Who Knew????

So I have been doing excellent. The weather  has been crisp and cold and of course that usually means thoughts of baking are running through my head. Lately I have been trying to train my brain not to think of all the yummy treats I could be making for the upcoming holidays but instead concentrate on the gifts I want to make. I have taken up crocheting and am trying knitting. I always have sewing I could be doing too. Not to mention my scrap booking and I have to get my son Wyatt's pictures done for senior year. Yes I have alot to keep me busy.......

Last night we had the football banquet for Wyatt. Seniors were supposed to bring a veggie, meat and cheese tray or a fruit tray. We took a veggie, meat and cheese tray all in one. I made it and it looked awesome. Plus I knew if I took something that I can eat I won't get stuck with something that has pasta or the foods I am not eating right now. The banquet was nice and then I ran off to my book club meeting. It's always nice to meet with the girls even if I show up late. I did great till I got home and was still hungry so ate some of the meat off the tray and had some cheese but the kicker is my cousin had sent me up some yogurt covered raisins well I ate nearly half the bag before I looked at the ingredients. Yogurt raisins are loaded with sugar!!!!! Plus it said there were 8 servings in the bag! Are you kidding me I am thinking to myself I ate at least 4 servings all by myself!!!! That topped with the cheese is not good. So I am now not eating yogurt raisins and I love them so that is sad.

I should be able to drop the couple lbs I gained by really sticking to my program.
 1. No eating after 7
 2. Nothing with sugar
 3. Make sure to check labels for content and serving size.
I think if I stick to these three rules I will be back in the game and on my way to my new healthy self.

I was looking over my previous posts and wanted to let you all know I haven't been doing the excersise. I have been working at getting the yard ready for winter and I also want to have a Halloween party so I have been getting the garage cleaned up for that. I have a huge garage and I can actually see it now that I have been moving all my workout  equipment to one area and all my sewing fabric containers out of the way. I am also Now able to park in it again YES! That makes it so nice as we have already gotten snow. yuck! I think it is going to be a long cold winter. I am watching Alaska the last frontier on Discovery channel and am sitting here thinking..."are you kidding me"..I grew up in Anchor point wich is about 30 miles from where they are filming this show and they are making it sooooo dramatic. They are at the head of the bay outside of Homer. I used to ride horses up there. This show just makes me laugh.  Maybe I should post all my troubles with snowplowing and raising four teenagers all on my own while my hubby works so hard in the frigid north slope tempetures. Do you think I could get my own show?

I am posting a photo of Junie she is our newest addition and is very active. I think she will be my snow shoe companion. She is taller than the other three LuLu, Higgins and Huckleberry. They are all Weenie dog mixes. They have short little legs and fluffy little faces. terribly cute but not so great in the snow!.

Life is good.

I have been really busy. I did have a party and made some brownies. These were not your average brownies. They were brownies with walnuts, chocolate royale marshmallows and white chocolate chips. Of course I had to have one then another warm right out of the oven. Then at my party I did have corn chips and salsa. so needless to say I was not  down in weight. That being said I am now back eating healthy and I am again losing! yeah!!!

Our son Adam cam down with his girlfriend Kuai and he and the kids cut out pumpkins and Kuai and I did the brownies, which is to say she mixed them up and I told her what to add to make them delicious.

With the holidays coming it is going to be a bit of a struggle not to over eat but I am going to really try. right now I am eating roasted pumpkin seeds. I took the seeds from the kids pumpkins rinsed them of and let them sit for a couple days with sea salt sprinkled on them sparingly. Then today I roasted them at 350 degrees for 40 minutes turning them periodically to get them all a light tan color. If you like pumpkin seeds they are great. lightly salted with a nice roasted flavor. I just need to make sure I don't eat them all since seeds being good for us are also high in fat.

Me and the Monkshood (photo)

This is a photo Mark took of me when we were camping this summer.


Today was beautiful! The sun was shining and I love it when the sun is out, especially since we have had a really wet summer and fall. I have been doing really well with my new eating habits. I seem to have a lot more energy since I am not eating sugar or flour. I rarely drink soda so luckily I didn't have to go off that too! I am seeing lower numbers on the scale and that is always a plus. I hope to continue seeing the lbs drop. I am going to try and start my excercise program tomorrow. Not going to kill myself but at least get a mile in and possibly two. I am not sure yet if I am going to walk or do my eliptical. Maybe I will just take Junie (our puppy) since she's youngest and needs some training. She hates riding in the car maybe she will do better on a leash......

I will keep you posted.

I work as a captain for a catering company, this in itself is probabaly not a good job for a fat foodie. People don't NEED to drink or smoke but yes everyone needs to eat. I am trying keep my diet simple no flour or sugar just meats, salads or veggies and fruit. Once I lose my weight I will try adding in different things but for the next few months it is going to be pretty strict. I have found that popcorn with butter from the theatre and butterfingers are not a good choice for me. My stomach was killing me this weekend. It was a little easier to start my program in that state haha. Anyway back to my job, Last night we did an event and served Vanilla cheese cake and Chocolate bourbon pecan pie and Russian creme with a stawberry marinade. Okay is this tempting? YES! but I really have to pat myself on the back!!!! I didn't even sample!!!! go shannon go shannon! when I am dieting I have to think of food as fuel. Lets face it you can put anything in your body but it is not going to run as well if you put fuel that is bad for it. I'm not going to say it was easy, it wasn't but I have got to stick to this.
  I am going to be 47 in January, I always said I would be thin in my fortys. Those are almost over. Heck my baby is now 13. I really can't use the baby fat excuse and I am exhausted most of the time. That is another reason I am doing this. In the last couple years I have broke my leg, had a couple surgerys do to the hysterectomy, bladder etc. Being overweight is not helping any of those things.  Like any fattie I need to take it one day at a time. I like many of you have lost and gained.
 I was not chubby as a child or even as a young adult. I got this way after I had my 4th child and wasn't active. like I said he is now 13. Thinking back on it I have been on this rollercoaster for the last 13 years. How sad is that!
 I am not going to give you my weight and I am not going to say how much I gain or lose. (I will tell you I could be a linebacker for the NFL). I will tell you if I gain or if I lose just to keep myself accountable. When I hit my goal weight I may reveal my highest weight we will have to see. As for now I am losing and that is GREAT!

What the hell!

Okay so I guess I should start out by telling you how much I love my grandchildren. I LOVE them more than CHOCOLATE! Now that being said, when they were visiting my oldest Daniel said he wanted to play hide and seek. Well who doesn't love a game of hide and seek? So I said, " okay who do you want to hide first you or grandma"? Well Daniel is very matter of fact and he does this little thing with his mouth (when he is being cheeky or thinks he might get in trouble for saying stuff) He talks to the side of his mouth so its really funny. "granma you can't hide". then he pauses and I say "why can't I hide? Granma is a great hider". then he says "well (and he is really struggling with this) Granma you are too fat to hide".......okay in my head I am thinking what the hell????!!! and my feelings are a bit hurt and I want to say listen you little turd. but instead I say. "yes but granma is a great hider". I know my grandson loves me with out a doubt but he is a child and kids just say the truth. It was one of the hardest personal things I have had to realise in a long time. so being the great grandma I am I hid first and he couldn't find me so when I came out of hiding I said, " see Daniel even fat granmas can hide"! BOO YA!!!! he was so impressed and didn't think another thing of it. I in turn have been thinking about it for a while now and I have decided I don't want to be the "fat granma" I want to be the fun granma that can run and jump on the trampoline and do all the fun stuff that kids do. I want to go down the slides not sit on the bench.

Back in the saddle

So I am on my program again. I figure this is just a battle that will never end. I wish that was not the case however I am going to be proactive. So day one. Almost at my heaviest....again. same goal 60 lbs. I will keep you posted.