Constant Commentary

Normally when I disappear from the blog, that means I have fallen into a bucket of sugar.  But not this time!  I have found that with all the writing I am doing for grad school, my writing itch gets plenty of scratchin'!  I celebrated my 42nd birthday on Saturday and I celebrated it with lots of love from family and friends and some super awesome presents, but NO CAKE or ICE CREAM!  I didn't even want it.  I know that having that stuff will just make me want more and more of it, and I also know that it will make me feel like crap mentally and physically, so I skipped it.  Yes it felt weird.  No I didn't feel like I was missing out.  Instead Lonnie and I spent the afternoon in the kitchen making my FAVORITE spicy chicken Mexican bowls with homemade guac, and because it was my birthday and I am not a masochist, I even had some rice in my bowl.  (ACTUALLY I am reading a great book called 'Paleo Takeout' and I learned that there is considerable evidence that white rice

Thinking I will be back to daily this week because I feel like I am faltering a bit.  And while I KNOW and can FEEL that this is PMS related---  It appears knowing is not actually half the battle when you still stuff a pizza into your gob anyway. New gym pants from Lane Bryant The good: Olive Garden dressing--- basically candy. -On Friday I got up and went to the gym all on my own... all alone! And lifted weights like a beast!! -Went to Olive Garden with Jessi yesterday, and while I did have some stuff I shouldn't have, a few risotto rice balls, chicken gnocchi soup, and lots of salad (you know that dressing is terrible for you, right-- it'll full of sugar!! ), I passed on breadsticks, and I stuck to one small bowl of soup-- and I didn't finish it. Oh yeah I had a berry Sangria too ;-)  More sugar, but SO yummy! -I got some AWESOME new gym pants from Lane Bryant. I usually only shop there for bras and undies, I have never really liked the way their clothes fit.  They were

Luna looks on in the kitchen as the crazy lady takes a yoga selfie I can't believe that I am on day 30 and still going strong!  I guess since it's been a month now, I should do a little run-down of changes that I have or have not noticed. Things that have not changed.... I am still fat.  (I shouldn't say things like that, I know.... positive self talk... blah blah blah....) I still have a LOT of bags of clothes that are waiting for me to be smaller so that I can wear them. I cannot run 3 miles without walking at all. I still do not go to the gym or exercise as much as I would like to I still love Justin Bieber And One Direction. Things that HAVE changed.... I have LESS fat on my body. The button on my jeans is not standing on the ledge threatening to of jump from the pressure it's under. I can wear some of the clothes that I had not been wearing because they didn't fit properply. I can run/walk in 1 minute intervals easily for 15 minutes (and surely more than that,

Still going string, which I honestly find rather odd.  I think retraining my brain by reminding myself that sugar is the devil is actually working.  "That Sugar Film" is really what drove this change.  And I REALLY want it to stick!  However,  after I first watched 'Supersize Me,'  I couldn't eat McDonald's for 6 months, and obviously that creeped it's way back in, and that is EASY to avoid eating.  Sugar is freaking EVERYWHERE!! The times I falter, or waiver a bit, is when cooking for the family.  For example... Tonight I am making Pot Roast.  And on the side I am making Salt and vinegar potatoes that someone posted a few weeks ago and Lonnie and I have been obsessed with trying...but haven't because they take so freaking long to cook!  My Pot Roast is fucking awesomesauce.  And the most awesome part IS the sauce aka gravy!  Flour is a no-no for me. But nor do I want to use weird low-carb chemically thickeners.  Also... the family will organize a rev

Last night while in bed watching umpteen episodes of 'Shameless' (DAMN YOU SHOWTIME FREE PREVIEW WEEKEND.... sucking me in and FORCING me to subscribe!), I frigged around on Pinterest looking for some low-carb snack ideas.  What did I learn?  Low carb snacks are just all stupid and boring.  -Have a handful of nuts (YEAH!!  THAT would be SO satisfying!) -Make this 18 ingredient dessert or bread made up of bizzare chemicals. (GREAT IDEA!!  Eating healthy should ALWAYS involve filling your body with lab created "food.") -There is a bizarre obsession with these things called "FAT BOMBS." The name is disgusting.  As is the premise.  It just seems SO necessary!  Like eating something just to.... eat something?  So basically my search was a waste of time.  I have no idea what "normal" people that don't eat sugar snack on.  Fruit I guess.  Dumb. Also I read an article lately extolling the evils of artificial sweetener.  Which I have already known forev

Sometimes you just need a GODDAMN SNACK that ISN'T rendered pepperoni chips from the microwave. I talked about my standby sweet treat a few blogs ago... http://colleenisonit.blogspot.com/2016/01/day-1-1.html I still need to figure out how to deal with my salty, crunchy snack needs.  New goal for the weekend.....  Pinterest up some low carb snack ideas.  One thing I KNOW I like is cheese "crackers."  BUT.... cheese is fucking expensive and you get SO little cracker out of so much cheese!! (....not to mention all the oil that drains off it all is kinda gross but I digress) Here is a recipe , This chick bakes them in the oven, but as you should know by now.... I just make a big on in a small frying pan on the stove and break it up into little pieces.

Well I was a bit lazy today,  but sticking to keeping the sugar down.   I was hankering for something sweet,  so I made one of my old standby concoctions that I use when low-carbing.   Whipping cream with a squirt of my sugar free vanilla sweetener,  drizzled with 2 tablespoons of melted (in the microwave with a little of the cream to make a ganache) semisweet chocolate chips,  and sprinkled with pecans.   Obviously this is an occasional indulgence,  but still a better choice for me than the crap I usually eat. I actually ALMOST ran today and then foolishly decided to wait til Sean got home and I was going to make him go with me.  ...between my urge to run in 39 degrees and Seans school bus arrival,  the urge disappeared.

I have been doing lots of blogging over on my other blog.  I am using that other blog as a motivational journal to stay on track of eating healthy and exercising.  (Ok.... it hasn't worked so far to get me to exercise, but it will, I'm sure!!) http://colleenisonit.blogspot.com/ As I type this, I kind of wonder why I chose to separate out my never-ending-quest-to-be-less-fat from my blog of regular life....  I mean this IS my life.  I think it's because I am thinking of the other blog more like a journal and am really trying to blog daily and didn't want to bog down this blog with that minutia.  But that doesn't really make sense, does it? Now I am thinking about making tabs. Well, whatever I decide to do, if you would like to follow my current stand, click that picture up there!

OOPS  I didn't journal yesterday! But fear not. This I haven't quit or fallen off the wagon or anything.  I was just BUSY!!!  Busy NOT going to the gym as planned. And it's football day today, so it's not happening today either :) After a loooooooong day of visiting with family and then shopping.  I made DELICIOUS chicken bowls.  We had planned on going to Chipotle, but the mall area was crazy and we were all beat. So I turned my kitchen into an even better Chipotle!  SO GOOD!!!!  Today is football food day. We have the stuff to make veggies and dip and coconut shrimp, and I am getting hungry just thinking about it!!! Maybe I will have a piece of the delicious frittata that Lonnie made yesterday to tie me over :)  BTW.... FRITTATAS ARE SO INTO THE ROTATION!!

SLEEPY!  I have had probably the WORST work week I have had since becoming a crisis worker, but yet, I woke up today from sleeping after yet another  up-all-night shift feeling fantastic. I feel lighter, have more energy, and feel more mentally in control of things.  LOVES IT! I went into my shift prepared and armed with a snack of rendered pepperoni chips and cheese.  I actually didn't get a headache like I usually do on night shifts.  Did still have nausea when the hardcore sleep deprivation kicked in. Still haven't made it to the gym and that is driving me bonkers.  Couldn't have gone today anyway because they closed early and I had to sleep.  Lonnie and I plan to go tomorrow.  That place will be a shit show with all the New Year's Resolutioners! Fun low carb research today!  Football snacks.... http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbholidaymenus/a/locarbsuperbowl.htm I think we are going with coconut shrimp and veggies and dip.  CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!! I also found

Breakfast: Green Beans, chicken, little bits of bacon. YES PLEASE I woke up this morning with a rager of a headache.  I know this headache well.... it's my body screaming, "WHERE THE FUCK IS ALL MY SUGAR!!!!!!??????  I LOVE THAT SHIT!!!!  GIMME GIMME GIMME!!!"  I ALSO woke up this morning feeling physically 'empty' and flatter.  Losing water and bloat, I assume.  I LOVE this feeling.  It feels like success and that screams MUCH louder than the headache! Day 1 was a resounding success!!  I worked a 14 hour shift and felt the pangs of temptation a few times.  It was a looooong, annoying day, as I was assigned to a task that I do not enjoy because the usual person who does it and likes is it on vacation.  The worst part of the day was lunchtime.  It was FREEZING and blustery yesterday, and I dreaded the thought of getting out of the car to go into the grocery store salad bar.  I longed to stay in my warm, cozy car drive through my favorite McDonald's and nosh on

OK, a lot of people, lol.  Like millions even. 10.6 pounds down!  WOO EFFING HOOOOOO!!!! A couple of our favs right now that are keeping us going strong... Chocolate graham crackers with light cool whip on top and put in the freezer.  I like them better with no top.  I mean isn't everything pretty and yummy better topless?  ;-) Cutting our rice with half cauliflower.  This one is a throwback to our low carb/paleo days.  We used to buy heads of it and food process it, which is kind of a pain in the arse.  But NOW they sell Cauliflower Crumbles in the produce section....  GAME ON! If you are eating rice with anything on top or mixed in, you will not notice! OK... you may notice the smell of the cauliflower, so make sure whatever you are topping it with is aromatic!  Which leads me to.... This recipe has been life changing.  Lonnie and I are completely in love with it and have had a twice a week since we found it.  The only thing we don't add is the sesame oil (becau

What a waste I trying to learn to teach my brain, belly, and mouth to slow their roll.  Settle down.  Be happy with less. I also know that I must keep all three happy while doing so, or there will be a REVOLUTION! It's a delicate balance. Yesterday Lonnie, Jessi, the pups and I had a simply marvelous day on the coast.  We beached.  We laked.  We downtown Bar Harbored.  Before we left, Lonnie and I even made going for a run a priority.  Yay us! Jessi and I doing some sick cheerleader moves at Long Pond As I knew I had plenty of activity points for the day, and I hadn't eaten much, I decided that this day deserved to be topped off with a little ice cream!   .....then I saw the adorable little cupcake shop with case full of beautiful, delicious looking cupcakes of happiness.  ( as an aside.... I have been obsessed with cupcakes lately anyway because I have been watching 'Cupcake Wars' on netflix... which honestly, may be the most stupid, most contriv

Sean had a timeline project a couple weeks ago and he and I went through my blog together ( my old blog and this new one) to gather photos to add to the timeline and to refresh our memories about exact dates of events.  It was quite an afternoon of reminiscing, the good stuff (vacations, shooting his first deer, new puppies!), and the not-so-good stuff (deaths, divorce, moves).  One thing I have mixed feelings about is my never-ending weight loss struggle.  One the one hand, it's YAY FOR ME...I never give up!!  But on the other hand, I am the basically the same as I was when I started blogging in 2006, so all the diets, exercise, etc. really did.... well... nothing?  Thaaaaat's kind of depressing. BUT..... My body and my mind just feel so much better when I am sticking to a low carb diet.  I feel in control of things.  I don't ever feel bloaty.  I feel lighter.  I don't binge.  I eat when I am hungry... and am more cognizant of when I am eating when I am NOT hun

We are going strong on our new way of eating.  There are still some moments days when it feels like we are "on a diet."  But those moments are getting fewer and more far between.  When either one of us has a case of the 'snackies' ...we are supportive and think of alternative snacks or activites, OR we daydream out loud about Saturday night's cheat meal :-)  Tomorrow marks 5 weeks that we have been eating this way and we both are feeling fantastic and losing weight!  (Of course, being a man... Lonnie is basically melting away like a snowman in July, and I am... well.... not losing quite as quickly.  lol) We are leaning heavily towards a Paleo lifestyle...  while also watching carbs.  Low carb and Paleo kind of go hand-in-hand since Paleo = eating only fruits, veggies, meats, nuts and seeds.  But dairy is a Paleo no-no... and I am not sure I ever want to give up dairy... and by dairy I mean cheese.    I am eating barely any carbs that don't come from fruits a

I am going to start this post with advice about allrecipes.com, my goto site for all things cooking.  The number of stars is the first thing I check, but if a recipe has 4 or 5 stars and only 10 reviews.... a further looksie must be taken ;-) Once I have checked the star rating and glanced at the recipe itself and the photos.... I think even more important than the recipe itself is to scan through the comments.  There are often glaring themes of changes that people made to the recipe in order to rate as highly as they did.  Case in point... our newest "staple" recipe, Sweet Sticky and Spicy Chicken  (and by staple, I mean we make this weekly and it's noticed if we don't!)  The recipe does not call for the chicken to be dredged in flour before cooking.  A zillion people in the comments mention this and how without this additional step... they may as well take "sticky" out of the title.  It's completely different and soooo much better.  The one even w