A "Selfie"...

Quote for the Day:

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. 

~ Harriet B. Braiker 

I don't do "selfies" because...well...because I don't like pictures of myself...taken by me or anybody else.  

But I came to a realization this past weekend and I thought a picture would be appropriate.

I have had a CONSTANT battle with my weight since I can remember...seven or eight years old?   That is no way for anyone to live their life.  I have tried lots of things over the years.  Some worked and some didn't.  

At age 40, I weighed the most I've ever weighed.  And my weight has fluctuated a LOT over the past 13 years since then.  However, it has slowly, slowly, slowly come down.

This past weekend I was adding it up, and I now weigh 38 pounds LESS than I did at the age of 40!  That only equals about 3 pounds a year...but 3 pounds OFF a year is better than 3 pounds ON a year!  

When my daughter gave me this shirt in September, it was too tight.

For comparison purposes, here's one of me at my son's wedding in 2005 (and this wasn't even my highest weight)...

The moral to the story???  Don't just look at the day-to-day details, but consider the big picture when seeing where you've come!  It helps give motivation for the future!

Loretta

Gluten-Free Update...

Well...some good news for once!  LOL  

After 3.5 weeks after eliminating gluten from my diet, I am happy to report that I am down 8.2 pounds, lowered my BMI by 1.6 points, and am feeling GREAT!   No more afternoon "brain fog"!

I'm happy with the results and plan to keep plugging along.  

The food has been wonderful...last night was home made chili with GF home made cornbread!  OMG, was it ever good!  Even Andy exclaimed how good the cornbread was...and he's not that much into cornbread!  (I was raised by "southern" parents who ate cornbread with beans...and Andy was raised by "yankee" parents who ate yeast rolls with beans, so I've worked hard over the last 31 years to bring him over to the "cornbread" side of things!  He still prefers yeast rolls, but he did say the cornbread last night was very good and tasted just like "normal" cornbread.  LOL)  I did have to learn a new way of making chili because my previous, fail-safe recipe used a can of tomato soup...which, unfortunately, contains wheat flour.  But this chili did turn out quite DELISH, I'm happy to say!  :)

I used this recipe for the chili, but used canned red beans and canned great northern beans instead of the dried beans, and also used ground venison instead of ground beef.  For the cornbread, I used a basic recipe found in one of my cookbooks, but used GF corn meal and GF All-Purpose Flour instead.  These are easy to find in grocery stores that have a "health foods" section.  Bob's Red Mill is bringing gluten-free and organic items to mainstream grocery stores, so I look for their packages.

I made a batch of Baked Oatmeal last Sunday and have been having that with a cuppa coffee in the mornings for my breakfast.  I keep the baked oatmeal in the fridge and heat up a small serving in the microwave each morning for breakfast.  It is WONDERFUL and VERY filling!  You don't need much!  LOL  

When I first started this journey, I purchased this cookbook...

Because all the recipes are for the crockpot AND are gluten free, it has been a GODSEND for a person like me who doesn't like to cook!  

Yes, the recipes in the book are from her website, but I have noticed that there have been upgraded changes to the recipes in the book and I also like having the BOOK in the kitchen when I'm cooking.  It's handier to flip through and plan meals, than to keep clicking through web pages and then printing out the recipes you want.

So that's it for the most recent update!  I'm happy and well-fed!  :)   Life just doesn't get much better than that!  :)

Now, I've got to take the car into the shop to see why the less-than-a-year-old remote start isn't working.  :(

Loretta

11-12-13...

How I feel today...




I hope I don't offend anyone with this video...I think it's HILARIOUS...and is just how I feel today.

On my days off from work, I am usually running around going to appointments and doing errands, especially since I've started going to the new chiropractor...twice a week appointments, ya know.  But today I have nothing planned but to stay INDOORS and RELAX!

And today is a GREAT day to stay indoors because we woke up to this...

Yep...our first snow of the winter season!  It's pretty when you don't have to go out into it!  :)

I plan on working on a small quilt that I started Sunday night for Quilts for Kids, the organization supported by Downy (fabric softener) that delivers home made quilts to children in hospitals!  It's been a couple years since I've made one for them, and I was itching to spend some time at my sewing machine.  Sometimes I just need to take a break from hand quilting and get some quality time with my sewing machine!  I had some leftover squares from a quilt I made for my niece, Kristin, so I thought I'd put it to good use.  All of the fabric used in this quilt was from my pre-cut scraps from other quilts!  (I use Bonnie Hunter's scrap user's system.)  This means that when I finish a quilt, I take the small pieces of fabric that are left over and cut them into usable size squares and strips and store them according to size.  Then when I need a certain size for another scrappy quilt, I go to that size box and pick out what I can use!  It makes it much easier to use up scraps that way!

This is what I was able to whip up fairly quickly...

I still need to add the green top and bottom border, but that will get done today.  Then I can find a backing from my stash, pin-baste it, and machine quilt it!

I figured that QFK probably gets more quilts for young children than for older kids, so I thought this would make a good quilt for a teenage girl.

I also made it a couple inches bigger so it would work better for a teen.  I hope they don't think the "subject matter" is inappropriate.  I think it's cute/funny...but then I've been told I have a really warped sense of humor...by my husband, no less!   LOL  He POLITELY calls it "the Schrock sense of humor" but I know what he REALLY means!  

Once I get this blog post done, I'm going to pay some bills online and then go barricade myself in my sewing room and get this quilt knocked out as fast as I can.


I've been asked how my gluten-free-ness is going...
So far, so good.  I think I may have inadvertently had some gluten (in the soy sauce) when we went out to eat Friday night at the local Chinese buffet, but as soon as I realized it, I stopped eating anything with it on it.

It really isn't as difficult to find things without gluten as I had feared.  You learn to read labels on EVERYTHING.  I'm lucky in that I don't have celiac disease, so if I inadvertently do get a tiny bit, it won't destroy me.  

Now...realize that I haven't cut out sugar entirely, but have cut down on it drastically!  So far I have lost 1.6 pounds, but I think I just look healthier overall because everyone at my doctor's office yesterday couldn't believe their eyes!  The nurses and doctor kept saying "you've lost weight", "you look so good", etc., etc., etc!   Note...the last time I was in my primary care's office was the day before my first chiropractic treatment and at a time when I was probably at my worst with pain, swelling, etc.  Since going gluten-free, my ankles have stopped swelling and I'm starting to lose the "carb face"...that extra weight around the jowls brought on from eating the wrong kind/too many carbs.

But I'm definitely going to have to keep that purple sweater in mind that I was wearing yesterday because I think it really took the pounds off of me from all the compliments I got!  

Loretta

Time For a Change...

Quote for the Day:

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

~Albert Einstein

Since starting with my new chiropractor a month ago, I've seen GREAT improvement in my back and right knee pain.  I still have the underlying problem...osteoarthritis...but the symptoms are significantly reduced with the atlas orthogonal adjustments and decompression therapy.

That's the good news!

The bad news is that I still have the osteoarthritis, which is a chronic, progressive, degenerative disease.  

Dr. Leonette, my chiropractor, has encouraged me to cut out wheat and gluten from my diet.  He said he thought I'd experience significant arthritis relief if I did.  

Well, I'm a "scientific" type of person who has to know the "who, what, when, why, wherefore, etc." of things, after all, my nursing degree IS a SCIENCE degree.  So I went to our local library and checked out "Wheat Belly", by Dr. William Davis, and spent 4-5 days reading up on the how and why wheat is bad for our bodies.  The book was interesting and informative, but when I read the chapter on wheat and osteoarthritis, I was sold!  

The book recommends that you go off of wheat when you aren't going to be working because some people go through withdrawals since one of the reactions to wheat is a morphine-like chemical reaction.  That...and the blood sugar spikes it causes...is why wheat is so addicting!  :(

I decided to start my gluten-free journey this weekend since I'm not working.  I started on Saturday by going grocery shopping to get the "real" food that I need...veggies, meat, cheese, etc.  No processed foods.

Gluten-free lifestyle does mean that you have to cook and plan ahead, so today I put a brisket in the crockpot with cabbage, potatoes and carrots for supper tonight.

I also made some mini omelet muffins based on this recipe.  

These will be stored in the fridge and can be taken out and heated in the morning for breakfast.  To make them, I sprayed the pan with oil, then put in a layer of sausage followed by some cut up fresh mushrooms, black olives, and then grated cheese.  I then took eggs and whisked them with some milk, salt and pepper, onion powder and a touch of garlic powder.  I poured this mixture over the top of the other items and baked at 350 degrees F until an inserted knife came out clean...about 20 min.  These will make a quick, healthy, high-protein, gluten-free breakfast food for  me in the mornings.

When shopping yesterday, we learned that my favorite coffee creamer is gluten-free!!!

In my morning coffee I just like to use half and half, but if I have a cuppa in the afternoon, I like to make it "special" with a little flavored coffee creamer.  

At this time, I'm not completely giving up sugar, but I am cutting back and am going to try to get my "sweets/sugar" from natural sources like fruit.  I've started a board on my Pinterest page for gluten-free recipes and you can follow it here if you'd like.  Right now there's a lot of dessert recipes on it, but that is because we are entering the holiday season and I'm thinking ahead to desserts that I can make and remain gluten-free.  

I've also ordered a gluten-free cookbook that is all crockpot recipes..."Make it Fast, Cook it Slow" by Stephanie O'Dea.  Ms. O'Dea has celiac disease, so all her recipes are gluten-free.  I've followed her blog for several years simply because I like to use the crockpot as much as possible, and the gluten-free part is an added bonus!  :)

Loretta