So...whats for dinner?

Ah rib eyes . My favorite. Definitely on the menu for the weekend. Funny, when we make steak dd2 and hubby seem to 'drop' bye. I declare they have a hidden camera in my house.

Tonight is blackened chicken on my indoor grill pan. Marinated in lemon juice, rosemary and garlic. I save a little of the marinade to add to some butter. I then spread it on the sizzling chicken. Roasted asparagus and tiny tomatoes as sides.

Speaking of “holding soup," ever have a Szechuan or Shanghai soup dumpling? It has the soup inside it.

Winemaker (Hess Collection) dinner tonight. First course was kimchi-BBQ pork spring rolls with chili-honey dipping sauce over arugula; second was a mushroom vol-au-vent pastry with a brie-thyme cream sauce; next, seared duck breast over red cabbage and cranberries with poached pear; then ravioli stuffed with lamb ragout in a tomato-basil sauce topped with Parm-Regg; finally, banana cake with Nutella buttercream frosting. The winemaker had some of his homemade jams for sale—I bought a Blackberry-Thai and a Habanero (the latter with ripe Brie tomorrow morning).

Bob’s doing Lent tomorrow, so rather than risking the carbofats of fish & chips or zuppa di pesce con linguine at local eateries, I will pan-sear salmon, roast Romesco cauliflower, and make some jasmine rice. (Maybe with dill & peas, Persian style).

I came home from my personal-training-assessment session and ate leftover calamari for lunch. But I balanced it out with an unsweetened almond milk cappuccino and a big glass of seltzer with Meyer lemon. Have my work cut out for me—to reach my most reasonably attainable goal, I need to lose 48 lbs of fat and gain 10 lbs. of muscle within a year. Wish me luck…and discipline. It’ll be expensive, but I don’t trust myself to do it without guidance as to specific exercises (to ameliorate existing problems and avoid aggravating others) and the accountability of having to report to a trainer. I will also be taking “Silver Sneakers” classes (even though my Medicare supplement carrier doesn’t offer the program, the classes are free to any gym member old enough to take them), and going to another branch in the chain to swim and do water aerobics. (I chose this more barebones branch as my “home” gym because it’s a block away with very limited parking, forcing me to get up off my butt and walk there as a warmup). I’m glad I bought the all-access membership, which will let me use any gym in the chain across the country, with unlimited visits.

Susan, I would be happy with Olivia's meals for the day, sounded yummy.

Sandy, I have no doubt you can reach your goal. You need to lose roughly 1lb a week. That is a calorie deficit of 3500 a week or 500 a day from your normal diet. With some smart tweaks you can do that, and without feeling deprived of anything.

Our wedding anniversary today

Good for you Sandy and I wish you strength in your fitness endeavor. Your plan sounds like a good one.

As might be expected, Olivia is going to develop a sophisticated palate. And how lucky is she to have such a Nana to expose her to her wonderful world of culinary delights.

Saw my MO yesterday. I was all prepared to start up the letrozole again when she told me that another study was recently released that indicated that 10 years of the AIs might not be beneficial to everyone. SIGH. We went over my path report and given my stats and tumor type she felt I was low risk. She (of course 😏) left the decision up to me. I'm not familiar with the study, so for the time being, I'm not taking the letrozole until I can research it more. In the meantime, I'm living with mixed feelings about the whole thing. Ugh.

Happy anniversary Freya!

Susan, I've never made bagels. I'll have to try that sometime. Maybe after all things settle down.

I went out to the cemetery today. Mom's marker is in place...right next to dad's marker.

Minus, I have BCBS’ Plan F Medigap policy—it doesn’t participate in Sliver Sneakers, but it does come with membership in GlobalFit, which offers discounted membership at several chains of gyms; L.A. Fitness made the most sense to me because it is ubiquitous. I paid an extra $10/mo for the MultiAccess membership, so I can drive over to its Ravenswood branch if I feel like a swim or a water aerobics class.

My new trainer considers walking, ellipticals, indoor cycling, etc to be good for warmups & cooldowns but the brain soon learns to adapt to them and “tell” the body to burn less fat if they’re used as aerobic exercise for too long without switching types of exercise. I’ll be doing mostly resistance training with light weights and bands, as well as balance (the goal of the latter being to get me more able to ride a real bike without 20” training wheels), posture improvement (moving my shoulders back to take stress off my arthritic c-spine), stretching long muscles (especially my chronically tight hamstrings, iliopsoas & IT bands and stopping incipient cording in its tracks so I can more carefully ration LE PT visits); and strengthening my core to protect my even more arthritic lumbar spine and avoid surgery or shots. Once I have gotten more flexible and balanced we can begin to work on building muscle, perhaps adding Pilates (my Bar Show choreographer/director is an instructor). My trainer says that as neither an athlete nor a recovering heart patient, cardio—either serious-training or rehab level—is not for me (it’s for both the young Lululemon crowd and those needing cardiac rehab), and that my endurance and aerobic capacity is pretty good—I’m not nearly as de-conditioned as I’d feared. Once we get the mechanical problems addressed we can begin to “step it up,” so to speak.

My friend down in the far s. exurbs, who had to switch to an AARP Advantage plan when she moved from Chicago because her old Medigap plan wasn’t available in her new county, loves her Silver Sneakers classes. She’s had two angioplasties and then the BMX for DCIS & ADH last spring. If the classes are too easy, they might be a good warmup for my regular training session.

Tonight’s dinner was the ATK recipe for pan-seared Atlantic salmon (secret is to brine it for 15 min. and then putting it in a cold pan strewn with coarse salt & pepper functioning as both seasoning and “ball bearings,” bringing it up to medium heat). It was insanely wonderful, cleaving apart in perfectly barely-opaque slabs that were so rich it’s hard to believe the only fat came from the fish itself. I took a head of Romanesco and cut it into the little pyramid florets—seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika and roasted in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 min. For the menfolk I added some brown basmati rice, but I decided against it for me, as I’d had my starch for the day. I sliced up the stem of the Romanesco, and might munch on them later if I get peckish again. Probably strawberries for dessert. Saved last night’s wine dinner leftovers—either Gordy will nosh on them tonight or I’ll have them for breakfast.

Sandy, I'll have to check out what goodies my BCBS F plan offers. I really haven't looked - been too busy getting settled in my new home and town. You make such interesting meals. I find it not worth the effort to cook for myself most of the time. But even though I use prepared (frozen) meals, I am careful about what I eat. Salads, which I'd like more of, seem to cause my GERD (and gall bladder) to act up so I don't have them very often. Perhaps I just don't chew them thoroughly enough??

Happy Eating!

HUGS!

What a deal, Eric! We pay $70 a month for couple's membership at Y.

SIL with chickens is in town and brought eggs. Just enjoyed one on toast for breakfast. So delicious.😊

Pasta with homemade tomato sauce from freezer for dinner. Grated Romano. Bagged crunchy salad with kale. My portion will not have the sweet dressing in a packet. I may steam or roast asparagus.

Taking a day off from going to the hospital since other siblings are looking after my mother. Feels good to stay home and putter

Mommy - don't stress, it's pretty foolproof. If you use the slow cooker though, I'll caution you not to put the veggies in at the same time as the meat. They will be mush. I often cook the vegetables separately and add them to the meat at the end.

Trying my hand at a spicy Thai chicken noodle bowl. Hoping it is as good as it looks! Wanted some sort of soup or stew as it's really chilly here today (50) with forecast of low around 30 and some snow flurries.  This after several weeks of temps in the 60's and 70's.  Life in the South.

Ain’t it the truth, HH!

One of the reasons I probably won’t do WW is their misplaced emphasis on reducing dietary fat, and their recommendations of higher-glycemic carbs than anyone flirting with metabolic syndrome has any business ingesting. Only thing I agree with them about is fiber & water. I lost the most weight, and kept it off longer, on low-carb/unrestricted (though not wildly so) fat & protein, and both my PCP and MO agree that’s the route to which I need to return. (And it makes Bob happy because we can go out to steakhouses and seafood joints). I realize that between the bc, GERD, and alcohol calories I need to start treating wine with my meals as a very occasional thing—and stop wondering “what can I cook that’s a good match for this wine?” Will have to get my resveratrol in a lower-carb, lower-calorie way. (Certainly not from fruit juices—they’re even higher in sugar).

My PCP warned me that exercise will do less for weight loss than will even diet alone. Nonetheless, the stronger I get and the more muscle that replaces fat, the more the more my food will be converted into glycogen to be stored as muscle fuel rather than into fat to be stored in my belly, butt & boobs. And there are studies showing that the activity of exercise is more beneficial to preventing ER+ recurrence than is reduction either of weight or stored fat. The more I move, the smoother my joints work even if they hurt at first. Use it or lose it, I guess.