Confessions of a Grandma

Oh what the heck is this?? While we were away someone broke into our house, washed all my jeans in really hot water and shrunk them down a size or two. Who would do such an evil thing??? I am demanding my money back from the neighbor who was supposedly watching the house. Google image. (But it might as well be me.)

Uh-oh.  I just realized that the doctor's appointment I thought was in mid May is actually tomorrow at 1 p.m. Darn!  I have not lost that pesky ten pounds my doctor has been harassing me about.  In fact, I think I may have put on a few pounds extra.  Lots of good food, specialty markets, restaurants, and such in Florida.  And one of the things I did not make a point of going out to get in the furnishing process--a scale. Sure, I could reschedule the appointment, but I might as well admit that the extra time is not the issue.  Enjoying good food and an accompanying glass of wine is the issue. I have noticed that every woman's magazine at the supermarket checkout touts a "NEW" diet miracle that will take pounds off practically over night.  The next week or month--a totally "BRAND NEW" miracle diet.  They all come down to eat less and exercise more.  Among my problems is the fact that as soon as I say the word "diet" to myself I feel inordi...

This list of eleven foods to eat when you are trying to lose weight is stolen from realage.com : yogurt eggs pistachios grapefruit avocado mushrooms olive oil whole grains red peppers fava beans rice combined with vegetables AHA!  Now I know.  All I have to do is start eating fava beans and those few pesky pounds will just melt away.  How easy is that? I was reading about Dr. Oz and a "new" "miracle" diet.  It seems we must avoid obesogens (Does that sound like a made up word or what?  Good grief.)  Obesogens (Hm...apparently I misspell it because spell check is just not recognizing this word.  Go figure.) are sugars like high fructose corn syrup, highly processed foods, and chemical additives.  Gee, that is new and exciting!  Get over yourself, Dr. Oz.  Really. We went out for lunch today at Robbi's Reef .  We were surprised by the limited menu, but, boy, was the food good.  I had fish tacos with rice and b...

I am done with the American Girl doll clothes for a while. I have a couple of patterns that I bought, but I have been adapting them to get a better variety. I have learned quite a bit about patterns and alterations through this exercise. I'm sure my grand daughter will appreciate it although I do expect she'll ask why I didn't make underwear. She's like that. Between sewing and my sanding duties on the deck, I managed to tidy up my two clothes closets. Up and down here are two shots of the closet I share with Mike. He uses a very small section, but he actually has more clothes now that he is retired since his work wardrobe was entirely jeans and tee shirts. There is little call for anything fancier in the antique motorcycle business. He had to buy "normal" clothes when we started doing some travelling. Mike will have to do some wardrobe sorting himself very soon. He has lost about sixteen pounds. I've lost a whopping three. There are some thi...

Mike went for a physical yesterday. Our doctors have now gone to computerized medical records so he came home with a printout of diagnoses and recommendations for follow-up tests. If you looked at the list of diagnoses you might wonder just how long he has to live and yet we consider him to be basically healthy. His blood pressure is a little high and his cholesterol is a little high (but with an excellent good to bad ratio) and if he drops a few pounds, as he has started to do, those things will undoubtedly normal out. There are other things to watch, but not big things at this point. I could nag him about sun screen and eating my wonderful vegetarian creations for the sake of his digestive health, but to no desirable effect. He has decided on his own to cut back on portion sizes and get more exercise so I applaud those efforts and just hope he'll see the light about some other healthy tweaks to his life style. I think he was a bit shaken after his trip to the antique mo...

Sometimes I do not know why I read the newspaper. Today I read that a cleric in Iran blamed earthquakes on women who dress immodestly. And all this time, I thought that such disasters were caused by liberal Democrats! Live and learn. ________________ I have started my serious dedication to losing some extraneous pounds. My doctor warned me to last fall, but I ignored her for as long as I could. Now I'm noticing that my clothes seem a little snug. I exercise so I'm realizing I really have to get more serious about watching what I put into my mouth. I figure that I'll limit my glass of wine to Saturday and drink green tea as my dinner beverage. I'll cut back on portions generally but sweets and breads in particular. My New Year's resolution was to eat some fruit or vegetables with every meal and now I'm thinking I'll go to at least one vegetarian meal a week--something out of my long neglected Moosewood Cookbook . The Barefoot Contessa and Paula Dean...

Ah, April as we know it in Vermont. It was snowing this morning. It cleared up late in the morning and warmed up to the 50's, but the wind chill was making it feel like the 30's. With all the walking we did in Florida, it was a shock to get home and notice how hard it has become to handle the hills on our walking routes here. Both Mike and I have made the commitment to keeping up with daily walking, though, and healthier eating, too. Time to get serious about losing those pesky added pounds. Even though Mike has way more to lose than I do, I know he's more likely to reach his goal first. Men and their metabolism! We had baked fish with dill, capers, and pine nuts for supper tonight--with a side of asparagus . Last night it was baked chicken and a salad for Mike and curried chickpeas stir fried with carrots, onions, celery, and spinach for me. I love, love, love the spring vegetables. I have not given up my glass of wine for healthier eating, though. I drink wate...

"What We Eat When We Eat Alone" by Deborah Madison in this month's AARP magazine was an unwise choice of breakfast table reading material this morning. Bread soaked in margarita mix. Toasted rye bread with cheddar and marmalade. A mixture of American cheese, Miracle Whip and pimento. OOOOOOOOh, the stomach flips and flops. It might not have been quite so bad if I hadn't made another unwise choice Monday afternoon. Mike wanted to stop at a nearby ice cream shop for a sundae. If you're ever in Nokomis, Florida and have the yen for ice cream, check out Bentley's. Now I love ice cream. When I was very little my Aunt Stacia and Uncle Linus inherited his family's dairy farm and my aunt opened up dairy bar featuring home made ice cream and milk shakes--dream relatives for a kid. Long car trips with my family as I was growing up--always a stop along the way for an ice cream cone break. When Ben and Jerry opened their first little scoop shop in an old gas station i...

What a dark and gloomy day we have today. It's been pouring and we've needed the lights and the heat on most of the afternoon. We spent a lot of time reading. I even made a loaf of oat bread. It's not ready yet, but I am enjoying the aroma while I finished a cup of tea and my new favorite cookie--"digestive biscuits"(I know. Boring)--and now start a little computer time. Today would have been a good day to visit the aquarium in Sarasota, but we somehow just could not work up enough energy to make a dash out to the car. Instead I'm going to take a cruise to some of the recipe sites and plan a Valentine's Day meal for my sweetums. This looks to be a major foody weekend around here so I do hope the weather is a bit nicer tomorrow. There is a Polish food sale on Saturday, a Jewish food festival on Sunday, and an Italian festival running all weekend. I could do some damage...better stock up on those digestive biscuits...find them on the tiny British she...

Snow has been falling gently all day. It hasn't amounted to much on the ground, but it has kept us inside and concentrating on the packing that needs to get done before we leave for warmer, sunnier climes. Winter weather was actually late in arriving this year and we got none of the big storm that went up the coast last weekend. We probably won't be so winter weary when we leave. Tomorrow may warm up a bit--get all the way into the 20's--so it might be a good chance to get out for a quick ski. Fresh air and exercise would be a good antidote for the Christmas cookie and candy bloat that has taken hold. It would be nice to sit in the car for the long ride coming up and actually be able to keep my pants buttoned up. Let's just say this has not been a good week for that diet I never started anyway. "Good thing New Year's Resolutions are coming up," (she said once again demonstrating her inner dieter's incredible talent for self-delusional fantasy ).

The process of baking is a way I feed my soul. Unfortunately, afterwards I feel compelled to feed my appetite as well and partake of that which I have made. This is not such a good thing. In September, my doctor told me to lose ten pounds. So far I have just bounced up and down one or two pounds either way and not made a real serious effort. The stretch of time between Thanksgiving and New Year's--not the most auspicious time for dieting, is it. But then, I still have ten months before I go back for another physical. The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up. ~Author Unknown Yummy. Stuff it in there. (Representation of my inner child who has no ability nor inclination to delay gratification)