Vegies as the Focus for the Meal

Well, the paper said this July was the hottest July on record. I believe it. I watered a bit yesterday, not much though. The plants are getting desperate. The ground under some parts of the lawn has big cracks. And August is usually the dry month. Yikes!

I got a new book from Amazon. It's called Frozen Assets and it's about cooking for a day and having it last for a month. I am a bit worried about when I have to go back to school and I don't have time to make the dinners with all the vegies. Bob still doesn't get it yet. I asked him if he had a request for this week and he said he'd just as soon have the pork chop without the apples/vegies. The idea is that the focus is on the vegies and not the meat. You just have a bit of meat for taste and eat mostly vegies on this plan. We both grew up in homes where the meat was the focus of the meal and the rest were accompaniments. This is not the way toward healthy eating and loosing weight. I have heard of this way of thinking about a meal: divide up your plate, 1/4 is meat (or less), 1/4 is whole grain carb or carby vegies, 1/4 is colored or leafy green vegies or fruit. This is fine with me, since I'm not that great a fan of meat anyway. It's harder for Bob because he loves meat. He's doing great though he says he'd like to loose a bit more. This compared to me, the person with SO much MORE I need to loose. One step at a time. I am down since I started this blog. I am much stronger due to my workouts and best of all I feel very good. If my feet would cooperate then I'd be a new woman!

To health!
Sue

Sewing and Weigh-in

I opened the box that my sister sent me containing my mother's sewing machine, a little black antique Singer portable that Mother used and Janet and I learned to sew on. After I removed all the peanuts, I set it up. It works fine! It still has that slightly oily smell that it always had. It's all metal decorated with little gold swirlys and has very few scratches. It must be at least 50 years old, maybe older. I was so thrilled when I started sewing with it, that tears came to my eyes. It sure brings back memories. When I was growing up all girls learned to sew and cook. I don't think they even have home economics now, but I think all girls AND boys should learn to sew and cook, plus quite a few other things they're not learning now. Oh dear, don't I sound like an old fart now?

Weigh-in report: I'm down .5 lb, not quite a pound, but I'll take it. At least it's the right direction.

I walked Essi today and I had to discipline her. She had a meltdown with another dog. She's had training and knows better. So she had to sit and stay for a bit and listen to my disappointed voice.

I'm watering a bit, because it's very very dry. No speakable rain for almost a month. We go from the tropics in the spring with rain every day to the dessert with no rain. But at least it's a bit cooler today and the humidity is less.

Happy Friday,
Sue

New Habits for Life

Last night I went to a picnic for a gardening group I'm in. It was outside, but surprisingly pleasant. I focused on the people there and got to talking to one person about geneology. It turns out she's really into it. She shared some of her family stories and I shared some of mine. She had her daughter with her who I enjoyed getting to know. I had one of her other kids in class, so we had that in common too. The food was not the focus which is as it should be. I had little tastes of all the salads and took the skin off the fried chicken. I also took little bits of several desserts, but only ate a bite of each one even though they were really good. I came home and told Bob. He didn't quite give me the kudos I wanted. This was a very big deal for me not to finish those sweets. I LOVE sweets. But I was satisfied. Cool, eh? I think these kinds of choices are the secret to getting healthy and staying healthy.

To health!
Sue

Great Spin Class w/ Weights

I just got finished with the spin class with weights. It's a great workout. You haven't lived until you've done squats right after spinning hard for 45 minutes. Yikes!

I think I'm going to take a workshop the first two weeks in August to prepare for school and get psyched. It's a course at Miami of Ohio on the method I use to teach music, the Orff (yes, Karl Orff the composer of Carmina Burana conceived this method). It emphasizes performance or actually doing music, movement, and learning music be ear, although music reading is taught too. There is a lot of recorder playing and also a lot of ethnic music of different areas of the US and all around the world. It's a really neat way to learn and teach music. I love it. I took the Level I workshop a couple years, and it totally transformed my teaching. I want to take Level II. They also have Level III and Master levels. When you take Orff and join the organization, it's almost like joining a secret society. Very interesting. There are special instruments you use. Our school district has a set of instruments for each school, so we like Orff.

Well, we had our one day humidity break and it's back today, but not quite as high. My sister who lives in Virginia Beach said they had temperatures of over 100 for four (4!!!) days in a row. This is unprecedented.

Well, cheerio for now,
Sue

Odds and Ends

The heat has broken. We didn't get any rain yesterday, but the humidity has gotten better. I fixed Crab Cakes again last night. We also had cucumber salad, tomatoes, and corn. Good! I haven't decided what I'm going to fix today. My feet are hurting bad this morning after my Essi walk. Bummer! I think I'll go over to the pool for a bit in a little while.

My sister was up at my Dad's house going through Mother's things this past weekend. I wished I could have been there with her just going down memory lane. I miss her, but I guess that's normal.

Have a wonderful fantabulous day,
Sue

Out to Dinner for Less

We went out to dinner last night and we had our cocktail before we left. That's the way my brother does it to save money. It worked ok. Dinner was a lot less without paying for drinks. I think restaurants make a lot on that booze. I ordered a club sandwich with sweet potato fries. I only ate half my meal and brought the rest home. Two meals for the price of one! I was totally happy too, not deprived. Most restaurants serve far too much. I'd rather they served half the portion size for half the money. Some restaurants serve half the size for the same price or more. These are usually the better restaurants, I've found. We went to this little dive in town here. We enjoy that place. It has all the locals and hence a lot of interesting faces to make up stories about. We enjoy trying to figure out a person's story from their face and demeanor, or at least I do. I feel sure I have at least 8-10 books in me based on all the faces I've seen. But that's another blog.

I was outside gardening before it got too hot. We had 95 yesterday with high humidity and it's supposed to be hotter today. Yikes! The sweating is unbelievable. I'm watering the tomatoes and Bob complained about the money it costs. I only had the water on for about 1/2 hour. I use soaker hoses, so it goes in very slowly and just where you want it too.

I had a very good sleep last night, so I feel pretty good today.

Stay cool,
Sue

Loss Report and Jambalaya

I've got a scratchy throat today and had it yesterday too. I didn't sleep well because my throat kept me up. I am very tired today, but I walked Essi. She gets so excited right before her walk. She just loves to go. I enjoy walking her. I have several routes I go depending on how far I want to go. She is always ready though.

Last night I made Jambalaya. I used brown rice to make it more healthy. It calls for ambouilles sausage and some ham. You're supposed to put shrimp in too, but I left that out since Bob isn't crazy about shrimp. It has, of course, lots of vegies and herbs. I was delicious! I'm going to get some shrimp and roast them to have with the leftovers. The recipe made a lot, even enough to freeze for another time. Bob liked it and ate two helpings. You can always tell if he likes it when he goes back for seconds. No seconds for me, though! One portion and that is it!

OK, now for the important news. I lost 1.8 lbs and an additional 5 lbs of water. When I got back from Rehoboth I was 5 lbs heavier, but my legs and feet were very swollen. Weird. I lost that 5 lbs and went down my normal 1 lb with a little more! Good for me. I can tell a difference.

Another hot day today, so stay cool,
Sue

Humidity

It is so humid that you can work up a sweat inside scrubbing a pan. Yikes! I think we're having a record warm/HUMID summer this year. I sweat and sweat. I don't mind sweating, but it's kind of ridiculous this summer.

I took a slight break from cooking last night. I went over to our county fair to see the horse riding competition. I figured out that the fair has the regular fair activities that I enjoy, but it is the ugliest fair of any I've ever attended. There is a bunch of concrete and asphalt wherever you go, no green, no garden, no plantings. Yikes! I wish somebody would bring in some green. It would be a lot more pleasant to go there. When I got back from the fair, I made a doctored up Kashi pizza with salad. It was pretty good.

Sweatingly yours,
Sue

London Broil review

Well, the London Broil was pretty good, except I don't think the meat got tender enough. I'll investigate that. The rest of the meal was very good though.

I'm going to walk Essi today and also do to the county fair. Our fair usually is not so hot, but I have a student riding her horse I want to see. It's very hot, so we'll see how long I make it.

We got a shower yesterday that we actually needed. I also have to clean up my weed piles. When I weed I pile the weeds up and come take it away later.

I had my teeth cleaned yesterday. I like the results, but I don't like going there.

Cheers,
Sue

Best Meal Yet

I made a meal from Eatingwell.com. It was the best meal yet. It was chicken stuffed with ham and mozarella, green bean sucatash, arugela sald, peaches with yogurt. Yum! Tonight I'm making London Broil. The dinner menu always includes two vegies, a starch, a protein/meat. Plus I'm loosing - weight was down this morning. I'll give you the official weigh-in on Thursday, my weigh-in day. It's going to be good.

I had my Lisa meeting yesterday (once a month). More about that tomorrow,

Sue

Ina Wins

Good dinner! Everything turned out really gourmet. I could have roasted the broccoli longer, but the fish was delicious. The potatoes were great - new very easy way to make them, roasted without warming up the oven.

I am starting to feel better, I mean more like myself. It has taken six weeks and the Rehoboth ocean, but I am feeling better. I am not coughing anymore and can breathe better. The healthy eating and the exercise are working, plus the lower stress too. Yeah!

Cheers,

Sue

Ina Is the Greatest!

Tonight we're having Ina's "Fast and Fabulous" dinner: Mustard-Roasted Fish, Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli, and Dill Baby Red Potatoes. I love her show and have learned a lot about cooking from her. She has a wonderful manner in front of the camera that makes the viewer feel like a friend joining her in her house for dinner. Her recipes are not diet, but they are French/Italian in feel, but she also adds Greek elements sometimes. I think she is Mediterrean, but you have to watch her butter and cream when recreating the recipes.

I'll let you know how it goes,

Sue

Eating Out

We had a nice meal at Bravo last night. Bob got his steak :) and I had some salmon. Good, if a bit expensive. We enjoyed it and I didn't pig out! I think I'm finally on the road to healthy eating.

I did yoga today and this afternoon got my computer to work on the Lebanon network, one of the pesky summer projects I needed to get done.

Keep cool,

Sue

The high vegie diet

I just finished my workout - spin class with weights. Good workout! I feel better today than I have felt all week. For some reason, I retained a lot of water when I traveled. I have no idea why. But it all came back out and now my legs/ankles feel better today. Weird.

The meal last night was a winner: porkchops with onions and apples on brown rice with lots of vegies. Really good. Bob liked it a lot. So far this diet is pretty good. The only meal that we didn't like was the first dinner. There is a lot of preparation that I can do now. But I won't be able to do this when school starts back up. All the recipes go like this: get out a ton of vegies, cut them up, cook them somehow with a little chicken or seafood or pork. It is low fat and the only carbs you get are vegies or whole grains. This IS the no flour, no sugar diet, but it's high vegie too. The body responds well to it though.

It's hot, hot, hot here,

Sue

Cooking Your Own, the Balance

Well, we liked the meals better yesterday. We really liked the crab cakes and carrot salad. Breakfast was a little lean this morning, but good. There is a lot of preparation. When you eat vegies, you have to clean them and cut them up. Cooking takes effort and time, but you can control what you eat much better. You know exactly what the ingredients are. I'm not sure I want to spend so much time cooking per day, though. I wonder what is the balance to walk between giving the time and putting your food in someone else's hands.

I just got back from walking Essi - very humid, but not as warm - YET, that is.

Cheers,

Sue

Spin Class with Weights

I just got back from Spin Class with Weights. It's a great workout. I feel like I did something. I'm working on my core to get it stronger. Also, I want to increase my metabolism to burn more calories.

I fixed the first dinner in the Eatingwell.com diet. It was shrimp and vegies with Indian spices over couscous. I wonder how many people have made this dish. It was runny, almost like soup. It tasted ok to me, but Bob hated it. He only ate a bit. It wasn't my favorite, but I didn't think it was too bad. Oh well. Tonight I fix crab cakes with fresh corn. I'm sure he'll like these. I said I'd give this diet a 3-day try. There's a lot of preparation to the meals, at least there was at dinner. I don't mind the preparation, if the meal is really good. This one wasn't. We'll see how the crab cakes are. I have some fresh Old Bay to use that I brought back.

I brought back a bit of sun poisoning too, or heat rash. I used sunscreen and sat under the umbrella the entire time except for the time I was in the ocean. I think the sun is stronger now. My rash is much better today, almost gone in fact. I never got that before in all my years going to the beach and being in the sun. Weird.

It's raining today and VERY humid outside, but at least the temperature isn't in the 90s. I hear we're supposed to have 4 days in the 90s in a row at the end of this week. Oh boy, I can't wait!

Have a good one,

Sue

Eating Well

We are trying the 30 day plan from Eatingwell.com. We'll tell you how it goes. Have a look at this site and see what you think.

I was weeding and walked Essi. It's heating up out there.

Stay cool,

Sue

I'm Baaaack!

The beach was wonderful. We had fantastic, if very hot weather. I was on the beach every single day, many times from sunrise into evening. Do I love it? Duh! I went on a really neat bike ride from Rehoboth to Lewes on a new bike trail. It was finished in 2007, but we didn't know about it until this year. It goes through pine woods, fields, and marshes and finally joins the canal near Lewes. I really enjoyed that ride, one of the nicest I have ever done of all my bike rides.

And so, now it's home to renew my eating plan. You should have heard Essi's yelps of joy when I came in. What a sweetie! I'm going to follow the 30 day plan on Eatingwell.com. It's basically a Mediteranean diet. Look it up if you want to. I'm going shopping for it this afternoon at Dorothy Lane Market, my favorite fantastic place for local organic food.

Cheers,

Sue

Down a bit

Well, I went down .5 lb. I guess it's better than going up.

I pack today for my Rehoboth trip to get my ocean fix and be with my family. Bob wants me to leave my computer behind, but then I can't blog. We'll see. I have to go to Detroit and I'm not going to check my bag to save $20 each way. I hate lugging it around, but they force you to it.

I can't wait to be near the ocean for a whole week! I wish Bob, Essi, and Otto were coming too though.

I was weeding and pulling vines yesterday and there it was: poison ivy. Eeeek! I went running inside, stripped off my clothes, threw them into the washer, and jumped into the shower. Hopefully, the juices didn't stay on me long enough to do anything. We used to have a neighbor in Columbus who wasn't allergic to it. I would knock on his door and ask him to pull it out for me every time I spotted some. No such luck here.

I just walked Essi and now to yoga.

Sue

It's All My Neighbor's Fault... Not really

OK, so last night my neighbor hailed me as I was walking around the house. She said, "I've got something for you." She had carried back from Europe with her these two pretty martini glasses for us. Then I said to her that we must break them in with some martinis that I would bring over later. She said that was wonderful. So I brought some over. Then I came back and Bob and I had to order pizza. So we ate it. He didn't drink all his martini that I left him, so I beat him in falling asleep in front of the TV (this time, mind you he beats me asleep all the time). Suddenly I'm no fun because I fell asleep. The scale wasn't any fun this morning either. :( (that was a frowny face, in case you didn't get that). Why does one tiny martini and some pizza wreck up my progress in one small hour?

Sue