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!