Working on Scrapbook

I do not intend to completely abandon my blog, but for the past week or so, I have been very engrossed with the scrapbook that I am doing about my husband's father.  When my sister-in-law came to visit a couple of weeks ago, she brought a couple more boxes of "stuff" from her garage, and I am having to sift through all of it and organize it with all of the information that I already have. I have decided to let everything go (as much as I can) and just get this thing done as it is really weighing on my mind.  I enjoy doing it, but it is very tiring.

My father-in-law seems to have been a romantic man during his short life, and, of course, I am eating that up. :)

In all of this, I have not lost sight of my diet.  I have lost 3 pounds! 

Low Calorie Tuna Salad

Here is the recipe for Tuna Salad.  It is very good either on a piece of dry toast or with 2 slices of low calorie bread and made into a sandwich.


Low Calorie Tuna Salad
1 small can tuna in water
1 boiled egg chopped
 2 stalks celery chopped
1 dill pickle (small or just some chips) chopped
1 tbsp fat free Italian dressing
1 tbsp lite mayonnaise
Garlic salt and celery salt
Makes 3 servings at 156 calories each

Nutrition Grade from Calorie Count
96% confidence B-
     
Good points
# Low in sugar
# Very high in niacin
# High in phosphorus
# Very high in selenium
# High in vitamin B12
  Bad points
# High in cholesterol
# High in sodium

More Dieting

I don't intend to blog constantly about dieting, but that is what is on my mind right now. I have decided, after investigating the Calorie Count Website further, that I will not use MyNetDiary.  Calorie Count has some really great dieting tools.

My food log for today:

Breakfast: Hard Boiled egg, 1 slice of Cinnamon Swirl Bread, 4 oz. Orange Juice, Black Coffee  214 cal.

Lunch:   Tuna Salad on 1 slice of multi-grain bread, water  266 calories

Snacks:   1 slice of multi-grain bread, toasted, with 1 tblsp peanut butter, diet coke 204calories
                2 slices canned pineapple in 100% juice, 1 graham cracker  119 calories

          Dinner:  Baked Fish  265 calories
                          Broccoli Florets  25 calories             
                          Tossed Salad   33 calories
                          Light Ranch Dressing 2 tblsp   80 calories.
                          Tartar Sauce 1 Tblsp.   40 calories 

          Total Calories:  1245

We ate dinner out at a little Mom and Pop diner so I had to make a best guess as to the quantities of food that I ate.  I have about 150 calories left over.......hmmm.....what can I eat?

I really have not been hungry. Not that hunger has ever been the problem.  I am an emotional eater, but I am feeling motivated right now.  My pants are all getting too tight! :-)

 My Morning Walk - very peaceful and relatively cool.  A lot of singing birds. But I do miss my walking partner.

Diet Day 5:  Weight 178.2  Walked 30 minutes

One Thing Off My List

I have made a lot of my own clothing in years past.  In the last few years, something "funny" has happened to my shape, and I don't seem to be able to fit myself anymore.   Also sewing clothing is no longer practical. It is time consuming and expensive.  I've decided that I am going to limit my sewing to making things that don't have to fit and don't take a lot of time.  Aprons fit in that category, and I like them.

I ordered this pattern 2 or 3 months ago from Mary Mulari's Patterns , got some fabric, cut it out, and it has been lying at my sewing machine for weeks now.  I decided to get it off my To Do List this past week before my sister-in-law arrived.  My husband recently put some hooks up in the kitchen to hang my aprons on. The white apron with embroidery I already had.  The apron I made is reversible and I am showing both sides of it.

Diet Day 4: Wt. 179 lbs.  Walked 40 minutes

Back to Blogging (and Dieting)

Well, my guest has left, and we had a great time talking and going places.  Of course, I did not want to take the time away from her to blog, but I did miss it.  Here I am again!

This week I am starting on a 1400 calorie diet in order to remove about 20 excess pounds.  I have done this before (quite a while ago) with success, but those 20 pounds always come back.  Maintenance is a problem, and I need to figure out a way to handle this.  My target weight is 159 lbs. which is acceptable for my age and height.

My neighbor, whom I walked with every morning, has gone up to the NC mountains for the summer, so I have played hooky from walking the past couple of weeks. I really did not lose any weight while walking, but it seems that I have put on a pound or two since I haven't been doing it - so maybe it did help.  I got out and walked this morning, and it was not so bad walking alone.  I used my new iPod for music, but then decided that I like to listen to the birds instead.

In preparation for dieting I have been doing some research on the computer for websites that might be useful. My NetDiary is a free online food diary, although you can upgrade it for a fee.  However, the free part is sufficient for me.  It is fairly simple to use and helps calculate the number of calories and grams of fat, carbs, and protein in foods that I eat. Of, course, paper, pencil, and a calorie counting book would work just as well if not quicker - but it's not as much fun as a computer program. :-)

Another helpful site that I am using is Calorie Count. It allows me to copy my recipes into the calorie calculator to get a total calorie count for the recipe.  There is also a lot of good information on this site.

I don't know why sometimes I simply cannot muster the willpower to diet, and sometimes I can.  Blogging about it may help me. Wish me luck!  And if anybody has any good low calorie recipes and suggestions for tips that have worked for them, I would greatly appreciate them.

Diet Day 3:  Wt. 180.2 lbs  Walked 40 minutes

Getting Ready for A Guest

I am busy getting ready for a guest this weekend and have a list of things to do to be prepared.  Company is always a great motivator for housework. :)  I may be a little slack about posting, but, never fear, I will be back.

Lists Continued

I downloaded Ta-da, a free on-line list making tool.  I think I am going to like it.  Of course, over the past few years, I have tried several planning and list making computer programs.  I didn't stick with them. They were fun to play with, but I generally would go back to paper and pencil.  So we will see......

What I like about Ta-da is that it is simple and easy to edit.  I like the font and the appearance.  As you check items off, they are moved to the bottom of the list in faded print and do not completely disappear.  You can make multiple lists.  What I do not like is that you can only open one list at a time although you can get around this by opening multiple windows with different lists opened in each window.

I love making lists much more than I love doing what is listed on them, and I often procrastinate. You would think that after 50+ years of homemaking I would have this conquered.  My excuse is that, although I certainly have more time at this stage of my life, I don't have as much energy or motivation.  But things are getting backed up (maybe because I am on this computer too much) and are beginning to bother me.  I've got to get reorganized here!

To Do Lists

To Do Lists have been on my mind the past few days - mainly because there are a lot of things I need to do around here (company is coming!).  I love lists.  Making them always makes me feel better.  Because of that I decided to post about lists.  In doing a little research here on the net, I find that there are already loads of blogs on this subject. Here are some blogs about lists that I found:

http://homemakerswhowork.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/the-to-do-list/  On this blog, the book, Eat That Frog, was mentioned in the comments.  It seems to be a book about procrastination.  I immediately ordered that from the library (we are fortunate enough in this county to have Books by Mail).

http://blisstree.com/live/the-homemakers-list-of-lists/  This blog identifies 15 different lists that homemakers need. No wonder I feel so fragmented.

http://newlywedhome.blogspot.com/2010/01/hyper-homemaker-cleaning-list.html  This is a post of a list for a cleaning routine by a newly wed that she copied from a website named Hyper Homemaker Cleaning.  It is a good, comprehensive list but, unfortunately, I am not hyper - wish I were - maybe I'd get something done!  Actually, this blog appeals to me and I am going back to check it out futher.

I would love input on to do lists that others of you  keep and how you motivate yourselves to follow them.

New iPod

One of my Mother's Day gifts this year was an iPod and a docking station.  I've been listening to beautiful music all day.  I have also spent a lot of time on the iTunes site trying to figure out how to do everything.  I love the compactness of this system.

I guess all of my husband's stereo equipment and our many music CD's and cassette tapes are now completely outdated.  Just a few months ago, I finally got rid of all the old LP's and a turntable that we had.  Most of my grandchildren do not even know what those are.

Things keep on changing.......

The Four Seasons - A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice

During a recent trip to the library I checked out  this book, The Four Seasons, A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice. I found it to be an enjoyable read. I do wish I had realized before finishing this book that the author had put a dictionary of  Italian words at the back as this would have helped with the all of the Italian words that she used in this story. The copy of the book I read also included questions for book club groups. There are good reviews of this book at Amazon  and used copies there begin at 15 cents.

The author, Laurel Corona, has a website that I also found interesting - especially this article about writing and perfectionism.  I  have a tendency to over edit which really increases the time it takes me to write anything - even emails.

In 1999, shortly after my husband retired, we were able to take a Mediterranean Cruise beginning with 2 days and a night in Venice.  After reading this novel, I got down our album of  photos of that trip, wiped off the dust, and enjoyed looking at them.