A Whole Lotta Nothin'

It's been a pretty uneventful day!  I really don't have anything entertaining or witty to share, so I'm just going to list the highlights and low lights of the day.  So, here we go:

Highlights:

1 - Brian took Madeline and I out to eat at Pizza Ranch tonight.  It was FABULOUS;

2 - Little girl has had no recurrence of her fever, so I'm confident she's on the road to recovery;

3 - It's 11:30p.m. and it's storming - I just LOVE the thunder;

4 - Got to set up a hopeful Mommy Night Out for tomorrow night - I SO need this;

5 - I made some more sun catchers in really cool shapes/colors;

6 - I've been able to stick to my guns and remain pop free for 5 weeks now.

Low Lights:

1 - I found a carpenter ant in the breezeway today - HUGE dislike;

2 - The high wind and humidity pretty much kept us inside all day, also a bummer;

3 - My pea plants are dying - apparently they've had too much water - go figure;

4 - My little car needs an another alignment and tire rotation - the one we had done a couple months ago apparently was either done wrong or just didn't hold - GRRRRR.

Like I said before, nothing too memorable, but at least the highs outweighed the lows!!  I'd call that a pretty good day!!  Over and out!

80% Full...

In my quest to lose my remaining "baby weight," I'm always looking for simple things I can add or change in my daily routine to help boost my weight loss confidence.  Little things - things I can stick with - not the HUGE dramatic crazy things that people do to lose weight - things that are impossible to keep up and wind up being terribly frustrating instead.  

A good friend of mine lives in China and shared a bit of Chinese wisdom with me last summer.  She told me that the Chinese people only eat until they are "80% full."  At first I chuckled - 80% full!!??  But it makes total sense!!  Statistically, it takes something like 30 minutes for our brains to tell us that our stomachs are full.  Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I know I can cram several trips to the all-you-can eat buffet down my gullet in less than 30 minutes for sure - and what does that result in??  A terribly over-stuffed mama who swears, "I'll NEVER do that again!!"  In reality, though, once the hunger pains start screaming, our first instinct is to shut them up, right?  And, in the process, we end up with far more calories than we need.  

***RANDOM THOUGHT - serve your food from the pots, pans, or bowls on the counter directly to your plate before you sit down to eat - DO NOT put the meal directly on the table.  This reduces your habit of returning for seconds, or thirds, or, or, or...

Another funny tidbit about eating - did you know that when you are about 80% full, you naturally sigh - or take a deep breath!?  Another friend shared that with me and I have found, at least for myself, that it's quite true!!  If I pay attention when I'm eating and stop eating when I sigh, I've actually had enough to eat and I feel satisfied.  Now, I'm certainly not saying that I don't always "listen" to my sigh - often times I tell it to take a hike so that I can finish the remaining delectables on my plate.  In reality, though, my body DOES tell me it's satisfied and I just need to get my brain (and my stubborn independence) to agree.

So, here's my new plan:  I'm going to only eat until I'm 80% full - until I sigh that satisfied sigh - regardless as to whether there is still food left on my plate or not.  I'm confident that in time, I'll visually learn how much food it takes for me to get to my "sigh point" and will only put that amount of food on my plate, thus further reducing the temptation to over-eat.  

All of this is theory, mind you, but I figure it's just another one of those little things that couldn't hurt to try!!  So, here's to 80%!!!!

The First of Who Knows How Many...

Well - I've finally done it.  I've created a blog.  Really not quite sure what I'm going to do with it, but I figured, eh, why not!?  I think I'm going to use this blog to share some of my personal thoughts, ideas, and projects - things that maybe aren't quite so Facebook appropriate.  Ya know - those thoughts that you may want to remember later, but don't exactly want to put out there on Facebook for the entire world to see.  Or those random conversations we have with ourselves in our own minds - those "what if" convos that I sometimes think would be fun to actually type out.  So, here's to my future in blogging - CHEERS!