Asian Cole Slaw

I tried out this new recipe for Asian Cole slaw. While not fantastic, it's very healthy and filling. Good for an afternoon snack. Today at work, the AA, who had been coughing up a lung all day long, came into my office for a phone number. She wrote about half of it down, turned her head and coughed a solid one right into my cole slaw. No longer did it hold the "healthy snack" status it once did. In fact, it lost it's snack status altogether and was tossed into the trash...BOO!!! So much for eating healthy...but wait...nurse Linda to the rescue! She gave me her yogurt. Ok, but that didn't last too long, and I may have caved by dinner. Ok, I caved by dinner :-)

I SUCK AT THIS!!!

Changing habits is stinkin' hard!!! The two things that lower cholesterol are 1. lose weight and 2. don't eat things with cholesterol. Ok, three things...take Lipitor. It's a long term process, not something you can cram overnight and somehow pull off with shining colors the next day. There's no magic trick or quick fix to it, just hard work, and dedication to changing habits...Exercise habits, eating habits, stress reduction habits, decision making habits, habits, habits, habits. It's proving to be a great challenge at this point. I can't seem to figure out when I'm supposed to exercise, first of all. I even had a gym bag packed last week and in the car...never made it to the gym. I did manage to maintain my weight again this week. I'm stuck at the same weight I've been at for about 6 weeks. Not because of anything other than I SUCK at this, and haven't been able to make any movement on it in a while. I'm dedicated through lunch everyday, then see ya later. Wheels off, don't care, want what's in front of me.

So, the new week begins. I wouldn't kid myself to think I have new motivation for this new week. Just keep "resisting the devil and he will flee from me"...a tiresome task, but worth it I'm sure.

Metdown Survival

Wouldn't it be nice if by "meltdown" I was talking about some fancy, gourmet tuna melt with fat-free cheddar, some great tuna mixture, tomato, lettuce, and a grainy bread? I may need to look into creating that, but right now, this is not the subject. My husband and I are in the middle of the adoption process. There are times when my emotions are all over the place waiting for the phone to ring. In turn, everything else become a MAJOR ordeal, and the meltdown ensues. Really, this has only happened three times over the past 2 1/2 years of this process...BUT, I've never been trying to also watch my food intake during it. Emotional chaos usually lasts several days, as I sort through what I logically know is an overreaction based on one event, not EVERYTHING going on around me.

It turns out that the little things are needed to survive while trying to eat well during and emotional meltdown week.

Survival Tip #1: Miraculously, have food already cooked!

Obviously, this is hard to actually plan. Fortunately, this week, I had already cooked a bunch of food when this happened. Usually, I shut down and don't want to cook, I want to eat..LOL! So, I would say half of what I ate this week was planned out, and the other half, well...let's see. I was mindful to not eat greasy foods. I didn't seek out comfort foods. I did, however eat out several more times than usual, so there was more salt than planned for this week. And...there may have been a lunch with cheesy lasagna and buttery garlic bread catered in at work. Possibly, a beef nacho "salad" from Bueno for dinner one night (it's really just very loaded nachos...who do they think they are kidding calling it salad?)

Survival Tip #2: Talk it out with Kevin

I was able to not take anything out on him, but to do that I had to verbally vomit it all in his direction :-) He was great, supportive, and that helps calm me down enough to think through my food choices. This may sounds a bit trite, but it seems to work. When you know you have the support of your hubby, other things just fall into place, and this is what happened here.

Survival Tip #3: Get Enough Sleep at Night

Kevin also gave me one of the best gifts ever this week. He may snore a bit excessively, and he knows this may cause me to lose quite a bit of sleep. He moved to the other bedroom for a couple of days, so I could get some solid sleep. He knows I focus better when I'm rested, and I don't remember the last time I slept so hard. I feel GREAT and have had energy at the end of the day. I can't explain how much this helps in caring about making good decisions when I eat.

Survival Tip #4: Have the Meltdown During the ALDS/NLDS...GO YANKEES!!! GET 'EM GIANTS!!!!

This week there is a bunch of GREAT baseball. The Rangers are duking it out with the Yankees, so we have a divided house. The Giants are duking it out with the Phillies...BOO Phillies! My man, Lance Berkman, is on the Yankees team, and it has been an absolute privilege to watch him play as a Yankee. He's not the best on the team, but he contributes and has earned a spot/chance at a World Series ring! I am so proud of the fact that an Astro has made it to the Yankees (as if I really know the guy...NOT THE POINT!), and I'm loving every minute of every game!

Survival Tip #5: "Crawl up in there and FIX---IT!!!" SNL quote

Take Control!! There are so many uncontrollable factors, that if you can sift through it all, find what you can control, you can take charge. Our gutters came off the house about a month ago during a weird, crazy, windy storm. This was included in the "EVERYTHING IS WRONG" category. So, the "gutter guy" is coming out today to take a look and give us a quote. See...control :-) It helped calm me down!

Obviously, I can control what I eat as well. This like a nagging mom in my head all week. Drove me absolutely NUTS!! Got it about half right this week.

I still have my "vacation weight" to lose, but I was able to come out even for the week. As, I've said before, I just have to keep going. Keep my eyes focused on December and keep the cholesterol down. What a ride this week has been. On some level, I'm glad it's over. Movin' on.

Back To My Old Tricks

As usual, I started today off right. Ate all the things I had thoughtfully planned out, until, as usual, dinner came around. I caved and had a bit of Bueno for dinner...NOT the AHA recipe I bought food for. I have pretty good energy all day long to fight off cravings for all the office garbage like donuts, chocolate, kolaches, cobblers, cookies, etc. Then, I get home, and it's like I turn off all energy supplies and could care less about the whole thing. We don't have junk food in the house, so it's not like I'm having to resist something that's in front of me like at work. In fact, I have to actually leave the house to go get something off track. It takes energy to go off track, and I use it for bad things...that taste so good...I drank water, if that counts for anything. Baby steps. AND, I've been off track for about a month now, so it would be a miracle to have conquered it all in one day. Baby steps, and tomorrow is a new set of dishes to dirty up!

Hiatus is Officially Over

Here's the sum of the last month. First, my birthday...which is written about in "Benihana or Bust." Then, straight to vacation. I did meet my target weight for the trip, and that was a good thing, because we enjoyed ourselves. I came back 2.5 lbs more than when I left. Great trip to Eureka Springs, AR. I sort-of watched things like cholesterol, but did not really take calories into account.

There were breakfast buffets with eggs, bacon, potatoes, and pancakes at Pancakes:


Another birthday dinner at DeVitos with spaghetti and meat balls, fried cheese, and birthday cake...YUM CAKE!!!


Salsa (Scorned Woman) from the salsa store. Hottest I've EVER eaten, however tastiest!!


Our own tasty hamburger and homemade fries dinner :-)



And more cake...at the German restaurant. Had some of the tastiest soup at that place. Called it cream of sauerkraut soup,but it was more like a sweet and sour beef stew. I liked it :-)


(Not sure why the pics are so small...not enough of a tech-y to fix it either...boo)

We got back, and I promptly got sick. For two weeks, all I did was eat what Kevin decided to eat. He was sooooo great, and went every night to get us dinner. He's not much into cooking. He can cook, if he has time to prep for it, but an everyday dinner situation is not his style. He is a great "forager" of dinner though. So, obviously I didn't watch anything those two weeks either. So, for a total of 5.5 lbs gained over three weeks. No exercise, not watching what I ate, boo on that!

So, last week, I started up with the food thing again, and lost my "sick weight." Now to lose my "vacation weight" and get down 10 more lbs by Thanksgiving. That gives me 6 weeks to lose 10 lbs. Very doable!!

Also, I started exercising again just today. I forgot about that part. It's been about 4 weeks now since I've exercised, so back to it I go.

All this combined gives me about 8 weeks before I go back to the doc for the check up to see if all this is working the way I want it to. I really hope it works. This has been a heck of a several months.