Vacation Results

 We just returned home from a visit to children and grandchildren in the midwest.

I gained weight.

That's to be expected - these trips invariably involve doing an awful lot of NOTHING. When I'm home, I have my Wii Fit to do, and I guess I do a lot more moving around than I realize. I know this, because when visiting family, I end up in pain from sitting. It's the arthritis - lack of movement causes everything to stiffen up. I sit so much on these trips, that sometimes I end up in tears at night, at just the thought of laying in bed for several hours.

Sleep is out of the question. And the plane ride home is a nightmare.

We did take a walk one day, but with snow, and temps in the teens or lower, outside activities didn't happen much.

But it's over, and I'm on the road to recovery. And back to eating vegetables and other Real Food. I did have some vegetables on this trip, because I ordered a veggie omelet for breakfast twice. That was my vegetable allotment for the day, except for the day I cooked spaghetti for everyone, and steamed a big batch of spinach. When we got home yesterday, we had a bowl of homemade potato soup loaded with greens: spinach and kale torn into little pieces and simmered in the soup.

Then we celebrated a late Valentine's Day by having a bit of chocolate cheesecake, followed by a glass of absinthe, properly diluted with ice water until it was cloudy.

It all works out.

Coca-cola?

Another entry in the cola wars. I am simply astonished that people actually drink this stuff, and pay a fortune to do it. I don't talk about it much - I figure my attitude is not good and I'll just make people mad.

But anyway, it's an interesting article.

A Low-Cal Dessert

It's a little weird, but it's good...

Chocolate Cottage Cheese

Look at it this way - it can't hurt, can it?

I put 2 teaspoons of dark cocoa powder (the real stuff, not chocolate milk mix,)

and

1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar in 1/2 cup of lowfat cottage cheese.

I know, I know. Sugar. Is. Bad.

I know. So use the smaller amount. If you're like me, you like your chocolate dark and sort of bitter, anyway.

For fun, throw in some vanilla, or rum extract. Or heck, if it's a fancy dessert, throw in rum. Or Kahlua or Amaretto. Just half a teaspoon or so.

I ran the numbers, and this dessert comes to:

128 calories
16 g. protein
2 g. fat
12 g. carbohydrates
2 g. fiber

I think that's great for a dessert. And a real boost to your protein for the day, if you need that.

If you want to be really good, have just 1/4 cup in a fancy glass. You'll halve the calories.