Black Bean Salsa

Here is a great recipe that I'm taking to the New Year's Eve party.

Black Bean Salsa

2 can black beans, drained & rinsed
2 cans Ro-Tel diced tomatoes with chiles, drained
2 cups White Shoepeg corn, drained
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
fresh cilantro, chopped
2 shakes ground cumin
salt & pepper to taste
1-2 teas. minced garlic
About 1/2 bottle of Red Wine Vinaigrette Dressing

Combine all ingredients and chill at least 3 hours. High in fiber and full of good ingredients! This is great with Scoops or added to anything! Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 28

For Tuesday, my two choices will be to:
Replace a meal with a smoothie and
Drink all of my water.

I will also add a third to my list today...... Ta Da......
I will take my vitamins!!! I already have them out and ready!

I heard some good advise today. If you fail to plan, then you're planning to fail.

For my New Day Resolution, I will PLAN!!!

The New Starting Point

I have gained back 2.7 pounds since December 16. That puts my current weight at 247.1. I don't like it, but then again, it could be worse. When I was going to Weight Watchers, it could go up that much in a week. Now it's two weeks, plus it was the Christmas holiday. I think this gain will come off right away and I'll be able to maintain that loss.

Earlier this year my goal was to get below 250, which I have met and thankfully, maintained. Now, my goal is to get below 225. I KNOW it will happen! Maybe I will even see below 200 this year. Oh, to be in the 100's again! There's a reason it's called ONEderland!!!! I think I weighed around 190 when we moved to the horse farm in 1993. I thought I would lose weight with all the activity of owning a farm and raising animals. But for some reason, I didn't lose. I had my hysterectomy in 1996, and I thought that would "cure" everything. Now, I think it was probably the beginning of the permanent gain that I've dealt with since then.

I was never really overweight until the 1990's. I thought I was fat at 160!!! Then, life seems to hit you in the face, marriage takes a nose dive, a parent dies, jobs change. I can look back and see that the first big gain was in the early 90's. I was depressed and went on Prozac. That cause a huge gain, then the move to the country, then the hysterectomy, then more depression and Prozac. It all happened before I knew it. Then life changes again....children grow up and move out, another move from country to town, taking care of another elderly parent, more job changes. NOW is the time for me to take control back and LOVE this stage in my life. The stage where I will lose weight, be more confident, and gain back the self-esteem that has been hidden behind this fat for so long! Today is the beginning!!!!

New Day Resolutions

In the spirit of the new year, I am resolving not once, but 365 times, to begin again. Every day I will begin with my "New Day Resolution" and have 1 or 2 things I will resolve to do that day. If I fail once, I haven't blown the whole year. I can start again tomorrow! It is one more way that I'm going to be gentler with myself and my {SLOW} weight loss. I will weigh in on Monday, December 27 to see what my new "beginning" weight is, every day I will choose 2 things from this list that I will complete that day. This list will be added to throughout the year to create more challenging things for me, but for now, so that I will not fail, I will start with these:

Drink 8 glasses of water.
Eat 4 fruits/veggies
Replace a meal with a salad.
Replace a meal with a smoothie.
Walk on the treadmill 15 minutes.
Work out on the home gym.
Make 4 extra trips up and down the stairs.
Take my vitamins.
Use my dumbbells for upper body strength.
Drink green tea.

OK, so I do some of these every day anyway. This is not meant to be a challenge every single day, it is meant to keep me feeling successful and motivated. As I need new challenges (that IS the goal!) I will add them...but only so that I remain successful! Failure is NOT an option! Happy New Year!

Wahoo!

A WAHOOO is in order, and somehow I don't feel like that's enough. I just walked and jogged 1.5 miles and worked out on the gym machine. It doesn't sound like much, but I pushed myself to do that last half mile, because I only intended to go a mile. Plus, I worked out on the Gold's Gym. I had to push myself past my comfort level. Did I like it? No. Am I glad I did? YES! Go me!!! It feels really good to say that!

Dairy

I didn't realize until I was cooking for company the other night just how many dairy products I use. Into the baked ziti went a pound of ricotta, a half pound of mozzerella, and a few ounces of parmesan. In addition, the corn casserole had a half pound of sour cream. Oh, and the dip for the veggies also had sour cream.
Then the following evening I was cooking for a family from church, and I made my hubby's favorite "cheese potatoes". (A dish for them, and a dish for hubby.) Thankfully, I don't eat the cheese pototoes, but they are made with butter, milk and VELVEETA. How can a processed cheese that is shelf stable before opening be ANY good for a person? Sure, it tastes good, but most of that taste is salt.
Dairy in all that excess tastes wonderful, and company loves it, but it just packs on the pounds under the guise of being "healthy" because dairy is supposed to provide vitamin D. Well, I have to give myself a little pat on the back for recognizing this fact, and now that I'm aware of it I will be sure to watch it. I make my own homemade yogurt from skim milk, but I am going to try almond milk or rice milk the next time. I will let you know how it turns out.

900 Mile Journey

Back in 2004 I was motivated to "walk" to Canada before our upcoming fishing trip, a distance of 900 miles. I made this poster, with each wavy line having 100 dividing lines, and 9 wavy lines, equaling 900 miles. I even put familiar cities along the route so I would have an idea of how far it was. This was probably our 10th or 11th trip up there, so I was pretty familiar with those cities!


As I would walk or ride my exercise bike, I would color in the lines. Well, I created another row of wavy lines and mile marks below that first line, intending to walk to Canada again, but never got it started. Today I got out this happy little poster, even though we haven't been fishing at Pine Point for a while, and I'm going to make the 900 mile trek again! I've already got 1 mile to add to it -- today, December 1, 2010 -- a new beginning!

Beginning Photos

These are the "beginning" pictures, I just don't remember what the "beginning" weight is in these pictures. My heaviest was 272, so this is less than that, but not much. This was taken in June 2009. I now weigh 246, a loss of 26 pounds.