0 comments 24 December 2007

I was reading another blog, then I zoned out and when I "awoke" I was staring at the word EVE. My mind took the usual path of twists and turns where one thought leads to another. I was thinking how important Midnight Mass is to Catholics which eventually got me thinking how "Eve" is supposed to be that period before the BIG DAY but how over time it has become a holiday in and of itself. When people ask you what you are doing for Christmas, the answer is generally separated out - Christmas Eve we are doing X and Christmas Day we are doing Y (or Y & Z in our case).

As a child we always celebrated with my immediate family on Christmas Eve (often my maternal Grandmother and Great-Uncle would join us). We opened presents at home, ate a lovely meal cooked by my Mom, usually there was an argument or bickering between Grandma and Mom but all in all it was generally a swell ev
ening. We would always go to sleep with excitement knowing that Santa would have put some goodies in our stockings (I'll never forget the year first year I saw "Santa" and her helper in the kitchen).

This year Dale and I made an addition to this holiday by starting a new tradition for The Eve of Christmas Eve - Thai Food! I generally like to have all shopping, wrapping, & cleaning pretty well finished by the close of Christmas Eve Eve - so to celebrate and not add to the chaos we decided last night t
o go to our favorite Thai restaurant (even better than our old favorite in San Francisco - and yes, it's in Fremont). We had our favorite dishes and told Elliot all about the food he will enjoy next year. The Christmas season is a spirit, a feeling, memories, traditions and much more that all seems to get squeezed in to two days of enjoyment (preceded by a whole month of shopping and chaos), so we are officially extending it by a day.

We just finished our Thai leftovers (yum!), I have finished baking and the Apple Spice Cake turned out GREAT (well, it looks great but we'll know for sure tomorrow) but Grandma's cookies did not measure up. I will explain my process to her this evening to find out where I went wrong.
Now while Elliot naps we will get dressed for the Christmas Eve celebrations at my Aunties. Tomorrow morning we will make our special Christmas breakfast which this year will be homemade donuts, hot cocoa and maybe some eggs. Ya know, before I sign out I was just realizing that if you are religious this three-day celebration could symbolize The Trinity...hmm, this three day Christmas just might catch-on as it appeals to sinners and non-sinners alike! Merry Christmas Eve!

I forgot to click "post" yesterday!


2 comments 23 December 2007

I lost 2 pounds! Well, one of them was gained the week before...but that puts me at a total of 5 pounds. Not enough for a new wardrobe, but on my way! I am off to get a couple of last minute gifts and some grocery items for some Christmas baking I have yet to do. I'll be damned if I am going to get through this Christmas season without baking something! For certain I am going to be whipping up a Apple Spice Cake for Christmas Day with the in-laws...but I also want to try my luck at Grandma's Cookies all by myself...we'll see.

Elliot slept in his crib ALL NIGHT last night, brings tears to my eyes (he even took his morning nap there today). It took about 1/2 hour of crying (screaming really) and then he was out. He awoke at 11:00 to eat again but went right back to sleep without the pacifier! He awoke again at 2 for what I thought was a snack, but really he had just taken an enormous crap and was likely quite uncomfortable. After a quick change and a bit of a snack he was out until 6:45! Dad reported that I was actually snoring last night and that he hasn't seen me sleep so soundly in a long while. I know, if you do the math I was still up every few hours, but lately Elliot and I have been falling asleep while he eats (while in our bed) and it has been prolonging feeding and making for not so restful nights (sleeping upright is not exactly good sleep). So that fact that I got 3 and 4 hours of sleep, on my side/stomach was quite refreshing. I feel like a new woman! Though I must admit I felt a little sad that he didn't "need" me.

Thomas was not quite sure what to do with himself last night. Everytime I got up to go tend to the baby he would follow close behind and I could tell he was still 1/2 asleep because he would just sort of sit and stare in the low light not quite sure if he should stay or go back to his bed (eventually he chose his bed). What a sweet pug!

Well, off to fight the crowds (Mr. Graham is shopping with Daddy this morning - too cute!).

0 comments 21 December 2007

Please send all your positive vibes to sweet Vivian. Stay strong little girl!






0 comments 19 December 2007

OK, so this blog was never meant to be a place for me to write only about what I ate each day...but sorry, I am full bore into Christmas shopping, etc...so here is what I have been eating...

Tuesday:

~Cereal
~Soy Mocha
~2 HF tortillas with roasted chicken, BBQ sauce and melted cheese - I discovered that if you use the microplane on a block of LF cheese you can use even less cheese and still get the texture and taste PLUS you get a wonderful even distribution that takes even less time to melt in the micro
~Soy Mocha
~WW Eng Muffin with PB
~A few bites of a yummy brie puff pastry thingy that had preserves in it too - I could have eaten the whole damn thing!
~cheese crackers

Wednesday:

~Cereal
~Soy Mocha
~Spinach Salad from Specialties, some nibbles from some TASTY cookies (PB with Choc. Chunks & Ginger-Mollasis - yum!)
~Sushi (I think I did pretty well with some healthy choices - spicy tuna, BBQ eel & avocado, just 2 tiny gyozas)
~Snackimals Chocolate Chip "cookies"

Today:

~Cereal
~Spinach salad, lite dressing with grilled salmon
~Dbl Short 1/2 Caff 1-pump Soy Mocha, reduced-fat Pecan muffin
~
HF tortillas, LF cheese, Mornigstar farms sausage patties (NOT LINKS)
~2 more sausage patties
~last little crumbs of the CC Snackimals


3 comments 17 December 2007

Elliot and his BFF Vivi...



"I love you Vivi friend"

0 comments


~Cereal
~Soy Mocha
~WW Eng Muffin with Pumpkin Butter (yummy!)
~1/2 Roasted Veggie Pizzza from TJ's - REALLY yummy and calorie friendly!
~Soy Mocha and some crunchy-chewy almondinas
~Veggie burger split between two HF tortillas with LF cheddar and Arugula
~last scoop of Fully Loaded Peanut Butter Cup Frozen Dairy Dessert

3 comments 16 December 2007

First I should say I was too tired to report out yesterday...you'll just have to trust me when I say I did fine yesterday. As for today, well I started out with my morning coffee and a small bowl of my cereal to tide me over because Dale's Aunt was making us breakfast. I knew as far as calories the day would be a bust, but that is alright because it would be one of those days worth celebrating. We arrived to yummy egg casserole, bannana chocolate chip bread, coffee cake, fruit, Panatone (what Italian feast doesn't have this!), sausage, coffee and juice - yum! Of course she is such a love that it was her company that made the day! From this point forward, the day went to hell. We got home and Dale took Elliot shopping, so I decided I was finally going to get lights on our tree and do a tad bit of decorating. I rummaged through ALL of our Christmas stuff and only one strand of lights could be found - hmm. I wasn't about to hit Target (what a zoo!), so I decided to hop on over to Michaels where they would have lights plus I could pick up the couple of paintings we just had framed.

On my way to M's I decided to treat myself to a SB. I got to M's with my SB in hand (sort of) and started shopping. I needed ink pads and maybe a couple of stamps because I was inspired to do a new theme for my gifts this year (thanks h!). I always wrap presents in some sort of matching fashion usually doing one style for my family, one style for Dale's and a third for friends (the practical use is so gifts don't get forgotten in the Christmas Eve/Day rush around). Anyway, I digress, as I was shopping for stamps to use for my gifts I realized my hair band was loose, so with my arm through the hand-held shopping basket I reattached my hair band. I could hear something while I was doing this but wasn't registering the sound until I looked down and saw my coffee spilling all over my basket and the floor. See, I had set my coffee inside the bask
et for safe keeping - so much for that. I alerted a staff person who got some paper towels, mop, etc. I grabbed my basket (after wiping my stuff down) and headed to the framing section to pick-up the paintings. And of course, they weren't done right, so why I waited for the woman to fix them I grabbed the lights and a few other items, went back for the paintings and headed for the checkout.

When I got home it was already 5:30 (3 hours after Dale & Elliot left me which means pump or feed soon) and Dale was on his way home. I wanted to make my "recipe of the week", so I got started chopping onions, bell peppers, garlic, boiling pasta, sautéing sausage and so on. I was almost done when they walked in the door. We gave Elliot the bottle and as I was sitting with Dale and Elliot I realized that I had left my dinner under the broiler (which was just to melt the cheese) and so I ran in the kitchen to find my dinner ruined!
We microwaved ourselves some frozen TJ's pasta and called it dinner :( Elliot then screamed and cried for the next hour as I tried to get him to go to sleep and once he was asleep I decided to I would put up the lights. I was at the point that if I couldn't at least get the lights on the tree tonight then I was taking the whole damn tree out to the dumpster. One strand at a time, round and round the tree I went and finally we had lights...that didn't work. And as I was wrapping up this post, Elliot began screaming again...and after trying to get him back to sleep I have walked out of the room and uttered these words to my husband, "Let him cry, I'm don!". I am sure if it goes on much longer I'll get back in the game. I think I just need some sleep or a drink or both.


3 comments 14 December 2007

This makes me so happy!






What I Ate Today:

~Cereal
~Soy Mocha
~Dbl Tall 1/2 Caff 2-pump Soy Mocha
~Yummy Spinach Salad from Specialties
~Chickenless Nuggets, BBQ Sauce, HF Tortillas with LF Celtic White Cheddar
~A long week glass of red wine
~One carefully measure portion of Chocolate Chip Snackimals


0 comments

Pistachio Crusted Pork Chop?
Mango & Raspberry Panna Cotta?
Cheese crackers?
Lamb chops?
Turkey burger (and fries)?
Pizza?
Tasty cake from SB?
Cheese & Crackers?
Lack of exercise?

I decided not to wait until the end of the day to share with you that I GAINED a pound :( I guess this week I indulged a bit too much! But it was the reality check that I needed to get back on track! It's all about week three!

0 comments 13 December 2007

I had a little something I started to write, but I am wiped today!

What I Ate Today:

~Cereal
~Soy Mocha
~2 - HF Tortillas, 2 eggs, slice of LF white cheddar & hot sauce
~Cheese crackers
~Soy Mocha
~ 1 mini pizza (around 50 calories), 2 mini-mushroom turnovers (around 150 calories), some Everything crackers ( lost count), some low fat swiss and low fat cheddar cheese (lost count)
~Eng. muffin with lite butter & PB

0 comments 12 December 2007

All my adult life I have dreamed of having at least one hobby. I will never forget how hard Dale and I laughed when I was moving to San Francisco and filled out a bio for a roommate search and under hobbies all we could think of was smoking and drinking coffee! In the 11th hour of my maternity leave I have started establishing some real hobbies. While on vacation I found this wonderful old cookbook called The American Woman's Cookbook and decided I would start collecting old cookbooks. I forgot to mention in my Aloha post that I also got a wonderful little cookbook entitled, "Around The World in 80 Recipes, Hawaii's International Cookbook of Exotic Recipes" with little drawings next to the recipes to represent which part of the world the recipes are from (in case you couldn't tell by the titles). And I just discovered this wonderful website - http://www.oldcookbooks.com/ And you know how much I love Peanut Butter, so I just had to order the Skippy Peanut Butter Art of Cookery & Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion! I think this might actually be something I will stick with!

And then there is photography. I have always loved taking photos and so badly wanted to learn on a manual film camera, especially the developing (something so appealing about developing ones own creations). My sweet h
usband (then boyfriend) bought me a wonderful manual camera over 7 years ago...and I never made the time to read a book, take a class, surf the web or just try. And then a week after Elliot was born he went out and bought us a digital SLR just like our friends have (I couldn't stop talking about it!). Since then I have been a picture taking crazy person, and loving it! I try new shots, play with editing tools and develop (print) to my hearts content because it is relatively cheap as far as hobbies are concerned.

One of my 'Maternity Leave To-Do List' items was to take pictures of our morning coffee ritual, frame them and hang them in our kitchen. I almost gave up and started looking for art online and then I found some inspiration and viola. I am not going to frame any from this first series, but really think I am close.



Here is an image from Hawaii that I was particularly proud of.


I am also the photographer (not the editor, that was Dale) behind our Christmas Card, though I suppose I should give the model some of the credit :) Isn't he just precious?!


Wish me luck and a whole lot of sticktoitiveness!



What I Ate Today:

~Cereal
~Soy Mocha
~One slice of Pizza (a huge slice), some wedges of pita with hummus - went to a Baby Shower
~My usual @ SB & a Reduced Fat Blueberry Coffee Cake :(
~Leftover lamb, couscous & soup, HF tortillas for dipping in soup
~Warm crusty bread with Dale (he at dinner a few hours after me, so I joined him)

Exercise: Frankly it depresses me to have this section here each day and for it to be lacking in aerobically effective material. From now on I am going to leave it off, unless of course I do something ghat is considered exercise.


0 comments 11 December 2007

I am pretty particular about how my food is prepared (even when I am the one doing the preparation). I only started thinking more about it after my husband laughed at me for how I distribute the cheese on my tortilla prior to heating it in the microwave. I realized today that I have always been this way. I remember when I would come home from elementary school one of my favorite snacks was Wheat Thins with Kraft American Singles. I would break each piece of cheese into perfectly sized squares to match the size of each cracker, sometimes I would make a sandwich but mostly just one cracker to one piece of cheese. When I go out to eat it is very important that they bring me a little cup or ramekin for my ketchup because I do not like to drizzle the ketchup over my fries.

Rarely do I order anything that doesn't have some special instructions. I think my beverage at Starbucks speaks volumes: Double Tall 1/2 Caff 2-Pump Soy Mocha...when I used to get Shorts I would actually order 1 and 1/2 pumps! But it's not just Starbucks because when I make my coffee at home I carefully measure exactly 8 ounce of Soy and 39 grams of chocolate for my Soy Mocha. And before brewing my espresso I make sure to rinse the little metal cups in hot water so the cold metal doesn't chill my espresso. And tonight as I baked my Chickenless Nuggets in the toaster over, I placed my plate atop the oven so it too would get toasty warm. Some people might say I am bit compulsive, but when you LOVE food each eating moment (even the frozen food ones) are savored.

What I Ate Today:

~Cereal, added some blueberries today
~Soy Mocha
~Turkey Burger from Red Robin, I am a fan of this from waaaaay back when we lived in San Mateo and would eat at the one in Foster City. You won't believe it until you try it, but this Turkey Burger is THE BEST! So Juicy and even with the fries it does not tip the scale like you think it should.
~Dbl Tall 1/2 Caff 2-pump Soy Mocha - threw most of it out as I think they used regular milk - icky!
~Soy Mocha - needed my fix! Really wanted somthing sweet with my afternoon coffee and just as I was dreaming of something my wonderful neighbor dropped by a box of homemade candy - but I didn't eat any! Ugh, this is going to be hard!
~Chickenless Nuggets, 2 - HF Tortilla with 1 slice of LF White Cheddar, BBQ Sauce (yeah!)
~One serving of Chocolate Chip Snackimals (I really wanted that candy!)

Exercise: Walking @ the mall, trying on clothes

0 comments 10 December 2007

Yesterday we picked out our Arbol de Navidad and today during Elliot's play times I played Christmas music and I began to think how much I actually DO love Christmas. It's just that the things I hate about it (Losing my Mom, Shopping, Crowds, Gift Cards, etc.) seem to overshadow the good things about Christmas.

Here are some good things:

*The smell of our family room after we put up our Christmas Tree
*Christmas Music; fond memories of putting records on the record player while my Mom was cooking Christmas Eve dinner
*Baking holiday goodies - usually with my Aunt the week before Christmas, we're taking this year off, but will resume next year when Elliot will be able to sample some of the goodies
*Christmas Pajamas - every year for Christmas my Mom would buy me a pair of pajamas and since she pa
ssed away I have made a point to buy myself a special pair of pajamas each year
*Planning a surprise gift for Dale - we have an informal competition going (there seems to be one gift not under the tree that gets mysteriously found after we have each other thinking we are all done) and Dale almost always wins...but we'll see about this year!
*Planning our Christmas breakfast - Dale and I always make breakfast at home together Christmas morning...this year we are thinking of making donuts - yum!
*Receiving Christmas Cards - I get so excited to check the mail during December and for the first time I actually enjoyed making and sending them too!
*Thumbing through Grandmas Christmas card pile - I'm not good with guessing but I'd say she gets at least 50, some are from Switzerland and the cards are just a little different in size and very sweet looking. I love to poke fun at the ones that are over-the-top but also admire growing cousins, etc.
*Eating Grandmas special cookies (might try to bake them myself this year)


What I Ate Today:

~Cereal (HF & Organic Morning Lite, TJ's)
~Soy Mocha
~Cheese crackers

~Fat Free Eng Muffin with lite butter and PB (I think I have been converted and like the WW better)
~Soy Mocha
~More cheese crackers
~More cheese crackers
*I really didn't want morning to end today*
~Fiberful
~More cheese crackers (need something to snack on while cooking)

~Spiced Lamb Chops Sauteed Peppers and Onions with Garlic and Mint Couscous

0 comments 09 December 2007

I tend to cook the sames things week after week, so to help me mix things up I have decided to make one new recipe (meal) each week. Today I made a RR 30-Minute Meal entitled "Minimum Effort, Maximum Taste" (that's my kind of meal!). I love Indian food and flavors, so we didn't have to go out and buy a lot to whip this up - added bonus.

Indian Spiced Chickpea and Fire Roasted Tomato Soup; not quite as "Indian" as I would have liked, but a tasty soup. When I started cooking the soup I realized it was already 8pm, so we decided that the Lamb & Couscous will happen tomorrow night. I used 1/8 instead of 1/4 of a cup of Olive Oil which makes this soup VERY fat/calorie friendly!


What I Ate Today:

~Amy's Huevos Rancheros (Two Morningstar Farms Breakfast Patties, one over-medium egg, one HF tortilla with 1/2 slice LF white cheddar, generous splash of hot sauce - have you seen my collection?!)
~Soy Mocha
~1/2 Chicken Pesto sandwich at Erik's Deli and a bowl of their vegetarian vegetable soup
~Dbl Tall 1/2 Caff 2-Pump Soy Mocha
~Handful of Sun Chips
~Bowl of Indian Spiced Soup & 1/2 loaf (very small loaf) of warm crusty bread
~1/2 Pinata apple - new discover at the store, cannot rival my favorite Pink Ladies, but darn good.

Exercise: Still playing the sick card.

0 comments 08 December 2007

~Cereal - out of JO's O's, but had a unopened box of Heart2Heart, though it was a bit overpowering and was not loving them like I used to
~2 mini cranberry orange muffins
~Chickenless Nuggets with spicy ketchup (will get more BBQ sauce at TJ's tomorrow)
~One generous portion of Sun Chips (they were on sale at Target today, otherwise they would have not made an appearance this week)
~2 HF tortillas with one slice of LF White Cheddar melted and a dash of hot sauce at 4:30 (dinner is not until 7:30 and I am hungry now, so needed a little snack)
~Butternut squash soup with a swirl of gorgonzola, pistachio crusted pork chop, and a mango & raspberry panna cotta that was extraordinary; we don't go out as often as we used to, so a night out with friends is worth a little splurge in ones diet. Once I figure out how to get the pictures off of my camera I will post them on Flickr.

Exercise: cough, cough, cough


0 comments 07 December 2007

I cannot believe it has been a whole week! I hopped on the scale this morning to see I had lost almost 4 lbs, however, I wasn't that excited because I thought tomorrow was the official weigh-in (anything can happen in a day) and then I counted on my hands and realized today was day 7! Yeah for me! Thanks for your virtual support, it is really helping. I have reviewed what I ate this week and I think the big changes from previous weeks were- No Chipotle (Steak Quesadilla is yummy!), no little snack cakes from SB (even though I always get the "reduced" fat ones). I will continue to keep you updated on what I eat and hopefully I can hit the 10lb mark by the New Year (I am really hoping to not have to buy too many new work clothes)!

What I Ate Today:

~Cereal
~Soy Mocha
~WW Eng. Muffin, lite butter, PB
~Some cheese crackers, some Sun Chips, some more cheese crackers
~Another Tri-tip salad (a lot of Tri-tip leftover, almost all gone)
~Soy Mocha
~Fiberful, am really regretting have the Eng Muffin so early today as it is only 5pm and I am ready for dinner
~More Tri-tip but with two eggs, a WW Eng Muffin, and some hot sauce - yum, I love breakfast for dinner! The Tri-tip is now all gone - whew!
~3 Cranberry Orange Mini-Muffins (TJ's mix); I made regular sized muffins for hubby

Exercise: Still a bit under the weather...

0 comments 06 December 2007

Elliot and I skipped music class and playtime with friends today because we both have scratchy throats and sniffles. Instead I decided to take him to the bookstore and get us a couple of new books to read, that way we could sit in our sweats and just rest with some good books all day long. On the way home I stopped at our mailbox and tugged and pulled to get everything out and decided it was time to share my frustration with you all. Ever since e-mail became something average folks used there has been this outrage over spam, or junk mail. Understandably nobody likes e-mails that come with viruses that infect your computer, though it wasn't that hard to learn not to open anything unless you knew who it was from. But what upsets me is that nobody ever talks about all the trees that die every year as a result of the original junk mail. Every day our mailbox is full with 80% junk and it takes more than the fraction of a second it takes to get rid of it (unlike clicking the delete key) and this junk mail doesn't come with a link allowing me to unsubscribe. Not to mention the mail carrier does not put what she thinks is junk into a separate folder for my convenience. Thanks for listening.

BTW, it's only December 6th and I have recieved 4 Christmas Cards already?! I thought I was ahead of the game!


What I Ate Today:

~Cereal
~Soy Mocha
~Two High Fiber tortillas, 1 slice split between two tortillas and nuked until nice and melty, leftover Tri-tip nuked until warm, all stuffed into tortillas with a splash of hot sauce and some fresh arugula
~Mango-Passionfruit Juice Squeeze - am always thrist for juice when I am feeling sick
~Soy Mocha
~WW Eng Muffin with lite butter & PB; Why light butter? Normally I would advocate to just have less of the real thing, but on an Eng Muffin you are after the slighly butter taste but also you just need some moisture before you add the layer of PB and that is where lite butter comes in handy because you need more than just a dab to get that soaked in moistness. My 2 cents on lite butter ;)
~Handful of Sun chips - did I mention that these and pizza pockets were my favorite lunch foods in high school (before we could drive to JackInTheBox for finger foods)
~Madras Lentils from TJ's (always yummy on cool nights), leftover Tri-Tip and of course 2 HF tortillas (I am a HUGE bread person. Bread to me is like another utensil, necessary for scooping and wiping plates clean so w/out the HF tortillas I would be screwed)
~Fully Loaded PB Cup
~Juice Squeeze

Exercise: I don't exercise when I am sick

0 comments 05 December 2007

My house is trashed! OK, maybe I am being a bit dramatic. But truly I have shit piling up everywhere. Each day I do a little something to make it better and then a little more of something that makes it worse. I think I have a few too many half-started projects going on simultaneously. When Dale comes home sometimes I feel like he is thinking, "do you sit around and eat Bon Bon's" as he surveys the domestic scenery. But really I know he is not thinking that at all, my own insecurities take me to that nasty place. I think to myself, 'it's a good thing I am going back to work because I suck at this housewife stuff'. So what do I do each day that keeps me from keeping it together?! I decided to keep track of my day today to see where all my time goes.

~Ate breakfast while making coffee
~Played with Elliot while drinking coffee
~More playtime
*EFG down for a nap*
~Brushed teeth and got self dressed
~Worked on Christmas cards and address labels for cards
*EGF done napping*
~Fed and changed the sweet well rested boy
~Took Elliot to BabynMe...played and ate and fell asleep on ride home
*EGF down for a nap*
~Worked on Christmas cards and address labels for cards
~Emptied and re-loaded dishwasher (very quietly since EGF was asleep in car seat on kitchen table)
*EGF done napping*
~Fed and changed Elliot
~Read Elliot stories (The Giving Tree and some discover your body book)
~Watched and encourage Elliot playing on his floor gym
~Change Elliot again
~Elliot and I let Thomas out to potty in the backyard
~Gave Elliot a bath
~Tried to get Elliot to nap again (this time of the night he fights sleep - rubs eyes, ears, etc. but just won't roll with it because he doesn't want to miss anything)
~In between rocking and comforting I threw a Tri-tip in the oven
*EFG finally asleep*
~Finished & ate dinner
~Finished blog post
~Now what?
Maybe now I will clean the house - hahahaha! Though I suppose I could do my dishes. I love my life and if having a perfectly clean and orderly house means giving up anything I did today, then forget it! Life is too short! Though that doesn't mean I will stop asking, "How do people do it?"


What I Ate Today:

~Cereal (out of Organic morning lite, so just High Fiber & TJ's O's)
~Handful of TLC Cheese Crackers
~2 High fiber tortillas with TJ's Rachero Egg White Salad and low-fat white cheddar cheese inside. It really tastes good with avocado but we didn't have any and I don't need the extra fat/calories anyway.
~1 serving of Sun Chips (original flavor is my fav!). OK because I love texture I also threw a few chips inside the tortillas too. As a child I would put any type of chip inside my PBJ sandwiches just to get that wonderful crunch, one of my favorites was Nacho Cheese Doritos.
~Soy Mocha
~Whole wheat english muffin, 1/2 serving of lite butter, 1/2 serving of pb (you would be surprised how far a 1/2 serving of pb goes on an eng muffin)
~3 teeny tiny sweet & spicy pecan pieces, not enough to constitute even 1/4 of a serving and I just LOVE how they make my mocha taste after I eat them!
~Tri-tip sliced up on a bed of arugula with a sprinkling of chick peas, leftover corn, queso, sliced up roasted red pepper (from a jar) and a dash of olive oil...had my heart set on a yummy balsamic dressing when I discovered I was out of balsamic vinegar - yikes!
~I might have desert, but am posting this before I make that final decision :)

Exercise: Does assembling Christmas Cards count?

1 comments 04 December 2007

The first two months of Elliot's life whizzed by like a flash. In fact, it was only his 3-month birthday that we were alert enough to actually celebrate. Everyone tells you how fast they grow up, how quickly they change, but you just cannot believe until you see it for yourself! Now he is 5-months old - wow!

Elliot's first month was marked by cooing and discovery of his first toy - The Whoozit.



He slept a lot the first month,
but when he was awake he loved to stare at this thing. We discovered a chip-clip effectively hung it from the side of the co-sleeper. Month 2 we were seeing him smile his gorgeous gummy grin (that I am sure you are tired of hearing me talk about). He began to roll-over from his tummy at the tail end of month 2, but it was really more about him disliking "tummy-time". Is it mean to enjoy this picture so much?



His hands amazed him in month 3 and m
oved into his mouth on a regular basis by the time we hit month 4. We thought smiling was the greatest thing on earth until we heard him giggle in month 4 - we do everything we can to elicit multiple giggles each day (sometimes he really makes us work for it!). Rolling over was what made month 5 stand out from; back to tummy to back again, generally with a dramatic finish.




Every little bit that he grows & changes, every little discovery he makes is so special, so fun to watch, so exciting to experience. Sometimes I catch myself sit
just quietly staring at him, what amazing little creatures! What will month 6 bring?!


What I Ate Today:

~Cereal with no-sugar added Soy (TJ's refrigerated version is best. I have come to really dislike everything about non-
refrigerated versions of soy...packaging, taste, texture)
~A clementine
~Soy Mocha
~Mini-handful of TLC Cheese Crackers
~Apricot Fiberful
~Soy Mocha (to go in my new favorite travel mug purchased at an SB in Hawaii)

~1 serving of TJ's prepared chicken salad split between 2 high fiber tortillas stuffed with arugula
~A clementine
~TJ's Frozen Chickenless Nuggets (long time fav, you must try!) with spicy ketchup (a few splashes of Tabasco). I was devastated to discover we were out of TJ's BBQ sauce which is what I ALWAYS eat with my nuggets!
~2 High Fiber Tortillas (not sure if I get enough fiber each day, what do you think?) with one serving of cheese split between the two and nuked until nice and melty and then rolled like a taquito.
~A clementine

Exercise: Nada

1 comments 03 December 2007

What I Ate Today:

~Cereal (sans raisins)
~TLC Cheese Crackers (1 serving which was REALLY hard to do)
~High Fiber Tortilla with 1/2 slice of lowfat white cheddar cheese (sounds icky, but it really hits the spot)
~Soy Mocha
~Salad Nicoise with Salmon, light dressing (at Nordstrom Cafe which is surprisingly quite good)
~Dbl Tall 1/2 Caff 2-Pump Soy Mocha from SB
~Penne Pasta with Spinach* Sauce (1 serving, I use arugula in my version of the sauce and low-fat cream cheese)
~6 oz Grilled Boneless Pork Chop (the other white meat, seasoned with salt&pepper & Emeril's Essence which I know is so 5 years ago but it really adds that little something to grilled chops)
~Vino (one carefully measured 4 oz serving)

WOW, I felt hungry all day but it looks like all I did was eat! Oh well, we'll let the scale decide on Saturday

Exercise:

Walked all over the damn Valley Fair Mall - that place is huge and confusing to navigate! I started my x-mas shopping and it just reinforced why I prefer Thanksgiving.


1 comments 02 December 2007

Hanging out with some friends the other day I was reminded about Santa! Can you believe I almost forgot about the tradition of taking your baby to sit on Santa's lap?! So today Dale and I packed our sweet boy into the car and headed for Stanford where we heard the Santa was pretty cool. We ate lunch first, fed EGF in the Bloomies lounge and then waited in line to meet Santa. After about 1/2 hour in line (and about 10 mintutes before it was our turn) EGF fell asleep. Do we wake him (poke the bear)? Will they let us come back? If we wake him, will he freak out (that's generally what happens when you poke said bear)? We woke him up and figured if he cried it would just look like he was afraid of Santa. Is that mean? Oh well, just add it to the list of things he'll need therapy about...haha! To our amazement EFG was in great spirits. He was a little out of it so no huge gummy grins, but we caught a little smile. I think he is still a little young to be afraid...next year maybe we'll get that quintessential crying on Santa's lap photo. Sorry, no photo to share as it may be making an appearance in our holiday cards.

What I Ate Today:

Cereal Mix (TJ's High Fiber, TJ's Organic Morning Lite, TJ's Joes O's, 1/4 serving of golden raisins)
Soy Mocha (homemade)
DBL Tall Soy 2-Pump Soy Mocha from SB
Short stack of pancakes with crispy bacon crumbled into the pancake. Thanks PA Creamery! A while back I tried to have a local diner do this for me and they refused - whatever! I know this doesn't sound like diet food, but I kept it to a short stack, didn't use butter, limited the syrup and had a side of fruit.
Skinless rotisserie chicken, corn, yummy bake at home pugliese from Grace Baking Company, wedge of laughing cow light cheese

Exercise: Does waiting in line for Santa count?

4 comments 01 December 2007

Elliot Graham Federighi, Born 07.04.07 weighed 7lbs 4.7 ounces. That was almost 5 months ago - wow! I was really hoping for a 30lb baby so that I could wear my pre-pregnancy clothes home from the hospital. That didn't happen. So then I set my sights on the rapid weight loss caused by breastfeeding. That didn't happen. Let's face it, I love to eat. Let's face it, I don't go to the gym 5 days a week anymore. Weight loss, gain and maintenance is simple math; Consume more calories than you burn and you'll gain weight, consume fewer and you'll lose and consume that magic number and you'll maintain. Weight loss is what I am after here and I need you all to help keep me honest. So to the three or four of you that actually read my blog, you are now my weight loss support group. I am going to tell you what I eat every day (even the naughty stuff), how much I exercise, and how much weight I lose each week. I am committed to being the first American to lose weight during the holiday season. I want to lose 35lbs (not all in December, of course) because I gained 35 when I was pregnant (which is within the "healthy" range of 25-35lbs, but I also gained 15 lbs when I quit smoking...that is 50 lbs (yikes!). I effortlessly dropped 15lbs after Elliot was born, so that leaves 35 more to go. Thank you in advance for supporting me and for keeping me honest.


What I Ate Today

Whole Wheat English Muffin with PB
Soy Mocha (homemade using no-sugar added plain soy from TJ's)
Double Tall 1/2 Caff 2-Pump Soy Mocha from SB

Veggie Sandwich from local grocer (with avocado and jack cheese, no mayo)
Sun Chips (one serving)
Everything Crackers for TJ's (one serving, though I could have eaten the box)
Steak Pita
Fully-Loaded Ice Cream (one serving of this low-fat crack - thanks H&V!)

Exercise

I worked in the yard (yes, that counts)