Psssst.....

That's right...I said..."Psssst"......(in my best whisper voice)

We've got a few projects going on over here, I think you're going to like them.  But guess what... you've got to wait a few more days!

Weight in tomorrow....and it's probably not going to go so well.  Just sayin'.

7 weeks down, 19 weeks to go

Today is day 50 of 183.  Sounds good right?  I'm trying to think of this as a positive, rather than to think of it as..."Oh gee I have 133 days left."  But, the good news is I have 133 days left.  (Have I confused you yet?)  This morning I went for my week 7 weigh in and was rather pleased that I shed 4.7 pounds. To date, I have lost a total of 24 pounds. I do have a little goal I keep in mind that I would like to hit before the study is over.

After weighing in I picked up my menu for the week and my two cooler bags. Here's a little view at what I'll be eating this week.

Friday

Breakfast: 1 whole egg, 2 egg whites, 2 slices bread, 1 can peaches, 3 Canadian Bacon

Morning Snack: Dark Chocolate Zone Bar

Lunch: Bean and Cheese Burrito. 1 cup vegetables

Afternoon Snack: Dark Chocolate Zone Bar (2 on this particular day because they're my favorite)

Dinner: Spinach and cheese pizza, 1 cup vegetables

Evening Snack: Slimfast high protein shake

Saturday

Breakfast: 2 Yogurts, 30 almonds

Morning Snack: Fudge Graham Zone Bar

Lunch: 7 Boca Chicken nuggets, 1 cup vegetables

Afternoon Shack: Dark Chocolate Zone Bar

Dinner: Mahi-Mahi Burger, 1 whole wheat bun, 1 cup vegetables

Evening Snack: Slimfast high protein shake, Zone bar

Sunday

Breakfast: 3/4 cup Special K protein cereal, 1 cup 2% milk, 1 can peaches, 15 almonds

Morning Snack: Peanut Butter Zone Bar

Lunch: Cheese and vegetable enchilada, 1 cup vegetables

Afternoon Snack: Dark Chocolate Zone bar

Dinner: Bean and cheese burrito, 1 cup vegetables

Evening Snack: Slimfast high protein shake, Zone Bar

If you are curious to see what these foods look like please refer to this post.

As you're reading this list, you're probably thinking "gee whiz, this is a lot of food" to consume in one day.  My answer is, "yes it is" a lot of food to eat in one day. The nutritionist determined how many calories I should consume based on my resting metabolic rate (so how many calories my body can burn if I were to sit/sleep 24 hours a day).  Some days I can eat it all, some days I can't.  The Zone bars are sometimes what puts me over the edge for the day, those puppies are fillll-iiinng!

This really doesn't look so bad does it?   And remember, all of the foods on this list are available at grocery stores in Memphis.  Nothing shipped, nothing phony.  The Zone Bars are available at Target in the nutrition section near the Pharmacy.  If you're interested in injecting a healthy dose of protein into your daily diet, I'd highly suggest starting with these.  They come in about 6 flavors and they're way better than the vast majority of snack bar options.  Had I not been involved in the study, I probably would have never thought of them as an option to consume.  Bonus!


Week 8...here I come!

I already loved her...

Over the past 2 1/2 years my feet have grown accustomed to wearing shoes from a particular designer.  I've always heard that "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" and these shoes just happen to fit my feet really well.  So today I was visiting this designer's blog and saw this ever blessed trike.  Naturally, I love most all of her things and I especially got a chuckle out of this one.  As it would happen, they aren't readily available so this picture will just have to suffice.
Couldn't you just see Handsome and I riding around on this get up? I tell ya' what...it might draw more attention than the dogs on the buggies down by The Peabody.  As I attempted to show Handsome, he just yawned and put his head back down.  I don't thin he's the tricycle type after all. Bummer.

End of Week 6

Today was the end of week 6.  Thanks be to God, 6 weeks down, 20 (gulp) to go! Despite all my worry wart efforts, or lack there of, I still managed to lose 2.2 pounds this week.  

In 6 weeks time, this has helped me reach the (almost) 20 pound mark.  WOO-HOO. 

I hope the next 6 weeks bring be some success, and the next 6 after that, and the next 6 after that. 

A friend of mine posted some photos on Facebook this week of her favorite wines.  Oh goodness, they looked FABULOUS.  I'd say that is the one thing about being in this process that has been difficult, letting go!  There are a few things I genuinely miss....wine and popcorn. Everything else, I've pretty much learned to do without.  It is really surprising to me how much my habits have changed even over the span of 6 weeks.  

In the months and years before, I've tried various other "diet programs" to help me maintain my weight or help me to lose weight.  I've done, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig (which turned out to be way to expensive) and the super nasty Nutrisystem. All of the programs work, it is just a matter of how long can you stay on them.  I think that's the trouble with a so called "diet program".  You only can do it for so long.  All this being said, of the programs I mentioned, Weight Watchers is the only one that seems to be realistic towards the needs of human social life.  

With Weight Watchers you can eat what you want to without feeling bad about it.  If you choose to go to McDonald's and eat a Big Mac, that's fine....you may run yourself out of points for the day but you've picked your poison. If you want to eat 17 cups of veggies, so be it.  If you want to, oh say for example, have WINE and POPCORN, go for it.  There are lots of options, and you quickly learn how to get the biggest bang for your buck.  

Jenny Craig has fabulous foods, the only problem was that it was really expensive. On an average week the cost would be $125.  I'm fine with spending that much per week on food, it just needs to feed than 1 person.  

Now as for the Nutrisystem, which is currently flooding the market with commercials, their food is awful.  A person could potentially stand to eat if for 1 month. I don't actually know of any person who has consumed their product for longer.  I myself made it a month barely, but only because I was desperate to lose weight.  Barely, could I eat it. I actually think I lost weight because I didn't eat the food and was afraid to eat anything else in it's place because I had spent a gob of money to buy the kit.  I think you get my point on the Nutrisystem. 

Several times a week I wonder how I'll do once this medical study is over.  The whole point of this study is to track the effects of how a proper diet changes your body (all things relating to diabetes).  Me losing weight is just a bonus because I'm actually eating a proper diet as prescribed by a doctor and a nutritionist. It is kind of amazing how much I'm learning in this process too, which leaves me with the question..."Why in the world aren't kids learning more about their nutritional needs in school?" Seriously, it is called a REQUIRED CLASS, everybody needs to take it, just like drivers ed. 

Halloween

There's some Halloween spirit roaming around our house....here's a little view of what's up. 

I don't know who I like more, the whimsical pile
of pumpkins or the giant pear!

This chair has traveled with us to several houses.
Once upon a time (aka 5 years ago at Halloween)
this was the chair that Handsome
would sit on while waiting for us to come home.

Handsome asked if he could sit on the front
 porch as the Halloween cat like he used to...
 My answer was no.

A little green pumpkin bling on the inside.

This came in several colors...I wanted black but decided that
it looked a little like Darth Vader and that is not what I was going for.

The Anniversary Day

October 1, 2010 was an awesome day.  Geoffrey and I spent the entire day together, which for us is quite rare even on a Saturday.  We started the day off with a little road trip down to Tunica, MS.  Right now you're probably thinking, "Hmmmm Tunica...didn't I hear a quote about Tunica in an Oceans movie?"  The answer would be "yes".  I believe the quote was something like this..."Tunica, where games go to die. "  Our trip to Tunica wasn't for gaming...it was for fooding. A few weeks ago we saw a segment on the Food Network about this delightful little whole in the wall called The Hollywood Cafe. 

With no real plans in mind and never having been to Tunica, we decided that this might be a fun little venture.  So we made plans to hit the road on our anniversary to have lunch at Hollywood Cafe. 

In one of my previous posts, I was questioning how my diet would affect the day.  I decided that with clever choices, that I would celebrate this anniversary just like I would celebrate any other milestone in life....GOOD FOOD and DRINK!  Fortunately, because I've been on this diet for approximately a month my ability to eat has drastically changed.  At lunch, I had only a few bites before I was full!  I couldn't believe it...seriously...FULL. Which was helpful since I was eating fried green tomatoes.  YUM.

In addition to the tomatoes, we had a glass of wine.  WOW, was it ever good.  

5th Anniversary glass of wine

 After lunch, we went for a little stroll through a couple of casinos.  It was wildly amusing.  We played a few slots, won some money (about $5) which we promptly lost.  No harm no foul, they were just penny slots.  The walk about did me good after feeling the guilt set in from eating lunch.

Hollywood Cafe in Tunica, MS where we had lunch

Inside Hollywood Cafe, cute as a button

The original Hollywood Cafe sign 

My 5th Anniversary foot photo-outside Hollywood 

I sneaked a photo

completely goofy, full...and goofy

 After spending a few hours in Tunica, we drove back home to Memphis.  Our kitty, Handsome was there to greet us at the door with a big "MEOOOW"...as if to say, "where have you been, I've been sick with worry"....he frets so.  He's kind of a little worry wart.

After some consideration, we decided to walk for our dinner.  The little evening stroll was good for the mind, and for the hinny.  Round trip, it is a little over a mile to and from our house from the restaurant.  Albeit a short distance, the walking did me good.

While walking to Cafe 1912

After dinner before walking home

Our dinner at Cafe 1912 was delectable.  We shared an order of mussels and split a steak.  I was absolutely stuffed to the gills as we left the restaurant and made our way towards home reminiscing about how we spent the day together, on our 5th wedding anniversary.

Week 5 Weigh in

Today I went for my week 5 weigh in.  I went a day early this week because tomorrow (Friday October 1) I will be otherwise occupied.  Friday morning at 10:30 is my normal weigh in time/day.
I am always excited about weigh in day because I get to turn in my completed menu from the past 7 days, get a new one and get 2 new cooler bags of food.

For the most part my menu stays the same from week to week, but will change a little bit in that I'll rotate the foods I have more than once in a week.  When I started my favorite entree meal to have was eggplant Parmesan.  By now...I hate it.  Absolutely hate it.  I've moved on to "enjoying" the burritos, the Bocca nuggets and the enchiladas. If I had to guesstimate how many almonds I ate last week, I would say around 150.  That's a lots o almonds boys and girls.  BUT, like with any trade that can be good.  At least I'm not eating 35 eggs this week.  (smile)


As I mentioned in my previous post, tomorrow is our 5th anniversary.  And with celebrating comes food. (Please note I have a furrowed brow as I write this part.)  I will have to be particularly careful tomorrow as I made only good choices.

What would you do if you were me?  Enjoy your anniversary, have a nice meal (making good decisions, I'm not talking about eating a 20 oz steak here) and some wine.....OR.....stick completely to my nutritionist approved menu?  I think either way, I'm going to have a little side of gilt for dessert.

5th Wedding Anniversary

October 1, 2010 is our 5th wedding anniversary!  It is hard to believe that we have reached this little milestone in our relationship.  One of the things that adds to my love of the crisp fall temperatures is that it reminds me of our wedding.  In Kansas the season is a good bit ahead of Memphis, none the less I embrace this time of year whole heartedly. 

Tomorrow we will spend the day together, possibly with a little road trip and end the day at our favorite Memphis eatery, Cafe 1912 and we will pretend that we were eating dinner at our absolute favorite restaurant (Balthazar, NYC).  

Here are a few photos from "the big day".  I got my dress out today and looked at it.  Isn't is amazing how we only get to spend a few hours wearing the dress of our dreams?  

I loved my dress.  The dress I wore on our wedding day was actually not the first dress I purchased.  Before Geoffrey and I got married we discussed getting married at the University Chapel at The University of Kansas, where we were students.  My first dress was purchased with a much smaller scale isle in mind.  The dress was fitted to my knees and then belled out.  Sort of "mermaid-ish" if you will. It was beaded on the top, so pretty....I loved it too.  When we figured out that we were in fact going to get married at the Cathedral, I figured out that my sweet little dress just wasn't going to do the job. 

Back to the salon to start the search over again.  This search was actually much easier.  There aren't that many options (or not then) that had a Cathedral length train on them.  Think Princess Diana length here....Well I didn't end up with quite as much train as Princess Diana but I did end up with 17' of glorious weight.  

Daddy and I going down the isle

after attaching my veil 

my maid of honor, Natalie, sporting a little Canadian bling

At the "peace" during the service.
In The Episcopal Church, you don't kiss the bride until the peace. 

This may be my favorite wedding photo.

outside some of the doors at the Cathedral
the photographers wife is hiding behind us holding my
veil and the mid section of my dress train

cutting the cake at the 1st reception

A little "sit down" after a morning of photos before the 2:30 service. 

At the 2nd reception with the Canadians.
Yes the Canadians (and me) were singing "O, Canada"

As per usual, I think everybody thinks their wedding was "the best"....and as it should be, I will join those ranks with my very own fond memories of our big day.

Thanks be to God for 5 years of wedded bliss and prayers for many more.

Wall Street 2

Wall Street: 2

Did you know that this movie made over $19 Million this weekend? Yeah, that's kind of amazing.  Not nearly as much money as they were waging over in the movie, but none the less not to shabby for the box office.

The Canadian and I have been making plans for weeks to go see this movie.  In the final stages of preparation this week we checked out what theaters the movie would be playing at in the Memphis area. We have two "go to" theaters, The Paradiso and Studio on the Square.  As it would happen, it was playing at neither.  (Why, can you tell me?)  My handy IPhone App told me that it was playing at 3 theaters in town.  Long story short, we went to ALL 3 of them!  Seriously.  The first theater we went to, in Memphis off of Summer was to be at approximately 2:30.  We showed up, not playing at that theater.
So we went to on to option #2, even further from our burrow of town.  Arrived to that theater for a 3:45 showing and the theater absolutely REEKED! Awful.  Miserable.  Perhaps worst smell you could imagine. The theater seats were so yucky, I was almost afraid to sit my own self down in the chair.  After "checking" in on my Facebook app we decided immediately to get out of Dodge.  We were able to get a ticket refund and back to the parking lot we went with sore noses to try to reroute our plans.
Now on to option #3...27 miles from option #2. We had 37 minutes to get there.  ON the road we go, and to the theater we arrive. Finally, a theater that was playing the movie, and actually smelled like a movie theater. Success.  All of this happened even before the movie started, I was starting to think perhaps it wasn't meant to be.

On an unrelated subject, one of the most difficult things about being on this medical study is going out in public.  That sounds weird but it is very true.  The temptations of eating/drinking items off of my dietitian preselected list is very difficult.  The movie theater was perhaps the worst possible place to go.  The smell of movie theater popcorn is absolutely excruciating. But after the wild goose chase, our arrival at the theater only allowed us time to find our seats, no time to stand in a line.  (Thanks be to God.)

On to the movie.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS MOVIE.
END OF STORY.

Here is one of the reasons why....

In the opening scene of the movie you see Carey Mulligan in Shia LaBeouf's fabulous NYC penthouse apartment.  I must admit seeing this apartment made my heart beat a little faster. This fabulous character (the apartment) had many good scenes during the movie...all of which I loved despite what was actually happening in the movie plot. Am I a home decor junky? Yup. All the way.

The photos of this beautiful apartment are from an article based on the real estate listing.  "What, let me grab my checkbook" you say....yes the apartment has recently been up for grabs.  If you plan to purchase this love nest with over 3300 sq. feet (on the first floor alone) of luxury living space.  You're going to need that $19 mill raked in from opening weekend to make that check good!

(Images via Google search)

Oh-Canada/Canadians

I've watched my share of HGTV in the past 10 years...early on it was in hopes that I would one day have my own space (other than a dorm room) to decorate.  Then I looked to it for cues about (what not to do) decorating my first apartments...then the Dow-Ward's first house...to our  downtown Memphis apartment, and now to our "my big fat Greek wedding" house.  All of these spaces have been very different.  One thing I'm now very aware of is purchasing pieces that could someday live in another space.  Early on, my plan was just to round up enough seating to accommodate a few fannies. Now, it's about the shape, the size, the style, the fabric, yadda, yadda, yadda.

One of the shows I've enjoyed watching on my computer is an oldie (season 2) but goodie...in addition to that I can even sometimes get the hubbs to watch with me....the show is none other than "Sarah's House"a show made and filmed in " O-Canada", the homeland of the hubbs. 

Season 2 is my favorite so far...mostly because of the interior decor she used.  I also liked season 3 but because of the exterior of the house.  Yet, another point to check out when you look at her web page!  Now as per season 2, check out these drool worthy preview photos!

If those bathrooms don't make you smile, 

I don't know what will!  They're beautiful!

The beautiful after photos of the living room. 

You simply  must check this out!