Until Next Time...

 Hi friends!  Eliza Dog and I are at home in Alabama this week.  She's actually at doggie daycare right now.  She knew right where to go when I got her out of the truck.  I hope that means she likes it LOL  She will go back on Thursday.  I plan on heading to Huntsville for the day and having lunch with Lo and going to the cross stitch/quilting store.  Weigh in on Saturday went ok, I was up .4.  I have TOTALLY eaten off my plan all weekend.  I ordered pizza cause I lost track of time cutting out a new Halloween quilt for Jenna.  And yesterday Billy and I had foot long coneys from Sonic for dinner before he went back to Georgia.  But, I'm back on track this morning.  I hit up our Publix after dropping Eliza off and grocery shopped so I am good.  I picked up a pancake/waffle mix that is Keto.  I'm wanting a waffle.  I'll let you know how it tastes next week. Here's the menu plan for the week... Monday - chicken...

 WOOHOO!  I finally got lower than those 3.5 pounds I've been gaining and losing since May!  I was down 1.4 when I weighed this week.  7 pounds to go and I'll have a new first number :) With that being said, it seems like my journey with keto is doing pretty good LOL  My goal is to eat between 20-50 net carbs a day.  I've been hitting between 30-35 most days. And my sugar numbers are running in the 1-teens range.  I'm feeling pretty good. This week's menu has a couple things I've been craving.  I am super excited for tonight's meal.  It's one of the cravings LOL Monday - muffalettas.  I saw Cajun Keto Chef on Facebook make a keto friendly one in a wrap and that is what I'm doing.  Hubs will eat his on bread.  I've got some Flat Out Bread so mine should come to about 7 carbs. Tuesday - jalepeno popper chicken casserole with broccoli as a side.  This is another craving. Wednesday - Italian sausage stuffed portobellas Thursda...

 Happy Monday, friends!  I'm back with a meal plan for the week.   Let me give you a little update on where my mind is at.  I've postponed my Optavia order.  In fact, I haven't had one since May.  While I like the ease of their plan, I do not want to have to buy their food for the rest of my life.  And I see people who are in maintenance talking about how they jump back on 5 & 1 and have fuelings every so often.  Yes, I know that I will have to watch what I eat and semi-diet if I want to maintain what I lost, but I don't want to have to do it with food that costs $25 a box for 7 servings.  I've been doing some research and found a program called Weight Loss with Real Food that uses Optavia's macros and follows that formula but figures out what they can eat with real food that fits it.  That sounds great, but it's a LOT of work.  More work than I am willing to do.  I am tired of pouring over recipes and counting macros ...

 Hi friends!  I'm back with the menu for this week.  I know, I missed last week's menu.  Last week was rough.  I didn't feel good.  I didn't really menu plan.  I didn't eat enough veggies.  All of that equaled the scale going up on weigh in day. I'm not even upset because of that.  I'm more upset that my sugar was off sooooo much during the week and I felt bad because of it.  When the readings were between 121-127 I had the most horrible headaches.  I had a headache for 4 days.  I told Billy was tired of my head hurting.  Thankfully, yesterday and today I am feeling better and my sugar is around 119. On to the menu...I really want some turkey.  Like Thanksgiving Day turkey.  So, that is definitely on the menu this week. Monday - slow cooker chicken teriyaki with riced cauliflower and zucchini and squash Tuesday - turkey breast and a broccoli casserole Wednesday -  tacos Thursday - chicken strips and a Medite...

 Hello, Friends!  I'm back with another weekly menu.  I know, I missed last week.  I didn't feel too good at the beginning of the week and then after I was busy the rest of the week and missed coming back to chat.  Weigh in was good for the last two weeks.  I lost 2.6 over them.  BUT, I ate off plan over last weekend and truthfully was up 3.2 on Monday morning when I started the Summer Slim Down Challenge in the Optavia group I'm in.  So since Monday I have lost 4.5 at the writing of this.  And if you notice, there is a correlation between eating off plan, not feeling good and weighing more.  One day I might learn that my body doesn't do well with certain foods. Speaking of the Summer Slim Down Challenge, they challenged us to set two goals, one scale victory and one non-scale.  My scale victory is to be down 10 pounds (13.9 if you count where I started on the 1st). I'm looking at numbers I have not seen since 2015ish. My non-scale ...

  Happy Monday, friends! It's a chilly overcast day in west Texas.  It actually looks like rain clouds, and the radar confirms that it is.  Rain is RARE out here.  Cold fronts come through and all we get is hurricane force winds, no rain.  So, I'm excited for the possibility of rain.  If only I had a tin roof to listen to it come down on *sigh* As I said in my last post, last week's menu went to hell in a handbasket.   I made good food choices, just not what I planned.  Hubs requested "red neck food, not your fancy diet stuff".  So, let's see what's on the menu for this week... Monday - hamburgers and fries.  I'll eat mine without a bun in a lettuce leaf and I'll have zucchini fries instead of potato fries. Tuesday - roast and gravy, potatoes and carrots.  I'll do mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes. Wednesday - Mardi Gras chicken and shrimp.  I didn't get it last week so it's getting cooked this week. Thursday -...

  Another 1.1 pounds gone!  Admittedly, this week's menu has gone out the window.  I realized I had ground pork (it turned out to be Italian sausage) in the fridge that I needed to cook and we ordered out Thursday night.  I did have a grilled chicken salad with the takeout.  The ground pork/Italian sausage was made into eggroll in a bowl.  Honestly, I was disappointed with it.  It could have been cause it was sausage and not pork.  I may try that recipe again at a later date and see if that was the problem.  Tonight we are having ham tetrazzini.  Hubs gets noodles and I am doing mine over spaghetti squash.  Tomorrow we are eating out - Hubs said it was going to be a pancake night which means he's had a rough week.   Until next time...

Accountability post!  But it really feels like I'm at the principal's office tattling on someone, myself, knowing I'm going to get in trouble.  When in actuality I made a choice and I don't regret it.  Well, maybe a little.  And no one is going to fuss at me about it. Hubs and I went eat at Texas Roadhouse last night. I ordered the portobello chicken with a salad and fresh veggies. Not bad on plan. I didn't eat the carrots in the veggie mix. HOWEVER,  I ate 1/2 a roll and 5 snake bites. If you're unfamiliar with their snake bites it's a fried cheese ball and it comes with ranch dressing to dip in. I left the restaurant with a headache from the spike in my sugar due to the carbs. I told Hubs that while it tasted good it wasn't worth the headache.  Lesson learned.   Until next time...

 Hi Friends!  Since my last post in February I have started a new health plan.  I am DETERMINED to get off my meds and feel better.  I have a friend that has lost 142 pounds!  She has managed to get her Type 2 diabetes under control, in fact, she's off the medication completely!  She's also gotten off her blood pressure meds.  I am in awe.  I reached out to her to see what she has done and she told me she is on the Optavia plan. I told her to sign me up LOL  I am on Week 5 and I have lost 7.1 pounds!  I am super happy with the results so far.  I'm at a number on the scale that I haven't seen since Harley graduated from high school in 2018!  I have more energy and my blood sugar numbers are lowerand staying more stable. The Optavia plan is a low carb diet that they call 5&1.  You eat five "fuelings" and 1 lean & green meal each day. And drink LOTS of water.  The goal is to eat every 2-3 hours to keep your blood...

 Well, hello there!  It's been a hot minute since I've visited with you.  Lots has changed in the last year and several months.   We've had two marriages in the family - Daughters 1 and 3.  Daughter 1 got married in January of 2022.  She and Grant had a wonderful private event at my mom's house with just immediate family.  Daughter 3 had an even more private event since she and Jarrett stopped by the library in the city they live in and got married while out running errands.  It was just the two of them and they've been happily married for almost a month now.  Hubs got a new job with a new company in October.  His new position allowed me to quit my job and once again be a stay at home mom.  Except since all the girls are out of the house I guess I'm a stay at home wife LOL  And since the girls are all out of the house, I am traveling with him as he goes around the country to work!  Currently we are in west Texas as he...

 We have been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!  Spring has finally come to north Alabama and we have been taking advantage of the warmer temps.   The front of the house has been an eyesore for several years.  The girls have parked in the yard so much that I had absolutely NO grass, just a dirt pile.  I have been asking for grass for about 3 years now LOL  I finally got it!  Hubs and I spent a weekend tilling and adding topsoil and planting grass seed.  Of course, we put hay to cover it.  It's been 2 weeks and I finally have little blades of grass showing up.  We also put in a walkway from the main walk to the driveway.  I LOVE IT! We also planted some hydrangeas in front of the porch, and some gardenias in front of Harley's room.  I had to put in a red crepe myrtle on the corner of the house.  I can't wait for them to bloom!  I need to pull the ivy off the house behind the gardenias.  I am not sure where that...

So, it's been a couple of weeks. Here's how that's been going....  I started, and quit, a fitness challenge that was supposed to run from Memorial Day to July 4.  I did really good the first week and a half.  I swam, I walked, I did some belly dancing and pilates.  Then, my girls got home and we came to Hubs's cabin on the river and I got a little lazy (read that to say I got a LOT lazy).  We did some walking outside but it's so stinking hot and the driveway here is a mountain. Since this is like being in BFE, phone service is limited and we've gone WAAAAY over the data on the jetpack, so even Youtube exercise videos are out of the question at the moment.  I need to just make myself exercise.  But I'm weak.  And lazy.  And I must do better. Food wise, I've been doing AH-MAZ-ING!  Sticking to my points, not snacking too much, making healthy choices.  Monday was weigh in day, but alas, no scale here so that will  have t...

Good Morning!   Yes, I'm one of *those* people.  The ones who are unusually happy and greet everyone with a "good morning".  I use to teach with a lady that would look at me and say, "It's just morning.  There isn't anything good about it cause we're at school."  I'd just smile in response. Because, really?  What is there to say to that? So, I said I was going to try oatmeal this morning.  And I have.  And the jury is still out on whether or not I like it.  I know, you're wondering why I'd try oatmeal if I don't like it.  Or better yet, you're wondering how I've never tried oatmeal before.  Well, let me explain... I'm a Southerner.  Born in southeast Texas, raised in coastal Louisiana, currently shacking up in Alabama. I joke and say you couldn't get much more southern than me since I'm from below I-10 (if you don't understand that, look at the map up there). In fact, I've never lived north of  ...

Chocolate chip cookie dough fudge.  Yeah, yeah.  I know that doesn't sound like it goes with the all the diet talk from yesterday. That would be correct, oh wise one.  But in my defense I did use fat free sweetened condensed milk.  You couldn't even tell.  And the sweetened condensed milk was still good enough to eat with a spoon. Which I did. But only 3 spoonfuls. Then I covered it and put the rest in the fridge for later HAHAHA And I only ate one piece of fudge.  It hit the spot. I'll send some home with Lauren for her and Graem to enjoy. So, to even out the fudge, I made skinny chimichangas and steamed broccoli.  It was tasty.  Lauren and I weren't too sure about the chimichangas and how only 1/2 pound ground meat would make dinner, but it easily made 4 chimichangas.  I was surprised.  And now I have lunch for tomorrow :) In case you're wondering, I got the recipe for the Skinny Chimichangas off of Kitchme ...

It's been a LOOOOONNNGGGG while since I've been here.  Apparently, it's been *whispers* five years.  What's been going on with you in that time?  Well, I'm still reading...and writing reviews.  I'm still on GoodReads, but I run a romance book blog with my bestie Amanda.  Check us out... Two Girls with Books .  We have a good time with that.  I haven't been in the classroom in a couple of years, but I did apply for a couple of teaching jobs just over the weekend.  And I still have my lovely family :) My girls have all but grown up.  If you remember, I have 5 girls.  My oldest is living in Louisiana with her two children (yep, I'm a Mimi now).  The second one just re-enrolled in college, she's 24.   I have her junior class picture on here somewhere LOL  She'd DIE if she knew I had that posted.  The middle one lives in Huntsville and works at The Walking Company.  They have great shoes and she gets an amazi...