Chickafinty ~ A Life in the Laundry

Onwards, ever onwards

So the black lifted.  It lifted suddenly, some time around the composing of the previous post.  I don't know why it did; it just did.

Yesterday I couldn't control anything.  Today I am back in control.  Go figure.

Yesterday Mister Bear and I shuffled off to the pharmacy for the Tony Ferguson Mark 4.

Why are we doing this again?  A multitude of reasons first and foremost being that my new med has pushed me over the edge.  In seven months I have gained a stone, lost all the headway I had made and now am one BMI point away from qualifying for lapband surgery.  I am also no longer a size 20, and I need help putting my own shoes on.  I am one size away from not fitting into anything at Millers.  I am officially, unequivocally and profoundly, fat.  No two ways about it.  I am the fat chick.  My body is getting in the way of everything I want to do because there is just so freaking much of it.

I have to lose not 10 kilos, not 20 kilos, but an impossible totally-freaking-me-out 40 kilos.  Yes, I know I am putting the kybosh on it by saying it is impossible already, but seriously?!  40 kilograms?!  Yeah, darn tootin' it's impossible.  I also have to lose one-third of the circumference of my tummy.  Not "a few centimetres" One. Third.  That is an impossibly large number.

So why, exactly, are we doing this again?  Because we know it works.  Because we know we can do it.  Because it is not forever, it's just for now.  Because I don't have to lose the 40 kilograms all at once.  By this time next week it could be down to 38 kilograms. And then in a few weeks it will be only 30 and so on. Because if I don't do anything I'll be in triple figures by Christmas and that is a place I really don't want to go.  At my height I can't afford to.

This time, we have a plan.  We have both determined an interim goal weight.  We plan to stay on the Tony Ferguson until we reach that goal.  From there we will switch to Weight Watchers, slowly returning to a normal diet while (hopefully) watching the weight fall off.  I will return to thrice weekly gym visits, and then add in walking once my weight has dropped enough for walking to be a possibility.  My feet are overstrained at having to carry so much weight all the time and if I walk any more than a few hundred metres they cramp up painfully.  Pathetic to admit, but there you go; they do.  I can manage to the end of the street and back, but any further than that and I am in mass pain. With any luck the gym visits will also address the heart rate issue and I will stop freaking the girls out completely every time I go.

They have a promotion going at the Pharmacy.  For every $50 you spend you get a charm for the bracelet they give you when you sign up.  I'm wearing the bracelet on my left wrist.  It's only got one charm on it - the one I got yesterday.  But every time I look at the little teddy bear (of course I got a teddy bear!) it's reminder of why I am on this journey and what I stand to gain when I succeed.

 

Kitchen theme: busy

I can't remember if I blogged about this before or not, but some time ago I decided to try cooking most everything from scratch and with fresh ingredients where possible.

In a word it's time-consuming.

It's also enormously satisfying. 

Today I made a batch of toasted muesli and a banana cake.  I also have a batch of bread setting on the back of the stove that needs to be baked before bed time.  I wanted to make mini banana muffins and some Anzac biscuits as well, but got defeated by my old enemy, Time.

This coming week's menu:

MAIN MEALS

• Fried rice
• Beef and onion casserole (slow cooker as I have a meeting on Friday night)
• Homestyle chicken pie
• Tuna Frittata
• Potato Bake
• Sausages and Noodles

- fake shepherd's pie

- what-you've-got-in-the-fridge soup

- vegetable quiche

OTHER

* muesli

* bread

* lemon meringue pie

* yo-yo biscuits

* vanilla slab cake

* chocolate muffins

* pasta sauce for the freezer

* veggie soups for the freezer

* pizza rolls for the freezer

 

What-you've-got-in-the-fridge soup

Made this for lunch today as Chickabid has a tooth in that horrible too loose to eat/not loose enough to come out stage.

Just used what I had in the fridge and it came out delicious.

All measurements are approximate as I never measure anything unless I'm baking or making a roux.  (Yes, Birdie, you read it right!  I don't measure anything.)

splash of oil (I use sunflower)

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

parsley - quite a bit

rosemary - a bit

thyme - a bit

2 carrots, diced

2 potatoes, diced

4 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 red capsicum

1 can cannelini beans

2 heaped teaspoons Massel chicken stock powder

6 cups of boiling water

1.  Heat oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic until transparent.  It takes about 2-3 minutes on medium heat.  Add the herbs when the onion is transparent.  Stir through to lightly coat the onion

2.  Add the carrots and potato, stir through and cook for 2-3 minutes

3.  Add the celery, beans and capsicum

4.  Mix the stock powder in the boiling water, pour over vegetables and turn up the heat until the soup begins to bubble

5.  Lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the potato and carrot are cooked

6.  Serve.

This made enough for the kids and I to have lunch today, and I have two containers of left-overs in the freezer for later.

Worth celebrating anyway

Homemade lunches 5/5

Homemade dinners 4/5

Homemade desserts 4/5

Take away dinners 1/5 (due to grocery shopping taking forever and it was too late to cook anything)

Take away desserts 0/5

Bills paid 5/5

*other* spending since payday $0...ok, so it's only been 48 hours, but that's still huge for us!!

So, it's not much and at face value hardly worth celebrating, but man alive, in the context of the way things have been for months, it's HUGE.

You have to start somewhere.  Embracing the inner sloth has been costly in more ways than one.  I'm not feeding or cherishing him anymore and one day life migth become so uncomfortable that he'll just push off for good.

Yeah.  Right.

WFMW- Easiest Dinner in the World

I stumbled across this by accident.  I got some lamb chops out of the freezer cos I *knew* I had a casserole base in the pantry and I'd planned to make it for dinner.  Chops defrosted no problems but could Ifind the casserole base in the pantry?  Nope.

ON the off chance that it might work I just grabbed a jar of prepared pasta sauce (Bolognese with bacon I think), poured it over the chops and bunged it in the oven for about 35 minutes.  It came out absolutely fantastic.  Served it with mashed spuds, corn on the cob and baby peas and the whole family raved about it.

Check out more WFMW at Shannon's!

It's time for news.

Good morning everyone.

Good morning, Mizbear.

Well, yesterday I worked really hard on the pantry and I emptied out all the shelves and then I threw away everything that was outdated.

I stacked all the food on the kitchen benches in catergories and when the shelves were all clean I thought about how to put everything back.

I pfaffed around on the computer for quite a while and then I went back to restacking the shelves.

I labelled everything within an inch of its life and I feel so much better now that the pantry is sorted out.

Here is a picture of what I did.

Any questions or comments (see below)

Thank you for listening everyone.

Thank you for sharing your news with us.

Failure is not an option

So, the shakes begin tomorrow.  As does the decaffeinated coffee (I can feel my head pounding now), endless trips to the toilet and the long slow painful process of adjusting eating habits.  But, this time I have a new weapon in the armoury and I think this one might actually make the difference.  It's Leanne's Low Carb Menu Mailer.  I've looked at the sample menu and it seems as though it alone could make the shakes bearable.  It's not actually the shakes themselves - although just seeing the mustardy coloured one makes me want to throw up, so no ordering that one for me - nor is it the diet because this diet is the only one I've ever been on that a) I wasn't hungry and b) didn't gain back all the weight I lost +5% - it's the eating habits behind the weight problem.  I'm not really an emotional eater..I *can* do the comfort food thing and if I may say so, I do it well,  I don't medicate with food, I just like the stuff.

Dr Phil says something about weightloss that really resonated with me and it's to do with addiction.  If you're a drug addict, you avoid drugs.  If you're an alcohol addict, you avoid alcohol.  If you are a food addict it doesn't matter what you do, you have to be in contact with food.  Everywhere you turn you are confronted with advertisements for food, smells of food, other people eating food, impossibly, impossibly thin people consuming disgustingly creamy and rich food on the tv...get the picture.  Just can't get away from the stuff.

Have just cobbled together a shopping list for next week, well, starting tomorrow actually, and it doesn't look too bad.

WEDNESDAY: Grilled Fish on Coriander Coleslaw

THURSDAY: Herbed Pork Chops with Veggies

FRIDAY: Crockpot Chicken Indonesian

SATURDAY: Cranberry Turkey Burgers (or Chicken if I can't get minced turkey)

SUNDAY: Curried Beef

MONDAY: Broiled Ginger Chicken

Made an interesting discovery though...Leanne suggests rutabaga chips as a side dish.  Have no idea what rutabagas are so I looked them up on wikipedia (I am in love with wikipedia) and they're actually swedes.  Ahhh, yes, we do have them.  So this week we are having rutabaga chips...if any American could tell me how to pronouce this so it doesn't sound like "root a bugger"  I would be most grateful.

Come to the table, please

On the menu this week:

Saturday - Chicken Stroganoff, Noodles and Salad

Sunday - Tuna Noodle Mornay and Salad, Sticky Date Pudding and Icecream

Monday - Fish Fillets, Oven Fries and Salad

Tuesday - Cheese and Bacon Pastizzi and Salad, Two Fruits Jelly and Icecream

Wednesday - Meat Pie, Mashed Potato, Gravy and Vegetables

Thursday - Steak, Pasta Bake and Vegetables, Baked Apples and Custard

Friday - Honey Soy Drumsticks, Rice and Vegetables

What do you reckon?  Who's coming for dinner??

From the jaws of defeat...

This morning we loaded the car with all the clobber for the party and set off for Penrith Lakes.  The sun was shining, the skies were clear and it looked as though finally we were going to have a birthday celebration at the lakes. (We've actually planned Mike's birthday there for the last three years, but it has been moved to our place each time due to either rain, high winds or sweltering temperatures).  We drove to the Lakes in high spirits, only to find a sign out the front that read "EVENT IN PROGRESS" and a man at the gate collecting $10 from each car for parking.

"You've got to be kidding," I hear you say.  Nope, not joking.

We pulled in to the side of the road and had a hasty conference about what to do.  Gran and Grandpa were with us and a quick phone call to Grandma and another to Lamb confirmed that they hadn't left yet and could be contacted about the change of venue.  Grandma rang Chickabid's aunty and let her know, the only problem being Mike's playschool friends for whom we had no contact numbers.  The playschool friends included the dad who was bringing the sausages.

My dad and Ian took the cars, the kids and the party gear to Tench Reserve (the new venue) while Mum and I stood at the gates to the regatta centre with a sign, written in lipstick, for playschool parents.  I know most of them but not all and one child at least was coming with grandparents, whom I didn't know from Adam.  We caught up with three sets of kids and redirected them but three were still missing and in the end we had to give up.  Ian's dad came and collected us from the Regatta Centre and took us to the party.

Now here is the really, relly weird bit.

The guy with the sausages hadn't turned up by half ten and I was panicking, thinking that we'd need a repeat of the loaves and the fishes to feed everyone with just 2 dozen sausages.  He was meeting us at Penrith Lakes at 10.  I rang Ian (at Tench Reserve) to see if he could remember the guy's phone number and the guy showed up at Tench Reserve just as I rang.  He thought Tench Reserve was Penrith Lakes...but for the Regatta we would have been sausageless.  Yet again, as in so many things, God was there ahead of us.  We didn't know about the Regatta, but God did.  He knew we needed the food and it all worked out through no intervention of ours.  PTL* is all I can say

By the time we arrived the snags were all cooked, the party was set up and everyone was having a good time :)

Three sets of parents were missing but one lot came to Tench Reserve as they too thought it was the Lakes and the others were redirected by the kindly gatekeeper at the Lakes (he was the one who gave us the bit of paper on which we wrote with lipstick!)

We had a lovely party by the Nepean River...Ladybaby and I got a little sunburnt...and Mike thought it was fantastic!

Pictures below for your enjoyment.

The Cake

The Birthday Boy and his Family

* Praise The Lord!

Ice cream run

Mr Bear is back.

With ICECREAM!!