A new plan this week.

Wow, time flies when you haven't blogged!!!  

My last post was on the 7th?!?!  What?  I can't believe that.  Well maybe if I would be loosing weight I would have something to write about.  Ha Ha.  I haven't stepped on the scale since my last post because I haven't been eating well.  If you would have looked in my kitchen in the last couple of weeks you would have found cookies and brownies and chips.  How did they get here?  Oh, I brought them into my home.  For Valentine's Day I thought how nice it would be to have some brownies for dessert since we don't really do much to celebrate.  So I made brownies in a heart shaped pan.  My daughter decided it would be romantic to serve my husband and I a bowl of ice cream with brownies and chocolate sauce.  It was yummy.  But after that we had leftovers brownies.  Then, I go to the store and see cookies on sale, and I have a coupon!  Woo Hoo!!! Deal!! My family will be so happy to have cookies in the house.  I am buying them for my family.  But who eats most of the cookies and left over brownies? Yes... me.  My son did a great job helping me.  But he is 14, soon to be 15, and has the typical teenage boy metabolism.  He's tall and thin and in great shape.  He loves to work out with weights, plays basketball and just finished a season of wrestling with his high school.  Where did he get all that great energy and athleticism from?  Not me.  My husband used to be very athletic but not so much anymore.  We really need to get our butts off the couch.

This week I started following a new diet plan I found at Health Magazine.com.  It seems simple and realistic.  The only problem is I had to buy things I didn't have at home and it would have cost me more than I wanted.  So I'm just using it as a guideline and making minor modifications.  Instead of buying pita bread and whole wheat tortillas and whole wheat bread, I just bought flat bread and using it for all menus that call for bread.  And I'm just using brown rice instead of three different kinds of grains.  Simple adjustments.  Hopefully it will result in a loss!  I have to tell you the first night's dessert was fabulous.  It was fresh strawberries with a little mascarpone cheese with a bit of brown sugar.  It was so good, my kids had to have some, too!!! I will serve that again.  It will be a great treat in the summer.

Of course, I started the diet yesterday and had my first challenging temptation.  A birthday party.  There was a ton of food.  Pizza, cake, chips; all the good party food.  I didn't have any pizza - yeah me!  But I had a hard time avoiding the boreks (A yummy bread treat filled with cheese).  Forgive me, my Armenian friends, if I miss-spelled it.  I did share some cake with my daughter but I ate more than I should have.  I love birthday cake.  

Well, enough about yesterday.  Today I feel more focused and trying to stay on my diet plan.  For breakfast I had fat free plain greek yogurt with blueberries.  I really enjoyed it.  I love blueberries.  And for a snack I had a granola bar.  Lunch is coming soon and I am feeling hungry.  I'm looking forward to my peanut butter and banana sandwich with carrots and celery.  I'm staying positive and trying to focus on my goals.  

I was just thinking about my lack of water drinking so I got up and got myself a big glass of water.  Good for me!  I still would rather drink coffee but I started making only half a pot instead of a full one every morning.  My husband doesn't drink coffee at home, he goes to Starbucks every morning.  So half a pot for me is plenty.  Finding ways to be successful... that what this is all about. 

Peace,

Karen

Finally, an update after a week of feeling miserable.

Okay, okay... I know... I haven't given you an update in a couple of weeks.  Last week I felt awful! I thought it was a bad cold but it got worse when the wind picked up so I believe it was a severe allergy attack.  I felt like my head was going to explode.  Allergy medicine such as Claritin doesn't work well on me.  A friend gave me some Allegra and that seemed to help a bit.  But I finally got relief when the weather changed.  It seems my allergies have come back full force.  When I was a child I was always sick from my allergies.  My parents took me to an allergist and I went through the shot treatments for years.  It seemed to work for a long time.  It seems that only a few years ago they have decided to come back.  I wonder if my body has changed or if the air and allergens have changed.  Probably both.

Anyway, about my journey.  I lost a total of 5 pounds in January.  Yeah!! I am grateful for those pounds to be gone forever.  The next week, three more went away, but not forever.  Two of them crept back this week.  I weighed myself Monday morning instead of Sunday, like I usually do.  That was a big mistake because we had a super bowl party and lots of food.  My wonderful daughter made cupcakes, three kinds of cupcakes!  She gave half to my mother for some of her friends but three dozen stayed here.  She made raspberry cupcakes with whipped cream raspberry frosting, chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with a peanut butter cup inside and a margarita cupcake with lime glaze!  They were all fantastic, I know, I tried them all! (not at one time, of course).

So anyway I'm back on track today and struggling with my diet.  I'm looking for a diet plan to follow.  You know how the ladies magazines sometimes have a monthly diet plan.... eat 1 1/2 cups cherrios with 1 cup milk for breakfast with a banana;  Eat carrots and hummus for snack... etc.  I want to try to follow something like that for a week.  I found a great one on the Eating Well website but it had some elaborate recipes that I wouldn't make just for myself and I'm not sure my family would like it.  Meals such as sweet potato-turkey hash, and grilled smoky eggplant salad.  I thought it would be great if I could just buy the meals because most of them sounded great to me.  But it was not realistic in this household.  I know that I would not prepare a great gourmet dinner for myself then make hamburgers for my family.  So I am still searching for a good plan that I know I can follow and my family can participate in.  Let me know if you know of any.

Peace

Karen