So, I  keep hearing that in order to lose weight one must eat less and exercise. So, as I’ve not lost weight I’ve eaten less and less and still not lost weight.

In the winter it’s hard to get the exercise I need, but when the weather’s nicer I can do a two mile round trip to pick The Little Guy up from school. This past week I walked on Thursday and Friday. Then on Saturday we walked the mall back and forth for a couple of hours. That added some exercise too. I was low on calories and protein already that day, so we stopped at Jamba Juice for an afternoon “snack”. I got a Pomegranate fruit drink with added boosts of protein, fiber, and weight loss formulas. Can’t do a Jamba Juice every day though…

At the doctor the week before last I found that I need to eat more in order to try to lose weight. Apparently, part of my problem is that my body thinks I’m starving and won’t let me lose weight.

I’ve never been a big breakfast person, and I’m mostly not hungry at lunch either. But the doctor told me to eat anyway. It’s hard for me to eat when I’m not hungry, but I have to in order make my metabolism work the way it’s supposed to.

For the past week and a few days, my breakfasts have been a Yoplait yogurt and a couple cups of coffee. I should be eating more than that, but I’m still not hungry in the morning and that’s about all I can eat at that time.

I smoked for years. I quit at the end of April 2006 – so it’s been nearly three years now. I think though, that I still have the eating habits I had when I smoked. When a cigarette (or two or three or four) was more important than eating.  When car rides were measured in the number of cigarettes smoked rather than the actual time in the car. When I worked full time in the early 2000’s and my ride to work was a three cigarette trip…

After I quit smoking I gained a little, not a lot, but I wasn’t losing anything.  I was drinking a couple Mike’s Hard lemonades in the evenings though. So I thought that maybe that was causing me to not lose. I stopped having a couple of drinks and didn’t lose an ounce. So I decided that I could have my Mike’s again!

Last year I was diagnosed with an ulcer. Since then, I’ve gained quite a bit of weight. Now I really need to lose, so here I go with the new “diet” that isn’t so much of a diet.

I have to eat more that I used to, more than I am used to.  But I also need to eat smart.

Kate introduced me to SparkPeople.com, a free site where one can put in weight now and weight you’d like to be. The site helps you determine how long it should take you to reach your goal, and gives you range of calories per day you should shoot for.  It also lets you know ranges for carbs, fats, and proteins. And if there’s another nutrient you should track based on your own particular needs, you can track that as well. If you need to track sodium or sugars, or what-have-you.

SparkPeople can also suggest meal plans and provide you with a shopping list. You can add your own recipes at SparkRecipes.com and the program will help you figure out calories, carbs, protein, fats, etc for your recipes, per serving.

Turns out, my cooking has been pretty healthy and not over caloric, but my dinners just haven’t been enough for me to have my metabolism work correctly. So now I’m having yogurt for breakfast until I can eat some more and bring the breakfast portion to a larger proportion of my food per day. Lunch is generally a 1/2 cup of navy beans with a 1/2 cup of brown rice, a little salt, a teaspoon of olive oil and a splash of vinegar or lime or lemon juice. Warmed slightly. It’s a really filling, tasty lunch for me. I’m not doing the meal plans from the site, but only because I can’t eat as much for breakfast and I don’t need the variety that’s built into the plans. I can eat the same thing for lunch every day without a problem. Or I could change it up by having two hard boiled eggs, chopped with 1 tablespoon of regular mayo, and 8 saltines for lunch like I did yesterday. It was quite good. The egg salad could maybe have had an extra teaspoon of mayo, but the tablespoon to 2 large egg ratio is good.

Ah well, we’ll see what happens as this goes on. Hopefully I will get my metabolism going and I’ll lose the weight I need to use.

He would have been 75 today.

He is missed by all of us.

In the mail today was a Car Seat ID Card from My Precious Kid.

This is a very nice product. It comes with a self sealing Luggage Tag type clear plastic laminate cover. There is room for information on both sides to include a small photo of your child, address, emergency phone numbers, any medical conditions, doctor and dentist phone numbers, a thumb print, height, weight, and a medical release signature.

If you are ever in a car accident and can’t talk, this can talk for you and your child.

I’m using it with The Little Guy’s booster seat. Hopefully we’ll never have to use it, but it’s nice to have.

My Precious Kid has a ton of safety related products for your kids. Go take a look!

Check the comments on this post for a 10% off coupon code!

Blogrolling.com is back! You can now edit blogrolls that are hosted there again!

Yay!

via @aquinasnmore…

a LEGO a day…

Two of my favorites:

Day 224

Suddenly, Indy found himself in the middle of the wrong George Lucas film.

and

Day 47

This is not the droid we are looking for…

Take the time to check them all out. Very clever!

March came in like a lamb yesterday. Beautiful blue skies, lots of sun. Only 22°F out. We’re in for a stormy end of the month.

We go back to daylight saving time this month. In fact, it’s on Sunday, March 8th. Next Sunday already!

No school today here in Illinois. Today is Casimir Pulaski Day. General Casimir Pulaski was a Polish General who trained our troops in the Revolutionary War. Illinois celebrates this man because Chicago contains the largest population of Poles outside of Poland itself (although Ireland is gaining a sizable population of Poles too). We all have a lot to thank General Pulaski for. His training of our troops helped us win our independence from England.

Pi day is coming up on March 14. 3.14……

Today is also Dr. Seuss’ birthday!

The Sea Kitten Recipe Carnival is here!

First up, from Tristan at tristansepinion.com is this recipe:

Steamed Fish with Coriander Sauce

4 fillets Monkfish or other firm white fish
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp water
1/4 cup roasted red pepper (can be from a jar or DIY)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
salt and pepper to taste
fresh parsley for garnish

Clean the fish and season with salt and pepper to taste. Steam until opaque about 6-8 minutes.

Coriander sauce:

Combine coriander seeds, lemon juice, water, olive oil, red peppers, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy.

To serve, spoon sauce over fillets and garnish with parsley.

Gorgeous and delicious.

Click here for a printable pdf of this recipe.

Kate provides a recipe for The Best Salmon You’ll Ever Eat.

Christi at A Southern Life introduces us to Cajun Crawfish Maque Choux. Sounds delish!

Michael at Bits of Dust brings us Kid’s Tilapia Nuggets. He says his kids eat these like there’s no tomorrow.

Kid’s Tilapia Nuggets

Ingredients:

2 pounds of fish nuggets (we use tilapia cut up, because, well, talapia is delicious.)

“Marinade” Ingredients

3 eggs
3-4 Tbsp milk
2 tsp minced garlic
2-3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all ingredients, and add the fish chucks (or nuggets). Stir until fish is covered and place the bowl in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Batter Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp Lawry’s seasoning salt

Remove fish piece from “marinade”, coat with batter, and drop into 1-2 inches of hot oil in a cast iron pan. Fry for 3 minutes on each side.

One time we didn’t have enough Crisco, so I mixed it with some light olive oil which really added to the flavor.

Click here for a printable pdf of this recipe

My contribution is Dijon Pecan Crusted Salmon Fillets

4 portions or 1 slab salmon fillet, skin on.
6 tbsp dijon mustard
6 tbsp bread crumbs
6 tbsp finely chopped pecans
butter

Preheat oven to 400°F

Place filets skin side down in a foil lined pan.

Spread mustard evenly over salmon.

Combine bread crumbs and pecans, spread evenly over salmon.

Dot with butter.

Bake for 20 minutes or until salmon lifts off the skin.

This is lovely served with Brussels sprouts, asparagus, or just a salad with a citrus vinaigrette. Or with peas as pictured.

Click here for a printable pdf of this recipe

I’ve decided to extend the deadline through Friday!

Please send either a link to a recipe or the recipe itself to seakittens@musing-minds.com.

At the moment we have recipes for whitefish sea kitten, salmon, and crawfish sea kitten pie. Please give us more!

The carnival will be posted Sunday morning.

Related: Sea Kittens for IEATAPETA Day, Reminder

It’s Packzi Day. And the things I’ll do for Packzis. I woke up early after going to sleep very late. My dreams were all Twitter. Everything had to be 140 characters or less. And it was mixed up with Jewel Quest. So the Tweets were merging and disappearing and falling…

Then, when I got to the bakery at 6:30 am, as I was walking behind the car to get to the bakery entrance, I slipped on some ice and fell right on my knees and the heels of my hands. The left side got it worse than the right. And my left is the side that’s already injured.

I sat on the ground for about 5 minutes with my hands on my knees, trying to keep breathing through the pain. Two very nice ladies helped me get up.

Even though I had to hobble in, to the bakery I was going, pain or no. I was already there, and it’s Packzi Day! Luckily the line wasn’t too long that early. I pulled the tab for number 77 when they were calling 74. Yay!

I was extremely careful going back to the car with 3 boxes (1 King Cake, a dozen assorted Packzis, and one box of 2 prune Packzis for my mom) and I still slipped a little in a different spot, but I got my self home and in the house with my treasures.

Via tweeter @davidmacdougall