This picture of me and my dad was taken when I was in high school during a summer vacation to Ocean City, NJ. Our family rented property in OC many summers, frollicking on the beach all day and enjoying the boardwalk every evening. Johnson’s caramel popcorn, Rita’s water ice, Mack n Manco pizza, Shriver’s salt water taffy, Kohr Bros frozen custard, Hamburger Construction Company…..oh I can taste all that yummy summer food, I can smell the salt water, I can hear the seagulls, I can see my family hanging together….I love those memories!

I think I need a vacation!!!!!

You probably don’t know him…but you need to pray for him. His name is Eddie and he desperately needs prayer to get off life support today. Pray that the doctors would identify the cause for the fluid in his lungs and be able to help him fight the infection. God is mighty and has ordained every breath Eddie takes!

Would you pray for him and for his family?

Thanks!

I met with the nutritionist on Monday for a follow-up appointment. It went very well. She was (obviously :)) pleased with my food chart, and offered some suggestions to change up my foods and try adding in some complex carbs.

She also suggested I eat whatever I want for one meal per week. Her reasoning is that if I were to slip and really eat poorly one day, I might have too much guilt to jump back up and carry on with the diet…but if I deliberately choose one “naughty” meal a week, I will have something to look forward to. She also said it will help me to stay committed to the diet for the long haul. I think it’s a good idea, but I’m pretty sure I won’t choose anything totally bad because I know it will be harder the next meal and I will probably feel sorry for the choice…and it seems like anything I eat (contrary to this diet) seems to pack on the pounds…and I am NOT about to ruin my work so far!

She also made a few suggestions I thought you might appreciate knowing too:

1. Try “Laughing Cow” cheese…only 35 calories for the lite kinds…and they are DELICIOUS and satisfying. I’ve tried the French Onion and the Garlic and Herb….so good.

2. When you are craving sweets, try eating a frozen Viactiv (I think these are just for ladies…sorry guys). It will take you a while to eat (frozen) and it will introduce nutrients and calcium rather than choosing something with chemicals or something that is processed (like the Sugar free Puddings I was eating).

3. Another sweet craving idea is to eat a Coreomega packet. They are sweet (made with Stevia) emulsions that taste like fruity pudding. Each little packet offers 2000mg of fish oil! There are three flavors - orange, orange chocolate and lemon lime. I tried a lemon lime one today and it wasn’t bad at all and it really did help. (found at Whole Foods and other nutrition stores)

4. Keep an apple in your purse or on your desk at all times. This is a quick, healthy choice that will stave off hunger and keep you going!

Here’s to good health for us all!

I got an email from my brother tonight. He and his girlfriend went to the Coldplay concert in LA last night. Amazing huh? Yep…I’m jealous…but that’s not why my jealousy persists.

Here’s the story:

Apparently Coldplay is Nilo’s favorite band (the girl has good taste huh?), so she really splurged and bought two $85 nosebleed tickets about three rows from the tippy top of rows. But it was worth it because it’s Coldplay, right????!!!!!! Duh!

So there they sat, taking in the melodious lyrics of (ahem…one of my all-time favorite bands), and just loving the moment. A few minutes into the show an employee of the venue approached three girls sitting next to them and asked if they would like to move down to a lower level for the rest of the show. UM YEAH!!!!!! Duh!

Nilo overheard this offer and asked the guy if he had two more available????????? Maybe? Just maybe??????? Why, yes, yes he did! SCOOOORRRRREEEEE!

He hands Nilo and Jonathan new tickets and sends them on the long, long walk down to THE FRONT ROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, you read that correctly, they got to sit in the FRONT ROW. This means they could count the beads of sweat on Chris Martin’s brow. This means they didn’t have any heads to dodge in their line of vision of musical perfection. THEY WERE ON THE FRONT ROW. Unbelievable! FRONT ROW!

Oh front row….how I long for you.

Apparently Coldplay buys the front five rows and fills them with nosebleed fans (who are obviously diehard fans to endure the nosebleed section for the pricey privilege of being in their presence). How ABSOLUTELY COOL IS COLDPLAY????????? SO AWESOME, huh????

I added a link on my sidebar to Flight36′ blog, the Afterburner. Please check it out and leave the guys some comments!

I come here on Mondays, feeling very accountable to all of you. The process of sharing my victories and setbacks is a good one for me, albeit hard. And “hard” describes this past week rather well. I fought through a lot of fatigue and cravings to make it to today. Let’s just say that I know there will be weeks, here and there, when dietary discipline and emotional/hormonal stability is challenging (ladies, I know you understand, and yes, this may very well be the understatement of the century). Fair enough, right?

When you look at my chart you will see some up and down numbers and some poor food choices…but you should also see a great attempt to circumvent my fatigue and cravings….despite the numbers on that document. I tend to be a pretty OCD (obsessive compulsive dieter) when I put my mind and heart to a plan…but I came to my calculations today and realized it’s hard to really see a week of fighting with myself and not giving in to each and every craving on an Excel document. It’s hard to see all my effort amidst the tootsie rolls (holy calories, Batman!), ice cream (at least I didn’t order chicken nuggets and french fries), oriental chicken wrap (even though I selected grilled chix over fried…man - that thing had a lot of calories), and a hot dog (I know I told you on my Flight36 picnic post that I didn’t eat hot dogs or hamburgers or chips or twinkies…and I didn’t during the picnic - I neglected to pack a meal for the 3pm meal when I was cleaning up the picnic and traveling home…thus the quick pick - (however, without the bun)…but wow, it tasted good).

2 Quick Recipes from my Food Chart:

1. Broiled Onions: Lay a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet. Slice up a whole onion and spread out on the pan. Sprinkle with olive oil and Herbamare (organic herbal blend found in nutrition stores). Broil for approx 10 minutes till translucent (and we like ours black around the edges). This is my favorite way to enjoy veggies of any kind…carrots are really good this way too…just make sure you thin slice them.

2. Watermelon Ice: I had a lot of watermelon left over after the picnic yesterday. I cut it all up and put it in containers yesterday for easy access this week. I found a recipe online for watermelon italian ice. Take 3 cups of watermelon juice (I pureed watermelon in my Magic Bullet), add the juice of half a lemon and add 3 tablespoons of sugar. Mix and pour into a shallow baking dish. Freeze, stirring every half hour for 4 hours. It is delicious…yes, I know it has sugar in it, but for the amount you are actually eating per serving…it’s really not too bad. Check out my chart.

All in all, I’m pleased with my week. I ate pretty well despite those few bad foods and I worked out 6 days - 5 at the gym and 1 walk at home with Jeff. The scale does not represent my real progress this week as I know I had a hormonal gain (2.8)…but I know I lost a few inches and I’m feeling good. Thanks again for your prayer and verbal/written support! God is using you to keep me motivated and excited about the new work He is doing in me.

food-chart-july-7-13

* Also, the turkey slices I am eating are NOT Louis Rich - they are Oscar Myers Deli Fresh…sorry for the confusion on that one!

* And the website I go to for nutritional values of foods I don’t have package labels for is Calorie King It’s one of the only free calorie counter sites I have found that has most foods and doesn’t make you “register” (so they can send you junk mail) to view their nutritional values.

Yesterday was our second annual Flight36 family beach/bbq day. We had a blast. There were about 30 leaders, spouses, moms, boys, siblings and supporters present for a beautiful day at Carlin Park in Jupiter. Everybody hung out at the beach for a few hours before chowing down on hot dogs and hamburgers cooked by two wonderful voluteers from the men’s ministry at our church (no I did not eat hot dogs or hamburgers or chips or Twinkies - I packed a salad and some strawberries, and I ate some watermelon - yes, good for me!).

The weather was perfect for us. It started thundering and lightning right around luchtime. We all huddled under the canopy of our covered picnic area while it sprinkled for just a few minutes! Then it cleared up and was perfectly sunny once again!

We heard a lot of comments about how much fun this event is for everyone. It allows us all to fellowship together as a group. One thing that really stood out to me this year was how close Jeff and the other leaders are to the boys. They were all really excited to just hang out together…God is doing great things!

Now that Jeff has the office, I usually beat him home. I took these last night when he got home from work…so sweet! Chip really misses being his office buddy!