Cleaning House

I had a crazy day at work, I am trying to be super woman and do intergrated testing, making fixes in production, attending multiple phone conferences and still be a good wife and mother.  There are some major disdvantages to working from home when the your customer is in a different time zone.  While they may think nothing of having a meeting for hour starting at 5:00pm to prepare for a major project, for me that means working really late, while trying to make dinner, cuddle, gett a sweet little girl ready for bed and keep my sanity!!!  Sadly, I had to let down a friend that recently lost her father because I just could not get away.  I feel horrible about letting her down.

I happened  to be looking at some websites before worked started this morning and read something that I was so totally disgusted by, that I feel I have to share with all you Mom's out there.  In the late 70's, High Fructose Corn Syrup became an acceptable additive to our food supply to replace sugar.  I am hoping that I can post the picture so here we go...

So as you can see as our consumption of High Fructose Corn Sugar increased so did our rate of obesity.  High Fructose Corn Syrup in so prevalent in our foods in America that the aveage American consumes 70 pounds of it in a year.  As a parent, we may try to limit our childrens exposure by avoiding those foods that we know contain alot of  HFC, like regular sodas, but here is the shocking part....Did you know that a bottle of formula contains more HFC than a can of soda.  I let that think in and realized that if the studies that have shown the addictive nature of HFC in mice are true, we basically without our knowledge set up generations of children to struggle with obesity.  Why does formula need HFC?  Breast Milk does not contain it and those kids survive just fine...or could it be that the additive people realized that they had a captive audience.  I hate to think that way but I just do not get it.  Here is the kicker, now that people are looking for foods that do  not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup, the industry wants to change the name to "Corn Sugar".  Something to think about..

Ok...so I had a smoothie for breakfast, (no HFC).  I had a breakfast food for Lunch, Oats Revolution, oatmeal.   Thanks J for that recommendation.  It is lower in calories than regular oatmeal, less carbs, and more fiber...and no HFC.  It was so good and hit the spot.  After my late phone call, I had to make a quick dinner so I had a Kashi frozen dinner.  No HFC.  An HFC free day!!

F asked my at 9:30 to make him a Hot Chocolate and I went to the pantry to find the packets adn I opened that door and it hit me.  I have a HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP paradise in my own house.  So I made his Hot Chocolate and grabbed the trash can and start cleaning out my pantry.  I took everything out and looked at everything in there.  I got rid of as much junk food as I could with out sending my family into a melt down over night.  I also found alot of expired food too.  I also found that I had multiples of things that I keep thinking I am out of because I can't find them in the disaster zone that was my pantry.  I dedicated two sheves to the ingrediants that are used frequently in cooking, especially when I am out of town and the nanny cooks dinner.  Then each member of the family got a shelf with their foods on it.  Well really F got a shelf and a half because he has alot of stuff.  C would be amazed how much candy and stale chips I found buried in the pantry and threw out. Once the pantry was done, I was energized so I ended up scrubbing down the whole kitchen.   It looks pretty good.  I bet F that C will not even notice that alot of her junk food is gone.  So what was the worse food that I found in the pantry?  TWINKIES!!!  We had a whole box with maybe 2 missing, but I must have been in a sugar coma when I bought them.  Well I am awake now and they will not be in my house again. 

I should get some sleep I have another busy, busy day tomorrow...

Take care...talk to you later. 

Busy day...

So I went out last night with F for a little fun to remind me that there is more to life than work. Stayed out way to late, certainly too late to make sense on a blog.  C woke me up this morning to take her to school.  I got home and had some Kashi Honey Sunshine Cereal.  I made F coffee and cut some Stollen that we got F's mom in Germany.  For those of you who have never had Stollen, it is yeast dough filled with raisins.  Made with lots of butter and coated with a generous dusting powdered sugar.  It is one onf my favorite German holiday treats and we received one yesterday.  C and F were fighting over who it belonged to since it was in a package addressed to C.   They finally agreed to share it.  Meanwhile as much as I would love to cut myself a bunch of slices and sit down and enjoy the taste, I am not partaking this year.  So my only alternative is to encourage F and C to have it as quickly as possible so the temptation is out of my kitchen.  Lunch was mixed fresh vegetables.  Dinner was a weight watcher turkey meal. 

Well take care and talk to you later..

Migraine!!!

So my migraine started last night and it has been awhile since I had one this bad.   I have tried everything that usually works and no relief.   My appetite is depressed, but I am trying to eat anyway to keep my body fueled to get better. 

I had some Oats revolution oatmeal this morning.  It was really good and lower in sugar and fat than typical oatmeal.   Lunch was carrots and grapes.  Dinner was a smoothie. 

So that update is really all I can handle because I have to concentrate to type and that is hard when your head is pounding.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Slept in...

I apologize for not blogging alot this week, I would get back to the hotel with every intention of blogging and just be too tired to do it.  It is not that I did not want to share, it was just that my body was tired from the flying and the time change and the work.  I promise to do better this week.

So I got home late last night and then spent time with my husband.  This led to me sleeping in this morning and sadly I missed the weigh in time.  I weighed myself at home and I am down another 2 pounds, which is god considering that I am retaining water from flying.  I am going to weigh in officially next saturday so that will be a total for 2 weeks.  But unofficially I am at 61 pounds down. 

It was nice this week in California because I actually had people say how it looked like I lost weight.  It was that reinforcement with my new lower sizes to help me resist the temptations that the saboteurs were trying to throw my way this week.  I got offered cookies several times and said no of course and that was followed by the "one cookie won't hurt you".  My response was, "one cookie may not hurt me but it won't help my body either."   Work was crazy as we prepare for a major project going live in March.  This means lots of hours and weird hours at times.

I have errands to run today and football to watch..

Talk to you later and take care.

Lunch ruined my day..

I had planned on doing an unprocessed food day today.  I had a favulous smoothie for breakfast.  I was cherry, raspberry, apple.  and then I was working my tushy off and realized it was late and I did not have time to go get lunch before my meeting, so I had a Kashi bar for lunch and an orange. So totally processed.  Dinner I had a Grilled chicken salad with no dressing.  So I am calling this a partial non processed food day.

I am missing my family...C had her first real life trauma this week, some one at the play place she goes to stole her wallet..She had her most precious thing in it, her library card.  She was in tears.  It is so hard to explain to her why someone would do that...she thinks that everyone is nice and friends.

I can not wait to go home.

Talk to you later....Take care..

In California..

So I flew out this morning, and had a cereal bar on the plain, on that did not contain nuts...Lunch was some salmon (though I only had a couple of bites), grilled vegetables, and fruit.  Dinner was a small broiled crab cake, more grilled veggies, and about 6 bites of salad, and a slice of bread before my stomach was saying enough!!! 

So here is the funny flying story, you know I had to have one right?  I wore my new smaller sized shirt on the trip and it seems that it has some slightly metallic thread in it, because after I went through the full body scanner, the thread caused it to show on the image which meant I got the full pat down/feel up by the TSA agent!!  I think I should be able to charge them...

It is a short week here in the California, so I am counting the hours until I am home again.  BTW, I need a vacation, not a day off here and there but a total I am not answering a single e-mail vacation.  I am on call for the 3 rd week in row and have another week to go due to the only other person that takes call being on a month long vacation. 

Well take care and here is to healthy tomorrow...I think i am going to do my unprocessed food day tomorrow...it might be dependent on how good the scone flavor is tomorrow...

Talk to you later..

Nothing improves my mood more than..

I went clothes shopping today and usually this is something I dread.  I hated trying on clothes because nothing ever looked good on me and besides while I could delude myself that I was not looking that bad, nothing drives home the point that your weight is out of control more than realizing that you have limited selction of choices at the plus size store because you are one of the higher sizes.  So basically, I would have to take what I could get and elastic was my friend..Well I went in today and grabbed pants in a size smaller and a couple 2 sizes smaller than I used to wear.  I grabbed a bunch of tops in the smaller sizes and even grabbed a top that was three sizes smaller (by accident I had grabbed the wrong size and did not realize it) and headed to the dressing room.

I decided I would try the pants that were 2 sizes smaller first to get an idea how far away from that size I was so I could decide how many pants to buy.  Well lo and behold I slipped them up my body and went to button them and had no trouble doing so!!!  THEY FIT!!!  I felt like a Progresso commercial, I wanted to start calling a perfect stranger to announce my joy!! F and C were at the video game store using her Visa gift card so there was no one to grab and hug.  About that time, I hear C calling for me and decided to walk out and show my new pants off.  F said those look good on you and then I announced that it was 2 sizes smaller and we high fived in the middle of the store.  I got a couple more pairs of the smaller size and I tried them on and they all fit!!  It was not a fluk, I had lost two sizes in my pants.  Then It was time to try on tops and I tried on several tops and in the 2 sizes smaller and F thought they all looked good though I do not really NEED tops because a baggy top is easier to wear for longer.   I grabbed the top that was the wrong size and slipped it on and headed out.  F said it looked really good and then noticed the size due a sticker on the shirt and said is that really that size?  I was amazed it was!!! I had a shirt on that was 3 sizes smaller and I did not look like a stuffed sausage!!  It looked good on me!!  Even though I had not planned on buying a shirt, I had to buy it just so I could put it on and say I had that size on my body!! 

So I bought 2 pairs of pants and the shirt and left the store smiling.  The part that makes me smile even more is that I am 2 to 3 pants sizes away from being able to shop in the regular clothing stores and only 1 to 2 sizes away in tops.   The thought of the world of clothing that is opening up to me makes me so happy.  No longer will I have to settle for what fits but be able to have options in what I wear.

For Breakfast, I had a turkey sandwich mainly because I woke up really late so it was basically lunch time by the time I was ready to eat.  I ended up having a granola bar as an afternoon snack/lunch.  F and C were craving KFC for dinner.  I had to roll the window down on the way home because the smell of the grease was making me nauseous.  I will be making myself something healthy for dinner.  I have not decided what yet.  

Well this has been an uplifting New Years Day with all the more reason to stick to that New Year's Resolution to keep moving forward toward the healthy me. 

Take care everyone and if you enjoy my blog feel free to follow it.  I love sharing this journey with you.

Talk to you later....