An exciting Day!

The weekend was crazy. And on Sunday, I didn't eat all that well (it was all vegan, but still not great). Yesterday I was feeling lethargic and blah! So the fact that it was a busy day work-wise, made it, shall we say--not great.
.
But, I started eating well again yesterday and I feel better today. It's amazing how much the way I eat affects the way I feel. As I've gotten into eating more raw foods I notice it more. I think that my "lethargic, blah" days are more like what I used to feel like all the time. It's just that now, I feel so much better that I really notice when I don't feel that good. (Does that make sense?)
.
For 2 and a half weeks, I've been pretty much raw except for one meal a day (usually dinner). Raw breakfast, raw lunch, raw snacks. Sunday, was all cooked except for snacks (one green smoothie, some carrots, and some grapes) and it had me feeling bad.
.
So today is an exciting day--and not because of my kale/strawberry breakfast smoothie. And not because of my broccoli/kale/nut cheese dressing salad I'm going to have for lunch. And not because of the sauteed veggies over whole wheat pasta I'm going to have for dinner. Today is exciting because I'm getting my TATTOO!!!!
.
I have wanted a tattoo forever. I've had my tattoo planned for like 8 years now, but never gotten it because I didn't want to get it on my fat body. Now I'm not fat; I've had the weight off for 10 months now. I did have to decide on a new location because my legs look awful after carrying around 130 extra pound for so many years. So anyway, later on, I'll post a picture......
.
I'm so excited.
Ciao for now.

I'm in a much better mood today

Things are working like they are supposed to be working, and I'm getting through my lists. Sorry for being such a downer yesterday--I hate being that way. When I get like that, it seems to permeate every aspect of my life. (We had to go to the grocery store last night and I was a royal B.)
.
So I mentioned here a while back that I was going to do more raw foods. I have been doing breakfasts, lunches, and snacks raw and doing a mix of raw and cooked vegan for dinner. Physically, I feel really good. I don't get that "full" feeling after raw meals but I'm perfectly satisfied and content with what I've eaten. I get hungry more often, but it's not a "eat everything in sight" type of hunger and an apple or carrot or something takes care of it.
.
I've become really fond of dehydrator bread--in fact, I've got some more wheat sprouting right now so I can make another batch.
.
And, on another good note, I'm finally heading the right direction on the scale again (I had gained 6 pounds up from my maintenance weight)--I've only got 2.5 more to go.
.
Plus, I've had enough energy to exercise regularly again. In two weeks, I've exercised all but 2 days.
.
All the reading I've done has talked about nasty detox symptoms when first going raw. I haven't experienced anything, but I was already eating a fairly healthy vegan diet with quite a few raw fruits and veggies anyway.
.
I was reading in my latest issue of VegNews the other day an article about the meaning of "Vegan" and how it encompasses the commitment to a compassionate lifestyle as well as the dietary aspects. I thought it was well said, but I thought that maybe the author should have acknowledged that sometimes the commitment to all aspects of the lifestyle evolve from what started as a "diet". Even if one commits to being a "vegan" because of health issues, the ripple effect will result in fewer animals getting killed and possibly more people moving toward the vegan lifestyle. Also, I think that what starts as a movement for "health" can't help but evolve as the person learns more about him/herself and our environment.
.
I started for a combination of reasons--both health and horror at the atrocities my former lifestyle was promoting. As I've evolved over the last 10 months, I've certainly found that my thoughts and feelings in both areas have strengthened.
.
Well, I had better get back to work.
Ciao for now.

Good Monday Morning

Good Morning,
We got quite a bit done Saturday. We froze through son's soccer game, then daughter and I got our hair cut (she goes shorter every time), then we came home for lunch, then we went to 3 different nurseries and came home and started on the garden.
.
We planted all of our cooler weather crops. So far, our garden has cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts (I had never done any of those before). We planted our onion sets. We planted some strawberry starts we got from a neighbor. We planted an apple tree and a cherry tree to replace the peach and cherry trees that died. And we planted a couple of blackberry starts. We also planted zucchini along side the house--it's protected there so we don't need to worry about it and this way it'll get an earlier start.
.
We also have seeds for pumpkin (both carving and eating), butternut squash, yellow squash, and beets. I'm going to plant the beets this afternoon. Also this afternoon, we're going out to my aunt's to get more strawberry starts and some raspberry starts.
.
We are going to have the biggest garden I think we've ever had and I am so excited. (I hope I can maintain the excitement when it's 100 degrees out and I'm having to weed it........)
.
Yesterday, I took the kids for a bike ride. It was daughter's first time riding on a road with traffic. She did really good (other than the fact that she rides a lot slower than son and I do). But we were like 2/3 through our ride and she got a flat tire. We have these nasty goat-head burrs that grow around here. Even though they are considered a "noxious weed" and the city is supposed to make people control them, they are still everywhere--the city doesn't do anything about it. So anyway, we had to walk our bikes from there. She was really bummed and insisted that it was OK, she could ride like that. I had to let her know that she'd ruin the rims on her wheels and then she wouldn't have a bike to ride if she rode like that. It ended up that both of her tires were flat--the back one just hadn't gone flat as fast as the front one did. So we got an OK bike ride and a good walk. (I let son ride on ahead so he could tell hubby what had happened and why we were taking so long.)
.
Books--I bought Kristen Suzanne's Raw the Easy Way. It's a good book. I'd like to incorporate more raw foods into my diet. I love green smoothies and most of the raw recipes I've tried. Son loves her "Sweet Potato Mash" from her Easy Raw Holidays book. I also think I'd be healthier. I still feel like I have to fuss so much to maintain my weight. I feel better and don't have nearly so much trouble with my weight when I'm eating more raw foods. So I'm going to try to incorporate more--probably breakfast, lunch, and snacks. And then I'll try for raw sides along with dinner. We'll see how it goes.
.
Well, I think that's about all.
Ciao for now.

Day one--a good day

Yesterday, I decided that I needed to get back on track with my health. I had been feeling crappy, I had been eating crappy, I hadn't been exercising. I was feeling bad emotionally and physically. I was cranky with my family. And the scale was starting to go back up.
.
So today is day one of taking care of me again. I already feel better. Right after dropping the kids off at school, I took all of the Girl Scout cookies and put them in shopping bags and put them out in the trailer. When people want a cookie, they are more than welcome to get one--but they may only get as many as they want right then; they may NOT bring a whole box in the house. I know that will keep me from eating them. I'm basically lazy and if I have to go outside to get the cookies, I'll give it a second thought and skip them.
.
I also got out a notebook to record my food intake and exercise in. I'm not counting calories, but I know that if I make myself write what I'm eating down, I'll think twice about putting crap in my mouth. I also know what appropriate portions are and am more likely to stick with them when I am writing things down.
.
I did some research and found a running program (I dream about being a runner and actually enjoying it) and implemented it--day one down, only 7 weeks and 6 days left to be up to running 2 miles. Day one wasn't that hard, so if I stick to the program and don't try to move forward too fast, maybe I can do it. Day one was run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes, repeat 10 times.
.
Funny story about exercising, though. The pup figured out that if she dropped her ball on the front of the treadmill, the belt would take it and shoot it off the back of the treadmill and she could go get it. The only problem was that sometimes, the ball would bounce back under the treadmill and the belt would take it up to the front of the machine where she couldn't reach it. I had to stop twice to fetch her ball from under the treadmill.
.
Daughter and I had a confrontation last night. She has had an attitude about karate for the last few months. She doesn't want to do it. I have told her that I think self-defense is important and I want her to continue for now (she's a brown belt--why wouldn't she want to keep going long enough to get to black?) Her teacher has noticed her attitude and suggested she "take a break". That made me mad; she kept saying that he said it, not her. I pointed out that he only said it because her attitude in class is so poor that he needs her out of there. And I pointed out her messing around and distracting the other students. (She does that in her music lessons, too.) So after a lot of tears and me being a hard-ass. I think she is to the point that she will shape up. If she doesn't shape up, she's going to lose the fun stuff like Girl Scouts (all her troop seems to be is a craft, cookie, and play group--I can't see that she's learning any life skills).
.
So, we'll see how that goes.
.
Tomorrow is my birthday. 41! Old, huh? I found a Chickpea Blondie recipe from "have cake will travel"'s blog that I'm going to make. It will be better than the chocolate cake that we've had ad nauseum since last August. I already got my dehydrator and my Titan Peeler from my family. Mom wanted to split the cost of a Magic Bullet with Ron and they'd go in together to get me that. I want it, but we've spent enough money on me. If Mom wants to get me the Magic Bullet (I hinted it to her), fine. If not, then no biggie.
.
Well, I had better get back to work.
Ciao for now.

Just a real Quick Re-Cap

What do you think of my new T-Shirt? Pretty cool, huh? OK, so here's the re-cap since last I blogged. Saturday we went to Boise--there was a banquet in Nampa that hubby wanted to go to. Daughter won a pellet gun, hubby won a range finder, son and I got squat--actually both kids also got a pair of gloves and some junk. We went to a Thai place and got take-out and I brought my own food to the banquet. I figured I'd get comments, but no one said a thing.
.
We also went to the mall--I got the above T-shirt.
.
Sunday, hubby was sick. Kids and I went down to breakfast, hubby slept. Kids and I swam in the hotel pool, hubby slept. Kids and I went in a store, hubby slept. I drove home, hubby slept. (Are you starting to see a pattern?)
.
It was a bad, achy flu bug. He was home from work for the last two days but didn't bug me because he slept the whole time.
.
Monday, as I said, hubby was home sleeping and I was working. Work went fairly good, right up till the end when it fell apart. Then the kids had piano and the grown-ups did grocery shopping (hubby came along cuz he said he thought if he did something he might feel better--wrong.)
.
Today, son had a dentist appointment in Boise--had to get some cavities filled so I dropped daughter off at my mom's and mom took her to school and son and I hauled it up to Boise, had the appointment, and hauled it back. We were back by 1 and I started work. Fortunately we (the gals in the office and I) were able to get the stuff from yesterday cleaned up.
.
Now hubby is gone to take the kids to Karate. He's finally felling better for real. And I am posting here and then going to watch Biggest Loser.
.
As far as eating goes, I have been really bad lately. There is something about Girl Scout Cookies--if they are in the house I have to eat them. So starting tomorrow, I am going to start writing down everything I eat again. I'm going to do it just like I did when I was actually trying to lose weight. (And now I do have some weight to lose to get back to where I was before Christmas.)
.
I have been better about exercising lately--4 out the last 7 days. I am going to start pushing myself on that, too. I DO NOT want to go back to being FAT!
.
So I am making a commitment for the whole world to read and to hold me to.
.
Well I had better get going.
Ciao for now.

I'm back!

Oh my heavens, I feel like I dropped off the side of the world (blog-wise anyway). I have been really busy this week with work and after being on the computer all day, I haven't wanted to at night.
.
Other than being tired, I've had a good week, though. Weight wise, I'm finally back in my range! Yeah, it took almost a month to get myself straight after the holidays, but I am there, now. And I am staying there.
.
Son is home sick again today. I swear, he could get a virus in his left pinkie toe and it would make him puke! I can't send him to school puking, so he stays home.
.
Daughter is looking forward to her birthday. Her birthday dress, leggings, and hat were delivered today (she picked them out from the Hanna Andersson catalog). I think she'll look cute. Plus, as a bonus, I think the leggings will match her other Hanna dress so she can still wear it even though it's starting to get too short for her.
.
Hubby might be home early today--he had to work a while last night and then had to go in an hour early this morning, so he might get off early. If he does, we'll go grocery shopping before music lessons (son is seeming to be fine now so I'm not sure if I'm going to cancel his violin lesson or not).
.
I made some of Ani Phyo's Almond yogurt and froze it in little Dixie cups with Popsicle handles and now I have almond freezer pops. Yummy! Son didn't like them, he said they were "too almondy" (duh, what did you expect?).
.
An Asian food market moved from the dingy little building they were in to a new building so hubby and I went in while kiddos were at piano lessons on Monday. I bought some miso paste and some yellow curry paste and some noodles. Tuesday we had home-made miso soup--so good. I wasn't aware that a lot of the curry pastes have "shrimp paste" in them--the yellow curry paste was the only vegan one they had. Also, some of their miso pastes had monato (fish) in them. I had to look for a vegan one of those, too. Now I wonder if I am getting fish when I get miso soup at Japanese restaurants.
.
I was going to make curry last night, but we had a couple of errands to do before hubby went back to work so we grabbed a burrito on the run--rice and bean burrito with added lettuce and green salsa.
.
Well, how's that for a whole week in a hurry. I'll try to get on more regularly, I think I'm about done with the end of year work rush. (I hope, I hope, I hope.)
.
I don't know what's going on this weekend yet, I hope it includes a lot of sleep.
Ciao for now.

I made it to Wednesday

Puppy had a play date this morning. Well, not really. I have a friend who has a grooming shop so I took Little Girl in this morning to get her sharp puppy claws trimmed. After that ordeal (she cried like we were killing her at one point), I let her down to play with my friend's business partner's dog (did that make sense?). Anyway, this other dog is like half her size and just as much energy. She had a ball and it was so fun to watch. She may even want to get her toenails trimmed just so she can go play.

.

So yesterday continued to be bit of a sucky day. I felt bad and just worthless. I had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, sauteed veggies and a pb-agave-banana sandwich for lunch, a wedge of purple cabbage for snack, a huge salad with homemade vinaigrette and tofu scramble for dinner, and an apple before bed. I also exercised a little bit.

.

Last night, hubby was helping with dinner. I turned to put my dressing on my salad and he hadn't dished me one up--he had three bowls out, one for son, one for daughter, and one for him. He completely forgot about me. How's that for a loved one making you feel invisible?

.

I still feel a little down today, but visiting with my friend helped. I had a Almond Butter and jelly sandwich and coffee for breakfast; and salad and tofu scramble for lunch. I'll try to get a bit more exercise in today, as well.

.

I also got on the scale today. I wanted to lose a pound this last week, right? Well, I gained one instead. Between the binge on Monday and the extra snacking over the weekend, I gained. I am resolved to get those 3 pounds back off--I know three pounds is not the end of the world, but I am NOT going to have worked so hard to lose all that weight only to gain it back; and 3 pounds is the start of that road.

.

So yesterday I mentioned that I was uptight about son going camping. I talked to the scoutmaster's wife--she said that if it weren't for her hubby going, she probably wouldn't let her son go. She's a worry wart like me. But she said that she knows how her hubby is with all of the kids and knows he'll watch over them really closely. They will have suburbans up there so they can get in and get warm if needed and they will have hand/foot warmers and heaters, too. I know I have to let him go sometime. I'm just afraid that if I let go, something will happen and I won't have him or he'll be hurt.

.

Son accused me of trying to scare him out of not wanting to go. I told him that I was just a worry wart and I wasn't going to smile and pretend I was fine with it when I wasn't. I told him that if he didn't want me fussing, he should quit talking about it. I also told him that I would be fine Saturday afternoon when he walked through our door.

.

UPS came and brought daughter's B-day present today! An American Girl doll! I unpacked the box to check the contents and wanted to play with her. Alas, I can't. I put it back in the box and put it away. I can't wait to play with it after she opens, it though ;-)

.

Well, I guess I ought to go and at least pretend to do something constructive. (Yeah, that's the kind of day it is--better than yesterday, though.)

Ciao for now.

Last night's dinner and ramblings about my weight

There is a picture of last night's dinner--doesn't look to appetizing, but it was good. Fried eggplant and mushroom gravy over mashed potatoes. Here's what I did:
.
Eggplant:
slice an eggplant into rounds (I left the skin on). Dip each slice in a cornstarch-soy milk slurry and then dredge in flour. Fry in a little olive oil--a few minutes on each side.
.
Mashed potatoes:
Come on, you can figure that one out.
.
Mushroom Gravy:
saute sliced mushrooms in a little bit of vegan margarine until they are as done as you'd like them (do this in a sauce pan so you don't have to change pans). Add 3 cups (about) of vegetable broth and bring back to a boil. Mix 3 tablespoons (about) of cornstarch and 1 cup of water in a shaker jar. Slowly stir the cornstarch/water mixture into the boiling mushroom/broth mixture and stir until it comes back to a boil and then thickens.
.
Assembly:
Put the potatoes on a plate, put a couple of slices of eggplant on the potatoes, put gravy over the whole mess.
.
For breakfast today, I had crock pot oatmeal and put some date-almond-soy milk on it. For lunch I'll have a Almond butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat and a piece of baked sweet potato (the only fresh veggie I have left in the house). For a snack, I'll probably do a pumpkin and strawberry smoothie since I have both of those in the freezer. And for dinner, I got out some sweet potato mash (frozen leftovers from Thanksgiving) and some green beans (frozen leftovers from summer) and then I'll warm up the leftover gravy (from last night) and the leftover bean loaf (from Monday). How's that for a leftover meal?
.
Weight
I know I shouldn't obsess over this but I do. I have lost 130 pounds and i don't want to blow it. I've lost the weight twice before in my life and both times it came back. But also, both times, I lost the weight for a specific purpose so of course when that purpose was fulfilled, I quit being vigilant and went back to my old habits. Of course the weight came back. The first time, I lost the weight for high school--I got out of high school and gained. The second time, I lost the weight because we were having trouble getting pregnant--I got pregnant and gained.
.
This time I lost the weight for more permanent reasons--my health, my life, my children. I have to be vigilant! Admittedly, it's a lot easier to maintain when I eat vegan (although I have found I can make some pretty naughty vegan treats) and put an emphasis on "healthy".
.
As of last Wednesday (12-31-08) I had gained 6.5 pounds over the holiday season. As of this morning, I am only up 2 pounds from the top of my range. (I know I didn't lose 4.5 pounds in one week--I didn't eat that sparingly and I didn't exercise that much--so I'm guessing I was retaining water, too.) Only 2 more pounds to get back to my range.
.
By the way, I decided on my "range" because I know how wildly my weight fluctuates from day to day--a range is easier to watch than a set number. I think I'd really obsess over a set number because I would be off from it more often than I'd be on. My range is actually a little below my goal weight, but I've found it pretty easy to maintain (thus far, anyway) within that range. My BMI is withing "normal" but a little bit above "optimal". I feel good when I'm in that range and like I said, it's pretty easy to maintain there, so that's where I want to stay.
.
We watched "biggest loser" last night. I am so glad I'm not there anymore. I don't want to ever go back there again.
.
Well, I really need to get back to work now,
Ciao for now