Showing posts with label lost weight on keep trim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lost weight on keep trim. Show all posts

147.6 Before and After Losing Weight Pics

I lost three pounds yesterday, and am back within my goal weight of 145 to 149.9 pounds. I just took this photo on the right this morning. The photo on the left was taken in August of 2011 at Mt. Rushmore. There is a 70 pound difference. Can you tell? :)

My only disappointment is that I waited to be almost 50 before I made this amazing transformation. Imagine how much better I would have looked at this weight ten years ago. Twenty years ago, I was even thinner, but I was maintaining that by smoking, so that doesn't really count.

If you want to see how I lost the weight in the first place, and maybe follow along in my footsteps, then please click on the link at the top of this page, the one that says "Lose Weight w My Blog."

Today, for me, keeping the weight off is all about weighing myself every morning to see how much I can cheat. Dr Tarnower himself admitted this was his own approach to keep trim eating. Avoiding sodium is just as important as limiting carbohydrates, sugar, and fat.

The three pounds I lost yesterday were water retention weight from all the sodium in the pizza I ate the day before. For exercise, I walked my two dogs a mile in our neighborhood park. Here is what I ate yesterday to let the sodium leave my body along with the extra water my body retained to balance all that salt:

Small bowl of Special K and organic soy milk
El Monterey beef and bean burrito with salsa
Small bowl of fresh blueberries
Hamburger patty prepared without salt or salty sauces, steamed broccoli
Raw baby carrots
One sucker candy at family movie time

142.8 Thin again, and strangers treat me differently.

Strangers treat me differently, now that I am thin again. I don't know if it is because my confidence is back or genuinely the return of my attractiveness, In stores and out on the street, people -- men, women and children alike -- meet my eyes and smile. More often than when I was overweight, strangers comment about the weather and make chit chat in lines and waiting rooms.

I have not noticed family, friends or coworkers treating skinny me any differently. Well, you do compliment and congratulate me on my thin appearance. I do like that. But for the most part, I am still me and you know that and act accordingly. It is fun to see the shock register on the faces of those who have not seen me in a long time.

Yesterday, I lost 1.6 pounds. I was not at all trying to lose weight. I was just keeping the weight off. This is by far not the first time I have lost weight on keep trim eating. It's nice! It means I can indulge a little today. I will save most of this indulgence room for tomorrow as it is Sunday and they always have treats out after church service during the coffee fellowship hour. 

I daresay this picture could be an ad for Levi's 505 jeans! Heh! I look so honored to be able to wear them. I love this gymnast-style white top, too.

I didn't go on a formal walk yesterday, but I shopped at TJ Maxx and Winco Foods. Here is what I ate and lost 1.6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk
2 pieces of toasted Kirkland whole wheat bread
2 tablespoons Skippy superchunk peanut butter and 2 teaspoons Smucker's strawberry preserves
1 Beef and bean burrito, 2 tablespoons salsa
1 small apple, 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 1 tablespoon semi sweet chocolate chips
Small bowl of kettle corn
Small bowl of strawberries drizzled with a tablespoon of Hershey's Special Dark chocolate syrup

144.4 Chili Dip on Keep Trim Eating!

I lost .8 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating. I was just keeping the weight off, and I lost! What surprises me even more is I had my favorite dinner last night, what you see in this picture. We call it Chili Dip. I thought it was an indulgent dish and that I would have to diet today to make up for it.

It turns out that Chili Dip is chock full of fiber and protein! Cattle Drive Chili has 5 g fiber and 20 g protein per 1 cup serving. It has 290 calories, 100 of which are from fat, and 890 mg of sodium. It looks like that is OK, because as I said, I lost .8 pounds yesterday and I had this for dinner. I took it easy the rest of the day.

I also pan roasted the red bell pepper by sauteing it in a pat of butter. Yum, was it good! The cheese is Kirkland Mexican Blend pre-grated, from Costco. The chips are also Kirkland, from Costco -- the tall skinny paper bag Kirkland corn chips. I ate 1/3 cup of cheese and an ounce by weight of corn chips. I used the corn chips to eat the Chili Dip.

Here is everything I ate yesterday and lost .8 pounds, along with briskly walking my dog 45 minutes:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk
1 strip of bacon and three eggs scrambled in bacon with sauteed onion, mushrooms and red bell pepper
Half a can of Cattle Drive Chili, 1/3 cup cheese, 1 oz corn chips, half a red bell pepper, 5g butter
Half a small banana dipped in a tablespoon of Hershey's Special Dark chocolate syrup
A cup of kettle corn by The Popcorn Factory

145 Love Walking in Washington State

I lost .4 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating. With this spring weather, yesterday's walk around the neighborhood was pure pleasure. See the old brown barn behind me, to the left? How cool is that?

Spokane is rustically picturesque even in the alleys between the houses. Walking here feels like time travel to the pioneer days. You can tell that most people put up their own fences, out of wood or decorative bricks or stone. Many of the driveways have been re-graveled over and over for 100 years. Some people live in cabins that are 100 years old, too, home made and less than 700 square feet.

You can be in the middle of town and walk 20 minutes and be out on a farm. Large patches of land right in town are unspoiled wilderness. A large deep river with a waterfall runs right through town. It snows in winter, but in spring everything is green green green. This is so different from the deserts around Los Angeles, where I am from.

We walked 45 minutes yesterday. Here is what I ate and still lost .4 pounds on keep trim eating:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk
Small banana
Two mini Hershey's Special Dark candy bars in Easter wrappers, and two milk chocolate ones
Three eggs scrambled in bacon grease with onion, mushrooms and red bell pepper
Hamburger on a bun with a tablespoon of BBQ sauce and 1/3 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
Steamed broccoli
Strip of bacon I forgot to eat with lunch!

144.8 Sweater Dad Gave Me

My dad picked this sweater out and gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago. It is a size 14, and I was a size 18. The trick of wearing loose clothing to look skinnier worked on him. He thought I had lost weight when I hadn't. Dad's Alzheimer's was not recognized yet, at the time. This sweater is a bit too big, and it has seen better days, but I will try to keep it forever.

Besides, this sweater matches this mug that Mom bought me at Heavenly Valley, the last time we skiied together.

I am thrilled but shocked that I lost .2 pounds yesterday. on keep trim eating. I was at the bottom of my 145 - 149.9 goal weight range yesterday, so now I am under goal. I am just keeping the weight off. I was sure I had  indulged too much and would gain .6 pounds or so, which I would have to lose today. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk
Half an apple with 1 tablespoon Jif Chunky Peanut Butter
1 Cup Cattle Drive Chili with Beans
Half a cup Mexican Blend Grated Cheese over the chili
Small bowl of Kirkland corn chips, to eat the chili dip with
1 Hostess Fruit Pie - Apple
Baked chicken, Brussels sprouts and broccoli

We walked the dogs half an hour in the drizzle and 44F cold yesterday before we took the car in to get diagnosed. It needs new shock absorbers.


152.2 Lobster Ravioli and Homemade Pesto Sauce

We finally broke out this lobster ravioli for dinner last night. I made pesto sauce and steamed veggies to go with it. Yum! It was a great dinner!

Pesto sauce is really easy to make at home. I buy dried Basil leaves in bulk at Costco for really cheap. I get a small bottle of olive oil and a small jar of wet ground garlic at the grocery store. I mix two parts olive oil to one part each of wet ground garlic and dry measure Basil. That's it!

We bought the lobster ravioli pre-made at Costco. We still have another tub in the freezer. Lobster is too rich for me, eaten on its own, but it tasted great inside pasta.

I lost .4 pounds yesterday without even trying. My activity level was high, though. I sang at church. We walked the dogs 1.3 miles.
A guy at church shared that he had been bedridden the last 5 weeks and the doctor just figured out he is diabetic. There was nothing to eat but sweets at coffee hour, so I gave the guy some of my carrot sticks and one of my Diet Cokes. It felt so good to be able to help this guy out. He commented that he had cut carrots out of his diet because he mistakenly thought they converted immediately to sugar, but then he found out it is corn that does that. I told him peas convert immediately to sugar as well, based on Dr Tarnower's book about The Scarsdale Medical Diet.

I ate all this yesterday and still lost .4 pounds on keep trim eating, without really trying:

Small bowl of Special K, blueberries and vanilla soy milk
Raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip
1 frosted soft sugar cookie at church coffee hour
6 lobster ravioli, 1 tablespoon homemade pesto, steamed Kirkland frozen stir fry veggie mix
8 Hershey's Drops

155.4 Snow Cookout!

Well, yesterday turned out not to be a diet day after all, but it was a terrific Valentine's Day! The kids pointed out it was snowing around the end of 5th period. Scott and I had previously decided to have a snow cookout in the park the next time it snowed, and we did!

We got the granny cart he uses for fishing and filled it with charcoal briquettes, lighter fluid, a lighter, tin foil, hot dogs, buns, ketchup, mustard, relish, plates, cups, hot tea in a thermos, napkins, spoons, sugar, and tongs. He pushed the cart through the snow and I slung our lawn chairs over my shoulder like skis -- and we walked to the park in the snow and had a cookout! Putting the fire out with snow was fun, too!

Earlier, we walked the dogs two miles in the park in the snow. I also walk around quite a bit whenever I sub.

OK, so it was Valentine's Day at a high school. The secretary had Dove chocolates out for the subs. One of the teachers had dipped pretzels in white chocolate and covered them with red sprinkles. I ate eight candied pretzels and three Dove chocolates! So good, and I still lost .2 pounds. Here is all I ate yesterday:

Small bowl of Special K, blueberries and vanilla soy milk
3 Dove dark chocolates
8 candied pretzels
raw carrot sticks with 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip
hot dog on a bun with mustard and relish

157.6 Cheese Is Mostly Fat!





While preparing my dinner last night, I looked at both the nutrition charts in the pictures above. A third of a cup of cheese and a salmon patty both have 80 calories of fat. The cheese has 110 total calories, which makes fat 72% of the cheese. The fish has 170 total calories, which makes fat 47% of the fish. Which one looks more satisfying? I picked the fish.

I just learned we excrete most of the calcium we eat! We poop and pee out our calcium. This is because our livers are acidic from all the processed food, hard cheese, fatty meat, and grains we eat. Our livers buffer this acid by releasing alkaline stores of calcium in our bones. We can stop the calcium being released from our bones by eating fewer acid-producing foods and more fruits and vegetables. All this is according to Loren Cordain, Pedro Bastos, Nell Stephenson, Chris LaLanne and Maelan Fontes in the "Calcium and Bones" section of their page about the paleo diet.

I do remember hearing that cola was making my bones release their calcium, but it was never explained in terms of acid vs base. The paleo diet people also have an acid vs base food chart on their website. Coffee is strongly base producing in the liver: -1.4 according to their chart. Coca-cola produces acid in the liver: 0.4 on their chart. It looks like Apollinaris mineral water is a good base-producing cola alternative: -1.8 on the chart. Parmesan cheese is the highest acid producer at 34.2. The most base producing thing on their chart is raisins: -21.0.

I don't see a need to change over to the Paleo Diet. Dr Tarnower's Scarsdale Medical Diet and lifelong keep trim eating program says the same thing as the paleo diet: eat mostly lean sources of protein, vegetables and fruits. In his book, the doctor says he doesn't believe in milk drinking for adults and that grains and cheese should be taken in strict moderation. I do appreciate the Paleo Diet acid vs base info on how to retain more calcium, though.

We walked the dogs two miles yesterday. I finished off my Valentine's treat of Shari's Berries. I lost .2 pounds. Here is all I ate yesterday:

Small bowl of Special K and soy milk
2 white chocolate dipped strawberries from Shari's Berries (I like the brown ones better.)
3 eggs fried in bacon grease with red peppers, onion and mushrooms
1 strip of bacon
Salmon patty and steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots

159.8 Keep Trim Day 9 of 13

Today I am wearing my 32 x 32 corduroys from one of the second hand clothing stores for the first time. They are just a little smaller than my size 10 corduroys. My tummy got flat enough that I can wear them fastened without too much discomfort.

They will of course be much more comfortable when I am at my goal weight of 145. I might even need a smaller size then. We shall see! Scott took this picture of me in my 32 x 32 corduroys just a few minutes ago.

I am maintaining my weight at exactly the 159.8 pounds I started this keep trim eating period on. Yes, I am thrilled to be in the 150s! Under 150 is my goal, though, which is why I set my sights on 145. I figure at 145 I will weigh in at under 150 even in the doctor's office.

We got a ride to the church up the icy hill yesterday from a friend who has front-wheel drive. I got to sing with the pastor again. He goes in for surgery this Wednesday, so we will be praying for him. They served homemade oatmeal cookies during fellowship hour and had extras they sent home with us. I ate 6 all together: three with cranberries in them and three with chocolate chips in them. Yummy!

We walked the dogs in the icy snowy park when we got home from church. We used our new pedometers. I walked 1.26 miles in the icy snow before I got a blister and came home.

Here is all I ate yesterday and lost .2 pounds on keep trim eating:

Small bowl of Special K, blueberries and soy milk
Half a brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart
Cup of blueberries
Cup of raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons parmesan spinach dip
6 oatmeal cookies: 3 with cranberries and 3 with chocolate chips
Half a stuffed salmon steak, six Brussels sprouts, half a cup of red bell pepper sauteed in Pam

159.6 Thank God for Sunny Winter Days!

It was sunny yesterday after three days of snow storms. Everyone and their sister was at Costco, stocking up and eating pizza and hot dogs, including us. We also went to the bank and to Walmart, all in ecstatic joy!

Of course, over night the slush froze into ice. I am not sure we can make it to church this morning unless we walk through the ice to our closer church, which is a mile off. Maybe God will smile on us and melt the ice before 11 a.m.

Scott took this picture of me smiling in the winter sunshine in the Costco parking lot yesterday. I am wearing the size 12 Anne Klein jeans, and look! They are baggy on me! They are even more baggy in the seat.

We walked all over Walmart and Costco, and we walked the dogs half a mile in the slushy park. We bought two pedometers at Walmart, for less than $5 each. Today we will figure out how to use them. On Mapquest we figured out our route to the park and six times around is almost exactly two miles, as we thought. I wanted the pedometers to gauge how far we walk if we do more laps, walk to church, or go shopping.

Here is the normal food I ate yesterday on keep trim eating and lost .4 pounds along with walking probably two miles total between the park and stores:

Small bowl of Special K, blueberries and soy milk
Half a brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart
1 Hershey's Drop
Half a Costco Combo Slice of pizza, Tropicana Lite Lemonade
Half an egg roll (sample)
Three bites of flax seed flavor oatmeal (sample)
Half a stuffed salmon steak, 4 Brussels sprouts, half a cup of red bell pepper sauteed in Pam
1 Hershey's Drop

168.8 Keep Trim Day 14

Still holding steady well below my target keep trim weight of 171.4. I weigh 168.8 today. I walked the dogs 2/3 of a mile yesterday.

I am extending this keep trim eating period for the New Year's Eve party we're going to. It will be casual, just a potluck and board games. A potluck means I want to be able to taste everything people bring, though. My plan is to taste everything, but eat very little. That is straight out of Dr. Tarnower's book about the Scarsdale Medical Diet.

I love this picture! Here I am in skinny cut size 12 jeans that Mom sent. I love this pink top, too. It is so comfy! I look like a normal person: not fat and not skinny. The relief I feel in lack of headaches and lack of general soreness in my feet and ankles is the true reward, though.

My right Achilles Tendon is almost healed from when I stretched it too far, too fast the other day on our Lifestyler stair step exerciser. Thank you for the suggestion to wear good exercise shoes while I am on the stair stepper. I don't really understand how they can help me not stretch my Achilles Tendon too far, but they can't hurt. Maybe if I wore some high tops with ankle support they could prevent me from hyper extending.

Here is what I ate yesterday, and managed to lose .2 pounds on keep trim eating:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
4 slightly burnt decorated sugar Christmas cookies
Half a dinner plate of combo pizza from Costco, Diet Coke
Salmon patty, 2 cups steamed broccoli, cauliflower, yellow pepper and carrots

168.8 Lost .2 Pounds One Day on Keep Trim

I lost .2 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating, and now weigh 168.8! In this picture I am tossing all the Christmas present wrapping paper while wearing Mom's hand-me-down pink shirt and the slippers she sent me. You can see our new cross stitch decoration hanging on the TV cabinet over my head.

All the size 12 hand-me-downs that Mom sent fit well! I now have 8 pair of pants that fit. Some of them are too cool for our winter weather here, though. It's still nice to have them! I also have 6 size 10 hand-me-downs waiting in the closet until I can fit in them.

I still have a bit of my cold, but it is getting better. My right heel is a bit sore from being too "gung ho" on the stair step exercise machine yesterday. I figured out how to strap my Kindle to the front of it so I could listen to it read me a book while I exercised. Consequently, I exercised for 12 minutes straight. This is about 6 times as long as I usually stay on the stair stepper. I will have to be more careful not to pull my Achilles' Tendon when I do this. It's a great way to exercise, though, especially when I am sick and don't want to go out in the snow.

We have two inches of fresh snow this morning. It looks beautiful, but I hope it melts before we have to drive to Scott's doctor appointment tomorrow morning.

Here is what I ate yesterday and lost .2 pounds on keep trim eating:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 can Campbell's Select Harvest Healthy Choice Italian Style Wedding Soup, Diet Coke
1 hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 1 cup steamed broccoli, lots of water
Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk

168.6 Lost 1.6 Pounds in One Day

I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating! It turns out the Mexican food at The Green Onion (a subsidiary of Carl's Junior) is not nearly so full of sodium as Qdoba's food (a subsidiary of Jack in the Box). I had two tasty chicken enchiladas yesterday, but no sodium bloat!

Yesterday I was working at a top secret job and saw "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." It would have been a decent murder mystery if they just stuck with Daniel Craig's parts and left out the dragon girl. As it was, she got raped and took revenge. I could have done without those parts. They made the movie unnecessarily long, too -- two and a half hours.

It was cold in the theater, and as you pointed out Mom, keeping warm probably helped me burn off some extra calories. I just hope I don't get sick. I did go out to my car and crank up the heater in between showtimes. I only watched the whole movie once. Other than that, I only had to stay for the first half hour.

I walked the dogs their mile in the park before I left for the theater. Here is what I ate yesterday and lost 1.6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
December 23 chocolate from my Advent calendar and December 22 from Scott's
1 200 calorie Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bar
1 cup raw carrots, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke
1 cup raw carrots as a theater snack
2 chicken and cheese enchiladas at The Green Onion ($2.16, a third of a dinner plate)

169.0 Lost 1.4 Pounds in One Day Eating Cookies

I lost 1.4 pounds yesterday and now weigh 169.0! I cheated a bunch, too: I lost count at 12 decorated sugar Christmas cookies. Well, I also walked two miles yesterday and did about 5 minutes on the stair step exercise machine, if you take them all together.

No, I did not expect to lose weight by eating more than 12 cookies. It was a planned cheat on my diet during keep trim eating. I was indulging.

But now that I see this result, I remember that lately, on low-carbohydrate message boards, I have heard people say they lose more when they eat more, after a long period of eating less.

I don't pretend to understand the science of it. I only know I ate more than a dozen sugar cookies made with butter and decorated with more sugar yesterday -- and lost 1.4 pounds.
I did not eat anything in the time period that started two hours before I went to bed. I walked a mile before lunch and then another mile an hour after lunch. I have read various theories on how this timing matters or doesn't matter. I am just adding this data to my record in case it might be significant.
Here is all I ate yesterday, and lost 1.4 pounds on keep trim eating:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
December 20 chocolate from my Advent calendar
1 slice of Christmas bread
5 decorated Christmas sugar cookies
(1 mile walk)
2 cups steamed broccoli with 1/3 cup grated Mexican Blend cheese melted over it in the microwave,
Diet Coke
5 decorated sugar Christmas cookies
(1 mile walk)
Baked chicken, onion and carrots, caffeine-free tea
At least 2 more decorated sugar Christmas cookies

171.4 Keep Trim Day 4

Yay! I lost .4 pounds yesterday and I am back to my keep-trim maintenance weight of 171.4! I walked one and a third miles with the dogs in the almost snow. I did a few spurts on the stair step exercise machine.
Last night we had a recital at the smaller church we go to. We had our sister church over and both choirs sang. I was in our choir and I had lots of fun singing. Afterward, we served the Christmas cookies that all the ladies in our church had brought.
I brought most of those Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bars and a dozen decorated sugar cookies. At first, I got away with not eating anything. I just made myself a cup of Good Earth Tea (which I also brought) and walked around socializing.
But then a lady from our church asked if I had tried her Christmas bread. I had to admit I had not yet tried it. She saw that I tried some and then she put three more slices in my Tupperware to take home! Here are the two remaining slices, in this picture. I had one slice after breakfast just now. She has a heavy German accent, and she says this is German Christmas bread. It has raisins, cranberries and small chocolate pieces in it. It is light and quite tasty.
Here is what I ate yesterday and managed to lose .4 pounds to get back down to my keep-trim maintenance weight of 171.4:
1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
Half a dinner plate of ham, 1 cup steamed carrots, Diet Coke
Hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 2 cups steamed broccoli, caffeine-free tea
1 slice of German Christmas bread

178.4 Keep Trim Day 10 of 14

I lost .4 pounds yesterday and now weigh 178.4! I am pleasantly surprised, as I took just the amount of treats yesterday that satisfied me. I did walk my mile.

I can see how weighing in every day is, far from the chore I imagined it would be, actually a tool that helps keep me on top of maintaining my weight. I don't know why I resisted it for so long. Thank God I adopted the practice and the attitude to lose all this extra poundage while I still can exercise.

Another thing that is weird about this experience is not knowing how clothes are going to fit me from one day to the next. For about the past two years I have either been gaining or losing weight. I now fit into clothes I hadn't worn for 10 years or more. Some of these are even too loose on me. I have had to buy new pajamas because my old PJs were falling off me.

Anyway, here is what I ate yesterday and still managed to not only maintain my weight loss, but to lose another .4 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 cup of pumpkin pie
Half a dinner plate of pizza, Tropicana Lite Lemonaid
Baked chicken and onion with mushrooms and steamed broccoli, caffeine-free diet soda
1 brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart

180.2 Keep Trim Day 3 of 14

I lost .2 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating, so today I weigh 180.2. My maintenance weight for this keep trim period is 179. I walked my mile yesterday, with both dogs, in the snow.

Here is what I ate yesterday and lost .2 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
Half a dinner plate of Costco fresh combo pizza, Diet Dr Pepper
1 Hostess apple fruit pie, water
1 large hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 1 cup steamed carrot sticks, water

Scott is OK. We called the VA and spoke with a triage nurse who did not think x-rays were needed. She prescribed RICE treatment: rest, ice, compression, elevation. I drove to WalMart in the snow yesterday to get a compression bandage and a sling.

While I was out, I also drove to Costco and got one of their fresh pizzas. My instinct seems to have been correct. Fresh pizza seems to have far less sodium in it than frozen pizza. I also got some Hostess apple fruit pies while I was at Walmart.

184.8 Diet Day 1

Down to 184.8, I am once again in territory uncharted for ten years or more. I lost .4 pounds yesterday. I did not go on a formal walk, but that was because I was so sore from standing at school all day and then grocery shopping that my right hip hurt. It feels better this morning, but I have to teach again today, so I can use your prayers.

Here is what I ate yesterday, and still lost .4 pounds on my last keep trim day for this cycle:

Small bowl of Special K and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

1/2 cup raw carrot sticks, 1/4 cup Parmesan spinach dip, 2 Ritz Crackers 'N Cheese Dip Handi Snacks, Diet Coke

1 Costco combo slice of pizza, Minute Maid Lite Lemonade, 1 bite of brownie at a Costco sample cart

Last Day of Keep Trim Eating

Today I weigh 185.2. I lost .6 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating. I walked two thirds of a mile. I tried the strategy of eating as I would on the diet and adding desserts. It worked! Here is what I ate yesterday:

1 and 1/2 cups Special K, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

1 cup carrots, 1/2 cup spinach / garlic / parmesan dip, Diet Coke, 1 fun size Tootsie Roll

1 Hostess fruit pie, apple

7 meatballs, 1 cup sauteed mushrooms, caffeine-free diet soda

I substituted at one of the high schools yesterday, and a kid gave me the Tootsie Roll. He offered. I never would have asked a kid to share his Halloween candy with me.
--------------------------------------------------------------


Guide to Thousands of Unlisted Job Openings in the US!

Do you know anyone who is over 40 and has a college degree, but no job? I wrote this book for them. Tell them about it, or better yet, buy them a copy. Turnover is high in these jobs, so there are almost always openings. With this guide, a substitute can do the job so well they actually like it. I do.

I hope you will at least "look inside" the high school substitute teacher's guide I wrote. The free book sample you get by "looking inside" tells you not only how to get a job as a substitute teacher, but also my qualifications to write the book: my education and detailed substitute teaching work history (since 1989).

This book is available in paperback, in Kindle mobi format at Amazon, in Nook format at Barnes and Noble, and in any other format you could possibly need through Smashwords.

185.8 Day 13 of 14 Keep Trim Eating

My weight is back down to 185.8 today, which means I lost .6 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating. I am not even sure how, except that I did walk my mile yesterday. Here is all I ate:

2 cups Special K, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

Half a dinner plate of pizza, Diet Coke

2 cheeseburgers complete with bun, American cheese and BBQ sauce, caffeine-free diet soda

My new 34 x 30 jeans are a tiny bit loose under my hips, but not enough yet that I can wear them to substitute teaching assignments. I had them on this morning and I was tempted to wear them, just because I could get them on and they were semi comfortable. I wanted to celebrate the accomplishment. But they are too tight to be appropriate for teacher wear. In another week they won't be, if I stick to the program!