Ginger Snap Bulk Granola
Ginger snap granola from the bulk aisle in Whole Foods is now officially on my list of trigger foods that I can not and will not have in the house. Crazy delicious. Can’t buy again. Bought about 3 cups worth yesterday and I’m finishing it off as I type this. I ate most of it on yogurt, which means my 3 greek yogurts from yesterday’s shopping are also gone.
Ginger snap granola = evil.
Not really, but that’s how I’m going to treat it from now on.
In other news, started running last night, lasted about 3 minutes and wimped out. And ended up staying up until 1:30 watching movies, shows, and eating. And eating. Argh. Kind of upset with myself, but that won’t do much good. Here’s me snapping out of the ginger snap granola coma.
Grocery Shopping Friday
I love grocery shopping. I love trying to find new things, stocking up on old favorites, and filling the kitchen with fresh whole foods that I’m super-excited to eat.
This afternoon I went to Sam’s, Walmart, and Whole Foods for my shopping. I was stoked about some protein powder that I found to replace my egg-white protein powder that I’m out of. It is called Greens & Whey and it is by Biochem Sports. It is full of organic greens such as alfalfa leaf juice powder and barley grass juice powder. 100 calories for 2 scopps that contain 20g of protein. I will use only one heaping scoop per serving since I don’t need to add that much protein to my breakfasts (IMO), and that makes the powder last longer. It also has about a quarter of the sodium my egg-white protein powder contained. Only hitch, I accidentally grabbed the chocolate instead of the vanilla. Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate, but since my morning creations usually involve spinach and fruits, I’d rather have vanilla. I don’t like chocolate and fruit mixed together. So, I’ll have to take it back and get the vanilla, but I was also excited that this container has the same number of servings as my egg white protein powder, but it was only 12.69 instead of 19.99. Savings! Yay! Of course I still have to taste test it. But here’s hoping it tastes as good as it sounds it is for me!
I also bought a bunch of fruit for dehydrating, and I’m excited to get started. Who am I kidding, I’m just excited to have lots of dried fruit to snack on, not necessarily about the work I’m going to have to do. 
I got apples, gala and granny smith (wanted to do honeycrisp again but they were just too expensive), kiwis, bananas, a mango, lots of canned pineapple. Some bulk ginger spice granola will call my name a lot, I’m sure, but hopefully I can ration it reasonably.
Tonight the kids and Mom and I went to get some Quilt Magic. I had a hard time picking one, but I finally settled on a Christmas-themed one with silver bells and green and red ribbons. Classic and simple. I hope it looks good in our house when we decorate for Christmas. We don’t do that until a couple weeks before when we go up into the mountains and cut down our tree; we don’t want the tree to get too dead before Christmas. I really want to buy some new lights this year. Every year we grumble and curse (not real curses, ok maybe one) about our dollar-store and hand-me-down lights. Trying to rig them all up together and so they’ll all plug in is some kind of nasty jig-saw puzzle. Got to buy new lights this year and simplify the process. I’m also supposed to look through Mom’s ornaments that she doesn’t use anymore now that she does a small fake tree with her gold ornaments and that’s it.
Anyway, I got one, Mom bought 3. One for herself, one for my SIL, and one for my daughter, P (a surprise). K2 was a terror the whole time and was very distracting. Ugh, I swear I don’t want to have to take that boy out of the house until he’s 5 or 6. Sheesh.
We came home after the Quilt Magic shopping and Mom only stayed for a couple minutes. I immediately started whipping up some brocolli/cheese scrambled eggs for the kids, which they ate with a clementine (from today’s shopping). I also called my SIL so she could bring over her daughter A for a sleepover tonight with P. The three kids are playing together now and making lots of noise and hopefully getting plenty tired. Because in about an hour I’m putting them to bed and whether they go to sleep or not, they’re going to have to be pretty quiet so they don’t keep K2 awake. And then I’m going to work out – I’m not letting a 4 and 5 year old sleepover disturb my workout schedule that’s going pretty well this week.
When we got home I also got some news from my husband. A member of our bishopric had stopped by and asked if K could support me in being called as 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency at church!! I’ve never served in Primary before, so I’m super-nervous. Of course, when I speak to him myself and he actually asks me, I’ll accept. I’ll serve in whatever capacity the Lord thinks I need to. I’m just nervous about working with other people’s kids! And I don’t know anything about Primary – my memory is too poor for me to remember my days in there as a kid. So anyway, that’ll be a change from teaching Relief Society, and I don’t know what they’re going to do since I’m their only teacher right now.
All in all, its been an eventful day. My eats have been pretty good. There were a lot of samples at Sam’s and I had a taste of almost everything…… ooooh they had these creme brulee candied almonds and I’m still daydreaming about going back and getting some of those. SO GOOD. Basically candy.
I had a brocolli, cheese, egg, garlic burrito for dinner with a clementine. I’m still pretty satisfied, though I’d love to eat a yogurt with some granola. I’m going to try and hold off and have that be it for the day. Especially since I did have a few of the kids’ peanut M&Ms (about 5).
Tomorrow should be pretty packed as well. Mary Kay meeting in morning. Taking back protein powder for vanilla flavor, maybe some running mid-day, work Holiday party with my DH in the evening while SIL watches the kids. If I don’t run mid-day I’ll need to run after our date, and that’s pretty unlikely so I hope I can do it before.
Minor Victory, but Victory Nonetheless
I decided before I went to the office today that I wasn’t going to eat any of the extras - candy, chocolate, cookies, donuts. Reading over my blog last night and this morning helped me to remember that any excuse I can put forth is just that, an excuse. If I say I can’t leave it alone at the office, its really just a cop-out. And I’ve proven over the last year that I CAN leave it alone if I so choose.
So today I did. I ate my sandwich, my carrots, my almonds and craisins. I drank some water. I did have about 1/3 of a quesadilla that a coworker offered to me from her lunch. But I didn’t have any candy, I didn’t eat the cookies that were in the kitchen, and I didn’t go trolling for chocolate. And I will choose to do the same on Monday of next week. I can do this, even going to the office 3 afternoons a week.
K made tuna casserole, black beans, and corn for dinner. I had my casserole on a bed of lettuce.
I’m so glad tomorrow is Friday. Planning on going grocery shopping if all goes well. We’re out of almost everything around here.
I’ve Been Reading My Own Blog
Makes for interesting reading, if a little unpleasantly revealing. About how selfish I am, have been. How obsessed with losing weight I’ve been, yet how ready I am to excuse my eating excesses. How boring my life is. How I think I’ve recorded my childrens’ milestones, but my posts are comprised mostly of my self-absorbed ramblings. How overwhelmed I was a little over a year ago, and how bleak my outlook was. How so much has changed but so much as stayed the same.
For a year and a half now, I’ve written about plan after plan, intention after intention. Plans to spend more quality time with my kids, intentions of cutting back on their TV watching. Plans to lose weight by using this or that weight loss plan, this or that workout. Plans to save money. Intentions of cleaning my house and keeping it clean. Determination to not let my work suck me back into working a lot of hours.
So let me sum up the status quo:
- I have managed to lose 43 pounds in the last 8 months. I am not following a specific plan, but a conglomerate of multiple plans and what I’ve learned about healthy eating. I feel better, healthier, stronger, and more educated about whole, good foods.
- I have learned some wonderful things about cooking, and ideas for different healthy foods. I have gained the confidence to experiment with recipes to make them healthier, and I’m constantly trying to figure out ways to sneak vegetables into my childrens’ diet. I have become a better cook.
- I know what to eat and about how much to eat in order to lose weight.
- But….I have once again allowed myself to add in a lot of treats and excess sugar. I’ve been binging again on a semi-regular basis. So despite my gained knowledge, I haven’t lost any new weight in almost 3 months, and the only reason I’m maintaining is because of my rigorous workouts.
- My children still watch too much TV, but they don’t watch as much as they used to. Improvement has been made.
- I still constantly struggle to spend quality time with them. I have renewed my determination to do so each day.
- I have a new (again) system for planning which consists of two laminated documents that reside on the fridge. One is a weekly menu for each meal of the day. The dinners are planned a week at a time, and the rest of the meals are planned the night before. The other document is a daily T0-Do list that I fill out each night for the next day. I try to keep it realistic and I try to cross off everything each day. These are both laminated and I use dry-erase markers on them. This method is my favorite so far of all my grandiose ideas.
- I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at maintaining a relatively clean house, and I don’t constantly hate my house or feel overwhelmed. There are a few things that I try to do every day that help, and I use my daily To-Do to keep up with the others. For example, I do the dishes every night right after dinner. This is a habit I fell out of in the first years of our marriage and its taken me this last year to re-establish it firmly. I also try to do a load of laundry every day.
- I am once again working more than I intended to….. last week I had 16 hours. I am working 12 hours in the office and sometimes a few at home. Yesterday, my boss told me she’d take me back full-time in a heartbeat if I wanted to come back. I have resolved that I can handle the 12+ hours I’m working now, but I won’t add more until something changes with K. He is talking about going to school, and if he does that I might have to work full-time. Until such time as he’s got everything in place to go to school, I’m going to tell work that I would rather continue with the status quo. It is more hours than I first agreed to (4/week), but we could definitely use the money, especially as the holidays are fast approaching. My ego was boosted by hearing how badly my work wants me and feels they need me, but once I got over the knee-jerk reaction to the ego-str0king, I talked myself down.
- I work out hard most days. I have run two 5K races this summer and I’m running another one on Thanksgiving morning with my brother T and my husband K. I don’t run fast, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come and how strong I’ve gotten. I have more work to do.
- I read my scriptures and pray most days. Recently, I’ve been reading them in the morning right after I take P to kindergarten and before I get K2 up. I feel stronger spiritually…. but I have more work to do.
- I feel better equipped to handle extra commitments in my life. Appointments, parties, social engagements. A few weeks ago on Halloween day, I VOLUNTEERED to help decorate the RS room for the Halloween party. My volunteering for anything extra was previously unprecedented.
- We still don’t do much. We’re still kind of struggling financially. But we’ve been paying our tithing in full since the beginning of 2009, we have temple recommends again, and we’re starting to keep up better. I’m trying to learn to not have an attitude of avoidance for bills I can’t pay and issues I can’t deal with. Trying to learn to face stuff head-on.
I think I’ve come far in the past year. Our family has grown a lot, and K’s and my relationship is stronger than it was a year ago. My children are happy, well-taken care of, and loved. Could we experience more things and make more memories? Yes. We have more work to do. But we’ve also come far. And I’m proud of us. Happy with this assessment of myself that has come from reading about myself.
And I have more work to do. More to follow……
Running Partner
This afternoon, we took the kids over to my SIL’s house and my husband and I went running together. Well, we didn’t really run together so much as he jogged ahead of me and then fell behind from walking, again and again until I finally left him in my dust. I’d love to say it was because I am so awesome and fast and full of endurance. But it was basically because his knee really started bothering him and it hurt too bad to run. He’s a delicate flower, and I’m worried about how he’ll be for the race. Poor guy. All skinny and in-shape looking, but all messed up inside. Just goes to show that even slender people can be unhealthy.
We ran almost 2.5 miles, and I only walked once for a short distance at the top of a hill. We ran two hills (well, I ran up one, down one and up most of the second, K didn’t take the second uphill but waited at the bottom for me) as experience for our 5K course next week that supposedly has some hills in it.
The kids had fun at my SILs and we enjoyed sitting and chatting while we cooled down from our run. On the way home, K’s ravenous appetite didn’t think it sounded like fun to go home and eat, so we ended up at Coal Mine Dragon for some chinese food. I had chicken and brocolli and rice, about 3 wontons, some egg drop soup. The kids didn’t eat a lot, though P loved her fried rice. I’ve had a couple pieces of chocolate since I got home and a few apple chips, so I’m still not hungry. I had planned on having a yogurt for a dinner-time snack since our dinner was at about 3:45. But I hope I don’t get hungry and just go to bed on the chinese food since I’m sure it was plenty of calories for the rest of my day.
The apple chips are fresh - made them today from a couple of honeycrisp apples that were going to spoil if I didn’t dry them. For some reason we just don’t eat apples around here very well – even though we all like them. K2 won’t eat them except in apple chip form, and I love to munch on apple chips when I have the munchies (instead of candy, endless yogurt, or worse). So I really do love to have some dehydrated apples on hand but haven’t made any in a few weeks. Anyway, the honeycrisp make AMAZING chips!!! I’ve only made the chips from Gala apples so far and the honeycrisp turn out so yummy and sweet they’re practically candy!! Excited to make some more. Also want to try some granny smith chips!
Progress Pics – November Compared to March 2009
Here is a set of comparison pictures. When I took these pictures last night, I couldn’t see a difference from the March photos….. just from memory. Then I pulled them all up today and made these slides, and now I can see a difference. Even though I still look overweight (and am overweight), I do look better. This has helped me put into perspective what I’ve accomplished already. I’ve been getting kind of down on myself because I’ve been bouncing between 40 and 45 pounds lost for a few months, but losing 40 pounds and keeping it off is an accomplishment even if I never lost another pound.
The right two pictures are from the same night, different suits.
Decision to start tracking again
I’m not going to start counting calories again, but I’m going to record my eats in my spreadsheet along with my daily weights. I haven’t used the spreadsheet in a few weeks, and I think it is time to start writing it all down again. Started out today with some yummy green oats. Which used the last of my egg white protein powder. Now we have some strawberry whey protein, but I don’t know how that will taste in my oats. I’ll try it, but I might have to invest in some more vanilla powder.
Late last night (causing me to get to bed later than I would have liked) I decided to take progress pictures. Will post later after I’ve edited them to take my head off.
Monday Waning
Well, Monday is coming to a close. Its been a good day, if not a very productive one.
Let me just start by saying that the zucchini brownies were AMAZING the second day. And they are gone. I’ve decided that the next time I make them, I will take out one for each of us in the family (that’s four servings) and plate the rest for giving away. Doesn’t matter to whom or why, everyone loves a plate of free brownies, right? The kids LURVED them, and they didn’t even know they were eating veggies! Mwaaaahaaaaahaaaa.
Also thought I’d make note of a couple of the things that I specifically saw at the bazaar on Saturday that I want to purchase. Quilt Magic squares. Laser-cut foam squares that you cut material out with a pattern and shove it into the cracks for a professional, pretty, quilted-looking square that hangs on the wall or door. So cute and pretty! And simple! I wanted about 6 of them, but hoping my mom and I can go to the vendor’s location this week and get some there without the distractions of all the other vendors.
There were these beautiful earrings made out of wire and string. One set looked like peacock feathers. They were gorgeous and dangly and kind of big and I wanted them. But I didn’t buy them. So I need to write it down and remember to buy them next year. There were so many things I wanted!!
One of the jewelry vendors had glass, twine, and stone jewelry. I loved the stone bracelets and shell cuffs, but I couldn’t decide and ultimately just bought a chunky glass ring that I love and it was only $5. But the bracelets were only $10 and they were all stone – such as amythest (my birthstone) and quartz. Gorgeous. She’s going to be at a Gem and Stone show up here in the Springs on Dec 6th, so I’m hoping I can go to that, perhaps with P again because there’s supposed to be stuff for the kids to do.
There was more, but I’ll leave it at that for now.
Today I came home from taking P to school (SO HARD to get up this morning), and laid back down on my bed to read my scriptures. I read a couple of chapters and then set it aside and fell back asleep….until 10 AM!! Then I got up, woke up K so he could feed K2, because I had to hurry and start getting ready for work. Good think K went and got P from school because I wouldn’t have had time and been able to get to work on time.
Work was productive but unexciting. Going back Wednesday.
Tomorrow I am hoping to run outside. Got a 5K in a little over a week and I haven’t run outside much at all in the past 2 months. And that means I’ve run outside one time. Eeeeeh.
Going to run indoors tonight and hopefully get in a good workout.
Zucchini Brownies – Take One
So I looked up a bunch of recipes for zucchini brownies tonight, settled on one that looked pretty similar to all the others, read the reviews (so I knew what to expect and had ideas on how to modify), and went at it.
Recipe (deviated slightly from what I got from the internet):
- 2/3 c wheat flour (that’s what I had left)
- 1 1/3 c white flour
- 1 1/8 c sugar
- 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa
- 1 tsp baking soda
- shake of salt
- 2 T of vanilla
- 2 T of applesauce (roughly)
- 2 c peeled, grated zucchini
- 1/2 c coconut oil
I mixed the dry ingredients and the wet separately, then combined. The batter was so dry I had to put on some plastic gloves and use my hands to get it mixed well, like very tacky bread dough. Used my hands to pat and push into a 9×13 pan and cooked for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees. The recipe said 30 minutes, but at this altitude in Colorado sometimes things cook differently.
They smelled good. I managed to let them cool enough to not burn myself, but they were still pretty toasty when I dug in. Other than a couple of pieces of zucchini that cooked right on top, you can’t tell it has a veggie in it at all – the zucchini disappeared into the rich chocolate color of these cake-like brownies. The first bite was a little disappointing because they definitely don’t taste like the brownies I’m used to out of a box, fudgier and more dense. But as I continued to eat (and I DID), they grew on me. More and more. And I ate almost half the pan. Good grief. So I won’t be making them anytime soon unless I have someone to give them to.
Changes I’ll try next time: add an egg and more applesauce. They are very crumbly and a bit dry. Still taste good, but I’d like to try and get them closer to a consistency that you can pick up with your hands and munch on. I’m hoping egg and applesauce will do that? But since I’m a novice to baking I’m not sure. Anyone? I’d also like to make them with all whole wheat flour and perhaps split one cup of sugar between white and packed brown. If I add the egg, they are no longer vegan, but I didn’t realize they were vegan until I read the reviews anyway. And since I’m not even a vegetarian, let alone a vegan, I’m not too worried about that.
So now I just need an excuse to make brownies for someone. Brownies that I will have one of (to make sure they’re edible) and then plate the rest and give them away. I might have to grease the pan or spray it, though, because it would be hard to get these out of the pan right now in any pretty fashion that would look decent enough to plate up.
Oh, and as my mom suggested, I really should grow some zucchini. I absolutely LOVE zucchini!! So many uses! Wheeee!
Saturday Craft Fair Fun and Sunday Laze
We drove to Pueblo armed with G00gle directions to the State Fair Grounds. Which we promptly disregarded when we saw a sign for exiting the freeway to get there 2 exits before the exit on our instructions. And after weaving our way through a good part of Pueblo, getting lost once and having to turn around, we found the grounds and the free Pueblo Holiday Bazaar. I love Free!!
It was maybe 2/3 of the size of the fair at the Expo in the Springs, but it was more crafty and not so high-end. Much more our speed, really. We found a bunch of stuff that we bought, plan to buy, or wanted to buy. Actually, I wanted to buy almost everything – I was a little out of control. Mom and I had P with us and she did great. She was enthralled with all of the jewelry, just like me, and we had fun perusing and trying on together. Mom mentioned that she sees a lot more of the merchandise when she goes with me because I stop to actually LOOK at so much stuff. We left there at about 2 PM to head back to the Springs. The whole day was overcast, foggy, occasionally raining, and chilly. But luckily, not icy until later on at night.
Upon arriving in the Springs we had to postpone our meal-eating plans in order to get to Liberty HS in time to see their fair before it closed at 4. We arrived at 3:30 and walked around quickly to make sure we saw everything. We only stopped a couple times, which I was kind of bummed about because I didn’t like feeling so rushed. It was worth it to see the Pueblo show, but I wish I’d realized the Liberty fair was closing, or that we were running so late, just a little earlier. We purchased a couple of little twist drums for P and K2 – that was the item P chose over all the other things she was enthralled by.
We then stopped by Chick-fil-A where I had a chicken salad sandwich, fries, and a shake. Decadent, and yummy. At home, we decided suddenly (K, K2, P, and I) to run to the store and return our upstairs TV for a different model with a clearer picture. We got back at 7:42, which was 12 minutes late for watching my niece A. As we drove by to turn around in the end of our culdesac, we opened the garage, and F (my SIL) basically shoved her daughter out of the car to come up and wait for us in our garage while she drove away before we’d even pulled around and parked in front of out house. Geez. Anyway, the kids had a blast playing together until…… 11 PM. Yup, that’s right my kids were up until 11 PM because F arrived back at our house shortly before 9 PM and we sat and talked for 2 hours. Enjoyed the talk, wished the kids could have been in bed while we chatted.
So I didn’t get a workout in yesterday which I was kind of bummed about. There’s a chance I’ll work out today.
It snowed overnight and K and I stayed up much too late (he got home around 11:45 and I was still awake), K2 woke me up with his crying at 3:15, and I woke up feeling like crap. So we didn’t go to church. I didn’t get out of bed until about 11:00 AM, K got up around 10:00 to answer K2’s call and then got up around 10:30 again when the kids came and jumped on him (thankfully leaving me alone for once). K and I made pancakes and eggs (the processed, not-good-for-you kind) and ate at about midday. That’s all I’ve had to eat today so far, though I’m thinking a yogurt is in order here shortly.
I didn’t weigh myself this morning. Yesterday morning I was 186.5.
This coming week should be pretty normal. Work three afternoons. Work outs. Might need to do some more grocery shopping for a few things. Hopefully won’t leave all the cleaning for Friday afternoon again.
Saturday is a MK meeting at my director’s house at 9:30 AM. Possible craft fair at a local High School. Work Christmas Party at MacKenzie’s steak house downtown. Promises to be a lot of great food for free, so K and I are going to treat it like a free date for us since I SUCK at mingling in large groups. My friend advised me to not worry about my lack of mingling skills or to put that pressure on myself. To just enjoy my husband’s company, talk to anyone that chooses to come and talk to me, and eat great food. All of which is great advice and so that’s what we’re going to do. Planning on having K’s mom watch the kids since she arrives in town on Friday for Thanksgiving week.
That’s about all from here. We’re staying indoors today. K’s watching the Broncos. The kids are playing with their drums. I’m writing this post and reading blogs.
Later gator.
