Watching Food

I had a bad day with food yesterday. By "bad" I mean I didn't bring the right kinds of food with me, and was hungry often throughout the day. Like annoyingly hungry every couple of hours. It is becoming more and more apparent that my body is sensitive to carbohydrates. And mostly what I mean by this is when I eat carbs, they don't stay with me and I'm very hungry within a short period of time. I started the day out with a bagel with cream cheese.

Last week I started to loosely pay attention to exactly how many calories I'm ingesting and was chagrined to discover it's a lot more than I thought. Like 3000 a day or more? No wonder I continue to gain weight. I think 2000 is a good goal for me, so that's what I started aiming for, and soon discovered I could easily go through that many calories before dinner. I tend to eat a large dinner, too. Back in my dieting days, about a decade ago, I would save 1000 calories for dinner. Anyway, back to the bagel. It was a Trader Joe's brand onion bagel and those suckers are huge and full of calories. 320 to be exact. Not to mention they are white flour which is basically sucking nutrients from my body to even digest the things. Next 2 ounces of cream cheese because I may as well forego the cream cheese altogether if I limit myself to 1 ounce. I toasted my bagel and ate it at 6:30am. By 8:30am I was ravenous.

I find I do much better with my kefir smoothie. 1/2 cup kefir, 1/2 cup goat's milk [168], 1 tablespoon virgin unrefined coconut oil [120], four strawberries [15] and today to cut out 100 more calories I started using the stevia again. I was using maple syrup - 1 to 2 tablespoons daily. We'll see how it goes for me today, food-wise. I also brought a chicken breast, maybe 3 ounces? 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 avocado (if I bring the whole one I'd eat it), cauliflower, cucumber slices, baby carrots, 4 slices salami (100). Eating the salami at 3:30 holds me well until dinner three hours later. I'm not dieting. I'm just paying attention to what I'm eating. Yesterday was very uncomfortable what with all the hunger pangs from too many carbs. The foods I brought today have few carbs, so I'll see if that makes a difference. I have known for years that I can't tolerate sugars well, and our bodies convert carbohydrates into sugars. Anyway, enough about food.

My birthday is next month and this year I want my immediate family to acknowledge that. Since I'm the only female human in the household, I probably should spell that out exactly what I mean by "acknowledging" my birthday. Nothing big and fancy, guys. We don't have to celebrate ON my birthday, which falls on a Friday, we can celebrate it on one of the weekend days. I'd like a cake, but I'm not sure what kind yet. Maybe carrot cake? And ice cream. I would like some gifts, wrapped please. Maybe a birthday tablecloth, some balloons? I'll be 434. So I'm going to rein in my impulsive purchases for the next few weeks and list the things I'd like to have here, so y'all will have an opportunity to buy me a few things. Four weeks notice should be good, yes? I'll start thinking. Since my dh doesn't do computers, I'm hoping ds2 can help me out with triangulating.

Wish List Item 1: Whistling Teapot. It needs to have these features:

1. The lid has to come off and the opening big enough that I can get my hand into it for cleaning.
2. It should have a whistle so I'll know when the water is boiling.
3. It should be stainless steel or porcelain (not aluminum).
   
4. I would like the bottom edge to be rounded and smooth, as opposed to having a lip and a corner. For example, view this teapot to see what I don't want.
5. Basically I want one like the one my sister and I passed back and forth to each other at holidays for a few years. It was white, porcelain, had a whistle, the lid was big enough to fit my hand into to clean. I think it was tossed some time ago.
   

I like this one, although I don't know how well it will blend in with the Holstein cow theme: Pfaltzgraff Napoli Whistling Tea Kettle

I like this red one, although it seems a bit expensive: SoftWorks Red Pick-Me Up Tea Kettle

This one is nice, also on the expensive side. I do like these colors better than the first Pfaltzgraff: Pfaltzgraff Mission Flower Whistling Tea Kettle

OH, OH, OH!! Look at this one! I would love to have this one! Very cute! However, it has some poor reviews, [spout doesn't work well, spills water all over] and I do want it to be functional. Kamenstein Cow Design Tea Kettle 2222

Okay, so there are only one of these available, it's used. It would work great, if it's still available.
Pfaltzgraff Sphere 2-1/2--Quart Enamel on Steel Whistling Tea Kettle

The teapots listed should give an idea of what I'm looking for. If one meeting the criteria can be found at a thrift store for $3 -- even better. In fact, I'm going to hit some Goodwill's this coming Saturday [50% off sale!], so maybe I can even find one that y'all can give me. ;-)

Until next time.