Another 50+ member

[imagood1]

Re: Another 50+ member

Happy Easter today was a beautiful day. I was so happy to hear the Captain of the Marsk ship was freed by Navy Seals and was unharmed. Beautiful Easter gift for everyone but especially for his family.

I mowed the lawn this morning because it's suppose to be raining again this week. The trimmer got the better of me and I quit using it....maybe when I have a little more patience I can finish the job. I hate that thing...I know it's a machine but everytime I use it all I do is fix the string...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Our dinner was wonderful -- I ate a light lunch because dinner was a special meal.

I'm moving up to Rung 2 tomorrow -- adding back some cottage cheese this week a couple times to see what happens. I never liked cottage cheese before but I found Breakstone brand in 1/2 cup servings and it's so creamy and sweet tasting all I add is a little pepper and it tastes so wonderful. I also have some 3 carb yogurt made by Dannon that is good but I'll wait until next week to add that. I'm only adding 1 thing each week this time through the rungs...last time I didn't give my body time to catch up and by rung 6 I hadn't lost anything for so long I had to start over.

[Sunny_0ne]

Re: Another 50+ member

Sounds like you won't be tripped up by OWL this time.

Good planning!

[imagood1]

Re: Another 50+ member

No Sunny I'm not going to move on just because it's Monday this time...I'm giving each rung enough time to figure out what my body will and won't allow.

I had my cottage cheese tonight and it was so good. Amazing how something I would go out of my way to eat I now enjoy eating. A half cup is just enough...the Breakstone brand tastes so creamy that all I add is pepper. Other brands lack something to me and I add cream & splenda plus pepper...it's worth a few extra pennies to get the brand I enjoy eating. I also like the fact that I buy the 4 pack and 1 carton is a serving so I'm not tempted to eat more or so it doesn't go bad.

My blood sugar readings were wonderful again today!! I'm loving this. It rained so I did 2 loads of laundry and rode the bike 15 miles. It's easier now to ride the miles -- maybe next week I'll add an additional few miles and see how it goes.

Well, that's it for me for today...another cheat free day & I drank my water (120 oz today) so I'm good!

[Sunny_0ne]

Re: Another 50+ member

Do you use Breakstone sour cream? That's what I buy, and it may just be my imagination, but it seems so much better.

I skipped the dairy rung as I am not that big on milk or cottage cheese and am happy with the induction amounts.

If I decide to go back to that rung, I think I'll do as you are doing and get the individual container servings.

So good to see you doing so well!

[imagood1]

Re: Another 50+ member

Sunny -- I've never used Breakstone Sour Cream - just the cottage cheese. I usually buy Daisy sour cream -- but I'll check out Breakstone next time. I'm hungry for fried cabbage again but we need to get cabbage before I can have it.

I was going to lay down this afternoon because it was cold and rainy so I turned on the electric blanket, got in bed, turned on the TV and started watching TV. Once I warmed up a little I decided I wasn't really tired so I got up and rode 5 fast miles. I was going to add an exercise video today but the bike seemed like more "fun"...LOL.

Mom has settled down a little now that she's feeling better...yea! I only get one or two snide snips out of her now...LOL. I'm really getting good at not listening as closely and taking everything to heart -- that's another thing Atkins has done for me -- helped me raise my self confidence.

I'm hoping to get to 30 pounds gone by the end of the month -- I am anywhere from 1 to 3 pounds from it on any given day. I can't believe the 6WEC is done on Saturday -- it went real quickly. I don't think I've lost any inches or pounds -- I'll have to go back and see what my measurements and weight was - and then check it on Saturday. I need to start doing my ab work again, that was what helped me loose the inches the first couple months. I did crunches but I also sat on a chair crossed my arms (in an X) and bent forward over and over -- I guess it's sort of a crunch but you aren't on the floor and it doesn't hurt your neck and back.

Well, it's bedtime - tomorrow is our big gas company day!!!!! YEA!

[Sunny_0ne]

Re: Another 50+ member

It was cold and cloudy and windy here, too. I just hibernate in this weather... hate the cold. I keep bringing my little pepper plants in every night trying to keep them alive until it's warm enough to put them out.

I used to hate the bike... did it because I had to! And although I'm still not thrilled to start, I really do enjoy it once I start. Today my left knee was protesting, so I hope that's something that will pass. Since I was off it for a week, I'm having to work back to where I was before. I'm not going to push it too hard.

I am so glad your mom has settled down. Why do they have to be snarky? I'm so glad you are learning to let it run off your back without wounding you.

I am hoping to break the 20 pound barrier this month. That would be such a boost!

I'm not doing any upper body work since I had to drop out of the 6 weeks challenge. I really need the challenge to motivate me. So I'm glad a new one is starting Sunday.

We had a wonderful taco salad for dinner. That is DH's favorite Atkins meal. He said it is far better than any we've ever had at a restaurant. I think so, too, but it sure was nice to hear that he thinks so also!

I'm up far too late.... am going to shut the puter down and go to bed, too!

[imagood1]

Re: Another 50+ member

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!!


the gas men came at 9:30 and left at 11:00....it's so nice to have it hooked up and working! We ran the oven for a half hour to burn the new smell out and we're having meatloaf for dinner (of course Atkins legal) to celebrate. It's chilly again today but at least the sun is out and it feels good when you sit out in it.



Today is my big day on the bike - 15 miles .... and a friend sent me the HipHop Abs exercise series so that's something I want to try. Now I have HipHop Abs, Yoga Booty and the Crunchless Abs series of exercise videos. I just need to DO them!!!

Enough of me...I'm off to sit in the sun for awhile....oh - my beans have flowers on them...and they are only in the little starter peat pots!!!! Too funny!

I went downstairs to cook my 2 scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning...that would have become a real pain quickly if I had to do it more than once or twice. For lunch I made something very colorful - it was

2oz cauliflower, 1oz snap peas, 2oz zucchini, 3 radishes and 2 green onions sauteed in olive oil and 3 ounces of leftover bbq pork from last night (it had a rub on it - no sugar added) but it has salt because my hands are stiff today....but it's gone now and it tasted good, different that regular pork roast.

[Sunny_0ne]

Re: Another 50+ member

WOW! Your new stove just makes me itch to get into that kitchen and start playing!

So happy for you!

I am babying my knee. So far it behaved well enough for me to get my bike ride in without problems.

I bet your little beans are so cute. I've always direct seeded my beans, and none of them have ever started to bud until they were larger. Yours must be happy!

I took a few pictures of my garden today. This is all I'm going to put in until after May 1 -- our last frost date.

The first bed is all turnips, spinach mustard and radishes. If you look closely at the second picture, you can see little red radishes already.




In the second bed are collards and in the third one is romaine. I am saving a lot of space for warm weather crops.




Since our soil is solid granite with a little clay over it, I grow everything in Earth boxes or raised beds. These have more radishes, cutting celery, mint and rosemary.

I also have three other earth boxes planted with various salad veggies and 4 more to plant with warm weather goodies.

I also have a huge blue tub of sage, but the tub is ugly so I didn't photograph it.

[imagood1]

Re: Another 50+ member

oh Sunny your garden is just beautiful -- you have planted everything perfectly -- last year my food garden was ridiculous I started with 1 raised bed then figured out real quickly it wasn't large enough so I built another on the back side of the 1st -- so I had cucumbers onions in there that never did a thing....the radishes never got big enough for more than a few to eat because the peppers choked them out.....I thought those tospy turvey tomato planters were neat so I got 2 of them and within a few weeks had to go buy more tomatoes because that was a stupid idea and nothing grew in the bags...we got 4 tomatoes out of the bag all summer. So I was planting things at different times and digging thing up that weren't growing so I was really ashamed of the way it looked. I did manage to get 15 quarts of tomatoes out of the garden and we ate all we could eat all summer so that wasn't bad. The cucumbers were so weird type that grew real quick and overnight were the size of a baseball bat and shaped like one. The beans did real well but we only got a couple messes out of the garden. This year I have a plan and after seeing how nicely you planted your beds I have an idea on how to do it! Thank you for the pictures.

I spend a half hour out in the garden with the hoe this afternoon getting the weeds and grass out. I need to get a few bags of garden soil to add in and then as soon as the weather stays warm long enough to warm the soil I'll plant the garden...probably by mid May. You'll already be enjoying the fruits of your labor by then!! I'm jealous.

I rode the bike 20 miles tonight -- was reading the DANDR book (Diabetes chapter) and wasn't watching the odometer -- when I looked down I was over 15 miles so I figured what they hey...I'll try to go to 20. By the time I finished the chapter I had a half mile left to get to 20 miles. I might pay for it tomorrow but tonight I feel good. I have been too sedentary lately with the rain so I wanted to do something more tonight.

We still haven't gotten the patio furniture out because it rained all weekend -- maybe tomorrow I can get a couple chairs up here so we can sit in the sun. Mom went out for about a half hour this afternoon and said she felt much better when she came in -- her bones were cold so she got them warmed up.

I made a meatloaf (legal type) for dinner tonight and had cooked spinach w/vinegar and a salad for dinner -- it was delicious. Tomorrow we have to go grocery shopping - today was payday so now that the bills are paid we go shopping!! I've started 4 lists because we'll go to 4 grocery stores because of the sales - the stores aren't that far apart so it's not that big a deal. Ok - it's almost 10:30 and I need to get things around to go to bed. Talk to you tomorrow

[Sunny_0ne]

Re: Another 50+ member

Carole, thanks for the kind words about the garden.

If you have a place where you can grow pole beans, they will produce until frost. The bush beans will give you two or three good pickings and that is all.

In my little garden, I usually can enough collards, turnip greens, mustard and beans to last us all winter, but this year I am not planting as much. We plan several camping trips and I don't know how the garden will fare when we are gone. Probably not well.

Instead of canning tomatoes, I grow Romas and dehydrate them. It takes a LOT less space. So many will fit into one jar. Crumbled up, they are wonderful in all kinds of dishes from eggs to meatloaf to soups and stews. And I make tomato powder out of some of it and mix it up when I want tomato paste or sauce.

I also dry peppers for use all year. In fact, I still have plenty of dried tomatoes and bell and jalapeno peppers from last year.

One thing I used to like to do was make grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon bits, dried tomatoes, green onions and peppers. They were wonderful in the melted cheese. Now I do it when I make portobello pizzas.

Also, I usually grow evergreen bunching onions (green onions) since they will last through the winter in the garden and will set seed the following spring. I planted onion seed last month, but they didn't come up. Will get another Earth Box of them planted soon.

Thanks for the tip on the upside down tomatoes. I had considered planting them this year, but will just do in-ground plants this year due to your experience.

On the cucumbers, you literally have to pick them every day. They grow to baseball bat size in no time. I seem to always overlook a few when they are ready, and end up with some of the baseball bats, too. This year I am planting pickling cucumbers because I like the small size better for eating anyway.

I am struggling with the increased appetite from riding my bike again. I know I ate a lot more calories today than I burned. But then, again, I didn't ride it right before dinner, and I've learned if I ride it before dinner, then eat a good meal, it prevents the hunger from getting out of hand. I forget so fast!

I can't imagine 20 miles on the bike. I think you are Superwoman!

[imagood1]

Re: Another 50+ member

well it's Sunday and the beginning of the #52 6WEC - I did pretty good last time so I wanted to contin/e - for some reason I really like this challenge....and I seem to do well on it so it's worth keeping up.

I am down 27 pounds since the beginning -- trying to get to 30 sometime soon....I checked my chart and found that 2/2 is when I hit 200 pounds - 75 days ago - OMG that's terrible. I started re-induction 3/16 at 196 so I lost 4 pounds were lost in 42 days. The re-induction really helped me - I literally wasn't loosing but the re-induction got me back on track. I'm happy with 6 pounds in 6 weeks --

[imagood1]

Re: Another 50+ member

I forgot to post these the other day -- when we were working in the garden Sadie decided to play hide and seek!! She laid there for almost a half hour so I finally told her go move! She's a nut

[Sunny_0ne]

Re: Another 50+ member

Sadie is SO CUTE!!!

[Sunny_0ne]

Re: Another 50+ member

Carole, I just threw together this composite of a Water Princess for you. Feel free to use it until you find something better.... or not. I just had fun playing with it!

[imagood1]

Re: Another 50+ member

Carole, I just threw together this composite of a Water Princess for you. Feel free to use it until you find something better.... or not. I just had fun playing with it!

I didn't know you were into graphics!!! Wow - I just found out something else about you!! I've been on graphics, tag and part owner of a tube lists online for years - and was part owner of a wav/MP3 list also