Saving Dinner (and Myself)

At first glance, this is not going to look like a weight loss blog! And I suppose, on the face of it, it's not. It is about meeting two main objectives in my journey: 1) Giving my kids a good start in nutritional health (aka helping them avoid the addictions and dangers of highly processed foods). Instead of corn syrup, fillers and preservatives, they are getting intact foods like fruits, vegetables, brown rice, oats and whole-wheat flour.

(2)I am moving my own needs up the priority list so I'm not so distracted by feeding my large family that I just shove whatever I can find in my own pie-hole! A side benefit is that I'm not heating up my kitchen as much every day since the initial stage of cooking has been done already on all these foods!

Hence, I decided it was time to put some yummy home-made meals in the freezer. I took about a week to complete it all, but I did the bulk of the shopping and cooking in one 24 hour period with a lot of help from Chanelle (Allison was out of town at the time).

To put the sheer volume in proper perspective, Chanelle and I bought the majority of the ingredients at a warehouse club and it filled TWO carts and rang up a $550 bill! One of the carts was so heavy, it was exercise to push it! I estimate that by buying most of the ingredients in bulk, I saved 30% to 50% of the cost of producing each of these dishes individually.

Here are the results:

3 Meals of Shepherd's Pie
3 meals of Parsley Parmesan Chicken
24 cups of Spaghetti Sauce (about 6 meal's worth)






4 meals of Cheesy Taco Rice
3 batches of No-Bake Cookies
7 batches of Oatmeal Cookies
24 cups of Granola








6 meals of Mac and Cheese (bye, bye blue box)
12 cups of White Sauce (to go into the mac)
4 meals of Freezer Slaw



12 Breakfast Sandwiches (quickie breakfast for the girls for school)










4 meals of Pulled Pork
2 quarts of Barbeque Sauce
3 meals of Baked Ziti (not actually baked yet!)

Tips, Tricks and Friday inspiration

Today I need some inspiration, so I decided to assemble in one place some of my favorite tips and tricks. Maybe they will inspire you too! (The colored phrases are clickable links)

There are lots of useful reminders in Weight Watchers "25 Little Tips for Big Weight Loss"

The End of Overeating (Kessler). A fascinating story of what makes a craving tick and how "big food" is contributing by working hard to feed my cravings. I have started re-reading this book this week.

Here is a PBS Documentary, "Fat, What No One is Telling You." It's very thought provoking and full of news from research, but don't watch it if you're feeling hopeless. It's food for thought but not edited in an encouraging manner. Therefore, I'm recommending it with some reservations.

I have a favorite podcast - Fat 2 Fit Radio -- which segues perfectly with Spark. They have a good BMR (basal metabolic rate) calculator. I found instructions for calculating this in lots of places on the web, but the simplest way was to follow the instructions I found at Fat 2 Fit.

My commitment through the weekend is to review all these tools and to stop moping about. I'm healthy. I'm halfway to goal. It's within my control. Time to stop whinging and start fighting!

Top Ten Reasons to Dive in and SWIM!

I love swimming. I never thought I would. I loved it as a kid but as an adult --I felt clumsy and it seemed inconvenient. However, 18 months ago, I challenged myself to swim because I was trying to mix up my cardio. Holy cow! In a very short time, I was hooked! It's fun, it's efficient, it's cheap, it's cool.

Now I am on a mission to recruit more swimmers! Hence, my top 10 reasons to try swimming for your exercise.

NUMBER 10:
Showering is less trouble because you're already wet and have to dry off anyway

NUMBER 9:
You get to wear goggles

NUMBER 8:
With your head underwater, you can't hear the kids yelling (yours or anyone else's!)


NUMBER 7:
You have lots of meditative time to compose your next blog post

NUMBER 6:
You get over your issues about people knowing what your body looks like (face it -- they know anyway and, what's more, they DON'T CARE!)

NUMBER 5: It's cardio and strength training in one. AND it works your core.

NUMBER 4:
It's the one sport where having some body fat is an advantage (think buoyancy!)

NUMBER 3:
You don't sweat

NUMBER 2:
It lowers your core temperature and the effect lasts a couple of hours (helpful if you live in the sunbelt like I do!)

And the NUMBER 1 reason:
It burns a lot of calories/minute compared to other kinds of cardio!

Can't wait to hear how much you enjoy it!

Back in the Saddle Again

Spring has sprung. My heart is lifted. I don't know why it is but spring definitely puts a bounce in my step. So here in crazy-land, life is a little brighter. I'm back on the horse -- working my program, committed to exercise, keeping my health a high priority.

Our three little foster kids are settling in well. We are getting each other's "number" so to speak so we are all happier more of the time. I am finally getting enough sleep and everyone else is, too. I have figured out how to keep up with the housework better and even the laundry is (almost) caught up.

What this means to me now is that I can get back to regular exercise. Oh, fear not, I've been getting exercise, just not much cardio. Before the kids got here, my regular number of non-exercise steps per day was around 3500 on a "good" day. Now I am averaging 8500! They have an average weight of 25 pounds, and I carry someone around for over an hour a day. I also change 18 diapers a day, so that's 36 extra "lifts." That does not even factor in all the hauling of strollers up steps, running around the lawn, lifting people in and out of cribs and highchairs, etc. I now live in a physical world.

Partly as a result of the children being here and partly as a result of my weight loss, I feel 10 years younger. I am not only in my "goal outfit," it's big on me! My 2002 pants are very roomy. I have hung a new goal outfit in the front of my closet -- whoopee! I have not weighed on my "official" scale at the clinic since the kids got here but I will be weighing in next Wednesday. According to my home scale, I've lost 36 pounds. I think the scale is "heavy" but I'll go with that until my official weigh-in next week.

My commitment to myself for this week is to do 15 minutes of Wii Fit every day, and 15 minutes of gardening. I want to get that regular exercise back on the books and get in the habit of making that time for myself. I have been doing really well with giving myself "quiet time" every day so now I am shifting my focus to "active" time. Back in the saddle. It's a good seat.

Doors: Opening and Closing

Today's post is actually a link to my other blog, Bright Life Living! Thanks for reading!

Please Help me Make A Difference!

In 2007, my dear friend Martha Edgemon told me that her daughter-in-law, Karson Beaty, had breast cancer. Karson was 30 years old when diagnosed. I clearly remember the exact moment Martha said the word, "cancer." I remember how my heart felt heavy and I had a queasy feeling in my stomach. What can I do?," I wondered, "How can I help?"

As I followed Karson's journey over the next many months, her battle was never far from my mind. I barely passed science in school; creating my own cure is probably out of my reach. One day an online friend wrote me that she was doing a breast cancer walk. I realized that while medical science is not my forte, endurance certainly is. I started researching the walks and found one that seemed ideal for me, The Avon Walk. It covers 39 miles in two days and a Walk is held annually in Houston, only a 3-hour drive away. In Texas, that's close!

Last fall, it was finally time to begin my training and now my walk is only 77 days away. My training (at this stage) consists of a 13 mile walk Saturday followed by a 7 mile walk Sunday and a 3 and 5-mile walk through the week. 8 weeks from now I'll be logging 45 miles a week.

A lot of great things have happened to me in this training. I've lost 25 pounds. My legs are strong and my steps are sure. My family have become my support-team with Paul on foot at my side for the "long" walks and the girls on bikes. We are all doing this big thing together.

But the greatest thing is that I am making a difference. As a participant, I boldly agreed to raise $1800 in donations before the event. this money will help fund breast cancer research and screening for those who can't afford it. The research is what most thrills me, because, as my shirt says, I'm "In it to END it."

I'm dedicating my walk to Karson, who is still fighting her battle. I'm also walking for my mom's best friend, Joan, still fighting. And for Kathy A and Irene S. who won their battles, and for Mary Pearl and Paul's Grandma Florene, who not only won their battles but lived on to old age. And I'm walking especially for each person who will lose their battle to breast cancer every 14 minutes of every single day, every week of every month of every year -- until a cure is found. I'm walking so that should this disease ever touch either of my beautiful girls, their odds will be better.

Will you Help Me?

Every donation of any size will help me reach my goal, which in turn can change the future of this deadly disease.

• To use a credit card, click HERE!!
• To write a check or donate cash, please email me (dreena@gmail.com) for instructions.

Thank you so very much.

New Year, New Me!

I weighed in yesterday. Since November 13, I've lost 22 pounds and 9%. How about that? I am officially more than 25% of the way to my goal. I am going to see if I can find my old Weight Watcher cards to see how long it's been since I've been at this weight.

It was hard for me to choose the medically supervised program, even though my doctor felt it was my last sensible option. It felt like "giving up" -- and that is not something I do! And yet I saw that my doctor had reached the end of what he could do for me and he was sure that I would lose on these very low calories and he was right!

Since being in the group, I've had some realizations. As I've said before, despite being obese, my health was good. I like to say I was "perfect on the inside." However, I also know that obesity in me is a ticking time bomb -- sooner or later it would start to have serious consequences and some of them would perhaps be irreversible. In our group, nearly everyone has some serious health issues. I am grateful to have escaped them so far and grateful to have made this decision when I did. And I am even healthier now! My cholesterol is dropping and my knees hurt less. I have tons of energy. I am sleeping great.

Best of all, I'm done struggling. I am simply succeeding. And I do not regret one iota the difficulties of the last 5 years of working at weight loss. I have learned tons and I feel sure that all that information can someday help someone else. Thanks for caring about me -- the support means a lot.