I got an award!

Yesterday I received my very first blogger award! My new blogger friend Kelly awarded me with this! How cool is that?! Kelly has a great blog that I love reading. You should check her out at "Happy Texans."



So, the idea of this award is to tell seven things that you love and then pass the award along to seven other bloggers. I'm not sure if I know seven other bloggers but I'm sure gonna give it a go!

Seven things I love..

1. I love the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. I love my Husband.
3. I love my sons, Chris, Courtney and Colin.
4. I am madly, crazy, head over heels in love with my beautiful granddaughter,
Autumn.
5. I love my early morning quiet time.
6. I love walking to work.
7. I love living in Southern California near my family.

Ok, now for seven other bloggers.

1. My dear friend AmyB at "Our daily blessing...life"

2. My new friend Marisa at "Trim the Fat"

3. Of course my friend Grace at "Doing the math...counting my blessings."

Ok...so I don't know seven other bloggers well enough to pass this award along to them...so there you go!

On to my menu from yesterday...

Breakfast was an apple, some fat free plain yogurt, Fiber One, tons of cinnamon and a little stevia. Of course I had my 2 cups of coffee with sugar free hazelnut creamer for a total of 3 points.




Lunch was an open face tuna salad sandwich, with fat free cheese, toasted in the toaster oven. (as you can see, our toaster oven at work doesn't work very well!) I had a serving of Pringles Light Chips along with it for a total of 6 points.




Dinner was a green salad sprayed with asian salad spritzer, tilapia filets "grilled" in a skillet with non stick cooking spray, baked potato wedges, some carmelized onion, and a sauce I made with fat free mayo, mustard, ketchup, horseradish, and pickles. It was sort of a cross between tarter sauce and thousand island...it was good. I'll be making it again. I am finding that I really like the Smart balance fat free mayo as a base for sauces and dressings. I had a bowl of fat free chocolate/butterscotch pudding with dinner. This was a great meal for 9.5 points.





Lastly...this almost didn't get photographed. It flet like "cheating"...a sort of guilty pleasure. But, I realized that if I am going to learn to change my eating habits for LIFE...then I have to incorporate these times into the plan. It's not even realistic to think that I am never again going to stand in the kitchen and eat saltine crackers with peanut butter and margarine! So...this is my late night "cheat" that turned out to not be a cheat at all....just a choice to use a few of my weekly points allowance! Note...the margarine is Smart balance light. The peanut butter is Skippy Super Chunk...soon to be replaced with my PB2 which is enroute and scheduled to be delivered tomorrow! This decadent treat was 9.5 points and worth every single one! I used up 5 of my 35 weekly points with this.




Daily points used 28
Target 23
weekly points used 5
weekly points remaining 30

Mondays, Cats, Pizza, and weigh in.....

It's Monday again! I am so happy to be feeling good this morning! Feeling good is one of those things I tend to take for granted...until I feel bad! So this morning I am especially grateful for my health.


Last night I was playing around, taking pictures of my cats. The first two are of Cloe. Cloe is a sweetheart of a cat. She is sweet and shy and snuggly and has captured our hearts in a special way.






The secend set of photos is of Agnes. Agnes and Cloe are as different as two cats can possibly be! Agnes is mischevious, curious, and too smart for her own good. She needs to be right in the center of whatever we happen to be trying to do. She hates closed doors and loves to open drawers, doors, and cabinets to see what might be inside. She definitely keeps us laughing at her antics!






OK...so on to yesterday's menu. I have absolutely no idea of my points yesterday, but here's what I ate. We rushed out the door early for church with coffee in hand, skipping breakfast.

After church we went down to Seaport Village to our favorite little hole-in-the-wall pizza place. We normally get the Chicago style pizza but this time we opted to try the New York style. We decided we like the Chicago better. Anyway, I had two and a half slices. I threw away the biggest part of the crust and just ate the part with the toppings on it. I had a diet coke with it. It always cracks me up to drink a diet coke along with a million calories worth of fat and carbs!






Later on in the evening I had some popcorn which I sprayed with cannola oil spray and sprinkled with a mixture of seasalt and stevia, giving it a flavor similar to kettle corn. I also had a bowl of sugar free, fat free pudding. That was it for the day. Pizza and a snack....not the most health concious day but I'm good with it.



Finally...my weigh in. I am down exactly a pound from last week. Considering my pizza party and not feeling well or walking last week...I'm pretty satisfied with a pound down. If I lose a pound every week, in a year I will be 52 pounds thinner! Yeah!!!

Springtime Saturday continued....

Here are a few more signs of Spring from my parents' back yard. I love Spring!!!















I had to laugh at my sweet little Autumn...all decked out in her girly girl, pink Padres jersey, pink bow in her hair, beaded "Lelli Kelly" shoes...and carrying an old dried out snail around the yard like it was the best treasure in the world! Oh my goodness, I love this child!




Ok..here's yesterday's menu.

I started my day with an apple, yogurt with lots of cinnamon and sweetened with stevia, and a half a cup of Fiber One. I also took a plethora of stuff to kick this bladder infection. I'm taking 2 antibiotics and some garlic and alfalfa. It finally seems to be doing the trick! Along with my morning coffee with sugar free hazelnut creamer, my morning was 4 points



I was hanging out at my parents' for a few hours and snacked on a serving of some kind of pretzel crackers. 2 points



Lunch was late in the afternoon and was really almost dinner. I had a bowl of Progresso Light Italian vegetable soup and a cheese (fat free) sandwich. My sandwich was made with Sarah Lee light bread, two slices of fat free cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard and Smart Balance fat free mayo. I also had a diet 7-up. This is a large, satisfying meal for 4 points.



Later in the evening I had a big bowl of Puffed kamut with sliced strawberries, blueberries and sliced banana, topped with fat free milk. The fruit in this bowl was frozen so everything was sort of slushy and frozen. it was an interesting texture for cereal. 7 points



I also had a serving of light pringles chips and Fiber One bar at different times during the day.





Total points for the day 20
Target points 23
Points remaining 3

Spring is here...

I'll be back later to log my menu and post a real post. But for this morning I just wanted to add these....

These two photos of this tree in my parents' back yard were taken 2 weeks apart. I love how they show that spring has arrived in Southern California!

Wow...it's my 100th post!

I can't believe it's my 100th post already! Whoo!!! Hooo!!! Let the party begin!

This week has been tough. I haven't felt well and I've been out of sorts and crabby. It's taken a lot of energy for me to avoid being a complete shrew to the people around me. I've been thinking about that a lot over the past 24 hours. Especially since I'm doing the study on. "Calm My Anxious Heart," which is a study on learning to be content in EVERY situation.

I have a 3 by 5 card on my desk that has the passage of scripture I am aspiring to live out
.....


I have to confess, I have NOT been a living example of that passage this past week. Oh, I've tried to be nice enough to those around me...but secretly in my heart, I have felt justified in being crabby and feeling irritated with everyone around me. Notice that it says, "I have learned the secret of being content in EVERY situation." I was sitting in the pharmacy at Kaiser last night after work and I was outwardly being nice enough to the clerks. But inside I was seething. My prescription had been called in the day before and no one had bothered to call me back. The prescription wasn't ready although it had been called in 24 hours earlier. It was supposed to be a 20 minute wait and it was over an hour because someone had forgotten to push the button to put my name on the screen that tells you your prescription is ready for you to go in stand in another long line to pick it up. When I finally got to the clerk to find out why it was not ready yet, it was ready....but it was wrong and had to be re-done. Oh yes...I felt completely justified in being pretty angry about it all!

And then I had a mental image of that card, with the passage of scripture on it just pop into my brain. All at once I realized that I was acting like a spoiled child. Rather than being grateful that I have access to medical care for any minor ailment I might have, I was seething at the inefficiency of the system. Rather than believing that God is the "blessed controller of every circumstance" and accepting that He was giving me opprtunity to walk out what I have been trying to learn...I was just angry. It brought me up short, let me tell you!

I began to think again about all the blogs I read about people who have devastating things to deal with. I was reminded of this one in particular. Abby is a four year old child who is dealing with a life threatening cancer and she has a better attitude about it all than I have about a simple bladder infection.

Then there's my sweet friend Amy's blog. Amy has so much on her plate to deal with and yet she manages to keep a good attitude.

I could go on and on about the people I know only through their blogs who have devastating circumstances to deal with and yet they keep a good attitude.

So, let me just say, I have had an attitude adjustment. Today is a new day. I still don't feel well. My body is still not responding to the antibiotics as quickly as I would like. I am secretly worried that there might be some other issue going on that's making this bladder infection so much worse than I have had before. But, I am determined to be content in this situation. Today is a new day and it is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.


So...Here's what I ate yesterday.
Breakfast was an apple, some yogurt and some Fiber One cereal. My coffee with sugar free hazelnut creamer earlier in the morning rounded this out at 3 points.



Lunch was a wrap made with a Flat Out wrap, some tuna salad, fat free cheese slices and shredded lettuce. I had sliced tomato and cantaloupe on the side. 7 points



Dinner was delayed by my long visit to the pharmacy so i kept it simple. I had some Hormel Vegetarian Chili over shredded lettuce and a quesadilla made with fat free cheese and a LaTortilla Factory Low Fat Low Carb tortilla. These tortillas are really, really good. 7.5 points.



I had a snack of yogurt, a sliced banana and some puffed kamut. 4.5 points.

Catching up for Wednesday and Thursday

Oh my goodness...I overslept this morning and then my Mom called to chat and then I had to get myself out the door and to work on time....so it it almost 8:00pm and I am finally finding the time to post yesterday's menu! I guess I might as well just post today's while I'm at it too!

The antibiotic I am taking is making me feel like something the cat dragged in. I've been headachey and irritable all day. Then I looked at some of the blogs about children who are having chemo and not being as much of a big baby as I feel like being and it makes me just shutup and be grateful that I am relatively healthy.

So...yesterday for breakfast I had some yogurt with Fiber One cereal and blueberries in it. With my 2 cups of coffee and sugar free hazelnut creamer, my morning was
4 points.



Lunch was a sandwich made from the last of the shaved turkey, a couple of huge slices of tomato, some lettuce, reduced fat mayo and mustard, all on light bread. I had a serving of Light Pringles Chips with my sandwich. 4.5 points



Dinner was a grilled chicken breast, a half a cup of brown rice, and some steamed asparagus with smart balance light buttery spread on it. I really liked this meal. It was simple, took only a few minutes to prepare and was delicious. 8 points



This is the rice I had with my dinner. I found this at Costco. Each bowl has 2 servings of brown rice and is fully cooked and ready to heat in the microwave. I am just thrilled with this stuff! Brown rice takes so long to cook and it's hard to cook small portions so this is perfect for me.



My late night snack was my usual bowl of cereal and banana. One cup of puffed kamut, one half cup of Fiber One, a banana and a cup of skim milk. 5 points

You can't really see it in the photo but the banana in this cereal is frozen. I peel and freeze my bananas when they get ripe and then use them in cereal or smoothies. They are still easy to slice when they are frozen and still taste great. I wasn't sure at first about using them in anything other than smoothies after they were frozen. But they work great in my cereal. In fact, I've come to prefer them frozen over fresh!




That brings us to today...

This morning I was feeling pretty crummy and I just needed to eat something so I could take my antibiotic. I had some yogurt, cinnamon and Fiber One, mixed together. Two cups of coffee with sugar free hazelnut creamer over the course of the morning. 3 points.



By lunch time I was feeling a lot better. I was hungry, in spite of the fact that I had a headache and was feeling dizzy. Not much kills my appetite. I had a veggie burger with cheese, tomato, lettuce, and mustard on light bread. I had Light Pringles chips and an apple along with it. This was really quite a good 6 point lunch!



Tonight I was home alone. Vern's at worship team practice at church. So dinner was Fiber one pancakes, scrambled eggwhites and 2 veggie breakfast patties. I am, by no means a vegetarian but have been trying some of the veggies things recommended by Hungry Girl. All I can say is she sure knows what she's talking about!

I used Walden Farms calorie free pancake syrup and Smart Balance light spread on the pancakes. This was my first attempt at using the Fiber One Pancake mix so you'll see that my pancakes are not exactly round! The batter is really thin and hard to work with. I think with practice I'll be able to make a decent pancake with it. The pancakes are a tad rubbery compared to say, Bisquick pancakes. But the flavor is nice and I will definitely have them again. Dinner was 8 points.



My snack today was a Fiber One "Oats & Chocolate" Bar...mainly because I found boxes of them at the 99 cents store on my way home and I wanted to try them. Pretty tasty! 2 points

Today I am feeling much better than yesterday. I've been on the antibiotic for almost 24 hours so the pain and burning is subsiding. When I called my health care provider they said I had to be seen rather than them just calling in a prescription. Normally they just call it in....but I was fine with having to go in because this one hurt more than usual. So I made the appointment. The call screen gal announced Dr. So & So can see you at 11:15 this morning. My response was, "Who is Dr. So & So?" The answer, "She's your primary care physician." Ummmm, no...she's not. Dr. What's His Name is my primary. "Oh yeah, well his load was kind of heavy so we switched you." Ok...this is not really a huge deal but I LIKED Dr What's His Name. He's been my primary for a long time. I am comfortable with Dr What's His Name. So anyway...now Dr So & So is my priamry. She's very sweet and appears to be all of 25 years old. {{Sigh}} Oh well.

So anyway, I take off work and go to the doctor. It was, all in all, not a terribly unpleasant experience, which is a surprise in itself, because I have Kaiser....and they can be such a frustrating HMO! I'm getting to the point of all of this...really, I am!

So I see the doctor and she very sweetly tells me that it appears I have a bladder infection. I smile and say ok...inside I am thinking "Duh!!!" So she types in my prescription on the computer in the exam room and shoots it off to the pharmacy. I love technology! Then she proceeds to tell me that I need to have a mamogram, a colonoscopy, a slew of different blood tests and a stool study. I raise an eybrow at her. I am here for a simple bladder infection! But I assure her that if it makes her feel better to order all that stuff she can go ahead and order away! She stops and says, "You're not going to have any of this done are you?" I assure her that I am not but I understand her need to order it all. So she ordered a bunch of tests that I have no intention of getting done. We exchange pleasantries and "nice to meet yous" and off I go to the pharmacy.

So, I am sitting in the pharmacy, waitng for my prescription to be filled. Apparently this zippy fast technology is not intended to save the PATIENT any time...only the health care provider. I still have to go and get in the long line at the pharmacy to check in so that they can fill the prescription that was zipped over to them via cyberspace 15 minutes ago. So, I am waiting the obilgatory 20 minutes for the prescription. I wonder to myself why it's always 20 minutes. No matter how many people are in the phamacy it's a 20 minute wait. There can be standing room only in the waiting room and it's 20 minutes. Or, there can be not another soul around and it's still 20 minutes. I wonder about things like that. So anyway, I'm sitting there waiting and I look at my discharge summary. It's something to read and fiddle with while I wait. And I notice my discharge diagnosis. Along with cystitis (bladder infection) and the need to screen for their favorite cancers...my diagnosis includes obesity. Now don't get me wrong...I am well aware of the fact that I am obese. Or maybe I'm not and that's why it bugged me that it was included in my diagnosis. But, I was there for a bladder infection. I wasn't there for a physical or a cancer screening or any of the other bloodwork they are itching to do....and I certainly wasn't there to talk about my weight. I get it...I really do...but my weight has absolutely nothing to do with me having a bladder infection. I know what caused this particular infection and, trust me...obesity had nothing to do with it! Just ask my darling husband....obesity was not the cause of this particular malady!

OK...rant over .....have I mentioned that I hate going to the doctor? LOL I'm not going back there anytime oon...that's for sure.

The upside to it is that I left there with a new determination to NOT have that word appear on my paperwork ever again!!!



Now, on to my menu for yesterday...

Breakfast was 2 cups of coffee with sugar free hazelnut creamer...and a huge glass of water.

Lunch was a turkey sandwich, carrots and Pringles Light chips. 4.5 points



Dinner was a quick, on the go thing because I had to leave for bible study. So I had a bowl of Progresso Light Italian Soup, to which I added three ounces of chicken breast meat and a cup or so of shredded lettuce. I had steamed asparagus on the side. A very satisfying dinner! 4 points






I had a snack of yogurt, fiber one, and puffed kamut. 3 points



I didn't get a photo of this but I also had a light english muffin with peanut butter and smart balance light buttery spread. This was a whopping 8.5 points and I really thought I was splurging or "cheating." So imagine my surprise when I totaled up my points for the day and was right on track at 21 points! I even was under my target by 2 points!