Excuses, excuses, excuses....

Doesn't it seem the busier we get, the more the excuses roll out of our mouths?  Or is it just me?  I know I stand alone in most things.  Yesterday I found myself apologizing for things I wanted to do but ultimately did not do.  My friends helped make excuses for me-- you are so busy, you have too many irons in the fire, etc etc.  I appreciate their support but let's face it, if we want to do something, we will make time to do that something!  Like eating healthier or exercising or getting the stupid laundry out of the dryer and putting it away!  I love to procrastinate.  I think we can undo these types of negative habits.  It takes time.  It takes commitment.  It takes courage to stand up to ourselves and say "You are a lazy SOB; now stop it!!"  Okay, maybe we shouldn't call ourselves names- after all, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.  

My picture today has my wildflowers turning away from the sunshine.  I am in constant conflict with myself.  I want a clean house.  I want to lose weight.  I want to play (well, I have that one down pat!).  I want to create.  I want to sit on my butt and watch TV.

A clean house means getting up off my duff and moving.  I want to lose weight and if I combine house cleaning with exercising to lose weight, I've taken care of two things with one activity.  I will resume creating in the evenings when I sit to watch my shows.  My grandmother NEVER watch TV during the day.  She completed (or started) her work in the daytime.  It wasn't until her twilight years that she began watching daytime reality TV.  She'd sit in her front room and watch the neighborhood comings and goings.  I do believe the creators of reality TV had grandmothers just like mine!

Stop and Smell

Fall is in the air and zoom zoom....it is whooshing by!  Do all my posts begin this way?  Is it just me?  I can't believe how fast life is moving.  One day my obit will say: she never cleaned the house and never lost the weight!  But hopefully it will say: she enjoyed life, family, and friends.  My priorities are in the right place, but I really want to clean the house and lose some weight.

Today I will tackle the family room.  Oh, have I mentioned- I cleaned up and de-cluttered the dining room and formal living room and they are STILL clean and de-cluttered!!!  Whoo hoo.  Of course I've closed the doors and haven't let any animals in there, but hey, come on over and we can sit in a clean/ de-cluttered room.  Have I mentioned "clean" AND "de-cluttered?"  Okay, I'll stop. But this is huge for me....like keeping off 15 pounds for over a year.

I would like to share with you my newest passion: water coloring.  It is not perfect (like me), but it is whimsical and colorful (very much like me!).  I now enjoy coloring outside the lines.  As a child, I was encouraged to color within the lines.  The teacher would even tell us what color went where.  Bring out the watercolors and start a journal. Buy a children's easel and sing and paint.  Do what you love and do it often...unless it is eating ice cream; and then do that in moderation!

Happy Tuesday, Grainiacs.

Pay no attention to that rolling dust bunny coming after you!

I'm enjoying my new artistic self.  I painted a flower yesterday and scanned it and made a card.  That made me happy!  Unfortunately I'm not getting much done around the house and that makes me sad. I just hate any kind of housecleaning!  There are too many fun things to do and people to see to worry about dust bunnies and clean sheets!  My philosophy seems to goes along with that mentality that says I want to lose weight and I want it off tomorrow!!  Preferably today, but I know THAT'S not reality, but tomorrow, yeah, I should be able to drop 25 pounds by tomorrow!  That silly Moana.  She is so ridiculous!!!

Well, off to Fiber Arts class.  Moana has already opened the door and is tapping her feet.  Can't keep her waiting!

Remarks from a grainiac

I love receiving feedback from you all.  It lets me know you are out there and I don't feel quite so lonely!  After reading my "scentsy" post, Grainiaunt responded.  She is spot on and I thought her thoughts needed to be shared.

Read your posting today and you are so right on with your remarks.  Our other senses are so powerful and the ad folks know it all too well.  Walk into a bakery and walk out without buying anything.  Not bloody likely, is it?  (she has many friends across the pond!)

Go to Macy's and walk through the shoe department or the scent department.  I, for one am overwhelmed by the urge to buy, buy, buy. (me too, and I usually do!!!)

Hear beautiful music and I want the CD or DVD so I can hear it again and again at will. (I'm so glad there is such a program as spotify.)

I used to say I could look at good food and break out in fat.  (Strawberry firmly believes this can and does happen!)  My right brain tells me that's ridiculous and I know it's right. (I beg to differ)  But the left brain tells me I deserve it for being so good for X number of days.  (My left brain's name is Moana!)

Mexican food was meant to be enjoyed. (¡Olé!)
However, probably not every day or even every other day. (Unless you live in Mexico!)  Right brain could enjoy it three times daily for at least three days a week.  I'm just saying.... (I understand; it's called "moderation" and I'm trying to add it to my vocabulary.)

I've been better lately.  I really have and I've lost weight. (CONGRATULATIONS!!!!) This is better for my balance and for the aches and pains of walking around in too round a body. Just chattering on and on. (I like chattering!) Deep down, we know most of our faults all too well, but we're pretty good at ignoring it at will. (Again, I blame Moana)

Like the little engine that could, I keep telling myself, "I think I can, I think I can!"

Keep on keeping on, Strawberry.  The first step is admitting we have a problem....

Hello, my name is Strawberry and I am a food-a-holic and a "I don't want to exercise"-a-holic. 

Deadly to your health

As the holiday season moves closer, many of my FB friends (and daughter!) have been posting decadent looking photos and recipes of the most ooey, gooey gain 100 pounds just looking at these desserts.  I confess: I start salivating and tasting and smelling them the minute I see them.  How can this be?  How do our senses play with us like that?  Advertisers know this trick.  Just watch a commercial about any kind of food or shoes and tell me you don't want one!!!  Perfumers understand the magic of smells and odors.  I have a plastic box that belonged to my great grandmother.  I swear I'm transported back to my childhood and being in her presence every time I open that little box.  There is something mystifying about our senses.  We must guard them against evil (aka that ooey, gooey concoction that is calling out our names).

This past weekend I succumbed to my Moana senses and got the "I wants."  It was easy.  I was visiting with a friend and there was a party and laughter and my horrible thinking of "just this one time."  Guess what?  That one time, turned into one more time the next day and then one more time the next.  Thankfully, I did not undo all the good I did the week and a half before but by looking at my tracking, I'm on the road to destruction if I don't detour and get off this vicious autobahn.

Today is Monday and a new week.  Time to take charge.  vrooom  vroooooooom!!!

P.S.  Happy Birthday, Jelly Bean!!!  Have a beautiful day and  safe trip back to NY.  Hopefully you remembered to read my blog so you'll see this!

Day 8- Put your salad on

Sorry for the boring titles but it helps me keep track of where I am.  This morning I searched high and low for my camera.  I took pictures in the kitchen and didn't put the camera back where I got it.  Problem is I don't really have a special place for the camera.  I keep doing this to myself.  As a matter of fact, it dawned on me that if I live for another 20-25 years, I'm not going to know where a damn thing is in this house!  Not to worry, we live in a manse and in another 20-25 years, we won't be here!  I've always said when we retire we'd live in a motor home and travel around visiting kids and grand-kids and national parks (maybe they'll be open by that time!).  So I'll need to really cut down on stuff; thankfully I have 20-25 years to use up and give away stuff (God willing!).

On a less cluttered note, I stepped on WW's Kaaaa and I'm down 1.8 pounds!  Whoo hoo.  One week gone and 1.8 pounds gone.  Keep it up, Strawberry.

Here's another random thought-- I'm all over the place today!!!  I've been on the search for the best drive-through salad.  I'll focus on 2 salads today.  Let's see...lettuce....tomatoes....carrots....cucumbers....cheese....onions.....grilled chicken.  Look at these two salads.  One from Stars Drive-In and the other from Jack in the Box.

Stars on top/ Jack in the Box on bottom

Makes you hungry for a salad, right?

The lower one from Jack in the Box has beautiful colors, don't you think?  Stars has iceberg lettuce.  Jack has shredded carrots and purple onions and grape tomatoes.  Stars grilled chicken looks bigger, but that isn't always the case.  Hubby likes the hard-boiled eggs in the Stars salad and no onions.  In looking at these salads, I choose Jack's but I'll have hard-boiled eggs on hand to add to Jack's salads.

I'll keep you posted for more salads.  In the meantime, write me and tell me if you've found a great drive- through salad.  That's the key....quick and fast and healthy.

And on the seventh day

And on the seventh day, she weighed.  Today is WW weigh in day and I'm a bit giddy.  I know that sounds strange, but I really want to see if their Kaaa went down like my Kaaa did.  Cross your Grainiac fingers please.  

I went to my Fiber Arts class yesterday.  We've accepted a challenge: come up with a Christmas theme and decorate a cloth napkin.  We are to think outside the box.  Someone mentioned a santa sitting on the toilet clipping his toenails.  Ah... yeah,.... that would ruin my appetite for sure!!!

Now to get that image out of your head, I have a new one.  I bought a new mug in celebration of being (somewhat) good.  (P.S. I haven't had any mozzarella sticks since that revelation.)  Besides being a good Strawberry, the colors on this mug speak to me.  They say:  Make coffee in me!   Such a smart mug.  How did it know that my Keurig only produces enough coffee to fill 3/4ths of my present mug?  This mug makes 2 cups of coffee possible.  No more drinking some down and adding more.  

Now that's a coffee mug (in your best Groucho Marx voice)

One cup...  two cups....orange cup....and blue cup.  I love these colors!  So fiesta.

and there is my tracker...by the first thing I go to in the kitchen. Instant reminder!

Welcome to Cafe Strawberry!

What a glorious day.

Hope your day is glorious too.

Day 6: Dang this football season!

I'm staying up too late; I need my "beauty sleep."  I've watched football all weekend long.  You'd think I was practicing to be a sports announcer.  Not only did I sit on my butt yelling at the TV and rooting my teams to victory (important one: Hook 'Em, Horns!), but I nervously sat eating peanuts.  Peanuts cannot come into my house. PERIOD.  I've made it my "go to" snack when I should be snacking on apples or celery or....anything else that's crunchy!  Not peanuts!!

I stepped on Kaaaa (the scale, I know, I haven't mentioned him in a while) this morning and I'm down 5 pounds.  In WW terms that would mostly likely be attributed to water weight loss that first week of dieting.  Just for kicks I decided to "try on" a pair of jeans that I couldn't button up several months ago.  They fit.  I didn't even have to lie down on the bed and button them; remember those days in high school when we'd pour into our clothing and still look good?  If I tried that today I wouldn't have just a muffin top, I'd have the whole industrial size muffin batch of dough exuding up and over my pants and down past my knees.

I'm on my way to our local art league.  They offer a fiber arts class which sounds like fun.  The good news is I'll have another project to do and I won't (hopefully) succumb to nighttime eating.  Peanuts, beware! Your days are numbered.

Anyone else out there dieting changing their eating habits one day at a time?  I'd like to hear from you.  Do you have your own "peanut fetish" that you are trying to kick?  Tell me about it; I'm listening.  Oh good grief, I really need to stop watching nighttime Frazier reruns and get some sleep!

5 and counting

Day 5 and no sodas, no sugar, and no nighttime eating.  3 days of no starches... dang those tempting Sonic mozzarella sticks!!! Almost a perfect week!

Interesting details of this Diet of No's.

• not tempted by sugary items now.  I made a batch of brownies for the pre-school class.  I knew they weren't going to eat them all so I left the rest for the church potluck; I wasn't even tempted to BLT (bite, lick, or taste).

•  not tempted by sodas.  I have not had a diet cola nor do I crave one.  I think I've gone cold turkey on this one so many times that my body just expects it.

•  the nighttime eating is not really an issue.  I've munched on a few peanuts while watching football but have not eaten a whole bag of popcorn like I had been doing pre- "No" Diet!

• now that I'm more aware of hidden starches, I'm more aware of hidden starches!!  I will not be tricked again by you tasty yummy sticks of cheese (and coating).

In addition to consuming my vitamins and lemon water (which I haven't done consistently), I have to consistently track my food.  I found an old WW tracker and noticed I do a great job of tracking on Day 1 and 2.  By Day 3 I've written down my breakfast, but that is it.  Nada on Day 4-7.  Can you believe I have habitually tracked for 2 days and petered out by the third?  I was amazed and that is why I need to track.  Sometimes we get into habits that we don't even know are habits.  I'm still amazed that this has been my M.O. for months (and probably years).

Mindless eating...mindless activities. This is why I am here.  I appreciate this blog.  I am truly taking a good look at things.  Thanks for being on the journey with me, Grainiacs.

Day 4

There once was a girl named Strawberry.

Who fought with her weight something scary.

But she resolved on day four

To keep it up and lose more

And be closer to goal by February!

So I have to confess....today I realized my brag about no starches on day 2 and day 3...well, sort of, um... wasn't true.  I don't know what I was thinking!  For some reason I only thought about the cheese in those Sonic mozzarella sticks and didn't even consider for a minute that the coating around the protein packed cheese was s-t-a-r-c-h!!!!  So there you have it.  

BUT today honestly NO STaRcHeS have passed down my throat!  Honest!   

This morning at Bible Study someone brought pumpkin spice muffins.  You want to talk temptation????  At this time of year anything with pumpkin and spice in the title has me salivating and panting for more.  I filled up my cup of coffee and didn't even look to the left where the muffins were positioned in that yummy plate of a pumpkin patch!

Rockin' this crown

Kiss day 3 Goodbye...

Kiss Day Three Goodbye,

The sweetness (oh wait! I did not partake of the stuff)

and the sorrow (Farewell to Finn on Glee...sniff sniff).

 Wish me luck, the same to you (How's it going, Grainiacs?).

But I can't regret

what I did for fun, how I got in this shape (it is what it is...now move on!).

Look my mouth is dry (no sugar, no starches, no sodas)

That gift of chocolate is going to Boy.

Gone

a few pounds are gone.

But the food choices are never gone

as I travel down the aisle!

 I must remember how I got to this place.

Kiss Day 3 Goodbye.

Apologies to A Chorus Line.

Day three----- yipee---- has come and gone and nope….no soft drinks- of any kind, no sugars (not even craving them), and NO starches have passed down this gullet.  I'm still lacking energy but I really think it is the "not feeling well" although some on Atkins have complained that the first week was h-e-double hockey sticks!  I hope to report with lots of energy next week.  And next week Strawberry will be entertaining a guest.  Guess I better drum up some energy to clean out that junk guest room!

Whoo Hoo; Day 2

Whoo Hoo

Day 2

has gone down.

Today

I look forward

to a

crown.

Queen Strawberry is off to get a crown.  Not to fit on my head.  Nope, to fit IN my head.

Yesterday I fought sickness.  I took my vitamins but was still in bed by 9:30 p.m.  I'm not lacking energy, Grainiacs; I'm fighting off a cold, or allergies are getting me down.  I can't tell but my ears are hurting and my throat is scratchy.  The dentist might send me back home, but I will chant:

Long Live the Queen!!!

I want my Crown!

Day 1 is done

Day one is done

and no hamburger buns.

getting off the computer, going to the kitchen to make stew

all is well, it's all good, it's day two!

(to the tune of "Day is Done" in case you wondered!)

 I had a great day yesterday.  No starches, no sugar, no soft drinks and no nighttime eating.  I nearly fell asleep at 9:20 p.m., though, and I woke up with bloated fingers!  Today I will add lemon water and vitamins to my list.  The hot lemon water is supposedly a natural diuretic and the vitamins will hopefully help keep me up till 10 p.m. tonight.

To keep me from nighttime snacking, I made 3 Christmas cards.  Our card-making group is donating cards to a local school who is sending Christmas cards to the troops.  Win/ Win.  I stayed out of the kitchen and a soldier will receive a card that looks like an actual child made it!

Wondering what today will bring.  P.S.  HAPPY HUMP DAY!!!

Weigh In

What do you think of a person who starts a blog to chronicle her weight loss journey and chronicles almost every thing BUT her weight loss journey?  Yesterday I posted here about getting side-tracked.  Today I'm still side-tracked!  I want to talk about everything under the sun EXCEPT my weight- not- losing-it journey.  Are you disappointed?  Can you relate?  Am I on my own here and you've moved on to a different blogger who is successful in this quest?

Two days ago I posted on Fb a picture that again I say most humbly is true about me or I wish were true about me (please don't burst my bubble if it isn't true; I don't think I could take the rejection!!!).

I wonder if I could get this on my tombstone.  Wait, I don't want a tombstone!

I also posted this little ditty and that is why I have my problem and started a blog in the first place!!

 

The "eat pie" would most likely be on my tombstone-- that is, if I didn't want to be cremated and scattered to the wind.  Apropos, wouldn't you say?  Scattered???  Get it????

So here it is...my one week plan...out for all of you....maybe just me....to see.

• No starches....absolutely, positively.....NO BREAD/ NO CHIPS shall touch my lips  travel down my throat (okay you caught me, it is possible for me to eat bread without it touching my lips and I sure don't want it taken intravenously!).  

• No soft drinks of any kind- caffeinated or not. None. Zippo.

• No sugar

• No nighttime eating

So that is my one week plan.  I will post for one week about my eating.  I will NOT fall off the wagon.  I refuse to keep blogging about my failure.  I will blog about my success.

I'm leading a women's Bible study on the book of Esther.    Esther is a wonderful story about one woman's strength in a time of trial.  I am reading Esther with a new lens.  Although there are historical discrepancies  (for example, in extrabiblical sources King Xerxes' wife's name is recorded as Amestris or the fact that history records Xerxes off in battle when the whole beauty pageant supposedly happened....things like that), the lessons far outweigh that.  Esther is meant to be read aloud and all at once.  Reading the book in this fashion helps see the ironies and the reversals.  What you think is going to happen is the very opposite of what actually happens.  I'm feeling a bit like the book of Esther.  I say I'm going to diet and the very opposite happens: I gain!  Another lesson in Esther deals with abundance versus excess.  What is enough?  Do I really need to go back for that second piece of whatever.  I tend to do things to the excess.  I need to appreciate the abundance of other things I have.  I've started making cards.  As with my personality, I bought a whole lotta stuff in order to make cards.  I realized I'm buying more stuff but not really making lottsa cards!!!!  I will replace nighttime eating with nighttime card making.

Probably the most quoted verse in Esther is this:  "And who knows, you may have been chosen ... for just such a time as this."  The verse actually has the word "queen" where I put the "..." But who knows I may be Queen Strawberry for such a time as this!

Onward on my week.

Side-winding Strawberry...again!

Two of my dogs have had hip dysplasia- their hind-end tries to get ahead of their head!  I'm feeling a little strawberry dysplasia myself.  I marked on my calendar specific things I wanted to do this past week.  Unfortunately I got side-tracked....again.... and felt like my tail was getting ahead of my head-- now there's a mental image, eh?  I seem to travel in the wrong direction a lot!!!

Yet, in my butt leading I still got several things done.  Yea, butt!

Former living room arrangement...

almost one year ago- see Santa?

New living room arrangement-

Whoo hoo, practice the piano, Boy!

I really like the flow

Kitzilla! This is my corner!!!

old window treatment held swags up on those golden donuts.  Need new window treatment but that can wait for another day and another paycheck!

I won't show you the rest of the house.  You know I have to clean one room by junking up another!!!!  It's just the Strawberry way of cleaning and de-cluttering.  I wonder why I haven't tried to share my cleaning techniques in the self-help section of the library???

Busy Strawber-Bee

I've been a busy bee.  Could you tell?  Every morning for the past three days I have had a coffee date, a women's meeting, and another coffee date!  It's wonderful but it isn't cleaning the house or studying for my Saturday Bible Study or any of the many things I should bee doing!!

clip art from bing images(hopefully these symbols are not bad words!!)

 Friends are great, aren't they?  Friends support you, pick you up when you're down, and sometimes remind you that you are off your diet.  LOL  At my first coffee date (my friend did not know I was on WW), I ordered a sugar-free latte AND a muffin.  Hindsight! I should have had one or the other.  When I got home I looked up the WW points and that muffin was 15 points!!!  I only get 27 in a day!  Let me tell you, my busy bee activity that day did NOT make up for the 15 muffin points.  If anything, it only added more to my already "muffin" top!

  Wednesday I behaved myself at the social part of the meeting.  My coffee date friend asked if I was going to eat any of the yummy coffee cake cut into a perfect 4x4 square.  Those suckers were huge!  I know, I could cut it down but I didn't trust myself to behave after sampling a 1x1.  I know myself: I'd go back for the rest or worse....eat more!  I decided to tell my friend that I was on WW.  She asked where I went to meetings and we talked all things WW.  Another member came over and talked about WW.  Note to self:  I am NOT alone!!!  This fact will help me when I feel like slinking off.

Kitzilla slinking out from under the couch

So, that's what's happening in the Strawberry Patch.  How about you?  What's new in your beehive?