OK, my long paper assignment is done for my latest seminar. And I have two weeks before the next one starts. I shouldn’t have any reasons to eat junk food at this point, minus thanksgiving which I’m trying to find ways to make it a little better.

By the way, I just want you to know that I hate stress…well that isn’t entirely true. I live and breath in a deadline-driven environment that is stressful, and I can handle that. The stress I don’t like is that feeling that there is way too much to do, to be mindful of and not enough time. Never enough time. That’s what I don’t like because it always leads to an overwhelmed food junkie that turns to food…but I have to brag a little bit. Today really sucked. I’m not going to mince words, but every time I needed a snack, I picked up something good for me…low-fat string cheese.

So I am going to take a victory for that today. Lord knows I need one!

g

Let me start with saying that I am HUGE fan of Stacy’s Pita Chips. I love the plain ones. I love the flavored ones.

I hadn’t seen them at any of the local stores. Which has been a good thing because I really don’t need them.

However, I discovered them the other day a local store. I was grabbing some rice cakes when I saw them. There they were sitting in on the top shelf. 

They called to me.

“Ginger, Ginger. We are here. Buy us, eat us, love us.”

Yeah…I bought two bags: plain and Parmesan Garlic Herb.

That night, plain pita chips found their way into my tomato soup. Last night, they helped finish off some roasted garlic ranch dip. 

This week they have been that great and easy go to snack when I get home from work and need a snack.

But they aren’t the best choice. Nine chips is about 140 calories. I can get two servings of mini rice cakes for that. I can eat two servings of canned soup…I could have a piece of fruit or even candy.

Sigh, they are just so good and so hard to put down. 

Stupid pita chips, why did I buy you?! <please imagine me shaking an angry fist at the empty pita chip bag>

Today, at this very moment, I am very glad that I am a little on the portly side.

We trotted down to the beach viewing point near the house to see what the wind and rain was like with this storm that is a-brewin’

Really didn’t think it was too windy…after all, we’re from Oklahoma and are very familiar with strong winds. This will be nothing, I thought.

Yeah, windy is not the word I would use to describe the wind. The walk to the viewing point wasn’t too bad…wind blowing against you, you have put a little fight to walk against. Nothing major.

We got to the viewing point. The wind picked up and we were quickly peppered by pebbles of sand. It hurt. I don’t like this all of the sudden. We plan to walk to the point…as close as we can get.

The wind really picks up. Mr. X estimates it is probably 60 to 70 mph. Things on my jacket are hitting me in the face. I’m wondering if I still have earrings (luckily, I still have both rings)

It really starts to blow and the next thing I know, I have a death grip on the fence that keeps people from falling off the cliff.

I am not amused.

But thankful for my weight…first time ever. If I weighed a few pounds lighter I think I may have been blown to sea!

So we went to dinner and I had a cheeseburger, fries and two porters.

I made it through most of my burger…didn’t eat of the bun and surprisingly, I didn’t eat all of them fries. Since I don’t eat fries on a regular basis anymore, I almost always devour them when I do get fries. I made it through half, and then I just couldn’t eat anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, they tasted good, I was getting close to being full and I didn’t want to feel miserable.

I was kind of surprised that I literally pushed the food away from me — that is not a motion my hands are familiar with when it comes to food by the way.

So, now that “treat” is out of the way, I need to concentrate on my paper

g

I see a cheeseburger fries and a beer in my future. It has been one of those days where a little greasy food and some barley and hops will make a little better.

It is also the start of a very busy week. I will be working on my 20-25 page paper on Japanese militarism in World War II. The paper is due on the 21st…wish me luck. And if you don’t hear from me a lot, don’t worry too much…I’m just stuck in World War II

g

I did something stupid. I had a big cookie today. I had been pretty good with my choices for snacks…but today, a cookie seemed like a compliment to a bowl of soup and  a coffee.

I really feel like I screwed up, again.

On the bright side, I did get a walk in this afternoon, so that has got to count for something.

Oh, and I have decided that if I can walk somewhere, I should. If I can park a little farther way, I should. It means I am taking a couple more steps and that has to be good for me.

g

I’m disappointed in myself today. Not food wise, I felt like I did pretty well on that front, even with my weird pickle and cheese snack.

But exercise wise. I worked out for 30 minutes. I did several of the exercises that Meghan showed me…but I only did 10 minutes on the treadmill. It is my favorite thing to work out on but I just didn’t have energy I guess…or at least I didn’t feel good, something wasn’t quite right.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

g

OK, I am really proud of myself right this moment. There is still Halloween candy in a bowl in the kitchen. Over the weekend, and yesterday, I sneaked a few. So far today, I haven’t had any! Yay!

Even more, today after lunch I wanted something sweet. Opted for a Fiber One granola bar that had some chocolate in it…thought it was better than a bag of M&Ms.

And I prepared myself….I have snacks to take to work and stash in my desk. What snacks? A tin of cashews and some Special K cereal bars (they only have 90 calories)…and some oatmeal so I will always have something for breakfast.

Now, if I could just get my post done, then I might be able to get some exercise — the exercise I missed last night

So we had crab, crawfish and shrimp gumbo for an early dinner-late lunch today. We ordered it from a meat shop we know that specializes in Cajun foods.

It was wonderful, and I couldn’t help myself, I had to go back for seconds — and that included a second helping of rice. Was it bad, absolutely, but it tasted so good.

Luckily, I am stuffed and won’t need anything else for the rest of the day!

g

It has been a rough, long week. And I have an absolute wonderful husband. Mr. X took me to a lovely dinner to a local restaurant for a nice romantic dinner with some wine and good food.  I had this wonderfully grilled tuna, stir-fry vegetables, a baked sweet potato, rice pilaf, some bread and two glasses of a really good riesling (it is a German wine…or at least made from the type of white grape grown in the Rhine region of Germany…it is also my favorite type of wine). Dinner was coming to an end, and I saw the dessert cart.

I thought, what the hey, it has been a long time since I had cheesecake. We split the sampler that had four small samples on it. I was bad, but boy it was worth it.

Great night makes up for a rough week.