WHAT DAY IS IT?

Oh right. Monday. Blah... I did not want to work today. Right before going to bed last night I decided to check my computer to see if I had any awesome emails other than the normal "extend your penis" "become rock hard" or "someone has sent you a $1000 gift card". As if.

I heard chewy, grandson #2's current nickname. I listened to him for quite a while until #1 got woke up and went to the bathroom. So I went and got the little chunky butt out of bed. I took him into the kitchen and gave him goldfish and milk. He had a second round of goldfish. You see where I am going here right? Feed him and get him sleepy. Didn't work.

So I let him play in the den for a short period. #1 had glow sticks that were given to him at his party yesterday. And of course they were in the floor, where else would he put them. Next thing I know chunky chewy's shirt was glowing and I was freaking out. I was chasing him all over the den try to get into his mouth to see if he glowed. He didn't. The floor and his shirt did. I found all of them that I could and tossed them in the garbage. That was around midnight.

I finally got him in the bed again. He kept calling for his brother and acting like he was going to start howling. I turned on the light, showed him his brother asleep and under the blankets and tossed him in the bed. He wanted to get up but I kept telling him to lay down and go to sleep like brother. He did... I died.

I get up this morning and low and behold.... I started. I know you don't want all the gory details but it had been two months since my last one and I was so hoping this was it the big Men O Pause..... but it wasn't. I knew that I hadn't been having any hot flashes that I have heard others talk about. Everyone is different though. Damn it.

So one of my account managers called in sick today. That just pissed me off even more. If you can't handle your damn booze well enough to not miss work then don't drink. Then everyone decided they needed to tromp through my office area talking and arguing and crunching potato chips. That was it. The head started spinning, the mouth opened and out came loud..very loud...vulgarities, and threats and more of the same.

I am better now. I will probably have to go to the hospital soon. I think I am about to overdose on sugar. I was so good today..again... and then stress, and period and work got to me. I ...ate...cupcakes. Now I think I am sick. blah........ Oh what the hell. I gotta get them out of the house and right now I tell you. I may crawl into the kitchen and get more. I don't got no chocolate. What do you expect. I am on my period and no chocolate in the house....that is a sin.

Look below....this is how I started this blog this morning telling you how to eat a delicious low carb, low fat breakfast.... I had good intentions....but then isn't that what the road to hell is paved with?

This morning I had a delicious omelet. However, when calculating the numbers the sodium content blew my mind. The culprit is canned asparagus and those tiny three olives... the bastards. I love them. Why can't they be low sodium?

The Ingredients:

1/4 C Egg Beaters

1/4 C Asparagus tips/pieces - You can certainly use fresh but I didn't have any

1/3 C Italian Blend Cheeses

3 Olives of choice - I used Kalamata which are my favorite

Nutritional Value:

Calories 145

Fat 8.5 g

Sat Fat 3.5 g

Sodium 760 mg

Carbs 4.5 g

Protein 14 g

Sugar 1 g

Potassium 90 g

And you can cut this in half and share and serve with a whole grain toast for added fiber.

Quote of the Day "You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."– Mahatma Gandhi

GRILLED CHICKEN SPINACH SALAD

This salad is delicious. I don't know the exact fat or carb content because I changed the recipe. It originally had 9 fat grams, 2 saturated and 33 carbs. I have removed eggs, mushrooms and peppers and added zucchini and capers. I don't use the bacon. I love the sweet and tartness of this salad. I hijacked this photo from Betty, you know, Mrs Crocker. I forgot to take my own photo and that won't happen again. I do like that hers has almonds and fresh raspberries.

Warm Grilled Chicken Spinach Salad with Raspberry-Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe


This recipe serves: 4 Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
For the dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup red raspberry jam organic or sugar-free or reduced sugar.
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

For the salad:
4 grilled boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about 4 to 6 ounces each
8 cups baby spinach leaves
1 cup sliced zucchini or yellow squash
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
2 strips cooked, crisp bacon, crumbled (optional)
1 tsp capers (optional)

Cooking Instructions
1. To make the dressing, heat the olive oil in a small saucepan. Add the jam, mustard and vinegar and heat thoroughly.
2. In a large salad bowl, toss the chicken, spinach and zucchini with the warm dressing.
3. Divide the chicken and spinach among 4 large serving plates. Arrange the mushrooms, onions, capers and bacon on top.

SOME THINGS TO MENTION

About my blog...... I plan on having different pages for different things. One of them being my adventures in dieting and eating right and maybe some delicious low cal, low cholesterol and low fat recipes. I know... that is hard to do... give me some bacon. Yum. I will also add other things such as articles on interesting people I know, have met or just know from the Internet, myspace and blogs. I am planning a give away soon. It will probably be one of my jewelry creations or some of my delish fudge that everyone clammers for. Katie over at http://katiescalamities.blogspot.com/ said she almost blacked out over my comment about my marathon fudge making. You should swing by and tell her I said hello. She is very entertaining. I will let everyone know about the giveaway once I have moved to my new location http://www.screamingforchocolate.com/ .

I also want to mention the people I adopted my Oliver from. Keith and Janease Linenbrink own SassyK9's. Keith mentioned in an email that ever since Oprah had a show on puppy mills that it had hurt their business. I was just watching the animal planet when they had an excerpt on about it. Basically they said that anyone selling puppies on the Internet were puppy mills. This is absolutely false. While I am certain there are puppy mills selling online that does not mean that everyone that sells online is a puppy mill.

My Oliver is just over two years old. I have had him almost two years without one single problem or illness. Oliver went to the vet as soon as I got him and my vet said he was a very healthy well taken care of puppy. I did my due diligence on SassyK9's and was very pleased. They put their vet information and have lots of letters from happy adoptive parents on their site. So if you are looking for a loving cute little scruppy you should check out http://www.sassyk9s.com/ to see if they have the ideal baby for you.

HEALTHY EATING

Starting tomorrow I will try to start eating healthier than I have been over the last few months. Stress has caused a lot of emotional eating. This usually involves whatever unhealthy snack is around for the kids. I normally eat very healthy. I love veggies, salmon and other good for you food.

I guess I will have to venture out into the yukky outdoors in search for my favorite petite or baby green beans that are fresh. I will live with frozen if I must. I love to steam them but not so much they are colorless and limp. I like them to still have some crunch. I saute chopped up garlic and sometimes green onions if I have them in olive oil. Once my green beans are steamed I then toss them in with the olive oil, garlic, etc., and then I will throw in a few sesame seeds if the mood strikes. I LOVE these.

I found fresh ones once at Sam's. There were two packages bundled together. Jackpot baby. I cooked them in my favorite way. Yummy. The next day I went into the kitchen and my hubby had thrown them in a pot of water and was proceeding to boil them into what I can't stand.... cooked to death, flavorless and mushy vegetables. I went into orbit. It would have gotten really bad if I knew a good criminal defense attorney. I don't know any. Needless to say his idea of cooking vegetables and mine are on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

My hubby is always trying to do nice things for me. However, it usually doesn't go over so well. It is like...I love you but don't. Like cleaning out the fridge. He threw away a bag of shelled pecans. "But they have been in there for years" was his defense. It was February and I had bought them in December when I was doing my marathon fudge making. That is when you "sigh" deeply and try to remember that in the scope of things it isn't so major. Frustrating...YES. But not major.

He has also made the mistake of trying to take over in the kitchen when I am cooking something. "I just want to help" he says. If it was really bad, like adding something he shouldn't have...then I turn it fully over to him. It is now his. I am done.

Sometimes I can't help but laugh about it. How can you be angry, at least for too long, at someone who only has good intentions. Actually it is very easy. I just try to leave the room before my anger shrapnel takes out someone.

You know....this is also a good time for chocolate........

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Welcome to my journey to getting fit and healthy both physically and mentally. I am by no means an expert. I have read a lot of articles and studied different ideas about getting healthy. I can tell you what to do but obviously have not managed to maintain it for myself in a consistent manner. I do well and then I backslide.

I understand the difficulties that are involved. There are so many variables in ones life along with stress caused by careers, children, relationships, financial hardships and other obstacles.

There are a lot of things that can definitely side track your progress. I started gaining weight years ago. This was very difficult for me because I had always been very small. I had even been taunted about being too small. I was called bony and skinny and miniature. Let me say that I was not bony or skinny. I was small but I had a small frame. I actually weighed more than others my size because of my muscle mass.

I was an extremely energetic person. I was, in my opinion, a very fit, extremely athletic fine physical specimen. I would water ski, run and physically challenge myself constantly. I wasn't trying to be athletic I just like challenging myself. I tended to get bored easily.

I also ate like a horse. I wasn't too great on the breakfast side and typically tended to not partake of it. However, I would ate a huge lunch and was constantly snacking and ate dinner. My snacks were not junk though. I would grab celery, lettuce and olives. Not because it was healthy but because I liked it. I did drink a lot of Dr. Pepper and loved Hershey's chocolate almond bars. Still like them but have now discovered how wonderful dark chocolate is.

I used to think dark chocolate was too bitter. Once I ate a few though my perception changed and milk chocolate became too sweet and not very tasty to me. They say a small portion of dark chocolate is good for you just as drinking small amounts of red wine each day are.

So my plan of action is to quit procrastinating. Get moving and get some exercise. Prepare my foods in advance if needed and try to find some happiness. The happiness part may be the hardest. I am not a totally miserable person. I do have joys in life but they seem to get over shadowed by these other complications.

I know that if I don't make these changes now that I may not be around long to enjoy anything. I am topping the scale at 215 and I am only 5'3". I smoke and I stress and I don't sleep enough. Sounds like a time bomb about to blow at any moment.

Until my next post I will be Screaming For Chocolate.........