Fried Foods and Idiocracy

So I decided after much thought that I wanted fried shrimp for supper. It has been weighing heavily on my mind for a while now so I decided to go ahead with it out of fear of binging on something that wasn't even what I wanted to begin with.

So I made the fried shrimp, I baked fries with it and out of kindness to my family I fried them some hush puppies and fried summer squash. I had a handful of shrimp, about 10 fries, 1/2 hush puppy and about 3 small rounds of squash. You know it wasn't even that good. The steamed shrimp that I made the other day was waaayyy better.
I over cooked the fries, the hush puppies were dry and the squash was too salty.

I'll have to remember to look back at this entry the next time I get an inkling for fried shrimp.

Now the idiocracy part. My husband... I could have slapped him. He took one bite of the shrimp and said it was overcooked and wouldn't eat another bite, then he complained about how dumb it was to fry everything else but not the fries. He complained that the squash was too salty and said the hush puppies were "alright". He should be happy he gets something to eat. I'm mad because he spoke the truth and I didn't want to hear it. So, I guess I'm the idiot. I'm still pissed that he would even complain about it.

I cant wait for tomorrow so I can make some of my yummy veggies I bought from the farmers market. Fried food is for the birds! I don't know why I'm so in love with it. IT's greasy, salty and overeating it is what caused me to gain all this fat in the first place. Really, I should actually hate it. It's should be my worst enemy and I should never want to ever eat it again!

Chicken Fajitas

Chicken Fajitas

16oz boneless skinless chicken breast trimmed of fat & cut into strips (440 cal)
1 cup (149g) red bell pepper cut into strips (46 cal)
1 cup (149g) green bell pepper cut into strips(30 cal)
2.5 cups (320g) onion cut into strips (128cal)
Chili powder
Cumin
Garlic Powder
salt & pepper
Cayenne

Saute the chicken on medium heat in a nonstick pan sprayed with pam. Add in veggies & saute until onion is almost translucent. Add in spices & salt & pepper to taste. I don't really measure out the spices so thats why I didn't list the measurements. If I had to guess I'd say I use approx 1/2 tsp of each the chili powder & cumin, 1/4 tsp of each the garlic powder, pepper & cayenne, and I just season with the salt to taste.


Whole recipe = 644 calories
1 serving is 1/4 recipe = 161 calories

North Carolina B-B-Q Sauce

North Carolina B-B-Q Sauce

½ c cider vinegar

½ c ketchup

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground cayenne

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tbsp sugar

½  c water

1 tbsp texas pete

Combine all ingredients in a med saucepan.

Bring to a boil.

Simmer for about 5-10 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved.

Serve with chopped or pulled pork, chicken or ribs.

Entire Recipe: (287 g) 

194 Calories

1g Fat

3755mg Sodium

44g carbohydrates

1g Fiber

40g Sugar

2g Protein

Or

 For 1 ounce (28g) of sauce

19 Calories

0g Fat

366mg Soduim

4g Carbohydrates

0g Fiber

4g Sugar

0g Protein

Ok, Explain this to me...

First I'd like to say that this is not directed at any one person, it's just a thought that popped into my head.

I hear about these people that are obese and have health issues related to obesity such as heart disease, diabetes, pcos(although I'm not sure if pcos is related), etc....  But then they say that they don't want to take any thing for their conditions that aren't natural. This perplexes me. I mean, how did they become obese in the first place? By eating all natural and healthy foods. I think not. Seriously, I understand and truly support wanting to get healthy, but please don't be silly. Obesity related health problems are serious and should be taken care of properly. 

Gosh, I'm so lazy!

I must be the laziest person I know. I want to take the quick road everytime if given the chance.

Exercise is hard but I'm just going to have to do it. It just ain't fair that I have to, I don't wanna do it, I don't like doing it, in fact I hate it with a passion. I'd much rather sit on the couch or in front of the computer all day. I don't know if I'll ever even remotely like it. Some people say they didn't like it but then they started to love it, I think it's a bunch of BS imo. They must be lying. But despite all of that, I'm convinced if I'm going to lose weight I will have to exercise. I have a membership to the best fitness facility in my county and surrounding counties, I need to start using it. Note to self: look online at the fitness center website for class schedules.
I have a 9 year old daughter I'll have to take with me so I'm limited to only using the pool when classes are not taking place. Sucks, but I'll have to deal with it until she gets back in school.

Now, there's the issue with the food. I'm lazy there too. I'd rather eat a big lunch and a regular dinner to keep from having to cook breakfast. I also would rather eat a easy convenience food rather than to cook a meal. I've been thinking about this. Most convenience foods have a lot of sodium. I think I might make myself some preprotioned meals and put them in the freezer so I can just pop them in the microwave. This might help my husband too because he takes his lunch everyday to work, sometimes I forget and it would be nice if he could just grab something from the freezer. I haven't lost as much weight as I think I should have and I think it is because of the high sodium meals and not exercising because I'm too lazy to cook & work out.

Next issue is drinking fluids. I don't think you have to drink 8 - 8oz glasses of only water per day. I think just as long as it is some kind of fluid its fine. Whether that fluid be, tea, herbal tea, crystal light or diet coke. The issue I have is I just don't drink enough. I'm lucky to get 48 oz on most days and its all because I'm too lazy to get up and get something to drink. I hate drinking too, I'd much rather eat of course! lol

Then lastly there is the issue with the messy house. I'm ashamed to have anyone over right now. My mother would have a cow! I have to admit that much of the reason my house is a mess is because I've been sick and I'm the only one that ever cleans around here, but it's also cause I'm lazy.

How am I going to break free from laziness? I don't know but I guess I'll just try hard to not be lazy right now and do that one day or one task at a time.
 

Tired of being sick

I have been sick since we returned from our vacation in Texas. That was July 5th. I had horrible headaches for the first week followed up by a slow forming cold. I'm still sick and 2 days ago I seemed to be getting worse. Now I have this dry cough. I spent most of the night coughing last night.
I just don't get it, I wake up with a raw sore throat that goes away after a couple of hours, my nose starts to run and then it clears up, I cough like mad and then nothing for hours. I feel pretty tired too, I haven't been able to exercise because of it. On the attempts that I have tried to exercise, I felt like crap afterward.
I'm beginning to wonder if I'm allergic to something, but I cant relate it to anything.

Meanwhile, my house is starting to look like a bunch of animals live here, my yard looks like a jungle and my garden plants look like they are suffocating from all the weeds in there.

The other issue I have is the constant headaches. I always have one and nothing I take, including the Fioricet my doctor prescribed works to relieve it. If it does relieve it, it comes back after the medicine wears off.

I'm just sick of it all!

I weighed in this morning at 260.5 lbs. This is more than what I weighed the day before yesterday but I'm trying not to let this affect me. Especially after the Scale post that I made. It's just a tool, it's just a tool, I keep repeating it to myself. lol I also have to remember that weight loss is not linear, and my weight will naturally fluctuate. And it's like I said before, just as long as it continues to go down and instead of up I will be happy with it.

The Scale!!!! (Cue the scary movie music)

Why are we so obsessed with the scale? It cant rule us as some say. It is just an inanimate object that is a tool we use to see how much we weigh. It's just a tool, the definition of a tool is, an implement used in the practice of a vocation. The vocation we use it for is a measurement of weight. There is nothing in that definition that says it gives it power over us. In fact if it weren't for us, it wouldn't even have a use.
I say we should take a stand and quit letting a measly old scale take power over us. I mean, I could understand if it were forcing you to step on it every morning but it is not. If you cant handle the truth it tells you then put it away.
I think if I am doing the right thing like I should be then my weight should go down. No scale needed.

Would You Like Some Coffee With Your Splenda?

This morning I was making my coffee and I made a decision to stop using so much Splenda, and maybe even quit using it to sweeten my coffee all together. I drink what I think is pretty good coffee, Starbucks house blend, I buy it and make it at home. The funny thing about myself & Starbucks is I've only been to Starbucks 2 times in my life and one of those times wasn't even to get coffee. I drink Starbucks at home because my husband wanted to drink something else besides Foldgers so the next time I bought coffee I bought Duncan Donuts & we didn't really think it was so wonderful. Then after the DD coffee was gone I went and bought some Starbucks and that's what we've been drinking ever since. You probably didn't care to hear about our coffee story but I told you anyway! lol

So anyway getting back to the Splenda. I make my 16 oz coffee with 2 Tbsp of Splenda and about 1/4 cup skim milk, that's right I said I use 2 Tablespoons of Splenda. And most of the time I drink 1 1/2 to 2 of those every morning, so that means I'm getting 3-4 T of Splenda and I haven't even had breakfast yet!
Even back when I drank my coffee with sugar I used a lot of sugar and got teased about it hence the, "Would you like any coffee with your sugar (& Splenda)?"

So this morning I dropped down to 1 1/2 Tbsp Splenda. I can tell a slight difference in the taste but after a few days I shouldn't notice anything. I plan on dropping the amount every 3-4 days or so until I can handle the taste of it with either very little Splenda or none at all.


Yesterday, my husband wanted to cook hamburgers on the grill. I love hamburgers but they really seem to like to to go strait to my butt. I just had a hamburger on Friday and I really didn't want to have another 2 days later but my hubby is sometimes hard to compromise with so I just gave in and decided to adjust my meals accordingly so I could eat this hamburger. Not only did he want to cook them but he wanted to cook 16 burgers. We only have 3 people in my family and 8 buns are in the pack, why we need 16 is beyond me. So I patted out 16 perfectly portioned 5 oz hamburgers and they barely fit on the grill, he had to squish a few to get them all to fit. I just laughed at him. Sometimes, all I can do is laugh. lol

I weighed in this morning at 259.5 lbs. I'm satisfied with that. I'm satisfied just as long as the scale is going down instead of up.

UGH! Computer issues!

So yesterday I couldn't post anything cause there is something wrong with our battery backup. We had had a storm that caused the power to out which knocked our computer power out. I'm not sure what was wrong with it but my husband fixed it this afternoon.

I had a hard time yesterday, I felt depressed. I kept wondering around the kitchen looking for something to eat only to talk myself out of it, which is a good thing.  I was mad that I couldn't get online to get my mind off of it. I went and worked in the garden some too get rid of the nervous energy I had but the humidity is so high out there that its hard to breathe so I only worked for about an hour.

I depend on the internet too much, I guess you could say I have sort of an addiction to it. lol I really enjoy being able to have unlimited information at my fingertips. I like the fact that I don't have to search cookbooks for a recipe, I can just go online and find what ever I need. I look at the weather online and I hate to see it on tv because our weather channel bites, they really don't give good enough news. It's like weather over a general region so you really don't know what is happening in your neighborhood. But online it's different of course. We don't have fancy smart phones with internet on them so I couldn't use my phone either.

Today, I've been feeling kind of depressed too. I really just want to be by myself. Isolating is never a good thing but I cant stand to watch another minute of my husbands video game that he is obsessed with and addicted to. It really drives me insane. And then when he's not playing the game he's watching sports or sports related junk.

Finding Out Old Things In The New Me

I was sitting here thinking about how I can become more successful in my weight loss. What have I done in the past that has made me fail and how can I prevent it from happening again?

There are a few people on various weight loss forums I frequently visit that have been very successful at losing weight and maintaining it who have a blog. Now, I know that blogging didn't cause them to lose weight but maybe blogging helped them to take an honest look at themselves on a daily basis. Being honest with myself is something necessary for me to do. When I'm not honest I will shove food in my mouth and pretend it didn't happen, no one else saw me do it right? But I don't want to be about that anymore.

In my past attempts at weight loss I tend to be able to "diet" for up to a month and then I start to backslide into not doing the "diet" thing at all. Once last year I "dieted" for 3 months and I lost like 25 lbs. That's more than I have ever lost at one time. I have quoted the word diet because of the negative image it receives, you know the old "I'm on a diet to lose a few lbs but once I get off my diet then I'm probably going to gain it all back". I tried to make myself believe what I was doing was not dieting but a lifestyle change, but really... I was dieting because once I stopped doing what I was doing, it wasn't long before I gained all the weight back.

What I need to do is something that I can live with on a daily basis. I cant live with counting calories or carbs or fat grams at every meal, every day. It's miserable to me. I cant tolerate eating like a bird. I need to eat real food that actually tastes good and has flavor. I need to find a way of eating that allows me freedom to live with out worrying about food all day. I have learned that when I keep up with every single calorie or (carb if that's the diet flavor of the month) I eat it is just as bad an obsession as if I were planning my next binge. I'm still obsessing about the food regardless.

As I sit here, I wonder if this new plan I have in mind will work. Is it possible to lose weight just eating healthier foods and make better decisions like choosing low calorie options instead of high calorie things and upping my exercise.  Like today, I had a cheeseburger and onion rings at this new restaurant in town with my hubby and little girl. Now I could have had the grilled chicken salad with the low cal dressing but I thought about it and I decided I wanted the burger. I consciously made a decision to eat the high calorie/high fat food that is essentially bad for me and I decided when I had supper tonight that I will eat something low cal like a big salad with some red wine vinegar & Italian herbs. Now that is not something I would do everyday. I like food obviously so I would normally want to have more bang for my buck but today I chose to eat the burger, and I'm completely satisfied with my decision.

I've been eating like this for the past week and it's worked so far. You know how they say if it ain't broke, don't fix it! I pray that I can continue. My ultimate goal is just to be free from food obsession.