Pollen!

I was almost beside myself because I love to walk this time of the year but wind, heavy pollen and contact lenses just don't mix. Ouch! One year I lost a contact lens when pollen got in my eye. It was almost impossible to resolve to go walk indoors at the gym or the mall during this lovely spring weather! I decided to go shopping and see what kind of goggles I could find. I'm so glad I found a pair of tinted swim goggles that look like regular glasses, because the plastic around the eyes is clear. These are great because they keep all the pollen out of my eyes! Problem solved.

I've been busy in the kitchen. I made some more of my healthy brownies. I've had good self-control and have been limiting myself to two brownies a day, which is included in my daily alotted calories. I froze the brownies and some red beans and rice in single servings. I made a wonderful green salad which I ate with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

My mom trimmed my hair today. I was so glad to get it trimmed. I've been using shampoo for redheads. It covers gray but seems to be damaging my hair. The shampoo smells like hair color so it must have some of the same chemicals. At the roots my hair is salt and pepper gray and I think I'm just going to let my hair turn this color naturally by stopping using the shampoo for redheads.

A Lovely Spring Day

I had a wonderful two mile walk this morning. The temperature was a brisk sixty degrees this morning, a beautiful overcast day. I saw heavy pollen falling from a tree all over the road. My stamina and breathing during walks is still improving! I can't wait to bump up my walks to the 2.5 mile then 3 mile levels because I get to see more beautiful scenery and really lose weight when I do this.

I had lunch with my parents and made grilled wild salmon. My mother liked the way I fixed it. I was glad because I've been encouraging her to eat salmon for the great health benefits.

I fixed some delicous healthy brownies, with organic wheat flour and honey, this afternoon. I'd been eating a little Lindt 85% cocoa dark chocolate everyday, but decided to try something less expensive. I know dark chocolate has health benefits and I'm hoping that these brownies, made with three-fourths a cup of cocoa, will be just as good for me. I had to learn how to have self-control in eating dark chocolate, and now I want to exercise the same self-control with these brownies. I cut the brownies into 200 calorie servings and ate one a few minutes after they came out of the oven. For supper I ate two brownies. From now on though, I just want to eat one each day. I froze the brownies in convenient individual servings.

I had wanted to jump in on housecleaning after I cooked the brownies but I was tired. I got on the computer for a while. After I was rested I cleaned the kitchen sink, the bathroom sink, vanity area and mirror. This wasn't a whole lot of housecleaning, but each little bit that I do lessens the number of chores that need to be done, which encourages me.

My Heart and Housecleaning

I was glad to have a day without anything planned except to do laundry and housecleaning. I got a lot accomplished today and plan on working on the rest of the things on my "to do" list tomorrow. It wasn't a struggle at all, as it often is, to nudge myself to start housecleaning today. I'm still saying a lot of scriptures I've memorized to help me with this. What greatly motivated me today was a commentary I read on Proverbs 17:3 last night.

Proverbs 17:3 The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts. (KJV)

I was really thinking about all the effort I had put into memorizing scripture, for the purpose of becoming diligent in caring for my home, realizing that God was going to try my heart after I got up and had breakfast to see if I actually would be diligent. I got a lot of things completed that I had been wanting to do and I even had fun doing it.

I took a one mile walk this evening and I'm glad that, even though I didn't walk two miles, at least I got in both housecleaning and a walk today. If I keep at it I think my stamina will improve and then will be able to take more two mile walks. I want to be sure I work at keeping a clean home home and not just on exercising.

Spring has Sprung

A two mile walk and shopping has taken all the steam from me today. I had to get a skinny vanilla latte while I was at Abertson's, getting a prescription filled and picking up some asparagus and a cantaloupe, so I'd have the strength to go to Walmart. We're having really nice spring weather and I've been wearing shorts and t-shirts. I'm loving this warm weather.

My diet is still going well. Most days I hit the target of 1,500 calories and on other days I don't go over 1,800 calories. The scales are being very stubborn but I've noticed when I'm getting the phone book off the top of the refrigerator my stomach is a lot less in the way now. I just can't wait until it's obvious that I have a smaller body. I want to keep doing as well as I can on my diet to do my best at slimming. It's full steam ahead for me, for maximum accomplishment.

There was a beautiful sunset this evening. There is always a great view of the sunset when I shop at Walmart in the evening. This evening there were so many colors in the sky. I saw powder blue, cornflower blue, robin's egg blue, pale pink, pale golden yellow and the clouds were outlined in a bright golden pink.

After the Rain a Nice Evening

It was a great day to take a long nap because of the rainy weather. This evening I wanted to get out. First I picked up a few things I needed at Krogers. Then I got a ginger-peach tea to go and visited my brother and his family. I love my brother and his family. It was great visiting with them. My brother really makes me laugh a lot. He is hilarious and he's also a wonderful Christian. He liked hearing me quote all the scriptures I currently have memorized.
I came home with a big bag of Roma tomatoes I'd gotten on sale. I'd never cooked or even eaten scalloped tomatoes but have been wanting to try them. I remembered seeing an interesting recipe but I think the cookbook was sold in the garage sale (I had way too many books). I sliced the tomatoes, sprayed canola oil on them, and sprinkled with onion powder, black pepper, and dried basil. I baked it uncovered for almost an hour at 350F then added soft whole wheat bread crumbs and cooked it for about 15 more minutes. Overall I'm kind of happy with how it turned out. I served it with Parmesan cheese. Some bites of tomatoes taste too spicy and some taste great. I think next time I'll just add a little of the basil to the bread crumbs, instead of sprinkling it directly on the tomatoes, so it wont taste so spicy. I really, really love vegetables and I'm glad to add another vegetable dish to my repetoire.

Quiet Rainy Monday

Sunday my mom invited me to lunch and served garlic shrimp over angel hair pasta and T-bone steak. I brought some asparagus and steamed it. I'd love to learn to cook shrimp and steak as well as my mom does. My mom is such a good cook.

Sunday evening I had a really nice walk. It seems like I'm getting back to the fitness level I had previously. I'm so glad! This is so important to me and I'm excited about it. I'm hoping to swim a lot this spring and also want to start doing yoga again.

Insomnia has been threatening my diet because normally I'd be sleeping instead of getting hungry late at night. Something like this is exasperating because I really want to do well on my diet in order to lose weight. I just realized that one of my medication's has the side effect of insomnia, so I'm going to take it in the morning instead of at bedtime. Hopefully this will make a difference.

It's been raining all day today. Mostly today I just took a long nap and did my Bible reading. I finished the book of Revelation today. I read four chapters of Proverbs today (29-31 and 1). Usually I just read whichever chapter the day of the month is but I didn't want to skip four chapters. I use Professor Horner's Bible Reading System and I'm on my sixty-fifth day. It was a struggle to do my reading consistently at first but I'm doing better at it now. I completed twenty days out of twenty-eight this month and hope not to miss any days in the month of March. I love reading God's Word and had an awesome time in the Word today.