Buns Again

[bunsofaluminum]

That sounds like fun. I love staying in hotels, too. How long do you plan to stay?

If you are driving or just want to have some easy snacks, I recently discovered several canned vegetables that I enjoy eating straight from the can! Green beans, beets, corn, and artichoke hearts. The green beans really fill me up and get rid of cravings. Now, cans come with pop tops. It is so easy to keep a few cans in the car. I bought some canned diced potatoes but I haven't tried them yet.

We'll be there Friday night and Saturday night. I love eating straight out of the can, too! Just the other day, it was pickled beets. Yum! But beans are seriously my favorite. Refried beans out of the can? There's your comfort food, right there. I'll have to try the green beans. And I actually have a couple cans of artichoke hearts! mmmm now I"m hungry. I'mma see if I can find pop top Bush's steakhouse beans to bring with. Maybe some decadent fruit...ripe mangoes. Raspberries! That'll keep me from the Five Dozen Cookies (plus more, I'm sure) that will be on display.

*deep breath* I'm going in...tomorrow!

[bunsofaluminum]

Cool, I made it through the family reunion really REALLY well. I think I had a piece of Red Vine during games on Friday night (avoiding the row of chips and mini candy bars)...I did have the sugar snap peas, carrots, and mini peppers thankyouwhoeverbroughthealthy snacks.

I made sure there was a veggie supreme pizza with no cheese (and I wasn't the only one who couldn't have dairy so...) and had three slices of that. And I did have fun with the teenagers trying to make the best Jelly Bellies combos because there was a little bowl of Jelly Bellies on each table. So, Jelly Bellies and Red Vine = off plan. But they were the ONLY off plan things I had on Friday.

Saturday was good. They had this luscious potato herb dish out for the breakfast buffet. Steel cut oats that were undercooked. Fresh fruit including blueberries. So brekkie was good. Oh wait. There were cinnamon pull aparts! And I had some. So that was off plan, for breakfast both mornings.

The BBQ on Saturday. I bought Portabellos for grilling and made a "burger with the works" with that. The white bread buns were off plan, but everything else was good. I also had some grilled zucchini which was DELISH. And watermelon as much as I could consume. I avoided the cookies and chips and potato salad. Yeah, the BBQ was mostly on plan! woo hoo! And later that evening, when there was nothing really planned for dinner, I ate my pop top Bush's Fiesta Beans out of the can.

In the room for nibbles I had ginger snaps which ARE off plan, but low fat. Also, Fig Newmans which also are a low fat cookie. I brought those along to help myself avoid the zillions of huge store bought cookies in every flavor, and considered them my "feast food" and I think it worked. They really were a treat. I probably could've had ginger snaps with my breakfast instead of the pull aparts. Oh, well.

And I had quite a bit more fun than I expected to have. There were several there whom I've met before, and some I hadn't. They put on Just Dance for part of it on Friday night and I was the only "old person" up there with all these kids Got to know Wylie's cousin Bobbie who I HAVE met before, but we got a chance to really visit on Saturday while everyone was doing the relay races and games that had been organized. I'm telling ya, folks. Simply standing for the family photo put my foot and knee in a pretty bad place *cough*justdance*cough* so I was not going to do ANY of the relay races. They were hilarious to watch, though and I got some really good pictures for the Family Reunion FB page. I'm glad Bobbie and I had a chance to connect though. What a cool gal! I hope we keep up the connection.

Of course, Wylie was on high energy for all the meet and greets, of people he hadn't seen in ages. I enjoyed meeting everyone, but these were people from his childhood that he hasn't seen for a long time, so he was schmoozing long after I was "all peopled out" But still...it was a pretty good time. No truly awkward moments. People were friendly and I wasn't the only one there who didn't know everyone.

But it was good to lie down in my own bed last night and I didn't want to get up this morning. Truly, Just Dance is loads of fun, but when you have a bum knee, you pay for Just Dance the following day. Oh. I also hopped up to grab a squirter when the water fight started after the games on Saturday Yeah. My knee isn't happy with me but it was worth it!

I'm proud of myself, staying away from the fat pills.

[SilverDollar123]

Glad you had a good time&mostly compliant. People&Family are what count in the long run.RAS

[moonlight]

Yay, you, Buns! Your family gatherings always sound like so much fun.

[bunsofaluminum]

Yay, you, Buns! Your family gatherings always sound like so much fun.

Glad you had a good time&mostly compliant. People&Family are what count in the long run.RAS

Thanks RAS and Moonlight. I'm blessed to belong to an amazing family. Wylie's family is lots of fun, too but there's some discord and he and his parents are estranged. (they weren't there, nor any of his siblings, btw. They live in GA and we're in UT so...) I found out some of the details of that and it makes me sad. I'm just glad he isn't following in their footprints. The people in his family who are good, are really good. I'm glad to know them.

I'm back to my regular work outs. Taking a break today for my knee, but I busted it yesterday on the circuit. I think I need to stay off the quad machines. They hyper flex my knees and even though I was careful, and didn't try to lift heavy, it's bothering me today more than usual. I'll get back tomorrow for sure and just not get on the leg machines.

Food is back to "simple, humble" again. For dinner last night it was nuked sweet potato and green peas. I had fiesta beans and rice for lunch. Fig Newtons for brekkie. Gotta find something with zero added fat that goes with coffee. I enjoy dipping Bel Vita are scrumptious but 8g of fat!?!?? Biscotti...there's low fat vegan biscotti recipes out there. Hmmm.

going out for lunch today since I don't have any food made at home...being gone for the weekend threw that off. And I don't know how much I want to actually COOK right now. And I'm more than overdue for some alone time so sitting at a picnic table with Subway will be real nice.

[bunsofaluminum]

Doing okay. I've been craving sweets the past few days. Today I brought grapes with lunch so I'd have something sweet after my meal. I'm also hormonal in a few other ways. SMH. Menopause is not for wimps.

I'm just gonna hang on and try not to blow my challenge on the third to last day

Exercise: I've been doing the weight/cardio circuit at P Fitness, but standing up and boogying to keep the heart rate up was hurting my knee. So the change is thus: 20 minutes on the recumbent, then go through all the upper body machines in the circuit area. I'll avoid the leg machines.

Yesterday instead of the gym, I spent 40 minutes washing the car.

I'm overdue for some serious alone time. Gotta figure that out.

[bunsofaluminum]

Holy cow! I don't know why, but suddenly yesterday afternoon I came down SICK. Nausea, gas, joint aches, feverish. It felt like food poisoning, and I've been wracking my brain trying to think what I might have eaten. Other than some pasta salad at my daughter's, and brekkie out with a friend, everything was made by me, from scratch. Oh...some salad w. rice and beans on it, left over from the day before. Hmmm.

Anyway, I was pretty bad off. It hurt to move, low grade fever that got up to about 99* the last time I measured, slight dizziness. Heh, I thought I'd do some tidying up and run the vacuum, but stacking all the papers into one even pile used up all my spoons and I put THOSE plans aside. It was bad enough that I zonked on the couch with the TV on, which I never do. I mean, I can fall asleep with the TV on, but not at 3:00 in the afternoon.

Went to bed early and woke up feeling significantly more human. Still not 100% since my stomach still hurts, but at least I'm not crying from walking across the room.

Today is the last day of the 21 Day Challenge and I've done pretty good overall. I did break it COMPLETELY yesterday with eggs, out to breakfast with my best friend. Otherwise I chose wisely for the vast majority of my food events.

Since today is July 1 I'd like to say I'm ready to start another challenge. Possibly The Month of Zero Processed Foods. I'm not promising anything, however. I still feel like Death, Warmed Over and part of me wants to eat Zero Food right now. Though I did already have breakfast. so...

I'mma give it a day and see how I feel tomorrow. Right now it's entirely bleh and nothing sounds good. I would have called in except today is my first day on my new shift and I didn't want to inconvenience the team and I'm really not THAT bad. Just a bit puny.

Oh man...hope I'm done with this by tomorrow, because SANTANA! I've been excited about it since I bought the tickets in February. ya babay!

[bunsofaluminum]

Just listened to a TED talk about breaking bad habits. It has to do with mindfulness. Curiosity. "What is happening right now when I am reaching for this food?" and REALLY experiencing it. When smokers did this, they were able to quit a lot easier. I did lose 40 lbs with a mindfulness protocol, years ago. It requires your brain to LITERALLY be "in the game" though which I was able to maintain for a while in my usual "hyper focus mode" until I was done with it, and have never gone back. But I lost those 40 lbs eating "whatever I wanted" (which btw did NOT include donuts because ew...A donut is NASTY to focus on and REALLY experience. )

Now, I am not about to go all "eat whatever I want woo hoo" on myself, BUT I think this could be a useful tool in this whole thing. Seriously, the amount of food I eat without stopping to be grateful, or even appreciate. I can do better.

Also, a note on calorie density. In this heat, I have been enjoying a couple of otter pops in the afternoons. I'll have maybe three between getting home from work and going to bed. Light and refreshing. Flavorful and zero fat. Well when I looked at the chart for calorie density sugar is QUITE high isn't it. Bummer. Gonna have to think about putting my beloved otter pops aside. Boo.

I wonder what's going to flip the switch for me

Still feeling it in my guts, but I think I'm coming out of that icky crud. It's the strangest thing...feels like I should be having diarrhea, but almost the reverse into constipation. I still think it was a mild case of food poisoning. Who knows how long the pasta salad had been in my daughter's fridge. *sigh*

[Lyndzie]

I just did some math for you. Good news: Otter pops have a calorie density of 400 cal/lb.

[bunsofaluminum]

I just did some math for you. Good news: Otter pops have a calorie density of 400 cal/lb.

Hahahaha! I didn’t even think about the amount of water in otter pops! Woot!
You rock Lindsey!

[bunsofaluminum]

SANTANA!!!

Yes I shook my booty all night long. Yes my knees are mad at me today, and it was WORTH IT! A few years ago, "go to a Santana Concert" made it onto my bucket list. When I realized the awesome danceability of his music I knew I had to get to see him live AND I DID!

My word, that man is creative, skilled, and passionate. And he puts on a SHOW. The energy was amazing. Well, with a crowd of 20,000 there's going to be energy, eh? Okay I don't know for sure that there were 20,000 in the crowd, but that venue holds 20,000 and it looked completely packed to me. Thing is, with Santana you can't NOT dance. The beat just picks you up and moves you. It was amazing! He played several "radio" hits, but also incorporated the themes from other popular songs into the playing of music that I wasn't familiar with. And of course, the music just flowed. It didn't matter if it was familiar or not. It packed the air, shook my core, and carried me. SO so good!

They played for a solid two hours, and then we waited for traffic to die down, so we didn't get away until midnight. Then we were starving so we stopped at a diner. I had French toast. It was yummy.

Oh. I stepped on the scale this morning, and did lose one more pound in the June 21 Day Challenge. This is one pound down from the 8 I managed to pack on in my out of control May nonsense. So...good for me!

Going to print up the calorie density chart. Going to eat from the lightest calorie density foods.

[bunsofaluminum]

I found a VERY useful calorie density chart.





I like this because it is vegan, including the highly processed fake meats and cheeses, along with oils etc that are officially "vegan" and also, because the delineation between calorie light foods at the top of the chart and the calorie dense foods beneath is CLEARLY non-processed vs. processed. All the calorie light foods on the chart are whole, non-processed foods. "Dairy and Meat Substitutes" is the top layer of the denser foods in this graph. It is really easy to see the delineation. Calorie light foods are all non-processed. Though nuts ARE whole foods, they are still listed in this chart as being high calorie density. In fact, the website has a guide for the color coding on the right column. It was created for people who are transitioning, so the gray sections are foods that people might eat as they take steps to improve. The creator of this chart does recommend nuts and seeds, so that is why they are included. Well, McDougall also doesn't exclude a small amount FOR HEALTHY/CORRECT WEIGHT individuals.

Anyway, as this chart makes clear at a glance, when you step into the refined/processed foods, calorie density increases. Of course, I already know this, but it's very cool having it displayed graphically. Dairy and Meat Substitutes is not something I normally consume (except maybe a little bit of almond milk in the occasional soup recipe) so it's almost shocking to see it. Because McDougall already eliminates fake meat, the list by Jeff doesn't include them. For some reason, that "layer" just jumps out at me and makes a firm break between non-processed and processed.

Heh, also notice, "grain based foods" is MORE calorie dense than fake meats and cheeses...grain based foods including my low fat saltines and pretzels. Hmmm

very useful.


from this webpage https://ucdintegrativemedicine.com/2017/11/energy-density-important/#gs.n98foz

[bunsofaluminum]

I feel so strong this morning! First of all, I ate 100% compliant yesterday ON A HOLIDAY! Granola w.banana and cherries for brekkie (I had it with almond milk...high calorie density) and lunch was grilled zucchini and portobello w/rice on the side and a green salad with Five Bean Salad instead of salad dressing. And for dinner, mashed potatoes w/Cali blend vegs. A little bit of bbq sauce for flavor. And I didn't eat chocolate! Considering it felt like Saturday all day, and I went to get some a couple of times but DIDN'T!

And! I worked out before breakfast. 30 minutes of cardio and weights using fat stores instead of glycogen for fuel! Yah, I feel good. The best of it really is that I didn't indulge ON A HOLIDAY Other than triumph in the food arena, it was a wonderful bonding day for Wylie and me. We haven't had an entire day just to ourselves in a long time and we made it happen yesterday. He grilled for lunch, and we sat outside to eat without the dog underfoot (I think the world of my mom's dog Lakota, but we didn't want him underfoot while we cooked and breathing on our knees while we ate so we kept him out of the yard) and after lunch, several hours of extremely high quality together time. Just wonderful. We took a walk in the evening, essentially around the block, but we did get a chance to say hey to my brother who was working the closing shift at our local Shop n Go gas station/c-store.

Oh, another really good thing that I did for myself yesterday was sitting outside with my coffee. I kind of hid myself where good ole Lakota wouldn't be able to see me and yip to come outside, and read our beekeeping for beginners book, and watched the opening scene of a summer morning in the suburbs. I had been badly needing some serious alone time outside and I got it. Wylie was up flipping through the channels, and my mom was doing her crossword with the TV on in the background in the upstairs...and I was sitting out back watching hedgerow life. A squirrel whose main route involves the cable that runs across the back, a pine tree, and a small fruit tree...he dashes along the cable, skips over a few branches through the pine tree, down into the fruit tree. Then he reappears going the opposite direction, with an unripe (apricot?) in his mouth, and takes it ... somewhere on the other end of the cable LOL. I watched that over and over. A robin who came several times to a lilac bush less than 25 feet from me, worm in beak, dived into the lilac, and dashed back out again, worm-free. I didn't hear the pipping sounds of a nest though, which makes me think the mate is brooding and he is bringing her food. SO cool! All in a cool breeze, on the coolest July 4 we've had in 30 years. (Seriously folks, Snowbird was open yesterday for skiing. People were skiing in their Red White and Blue...swimsuits, halter tops and shorts, tank tops. )

So that was a lovely relaxing half hour or so all by myself, in the outdoors on a cool summer morning. SO healing. I'm grateful to the depths of my spirit for the day I had. Amazing how stress free I am today. It was a perfect day!

I'm ready to keep going strong. Loving the meal ideas from the First Book. It feels like I'm really "in" right now and I love it!

[bunsofaluminum]

omigosh I did well again over the weekend! This has been a real issue for me, as I've been giving myself "permission" to eat off plan on the weekends for a long time. Not that I went batshiz crazy but still...having butter on my toast on Saturday or eating M&M's while watching TV, etc. Things I'd stay away from during the week. And this past weekend the ONLY off plan item I had was chocolate. No nut butters, no "little taste" of my mom's alfredo or "just a few" tortilla chips. Actually...nothing refined and processed. Nothing with oil in the ingredients!

And this morning after working out, I had a cold baked potato and when I got to work about 30 minutes early, I had some instant steel cut oatmeal w. a little bit of sugar on it. AKA: no BelVita! No fig Newtons!

Good workout. Twenty minutes on the recumbent and about 10 on the weights. I hated the weights today...I went in at 7:15ish, which you'd think people would be on their way to work hello? But the place was packed and the circuit area where I like to do my weights had four freaking people in there! It feels like bumping into people constantly. Like...well, she's on the abs machine so I guess I'll do the press. Or...she needs the bicep curl so I can't stay past the red light. It's one of the reasons gym memberships and I don't last all that long, most times.

But I managed to get to all the upper body machines, avoided the leg machines, and simply couldn't do it anymore when it was time for the abs machine. Too many people, so I got outta there. But I feel terrific. Pushed myself nice and hard for my cardio, and challenged myself with the weights. They say it's the right weight if you reach exhaustion by the eighth rep. The only one that I can't lift heavy is the shoulder press. My left shoulder doesn't like it, so that one is set at 10lbs. The others are all 30 or more, and the lat pulls and rowing are at 70. I like to get to the "noodle arms" stage When your cell phone is too heavy to lift, you know you've challenged yourself. Sometimes I see gals putting their weights at 15 lbs and want to giggle. Hello? If you're a mom, every time you pick up your toddler...or a diaper bag, or even your own purse, you're lifting more than 15 lbs. Put it at 40, gal! You ain't gonna bulk up. Promise.

Tomorrow, aiming for 30 on the recumbent.

Family reunion today. I made a huge quinoa salad to bring. That way I know there'll be at least one thing I can eat. It'll be good to see the cousins Wylie has a late shift and won't be there and my younger boy lives in Denver so HE won't be there.

Feeling strong!

[bunsofaluminum]

Feeling really good right now! No foot or knee pain, energized, clear calm energy in my brain. Yesterday after work was a small family reunion on MY side. Just cousins and their kids and grandkids. It was fun, and I enjoyed it a LOT. Usually there's a game of kickball but this time it was Cornhole which was enjoyable. Complicated scoring though. However, my cousin Cheri and I won woo hoo, against Daniel the Athlete of the group and his niece Kaitlynn. But I felt so good I know I would have played kickball, too.

One thing I noticed was how OLD everyone was! oy! Us cousins (my dad's three kids, and his sister's six kids) range in age from 63 down to 50 and everyone's faces were so wrinkled! Of course Aunt Dorothy and my mom in their 80's were (but I am impressed w. my aunt... she's strong and flexible. Sits on ground. Gets back up. LOL) Anyway...I don't feel that I look as old as I thought everyone else was looking, kwim? And my poor oldest cousin, Jed E. He's got kidney problems and needs dialysis, and had some heart trouble a few years ago that really aged him. He's 63 but is so weak...well, he couldn't be there yesterday because he can't travel how on earth did he get that old at that age? My uncle Jed (his dad) got pretty feeble, but not in his 60's, I don't think. Well anyway...I bet if I bothered going to a high school reunion, it'd be full of old people, too

For food, there was Subway that was bought, and salads that people brought. I made a huge batch of a quinoa salad w/lime cilantro dressing. I had one of the veggie samwiches, a big scoop of the quinoa salad, some black bean and corn salsa, and then I had seconds on the quinoa. And that is all. No chips. And this time, thank goodness, there were no vast platters of cookies. And check this out. This was a special occasion, the very type of thing that I have gotten into the habit of saying "Feast Day!" and indulging...but I didn't this time. I guess the samwich, being on white bread?

There's been some big stress in my personal life, with Wylie's control freakiness smashing up against my mom's control freakiness, and it was extremely healthy for me to spend time outside my own freaky head. What a relief, not mulling all that nonsense over and over and over for a little while. It occurs to me that focusing on "not my ownself" is extremely healthy and I need to do it more often.