PLATEAU

Daddy and I have plateaued! Four days at Mike's feeding teenagers and too much of daddy's nummy bread- which he's making again today. Dad's stuck in the 270 range and me at 130- still down considerably and feeling good. We're off for a bike ride! Our club house got vandalized and is closed for four days. Thought this was a gated community. Weird!

Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops

These pork chops are yummy. And after many attempts, I can finally make a nice juuuicy pork chop. I always dried them out.

I usually get my pork chops at Costco...and they are GIGANTIC. We had bought a digital kitchen scale for Andrews pinewood derby car last month and I finally got smart and weighed those Costco pork chops. They are a little over double what a serving of meat should be. And because they were so gigantic I could never get them to cook properly. So I got smart, again, and cut the thickness in half. They cook beautifully and are the proper serving size. Duh, I can't believe it took me so long to figure this one out. Anywho, onto the recipe...
Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops

In blender add:
1 clove garlic minced (or in my world 2, 3 or 4 cloves)
1 tsp fresh rosemary
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup Balsamic vinegar
Blend ingredients.

With blender on low slowly drizzle in...
1/2 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper both sides of pork chops.

In a baking dish add chops in a single layer and pour the marinade on top. Flip the chops over a few times and coat them up good. You can now either cover and marinade them over night or cook immediately if you don't feel like waiting. Also, depending on how many chops you are making, you could reserve half of the marinade (before you dump it over the raw meat, obviously) and use it as a salad dressing.

To Cook:
Preheat broiler on the low setting
Take the chops out of the marinade and broil for 10-11 minutes. Then let the meat rest for 5 minutes and eat it up with your favorite veggie. YUM!

Pix

Okay, so I really haven't been losing any weigth lately but I sure as heck feel a ton better than I did 4 months ago. Timmy and I have been doing BodyPump, Spinning, and today our gym launched BodyFlow...absolutely fabulous! It's a combo of tai chi, yoga, and pilates. I feel really stretched out and relaxed after that class today. I decided to put up some pictures to stay motivated. I'm getting some muscle but I still have tons of fat so I just look bulky. Timmy says my butt has changed though...here's to hoping. It's just a big giant bubble if you ask me. And for the first time ever in my life, I have the tiniest little start of a hamstring muscle. Even when I was dancing I could never get shape in the back of my thigh, always just totally flat. Hopefully by summer I will have nice little froggy legs.





Tree pose and a wink.

Over 'n out.

PLUGGIN' AWAY

Daddy and I are plugging away- slow but sure. These family meals don't help. We had the Sieler crew over to swim and ended up making a big pot of spaghetti and of course Liva's salad. I ate more than I should have but was still down over 6 ounces from yesterday. I gotta stop weighing every day. Anyway, next week, I'm shooting to be under 130 and daddy's shooting to be under 270. Young Chris is looking really good. He said yesterday that he weighs about 264. For a boy that was over 300 that's exciting! And that's just getting his thyroid under control. It's getting warmer earlier so I gotta go for my run before it's too hot!

Liva's Nummy Salad

I tried a variation of Liva's salad. I didn't have sweetened nuts so used plain pecans and some garlic flavored goat cheese from our farmer's market.

REMOTIVATED

Back down to within a few ounces of 131. Dad bought a digital scales yesterday and it's pretty much right on with the one we've been using at our club house. Well, for me it's right on. It weighs your dad a little higher so he's just gonna start going by ours. Anyway, I feel really good this morning. I have a TIP. It's from a comment Alice made when we were talking about eating. She's 100 pounds dripping wet and has been for several years. Anyway, she said she hates to feel full- meaning that kinda stuffed feeling we all get when we eat too much and most of us eat too much. I was at a point where I ALWAYS had that stuffed feeling. It's like I had to maintain that full feeling. Well, I've been upping my portions a little every day and I'm noticing I'm not just feeling satisfied, I'm feeling full. I don't like the feeling and it's usually gone in the morning, but I think I'm gonna eat slower and pay attention to how full I am and QUIT eating when I'm satisfied and not wait until I'm full. If anyone noticed, at our bar-b-q Alice took very small portions. I filled my plate. True, it was with salads, but I was stuffed when I finally finished eating. Sunday I didn't eat anything until after church, which didn't get out until 4:00, and I was legitimately hungry when I got home. Too hungry because then I ate too much. So today I'm gonna eat a small breakfast and try and stay satisfied without having that overly full feeling. The secret is to feel SATISFIED, never hungry, but also never too FULL. Learn to FEEL the difference. Good luck. I'm hoping for the underside of 130 by next week. I've been thinking back on my life and I seem to lose and gain weight on a 7-8 year cycle. I'm hoping to break the cycle and make it a life long commitment. Somewhere I made a comment about having my weight off three years ago, but I was wrong. It's been SEVEN years. So it's time.

STUCK

I'm bouncing between 131 and 132 and it's irritating me. I so want to drop under the 130 mark. I'm running every day and it's easier than ever, and I'm lifting. I guess I can say I'm building muscle is why I'm not losing, but that's a cop out. Anyway, stay motivated everyone! Again- I love the new salad Liv. Maybe I'm eating too much salad. Or too much of daddy's breads.

Absolutely Nummy Salad

Warning, there is sugar in this salad. Gasp!!! But seriously, it's the best salad I've had in a long time, maybe ever. And strawberries are very filling so you could make a meal out of it.


Florence Bingham made a salad like this at our RS Birthday dinner the other night. This isn't her exact recipe but I found something close to it on the internet. Anyway...

Salad:
Mixed greens
Sliced strawberries
Mandarin Oranges
Candied Almonds - sliced, slivered, chopped, whatever

Dressing:
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shredded red onion
1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
1/4 tsp salt
Blend ingredients in blender
With blender on low slowly drizzle in 1/2 cup canola oil
Stir in 1 tsp poppy seeds

Florence said she had run out of apple cider vinegar so she used a pomegranate vinegar and her dressing was seriously amazing. Also she didn't have an onion so she just used a touch of onion powder (which is what I did, too). I love onion but with this dressing I actually prefer not so much onion flavor. Anyway, play with it. It's YUMMY!

I didn't have almonds either and was too tired to go to the store but if you can help it, don't leave out the almonds. You could use plain almonds or put a little sugar in a pan on med heat and when the sugar starts to turn brown toss in your almonds and coat them up good. Enjoy!

Katie

I am feeling GREAT! I'm down to 125 and today I jumped on the trampoline and even when I had the TV on it was on the Music Choice and I was up dancing to it! I also went outside and shot at my hoop for a while. At mutual we raced across the gym and our team won the first time. After mutual me and my dad played a 2 on 2 half court game with a couple boys (senior and sophmore). We didn't win but we played pretty well. I am just going to keep playing out front and especially work on my three point shot, I made a couple good ones.

HELP

Man, I fell asleep on my recumbant bike the other night. I just kept nodding off and couldn't keep going. I can't get out of bed in the morning, am too busy during the day, and by the time I put kids and Sam to bed I'm sooo exhausted. It makes for a very pathetic attempt at excercise! Any brilliant ideas out there? I am going to check my thryoid. Last time I felt this way, my Doc actually lowered my dose. He said my numbers were fine!! Maybe it's now too low. Anyhow, good job to all you losers out there. I'll get back on board and hopefully get feeling a bit more energized:)