Nope. No flour and No flowers!

Time has gotten away from me once again. Good news? My hubby and I are doing fabulously well on the South Beach diet (I mean, aside from the part that he's Captain Cranky-pants some of the time...Patience, patience, is what I keep telling myself!). We are bot exercising, too, which is a huge accomplishment considering we are carb-starved now for 6 days! However, it's just not that big of a deal this time, for some odd reason.

Here I sit with a giant salad in front of me - romaine, radish, red pepper, scallion, smoked turkey and cottage cheese all mixed up with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It's truly delish!

Tonight will be a good test of the no-drinking clause part of phase one of the South Beach diet. Socializing in the evening seems to be a big trigger, so we are going to go prepared with our favorite non-alcoholic drink, IBC diet root beer. If you like root beer, this, my friends, is the VERY best diet drink on the entire planet. My husband, who wrinkles his nose at anything labeled "diet?" Loves the IBC diet root beer.

My friend, June, over there at Bye, Bye, Pie is doing her utmost to get a corporate sponsorship from FedEx, and I now am going to do my part to get IBC root beer over here at Life with Flowers! If you go to their website, it certainly is a big disappointment. Apparently they put their energy into making their diet root beer the most tasty, delicious, surprisingly good diet drink anywhere!

So, again, I bid you adieu for the time being. I'm off to shower after my nearly-hour-long workout today...

I will leave you with this photo of what I did in our flower boxes a couple of springs ago. Among other things, I planted papyrus and romaine lettuce in there! A fond memory of this springtime consisted of my husband and me sitting in our living room with the windows open, but the curtains drawn. Outside, we could hear this tourist, quite obviously from somewhere in New Yahhk, remarking "Oh my GAWD. C'meah, c'meah! Yous gotta see this heeah! Oh my GAAAAWWWWD! Look, look! It's lettuce! Can yous even baleve it? That's hisTERRRRIcal! Oh my gawd! Takeapicha, takeapicha, takeAPICHA!!!"

Still no flour

We're on Day 4 over here and doing well...Tonight is sauteed sockeye salmon with a garlic-dill-yogurt sauce. Probably will serve that over wilted spinach and maybe have something else on the side. I even had my first meal out with one of my dearest friends today. We met for lunch at a great local restaurant and had their yummy house salad with grilled chicken over it.

Then I had the distinct pleasure of going to the mall and returning a couple things from Christmas. Why do they use so much perfume-y stuff in the hallways at the mall? I'm still all sniffly and my eyes and nose are itching from it. I don't know how anyone works in there. I'd be a big ball of allergy by the end of day one!

So the doldrums of winter have hit. This always happens after the holidays. What's next? Seems there's just a big, long, ominous stretch until we get to springtime. Good news is that I planted an obscene number of bulbs this year. Like 70 tulips and another 70 crocuses all around the front and side of the house. When March rolls around, the little crocuses already start poking their heads up through the snow! And I can't tell you how happy we all are to see them!

Here's one of the areas on the side of the house in the springtime. It never fails to cheer me up! Even at this time of year!



This just looks like spring to me. Even the air looks soft.

Ok...Hoping to do a flower arrangement again either tomorrow or the next day. We desperately need to cheer up the place!

Oh, and I need to show you our new rug! It's very cute. A gabbeh rug! They are kind of neat with little doo-dads and characters woven into the rug itself. They come in every color and shape and size. Will take a picture of it when our camera is charged up!

Off to make dinner!

Ciao!

Life Without Flour!

Yesterday my husband and I started the South Beach diet. We've done this before with great success, so let's see how it goes this time around. If nothing else, it forces you to re-think food a bit and also does wonders for the belly! My gut got considerably smaller last time I did this, so I'm really looking forward to that!

Only downside is the not-much-energy you get on this thing. It's sort of like wandering around in a fog. First time I did it, I also exercised regularly and it was really an effort to make myself get out there and do it!

On yesterday's menu was V-8 juice and an egg scrambled with spinach and feta cheese for breakfast. Lunch was a big salad with turkey, cheese, garbanzo beans with a vinaigrette dressing. Snacked on an handful of dry-roasted peanuts. Dinner started with portobello mushrooms cooked in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, finished with grated parmesean cheese (this is so delish!). Then I also roasted a big turkey breast, and sauteed some asparagus flavored with white truffle butter.

Not too shabby!

Today, so far have had two of these yummy little vegetable quiche cups made with egg-substitute, cheese, spinach, onion and red pepper. The recipe for this is online and I would recommend these even if you're not on a diet! They're portable, delicious and so easy to make! Also had some V-8 juice and a small diet coke.

Took the dogs for two walks and then did a 1/2 hour power walk. Lunch was salad with roasted turkey and some reduced fat cheddar cheese with balsamic vinaigrette. Snacked on a cheese stick.

All in all, it's been easy food-wise.

My husband and I both had a lot of trouble sleeping last night, and I remember this from the last times we did the South Beach Diet. It's like your body is working overtime to figure out what the HE** is going on? Where are the carbs? Where is all that fat I usually get to pack on? WHERE'S MY SUGAR FIX?

The title of this post really sort of says it all. Think about all the things you eat with carbs in them and then imagine not being able to have any of them!

Wish us luck!