Day 7 of the Evil Soup Diet (The End)

Well it's day 7...finally! And I have to say that the diet only actually lasted 6 days because today I absolutely and utterly BLEW IT! Today was supposed to be rice and veggies. I did have rice and vegetables but I had lots of other stuff too.

It all started this morning at church. An older couple introduced themselves to Jamie and I and after chatting for a bit they invited us to their house for lunch. And we went, we probably could have come up with some excuse not to go but nothing came to us in the moment, we stumbled over ourselves, "well it's up to you honey"..."oh no, really, it's up to you"...so we said yes. And it really was a great lunch with very nice people but it started off the ruination of rice day. We did have rice and salad (excellent!) but there was chicken and rye bread also (of which I sampled both).

For dinner, I had leftover salmon and strawberries...neither of which are on the agenda for today. AND, to top it all off, I bought brownies and ate some!!! EEEEKK!!

But overall I feel satisfied with what I've accomplished over the week. I must say that it was much easier at work with my diet buddy, Mike, to talk to AND the girls keeping me in line ensuring my success. As the weekend approached I knew it would be difficult to resist the temptations of being at home all day with all the food choices my cupboards would provide.

Total weight loss for the week as of this moment: 8 lbs.

It was 8 lbs yesterday too so I'm certain if I had followed along today I could have made the 10 lb mark that the diet promises.

This week I embark on the continuation of healthier eating. Weight watchers point counting...here I come!!

Day 6 of the Evil Soup Diet

Today has been a bit of a better day now that I'm allowed to have meat AND veggies. I woke up late and had leftover chicken breast with salad for lunch. For dinner I had salmon and a salad (caesar this time, probably not allowed this dressing but oh well).

But today, despite it being an easier day, I've cheated....had a couple of chocolate chip cookies and a piece of Jamie's garlic bread.

And still, according to my scales, I have lost 8 lbs. I am so excited about that!

Tomorrow could be another rough day...brown rice and veggies, and that's it!

I'm off now to watch movies at Jen's and Chris's.

Day 5 of the Evil Soup Diet

...is meat and tomatoes day. Meat and tomatoes. But what to have for breakfast? Meat and tomatoes aren't breakfast foods. Well, maybe they are but not in my world. So in an effort to find an alternative I searched this diet online. One variety of the diet said that it was okay to have a cup of bran or other fibrous cereal after day 4. So bran it was that I had for breakfast this morning. And Jennifer suggested that I have bacon, so I had some of that too with my green tea.

I found it really hard to get down my beef and tomatoes at lunch. I think I was still feeling really full from the bran and bacon.

And the diet says to eat a lot of tomatoes - I admit that lunchtime is the only time today that I had ANY. That's the first thing I cheated with today. And, I admit for dinner I ate some of Jamie's french fries (I KNOW!!! I'M SORRY!!) with my skinless chicken breast.

This is so hard! I have to make up by keeping busy and eating really well tomorrow with the meat and veggies. Again, I'm going to have the breakfast dilemma but at least I can have a salad for lunch which I'm really excited about. Salad has really been the one thing I've enjoyed during this week.

Saturday -- yup, that's going to be a hard day -- I really have to keep occupied -- clean, clean, scrapbook, scrapbook, and more scrapbook! I hope my scrappers block is over!

Day 4 of the Evil Soup Diet

I'm feeling pretty good today. Last night for supper I decided to eat a can of the PC Beef Vegetable soup (contained naturally, no MSGs) and felt so much better. It still has the green beans and carrots and onions, it did have a little bit of beef (which I did eat because I felt good about protein on volleyball day), and potatoes (I did NOT eat the potatoes since it's one of the forbidden foods other than on day 2)

Today is Banana & Skim milk day. Or, as another website put it, Banana smoothie day - that makes it sounds a little better I guess. For me, I'd just rather drink the milk although I'm really not a fan of white milk, I always put chocolate syrup in mine...he he! And bananas, I really like. So far so good. I have another can of soup for lunch and again, feel good about it. I'm not feel stressed and horrified over eating THE horrid evil soup. I figure any vegetable soup is good, better than quitting!

According to my scales this morning, I am down 6 lbs. I don't see a big difference or anything but I'm happy for the kick start.

Speaking of kick-starts, I've been searching the internet and finally found a website that actually does describe this diet as exactly that - a kickstart - to continued healthy eating. AND, very helpful indeed, it lists the type of low-GI foods you should include in "Step 2"
http://seven.com.au/todaytonight/factfile/591500
This website also reminds us again that this is not a diet to be prolonged or continued on a regular basis. It suggests a maximum of doing this diet only 3 times within a 6-month period. That's one week every 2 months.

Tomorrow I finally get to eat BEEF! I'll have leftover roast beef for lunch and grilled steaks for dinner. Should be yummy!

Day 3 of the Evil Soup Diet

I have decided that I HATE this soup. Last night I managed to get it down for supper...but barely! I immediately thought that I might throw up in distaste but instead called Christa for some emotional support.

Suggestions to make this diet possible for me to continue:
- Make a new batch of soup, the way I would normally make soup minus the potatoes
- Eat any soup. I.e. A Campbells variety of veg soup which still shouldn't have too many calories.
- Hold my nose and just swallow the soup I've made already

So far today I am doing good with the fruit I've been snacking on all morning (Grapes, canteloupe, apple), for lunch I will have salad again...but tonight for dinner I think I will try a can of soup. Volleyball tonight so I don't have time to make a whole new batch even if I decide that I want to.

I just don't want to quit...but I don't want to end up being malnourished either. The soup is supposed to be what fills you up whenever you're hungry. I'm feeling hungry because I can't stomach the soup. Any suggestions to keep me on this thing for the next 4 days?

And to add insult to injury, I have complete scrappers block. Thought I would be able to finish some layouts this week, tried to get a page done last night...but NOTHING! I have my pics ready but I can't even make it to the next step of choosing co-ordinating papers. Not a single idea is coming to my head when I sit down at my scrapping desk. I'm usually a pretty creative person, gotta figure out a way to get those juices flowing. In the meantime I guess I'll be scraplifting.

And can someone please tell me how I can scan 12 x 12 layouts? I have no idea since the scanner is too small to fit the full page size...is there a specific program where you can piece the 2 sides of the layout together? I'm a complete idiot about this but would love to learn so I can perhaps open an account with 2peas and start posting my layouts. Please tell me...???

Day 2 of the Evil Soup Diet

Today is veggie day and I'm doing OKAY. I had carrots and cucumbers for breakfast and snack with green tea. I had salad for lunch with balsamic vinegar and just a smidge of olive oil (don't think the olive oil is permitted but oh well), I enjoy salad. But I still can't get the soup down very well. Mike R brought me his version of the soup since he's doing the diet as well but I still don't like it very much. Don't know what it is --can't pinpoint anything in particular besides the fact that I just really struggle with cooked veggies.

Tonight for supper, I am looking forward to having a large baked potato with butter. This is the only day that potato is permitted and I never thought I would ever be so excited about it! And of course I need to have the soup too. No soup and the diet won't work I guess so I gotta force a bowl of it down.

As of this morning, if my scales are accurate, I lost 2 pounds.

Tonight I plan to do some scrapbooking, hoping to keep myself busy so I can stop thinking of all the things I CAN'T eat. I had a headache last night and a little bit today. Nothing serious but I think it might be the sugar/carb withdrawals.

Tomorrow should be a better day - I HOPE - since I'm allowed to have fruit again.

Day 1 of the Evil Soup Diet

As some of you know, I've decided to do this crazy soup diet that I saw on a blogger website. It's kinda like a "fast" to clean your body of impurities. I really think I need the kickstart to get back on track with some weight loss.

Today is soup and fruit day -
The fruit I can handle. I'm really a fruit lover.

The soup, on the other hand, is vegetable soup. I love soup but I really hate vegetables. Normally my soup consists of a meat base (beef or chicken) with potatoes and carrots and turnip. This soup has tomatoes and green beans and celery and peppers and millions of carrots. And supposedly, the more soup you eat, the better this diet will work. This is going to be a problem...but I'm not giving up. I will do this! Tonight I will puree my soup for supper so I don't have to eat those chunks of legumes.

Check in tomorrow for "Day 2 of the Evil Soup Diet" when Myrna turns into the bitchiest girl you ever did meet due to sugar withdrawal and the fact that day 2 is an "all veggie day". Some a little prayer for me will ya?

Baby Shower

Tracey's baby shower was a great success...big thanks to everyone who came out and to everyone who sent along gifts!

We had fun playing tacky shower games. I tried desperately to come up with something different that we hadn't already played at the last 2 showers. So with the clothespin game (the one where you usually can't cross your legs or say "baby"). Well, we tried something a little different and you weren't allowed to say the guest of honours name, "Tracey". This made for a very fun afternoon since most people want to chat with Tracey and end up saying her name across the room to get her attention. "Hey You" just didn't seem to cut it. And of course, Aunt Val won this game. She always does! he he :)

And we also played the game where you have to guess the baby food inside the unlabelled jars. Funny! Some of them are so hard! And I did a new game that I hadn't seen before where I placed a bunch of various "baby items" (I.e. socks, diaper shirt, infant cereal, plug-in covers, bottle) inside brown paper bags and guests had to figure out the items by feeling the outside of the bag only. And then we ended up having a bunch of people who were tied for first place with 7 out of 8 items correct. Our tie-breaker was this - I brought Tracey into the kitchen and whoever could remember the most items she was wearing (clothes and jewellry) would win. Cousin Michelle won this AND the baby food if I'm not mistaken. She really knows her baby shower games!

I'm posting a couple of pics of the gift opening. Tracey got the one big item that she really needed, a tandum (double) stroller because Isabella is still too little to walk around on her own. Otherwise, guests really gave awesome stuff. Tracey said she really needed diapers and wipes, of course, and lots of diaper shirts and sleepers. She already has a lot of the other baby stuff from her first two. She did very well! Thanks again!

WHO DID THIS?

Tracey's baby shower was on the weekend and I have a pretty funny story about my busy little niece, Isabella.

We were all in the living room occupied with games and food and opening gifts. Isabella was kinda just wandering around and playing, going up and down the stairs to the family room, etc. (She even fell down the stairs once...ooops!) My cousin-in-law, Vicki, was sitting closest to her and kinda kept looking out for her, chasing her around a little bit to make sure she didn't get into too much trouble, etc.

And then we noticed that we hadn't seen or heard Isabella for a little while, Tracey asked, "Where's Isabella?" (She really couldn't go too far but ya just gotta make sure). Vicki went to check on her and then we hear Vicki bursting into laughter. Isabella had found Cavelle's cigarettes and was taking them one by one and cracking them in half! OMG, we were all laughing so hard, especially at Cavelle, "Oh My! Those were my last pack too!" Devestatingly hilarious! Ya just gotta know Cavelle...she's the funniest.

We took a few pics of the incident...and I just noticed that the cigs were on top of a newspaper from a few days ago. The headline says "WHO DID THIS?" ha ha! How appropriate is that title??!!

I'm just glad this ended up being a funny story...on the other side of the spectrum, it could have just as easily been a very scary and dangerous situation with the lighter inside the pack. An old friend from highschool was seriously burned as a child in a similar incident. So if you're not accustomed to having small children around please make sure to have a conscience about putting those smokes WAY UP HIGH when they come to visit.

More than Words

In the spirit of upcoming Valentines Day, I would like to share a cute little story about my hubby. He's definitely a "more than words" kinda guy. Yes, he tells me he loves me all the time (we women LOVE to hear those words, don't we?), but he's also really great at the cuddly make-ya-feel great kinda stuff too. He will surprise me by vacuuming, make me dinner if I'm gone for the day and he's at home, he greets me with hugs and a kiss and a "how was your day?". But yesterday when he came home from work he was in a rotten mood. He had gotten into a bit of a scrap with his boss (his boss is also a good friend of his). I had just gone to the drugstore and bought my very first Materna vitamins and was very anxious to tell him about my latest purchase and our first step toward becoming potential parents. Much to my disappointment, he just kinda shrugged and gave me a weak smile, barely a response at all. So I just put my vitamins on a spot on the counter so I would remember them every day and I left him alone, I was getting ready for volleyball anyways and he is entitled to the occasional grumpy mood. Lord knows he puts up with enough from me. And then this morning when I came downstairs I went to the kitchen to prepare my breakfast and lunch for work and there on the counter, next to my vitamins, he had placed his own men-formula vitamins (he hasn't taken them in ages!). And it really made me smile. I know it's just something little but this simple and loving show of support, our vitamins together on the counter, just really seemed to say so much more about us. A quiet gesture that spoke to me about his appreciation of this next step in our lives. I just hope through all else that's sure to come our way that I will never be blind to seeing these "little things" because they really do mean everything.