Skinny Rules

I have got to get a reality on my weight. I wish it was a simple as reading a book or following rules. I recently bought and read Bob Harper's Skinny Rules book. He had some good ideas but is it really a life that a person could live with everyday.  Could a person really give up sugar permanently? I know it has been done but do I want to is more the question.

Here are the rules:

1.  Drink a large glass of water before every meal- No excuses! There is not reason that I can not do this. Drinking water is natural and I like it.
2.  Don't drink your calories. I try not to do this already. The next thing I have got to do is stop drinking so many sodas. Maybe limit myself to one a month until I can eliminate them altogether. 
3.  Eat protein at every Meal-Or Stay hungry and grouchy. I can try doing this but he wants a person to eat a lot of boiled eggs but I am not sure I even want to do this. I am not a big boiled egg fan and they do make me have heartburn.
4.  Slash your intake of refined flours and grains. 
5. Eat 30 to 50 Grams of Fiber a day
6. Eat Apples and Berries every day
7. No Carbs after lunch. This one is a hard one when it seems like everything has carbs in it
8. Learn to read food labels so you know what you are eating ( I do this)
9. Stop guessing about portions size and get it right for good.
10. No More Added Sweeteners including artificial ones. ( this is the one I don't think I could do for a long term)
11. Get rid of white potatoes. ( I can try this one)
12. Make one day a week meatless ( no problem)
13. Get rid of Fast Foods and Fried foods ( This is another one I can not do the family eats out) 
14. Eat a real breakfast.
15. Make your own food and eat at least ten meals at home
16. Banish high salt foods
17. Eat your vegetable Just Do It! 
18. Go to bed HUNGRY! (Don't eat 3 hours before you go to bed or pick don't eat after 8:00 or after dinner. I get to decide)
19. Sleep right
20. Plan on a splurge meal a week

These rules sound simple but how many skinny people do you know follow these type of rules? Maybe I should at least give these rules a chance. I can slowly bring them into full blown decisions. I am making a goal to lose my last 45 pounds by my birthday April 14 2014. I made long term goal to be at goal weight and maintain it before I am 50. I will be 48 on my birthday so I need to do this. I need to get more commented. Lets see how this goes. 

A video about a young man with Fragile X

Sharing a great video that shows a glimpse of life with Fragile X Syndrome.
 https://vimeo.com/91926361
Enter the password: aac323

Make sure that you click on the link that is in blue and enter the password below. This was very well made and very touching. One day I might try a short video of my own sons but they hate when the camera is on them I will have to try to sneak it. You may also share this with family and friends. 


I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did. It is only a 16 minute video.

Just a few things.....

I just thought I would catch up on a few things that have been going on around here. We have been picking up persimmons and I made 2 puddings. Man that were so good and I am really wanting another one I just might have to go pick me up a few more tomorrow and make me another one. If I do I will take a picture of them and the pudding. I have gotten really slack on taking pictures. I feel like I have ran out of things to take pictures of.  We also went to Carter's Farm in Eaglesprings and got a box of sweet potatoes. I love candied sweet potatoes. I wish I could get them a little crispy like my mom did, but mine are good enough. I know this sounds like really bad things to be eating while trying to lose weight and it is because of the sugar, and butter but I do have a horrible sweet tooth. Talking about my diet I have lost almost 2 more pounds since my last weight blog. Just 2.4 pounds and I will accomplish my goal. I guess I really don't need to make the persimmon pudding yet.

We rode over to the pasture and the donkeys were standing in the perfect spot for a great picture. 

Jennie and Valentine

I thought this was neat how the acorn landed on the barbwire and stuck on it.

Don't now what they are but I thought they were pretty

We were taking a ride in the country the other day and there was a small little rainbow shining through a cloud. I took a picture of it through the truck window so it did not turn out real clear but I still liked it.

so pretty

We also so a doe beside of the road. 

Today I had my yearly mammogram. I hate going to have them done but I do it to stay healthy and also because my mom had breast cancer and died from it. So I try to lose weight eat healthy and go to my yearly check ups. 

Well  I will close here and I hope to do better blogging and taking pictures.

A little Reunion ....

Saturday September 20 I went to my first cousin's sons "Celebration before the I Do's" and it was his 33 birthday. Since my parents have passed away and grandparents my family on either side never get together any more. Times have changed so much and the younger generations does not know their cousins and extended family. While I was growing up I was close to all of my cousins. I spend the night with them and played with them a lot, but now I am lucky if I see any of them at all. We have all grown up and have families of our own. My moms side of the family stopped getting together after my granny died in 1989. I have cousins on that side of the family that I have not seen in 25 years and some of them longer than that. The cousins I was close to I see some times once a year or keep up with them on Facebook.

My 1st cousin Karen in the blue shirt.

My moms sister Aunt Betty

1st  cousins on the Moore's family

They wanted me to join there picture
Left to Right Vicki, Karen, Me, Judith Ann and Kim
I am 1st cousins to Karen and Kim and I am a cousin to Vicki

My moms sister in law Aunt Goody and her sister Darlene

Cousins The tall guy Chad in the middle and the beautiful girl Chasity are brother and sister .
Chad is the groom to be

It was a great time and great time visiting with my cousins I do not get to see often.

BFF

BFF

noun

informal

1. a girl's best friend.

   
   

   
   

   Well I have recently been using this term on Facebook. I meet a new friend and we have been chatting on Facebook and trying to lose weight together and walking. I don't have many friends right now and I am enjoying having a friend again since I have quit work. So I have enjoyed our time getting some exercise in. 

   
   

   The reason I am blogging about it is the fact that I feel bad that I have called her my BFF on Facebook because I feel wrong about using this word. I don't know why? She is my friend but I have many friends on Facebook and I feel like by calling her BFF is like saying I am not friend to everyone else. I know I should not feel like this and most people would call me weird which I probably am. I feel like I have done something wrong and I know I have not. I am weird I know I am. Oh well.
   
   
   
   
   

Weight loss

I can feel myself slowly coming out of my slump I have been in. I don't really think I have depression I feel like it is every bit hormonal and we will leave it at that. I want to be committed for the rest of the month to really diet with out a bad day. That is just 2 1/2 weeks I should be able to do this with your a bad day. I have got to make this happen. I want to get below 200 pounds during this time and it is going to take commitment to do it. I know that 4 lbs sounds like nothing to some people but to others like me it is hard. I just want to do this and try to get to a lower weight. I was just looking back when I started this journey

See I started April 2013 at this weight of 242 pounds and i a year and five months I have only lost 38.2 pounds. I can not believe that it has been so slow but then again I can. It is because I have way to many days of eating way to much food and not exercising. This is why I need to get myself on track. I know slow weight loss is a good thing and I might have a better chance in keeping it off but not the way I have been doing lately. Days when you eat way over your calories. So I need to make smalls steps and show myself I can commit for for more than a few days. I would love it if I could....No I will love it when I do lose the rest of this weight. 160 here I come!!

I found this picture of me and had to share I much I have changed since May 2013 Prom

Wow!!

Just some random things...

I just wanted to share a few things that are going on. I have been slack on my diet but I have been eating grapes. I love muscadine grapes and we went and picked some this past Friday.They are so big and sweet.

We try to go every year and pick grapes we found this really nice man and his wife that has a small orchard at their home in Albemarle. They are an older couple and his wife said they might pull them all up this year and stop raising them. This makes me sad because it has became a tradition to do this with my family. There are not a lot of things that we do any more now that the boys are older. I always thought it was hard to take them when they were young and it was don't get me wrong but now that they are older they just don't like to do stuff. Also it as gotten where it is hard for all of us to be around a crowd of people. It seems like these days any where you go there are way to many people and they don't like to give you any personal space. We keep going on though and hope and try to have a good time. 

We always like to go for a ride in the country. We have done this every since we got married and had children. I try to take my camera when we go riding just in case I see a good picture. Today we went for a ride and I got two pictures of stuff at a stop sign. 

A refrigerator with food still in it beside of a stop sign

A gourd growing beside a stop sign 

Someone shot the sign up

I also took some pictures around the house. We have a really cool writing spider that lives in my flower bed. I have noticed that it only has 7 legs. 

We have also started a nice collard patch. I can not wait to have a mess to eat after the frost comes. 

Actually it is collards, mustard and kale.

I took a picture a while back of the green beans we were gathering this is the last time we picked them and then plowed them up. I wish I would have taken pictures of all of the ones that we picked all summer. Man we got a lot of beans. 

I have also taken a picture of my yard now that the trees have been cleaned up It looks so different. 

Looks different but we will plant some grass.

Well this was mainly stuff about nothing but it kind of let you know what has been going on around the farm lately. I hope that you enjoyed it.

Small steps in the diet world...

I read a blog called Modestly Slim. I can really feel this bloggers emotions and struggles with weight loss.  I am 20 years older than she is and I still struggle with the same challenges everyday with how I know I should eat to be healthy and lose weight and how I do eat. I have weight as high as 242 pounds but I have never been what I call skinny except when I was 4 to 6 years old. I was skinny only in this time of my life. I have often thought that the reason I eat out of control sometime is because food is the only true thing that I have control of in my life. That no one can truly tell me how much or how little I should eat and if they do watch out. In reality I don't have control of my food I just think I do. I have said I am an emotional eater and there is some truth to this. I do eat if I am bored, mad, or sad. I have also eaten because I am happy but this is usually done with friends or family. I also think that I have an addiction to food. This could come from my fathers addition to alcohol. I always wondered why he could not just say "No" to the next drink. He drank like I eat. When he was sad, or mad and when he was with friends or family. Feeling sorry for ourselves instead of trying to see the bright side of things. I am big on these that you should not allow the way you were raised make you out to be the person you are today but sometimes it is hard. If I really wanted to blame my childhood to who I am today I would probably drink my problems away if I wanted to blame my dad.

On the other hand I could blame my mom for my weight. She was always struggling with her weight also. She was always on a diet only losing and gaining weight the majority of my life, but in the end it always seemed that her weight always won. I worry that I could be more like her only I don't feel like I yo yo with my weight quite as bad as she did. I worry that I will get cancer and die before I am 48 just like her. I have one advantage that I have never really smoked. I have had a lot of second hand smoke from my parents and other family members but I have been away from that for more than 30 years. I have tried to smoke before but I was not any good at it. I never could learn how to inhale and I could not see wasting the money on cigarettes. These are two good reasons and I am very happy that I never picked up the habits of drinking or smoking.

I know that it is a might set thing to eat and be healthy. To get up everyday and make the right decision and try not to fall into bad eating habits. To dig deep and find the will power to just say NO! Teach your brain to stop and know that you are full and stop eating. I know these things and I try hard on most days to accomplish them but I find myself like an alcoholic digging deep to fight the urge for one more bite.

Seth 22 Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated my oldest son Seth's birthday. He turned 22 years old yesterday and I stop and try hard to remember where has time gone??? He was the beginning of our family, what brought out more love in us than we ever thought we had. He has grown up into a very handsome man! It is hard to believe that time has gone by so fast.

Seth and pawpaw on the tractor

Seth's first birthday

Seth around 2

Seth eating his cupcake

Seth in his new birthday shades

Happy Birthday to my sweet young man! Love you for ever and ever.

The storm

Lets see where do I start? We have been out of chicken for 7 days. We have had some crazy hot humid weather. The whole family has been right on the edge of illness (the least little things will set one of us off). The farmer has been working his but off trying to get all of his work done and it seems like everything that he does some thing else messes up or something crazy happens. He was trying to catch up on his mowing and the lawnmower threw a rock and hit my new car. It was down low  on the passenger side door, but it was a dent big enough for a ping pong ball to fit in it. Took it to the body shop and they took the dent out now we have to touch up the paint and put the sticker back on which makes me uneasy.  You know it is only a month old. We have not even ate anything in it yet trying to keep it new as long as we can. It is dirty right now because of the rain.

The dent after popped back out before sticker is applied. 

Speaking of rain boy did we get the rain last night. We slipped away for a few hours to Albemarle to see if we could find some sunglasses for him for his birthday. We stopped to get some gas and a rain storm came up with sideways rain and wind. Farmer got soaked just pumping a little gas under a big cover over the pumps. With lots of lighting. We left and the rain slacked off until we got about home. Then it starting pouring rain sideways again with lots of wind and lighting. We rode around the block seeing if the rain would slack off but it only got worse. We pulled into the driveway barley able to see for the hard rain and wind. A small limb hit the roof of the car so would move put to the chicken house to get away from trees. The doors on the chicken house were open because of working in them. The wind had blowed the boards that were holding the doors open down and the doors were swinging open and closed. Finally the rain started to ease up some so we decided to try going back down to the house. Coming down the drive to toward the house the first thing I noticed was that the bradford pear close to the fence had fell on the fence. The headlights caught the other tree and it was down also, right on farmers truck. We could not believe it. Farmer runs in the house and gets the umberellas and helped all of us get in.  Finally the rain stopped and we got the flashlight to go check on the truck. Farmer pulled it out and it was fine.It only bent the antenna. How lucky was that? The next morning I went out and took some pictures.

The view out the front door

The first tree in the row

The truck was in the little drive under the tree

Hit the edge of my flower bed

Messed up our maple tree

The one on the pasture

another view of the one on the pasture

It took all day to clean up the mess. As I am typing this farmer is still outside mowing up all the leaves and it is 8:00 at night. I will try to take some more pictures tomorrow after it is all cleaned up.

Thanks for stopping by.

A little about nothing

I don't have a lot to blog about but I thought I would drop in and let you know what is going on around here. We sold out chickens and was going to make plans to go to the beach for a few nights when our bubble was bursted telling us that we are getting chickens back in 14 days. We are also have some updates done on the chicken houses to. They are suppose to come tomorrow to pour some cement. Clay loves it when we are out of chickens because he loves to walk or ride in the chicken houses while they are empty. Today we went up there to take the farmer some water and there was a bat flying around in the chicken house. Both end doors were open but he did not fly out. We tried scaring him out either end but with no success. We got the broom and a flashlight  trying to scare him out with no luck. The funniest thing is he would fly right toward you and it was kind of scary. One time he flew right by Clays head and when Clay gets scared he will pretend to sneeze and he did at the bat it was so funny.

It has been so hot around here and humid. It has been so miserable to go outside in the sun or shade. I am so ready for fall to arrive. I only like hot weather if I am in a pool or on the beach. We did not make it to the pool all summer this year. I really wish we had a pool but I am not sure how Clay would enjoy it. He loves water but he likes it moving.

I am loving my new laptop but I am still trying to figure out how to use it. I am not sure how much I like the photo app on it. I need to figure out if there is a better photo app that could be added.

Well like I said I did not have much to blog about I have got to start taking pictures again and see if I can start adding pictures to my blog. I have been so slack.