Hot Pineapple Casserole

Here is one of my munchkins' favorite side dishes. It is oh so yummy!

Hot Pineapple casserole

Ingredients:
2 cans of pineapple chunks (drain one completely and drain the other only half way)
3 T of all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 sleeve of Ritz crackers, crushed
1/2 stick butter melted (I leave this out a lot)

Place pineapple and juice in a 2 quart dish. Mix flour and sugar together in a separate bowl and then sprinkle over pineapple. Sprinkle cheese on top. Top with cracker crumbs and drizzle butter over top. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

It is so good that I normally have to double it!

And We're Off

So if you read my previous blog you know that the time has come for me to get serious about losing weight. My main motivation. . . fitting into my jeans. Every Friday is dress down day at school, and I can't dress down because my jeans won't zip even with the age old lying down and using pliers trick!! It has time for me to get serious about losing weight.

A few weeks ago I started monitoring what I eat. . . kind of. I have a hard time with sweets and things that are salty and bread . . . and . . . pretty much all food. I do love it so! But I, at least, started limiting my portions.

It is hard to train your stomach to eat less, especially when you have just finished being pregnant and are used to eating large portions. One of the most important ways I do this is by using a salad plate at meal times instead of a regular sized plate. This forces me to get smaller portions and even if I go back for seconds I still only end up eating what would have equaled a regular size plate. This way I almost feel like I am getting more to eat!

I am also trying to eat slower, which is definitely hard with a baby because you have to shove everything into your mouth just to make sure you have time to eat. I am also eating all of my vegetables before anything else in order to feel up on the items that are better for me. Two other things that are
proving successful:
1. Drink a full glass of water before I start to eat.

2. When I am finished with my plate and think I want more I drink another full glass of water. If I still want it then I get some more.

And finally I started exercising this week. This is a BIG deal! I hate to exercise. I mean absolutely despise it. I think people who love to exercise are stupid and just have some innate desire to torture themselves. I hate to sweat. I hate to get up earlier at 5:30 in the A.M. (which I have to do because of the kids). But most of all I HATE to do anything that is hard for me and makes me feel like I can't do it well, and exercise is soooooooo hard for me. Especially running which is the kind of exercise I must do in order to really do some damage to this flab.

So how is it going? Well I weighed in last Wednesday at 155.2. This morning before I weighed I felt quite certain I had gained weight. I mean, it just looked like it to me, but lo and behold I weighed in at 151.3. That is almost a four pound loss! I am pumped, inspired, and finally motivated. I am working and it is working. "And We're Off" (as they say) on this adventure to a healthier, thinner, toner, and happier me, who can fit in her jeans again!!

This is Serious

Well it is one hundred and fifty million degrees down here in south Georgia. I know it is hot everywhere but with our blasted humidity the air is so heavy that you literally feel like you are suffocating when you walk outside. Because it is so hot, it is hard to think about cooler weather but it is coming and it won't be too long.That means it will soon be jean weather, which is not good.

Why? You may ask. Well the reason is simple . . . I can't fit into any of my jeans. There! I said it. I have been enjoying the luxury of wearing flowing summer dresses for the last 6 months and soon that luxury will be ripped from my slightly chubby, water retaining fingers.

Don't get me wrong! I love jeans. I love how my bum looks in them (it is one of my best "ass"ets). I love the cute little tops I can wear with them. I love wearing boots over my skinny jeans. And I love, I love, I love the that wonderful feeling of exhilaration when I can zip up my "skinny" jeans (even if it does involve lying down, a pair of pliers, and some lunges).

The problem is that I quite literally can not get any of mine to come with in five inches of zipping. I know I just had a baby 3 months ago, and I would not trade that experience with the world. Nor would I change the fact that I ate everything in sight, because let's face it that is the only time in our lives where we are finally able to stop looking at the scale and enjoy food without any feeling of guilt. And I did not gain that much weight (35 pounds!). But the fact is that most of the weight is still there even with my initial 10-15 pound weight loss that came with breast feeding.

I know I could buy a bigger size and embrace my new curvier shape while enjoying food as I did in my pregnancy but I guess I am a little too vain for that. I want to be able to fit in my clothes for a self confidence booster as well as the fact that these are uncertain economic times and this girl cannot afford to go restock her closet. Therefore, I must work with what I got! And that is about 20 pounds of extra weight.

What to do? Well, it is quite simple. I have done all of this before. After my second child, I joined the YMCA's Team Lean and lost 30 pounds and 19% of my body fat in 10 weeks. I also won $650. The plan: I must count calories and exercise. Seriously it is as simple as that consume less calories and burn more of them. And when I say burn I mean I better be sweating in the first 5 minutes or it ain't doing enough.

The problem is three fold:

1. I love food.
2. I hate to exercise.
3. I have 3 kids, including one infant.

So I have made a decision! I am getting up every morning at 5:30 in the a.m. to start running. Anyone who knows me is now saying is she serious because they know how much I like to sleep. But I am doing this. There is no other time. I must exercise or this flab is never going to get off of my body and I will never fit in my jeans! And the only time I do not have 3 munchkins hanging all over me is early in the morning. If I do this and keep it up, then I know I will be able to eat what I want in moderation.

Whatever the case, the next 10 weeks is Liz Hill's own version of Team Lean (wish I had that monetary motivation). And I am recruiting all of you to help me as I start posting Weigh In Wednesdays which will be about my adventure in losing weight.

This is serious!! I must be able to fit into my jeans...that or go naked. And I can't afford to get arrested . . . as I said this are uncertain economic times!