I've got TIME.

Just about to get dinner going... we're grilling burgers (Hopper has veggie burger) & zucchini and having leftover rutabaga mash. I'm tempted to add a small salad, too.

I am slightly euphoric this evening because, like most other Americans, our office is closed tomorrow and I don't have to go to work. I work at the radio station 7 days a week...so a day off is quite precious. I love to be there and I love to be on the radio when I can...but I love that I have a whole entire Monday to spend at home.

I've booked the time with Hopper to get her room picked up (because it is unbelievably cluttered and needs a big, big purge-fest). It may take us the entire day to clean...be worth it, though.

We're walking again tonight because we were lazy buggers on Thursday last week. Back to our normal schedule Tuesday. :)

One cool thing is the amount of time it takes us both to get a mile in is coming down...by just a few minutes right now, but there's promise of a future in this time reduction. That's the kind of motivation I need to keep going. She's doing GREAT on there and I marvel at her power - which she loves.

It's being a pretty nice weekend. I hope yours is, too. Almost burger time here, so I am off to prep zucchini. Love! I've got TIME to just be with my friends and family tomorrow. That is all kinds of nice.

More Fat? REALLY?

You know I'm reducing carbs in my diet, right? I have been able to keep from breads, pasta, fruits, milk (yes, milk has 12g of carbs per serving) carrots, peas and potatoes for...it's been since Monday. Nearly a week. Wow!!! I'm not tempted by the pantry full of them in the kitchen except for when I'm feeling hungry.

So far, on this food plan, I'm feeling hungry a lot. So, I wrote to Ivana. Do you know what she said? "You are not eating enough fat." WHAT?! My mind rejected the logic immediately. I thought, "Okay, what if Ivana's doing some kind of odd experiment with fat people to see whether they will 'buy' the idea that a diet of high fat, low carbs is going to make them lose weight."

Sorry, Ivana, I do appreciate you and I know you to be an informed, intelligent woman...but my mind went there.

Eat more fat. That can't be real. I didn't believe it. So, I did what any overweight fat-obsessed woman would do. I sought Google for wisdom. Keywords: "EAT FAT TO LOSE WEIGHT" "LOW CARBS HIGH FAT" "IS IVANA STRAIGHT TRIPPIN ME?"

Google spit out a number of opinionated forums and a couple of websites, including the blog of Dr. Michael Eades. I absorbed the information he posted on his website about lowering carbs and increasing fats, increasing water, lowering caffeine... a lot of his opinions made sense when spelled out with metabolic explanations of biochemistry attached. "Huh..." I though to myself. "Huh." and kept reading.

Dr. Eades's blog has become my Cake of the Day - a term my best friend ever (BFE) uses often with me because I find something to love with PASSION and WOW! pretty much every day and I soak up as much as I can about it until exhaust both of us with too much info. Cake of the Day can literally be cakes decorated in some sort of theme or it can be blogs full of info like this.

Dr. Eades says MORE FAT, MORE FAT! and explains the body's process of switching from using carbs for energy to using fat instead... ah! See? This makes sense. And I still feel like I am some sort of whacky experiment, but I'm not willing to let go of this food plan just yet. It's only been about a week.

I do want you to know that while I am not eating grains, I AM getting fiber from the green veggies that I eat. I'm learning to drink more water (this is a tough one for me!) and I can totally eat spaghetti squash with a homemade bolognese sauce and LOVE it.

I had black forest bacon from Whole Foods for breakfast today...which was amazing and so good. I paired it with an egg scramble into which I added: sauteed mushrooms, spinach, yellow pepper, onion and broccoli. The result: a very, very delicious breakfast we all really loved. My daughter, the vegetarian, had fake sausage with her eggs, but the result was the same: deeeelicious.

I'm still not entirely convinced that more fat is the key to dropping pounds; however, in the interest of seeing things through I'd like to go ahead with the plan and give it fair effort. I'll judge later, when I see how my body responds via scale numbers and blood work. That's one thing I wouldn't do this without: the companionship of my own medical records and my physician.

Exercise is a bit slow-going still because I'm not out of the tired rut yet, but that is promised to come. I am; however, walking with Hopper tonight as planned. We have a date to do so at 9:30. :)

But, yeah, can you believe that idea? MORE FAT?! I am a little intimidated.

I'm walking and it's against my wishes.

This is just a post to say I'm tired and I don't want to go walk on the treadmill...which is exactly why I am going to go walk on the treadmill. Plus, Hopper time. I really enjoy the hour of alternate walking and continuous talking with my kid. Plus, she picks out cute movies. We last left off in the middle of Disney's 'Tangled' so will probably be finishing that this evening. The movie tugs on my urge to paint things so much.

I wish I could sleep instead of walk, but. That wouldn't make having written goal 1 worth the time or ink or paper, ya know?