(204) Almost Empty Next Anxiety

I knew that my kids would leave home one day. And I always said it was my job to teach them to do so.

I just never knew it would feel so bad when they did.

I have one left at home, and she's 16, and that means I'm an idiot right now.

So much fun.

And all I want is pasta.

Help

(200) New Recipe on My Menu

I made this for dinner last night and really enjoyed it. The family liked it. I've just emailed Allan a copy of the recipe, to get his feedback.

I don't much care for the fact that Nutrition Data uses mixed units on their site (grams/ounces). That makes it confusing when trying to read the recipe, so here it is in all English units:

12 ounces of very lean sirloin, medalions if you can get them, otherwise cut into 4 ounce pieces resembling a hamburger patty.
One can of stewed tomatoes.
One small onion
One clove of garlic
2 cups fresh green beans
1-2 tsp Emeril's Original Essence
Salt & pepper to taste.

If you try it, let me know what you think!

(198) Lite and Thin

Food today was light and minimal: 3 clementines, salad, fresh steamed green beans (twice), a bit of jasmine rice, V8 juice, water, coffee.

Very busy at work, did my moms taxes right afterward, spent time with the troupes, and now its time to watch Stargate Universe!! 

(197) Back to Solid Food

After a couple days of weird stomach aches I decided to switch to drinking just juices and water for a couple days. The stomach seems to have settled down, I logged another pound lost, and yesterday I had a salad for lunch. No issues, so I call that a good sign.

I'm switching back to regular Phase 5 food today, although I have some of the juices left from the last couple days. I'll probably use the rest of the veggie juice in place of veggies and fruit juices in place of fruit.

Not much else to report. Going to do my mom's taxes today, and then go visit.

Happy Sunday to you.

(195) TGIF!! ....Wait.....I just read that somewhere.....

Oh yeah! It's from the daily email I get from Allan for being in the Phase 5 challenge.

I don't know about all of you, but that little email helps keep me going. I know the other day he was on the verge of stopping them, and then I read that there was some grumbling from the troups, so that must mean I'm not the only one that gets a boost from them. Yeah, I know....I may not check them daily. And especially last week, I hardly checked at all....due to the crap at work. But I just feel like those little notes of encouragement make me feel like I'm part of something bigger than my own little journey...like I'm part of a team.

Ya feel me?

:)

Anyway, I'm feeling better with the juice thing. Lost another pound this week, and the stomach seems to be settling down and not giving me such grief. I'm going to continue the juice for at least the rest of today, possibly tomorrow as well. Then Sunday I will be back on the Phase 5 diet plan.

Did I mention that I hate tuna?

< < < shudder > > >

Sorry, but I substitute with chicken whenever that one pops up.

____

Yesterday's consumption was: 85 ounces of water, 24 ounces of V8, 12 ounces of Green Goodness, 16 ounces of Berry Boost, and 8 ounces of Vanilla Chai Tea. 790 calories.

____


I'm glad to be done with this week. It was better than last week, so that's good. And I'm ready for the weekend.

How about you?

(194) Takin' It Easy

Thank you to Karen and Sandra for your concerns and suggestions. To elaborate just a bit, that feeling seems to move around, sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right, but always right along the bottom of my ribcage. Weird, huh?

Another thing that's going on is lots of people at work have been getting sick over the last several weeks. Something is going around and it seems to be making a rather slow circuit of it. One or two people at a time. I can't really say that I'm "sick", cus my discomfort is pretty isolated to evenings, after dinner.

Not sure what it is, so I've decided to just take it easy for the next two days. I went to the grocery store last night and bought juices for the next 2-3 days. I'm going to stick to an all-liquid diet, in small quantities, just to see if my stomach settles down. So here's the menu for 2-3 days: Absopure water and V8 & Bolthouse Farms juices.



The juices have a calories-per-serving amount that ranges from 70 to about 140. I'm sticking to 2-3 servings of the V8 (70 calories), and probably one serving each of the other juices. The vanilla chai is soy based, so it has lots of protein in it. The other two have lots of whole servings of fruit and vegetables in each bottle. Seems pretty healthy to me, and minimum stress on the tummy. Probably going to lay off the morning cup of coffee as well. I'm going to alternate throughout the day, with 17 ounces of water, followed by 8-12 ounces of juice, more water and so on.

Admittedly this is not the menu plan for Phase 5, but I've got to get this stomach thing under control, and if its a flu bug or something that I'm trying to fight off, maybe the juices will prevent me from really having problems.

(193) Checkin' In

I think stress is getting to me or something. Food consumption has been fine, water is ok, but for the last 4-5 nights in a row, after dinner I've had a stomach ache. Not the "indigestion" type, rather a weird crampy pain right up under my rib cage.

Not sure what's going on, and it may be some kind of a bug, since everyone at work has been sick lately, but its unnerving.

Just trying to stay focused and not let the junk at work get too out of hand.

I hope all of you are having a good week.