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Easter

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime ~ Martin Luther

Azalea

Enjoy this beautiful spring day!

 

Mark 16:5-7

Cookies & Colored Eggs

The Saturday before Easter Sunday would not be complete without coloring eggs.  This year I decided the day wouldn’t be complete without cookies as well.  I started early in the day with spritz cookies.  The recipe I used is from Remarkable Home and I found it on Pinterest.  When I first came across this post, it was cuteness overload.  The Artist has sandwiched the cookies onto pop sticks and formed them into a bouquet.  Intent on using my new bunny platter, I had no intention of going to bouquet route, but it was certainly adorable.

With my handy spritz cookie press and the basic recipe from Remarkable Home I was able to create these festive flowers:

And they are tasty.  The cookies are all brushed with a light glaze.  The pink and orange have colored sprinkles; the green and blue do not.  The general consensus is that the sprinkle cookies taste better, however those without sprinkles look better.  Maybe I went a little overboard on the sprinkling.

After I decorated all the flower cookies I placed them on the Garden Bunny Cake Stand from Pier One that I purchased on a recent shopping trip.

Isn’t it cute

 

This evening I drafted my daughters to do the egg coloring for me.  Stephanie and Amanda took care of the metallic and tie dye Easter eggs and did a great job.  We decorated 18 but my math/division skills were lacking at the time so we ended up with 10 metallic and 8 tie dye.  My bad.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed the time with my girls.

 

This is Eloise

 

Diet Day 3

Am I skinny yet?

Today I remained faithful to the Paleo plan I began on Monday.  In addition to this, I have remained faithful to another plan that I didn’t even realize was a diet trend.  I mentioned on Monday that I am counting calories and skipping dinner.  Apparently this is a method associated with one of the world’s most popular health and fitness trends — Intermittent Fasting (IF).  Here is what I’ve learned:

  1. The Leangains protocol is a period of fasting daily that begins with skipping breakfast and then restricting food intake to a period of 8 hours, for example noon – 8 PM.  Then begins the fast for 16 hours.  I have not learned why skipping breakfast is supposedly ideal, but I know that skipping dinner and evening snacking is definitely beneficial.
  2. The Eat-Stop-Eat method involves fasting for a full 24 hours weekly.
  3. The 5:2 method involves restricting caloric intake to 500 twice a week, non-consecutive days.  You are free to eat normally the other 5 days of the week.

Have you tried IF?  I have had success in the past by eating normal meals during the day and then “closing the kitchen” at 4 PM.  If you have less than ten pounds to lose and can do this for a few days, it will result in a much happier bathroom scale.

I’m looking forward to seeing what my bathroom scale has to say to me by the end of this week!  Until then…

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Today my pants were extremely tight, but I wore them anyway to remind me that I need to keep my fingers out of the mixed nuts!

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Every Single Diet

…that I ever fell off of was because of potatoes and gravy of some sort ~Dolly Parton

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Yesterday I mentioned starting a diet based on the Cave Women Don’t Get Fat book, which is Paleo. My co-worker Wendy has been following the Ketogenic diet and has lost 20 pounds.  That said, we have been talking nothing but diet for the past three weeks.  Both the Keto and Paleo are popular diet plans and it is interesting to note their differences/similarities. The Paleo plan is so named for Paleolithic – meaning stone age, hence the reference to Cave Women.

The Ketogenic plan originated to help manage epilepsy.  This plan targets driving the body into ketosis in order to burn fat. Oddly enough, the plan is rich in fat and focuses on controlling the three primary macro-nutrients, which are divided 70% fat 25% protein and 5% carbohydrates. Wendy is very conscious of the amount of carbohydrates she consumes and tries to keep them under ten grams per day.

The Paleo diet focuses on eating the way our ancestors did, when they were hunting and gathering. The balance of macro-nutrients isn’t as important as the elimination of such categories as dairy, grains and processed foods, basically the food that wasn’t readily available, if available at all thousands of years ago.

One of the most obvious similarities between the two plans is the restriction of grains. Paleo because grains were not available during the stone age and Ketogenic because carbohydrates are taboo on this fat rich plan.

I’m very proud of Wendy and I remind her to “stay strong” as we part ways every evening.  She is doing great! (insert picture here as soon as she lets me take one).  As for me – diet day two – still hanging in there.

Changing subjects, as I left the house this morning I noticed 2 lakes and a river that were not there [in my yard] the day before.  Not surprising with the 6 inches of rain that fell yesterday.  It was a dreary, rainy day so I wore a bright sunny yellow blouse from New York & Company

 

Caveman Monday

Lurking in the forefront of my mind is the memory of photos snapped on Saturday [obviously I can’t come up with anything else to post]
After looking through the multitude of pictures taken this past weekend by my sweet LB, there is no question that I need to LOSE WEIGHT!

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I’ve been toying with this for a year now and its time to get serious.

I’m sure you are aware that a desk job can have detrimental effects on your physical condition. I am experiencing this first hand as I have been sitting in a desk chair staring at a monitor for the past 5 ½ years now. It has crept up and now I find myself needing to shed at least 6 pounds; 10 would be great. It sounds so simple, but if you’ve ever found yourself in this position, you know that it is anything but.

Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat: The Paleo Chic Diet for Rapid Results by Ester Blum is my diet of choice.  Already downloaded to the Kindle app on my iPad and I have begun today to follow the plan.

It was introduced [to me] on the Today show and I purchased it from Amazon.  There is a 2 week “paleo reset” chapter that will help with a quick start to weight loss, and I’m following it for the most part, but counting calories as well.  It is 7 PM now and I’ve consumed a total of 507 calories and 8 cups of water.

I began this morning with a spinach omelet, made with one egg, ½ tsp of butter, diced peppers & onions, and spinach, of course.

Tonight for dinner will be homemade tomato soup.  As unsavory as it sounds, it is made by blending canned tomato and adding various spices.  It is actually quite palatable and is very low in calories.  Add a bit of heavy cream and Parmesan and it would be delectable.  Stop it.

Starting a diet is so easy. Day one is a breeze.  Fingers crossed for day two.  Wish me luck!

I almost forgot… Here is what I wore

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Look No. 234 from my Stylebook

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