Blah

Today was a blah day.

You know.  One of those days that just can't seem to go well, no matter what.

I have a sinus infection.  Blah.

It was hard to get up and get going this morning.  Blah.

Talking to students all day ran my throat ragged and now I have a 'sicky' voice.  Blah.

Dealing with crying first graders and hyper/frustrated third graders.  Double blah.

Really, it all boils down to not feeling well.  If I could just flush away this crummy feeling cold with gallons of water, I'd drink every drop!

As it is, feeling blah brings on binge eating of the worst sort.  I don't feel good, so I eat ice cream.  even though I know that is the WORST possible thing to eat right now.  (Dairy fats congest me, that's why I drink fat free milk)  And since cold symptoms keep me from wanting to work out, too... it's a double whammy.

So, I have to pick myself up out of the proverbial gutter and give myself a good shaking.  I'm going to have to have an iron will to make myself drink tons of water, eat my veggies, and avoid sugar if I want to heal quickly so I can stay on my plan.

Why is it so easy to give myself these little pep talks AFTER I've had the sugar?  And so freakishly impossible during a craving?

Heavy sigh.

For the Love of Avocados

Friday night is date night.  So I waited for Bill to get home.  And waited.  And waited.

He arrived home from work at 9:15 pm.

Poor guy!

It was a cold, snowy, miserable, frustrating, and never ending work day for him.  He quickly showered and we headed out to find some dinner for our date.  We weren't optimistic, though.  It was just after 9:30 ... closing time for our favorite, Rubio's.

When we got there, the doors were locked.  They were closed.  We walked back to the car to leave and try to find an option B that was still open.

That's when it happened.

The manager, Luis, came hurrying out of the restaurant to invite us inside for dinner.

I tried to tell him it was OK, that they had already started their clean up and they didn't need to go to any extra effort for us, but he wouldn't hear of it.  He insisted.

So we did.

That was the best dinner!

They brought us out a plate full of chips, pico, and guacamole.  I mean it was loaded!  We hadn't ordered it, they just felt we'd like to have it while we waited for our food.  Luis said they'd just have to throw it out anyways, so we might as well enjoy it.

My tacos were so overloaded that I couldn't finish them, but, OH!  They were fabulous!  And an extra side for our chips?  A bowl full of guacamole.  Not a cup... a BOWL.

We love avocados.  I mean, really LOVE AVOCADOS!  We buy 8-10 of them every week and usually run out before the end of the week.

So here's another shout out to Rubio's Fresh Beach Mex!  They really are the best!

Sugar Report No. 2

Well, I had very little trouble during the week, just as I had predicted.  Most days were no sugar days, other days I followed my plan and drank 16 oz. of water and waited 15 minutes.  Though that didn't pan out quite like I thought it would.

You see, I was driving around with Helena and Megan on Friday afternoon.  We decided to stop at Sonic for drinks because they have this beautiful daily 'Happy Hour' special from 2:00 to 4:00 where all drinks are 1/2 price.  It was 3:45.  I knew that if I waited the 15 minutes before ordering the drink, I'd end up paying full price.

That's no good.

So, I ordered water... and a cherry limeade.  I drank the water and waited 15 minutes, but I was already committed to drinking the sugary treat.  My original thought was that if I drank water and waited 15 minutes I could probably talk myself out of having the sugar all together.

That was a fail.  Still.  Forcing myself to put those extra steps in front of my sugar consumption did stop me from eating something sugary on several occasions this week.  So it wasn't a total fail and I will keep it up!

After church today, Bill had his gluten free sugar cookie with a glass of milk.  Oooh!  That looked good!

So, I made sugar cookies.

Bad bad.

I didn't even drink my water or wait 15 minutes before sampling the dough or eating a couple of cookies.

You have to know how rare it is for me to bake anything, though!  Baking almost always requires flour, which is a major contaminant in our kitchen.  If I am going to use flour and the mixer, I have to be willing to wipe down and decontaminate my entire kitchen afterwards to avoid letting any gluten work its way into Bill's diet.

It was worth it, though.  I think.  I have a plate full of cookies and a Norman Rockwellian sort of image in my brain of my kids coming home from school tomorrow and sitting down to a plate of milk and cookies before tackling homework.

Now, here is my final thought for this September 11th.  I took a picture of the 'Service Flag' and our American Flag as seen through our front window.  The blue field is on the right because the flag is meant to be viewed from the street, where the blue field will show to the left, which is proper.

The Sugar Report

So, last week I made the comment that I needed to drastically cut down on my sugar consumption as a means of helping myself lose weight.  I am writing to report on my progress so far.

I am an abysmal failure!  At least, for this week.

I was probably setting myself up for failure thinking that I could try to cut back on sugar right before Labor Day weekend.  I ate a full theater sized box of Hot Tamales, half a box of Gobstoppers, two chocolate shakes, a bowl of ice cream, and several sodas over the past four days.

YIKES!

Sugar is a powerfully addictive thing.  It is all around us constantly.  I think the only thing keeping me from a diabetic coma is my level of exercise (and, no, I am in no danger of developing diabetes).  Why oh WHY does it have to taste so much better than vegetables?!?

I am going to make a new rule.

If I am going to eat something obscenely sugary (yogurt and stuff like that doesn't count), I have to first consume 16 oz. of water and wait 15 minutes.  If I still want it after that, I can have it and NOT feel guilty about it!

This rule will be easy during the week.  The weekends are my 'Achilles heel'.

Wish me luck.  I'll report back on this in a week.