Swedish pancakes

I love em, but apparently I can't make them for the life of me. I used the box mix and a regular grill pan. Got a good small shape, and brown on the one side. But flipping was another story entirely. I tried a LOT of non stick spray but all they did was stick to everything. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but maybe I'll remember and YouTube next time I attempt them. I don't really like really thick pancakes.

One thing I do really really like are the pancake mixes from Target. I know it's going to sound really odd that my favorite mix would be Target, but it's true. So far I have had the apple strudel and the apple caramel. Both are really good, very similar but very good. I highly recommend both. I have the raspberry chocolate one, but I haven't made that one yet. I'll update this post soon as I have more info.

I also need to find a better way to be keeping track of what I am eating every day. I need to start keeping a journal because I am eating all over the place and not having a good way to update what I'm doing as well. I'll get a journal to log everything this weekend and this Monday I will do much better about getting my food journal to you.

This week has been a bad week from an emotional perspective. Hubby has been sick for a few months now. They ran some blood work and a CT scan and they can tell there are vitamin deficiencies as a result of whatever is wrong, and they know something is wrong, they just don't have any idea what that might be. Nothing showed up in the bloodwork or catscan. That is both good and bad. It means that they have been able to rule out some things that it can't be, but it still leave some scary options of what it could still be. Trying not to think about that bridge until we come to it as George Wallace would say. He has another appointment in a week and hopefully we will know more.

Good news is in all the other chaos. Tomorrow is going to be a very exciting day. He has another phone interview. And bar results come out. Once he gets bar results and they will be great I just know it, it will open up a lot of doors as to what he can start applying for. Once those results come out he will be able to start applying for some jobs. I think he still has the admissions part to endure, and I need to find out what the time frame is on that, but tomorrow should be a really exciting day in any event.

Coffee for breakfast

Ok, this morning I was bad. Not healthy by any stretch of the imagination. I had coffee for breakfast. I got a rasberry white mocha from Starbucks. There is 5 shots of syrup in a large coffee there, I like 1/2 & 1/2 rasberry and white mocha. I usually end up with 6 shots somehow. I don't really want THAT much sugar in my life, just the normal amount. 6 shots is a bit much. I actually would prefer if they can't figure out 2.5 shots of rasberry and 2.5 shots of white mocha that they just do 2 shots of each. Trust me, that is SO much better than an extra shot.

I digress. Anyhow, sadly breakfast was not great. We have our finance committee meetings every 3rd Tuesday of the month. I'm in early these days so getting a healthy breakfast these mornings is hard. I was up at 5:30 today and to bed my usual 11pm, so I don't think real well in the mornings on a good day. I usually don't wake until 10am. So 5:30 - 10 is a long time to not really be fully awake yet. So sadly for awhile I will probably end up having coffee for breakfast these days. Since it's only 1 day a month that I have the slip up, I'm okay with that. I just have to know that is my only day each month that I can let slip up. Lunch today will be much better. I'm in the mood for a hearty salad to make up for breakfast. Only an hour until most places open. Since I didn't get a pastry with my coffee and breakfast litterally was JUST coffee, I'm going to have an early lunch. I feel midly hungry already but nothing too bad just yet.

I am ready to get started!

I'm actually really excited to be starting today. The weekend was good, I took Friday off, had some friends over Saturday night, and Sunday was a nice day of rest and relaxation.

Friday was a perfect day. I spoke to my contact at SodaStream and after some much needed help she offered some great suggestions on which model to choose from. I really wasn't sure Pure or Penguin. It's been really hard. I do like the glass option, but we have a small 1 bedroom apartment and space is limited. I don't have much on the countertops right now, but it would still be nice to keep the space we have available maximized as much as possible. Pure seemed to be the best option for me. Also I do want to bring a bottle to work to enjoy during the day, and it would be nice to have portability as an option. Everything in our kitchen right now is stainless steel so I wanted something that would blend in well. I'm really looking forward to getting my new SodaStream! I can't wait, I feel like a kid at Christmas, is it here yet? :) I also had a great and healthy lunch. Totally by accident, hubby invited me to come down to his work and we had lunch at Teaism. I had the soba noodle bento box. Everything was cool, which is nice on a warm spring afternoon. The bento box was soba noodles, herbed chicken breast on a bed of mixed greens, and seasoned broccoli. There was a ginger dressing that I used on the soba noodles and mixed greens. Perfectly balanced, and healthful too. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning for company Saturday. Hubby had a job interview Friday night that went well. He still has a few more people to talk to yet, but so far so good.

Since I was done early enough Friday I didn't have much cleaning to do on Saturday so Saturday I got to sleep in a little bit. I also had time to go shopping and get some groceries since we were quite low. I spent $34 and got several outfits. I got a suit, some dress tops, a white denim jacket and even a couple of tops for when I lose some weight. We went out to dinner with some friends before everyone else showed up. And just had a really great night.

Sunday was just a nice recouping day. We found a really great condo online that if the job works out would be great. It's all upgraded ammenities, great price, right by work for him. Now we just need to play the waiting game.

Procurring My SodaStream

Ok, so now I still need to get the SodaStream to be able to begin my journey. I'm still not sure which model I would want. I really like the look of the Pure model, but I like the glass option of the Penguin. Honestly? I'm still working on trying to win one. I really want to be very green about this, and I would prefer to win one. If that's not an option as I would like to start this journey very soon, I'm also looking into procurring a second hand model. I'm sure someone out there has a SodaStream that is maybe is a little less asthetically pleasing as it once was, or got one as a gift and they just don't drink much soda anyhow. I would rather try to be green in addition to losing weight. Sure SodaStream will help a great deal with being green, but I want to do even more. The new SodaStream comes in packing materials and if I can find someone local that is selling I would rather try to do that and avoid some extra packing waste.

I also am hoping to reach out to SodaStream and see if they have any models that they can't really sell that they would be willing to part with. I'm sure from time to time a model gets damaged in shipping and is returned simply because it doesn't look as nice. Or maybe it was used and a part broke so it was returned and is perfectly fine after a part is replaced. I don't mind if the model I get was already used by someone or not. I dont care if it has a ton of scratches or alot of dents. I just would like to try to do my part and make the world a bit greener. There is also a very good chance that I will want to get a second model for use at work also. So I'm trying to be extra green.

Welcome to my weight loss journey...

The long road ahead will be a windy and difficult journey. But one I am finally willing and am ready to face.

I just wanted to thank everyone that has come to my blog, all are welcome, all are welcome! I'm having a lot of fun planning the idea, and putting everything into motion finally. It's been a long time coming. So without further ado, I present to you my newest idea. I have a number of blogs, but this is my favorite idea so far. It's also my most recent idea.

Anyhow, the idea struck me one evening while I was trying to enter to win a SodaStream and was brewing up some tea. I was adding some Rasberry syrup when the idea struck me. We all focus on carbs, fat, protein. When maybe what we really should be focusing on is our fluid intake. All the statistics say we are 90% water. Not carbs, not fat (ok well maybe more fat than I care to admit), not protein, WATER! That's right?! And what is the one thing I dread about embarking on a new diet? Water, or more specifically what to drink. Usually most diets limit you to water, coffee, tea. The limiting factor is almost always what you can drink.

We all know regular soda in the large quantities we all drink is bad. I get that. I still love my regular soda though. I shouldn't. There isn't anything redeeming about it. The bottles are so bad for the environment and every time I get a new bottle I am just adding to the island of plastic. Oh sure, I recycle. But is that doing much better for the environment?

I know I don't drink enough, but is drinking regular soda, 8 glasses a day as recommended, really going to help me lose weight? Of course not. And, let's be frank, Arizona water isn't really very good. Tap tastes horrible and I almost gave a Doctor a heart attack when I told him I was increasing my water consumption by drinking more water. Not that he was shocked I was increasing my water intake, but that I was drinking straight from the tap. That was certainly a sure way to kidney stones. I don't really like bottled water though either. Ever left a bottle in the car and then opened up the bottle. Smells like chemicals. My instinct is not to drink that water even when it's not been left in the summer heat.

So back to my dilemna. I love coffee, with just a little milk. I don't mind even just 1% and only enough to take away the bite. So that's good. Not too many extra calories there. I also like tea, preferrably herbal and with no added sugar. Though a good way to curb my soda fix is a strong herbal sweet tea with just a touch of honey. Again, not bad there. I don't mind water as long as it's not from the tap and with a touch of lemon (preferrably fresh squeezed, but I also really like the lemon powder you can get in packets or the shaker). But that leaves me with not so many varieties. An easy way to get me off the wagon (or is it off the wagon?).

So I realized what I wanted to do. I want to create my own weight loss plan around what I drink. I would like to call it pee the pounds away but that has a weird ring to it. Catchy, but too weird, even for me. So I am going to modify the idea a bit and call it "My SodaStream Weight Loss Journey".

My first step is procuring my SodaStream. I really like the Pure model best, but any variety will work for me. I would prefer glass bottles over plastic as I think glass is just safer. I don't believe in the leeching of chemicals from plastic into what we drink, but why take my chances! I'm still working on which model I would like so for now that part is on hold. Next step?

What will I be drinking? Zero water. I got one of those pitchers and I plan to drink as much water as I can. And then for everything else? Everything else will come from My SodaStream. Ok, the hard part is done. Now, what about my diet? I can't just drink everything and ommit eating altogether.

So since my focus is going to be on my fluid intake. I also don't drink much water right now. So at first diving in from 0 glasses a day to 8 is going to be tough. To compensate? As I slowly increase my water intake I will also get extra fluids by getting in lots of fruits and veggies every day to increase my water consumption through food.

I know sounds weird right? But if we are 90% water we should probably also be eating foods so that combined with the 8 glasses of water everyday so that what we eat/drink is also 90% water. I love fruits and veggies, and now that spring has sprung it's easy to find all sorts of fruits and veggies. There is a Euro Market right by my office that has the best fruit salad. It's a great mix of all perfectly ripe fruits. I hate getting a fruit salad where all the fruit is under ripe, or worse yet 90% of it is canteloupe. This place rocks, not only is it all fresh, and perfectly ripe, but it's the perfect mix. So I plan to get my breakfast there. And then lunch will be a hearty salad. Maybe I'm the only person in the world that feels this way, but half a head of iceberg, half a tomato, some boxed croutons, and ranch dressing is NOT a salad. For that matter, I don't think if you start with iceberg you can even quantify that as a salad. So when I say a hearty salad I'm talking about something vibrant and fun, something you look at as a meal and not as something you are forced to eat because you are "on a diet". Corner Bakery and Cosi are both by work and both have a variety of salads that are all great. Dinner can be just about anything I want it to be. But with my health in mind. I plan to listen to my body and balance out my dinner from the rest of my day. Some nights might just be some cottage cheese with fruit, but other days it might be steak and some steamed vegetables, or a big burger with fries. And the last step?

The exercise program of course. That I'm still working on and might still be changing that so I will be waiting until I have solidified this part before posting about my workout program. I start Monday April 18. This week has been full of real life and I don't want that to be an excuse, but sometimes the real world is more than the body can bear. Illness has reared it's ugly head but I seem to be getting better rather than getting worse so this week will be a light gym week. More to come...
mysodastreamweightlossjourney@gmail.com