Cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese sammiches

As a kid and own into adult hood one of my favorite comfort food combo's has always been a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of Cambells cream of tomato soup. What's not to like? The sandwich is ooey gooey cheesey on the inside and buttery toasty on the outside. The soup is rich and creamy with the addition of sweetness to off set the saltiness of the cheese. You ladle up the soup in a big cup set in the middle of your sandwich plate with your grilled cheese cut diagnally into two toasty triangles. The best part is dipping the sandwich in the soup. Oh my goodness makes me all warm and cozy just thinking about it. I decided that since I'm not counting veggies on my new plan the soup would be doable IF I made it myself. Never having made tomato soup I figured the simpler the better so I grabbed a big can of tomato sauce. What goes better with tomatoes than basil, so I grabbed it too. Into the pot went the tomato sauce, the top sprinkled with basil. Cambells soup is sweet and since I wanted to relive that comfort food from the past, into the pot went a few drops of sweetzfree ( cambells is to sweet so I didn't add that much sweetzfree) as it started to heat I added a cup of Hood's count down milk. Oh imagine my delight when it turned the exact color of Cambells and a finger dipped in the pot told me it was perfect. I let it heat through while I toasted a couple of cheese sandwiches made on Joseph's Lavash bread. In less than 20 minutes I had soup and sandwiches ready for mom and I and they were absolutely wonderful. The lavash bread toasted up wonderfully buttery and just slightly crisp with lots of gooey stringy cheese. Perfect for dipping in the soup. MMM MMM Good!
Forgive me, I got so caught up in make and eating, I forgot to take a picture. Next time. There's at least another bowls worth of soup in the fridge and I always have lavash and cheese.

First full day on the new plan

I have to say it was fantastic. I'm motivated again. I'm excited and energized. I ready to tackle the challenges a head to find that thinner me.
Yesterday, I got up at 1:15-1:30 am. Yep sleep pattern is steady but on a whacked out time table. Dr. Stevenson gave me some tips to get it where I want it. It's just going to take some time.
Anyway, I got up at around 1:30 am and headed to the kitchen for what I call meal 1. Yummy pork roast and a big bowl of cabbage. New counting system is 0 carbs. Several glasses of iced tea sweetened with splenda (liquid) and stevia also 0 carbs.
At about 5:30 I had a couple of cheese sticks and a ounce of roasted almonds. That set me back a whopping 4 net carbs, but it held me until 8:30. Had a cup of coffee with cream and a slice of Cranberry Orange flaxbread with cream cheese, with mom. We just kind of hung out at the kitchen table over our coffee and bread and talked. Something we don't do nearly enough.
Round about 12:30 I made grilled cheese sammies and cream of tomato soup. Oh my gosh it was so good! It was like having the real thing, only better. I will post my simple recipes next. But believe me it's next to nothing. So I had a great big cup of soup and sandwich for lunch ( another 6 carbs). The creamy tomato soup was very filling as well.
Then just before bed I had 1/2 a chocoPerfection bar.
I drank around 32 oz of iced tea, 48 oz vinegar water and a couple small glasses of Diet Dr. Pepper. ( ok I tried but I have cut down from 4 liters, not too bad right?) The bloat is just about gone, my bgl's are in the 80 but my bp is up. Not what's going on with that, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it.
I also got in about 25 minutes of core, resistances and flexibility exercises in. And boy am I sore after just 2 days of this. But it's a good sore...giggle
So that' my first Full day on my new plan. I know it's early but it does seem to be working for me. The test will be to see if I can break through this stall.

Sleep study follow up

Well I had my follow up appointment yesterday, and everything seems to be what I expected. Dr. Stevenson, says that they thought my pressure could come down a little, but that if I was comfortable where it was, we could just leave it. YES!!!! I really didn't want to have to change it.
Being on medicare and all their nit-picky rules meant I didn't get my new machine yesterday while I was there, but rather have to have them deliver it today. Tell me that makes in since?
One odd thing though, Dr. Stevenson didn't mention it, but when I went to order my new machine, the tech there told me it's a V-pap. Which is specifically for central apnea patients. Central apnea being your brain forgets to tell your lungs to breath. So the machine will have to stimulate my brain some how or other. My concern is that Dr. Stevenson didn't say anything about central apnea, nor did my doctor from before. So I guess I best call today and make sure there isn't a mistake.
If I do have central apnea, that means it will most like improve as the weight comes off, but I will never be without the machine. If I don't, then there is no reason to pay the extra money for a machine with bells and whistles I don't need.
Time to make a phone call.
But yeah! I get my machine today.

Some changes

I started my new low carb eating plan in May of 2007. By October I had lost roughly 60 lbs. Since then it's been up and down never going below my lowest. I'd like to say I'm great at counting and recording all my meals and watching my counts like a hawk. I'd like to but then I'd be lying. I've cheated, gone completely out of control, and skimmed by. But even when I'm doing great. Keeping my carbs low, drinking all my water, avoiding diet cokes, seemingly everything I should be doing. I just can't break that number on the scale.

So, I've decided that since I'm not losing anyway, I'm going to make it easier on me. From now own I will cut my carb count down to between 10 and 20. BUT I'm no longer counting any carbs from non-starchy veggies. Yep your read that right, in my book veggies are now free foods. Of course I'll still not be eating potatoes or other starchy foods. But in my book they aren't veggies anyway, they are starches.

When I was a kid growing up, we had a protein source, a starch and a veggie at almost every dinner. Corn and potatoes did not count as vegetables. My mom called them starches, just like rice and pasta. So to me that's what they are, not vegetables at all, just merely starches.

My reasons for doing this are simple. 1) I'm lazy and this will mean less to count. 2) This will ensure that most of my carbs come from healthy nutritious non starchy veggies. 3) It just seem wrong to me to limit vegetables. I know some people say we could live without them, but what kind of life would it be with out cabbage, okra, salad greens and spinach? Not a life I want to live anyway.

So that's the way I'm going to play it from now on. With things like dairy, nuts and seed are anywhere from 1-4 net carbs per serving, or 1 serving of lavash bread being 4 net carbs. This new plan will make it impossible not to get the bulk of my carbs from veggies and that's a good thing right?

I'm so hoping this will work, but the only way I know to find out for sure is to put it into action. So far so good, but I only started yesterday.
Yesterday I had
Breakfast 1: Pork roast ( I know but I just wasn't hungry)
Snack: an ounce of roasted almonds (2)
Lunch: ChocoPerfection bar (2) and 1/2 ounce of walnuts (1) I've almost never eaten a whole bar at once before. But it was just what I wanted. Not the best lunch but it's what I had.
Dinner 2: A bowl of left over chili ( new system net carbs 2) with cheese ( 1) sour cream (1) and lettuce (0) lavash bread chips (4)
So I stayed down to 13 carb + veggies. The chili had squash in it, plus I had a good bit ( at least a cup) of romaine lettuce with it.
Not exactly what I was hoping I'd eat, but I know my carbs were low and I drank a ton of water and tea, no coke at all and even got my 30 minutes of strength training in.
This morning I started my day out with a bowl of cabbage and more pork roast... nummy nummy We'll have to see where I go from there, but if I can stick with my plans for the day, I should have more veggies, and better carb choices, at least that's what I have planned.

Christmas Prezzies

Just thought I would show you how my new plan to create a recipe book for family this Christmas is going. Here's one of the recipes. I sure hope it doesn't come out too fuzzy.