bunsofaluminum's journal

[Love the Lorax]

I agree - yeah on seeing the 198! Even a brief glimpse of that side of 200 must be gratifying - and it won't be long before everyday is below 200! Sometimes just a couple of pounds can be so hard, and such a victory when we make it.

[bunsofaluminum]

Today was good.

B:six grain hot cereal with brown sugar, cinnamon and banana
B2: broccoli and red potatoes w/hot mustard;
L: broccoli and red pots w/hot mustard; four bean salad
D: tossed green salad w/quinoa
D2: two baked potatoes w/hot mustard; snap peas for dessert

and I'm FINALLY FULL. I got so hungry between lunch and dinner! whew! Running errands for three hours worked me up an appetite! ha!

I went and got my new glasses. I wear trifocal graduated glasses, so the adjustment is super important, and they needed adjusting. I got them last week. You know when you get new glasses, how it feels like you're walking downhill all the time? I had that, on steroids. So, they adjusted them for me today and it's a lot better.

also went and got me a new phone. It's a sexy little flip phone by LG. I like it a LOT! The one I had was a slide phone with a QWERYTY board...ugh. Never could get used to it. But this one is just my style. And it was free My 15 year old will get the old slide phone.

I'm getting bored with the food. Wanting to find some creamy salad dressings. I can eat salad all day long, slathered in Hidden Valley Ranch MSG load, sodium based cream dressing. But 321 has lost its appeal for me, yet I DO want to eat a large salad every day. I'll have to hit the recipe archives. I'm sure there must be a soy based creamy dressing...oh! I just remembered the fresh tomato dressing from way back...hm...

still, creamy would be so nice. hm, maybe something with cannelini beans...hm...and sweet onion, dill, hmmm, almond milk? oooh, what about a good ole cucumber, pureed with some seasonings? hmmm.

oh, don't hate me, but wouldn't avocado make a good base for a creamy salad dressing? yeah, some fat, but...oooh, sounds so good! Mmm, a ripe avocado, a roma tomato or two, some soy sauce or miso, some curry! I'm drooling here.

[ncyg46]

i have two heads of romaine to use up...gonna try this one....Very Benevolent Caesar Salad
it's in one of the newsletters. I am a little out of it but just search for it..it was one of the celebrity chef weekends but it sure looks good. I still love the 3-2-1 dressing....or email me and i can send the recipe to you!
I have many more dressings but they are from ETL and full of nuts and I haven't used them in a long time......

[Birdy]

Gosh Buns, this part of one of your posts literally brought tears to my eyes:
"And part of my day was peaceful and introspective, because I spent 90 minutes planting four tomato plants, two peppers, two poor little scraggly lemon cucumbers, and a dozen marigolds. Oh! and a columbine plant. My daddy's favorite flower was the columbine. I planted it in his name. It was very good, in the vesper light, getting my hands into wet soil, blessing God's earth with fruitful and lovely plants, seeing the abundance of life all through the soil,"

Sounds like you're just doing great, cravings for creamy salad dressings aside. Congratulations on the significant weight loss - you're really making progress!

[raven]

Hi Heidi, Yeah, i think beans would make a nice creamy dressing. With lots of herbs, i'd think.

Second Breakfast, and Second Dinner, huh? But all good food, way to go!

I wear glasses too, and i know how hard it is when they are just not perfect! I'm glad you got yours fixed.

I got my last glasses at Costco, which is very far away, and my husband had to fix them for me, but he knew what he was doing.

Have a great day tomorrow, and good luck with that salad dressing.
Raven

[bunsofaluminum]

good day today, except I had a spoonful of peanut butter

B: what did I have for brekkie?
L: giant baked sweet potato
D: veggie soup
S: veggie soup
small snack: a spoonful of banana ice cream yum but it's cold out. I have a passel of the stuff made in my freezer for a hot day.

Peaceful day at work. Not real active, though. This weather. blch.

[bunsofaluminum]

oh, ugh I have got the WORST gas! and I'm at work. blch. Can't think what I ate, except two carrot sticks that I got at the discount store, which had teh very slightest sour taste, and I ditched them after the second bite of the second carrot stick. Day before yesterday.



I don't like it.

today's foods:

B: two baked potatoes w/pepper and mushroom stir fry
L: a baked potato w/soup topper
D: soup and whole wheat toast, maybe?

and it's snowing out. *sigh* spring in the mountains

I did cover my veggies, though. Old bedsheets all over my garden!

Maybe I'll be more interesting later.

[raven]

Hi Heidi, It's good to see you, whatever you have to say!
Raven

[bunsofaluminum]

what a day yesterday
when I checked my email in the morning, there was a message from someone at church, an elder/board member who has decided that they are moving "somewhere else"...that is, going to attend a different church now. It was a surprise and made me sad. It set the tone for the whole day, actually. I'm working on an inner attitude of criticism, especially when I don't know the whole story (this is also known as "judging others" and is forbidden by Jesus) ...getting this email set me up for wondering, fretting, speculating. I stopped it quickly, and didn't talk to anyone about it, except it did make me sad, and internally I was wrestling all day.

Then the horrible gas I had turned into acidic, vitriolic diarrhea that lasted all afternoon. I figure it came from an onion that I sauted for breakfast: it had a spot. I cut the onion clean in half and tossed the spotted half AND peeled back the top three layers...but a bad onion is REALLY BAD...and it got me good. Well, I got some Pepto bismol and it stopped the trips to the bathroom, but the gut ache lingered on all night. I did eat some soup for dinner.

Got off work at 4:00 and drove home feeling disjointed, icky, gross, and spacey. The traffic seemed weird to me, but that was probably because I was driving at 4:00, in an area that I usually go through at about 2:00 (my schedule is different almost every day) ... Well, I thought it was strange driving home. When I got to the corner of my street, and saw four or five police cars, and two CSI vans parked in front of my neighbor's house, three doors east of me...yeah, it didn't make my inner life more peaceful.

I saw three people standing across the street from the house in question, one of them the school girl who lives there. Not to be nosy, or anything, but I went over to see what was up? Her step-dad, my neighbor, is a botanist and landscaper, and had taken me around his yard on a tour, and I was excited for him when he got married a year ago. Was it nosy of me to go find out?

The poor child's mom was shot. Dead. Her dad was there with her, and another neighbor. I stayed only briefly, and told her she could come over any time...and then came home and cried awhile.

don't know any further details, except I think the girl found her mom dead when she got home from school. When my kids got home at 2:45 ish, there was nothing. When i got home at 4:00, things were in full swing. Sometime in that time frame, it was discovered. And that is the hour when kids are getting home from school.

Couldn't settle down. Couldn't even pray, so I called my sis and went up to her place. We went out for coffee, and I calmed down. Turned in early last night, and woke feeling a lot better.

there is nothing about any incident in the paper, so I wonder if it was a suicide? or are they keeping information quiet for a reason?

meanwhile, I'm calmer all around today, which is good. It's been a freaky couple of weeks internally.

I was proud of myself though, yesterday. there were some small bags of Ruffles that my kids had brought home, and I opened one, thinking I'd eat some. Wanting to pig out and who gives a rip? Stress levels high, and I'm gonna eat. Nope. There was a stale, rancid smell to them, so I just tossed them. All of 'em.

And I stepped on the scale and found the number a solid 198! so I changed my ticker.

Today's Plan:

B: six grain hot cereal, banana, walnuts
L: baked sweet potato and salad
S: baked sweet potato (junk food house today)
D: quinoa and stir fry saute.

going to walk today, before work. Going to walk the neighborhood and pray. Amen.

[Love the Lorax]

OH MY!!!! I am so sorry for what happened to your neighbors, and what you went through. How very scary.... Here's a cyber hug (((( ))))

I don't even know what else to say....

[sksamboots]

Hope your feeling better today

[raven]

Hi Heidi,
Wow! Talk about too close for comfort!! And couldn't pray? I'm glad you had your sister! I hope you can pray now, i'm sure those people need it. And you too! I'm sending them wishes for help and hope.

Horray for No Ruffles! They were my brand (the low fat, but still...) They ARE horrible when stale. Really!

Hey, stay well, okay? And don't pick up that bad energy down the street. Let's all just send them good energy.

Love,
Raven

[bunsofaluminum]

There is still an air of such sadness around me. The weather is low, so that makes me feel drowsy and "under" a little bit, and then the sadness of what happened at my neighbor's...suicide, surely.

I didn't go out walking yesterday, because the weather was horrid, but it isn't outright raining today, so I probably will go out walking today.

This was nice: i was up at 5:00 and took out some garbage. While I was out there, before it was light, there were robins all over the place singing. I couldn't see them, but there were half a dozen at least, calling each other from trees and yards. I stopped for a few minutes and just listened.

Yeah, I think a neighborhood prayer-walk is just the thing.

food yesterday was over the top. Well, one thing but it was big. Popcorn DRENCHED in butter. Pastured butter (from calm and happy cows in the meadow... ...that is, greasy, oily butter. A client and I shared a batch. Others had a few nibbles, but Mr C and I consumed it pretty much between the two of us.

Otherwise, all was on plan and I didn't eat the nibbles and junk at Mr E's who has pretty much all junk food all over the house all the time.

YESTERDAY:
B: six grain cereal
L: quinoa and steamed brocc w/grape tomatoes
D: baked red potato w/stir fry onion, pepper, mushroom YUM
S: HUGE amount of buttered popcorn

TODAY:
B: six grain cereal cooked w/four dates and cinnamon; sliced banana
L: baked red pot and stir fry again (baked reds are pretty dang good)
D: big salad and rice or quinoa; steamed butternut squash

no cravings for anything off plan.

okay, out into the cool damp air for a bit.

[bunsofaluminum]

YESTERDAY'S WALK

When I woke up so heavy hearted yesterday, and even quiet time alone with God wasn't changing it, I decided to go walking. I have been in the habit of going out walking and praying in the neighborhood, or just walking and enjoying being outdoors in gratitude. Yesterday, the timing could not have been more perfect, for when I got past the house where the suicide took place, I saw the husband in his back yard neighbor's driveway, and got a chance to talk to him.

Not knowing him that well, and it being very soon after the event, I hadn't knocked on his door or anything. But there he was, and i was able to give him my condolences and tell him I was praying for him, and that I felt so sad, too. The little girl was the one who found her mom though the mom tried to arrange for the girl to be hanging out with her dad all afternoon, she had come home first, before going to her dad's house...and she was the first one on the scene. Poor kid. Why did the mom do it? She was in trouble with the law and didn't want to go to JAIL. Selfish person.

I told him I was praying for him, and invited him to come over if he ever needed to talk. Then walked on, feeling sad. Walking, I prayed and sang some songs of hope. Then, turning up a side street, I saw a scraggly old cat tottering through the high grass. She looked merely very old, but as I watched, and she was having difficulty staying on her feet, I knew her to be very ill. Poor thing. sad, again. If the yard had not been gated, I would have gone and picked that cat up and taken her home...at the very least, she needed medical attention, and possibly euthanization

As I passed, the kitty made it to the front step of the house, and a man came out and was looking at her. I pray that he helped her. It made me sad.

Kept on walking, and my spirits were lifting. I felt better, and more hopeful. There is Resurrection, and God brings forth life, but death comes first.

So I walked on, randomly (?) choosing another street, because it has a slight incline for my heart rate...and still praying and singing. I saw a man working in his yard. He had on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that revealed him to be fit...that is, he had a beautiful body. Not ripped, but lean and fit. I could see the muscles in his back and it was a good sight. "Thank You for the human body, Lord. Keep him from harm. Amen."

As i went along, I noticed there were many cars parked along the sides of the road, and I could hear an auctioneer's voice over a loud speaker. There was an auction going on, in an estate. So, I stopped there for a few minutes, looking at the stuff of a lifetime. There was carnival glass, pink depression glass, and several sets of china, partial sets. Older patterns. One little stack of dishes in a pattern that depicted scenes from log cabin life. I used to own a plate in that pattern, and used it as part of a "country" decor in my kitchen. It was clearly the estate sale of someone who had... died.

This didn't make me as sad as the widower/neighbor and the ill cat, but it was another reminder that we are surrounded by death. it happens, doesn't it? Thankfully, Jesus is risen, and there is resurrection and life with Him throughout eternity.

By the time I got back home, raindrops were falling. good timing! And the puppy who lives next door was playing with the puppy who lives one house over, which was cheering and happy.

I am still assimilating the wistful, lonely feeling of yesterday and the day before, but it isn't huge sadness as it had been for a day or so. Joy comes after sorrow. There is life after death.

Hm. Sorry if this seems dreary, but I don't feel DREARY, per se. Just a little sad and wistful. It is where I am. And Jesus is here with me in it.

Today's Plan:

B: rice, sweet corn, beans, salsa
L: probably potatoes w/hot mustard and ketchup
D: salad and baked potato (Sizzler)

Activity: walking the neighborhood. I'm going to start doing that again every day. It's time.

[sksamboots]

See you officially made it to 198, yay Hope your day is good