Ky's Korner

[Kyan]

Well I am glad that I am not the only one that has found the weather to be a bit windy on the South Beach!

NoMoreBabyFat - I haven't tried the caffeine free soda. My daughter is a chemistry genius - she received a huge award her senior year that was presented at an engineering college and then got a full four year scholarship to Colorado School of Mines (one of the top engineering schools in the nation).. and ANYWAY..... she has skeered me off of a lot of things. Margarine for instance is one chemical component away from plastic. She has lectured me about the dangers of certain plastics and not to use them in microwave ovens because they leach. And she told me that the process sometimes of decaffeinating soft drinks can be worse than consuming the caffeine itself. She doesn't drink soda at ALL - so while I listen to what she says and follow some of her advice - I still love my nectar of the Gods! She wishes I would drink the sugar soda if I insist on drinking the stuff, rather than sugar-free.
I just need to learn not to drink THREE of them during a single day. Dr. A. says to only drink a limited amount - I can't remember what it is.. but I think it amounts to about one can.

Today I was fairly good.

Breakfast: Someone mentioned cutting up a string cheese and sticking it in eggs with 2 tablespoons of salsa. Was it one of you? Do you ladies remember reading that somewhere? I had to try it! I am wondering if that person who gave me the idea is using full-fat string cheese instead of 2%? My string cheese didn't want to melt... so I had these little round lumps of cheese in my eggs! ha ha! I put in some leftover pieces of pork from my pork marengo the other night.. and this breakfast was FANTASTIC!! I had 2 vitamins and a honkin glass of water for dessert.

No morning snack since I had my string cheese in my breakfast. I drank lots of water.

Lunch: Leftover smoky paprika chicken from last night, and lima beans. Oh limas - more energy for the windmill! Wow is that chicken excellent!

Afternoon snack: 2 Kavli crisps with fresh ground almond butter and six slices of granny smith apple on top. (Three on each Kavli). I think I ate less than half of a small apple, in total.

Dinner: Caribbean sweet potato and bean stew with toasted almonds sprinkled on top. Edamames with scallions and sesame. The stew was GREAT!!! I ate three bowls of the stew. I'm hoping I don't gain a couple of pounds because I ate a big dinner.

No dark chocolate soy nuts today and no dessert tonight.

Exercise: I did one of my AB tapes. It was all I could handle. My ABs were shrieking in agony, I kid you not. It was pure torture.

We got hit with quite a snow storm today. It snowed most of the day, and sometimes it was a wet, heavy snow. It was really DARK all day, too! It's the kind of day you want to curl up with a pot of hot popcorn and a good book. Naturally I am out of popcorn. Dangit!

[GrammaKD]

Hey Hey Hey Ms Ky,
Still have little DJ here and not much time here but had to say....reading your journal is definitely my giggle for the day! Honesty, a great sense of humor and being able to laugh at yourself is just hilarious reading material. You're doing great, too, btw. Keep it up and....what about those black stretch pants!!?? Lol, Gramma

PS....recipe PLEEZE...for the whatever it was delish chicken dish you mentioned. When you have time, no hurry. Thanks.

[loserwant2b]

Well I am glad that I am not the only one that has found the weather to be a bit windy on the South Beach!

One of the beautiful things about working outside in a wind tunnel! (As in our service drive runs north south and there is a constant breeze taking my 'homemade' wind right out - no loitering happening here.)

[Kyan]

Ugh! I keep playing see-saw with these pounds. Up/down/up/down/up/down. My body can't decide whether to break up with my fat or keep the relationship until something better comes along! I'm a pound and a half to my short term goal (I set myself 5 pound goals because they are realistic, ha ha!) Just give it up already, body!!

What a boring food day.

Breakfast: I made the same thing as yesterday, with the 2 eggs scrambled, the tablespoon of salsa, the cut up string cheese and the left over pork and mushrooms. It was good, but not as good as I remembered it being yesterday! I ate a bowl of leftover edamames with sesame and scallions with it. Dessert was the usual vitamins but only a little glass of water. Errand day! Can't be stopping in every public restroom. Gross!

No morning snack.

Lunch: oh oh. Sushi and spring rolls and edamames. I ended up giving 10 pieces of sushi to my son this time. Meaning I only ate...um... 12 pieces. At least that's better than last time! Also... I didn't enjoy it very much at ALL. I think I am OVER this food jag. This is AWESOME news.... since it is the only thing I ever crave that is off the South Beach diet! I bought my sons an ooey-gooey pizza from our favourite place - and didn't sneak a single taste. Wasn't even tempted!

No afternoon snack.

Dinner: leftover Caribbean sweet potato and bean stew with toasted almonds on top. It was good, but not as good as last night.

I felt SICK all day long. I had a killer headache and felt horrible. My stomach hurt.

I am thinking I can't tolerate sesame oil or something. If I recall correctly, I was sick all night the last time I made those edamames. Too bad, that recipe is really tasty! I felt bad BEFORE I ate the sushi, so that wasn't it.

Dessert was a dark chocolate soynut pack.

Exercise: parked far away from the FOUR.... yes FOUR grocery stores I had to go to today, to find all the ingredients for this week's dinners. This is getting really OLD! I never did find the raspberry vinegar for my chicken recipe, so I ended up buying an organic raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing at the fourth store I went to, and I'm hoping that will work in a pinch! Also, the guy at the health food store found the greek yogurt for me, but he said it might be gross. He said the most terrible yogurt he had tasted in his store was the goat's milk yogurt. Goat's milk is absolutely disgusting. I could have told him the yogurt would be horrible! I HATE plain yogurt and this recipe doesn't seem to have anything to sweeten up this plain greek yogurt a bit or make it tasty, so I am keeping my fingers crossed! I found wild rice at the second store I went to, but it comes in really small bags. Why is it so hard to find wild rice? Don't people like it? I think it's awesome, even though I always burn it!

One more thing that has diddley squat to do with the Beach, but it happened TWICE today, so it must have some sort of meaning. I was at PetCo buying a big old round bed for my cats (we call them donuts and the cats know what we are talking about!) and the checker asked the woman in front of me if she wanted to round her total up 27 cents and donate it towards the Humane Society. The woman said no and left. I was thinking "my gosh, what are you going to spend that 27 cents ON?" but of course I didn't say anything. I told my boys about it when I got home, though. So there we were at our usual grocery store and the checker asks the woman in front of me if she wants to round up her total 24 cents and donate it to some charity. (Didn't hear what charity.) The woman said no. I was so stunned! What are the odds of this happening TWICE in a day, and with the change almost exactly the same? Are people really freaking cheap or just reluctant to help those who really could use some help? I can't imagine that a quarter is going to make a huge difference in your financial situation if you clutch it tightly!

And then I figured it out....!!!. Those two ladies probably spent all their money on those pricey yoga/exercise pants and that's why they have to keep hold of every penny now! It suddenly makes total sense to me why I wear those old out of style sweat pants! Life is truly an amazing journey, isn't it? After awhile, it all starts to make sense!

[Kyan]

Gramma! I almost forgot to tell you the recipe! I'm going to put the sweet potato one too, in case anyone wants to try it!

This first recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes Volume 2. (My volume 1 is falling apart from use!)

SMOKY PAPRIKA CHICKEN

1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 pounds boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 8-ounce carton light dairy sour cream
2 tablespoons cornstarch

In a small bowl stir together the smoky paprika, salt, garlic powder and pepper. Sprinkle evenly over the chicken breasts and rub it in with your fingers. Place chicken in your slow cooler. In another small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth and tomato paste. Pour over chicken.

Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 6-7 hours or on high for 3-3 1/2 hours. Transfer chicken to a platter and cover it with foil - keep the juices in the slow cooker.

If using low heat setting - turn it up to high. In a small bowl stir together the sour cream and cornstarch - and then whisk this mixture into the slow cooker until it's smooth. Cover and cook for 15 minutes longer. Spoon sauce over chicken.

NOTE: I know the corn starch is iffy... but there is such a small amount and you consume even less because you only have so much sauce on your serving.

Calories per serving: 164. 6g total fat (2g sat. fat)


This second recipe is from Rival Best-Loved Slow Cooker Recipes. I got this cookbook for Christmas - what a waste! I can only make a few recipes out of the entire book!! It isn't very South Beach friendly!

CARIBBEAN SWEET POTATO and BEAN STEW

2 medium to large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups frozen cut green beans
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) vegetable broth
1 small onion, sliced
2 teaspoons Caribbean jerk seasoning (I used Jamaican Jerk Seasoning)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted

(To toast almonds, spead on a baking sheet and place in a preheated 350 oven for 8-10 minutes. Stir frequently.)

Combine all of the above ingredients in your slow cooker. Cover, and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until the veggies are tender. Serve with almonds sprinkled on top.

[Kyan]

Today is the first installment of "What's up with THAT?" and it is brought to you by Swanson's Chicken Broth.

Canned chicken broth is an ingredient in a lot of the meals I cook. I couldn't fail to notice that EVERY SINGLE time I open up one of these cans and pour out some broth, there is a little bit of frothy congealed yellow chicken fat (or something) in each and every can. And it's always the same amount - the size of a lima bean. What's up with THAT? Wouldn't you think some cans would have more of this ick and some cans less? Now that I think about it, some of the fat in the broth must congeal after it is canned and it cools, causing this greasy stuff to form. I just think it is odd that it's always the same amount. I always pick it out of the measuring cup before I add the broth to my recipe. And it doesn't matter whether the broth is low sodium or not. The lima bean sized fat ball is there, regardless.

Breakfast: a bowl of my dad's homemade pinto beans and ham. Two vitamins and a big glass of water for dessert.

No morning snack since breakfast was late.

Lunch: I made another batch of that smoky paprika chicken, spicy roasted cauliflower and some wild rice. I burned the rice again, but it was still edible.

Dinner: My daughter and her husband came down to bring me a quilt she had made me for Christmas (but wasn't finished yet). It's gorgeous, by the way! We met at Tokyo Joe's and had sushi and spring rolls. Diet Dr. Pepper to drink.

Snack: dark chocolate soy nuts.

Exercise: diddley squat. none. zilch. zip. nada.

[Kyan]

I wasn't going to write in my journal tonight, but here I am. Maybe I am in this mood because it's Monday, who knows. I'm sick of trying to lose weight when my body is obviously hopelessly in love with the fat I want to lose. Perhaps they are soulmates or something. (Eyeroll.) Then again, it COULD have something to do with the fact that I simply despise exercising. I have GOT to find something active that I love to do. I was hoping I would really like Zumba, but the instructor was hell-bent on killing me last week.

Do I really need to mention what I accomplished today in the exercise-department? I think I took a couple of heavy breaths and the popcorn bowl I lifted was pretty darn heavy...

I read some of these journals and my jaw literally drops down in shock and some of the workouts these people do! What's the matter with ME? Why do I hate exercising so much?? Why can't I find the enjoyment in having every muscle in my body shriek in agony and sweat pouring off of my forehead.... walking around the next day in pain, looking like I have something foreign up my bunghole because I'm so stiff?

You know... I REALLY could use some of my South Beach buddies to live a bit closer to me, so that you could drag me somewhere where exercising is fun. I need to put on some red glitter exercise tennis shoes and tap the heels saying "There's no place like the gym... there's no place like the gym...!" Seriously... you all MUST live in Oz, because exercising in my area of town is an unpleasant ordeal!


Breakfast: Leftover smoky paprika chicken (about half of a breast), about 2 tablespoons of wild rice and a nice serving of roasted cauliflower. Two vitamins and a big glass of water for dessert. Gotta love dessert!

Morning Snack: air-popped popcorn with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. Washed it down with a diet Dr. Pepper. This was truly awesome. I literally picked out every single bit of popcorn I could find at the bottom of the bowl when I was through.

Lunch: 8 pieces of California roll sushi and 2 spring rolls. I bought this last night when I met my daughter and her hubby for dinner, and saved it for lunch today. It wasn't very good. The rice on the sushi got hard and the avocado got dark and mushy and the spring rolls were soggy and gross. That rice paper stuff must not keep well. But on the UP side... the peanut sauce reheated beautifully!!

Afternoon Snack: forgot all about it and wasn't hungry.

Dinner: Thai chicken coconut soup. Wow, this was great! All three of my boys and I gave this 5 stars. (Highest rating.) I will definitely make this again! You sprinkle peanuts on top.

Dessert: one of the tiny packages of dark chocolate soy nuts. Last night I said I ate one but I didn't. I was planning on eating one when I wrote in my journal and then I forgot. Tonight I really ate it. Those things are so awesome!

I thought about the accountability thread today. Starting tomorrow, I am going to try and see how many days I can go without getting sushi. It is a challenge for myself! It is the only thing I have ever cheated with. Except for 2 organic gummy bears and one thin mint girl scout cookie. But that's pretty good for over 2 months I think! Too bad I've cheated with the sushi about 10 times. Bah!

Did I mention I hate my scale? It's in cahoots with my body and the fat. They all three stink! Don't they say trouble comes in threes? :::snort:::

[piranha]

After reading your journal, I was almost peeing my pants I was laughing so hard!! I really don't think ANYONE truly enjoys exercise when they first start out! After having Carter, I set myself the goal of running a 10k on Memorial Weekend. (Ok, so my first goal was a 1/2 marathon-13.1miles-by May 4, but I'm just dellusional) I knew it was going to be hard and painful, but I also knew that it gets easier with every run. Did it suck for the first 2-3 weeks? Yep. Does it still suck at times? Absol-freakin'-lutely! Hell- there are even days when I practically have to drag myself to yoga. But it's like healthy eating- not always fun, but you do feel way better after it's over.
My biggest piece of advice would be to start slow. As in, go for a 15 minute walk everyday until you feel like you can add a little more. Do some light stretching-respect your body's limitations, don't push too hard and remember that pain means somethings wrong! Maybe a full hour of high intensity aerobics was a little much in the beginning?

I love ya, girl!!

[GrammaKD]

Ky, Just remembered that I didn't thank you for the recipes...THANK YOU so much. I LOVE chipotle pepper flavor so should be a winner for me! Happy evening! Gramma

[Kyan]

Ah Piranha, thanks for your exercising words of encouragement!! Starting out slow.. the best advice I've been given so far! I think I've been biting off too much all at once. No wonder I am discouraged!
(((Piranha))) What would I do without you! (Seriously!)

Gramma - you are so welcome for the recipe. I was worried that maybe no one has a crockpot and the recipes were worthless to anyone but me. Lots of people don't like slow cooking, including my daughter.

Today. Well first of all, today was Day 1 without sushi. Yay!

Yes, yes... I've gone more than a day without sushi, but that's not the point. I made a challenge to myself, and today was the first day accomplished.

Breakfast: I ate that greek yogurt with sliced strawberries and toasted slivered almonds. It was GREAT!!!! Really yummy. I like that greek stuff. Usual vitamins and water.

Morning Snack: a big bowl of that parmesan popcorn and a diet Dr. Pepper. Heaven!!!

Lunch: Leftover Thai coconut chicken soup. Uh oh..... this is where the day went slightly downhill. Well technically it went downhill when I first woke up and stripped and weighed myself nekked to find that I had gained yet MORE weight. But back to lunch.... I finished my bowl of soup and was idly looking at the peanut jar when I had this notion to read the ingredients. A jar of peanuts should be peanuts - right? WRONG!! These stupid peanuts had sugar and corn syrup and corn starch and MSG and gelatin. WTH???? Stupid me... I never thought that I would have to check the ingredients on something so simple as a jar of peanuts! Now this is where the story gets worse.... I poured out a second bowl of soup and sprinkled yet MORE of these nasty little peanut buggers on top and at it ALL. KNOWING the ingredients. I think I must have eaten about 6 servings of peanuts today.

No afternoon snack. Thank heavens!

Dinner: Roast beef with an avocado aioli. Diet Dr. Pepper. Two packages of dark chocolate soy nuts for dessert. I figured if I already ate enough to gain 5 pounds today, I might as well go for the gusto.

Exercise: uh... yeah right. Zumba was tonight, but who am I kidding? It's embarrassing to show up in my stretchy pants and leave a half hour early. I'm going to start out slow and take the Zumba class next session. Besides... baseball season is coming up and I will be busy at the games during THIS session.

I'm thinking about going back to phase 1 next week, for a couple of weeks.

[piranha]

ARGH!! The all or nothing mentality! I am all too familiar myself with the "I've already started- why not finish!?!" thougth process. Don't give up, girl. I wholeheartly agree with a little Phase One detoxing if that's what it takes to get you back on track!! :::HUG:::

[NoMoreBabyFat]

Holy cow!! Just what kind of peanuts were you eating girl? Now I've gotta go check my peanuts and make sure there's, um, NUTS in there! It's amazing what kind of crap they put into things while we're not looking, isn't it?

Congrats on the sushi (or rather non-sushi) today! And good luck with the exercise. This from me, who can't seem to get the motivation to exercise at ALL. You're gonna be my inspiration. If you can do it, with 3 boys a year apart then I have NO EXCUSE!! But now I think I'll go have a glass of wine (with no "h" in it)...

Have a great day!

[Kyan]

"There is iron in your words of death, for all Comanche to see. And so, there is iron in your words of life... No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of ten bears, carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life, or death. ... It shall be a South Beach Life for us here."

"I s'pose that mangy red bone hound got no place else to go either. He might as well diet with us, hell everybody else is."


"All I have is a piece of hard rock candy. But it's not for eatin', it's just fer lookin' through. Sugar aint allowed on the South Beach!"

"To hell with them fellas. Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms. And on the South Beach diet, both buzzards and worms are protein so the amounts are unlimited!"

"If I don't make it, Josey... I want ya to know, I'm prouder than a game rooster to have done phase 1 with ye."

"Get ready little lady... hell is comin' to breakfast. That's right - eggs AGAIN!"

"Now remember... when things look bad, and it looks like you're not gunna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb mad dog mean... 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up, you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is on the South Beach Diet!"

The Outlaw Josey Wales Movie Lines was brought to you by Ky. Yes, these are actual quotes from the movie.*

*with a few very MINOR changes! HA HA

WHY am I quoting lines from a western?? Because I fell off the wagon!! Get it?

HA HA HA HA!

Wait... why the hell am I LAUGHING about something like this?? This is serious.

But it was only sushi.

[NoMoreBabyFat]

OK Ky so you fell off the wagon and had some sushi. So climb on back aboard! There's room! I'll scoot my butt right on over!

[Kyan]

Thanks, NoMore!!

Even though I stumbled, I'm not going anywhere. I had already made up my mind this past week sometime to do a refresher on Phase 1 this week. But scoot over anyway - we can hang out and laugh and stuff over our celery sticks!