Vicky Learns to Cook

  Motivational Poster #6 Got through the day with exactly as I planned meals.  It helps that I went right from small group to gardening to dinner/  Helps to keep busy! Great dinner, too. Pork aux Champignons. Yum! Have a good Monday tomorrow.  --Vicky

  Motivational poster #6.  So lessons from today:  Everyone needs to see their friends now and then or they will start going crazy. Seeing them is very cathartic, even if you need to wear a mask.  Don't drink coca cola or pepsi   - it leads to desserts and late breakfasts. It's a gateway drink.  I'm now ordering the meals I ate as a child at McDonalds. I feel I've come full circle. The toys are crap.  That is all.  Enjoy your weekend! Vicky

  Motivational Poster #5 I suppose this might be a good idea, if you need to lose say 26 pounds, you put 26 pennies in one jar label it "To Lose" then an empty jar saying "Lost!!" that you can move the pennies to as you lose.  I might try that. I don't weigh in until Monday.  I've been focusing more on what I eat after dinner and why.  It seems whenever I have a bad day, I tend to wait until I'm alone and dive into the cookies, candies, cheese, bagels. Anything full of calories.  It makes me feel better for a small time. I feel comforted, full.  But it comes with a price - feeling emotionally distraught at my lack of control, my inability to stop, and just plain angry at myself.  And then my body doesnt really like all those calories, making me feel bloated and crampy.  I had enough calories at my main meals today that I dont feel the need to snack, the urge isn't there. I havent gotten there yet, but I'm hoping to hit the sweet spot of knowing e

  Motivational Poster #4 Not a bad day yesterday.  I just had no desire to eat this morning, but probably because I was tired.  A good workout does that to you.  I still ate, don't get me wrong, I just chose an egg over toast instead of sugary cereal, because if I'm not dying for Honey Nut Cheerios, I might as well eat something good for me.  I tried yesterday to remember Jared while working out. I've been so self conscious about my fat rolls as I move through the workouts that it's been distracting me. So instead, I kept him in mind, how he did it anyway, knowing that one day he wouldnt have the fat rolls to contend with if he kept moving. It helps.  Attitude is everything. Letting go of having to be already "done" before working out is not very helpful, it turns out. Who would have guessed? Between the two martial arts classes I have a lot of new material to practice so that will make it easier to find something to do for my workout.  When you talk about los

  Motivational Poster #3 Ugh. Setback.  I was just plain HUNGRY last night.  Looking back, I didn't eat a lot at dinner then went to my Tai Chi class. But I'm sure I ate way more calories than I worked off. Once I got into that mode, I didnt want to stop eating.  I've banned cookies and popsicles from myself at this point. I will have to limit my cheese to 1 oz and my chocolate to 1 oz.  But after reading up on setbacks, I'm told not to beat myself up, just keep swimming. Maybe reduce my intake by 200 calories a day for the rest of the week (hence the no cookies policy). Maybe up my exercise intensity and/or length a bit (built in, Iaido is pretty intense).  I just have to ensure I keep exercising Thursday, Friday, and Monday. I have martial arts classes Tues, Weds and Sat so that takes care of those days. And Sunday is take it easy day, so maybe just a walk with the dog.  *checks weather, sees heat wave for thursday* Okay so a 7am walk planned for tomorrow. Sweeeet. Lu

  Motivational Poster #2 Hello again, World.  I watched a video last night.  Jared, the man in the video was 500+ lbs. He had red fuzzy hair and glasses. It takes him so very long to make progress, but he does. He talks of all his difficulties, feeling low self worth, getting bullied.  He inspired me more than most other videos.  Because for me, one of the fantasies of "when I lose weight" is that it will fix everything; my relationships, my skin, my hair, I will suddenly become a fashionista, I will become popular and well liked by everyone, they will all be so proud of me and amazed by my accomplishments.  This guy plugged along, day after day, for 15 months.  And when he was done, his hair stayed fuzzy and he kept the glasses. He didn't become a fashion plate or suddenly get married or have lots of beautiful people around him as so many ads imply. He was the same guy, just thinner, healthier, and smiling. He was proud of himself. (This is all we know from the video). 

                                                                                      Motivational Poster #1 Hello World.  How's the pandemic treating you lately? Me? Sick of being overweight, I set a weight loss goal and plugged it into my weight loss app. It told me I would likely meet my goal by November 26th. Thanksgiving, essentially. That seems so far away. It's only August. (Sigh.) I counted weeks and it was 14. That seems far away too. 97 days. Ugh. This isn't helping. There aren't enough motivational posters. I mean. Are there?   97 is a lot, right? Except that there are. I found 97 posters. Can you believe it? Just how many people were trying to lose weight like me, anyway?   I looked it up. Turns out 49% of Americans are trying to lose weight right now.  Multiply that by 328 million Americans... that's 164 million people are trying to lose weight, give or take.  Jeez.  So... to keep myself on track,  I could post every day for the next 97 days and theore

 This is just a quick update for my non Facebook friends:  Had an onsite meeting with a lot of my team today, it had been 6 mos since I've seen any of them. We had the temp test in the parking garage, answered questions, got a fresh mask, had to drive through a line of cones to go where we could park, I was able to plug in my car, then went upstairs in the nearly empty building, only to find that the room we got - they turned off power to that part of the building. I thought...is this a joke? Am I being punked? Eventually found my team wandering around looking for a new room with power and lights and AC. It was a good meeting and we had a few laughs. See you all again in 2 more months... or more.... But for now, back to WFH. Im off to make a Grad party cake for my Daughter. Party's tomorrow! See you laters. V.

 Despite his annoying habit of trying to eat everything, and begging with sad eyes on a daily basis, Otis is a good boy. And he deserves to have treats, which he loves so much.  I kept meaning to buy them, even going to two different stores, but I ended up forgetting both times.  I had a sweet potato left from my veggie box, so I  decided to make the Sweet Potato Treats from my cookbook.  Otis very much approves and was ignoring his food bowl, staring at me expectantly waiting for another treat. I told him no, he has to eat his kibble first.  He sulked a bit.  But now he is eating the kibble. I'm sure I will get the expectant look again in a moment. And a growling "aarrooooo- fff." I have two other kinds of treats to make him. Little does he know he is a taste tester for the cookbook.  Dinner tonight for us humans was Meatloaf, Smashed potatoes with garlic, and buttered corn. Pretty good stuff except the family had other plans.  Well I liked it anyway. :) Hope you had a g

 I'm a bad daughter.  It's already 1030pm and I didnt call my mom. I meant to at 7.  I just got so engrossed in the cookbook project that I started last week, that I just could not stop tinkering with it. The project will be to create a cookbook that the modern working cook can use to answer the question, "What's for Dinner?" It's 539 pages. I know, I know. It's very long. It took two binders and a ream of paper, but I got it created, printed, and numbered so I can find my way around. That was Phase 1.  Phase 2 is the testing phase.  I started that tonight too. I plan to try every recipe at least once. If perfect the way it is, it is labeled with the date and we move on. If it needs help, it could be tested over and over and over until it's right. This could take a while. I'm trying not to think about that.  I also want to make sure that the combinations work, like the main plus sides. And desserts. And drinks. I'm excited because I really am t

Test Kitchen Sundays:  I was talking to a friend of mine about Sundays being the test kitchen day in both of our houses when I realized I didn't try something new and today is Sunday. I know because Mom and I have a new tradition where we call each other on Sundays. If we talk any longer though, I may have to start talking to her on Saturday! (And this is a good thing <3) What to make? I thought about maybe doing the things on the recent list of "have you ever made these from scratch" that I hadn't made, but quickly realized there was a REASON I didn't make them. There is no point in cooking or baking something if the eaters turn up their noses and leave the room at the mere mention of it, myself included.  The idea of running around looking at all my cookbooks was overwhelming.  So I thought back to the last thing I saw that really looked interesting and yummy, and I remembered the chocolate almond cake from the movie Julie and Julia. I checked but the movie d