Pure Sugar

I was away all last week, totally overdoing the breads, pastas, and desserts. While I loved every minute of it, I now feel a little off considering I don’t usually eat like that on a normal basis. (And the scale tells me much the same — eek!). Since Drew wants to lose a few pounds, we decided to start South Beach Phase 1 on Monday. A few years ago I lost about 20 lbs. by following the program! This time I really just want to get rid of the sugar cravings and get myself back on track to healthy eating. I like to think of it as a pseudo cleanse (a carb cleanse that is — watch, now I’ll have all kinds of searches on colon cleanse reviews just because I typed the word “cleanse.”) At any rate, I know how hard it is to find South Beach menus, so I wanted to make a point of sharing mine. Breakfast is the most boring, but I’m going for simplicity. I’ll channel my creative energy into SB dinners. I remember that the first three days are hard, but they got easier after that. Having everything written down will no doubt help. So here we go, with Week 1.

Monday:
B: Microwave scrambled egg with 1 slice boiled ham, low-sodium V8 juice, coffee or tea
S: Celery sticks with peanut butter
L: 15 bean soup, salad, SF jello
S: Turkey pepperoni, sliced green pepper, string cheese
D: Baked chicken oreganata, salad, steamed broccoli & cauliflower, vanilla ricotta creme

Tuesday:
B: Microwave scrambled egg with 1 slice boiled ham, low-sodium V8 juice, coffee or tea
S: Walnuts
L: 15 bean soup, salad, SF jello
S: Cucumber slices with hummus
D: Turkey & bean chili, salad, cocoa ricotta creme

Wednesday:
B: Microwave scrambled egg with 1 slice boiled ham, low-sodium V8 juice, coffee or tea
S: Celery sticks with neufchatel cheese
L: 15 bean soup, salad, SF jello
S: Ham slice and wrapped around string cheese, dipped in mustard
D: Chopped steak smothered with LF cheese, onions, and mushrooms; salad; broccoli, vanilla ricotta creme

Thursday:
B: Microwave scrambled egg with 1 slice boiled ham, low-sodium V8 juice, coffee or tea
S: Walnuts
L: Turkey & bean chili (leftover), salad, SF jello
S: Turkey pepperoni, pepper slices, string cheese
D: Turkey cutlets, sauteed squash & zucchini, salad, cocoa ricotta creme

Friday:
B: Microwave scrambled egg, low-sodium V8 juice, coffee or tea
S: Celery sticks with peanut butter
L: Vegetable soup, tuna fish “wraps” (use lettuce leaf), SF jello
S: Hummus and cucumbers
D: Lemon-herb tilapia or cod with herbs, sauteed squash and zucchini, cole slaw, vanilla ricotta creme

Saturday:
B: Western omelettes (ham, pepper, onion, tomato), low-sodium V8 juice, coffee or tea
S: Ham & cheese roll-ups with mustard
L: Southwestern chicken salad (greens, beans, jalepeno, onion, green pepper, grilled chicken, black olives) with fresh salsa and LF ranch dip (LF sour cream + Hidden Valley ranch mix), SF jello
S: Walnuts
D: Grilled filet mignon, steamed asparagus, steakhouse salad, mocha ricotta creme

Sunday:
B: Microwave scrambled egg with 1 slice boiled ham, low-sodium V8 juice, coffee or tea
S: Celery sticks with neufchatel cheese
L: Cobb salad (greens, tomato, onion, hardboiled egg, grilled chicken, avacado, shredded cheddar, turkey bacon) w/ LF ranch dip, SF jello
S: Tomatoes and mozzarella with balsamic drizzle
D: Chicken curry over cauliflower “rice”, vanilla ricotta creme

I know I’ve been MIA all week. I just haven’t had the time for blogging this past week. I did, however, somehow find the time for having a really bad eating week and overindulging in lots of delicious food. So tomorrow Drew and I are going to start South Beach Phase 1 again as a kind of cleanse/carb detox. I haven’t tried many weight loss programs aside from SB, but it really worked great for me in the past. This time I am not doing it so much as a way to jump start weight loss, but I really need to curb the sugar and carb cravings. I’ve been drafting up ideas for snacks and meals and I’ve found that as long as I’m not scrambling for ideas, the plan is not hard for me to follow. Then I’ll start adding my good carbs back in and hopefully keep my sweet tooth at bay.

So today we’re going food shopping. I also plan on hitting up Target because they have the Shark steam mop on sale. Last summer I started researching steam mops and I’ve been holding off on buying one until there was a good price. The model on sale at Target is one below the model I really wanted, but I’ve decided that it’s good enough. Who thought a girl could be so excited to wash her tile floors?

Luckily, we did not get quite as much snow as our friends and relatives slightly further south. Half the county was without power for days, making the measly 8 hours ours was out look like nothing. I wonder if the people who work for utilities have higher life insurance rates because of the risk involved with their work? There were certainly a lot of downed wires all over. Even yesterday it was pretty windy. I just keep telling myself that spring is only a couple weeks away. Soon the birds will be chirping, the crocuses will be poking through the ground, and winter will be left long behind!

We had a nice, relaxing weekend in spite of all the crazy snow. We did a lot of just hanging around and relaxing, which was nice. March is going to be a really busy month, so it was good to have the downtime. We walked around the mall a bit because Noah’s been asking to. Unfortunately, in his mind he was thinking of the Danbury Mall with the carousel and the Service Magic kiosk that gives away balloons as promotional items. Still, he liked hanging out in the food court for some reason. Ah, just a glimspe of what it will be like as a teenager perhaps, LOL!

Remember when I posted a photo of a local barn a few weeks ago? Well, it finally collapsed under the weight of all the snow we’ve had since Tuesday afternoon. I doubt that the owner was looking for property insurance online, but I have to wonder… how’s he going to get that camper out from the rubble now? I joke but like my brother said, it’s sad to see these old barns go. They don’t build them like that anymore and I’m impressed that it withstood all the rain, snow, wind, and ice we’ve had for the past six years that I’ve lived here (and who knows how much for years before that).

Yesterday we woke up to snow-covered everything. When all was said and done, between Tuesday and Wednesday’s snow I think we got between 14 and 16 inches. (It’s already compacted down, though.) Schools were closed yesterday and our power was out for about eight hours. During that time I channeled my inner pioneer and saw just how resourceful I could be when it came down to it. Having no power meant that our well wasn’t pumping water into the house, so we filled stock pots with snow and set them next to the wood stove to melt. Then I made tea on the wood stove It’s not too often that you actually use a wood stove to cook with in this day and age, but that’s how I heated up our lunch and it worked just fine! While the power was out the boys made a fort in Jake’s room:

The power came back on in the early afternoon, thankfully. There are still people in the area without power. And, naturally, today we have a cold, wet, yucky mess on our hands. Schools are closed again and it’s been alternating between snow, rain, and sleet all day. Since the weather isn’t fit for outdoor play, the boys are having a pyjama day. There’s been reading, playing with the Wii and with G.I. Joe action figures, doing Pix-Os, and I’m sure a bunch of things I don’t even know about. I made cupcakes for them to decorate after lunch. It’s not quite Crumbs, but they were pretty good!

Laura’s not feeling well. She’s all sniffly, sneezy, and snotty. She allowed me to put her down for a few minutes to work on the cupcakes though. But she’s still so cute, even when she’s not feeling herself.

I also cleaned out and rearranged the cabinet that holds our glasses, made hot and sour soup, and also made chai tea concentrate. Now, because I had such a busy morning and barely slept last night, I am totally wiped out. I think I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon watching shows on Netflix and (if I’m lucky) getting some crochet in, too.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get much crochet time in last week, though I did finish up the last dishcloth that was on my hook. It’s rather badly mishapen! See?

No matter, it will still do the job. My grand total was… eight dishcloths. Not great, but not too bad, either! I’ll probably keep some and set some aside for last-minute gifts. Thanks to Melissa for such a great idea! Now, I’m back to working on Laura’s Easter dress.