Box of Chocolates

like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

on this date in history:

The Declaration of Independence was read for the first time in public, and the Liberty Bell was rung. (1776) The Liberty Bell, which was hung in June 1753, was rung only for special events and to bring together the the Pennsylvania Assembly. The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence is considered its most famous tolling. The Declaration was adopted on July 4, but returned from the printer on July 8. It was read by Colonel John Nixon in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

It was also read again that evening before the militia on the Commons. Throughout the city, bells were rung all day. On that day as well the Declaration was publicly read in Easton, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey. It was these first public readings which constituted America's first celebrations of the Fourth of July. Typically in towns and cities across the nation accompanying the oral declarations were loud shouts, huzzas, firings of muskets, and the tearing down of the British emblems.





Let Freedom Ring!

Scale-a-tics

This post was ready to go yesterday.  Then yesterday got in the way.  It was one of those days where everything I thought would happen didn't and everything I never imagined would happen did.   Things like scorpions and bare feet, painting estimates and unfulfilled expectations, mothering and 31 yo pregnant daughters who almost faint at work because of not eating dinner but had ice cream then fruit pizza for brekkie, painting "families"  with an infant, ice water, kiddie pools and angry red hornets.  Not too mention a broken air conditioner and a broken water heater.

Everything is rainbows and unicorns today so without further ado, here is yesterday's delayed post.

It's July so that must mean a visit to the scale goddess.  Last weigh in was June 1.  July 1 rolled around and I forgot!  WTH?  Well I did remember but it was later in the day and too late by that time.  Gotta follow the weigh in rules!  You know-nekkid, potty visit, first thing in the morning.  I like the monthly weigh in thing too much!  But I did remember to hop on the scale on July 2 and I saw a 4 pound loss.

Yea!  I know it's only 1 pound per week but it looks better seeing 4 pounds opposed to 1 pound.  I'll take it.

So why did I lose 4 pounds in 1 month on my own and 4 pounds in 5 months while attending WW?

Good question I asked and answered myself. 

WW is a good tool to use to lose weight.  I have lost weight using that.  I have lost 5 pounds in a week before.  Always the first week and always because I had previously been eating fat filled, fried and not so healthy food for months and years.  Of course I would lose weight when I changed my eating behaviour.  This is what WW wants you to do.  It's a good thing.

My eating behaviour has been in place now for at least 3 years.  No more daily indulgences that got me so fat.  I am usually good about the choices I make and the portions sizes.  Another point that WW makes that is a good one.

My exercise has also been in place for at least my adult life which is another WW point and another good one.

So what was different this time for me?

For me, WW has become food pushers.  There was free samples at meetings, the leader would talk about how she needed to have the WW shake every night before bedtime and the WW popcorn every afternoon and she lost a gozillion pounds and at every weigh in, I was surrounded by food.  WW has created their own version of everything, even gum. 

I am a marketers dream.  If I see/hear/read that some food is so super good then I MUST have it and NOW!  So of course I wanted everything I saw while I was weighing in and everything I saw at the store that said WW on it. 

Just because it says WW doesn't mean it's calorie free.  It still needs to fit in my daily plan or things go wrong.  This is where I was struggling.  I HAD to have some of that everyday because it was good for me, right? and the leader lost weight eating it, right?

I'm all for meal planning and I do that but something about all the WW food talk made me think about it and thinking about it made me want it and wanting it made me think about it and yadayadayada!

Something had to give.  I had to stop thinking about it and to stop thinking about it I had to quit looking at it and hearing about it.

Not to mention the added stress every week stepping on the scale and seeing ounces falling off!

It's a good program, it didn't work for me this time.

But I seem to be doing fine on my own, except for the little ice cream incident last week!

I'm hoping to see less of me in August!

How crazy are Jake and Vienna?

Box of Chocolates

like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

God bless the USA!

Have a fun and safe holiday weekend!

Once upon a very strange day....

Since we sold our lake house, our weekends have been leisurely.  Leisurely in that we don't have to work our a$$es off painting, building, cleaning, mowing, installing, wiring, demo-ing something and whatever else we had to do because we were renovating that house. 

We have started taking walks together on weekends to get a little exercise.  This is a bonus for me since I already get my sweat on Monday through Friday.  DH sits at a desk Monday through Friday and doesn't get a workout in until the weekend.  This can be a bad thing, something I have mentioned to him.  (I am no expert, but I have been a consistent exerciser for over 30 years now so I have picked up a few tips over the years.) 

My DH has always been a kinda guy who does everything full tilt.  He just doesn't know how to do anything just a little bit.  It's mach 10 every time.  He wants to go out for our 5K walks but he wants to do it after he has slept in, eaten brekkie, had coffee and read the paper.  Sometimes it is after 11 AM by the time he is ready to go.

I usually wait for him.  I always encourage him to get up and get out there early.  Especially now because it's summer and it's hotter than hades out there.  Dangerously hot.

This past weekend, I didn't wait for him.  On Saturday, I got out and did the 5K walk by myself, at 7 AM.  It was 75 degrees, 90% humidity, the sun had just risen.  On Sunday I waited a bit, but got out and did the 5K by myself at 9 AM.  It was 85 degrees, 75% humidity and the sun was blazing. 

On Saturday, he decided to go to the local elementary school about noon to shoot some baskets and do some pull-ups and a little running, about a mile.  Too hot to be outside doing anything.  There is no shade at the local elementary playground.  Saturday evening he said he was feeling really tired.

On Sunday, he decided to go for a bike ride.  He used to be a cyclist-used to be as in about 20 years ago.  I warned him that it was too hot out for that.  He pooh-poohed me and grabbed his helmet and bike and told me his route.  I told him to drink water (he didn't)  and take plenty of water (he took a Gatorade).This was about 11 AM.  It was 90 degrees, 70% humidity and the sun was blazing.

At about 11:30 AM, I got a phone call.  It was an officer from the local police department calling to tell me that he was with my DH and could I come get him and his bike, he was suffering from the heat and the fire department was on the way.

OMG!

The adrenaline kicked in.  Heat exhaustion is extremely dangerous.  Deadly, in fact, because it can become heat stroke.

When I got to where this was all happening, about 2 miles from home, my DH's bike was leaning on a fence in the shade, with the Gatorade unopened in the carrier thingy on the bike, there was a police car, a fire truck and an ambulance but no sight of my DH.  I went to the police car and the officer told me my DH was in the ambulance being attended to.  The officer said he was driving by and noticed him sitting in the shade and he looked very pale and was vomiting so the officer turned around to check on him.

Thank God for that.

Had he not stopped to help my DH, I'm sure my DH would have attempted to ride the rest of the way home and things could have been so much worse.

After the paramedic got my DH feeling better and released him, the paramedic helped me load the bike in my car.  My DH gets in the car and the first thing he says to me is "sorry".

Sorry?  Seriously?  For what? 

For being stubborn and hard headed?

Then when we get home, he wants to unload the bike and hang it back up in the garage.

Why?

I made, no I forced him to go in the air-conditioned house and take a shower.  I was more than capable of getting the bike out of the car and hanging it up in the garage myself.

I made him some food, I made sure he had water, when he didn't have water, I asked if he needed some more.  When he said he'd had plenty, I gave him more anyway.

He spent the rest of the day on the couch.  In the evening, he had a headache and said his head felt hot.

As if this day wasn't already FUBAR, as we were watching the TV in our den, a bird flew smack into the window.  A Mourning Dove, which is about the size of a pigeon.  Scared the rest of the cr*p outta me.

Please pay attention to the heat index before attempting anything outdoors. 

Please drink plenty of water.

And please pass this on to my DH and anyone else who thinks they are invincible!

Almost weigh-day!

It is T minus 2 days to weigh-day.  This once a month weigh-day feels better.  I am feeling none of the manic-dreading-loathing-general craziness that I felt when I was weighing in weekly.  There is actually some anticipation.  I know my clothes are fitting better. So, we shall see.

After my calf strain last week and Helen's good advice to take a rolling pin to it as opposed to taking a rolling pin to my DH,  I started back working out, on Saturday.  On weekends we do what we like to call a "death walk".  Actually, that's what my DH named our 5k walks.  He says I always start fast and stay fast the whole way.  Interesting since I was never able to keep up with his pace in the past!  Anyway,  the calf still had a teeny little tightness when I started out on Saturday, and I was afraid I would have to cut my walk short, but as I got going the tightness went away and I was able to finish.  I went out again on Sunday.  No pain.  Monday I resumed my walk/running. 

Yea!  I'm back in the saddle!

This morning's excursion was a walk.  Starting out at 5:30 I noticed a few bats out snagging the last of their nightly feasts.  They are creepy in the way they fly.  It's just so random, you never know which way they're going.  It's like drunk flying!  I suppose they may be a little inebriated as it is the end of their "workday"!  As long as they stay well above me, I'm good.  The morning sky was so beautiful as the sun was rising.  Another perk to being out there so early.

A couple of  reasons why I like to go outside and walk/run so early are 1)so I can get my workout/shower/brekkie done before my DGD comes for the day,  and B)because the temperature is bare-able, as in no dangerous heat index, even at 5:30 AM these summer days, the temperature is 75.

The temperature may be bare-able but the humidity is high and I am a sweat hog so by the time I get home my t-shirt weighs 10 pounds!  (talk about smelly laundry!  P-U!)  The sweaty, heavy t-shirt and smelly laundry don't bother me, what bothers me is when the sweat rolls down between my fingers.  Not between my fingers at the end of my fingers but between my fingers at my palm.   It collects on the top of my hand then runs down between my fingers.  EW!  I hate that!  I'm going to invent a thing you can wear between your fingers (like those things you put between your toes for a pedicure) that will absorb that sweat! 

My food choices and portion sizes were good this past week for the most part.  The exception was an over-indulgence of the demonic Happy Tracks. If you live in Texas, you know Blue Bell ice cream.  Happy Tracks is their newest lure to the dark-side.  It worked on me.  But after I woke up from my ice cream stupor and the pint container was mysteriously in the garbage and I had fudgy chocolate on my chin, peanut butter cups breath and a tummy ache, I chalked it up to another lesson learned, the hard way yet again! 

I was not a good tracker.  I haven't been in the mood to cook much so I have made simple meals with mostly fresh veggies.  Lots of grilling, lots of fish, lots of yogurt and lots of oatmeal.  The protein experiment is now a part of my daily food plan.  It is working well for me.  No ravenous hunger between meals or as I am preparing a meal.  Yea for that.   It is helpful to track my food.  Just to be sure I'm getting enough calories and enough of the other nutrients that I track.  I need to improve in this area.

Are you a sweat hog?  Or do you just glisten?

Box of Chocolates

like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"



"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."


George Bernard Shaw

The best salsa

Remember the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and George are opining over how salsa has over taken ketchup as the #1 condiment, and George asks why and Jerry says "because people like to say sal-sa!"

People like to do more than just say "sal-sa".  The grocery stores here have almost an entire aisle devoted to salsa.  It is at least equal to the ketchup aisle.  But, seriously, how many different ways can ketchup be made?

There's red salsa, green salsa, mom's salsa, hot salsa, mild salsa, chunky salsa.  Pace alone has about a dozen different varieties.

But there is no green chile salsa.  My version of green chile salsa is not on the shelf.  You can only get it here and I'm gonna give it to you! 

Warning: this is the best salsa you will ever eat.  you will not be able to eat any of the store bought salsas again.

My version involves roasted New Mexico green chile. Remember when I was a crazy women last summer and you all went WTF?  This salsa is part of the reason.

The Best Salsa

2 - 14 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes with juice
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 heaping tablespoon sugar
1 heaping tablespoon salt
1 heaping tablespoon cumin
1/2 lime, juiced
10 whole green chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded, deveined and chopped

Put all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it is the consistency you prefer.  Usually about 10 pulses.

makes about 1 quart

Fire roasted tomatoes give this salsa a subtle smokiness.

Anaheim chile can be used in place of New Mexico green chile.  Prepare them the same way.  The Anaheim chile will be milder than the New Mexico chile.  If you want to raise the heat add some jalapeno or other hot chile.

You're gonna need the scoops for this one! 

Or maybe just pour it in a glass and add a shot of vodka for a salsa-tini!

Or a shot of tequila for a salsa-rita!

I'll take mine straight up, please! 

It's time to cheer USA to victory!  Gotta grab my vuvuzela and rolling pin!(thanks Helen!)

Have a salsa-rific day!