2015 Week Two

Yes, I actually made it successfully thru my first week successfully! Can you believe it? Yeah me!

Breakfast was a hearty scrambled eggs, cheese and bacon. Very filling. For dinner I had planned to make Chile Jack's Sausage Bites and Ranch Style Green Beans. Tasty sounding #recipes, right? I thought so, too!

I had errands to run and groceries to buy, so I headed out the door. First I went to BBB to pick up my bathroom scale. I haven't had a bathroom scale since my husband bought me one for Christmas. Not the best Christmas prezzie as I weighed over 340 pounds at the time. :/ But now I have a new one and I can track my weight instead of waiting for doctor visits. :)

Grocery store next and I bought some amazing sausages for the sausage bites. Chipotle chicken! Yum!!! Now I'm heading home to cook an early dinner.

But then dad called. "Yeah, Linda? Are you busy? Your mother bought two new printers and I need help installing them!" There goes my dinner as planned...

Anyhow, got the printers hooked up and dad had dinner ready. He made meatloaf, mashed potatoes and fresh green beans. Although they tried to get me to "taste" the mashed potatoes, I resisted. Good meatloaf and green beans, however!!!

Got home and was so excited to get my scale working! I opened up the box and... say what??? It needs 3 AAA batteries! I have AA and D, but no AAA. Ugh. Have to wait until tomorrow now.

Thus ended my amazing day!

As I sit here and write this and reminiscing about what I ate today, I cannot, for the life of me, remember what I ate for breakfast! Let me take a brief moment to step in the kitchen and try to recapture the moment.

MMMmmm... Apparently I had leftover meatloaf and some egg salad! Took me a few seconds of staring at the empty plate to figure it out. But I have to say, it was good. (I can't believe what a dork I am.)

Last week I started a new exercise routine just to get me moving. It is only 4 exercises, and they really are not all that difficult. But they do their job! I am doing 5-10 reps of each 2-3 times a day. I was going to post the video but I need to edit it down. The file is too big. :(  Maybe later in the week!

Have to take baby steps, otherwise it will kill me!

Well, it is Tuesday and that means Pint Night, right? Nope, not tonight. Just wasn't up to it. Instead I am curled up at home just blogging, watching TV and eating a little bit of dinner.

Dinner was ham and cabbage with a bit of caramelized onions. Plain and simple. Oh, I did pour a 5 oz glass of white wine, Viognier to be exact, and used part of it to deglaze the skillet. I spent an hour eating dinner and sipping my wine.

And now I will say good night until tomorrow!

It was really annoying me last night that I couldn't upload the video to my blog from my computer. I fretted and fretted about it. Then... DING!!! The lightbulb came on! Youtube!

I uploaded the video and like magic, you can see the exercises here! The skater I have started doing 5 at a time. The chicken wings and jumping jacks I do 10 times. One time equals both sides, not just one side, if you know what I mean.

I have to confess that I don't have free weights. I always intended to get some, but up until now I haven't really had a reason to. So what have I been using?

A bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. It works! But I will now go out and buy some 3 lb. free weights. And yes, that is my Christmas tree you are seeing. I will take it down next weekend. (It makes me smile!)

Seems like I keep making plans on what I will cook, and it does not seem to be working out. Ugh!!!

You now the green beans and sausage bits I've been talking about making? Yeah... Still hasn't happened.

This is what happened. Breakfast this morning was with Captain at IHOP.  I ordered the Bacon Temptation Omelet with six strips of bacon, a rich and creamy cheese sauce, Jack and Cheddar cheeses and fresh, diced tomatoes on top. Actually I asked for the tomatoes on the side because he wanted them. (This girl is not a fresh tomato fan when the tomatoes are from the grocery store. Farm fresh, however, is a completely different matter!) My side of choice was fresh fruit. :) I ate half the omelet and the fruit. Perfect! I have dinner for tonight, I be thinking.

Quick stop at the grocery store for me to pick up essentials - half & half, cheese and, most importantly, AAA batteries for my scale! I came home and got busy with the scale. Opened up the box and found that it came with the batteries. I didn't need to buy any! Oh, well, I have extras now!

Dad has said many times that it's okay if the doc wants to just cut off his hand since he's tired of the pain! LOL!!!

Today was dad's orthopedic appointment for his hand, so I went over to their house about 1:30. Naturally mom had errands she wanted to run too, so we all piled into their C-Max and away we go. The doctor's appointment went well; took a movie to my friend Darlene; took parents to Walmart; took myself to Petsmart because Maddie is out of food; took them to Staples; then took them home.

Yep! That was my day. I decided to call it a day and came home. I had some hamburger that I HAD to cook today, so I made taco meat out of it and made myself a taco bowl! Literally, a taco in a bowl instead of a taco shell.

And that, my friends, is the end of my day. Tomorrow I will let you know how much I've lost! I'm excited to see! Nighty-night!

Thursday was a busy day. I had an interview with a temp agency. I want to work part time just to keep busy and make a little extra cash. I want to pay off my car by the end of the year.

The interview went well, but I have to do a little testing to make sure I still got it. That's okay. There's a great accounting website to brush up your skills called Accounting Coach. They have different levels and topics you can study. So I will be doing a bit of study before taking their 30 minute test.

When I was done I called Captain and asked what he had in mind for the rest of the morning and afternoon.

We stopped at Cafe Lumiere (they have the best coffee ever!); I just had coffee, he had coffee and a croissant. (Did I mention how amazing their croissants are?)

The movie was good, but better if you are a J.R.R. Tolkein aficionado. It's just a bit hard for me to follow, but it's interesting!

We were both hungry by the time the movie was over so we decided to go to our favorite BBQ - JR's Texas Bar-B-Que.

Are those pictures making you hungry? They should! Best bbq in the area, I can tell you that! We've been going there for over 20 years.

I ordered the brisket half plate and my sides were beans and cole slaw. He ordered the brisket sandwich with macaroni salad.I brought half my brisket home and my beans; me got my cole slaw and took half his sandwich home! MMMmmm...

On the drive home my stomach was suddenly not feeling good. Uh-oh! I was having a bad food evening. Yep, I lost it by the time I got home. Couldn't keep it down any longer.

So that was how my day ended. I have been drinking water and just enjoying the quietness of home. Tomorrow is another day!

Friday was a great day. Well, it started off great. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, cheese and ham (maybe 2 oz of ham only). It was very good! Then I got busy with the Christmas tree. It was time to put it up for another 11 months.

Swept and cleaned that corner so I can now set up the treadmill.

I dawdled a while, watching TV and such, dragging the treadmill box into the living room in preparation. But before getting started I decided to eat a bit of lunch.

You remember JR's Bar-B-Que leftovers? I had been slowly heating them on the stove in an attempt to make the meat more tender. It was even better than the day before!

I have to say that sometimes when a food bothers me the first day, it does not bother me the next day. Why that is, I don't know. That is what I was hoping for.

Yeah... didn't happen. My stomach felt like it had a rock sitting in it that wouldn't go anywhere. Fortunately I had given half of it to Maddie, so I had not eaten a lot anyway.

Mom wanted to get a permanent today, so Dad drove her to the beauty shop. It was early enough in the afternoon that he could see to drive, but I had to pick her up when she was done because he can't see to drive in dim light or at night.

I went over to their house to help him figure out what was going on with his "scanner." Well, Mom was wanting to copy things, not scan things, and she didn't understand why, when she chose "scan" that it didn't spit out the copy. She now knows she needs to choose the "copy" button.

They wanted me to stay for dinner but I had to decline because I still wasn't feeling very good. I came home and got busy assembling my treadmill. Two hours later and... Voila!

I have just done my first 3 minute walk on it.Will do one more circuit tonight. My plan is to walk 8 times a day. I plan to do 3 minutes every hour for the rest of the week. Next week take it to 5 minutes every hour. Then eventually get it up to 10 minutes every hour. This is where my doctor wants me.

Then I had dinner. It was very simple - charcuterie. Cheese and deli meats. Trying to keep it that breakfast is the larger meal, lunch a smaller meal, and dinner is just a simple snack. I would eventually like to get down to just eating 2 meals today. We will see.

Now it's time for me to walk one more time before bed. I am signing off for now. Have plans with my grandsons this weekend so not sure what to expect when it comes to the walking. But until then...

Saturday I was really pleased with myself. First thing I did was to weigh myself. And how did I do?

WOOHOO!!! GO, ME!!!

 But  I was also freaked out! Why?

I had received the invitation to go to my grandson Evan's birthday party, so I put it on my calendar for Sunday the 17th. Then my daughter called and said, "What are you doing Saturday?" "Going to brunch with my friend, Mark. What's up?" "Can you babysit Jalen so we can go to the movies?" "Not a problem!"

I got to their house yesterday morning and had to wait a few minutes for them to get home. While I was waiting something said, "Check the invitation..." So I did. WTH? Saturday? AAAGGGHHH!

When Megan got home I said, "I made a big mistake! Evan's birthday party is today and not tomorrow AND I'm meeting Mark for lunch AND I'm babysitting Jalen! Can I take him with me to both?" "Sure! No problem!" Whew! This Nanny was so relieved it all worked out!

Jalen and I hopped in the car and off we went to Brookfield's. Mark is a long time family friend of 41 years and every now and then we get together just to visit. Breakfast for me was quiche (I picked off the crust, which is probably the best part of any pie!) and fresh fruit. I also picked at Jalen's chicken strips.

Then Jalen and I need to go shopping for a birthday present for Evan. Off we go to the store. Of course, I also needed tape and wrapping paper and cards. Now mind you, Jalen is not quite 5 years old, but I told him he could pick out the present. We walk to the toy aisle and he picks out...

A Nerf Gun! Evan's favorite! He is an 8 year old boy who loves WMD! Could not have chosen better if I was picking it out myself. :)

Evan loved it, to say the least!

Now, we were at a crazy pizza place called John's Incredible Pizza Universe! So what did this low carber have to eat? Well, first of all, I am notorious for eating the toppings OFF the pizza. All protein, no carbs! Perfect! They also have a salad bar and fried chicken. But... they make these amazing little mini donuts, and they are hot and fresh and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

O...M...G... However did I resist? I don't know, but I did!


A long day of food, games, pizza and 8-year-olds has finally come to an end, and a great day was had by all!!! Jalen and I head back to his home, exhausted but happy.

My Saturday was successful, and I am quite pleased with myself.

And now Sunday is here. Megan and Ryan wanted to take me to Sutter Street Grill in Folsom. Great food, homemade food, and plentiful! So I decided to have carbs today.

I had sausage and eggs with hash browns. Amazing! They also have the best sourdough bread around. I had one piece, a few hash browns, and my eggs and sausage. Such good food! And no regrets.

Yep, this is us!

I headed back to Marysville to meet with my group of friends for a girl's day. Lettuce wraps, meat platter, red wine, and dessert. Chocolate Bailey's Cheesecake! Everything was just great and I was most appreciative of the fact that it was mostly low carb.




I love my girls!

Afterwards I visited with my parents for a while and then headed home.

Monday will be here soon enough.