think after my 14 days are up I will start incorporating the coconut bread and other products back in to my diet but try leaving out wheat grains for a while longer and see how that does.  Dawn always has such delicious looking treats and things that she comes up with using coconut bread or almond flour - I'm dying to try some of them!

Other than BFC  things have been going ok.   I've got my dog on heart medicine now for his enlarged heart/congestive heart failure.  The vet says there might be another pill we could try that may improve his quality of life and maybe even extend his life by many months.  The only thing is the pill would NOT be good for him if his enlarged heart was caused by something other than a bad valve.  The vet is guessing that he has a bad valve, but the only way to know for sure would be a very expensive echocardiogram .  Without it I would be taking a gamble of the pills helping or hurting him.  Why is life always so difficult with these difficult decisions to make.

My oldest son that got his degree last May and has been sending out a million resumes since while living at home, finally found a job last Thursday!  The only twist, is that it is a start up graphic design/web design company and he would have to start out as an independent contractor.  That means getting paid for each job he does, not getting benefits and paying his own taxes.  I told him to take it.  Anything is better than sitting in his room all day sending out resumes.  The main thing everyone is looking for these days is experience on top of the degree.  This way, even if this company folds, he will have gained a bunch of experience.  If the company doesn't fold and ends up taking off, then he would the first designer hired and could really move up in the company.  So either way its a no brainer win/win for my son.

My son that is in Towson University with the two partying roommates, got de-tripled last week!  Yeah!  He was a little stressed because the college made him move to a new room in a new building and the move had to take place after 7pm at night on a Tuesday, so that the RA's would be on duty to sign him in and out.  Nothing like moving everything you own and sleeping in a new room with a new complete stranger in the middle of a school week on top of classes and homework.  My oldest son and I went over to help him move and it all turned out pretty well.  At least he is now in a room with only one other guy.  The new guys seems pretty nice and is definitely mellow.  He has posters all over his side of the room about how pot should be legalized.  But Nick says he is nice and won't bring his habits into the room.  Nick has already pretty much decided that he wants to do his next 1& 1/2 years at the community college near our house.  I just think he is not ready to live on his own just yet and misses home and his brothers.  Doing community college to get his gen ed's out of the way is fine with me.  It will save us money too - that is always a good thing!

Thats about it around here.  My husband and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on Saturday by going craft shopping and then seeing the movie, "The Ides of March" the political thriller with George Clooney.  We had dinner at Carrabbas which we love because you can get Italian food without the pasta. Mine was cheese stuffed chicken breast with a lemon garlic cream sauce over the chicken and the julienne zucchini that went with it.  Delicious!  Hope everyone has a great day!

Thursday 10/6 -Fast Track Day 5/BFC Week 26

Today is the start of day 5 on the Fast Track.  I actually got into the bathroom before anybody else today and was able to weigh myself before even my first cup of coffee.  The scale read 170lbs!  That is a two pound loss for me -FINALLY!!  I think this FT may have nudged me past my plateau.  I still think that in this stage of the game I'm just losing slower than I was in the beginning, but that's really ok.  The other day I noticed that I was constantly hiking up my size 14 jeans, so when I was in Walmart the other day I grabbed a cheap pair of 12's thinking they would be too tight but at least I'd have them for when the 14's were really too big(I'm just doing cheap jeans now until I get to goal)  When I got home I tried them on and they actually fit.  I am still surprised because I didn't have to suck it in and really pull to get them buttoned or anything - they just fit.  Now this doesn't mean I don't still have some extra fat on top of the jeans,because I most definitely do.  The "old" size 14's do not create any "muffin top" because they are a bit big,, but the size 12's do create a bit of a "muffin top" so that I wouldn't want to wear a tight shirt with them.  Still work to be done and weight to be lost for sure.   I do believe that wherever we have our BIGGEST trouble spot is going to be the LAST place to lose all the weight.  I mean if you are a big thighs person then that might be your last hurdle, for me it's always been the stomach area that is my trouble spot so that will probably be my last hurdle.

I'm following the FT for 14 days but not exactly the menus in the book.  I'm making sure all my meals are fats/proteins and no grains or carbs except for veggies.  I'm still putting my meals into the food tracker to see how I'm doing, even though technically we are not supposed to count anything on the fast track.  My fiber seems to be suffering a little I think its down to about 16 or 17 grams a day.  But hey, that's the best I can do on the FT and it still seems to be working.  Yesterday I ate:

Breakfast - two coffees with cream, left over chicken breast, and celery with a cream cheese artichoke spread
Lunch - I was running around doing errands so I managed about 4 pieces of genoa salami, a few more celery sticks, a handful of macadamia nuts that I keep in the car and one Hint water.  (normally my lunch is a salad with grilled chicken, some raw broccoi and ranch dressing)
Snack - After that  small lunch I needed a handful of pecans, a cup of hot tea and one square of Lindt 85% to keep me going until dinner.
Dinner - I made homemade regular pizza for the boys and the Cauliflower pizza for me and my husband.  I just have to say that it was my first time making the cauliflower pizza and it was delicious!!  Couldn't even taste the cauliflower!
After dinner - one square of Lindt 85% and one decaff with stevia and cream
Also had another cup of hot tea later while watching Mythbusters with my son.

I love how everyone is keeping us posted on the FT news and regular BFC/other diet news!  I think it also helps to see the foods people are eating.  I know I like to see the menus. I'm hoping this FT will get me down into the160's!  (hopefully did not just jinx myself there)

Our sun finally came out yesterday after what seemed like two weeks of gloom & rain!  Hope the sun comes out for everyone today!

Monday Oct. 3 - Fast Track

Wow the weather has turned cold!  We went from having our A/C on last week, to turning it off and opening windows, to closing windows and turning on the heat - all within a matter of days!  This morning it was 48' outside! Brrr   

I officially started the Fast Track yesterday.  I weighed in first thing in the morning and the scale jumped back and forth between 172lbs and 171lbs and finally settled on 171!  Hooray!  Maybe the one pound difference means I'm on the move again - or maybe it was a fluke and I'm not really down a pound.  I'll know for sure on my official weigh in day of Wednesday.
My first day on the Fast Track started out pretty well.  I spent the afternoon at the grocery store stocking up for what I'd need plus, since my boys eat me out of house and home,  I needed to replenish grocery's for them as well.  Here is what I had yesterday:
Breakfast - Two egg omelet with cheddar cheese, three slices of pepper coated bacon and two coffees with heavy cream
Lunch  - Three pieces of salami, one piece of provolone cheese, 1/4 piece of leftover chicken breast
Dinner - Scampi style Shrimp, with added artichokes and spinach.  Four stuffed mini colored peppers, stuffed with a cream cheese blend of cheese, avacodo, garlic, and jalepeno pepper.
Snacks for the day - Just a couple of cups of tea and two pieces of 86% chocolate

So not so bad for a first day.  I didn't miss grains at all, but of course it's only the first day. To mentally get ready for this challenge I've been reading a lot of stuff by Gary Taubes over the weekend.  He is the one that wrote "Why We Get Fat", and I think he was a big influence for the Belly Fat Cure.  There is a lot of science on how carbs (especially sugars) are what are making us fat, clogging our arteries, and numerous diseases.  He talks a lot about how the conventional stuff we've been taught about "calories in and calories out", saturated fats being bad for your heart, and exercise helps you lose weight are all wrong.  He says a lot of the reason we've been told the wrong thing is big companies that have a lot of money run surveys and tests that sway public opinion towards thinking the way that is best for their companies.  Very interesting, but since all the low fat, low calories nutrition stuff has been pounded in my head since I was young it is hard to start thinking any other way.  I mean I'm convinced the sugar is bad and causes a lot of diseases but it's hard to not believe that saturated fats do not actually cause heart disease.  Have any of you guys read the scientific stuff by Gary Taubes?  I'm still reading.

Kyle & brother Ben being goofy as always

Other than BFC.  We all went to the Renaissance Fair in Crownsville, MD  on Saturday.  We have been going every year since the boys were small and now we take them and their girlfriends.   It is a lot of fun if you like the Medieval time period - and what boys do not like knights, swords and jousting?!  There are shows like sword swallowing, hypnotists, a joust, King Henry the VIII and his court, and stuff like that.  My guys put on capes and medievel hats when we go because about 2/3 of the people at the Fair are dressed up and talk to you in character.  My youngest son, Kyle, put on this knight stuff from an old Halloween costume and for some reason wanted to wear a fake beard and he looked pretty cool, and way older than his 16 years!

Hope everyone else is having a great beginning of the week whether you are going Fast Track, regular BFC,  maintenance, WW, or something in between!

Thursday - week 25

Still trudging along on the BFC.  Sticking to the diet almost perfectly!  Like a few other people on here I've decided to try the Fast Track starting this Sunday to see if that will get me past this ridiculous plateau I'm on.  Hello body - you are not done at 172lbs, now get moving!!.  I could never have "no carbs" for the long term, but I'm sure I can probably do it for 14 days.   A few years ago (maybe more like five) I did the Suzanne Somers diet which was very similar to the Belly Fat Cure.  I lost weight on it. The only problem was I couldn't stick to it long term, and once I started eating "regular" I eventually gained back the weight.  Her diet had you eating meals that were either all carbs, or all fats/proteins and you could never mix grains with fats/proteins.  She also had a list of "funky" foods that you could never have and that was pretty much things like nuts, yogurts, dark chocolate, milk (she never mentioned almond milk as an alt.), and stuff like that.  Plus you had to give up caffeine- what!!  To be honest it was a little too complicated and I didn't like not ever mixing anything.  You couldn't have a sandwich, cereal with milk, any grains with your dinner. Then she started putting out her own food products that were seriously expensive - I never bought any.  Anyway I did it for about six months but I could not commit to it forever.  But the premise was good and the idea of getting out of sugars was good.  That's why when I saw the BFC it looked really appealing to me because it had the same ideas but looked easier to do and maybe something I could do forever.  I do like it much more because it lets me eat things I like and when I want to make something easy like Uncle Sams for breakfast, or a sandwich for lunch I can do that too!  I can't always cook every meal!   The Fast Track sounds a bit like the Suzanne Somers diet in that I must choose a fat/protein meal with no grains.  I just have to do it every meal.  I think I  can do this for 14 days.   Hopefully this will announce to my body that I am not in maintenance darn it!  I still have 22 lbs to go!!

Monday -September 26th

I have been really bad this past week in tracking my foods.  I've still been eating pretty much the same as I have been so I sort of know what the daily totals would be like, but still, I think tracking is a good idea and I'm back to it.  I had a really nice time on our short, overnight Lancaster trip.  We left right after my son got on the school bus Thursday morning.  Since we only live about an hour and 1/2 from that part of Lancaster we got up there fairly early.  We spent all of Thursday shopping around at the little craft shops.  I love all that kind of stuff and it was so nice having no boys with us acting bored out of their minds.  My husband actually likes shopping too so that is nice.  I have to say we never ate any really good food while we were there.  We stopped at a family restaurant for lunch and it turned out to be mainly a buffet type place which I don't like.  The small menu part was all sandwiches so I got a sausage and saurkraut sandwich and told them to leave off the roll and just put it on the plate.  It was OK.  That night at the dinner theater my parents wanted to see they also had a buffet!  It was pretty bad!!  Some kind of meatloaf gel-like thing, creamed corn, carrots and peas mixed, and a tasteless chicken and broccoli casserole thing.   Blah!!  Skipped the veggies, except the pre-served salad, and ate the two meats.  At least there was no chance of overeating!!  The play was called "John loves Mary" and was a farce about a WWI veteran bringing home a wife for a friend that saved his life in the war, but the friend turned out to be already married.   I think my husband and I were the only ones in the theater under the age of 65!  It was nice to to this with my parents though.  The next day was breakfast at the hotel. My dad can't pass up a deal and the hotel included a "hot" breakfast.  This turned out to be round sausages that were cooked about two hours before anyone got up, and some kind of egg beater eggs.  Another round of shopping followed, and we got some nice lanterns with those wax electric candles that are on timers.  They come on by themselves for five hours and then turn off by themselves for 19 hours and then keep repeating that pattern.  So cool!  On the way home it poured down rain and we got stuck in a ton of traffic.  We had to pick up my son at Towson and we were about an hour late!  Oh well.

  I stayed away from the scale all the rest of the weekend and finally just got back on today - 172lbs again!  What in the world!  It's so weird how long I seem to last on one number.  I think I'm going to try that Fast Track challenge that is happening in a week or so.  I might start on it a little early too, just to see if that shakes things up. I know I couldn't do no carbs forever, but I think I can do it for one or two weeks.  I might switch my probiotics to a different brand also.  The ones I'm using right now are not capsule form, which Jorge says is the better kind.  I might try this one which I found on sale at Walgreens.

What kind does everyone else use?  Any recommendations?  That's about it for today.  I have to run and take my dog to the Vet.  He started his heart medicine last week and they want to re-check him today to see if it is the right dosage and all that.  Hope everyone has a great day! 

 

Wednesday 9/21 - week 24

There really is nothing much to report this week.  I'm stuck at 172lbs.  It seems to be that once I lose a pound or two I must than stay at the new weight for a few weeks before I'm allowed to go further.  Why this is, I have no clue!  I don't do anything differently, stay true to the 15/6, and don't cheat.  It's just the way it is with me. Lose a couple, wait, wait, wait, wait, lose a couple, repeat.    Like I said before I have noticed quite a difference in my clothes getting too big which makes me feel great, even if the scale isn't moving that quickly.  It's weird.  So,  I haven't been on the blogs too much the last day or two and it looks like I've missed a barrage of postings!!   This week has been so busy, with our business, vet visits, and assisted living visits. I have an elderly Aunt and I am responsible for her.  It's a long story but because of her diabetes she ended up having her foot amputated and than had to go live in an assisted living.  I take care of her bills, and personal needs and I try to see her once every one to two weeks to see if she needs anything. Things were rocky between us for awhile, but it's gotten a lot better this past year.  Today was her birthday, so I went to visit and bring her flowers. It was nice.  Tomorrow my husband are going to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to meet my parents at a dinner theater up there.  It will be the first time my husband and I have ever gone away overnight together without any of our boys coming with us, during a school week. In fact the times we've gone away together by ourselves in the last twenty years can easily be counted on one hand. It still feels very strange to me even though I actually only have one kid  left in public school - and he's in 11th grade!   We will be back on Friday, so its really not that big of a deal, just very unusual for me.  Lancaster, Pa is also Amish country and while we are up there I hope to check out some craft stores, and fresh vegetable stands to see what I can find.  I looked up the dinner theater menu for tomorrow night and there is really only two things on it that we can eat, a chicken broccoli casserole, and some kind of meatloaf.  The rest of the stuff is basically, potatoes, rolls, corn, ravioli, baby carrots and a desert buffet.  My dad thinks the food at these places is to die for and I'm thinking my husband and I will have a big, late lunch somewhere good and then go to the dinner theater not that hungry.  Plus we will have to bring dark chocolate with us to avoid the desert buffet!  Good grief!  I hope the play is good!
Hope everyone else has a good rest of the week.  I think I'll go catch myself up!

Saturday 9/17 - dog stress

Nothing new in the weight department today.  I really appreciated everyone's comments and encouragement on my last post.  I still might try the fast track in a week or two to see how it works, but other than that I'm not going to change anything else I'm doing.  I feel like I've gotten to a point where I'm eating so much healthier than I used to, choose only healthy carbs now when I have them, and only get sugar from basically my vegetables and dark chocolate in the evening.  I think the weight will come off even it takes me another six months to lose the last twenty.  Even though the scale is slow, I've really noticed a difference in my clothes.  I used to wear a size 16 pants and right before I started the BFC I had even bought a couple size 18's.  I'm 5' 6" and even before I was married and had kids (almost 23 years ago), I wore a size 12, maybe some of my clothes were a size 10. I was in shape then too!  Unless they are making sizes different these days I have no idea how people are getting into size 6's or 4's.  Anyway, it's getting cooler here now and I went to try on my jeans and they were too big - yeah!  I decided to just buy a cheap pair at Walmart for now since I'm still hoping to lose more weight.  I bought a size 14 and believe it or not, they not only fit but I can fit two fingers in the waist while I've got them on!  My shirts went from a size 1X to a size L.  So in general I am doing pretty well, I just have to stop being in such a rush and give myself time to lose the weight in a healthy way.

So in other news I got some bad news about my dog this week.  We have two dogs, Buddy & Marley.  Marley is three years old and is a yellow lab/retriever mix.  Buddy is an Australian shepherd/beagle mix. Buddy will be eleven this March.  Anyway, in the last three weeks Buddy has developed a cough that sounds like kennel cough.  I took him into the vet this week and they told me he has a heart murmur.  The vet wants me to take him to a canine cardiologist that is about 45 minutes away.  She told me their workup would be about $450.00 to diagnose his heart condition and find the right meds for him.  Geesh!!  I love my dogs but I have two kids in college and that is a lot of money!  So after much thought (and kids making me feel guilty) I decide to do it.  I call the cardiologist yesterday and they say it's not $450 it's $600!  Well that is just too much for only a diagnosis.  I started looking around for other vets in my area that might be able to figure out my dogs problems without him going to a cardiologist and I finally found one that sounded hopeful. This vet told me she could do all the diagnostic tests the cardiologist would do except for a heart sonogram.  She sounded super nice and talked with me on the phone herself for about twenty minutes. She even said she could see him the next morning, which is this morning.  I hope she gives me some better news and I'm able to give Buddy another couple years with medication.  I love dogs, and have always had them, but I do hate this part.  The part when they get older and such hard decisions are needed.  Wish me luck!

Buddy & Marley