The Morning After. And Book Giveaway!

Weigh-in:  172.6.  I’ll take it.

Hope you all had a blessed Easter Sunday!  I had a VERY nice quiet peaceful day.  Our church was having a pancake breakfast before church, but I opted to start my day with a most enjoyable and delicious protein pancake at home.  I added in just a bit of flaxseed meal–yumm.  I make them the same way every time now.  Bake in some walnuts, and then top with mashed banana.

On to church, where we had a lovely service, and I enjoyed greeting all my friends.

I had bought a couple of New York steaks that looked good, and boy oh boy, were they.  NO I didn’t eat two steaks.  One is in the freezer for a rainy day, which by the looks of it, we will get plenty of this spring.  Not complaining because it is beautiful and green around here.

I decided ahead of time that I could eat whatever I wanted on Easter.  An interesting experiment, because it did take a lot of the anxiety away.  I found that I WANTED to make good choices most of the day.  Like with the steak, I did have a baked potato with some real butter, but then I only wanted some plain fresh veggies and no bread.  That was a treat, and it was plenty.

Later in the evening I whipped up a batch of my mac and cheese with butternut squash. Oh man, that stuff is yummy.  And again, more enjoyable because you know it has the veggies added in.  Sorry I didn’t take a picture, because it is very pretty.

And I did have my traditional Palmer’s chocolate Easter bunny.  I used to eat Palmer’s chocolate bunnies in the weeks leading up to Easter,  followed by their biggest bunny of all–Daddy Big Ears– on Easter!  And go to the stores the day after to stock up on more.  So I would say going and choosing the smallest one I could find is definitely a change for the better there.  I thoroughly enjoyed that little bunny along with a small box of ‘peeps’  (yellow chicks only, please) that my friend had bought for me.  The end.

I have had quite a bit of time off from work lately.  I know that I am one who likes routine, and being a nurse working an everchanging schedule has generally not allowed that in my life.  So I have noticed that I really like the routine that can be fit into a week.  Like, lately, Saturday mornings are the morning I take a longer walk with Noah.  We went 4 miles on Saturday.  And then we went to our canine good citizen’s class in the afternoon.  Guess who was sacked out that evening?  Okay, BOTH of us were LOL.

Some interesting links:

A complete listing of sodium content in common foods.  This is an interesting website, as they are actually dealing with a disease that needs to eat low sodium.  But I found it fascinating that they added this cautionary note in regards to severely restricting sodium:  The body posesses exquisite systems which accurately regulate body sodium.  I remember learning about this in nursing school.  It was fascinating to me to see how the microscopic parts of the kidney regulate the electrolytes in your body.  Not to say we shouldn’t watch our sodium intake.  We should.  Just to say that your body is equipped to take care of a NORMAL amount of sodium intake (1100-3300mg/day.)

Georgie wrote an excellent fair-minded article about carbohydrates.  I have to admit it drives me nuts when people start throwing around the carbohydrate word.  There are a LOT of different carbohydrates in the world of food, and they are not all bad!

Miscellaneous picture show:

This would have been  a GREAT salad, if SOMEONE would have had salsa in her refrigerator… THAT situation has been remedied.  The guacamole on top was simply a mashed avocado with some garlic salt, a little lime juice, and a little cumin mixed in.  Very satisfying.  For some reason I like guacamole much better than chunks of avocado in a salad.

Still life at casa debby:

Spring is having a hard time emerging around here:

Yumm.  YUMM.  YUMM!!!  Lunch combo courtesy of Shelley–greek yogurt, granola (I found some organic granola at Walmart!!), walnuts, and dried cranberries.  Yumm!

Sophie has a hard time settling down when my lap is not available.  When I am sewing she generally tap tap taps back and forth between my sewing table and the living room, which is where she thinks I belong.  She has a very strong sense of where she thinks things belong.  Finally, when I refuse to follow her directives, she will get in this little doggie bed that I store under the table where I am sewing.  She cracks me up.  As you can see, she is still not completely relaxed.  Especially when there is a camera around…

I guess that’s enough for a Monday morning.  OH, EXCEPT I HAVE TO GIVE ANOTHER BOOK AWAY!  I keep forgetting!  (BTW, these books are all slightly used, from my own collection .)

The End of Overeating is one of the most useful books I have read.  The author explains in scientific terms just why the fat/salt/sugar combo is so hard to resist.  For myself, this is one scientific theory that I have found to be true.  Once I read his explanations, I could literally taste the salt in  the chocolate chip cookies, and knew that that was a big part of the reason that I loved them so much.  Another ‘proof?’  The addition of ‘salted caramel to everything from yogurt to coffee to boxed chocolates!

I have stayed very aware of this theory, and try to minimize my consumption of this combo in foods.

If you want the book, please say BOOK in your comments, and Noah will choose a winner on Wednesday!