May 29 - Smaller Body. Smaller Car.

I've leased a Malibu for the past 4 years. Nice car. Nice ride. Heated seats. Mom likes it.

However, the lease is almost up and I have to look for another car. Four years ago when I was looking I test drove a MINI Cooper. LOVED the way it handled and loved the way it flew. I was wary about the lack of physical space inside the car since I'm notorious for hauling around a lot of crap with me. In the end, I leased the Malibu.

I'm back to looking at the MINI. I think I'll take Mom for a test drive soon to see if it's too small for the two of us. It has heated seats which she'll love. And I'm thinking that if I have a smaller car, I'll be forced to haul around less stuff. (Yeah, right.)

Breakfast - Lunch - 2 bagels. w/cream cheese. Moo.

Dinner - Went to dinner with Michael, Mark & Brian. Bread. Plus Garlic bread. Penne pasta stuffed with ricotta in a alfredo sauce. (My heart started fluttering after eating the whole thing.)

Dessert - the four of us split this piece of vanilla walnut cake. It was OK, but not spectacular. So, we had to go get custard at East Coast. I had a small pecan somethingorother cone.

May 28 - Bugger

I'm working from home a little before going in and just saw my pics of Popovers from the other day. I might have to whip up a batch before going in.

Breakfast - Popovers

Lunch - Spinach salad

Snack - Offered from a coworker: 2 madeline cookies

Late snack -4 ice cream bonbons.

Holy crap. I ate a lot of junk today.

May 27 - No Changes This Month

I'm quickly coming to the realization that this month might be the first month where I haven't lost the 4 lbs I originally intended to lose each month. This morning's weigh in puts me at exactly the spot I started at on May 1st. Don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled with where I am now. I'd like to get to 180 just to say that "I did it", but I can do that over the next few months.

When Brad and I started talking diets in November, my goal was to be at 200 by the time I went on the cruise in July. I've already hit that goal. Actually, I've hit my goal weight for all of 2009 already - but now the trick is maintaining that weight.

Lunch - Sweet & Sour Chicken. Yes, all of it.

Snack - Snackwell cookies.

Dinner - Chicken Waldorf wrap and fruit. Yummy.

Dessert - Coffee and Russian Tea Cake from Truffles.

Yes, it was a big eating day.

May 26 - Back from a Long Weekend

The long weekend is over. Picnic foods are behind us. Bob has flown back to NY. No reason to continue to eat like a horse.

Breakfast - Carrot Muffin

Dinner -2 slices of bread. Bowl of wedding soup. Slice of pizza.

Snack - 2 dehydrated pears.

May 25 - iPhone Death

Bugger.

I dropped my iPhone in water Sunday evening and guess what? They don't like that very much.

At the moment it keep rebooting which I'm taking as a sign of its slow death.

Yesterday's pictures are in there. I might try to retrieve them later.

From what I remember:

Breakfast - 2 bagels. One with cream cheese. Einstein goodness.

Dinner - Spinach salad.

Get together with Friends - plate of assorted chips. 2 s'mores.

SCORE! I plugged in my phone and the pics came right out. The internal speaker part of the phone isn't working yet, but all is not lost.

May 24 - Playing Catch Up

I'm so far behind in posting. The holiday weekend has us all over the place.

Lunch - 1/2 of this fabulous turkey/cheese/garlic mayo/potato salad sandwich. 1/2 of the fries

Snack - Cookie (I have a weakness for shortbread cookies. Especially ones that smile at me.)

Dinner - the other 1/2 of the sandwich.

May 22 - A Day Behind

I'm writing Friday's post on Saturday. I've been doing "spring-y" things...you know, like catching up on laundry that's been piling up from 3 days of being sick and going to wakes and funerals. That sort of cheery stuff.

I'll post pics and log in the food later on today after the funeral. Because that's what I want to do on Memorial Day weekend -- go to a funeral.

I am putting in my will that will I go, I want to be cremated immediately - no viewing. Then, on a nice Fall day, everyone can get together and drink cider around a campfire, roast marshmallows, tell stories, etc. Then plant a tree in my memory, shove the ashes in the hole, and move on

Lunch - Mom and I split sandwiches at Panera. 2 different chicken sandwiches, we traded a half a sandwich so we could try them both. I ate the whole thing.

Snack - When Bob came in, we headed to Honey Hut and I had my first Butter Pecan of the season. THIS is a single scoop. (And this is why we're fat.)

Dinner - Leftovers from Stir Crazy the night before

Snack - a chocolate chunk cookie from Truffles.

May 21 - Great Way To Lose Weight! Stomach Flu! Drop 5lbs in 2 days!

Seriously. If anyone wants me to lick them and give them the 'ick', just let me know. I've rapidly lost over 5lbs in 2 days.

The good news is that my belly is feeling much better today. Still a little churn-y, but hopefully I won't be doing as much bathroom reading today. (FWIW - I read a lot of How to Photograph Absolutely Everything over the last 2 days. I guess that's one way to get your reading in.)

Breakfast - Bagel and cream cheese from Panera. Oh, it feels good to eat again.

Dinner - 2 duck rolls and a bowl of goodness from Stir Crazy at Legacy Village.

May 20 - Thanks, Stomach Flu! - 50lbs gone

The bad news: I still have this stomach flu and some nasty sweating going on.

The good news: I lost 4 lbs in a day -- I'm officially 50 lbs lighter than I was Dec 1st!

I'll take my Nutrisystem 50 lb goal bear, thank you. And go back to sleep.

Late Breakfast: I felt like I needed something, so I whipped up some popovers. Ate 3, then the other 3. This gave my belly LOTS to churn during the day.

Dinner: Tired of being perched on the john all day, I just had a little piece of carrot souffle from Giant Eagle.

May 19 - Gangway.

I think yesterday's buffet is trying to work its way out of me. That would explain the horrific sounds coming from my belly at the moment.

UPDATE: As the morning went on, it became obvious that my upset stomach was part of a larger problem. I had the flu - slight chills, sweating, fatigue and a very unhappy GI tract.

After teaching a 1-hour class in the morning, I came home, emailed work to let them know I was not well, and slept on the couch all day.

I finally woke around 6pm ravenous. I made some quick sauce (onions, tomatoes, lot of garlic) and about 1.5 cups of dry pasta. I thought the spicy food would help me sweat this mess out. It did, but it also gave my belly more stuff to churn.

May 18 - It isn't Fair

I thought for sure I'd drop just a little weight yesterday. I was less than a lb away from hitting my next milestone. Oh, well.

So, in my typical, "Screw it. If I can't lose it, I'll gain some" mentality, I ate like the metaphorical horse today.

Breakfast - Jan brought in an amazing spread for breakfast and invited me to partake. Thank you! It was delicious. (I should have skipped the second helping of cheese and crackers.)

Lunch - About 1/2 of the Honey-Garlic chicken platter. It was good, but it's just laying with me.

Snack - Found a few more damn Mary Janes left over from my birthday.

Dinner - Even though I wasn't really hungry, I opened a can of black beans mom got me from Aldi. At 59 cents a can, that's almost half of what I pay at Giant Eagle. Guess what? No big taste difference.

May 17 - Sunday

Not much going on. Typical Sunday. After church/breakfast with Mom, went shopping with the intent of buying shoes for the cruise. Something comfy that I can walk miles in and yet are sorta-kinda dressy so that I can wear them with dressier or casual pants.

The winning shoes were a pair of Merrell World Passports found at Dick's Sporting Good on the clearance rack. Of course, they were the only shoes without a tag, and the saleskid told me that they really weren't on clearance. I asked for a box, "I'll take them anyway", and he told me they didn't have one. Responding to my, "I'm going to bitch-slap you if you say one more stupid thing" look, he gave me $15 off of the tag price.

I'm a big fan of Merrell shoes. With only one exception, they have all been immediately comfortable out of the box and these shoes feel like bedroom slippers. I like that I can throw some quick polish on them and they'll be ready for day trippin'. They're not the sleekest shoe, but I bought them for cruisin' and walkin'.

Breakfast - Perkins with Mom. Cheese and Onion omelet. 2 pieces wheat toast. hashbrowns.

Late Lunch -When I woke from a nap, Bob has made me a couple slices of pizza. Yumm.

May 16 - Wafflin'.

You know how you get those cravings? I wanted popovers this morning, but the drugstore next to me was out of eggs. I bought a box of frozen Eggo waffles hoping that they would take the place of my sweet-carby popovers. Boy, did they ever!

I started out with 3 waffles in the morning (90 cals a piece.). At lunch, I had 3 more. Then, late night, I chowed the last 4 in the box! 10 waffles - 900 calories. No syrup - just a little butter and powdered sugar.

It wasn't the healthiest of choices, but it sure was tasty!

Breakfast. Coffee. Flaxoil Gel Tab. Waffles

Lunch - Waffles.

Dinner - Waffles (pic missing from camera)