Monday Morning Madness

Found this on my obsession, Pinterest. 

This was on my mind this morning! Should have listened to the wiser!  I didn't want to get on but thought I better keep up with my accountability!  URGH!!! Ok I didn't cry but I don't want to do anything now.  I have been working my tail off to no availl!  The only saving grace is that I had the good sense to take my measurement last Monday!  Thank goodness.  So even though the scale goes up or stays the same, I've actually lost in inches.

3/4" off my bust
1" off midriff
1/4" off the small of my waist
1/2" off my lower abdomen(baby pooch)
3/4" off my upper thigh
1/4" off my lower thigh
These are very encouraging.  I know with low-carb your body will hold on to weight for a long time before letting it go.  I don't understand this but I know it to be true.  It's so important to not only look to the scale for signs but also other forms of measurements.

I didn't make it to the gym this morning due to not being prepared!  I know better.  The excuse:  I didn't do my own laundry.  Sorry not going to the gym in 3 day old stinky workout clothes.  My solution:  Go buy some more workout gear, an outfit for each day. LOL!  Is that frugal?  I wonder if not doing so much laundry would actually save us money in the long run!!!Hahaha.  Yes that's going to be my reasoning.  Wonder what hubby's feelings would be on that.

Now I would like to share a happy topic SPRING IS ON IT'S WAY!!! How I know this is our beautiful flowers have started to bloom.  I know they are winter bloomers but they are a sign of things on the horizon.  I love Spring and these are one of the only things I love about living in the middle of our country. Yeah I'm not a lover of Texas but I'll take what I can get.   And these are always a place of beauty.  They seem to show up right when I've just about had enough of the cold.  I'm ready to get my hands in to the dirt and plant some beautiful works of art by my Creator.  How can you look at these and not feel the peacefulness of God's great creations?

Have a blessed Monday!
Hugs,
Deanna

Cream Puff Love

I'm pretty excited about this!  My mom makes this super yummy dessert that is a take on a cream puff.  I love it.  Everyone I know that has ever had a piece of the dessert loves it.  So in my interest to continue living as close to normal when it comes to my eating I thought I would try to make a low carb version of it.  I believe I nailed it!  My hubby loved it and I loved it!  Even my little one wanted to eat more.

I have to say it is NOT low calorie or low in fat.  I replaced the milk with a mixture of whipping cream and water.  I probably could have reduced even the amount of cream by using more water and I probably will next time.  I also tried replacing the flour with Soy flour.  It has a different consistency than regular flour but it worked.  So here's a picture of this luscious lovely.

Directions:

Cream Puff-

Bring to boil 1C. of water & 1stick of butter.  All at once add 1C. of the Soy flour and mix vigorously.  Take off heat, let cool slightly and beat in 4 eggs, one at a time, till thick and smooth.  This part didn't come out the same as it does with a cup of all-purpose flour.  But I didn't give up.  I actually made 8 blobs on a cookie sheet and poured the rest into a greased 8x8 pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30min. till golden brown,  and crossed my fingers.  The consistency was more like runny pudding than the usual thick dough that comes out.  To my surprise it still worked.  We made 8 pastries that in the future I will use for breakfast sandwiches, muffins, anything we would want bread for and a cake. And I divided the pan into 9 servings.

Custard filling-

Beat soften 8oz. cream cheese

Add 1 1/2 cups of whipping cream 

and 1cup of water mix till blended

Add 1lrg. box of sugar free vanilla pudding

Beat 1minute and let stand for 15min.

Spoon on to crust and top with whipped topping.

I didn't use all the custard on the cake.  I just use enough to cover it and estimated that each serving has 1/4c.

Here's the nutrition facts I came up with:

1/4 C. of custard is

119.5 cal.

21  fat

2.44 carbs

less than a gram of protein

17 servings of pastry-

per serv.-

75.29 Cal.

6.5g. fat

1.88g. carbs

(1.17countable carbs)

2.35g. protein

If you would like the totals for each recipe so then you can divide it up as you wish please let me know and I will send you that information.

I highly recommend this dessert.  You can also drizzle Magic Shell Chocolate and let it set up in the refrigerator.  And if you don't want low carb just use all purpose flour instead of the soy and use milk for the whipping cream/water.

You will be a hit with this dessert!

Let me know if you try it.

Hugs,

Deanna

Marvelous Monday- Sorta

My hubby is back home where he belongs!  The kids and I drove up to the airport yesterday to pick him up after an unplanned visit to his parents.  His father went into the hospital for a possible stroke, he felt an obligation and his heart strings pulling him to make a visit.  I'm glad he went and I'm even happier he's back.  Yeah back to normal.  Last week was an intersting journey for me with lots of mixed emotions.  I want to share but I'm still processing how to share without sounding totally unreasonable and bitchy. Hahaha, it might not be possible but until I'm ready to share what I learned through this process I will hold on to it.  That's why I didn't mention it last week.  By the way I want to mention I am married to the most amazing man!  He's more of a man than I can handle sometimes.  I am blessed.

Now on to more important things!!!Like my relationship with the scale!  It's not even hate any more.  I think it's more like a totally disgust, physical repulsion and a total feeling of wanting to attack it like it's a walker from the Walking Dead! (Love that show and can't wait for Feb. 12)  I just want to smash it's head in with some kind of blunt tool!  The reality is I weighed 143.2!  Yes another pound up!!! I worked my ass off last week with my hubby gone.  I went to the gym twice on Wed and I'm in full fledged ketosis!  My ketone stick has been dark red to even purple.  For those of you who don't know about the pee sticks, they tell you if your body is using its own fat for energy.  Ketones are put off when fat is used for energy meaning I'm burn fat for fuel! (This is a very juvenile description but straight to the point.) I love those little sticks!  So I'm going to stay where I'm at and I've decided to continue to stick with the strict diet and up my cardio and lower my weight training for now.

I did take my measurements, another rude awakening!  But I know on low carb sometimes the scale refuses to move but the measurements don't.  So even though I should have done this in the beginning, it again gives me another form of measurement to keep me going.  I'm not going to share those numbers but I will tell you about my changes.

Loved this and wish I could give credit to who posted it.

And I won't be giving up!  I don't know where my balance is yet but I will find it.  I want to adjust to the middle ground.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.  I'm going to be posting about some sorta yummy low-carb breakfast danishes. LOL!

Hugs,

Deanna

Unexpected friendship

So I finished out the week with two great classes at the gym along with spending the afternoon with JM(my stepson Joe's mom).  I haven't been to her house in awhile and it was nice just to spend time talking about girl stuff and playing with her baby.  He's one of the cutest baby's ever! And so happy all the time.  Anyway she and I have been trying to encourage each other at the gym.  Since I worked so hard to lose all my weight in the first place I don't want to ever go back.  But this leads me to having to always think about my lifestyle choices.  She on the other hand is very petite and having had a baby a year ago is trying to lose that baby weight.  She's decided to join a competition at the gym and I decided to opt out.  I lost it all on my own and I just can't justify spending a hundred dollars to lose 10lbs. Oh and I am still trying to be frugal.  Hahahaha. But what I will be doing is using all her new knowledge and excitement to help motivate me even more. 

Sometimes spending that much time with her feels odd.  We were enemies just over a year ago.  I put up the white flag last Christmas but she wasn't ready.  I totally understand.  This friendship is odd but is comfortable when I don't worry about who I am or who she is.  Just be me and accept her too.  God is on my side and I know that I have only the best of intentions in seeking a friendship with her.  I like her company.  It's unique.  I feel blessed to have a heart that is willing to be open to trying something considered radical in this drama filled world.  We are both trying and I give her credit as well. 

I hope in sharing my journey I will provoke a feeling of good in you.  I know we all have tough relationships that we can't just disappear from.  Some might be closer to home and others only on a small scale but if they cause emotions to stir in you then they are worth the efforts to find out why.  I pray that you will be open to what God might have for you in some tough relationships.

Hugs,
Deanna

Evil Scale

Yes I did get on the scale Monday!!!! No movement what so ever!  142 I'm sticking my tongue out!  Why is losing weight so hard?  I've been working my butt off for two and a half weeks now.  Every time there's a set back, a slip up, getting off the wagon, it puts me that much further away from my goals and dreams.  I know this.  I accept this but why do I do it?  Really? Is it that hard to make good choices on going?  I read a blog yesterday where she said there are NO excuses for poor eating!  URGH!!! She's right and I know it.  You know it but we do it anyways.  I guess that's what make us human.  We have to allow for bumps and then get back to doing what we know is best for our body, mind and soul.   Stop the negative self talk, stop eating garbage, and go back to church.  All these things together get us closer to our goals or further away depending.  I will be positive that the extra effort I'm putting in this week will result in me getting closer to my goal.  I will get back on the scale Monday.  I hope there will be a change by then.
Hugs,
Deanna

Super Yummy!

Good afternoon.  So I'm posting about my yummy success today.  I'm so excited that it was super easy and yummy.  As I've shared low-carb is the way of eating at our home.  We do eat things not considered low-carb when we aren't trying to lose.  But the foundation of our way of eating is low-carb.  Right now with my goals and my hubby on board, I'm committed to finding new things to eat.  So I made chocolate covered macadamia nuts.  So rich you only need a couple to get the chocolate fix.  Which keeps the cal. and carbs low.  I guess you could eat a whole serving or bag but I would be sick or worse cramped up in the bathroom.  (Anyone who has lost control while enjoying sugar-free chocolates know what I'm referring to.)  I think these little nuggets of goodness are perfect though.


So many little nuggets.



This is what I started with.

This is one serving of macadamia nuts, 1/4 C or about 13 nuts.

This is 2 servings of sugar-free chocolate.

I melted the chocolate in a double boiler over very low heat.  This does require some patience.
 I started with just one bag of chocolate.                                                                                                        Each bag contains 2servings each being 5 chocolate bars.

This is what I was left with.

  I did the calculations and figure that with amout of chocolate left over if you were to eat an entire serving you still would be getting less than what I figured.  I don't know how much is in that pot but it leaves the full serving short.  Hey I will take any breaks I can get!  So here's the calculations that I came up with for a 1/4 C. serving:

288- Cal.

2- Carbs (This is countable carbs, not fiber or sugar alcohols)

2- Proteins

28- Fats  (WOW! that's a lot of fat)

I got approximatly 5servings from the bag of chocolate.

My suggestion is to do your own calculations based on the amount of nuts you can actually cover with the serving of chocolate you use.  Best of luck and I highly suggest these!

Hugs,

Deanna

Moment of truth and ants!

So I said last week I would face the music on the dreaded eeeevil scale today.  I did.  Not as bad as I guessed it could have been but not what I wanted either.  May I say first before I share that I've come a long way in accepting it's just a number to use a guiding point.  You do need some kind of measure to compare to in order to see that you've made some improvements.  That could be your measurements, it could be your shopping list, it could be that you've switched from regular sodas to diet, whatever it is it's just a starting point.  I also would like to say that on this journey I got down to 130lbs (from my highest being 200lbs) two years ago.  My dedicated weight loss journey started in the spring of 2009 and at that time I weighed 177lbs.  I have always had a hate relationship with my weight and body image.  Does it really take almost mid life to come to some acceptance?

  Sooooo here it is 142.4lbs Like I said not toooo bad.  I weighed 138 before Christmas though.  So that's a little over 4lbs gained.  I had weighed 134 a year ago. I had a particularly rough spring with a fainting spell that I had never experienced before and then put me into a tailspin through the summer.  I was in the middle of accepting that I had son who was about to graduate or possibly NOT!  SCARY!  But he did, thank you Lord.  And then I was faced with making the hard decision to put our youngest back into public school after homeschooling for two years.  I fell in love with that.  But it was our first experience with it and the reasons we had decided to do it were no longer an issue for him.  So mommy needed to put her big girl panties on and let him go.  It was the right decision and I feel like we have been blessed in both decisions. 

  Why I was telling you all this is because I started living my life.  Not just living for the diet and gym.  Putting some weight on is going to happen.  Now it's for me to figure out how not to keep putting on weight and to find a middle ground I'm happy with.  A nice middle would be 134-136.  I think I would be very accepting of that.  My new skinny clothes would always be comfortable and I wouldn't feel so restricted.  But right now I feel bloated and my new clothes don't feel good.

 So there it is.  My reality is that my goal is 8lbs, 10 would be fun for my birthday though.  But that's just not accepting the middle.

Ok on to a fun subject CAMPING!  We took out our new little love this weekend to a park we've been to before.  It has the Colorado River to fish and swim in, a park to climb on, trails, and lots of wildlife!  That's what I want to share about I saw one of the most amazing thing ever.  When Noah and I homeschooled we ordered an ant farm, ya know like we had as kids?  It was so cool but nothing like what we saw this weekend.  TRAILS of ants going through the fields, over the trails and making they're way through anything they wanted.  I wish my pictures showed the depth of the little interstates they had.  In the top picture that's our camper with trails leading to it through the field of clovers. 

These were way cooler than our little ant farm!

These trails were very distinct.  You could see how they had cut the grass and cleared the path.

You can see all the leaf cuttings that they carried to the hole and the hole is huge in comparison to them. 

Noah and Joe were very intrigued by these little workers.

I was amazed by them.   

   

Some other animals we have seen at the park are deer(they didn't a make an appearance this go round and neither did bandit), ducks, cows, alligator gar and this guy or gal.

I had to play with the exposure and color to get the details but I was very close to him.  So cool!

          

So that was our weekend: animals, smores, trails and football.  I love being outside and feel very blessed to have the opportunity to go exploring new campgrounds. This week I hope to follow a low-carb, low expense dinner menu, go to the gym everyday and try making this great phone charger to match my new kitchen decor-http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/12/holder-for-charging-cell-phone-made-from-lotion-bottle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20MakeItAndLoveIt%20(Make%20It%20and%20Love%20It)

Wish I had thought of it.  She gives great directions and I will post how mine turns out at the end of the week.

Have a great day!

Hugs,

Deanna





SCORE!!!!!!!

Yes I'm dancing the happy dance because not only did I go to the gym and do a new workout that was fabulous, I also made a menu for the rest of the week, and made a dinner my amazing, sweeter than candy hubby said was the best dinner I have ever made!
   SSSCCCOOORRRRRRRRRRRE! 

It's about time after 10years!

 Hahahaha! Whoohoo!!!Yeah Me!!! I did use recipes (all low-carb) But I also put love in and it was really good!  Sorry I didn't take pictures accept of the dirty pans.
 So what was this dinner you ask.  Well it was a marinated fillet of mignon(that was in the freezer). Here's the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-steak-marinade
I pan seared it on high heat.  Then moved the steaks to the oven to cook at 400 degrees for 30-45min.  I then put the marinade in the pan and deglazed it and cooked it down. Served the meat with sauce on it.
The next thing was the side and we were going to have broccoli and I needed it to be WOW! Cause we've eaten more broccoli then we care to think about.  I came across this recipe on one of my favorite low-carb sites Linda's Low Carb Menus & Recipes
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/mushroom_sauce.html
She had suggested serving this over the broccoli.  It sounded perfect minus the mushrooms (hubby calls them slugs).  It was soooo yummy!  He loved the sauce and couldn't guess what all was in it!  I was so excited!
  So all in all it was a great day!!! I even found a simple bag I think I will try my hand at sewing with.  I will post about that when I get to it.
One more thing.  I mentioned I haven't been on the scale(it's evil).  I think I will on Monday.  That gives me this week to try and cut some water weight and see what the reality is.  I really hope that it's within the 2-3lbs instead of 7-10. And then I will post my weight and the goal I will set for my birthday.  I've been maintaining my weight in my middle range but feel heavy after the holidays.  We will see.
Good night and Hugs
Deanna

Already lied

OK so I've already made one promise I couldn't keep or didn't (reality is I just didn't do it).  I was going to post about making my first laundry detergent yesterday and didn't.  But I did make it.  Yeah me!  I had fun doing it too.  Even had two little helpers to stir for me.

Joe

And Noah our littlest character.

But I'm getting ahead of my self. 

Not pictured is the Fels-Naptha that I had already shaved into pieces.

So on Jan. 1st, 2012 I did make it.  We gathered the ingredients and started the process.  We watched football and walkers(huge Walking Dead fans) and stirred our little creation.  Fun together.  I was glad to have little hands to stir because I tend to be a little on the strict side of reading directions and rereading directions.  So I could keep researching and rechecking what we were doing as they stirred.  I have to laugh at that because my sweet hubby likes to poke fun at my being a rules girl.  I don't like to "cook" because the recipes seem so intense or tedious where as he likes to create in the kitchen.  I do love to bake however and you pretty much have to follow directions to get the results you hoped for.  Pretty safe I think.  But it's also what got me to 200lbs, more about that on another post.

  So anyways following directions for creating a science experiment is right up my alley.  Really enjoyed it and can't wait to actually use it.  It's just sitting in the tub and I'm thinking I'm going to look for some kind of yummy, clean smelling essential oil to add to it. But as far as I know it looks good.

What do you think?  It has the consistency of snot and no separating.

  I followed a combination of recipes and I ended up using 1C. of the soda, 1C. of the Borax and a whole bar of the Fels-Naptha.  The five gallon bucket isn't filled so I'm thinking it's pretty concentrated.  I will probably be able to use less than 1/2C per load.  I will just have to see.

  OK so on to another note, today the kids went back to school which means I have to get back to my routine. Urghhhhh! I've been working on my health since forever but committed to it almost 3 yrs ago.  So back to the gym I went.  For my favorite class, Zumba, but I just wasn't excited.  But I did it and I was glad I did.  I haven't gotten on the scale since before the Christmas break but I know I haven't eaten well.  To be totally honest I've eaten pretty much every sweet thing in the house without abandon.  And enjoyed every minute of it. But I also didn't go to the gym once during the break.  All progress I made during my return this fall (I had a rough summer)I feel like is hanging on by a thread.  If at all.  So as with my resolution to be more frugal financially, I feel eating less and using my body more will help me be less all the way around. The whole less is more theory.  My hubby has also decided to join me on the new year eat less journey.  So we have set a two month goal (my 40th is in two months) to drop the weight.  I need to lose 10lbs at least and he wants to lose 20lbs. 

  Today we ate low-carb as that is the way he and I both have seen the best results.  He made a wonderful(without a recipe) chicken dinner with a cabbage side.  I wish I could just pull that out my hat.  But that's also why I fell in love with him.  He can pull dinner together from nothing or so I believe.  And we will just leave it at that.  It makes me smile just thinking about the first time he did cook for me.

  I hope you have a fond memory that keeps you connected to your spouse that hasn't changed over the years and still warms your heart.

  Tomorrow I will go back to the gym and try my hand at menu planning for a frugal low carb diet.  Hmmm not sure if the two will go together.  Any suggestions?

Hugs,

Deanna