Oops! I skipped Thanksgiving!

And Halloween, if you want to get all technical!  Life has been CRAZY busy!!  Forgive me for not making time for this blog......you should be impressed by the fact that I'm currently typing this out at 1am.....in the morning......no one should see that time twice in one day!  LOL!

How am I doing on THM?  I'm glad you asked!  I'm doing well!  I struggled a bit with staying on plan over Thanksgiving and my weight has been a total yo-yo since my last blog post, but I'm staying the course!  I've discovered that I eat way too few E meals AND they are majorly wimpy!!!  So I've upped the carbs in my E meals and the scale is starting to move in a steady, downward direction.....just the way I like it!  NSV's - I'm able to cross my legs!!  (my fellow fluffies will understand that struggle!) and I can wear my size 18/20 sweatpants again!!  They are snug and would earn me a spot on People of Walmart if I wore them in public......but they fit and are comfy!  Coming from a tight 26/28, I'd say that is a big deal!

Now for the recipe of the week.....

It's my own recipe!!  Every Christmas I make German Pfeffernusse Cookies......think, gingerbread meets ginger snap rolled in powdered sugar.  They are little bites of heavenly goodness!!  They are a bit labor intensive, so I only make them once a year.  I was lamenting their loss since my original recipe is full of wheat flour and sugar and then I started to wonder if I might be able to THM-ify my recipe!  Good news!  I DID IT!!!  They are SO good!!!!  I hope you take the time to make them this Christmas!

German Pfeffernusse (Peppernut) Cookies - THM S dessert

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup xylitol
1/4 cup brown sugar substitute (I like this one at Gwen's Nest)
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp molasses
1 3/4 cup baking blend  (I use this one at Raye's Place)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp collagen
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp Water
1/4 cup xylitol/erythritol (I use 1/2&1/2) blended with a coffee grinder into powder

1)    Beat butter, sugar substitutes & egg until light & fluffy
2)    Add molasses and blend well
3)    Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl (not including the powdered sugar) and add slowly to the wet ingredients.  (Don't forget to add the 2 Tbsp of water after all the dry ingredients!)

4)    Place dough in the fridge for 30 min.
5)    Roll small pieces into a pencil shape and cut into 1/2" pieces.
6)    Bake on parchment paper or silpat @ 350 for 5-7 minutes.

7)    Cool slightly, then toss in powdered sugar

8)    Store in a tightly sealed container in the fridge!  Hope you enjoy them!

This cookie is such a wonderful, spicy, Christmas-y cookie!  I hope your family loves them as much as mine does!

This recipe makes about 160 bite-size cookies.  It uses a whole Tablespoon of molasses but that breaks down to 0.1g of carbs per cookie.....not bad!  You can enjoy 10 or 20 for only a carb or two!

Merry Christmas!
Dana

Happy October!!!

It's FINALLY getting cooler here in Texas!  And by "cooler" I mean the lower 80's!  (insert eye-roll here!)  It's been an unusually warm Fall....unfortunately.  I love the Fall....pumpkins, cool weather, sweaters, jeans....not sweating when I walk to my car....you know, it's the little things!

I know it's been a bit over a month since I last posted and I'm happy to say I'm still happily sitting on the THM wagon!  It's been 64 days with NO sugar and only 2 off plan meals!  In that month I've been camping for 4 days (in a tent....let's not talk about it!!), I've been out of town 4 days & have had some physical issues.  I'm pretty proud of myself!!  I also have an announcement....drumroll please......

I finally hit 30 lbs gone this morning!!  WooHoo!!!!!  I'm so thrilled!!  I won't say I'm a speedy loser, but it's definitely been steady!  15 lbs in 11 weeks!  Not too shabby!

So for those of you wondering what real life weight loss looks like on THM.....let me show you what mine has looked like since January......
1/1/15 - 309 lbs
2/4/15 - 292.8
Hubby was in the hospital with a staph infection & had 6 weeks of daily IV antibiotics at home.
2/16/15 - 298.8
In May I had a D&C & tore my ACL
6/18/15 - 284.8
Totally struggled to get back on plan for almost 2 months....and gained a lot of weight back....my knee was really messed up and I was in a LOT of pain.
8/1/15 - 293 (started being really serious about THM and cut out ALL sugar!)
9/4/15 - 287.4
10/1/15 - 282.6
I have pretty bad arthritis and went through a week with TONS of inflammation......figured out it's gluten that's causing the flare up.  Boo.....no more Ezekiel bread....at least for now!  But the inflammation has been better.
10/21/15 - 278.8 - 30.2 lbs lost!!

The moral of the story is.....jump back on the wagon when you fall off!  ;)


Next on the agenda is the recipe of the week!!
Briana Thomas created the orginial recipe here.....but my friend Amanda on You Food (AplusY) altered it to make it lower in carbs and it is SOOOOO yummy!!!  Stop whatever you are doing and go make it!!

Ok, that's about all I have for today!  I'll do my best to get back into the swing of blogging more often!

Blessings!
Dana

I have too many things to talk about!!

I've waited too long and now I have too much stuff to cram into this one blog post!!  Oops!!  Life got busy and I didn't make time to blog.  No real excuses!

Drum roll, please!!!!!
I'm on day 20 with NO sugar!!!  WooHoo!!!!!  I'm so thrilled!!  The first week was rough, but the second and third weeks weren't too bad!  I didn't even miss it!  This fourth week has been difficult......I think I must have some yeast dying off (or an alien or 2), but it will pass!  I've been taking Magnesium since week 1 and I really think that is helping my sugar cravings!

I also started a 30 day THM challenge last week!  I'm loving it!  I only had one off plan snack my first week....some wheat thins, so I'm counting week 1 a great success!!  My goal for week 2 is drinking more water.  I have always had a hard time drinking 8 glasses of water a day let alone more than that!  I've had 4 glasses today......I need to get busy!!

Ok.....recipe of the week goes to.....Mrs. Criddle's Cowboy Cookies!!!  YUMMMM-O!!!  They are WONDERFUL!!  I did alter them a bit so I'll post my altered recipe below, but the orginal is in the link above!

Mrs. Criddle's Cowboy Cookies  (**w/Dana's alterations)

1)   1 cup of room temperature butter (2 sticks)
2)   1/4 cup THM Sweet Blend OR 1/2 cup Gentle Sweet (I used Gentle Sweet)
3)   1 tsp vanilla (or just eyeball it!  ;)
4)   1 tsp baking powder
5)   1/2 tsp salt
6)   1/4 tsp maple flavor (this seemed weird to me but adds good flavor!!)
7)   3 eggs
8)   3/4 cup almond flour
9)   1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut flakes
10) 1/4 cup of old fashioned oatmeal ground into flour
11) 1/2 cup oat fiber**
12) 1 cup chopped pecans
13) 1 cup sugar free chocolate chips (I used Hershey's)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream first 6 ingredients.
Add the eggs and mix well.
Then add almond flour, coconut, oat flour and oat fiber and mix well.
Finally, add the pecans & chocolate chips!
Scoop about 1 Tbs of dough for each cookie.
Bake for 9 min (just until the edges get brown)
Let them cool for about 10 min (if you can wait that long!!)

These turned out like regular, bad-for-you cookies!!  They made my cookie-lovin' heart sing!

Ok, that's all I have time for today!
Blessings!
Dana

P.S. Here's my quote of the week!

The First....

Well, it's my first blog post!  My goal is to post about something every week for at least one year.  It probably would have made more sense to start on January 1, but I say let's break with convention and fly by the seat of our pants!  LOL....as you come to know me you will find this statement hilarious.  I do NOT fly by the seat of my pants.  Pretty much ever. 

I suppose I'll start by saying 'hello' and telling you a little about myself!

Hello!!  My name is Dana and I'm a sah-wife of a wonderful man that I've been married to for 15 years this month and a sah-mom of 2 beautiful girls!  I homeschool them (the girls, that is) and try to stay on top of keeping our smallish house clean.  We live in the country and have a garden (that is hating this cold Spring we are having this year, I might add!), 2 dogs, 1 rabbit and about 25 fish (who knew one boy fish could wreak such havoc!!).  We love the Lord and, if we aren't at home, we are most likely at our church!  I enjoy cooking (more on that later), crafting, teaching, crocheting, gardening and going to Disney World (much to my hubby's dismay!). 

So, about the cooking.  In my quest to better our health (mostly mine in the form of shrinking my waistline), I've delved into quite a few interesting recipes and diets.  Recently I've found this eating plan

and I am LOVING it!!  I just finished my first week eating "clean" and I lost 7 lbs!  Pretty good!!  I'll share some recipes that I'm enjoying and some of my experiments too!  ;)

I also promise to post pictures.  I can't stand blogs that don't include pictures!  If I wanted to read a book, I would!  LOL!  I read blogs to feed my inner child's love of storybooks....full of pictures.  ;)

Ok.....That's all I have time for today!  I've got to run (well, drive) to the grocery store, finish school with the girls and have dinner on the table for my hubby!  Thanks for joining me!

Dana