Happy Halloween

Hope you all have a very safe Halloween. Trying to stay out of the candy dish, think I'll be just fine.

What Your Love of Peanut Butter Cups Says About You

You are hedonistic... sometimes to the point of being greedy. You love to eat, and there's no chance you're sharing your candy! While you may be greedy, it's with good reason. You have great taste. The things you love are worth loving, and it's no wonder you crave them.

What Does Your Favorite Candy Say About You?

Not bad overall

Yesterday wasn't such a bad day for me. I started out being woken out of a great sleep by the neighbor dogs. Their really getting on my nerves as of late. The owners just don't want to do anything about them.

Anyway, breakfast was a bowl of corn flakes, lunch was a homemade enchillada, had a snickers & diet pepsi for a snack & then dinner was a new recipe that I tried ... white chicken chili. It tasted more like a thick soup but it was very good.

I made it in the crock pot so it sat all day long ... a pound of chicken, 1 bag of frozen northern beans, 2 cans of chicken broth, half an onion, tablespoon of fresh garlic, then add salt, white peper, oregano, and curry to taste.

Hubby & I went on 2 neighborhood walks ... it was good. Last night was a little on the cool side, but it was nice to get out in the fresh air. Today I might have to do my own little workout cause he has a doctors appointment. His back has been giving him a lot of problems lately. They'll probably bend him all over the place ... like that will make him feel any better.

Anyway, I'm out for the day. Gotta get school started, bug man will be here any minute & I need to straighten up the house a bit. It's starting to get a lived in look. =) Have a great day!

Morning Funny

A young guy from Newfoundland moves to Vancouver and goes to a big 'everything under one roof' department store looking for a job.


The Manager says, 'Do you have any sales experience?'

The kid says 'Yeah. I was a salesman back in Little Hearts Ease.'

Well, the boss liked the kid and gave him the job. 'You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did.'

His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down.

How many customers bought something from you today?

The kid says 'one'.

The boss says 'Just one? Our salespeople average 20 to 30 customers a day. How much was the sale for?'

The kid says $101,237.65'.

The boss says '$101,237.65? What the heck did you sell?'

The kid says, 'First, I sold him a small fish hook. Then I sold him a medium fish hook. Then I sold him a larger fish hook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was
going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Expedition.'

The boss said 'A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a BOAT and a TRUCK?'

The kid said 'No, the guy came in here to buy Tampons for his wife', and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot. You should go fishing.'

Visiting the Twins =D

Rainy days and .... Fridays

Today has been just a horrible dreary looking day. The rain has fallen most of the day. The rain doesn't bother me so much but the kids bother me too much when it's raining. They can't go outside to play with their friends so they don't have anything to do. Their bored so they want me to drive them somewhere ... anywhere. I don't drive in the rain. I have this fear of driving in the rain. Ya see when I was little I was in a car accident and it was a stormy night. Since this time I just have this major fear that I will have a wreck. I will get in the car with someone else driving but I'm still scared!

Anyway, it's raining off and on so I knew this would mean hubby & I probably wouldn't go for our afternoon walk. Part of it is because he's working 4 hours overtime but mostly because of the weather so I decided to turn on exercise on demand & do a workout. I put on a 3 mile (40 min) walk ... OMG, that sucker was fast. Within 5 minutes I was already feeling the sweat working it's way to the surface. Within 10 minutes it was running all in my eyes. Did I mention that sucker was fast? WOW!!! Thankfully when the second mile came around at minute 13 I was pretty darned thankful. I wasn't sure I would make another mile at that speed. It totally sucks cause at the beginning of the year I would have flown right through it & if time permitted would've gone for another mile or two. Just goes to show you (and me) that just because we are maintaining our weight doesn't mean that we're retaining our health. So I did finish mile 2 at minute 25 ... braved through another 6 minutes and said that's it ... I'm done ... I'm pooped. Tomorrow I'll turn it back on & give it another go. On a positive note ... I did get a workout in & it was a good one.

Meal wise ... ummm, not perfect but I can live with my choices. Breakfast was a bowl of corn flakes, lunch was a ham/cheese sandwich with a hand full of chips, snack was a brownie (kids made it as a home economics project) with a tall glass of milk, & dinner is chicken/rice stir fry. So like I said, not horrible.

On a friendly note ... I heard from our dear friend Christina aka EVIL this afternoon. She is keeping herself busy at work (5am-5pm) then of course to the trainer a couple days a week. Her trainer expired this week so she wasn't thrilled about that. She thought she had another week to go. She sounds so happy with her new boyfriend E but disheartened by family & friends who think she's making the wrong move ... in their oppinion, she hasn't grieved long enough. pfff, what do they know? So, keep our dear Christina in your prayers ... hopefully her family will come to see just how happy E makes her.

Well, that's all for me. I'm gonna finish cooking dinner, relax in front of the boob tube with hubby then make a day of it tomorrow. We're planning on visiting with the twins, going to the local crafts fair, and then later in the night to the local haunted house. I think it's gonna be a blast. Hoping I will get lots of pics taken so I can share them.

Have a great weekend.

Made it to the Farm

Enough is Enough

Ok, without any doubts at all I know that I can't keep going the way that I am right now. I can't say I'm gonna do portion control cause it's now become painfully obvious that I am no longer sticking to portion control. I think something malfunctioned in my brain when I saw the scale say I had only gained 1.2 pounds in 9 weeks cause since that time it's like my brain thinks I can eat whatever and there won't be any consequences for eating crap and lots of it.


Yesterday I was under control ... or so I thought. I had a bowl of corn flakes for breakfast & then for lunch. Dinner wasn't horrible ... we had hoaggies and a hand full of chips. DH (darling husband) and I went for our second neighborhood walk of the day and I was feeling great. Then we heard it ... the ice cream truck. Why on earth they are going around at this time of the year I haven't the foggiest but when I heard the music I was almost in a trance trying to track the thing down. Then ... there is was ... I could see it & began to walk faster & faster. I noticed DH wasn't right by my side like he previously was. I stopped as he put his hands on his hips & said my old body won't carry me that fast today. I tried slowing down but I couldn't get the music out of my head. I said ya wanna catch the ice cream man so we can give the kids a treat? He said yeah. We decided to cut through some yards so we would be back on our street and have time to walk home & get the money. To my horror ... the ice cream lady was already passing our house & coming toward us. I quickly told hubby to stop her when she came by him and let her know that if she turned around we would buy some ice cream. He said ok ... why don't you? I said cause I'm gonna run home & get the money ready! I took off ... chiweenie in tow ... headed for the house, money, & kids.


I emerged out of the house right as the ice cream truck is pulling up front ... let the kids make their order ... then I made mine. Double chocolate mud cake ice cream sandwich. At the time I didn't notice the price but I ended up paying $2 for that sucker & it was gone inside of 5 minutes. What a waste!


Ok, so thus far I still didn't do what I would call a horrible night. That ice cream probably totaled 2 or 3 small snacks for the day. DD (darling daughter) came in & asked if she could put the icing on the brownies she made earlier. Damn ... I had forgotten all about her brownies when I ordered ice cream. I told her she could. She asked if she could have a piece ... I said she could ... then son had a piece ... hubby had a piece ... all the smell was overload for my system so I had a piece as well, with a tall glass of milk. That 8x8 pan this morning is sitting on the counter ... empty! We are becoming a fat ars family. Enough is enough!

When I woke up & saw that empty pan that had 12 servings in it last night & 0 this morning I knew that we as a family are not living healthy anymore. What was a thinking? From 5-8pm we had chips, ice cream, and brownies. We weren't hungry ... we were just eating for the sake of eating.

Today, like it or not we are going back to a healthy way of eating cause we're all getting chunky monkey butts, bellies ... everything. Well of course not DD who is still thin as a rail but if she doesn't get on a better track she will be on the same path as the rest of us. Now I know in the past I have said I envied hubby cause he could eat anything & not gain an ounce. HA ... that was before retirement. The other morning we were taking a shower together & that's when I noticed his gut. Although it's tighter than mine (I'm blaming the c-section for the lose skin), he's got a lot of belly protruding. He said something to me & without thinking I said well if your not careful your gonna be a fatty just like me. As soon as I said it I saw it in his eyes ... he saw what I saw. His fear is being fat like most of his family. He said that's it ... we're all gonna do something about it. I have noticed him slacking off on some of the food, but now, I'm gonna be right there helping him, the kids, and not less important ... ME!

Whatever is planned is eaten ... no veering away from it unless it's being replace with something equally as healthy. I'm flippin sick of being fat ... my belly is now pooching out when I sit here at the desk ... it's disgusting. I just bought new jeans last weekend & this week their snug. I didn't buy them for nothing! So please join me in taking off the weight before Christmas gets here. We'll be some sexy babes in 2 months time. =D

Breakfast: 2 egg whites, 1 oz. cheddar cheese on toasted english muffin, 2 cups of coffee. (240 calories)

Lunch: Half a hoaggie, loaded with lettuce, cheese, ham/turkey, light mayo, 1 cup pear halves (300 calories)

Dinner: crazy-good turkey taco meatloaf (from hungry girl, page 132 if you have the book). See recipe below! 3 WW points

Snack: string cheese, grape juice (125 calories)



Daily Caloric total= about 920 calories. I know on the low side but this is for today only. I need to shock my system. If I get hungry I'll drink water or warm herbal tea.

127 calories, 1g fat, 688mg sodium, 7g carbs, .5g fiber, 2g sugar, 22g protein.

Makes 6 servings!

Ingredients: 1 pound ground turkey, 2 slices fat free cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup shredded fat free cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup canned sweet corn kernels, 1/4 cup chopped green bell peppers, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup salsa, and 1/2 pack of taco seasoning mix, dry.

Directions: preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook peppers & onions for 3 minutes over medium heat in a pan sprayed with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, combine onions & peppers with turkey, corn, and seasoning mix. Spread half of the mixture into the bottom of the loaf pan sprayed with nonstick spray. Layer the two slices of fat free cheese on top of the mixture, slices away from the pan's edges. Evenly top with the remaining meat mixture. Pour salsa over the top of the loaf. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes. Top loaf with the shredded cheese. Return loaf to the oven & cook for another 15 minutes.

If you make this, let me know how you like it!

As for cardio ... I WILL do a walk video here at the house & then do a neighborhood walk with hubby. This weight is coming off even if it doesn't know it yet.

UPDATE: I ended up doing a 1 mile walk/jog. WOW ... I'm so out of shape. I used to be able to jog the whole thing. No problem though ... I know where I need to get back to. Oh, about 8 last night we decided there wasn't anything good on TV so we went for a neighborhood walk. Just the two of us. It was nice ... the air was a bit cool ... it was perfect.

Ickie sickies

DS is sick again. I don't know what's going on with him. I know he doesn't want to be sick cause we had plans to go to the pumpkin farm later today & I know he was really looking forward to it. He's been sleeping all day long & his fever is steadily at 102. I hate when my kids are sick ... it's like I don't know what to do for them. I hate to be hovered over but then some people just want people around them all the time, ya know?

Oh, I did get my walk in yesterday but just once. DH was tired from work and we also wanted to catch up on shows. Of course he fell asleep but that didn't stop me from watching my shows. I watched The Starter Wife. Does anyone else watch that show? I don't know why, but I really like it. Maybe it's the character Molly (Debra Messing), I like most everything she does.

That's all for now .. hopefully we'll make it to the pumpkin patch tomorrow. I'll post pics if we do make it. I'm off to do my neighborhood walk with the honey. I haven't really eaten much of anything ... just 2 bowls of corn flakes. I don't know why but some days it's the only thing that sounds or taste good ... guess this is one of those days. Thankfully their low in calories and almost fat free. Can't go wrong with that can ya.

Have a great afternoon.

Update on my Day

Food today has been pretty wise. For breakfast I had oatmeal with a half scoop of protein powder, 2 slices of raisen bread, glass of milk and a cup of coffee. Lunch was a BLT ... yummy. Been awhile since I had one of those. Dinner is home made chicken noodle soup. I've been cooking it since this morning and it's smelling delicious right about now.

Went for my daily neighborhood walk with the DH ... both of the kids wanted to join us & then with them came 2 of the 5 dogs. I swear when I get older people are going to call me the crazy dog lady. Oh well ... I love poochies ... the smaller the better. OMG, yesterday DH took me to the pet store, I was so tempted to get another chihuahua. I didn't but she was so adorable. Marked down from $999 to $200. That's cheaper then what I paid for my other babies. The thought of training another puppy though ... I just couldn't do it. Not to mention ... I do have 5 poochies that are always in need of love.

I'm thinking after dinner DH & I will go for another walk. This will bring my total to 3 miles for the day. Not bad but I need to get back into more activity. If for no other reason than I feel better about myself when I'm very active.

Hungry girl

Hungry Girl ... I bought the cook book yesterday & I'm looking forward to eating a bunch of new healthy foods.

For breakfast I'm making oatmeal. It's loaded with fiber, low in calories & very low in fat. Who could ask for anything more? You can find recipes & stuff from hungry girl at www.hungry-girl.com I swear, if you've never seen this web site you will love it. The book is just as amazing.

What Damned Diet?

I'm tired of coming here saying it's a do-over. My do-over has officially died. I ate all my damned will power up. The thought of even uttering the dreaded "D" word is making me go crazy. I'm in one of those nightmares where your fat ... naked ... and everyone is looking & laughing. I'm in the mind set of why do I even care if I lose weight? I know my DH loves me no matter my size. I've been higher & he loved me just the same. I keep asking myself why am I fighting what I obviously can't control? Who knows!

Today is just another day. DS had a sleep over last night ... I guess I should call it a sleep out. They did end up coming in around 3am because it just got to cold for them. Son his saying his sick this morning. Don't know if it's because he gorged on food all night long, stayed up to late or just wanted to be a lazy kid with no chores today. I guess we shall see how quick he feels better when I head out the door for some shopping. I bet the little booger will be all better in the blink of an eye.

So, today's agenda is to give a one fingered salute to my diet. I think in the last 9 weeks I have learned if I don't call my food plan a diet I do much better. This past week I've said I'm getting back on the diet banwagon & well ... I've just fallen flat on my big round belly. Exercise ... I'm keeping up with the walking just because I like the time that I share with DH talking about a lot of nothing. Not to mention the fresh air is good for me.

I seem to coup myself up in the house for days at a time. I've always been like this, I don't know why. Maybe it's the way I grew up. When mom & dad were still married we didn't really ever go anywhere. We stayed at home & enjoyed life as a family. When the divorced mom never wanted to stay at home so it was always go-go-go ... how long can we stay gone? Even if I didn't feel like going anywhere, I still had to go. It sucked!

DH is a homebody like me for the most part but as he says ... I get out for work, you never even go outside. Besides our walks ... he's got a point. I don't think it's that I'm lazy or anything like that ... I just think I stress about the what if's way to much. What if one of my old workout buddies/students see me? I've gained so much weight. What if we're in a car wreck? Who'll take care of the kids? Just stupid stuff.

Oh well, I don't know where this entry is heading so I'll just stop it here. Have a good weekend.

Die with a T = DIET

OMG ... DH came home with a gift for me. Look --->

All I could do was laugh. He was like "what, you don't like it?" I drink coffee allt he time but on top of that is this great saying! Thanks hubby ... I may complain about you but your still the best!

I ended my night on a high note ... no M&M's!!! =D DH
made us grilled steak, mashed taters and green beans. Wen ended up going on 2 walks after he got off of work. One was a 1.5 mile while the other one was about 3/4 mile. It was nice to just get out & walk. It was slower then I would have liked but some activity is better than none at all.

While on our walk I made mention of his mood. He immediatly told me he thought about it all day long & promised he wouldn't do it again. He did play his game for a little while but thankfully not 4 hours straight! This morning he wasn't loud either. I slept through everything. The only thing I remember was him saying he loved me as he kissed my forhead good bye & then I remember him saying there will be coffee waiting on you when you wake up.

I did a bad thing for breakfast. I waited to long before eating & ended up grabbing ... poptarts. WTH is wrong with me? Guess I'll have to make up for it with my next 2 meals. I'm having a large chef salad for lunch and then dinner I don't know yet ... maybe left overs cause we have a ton. I'm thinking steak, couscous and peas. Yum Yum!

Cardio for the day will be a trail walk. I need to change things up. Maybe get back into my yoga booty ballet. I was really seeing the inches melt off of me even if the scale wasn't moving.

Do Over Over

Good gravy ... how many darned do-over's am I gonna need? I didn't do horrible all day long. I have cereal, coffee, hummus on pita ... no snacks up until this point. Dinner was supposed to be something healthy ... steak, corn, potatoes. Well, DH, DD, & I went on our 2 mile walk at the track ... had a blast talking & cutting up. When we got home we just weren't in the mood to grill steak but not only were we not in the mood to grill we noticed the meat wasn't completely thawed out. Darn it ... it's all my fault. I didn't lay it out early enough so that's what we'll have for dinner tonight. Anyway, DH had a taste for bacon, eggs, and pancakes. He got his wish for everything but the pancakes. We were almost out of pancake mix. Thank God! He settled for toast & my waist line was happy too.

Doesn't sound like I did bad at all right? I didn't ... until DH pissed me off & I ended up grabbing a bowl of peanut butter M&M's. Ya see, the whole time he was on 3rd shift he said how much he hated not being able to relax & watch TV with me at night so that's what he was gonna love about 1st shift. That didn't really happen. We got back from out walk around 4 or so ... he sat down to play his video game on xbox ... about 4:30 he said he would make dinner ... we ate about 5. The man played his game & ate at the same time. I was disgusted cause usually we watch out TV shows together ... but not this time. When I finished I didn't make a big deal of it, I just got up & created some art for the PSP group. About 15 minutes before 7 he's still playing the game ... I'm a little annoyed at this point but I keep my cool. I tell him our show is coming on in 15 minutes & I'd like to watch it. He puts his game on pause ... hits the record button of=n the DVR and says you won't miss it if my game runs over. What an ass!!!

5 minutes til 7 I tell him I know you have recorded the show but wasn't the whole thing about sitting here together watching it. He seemed annoyed ... annoyed that I wanted to sit & watch TV with him. I said whatever. He said don't worry, this is the end of this battle so it ill be off in a couple of minutes. So I go get in my jammies and get ready to watch the show with him. As I walk by to get my bottle of water I hear another battle going on. I inquired about it & he said oh I guess it wasn't the end. I retrieved my stuff & headed to the bedroom to watch my show. I came back out real quick to tell them it was time to shower ... I guess he read my face & said I'm turning it off ... I said don't bother, you can watched the taped show but I'm watching it now. He actually got pissed at me and said that's not fair ... I'm shutting it down already.

Never mind that he's been playing the damn thing since around 4 and it's not 7 ... never mind that I didn't ask him to stop playing during dinner ... as I'm walking back to the bedroom, I half expected him to actually be turning that damn game off ... NOPE, he went back to a fight scene. I was so mad that I grabbed a bowl of M&M's and went to town on them. I didn't eat the whole bowl ... but I did some damage.

He came to bed an hour later swearing he would watch the next show with me ... he fell asleep within 20 minutes. Uggg, I don't know why I let him get to me but I did. I'll have to do much better today!

Don't know what's on the menu for the day. I'm thinking cereal for breakfast, pita & hummus for lunch, steak & taters for dinner ... maybe have a side salad with it for some roughage. Hopefully no snacks.

Do Over

Ok, yesterday turned out to be a flop in the food department but I did do my 1.5 mile walk twice. I ended up snacking on peanut butter M&M's instead of having my cheese wrapped in roast beef & for dinner I thought we had fish but I guess I thought wrong. We ended up making hot dogs ... I had two. The good news is, I didn't eat chips with it like everyone one else in the house. I probably would have been fine with one dog so I will keep that in mind the next time we have that.

Diet Plan: once again, try to stick to the Crack the fat-loss Code book.

Exercise Plan: do my neighborhood walk with DH when he gets home this afternoon. I may do a walk video before he gets home cause with his shift change from 3rd to 1st ... he might be really tired. Poor guy tried to go to sleep at 8 last night & I was in a picking mood. I doubt he got any real sleep until about 10. I'm so mean! I've just gotten used to him coming in at 2 in the morning & waking me up to talk or whatever else ;D!

Update: I had a bowl of cereal (corn flakes) for breakfast, 1 wheat pita with home made hummus for lunch, dinner is a grilled steak, corn on the cob and a 1/2 cup of mashed taters. I haven't been very hungry today so I doubt I will feel like a snack ... if I do I'll be going for a sting cheese with sliced ham wrapped around it. For my cardio ... DH & I decided to go to the local nature trail and hike up the hills. It's a little over 2 miles long and what a workout it is for the legs.

Back in the Saddle ...

Today I am back to the diet grind stone ... well I guess you can call it that. I'm back to using my Crack the fat-loss Code book. It seemed to work the last time I was on it as I went from 211 down to 198 in about a months time. Since this time ... 9 weeks to be exact I have only gained 1.2 pounds. This is an amazing accomplishment for anyone ... but it's a great feat for me since I've been known to lose 5 pounds in 2 pounds on a diet but gain 15 in a week if I went off the plan.

Exercise: 1.5 mile neighborhood walk, probably another walk later this afternoon.

I think I'm gonna stick to my daily neighborhood walks cause it seems to be working better than killing myself daily with workout videos. I'm not sore on a daily basis ... I'm not cranky ... I'm not a lot of things that I was when I was working out like a mad woman.

Water: so far nothing but I have been averaging 6-8 cups of water a day

Food Plan: eat when I'm hungry, stop when I feel a small desire that I will be satisfied in a few more bites.

breakfast = 1 egg white, 1 whole egg, slice of cheese on top, 4 cups of coffee (wishing it were dunkin donuts).

snack = none ... wasn't hungry

Lunch = 4 cup salad greens with left over chicken on top. I'm using the 2 calorie a spray dressing.

snack = boiled egg

Dinner = cucumber salad, steamed veggies, grilled fish

snack = string cheese wrapped in roast beef (deli slice)