3644
Have you ever had one of those weeks
where it seemed to be non-stop eating? I've written here several times since September about weight loss, and I've been successful and am right where I want to be for the last 60 days. Last Tuesday I noticed I was a bit under. Well, not to worry, it was a rather social week. Pie on Thursday. Pie on Friday. Cake on Saturday. Nibbles and brownies with frosting on Sunday afternoon. Nibbles and some sort of cream dessert in a graham cracker crust on Sunday evening. This morning I feel like I've been run over by a truck. I think this is a carb hang-over.Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/weight%20loss
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Thursday Thirteen


It's been awhile--let's see if I can remember how to do this. Here's some random thoughts for a Thursday.

1. Congratulations and good luck for the TT new hostesses who are making it truly a family affair.
2. I've been doing Poetry Thursday for the last 11 weeks, instead of TT. Here's the one for today. An elegy for a baby but dedicated to anyone who has lost a child.
3. Doing both PT and TT wouldn't be a problem for me since I write so much, but it is the visiting and leaving comments that takes the time, so I had to choose.
4. Today I'm having lunch with a young woman who has asked me to speak to her Bible study group next week--I think their theme is older women mentoring younger women in the church, so each hostess invites a guest to speak.
5. I think I'm older than her mother, so that makes me a wise old woman of the church!
6. If you read my blog in the fall when we got back from my sister-in-law's wedding in California, you may remember I'd decided to lose my blogging weight--20 pounds.
7. Yes, indeedy, that's what I gained when we got broadband and I started blogging regularly in 2003. It sort of snuck up on me, here a pound, there a blog, but it all added up til I was 150 lbs, the heaviest in my adult life.
8. So I wrote a Thursday Thirteen about my plan to avoid 13 food triggers.
9. It was slow going, and the holidays were rough, but I hit 130 lbs. on February 1. A lot of weeks I lost nothing at all, and nothing has budged in the last 6 weeks, but the tape measure does change.
10. I've learned, and I'll warn you--130 lbs. is arranged very differently at 67 than 35. My waist is much bigger, but that's an advantage because nothing ever fit before. Now I can wear a size 8 slacks and not have a 2" gap at the waist.
11. I've had a blast buying some new clothes that don't come from K-Mart. I discovered the Discovery Shop just up the road a mile, which is all donated, good quality clothing to benefit the Cancer Society.
12. Last week I bought a fabulous Pendleton pants suit (already shortened to fit my stubby legs) for $20. It will be incentive to keep the weight off for next year, since it is a gorgeous, all lined, 100% wool, made in the USA. I look for quality brands with dry cleaner tags still attached.
13. And finally, if you're doing much traveling, either because of work assignments or spring break, please read my blogs about DVT.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Leave a comment and I'll add your name and URL. View More Thursday Thirteen ParticipantsSource URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/weight%20loss
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3552
Gore-ge yourself, be my guest
Today I passed up the samples of the peanut butter banana crunch bagel at Panera's (I'm assuming this is in honor of Elvis Presley, but I didn't see a note). So using the theory of carbon credits, you can now eat 200-300 extra calories today because I didn't, and therefore your calories won't count, make you fat, or hurt your heart. Al Gore is doing it the other way around. He's using massive amounts of energy to heat his home and swimming pool, but it is OK because he is rich and "buying" credits to do this from some place that scams tracks the public use of energy. So he's using what someone else isn't or didn't need. I'm not using those calories today, so you can be my guest. And I won't even charge you anything.Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/weight%20loss
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3430 Goal!

It's been four months, but today I got to the 20 lb weight loss. I call it my "broadband" gain--I put on 20 lbs not when I retired, but when we got RoadRunner and I started blogging in October 2003 (now have 10 blogs). Way too much sitting--much more than when I worked. I hadn't lost an ounce since early December, then in the last 8 or 9 days, lost 3 lbs. In 1983 I lost 20 pounds after I joined an aerobic dance class--nothing happened for about 6 months. It was great fun, and I loved the class, but eventually there were scheduling problems, instructors changed, I went back to work, etc., and the pounds started to return. In 1993 I had to shave a few pounds for my daughter's wedding. Both of those times I was thinner than today, but I was also younger. Fat is a natural filler for wrinkles, and a cushion for blog bottoms. So, I don't think I'll go any lower.Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/weight%20loss
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3381 Does this ever happen to you?

Eggs-actly! As I've mentioned here numerous times since the end of September, I needed to lose 20 lbs--gained since we got broadband and I started blogging. I've lost 18 pounds, the last one pound taking six weeks, and am eating healthier with more fruits and veggies than ever in my life. I don't have a physical until early March, so I figure I can do 2 more pounds before the blood pressure and cholesterol checks. I'm in size 8 slacks, and there's no cleavage hanging over the top of my necklines, so if it never happens, who cares? But I digress.

Eggs weren't on my list of food triggers to avoid, but everything I enjoy with them was--cheese, toast, butter, jelly, muffins, bagels, bacon and so forth. So I just hadn't eaten an egg since September. Tuesday I cooked a very nice ham. It was far more than we could safely eat in a few days, so I asked my daughter to stop by on her way home from work and pick up a generous package. Still too much ham; and our son didn't stop as he sometimes does on his day off so I couldn't give him any.

Brilliant idea! I'll make an omelet for dinner like I watched being prepared on the Good Morning America show. I grilled some onion and red pepper and chopped up a bunch of the ham. I found a skillet I hadn't used for awhile, sprayed it, dashed in some olive oil and put in 5 eggs mixed with a little milk (GMA said water). When it looked firmed up I gently placed my ham and veggies on one-half, just like I saw on TV. Then I carefully folded the other half over it. At this point, it diverged a wee bit from the chef's version on GMA. It didn't want to move; only went half way. Oh well. I put some bread in the toaster for my husband. Then after the omelet firmed up a little I cut it in half and moved the halves to our dinner plates. Ooops. My goodness. Sort of messy. Sure didn't look at all like the one on TV.

After grace, my husband look at his less than lovely omelet and said quietly, "I had eggs for breakfast."

Omelets
eggs
food triggers
healthy eating
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3331 What I had for lunch

As I noted in September, I decided to lose weight (my 20 blogging pounds) by paying attention to food triggers that made me more hungry. I've lost 17 lbs. and lots of inches where I blog. I've learned to eat to love some foods I'd almost never eaten before, like greens and peppers. Collard greens, turnip greens, bell peppers--red, yellow and orange, and lots of onions. The greens are high in anti-oxidants which help fight all kinds of degenerative diseases and contains trace minerals and calcium. Collard greens (1 cup) have 118.9% of the daily value for vitamin A and 57.6% of vitamin C. But turnip greens are even better with 158.3% of vitamin A and 65.8% of vitamin C. If you have thyroid or gallbladder problems (which I don't) you might want to be cautious about greens, according to The World's Healthiest Foods.

It's awfully hard for one person to eat a bunch of greens before they would go bad, so here's my trick: I lightly saute them with onions in a small amount of olive oil and put them in small individual packages for lunch and freeze them. I don't like those dull, limp, gray blobs you see on steam tables, so these stay bright green.

Today I quickly grilled with a touch of olive oil about 1/2 cup of frozen organic sweet corn with one of my packages of turnip greens and onions, and about a fourth of a red pepper--maybe 1/4 cup. The corn adds a touch of sweetness to the turnip greens which aren't as mild as the collard greens. The mild peppers add color and crunch, and are also excellent sources of C and A. If I were eating a cup, it would be even higher than the greens. My, it was so colorful. Just a pleasure to eat with my book.

With lunch, I was reading The Trouble with Africa, by Robert Calderisi, a Canadian who has worked in Africa since 1975. Africa has received some $600 billion in aid since 1960, yet it has actually gotten poorer since then. It's no longer useful to point fingers at colonialism or slavery, the Africans themselves are making a mess of things, and foreign aid seems to be part of the problem.

For dessert I had fresh pineapple. . . and a Christmas cookie.Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/weight%20loss
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3326 Losing weight isn't rocket science

says Tara Parker-Pope, the health writer for the Wall St. Journal. Make tiny changes she says, and see some amazing results. If you love a daily Starbucks Grande Latte (260 calories) on your drive to work, switch to coffee three times a week, and you'll save 21,840 calories, or 6 lbs a year. Skipping shredded cheese on your lunch salad is 10,000 calories a year, or another three pounds. There--you've got a good start on the next holiday season.Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/weight%20loss
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Thursday Thirteen

Since September 25, I have not eaten the following 13 foods. Most were part of my TT list of triggers that make me hungry. The flat out toughest to resist have been #1, #5, and #9. I think I would mug someone for a bag of Fritos. We were at a buffet luncheon [buffets were on the list, but we were invited] to celebrate a wedding anniversary at the Scioto Country Club Sunday, and there was a table of desserts to die for--which included not only pecan pie (my favorite next to apple sour cream which no one but me makes), but also cheesecake, which I love. I selected instead, the pumpkin cream cheese roll. The point isn't the calories, but the trigger, and pumpkin cake doesn't stick up my tastebuds and kill my resolve, even if it is delicious.

1. Pizza, I particularly miss pepperoni with extra cheese from Rotolo's.
2. pastaoops--did have spaghetti--but not noodles or macaroni
3. Ritz crackers
4. cheddar cheese
5. pie crust or pastry, whether main dish or dessert
6. sandwich except for Friday night date Rusty Bucket's Philly Cheese, no bread or rolls
7. free sample bread and bagel snacks at Panera's
8. potato chips
9. Fritos
10. carbonated beverages (easy to give up--don't think they were on the list)
11. dip or sauce
12. gravy
13. cheesecake

I haven't had a beer either, but that's not much of a sacrifice. I've never even tasted beer. Imagine the calories I've saved for enjoying something that doesn't smell like rotting grain!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Leave a comment and I'll add your name and URL. View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Visited and visitors today:Amber, Amy Christopher, AnnaMary, Beth, Bubba, Carol, Caylynn, Celfyddydau Cheryl, Chickadee, Cindi, Dane Bramage, Darla, East of Oregon, JAM, Jane, Janeen, Jen, JMom,John, Katia, Kitty, KT Cat, Lady Bug, LaughingMuse, Leah, Ma, Mar, Pippajo, Skittles, Something Blue, Southern Girl, Smurf, Staci T, Susan, Terrell, Terri,Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/weight%20loss
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3151 Do you ever buy

an outfit too small hoping you'll lose weight and eventually wear it? I don't. I know myself too well and am too practical to do that. But I do have items in my closet that I used to wear, and they hang around hoping to be used again even though they don't fit. This is a pants suit I just love. Sort of a gray and blue Glen plaid in a size 8.* I can't remember when I bought it or was able to wear it, but it was after 2000 and before 2004, and it has the shorter jacket (which I do wear with another skirt). Anyway, this suit is my goal. I can now get the pants all the way up--I just can't sit down in them. But hey, in August, I couldn't even get them zipped. Another 10 lbs and I'll be ready to sit.



This dress, also an 8*, is a recent purchase, on sale of course, for less than we spend on our Friday night date. It doesn't show well on a hanger, but is a navy polyester, all lined, gently fitted, with a lace jacket (nice for women my age). I have no place to wear it, unless someone dies or gets married. Although we have friends celebrating a 40th anniversary at the country club at the end of the month, so I might think about that. Everyone dresses so casually these days, there's no place to go in a lace jacket!



* Remember today's size 8 was a size 12 in 1960, and I was 20 lbs thinner then. Aren't closets fun?

women's fashion
clothing size
health and fitness
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