I don't like eggs. I know…I'm weird, but it's true. To show how weird I am, I don't like eggs, but I do like breakfast tacos, french toast, a quiche my aunt once made me (I didn't want her to feel bad, so I ate it and loved it), and this cheese strata.
To be fair, when I eat breakfast tacos they have potatoes, bacon, cheese and salsa on them too so it isn't overly eggy (it's a word now…trust me), so when I saw this recipe for Cheese Strata on Pinterest from Cooking Tip Of The Day I figured that I'd be able to enjoy them.
I varied my recipe some, so you might argue that this isn't really a proper review, but it's basically the same. I opted for the 9x13-inch baking dish that the blogger mentioned could be used mostly because I don't have the deeper dish. I left out the dry mustard because my husband wouldn't touch it if I used it. I also screwed up when shopping and purchased a french baguette because I confused this recipe with another and decided to use the baguette anyway.
Now the original recipe had the crusts removed, but this wasn't going to happen. A baguette is long and skinny and very, very crusty. No way I was going to remove the crusts…I'd have nothing left! So I improvised. I sliced the bread (discarding both ends) and then cubed the slices. It would have to make due, and I have to say the end result was delicious.
My version is below, but whether you try mine or the original from Cooking Tip Of The Day, you'll be delighted with the result!
Sausage and Cheese Strata
1 french baguette, sliced and cubed
2 cups shredded cheese (I used a Colby-Jack mix)
1 lb bulk breakfast sausage
2 cups milk
6 eggs
4 scallions, chopped (mostly just the green tops)
Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
Slice and cube the baguette and place the cubes into a large bowl. Sauté the sausage in a large pan, breaking it up as it cooks. Place the sausage into the large bowl with the bread and 1 cup of the shredded cheese and mix together well. Spread the bread mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Whisk together the eggs and milk and pour over the top of the bread mixture. Let sit for 30 minutes. Every 10 minutes or so I would push down on the top pieces of bread to ensure they were getting enough egg in them to soften them.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of shredded cheese over the top of the strata and then follow up with the chopped scallions. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. When a knife come out mostly clean it's done.
I hope you enjoy the review (and the strata). I'd love to share this recipe with the rest of my family. I know they'd love it, but they've been very silly and sworn off carbs. Oh well. More for me!
Homemaking For Today's Mom
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Pinterest Review - A Gorgeous Shrug
Love my shrug! |
I used her tutorial for the Foundation Chain Double Crochet (FCDC) stitch mentioned in the post. I'd never done it before and anything that makes the foundation look better, twist less and cause me to swear less is two thumbs up in my book. She links to the tutorial on her site and it really is an easy stitch and turns out beautifully. Having said that my only complaint with the tutorial was not telling me what to do at the end of it. I learned to crochet about 30 years ago. My sweet neighbor, Hazel Blum, taught my sisters and me, but we did very basic stuff. Everything else I learned was self-taught and sometimes what is obvious to a crocheting pro is not to me. So just in case there are others like me out there, allow me to state the obvious…you need to slip stitch into the top and make your shrug into a loop. Goodness that sounds like a rubbish explanation doesn't it? Perhaps this is why I don't write my own patterns.
Either way, once you've slip-stitched and made your project into a loop (joined it to the beginning of your work…yes, that sounds better) you begin working on your rows from there. When you're all done with the shrug you go back and sew up the gap left at the beginning. So, it would probably be prudent to say that you should leave yourself a nice sized "tail" at the beginning of your work. This way you won't have to cut a piece of yarn just to sew that little bit at the beginning.
Remember the tail at the beginning so you can close your work |
Cre8tionCrochet also tells you how to make the shrug bigger. When I completed 100 of the FCDC I looked at it and said, "Dude…no way this is going to fit" so I did 120 FCDC and worked from there. Yeah…don't do that unless you know you need to. Your work will stretch when you wear it. So now I have a shrug that looks great and then falls down too far after it's on me for 5 minutes. I made a pink one for a friend and now that it's completed and the size looks good I'm going to make another one for myself without any adjustments!
If you've got a few hours to spare and know the basics of crocheting you can knock this shrug out quickly. This shrug is absolutely gorgeous and easy. Cre8tionCrochet did a wonderful job with this pattern and was so generous to share it! Her pictures are so much better than mine too!
Even though the shrug I made for myself is a tad bit big I've gotten numerous compliments on it. In fact the very first time I wore it to the bus stop one of the ladies there grabbed me and asked me where I bought it! I was thrilled to be able to say that I made it myself.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Making a Harry Potter Sorting Hat
My Sorting Hat |
I started saving newspaper. I figured I'd just add on to the existing hat with homemade paper mâché. I'd never done that before, but I found some recipes to do it and figured "how hard could it be?" Famous last words, right? Well, my insanity never got that far because as I was preparing to make this crazy hat I came across this post on Practically Functional as I was searching for photos of the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter to use as a guide. It would seem that I wasn't the only one to spy this hat in Michael's and thought of Harry Potter (you can see a picture of the original hat on her website here)!
So instead of creating my own paper mâché mess, I decided to follow her instructions. I ran out to the store and got some modeling paste (THAT was more expensive than I thought! Almost $15.00…yikes!). I then hot glued my "W" of newspaper onto the hat as she did for eyebrows and followed suit with a mouth. I slathered on the modeling paste remembering that she said that you could smooth it out later with a second coat. Well, if you glob it on like I did, you'll regret that advice. Try to get it as smooth as possible with the first coat of modeling paste. Let it dry (anywhere that required a lot of paste to fill in holes will crack…that's OK). Sand down any rough spots. This is my advice because mine really needed it. Hell, even after the second thin layer of paste and another sanding I still wished it was smoother. Until my husband lets me play with his high-speed sanding tools, I'll have to live with my version of sanded-enough.
Don't worry about cracks. You'll get those with the next coat |
Second coat of modeling paste |
Now for highlights. I decided to add these because, while I think the author of Practically Functional did a kick-butt job on her Sorting Hat, I also think that the finished product looked like wet clay. Perhaps it was the sealant. I haven't sealed mine yet (and may or may not), but if I do it will be with a matte finish and not a glossy one! So for highlights I took the brown paint that I had originally used and squirted some onto waxed paper. I added a couple drops of black. mixed and got a darker brown. Don't worry about how exactly I got my brown. Yours doesn't need to be the same. Just get a darker brown and relax. This sort of thing doesn't need to be perfect!
Use a sponge brush and dip into the darker brown. Blot off the majority of the paint and then dab the brush in the eye sockets of the Sorting Hat as well as the mouth area. Don't worry about putting too much in those areas. You'll be able to go back later and touch up. Using the same dark brown paint, sponge brush and blotting method, dab the darker paint onto the hat in random areas (especially indentations/low spots which would naturally be shaded a bit darker).
Front of hat before blending |
When you dab over the dark brown, start from the outside of the dark spots and work your way in to the center. You don't need to completely dab-over everything. The fact that you're using the same sponge brush with the remnants of that darker paint underneath will actually help with the blending. When your dabbing is done, put your brush down and walk away for a few minutes. Come back about 10 minutes later and check your blending. Still too dark? Dab some more of the original brown on in the same manner. Trust me…you'll get the hang of this fairly quickly. I wish I'd taken video, but I was multitasking as I did the highlighting and didn't think of it. If I'm rambling and you need further clarification, just let me know!
Back of hat before blending |
NOTE: Don't stress about having your eyebrows and mouth exactly like mine or like Practically Functional's. The Sorting Hat talks. It moves/leans in the movies and as long as your eyebrows and mouth are approximate, you'll be happy with the results! Oh and post-Halloween is a great time to get a deal on the paper mâché witch's hat!
Finished/blended back of the hat |
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Pinterest Review - Homemade Cough Drops
I rolled them in powdered sugar so they hopefully won't stick together |
I don't know if these cough drops are going to be effective at halting her cough, but they sure are yummy and they've got to be at least as good as sucking on hard candy. I mean, they are hard candy, but they're tea, honey and lemon hard candy!
I originally found the pin on Artzcool's Blog and I'm not going to steal her recipe and share. Click on the link to get to her recipe. Visit her site! I will, however, add some comments/experience that I gained by making this recipe.
I didn't use the medicinal/cold-type teas like she brewed. Not that it would be a bad thing to do**, but I just never liked the taste of them so instead I used my favorite tea...orange pekoe! I also used some local-ish Colorado honey. I didn't use the 1/2 lemon. I never seem to have them just lying about so I grabbed the bottle of lemon juice from the fridge and used 1 tablespoon. They aren't really lemony so I may add more next time.
Cough drops hardening in powdered sugar. The light brown tops on some are bubbles. |
Her blog says that when you spoon the candy into the little indentations that it will just fill the nearest hole. True, but you have to be relatively close for it to just slide on in there. As you can see from my picture I've got little drippings in between cough drops. Naughty little things!
The mixture does harden quickly, but not so much that you need to freak out and rush and proceed to spill liquid sugar on you. That would be bad people!
My choice of tea and honey |
Overall, I'd have to say that I'm incredibly pleased with the results. Whether they stop the cough or not, they're certainly tasty!
UPDATE - You should probably keep in mind that if you don't like the taste of honey...you won't like cough drops with honey in them. I loved these, but both of my children who don't ever put honey in tea, didn't like them. Oh well...more for me and my sister!
**Always remember to check ingredients on herbal teas...well, on herbal anything. Just because it's an herb or "all natural" doesn't mean it belongs in your body. Check with your doctor regarding the herbs used in herbal teas (and anything else if you're on meds or pregnant). I have seen other recipes with slippery elm in them and this can cause miscarriage! Think before you drink (eat...whatever)!
Halupkie - A Family Favorite
Halupkie....Mmmmmmm |
(This post is originally from my genealogy blog HaveYouSeenMyRoots?)
My mom would make Halupkie when I was little. Halupkie is another one of those family dishes that my mom made that had nothing (that I'm aware of) that had anything to do with my family history. Or perhaps I should say it had nothing to do with her family history. My mom's 100% Irish. Halupkie (as we spelled it) or Halupki (as I found on the inter-tubes) is apparently a dish of eastern European origins and is quite popular in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Get a cabbage leaf ready for stuffing |
She loved collecting recipes from her friend Linda Moyer's mom and would make them for us. Perhaps this was one of the Moyer recipes if it wasn't from my dad's side of the family. We grew up with family recipes that had nothing to do with our Irish heritage. I tried corned beef once...perhaps that's why she branched out...YUCK!
Either way, this is a lovely family recipe that reminds me of happy times with my mom when I have it. She would make a much larger batch than this and would cook it in one of those large blue or black roasting pans...you know the ones with the little white flecks on them. I wish I still had mine. I'd post a picture. Either way, any large roasting pan with a lid will suffice. I altered the recipe to fit my crockpot. It worked too. Same taste and I love crockpot recipes (especially the ones that don't burn and this didn't).
Add a good scoop of meat (how much depends on the leaf) |
Halupkie
1 large onion, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
2 lbs ground beef
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
1-1/2 c cooked rice
1 large head of cabbage
1 (50 oz) can tomato soup
Olive oil
Fold the sides over the meat mixture and roll up |
Boil cabbage until bendy. Carefully remove cabbage from pot and remove the outer leaves of the cabbages to line the bottom of a large roasting pan (reserve some of the leaves from the center of the head of cabbage that are too small to use to cover the top of the halupkie in the roasting pan). Continue removing leaves from the cabbage. When this becomes difficult you can return the cabbage to the hot water and boil until it softens. I brought my cabbage to a boil, let it boil for about 5 minutes and then turned it off and just let it sit for about 30 minutes in the pot. It worked wonderfully!
Fill the cabbage leaves (not the ones reserved for the bottom and top of the pan) with about ½ cup of the meat mixture on the leaf and roll. To roll the cabbage, place the meat in the center of the leaf then fold the left and right sides in, then bring the bottom of the leaf up over the meat and roll up. Place seam-side down over the layer of cabbage that is lining the roasting pan. Continue to make the halupkie in this manner until done. Place the second half of the reserved leaves over the top of the halupkie and tuck the sides into the pan.
A nice cabbage roll |
Pour the tomato soup into a large bowl. Fill the empty can with water and mix with the soup. Pour the mixture over the halupkie being careful not to overflow the roasting pan. Cover with the lid and bake at 350 degrees (F) for about 2 hours.
NOTE: You need to get really good sized cabbage for this recipe otherwise the leaves will not be large enough to roll the meat in.
Crockpot variation - Make the halupkie as directed above, but when adding the tomato soup/water mixture stop pouring when you get about an inch from the top of the crockpot. Make sure the crockpot is not near anything of value or that would stain if it starts to splatter. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. As an adult I enjoy cabbage. As a kid...not so much, but I'd always eat this cabbage!
Remember to put cabbage leaves on the bottom! |
More cabbage leaves on top |
Pour the tomato soup mixture leaving space at the top |
Monday, July 29, 2013
The Makings of a Successful Diet, Part 2 - The Lose It App
So as promised I'm going to go over why I love the Lose It app and some of it's features. This is by no means going to cover every aspect of Lose It. I encourage you to have fun and explore the app for yourself! I guess I should mention that I am in no way associated with the creators of Lose It...I just love it!
So the first thing that you'd want to do when diving into this app is set up your profile. It's been a little while so I can't remember if it guided me through this or if I pegged it out on my own. Either way it isn't very difficult to figure out. There is a section under the "More" tab on the bottom where you can click on "Lose It! Account" and then "Edit Profile Details".
Click "Lose It! Account" |
Click "Edit Profile Details" |
But what you want is to enter a goal...and it's got a tab for that. There are 2 things that you can do under the "goals" tab 1) Modify program, or 2) Record Today's Weight. You're going to need to get a program going so that's where you want to be!
Enter all your starting information |
Click "Modify Program" |
After you put all your starting information in you need to click on the "My Plan" section of the Program page (shown above, right). Here is where you tell the app how many pounds you would like to lose each week. Notice that it won't let you select any more than 2 pounds. To me this is a sign of a good program. It's not going to help you starve yourself and lose weight too quickly which is NOT healthy. Of course, you may lose more than the 2 pounds, but at least it won't help you abuse your body and health.
Once you select how many pounds per week you would like to lose you'll notice that at the bottom of the "My Plan" page where you just clicked around, it will tell you by what date you should achieve your goal. Pretty neat. It also will tell you your daily calorie budget.
Weekly weight loss goal |
Off the program page (right below where you selected "My Plan") is a section called "Daily Calorie Budget". I haven't used this, but apparently this is a place where you can adjust your calories. In other words, you want your budget to be for fewer calories than the program assigned to you to achieve your goal. There is certainly a section here that explains why you may need to do this, but I'll let you explore that for yourself.
Should you need to adjust |
Now that you're all set up, you should check out your homepage. On Lose It this is the "My Day" tab.
This page is great. You can add food that you've eaten and exercises that you've done from this tab. Sooooo easy. It also tells you how many calories you have left for the day. You can see that I'm fairly close to my limit with 197 left. It also says that I'm 897 calories under for the week. The week goes from Monday through Sunday and then resets. I really don't pay much attention to the pie chart beneath that that tells me about my fat and carbs. I suppose it could come in useful, but it's just not something I've ever paid much attention to.
So far I've described a fairly basic app for dieting. All that stuff is great, but you need to put your food in there and sometimes that can be downright painful. This is the REAL reason I love Lose It...
Select your meal |
How to add food |
How much Guinness was that? |
So I love the ability to scan barcodes. I really, really do. Any once you do the food is stored under that tab "My Foods" so you can look for it there or be lazy like me and just scan the darned thing again and again and again (do I drink too much Guinness?). But you can do so much more here. You can "Search Foods" to find something that either doesn't have a barcode, or perhaps you got an error with the barcode and that Guinness turn up as a slice of pizza (sadly errors do happen, but I haven't seen too many of them).
If you eat the same thing for breakfast everyday...click on "Previous Meals" and it'll let you scroll through what you've logged before and enter it again for today. One drawback here is that it enters the WHOLE thing, so if you select a previous breakfast it will log everything that you ate for breakfast that previous day. You can always go back and edit your meals so it isn't the end of the world if you didn't have your morning coffee with your bagel...just remove it.
You can also add a recipe. I LOVE this feature too. When I'm cooking (or before I start) I go through and create a recipe (I'll talk about that in a bit) and then the nutritional information for my recipe is there so I can add it whenever I make it. Just like with any other food, you can adjust how many servings you ate. You also know how many calories are in those chicken strips you make each week!
Going out to eat? No worries. Many restaurant foods can be found here too! Just click on "Brand Name Foods" and select "Restaurant Foods" (yes you can enter something from a supermarket here too, but you can also scan the code...check here if it doesn't scan). You'll see that there are so many restaurants to chose from and then so much to select under each restaurant.
Eating out? Check here! |
Is everything in there? Heck no, but if it isn't you can search for it's nutritional information online and then enter it in your app. What did you just say? ENTER IT INTO THE APP!?!?!
YES! You can create your own food item! See the bottom of the page where you decided how to enter what you ate (scan barcode, recipes, etc)? Well at the very bottom it says "Create New Food". Too cool and too easy!
So how easy is it to create recipe? Fairly easy. It would be nice if you clicked on "Recipe" above and be able to select to add a new one, but sadly it will only let you add a recipe you already created. Not to fear, just head over to the "More" tab where you started out entering your profile info.
Click on "Recipes" |
Click "Edit Food & Exercises" |
So you click on "Edit Food & Exercises" and then click "Recipes". Here you'll find all the recipes you've entered and a little plus sign "+" at the top right of the page. Click on that and you'll be able to create a new recipe!
Select a recipe or make a new one! |
Now how many servings do you put for a recipe? If it's a recipe from a cookbook that tells you how many servings it makes, you can go by what they say. Honestly though, if you make a Chicken Pot Pie and you know that it serves your family of 4 and you still have 2 servings left, then it serves 6 so you know how many servings to put down. Aren't sure how many a new recipe you're trying will serve? No biggie. Guess. Yep...guess and then you can edit your recipe after dinner when you know for sure. I've done that numerous times. It's one of the things that makes this app so easy. You can edit the recipe instead of having to delete it and redo the whole thing.
I've created recipes for things as little as a cup of tea. Why? Because each time I make a cup of tea, I don't want to enter the amount of sugar, milk and tea I use. It's the same each time so this is much easier to do.
What a recipe looks like |
I'll briefly mention the "Log" tab. You can go here to see what all you've eaten as well as edit/remove something that's on there. You can use this page to add more food with the plus sign "+" at the top right instead of through the "My Day" page.
Mmmm...ice cream.... |
Exercise can be so many different things and this app covers so many of them! You can even enter how long you played Hula Hoops on the Wii Fit...yep...you read that right. It even has SEX in there as an exercise and what its "Intensity" was. LOL. Count it all! Don't see an exercise in there that you do? You can create a new exercise! So easy and comprehensive.
Add an exercise |
Wii Fit anyone? |
I mentioned yesterday that a friend posted that she was using this app and wanted to know if anyone else was using it and/or would join her using it. So what was all that about? Well there's a tab at the bottom called "Motivate" and you can have friends join you on the app to encourage you. They can see your progress (and if you've been busting your calorie limits for the day!) and they can see how much exercise you do (or don't do!). Peer pressure can sometimes be a good thing. Keeps you honest!
Spy on friends! :) |
Get motivated! |
Don't have friends?....OK, I'm kidding...but even if your friends don't want to join Lose It you can still find other ways to get motivated with this app. You can join a group/team that's doing a particular activity. You can join a challenge (kind of like a team, but usually for a specific period of time).
Challenges |
Groups & Teams |
You can also earn badges for weight loss as well as for just continuing to log your progress. That's important too. Everyone loses weight at different rates and you shouldn't get discouraged!
You need some stinkin' badges! |
Motivate Profile |
Some final thoughts. Lose It is so important to how I lose weight because I simply did not know how many calories I was eating each day. If I were honest I'd guess I was eating close to 3000 calories and doing very little by way of exercising. No wondering my weight was going nowhere but up.
Was it difficult to reduce what I was eating? Yes. That first week was hard, and I'm sure my family didn't like me much, but I made sure that I entered EVERYTHING. If you cheat and don't then don't wonder why you aren't losing weight. After that first week, I got used to eating less and it became easier. Having to enter something I ate in the program also caused me to turn and walk away from the pantry on more than one occasion.
This app helps with moderation. Yes, I can still have a cookie or piece of cake, but now I know how that's impacting my calories for the day. I may walk a little longer to make sure I make up for it, but now I KNOW how much I'm eating and when you're dieting...Knowledge is Power!
Sunday, July 28, 2013
The Makings of a Successful Diet, Part 1 - Why I Decided to do It
The apps that I'm going to post on are called LoseIt and Striiv. I chose them because they got pretty great reviews and were FREE! Gotta love free! But why use an app? Why not just diet? Good question, thank you for asking. That's the reason for this post. You gotta understand why I use apps before diving into the apps themselves.
I was in the military for nearly 10 years. My last assignment was as a Drill Sergeant (DS). One of the many things that you're responsible for as a DS is Soldiers that are on the Army Weight Control Program (AWCP...unless the acronym has changed since I got out many moons ago). I never had a problem with my weight when I was in the military. I ate what I wanted and I did the Physical Training (PT) that my unit did and I was fine. For many Soldiers with different body types and metabolisms this is not enough. A Soldier on AWCP would usually be given additional PT. This can certainly help, but it's not a solution. We would always tell our Soldiers to keep a food log. To write down everything that they ate each day and how much. Sounds great on paper and a food log can be very helpful...if you know what a serving size is and how many calories are in each serving. The bottom line is it was really up to them to lose the weight or they would be separated from the service.
So I got out of the Army pregnant with my 2nd child and there was no one to whip this former DS back into shape after leaving. To add to the lack of organized PT in my civilian life there was the fact that 1) I had to teach myself to cook so I could feed my growing family, 2) I realized that I'm a pretty damn good cook, 3) I loved eating what I cooked, and 4) I was depressed. No this wasn't post-pardum depression. This was post-Army depression. I had a stellar career. I was a DS...people knew who I was and now when I would go to functions it was all, "So who's your husband?"...like I wasn't a person of my own with my own achievements and dreams. It. Was. Depressing.
I discovered that when I'm depressed or stressed I eat. Not good. When I joined the service at 23 I weighed about 120 pounds. When I left the service I weighed 140 pounds. Sure some of it was muscle, but many times when you're a DS you spend more time correcting the form of trainees doing PT than participating yourself and there's little "free time" to go off on your own and exercise. Too busy a day and too long a week. Being a DS rarely ends when you go home for the night.
So after being out of the military for over 7 years something happened. At the beginning of April I was at 163-ish pounds and the doctor told me my cholesterol was going up. This is par for the course in my family. I was only borderline, but my good cholesterol wasn't high enough. Exercise would help. OK...I'll put that on my long "to-do" list...whatever.
Then around the same time I noticed how big my arms were looking. A common complaint from my sisters, but I never really noticed before. I also began to notice that my clothes were getting way too tight for me and I had already sized-up a year or two before. If I didn't do something soon I'd have to buy new clothes for the expanding new me. While I have no sadness over a good clothes shopping spree, this wasn't the direction I wanted to be heading. Additionally, when I would go clothes shopping all the cute stuff wasn't looking as cute on me anymore. I was wearing clothes to hide my body.
Everyone would tell me that I didn't look like I weighed 160+ pounds, but what I really was doing was hiding it. What mattered was that I started noticing. The pictures I was in with my boys did not make me feel any better about myself. I had gone from a fairly fit person to a 40 year old not happy about the way she looked.
You can say all you want about how television/media makes us feel like we have to be skinny. Sure. They show us some unrealistically skinny people and I don't want that. What I want is to be happy with how I look and that meant dieting. I'd tried dieting before and it didn't work. Why would this be any different? I wasn't convinced it would be, but I knew that I had to do something and I had to do something that worked. That's when using the apps started.
A friend of mine posted that she was using LoseIt and wanted to know if any of her friends had the app. I went to look at it and review it. Great reviews and a great price. Let's download this bad boy!...then I checked and saw that apparently I had downloaded it previously and NEVER USED IT! Yeah, that's typical me....so I finally started using it.
I like techno-gadgets. I'm no computer guru (I've got a tech-saavy hubby for that) but I do like boundaries. I'm a military girl at heart and I like organization. I also want something easy to use. This was.
My pedometer was crap...crap...crappity crap. It broke. I replaced it. It broke. I said "screw it!" I went looking for a pedometer app for my iPhone and found Striiv. Odd name, but like LoseIt the reviews were great and the price was right. Heck I take my iPhone everywhere anyway so why not use it as a pedometer and get credit for ALL the moving I do during the day. The ones I purchased at the store were horribly inaccurate too (yes, I've worn two at once to compare).
I gave myself a goal of hitting 135 pounds by the end of October. By the middle of June I had gone down to about 148 pounds. I'd never been able to stick to a diet and as silly as it sounded these apps were really making a difference for me. I did gain about 2 and a half pounds when I went on vacation and found counting calories rather inconvenient, but I should be able to make my goal or get quite close by my deadline. I may even change it to 130 pounds. I'm excited and, yes, I started noticing a change in my clothes. It's not time for a new wardrobe yet, but the muffin-top is gone and the clothes fit properly. I'm not hiding as much, but I'm not where I want to be....yet.
Will using these apps work for you? I don't know. What I do know is that you have to find something that suits you or it won't work. If just cutting back on your portions works. Great. If keeping a log works. Great. This works for me. Great.
I have friends and family that do fad diets. Fad diets are bad diets in my opinion. You will NEVER see me doing an all liquid diet to "cleanse" my body. They don't work. You think they are working, and you do initially lose weight, but it's not long term unless you make a change. Fad diet.
Others cut wheat or carbs completely out of their diet. Not gonna happen here...EVER. I love me some pasta and bread and BEER. Nope. Not gonna happen. Do you know what happens when you try stuff like this? You'll lose weight. You'll most likely also plateau and then wonder why you aren't losing anymore. You can't just cut one thing out of your diet and expect miracles. All you are doing is depriving your body of nutrients it needs. I've been told "Oh after awhile I don't crave the candy, bread, pasta, etc anymore." Great for you. Do you know what most people will do during a crazy fad diet? Binge. That's not good for you or your diet.
If you want to avoid GMOs (genetically modified food) then the easiest way is to eat organic. No, I don't because it's EXPENSIVE and we're a single income family. I have my dream of retiring to a farm in Wisconsin and growing my own GMO-free food for eating and preserving, but right now it's not feasible. I'd love to see our government deal with the GMO issue (which is still very new to me) but they can't deal with anything right now so the outlook is grim there.
I'm no certified nutritionalist. Apart from my military and personal experience I can only tell you that when you do crazy things to your body, your body will do crazy things. Don't starve yourself of what your body needs. Give it what it needs in moderation and exercise. The exercise can be ANYTHING! Get up and MOVE! If you think you're too heavy then stop shoving food into your mouth. That was a hard lesson for me to learn because I didn't realize I was even doing it.
I know that many of my friends that have tried fad diets would just say "zip it, Cherie, " and that's fine, because the bottom line is if they truly believe that the diet worked for them (placebo effect or for real) then I'm happy for them. Worried about the lasting effects, but happy that they are happy. Just as my idea of what I want to weigh and look like may not be right for other people. I wouldn't want it to be. Just remember to be HAPPY with who you are.
Tomorrow I will post on LoseIt which was the first app I started using. I don't know everything about the app, but I know what I love about it and I'll try to explain/share some of my favorite features and why I think it's so convenient. I'll post on Striiv after. They just updated the app so I'm relearning a few features, but it shouldn't take long.
I leave you with a little Foamy the Squirrel from Ill Will Press. It's rather harsh and lots of swear words, but it does express very well my distaste for crazy diets (Weight Watchers is NOT a fad diet and it has proven effective for so many people although I have no experience with it).
I like techno-gadgets. I'm no computer guru (I've got a tech-saavy hubby for that) but I do like boundaries. I'm a military girl at heart and I like organization. I also want something easy to use. This was.
My pedometer was crap...crap...crappity crap. It broke. I replaced it. It broke. I said "screw it!" I went looking for a pedometer app for my iPhone and found Striiv. Odd name, but like LoseIt the reviews were great and the price was right. Heck I take my iPhone everywhere anyway so why not use it as a pedometer and get credit for ALL the moving I do during the day. The ones I purchased at the store were horribly inaccurate too (yes, I've worn two at once to compare).
I gave myself a goal of hitting 135 pounds by the end of October. By the middle of June I had gone down to about 148 pounds. I'd never been able to stick to a diet and as silly as it sounded these apps were really making a difference for me. I did gain about 2 and a half pounds when I went on vacation and found counting calories rather inconvenient, but I should be able to make my goal or get quite close by my deadline. I may even change it to 130 pounds. I'm excited and, yes, I started noticing a change in my clothes. It's not time for a new wardrobe yet, but the muffin-top is gone and the clothes fit properly. I'm not hiding as much, but I'm not where I want to be....yet.
Will using these apps work for you? I don't know. What I do know is that you have to find something that suits you or it won't work. If just cutting back on your portions works. Great. If keeping a log works. Great. This works for me. Great.
I have friends and family that do fad diets. Fad diets are bad diets in my opinion. You will NEVER see me doing an all liquid diet to "cleanse" my body. They don't work. You think they are working, and you do initially lose weight, but it's not long term unless you make a change. Fad diet.
Others cut wheat or carbs completely out of their diet. Not gonna happen here...EVER. I love me some pasta and bread and BEER. Nope. Not gonna happen. Do you know what happens when you try stuff like this? You'll lose weight. You'll most likely also plateau and then wonder why you aren't losing anymore. You can't just cut one thing out of your diet and expect miracles. All you are doing is depriving your body of nutrients it needs. I've been told "Oh after awhile I don't crave the candy, bread, pasta, etc anymore." Great for you. Do you know what most people will do during a crazy fad diet? Binge. That's not good for you or your diet.
If you want to avoid GMOs (genetically modified food) then the easiest way is to eat organic. No, I don't because it's EXPENSIVE and we're a single income family. I have my dream of retiring to a farm in Wisconsin and growing my own GMO-free food for eating and preserving, but right now it's not feasible. I'd love to see our government deal with the GMO issue (which is still very new to me) but they can't deal with anything right now so the outlook is grim there.
I'm no certified nutritionalist. Apart from my military and personal experience I can only tell you that when you do crazy things to your body, your body will do crazy things. Don't starve yourself of what your body needs. Give it what it needs in moderation and exercise. The exercise can be ANYTHING! Get up and MOVE! If you think you're too heavy then stop shoving food into your mouth. That was a hard lesson for me to learn because I didn't realize I was even doing it.
I know that many of my friends that have tried fad diets would just say "zip it, Cherie, " and that's fine, because the bottom line is if they truly believe that the diet worked for them (placebo effect or for real) then I'm happy for them. Worried about the lasting effects, but happy that they are happy. Just as my idea of what I want to weigh and look like may not be right for other people. I wouldn't want it to be. Just remember to be HAPPY with who you are.
Tomorrow I will post on LoseIt which was the first app I started using. I don't know everything about the app, but I know what I love about it and I'll try to explain/share some of my favorite features and why I think it's so convenient. I'll post on Striiv after. They just updated the app so I'm relearning a few features, but it shouldn't take long.
I leave you with a little Foamy the Squirrel from Ill Will Press. It's rather harsh and lots of swear words, but it does express very well my distaste for crazy diets (Weight Watchers is NOT a fad diet and it has proven effective for so many people although I have no experience with it).
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