Days 71 and 72

My how the days do pile up on me! This has been a nice weekend, but busy. Yesterday we finally ventured into the land of Smart Phones and I spent the entire day in a local cell phone center setting up the family with 'smart' rather than 'dumb' phones. We shall see how long that lasts. We are changing our landline home phone to a cell and that is taking a bit longer, but we all have our phones in hand. Apparently cell phones are a BIG deal and I just didn't know it! So my excuse today for the one-day back-up is I was so tired from standing for HOURS in the cell phone store that I fell asleep before I wrote the blog.

I'm glad to say that the weather over the past few days has been gorgeous! We had rain (finally) and now clear blue skies for the first day of fall with a cool breeze and hearty sunshine. A lovely day! I'm doing fine with exercise and eating. I think I'm finally in a groove. I like my egg sandwich for breakfast with some fruit, a light lunch, a snack at around 4pm and a balanced dinner. I'm still not 'cooking' but I'm not opposed to scrambling an egg or sautéing some greens to go with dinner. I just have to continue to stay out of the kitchen as much as possible. I have discovered that a hamburger patty larger than about 3 oz. is too big for me. There aren't many small burgers around, so I've been trying to scope out some options. The best thing I've found so far, is a Turkey Sausage patty made by Great Value (Walmart) that not only works for breakfast, but is the perfect size for a 'burger' patty for me! It tastes good and I like to warm it up (they come pre-cooked) cut it in half and tuck the halves into romaine lettuce leaves. Add your favorite toppings and you have a GREAT burger! I may have one of those for lunch tomorrow!

I've been quietly working some of the troublesome foods out of my diet for now. Some may come back on a limited basis and some...maybe not at all. Here is a list of the foods/techniques I'm slowly pushing to the sidelines:

1. Sugar - Now this ingredient is in lots of foods and of course, it's in fruit. No, what I'm talking about here is sugar that I might add (refined) or the obviously 'sugary' treats. These days we have options for handling 'sweetening' tea and such, so I'm good with this leaving.
2. Bread - Bread is a hard thing for me to leave behind. It is so woven into my meals that I find it hard to move it out completely, but I'm doing my best here. I've taken up putting sandwich stuff into lettuce and I actually like it better than bread, but that's not because I don't like bread. If eating bread (or cheese) were an Olympic event, I'd win GOLD for the U.S.! Finding options for  the other ways I eat bread are proving difficult. Not to worry! I'm committed to finding a solution!
3. Cheese - Could I be more in trouble? I love two of the worst foods for the human body. Full of fat and calories, but oh, so, delicious, cheese is being moved to the 'treat' section of my eating, where it belongs! I would rather have a great hunk of cheese than a piece of cake!
4. Frying - This is a no brainer! If it's fried, it's out...plain and simple. I don't even care.
5. Cream Based - I'm working to move the 'sauces' out completely. Yes, they are delicious, but they are killing me and really, they just mask the flavor of the food.

Short list, but I don't want to bog myself down in work. I'm not trying to be low-carb or anything like that, but honestly the refined flour stuff makes it harder for me to lose the weight and it really isn't a friend, nor does it help me achieve my goals, so out it goes! The real hardship continues to be the struggles with portion size. Even my husband is having this trouble. For instance, he always has the Jalapeño Cheese Burger from Whataburger when they have hamburgers. This burger is HUGE! Two patties that are each big, two slices of cheese and then all the toppings and he has mayo, too!  The burger with mustard is 970 calories and with mayo it would be more...I'm thinking at least 1,000 calories! Last night he decided that instead of this burger he wanted to try the Southern Chicken Sandwich from McDonalds which has 420 calories. He told me after dinner that when he saw it he thought, "Hum...kind of small." However, after eating the meal, he said, "It was really just right!" So, we Americans are MESSED UP about portion size...all of us! Maybe there are some people who are okay and can tell the difference between the right amount of food and food that should feed you for SEVERAL MEALS, but I don't know any of these people. So, here is my advice (yes, I know you didn't ask for my advice, but your getting it anyway):

"Treat food like you would makeup. Add small amounts because you can always add more later if you need it, but once it's there, it's hard to take away!"

Okay, so that's my world for today. By sitting here writing, I'm missing the beautiful afternoon...soon to be evening outside! So, until tomorrow (I promise!!), sweet dreams, Sweeties!!