FEB 4th Doing Whatever It Takes

Hi Journal & Friends,

Thought I'd share a nice thing MyGuy did for me after my gum surgery this last Monday. It was a rough first day, but I've been doing well ever since.  I am on liquids/smooshy foods that will basically melt in my mouth... no chewing. I can't wear my partial til all healed, so no bottom "chewers". Might be a while. So he bought me this rather expensive treat:

Mmmmm! It was veeerrry nice. Their tag line is "You'll swear it's made in heaven". Well, maybe not THAT nice, but definitely made me feel pampered. For a stevia sweetened cream soda, Virgil's Zero Cream Soda was excellent. 

And I think, mentally, it helped me. I don't think I'm alone in being tempted to make exceptions and excuses to go off plan when we feel bad, or are sick, or any of a zillion other "reasons".  And yep... I was sorely tempted. :-}

But I stuck. Barely... but I did. And doing little things like this helps. Yes, I know, it would be healthier to NOT want an "edible" treat. I did those other kinds of things, too. But hey, it is what it is. And this helped me not go ballistic with the food, using and abusing it.  Ya do what ya gotta do. :-D

From Dr Phil's book: "Instinctual drift: the tendency, under stress, to revert to natural tendencies... learned behaviors - so over learned, in fact, that they have become second nature habits to which you instinctually drift when under stress or pressure, whenever you're not actively managing your weight, your health and your life with a great degree of awareness and programming."

My verse for today: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble."

My quote for today: "One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar." --Helen Keller

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

=^..^=

DAY 901

DEC 15th A Colorful Friday Favorites

Hello Journal & Friends,

Since so many folks say they are looking to eat only "real food" and ditch the chemicals, I thought I'd share a little thing I ran across recently... bought it... tried it... and LIKED IT!!

It's natural food coloring made from vegetable colorants, called India Tree Natural Decorating Colors. Comes in the typical red, yellow and blue, in little squeeze bottles just like it's chemical cousins. The coloring agents are from red cabbage, beet, and turmeric. I used some in a frosting at Thanksgiving, and NO, it didn't affect the flavor at all. Just made it pretty and festive!

Examples of what you can get by mixing the 3 colors up:

I bought mine online from Cheftools.com  for $22.39. 

I know, I know, me too! $$$  ;-)

But, they last a long time. And they work well. The blue seems a little weaker than the red and yellow colors, but other that, I love them. One tiny more step towards a healthier kitchen, yes?

From Dr Phil's book: "What is true about you in your mind, you will live."

My verse for today: "The earth is filled with your love, O Lord."

My quote for today: "Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You." --Dr Seuss

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

=^..^=

DAY 851 

DEC 11th If I Don't Get Tuff... I'm Gonna Die Fat??

Hidy Ho Journal & Friends,

Ever read or hear something that you LOVE... and HATE at the same time?!! 

You love the parts you agree with, and hate the parts you are convinced he got wrong? You find youself arguing with your iPod as you listen to the interview?

You'd love to "straighten this guy out" so his message could be improved, and that way he could help more folks. But he is convinced that those that are upset by his message are "just making excuses".

So... he has closed his OWN thinking off, to seeing a different perspective that might have validity, which could actually improve his message. 

Sigh... I debated even writing about all this, since it's so frustrating. But I will. :-D

Because I decided, FOR ME, to be teachable and "eat the meat and spit out the bones."  This guy has some good stuff. Really good stuff.

He does have good ideas, albeit presented in a blunt way. I don't think he's trying to be mean or mocking, like some internet bullies I've crossed swords with... no, to me his heart seems in the right place.

Enough vagueness. His name is Steve Siebold, and he makes his living as a motivational speaker. The core of all his messages have to do with MENTAL TOUGHNESS.

And this time, he wrote a book after he gained 40 pounds, then lost it. It's called

Die Fat or Get Tough: 

101 Differences in Thinking 

Between Fat People and Fit People.

Yeah, he likes to use shock value to "break through the walls of self-delusion". I suppose that works with some personality types. His main idea is to smack you in the face with the differences between how Fat People think versus how Fit People think. Unfortunately his blunt approach repulses as many people as it reaches. The poor guy has even had death threats!!!

Disclaimer: I have not read the book. Why?? Because after reading a ton of reviews on Amazon.com, reading excerpts at his website (you can get the first 5 chapters for free), and listening to several interviews with Steve, I get the gist of it. I get it. I really do. And agree 100% with the mental aspects of his message. My own summary of his book would be something like: You made the choices that broke it, and you have the power to fix it. It's time to grow up, and make healthy choices. You can DO this!  

To me, that message is empowering, and I can get behind it. The part that drives me NUTSO in his approach is that he doesn't take into account that we were told by all the authorities for a LIFETIME that eating a certain way (low fat and lots of "healthy" whole grains and high carbs) was THE way to lose weight and get healthy. And now we are a fatter, sicker nation, with a raging diabetes epidemic. That's no excuse. It's the truth. Some of us tried for years, but it was like swimming upstream against a hard current... exhausting and not making much progress.

I was put on my first diet at age 10. That's FIFTY YEARS AGO!!!!! :-O  I searched and searched for a sustainable "diet", and tried, literally, several dozen. It's not just a matter of being fat and lazy. Some of us really tried. But were working with the wrong information. Did we go through times of despair, and just give up for a time?? Did we choose to eat food to affect our emotions, to bring relief, escape, or a thousand other reasons? 

Yes, we did. Or we wouldn't be fat. 

Yes, *I* did, or I wouldn't be fat.

Do you have any idea how hard it is not to be sucked totally down the drain of hopelessness and self-loathing, after trying and failing that many times??? 

But to our credit, we didn't give up permanently. We tried to learn. We got up and went ON. 

He seems to know nothing about metabolism or the science behind weight loss. The best book I've read on that lately is by Gary Taubes: Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It.  It's not a rah rah motivational book. It's full of solid science and facts. I highly recommend it.

Do any of Steve's arguments apply?? Yes, of course. But I'm just saying, he's too simplistic, that's all. Anyway, back to the part of his message that I DO agree with, the mental stuff. 

Basically, after all the legitimate factors are accounted for, we are left with: NOW WHAT?? What am I going to DO about it? 

And I agree with him, that it takes mental toughness. (Now for all you Christians out there, cool your jets. :-) My Rock, my Strength comes from God. I'm talking here not about the spiritual foundation we all need... but about what we allow ourself to think about, which plays out in our actions. Now that we have THAT cleared up...)

Mental toughness

Hmmm...  that's actually a term I've puzzled over for many years! Long before it became sort of popular now, and the topic du jour of todays motivational speakers.

So... I decided to be teachable. To not get offended. To not accept the parts he missed the mark on, and accept the parts where he hit the bullseye. He lost his weight in his late 30's, and is still learning. So in time, I'll bet his message is tempered with experience and wisdom. 

In the mean time, here are some quotes I transcribed directly from an interview with Steve Siebold that I heard on HCL BlogTalkRadio, hosted by Audley Stephenson (no relation to moi).

• Make a decision. 
• Make a decision you're going to do this... if you do the work, you'll see the results. 
• This is not complicated... make a decision and take responsibility.
• If you're going to program yourself for success, you've got to do what successful people do.
• Don't feel bad about yourself, don't beat yourself up. Just make a decision that you're going to solve it.
• There's really no staying neutral. You're going to either have to solve it, or you're probably going to die fat.
• Study how fit people think, they really think differently that fat people.
• Study as many world class experts on health and fitness as you can.
• Beginning today, invest 15 minutes a day studying an expert you respect.
• When your beliefs start to change, your behavior starts to follow your beliefs.
• Self-talk is very powerful.
• This is not about being comfortable. This is about being successful. There's a difference!

You can go to Amazon.com  and click on Look Inside, and read several pages for yourself. I'd be curious to read what others in our online wt loss community think about it. I mean, we are already working on it, or we wouldn't be here. So I have to wonder if our reaction would be different than someone who is NOT actively working on it. I kinda think it would sting!

So in summary: 

I do NOT agree with him when he denies there are legitimate factors that affect our weight loss attempts. 

I DO agree we can't be successful if we allow those factors to make us victims. 

I DO agree we need to ask NOW WHAT? and get on with solving it. 

I DO agree that how we think is absolutely crucial, and that's where I can learn from him.

To be fair, here's Steve's website,  so he gets the last word. 

;-)

From Dr Phil's book: "Change your thinking to change your weight."

My verse for today: "Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle."

My quote for today: "You must do the things you think you cannot do." --Eleanor Roosevelt

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

=^..^=

DAY 847

DEC 9th Planning a New Adventure

Good Evening Journal & Friends,

Okay... nuff controversary. Time for some fun! Well, it's fun for me, anywhoo. ;-)

I mentioned recently that next year one of my goals was to pluck up my courage and open my very own Zazzle  store. I no longer feel as though I have to get "skinny" before I step outside my comfort zone. :-)

Zazzle is an online shop that takes our own designs and puts them on stuff. Everything from prints, cards, posters, key chains and stickers, to personalized postage, t-shirts, buttons and coffee mugs. And tons more, too boring to list here. 

Anyway, before I get involved, I'd like to make sure I really want my NAME associated with them. In other words, I want to check out the quality of their printing and merchandise. So, I bought some stuff.

And most of them turned out terrific! 

I'll be honest in my review... I bought 5 things and: 

3 were fabulous 

1 was just okay 

1 was a little disappointing  

The actual merchandise seems very nice. For instance, the apron is not flimsy at all, but nice, bright white heavy poly/cotton fabric, neatly sewn. Same with the coffee mug: nice size and fabrication. My minor beef is just with how the images turned out on 2 items. And one of those might be because I didn't read close enough to know how big the final image was going to be... not sure about that one. Here's the deets:

We got two mousepads... here

is the one Jim chose, from one

of his waterfall photos. He likes the

quality and richness of the image.

Here is mine. I used one of my 

designs, and stuck on text that

was meaningful to me. I think it

came out crisp and colorful; overall

I am very satisfied. The background

is a soft gray, and my mouse glides very

 easily over the silky smooth surface. 

Eek, I sound like an infomercial!

I love the sturdy white fabric of my apron,

but have to say that in person the image

is not as bright as I had expected. 

Perfectionist?? Me?? Why, never. ;-) 

My mug turned out bold and fabulous!!

I am drinking tea out of it this very minute.

The colors are strong and vibrant, and

I added my new Mantra: 

I Can Do Hard Things

And last but not least... we got Joey

her very own t-shirt! We love how 

she looks in it, and it's adorable. But,

this is the one I was most disappointed 

in. The photo was sooo much smaller 

than I expected. Good thing we have

her in person to look at, LOL!

We're starting to get frost and snow here

in Southern Oregon, so she can keep cozy

when she goes outside to Do Her Business.

Oh, and dig to China after the gopher that 

decided to move into our backyard!

So far, I am leaning towards a thumbs UP on opening my own Zazzle store. It would be called Art by Retta, with a bunch of my designs available to put on shoes, hats, t-shirts, ipod cases, mugs, posters, office accessories, blah blah blah... all the stuff I've mentioned and more. I'll just do it in my spare time. (choke choke... if you only knew what a joke THAT was, LOL!) 

But Jules at Big Girl Bombshell recently had a wonderful post on choices, time and our goals. So my Zazzle store will happen when I make it a priority. Period. Thanks for that nudge, Jules.

Anyone use Zazzle before? Would you recommend it? If I'm headin for a cliff, I'd rather know BEFORE I feel air blowing in my hair! Just doing my research before I decide. :-D

From Dr Phil's book: "Having specific carefully mapped out, vividly envisioned goals is an absolute requirement for success."

My verse for today: "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless."

My quote for today: "Age is something that just doesn't matter, unless you're a cheese." --Billie Burke

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

=^..^=

DAY 844

DEC 7th Playing in the Kitchen, Yet Still On Plan

Hi Journal & Friends,

I'm enjoying putting out the Christmas decorations and seeing the twinkling lights. And yesterday I experienced my very first time EVAH making chocolate candies in cute little molds. Sugar free, of course. You can stop reading here, if you don't want to see food pics... there are days when I don't wanna see any either, so I'll understand. ;-)

To be honest (well, why have a blog if I'm not going to be honest, right?) I don't understand people who have the "martyr mindset", who think that just because they are trying to go from fat to fit and eat all healthified, that they can't eat the really IMPORTANT foods in life... like chocolate! mwa ha ha ha ha. 

Really, there isn't a holiday I can think of that most of the food can't be tweaked in some way, at least enough so that we can participate in traditions we cherish, and still stay on our chosen plans. Lest I forget, I put it in my own sidebar, where it can smack me on the forehead whenever needed: No Excuses! ;-)

Okay, so here's my first chocolate candy batch, still in the mold. That's the oh-so-cool Wilton chocolate melter in the background. I first heard about it from Lisa at Sugar-Free Low Carb Recipes blog. This was my first time trying it out, and I loved it.

 

And here they are, just pushed out of my nifty silicone mold. I like this mold cuz it has a variety of cute little shapes, and they are small enough to be a very moderate portion.

And finally, here they are all prettified on a plate. The light chunks are chopped macadamia nuts, and the peeking red bits in the center chocolates are freeze dried sugar free cherries that I got from NutsOnline, here.  Mmmmmm...

I'm definitely not a trained cook, and MOST definitely a newbie at making my own chocolate. Most of them didn't have that pretty shiny finish. So, nope, not gonna share a recipe. I kind of tweaked a couple together, and while the taste was very nice, the texture wasn't silky smooth. Was sort of powdery or dry, or something. Gotta work on that. I was going for almost a milk chocolate, and these are most decidedly very dark chocolate!

Jim made his famous Eggnog Cheesecake (also sugar free) for the holidays, and I'm dinking around with little chocolates. And I'm still on plan!! Who'd a thunk it! 

My next Tradition Tweak is to change our habit of getting a Dairy Queen blizzard when we drive around seeing the Christmas lights. I'm going to make our OWN healthy and sugar free blizzard in my handy dandy Vita Mix blender, and take them with us. A cold blizzard drink in the middle of winter... yeah, we're weird. And yes, we sing Christmas carols off key as we drive around and ooh and ahh at the lights.

Anyone doing any fun stuff for the holidays??

Ha ha ha... I just re-read this post, and it sounds like I am into kitchen gadgets. I suppose I am now! I have more gadgets and specialty pans now than I have room for! :-O

That's better than in years past, when I was into cruising through several fast food joints, and bringing some from each joint home to devour all by myself in secrecy. I'd stuff it in until I ached, and hated myself for doing so... then cried myself to sleep, as I vowed never to do it again... only to do it again, and again, and again. I'm SO grateful those days are a thing of the past!! (... ghosts of Christmas past... must have Dickens on the brain...)

So, I'll take innocent kitchen gadgets over that any day of the week! :-D

From Dr Phil's book: "You can't eat what's not there."

My verse for today: "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

My quote for today: "Sometimes it is not good enough to do your best; you have to do what's required." --Winston Churchill

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

=^..^=

PS: Sorry for the messed up font sizes. Blogger is acting stupid today, and no matter what I did, it just won't work right. Oh well... in the grand scheme of things, it's no biggee.

DAY 842

NOV 25th Pink Friday

Good Afternoon Journal & Friends,

Yesterday was wonderful and peaceful, and today is not Black Friday for me... I'm in the Pink today! :-) 

It was a quiet day for MyGuy and me. We had the usual turkey meal, only with all on plan food, including a pumpkin-based dessert. I stayed low carb, sugar/gluten/grain-free, but didn't bother to count calories. I know I ate over my 1600, but didn't stress it. Today... back to business as usual. I like that... makes me feel almost "normal"... whatever that is!

For Friday Favorites I wanted to share a fun thing. Recently I had been jonesing for a hot dog, with a bun and all! Actually, a chili cheese dog, to be exact. So... I sent for this fun hot dog bun maker (I know, I know, it's a twinkie maker... but it makes great hot dog buns!!) :-D

And guess what?? It worked like a charm! Here they are:

I used a recipe for hamburger buns made with flaxseed meal which was sugar/gluten/grain-free, and it tasted very nice and the extras freeze well. 

And here are our chili dogs... we used nitrate free natural dogs and bean-free chili, and they were scrumptious:

I'll be honest... it does take a little more work to go sugar/gluten/grain-free, plus low carb. You can't just run right out and buy baked stuff. If I really want it, I have to find a recipe, make sure I have all the ingredients, and then bake it myself. But the book Wheat Belly by Dr William Davis gave me some renewed oomph to stay on track and not talk myself out of it.  

Besides... think about it. Having to bake stuff myself is sort of an automatic way of reducing the amounts of it I eat! Too much work to eat it all the time, LOL! So when I DO have it, it's a nice change, and we really enjoy it.

From Dr Phil's book: "Weight is managed, not cured."

My verse for today: "May your unfailing love be my comfort..."

My quote for today: "First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do." --Epictetus

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

=^..^=

DAY 830