Birthday Cake

Hi everyone!  Yesterday was my husband's 51st birthday.  He is three months younger than me so I always kid him about me being the "older" women in his life!  The boys and I took him out to The Outback Restaurant for his birthday dinner.  It was a nice time.  No girlfriends this time just us and our boys. That's nice every once in awhile, isn't it?  We met at the restaurant close to my oldest son's apartment so he would be able to join us after he got off work.  The only temptation at the Outback for me is that darn Blooming Onion!  I took a few sections of it and it really made me want the whole thing!  Luckily I was able to resist...but just barely! One good thing about having boys is they scarf everything down so quickly it gets rid of temptations!   Dinner was easy with the Ceasar salad and grilled shrimp on top.  Yum!
During the day I made my husband a sugar-free chocolate cake with chocolate icing!  It came out really nice and tasted great!   This is one of those "the secret is black beans" cakes, but you would NEVER know while eating it. Even though it's "healthy" I still only had one piece.

I found the recipe over on Healthy Indulgences blog.  If anyone is interested you can find it here: http://www.healthyindulgences.net/2009/05/healthy-chocolate-cake-with-secret.html

We leave for the Outerbanks in a week.  This year we taking all the boys (of course), my oldest son's girlfriend, my older dog Marley, and the new puppy (Mabel) and as an added twist this year...my parents.  I love my parents but they are getting grumpy in their older age and bicker constantly with each other.  My brother and his family are also going down for the week like usual but they get a separate beach house.  My brother's wife and my mother have a hard time getting along, so I hope this whole trip will still be nice and relaxing for me and I won't have to the peacekeeper for everyone while we are there! That might be wishful thinking, fingers crossed!

Taking Mabel will also be a little bit of a trial.  I almost had her completely house trained and then she got a UTI (urinary tract infection).  She was peeing everywhere again and couldn't make it thru the night.  I had to get up at 3:00 in the morning to let her out of her crate.  Good grief!!  I took her to the vet and got antibiotics for her which seem to be doing the trick.  I also read that Braggs Organic Apple Cider Vinegar mixed with a little plain yogurt also gets rid of the bacteria - so I've been giving her a dose of that once a day also.   Seems to be working.  Apparently this Apple Cider Vinegar (the one with "the mother" in it) is supposed to be great for ALL of us.  It's claimed to help with diabetes, high blood pressure, skin blemishes, digestion, bladder infections and tons more.  All you need is a tsp or two a day, which you can mix with water and a little stevia to get it down.  So many of you are so much more knowledgeable in nutrition than I am.  What do you think about ACV?  Do any of you take it?  Just wondering since it seems to be so good for you, I'm thinking about trying it myself to see if does anything wonderful for me. 

Well that's about it for this week.  All my boys are going tubing today in Harpers Ferry, and tonight we are all going to the fireworks that are displayed at our local Fireman's carnival.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

July!

We had such a wonderful time on our little two day excursion to
Lancaster/Hershey!  It was hot as blazes (about 100 degrees each day) but it didn't stop us from shopping at the little craft stores and farmers markets in the area.  On Wednesday night we went to Carrabbas for dinner and I had the chicken stuffed with smoked cheese and substituted the sauteed zucchini for the pasta.  So good!  We decided to go see a movie that night in downtown Lancaster and opted for "Snow White and the Huntsman".  It wasn't too bad, and was fun for a night out.   The next day we traveled up to Hershey and met my parents that had driven up from West Virginia.  We had dinner at a local Italian restaurant and I got the chicken marsala with veggies.  Afterwards we went to the the theater and saw Mamma Mia.  If you guys get a chance to see it while it is touring  DO IT!   I thought it was fantastic!!  I've been singing all the ABBA songs ever since!

My mother and I before the show.  You can see Hershey amusement park in the background

So now we are back and getting ready for the 4th of July.  Turns out only my parents and one brother and his family are coming.   My other brother (that has five kids) had one of his kids call and leave a message that they won't be able to make it - no reason given.  Don't know why my brother or his wife couldn't call me themselves, but this is the way they are and I'm kind of used to it.   Brushing off the irritation and concentrating on having fun of the 4th.  I think we'll be having:

Deviled Eggs
Marinaded chicken kebobs
hamburgers
baked beans (for the non BFC'ers - which is everyone but me and husband)
Greek chopped salad
fresh veggies and dip

Desert:  I'll make the chocolate protein bars and regular brownies with red/white/blue sprinkles for sugar people

We bought some fireworks in Pennsylvania.  If you're from out of state you have to register with a State Trooper, photo copy your ID and sign a paper swearing you will not set off the fireworks in Pennsylvania.  Funny.  We just got some sparklers and a couple boxes of fireworks that go up about thirty feet and explode.  My husband wanted to buy everything in the store, but luckily I got him out before that happened.

What are you guys doing for the 4th?  What about your menus?  Always looking for great food ideas.  What ever it is I hope you all have a good one!

Tuesday June 26

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted.  I'm not sure why.  I think sometimes I just can't think of anything to say - it's all the same old, same old.
 
Weight loss:
 As I reported last time,  I got down to 159 lbs but I'm once again stuck there.  It really gets frustrating at the end like this.  When I first started in April 2011 the weight came off fairly quickly and it was exciting to get on the scale each week and see how much I lost.  But after a few months things started slowing way down and I always get stuck on plateaus that are hard to break.   I was about 135 - 140lbs when I got married over 23 years ago, so I don't think 150 lbs is an unreasonable goal for my age (51).  The last bit of weight seems to be in my belly area, which is kind of funny since this diet is called the "Belly Fat Cure".  It seems like that is the last place for me to lose.  I've been a bit strict with myself the last few weeks and after an initial 3 lb loss which I was excited about...,I got stuck again.  I've been craving some kind of baked goods so I might go ahead and make a few lemon coconut muffins or something like that and add those back in.  I have added walking into my schedule - finally!  We have a farm right behind our house and I've started walking the dogs back there along the perimeter in the evenings after dinner.  It's only been a week but I haven't noticed it helping in the weight loss department, but it is surely helping to tire out my dogs and that's a good thing especially with the puppy.  Here are a few pics taken with my phone.

Farm behind our house - soybeans growing

Coming back from walk - Hot air balloons always launch from our neighbors yard

Food:
So I tried Patties idea of grilling Romaine lettuce and chicken tenders and then making a dressing of olive oil, balsamic dressing and I added a little truvia to it as well.  It really was delicious!!  The lettuce didn't wilt as much as you'd think and that bit of charred taste was really good.

I also finally tried the chia seed pudding.  I have to admit I'm not a fan of this one.  I think it was mainly the texture of the chia seeds after they plumped up.  I guess it was a little like tapioca, which I've never liked.  Think I might just put the chia seeds in my shake and see how that turns out.

I found a recipe online for Chipotle's salad dressing and gave it a try.  I just subsituted some stevia for the honey it called for.  I ate it right after I made it and it was good, but it's even better if you let the dressing chill for awhile in the fridge (which is what I did with the leftovers).  I also marinated some Chicken tenders in a little frajita marinade and then grilled it, cut it up and made myself a homemade Chipotle salad.  yum!  Here is the dressing recipe I found in case you want to give it a try:

Chipotle Dressing:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup honey ( I substituted a bit of stevia - til it tasted right)
2 tsp. dijon mustard
1 1/4 chipotle powder (I didn't have this but I had chipotle mustard and used that instead of the dijon and left this out)
1 tsp. lime juice
3/4/ tsp. black pepper
3/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 cup olive oil
(the recipe didn't call for it but I added a little bit of cayenne pepper to give it that kick Chipotle's has - probably because I didn't have the chipotle powder)

Combine all ingredients on low speed in blender.  Best if chilled for about an hour!

Everything else:
My husband and I are getting out of town tomorrow for a little trip to Lancaster, PA.  We are meeting my parents on Thursday in Hershey, PA.  I got them and us tickets to see the touring "Mamma Mia" at Hershey Theater.   I love to go see plays when I can, and I've always wanted to see this one.  We are going up a day early to do a little shopping.  The boys are on their own for two nights and also have dog duty.   Even though they are older now it still seems weird leaving them home alone while we go off on our own.  We never did that when they were young 'cause we had no one to watch them, and so we didn't do many get-aways unless they were all with us.   Kind of looking forward to the next couple days. Love shopping in Amish country and getting together with my parents will be fun (I think).

Just finished a great book called "Maine" by J. Courtney Sullivan.  It's about three generations of women and a cottage they go to in Maine.  I thought it was a great read.  A part of me has always wanted to live in Maine, and then I remember the winters -lol!

Next week is 4th of July and I always have the family over to my house for a picnic.  Still waiting to hear who is coming this year.  When we get back on Friday I'll have to start planning for that.  Saturday my husband is taking my youngest son to see an "Iron Maiden" concert in Virginia.  Yeah, I passed on that one.
Hope you all have a great week!

Happy & Sad

I was pretty happy this morning - the scale said 159lbs!  Yes!  I have finally gotten out of the 160's!  I hope I can stay out and get down to my goal of 150 before the beach.  I'm not sure what has gotten me moving all of a sudden.  It might be the yogurt/phyllsium husk/fruit shake in the morning, or maybe it's because I have seriously been getting most of my carbs from vegetables for awhile.  I don't know but I'm going to keep going this way for awhile and see if I can get the rest of the weight off.  After I reach 150 I'll go back to the regular BFC because I think I maintain well that way.

   This past week has been a rough one on so many people that I know it almost seems silly of me to be thinking about my weight.  A friend of ours lost his twenty year old son because he was joyriding down a road and lost control of his car and hit a pole.  Such a senseless death and so heartbreaking.  My brother adopted a 4 year old dog last December.  His first dog ever and his two kids (16yrs & 13yrs) just loved her.  This past weekend the dog started acting very lethargic and then wouldn't eat her food.  He took her to the vets to find out she had meningitis.  I didn't even know dogs could get meningitis but it's apparently very serious in dogs.  He got a huge supply of antibiotics and steroids and somehow got her to eat the 10 pills a day that were prescribed.  She got worse.  He ended up having to put her down this past Thursday.  Heartbreaking.  And then there is Pattie and the loss of her beloved Riley.  I really don't know why life is so unfair sometimes.  I know we have to take the bad with the good, but sometimes there is too much bad lumped up at one time.   My heart is with all the people that had such a horrible week.  I surely think everyone is due for some happiness and sunshine in the weeks to come.

Hello Everyone,

Thought I'd check in and give you an update.  When I went to my brother's cookout last weekend I brought my plate to the picnic table with a hamburger (no bun) homegrown lettuce and onion on top and a side of radishes & celery with some ranch dressing for dipping.  He said, "Oh, so you're still on that diet thing" and I answered, "Yep, for the rest of my life".   It's really true too.  I'm so used to it now I didn't even think about taking the potato salad or the buns or the chips.   To be honest though, every now and then I do go off  the beaten trail a little bit.  For some reason I cave to the chips and salsa at Chili's Restaurant every time we go there, but it's not that often and doesn't seem to throw me off too much.  Also I have some dry red wine or a Michelob Ultra on the weekends every once in awhile.  Since I'm doing this forever I have to allow myself a few things that keep me sane.  It's never sugar though, and it's always just once every couple weeks.
-The past couple of weeks I have been pretty strict however,  trying to get these last 10 pounds off.  Since Benefiber is no longer on the market I have been having coffee in the morning and then making myself a shake made of 1/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt, 1 TBS of  Psyllium Husk powder, a few mixed frozen berries, and some non-sweetened coconut milk, and a little water if it's too thick.  I think this mix of probiotics, and fiber is good for me.  Lunch is usually a salad with smoked turkey lunch meat and dinner is veggies and some kind of meat.   I haven't been limiting myself to really low sugar veggies either.  I've decided that veggies are good for me no matter what, so I've been having snow peas, green beans, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, multi-colored peppers, onions, garlic, romaine lettuce and broccoli in abundance.   I still don't eat after 7:00 pm and most of my carbs have been coming from my veggies and the fruit in my shake.   This week I have broken my 163lb barrier... finally!  I weighed in at 161 lbs the last couple mornings. I'm happy, but like always wish it was more. Isn't that scale such a tease?  I'm almost in the 150's but not yet!  I'm going to keep pushing for the next week or two and see if I can keep going down
.
The rest of it:   My two boys had their wisdom teeth removed with no problems.  They were quite funny coming out of the anesthesia though.   We traded in our old Town & Country mini-van which was on the verge of collapse for a new used Toyota Sienna mini-van with less miles on it and everything working. It's nice to have A/C in my van again!   My puppy, Mabel, is getting big but is still peeing in the house!!  Driving all of us crazy.  Luckily she usually goes in the kitchen and not the carpet.  She can be outside with me for three hours and then come inside and pee on the kitchen floor within minutes.  Arrgh!    Cleaning with a pet enzyme cleaner doesn't seem to help - she doesn't sniff and pee she just lets loose with no warning.  I'm now trying to give her a really good dog treat every time she goes outside and pees on demand for me.  Hopefully that will get her motivated to go outside!  Any guesses as to what breed she is?  We only know black lab mother, but thinking she may have some kind of bull dog in her.  Might do that Wisdom Panel test to find out.

 

Mabel getting big

It's been really humid here the last week and we had to turn the A/C on in the house.  This morning the humidity has seemed to burn off  and the air is cool.  I'm opening all the windows to get some nice fresh air back in!  I'd much prefer fresh cool air to air conditioning when I can get it.   Will catch up on the blogs today, but hope everyone is doing well! 

Checking in

Hello Everyone!   Just a quick post to keep in touch.  Bad news last week, I got on the scale and it finally moved..., but in the wrong direction!  I was up three pounds to 166!  Yikes!  Well that is certainly frustrating!  I decided to crack down and see what I could do.  First I got the book that Sherri recommended to me called "The 17 day diet".  This diet is VERY similar to the BFC.  In a nutshell, you cycle your eating patterns every 17 days to "throw off" your metabolism.  The first 17 days you pretty much stay away from sugars and grain carbs (sound familiar?) but you are allowed greek yogurt (1/4 cup) and a bit of fruit.  You also should shy away from high calorie fare like red meat, butter & cheese except for Parmesan for the first 17 days, and really vamp up your veggie eating.  The next 17 days more foods are allowed, and so on.   Anyway I decided to do my own thing with it and incorporate it into my BFC diet so here is what I did:

Breakfast:  Either two eggs scrambled with some onion, spinach and a little parmesan OR a smoothy made with 1/4 cup greek yogurt, a couple frozen raspberries and blueberries, coconut milk, and 1 scoop Jay Robb protein powder.

Lunch:  Salad with mixed veggies and turkey and 2 TBS Marie's Caesar Dressing.

Dinner:  Variety of things like Chicken stir fried with a ton of veggies, ground chicken burgers mixed with southwestern spices and a side of veggies, or a big salad with grilled chicken tenderloins, etc.

I stayed away from the dark chocolate this week and started doing my kettle bells again.    Anyway......my weigh-in yesterday was back down to the 163lbs I've been stuck on forever!  Believe it or not I was actually relieved to see that number back on the scale, lol!!   This coming week I'm hoping to move it down even further!   We'll see if I can ever get past that number. 

On the home front, Prom was last weekend (the night before Mother's Day) and my youngest son got all spruced up and went with his girlfriend and my second youngest son (who is in his first year of college) also went, because his girlfriend is a senior in high school this year.   It was a lot of fun running around to the two houses and getting pictures and seeing them enjoy themselves so much.  Prom is a MUCH bigger deal than when I went many years ago! 
Mother's day I spent with with my two extremely tired boys, and my two oldest boys and my husband.  I got everyone's help clearing out my gardens, planting some annuals, laying mulch and putting in my huge vegetable garden!  That was a good present.  Afterwards they made me grilled shrimp & steak and sauteed broccoli.  It was pretty good!  It's funny that anytime the guys cook for me it's always steak on the grill!
This week I took my youngest son to take his driving test.  I get more nervous than them when I have to take them for their tests!  In Maryland they start the test with a safety check of our car and then move on to the skills test which is the dreaded parallel parking and then they must back into a small parking spot.  If they pass that they go out on the real road for a ten minute road test.  After the test person gets in the car with them I have to go walk around so I won't watch them take their skills test.  I peek every once in awhile to see if they are still struggling with the parallel parking.  This time when I peeked, my son was already done and was backing into the parking spot!  What!   He nailed it the first time - phew!  All that practice paid off.   So I knew he had it after that, and sure enough he came back from the road test as a new driver!!  He was VERY happy, and I am also VERY happy you know why?  Because, he was my last one and I NEVER have to teach driving skills, or parallel parking every again in my life!!! Yahoo!!
Next week two of the boys are getting their wisdom teeth out and I my youngest will have his done in June.  After that I think most of my stressful events will be over for awhile.  I just have to get through my oldest son moving out this weekend, sigh.

Oh, I have one question for you guys that maybe you've already talked about.  What happened to Benefiber??!!   My husband and I were using that every morning in our coffee but we can not find it anymore.  It's off the store shelves and not online anywhere.  Did they go out of business?!   I think the Metamucil is too expensive.  We've just been skipping our fiber supplement and so far it doesn't seem to be a problem.  

Hope the rest of you are doing well, and enjoying the nicer warm weather!

My excuses

Why I haven't been blogging - excuses by Beth:

Excuse #1.) New puppy!!  She is starting to settle down now, but good grief was she a handful!  It was like having a new born that needs attention every second, except this one chews and pees on the floor!  Plus it took here awhile for her to sleep through the night even in her crate.  A good chunk of my day is still used up running around after her...but it's getting much better.

Excuse #2.) Working on my late aunt's estate. As if I didn't have enough to do with our rental properties, and the home improvement business, my kids, and of course the puppy, I am also the executor of my aunt's will. It's really no big honor. All this really means is I have to do ALL the work involved with settling her estate according to her wishes.  That's ordering the grave markers (she never got one for my uncle), hiring an estate attorney after I finally found one, finalizing all her financial accounts (tons of paperwork here), giving the register of wills everything they need by specific due dates, and packing up and selling off her stuff.  It's not fun folks!

Excuse #3)  My mind has not been on the BFC lately.  My oldest son, that finally landed a full-time job last March, is moving out at the end of May. Yes he found a nice little apartment to rent with his best friend that also works in downtown Baltimore.  I'm really happy for him, but sad for me.  This is the beginning of my little family breaking  up.  First it will be him and pretty soon the other three boys will follow.  My little world that totally revolved around my boys is starting to change and that's making feel a bit depressed.  I already miss the younger days with them as it is and soon they'll be all gone.

Excuse #4.) However, this is probably the biggest reason, besides the puppy, that I haven't blogged lately.  I have not lost any more weight!!  I am stuck at 163 pounds and I am doing all the same stuff I've always done but I'm not budging!!  I would really like to get down to 150lbs before I go to the beach at the end of July and at first I thought that would be easy to do, but now......I don't think it's going to happen this way.    If I were in maintenance I would be very, very happy, because I like what I eat, it's easy, I'm used to it, and all that.  But....I'm not in maintenance, my body just thinks I am.  So I'm beginning to wonder if this is as far as I can go with the BFC?  Must I do something else to lose the last thirteen pounds?  I really hate to shift to some other diet because I really like this one.  I know I don't ever want to add sugar into my diet again, because that is bad on so many levels,  but maybe I'll have to switch things up to start losing again.  But how??   Maybe not so much cheese in my salads, not so much butter in my meat sauces, not so much yummy Parmesan dressing.  I might have to actually restrict myself like I'm on a real diet.  One where I eat boring, plain foods for awhile.   I'm still thinking it through.  I've followed the BFC to the letter up until now, but just can't get past this last plateau.  I saw Jorge had an extreme three day menu where you don't eat any breakfast other than coffee, you have chicken over spinach with only vinegar an oil on top for lunch and than dinner is just a grilled pork chop with 1/2 cup of broccoli.  Bland? Yes!  Boring? Yes! But will it get off the last pounds? I don't know.  Don't even know if I could stand it for even three days.
Anyway, it seemed boring to blog every week and write about how I'm at the same weight and doing all the same things, so I just stopped for awhile.  

Well those are my sorry excuses for not blogging or commenting a couple weeks . I started reading everyone's blogs this past week and realized how much I missed hearing about everyone and what they were up to.  So..,  I'm going to try to get back on-board and figure things out from here.