Here we go. Steps average = 4,593. Worse than last week, better than the week before. Sigh. I didn’t have a big step day this last weekend so that doesn’t help. I haven’t been to the gym this week at all.
I have gotten on the scale some though, and am a bit dismayed to see that I’m back up to 158. Yep. I’ve zoomed from my happy low of 154, which only lasted about a minute, back up to 158. How do I even do that? Oh, um, Christmas candy and cornbread, apple fritters and Doritos, and lots of other deliciousness, that’s how.
Ok, I can get back on track there. Or I can just get fat and unhealthy again. Lots of other stuff going on in the meantime, most of it moving me in a positive direction.
AND I started a new BDSM story. I’m not going to stress on whether or not I do it every day, but I’ve set a low-bar goal of 1,000 words/week. It will be fun to see how it develops. And I did hit that goal this week, so yay for that!
Tons of work to do today – and Xmas shopping still undone. It’s going to be a light year this year, but that’s ok. The kids will get what they need and some of what they want, and all will be well. Right?
The 9th Annual Great On-line Cookie Exchange Extravaganza!!
This is one of my favorite events of the year. Sharing recipes with this community of bloggers is always interesting and fun. I love to find a recipe to share and then run around and look at everyone else’s.
Traditionally, I like to share a recipe that super easy. That’s because I’m a super basic cook/baker. If the instructions are more than 3 or 4 paragraphs long, or if they involve fancy maneuvers (beyond chopping, mixing and pouring) then I get intimidated and don’t do it. I excel at recipes like Chocolate Bark or Irish Cream that require little to no expertise. (Those are my last two years’ entries!)
This year, I decided to challenge myself by finding a dessert recipe that would be low carb enough for David and me to enjoy with a minimum of guilt. For what it’s worth, there are lots of low carb recipes out there – even for sugar cookies. (I’m about to talk nutritional facts here for a minute, skip on down to the recipe if you’re not interested.)
Of course, the low carb sugar cookies use things like almond flour and truvia or stevia, and I was concerned that they really wouldn’t be very good. I’ve had some low carb cardboard before that was just not that yummy, and I don’t have time to do a lot of experimenting with baking. So I discarded those.
I looked at some Baked Pear Halves, which were super low carb. You just cut the pears in half, scoop out the core, and put in three cranberries and a few pecan pieces, drizzle with a little bit of raw honey, sprinkle with nutmeg and cinnamon, and bake them at 375 for 25-30 minutes. That sounded pretty good, but the only thing Christmas-y about them was the cranberries, and I don’t even think I like them.
I also looked at some low-carb eggnog. That almost made the cut, but it involved almond milk, which I’m not crazy about, and whipping egg yolks, which is tricky. Besides which, I can only find one of the beaters to my egg beater so I couldn’t test it. (Don’t judge me, I moved twice in one year.)
Then I found this recipe. Yogurt Berry Trifle. And I remembered that I worked with this woman a long time ago who used to bring this to all the office potlucks we had. It was my very favorite dessert, even back then when I was not worried about carbs or calories. The red strawberries make it a little bit Christmas-y, and if you have a Christmas bowl, you could serve it in that, which would be a nice holiday touch.
Anyhow, without further ado, here it is.
YOGURT BERRY TRIFLE
PREP TIME: 20 Minutes
Angel food cake cubes float on clouds of Greek nonfat yogurt and assorted berries…
Super yummy-ness.
Ingredients
• 4 CUPS FRESH SLICED STRAWBERRIES, OR ASSORTMENT OF BERRIES (RASPBERRIES, BLUEBERRIES, SLICED STRAWBERRIES)
• 2 TBSP. SUGAR
• THE JUICE AND ZEST Of ONE NAVEL ORANGE (We love this orange twist)
• 4 CUPS CUBED ANGEL FOOD CAKE
• 3 CUPS GREEK NONFAT VANILLA YOGURT
Directions
1. MIX TOGETHER THE BERRIES, SUGAR, AND THE JUICE AND ZEST OF ORANGE, TOSSING TO COAT. SET ASIDE FOR 15-20 MINUTES.
2. IN ONE OF 6 WINE GLASSES OR GLASS BOWLS PLACE 1/3 CUP CAKE CUBES, 1/3 CUP BERRIES AND 1/4 CUP YOGURT, REPEAT PROCESS ENDING WITH FRUIT. REPEAT WITH THE REMAINING GLASSES. REFRIGERATE TRIFLES UNTIL READY TO SERVE. TOP WITH A MINT IF DESIRED.
ONE LARGE TRIFLE CAN BE MADE IF DESIRED. FOR AN EXTRA FANCY TOUCH (AND A FEW MORE CARBS) YOU CAN DRIZZLE ORANGE LIQUEUR OR AMARETTO OVER THE ANGEL FOOD CAKE. 1.5 OUNCES OF AMARETTO ADDS ABOUT 3 CARBS PER SERVING.
Serves 6
Nutrition Per Serving: 141 Calories, 29 g carbs, 0.5 g fat, 6 g protein, 2 g fiber, 200 mg sodium, 22 g sugar
Now, if you’re not used to counting carbs, that can be confusing. What about all those g’s of sugar? What the deal on fiber? I found this easy guide to counting carbs that brought it all into perspective… here.
I never thought I would be that low-carb recipe person, but life changes us in ways we never expected. Hope you enjoy the trifle – and hope you enjoy looking at everyone else’s recipes! Remember that we’re in lots of different time zones, so if someone hasn’t posted the first time you look, check back later.
We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, including acknowledging the genocide of indigenous people which underlies the establishment of this country. Then we had a Thanksgiving feast and appreciated each other and the bounty in our lives. It was just the 5 of us – me and Sir, my daughter and the grands – but we had a lovely time. And there was pie.
And other good news this week: Step Count Average is back up to 4, 565. Which may be kind of sad still, but at least it’s better than last week! As David says, “Progress, Not Perfection.”
I’m still not feeling fabulous, I have some kind of cold/cough combo that I can’t seem to shake. I went to my doctor, who did not prescribe antibiotics because it is apparently not bacterial. So I have killer cough syrup for nights, decongestants and nose spray, vitamin c and zinc. It hasn’t kept me from doing things for the most part, and I’ve only taken a few spare hours of down time. But it does keep me from feeling really good and I’m wracked with coughing fits that are miserable for me and probably for everyone one around me too.
In any case, as I count my blessings, know that this blogging community and each of you is on my list of “What I’m Grateful For…”
As it gets cooler, the allure of dawn at the beach is greatly reduced. 45 degrees, even 55, is a bit nippy. I begin to find reasons excuses not to go. I don’t even know where my winter clothes are. I can’t find my walk-on-the-beach shoes. My chair’s not in the car anymore.
When really I just don’t like being cold. Which is perfectly legit.
But it still warms up during the day around here. 60s and low 70s. On Saturday, it hit 63 and I decided to brave it. The sun was out, it wasn’t too windy, what the heck.
And of course it was lovely.
The waves were lovely, as always. The light was different, there were shadows where often there are none.
I didn’t have my chair, so I sat in the swing for a while and rocked a bit.
Then I decided to go adventuring – I was going to take the walkway and see where it came out on the street, just for the fun of it. Until I saw the sign. In case you can’t see it, it says: WARNING. Venomous Snake Nesting Area. Yikes. That slowed me up.
I did go part way over the walkway before I decided I was not really that interested in finding the street anyhow.
I didn’t stay as long as I might have because it was still nippy, I need to remember to dress twice as warmly as I think I need to. But Wednesday promises to be warm and sunny again and I’m taking the afternoon off anyhow, pre-Thanksgiving, so I’m going to try again then. It is definitely worth it.
In other news, I’ve started using WordPress’s new editor. We’ll see how that goes…
So i had this dream the other night. We had just bought a house (not sure who “we” was, but anyhow.) It was huge.
It was so big that after I moved in, I realized there were whole parts of it that I hadn’t even seen. So I started wandering around trying to find out what was there.
I saw a woman walking through the house, up ahead of me. I followed her, passing through long hallways and up some stairs. She never turned back to look at me and I never tried to get her attention, just followed.
She went through parts of the house I’d never seen before.
Finally, she ended up at an apartment – like a studio apartment. Still inside the house. And then I knew that she lived there. She and another woman – it’s not clear in my mind now if I saw the other woman or if i just knew about her, like it can happen in dreams.
I was glad they were there, glad I’d seen them. I think the woman and I exchanged greetings, and then I woke up, or the dream shifted, and that was all of that.
In the morning, I just thought, “weird, weird, weird.” Then i remembered the little bit I think I know about dreams. So the house represents me. And the women that I hadn’t met and don’t know much about would be parts of my own psyche. Parts of my self.
I was traveling yesterday and barely realized it was Friday or I might have gotten my FFF done. But that’s ok, because GUESS WHAT!! I have a new number on the scale this morning. 155.8 That’s right. One – Five – Five. Ok, it’s point 8, but still.
That’s 20 pounds less than 175, which is where I originally started on this challenge. (I think. It could have been 178. Not when I started in January with FFF, but when I originally realized I HAD to lose weight.)
Anyhow – step count? Seven day average is 8,100. Yes, that’s over my 7,000 goal. I have a new strategy, of sorts. I maximize my steps on the weekends, aiming for 10,000, which I can usually do those two days, and then try for 7,000 during the week. I’ve been doing better about walking in the morning before I get locked into meetings and such, and I’ve been scheduling phone calls with friends during my walk. Since it’s a walk, not exactly a power walk, it’s no problem to do that. Plus it forces me to step away from whatever else I’m doing at that time.
Anyhow. I’m not mentioning that one day when I forgot to schedule breaks and found myself at the end of the day with 1,295 steps. Clearly, the plan is working overall, so that’s exciting.
Fondles, sorry I’m late… ❤ Thanks so much for doing this. I don’t think I’d have this success without the community of support you created.
Here we go… reporting in. Step count average was 5,341 – which is worse than last week, but not an all-time low. Weight range is about the same, although I’ve actually seen a 157.something a few times. I’ve been doing better on not over eating at night.
I’ve been working on emptying boxes in the garage – now am at the point that I need someone to help me move some boxes before I can make more progress. I’ll pin my daughter down to it sometime soon.
I had an unpleasant afternoon and evening experiencing some vertigo this week ( see, that has become my “all things health related” outlet.) It finally went away, but not before I considered the possibility of a lifetime of being unable to move around independently. That’s some scary stuff.
My new and improved doctor told me that there’s an easy fix for it though – just shake your head vigorously for about 8 seconds and it should go away. That’s good to know; this is maybe the third time it’s happened in the last few years, so it may well happen again. Hopefully, I’ll remember the cure.
So I did the skin tag removal thing – I will tell you, that was even more uncomfortable than I expected. Ok, painful. It hurt. Like a mother. And I have at least one more session to get through. But – it will all be worth it. As my mother used to say, “You have to suffer to be beautiful.” (Please be aware that I totally believe that and I totally think it’s ridiculous, both at the same time.)
“The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say” ~ J.R.R.Tolkien
