A Look Back at Thanksgiving

It is over. Our children have gone home. We had a wonderful time. Sigh. We miss them already. Thanks to some ice and snow in West Texas, we have a couple of extra days with our son, daughter, and son-in-law. We played games, watched movies, cooked and ate and cooked and ate. Sigh. We miss them already, but we treasure the memories of the time we had with them. Our children are doing well with their lives and we are very proud of them.

OK. The scales show that I gained 4 pounds during Thanksgiving week. Not good. Thinking back to all I ate, I conclude that I did not drastically go off my diet. The only serious carbs I had were in the dressing. The only serious sugar I ate were reduced sugar desserts. However, the amount of food I consumed was more than I would have normally eaten. Hmmmmmm

Lessons learned: All carbs are serious carbs. All sugar is serious sugar. Portion control is important even when the food you are eating meets the 'legal' diet requirements.

Did I ruin everything? Am I discouraged? By no means. As soon as the children left, my eating habits went back to my preThanksgiving eating plan, and I am confident that those 4 pounds will soon be history.

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Sugar Free/Low Carb Recipes!

It was truly a great day! We enjoyed our day trip to Lubbock, our visit with Ma-ma (my mother-in-law), our Thanksgiving meal, and our drive back home to our yard covered with about 5 inches of snow!

Lisa made a couple of fantastic sugar free/low carb desserts from recipes she found on www.about.com

I must let you know that we varied the recipes found on the website somewhat due to time and ingredient issues.

Sugar-Free Pumpkin Pie

• 9-inch pie pastry
• 16-ounce can pumpkin (we used 15 oz. can)
• 12-ounce can evaporated milk
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup artificial sweetener (we used Splenda, could have increased this a little to make it sweeter)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon*
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger*
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg*
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves*

*or 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Beat pumpkin, milk, and eggs. Beat in rest of ingredients. Pour into uncooked pie shell. Bake for 40 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Serve with sugar free whipped cream.



Low Carb Cheesecake

• 3 packages (1 and 1/2 lbs.) cream cheese (room temperature)
• 4 eggs (preferably room temperature)
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon (1/2 tbs.) vanilla
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon (1/2 tbs.) lemon juice
• 1 and 1/3 cups of artificial sweetener (we used Splenda)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• Crust:
• 1 cup almond meal
• 2 T melted butter
• 2 T artificial sweetener

For the crust we decided to use an unbaked pie crust because time was an issue yesterday.

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 F. Put cream cheese in mixing bowl and beat until fluffy. Add other ingredients, scraping the bowl and beaters often. When all ingredients are combined, scrape one more time, beat one more minute, and pour mixture into pan.
Raise the temp of the oven to 400 and begin baking the cheesecake. Bake for about an hour, dropping the temperature of the oven every 15 minutes or so till it is baking at 200 at the end. We took it out of the oven when the cheesecake was firm to the touch , but slightly soft on the sides.

We enjoyed making these desserts and we enjoyed eating them even more because they were both low carb and sugar-free!!!

They Arrived today!

My daughter and son-in-law and son arrived this evening for a very fast week of fun, playing games, traveling to see grandmothers, watching movies, looking at old family photos, and of course, eating.
As I mentioned before, cooking for this week is going to be a challenge. Our son, Jonathan, is not following the same diet as the rest of us. In his 'honor' I baked an 'apple dump cake'. This proved to be too much of a temptation for Rick, my husband, and Adam, my son-in-law. Oh, well. They make their own choices.
For dinner this evening we had rotisserie chicken, saute' Italian vegetables, field peas, and tomato wedges. This was easy to do and was totally 'legal'.
Tomorrow Lisa and I will be preparing the Thanksgiving meal, which will consist of several low carb/no sugar dishes.
I will share the menu and recipes with you.
It is my prayer that you will enjoy a wonderful time with your family this week, giving thanks for God's blessings in our lives.

Holiday Eating the Low Carb Way

This is going to be an interesting holiday season. Yes, I have been on diets before during Christmas and Thanksgiving. Some years I have succeeded in staying faithful to my diet, and at other times I have been unsuccessful. I have cooked traditional turkey and dressing and all the desserts and eaten only moderate amounts of the same turkey and dressing and none of the desserts. I can do it. Right now my motivation is strong and I seem to have pretty good control.
The difference this time is that there is more of the family involved in this diet, and some of the things I have cooked in previous years just won't do now. It is actually going to be quite fun, I think. Lisa, my daughter, and I are collaborating on the menu, not just for Thanksgiving Day, but for their entire visit. She is quite creative and has some great ideas.
I will share with you some of our 'wins' and 'losses' in the next week.

My Last Dose of Prednizone!!!! Yea!!!

It seemed like a long time, but it really wasn't. Nine days. That is all. Now my blood sugar and weight can go back to their 'rightful' places.

Prednisone, High Blood Sugar, Weight Gain, and Patience....Sigh

This too shall pass.....This too shall pass.
This is my second round of Prednizone.
My first started just over 3 weeks ago. My doctor prescribed it as an attempt to reduce the inflammation in my feet due to painful growing heel spurs.
The second began 5 days ago to help clear congestion and infection in my chest that was possibly going to cause pneumonia.
The first time I noticed some weight gain, difficulty sleeping, and higher blood sugar, but I did not feel bad.
This time my blood sugar has soared into numbers that are scary for me and I have felt very strange. I have been very thirsty, jittery, and have had difficulty thinking when my blood sugar is high. Typing on the computer is a chore and I have to really concentrate to get an intelligent sentence written.
It is time to put things in perspective. This is not the rest of my life. Just 4 more days. Then things will return to normal.....my blood sugar......being able to sleep at night......being able to think 'in a straight line'.........and this weight gain will be gone!!!! Patience........

Things I Have Won So Far By Losing Weight

It is fun. By saying "No" to things I shouldn't eat, and saying "Yes" only to things that I should eat, I have opened my life to many good things.
It is true, I believe, that having self discipline in one area of your life will give you freedom in other areas. By losing weight, I am now winning many good things in other parts of my life.
I have now lost about 22 pounds. WooooHooooo!
1. This amount of weight loss is now noticeable and , believe me, my friends, family, and Mary Kay sisters in pink, are now noticing. I am consistently receiving compliments such as, "you look great", "You have lost weight!", "I am so proud of you!" I love it!!
2. I am now able to wear some of my "not so fat" clothes! This week I wore a pair of khaki pants that I had not worn in 3 or 4 years. Yes!!!!
3. I received the results of my blood work, and everything, everything was within normal ranges. My blood sugar, my A1C test, cholesterol, and triglycerides were all normal!!! The only thing that was a little high was my LDL level and that was considerably lower than the last test. Yea!!!!!

This all feels very good and is very gratifying. I have won all these wonderful rewards, some long term and some short term, by losing weight. This is only the beginning. I have more to lose and more to win!!!! I can hardly wait (weight)!

If you are like me and need to lose weight so that you can win better health and better self esteem, please don't wait! Begin now. Yes, you can control it during the coming holiday season! I know you can. Just start!

A-1-C Test

I returned home 4 days ago and my grandmother is doing well. She truly is an amazing woman. We have bought her a little more time to be at home and we are both happy.

When I returned home and got on my scales I found that I had actually lost 2 more pounds and so now my total weight loss is about 21 pounds!!!!! Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I always love applause.

Tomorrow I go to the doctor to get the results of my A-1-C test. This is a test which will show my average blood sugar level for the last 3 months. I am actually looking forward to the results because I have been on this diet for 3 months. I'll let you know........