More Dieting, More Digging 4-14-2019

Thoughts and Quotes: Tho' an old man, I am but a young gardener.

                                                Thomas Jefferson

Speak for yourself, Tommy, I'm feeling every one of my years. Making progress, though, so it's all worth it.

And Sunday night - Wow! How does it go? Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight. So looks like yard and garden on Monday.

It was actully blood red. I had to use the flash to get the true effect. That's not a new planet - it's a crystal my kids gave me which hangs from the eaves and makes magical rainbows in the family room.

MONDAY

My first sprouts - Cherry Belle red radishes

First tulip (with marigolds from last year coming up)

Breakfast

Protein - 1/2 cup cottage cheese - 2 blocks

Carbs - 1 cup strawberries, 1 Great Value waffle - 2 blocks

Pecan halves - ignore

Lunch

Protein - 3 oz chicken breast - 3 blocks

Carbs - Lettuce, Kale salad, few beets, celery, cucumber,

pickled banana peppers, purple grapes - 3 blocks

Poppyseed dressing, avocado - ignore

You can buy chicken breasts already grilled and vacuum sealed at Sam's. They come six to a pack; eat them cold or heated. When I open the package, I wrap them individually and freeze them.

The Sweet Kale salad is also from Sam's. It has kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, chicory, dried cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. I just open the package and add some to my lettuce salads. It also comes with Poppyseed dressing, which I just pour into my bottle.

I was a bad girl today. I only ate half my salad and skipped my afternoon snack. Busy and just not hungry. I ate the other half of my salad for dinner and ate half a diet bar (1 block).

I bought these at Aldi and each bar is 15 gms protein (2-1/7 blocks), and 21 gms carbs (2-1/3 blocks). And they're really good.

Evening Snack

Protein: 4 slices bacon - 1 block

Carbs:   1 slice Aldi bread, toasted - 1 block

               Mustard - ignore

TUESDAY

More tulips in bloom; more sprouts coming up; violets still blooming away in the corner.

Breakfast

Protein: 1/2 cup cottage cheese - 2 blocks

Carbs:   1/4 oats, 1/2 cup water - 1 block

               1 Tbs raisins - 1 block

               Black walnuts, cinnamon, Splenda - ignore

Mmmmmm. . . . . .warm oatmeal cookies and milk

Lunch

On a Cape Cod tour, we had a group lunch in Providence, RI, and I had vodka sauce for the first time. I wanted to lick the plate. Then I found some in a jar at Aldi. Not the same. I need to make it from scratch. But - I cooked a pound of ground beef, added it to the sauce. The sauce was 7 gms carbs per serving; six servings per jar. I cooked enough pasta for six servings; ate one and froze the rest. Thawed it overnight and had it for lunch. 

Since the hamburger was not enough protein, I added some cheese. And since the sauce was low on carbs, I added some canned green beans. Easy-peasy lunch.

Afternoon Snack

Protein: 1 oz cheese - 1 block

Carbs: Small apple - 1 block (1 block is 1/2 apple, but this one was small)

Dinner

Protein: Cranberry pork chop (from freezer) - 3 blocks

Carbs: 1/2 cup corn, sauce on chop, 1/2 orange, 1/4 cup blackberries

  I froze two chops together, so I'll be eating this again.

Evening Snack

Protein: 1/4 cup cottage cheese

Carbs: 1 cup strawberries

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast

Protein: 1 egg, 1 oz cheese, 2 bacon slices - 2-1/2 blocks

Carbs: 2 tortillas, tomato - 2-1/2 blocks

Lunch

Diet bar - 2 blocks protein; 2 blocks carbs

Snack

Protein: 1/4 cup cottage cheese - 1 block

Carbs: 1 cup cantaloupe - 1 block

Dinner

Golden Corral Buffet - 4 blocks protein; 4 blocks carbs
By the time I took the skin off, not much meat on that thigh, so I went back for a leg and a couple of pineapple chunks. A real pig-out.

Snack

None

Tales: No, not a book I've read - books I bought. I know, I know; I said that I just wouldn't go to booksales anymore, but I fear I'm addicted.

And look at this cute bumper sticker I saw in the parking lot. Exactly how I feel.

I was looking for history books, especially about the obscure presidents; some just didn't attact many authors. I did find a couple. Adams books are fairly common, but David McCullough is a good writer, so I bought another.

John Adams and Woodrow Wilson

One about Mayans

A couple of gardening books

And of course, you guessed it, cookbooks. I'm so in the mood to cook, but no time right now. The one by Tyson (chicken) should be good for my diet, and also the four ingredient. 

I'm always a sucker for Annuals. I don't have any from Family Circle.

And how could I resist this? 

THURSDAY

Things that Grow: Lots of little pieces of green poking up in the raised bed. More tulips blooming.

So far, the moles haven't eaten the tulip bulbs which weren't in the raised bed.

Breakfast

Protein: 1/2 cup cottage cheese - 2 blocks

Carbs: 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 apple - 2 blocks

Dash of cinnamon, sprinkle of black walnuts

Lunch

Protein: Cranberry pork chop (told you I'd have to eat this again and I found two more in the freezer in the garage)

Carbs: 1/2 cup corn, sauce from chop, 1/2 cup cantaloupe, 1/4 cup strawberries

Snack

Grapes and cheese

Dinner

I made a salad of low-carb veggies

Decided I needed more carbs, so added grapes and corn

Then added pulled chicken I buy at Walmart in a bag, ready to go. I weigh it and put 4 oz in a baggie and then freeze them. Yes, I can only have 3 oz, but I always have kitty guests at my meals.

Evening Snack was cottage cheese and cantaloupe

FRIDAY

Breakfast

Oatmeal cookies in a bowl - see Tuesday

Lunch

Sometimes you just need some grease.

Protein:  1/4-lb Nathan's hot dog (from Sams) - 2 blocks

  All fat - Can you say "Keto diet?"

Carbs: 1/3 cup fried potatoes, 1/2 cup Red Cabbage and Apples (Aldi) - 2 blocks

Wonder if I can freeze this? It's a lot!

Snack

Hard-shell taco from Taco Bell

Dinner

Another pulled chicken salad, but this time with fruit; cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries.

Snack

Cottage cheese and orange

SATURDAY

Breakfast

Protein: 2 eggs, 4 bacon slices - 3 blocks

Carbs: 2/3 cup potatoes, 1/2 cup tomatoes, 1/2 cup cantaloupe - 3 blocks

Okay, last post of food. This is enough to give you an idea. I've been too busy to come up with creative ideas right now, but hope to soon. If anyone is interested in the Zone Diet, click HERE. If you want a copy of the food values I typed up to put on cards, email me at bennittpk@gmail.com and I'll send you the Word document.

The Surprising Missouri Weather: Sunday morning we got up to snow - yes, snow, on April 14.

I fear this wasn't a very interesting week, but I did get my taxes finished and in the mail; got my safety check and renewed my car license (on the third try). I'm not very good at sitting in waiting rooms. And I found a home for these dishes.

I'll try to do better this week. Might be doing some re-planting after today. My poor tomatoes and peppers. And I saw some really droopy sweet potato plants in the patio.

H A P P Y   E A S T E R

PRAY FOR THE STORM VICTIMS

COUNT YOUR MANY BLESSINGS

HUG YOUR LOVED ONES

JOIN ME IN MY DIET - LOST ANOTHER LB

THANK YOU FOR SHARING MY LIFE

Dieting and Digging 4-7-2019

Thoughts and Quotes: Don't worry about a rainy day. Pretend you're in Paris.
                                                                 Brooke Stoddard

And I've been doing a lot of pretending, as we've had our share of rain lately, along with some "pretend we're in Chicago" wind. 

The upside is that I've been perfectly happy to stay indoors as I've been bitten hard by the organization bug. Procrastination is a terrible thing, but I fear it's one of my main traits. When organizing one of my Travel Journal Notebooks, I wondered why I didn't write a journal when I went to China. Later I found the handwritten journal in my folder of papers from the trip. It never made it to the computer. Goody! Like I need one more thing to do. 

I also found a journal book of a trip to the east with Jan and a trip to San Antonio with my son. Neither had made it past the handwritten stage. Oh, well. Rain is expected in a few days, so I'll just pretend I'm back in Paris and get typing.

After several days of intense organizing, my office is still unfinished, but Miss Spring is calling and I have plants, seeds, and bulbs which need to be in the ground. I've begun the business of reclaiming my screened patio, but still rather a mess. So lots to do this week.

Teaching and Learning: Youtube is a great place to learn things. Bev shared this link with me, and I found it to be worth the 25 minutes viewing time because it's a tour of an orbital space station presented by the commander. Click HERE. I guess my bedroom has no gravity, because my hair stands on end every morning when I get up.

Taking Care of My Health: As part of my organizing frenzy, I've been completing my bullet journal. Mine isn't really a bullet journal - it's a gathering place for my many schedules and notes which were scattered thither and yon. One thing I learned is that if I'm going to accomplish all I've set out, I must pay more attention to my health because I need to live a long time. So. . . . . . 

I've come up with a diet plan which works for me. The Richard Simmons biography I just finished got me thinking, and I've had good luck with the Zone Diet in the past, so I'm working on a combination of the two. Here's where I am so far -

The Zone Diet is matching blocks of protein with blocks of carbohydrates (carbs). And remember Deal-a-Meal from Richard Simmons which used cards? 

I made cards for proteins and cards for carbs and now I can easily plan my meals. In addition, I'm trying to eat fruits/veggies from all five colors; hence, the different colors of the cards.

Protein is easy. I could print all the different options on one little piece of paper. So my pocket sheet looks like this:

I need 3 protein blocks each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner so there are 3 cards in each pocket. I need 1 protein block for afternoon and bedtime snacks, so there is a card in each snack pocket. As I plan each meal, I remove the cards. The object is to remove all the cards. 

We'll talk about the Dairy card later.

I need a matching carb block for each protein block, so I have 11 carb cards for the day. This is a little trickier. There are six cards for fruits and veggies; one for bread and grains; one for beans and lentils; three miscellaneous. Again, the object is to empty the pockets. Fruits and veggies: Red, white, blue or purple, green, leafy green, yellow or orange. A beige card for breads and grains, and a rust card for beans and lentils.

Each card has the items from that group so I can easily flip the page to see the values. Some overflowed to the fronts of the cards. The miscellaneous cards can be used for any category. I try to stay away from the brown and rust cards, but they're my favorites, so not easy.

Example:

The Dairy card is tricky. It's only for milk and plain yogurt: it counts as both protein and carbs, so if you choose the dairy card in place of a protein, you must also remove a Miscellaneous Carb card. On the Zone Diet, you're supposed to count your fat by blocks also, but I just ignore fat and eat butter and salad dressing and still lose.

I also made cards for liquids. I've heard that coffee and tea are good for you, so I try to include these at least once a day. I always have one cup of coffee in the morning, and I like drinking tea in the afternoon. It's that water I can't finish. I stack the cards up each day and move them to the back of the stack each time I use one. When I get back to coffee, I know I'm finished.

I've started recording meals to make future planning easier. For example, here are a couple of breakfasts:

I call this Purple Oatmeal: 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup cottage cheese. It's 2 blocks instead of 3, but I've been having trouble eating all the food. I can make it 2-1/2 blocks by replacing the water with milk which would add 1/2 block protein and 1/2 block carbs.

Protein: Cottage cheese - 2 blocks; Carbs: Oats - 1, blueberries - 1.

It looks pretty gross, but tastes really good if you add a little Splenda.

Another breakfast: 4 slices bacon (precooked is 4 instead of 3); 1/2 cup asparagus scrambled with 1 egg and 1 oz cheese on top, 1/2 cup tomatoes, 1 Great Value frozen waffle from Walmart with 2 tsps strawberry jelly.

Protein: 1 block each; egg, bacon, cheese

Carbs:    Asparagus - 1/2; tomato - 1/2; waffle - 1; jelly - 1. 

I ran errands all day yesterday, so grabbed lunch at KFC. I got a 2 piece meal with 2 sides of slaw and a biscuit. I like the dark meat and expected a leg and a thigh. I guess because the leg was small, they gave me a wing as well.

Lunch: 1 leg and 1 wing = 3 protein

Breading on chicken, biscuit with middle discarded, slaw = 3 carbs

Might not be exact, but this is not rocket science.

After running errands all day, I decided to just have the rest for dinner. I substituted pickled beets for the biscuit.

Not a good day, because I skipped my afternoon snack and had purple oatmeal for breakfast and strawberries and cottage cheese for bedtime snack. So - purple, red, and leafy green, but I missed green, white, and orange/yellow.  But hey! it was the first day.

And here it is 2:30 and I've missed lunch today. I just ran in and ate 1/2 an orange and whacked off 1 oz of a pork chop I had in the fridge for my afternoon snack. The idea is to eat often to keep your metabolism revved up.

And it's working. I lost my pound this week. They grow a lot of almonds in California, and I keep thinking of their advertising; "A cup a week - that's all we ask". So that's me; A pound a week - that's all I ask.

A couple of people have expressed interest in this, so I'll try to give you some examples next week.

Tales: I wasn't thrilled with this book, but as I've said in the past, I never read a book without learning at least one thing. Now I know about enameled meads.

There was a murder at the manor, and the detective sent his friend to spy under the pretense of being an experienced garden - a specialist in enameled meads - as the lord of the manor was redoing the landscaping. The Brits spell it enamelled. So it turns out to be an area planted with flowers and mowed around, like an enameled brooch, or an alternative to grass by letting the grass grow, sprinkled with flowers. I found some examples by checking Google images and also HERE. Considering the cost of maintaining a lawn, the idea is rather enticing.

And speaking of books, in organizing the office I found some books I don't need, plus I went through two of the boxes in the garage. I took these to the library.

And they told me, "No, thanks. We're overloaded." I told her that some of the books were dictionaries, research, and encyclopedias to use for the paper crafting classes. Nope! No place to store them. So, I'll pick out anything I think might sell at the local thrift store, and the balance will go in my recycle trash. The plus; isn't it wonderful that so many people are donating books? The minus; are we really destined to become a paperless society as predicted? This won't be easy. Throwing away a book is like tearing off a little piece of my heart.

Things that Grow: My hyacinths one week later. The rain and wind did a number on them, so I cut a couple of the "hanging down" ones and brought them in to perfume the kitchen.

And I've actually started planting some things: a few plants, more than enough bell peppers, because I thought one pack was jalapenos. I even put some of them in my flower beds. I've started working on my patio and planted some of my salad garden. Some of the seeds are from a year or two ago, but I read that they're good for several years. As I was sticking them in the ground, I sounded like The Donald - "We'll see what happens."

I let Stormy and Pepper outside because it was such a nice day yesterday. I caught Stormy digging like mad in one of the raised gardens, and Pepper was supervising. When I said, "Hey! What are you doing?!", Stormy jumped out and took off.

She was wound up when we went in, and kept looking out the windows at the robins.

Or sitting on the coffee table in the family room begging for treats.

The next day called for some solid rest.

Tidbits: Do you have a Bank of America debit or credit card? If so, there are several museums who will admit you free on the last full weekend of the month if you show your card and a photo ID. To see which museums participate, click HERE.

Thank You: To my Wonderful Girls Up in the Northwoods for another exciting CARE package. Pepper says that his favorite is the black kitty towel; but Stormy gave the scone mix and tea a thorough sniff. I think she wants us to have a Kitty Afternoon Tea.

Things That Grow: This morning my hyacinths look like this, and those daffodils have to move. They're a weird color. I like the plain old-fashioned kind which are solid yellow.

And Martha's forsythia is looking beautiful. 

The Bradford Pears in the field behind us are starting to bloom.

Time for Others: And I do mean time. Joey made this card for me, and she put all those little white dots on by hand. Just imagine the time, but what a great result.

That's it for this week. Yard time. My north raised bed is finished. Probably made another mistake and planted the cucumbers too early. Now I'm off to Nixa Hardware to get "dirt" for the middle bed. It's not really dirt, it's a bag each of sphagnum moss, mushroom compost, vermiculite, composted manure, and a top dressing compost. Planting a garden is easy - it's the preparation before you plant which is difficult at my age. I have to get those big bags out of my trunk, cart them to the back, and then get the shovel and rake and mix them. But, hey! You know my theory. Hard work, activity, kitty petting, and some good laughs keep you going, and I bless each day.

PLANT SOMETHING

BUT WEAR SUNSCREEN

AND STAY HYDRATED

THEN PUT YOUR FEET UP WITH A GLASS OF ICED TEA

AFTER YOU SHOWER, OF COURSE

COUNT YOUR MANY BLESSINGS

THANK YOU FOR SHARING MY LIFE