Back in the world of the living
21 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: blogging, Diets, Hearth & Home, Monday Morning Muse, Quotes, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss
“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” Alfred Hitchcock
This blog is about life. My life in particular. Is it dull? Sometimes, but then so is everyone’s life. None of us are a running soap opera, but just in case you are, I’ll excuse you to go read someone else’s blog. Thanks for stopping by.
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The cold I had last week is finally gone and the pms along with it. This is good because I don’t think I could have eaten any more food without bursting.
I was fine with the idea of doing the PMS diet plan from the 17 Day Diet last week, then the cold hit me and I couldn’t seem to get enough to eat. So I decided that for the duration of the cold, I would just make sure that I fed myself well and tried to keep what I ate healthy. I did not want to step on the scale, but I did it anyway.
Good news! I didn’t gain any of the weight back-in spite of the indulging. I’m thinking that the extra nutrition may have been needed to fight off the virus. Granted, I didn’t lose any weight last week, but not gaining it back was good. I’m back on the diet plan, in the Activate cycle, for the rest of the week. I’m not sure if I should move on to the 3rd cycle after that or go back into an Accelerate cycle because of last week.
Well, I’ve got the rest of the week to figure it out.
The Maker of Opportune Miracles (aka Mom)
17 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Homelife Tags: blogging, Hearth & Home, Illness, Patience, People, The status quo
Sorry for the silence. I’ve been battling a cold and pms this past week. I think the pms plans to hang around until the cold is gone and then really unleash its fury. Or perhaps the cold has me so knocked down that I am able to ignore the pms.
Either way, I’m miserable. It would be nice to be able to just lie on the couch with a cold cloth over my watering eyes and rest. At least to rest as much as one can while clutching a box of kleenex and praying the wastebasket doesn’t overflow before I feel well enough to empty it myself.
But that won’t happen. Because I’m a mom. We don’t get the luxury of days off like that. Instead we keep plugging away at our tasks. Like driving to school to deliver the guitar, music book & guitar picks to the son who always seems to forget what part of the week Tuesday falls on. Or explaining patiently, when the husband asks in all seriousness, why I can’t fit 100 pounds of beef roast in my 5 quart crockpot and get it started for the Blue & Gold ceremony that happens to be on the same day the Girl Scout troop needs to run a station for Thinking Day (an all day event in our service unit).
“Well, could I do it if he got me a roaster?” Yes, seriously he asked. And no, I could not fit 100 pounds of beef in an 18 quart roaster either. The man has no concept of quantity and the space needed to store it. Or for that matter, the time needed to cook it. In fact, I doubt that we could fit 100 pounds of beef roast in our home refrigerator even if it was completely empty and it is currently full of produce (for my diet) and leftovers (because I can’t always eat what I make for them). So no, no and N-O. Sign me up for bars or something I can make the day before.
However, this is why I have come to believe that my family thinks that the word Mom stands for:
Maker of
Opportune
Miracles
Their supporting evidence:
1. Their clothing is miraculously clean when they need it. And mended when required. All with little to no effort on their part.
2. Good food always appears when they are hungry. The only effort they make in this area is to occasionally cook if the mood strikes them. And if they aren’t “too busy”.
3. They can drop their junk anywhere and never clean it up, yet they can ask one question and be told exactly where to find said item. And the items in question even occasionally arrive in their rooms waiting to be found and put away.
4. Needed items always make their way to them without anything worse than a phone call to the Maker of Opportune Miracles (guitar, flute, change of clothes because they can’t be seen in their school uniform after school hours).
5. The house is always clean (or at least clean enough for them not to care) with little or no effort on their part.
6. When they are sick, they receive comfort, care and as many of their favorite foods or things as their illness can tolerate without worsening.
Quite the convincing argument for belief in the Maker of Opportune Miracles.
I think it’s time they start pulling their weight. This M.O.M. needs a break.
Success and review
09 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, Goals, resolve, setbacks, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss
I have now lost 11 pounds in 17 days. I began phase 2 of the 17 Day Diet today and WOW! did that oatmeal taste good. I didn’t make my usual Oatmeal for One because the craisins would have upped the carb content probably to the point where it would not be appropriate for this phase of the diet. I did put cinnamon in it and sweetened it with Truvia (after I cooked the oatmeal).
Now it’s time for some reflection on the first 17 days.
Could I have done better on the first 17 days? In short-Yes. I should have walked away from the toast on day 2. I should not have had popcorn with BooBoo on days 7 & 14. I should have just made a taco salad on day 13 instead of indulging in a hard shell taco at the school’s Student Showcase. I also should have kept my resolve firmer and not had those snack crackers on day 15. I should also have made time for exercise every day. I don’t think I got the 17 minutes of exercise in on even half the days in this cycle.
What did I do that was good? Well, I did have 14 good days where I followed the diet to the T. I only ate one of the two pieces of toast and the toast was whole wheat, not white. It was light popcorn, not the full fat butter variety. I did not make my favorite soft shell taco because the tortillas were the white flour kind. And I said no thanks to the chocolate cake served for dessert. I fed my family in a way that my diet would not affect them, yet I made sure that on 16 of the 17 days I did not have to cook two separate meals (one for them and one for me).
Is it worth continuing this diet? Of course. After all, I have lost weight. I’m now 11 pounds lighter than I was before and it is a start. A good start. Maybe my faith helps me in this regard. I know that we are all human and that we all make mistakes in our lives. I know that making mistakes is a part of life and that we need to move beyond those mistakes. Not forgetting them precisely, but learning from them and hopefully, not repeating them.
So, what then are my lessons to bring forward to the second phase? I will make time to exercise every day of this cycle. I will use my carb days to choose carbs wisely that will fit the plan and help to tame my carb cravings so that they do not diminish my success.
I hope that your own weight loss journey is working for you and that you are not beating yourself up about your mistakes. Keep at it. You will get better, healthier and slimmer as you continue. Best of luck. My prayers for your success are with you.
Recycled fashion
08 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Dieting, Homelife, Weight Loss Tags: Beauty & the Beast, costuming, Diets, Etsy, prayer, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss
Yes, I know the stores in the U.S. are now going through an 80′s craze but that’s not what I mean.
In costuming 107 actors on zero budget, we sometimes have to get a bit creative. Like combing thrift stores and using valances and pillowcases to make skirts for our wee performers.
I have to say, I may have a special calling in this area. My “skirts du pillowcase” look pretty good. In the dark, from 20 feet away, I really don’t think anyone will know that those skirts are from the fashion house of Westpoint Pepperell. Especially if my little actors are short enough that I can hem up the entire white border that now makes up the bottom of the skirt. I’ll have to take a picture of them and post it.
I’m currently working on “skirt du valance”. I found a pair of lovely yellow & blue striped valances with a pink & green floral print on them. I ripped all the seams out of one so far and I think with an elastic waist and maybe some lace to lengthen the bottom, it will look quite nice on stage. And I have a second valance that I can either use as a ruffle with the skirt (if more length is needed) or to make another skirt. Yes, that is also the bane of being an actor in our productions-someone else is always wearing the same outfit.
Who knows, I may be able to open my own little Etsy shop if I get good enough at this. But what to call it? French Chick Recycled Fashion or Fashion on a Budget?
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On the diet front, today is the last day of my first 17 day cycle. I’ll weigh in tomorrow and share my progress.
I thought I’d be able to add bread back into my diet on the next 17 day cycle, but unfortunately for me I read that incorrectly. Bread does not get added back until after the first 34 days. Oh well. I’ve gotten used to ogling bread.
I do get to add “simple starches” back. Two servings every other day. Things like: a medium baked potato, a medium baked sweet potato, navy beans, red beans, kidney beans, corn, peas & split peas, pearled barley, brown rice, oatmeal and cream of wheat. There are other simple starches too, but these are the ones I would be most likely to add back. Well, not really on the cream of wheat. Too many bad memories of having to eat plain cream of wheat for breakfast during pregnancy because it was the only cereal that didn’t spike my blood sugar.
Keep praying for my success with this diet. My health depends on it. My sanity will be fine once we’re done with the costuming. And I was just kidding about the Etsy shop. I don’t have time for an Etsy shop.
Before the weekend
03 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Dieting, Homelife, Weight Loss Tags: Beauty & the Beast, costuming, Diets, Hearth & Home, weekend rush, Weight Loss
Just a quick update on the weight loss before we get into the weekend rush of things to do.
My weight loss so far totals 10 pounds in 11 days. Not bad, though I hope to get more exercise in as I get used to this new addition to my routine.
Costuming for the play continues. Got some great bargains at the thrift store and hopefully this should just about complete those villagers. Picked up fabric and a pattern for our Enchantress’ skirt. Time to get cracking on those fairies’ skirts.
Enjoy your weekend!
Beauty and the Beast Jr.
30 Jan 2012 3 Comments
in Homelife Tags: Beauty & the Beast, Hearth & Home, Monday Morning Muse, musicals, People, plays, Quotes, theater
“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.” George Bernard Shaw
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” Douglas Adams
The second quote is just in case this post only makes sense to me. :)
I realized that with the updates on DH’s cousin and my diet attempt, I haven’t updated this blog with news on Ditty & BooBoo. They are both in their school’s production of Beauty & the Beast Jr. Ditty’s part was originally to be a Narrator and fill in dancer during the opening “Belle” scene and also in the “Gaston” tavern scene. But fate being what it is, she was standing next to the Baker when they first rehearsed the opening scene and the Baker said his line “Marie, the baguettes! Hurry up!” at which time, the director realized that there was no Marie to rush over with the baguettes. So Ditty became Marie. Then I was watching them run the Gaston scene and realized they had put her behind the bar. So if the Baker married the Barmaid, did he do it for love or just to have a monopoly on the yeast and wheat? LOL. She is having lots of fun with this play and also has to be part of the “Mob’ scene too.
BooBoo was cast as a “Guest” meaning he could have been anything from a plate, knife, fork or spoon, to a cheese souffle, pie, or pudding en flambe. He was also scheduled to be a fill-in dancer/singer for the “Mob’ scene (where Gaston exhorts the crowd to kill the Beast). Instead he was placed in all the castle scenes as an enchanted column (yeah, the Roman pillar kind). He gets to move around: forward, backward, and side to side (enchanted things move), with little shuffling steps. This takes him out of the Mob scene since he needs to be in his column costume in every castle scene and the changing would need to happen too fast for him to keep up. But he is also happy with his part and thinks it will be great fun to keep people guessing where the column will be next.
So that’s the news of the household so far. Rehearsals, swimming lessons, scouts and wrestling are keeping us running. BooBoo’s new bedroom is practically on hold right now. I keep thinking that I can get to it if I can just get caught up with the housework and costuming for the play. Our Costumer put me in charge of the fairies and the villagers (including those who have parts in the Mob scene but might not be villagers in the Belle scene).
Finding leotards for the fairies is proving difficult. It would be easiest just to order what we need brand new, but budget constraints don’t allow for all new costumes. So the core group of volunteers have been scouring thrift stores in search of what we need. It hasn’t worked, so I will be speaking with the director to work out an alternative color scheme for the fairies. I may have to work out something entirely different for our lead fairy, the Enchantress, because I was just informed yesterday that she is allergic to spandex. Kind of puts a kibosh on the whole leotard thing for her. We don’t need a red-skinned (and I mean beet red) Enchantress. Thinking on it just now, maybe we could just attach the skirts to t-shirts and have the girls wear shorts under the skirts if needed.
Well, here’s to success in convincing the director to go for the changes!
Going away
28 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, Goals, Hearth & Home, parties, Weight Loss
Not me.
DH & I attended a going away party last night for a friend of ours. He’s leaving for a new job in another state. It was a nice evening and a well attended party. It was held at a bar and food was available.
Yes, that’s where this post is going. My willpower survived the night. I had large glasses of ice water with a squeeze of lemon in them all night. And this after thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to get my eight glasses of water in yesterday. 
I was back to my old habit of not stopping what I was doing long enough to hydrate even a little throughout the day.
I also held firm in my resolve not to eat anything. I sat down with friends across the room from the food. My resolve almost slipped when our friend’s mom came around (twice!) with desserts. Thankfully she didn’t bring the K bars around the second time or I might have lost my fight. Cake doesn’t tempt me, certain types of bars however (oy!).
The night went well, then DH decided to indulge in a big taco and extra chips. I didn’t cave in. I was glad that he hadn’t put cheese on those chips. Again, another weakness of mine.
If nothing else, this diet is certainly showing me my food temptations. And at the grocery store yesterday, I found myself getting ready for the second 17 day cycle even though I was only on day 5 of the first. They had whole wheat pasta on sale for $1.39 per 16 oz. box, so I bought three boxes. On the whole though, I do spend far more time in the produce section than before. I also found out that the turkey taco salad I had for supper needs to be served on iceberg lettuce. The spring mix lettuce blend I had purchased tasted horrible with taco meat. It had too many strong, conflicting flavors.
Live and learn.
That’s all for now. A nice, quiet breakfast and mountains of housework await me. If you’re also on the dieting path, keep your chin up and your calories down.
The diet again & other things
26 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Adversity, Dieting, Prayers, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, hit & run, prayers, The 17 Day Diet, turkey chili, Weight Loss
Sorry, didn’t mean to make this a diet blog. Just a quick update.
Day 3 went well. Even got in my exercise. Today I made turkey chili, no beans-they’re not allowed in the first cycle, and added extra veggies in the form of carrots & celery. You may not think carrots & celery belong in chili, but I can state, from my vast experience as a Girl Scout outdoor trainer making many pots of vegetarian chili, that they do. Plus I get to eat as many “cleansing vegetables” as I want so why not bulk up the chili, right?
Truly though, it’s the green tea that just gums up my determination. Tea in general and green tea in particular are about as appealing to me as stewed prunes. Oh well, slug it down and continue on.
A quick update on DH’s cousin. Last week was a much beter week. Mary was moved out of ICU and into rehab last Friday. She did have an infection then, but they have cured that. And since Tuesday, Jan 18th, there has been wonderful progress. Mary is more verbal. She sometimes speaks in full sentences (the Mary kind of sentences-long, complicated ones) where her parents & caregivers can only understand the first few words. The doctors say that is common at this stage. But sometimes she speaks in unprompted, full sentences that are clear. For example, her speech therapist was talking to her about the Westminster dog show and Mary said “What time is that on?”
She is off her feeding tube and is able to feed herself with a bit of help. She is also doing real well in physical therapy. She can even push the wheels on her wheelchair to move down the hall (albeit very slowly). Overall, the physical problems are healing nicely and the doctors are very happy with her neurological progress.
Thank you for your prayers up to this point and please continue to pray for this amazing young woman’s complete recovery.
Diet, Day 2
24 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss
Well I’m only on day 2 and I’ve already oopsed.
I had to go into the suburbs to donate blood this morning and ran late for my appointment. And they were busy as all get out with platelet donors (they take more set up time than whole blood), so my 9:30 time got pushed back so far that I didn’t get out of there until noon.
Since all they had for post donation snack choices was cookies, pretzels, chex mix, and raisins, I decided to just grab a water. So far so good. Then I left the building and realized that it was noon and I had not eaten since breakfast at 7:30! Tried to remember which restaurants close by would offer salad, figuring that I could add grilled chicken & ask for dressing on the side. Drove to Perkins, all the salads had tons of other stuff on them that is not part of the diet-items like ham, bacon, breaded chicken. Then I saw the made to order omelettes.
Okay, I thought, this is doable. I’ll just order an omelette with lots of veggies, skipping the mushrooms because I don’t like them on eggs. What I didn’t realize was all the other stuff you get when you order an omelette. Did I want hashbrowns or country potatoes? Neither really, but I ordered the country potatoes because my willpower wasn’t up to walking away from hashbrowns. And did I want pancakes or toast, or for an extra 49 cents I could upgrade to a jumbo muffin? Ugh! I ordered whole wheat toast.
In retrospect, I should have ordered the pancakes. I can walk away from pancakes. I didn’t walk away from the toast. I didn’t eat both slices, only one of them. And I justified it by telling myself “Well, you’ve just given blood so you needed that to fill up/replace what was lost in donation/etc.”. No I didn’t “need” it. It just tasted really good. I promise that I did not put jelly on the toast. Buttered, even sparingly as they do it, was good enough for me.
Post on a diet
31 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
by thefrenchchick in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, Goals, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss, weird comments
Well! All I can say is: post on a diet (or any other hot topic) and you’ll get all kinds of spam!
My chicken chow mein page is getting all kinds of weird comments from the spambots. I mean really, what does my thoughts on global expansion have to do with making homemade chicken chow mein? Do they expect me to can it ala Chun King and market it all over the world? I’m a mom-I really don’t have that kind of time on my hands.
Unless of course, they’d like to come over and clean my house, do my laundry, and run all my errands. Nah, even then it would take quite a team effort and way more capital than I can expend.
And no, cutting out shopping at Target and Walmart will not significantly increase our bottom line. You’ve been listening to DH too much. I don’t even have time to shop lately.
The diet on the other hand seems to be going quite well. By the looks of my scale, I’ve lost 9 pounds in 8 days. Okay, that should be motivation enough to stay off the carbs for the next 9 days. At least I hope so. Truth be told, I’ve never craved a couple slices of whole wheat bread more.
Some people miss the doughnuts, cake, or cookies, but I miss the wheat bread and popcorn. I know you probably find that hard to believe given what my weight was at the start of this diet. Really though, doughnuts never held much sway with me. They’re okay once in awhile, but I’d never knock anyone down to get one. And cake, bleah. Frosting, real buttercream frosting, I like and that was only offered on top of cake. So that was the only reason I’d actually eat cake-for the frosting. I don’t miss the cake and I only slightly miss the frosting (again, not enough to mug somebody). Cookies are nice. I know that someday I will reach my goal weight and then I’ll be able to enjoy 1 or 2 cookies. And being a Girl Scout mom, I know that those cookies will be waiting for me in my freezer. After all, I can’t let the kiddo down just because I’m on a diet.
But why whole wheat bread and popcorn? At our house, the only “health kick” DH would ever agree to was swapping out the squishy white bread we used to buy for whole wheat or even multigrain bread. I’ve always liked it and our kids grew up eating it. My life being what it is (hectic at times and chaotic at others), a sandwich at lunch or even a couple slices of toast in the morning was really relaxing.
Basically, I hope the next 9 days go by in a blur because Phase 2 of this diet actually allows me to have bread. Still can’t have the peanut butter but even dry bread with my bowls of soup sounds wonderful.
If you’re journeying on a diet with me, I offer prayers for your success and mine.