Donna's Diet-to-Go Experience

Hey, strangers!

2009-09-28T07:19:00.003-04:00

Well, did you think I'd dropped off the face of the earth? Nope, just life. I wanted to give an update. I've stopped getting the meals for a little bit. John's been out of town quite a bit lately so I've been eating what we had stocked up while he was gone. I've been cooking some also. My weight is fluctuating a bit but I'm keeping around the 183 mark plus or minus a pound.

Nicky started preschool! Just part time. 3 hours a day, 3 days a week. It's absolutely perfect for him and he loves it. It's a half hour drive to get there so the babies and I tend to stay in town running errands, going to the park, or just walking around. It's starting to get nice walking weather. You may be thinking, it's September and it's not walking weather?! Mid to upper 80's is too warm for me. So I did a little geocaching in downtown Fayetteville. What is geocaching, you say? Well, it's a way to make walking have a goal. I've never been one to just walk. I want to have a reason. It's not the journey, it's the destination. So there's over 900K little capsules or containers hidden around the world. You find one, you write your name in it and then you replace it. www.geocaching.com.

In another episode of my "why can't they market healthy foods" saga, the babies are eating solids pretty frequently. Catie more often than Jason. She will eat just about anything. He's going to be a picky one. Anyway, when we're out and about, I need something to feed her. I've always made their own food instead of buying the jar stuff. So little containers of applesauce or fruit. But do you know how hard it is to find fruit that is healthy? Other than the produce section. She's not quite up to munching on a peach off the shelf. I finally found one (ONE!) container that was made with 100% juice. All the others have artificial sweeteners or sugar. I've tried the "very light" syrup ones and they just taste sicky-sweet to me. They're doing much better with 100% juices. Why can't they use those to put the fruit in?

So facebook. Yeah, I'm an addict. I'm connecting with a lot of people I haven't talked to since college, 18 years ago. (ACK!!!) I wanted to share a comment someone made. After viewing my profile picture, they said "Good Lord Girl, you look dang near the same as your Kville campus days. Nice job." How's that for combatting the "I'm almost 40, look at the new wrinkles" feeling?

Gotta run. Babies get their yogurt and oatmeal at 7:30. Then wake up Nicky at 8:00. In the car to leave for school by 8:30. Life is a schedule. If you're lucky!

Stop and Take a Breath

2009-08-19T19:43:00.003-04:00

As the great Ferris Bueller said: "Life comes at you pretty fast." I would also add that relativity is a b*$@#. High school seemed to last forever but my son has been alive almost as long and that feels like an eyeblink. It seems like time just races by lately so I apologize for the lack of posts.

As I predicted, I had a gain for last week but not too bad. With the weight loss this week, I'm less than half a pound up from where I was. We haven't been getting a lot of sleep but it's been getting better. Last night Nicky slept through the night for only the second time in the last month. His skin is much clearer and through a bit of mental manipulation, we hope to get sleep more often than not.

Nicky had his allergy testing yesterday. Interesting results. Oak and hickory which accounts for the outside reaction. Fish, shellfish and treenuts which means we get to start carrying an epipen around. He's actually never had shellfish or treenuts so we don't know how he'll react. And dog. He's allergic to dog. Both the previous renter at our old house and this current one had dogs. So we're getting some high quality hepa air filters, shampooing the carpets abd getting the air ducts cleaned. Wow. Gotta say, didn't expect that.

So with John back to work and Nicky doing better, I have high hopes for a nice steady weight loss the next couple weeks. On the food front, a couple interesting notes. The shrimp in the dishes tends to be a little tough. Not sure if that's from the freezing or the reheating. But there's a dish on the mail-order menu only that I had for the first time. Shrimp and pasta salad for lunch. Oh, that was yummy. It was shrimp and spaghetti with red peppers in a vinegar based dressing. We heated it just a little and it was quite, quite tasty.

Time to put itchy boy to bed and do a little messing with the head. He knows that his allergies make him itchy. So last night, I asked him if he had licked a dog, tree, fish or nut. At first he said he licked a fish but we giggled him out of that. I told him that if he hadn't licked any of those, he shouldn't be itchy. We'll try that again. Convince the mind, convince the body, huh?

What a Week!

2009-08-08T19:46:00.004-04:00

Can't believe this week is finally over. It seems that we've been going night and day. Literally. Nicky has had a couple bad nights. Last night I got about 3 hours of sleep. I can't wait to figure out what he's allergic to. It's something outside. He was fine yesterday morning. Then we went out to Chuck E Cheese and the outlet mall. His face started getting red last night and he itched all night long. Hopefully staying in all day will have cleared up his system.

We finished the playset Made one error that we didn't catch until it was too late but it was cosmetic, not structural. Of course, with 95 degree heat and him rashing up outside, he has only done a test run on it. Jason loves the swing, though.

Lost a little bit last week. Another 0.6 for a total of 27 so far. People may wonder why I'm happy with such low numbers. That's because I'm not really trying. I've been treating a lot lately. John is still home from the move so we've been doing a lot of family outings. Whuch means eating out a lot. Any weight loss makes me happy. This week is already a wash. Lack of sleep means major snacking all day long. It's the only way to keep my brain functioning above the level of chimpanzee.

Midnight Ramble

2009-08-02T01:46:00.002-04:00

The doctor here is wonderful! We left with five prescriptions to clear up his infection, calm his receptors, and clear his skin. He started doing better right away. We have to wake him up in the middle of the night for his antibiotic but he was sleeping well. Until tonight. He's been up for two hours tonight. We've learned a valuable lesson. He was outside right before bed so there wasn't time for a bath. Next time, we make time! Poor itchy guy. It's something outside, that's for sure. Just a little sad because Jason woke up at 4:30 yesterday and now I'm looking at the clock wondering if I'm going to be able toget another two hours sleep for a grand total of five hours!

The building of the playset is going well. I'm really glad we followed the advice of people who boight it and labeled everything. Some boards were identical except for 1/4" length. Some were identical except the pre-drilled holes were placced 1" differently. Sheesh! We can only work on it when the babies both nap and only in the morning. (I don't do NC summer sun) So we've only done about 5 hours work and we've finished 11 steps of 27. We'll get it eventually. Had to go out and get longer bolts for one step. I'm not trusting my kids to hardware where the nut only goes on half its depth. But it's going well. We've got the swing side done and so John lifted up the horizontal support beam to give Nicky a chance to test the glider. He likes it so far.

Posted a loss this week of 0.6 so I'm at 183 pounds with a total loss of 26.4 pounds. I've talked before about setting smaller, reachable goals. I haven't been under 180 since I don't know when. At least since before I got married 13 years ago. Probably college. I'm wearing clothes I wore in college. So I have a short-term goal of seeing 17- on the scale. Long-term goal, and I can't believe it's possible that I'm talking about this, but 14 pounds will see me no longer classified as overweight! The medical term is "normal". Which I kind of resent because that means I'm currently abnormal.

What I really like about DTG are the people. Besides being some of the nicest people I've met, they really do care about their customers and listen to them. I noticed this week that the shipping containers were reinforced around the lower edge. They are constantly working to make everything better, from adding an entire new week of meals to using more recyclable containers to adjusting shipping procedures to find the best way to insure proper procedures.

Had one of my favorite meals this week 0 chicken pesto sandwich. I was slightly disappointed that the pineapple in the regular meals is replaced with mixed fruit. I like putting the pineapple in the chocolate pudding. But the meal was still tasty.

Pining about the Pines

2009-07-27T19:44:00.004-04:00

We're heading to the doctor tomorrow to get Nicky a referral to an allergist and a dermotologist down here. I've been researching allergies, particularly to pine. We're absolutely surrounded by lodgepole pines. Now it seems that since we've moved down here, every time Nicky goes outside, he comes in with flaring eczema and itching eyes. Which is frustrating when we try to enjoy our back yard. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a resolution to this. We've kept him inside the last two days and last night he slept all night without waking. The night before, he was up for three hours because he couldn't stop itching. Poor little guy.

I did a preliminary weigh today. I shouldn't do that. I know I shouldn't. But sometimes it's necessary to see if I'm on track for the week. Unfortunately, if it's a good weighing, I get worried for the last half of the week, wondering if it's a fluke or an actual weight. We'll see. It does tend to keep me behaving better than a bad weighing. Now I want to make sure I get that good number as an official number.

We trekked to Raleigh today to go to a Natural Science museum. Nicky doesn't get a whole lot out of the displays. He tends to look for a second and then say, what's over there and run on. We had a nice sensible lunch there. We split a cheese and spinach sandwich and a chef salad. But by the time we hit the mall, I was hungry again. That's the thing about DTG meals. They're filling. I was glad I had my salmon at home for dinner. John had the red snapper. I like the snapper but I like the salmon better.

Our swing set gets delivered tomorrow afternoon. I've got to clear room in the garage to lay everything out and label it. We've got our drill charged up and we're ready to go. John has already said he's expecting a traumatic experience so he won't get frustrated as easily. Does that make sense?

Could Have Been Worse

2009-07-22T20:45:00.003-04:00

I've been bad. This week was an indulgent week. But again, I'm wondering if my idea of an indulgent week is a non-DTG person's idea of a normal week. Because I stayed steady exactly where I was last week. Even though I had pizza for lunch and dinner on Sunday and some cheesecake. John went back to Chicago over the weekend and brought home an Eli's chocolate chip cheesecake. Now, I'm not normally a cheesecake fan but there's is NOTHING like an Eli's chocolate chip cheesecake. Of course 1/8 of a 10" cake is over 300 calories and about 20 grams of fat. So a meal.

We've been exploring things around town. Found a bouncy world for Nicky. Discovered the Joe's Crab Shack down here has a huge playground. Remembered that the best diet in the world is taking babies to a restaurant. And we took three! So I didn't get a chance to eat a lot of my crab nachos which wasn't such a bad thing.

On the DTG meal front, our delivery today arrived well and frozen. The meals have been very yummy, as usual. I've got them stacked and organized in the freezer so that every night, I take out the top two lunches and the top two dinners for the next day. Then, if something comes up, like going out to lunch today, the meal that was going to be today's is still good tomorrow.

We hope to get Nicky swing set delivered in the next couple days. While I'm tempted to set up the video camera as I'm sure there will be some America's Funniest Home Video's moments, we don't have the battery life or the storage for the amount of time it's going to take us to put it up. Steve, if you've got any DIY advice, I'd be happy to hear it!

Busy week

2009-07-16T13:34:00.003-04:00

Okay, one more installer to go today and then we're done with installers and repairmen. Hopefully. The washer turned out to be an easy fix. Not one we could do but they did it in about two minutes.

I've found a meal on the frozen plan that isn't as good as the fresh. The Hungarian Turkey just lost something in translation. I'll be changing that one out next cycle. Everything else, though, has been quite satisfactory. And I posted another weight loss this week. At least I did before I made Toffee Bars to take to the neighbor as a thank you. You never return an empty plate! So I was at 183.6. I've lost 25.8 pounds!

We're picking up a new kitchen table today. It'll be nice to be able to eat at a table again. Our dining room table is too big for the eat-in kitchen and the dining room has genuine hardwood floors. I'm not sure what squash and pears or oatmeal with applesauce, not to mentioned regurgiated formula would do to that so the babies are staying out of there. And of course, there's no way I'm letting Nicky carry food there. So, we will be eating in the eat in kitchen. We also ordered a swing set for Nicky. Putting it together will be fun, I'm sure. The hardest part will be finding safe things for Nicky to do to "help".

Our delivery came yesterday and everything was just fine. We have a freezer full of meals. Taking them out one day at a time is working well. That way, if something comes up, they'll keep until the next day and we're not wasting any food. So we're both really happy with the delivery plan. The food still tastes great and if anything, it's even easier to use. The lunch sandwiches are already put together for you! The turkey ham salad on pretzel roll (one of my favorites) was ready to eat from the fridge. Perfect to stick in the cooler to take on outings.

Speaking of outings. Nicky and I went to the local children's museum. A far cry from the Baltimore children's museum but actually better for him. It was only one floor and much simpler. He's not a fan of crowds, especially louder older children. So he had a grand time. On Saturday, they have a model train display so we'll probably go back.

So we're settling in down here. It's so quiet and peaceful. I have to admit, though, that I giggle watching the traffic on the news. They actually devote airtime to that! Oh, look. A car! DC traffic has warped my sense of normalcy.

Another Town, Another Zoo

2009-07-09T20:39:00.006-04:00

We've been here less than two weeks and we've already headed to the zoo. It was only 80 today! Had to go. It was a pretty nifty zoo. But boy, is it sprawling. It actually warns you on the map that there are over five miles of paths. And I think we hit them all! Nicky had a grand time. He got a little startled at the sea lion pool. And I don't know which he liked better, the tram ride or the polar bear. Both were huge hits.

So I got my exercise for the day. Which hopefully makes up for the peach pie that our new neighbor baked for us. I was doing pretty well this week. I did my weekly official weigh-in this morning and I'm at 184.2. So I lost almost a pound since I found the scale over the weekend for a grand total of 25.2 pounds so far!

I think thawing the meals is the best option. I tried cooking a frozen lunch the other day, the turkey-swiss sandwich (John and I are sharing the lunches he got). The cheese is oooey-gooey anyway so the extra time needed to defrost as well as heat wasn't so good. I heated it for a minute at a time so the cheese didn't melt out everywhere and I wasn't able to get the middle totally warmed before I got too hungry! So I'm putting two lunches and two dinners in the fridge to thaw for 24 hours before we eat them.

Dinner tonight was chicken parmesan. It was quite good and the only difference between the fresh and the frozen was that the chicken was just a little tougher. However, as the chicken in the fresh meals is tender enough to cut with a fork, I'm okay with that. The pasta, sauce and cheese were exactly the same. And I think the broccoli was actually a little better.

One thing I learned, however, is that it's best to not stack the meals as I thaw them. The chicken hadn't totally thawed and it was because there was some ice between the packages.

So the shipped/fresh comparison is doing fine. I always said that frozen dinner plans were terrible but I think there's a big difference here because DTG flash-freezes them and then ships them to you right away. So they don't have to add all those, well, additives to get them to you still tasting like food. Oh, speaking of shipping. This week's shipment arrived perfectly. The frozen ice packs in the cooler were still frozen. So a freezer full of food to eat this week. Which is good because I have a garage full of boxes to unpack. (or look through and leave out there!)

Liquid Cheese and Other Tales

2009-07-07T15:45:00.002-04:00

We had our first frozen meals last night. I had the salmon with rice and vegetables. The salmon was a little dry. That's easily fixed. I always add a sprinkle of water to rice when I re-heat it so I just need to put a little moisture into the salmon. The taste was still good and I thought the rice and vegetables were yummy.

John had the chugwater chili. After an overly long debate on re-heating, it turned out mostly well. The instructions on the frozen meals say heat for 5-9 minutes. I had the hardest time convincing him that bread, shredded cheese and sour cream should definitely NOT be heated that long. The heating instructions on the fresh meals are very specific about removing items before heating. I always got a bit of a giggle out of that. Kind of like restaurants needing to label a coffee cup as hot. However, I see now that specific instructions are very helpful in preventing arguments with literal people. Sigh. His shredded cheese got a little liquified due to a bit too much heating but the bread and sour cream were salvaged.

I found my scale! So many boxes to unload. I was pretty happy, though. After two weeks of stress, sleeping on the floor for a week, and eating fast food or packaged convenience foods from the grocery store, I managed to lose more weight. I'm down to 185.0 now for a total of 24.4 pounds lost. I probably would have lost more if I'd been able to eat my DTG food what with all the exercise I've been getting. But I like being able to get a chicken mcnugget happy meal with apple slices and be satisfied. Part of what I've learned eating DTG is what a full stomach should actually feel like. Not bloated, not stuffed, not I've-got-to-get-out-of-these-pants-and-into-sweats feeling. Treats are fine in small amounts and sensible eating is a lifestyle.

I'm here!

2009-07-06T07:54:00.003-04:00

We made it. Finally. You would not believe what's been going on. Oh, I was reading something in my last post and I needed to clarify. I stated that I couldn't use the ramp on the big truck but didn't say why. It drizzled all day. I tried going up the ramp once and about halfway up, had to hold the dolly steady while I slid back down. Needed a video camera for that one.

So, let's see. What a mess. The worst move I've had. We were told during John's relocation meeting that we would have movers pack and load on the 25th and 26th. Well, the day before they were supposed to get there, I still hadn't heard from them. No walk through. No interview. So I had John go by TMO (the military office that handles moving people). They said oh, here's the phone number of your mover. But don't call them for half an hour because we need to fax over paperwork. THEY HADN'T SCHEDULED US!! So I called the guy and asked if he wanted to do a walkthrough and he said they didn't have time and the packers would be there the next day. So the next morning, we moved everything we didn't want them to pack into Nicky's room, set up the babies in the playpen, established Nicky with some videos and waited. And waited. And waited.

I called and the guy said, oh, traffic, they're on their way. An hour later, I called again and he said he'd see what was going on. So he calls back and says, well, we're going to have to pack and load you in one day. Okay. That's doable if they get there at a decent hour. So we head to Chuck E Cheese to spend the tokens and tickets we've accumulated over the last two years. They have a chicken ciabatta sandwich which, if you leave off the mayo, and get fruit on the side, is a reasonable lunch. Nicky was pretty happy because Mommy got on a roll on the drop-in-the-coins-and-see-if-anything-falls game and won almost a thousand tickets. So the other kids watched in open mouthed awe as Nicky picked out a 5000 ticket Matchbox set.

Friday comes. Once again, we move everything into Nicky's room. And we wait. And wait. I call again. Oh, traffic, they're on their way. They finally show up at 11:00! One man and two women in a 16' truck. We live in a three story townhouse and have about 10,000 pounds left. They were expecting a 4000 pound job. At 6:00, another team with another truck shows up. Then they go and bring another truck. At 11:30pm, they moved the remaining items into the garage because we had cleaners coming the next morning. John stayed in town to outprocess but me, grandma, and the kids headed out. So indoor camping for a few days.

Our food delivery came on Wednesday. Unfortunately, our furniture with the spare freezer didn't arrive until Thursday. So I had to make a lot of room in the kitchen freezer. Not as much as I would have, however, if the cooler hadn't had a serious warpcore breach. One side of my cooler was basically broken off. Not good in the Carolina summer. My dinners were fine as they were on the other side. The lunches were totally thawed and at room temp. So those had to get tossed and I got a credit for those. Once again, the customer service department at DTG demonstrating their client-centric attitude. I love those people.

Anyway, waiting around for furniture on Thursday until 11. Maybe it's just because I get up at 5 but 11 is late. My day is half over by then! All of our things arrived, which is a plus. Not in one piece, which is a minus. Our solid pecan bedroom set which has been in the family for over 50 years is majorly gouged along with scratches in basically all the other furniture. Two wooden DVD storage units had the bottoms ripped off, and then the nails tacked down! Tall lamp and wooden uniform stand both snapped in half. Finally found the crib hardware in a box of hangers so the babies can get back to a normal schedule. And my washing machine no longer works. I had to trek to the laundromat early Sunday morning. Sigh.

Oh, and we get to do it again in two years.

Anyway, we haven't had a chance to try the frozen as my parents are still here. Mom forgot to do a final weigh before they packed the scale and I haven't found that yet. But she said it's obvious to her that her energy level is a lot lower not eating DTG.

Lots to do but it's so nice here. Nicky seems to be developing allergies but he loves being able to run in the backyard and go to his sandbox whenever he wants. After I get the ants out of it in the morning. I've sprayed with vinegar which helps but I've never seen so many ants. They're everywhere. Which makes the plethora of orbweaver and wolf spiders very happy.

So I'll let you know how the first frozen meal goes. Trying to decide if I want to thaw them in the fridge first or just put them in the oven or microwave frozen. I must say that so far, I like the convenience of frozen. Now, we'll see how they taste!

I Cannot Believe It!

2009-06-18T20:31:00.006-04:00

I did it. Whew. There is no way I could have survived the last two days before DTG. Absolutely, positively, no way.

So I picked up our rental truck (the 16' one) and brought it home to load. John was late getting off work so I started loading it about 10. He got home about 1:30. We were done at 3:30. When I took it to get it weighed, I was expecting about 1500 pounds. My jaw dropped when I saw we had loaded 4120 pounds!!!! In the rain. So I couldn't use the ramp and had to lift each box up into the truck. Now, I was calculating (it's the math major in me, I can't help it.) and if you consider the 50 pounds I used to carry around and add that onto each trip out to the truck I made, that would have been about a thousand extra pounds of toting that barge and lifting that bale. Well, lifting those boxes of books anyway.

You're probably thinking, wow, you much have been exhausted. Nope. Part of it was the endorphin high. But part of it was just that I'm in such better shape now that I've been in 20 years. But that Mac & Cheese was the perfect dinner after that. Not too heavy and cheesy - carby yummy.

So this morning I got up at 3am and drove down to Fayetteville. John got up a little later and followed. He caught up to me around Raleigh. We got the keys to our new rental and started unloading the truck. That backyard may not look too impressive but to us, it's wonderful. It's pretty sandy so not a real lawn but Nicky is going to be ecstatic.

It took about two hours to unload all that stuff and then we headed back home. So a nice 14 hour day with a whole lot accomplished.

It was especially nice added on to my other physical accomplishment of the week. 1.8 pounds lost for a total of 23.8 pounds. Remember back in May before we went on vacation and I couldn't get into my shorts? So last night I tried them on and they fit like a glove. It's such a weird/wonderful feeling to remember putting these shorts on and feeling like I was trying to stuff a sausage into its casing. The little roll that wouldn't get tucked in and wouldn't let me button them. Today, they fit absolutely perfectly.

So before you start your DTG, try on that pair of "skinny" jeans that you haven't gotten into in so long. Believe me, a couple months later when they slide on like silk, you will be like me and the rest of my fellow bloggers, so thankful that you decided to go for it!

Listen to Your Stomach

2009-06-15T19:57:00.002-04:00

You know, I've heard about muscle memory. When you train in an athletic , your muscles become used to performing specific motions in order. That's why you hear about athletic trainers changing up routines to wake up your muscles (shout out to you, Steve, our workout role model!) I know that the stomach is not a muscle, but I swear that not only does it have a memory, it's got definite opinions.

We went to a picnic with some co-workers from John's last stationing, Knob Noster, Missouri. (Look it up, it exists.) We encountered a common problem at picnics: what to eat. We took a vegetable tray and set it next to the cheesy potatoes with potato chips on top, the greasy barbecue brisket, the chocolate cake, the cookies. Oh, and the fruit plate. So Nicky ate fruit. I made a mistake. I had a bratwurst. It had been a long time and that was all I ate. And then it sat like a lump in my stomach. Just sat. A big congealed lump of fat. Ewwwwww. Never. Again.

Dinner tonight was spaghetti pie with cauliflower. Spaghetti in a tomato sauce and absolutely covered in gooey cheese. (Arggghhh, cheeeeeeesssseeee) I ate dinner and my stomach was happily full. No lumps sitting in there for hours. I think the phrase "you are what you eat" definitely applies to bratwurt.

Okay, a slight case of hysterical laughter today. We're renting a 10 foot truck to take some stuff down to NC. In the military, if you move things yourself, you weigh what you move and get reimbursed for it. So I've been packing lots of boxes full of books so we can move the heavy, easily boxed items. I got a call from the truck company today. They don't have any 10 foot trucks so they're upgrading us to a 16 foot at no additional charge. My immediate response was hysterical giggling and saying "I haven't packed enough for a 16 foot truck". She actually understood and said it's common at this point to go a little crazy. So now we're looking around the house for things to put in the truck. Now, not for weight but just to keep things from sliding around! But on a good note, the bigger truck has a ramp which will be useful with all the boxes of books!

Still here!

2009-06-13T05:38:00.005-04:00

I think I've gotten a lot done this week. And I've got quite a bit to talk about so settle in

We're going to take a truck load of things down ourselves next week. Since there are thing the movers won't move and we'd have to rent a truck anyway, we've decided to go ahead and fill it up. I've discovered that U-haul actually has the perfect size box. It's wonderful. Fill it up with books and you can still lift it. I was packing my china and Pfaltzgraf yesterday and it's wonderful how things set it in snugly, not leaving extra room to fill with peanuts. We've got some memento wines (John's first promotion, honeymoon, etc) and after wrapping them, they fit perfectly in there.

I know. A weird thing to get excited about. But I love puzzles and I love efficiency. There's this bed that I want to get for each of the kids from Berg Furniture. It's not as tall as a bunk bed and not as short as a captain's bed. Instead of a ladder to get up there, it has stairs. And the front facing of each step is a drawer! And under the bed is your bureau. It's so efficient! Anyway, I've got 15 boxes of books packed, 3 boxes of DVD's, a box of CD's and 6 boxes of breakables so far. I've still got plenty of books to get packed up before we head down. (We love books!) We're actually doing a one day trip. Leaving here early, early and getting back before Nicky goes to bed. I'm very grateful that my mother is here to watch the kids for me.

While cruising the DTG website, I found a couple things you might find interesting. I have the website as a favorite because I like reading the blog articles http://diettogo.com/blog like the summer foods to avoid and enjoy or hearing about the 9 people who lost over 300 pounds in 8 weeks. Way to go!! So I recommend checking the blog out for tidbits.

I realize it's been a while since I've posted an official weight loss. My mind has been busy adjusting my "don't forget" list like business to get the address changed, things the movers won't move (don't forget the propane tank!). I guess I'm just so used to making progress, I just assume I will be down. I never thought I'd be in such a mental state. I'm not obsessed with the scale!!!

But I'm at 187.4 right now. 3 pounds from my pre-pregnancy state. Also known as the lowest I've been in 18 years. I lost a pound last week. The previous two weeks I held steady and lost .4. All that box packing gave me a bit of exercise this week. So my total weight loss right now is at 22 pounds. I've topped the 10 % of my body mark. 10%!

I also wanted to post pictures of the kids. Sheesh, they're getting big fast!

Let's Get a Move On!

2009-06-06T18:04:00.003-04:00

Well, I've plateau'd again. (I really need to look up that spelling) I lost less than a pound last week. More like a couple ounces. Part of it is a little bit of sleep deprivation. Jason is such a lark. He's been waking up before 4:30 every morning. And he's so happy and talkative in the morning that he's been waking up Catie as well. So quite a few early mornings lately.

It was such a beautiful day today we went out to Manassas for the train festival. Nicky got a new Thomas train and got to ride on the VRE train for a 30 minute train ride. He is fanatical about trains. Not only does he have a Thomas train setup but also a Geotrax train setup. And he plays with both of them equally. Thank goodness for ebay.

So our movers are scheduled to come on the 25th. I've got three weeks to get ready. I think everyone should move every few years. It's a REALLY good way to re-evaluate what you have in the house. If you look around your house with the attitude of "where will I put this when I have to unpack it" you end up wanting to get organized pretty quickly. I've put John to work going through a stack of computer cables, boards, books and CD's. Do we really need the restore disk for a computer we no longer have? Hmmm.

Mom is now a DTG advocate. She's amazed that she lost another three pounds this week even with eating until she was stuffed at every meal. So she's lost five pounds in two weeks and is still really liking the food. The Szechuan Turkey burger was a bit spicy for her and she refuses to eat carrots (something about not eating orange food. I don't know) but she's definitely happy with such an enjoyable way to lose weight.

Taste and Smell

2009-05-31T18:14:00.002-04:00

Not a big surprise that Mom has a new favorite. She tried the Chicken Alfredo Melt last night. That is, beyond a doubt, the best meal DTG has. She wasn't too impressed with the Roasted Tomato and Basil soup. Said it was too spicy even for her and it was a little disappointing after the week and a half of dietary deliciousness she's experienced.

I had the Italian Pomodoro for the first time. I changed our menu to get that instead of the Lobster Ravioli. Two meatballs bigger than golf balls, about the size of a small lime. Lots of noodles and sauce and sprinkled with shredded cheese. I assume the meatballs were turkey and not beef but I couldn't really tell. I also liked the side being both broccoli and cauliflower. So it was really good.

Even with five weeks menus, there are some meals that you get a little tired of. That's part of the reason I like getting six days. I can mix up the Friday pickup to replace a meal that I don't want anymore. Same goes for the special dinners. I can put those in and out of the menu for a change of pace.

I'm slowly getting things done around the house. We hope to have our orders this week so I can actually plan days for movers and cleaners. I got Nicky's closets cleaned out and his bathroom mostly emptied. I also did under the bathroom sinks. If you've never had professional movers before, you may not know that there are things they won't move. Cleaning supplies and candles among other things. So I started filling a box of things we have to move from under the sink. I also threw out things that I had forgotten about for the five years we've been here. Since Nicky has eczema, I don't wear perfumes or lotions other than his hypoallergenic lotion. So I had body sprays and perfumes that I haven't used in years. And believe me, perfume goes bad. Ewwwww.

Different Strokes

2009-05-29T18:42:00.003-04:00

It's becoming interesting how different the babies are developing. They say that girls develop faster but she was almost a pound and a half lighter at birth. And that disparity is definitely showing up. Jason can sit unassisted for about 10 or 15 minutes. Catie tends to topple. Which is surprising given how bottom heavy she is. Jason is chowing down on cereal and has gone through allergy checking two foods, banana and sweet potato. Catie just can't keep her tongue from spitting it out. However, they've both gotten really good at taking toys and pacis that the other one has. Thus, it begins.

Mom is liking the food. She is really liking not having to cook it. So far, she says her favorite is the Tuscan Boats with Wheatberry salad. And our family favorite, Turkey BBQ Melts. That's on the substitution menu but John says he could have that every other day. She also lost over 2 pounds in the first week. She was a little disappointed in that until I reminded her that she had a chocolate TCBY in a waffle cone after getting a Quizno's sammie. Not exactly a healthy option but it had been a decade since she had it. I also reminded her that she's been eating until she was stuffed at every meal and having enough leftover for snacks between meals. Easiest 2 pounds ever.

I stayed exactly level this week. That's just weird. Our scale does .2 intervals. So it's a little strange that after a week, it's exactly the same. I'm not upset at the lack of weightloss. After all, I, too, had TCBY. But my indulgence was dinner with my closest friend who comes into town once a year. So I was happy to maintain the status quo. Go quo!

So much food, so little time.

2009-05-27T17:17:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. It's about 2 1/2 weeks until we move. Probably. Still waiting for orders but we start paying rent on our new place on the 15th. So things have been a bit busy around here.

Mom started getting the food on Friday. She says she's having problems eating it all. She's getting the lunch and dinner plan for 6 days like me. 1600 calories. There may be a bit of confusion when I say that. The 1600 calories is the plan name, basically. That's for the entire day of food. So when I only get lunch and dinner, that's going to be about 1100-1200 calories. You can always check it. http://diettogo.com/menu-nutrition/local/nutritional-information/low-fat-1600. Anyway, we're discussing whether to drop her down to the 1200 calorie plan. But she says she likes this plan because she doesn't feel like she's on a diet.

I will try to post when I can to give some updates. They may be quick, though, so I apologize for that. Sometimes I wonder if having professional movers move us is more or less trouble. Right now, I'm trying to clear out Nicky's room so we can use it as a "don't pack the stuff in here" room and a place for the cats to be (bathroom) and the babies to nap (bedroom).

Week 17 Results

2009-05-21T06:50:00.002-04:00

Perspective is a crazy thing. Four months ago, I was thinking it's so long until May. When people start a diet plan, looking down the road it seems almost endless. And then when you look back, you think that didn't take so long after all. If you're reading this and thinking about whether to try DTG, I can only tell you why I finally did it and hope it strikes a chord.

I've been overweight for a long time. Once, in college, I got down to 135 and fit in size 10. I was 5' 10" so for me, that was pretty darn skinny. I'll never get into 6's or 8's. But it was all downhill from there. Or uphill, I guess. I always had "reasons" why I wasn't able to lose weight. The one I used most often was the "life is short, eat dessert first" argument. I would say that we need to enjoy life, which meant having ice cream or brownies or chocolate when I wanted it. Sound familiar?

Here's the thing. Being overweight makes life shorter. Eating healthy extends life and makes it easier to enjoy it. Just a few short months can make such a difference in your life. Really, what do you have to lose? You've spent money and time on so many other ways to lose weight. Why not try one that actually works?

Week 17 Starting Weight: 191.0
Week 17 Ending Weight: 188.8

Week 17 Weight Loss: 2.2 lb
Total Weight Loss: 20.6 lb

So I've crossed the 20 pound mark. 20 pounds! Now I'm going to go enjoy the day.

Feelings . . .

2009-05-19T07:26:00.002-04:00

A commentary on texture today. My babies are starting to eat cereal now. She has the interest but needs to learn the skill. He has the skill but not the interest. The first few times he had cereal, he made quite the ewww face. Did the whole scrunching the face and shaking his head thing. He was not a happy camper. So unless it changes, it appears he's going to be a texture baby. You know, one of those babies who doesn't want food that isn't smooth. Won't eat crunchy things.

This is in my mind because of dinner last night. I revamped our menus, changing some of our substitutions and removing some. Last night was the first time John had the Tomato Veggie Casserole with Cous-cous. He saw me warming it up and made a face. I admit, it's not the most physically appealing dishes that DTG produces. His comments were: "What is that?" "Am I eating the same thing?" "What are you doing to it?" My responses were: "Casserole" "Yes" "Adding texture". I was mixing the cous-cous in with the casserole. Picking up the fork, making a similar face to Jason eating cereal, he took a bite. Then he had to admit that it was good and texture was a good word.

For me, a good meal has a mix of colors and texture. Could be from a home-ec class in middle school when we had to create menus. Anyway, the veggie casserole, which has lots and lots of melty drippy cheese by the way (arrrrggghhh, cheese), has finely diced vegetables. Putting the cous-cous in means that every bite you take has smooth cheese, small bites of vegetables and grains of, well, grain. So a good variety of texture and yummy tastes.

How Do I Spell Relief?

2009-05-15T19:50:00.002-04:00

D - T - G. As in, Diet-To-Go. Ah, the contentment of having a fridge full of food and knowing I don't have to worry about what to eat. I was glad John had gone out of town a couple times so we had a couple lunches and dinners in the freezer. So I got to have a salmon burger for lunch in between sorting things for the garage sale tomorrow. Hopefully, the rain will hold off until I get everything sold!

I've got Mom's food scheduled to start on Friday. I may have to get a little creative to get it all in the fridge but it will be worth it when she weighs herself after that first week! It was seafood fetuccini for dinner tonight. A family favorite. I add some crabmeat to it because John loves his crab alfredo. Just a lottle bonus. I also add a bit of salt. I know that DTG food is within the daily recommendations of the American Heart Association but sometime I need to add just a bit of salt. Just a pinch. In a pinch.

Life's a Beach

2009-05-14T15:00:00.006-04:00

Virginia Beach, to be precise. Vacations are a lot of work. I wasn't sure I would make it. It started the day before we left when I entered the parking garage at Nicky's doctor. Now I've never had a luggage carrier on top of the van so I will use that as my excuse for ripping it half off the top of the van. So I'm 20 minutes from home with all the kids in the car and the crossbars and big luggage holder on the ground at the parking garage. After his appointment, I pushed and prodded and finally got it into the van with Nicky putting his legs over the arms of his seat. John was able to get it back on, thankfully, and we loaded up and got them to the train station 15 minutes before the train. That was a bonus for Nicky. I picked them up in Richmond.

With the kids and my desire to keep the junk to a minimum, we got a hotel with a kitchenette. I had a cooler full of fruit and milk and a box full of cereal, crackers, granola bars and other snackables. So we didn't do too badly at the beach. Went to a buffet but they had really good steamed vegetables so that was the only thing I went back for seconds on. Steamed seafood and a little bit of prime rib. I think the boardwalk walking helped.

The time in Fayetteville house-hunting wasn't as good, food-wise. There's a Cici's Pizza there. I'm glad they cut the pizza into small slices and I'm very glad they use thin crust. The thickness of the crust makes a big difference in calories. Eating three slices of white pizza probably wasn't so good. And the Sonic's down there all have playgrounds. They've got a new dollar menu which helps in ordering smaller portions.

We found a house to rent, which was good. Ate a lot of junk, which was bad. So I was sure I had gained a couple pounds. Imagine my surprise when I posted a loss! I lost the same amount I gained last week so I'm at 191 still. A couple theories on the loss. I worried about what I was eating but I'm well-trained by DTG in portion size so I didn't over-eat on junk. Or, I was PMS-ing the week before and that was why there was a gain. So the loss was actually a hormone adjustment result. Probably both. Regardless, I'm ecstatic that five days away from home didn't sink me!

Step One - Remain Calm

2009-05-05T06:38:00.004-04:00

I always got annoyed at that silly list of instructions/test that's supposed to teach you to read through all the questions first. You know, there's 25 questions and they take a lot of time and then the very last one says only do the first question. Well, if you only do the first question, then you can't do the last one which says to only do the first question. Circular logic irritates me. Cutesy ways to prove a point also irritate me.

There's a point to this. I like following instructions. So I really love the new lables on the meals. Last night, I had the salmon. Way out of order but the weekend was busy. It comes with a pineapple crisp which I have commented on before because the raisins are pined (is that an actual word?). Anyway, the instructions state that the crisp is best served warm. Now, I would consider myself to be a DTG old hand. Six months when Nicky was born and going on four months now this time. But I've never warmed up the pineapple crisp. If I was allowed to call myself names, I would. It tastes amazing warm! 30 seconds in the microwave and it really brings out the juicyness of the pineapple.

Oh, I'm not allowed to call myself names because of Nicky. He's at the repeat-everything-you-say stage and he also asks a lot of questions. So mellow is the word. Which is hard to do when someone won't let you merge into traffic and then makes an obscene gesture at you. Seriously? What did I do? So I had to calmly explain to Nicky why Mommy calls other people idiots sometime. I don't curse so at least I didn't have to break myself of that habit.

I'm worried about this weeks weigh in. I suspect some of last week's loss was due to the bug we all had. I haven't had time to walk this week due to getting things ready for the garage sale. Organizing the garage, while tiring, isn't aerobic activity. Mark your calendars! Kingstowne community yard sale is on the 16th. I've also been trying to set up appointments to look at houses when we head down to Fayetteville. I've been thinking. John made some comment about me having to start cooking again when we move. That made me sad. So I'm thinking I may start dropping oh-so-subtle hints and comments about the fact that DTG has a mail-order option. Hmmmmmm.

Here I Am!

2009-05-02T06:51:00.002-04:00

Okay. I think it's over. Wednesday night I ended up taking Catie to the E.R. just to make sure she wasn't getting dehydrated as she hadn't eaten more than 5 ounces all day. She wasn't but it was heading into overnight and as any parent knows, that's when everything happens. We finally got 4 ounces of Pedialyte in her so the doctor and I were happy with that. Both babies started eating better on Thursday and had semi-solid outputs. So to reward Nicky with being so patient the last few days when I was concentrating on the babies, we headed to the zoo. We saw a couple animals but I think his favorite part was sitting on the walkway overlooking the construction of the new elephant area. I spread a blanket and put his lunch down there with him and we sat there for almost an hour. I ate my chicken burger substitute lunch and some yogurt. Nicky had animal shaped nuggets and apple slices, rejecting the fries. My son, the healthy eater. So when we ended up at the plane museum yesterday, grabbing his lunch at McD, I got him the apple slices instead of fries. After a brief fuss at the thought of dipping the apple in the caramel, he happily ate all of his lunch. It looks like he's outgrown fries. I once again took my lunch. One of my favorites, turkey ham salad on pretzel roll. I just love that mustard base. It's so satisfying and filling.

I can't believe it's May. I almost hyperventilated this morning when I realized that. I have SO much to do in the next six weeks before we move. Like find a house to move into. There's a community garage sale on the 16th here in Kingstowns and I've been trying to purge the house. I've got four black garbage bags full of outgrown baby clothes! Luckily, my parents are coming to help me with the garage sale. Mom to babysit and Dad to help with the sale. And then I think I'll keep my Mom for a while. She'll be getting Diet to Go while she's here (like I'm going to cook!) so I'll be able to give you another person's opinion.

Last night we had the chili. We're a day behind due to not eating dinner when Catie went to the doctor. This is why I'm glad the meal plans are so flexible. By getting six days, we have a cushion for unexpected things and we don't waste food. So the chili was very yummy. I've mentioned it before but it's worth repeating that the little touches DTG give you make a big difference. Like a container of cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top of the chili. It really makes it feel like a home-cooked meal and not take-out.

Oh, and may I just say that once again, people are learning that quick-fix diet pills don't work. Hydroxycut is bad for you. Really? Can't possibly imagine why. If you have questions about what works and what doesn't, ask the DTG experts http://diettogo.com/ask-our-experts. I get just as caught up in the marketing as anyone else. It's very tempting to think you can take a pill and drop weight. But it seems there's such a surge of eating organic and healthy cleaning products. Why would we ingest a product that most of the time doesn't even say what's in it!!! (proprietary blend, my foot) Whew. Now I'm too tired to clean out the garage. Darn.

Quick and Very, Very Dirty

2009-04-29T06:32:00.003-04:00

Don't have much time so I wanted to get this posted while two of the kids were still sleeping. It's been a very dirty few days. All the kids got a stomach bug. Nicky had it for two days Thurs & Fri but then he got over it. He's not a concern as we can give him Pedialyte freezer pops. But then the babies got it. I thought Jason got over his on Monday but then he vomited yesterday and started back up. This will be Catie's third day of diarrhea and Jason's second. They're still eating so they're not getting dehydrated but oy, do I have a lot of laundry to do. I empathize with my mother who had cloth diapers to dip in the toilet to clean.

So, by the numbers:

Week 14 Beginning Weight: 193.6
Week 14 Ending Weight: 191.0

Week 14 Weight Loss: 2.6
Total Weight Loss: 18.4

Average Weight Loss: 1.31

The 180's are knocking on my window with their friend, 20 pounds gone. Hopefully, they'll be ready to settle in for a nice long visit next week.

Negging Questions

2009-04-23T20:34:00.003-04:00

I'm curious. Have you noticed that negligible has the same root as negligent? So I'm wondering what I neglected this week. Stress was quite a factor. I neglected to eat all my meals this week due to time and giving Nicky things he may enjoy like the smoothie. The point is that after failing to negotiate a better answer, I failed to post a negative number.

Today was a better day. Benadryl early to cut off any potential itching. Phone calls to providers and insurance companies to get a referral to a new doctor. Mentally writing a very nasty letter to the doctor, the hospital, my insurance company and any other individual/company that I can find online to complain to. Playground, nature center, walk around a pond where we lay on our bellies and watched a goose dive underwater repeatedly.

Did you know that calories burned depends on your weight? It's interesting finding calculators online to find actual calories burned for my walk. There's also calculators for the actual number of calories you should be getting instead of the generic answer. Those are interesting.

Mental Exercise

2009-04-22T19:43:00.002-04:00

We spent the day at Chuck E Cheese today. All day. Seriously. 6 hours. By 8:30, Catie had been crying off and on for about an hour and Nicky had already scratched his foot bloody and he was crying. A major distraction was needed. I took my turkey and swiss sandwich with me. We got a plate of fries and an unlimited salad bar so we were set for fruits and veggies. Ten bucks in tokens and Nicky was a happy carousel rider. I have no regrets at that as I was in the first arcade generation. It was easy to drop ten dollars before the movie in the arcade playing Joust. Of course, the evening ended similarly to how it began. It's a bad, bad feeling when your son starts crying because you put on lotion. I was going to call the dermatologist and let them listen to the crying because I'm royally ticked at them for not calling me back since my Monday morning call. The answering machine says they return the calls within one business day. Ha. There will be a letter. Actually, according to John, a Letter.

Dinner tonight is yummy Brunswick stew with lentil loaf. I actually claimed John's lentil loaf and gave him my stew. I really like the stew but I really love the lentil loaf. After Nicky fell asleep on me at 6, I had the option to go for a walk or spend time with the babies. John and I laid the babies on the floor and did Wheels on the Bus and tummy zerberts. While not as good for me physically, it was much better for me mentally.

Walk it off, baby.

2009-04-20T20:06:00.002-04:00

I was going to talk about the website but honestly I haven't had time to really explore it. As soon as John got home tonight, I bolted out the door for a walk. We think Catie is either sick or teething something fierce as she cried just about all day when she wasn't asleep or being talked to. This, of course, upset Nicky so he got all rashy this afternoon and scratched a number of places bloody. Then I have my heart break to have him cuddled up on me saying "Mommy, I'm sorry I scratched." (We've taught him to rub the itches, not scratch) Jason, my little zen baby, lays back and watches the other two cry (he only cries when he's tired) but he didn't want to eat today.

Thus, the walk to clear my head and restore my equilibrium. And once again, I cannot imagine what my stress levels would be if I had to find something for dinner. One of my comforts is being able to turn off the voice that used to sound constantly in my head "what am I going to fix for dinner". You know, the one that you hear all day, every day. It doesn't matter if you're actually sitting down to dinner, you're still thinking about the next day's meals, or what you could do with leftovers, or if you need to go to the grocery store. Again.

I just saw a commercial for Pizza Hut's Panormous. Seriously? We need a pizza with a pound of cheese on it? We went to the mall last week and got a small gelato for Nicky, as I was sitting with him and watching him eat it with that little spoon, I saw people with the large bowls of four scoops and polishing it off. Oy boy. On a related note, why do many fast food places no longer have a size small? Sometimes, it's just frustrating. I do like that BK has a $1 value size drink and that they now have Coke Zero.

So, tiring day. I just finished my chicken parmesan as I was writing this. I'm going to go savor the lemon yogurt which comes with it then toddle off to bed. Every day is an adventure and in many years, I will wish for even a bad day if I could have them all with me again.

All jeans are not built the same.

2009-04-19T20:07:00.004-04:00

I just got back from a Pampered Chef party. The only type of "Amway" party I go to because I do so love the kitchen gadgets. Especially collapsible kitchen gadgets. Anyway, since I was going to an "event", I thought I might wear something better than my baggy size 16's. Now, you know that different brands fit differently. I had tried on a pair of size 14's last week and they wouldn't button. Today I tried on a different brand. Oooooooo. As long as I sat up straight when I sat down, (no overlapping for me, thank you!) I was good to go in my 14's. Woo hoo!

Yesterday was so beautiful, we went to the National Harbor. Nicky loves to play in the "sand" there. It's more like really small orange gravel but he loves it. There is one thing about going there that I don't like. There are no barriers on the pier to keep small toddlers from falling into 20 foot water. I think the role of mommies is to anticipate every possible bad thing that could happen and stress about it. At least it was a beautiful day. The good thing about being transients is that we know we only have a set amount of time in an area. Therefore, we make sure to see everything and go everywhere we can. Not saying it's easy. Takes about 10 minutes to get everyone out of the car. Then another 15 to put them back in. And that's assuming there's no additional tasks such as emergency diaper changes. But it's worth it when Nicky spends 3 1/2 hours at the Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum milking fake cows and running a general store.

So, in an effort to keep my hand in last night, I took the DTG dinner of Southern Cod and baked it into a casserole. I had some extra broccoli from Nicky's dinner and threw it in with the rice and vegetables that came with it. I chopped up the cod and threw in just a bit of skim mozzarella (less than 90 calories). It baked up into a very nice fish casserole. I'm not saying we don't like the cod as it was. It's just that I had a little bit of time yesterday afternoon with Nicky being in a good mood and the babies sleeping. And I do like to cook when I have time. Of course, with everything already chopped and cooked, it took less than five minutes to throw it together in a dish and stick it in the oven. That's kind of like cooking, I guess : )

Lunch today was the reuben. When you receive this meal, remember to put the sauerkraut on after you heat the sandwich. It give it a very nice warm/cold ratio that's perfect for a reuben. The DTG lunches are surprisingly filling. I can never eat more than the sandwich at one time. Oh, and Diet to Go just rolled out their new website. I'm exploring it and will comment on it next time.

Week 12 Results with a side of water

2009-04-16T18:09:00.002-04:00

It's 7:45, do you know where your kids are? I do. Sleeping. All of them. Woo hoo! Even night-owl Catie is down. She may wake up but by that point, John will be home. He's a night-owl also. My boys are larks, usually up with the sun. It's absolutely amazing. Nicky's new medicine seems to have cleared up some of his eczema so bedtime is no longer an extended "mommy, rub" drama until he falls asleep from exhaustion. We got to do our two Boyntons, a kiss, and off to sleep. Boyntons, you ask. Why, let me explain. If you've got kids or grandkids, Sandra Boynton has some necessities for you. One of our favorites are Fifteen Animals because the punchline still makes Nicky giggle and he loves saying Bob over and over. But the grand poobah of Boynton has to be Personal Penguin. I don't know whether it's the fact you can download a track of Davy Jones singing it (ooooooo, Davy!) or maybe it's because Nicky sings it with me and it's so adorable hearing him sing "I want to be your personal penguin". Anyway, check those out.

Let's talk water. I once thought it was common knowledge. But one time I mentioned the phrase "water weight" to John and a blank look in return. So I guess it's just something women are familiar with: the unrelenting roller coaster of weight loss and gain throughout the month combined with ankles the size of cantaloupes due to water retention. But what I didn't know until I did a bit of searching is that one pint or 16 ounces of water equals one pound. There's some interesting bits of information combining water and weight loss.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/expert.q.a/04/10/water.losing.weight.jampolis/

Oh, speaking of weight loss -

Week 12 Beginning Weight: 194.6
Week 12 Ending Weight: 193.2

Week 12 Weight Loss: 1.4
Total Weight Loss: 16.2

I'm over halfway to my goal of 30 pounds. Another 10 pounds will take me to my pre-pregnancy weight. I spent last weekend going through boxes in my garage, getting ready for the move. All size 18 pants are now history! My 16's which I'm currently wearing are loose. I'm not down to a 14 yet because all my pregnancy weight is around my hips (mummy tummy!) but I'll get there!

Turkey et. al.

2009-04-14T20:08:00.003-04:00

I haven't been able to enjoy my new books yet, unfortunately. Tonight was cold and rainy and last night, Nicky didn't get to sleep until almost 9. Poor kid. He was itching so much yesterday afternoon that I gave him some Benadryl. He usually only gets it before bed because the inevitable happened. He crashed at 4:30. So after a two hour nap, he wasn't going to go to bed for a while. So no walkies for me and it will probably show in the weigh-in. Sigh.

For dinner tonight both John and I have a substitution: Turkey BBQ Melts. This should really be on the main menu. It's one of our favorites. Shredded turkey lightly coated with BBQ. I love the light coating. I prefer to taste my food and not the sauce. Then, it's heaped (because there's a lot) on bread rounds with two different cheeses melted on top. For sides, there's cole slaw and some sort of peachy-onion thing. I don't know what it is because as I've mentioned, the substitution menu doesn't list the side items and the new labels haven't caught up to the subs yet. Anyway, that's one side item I don't eat. Peaches and onions just don't seem to match up to me.

In the delivery today I saw that it's cheesy soup and pretzel week. To my fellow DTGers, I again recommend cutting up the pretel and soaking it in the soup. John tried that last month and found it yummy.

For this weeks temptation . . . another holiday

2009-04-12T18:42:00.003-04:00

I went to the library to get some books on CD. So much better than books on tape. It used to be difficult to find unabridged versions of books. Now it seems just about all of them are unabridged. That's good. Abridged books are no better than Cliff's Notes which I'm proud to say I never used in school. I love to read. When we read the classics and had a chapter assignment, I usually had to go back and re-read it because I read the whole thing the first day. Anyway, I needed something to listen to for walking. We have a ready made track loop right outside our door. 1/2 mile of street making a loop. But I find sidewalk walking boring and the books should keep me occupied. And I'll get the chance to "read" books I wouldn't normally get. Like Life of Pi which I heard was pretty good.

Indulged a little bit today for Easter but not too much. No jelly beans. No M&M's. Just a couple chocolate marshmallow eggs. I love those. And they're only $1 at Walmart. We got Nicky some electronic eggs. They're too funny. After you press the button, you hide them For 30 minutes, they'll call out things like "I'm hiding" and giggle. And the best part is if you forget where you hide them, they won't start smelling after a week!

John got behind on his breakfasts and then skipped on the weekend so unfortunately, we have to toss the breakfast pizza. Something to remember with DTG is that the meals are prepared and refrigerated, not frozen. (For local pickups) They follow the same rules as any other food you put in the fridge. The pizza was made on Tuesday and meant to be eaten on Friday. Tomorrow would be six days, which I think is too long to wait to eat it. I should have put it in the freezer Friday but I thought he'd eat it on Saturday. Bummer. I would have gladly eaten it if I knew he was going to skip breakfast on Saturday. Just helping out : )

Week 11 Results

2009-04-09T19:25:00.002-04:00

We need to go to the zoo every weekend. Happy times!

Week 11 Starting Weight: 197.0
Week 11 Ending Weight: 194.6

Week 11 Weight Loss: 2.4
Total Weight Loss: 14.8

Basically halfway to my goal. Averaging 1.35 pounds per week. That's even with the gain last week. How sweet is that?

Time for a story. When I was young, my mother gave me the traditional chocolate for the holidays. A bunny for Easter. "I 'heart' U" for Valentine's. And every time, I'd stash it away like a squirrel, usually under my bed. And every night I'd have one small bite. (My weight issues started after I got married) So my treat would last a very long time.

Today for lunch was grilled cheese with brownie. Have I mentioned how chewy gooey yummy this brownie is? Reverting to my hoarding tendencies, I had a slice of the brownie and put the rest up. Spread the joy! Just need to put it out of sight so I don't spread the joy to the rest of the household. I'm needing my chocolate this week. I'll show them I love them another way.

Economics at the grocery store

2009-04-07T18:36:00.003-04:00

Food pickup today! I love unpacking the bags. Particularly this week. I know I've mentioned before how much I LOVE this pickup. Chicken pesto sandwich, grilled cheese and BROWNIE, mac & cheese. Yummmmmm.

So here's a happenstance that's saving me money. I still go to the grocery store for milk, food for Nicky, fruits and vegetables. With the three kids, it's a bit of a trial. I have to bring in our stroller which is 5 feet long (that is not an exaggeration) and then have to manage a cart as well. So I've started going first thing in the morning on Saturday when John can stay home with the kids. Now, we happen to be military so I take advantage of going to the commissary. I don't know how many of you have been to a commissary before but they basically have one line for all the checkouts, like Toys R Us does now. Anyway, I went at about 2:00 one Saturday afternoon. The line was four aisles long. Really. Down and up, down and up, and heading down again. I should have been worries when there were no carts outside. So I decided to pare down my list to the bare bones, figuring express has got to be shorter. After getting what I considered to be my 20 essential items, I hurried to the express line. Where I was third in line! Wow. Talk about positive reinforcement.

So now, every Saturday when I go to the grocery store, I limit myself to 20 items. It's amazing how quick the trip is and how much money I save by not buying the non-essentials. I'm not filling my cabinets and freezers with food that Nicky might like. When I have extra "room" on my list I get one or two new things. I recommend giving express line buying a try for a few weeks. DTG makes it very easy to do!

It's a Beautiful Day!

2009-04-06T07:04:00.003-04:00

What a beautiful weekend! We spent most of it outside, of course. We all walked to the playground on Saturday. Although I think Nicky would be happy with a huge pile of wood chips in his backyard. He usually ends up sitting on the ground, playing construction site. We stopped by McD for dinner on the way back. We only do 6 days so we have a lunch and dinner on the weekend to do for ourselves in case we're out and about. I had the grilled chicken sandwich with no mayo. And only a couple of fries. Then it was time for the walk back home up The Hill. John was pushing the stroller though and Nicky wanted to hold Mommy's hand. I discovered that The Hill isn't as hard when you aren't pushing 70 pounds of stroller. Of course, when your 3 year old walks over a mile. you can't really whine about the trek. Stubborn tired kid didn't want to ride. So I had to keep coming up with distractions to keep him happy.

Yesterday was even more beautiful so we went to the Maryland Zoo. Nicky hadn't been there. He was a big fan of the giant tree slide and the rocket ride. The penguins were his favorite. Gotta take him to St Louis zoo. I've never seen a better penguin aquarium. You stand at the edge of the tank which is about waist high. You could touch them if you don't mind losing a finger.

Anyway, so we spent two days outside walking around. What I really liked, however, was riding on a ride with Nicky. When we first moved out here five years ago, we went to Six Flags. On one of the rides, it was very, very hard to get the seat belt on. I was sitting in one of those spinning ride seats with John and having to suck in to get it buckled. That was not fun. So yesterday, I was a little worried when Nicky wanted me to go on a ride with him. It was a kid's ride! But I climbed in the little plane and Nicky climbed in next to me. I loosened the seat belt and it buckled over both of us! And I wasn't even sitting flat. There wasn't room for my legs so I was kind of sitting on my hip. But there was still enough room for us both. Wow.

We should have brought lunch to the zoo. I am amazed by the zoos out here and their lack of adequate concessions. Standing in line for a pretzel (Nicky), nachos (John) and a grilled chicken sandwich (me) served in a tent which cost more than I'm willing to admit I spent. We had a lunch to fill, though, so I really didn't have anything at home to bring.

So a weekend with somewhat healthy eating and lots of walking should hopefully get rid of the gain from last week. I'm anticipating a challenge next month, however. We'll be going to VA Beach in a couple weeks. And like my fellow blogger, Bo, I do love my seafood. He would probably be disappointed in the quality of seafood served at the countless buffets there but a midwesterner like myself doesn't have the experience of fresh like he does. I'm not picky. We'll see if I can resist.

I want a Mulligan

2009-04-02T18:46:00.003-04:00

Well, I went ahead and did it. I weighed myself today. Sigh. At least the gain was less than a pound. Bad, bad chocolate and ice cream. I am SO very glad this week is almost over.

Luckily, I just got a little sore throat. The girls faired better than the boys. Nicky was unhappy. If you were to ask him, he'd probably say he was miserable. And boy, has it made his eczema flare. Poor kid. Jason wasn't happy either. He got up to 101.7 and spent a whole lot of time sleeping. Unfortunately, he wouldn't sleep unless I held him. This is unusual for him because obviously I don't have the luxury of time to sit and snuggle with one baby. (I really miss that). And if I put him down too early, he'd wake up and start screaming. I'm not used to my mellow zen-baby screaming. (He's my zen-baby because if I need some outside emotional stability, holding such a calm baby for just a few minutes is very relaxing)

Once again, I am thankful I don't have to worry about fixing meals. We currently receive our meals locally here in DC. Now, I'm wondering if, after we move to NC in June, whether I should continue to get the meals by mail order. Also, while I normally complain about daylight saving time, I took advantage of it this evening. There was time after Nicky went to bed and John came home to go for a short walk. Alone. By myself. Solitary. Wacky.

Pass It On

2009-03-30T12:52:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note to explain the lack on communication. Nicky got sick Thursday night and has been pretty miserable the last few days. Then the babies got sick Sunday afternoon. So today, I've got three sick kids and have already had times when all three were crying at once.

I anticipate this week being a wash, weight loss wise. I confess to popping mini chocolate bars for that quick happiness fix. While momentarily considering not weighing at all, I probably will as I still hold out hope that at least I stayed steady and didn't gain.

Gotta run.

Week 9 Results

2009-03-26T13:17:00.002-04:00

Little goals are supposed to be useful in weight loss like events or activites. See, I have a goal to get to before my target. In May, we're going to the beach for the weekend. We've discovered it's a lot easier to go to the beach for a long weekend twice a year (May & Sept) rather than a long vacation once a year. It'll be our first trip with the babies so that'll be fun. Did you know that many hotel rooms have a maximum occupancy of 4 people? And with the multiple nap and bedtimes, it's really convenient to have two rooms. So our options are kind of limited. But we've got a really nice suite right on the boardwalk at Virginia Beach.

Anyway, my minor goal is to be able to get into my shorts by our trip. I bought some cute shorts when I lost my weight after Nicky was born. Last year, it wasn't an issue because I was four-six months pregnant with twins. No cute shorts for me. But I figure if I can get below 190, I should be able to get into some of them. I'm on track to hit that goal so we'll see if it's enough.

Week 9 Starting Weight: 197.6
Week 9 Ending Weight: 196.2

Week 9 Weight Loss: 1.4
Total Weight Loss: 13.2

Saw a friend of mine that I haven't seen since right after the babies were born and she commented on my weight loss. It's nice when it's noticeable.

Dinner last night was yummy. Chicken pizza. I actually put it in the microwave for too long. (So much for convenient instructions, huh?) And the chicken and cheese slid off the bread. So I cut the whole thing up and cut up the broccoli and made myself a chicken pizza casserole. It was gool. The broccoli added a nice texture to the meal.

Acai You, Scammer!

2009-03-24T17:30:00.003-04:00

It's been a tiring week. . . . What do you mean it's only Tuesday?!? Aw, @!#*&.

Didja see the reports on the Acai Berry scam? It's not enough that it's being investigated for claims of being everything from magic weight loss to an emission-free fuel. Okay, maybe not fuel but still. Don't these people remember the claims of the cabbage soup diet, or the 48 hour Hollywood "diet". The sad thing is that there have been so many different fads, there's an actual book about the fad books. The Encyclopedia of Diet Fads by Marjolijn Bijlefeld and Sharon K. Zoumbaris.

Anyway, so now it turns out that the Acai Berry websites have been scamming people out of money by continually charging their cards and making it impossible to cancel. Kind of like that "final notice of lower interest rates" call used to be. If it was the final notice, why would they keep calling me? There was a new option on that message that supposedly reported you don't want it and to remove your phone number. We'll see. But if you get those, don't hang up right away.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Long week. Delivery today was interesting. The food now has detailed labels. DTG went green by not including the menu and heating instructions on separate pieces of paper. But now, they've put that information on the food labels. I like that. Mainly the menu day. Lobster Ravioli for dinner last night. Yep, still good. Still not sure what's in it. But tasty, nonetheless.

Well, the children are all sleeping. Not for long, I suspect, as Catie has been pretty persnickety the last couple days. Won't eat for being tired. Won't sleep for being hungry. Luckily, when I get frustrated, I can just look at Nicky and know what my goal is.

Eat a Tree Today

2009-03-21T19:20:00.004-04:00

You know, there are moments (rare, but there) where I think, I'm a good mom. This week has not had many of those. More of the others, actually. Turns out I've been giving Nicky too much of one of his meds. The nice people at poison control reassured me that he was still under dangerous amounts. But due to the rash he has developed, that one has been discontinued. Which is okay by him because it was the one he didn't like. Anyway, I'm sure you've noticed a couple times when I've mentioned him eating at McD's. And yes, he does get french fries. But I draw your attention to the photographic proof of why he gets french fries when he asks. He grabbed the broccoli off the counter and just started munching. He LOVES his veggies. A neighbor was surprised once when he took a red pepper out of the grocery sack I was bringing in and ate it like an apple. So one thing I am proud of as a mother is fostering a love of vegetables in my son. I am so grateful that I did DTG right after Nicky was born. That way, by the time he was ready to start eating, I had the right attitude towards food.

There was a post on the forum saying they're going to be changing the website so that we can view our menu and substitutions. I'm really looking forward to that. I love the customer service people, I really do. But I have to admit I'm getting a little frustrated with having to change my menu twice whenever I make changes. I'm difficult, I know that. I make substitutions and then change those substitutions. I change around the meals we get on our Friday delivery. But I am really looking forward to being able to view my menu myself. We ended up with three dinners of Langostino and Cheese grits this weekend for the two of us. Good thing we like it! I must say, though, that they readily credit me for any mistakes made.

Speaking of like . . . CHICKEN ALFREDO MELT!!!! Nuff said.

Week 8 Results

2009-03-19T19:18:00.003-04:00

I got to take a bit of a walk yesterday. Not as long as expected. Did the mile and a quarter to the playground. Was all set to head up The Hill back to the house. Nicky decided he needed dinner which took long enough for Daddy to get home and he came and picked us up. Better a little than nothing.

Speaking of a little being better than nothing.

Week 8 Starting Weight: 198.8
Week 8 Ending Weight: 197.6

Week 8 Weight Loss: 1.2
Total Weight Loss: 11.8

As long as I lose at least a pound a week, I'm all good.

----Later
I needed to add. I just finished dinner and I've got to say how much I like eating the proper amount of food. I am full and satisfied but I don't have that overeating bloated feeling when you don't stop eating soon enough.

Funny is . . .

2009-03-17T19:55:00.002-04:00

Honestly, Big Bang Theory is one of the funniest shows on tv. It may be because I'm a math person but just a sample:
"You have about as much chance of going out with Penny as the Hubble Telescope has of finding that at the center of each black hole there's a little man with a flashlight trying to find the circuit breaker."
"Oh, well, this would be one of those circumstances that people unfamiliar with the law of large numbers would call a coincidence. "
"I'm not insane! My mother had me tested! "
And of course, nothing compares to Sheldon's Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock game. Look it up.

Forcing a crying toddler to take his medicine twice a day is not funny. Not fun. Nope, not at all.

Opening up the DTG bag and seeing Turkey Swiss sandwich for lunch is fun. Two of them as I made a substitution to get it twice. Very fun. I squeaked.

Mother Necessity

2009-03-16T19:33:00.002-04:00

Saturday night Catie was really fussy. She's teething so she just couldn't settle down. It was salmon dinner night so I was a little sad that she started crying just as I sat down with my dinner. But it actually ended up with a positive. The salmon dinner comes with a ciabatta roll. After chowing down on the rice while fixing her a bottle, I ended up making a salmon ciabatta sandwich. That was really, really good. There's a salmon burger on the menu for lunch. I highly recommend that sandwich roll be replaced with a ciabatta roll. The strong bread goes well with salmon.

Now if I can just come up with right combination to give Nicky his medicine. He got two different antibiotics today at the doctor to clear up some infections in his eczema and that did not go over well tonight. I was surprised because he takes his benadryl every night without issue. Asks for it, in fact. He was a brave boy and took it while crying. He's got one twice a day for a week and one twice a day for three weeks. Poor little guy. He's been promised a train when he's done with the medicine. It may be a good time to teach calendars. So tomorrow we start trying different things to help with the taste. Maybe I should ask the DTG chefs.

Vacation - All I Ever Wanted

2009-03-14T17:35:00.004-04:00

My apologies for not blogging for a couple days. My parents are still visiting and I'm really enjoying my "vacation." Having extra hands around definitely makes life easier. They're leaving tomorrow for the 900 mile drive home, not to return until May. Sigh.

I'm proud of myself for my self-restraint this week. Throughout the week, I've made two batches of muffins for Nicky, chocolate strawberry blueberry pancakes and cupcakes with strawberry icing. I had one pancake. If you've got toddlers, I recommend Martha White muffin mix. I make about 20 mini muffins out of a bag and Nicky eats them all day. But the reason for the recommendation is the amount of nutrition in them. Seriously! There's 6 servings per bag and each serving has about 10% of the RDA of many, many vitamins and minerals. Including iron! And that's for a 2000 calories diet. I don't know about you, but getting him enough iron is a challenge.

So, we got Chinese take-out. Actually, one of the easiest to not screw up, I think. I had steamed vegetables with chicken and rice. The place I order from has six options steamed without salt or cornstarch. I did get white rice because I didn't know if their brown rice was any better. Really. People automatically think that brown rice is better for you. Next time you're at the store, compare a box of brown rice with enriched white rice. You'd be surprised.

Anyway, my parents have been pretty impressed with the meals. My father is raving over the dressing used in the Bistro Chicken Salad. They are both amazed at the amount of food I get to eat. (Notice I say "get" to eat. Unlike most diet plans where you "have" to eat specific food)

I'd better run. Since we got take out last night, my meals are postponed a day. I get salmon tonight. I love salmon. If you ever make tuna fish sandwiches, I recommend replacing the canned tuna with canned salmon. Tastier, in my opinion, and much healthier for you. I made the switch when I was pregnant the first time and never went back. So I love seeing the salmon dinner in my fridge waiting for me.

Week 7 Results

2009-03-12T20:09:00.002-04:00

I wonder how long it takes for your metabolism to wake up in the morning. I've noticed that my weight fluctuates quite a bit during the day. Weighing during a night feeding (they happen sometimes still) is significantly different compared to a weighing a couple hours after we get up.

Anyway, the numbers please -

Week 7 Beginning Weight: 200.2
Week 7 Ending Weight: 198.8

Week 7 Weight Loss: 1.4
Total Weight Loss: 10.6

This is a bit of a relief. I have to admit to feeling a little discouraged the last couple of weeks, thinking that I wasn't going to get over the hump and I would be stuck over 200. It's amazing how that 10 pound mark and getting south of 200 makes a difference. Suddenly, my goal feels like it's in range. It's totally mental but my outlook has totally turned around.

Price and Preparedness

2009-03-10T17:55:00.008-04:00

Okay. Remember last week I talked about doing a grocery list of ingredients? Here's my list of disclaimers:

1. Items selected would be what I would normally buy. As in, store brands for some items but brands I would normally buy like Kraft cheese.

2. Not all ingredients are priced. Spices are assumed to be already in the cabinet. There are ingredients that I was unable to determine.

3. Individual items were purchased in most cases. One potato instead of a 5 lb bag of potatoes. However, it must be stated that purchasing the larger quantities only saves money if you actually use them.

4. It must be acknowledged that a few ingredients will have enough remaining to be used in another meal. However, I believe that number is balanced out by the spices and unknowns.

5. There were a few ingredients that I didn't price as I would logically use another, already purchased ingredient instead. For example, instead of buying both sliced American and sliced swiss, I only priced the American. Instead of three different kinds of sandwich bread, just one.

6. However, in many cases, like buying one type of pasta instead of three, the variety was priced. Reasoning being part of the advantage of DTG is the variety.

7. Taxes have not been incorporated but it must be mentioned that I believe DTG charges less tax than the grocery store.

8. Ingredients only have been priced, not time or labor. If I estimate a half hour to fix lunch and an hour for dinner (the bare minimum), 9 hours a week would be spent on food preparation. With minimum wage at $6.55, that equates to a minimum value of $58.95. I left this amount off as I am, without a doubt, worth more than minimum wage! And that' just preparing time. I haven't considered the time actually spent at the grocery store, the time spent planning, or the time spent getting frustrated with my husband who, when asked what he wants for dinner, shrugs and says "I don't care". Argh. Of course you care. If I put wet cardboard on a plate in front of you, would you eat it? I don't think so! Hmmm, should I calculate how much money in marriage counseling DTG is saving me?

9. And of course, I wasn't able to put a specific amount for the impulse buying. I'm a sucker for new items. If it's new, I've got to try it. If I'm hungry, I buy more than I need. Without a doubt, keeping out of the grocery store saves me money!

I think that's all the disclaimers. I may think of a couple other things I thought of as I was "shopping" but the results are:

For my meal plan: 1600 Calories, 6 Day, Lunch & Dinner - $102.99
Purchased groceries for this week of meals - $110.88

Detailed listing follows if you care to see the specifics:
I apologize for the big space. Couldn't remove it for some reason.

So my conclusion would be DTG is actually more cost effective than cooking the meals myself. Which I kind of knew already. But being the math person that I am, it's nice to have a logical, calculated proof. Again, this is only about ingredients. There's really no price I can put on the extra time I have to spend with my children or the absolute relief of having dinner made after a tiring day. Oooh, wait. Have to restate that. Ready . . .

Getting DTG meals - $102.99
Not having to stress about cooking dinner - priceless

Asparagus	2.50
Broccoli	2 @ .99 = 1.98
Baby carrots	1.33
Tomatoes	1.33
Celery	1.33
Cauliflower	2.50
Potatoes	0.59
Apple	0.99
Red Pepper	2.00
Grapefruit	1.00
Oranges	0.89
Zucchini	1.25
Carrots	0.99
Black Beans	1.29
Pearl Onions	2.29
Mushrooms	1.00
Corn	1.25
Mandarin Oranges	1.35
Spinach	1.00
Chickpeas	1.29
Pineapple	0.99
Lentils	0.85
Applesauce	2.19
Pita Bread	2.89
Dinner Rolls(3)	3.49
Hoagie Sandwich Roll (4)	3.99
Shredded mozzarella cheese	3.99
Sliced cheese	3.99
Cheddar cheese	3.99
String cheese	3.99
Pesto sauce	3.29
Marinara sauce	2.99
Alfredo sauce	2.50
Rice	2.99
Shell pasta	1.00
Rotini pasta	1.00
Fettuccini pasta	1.00
Brownie mix	2.29
Chocolate pudding	1.20
Ground turkey (2 servings)	5.69
Chicken breast (5 servings)	2.5lb @ 4.99 = 12.48
Shrimp	6.59
Tilapia	4.99
Turkey lunchmeat	0.79
Milk	1.59

Short and Green

2009-03-09T18:55:00.002-04:00

I took advantage of my temporary live-in babysitters to go for a solitary walk today of 1.5 miles. That was strange. I wasn't sure what to do with my hands! No stroller to push. No little boy's hand to hold. On second thought, not so much fun after all! So I went walking three of the last four days. I just hope that makes up for the pizza I had for dinner last night : }

The special dinner of chicken roulade is stuffed with something green. I tried looking online to see what it could be but there were many options. So I will say, stuffed with tasty green puree. I love mashed potatoes so I enjoyed the side dishes also. Lunch was a substitution of tomato meltovers. I enjoyed them but I would have liked some pesto on them like the regular lunch of pesto meltovers.

Short post but company this week.

Cleaning Shrimp

2009-03-08T20:08:00.002-04:00

One of the many "restaurant-quality" meals in the DTG lineup. Shrimp fettuccini, broccoli and a dinner roll. Like I mentioned the last time it came up, there is a generous helping of shrimp. Not the tiny ones either. Those are medium sized. So I wanted to share a picture of the dinner.

Lunch was also generous. A very large sandwich roll with chicken salad, a citrus medley and a mushroom salad. Sorry, mushroom salad had to go. As many new items as DTG has introduced me to, I just can't do mushrooms.

On the exercise front, Saturday I didn't go walking. However, as my parents were coming into town, I got my exercise cleaning. Today, however, was a perfect walking day. Once again, we trekked to the playground and tackled The Hill (as I will now call it). I will be using my reaction to the hill to gauge my overall fitness level. Can I get up The Hill without resting? Can I start up The Hill without groaning? Does The Hill have eyes?

Screaming Knee-knees

2009-03-06T20:28:00.002-05:00

All I need is a few more nice days and not only will I be over the plateau, I will have flown over it while enjoying the pretty flowers. This afternoon we all walked to the playground. It just happens that this playground is about a mile and a quarter away. It took about 30 minutes but we were keeping to Nicky's pace for a little bit of that. The way back, however, was where I really got a workout. At least a quarter mile of the trek was uphill. Now, it's not the uphill that gave me the workout. It was pushing over a hundred pounds of child and stroller up that hill that did it. My knees will no doubt be screaming at me tomorrow. (They can join the screaming voices in my head and have a party!)

John and I both did a substitution last night of chicken parmesan. Always a popular choice with the cheesy goodness (remember, cheese is an important food group). Lunch today was a particular favorite. Pesto chicken sandwich, spinach and chickpea salad, pineapple, and chocolate pudding. Nothing to compare to that. (Except for the chicken alfredo melt to which I am counting down, arrrrrggghhhh)

Week 6 Results - The Unfortunate Truth

2009-03-05T19:48:00.003-05:00

I have really got to get some exercise going. I'm still losing but it's slowed down quite a bit.

Week 6 Starting Weight: 200.6
Week 6 Ending Weight: 200.2

Week 6 Weight Loss: 0.4
Total Weight Loss: 9.6

So I'm a little sad over the sluggish pace. But really, I am losing weight without feeling deprived so I really can't complain. I'm going to blame the babies. "They" say that babies add 10 pounds onto your "permanent" weight. I was 182 before the babies were born. So in my reaching-for-a-rationale mentality, my body thinks I'm at my weight.

People may think having macaroni and cheese as an entree on a diet plan is a waste of a meal. These people have never had DTG mac & cheese. You see those commercials for Pizza Hut where they served pasta to people in a restaurant? (Like those old Taster's Choice commercials. You know, I wonder how many they have to film to actually get the response they want. How many people, after eating the pasta, refuse to pay the bill since they basically falsely advertised on their menu) Anyway, to make a long story short (too late!) the mac & cheese is restaurant quality. Lunch today was grilled cheese, lentil chili and a brownie cupcake. Absolutely love this meal. To be honest, I couldn't eat the whole brownie. My system isn't used to such chocolatey gooeyness.

As far as incorporating exercise, still haven't tried anything new. We trekked to the Children's Museum (Port Discovery) today and spent a few hours there. Nicky had a grand time playing as long as I found him rooms that weren't swamped with older kids. (He's very reserved when it comes to playing with other children) I think I'm going to start tallying how many people ask "Oh, are they twins?" when we're out. Or at least, stop listening to the voices in my head come up with smart-aleck responses. The voices start screaming when the next question is "Are they yours?"

Whew!

2009-03-04T17:48:00.002-05:00

John came home this morning after being out of town and all I can say is hooray! It's been a stressful couple of days. Nicky's been waking up every night. The babies weren't eating before bed so they were waking up also. Plus, I believe (hope) they're starting to teethe. I say hope because otherwise I have no explanation for their behavior. Last night Catie cried no matter where I put her while I was putting Nicky to bed. As any parents reading this will agree, having your child cry is mentally, physically, and emotionally draining. Once again, I must extol the benefits of having my dinner made for me.

Which gave me an idea. Going to the grocery store today for incidentals for Nicky and the cats resulted in a $100 bill. So I was wondering how much it would cost to make a week of meals myself. I doubt I'll be able to include everything without recipes (hint, hint) but I will be assuming some basic staples to already be in the kitchen, like spices and ketchup. I will also be considering the preparation time. I just need to determine how much I'm worth an hour! I think that depends entirely upon who you ask :) I will summarize my findings next week.

So dinner last night was turkey picadillo. A sweet mixture of ground turkey, rice, and beans. It comes with a side of asparagus. Not my favorite veggie but I cut it up and mixed with the turkey and it added a nice texture to it. I love the turkey burger which was lunch today. Nicky snagged my oranges again. But the burger was filling so I didn't mind. The burger is ground turkey with onions and spices with cheese and ketchup on a large sandwich roll. I've got to say that, as a bread lover, I definitely don't feel deprived.

So hopefully the house will calm down now that Daddy is home. I could use the sleep.

Cold and Hot

2009-03-02T18:30:00.005-05:00

So I've been trying to incorporate some "formal" exercising into my day. Preliminary weekend weight measurements indicate last week was not a fluke and I appear to have hit the accursed flatland. I thought steps would be easy. I've got the equipment readily available. Up and down on the bottom step so I can keep an eye on the kids. Well, that didn't work. The stairs work fine. It's the kids that don't work. Nicky got upset because I was on the stairs but wasn't going upstairs. He thought I was going up to play with him in his room. From a 3 year old's perspective, it seems a little pointless to go up and down on one step and not get anywhere. I tried two days in a row, a couple times a day but he didn't get over getting upset. So tomorrow I may try the stepstool. That way I can stay in the living room.

On a happier note, it snowed. Happy for me because we didn't have to be anywhere. Sad for people that actually had to leave the house. Snow means I don't have to plan activities for Nicky during the day. He plays outside, comes inside, goes back outside.

Lunch was quite satisfying for a cold day. Chicken philly sub. The benefit of being at home to eat meals is that I can heat them as I like. The chicken, pepper, and onion go in a skillet to be grilled. I love the honey mustard mayo that comes with this. Just the right touch of sweetness. And once again, I express amazement at the size of the sandwich. At least 8 inches of bread. A nice hot sandwich for a chilly day.

Seafood and Cow Cud

2009-02-28T18:57:00.003-05:00

Last night we had one of the special dinners. Seafood shells. Cheese stuffed shells (one of my favorites) but instead of marinara sauce, they are covered in an orange sauce with chunks of salmon, scallops and shrimp. I'm not sure what the sauce is but it's yummy. I would get a bite of shells and one of the seafood pieces together for a delicious combination. John said it was just alright. Weird.

Speaking of John, he wanted me to make sure to say that he's lost about 5.5 pounds in three weeks. It's three weeks for him because he went to India during the second week which eliminated whatever he lost the first week.

Oh, so the oh-so-subtle product placements on Biggest Loser are amusing, to say the least. I don't do gum (cow cud, anyone?) but I must admit to agreeing with most of the others. The frozen steamed vegetable bags are brilliant. I love the single serve bags for Nicky's meals. They have broccoli with cheese sauce that I throw some rice into for a complete meal for him in five minutes. But it's still funny watching the monotone line reading by the contestants.

Scientific Proof!

2009-02-27T19:37:00.002-05:00

You may recall a few years ago when studies were published linking sleep deprivation to weight loss. Here's one article on that: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-12-06-sleep-weight-gain_x.htm. It basically states that lack of sleep messes with the levels of two hormones produced by the hypothalamus: one which makes you feel hungry and one which tells you you're full. Why the interest, you ask? Well, Catie woke up at 1 last night and after I got her fed and put back to sleep, Nicky woke up. And couldn't settle down until 3. Even after he fell back asleep, he kept crying out in his sleep. So I got to revisit Nosleepland. And it was noticeable this morning in my desire to graze. I kept wandering into the kitchen. I appeased the raging hormones (not just a woman's excuse anymore!) with skim milk pudding, a bite of Nicky's banana, a bit of Nicky's pear and so on. Not an excuse. Just an observation.

Lunch today was the pasta salad primavera with tuna. Another observation. I wonder if DTG ever considered substituting salmon for some of their meals with tuna. When pregnant, I made that substitution and found that salmon salad sandwiches are quite yummy. I bet the salmon would taste wonderful in the pasta salad. I added some of Nicky's spinach into my salad as a little more greenery. Yes, Nicky's spinach. My son. Sigh. Won't eat sandwiches. Only meat consumed is chicken nuggets and sausage (the long link kind). But he will eat almost any fruit or vegetable you give him. Yesterday his lunch was rice (made with a bit of chicken boullion for flavor) with spinach and a bit of parmesan cheese. I would recommend DTG use more spinach in their meals. It is also quite yummy.

Now, to bed. Perchance to sleep. I gave up on dreaming when we had our first child!

Boooooo

2009-02-26T19:31:00.003-05:00

Well, not going to delay.

Week 5 Beginning Weight: 201.4
Week 5 Ending Weight: 200.6

Week 5 Weight Loss: 0.8
Total Weight Loss: 8.8

So hypotheses are either I plateau'd (plateaued? plateaud?) or it was just one of those weeks. I really hope the latter. You know how everyone says they don't have time to exercise? Well, I don't have time to exercise. At least, not formally. Informally, I exercise most of the day!

Dinner last night was a substitution for me, stuffed shells. John had the vegetable ravioli which he liked. Particularly because of the chocolate mousse which comes with it. (Add that to the list of recipes which may "disappear" from the DTG kitchen) I really liked lunch today. I'm a fan of hummus. Today, in order to make sure the ratio of pita to hummus was even (have I mentioned I'm a math major?), I sliced the pitas and spread the hummus on them. Thus, there was an optimal pita/hummus combination.

A story today about what type of diet helps you lose weight. (http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/25/best.diet/index.html) After following thousands of people on different diets, they determined if the calorie counts were the same, the weight loss was the same. It didn't matter if they did high-carb, high-fat, high-protein or low-fat. So basically, eat what you like. Just don't eat so much of it!

I Like To Move It

2009-02-24T19:35:00.004-05:00

There's no aerobic instructor as demanding as a 3 year old. If you've never seen Madagascar, I would recommend renting it just for the song. It's a very happy, hoppy, danceable number. Anyway, after dancing around the room four times to the Thomas the Tank Engine theme, he started singing "I like to move it, move it". So I loaded the DVD and we listened to the credits a couple times. My dancing, however, was judged lacking as I was told to "jump higher." Sigh.

I probably needed to after last night's dinner. Italian chicken, green beans, cous cous pilaf and the largest piece of rosemary bread this side of Macaroni Grill. Once again, I express amazement that we get this amount of food to eat. John enjoys chicken and could eat it every night. I realize that red meat isn't as healthy but I admit that I miss it. I did really like the cous cous pilaf. I had cous cous years and years (okay, decades) ago in a foreign language class and thought it was quite nasty. I'm glad to see that it was a result of poor preparation on the part of the teacher. It was a french class and not a home ec class after all.

Now it's been five weeks and we're starting the menu cycle again. It will be interesting to see if the enjoyment of the food is more than just the novelty.

Hard Habits to Start

2009-02-23T19:05:00.004-05:00

Way back when I started this program (a month ago), I talked about it taking 28 days to learn new habits. Well, it's been over 28 days. Already. Time flies. Anyway, have my habits changed? Let's see. On Saturday, I went to the commissary and got a bit hungry while I was there. I ate a banana on the way home. (to the shock of everyone who knows me. Yes, I eat bananas now) I have yogurt for a mid-afternoon snack. So I think that my new habits have kicked in. That and the fact that I really, really hope to crack 200 this week.

Lunch today was a Mirkin Burger. A vegetarian burger with lentils and other things which I'm unsure of. It was pretty solid, unexpectedly so for vegetarian I thought. In keeping with the new habits, going to the food court for Nicky and then Mrs. Fields for him a frosted cookie (we were on our way to the doctor so he got a treat) did not break me. Tempt me, yes, when faced with TCBY. (It IS the country's best yogurt, after all)

So 28 days later, unlike the zombie movie, I am not eating any old brain that I see. I'm sticking with healthy brains.

But Whyyyyyyy

2009-02-21T18:31:00.002-05:00

Okay, so a couple of questions/observations/complaints. However you want to take them. So first, the salmon dinner last night came with a pineapple crisp. Pineapple pieces with granola and sunflower seeds on it. Quite yummy. But I always pick out the sad little brown raisins. I guess the pineapple juice pickles or pines them more or something. So q/o/c #1 is why are the raisins a light brown.

Next topic, oranges. I like oranges. They've got a lot going for them. However, they are not the most low-maintenance of fruit. Most of the breakfasts and lunches are very portable. A spoon or fork is needed at time but that is all. An orange, however, requires additional necessary equipment. If you don't have fingernails, you've got to have a knife. Now knives are kind of difficult to put in a sack lunch. We went through a lot of cutlery before we figured that out. Anyway, you also need facilities for washing your hands afterwards. Maybe a little lemon water. A nice hot toddy. Therefore q/o/c #2 is why include oranges instead of another easy fruit like grapes, peaches, or plums. I understand why bananas are not included. Most people don't like black bananas which is what a refrigerated banana ends up.

Well, time to wrap this up for now. Or is it . . .

To Be Continued . . . .

A Few Minutes with Me

2009-02-20T18:11:00.005-05:00

I had the turkey ham salad on pretzel roll today. What I love about this meal is that the salad is mustard based. The roll is nice and solid with a good flavor. Combined with a side of lentil chili this makes a yummy lunch.

Interesting article on CNN today. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/20/journey.giyen.irpt/index.html
It talks about reaching the 10 pound milestone and how that affects the dieter psychologically. It also talks about recommended weight loss goals. I like this article because I get so annoyed with those pop-ups (that for some reason my pop-up blocker won't block. Traitor.) that talk about losing 20 pounds a month by doing this one simple thing. I don't know what the one simple thing is because I'm not about to click on it. I suspect it has something to do with the magical, miraculous Acai berry. There is no magical weight-loss berry. You can't take a pill and lose 10 pounds while you sleep. At least, not that I'm aware of. Oh, other than the Doctor Who episode when you lost 1 pound of fat every night because the offspring of an alien hatched from the pill you took and used the fat to form its body. Anyway, no quick fixes, people! Losing weight is about lifestyles, not tricks.

Sometimes people ask me if they would lose more weight on the low-carb plan. At which point, I ask them if they eat a low-carb menu now. In my not-so-humble opinion, switching to low-carb for fast weight loss is yet another trick. If you don't eat pasta, rice, potatoes, etc, do the low-carb plan. You'll be very happy with your half roasted chicken, ribs and catfish. But if you normally eat carbs, going on the low-carb plan will not teach you anything. Do the menu plan that you would cook for yourself (if, of course, you had the time to shop, cook, and clean).

At this point you may be saying, what makes her such an expert? If she knows so much, why does she need Diet to Go to help her lose weight. Remember, I've done this before. Diet to Go helped me lose over 50 pounds and I kept it off for almost two years. No roller coaster, no rebound. Just babies : ) I came back to Diet to Go to give myself a kick in the pants. I've got pregnancy eating habits that need to be broken. And I knew that they would be able to get me back on the track of proper eating.

Whoops, that's the bell. For your homework tonight, read CNN article mentioned above and write a 15 page paper about your favorite flavor of jell-o. Class dismissed.

Love Actually

2009-02-19T18:57:00.002-05:00

"wuv, tru wuv" (From one of the most quotable movies ever) True love is . . . giving your wife the chicken alfredo melt you didn't have time to eat for lunch. And yes, it's as good as I thought it was the first time. So that's what I had for dinner last night. I made a substitution for lunch today. Actually, I don't think it was today's. I got this week all switched around. Anyway, I got the chicken burger. I like the fact that you get barbecue sauce to go with it. But, and this is going to sound strange coming from me, it needs more spices. Really. How picky am I? I sprinkle a little Adolph's seasoning on it and it works for me. It's just a little bland. Perhaps using all the barbecue sauce would make a difference. I only use half so it doesn't get too messy. I actually ate this in the car on the way to the Air & Space Museum again. Lots of incoming flights to Dulles coming in from the south. A good day to be up in the observation tower.

Now I've got to run. Catie is being really restless this evening. Hasn't eaten hardly anything since 1 and can't settle down. This is when I say once again how much I "wuv" having my dinners cooked for me.

Oh, and if you were needing another hint for the above quote reference. As you wish. Now have fun storming the castle.

Week 4 Results

2009-02-18T15:24:00.002-05:00

Let's talk recipes. What's it going to take, Diet-to-Go? Really. Come on. You can share. I won't tell anyone. . . . Fine. Be that way. Have you seen Leverage? A group of questionable characters helping out the little guy when the big companies won't come through for them. Just idle talk. Nothing that can hold me accountable when "someone" obtains the recipe for the Turkey Ham Salad, Red Pepper Hummus, Chicken Alfredo Melt, Lentil Chili, . . .

I've been desperately managing the babies the last few days. They're still sleeping 8 to 9 hour stretches! At 4 months! So when Jason crashed at 5 last night, I was frantically trying to wake him up at 7 for a little awake time. It was a sad sight, I'm sure. Tickling his feet and his chin. He woke up when John held him. Sigh. John's the fun parent. I put my children to sleep. Jason slept until 6am, by the way.

So the numbers are:

Week 4 Beginning Weight: 203.2
Week 4 Ending Weight: 201.4

Week 4 Weight Loss: 1.8
Total Weight Loss: 8

Averaging 2 pounds per week. I'm pretty happy with that. Keeping my fingers crossed and my mouth shut for next week.

Melt in My Mouth

2009-02-17T13:41:00.003-05:00

I just finished lunch and had to jump on and rave about it. Oh, wow. Just wow. Chicken Alfredo Melts. A large thick bread round, alfredo sauce, big chunks of chicken, and cheese. It was absolutely delicious. I had to look online at the nutrition because I couldn't believe this was on a diet plan. (http://www.diettogo.com/0108web/nutritionals/Lcal_LowFatNutritionals0808_all.htm) When I saw the calorie count, my jaw dropped. The entire meal, which was one and a half melts, a roasted veggie side salad and an apple: 390 calories and 12 grams of fat. Are you serious!?! Oh, please, oh, please, put this meal on the substitution menu. As it is, I'm going to make a substitution so I get it twice in the pickup. I just can't describe the total yumminess of the creamy alfredo and cheese. I've mentioned before my cheese fixation. Let me tell you, I would eat this dish over any type of chocolate decadent dessert any day. I will beg some more. Please, please, please make this available as a substitution. I would eat this twice a week, easily.

Whew. Now that I've gotten my love on. Last night was Lobster Ravioli Provencale. I'm not exactly sure what Provencale means. Another suggestion I would have is to actually describe the meals better online. John didn't like the meal. He wasn't sure what was in the ravioli but he didn't think he liked it. I liked it fine. There were four jumbo ravioli filled with different things. This is why a description would be nice. One was filled with pink which I assume was straight lobster. One was filled with green. Cheese, maybe? One was filled with a blackish filling. Not sure. And the other one I ate before realizing the fillings were different so I don't know. It was served over a bed of vegetables which I believe to be squash varieties. Again, I'm not sure. Like I said, I liked it. But I'm not sure what I ate. It would be nice to know. I've experienced foods on this plan I've never had before and now I know I like them. So this may be something I've never had and could now say I like. If I knew what it was.

Gravy and Soda

2009-02-16T12:58:00.007-05:00

I love gravy. Really love it. Sausage gravy and biscuits on Sunday morning. White gravy with mashed potatoes and fried chicken. Brown gravy with pot roast and potatoes. Hmm, wonder why I have trouble losing weight? My mother can cook like you wouldn't believe. This is going somewhere, really. Take a look at the chicken stroganoff over bow tie pasta. Okay, technically, it's sauce because it's mixed with the pasta but it had the consistency of gravy. The carrots were a perfect texture. Not mushy but firm and the almonds were a nice flavor variety. So this was a very satisfying meal.

Lunch today was Hungarian turkey over rice pilaf. I actually thought it looked more like a dinner than a lunch but I was pretty happy with it. Tomatoes, celery (I think) and big chunks of turkey. It came with mixed beans and baby carrots but Nicky snagged those. He also snagged John's mandarin oranges that came with his curry chicken salad. Hey, if he'll eat, he can anything out of our meals.

I have a confession. I was faced with temptation yesterday and succumbed. It wasn't my fault! Borders gave me a coupon for a free 12 ounce beverage at their little coffee shop. What could I do? Throw away free money? I wouldn't be my father's daughter if I did (Hi, dad!). So vote me off the island, kick me off the ranch, whatever. But I actually don't think I went too crazy. A flavored soda. So soda water, a splash of vanilla flavor and a splash of half-and-half for a vanilla cream soda. I couldn't find any nutritional info online but I would think it would be less than a 12 ounce soda, definitely. Hopefully. Surely. Maybe. Probably. Crazily. Disturbingly. Okay, might have gone off on a tangent there.

My Lobster Runneth Over

2009-02-14T19:36:00.004-05:00

The babies actually slept for 8 hours last night! It was amazing. Unfortunately, Nicky woke up at 2:30 crying. Then I kept waking up ever hour when the babies made the slightest sound because I expected them to get up. Sigh. But we now have hope for a good night's sleep in our future.

Last night, we had the special dinner which was langostino and cheese grits. Really. Langostino. The cheese sauce was a little runny but quite tasty. Looking ahead at the menu, however, I see lobster ravioli later on. I'm a little surprised at two lobster/crab dishes in one pickup. Especially since one is a special dinner. I would suggest swapping this special dinner with one in another week to spread out the shellfish. Anyway, you may be a little leery of shellfish and grits but they mesh well together. I did put a little bit of salt on it to bring out the flavors just a little more.

Today's lunch was not one of my favorites. Roasted tomato and basil soup. Once again, my spice aversion kicks in. It was too spicy for me. So I'll be making a substitution for that next cycle. Maybe doubling up on the chicken alfredo melts which I'm looking forward to.

Chew-chew-chewy

2009-02-13T18:35:00.003-05:00

So the Tuscan Boats should be more accurately described as stuffed potato skins. They were pretty good. Loaded with meat and sauce and then covered in cheese. The wheatberry salad side dish was very satisfying. It was very chewy and each bite lasted a while. It was like good beef jerky that you can just chew on for a while.

There was a report on the news saying that increased weight can cause increased headaches. I thought the headaches I've been having have been from not drinking enough water and too much tea. Maybe not. So researching found many studies that link obesity with headaches. As if I needed another reason to lose weight.

This is a short one because the babies are fussy tonight. We're trying to get their bed time later so their longest stretch isn't from 6 to midnight.

Yummy Hummy

2009-02-12T19:37:00.003-05:00

The side dish with the wonderful turkey and swiss sandwich that I mentioned yesterday deserves raving about. Red pepper hummus and vegetable chips. Wow, that was good. The red pepper was mild and gave the hummus a nice flavor. In fact, while the turkey salad for lunch today was okay, I'm making a substitution to double up on the turkey and swiss so I can have the hummus twice. Seriously, it's that good. See, you can substitute with more than just the substitution menu. You can choose to substitute with another meal in the same delivery. So five weeks from now, my Tuesday delivery will have Tuscan Boats (which I get to have tomorrow) and two meals of turkey and swiss sandwich.

Last night's dinner was Chicken Brunswick Stew. Quite tasty. John commented that there was quite a bit of chicken in it. I loved the corn and lentil loaf that came with it. I am constantly amazed by the "real meals" that we get to eat. With real portions.

Week 3 Results

2009-02-11T17:37:00.002-05:00

Whew. What a day. Since it was over 70 degrees today, I packed up the kids (usually takes about an hour and a half!) and heading to the zoo for four hours. There are a few things I dislike about the zoo, not the least is their restriction on strollers in most of the houses and eating places. I definitely got a work-out today. But I digress. I took Friday's lunch today since it seemed the most portable. A turkey and swiss sandwich and a V-8. I left the red pepper hummus and vegetable chips at home for a snack when we got home. I expected just a simple sandwich. Oi, was that yummy. I regret not being able to eat it warm. It was good cold, though. Two slices of cheese, a stack of turkey, and in the middle, a little bit of tomatoes and onions. Quite satisfying after the long trek up to the panda house.

One good thing about doing substitutions is the ability to swap with John. He doesn't know it but I fixed his dinner last night. I made a substitution because the thought of curry set off my spice-alarms. I took a bite of John's Curry Shrimp though. I'd never had curry but had heard of it. It was interesting. Started off sweet, then hit the spice buds. John liked it. I swapped the peas, carrots and finely diced onions that came with the curried shrimp and gave him my green beans. (Recall that he avoids peas like I avoid spices) So we're both happy!

Well, here it is. Wednesday. Which is actually getting to be my favorite day of the week. Because I REALLY like what I see on Wednesday.

Week 3 Beginning Weight: 205.6
Week 3 Ending Weight: 203.2

Week 3 Weight Loss: 2.4
Total Weight Loss: 6.2

So I'm averaging over 2 pounds a week for the first three weeks. With basically no effort on my part. This is my kind of weight loss!

Emotional Food

2009-02-10T19:42:00.003-05:00

I think the Chicken Parmesan may be one of the most satisfying meals. See, for me, food needs to be more than physically satisfying. If you want to eat just to feed your body, go ahead. Not me. I enjoy food. I enjoy eating food. This is why I never did well with Lean Cuisines. After eating one, I just ended up back in the kitchen looking for something to feed my food emotions. But the Chicken Parmesan has it all. Pasta, red sauce, chicken, cheese, broccoli, bread, and a palette-cleansing lemon yogurt.

It's been a tough day. Nicky was short-tempered and kept getting upset. There was a lot of lap-sitting today. I was glad for the very large turkey cutlet sandwich which was portable. There are some lunches which are more portable than others. Mediterranean pasta salad, not so much. 9 inch sub, yeah.

Some may be wondering after reading my Red Lobster post why I got take-out instead of eating a DTG dinner. Well, we get 6 days a week. That way, when (not if) something comes up on the weekend, we don't waste our food. Anyway, why go through all that trouble? Well, DTG is giving me fish (yummy fish, too) but I need to learn how to fish. Realistically, I will not be eating DTG the rest of my life. In fact, we will be moving this summer so I've only got a few months to get done what needs doing. So it's just as important to me to make sure I can make it after cutting the DTG apron strings.

Dinner and a Shot

2009-02-09T19:53:00.003-05:00

Once again, DTG has provided me with a meal from my past. We had reubens for dinner often when I was growing up. I loved stacking them together. Looking back now, each sandwich was probably at least 500 calories. It was nice to have a guilt-free reuben. I warmed the sandwich and then put the sauerkraut and dressing on it. So it had the perfect combination of warm sandwich and chilled 'kraut. I wasn't a big fan of the mushroom and artichoke side. I actually didn't try it. Neither item is appealing to me. I had the special dinner last night. The sauce was a little spicy but it went well with the cod. I really liked the rice. It was a whole brown grain so it was very hearty.

I have become addicted to my little jell-o shot after dinner. (please keep in mind, I use the phrase purely in the abstract. I've actually never had a drink.) Especially with a spurt of low-fat redi-whip. A quite satisfying 15 calorie fruit and cream yummy.

Red Flopster

2009-02-08T17:53:00.002-05:00

John's birthday was last week while he was gone. We have always had the birthday person choose a special meal for their birthday dinner. And John always chooses Red Lobster. So my challenge: build myself a meal that was about the equivalent of a DTG dinner. Investigating the nutrition amounts for the meals (http://www.diettogo.com/0108web/nutritionals/Lcal_LowFatNutritionals0808_all.htm) I saw that the average dinner was about 600 calories. While realizing I wouldn't be able to get a nutritiously complete meal, I was striving to keep the calories within range. So I went online to the website. Actually, I had to open up two different windows. It was annoying that the nutrition info only had the entree name and not the description. So I had to keep going back and forth, looking at the nutrition after finding an entree I liked. And back and forth. And back and forth. I finally settled on a built meal of grilled shrimp, crab legs, and grilled salmon. I indulged in rice on the side and petite shrimp on the salad but no dressing. And absolutely no biscuits. Those are 150 calories each!! So my built meal was 680. Not too bad but whew, the research.

I called in the carryout order while we were leaving the best playground in the world. (Clemyjontri. 2 acres of childhood fun. Nicky ran for almost two hours.) I was on hold for over 10 minutes and was then told it would be 45 minutes until it was ready. Seriously. Granted, it's been a while since we've eaten out but I don't remember it being so aggravating getting take-out. I think I'm spoiled.

I joined the Biggest Loser pound for pound challenge. I figure I'm losing the weight anyway so I may as well help out a bit. I would ask my fellow weight-loss bloggers to check it out. What I'm intrigued about was the weight loss of the players who went home for 30 days. In two weeks, I lost over 3 1/2 pounds. One person lost 2, two others lost 7 and 8, I think. Somewhere around there. So these people, who are competing for big bucks, and had the advantage of spending a week with trainers learning the ropes, are losing the same or less weight than me. Hmmmmm.

Food, Glorious Food

2009-02-07T19:53:00.007-05:00

Well, I need to catch up a bit. Yesterday got a bit busy. John came home from India and I don't think Nicky stopped moving or talking until he fell asleep on my lap. You think eating healthy is difficult on vacation, try traveling 22 hours each way. I, on the other hand, was extremely grateful once again not to have to worry about cooking while he was gone. In the past, I did a LOT of delivery. Chinese. Pizza. I had it down to what to order to last for two days. You might think from my comments that I don't like to cook. Quite the contrary. I just don't have time to cook. I especially love to bake.

Okay, so yesterday was finally pretzel and cheesy-broccoli soup. Now, I didn't want to have to share my pretzel with Nicky. (bad mommy confession #316) So I cut it up into bite size pieces and put it in the soup. Oh. My. Goodness. The pretzel got saturated with cheesy yumminess until I basically had cheese fondue for lunch. So I was rewarded for my selfish behavior with extreme tastiness. Talk about your positive reinforcement!

So dinner last night was the salmon. One of my fellow DTG bloggers has mentioned this dish was not his thing. You gotta love the way you can customize your menu to make sure you're getting meals you like. After all, you're paying for it, you should get things you'll eat. Now me, I love fish. So well cooked salmon, not dry, is a treat for me. But what I really, really like is the shear amount of food in this meal. See for yourself. Now, this is not a doctored photo. I didn't use one of Nicky's plates to put this on. This is a full-sized dinner plate which is filled with food. Note the lemon wedge. When they say you only need to buy milk, they mean it. And I had never had jicama until I ate this meal. It's great being able to try out new foods without having to figure out how to cook them.

Oh, I had to call customer service yesterday. I had changed our plans to get 6 days of meals. We ended up getting 7 with doubles of what I had added in. I just went through the menus with the rep and got everything straightened out. So we got a credit for those meals we hadn't ordered and we got meals to share with our friends! I looked at the website FAQ's http://www.diettogo.com/0108web/faqs.htm and it says that they'll credit you for a meal if you get something you didn't like. Or order, I guess. You know, the Nutrisystem opinions that I read about before starting DTG all said the customer service was cold and unhelpful. Huh. Too bad for them.

Featuring Music by Carly Simon

2009-02-05T19:52:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned, I'm not a spice girl (never liked the music, ha!). So I make substitutions for meals which, while I'm sure are tasteful, overwhelm my taste buds. Anyway, there are some substitution meals which I drool over. Last night I had stuffed shells. Three jumbo pasta shells stuffed with cheese, covered in marinara sauce and then more cheese. I love cheese. Love it. This satisfies my cheese-need nicely.

I'm still waiting to indulge in the pretzels and cheese I've been staring at since Tuesday. Anticipation. It even let me resist the urge to take a bite from Nicky's mall pretzel today. It's hard to pass up the little treats, especially when it's all about the chocolate this time of year. I just keep reminding myself that treats are a reward and not an expectation. And lo-cal jello with a bit of whipped cream is a treat also. I only get a bit because someone (Nicky) loves whipped cream.

Food tomorrow. I like pulling the meals out of the bag and organizing them. Like I said, anticipation.

Week 2 Results

2009-02-03T18:33:00.004-05:00

You know, some calories just shouldn't count. Like when I have to bite away the edges of my son's ice cream cone so he can get to the ice cream. Or taking a bite of his pasta to make sure it's not too hot for him. That should go on the calorie rules list (you know, the one with the infamous anything-eaten-with-a-diet-soda-cancels-out rule)

The Wahoo Fish Burger for lunch today (out of order, whoops) was a little spicier than I expected. (I did google Wahoo Fish, not knowing if it was a brand name or a breed. Interesting) Not saying it wasn't good. I'm just a big wuss when it comes to spices. I don't even use black pepper in my cooking. That could be why I don't have a large variety of meals I cook! Unlike my brother, who got all the creativity. Seriously, if you're ever in St. Louis, have lunch at Garvey's Grill and order the Chicken Modega pizza. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Okay, the official weigh-in:

Week 2 starting weight: 206.8
Week 2 ending weight: 205.6

Week 2 weight loss: 1.2
Total weight loss: 3.8

Less than last week but a nice healthy number. I look forward to being under 200 by the end of the month, never to return! I'm hoping to avoid hitting the plateau until it gets a bit warmer out so we can start going for walks. I'm not really cheating but since I know I'm going to have to up my activity level to get over the plateau, I'm not doing any formal exercising. Informal, on the other hand. I live in a three story townhouse so I do quite a bit of stair-master throughout the day!

The problem/benefit with having three days of meals in the fridge is that you get to see all the menus at once. So, seeing the broccoli cheese soup with pretzels that's on tap for tomorrow has me anticipating lunch. I bet those pretzels would taste yummy dipped in the cheesy-soup. We shall see.

Tired But Well Fed!

2009-02-03T16:46:00.003-05:00

Well, can I just say again how much I love having the meals prepared for me. I wasn't able to post yesterday due to being in the ER for 6 hours and coming home exhausted. Catie was running a temperature and since she's only 3 1/2 months and was 1 month premature, that was pretty serious. She's okay now. After a complete workup, they found some bacteria in her urine (sorry if that's tmi). No temp at all today. Anyway, when we hit the house at 6:30, Nicky, who was incredibly well-behaved all day, pulled a "I'm exhausted" meltdown. And of course Jason started screaming for his dinner. Needless to say, I was SO grateful to be able to sit down to a hot, nutritious meal of whitefish parmesan and baby carrots when I finally got everybody settled down. I think maybe DTG should market this plan less as a diet and more of a convenient home-cooked meal!

We went to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum again (as a reward since Nicky was so good yesterday). I'm really glad that my turkey sandwich had all the fixings individually wrapped. It's really easy to throw it into the lunchbag-cooler with Nicky's fruit and have that for lunch when we all sit down. Then Nicky and I split the yogurt I kept from breakfast. Oh, I've been using Nicky's baby spoons to eat the yogurt. They're little plastic doesn't-matter-if-you-lose-them spoons. That way, it takes me a while to eat and makes me slow down and appreciate the taste more.

So I've changed our meal plans. It's so easy to customize the plan for exactly what we need. John will be getting breakfast, lunch and dinner for six days and I'll be getting lunch and dinner for six days. I had to add another day as I wanted the special dinners and didn't want to substitute them for what we already had. What are special dinners you may ask? Every delivery (Tuesday and Friday) has a meal that's what I call a little more "high-brow". Meals like Spanish Trout with basmati rice or Stuffed Chicken Mediterranean with wild rice and chocolate mouse. Or the one I'm really looking forward to: Langostine and cheese grits. There's no charge to substitute this meal in for something.

It was recycling day today. It looks like so far the ratio of recyclable to non-recyclable containers is 5:1. Which isn't too bad. I'm not sure why they use the hard black plastic containers for dinner when there's other black plastic containers they use which are recyclable. So while I could wish for all of it to be recycled, I recognize the fact that fast food places and coffee shops go through a lot of styrofoam.

Well, that's enough rambling for now. Again, I hope my musings are somewhat enlightening to someone. If not, well, I've got the cartharsis value : )

Variety is the Spice of Life

2009-02-01T12:26:00.002-05:00

Can I just say how much I love the shrimp fettucini? What always annoys me when you get a shrimp dish in a restaurant is the dearth of shrimp included. A half dozen or less artfully arranged on top of your meal. Well, DTG's shrimp fettucini actually has shrimp! Real shrimp. As in, shrimp in just about every bite. I'll take a picture in five weeks when it comes around again.

Yeah, the five week rotation. There's no way I have five weeks of meals in my repetoire. My cooking usually involves deciding on one of three meats (chicken, pork, beef), then using one of three or four recipes with it. I've got literally dozens of cookbooks (Taste of Home, Quick Cooking, Light & Tasty, basically the entire Reimann Publications series) and I still make the same meals over and over. So hooray for variety!

Hopefully we won't get the weather they're talking about so we can get out of the house. If you have kids (or even if you don't) I highly recommend the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum. Better than mall-walking and entertaining to boot!

Water, Water Everywhere

2009-01-30T18:16:00.006-05:00

I stand/sit corrected. I've been informed that John did weigh himself. (If he doesn't tell me, how am I supposed to know?) Anyway, he lost about a pound and a half the first week.

So when I was watching Biggest Loser a couple weeks ago, they mentioned drinking water increases your metabolism. Now, I've always known/heard about water weight. If you drink your "required" water, you lose weight the first couple days when your body flushes out stored water. But this is the first I've heard about a metabolism increase. So I did a search and found that a research facility in Germany did a study on energy expenditure. Turns out water does increase your metabolism. A little bit. Basically, "over the course of a year, a person who increases his water consumption by 1.5 liters a day would burn an extra 17,400 calories, for a weight loss of approximately five pounds" (http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20040105/drinking-water-may-speed-weight-loss) So no super secret weight loss trick here. Just have to go back to eating healthy. Ooooo, shrimp fettucini on the menu tonight!

It's the Little Things

2009-01-29T18:45:00.006-05:00

Okay, here's another suggestion. Make an entire meal of the lentil chili that came as a side item. Oh, that's yummy. Talk about a comfort-food lunch. Grilled cheese, chili and a brownie! However, I've given the brownie to John. I love it but he'll enjoy it even more. On a side note, people are surprised when we tell them that we don't do anything for Valentine's Day or our anniversary. That's because romance is in the little things. Like giving them your brownie. Or bringing your nine month pregnant wife a mint chip shake from Baskin Robbins on your way home from work. Or the really big one, thinking it's a good idea for his mother-in-law to live with us for two months before, during, and after the twins' birth. Now that's romantic!

I'm also surprised at the little touches to the meals. Things that make it special, like shredded parmesan cheese to sprinkle on your vegetables or macaroni and cheese. Oh, did I mention the macaroni and cheese last night? Not dry, cheese-sparse mac & cheese. But like Velveeta mac & cheese.

John keeps forgetting to weigh himself. He's such a guy. He doesn't need to lose weight as he has to keep in shape for the military. (That's why I'm supplementing his 1600 calories a day with extra fruit.) But he's been good about sticking with the plan so I expect he's lost a little also.

Oh, I'm also asked what Nicky eats while we're on this plan. I respond with, he's 3. He eats air. Actually, he lives on fruit, vegetables and milk. Oh, and lollipops when he goes in the potty. Dum-dum suckers are his fourth food group.

Week 1 Results

2009-01-28T15:57:00.005-05:00

Check out lunch for today. Look at the sheer amount of food! Chicken pesto sub with cheese and tomato, chickpea and spinach salad, pineapple, and chocolate pudding. Seriously! I love this pesto sauce. You know, a pasta dish with this pesto on it would be quite tasty. (hint, hint)

One thing I've realized this week. It's not enough to cut calories. You need to eat healthy also. Cutting calories will actually harm you if you also cut out your nutrients. By letting DTG handle all the thinking, I've been actually eating better this week, even though I'm eating fewer calories. I can tell the difference in the amount of energy I have, chasing Nicky around the house a lot more than I did just a week ago.

So I guess you're curious as to any weight-loss results. I can do this Biggest Loser style, which I am a fan of. But I watch it Tivo'd so I can fast-forward through the screaming and crying. There's no way I would put up with someone yelling at me the way they do. And I realize that the mental aspect is a part of weight loss but there's way too much crying.

Oh, I do my weight loss every week at approximately the same time on the same day. Eliminate as many variables as possible.

Anyway, so Week 1 weight: 209.4

Week 2 weight: 206.8

Week 1 weight loss: 2.6 pounds.

Not too shabby!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2009-01-27T18:05:00.002-05:00

Okay, this is why it's nice to have dinner's made for me. Catie didn't settle down until 8 last night. So we were able to have dinner 3 minutes later. Barbecue chicken with green beans almondine, potatoes, and baked beans. Wow.

Today's lunch was particularly yummy. A huge philly turkey sandwich. Seriously huge. About 8 or 9 inches long with turkey, peppers and onion. I really like the honey mustard mayo. My substitutions for breakfast went through. That's pretty cool. As long as it's before noon on Monday, you can get your menu for Tuesday changed. I admit to being a bit of a pain when it comes to my menu. I don't like anything spicy and I've mentioned I'm not a muffin fan. You may wonder why I bother but it's easy to customize it and once you get everything changed, it stays that way. So next month, when that meal comes around again, I'll automatically get my substitution. About the only way it could be easier was if I could access my menu online myself. Sometimes, I forget whether I made a substitution.

Some people may ask so I'll go ahead and answer the question. No, I'm not exercising right now. At least, not formally. I just don't have time. And while that may be a trite excuse, it's totally accurate in my case. When the weather gets warmer, we'll trek outside for walks. And if you happen to see us on the street, don't stare! We're quite a train. A five foot long stroller with two car seats and a seat on the back for Nicky.

Well, time to get settled for bed. I do still have an apple before bed every night. I don't feel the least bit guilty about that!

Short and Sugar Free Sweet

2009-01-26T20:24:00.003-05:00

So I survived the weekend. We're going to up our days to 6 starting in two weeks. This weekend John is going to India for a week so I did a stop/restart. You go online and fill out a form http://www.diettogo.com/0108web/menu_stops.htm and you can pause it for however long you need. But I'm going to stop getting breakfasts. I'm just not a muffin fan. So I can substitute a bagel three or four times a week or I can get some mini-bagels. Hopefully. I have to check to see if there's some with a reasonable amount of calories.

I made my own jello snack packs. Sugar-free jello-0 with some diet 7-up. Put in those little Glad 1/2 cup containers so we have our own 10 calorie snack packs.

Whoops, gotta run. Catie is being unhappy and we can't figure out why. What else could a baby want? She won't eat, she's clean and she has a paci. Sigh. Time to walk the floor.

Fight the Power!

2009-01-24T18:30:00.000-05:00

Good Morning America today said that for the first time, there were more obese people than overweight people in America. 35% obese vice 34% overweight. They had a story about how the corporation's wish to make a buck isn't helping.

So what are your choices if you don't want to cook? You can order in pizza (1 slice, please) or Chinese (plain rice, chicken and vegetables with no sauce) for $15 or $20. If you get fast food, healthy choices are basically nonexist. I mentioned that I had gone by McDonalds for my son. (bad mommy confession #235) You can get a burger, fries and a soda off the dollar menu for $3.15. Or you can get JUST a small salad for a bit more. As long as you don't get one with crispy chicken which gives you 20 grams of fat. Yikes! Why are healthy items more expensive? Like Panera. If you want to get a fruit cup instead of chips, you have to pay extra. Wendy's has a better selection on their value menu but again, watch out for the salads.

Even the grocery stores have the healthy food disparity. Compare the price of fruit versus chips. Or milk versus soda. Why do we have to pay so much more to get juice or applesauce without sugar added. (And spend ten minutes reading labels to find that 1 out of 20)

Why the interest? Well, I'm only getting five days of Diet-to-Go. Which is going to be adjusted next week. Having to spend over an hour in the kitchen cooking and then cleaning when I don't have to is just plain wrong. Anyway, I was out doing errands at lunch and was trying to find something that wasn't high in calories. I ended up at Taco Bell and got one soft taco and one crunchy taco. I hoped that was reasonable. Looking them up at home I found that the soft taco is 200 calories and the crunchy taco is 170 calories. So not too badly.

So my advice is troll the internet for nutritional information for those places you frequent. Sometimes it's a bit depressing but it's better to know than to regret.

**The statement herein are the opinion of the blogger and do not necessarily represent any scientific experimentation (just common sense)**

Peas and Dessert

2009-01-23T19:21:00.001-05:00

So John doesn't like peas. Actually, beyond doesn't like. As in pick the peas out of a frozen dinner meal before cooking it. He called me today and said he needed a substitution for lunch because all he got were peas in his pasta salad. Seems like he missed the pasta, beans, zucchini, tuna, and tomatoes. Seriously. I liked it. So he told me to make a substitution for next time. I guess I shouldn't give him a hard time. I make subsitutions for meals sometimes when I don't like the side dish. I also started supplementing his lunch. 1600 calories is pretty low for a healthy man. So I added a banana and an apple to his lunch box to help combat the munchies. Now to get him over his dessert addiction. The mousse spoiled him. He graciously volunteers to give up his cauliflower if he gets dessert.

Wasn't it a beautiful day today? Well, for January. We spent two hours at the playground. I had a bite of Nicky's banana but that was it. Like I said, I liked lunch today.

Part of the reason I think this program will be good for me is to remind me how to eat healthy. I want to make sure my children don't end up with bad eating habits. They say children have naturally healthy habits. They don't eat when they're not hungry and they stop eating when they're full. Of course, it's that not eating part that drives me crazy sometimes. Nicky sometimes only eats fruit and milk during the day.

I've been advised that blogs are more interesting if they include risque photos of famous people. So I make this solemn vow to you. If I find any celebrities on Diet-to-Go, I will do my utmost best to obtain said photos and post them.

Leaving the Nest

2009-01-22T20:08:00.000-05:00

Remember yesterday when I said it was harder staying home? Well, today, I tested that theory. We all left the house today. (And it usually takes about 30 minutes to pack everyone up and get in the car :) I brought half my breakfast and half my lunch with me in Nicky's snack bag. Some of the items are easily portable. We stopped by McD to get Nicky one of the three meat items he'll actually eat, nuggets. So many things on the menu. Yum. I ordered unsweetened tea. Which is good for me because while pregnant, sweet tea calmed my stomach and became a crutch. Unfortunately, they messed up and gave me sweet tea. (Yet another drive thru screw up) Why do the gods test me so?!?! But I was strong, thought about the empty calories in sugar, and tossed it. Whew.

So dinner last night. John had the vegetable ravioli. I giggled when he was halfway through and said "this is good." This was before he got to the chocolate mousse and basically licked the container to get every last bit. I think it ended up better than "good." I did a substitution.

You know, I realized that I haven't really talked about how this whole thing works. You can go to the website http://www.diettogo.com for more detailed info but here's the gist. Meals are prepared locally and I pick them up twice a week. That way, they don't freeze them. On Tuesday, I get three days of meals (Tuesday dinner through Friday lunch) and on Friday, I get four days of meals (Friday dinner through Tuesday lunch). Well, I'm just getting two days on Friday. You can choose however many meals you want for the week, in any combination. Like just lunch and dinner for 4 days for maybe breakfast and dinner for 7 days. Whatever you want. You choose between two calorie levels and three menu types. Like Low-Fat: http://www.diettogo.com/0108web/menu_lowfatlocal.htm, Vegetarian: http://www.diettogo.com/0108web/menu_veglocal.htm, or Low-Carb: http://www.diettogo.com/0108web/menu_lowcarblocal.htm. Now, I love my carbs. No way I could give up my pasta and rice so I'm doing low-fat.

Anyway, there's a set menu but you can make substitutions. Thus, back to my dinner last night. I substituted Stuffed Shells. Now, I get a little annoyed at the substitution menu. http://www.diettogo.com/0108web/menu_subs.htm because there's not enough details. Like the Veggie Pizza sounds intriguing for dinner but I'd never order it because I have no idea what's on it or what the sides are. But I like the shells. Three jumbo pasta shells filled with cheese, covered in sauce, with baby carrots on the side. Very satisfying.

Wednesday, January 21

2009-01-21T18:52:00.000-05:00

Last night was our first dinner: Red Snapper. I was impressed that the broccoli wasn’t mushy at all. The angel food cake was a little dry. But we definitely weren’t hungry after a plate full of food.

This morning, I cut my scone up into four pieces vertically and spread the raspberry preserves on two slices and the Neufchatel cheese on the other two. I saved my yogurt and juice for a mid-morning snack. I get hungrier in the morning than the afternoon. Could be because the babies have a feeding between 4 and 5. Since Nicky gets up at 6, I just stay up so mid-morning for me is most people's lunch.

Anyway, Nicky ate half my vegetable chips this afternoon which almost made up for the 100 calorie popcorn bag I ate in the morning also. The salmon burger was good. I remember now how much we loved the sandwich and dinner rolls.

I think it's harder to be good when we stay home all day. 12 hours of conversations where every sentence begins with "mommy." Sometimes I think I eat just because it's something I can do alone. So there's another habit to be changed. I read it takes 28 days for habits to develop. So 27 to go : )

Tuesday, January 20

2009-01-21T16:34:00.000-05:00

Okay, I know the blog says all this was posted on Wednesday. That’s just the day I finally got this stuff set up. My date titles are accurate.

This is too cool. When I signed up to get my food, I told them about doing a blog about it. So now I have a sponsor! I don't know what that's going to mean. Maybe some free food! Woo hoo! I'm not going to change what I would say because of that. But I figure any criticism I say
will definitely be read!

Starting weight: 209.4
I can’t believe I’m back here again. After two years at 182 pounds (I’m 5’9” so that’s almost in the healthy range), I was depressed as I watched the scale creep up when I was pregnant. I would never regret my beautiful babies but they could have taken a few more pounds with them when they left!

Got our first three days of food today. Both my husband and I are getting 5 days 1600 calorie breakfast, lunch and dinner. I got so excited sorting the meals and putting them in the frig. I don’t have to cook dinner tonight! I think at this point, however, I'd be happy eating about anything as long as I didn't have to cook it!

In The Beginning

2009-01-21T14:47:00.000-05:00

Well, here I am again. If you live in the DC area, you may have heard me on the radio three years ago. My son was 3 months old and my husband was leaving for Afghanistan when I started receiving Diet-to-Go. I weighed 234 pounds (see me with the stroller). Six months later, I was 50 pounds lighter and watching my husbands eyes bug out when he stepped from the plane. (See me at the park) I had no problem transitioning to cooking healthy for my family using what I'd learned eating Diet-to-Go food and kept the weight off for two years.

Now my twins (!) are 3 months old and my son just turned 3 years. Time to cook healthy is non-existent and I need to get rid of this pregnancy weight! I am going to share with everyone my experiences this time because I learned the first time how life-changing weight loss can be.

So the first step is admitting I have a problem. Done! I have a huge problem. Nicky (my 3 year old) just gave up naps so round about 6:00 at night, he starts getting very grumpy and high maintenance. Of course, that's about the time Jason and Caitlin want their evening feeding. John (my husband) doesn't get home until 6:30 or 7:00 so when am I supposed to make dinner? Sigh.

I looked around at the different plans out there to make sure I picked the right one for me. I spent about 15 minutes on Jenny Craig (hey, it worked for Valerie Bertinelli) but I couldn't find ANY information on prices. They wanted my information to contact me. Like I have time for a hard sell! So then I went to Nutrisystem. It looked more intriguing. It seemed a bit time consuming having to choose your food. But I really didn't like having to get a month of food at a time. I can't commit to a month! John is active duty and may get sent somewhere with a week's notice. Relatives may come in town for a visit (and when they come, they stay a week!). Plus, I don't have room in my freezer for all that food. And there's that freezer aspect. If I want frozen food, I could just get some Lean Cuisines at the grocery store.

So I decided to go back to Diet to Go. I like that it's a week at a time. I really like that I don't have to plan a menu but I can change something if I want to. And it's not frozen so I know there's not a lot of preservatives and sodium in it.

So here I go. I'm going to be very matter-of-fact in my postings regarding my weight and whether I cheat. Please feel free to follow me through this experience. And I hope something I say in my ramblings helps someone. Like I said, been there, felt like that.