what's new at my house...

Yesterday I realized that my bookshelf by my bedroom window is just the right height for a makeshift window seat for kitties. I cleared off the books (they're on the floor now... hoping that once my big brother is back from his month's worth of mission trips that he'll finally have time to fix my other - broken - bookshelf that he's been working on for me since May... but I digress...) and set two comfy pillows on the shelf and opened the blinds about six inches. I have two very happy kitties... the only problem... they refuse to co-exist on the window seat. They will curl up in a shoebox together like it's a california king sized bed but they can't share this 2' x 3' window seat. Go figure. At any rate... I'm glad that I was able to improve their quality of life so easily.

Now I need to replace those blinds in the living room window that Bitty Kitty has mangled trying to see outside. On the list...

I'm having an elimination day around here. Going to pack up some underused items for storage in the attic. I would go ahead and put them in the attic but most of the people who are aware of my welfare on a daily basis are out of pocket. If I fell from the attic I would linger for 24 hours at least before anyone noticed. In some ways, I like that independence. In other ways... that's kinda sad. Solitude has it's pros and cons.

Part two of elimination day is going to be cleaning out the pantry and getting some organization going there. Part 3 is that I've upped up the fiber to get my system back on track. I've been sorta of... irregular... since I consumed red meat on Friday night. Also took a water pill to get rid of some of the sponge-like bloat that my processed food consumption of last week brought on.

Why does my cat try to eat vaseline? Hairball?

Had some amped up ten grain cereal this morning. Let me just say... those who "can't afford to eat healthy"... I bought a bag of Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Cereal MONTHS ago for $2.89. I've had at least a dozen breakfasts from it... probably more than that... and it's still half full. Austin's box of Lucky Charms last week was $4.20... and it was gone in a week. I took my ten grain cereal and added 1/4 cup of wheat bran to it... 1/4 cup of skim milk... 1/2 cup of blueberries. Best breakfast I've had since my happy frittata experiment a few weeks back.

I will admit to researching the points value of biscuits and gravy. I could accomodate the points... that's not an issue. I mean, ultimately, everything is permissable, in moderation. One gravy biscuit will not derail my weight loss efforts. However... white flour is a trigger food for me... that gravy biscuit will lead to other sins. I'll continue to abstain for now. It's about 10 points, btw. I get 25 a day.

Yesterday I had an awesome Kashi Mediterranean Pizza. Half of it, anyways, which was 9 points. It was a bit more indulgent than my usual meal value but... it satisfied any pizza cravings I might have had. I fixed a small green salad with arugula to go with it. I saved the other half of the pizza in two portions for later in the week. Again, though, this was higher sodium content than I wanted. Truly, I have got to get away from any prepared foods. I need to figure out how to make a decent low point pizza from scratch.

Today's experiment food is orange roughy. I don't believe I've ever had any... I'm sure I've never cooked any.

I'm also going to make some whole wheat pasta. I bought rotini. It was a good deal... if you bought pasta you got a dollar off of olive oil... (which was on sale) and if you bought olive oil you got a dollar off of whole wheat pasta. Win, win. I think I'll use half of it for a hot pasta dish... the other half for a pasta salad - which makes a great lunch.

I typically stick with some sort of cold salad for lunch with a side of fruit. My friend asked me yesterday if I include protein... and... other than grains or perhaps cheese, I don't really do much protein in my lunches. I'm going to look into that a bit and see if upping my midday protein helps. I usually do a protein snack in the afternoon - boiled egg or yogurt or cheese or almond butter.

I found a recipe for a new cold salad I want to try... edamame (soybeans), black beans, red onion... I've seen several versions of this same recipe. Some with corn and cilantro... most have the same dressing - red wine vinegar and olive oil. I've got to plug it into the recipe builder on the WW site and see how many points that works out to.

Yesterday I forgot to buy spinach and basil... two basics in my house... but I did buy:
purple cabbage
green cabbage
green grapes
blueberries
sweet potatoes
small white potatoes
green beans
acorn squash
arugula
tomatoes (although I think I have confirmed that they are causing GERD symptoms for me)
purple onion
oranges....
tilapia
orange roughy
salmon
fresh mozzarella
the aforementioned wheat bran...
onion pitas - I'm thinking I may try some of my summer salads in a pita pocket just for something different
flax bread

I finally remembered to buy multi-vitamins. This is one of the things on the WW daily checklist... lean protein, 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies, 8 glasses of liquid (not necessarily water), whole grains, milk products, healthy oil, activity... and multi-vitamin... which always makes me nauseous so I buy flintstones chewables... they don't make me sick. Don't judge.

SO that's my happy Sunday. Hope you're all safe, happy and enjoying your weekend. Love and hugs.