Think carefully about your answer

Ken: Honey....you aren't using this Toshiba laptop right now are you?
Me: no, I haven't used it in months
Ken: can I borrow it
Me: sure

Next day...
Ken: Boot up your Toshiba
Me: Why?
Ken: Just press the button and start it up

He stands there smiling with a cheesy so damn proud of himself grin on his face.....

 

For those of you who are looking at the photo saying "so what" Its Mac OS X operating system on a PC. Yes, he's clever like that.


Toshiba laptop borrowed from wife: free
Mac software bought at yard sale: $2
Hours of endless entertainment for Ken: truly priceless

Taking Care of our Four Legged Family

We spent the morning at the vets because Max had some sort of bump on his back. Ken shaved the area last night and we treated it using information in the American Red Cross Pet First Aid Book. If you have a dog or cat this book is a MUST have reference. The link takes to you the dog first aid but there is also a link for cats too.


We took Sadie with us simply because leaving her home alone would have caused her exteme stress. They don't like to be apart. At the vets Ken went back to the car to get something and I said I'd head in with Max. They way they cried, people stopped to see if we were torturing them. She hates the vets and pretty much cried and whimpered the whole time we were there. Max was a good boy. While he was getting examined by the vet, she cried out with sympathy for him. Give the girl a tiara because she is a drama queen!


Antibiotics and special cleaning solution were prescribed and he is resting comfortably.  Back in 10 days to recheck.


Now for the most shocking part of the morning...its 10:55am and I've yet to have a drop of coffee. Well, pick yourselves back up off the floor I'm going to get a cup now!


And how was your morning?

I'm running for president...vote for me!

I'm officially announcing that I'm running for president. Some of you may have been a part of the grassroots movement to support me as a candidate for President and I'd like to thank you. For those of you who've yet see the news clip, let me share it with you. Thank you in advance for your support...

Note: the Diana they interview is this segment is a former Maxim model and not me. I just didn't want there to be any confusion. LOL

If the video won't load for you, click HERE to view it.

Another Beachy Kinda Day

We headed to our little local "beach" that I've talked about before. We hiked through the woods carrying LOTS of water because it was very sunny and HOT yesterday. Sadie and Max couldn't wait to go for a swim.

When we got down to the beach, it appeared to be moving...those red spots on the beach, take a closer look

I walked up and asked if there was a model in their midst....they all scrambled for the safety of the seagrass but this little guy stopped to pose for me

Look at this GIANT creature....oh wait, that's Ken :-)

Feeling exhausted from swimming and there are new photos of them on their blog, click on Sadie and Max in the navigation or click here to visit the Guppers blog.

As always we had a lot of fun. Our typically quiet spot was interrupted by a strange man laying in the water and shouting the name of the park over and over again. We assumed he was shouting up to the man sitting in the observation tower who we suspect was actually sunbathing in the nude....anyhow, we stayed at the OTHER end of the beach.



Since I'm sure you worked up an appetite walking on the beach with me, I posted a recipe with step by step photos for French Toast on my cooking site....you can click on the COOKS in the navigation on the right, you can click on the photo or you can just click HERE

The post without a title

What kind of title do I put on todays' blog? Espionage, Inspiration and Grooving ?

I’m late posting my own post today. Dealing with neighbor issues. I can’t post details here because she uses the internet to search for things related to her and for any information about any of us that live around her. She thinks we are all part of a espionage spy ring “in training” and sent us all copies of the letter she sent the authorities to report us. I’m not joking. She has a long history of issues and when I called to describe the letter they knew her by name. I've had to convince Ken that introducing himself as James Bond would NOT be funny. I’ll leave it at that. Needless to say when we walk the dogs, we always walk on the OTHER side of the street.

Did you get a chance to see Bunny Dimmel on the Today Show yesterday? If not, you can still check it out on the Today show website. Be sure to launch the video of Bunny giving her tips along with April Wood and Jodi Davis. These women ROCK! What great inspirational piece just when I really needed one!

I feel like I’m starting to get my groove back. I’m staying on track but I don’t feel like I’m making progress so once again I’m tweaking my workout plan starting tomorrow. Watching the Today show yesterday Bunny said something that really clicked about tweaking your plan. She gave up eating at night because she plateaued at 335 pounds. I know I need to tweak and adjust my eating. I know what to do, I just need to DO IT!

Today we’re headed to the local beach where we take the dogs to swim. It’s about a mile of hiking through the woods in addition to the 100 trips running up and down the beach so I’m looking forward to that.

Wish you all a fabulous day!

Diana

Loggerhead update!! I have photos!

I took a chance and emailed Disney and asked them if the ladies we met on Vero beach on Friday could send photos of the loggerhead turtle hatchling we saw and they responded.

Photos courtesy of Claire and Carol and Disney Conservation Thank you so much for responding to my request Claire!! You can read more about their conservation efforts here!

See the widdle turtle tracks in the sand.... :::squealllllll:::::::

Isn't it a beautiful sight!

Beach Baby

On Friday Ken and I left for a little mini break. My sister stayed with the kids and we headed out very early on Friday morning and arrived on Vero Beach at 8:30am. The weather was a mixed bag, a bit of sunshine but mostly overcast with a little bit of rain. The rain was thanks to the tail end of Tropical Storm Fay still moving through the area and she provided a sustained wind of about 25mph.

I love the Treasure Coast of Florida because all along the beach there are public areas with free parking where you can leave the car and walk up over the dune crossover and find yourself on a quiet and unspoiled beach. There are many private homes that line the beach, not many hotels but the one large hotel belongs to Disney.

We had the good fortune of meeting two women who work for Disney conservation when we happened to walk up just as they pulled a loggerhead hatchling from the nest. I immediately fell in love with this little loggerhead turtle. Its little black eyes looked at me and its little flipper feet were flapping so fast while his neck stretched out and his nose pointed towards the Atlantic Ocean instinctively trying to reach it. She placed him on the sand and we watched him scamper towards the sea.  The first wave that hit him spun him over on to his back and we watched as he corrected himself right side up and swam out of sight into the ocean. Just then Ken tapped me on the shoulder and pointed towards the sand at the little turtle tracks he had left in the sand. Yes my heart melted! Where was my camera? In the car of course! Which ended up being a good thing because it started to rain.

After lunch we walked an additional two miles on the beach and then we headed to the McCarty Treasure Museum in Sebastian to see the treasure exhibits. This section of Florida is called the Treasure Coast because in 1715 a fleet of 11 Spanish Ships sunk in a hurricane and treasure is still found to this day.

Ohhhhh and if that wasn’t enough excitement for the weekend, I’ve finished up the blog remodel and updated the navigation. A few pages have moved so make sure you check your bookmark/google reader etc. I tried to update the blogroll but I’m sure I’ve missed a few people so email me and I’ll get you added ASAP.

Ken has asked several times if my legs hurt and honestly they don't. A few years ago, we'd take these little beach trips several times a year and I'd make it about 100 yards up the beach before my knee would hurt or I'd succumb to exhaustion and just quit walking. I'm so proud of myself and consider my ability to walk over 6 miles in the sand a measure of just how far I've come.

I've cleaned!

I've been working on a new format for the blog for about a week and when we got home from the beach on Saturday night, I sat down and put it all together and pointed all of the pages where they needed to go. I was on pins and needles making sure it worked as it should.

I still have some minor tweaks but for the most part...this is Scale Junkie!

If you're using Internet Explorer I just have to say, my site looks so much better with Mozilla or on a Mac using Safari. Why they heck haven't you upgraded yet?

Welcome, have a look around and let me know what you think!

Last call for Summer Blog Party!!

This Is the final week of parties here at Summer Blog Party Central. Its been a lot of fun! Thanks to all of you who participated and a great big thank you to all of the hostesses...but its not quite over yet!

The Biggest Loser Challenge is in its final stretch, I can’t wait to see who wins. Speaking of Biggest Loser, I saw that its returning to TV in September, I’m SO EXCITED!!! I love to challenge myself right along with the contestants.

You have one more day to get in on the MizFit scavenger hunt….turn in your answers by Saturday!

Less of Me Lora is hosting a party this week. I’m not sure what she has going on but I know its going to be fabulous!

I hope you have a fabulous weekend. We have a sitter (my sister) staying with the kids (Sadie and Max) and Ken and I are hitting the BEACH! After a miserable week of rain, we’re driving south until we find sunshine! We'll be thinking of you!

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who noticed my brand new masthead. I had so much fun drawing the Scale Junkie Cooks girl or "future Honey" as Ken likes to call her because some day I'll have a smaller curves on my curvy body.... Yes he calls me "Honey" but thats another post isn't it? 

To answer the questions about "how" I did it, its simple really but not really simple. I took my profile photo and realized that my eyes were way to squinty and my teeth weren't showing and decided to draw up on my long lost talents and "draw" myself as a cartoon. The problem is, I don't really have an illustrating program on this machine right now. I have a design program called Adobe InDesign and I just made it work. Piece by piece.  I've thought about Illustrating Sadie and Max but WOW, its hard to draw black dogs and get the shading right in this program so I think I'll save that little ambition for when I'm snowed in some winter. ;-)

The symbolism behind the little yoga Diana is the new sense of calm I'm bringing to my life and the sun with rays symbolize a new day dawning. I truly believe that I'm on to something here. If you watched the video I posted earlier today of Bunny Dimmel  on the Today show, she mentioned eating frequent small meals as part of her success and that is something I had incorporated into my way of eating. There have been a few occasions when I was out and about and didn't have access to healthy food and found myself irritable and agitated, feeling those changes within myself really let me know that frequent small balanced meals are the way to go for me. 

With all of that being said, I'm going to make more changes around here too in an effort to simplify my life. This will mainly effect the HYC gang but I need to keep my life simple right now. I'm overwhelmed and up to my eyeballs in obligations and projects, on top of that, I've started applying for "real jobs" in the "real world" I had wanted to wait until I was under 300 pounds and felt more "human" because I feel I'd get a better reception and response and maybe not be faced with that initial prejudice as hard but it is what it is and I'm looking now. I'll fill you in on the details on Tuesday. 

As Bugs Bunny would say....thats all folks!  Stop back tomorrow for the final week of Summer Blog Party! Wooohoooo!! These 90 days have gone so fast! 

DVR TIVO VCR Alert for an Inspiration Fix!

Bunny Dimmel is going to be on the Today show again on August 25th around 10:15 a.m. with Kathy Lee and Hoda. (Check your local listings for times) She is going to be on a panel of three Joy Fit Club members answering questions.

If you aren't familiar with Bunny Dimmel, she is an amazing woman who went from 435 pounds down to 172 pounds through diet and exercise alone. I saw her on the Today show when her first segment aired and was just blown away by her story and her success. You can check it out by clicking here for the Today Show...it will play after the commercial haha.

She really packs a lot of great information into a short segment so check it out when you have time.

Scale Junkie Cooks

I might have mentioned once or twice my newfound passion for cooking. Some of you know that just a few years ago my idea of cooking consisted of a little something I like to call microwave magic, you know, frozen meals. Cooking dinner for friends...no problem...takeout from a restaurant with a SO sorry I had to work late, got called into the office or any old excuse to explain why Macaroni Grill had prepared dinner and not me. The company I worked at for 15 years back in my single days would have potlucks several times a year. They knew I wasn't a cook. I could boil water and chop a mean salad but that was about it. I'd typically end up making my very popular Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad no fail, not a crumb leftover salad that involved precooked chicken, chopping veggies and boiling water for pasta. But then something happened. I got married.

No Ken didn't marry me for my culinary skills but after we were married I was removed from my element. I left Florida and everything familiar and went to a land of dragons and castles where there wasn't a restaurant on every other corner and the grocery store was filled with unfamiliar foods...thats right people, I'm talking about England.

It was rough going for a few weeks and then I was wandering through Sainsbury's one day and they had a TV set up playing a video of a man doing cooking demos. Beside the TV were recipe cards and I picked up a few that looked interesting, scoured the store for the ingredients and went home and tried cooking with Jamie Oliver. I honestly can't recall what I made but it started the ball rolling. I'd look online for websites that posted "copycat" recipes of my restaurant favorites and start trying to recreate them. Looking for American ingredients in a UK grocery store was often amusing and I really have to say the staff at both Sainsbury and Tesco were amazingly patient when I tried to describe things like sour cream and pound cake. No I wasn't cooking healthy back then I was just trying to make it edible.

When we moved back to Florida a little over a year later I found a new TV chef, Rachel Ray. Yes, people hate her/love her/are tired of seeing her face but I learned a lot of basics from her and used it to build my skills. I've watched many cooking shows, I've taken a few cooking classes and here I am today learning to adapt recipes, to create healthy alternatives that meet my dietary needs while thrilling my tastes buds and their desire for variety.


I've shared recipes here but I really wanted to start a blog to keep them all together in one place for my own reference and I've decided to share it with you too.

http://scalejunkiecooks.blogspot.com/

When I was drawing the logo, I had just finished the face and Ken walked up and said..."OH LOOK ITS YOU!! It looks just like you." Then I added the body and showed him what it looked like and he said...well, eventually. I laughed so hard I cried. So while the face might look a bit like me, the body is a work in progress just like the blog. I'll add new recipes every week on Wednesday for Wellness Wednesday. Enjoy!

Bob and Weave

Fay has decided to take a bob and weave and will not be visiting this week. YAY for me but still a PIA for central Florida so shift good thoughts to them during this tropical storm. As for us, the only effects we'll feel will be just like any other summer storm. Rain, thunder and lightning with gusty winds. Of course now the newscasters are saying the front left quadrant can spawn the tornadoes too...

We did have a small outer band come through the area yesterday that dumped so much rain so fast it looked like the water was coming off my roof in a water fall.This has never happened before.

So right about now I’m feeling really good that I didn’t go out and load up on junk food to stress eat. I’d be sitting here looking at it all and plotting how to get rid of it without using my body as a human garbage disposal.

Over all I’m still doing very good on my eating plan. I haven’t had a single slip up in over two weeks and I really think that is some kind of record. This balanced way of eating keeps me balanced nutritionally and emotionally. I still think about food, I think about eating but I don’t find myself obsessing over food because I know there will always be more food in a few hours.

I’m really curious to see how the scale is responding but I will wait to avoid that self sabotage. I’m not back down to my all time low of 353 but I feel like I’m within 10 pounds of it based on how my clothes fit. My goal is to be pleasantly surprised when I get on the scale on October 11^th. I have a few “want” numbers in my head but I’m not going to let myself hold on to a number and feel disappointed. What I’m doing is good for my body and that in itself is a victory. Whatever the number, I’ll take it and I’ll celebrate it.

Bad Hair Day UPDATE!

Well its looking like Fay is going to make landfall south of us. This is good for us, not so good for the people to the south. Had Fay made landfall to the north of us as predicted last night, I was very concerned about the tornadoes that tend to spawn in the front right quadrant of the storm. We would have been in that quadrant, however as of now, we won't be. The winds really aren't high enough to be of concern with this storm, its the tornadoes that scare the crap out of me.

To answer questions:

I moved to Florida in 1986 and pretty much never had more than a tropical storm head our way, 2004 changed all of that. Yes we lived here in 2004 and made it through all of the storms. It was 2004 that Ken became completely and utterly obsessed with weather. Some people the news before bed, we watch the weather channel.

Yes Felicia, this is still better than penguins :-)

So whats in store for us? Wind and rain, lots of rain. But we're prepared no matter what happens. We have flashlights, 5 cases of water, plenty of food, propane for the gas grill and benadryl should Sadie freak out and need a little something somethin to calm her down. Yes, calling the vet to confirm their dosage was at the top of my list this morning.

In the past, my hurricane prep list looked something like this:
pringles, oreos...with double stuff of course, crackers, peanut butter, M&M's because if the power went out, they wouldn't melt all over the place so of course I'd get plain, peanut and peanut butter and maybe a bag of pretzels....oh and four cases of diet coke and a few bottles of water.

These days: I don't buy food because as I learned in 2004, you have a freezer full of food that will need to be cooked, you need to eat that before its spoiled. I bought four cases of water and a jar of almonds. I have cereal, lots of meat and I can cook anything on the grill and the side burner of the grill.

I will NOT stress, I will eat healthy nutritious foods and I will stay calm. :-) Yeah, its easy to stay calm when its just a tropical storm :-)

Tuesday could prove to be a bad hair day...

Fabulous Friday means….another summer blog party!!

Before we get this party started, I just wanted to thank you all for your comments, emails and support over the past week. I'm doing MUCH better and feeling a lot more positive. 

Summer is winding down and I know some of you are in the party spirit, its HOT outside and what better way to beat the heat than heading to a few parties…that’s right, this week we have TWO parties!!

Losing It and Loving It has a challenge for you. That’s right, we’re all trying to get healthy and what better than a bit of healthy competition. I’ll let her fill you in on all of the details over on her blog. Head on over there and check it out!

Scavenger Hunt anyone? The Amazing Miz Fit is hosting a scavenger hunt Ten questions, email her the answers and you could win a fabulous prize, how cool is that?

Thinking Thin Too is still hosting the Biggest Loser Challenge, head over to cheer them on.

 

Be sure to stop back next week to pick up your invitation to the party of the week!

Resilience

Resilience

re·sil·ience

 

[ri-zil-yuhns, ri-zil-ee-uhns]

-noun

1 . the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched

2. ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity or the like.

Resilience is something I’ve always had. When things weren’t going my way I’d smile and say “I always land on my feet” It was true. I wouldn’t say I led a charmed life but rather a safe life, a semi-charmed life. I didn’t take chances; I stayed within the parameters of familiar. Oh sure I had a lot of adventures, I travelled and led a busy and active life. But it was always in my little safe zone.

Somewhere along the way, I’ve lost my resilience. Repeated bending, compressing and adversity have left me feeling like I’m on the outside looking in. For the past 10 or 11 years it’s been one thing after another. I started taking chances and fell on my face way too many times. Somewhere along the way I feel like I’ve lost my identity.

On Monday things just got to be too much and on Tuesday I retreated inside of myself. I felt empty and unemotional. Ken was very concerned. He kept asking what was up with me, what was wrong. Sadie stayed by my side all day. Max tried to offer me his favorite toy but finally just settled for resting his chin on my leg. I just felt like an empty shell.

Finally around 11pm last night something inside of me just clicked and I realized why I felt so empty. My whole life I’d use food to fill that void. When things were rough or life handed me disappointments, I used food to fill that void. Yesterday I didn’t use food. Yesterday I gave food very little thought. I only ate small nutritious meals that I had preplanned. But I barely ate that. My calories were quite low and I wasn’t physically hungry yet I had this big empty void inside of me.

I’ve known for quite a while that I’m an emotional eater but I think that yesterday it finally clicked that I’ve not only used food to sooth me and fill the void but that I can feel that void and NOT use food to fill it and guess what? Either way, the void is still there. Food can’t fill the void. Food will never fill the void. Food is the cheap and easy way out. Cheap and easy just isn’t working for me anymore. I need real substance in my life. Substance that isn’t found at a drive thru, that isn’t found at the bottom of an ice cream carton, that isn’t found in a pizza box.

I can’t control certain circumstance but I can take steps to build a better foundation, I can rebuild me from the ground up, from the inside out. And all of those times falling on my face? They call that experience.

Ups and Downs and Downs and Downs of Life

Three weeks down on my personal 12 week challenge. I wish the downs in my title referred to my weight but there are 9 weeks to go or 60 days, 22 hours and a few minutes until my next weigh in.  I’ll blog about those downs on October 13th. 

Overall I’m feeling really good about my healthy choices. Food wise I’ve made really good decisions and I’m exercising; alternating Bowflex with cardio and it feels good. I’m still nursing an injury on my left shoulder; clearly ditch digging isn’t my calling in life.

As for the rest of my life, I’m not really sure where to start. More of the same? The roller coaster ride that is my life is rolling downhill again.  I’m very lucky to have a loving husband and two wonderful dogs and I’m very grateful for that.  I don’t normally blog about this aspect of my life and I find it hard to cross the line so I won’t go into details here.  I’m trying so hard to not feel discouraged; I’m trying so hard to not lose hope. But the past few years it just seems like life is kicking us, dragging us down and kicking us again.

 

I guess if you could spare a few good thoughts and send them our way, I’d really appreciate it. We need it now more than ever.

Friday Summer Blog Party

DaDiva Street is kicking her party into high gear as we wind down this summer. She has something special in store for you so head on over and check it out!

Thinking Thin Too is still hosting the Biggest Loser Challenge. I heard that a few people have been struggling so why not get over there and cheer them on. If you’re one of the ones who’ve struggled, August is a great month to recommit.   

Karaoke anyone? Kate at Fab50 shared a video of her and her beautiful daughters singing along to Proud by Heather Small and she asked that I share it with all of you. Some of you might know this song as the theme song to the show Biggest Loser…yeah that’s the one! She’s invited all of you to sing along  and share your song….yeah I’m not that brave and quite frankly I’m glad I don’t have a webcam…and you should be glad too.

Thinking of you....

I'm not physically at the beach today but my mind is on a little much needed vacation :-)

because I don't feel like blogging today

Life in a cinnamon swirl

As I sat on the patio this morning sipping the iced cinnamon swirl latte I had just blended in the food processor because I couldn’t find the blender, I thought about the other adaptations in my life. I’ve always been quite good at making lemonade when life handed me lemons so why have I struggled so much with life lately? Why haven’t I applied this ability to adapt to weight loss? I just proved I have the ability to adapt by using another tool when the one I needed wasn’t available so I concluded that I haven’t lost this skill as much as I’ve misplaced it.
 

The other day I ran into a colleague I hadn’t seen in years. We were managers of different departments but on the same floor and we got to know each other quite well. We didn’t have a lot in common outside of work but the one thing we did together outside of the office was go to the driving range. We worked the night shift and while other colleagues would hit the bar at 8am, we’d head to the driving range and take out our frustrations on a golf ball. We’d name the targets out in the field after our most difficult employees and always reserved one for our mutual boss.  We’d each get a bucket of 100 balls and smack them until they were gone. We weren’t particularly good at this but it was fun and a great bonding experience. Now right about now I’m sure you’re saying what the heck does any of this have to do with weight loss and where the hell is she going with this story. Trust me there is a point looming somewhere on the horizon. ;-)

I’ve realized that for the past few years, I’ve felt like one of those targets on the golf driving range. I’ve sat there and let life hit me. I didn’t move for fear of being hit even more. I revert back to my old eating habits because it’s safe, it’s what I know. It may not feel good to my body but I’ve survived this way for all of these years, I’ll just keep surviving. But I wasn’t surviving. I was slowly deteriorating. I just sat there and let it happen. I let life happen. Somewhere along the way, my feet became cemented in place and I stopped dodging the balls life was throwing my way and I let everything hit me. Why did I let this happen? A series of unfortunate events happened in my life. I let them collectively paralyze me, afraid to take a step in the wrong direction for fear of sinking in even deeper. I’ve been afraid that life will get worse because every time I tried to take a step in a new direction, I'd get hit again. 

I’ve felt like I’m treading water around a whirlpool, just swirling around the edge and fighting to hang. So many people have been throwing me life lines; I feel like my fingers would just barely touch one and then it would be gone.  I’ve finally grabbed one and do you know what I’ve found? Sometimes you just have to let go. You just have to trust that there is more out there for you and life won’t always thrust you towards the bottom of the pit. Instead of constantly fighting against yourself, why not let the current carry to a new place. Sure the scenery is going to be different and the rapids might get rough once in a while but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Iced Cinnamon Swirl Latte

½ ounce of Davinci Sugar Free Vanilla syrup
½ ounce of Davinci Sugar Free Cinnamon syrup
2 shots of espresso
8 ounces fat free milk
1 to 2 cups of ice

Throw it all in the blender (or food processor), add as much ice as you need to make a thick icy drink. Sit somewhere quiet and reflect on life. Enjoy!

90 calories
0.6g fat
12g carbs
8.5g protein
0.0g sugar

Finding my way

I had a really good weekend. For the first time in over a month, Ken actually had two days off. His work has been incredibly busy…I’m not complaining it’s a good thing and we are grateful that he has a job given the state of the current economy. But still…some precious time together is exactly what we needed. We were going to spend this weekend in Orlando but the weather was nonstop rain and he was tired from all of the hours he’s worked lately so we decided to stay home and do a few things around here. I’m so glad we did.

I had planned to indulge this weekend but it just didn’t work out that way, my choices seem to just gravitate towards healthy. I was in the store and I wasn’t tempted by samples, snacks, candy. Last night for dinner I grilled chicken and made a side of oven fries for Ken, I had no desire to eat them. Instead I had the chicken on a salad, it was so good, I’m using the leftover chicken on a salad for lunch today.

My appetite has been so low. Typically I can’t shove enough food in my mouth in a day. I found myself eating when I wasn’t hungry and eating even more when I was. Something has changed and I really think that its because of the food choices I'm making. The desire to binge is gone. I’m giving my body quality foods instead, its getting the nutrients it craves and I don't need to binge. Lean protein and healthy carbs at every meal and snack.

Lean protein doesn't have to be meat and it doesn't have to be boring!

I'll share with you one of my favorite breakfast recipes.

Flourless Protein Pancakes

½ cup of dry oats (not instant)
½ of cottage cheese
½ cup of egg beaters (slightly less than ½ cup works best)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon of Splenda for baking (or regular sugar)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (use the real stuff, not imitation)

Place oats and cinnamon in food processor or blender and pulse to grind up the oats for about a minute. Add in the rest of the ingredients and process/blend for about a minute, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary.

Heat a nonstick skillet to medium heat, spray with nonstick spray and spoon 1/3 of mixture into hot pan. If your batter is thick, use the back of your spoon to spread it around a bit and form a pancake shape. Flip when brown, cook an additional minute or two on the other side until cooked through.

Makes 3 four inch pancakes, 100 calories each (more nutritional information below)

Top with ½ cup of apple sauce and additional cinnamon or your favorite fruit.

Here they are without toppings

Nutritional Information is for the whole batch, yes I eat all three :-)

Calories: 300
Fat: 4.7
Carbs: 31g
Protein: 32.6
Sugars: 0.4g

Diana needs...

Pattie invited everyone to play along with this game and now I'm inviting you :-)

The rules: All you have to do is Google your first name with the word 'needs' behind it, and post the first 10 results.

Diana needs a wealthy husband who can provide her with the high life she craves while sheltering her from the media clamor that follows her every move. (I'm quite happy with the hubby I have and I'm doing a pretty good job hiding from the paparazzi here)

 

Diana needs to come over and turn my charming studio into a warehouse loft! (so now I'm an architect?)

Diana needs a Hug (I'd never turn down a hug)

Diana needs  YOUR HELP (Thank you in advance)

Diana needs  to wear crystals and precious and semiprecious stones and add lots of extra pillows to the home. (bring on the gems but I already have too many pillows...maybe its a Diana thing?)

Diana needs help with her drugs and all the men around (now I KNOW they have the wrong Diana)

Diana needs  compassion and peace to come to terms with a very sad situation. (unfortunately this has been true on a few occasions)

Diana needs more care and tenderness (I'm lucky enough to get plenty of that from my wonderful hubby)

Diana needs to get back to school and her algebra lessons. (back to school yes, back to algebra...no thanks)

Diana needs to get back into the studio with Ashford and Simpson (rock on!!)

And this was too funny to leave out....

Diana needs  to locate and save Steve, so she hooks up with an old, blind Chinese dude named I Ching. (who the hell is Steve? Hopefully I Ching knows)

Welcome to August!

Welcome to August!

Ready Maid has graciously invited us to her blog this week for her blog party! She didn't have her post up when I wrote this so you'll have to get the details straight from her. Why not head on over there and see what she has going on?

 

~*~  Final Month of Summer Parties!!  ~*~

Thinking Thin Too is still hosting the Biggest Loser Challenge. I heard that a few people have been struggling so why not get over there and cheer them on. If you’re one of the ones who’ve struggled, August is a great month to recommit.   

DaDiva Street is sharing NYC facts. She is proud of her hometown and wants to give us all a slice of the Big Apple...calorie free of course. Inn addition to the fabulous prizes she’s already given away, she is giving away two gift cards in August! She has all of the details on her blog. 

Karaoke anyone? Kate at Fab50 shared a video of her and her beautiful daughters singing along to Proud by Heather Small and she asked that I share it with all of you. Some of you might know this song as the theme song to the show Biggest Loser…yeah that’s the one! She’s invited all of you to sing along  and share your song….yeah I’m not that brave and quite frankly I’m glad I don’t have a webcam…and you should be glad too.