Slightly burned food cravings

 I have my church's women's Bible study tonight and it's a potluck beforehand.  I had to find a recipe that I could take that would be in my plan...  Google.  I found this.

Nutty Charred Broccoli

What is it with slightly burned food that attracts me so?!

Meri and I took Aggie on our morning walk today and since she hadn't eaten before we went, she pooped out after just a couple blocks.  So we turned around and went home and enjoyed our coffee there.

Jen had already left and I took Aggie down to her daycare, picking up a few groceries on the way back for the potluck.  And they do NOT have Stacy Hawkin spices or oils at Walmart, so I punted.

Don't these look yummy?!  I compared the nutritional facts and aren't too far off from what the recipe called for.

We will be fine!

Storm News

 Yesterday's storms were a RUSH!  Ryan came home with Aggie just before it hit and we all hung out in the basement while it passed by.  My heart goes out to all the people affected by the tornados and the families of the storm victims!

We didn't get anything damaged at our house, thankfully!

However, this is my sister's trampoline in Wisconsin...

Her yard is on THIS side of the fence.

As of Tuesday, I'd lost 31 pounds! I'm going to start the transitioning to normal foods a week earlier than planned, now that I'm within a couple pounds of my goal weight.

Here is the pic I sent to my coach yesterday.

Aggie seems pretty pleased with my progress too.

or just life in general.

Anniversaries and Cheese cake

 Yesterday was Robb and my wedding anniversary, my third one without him.

I spent the day working and doing laundry and car juggling with Ryan and our car guy, grabbing Aggie from daycare on the way back to the house.  I did stop out at the cemetery this morning to just talk a little and contemplated taking the full Diet Doctor Pepper 20 oz bottle away that a college friend put there last week when he stopped by.  But decided to leave it there until the cemetery people clear it away.  It's just sitting on the stone, not hurting anyone.

I went ahead and made myself an early supper of spinach/egg white tortilla stuffed with chicken, cheese and tomatoes and it did NOT turn out as expected but I still ate it and probably had green stuff in my teeth for a while.  About that time, Jen got home from work and asked what time Meri and her bf would be over for tacos. Um, it's Monday...  No it's not.  

GASP!  Time to thaw the hamburger!!!

Meri and bf Ryan came over with Reedus the dog and we all had a really nice dinner of tacos.  Since I'd already eaten, I made an impromptu plate of nachos with some Quest chips and little low fat cheese and salsa.

Meri had made some cheese cakes for Ryan's mom for Mother's Day and brought them with her.  I made a tiny sampler plate of both types (New York Style and another plain with a top layer of chocolate ganache) and little dibbles of the various homemade toppings, (strawberry, lemon curd and salted caramel).  OH it was so yummy!!!  

Perfect way to end a beautiful day!

Regarding my Optavia plan, except for the extra nachos and cheesecake, I stayed on plan yesterday and when I weighed myself this morning, I had NOT gained.  I didn't lose anything either but did NOT gain!  So that's a win in my book.  I'm 3 pounds away from my goal and I plan to stay on it until June 1st, then will transition back into normal foods.  I've lost 29 pounds!!!  I confessed to my bestie coach this morning.  She forgave me!

Now on to Wednesday, which seems like ANOTHER Monday.

It has been a time!

 I took a leap...

Back in March, I was feeling SO under the weather and felt uncomfortable in everything I wore.  I'd gained 30 pounds since Robb passed and wow, did it show!

My bestie is a coach with Optavia and she knew I needed some help so I finally said OKEY DOKEY, LET'S DO THIS! and joined up.  The prepackaged food arrived and I kept putting off starting.  It was St. Patrick's Day or it was lunch with Ada, it was this, it was that.  If I kept putting it off, I'd never start.  No sense keeping it a secret from everyone. Maybe they'd support me!  

So I decided that 3/19 was THE day to start!!!  And I did!!!  I lost 9 pounds in 24 hours.  I know it's water weight but cripes!  I didn't think that would EVER come off!  Still on my journey to a waist line, but more on that later.

Also on 3/19, after several attempts to get over a chest cold that Aggie gave me, I was feeling miserable.  Coughing all the time, etc, etc.  But hoped that maybe some antibiotics would help me kick it, so I went to the doctor that day.  I came home with a few different types of meds, bronchitis, pneumonia and a sinus infection.

The kids were so concerned that Maddy took the rest of the day off to come sit on my bed with me and in her words, "nag me back to health." :)  When she left, Meri came over and stayed with me overnight for at least 2 nights.  That part is pretty blurry. A lot of coughing through the night and  I went through several boxes of kleenex. I have no idea how Meri got any sleep!

The whole situation gave us all PTSD from 3 years prior, so I totally get their concern.

I was somewhat better when the meds ran out, but my teeth and jaw were still killing me.  Apparently the sinus infection was still going strong so I went back and the doctor put me on a different kind of med and that finally kicked it.  However she WAS concerned that I'd lost 12 pounds between visits and freaked a little checking EVERYTHING over before I happened to mention my diet.  She practically hugged me with relief!

So anyway, back to the health plan!  I have 5 fuelings per day plus one "lean & green" meal.  I can do a variety of recipes for the lean and green, but my go to is a salad with some shredded chicken that I keep already weighed out in the freezer in little baggies.  Every 2.5-3 hours, I rip one of the packets open and either eat the variety of foods straight out of the packaging or mix it with water and microwave.  I haven't determined yet if heating up the oven for a few cookies is worth it yet but you never know what I'll do tomorrow.  I keep all the packets in an over the door shoe holder.  And I drink at least 64 ounces of water every day.  I've gotten used to that by now and typically have 3 cups down before 9am.

I have lost 26.4 pounds as of this morning and losing roughly 3 pounds a week.  I plan to start transitioning to regular food on June 1st and be completely done with the prepackaged things by mid to late June.  And with the knowledge that I've learned over the last couple months, I believe that I can keep it off!

It has been an adventure.  I feel so much better now and Julie has been an awesome coach!  We still have our virtual movie nights at least once a week and talk every day.  

I'll still be slightly above what the doctor's office chart says is "overweight" but as soon as I'm able to start walking again (haven't lately because of the rain), that will come off too.

Baby steps!

Quarantine Day 8 (10?) New Benchmarks

 Guess what?  I started my diet last week, FINALLY!!!!  

The first year of grief and then Christmas really got the better of me and I'd gained 20 pounds from the weight I was at Robb's funeral, which had been my lowest in decades.

Today my weight loss was 5ish pounds!!!!  I've gotten down to my weight that I was at Maddy's wedding. WOOHOO!  I'd used that benchmark for a LOOONNGG time.

I am 15 from my funeral weight benchmark.  And I'll get there.  

It's difficult to cut out breads, potatoes and sugar, but I am doing my best. 

I spent 20 minutes yesterday morning, peeling 2 bags of carrots and then dry canned them in my electric canner for 30 minutes.  They look awesome.  Someday when I crack one open, I'll roast them.

I bought a couple turkeys on sale around Christmastime for cheap and am thawing one right now.  I plan to can Christmas in a jar tomorrow or even later today.  That's when the bottom later is raw turkey, then some gravy, then a layer (maybe) of mashed potatoes, and finally a layer of freshly mixed stuffing and pressure canned for meat times.  It'll be great to have pints of that around for a quick meal when I'm feeling Christmassy!  

Last night, when I got off of work, I was disgusted by the state of our refrigerator.  Things get spilled, congested, stuffed in.  I knew we had groceries but didn't know where things were.  So I sat on the floor and started pulling everything out.  Scrubbing every nook and cranny and there were a lot of them.

It suddenly looks like a brand new fridge!  Well except for the duct tape holding the crispers together.  And yep we have groceries!  Just less now.  And that's ok.  

Good thing I didn't take a pic of what it looked like before.

Over lunch yesterday I sewed on the sample wedding dress.  If I ever get out of this quarantine, I can have my first fitting with the bride and if the dress is done by Valentine's day, she'll be dressed to the nines for it!!!  It's going to be so pretty.  

Here is all the tulle overlay that I'm gathering to fit at the waist.

I hope it fits well and all I have to do is make a duplicate in white!  I can do that!

Ok, Back to work.  Lots to do this morning!

Setting Benchmarks

 I've only made yogurts since December for Jen.  She likes them for smoothies.  AND since they have 12 carbs per cup plus whatever sweetened condensed milk in it, that's just too many carbs for Robb and me...  We're trying to be as Keto as possible.

And I've been missing yogurt.  Robb and I used to enjoy a container of it some evenings for a treat.  So I've been doing research...  Robb says, "You don't have to go to all the trouble for me!  I'm perfectly happy just eating meats, cheeses and cauliflower!"

Yeah yeah yeah...  

Even though Almond milk has no carbs, it's just not an option because I've tried making yogurt with it before many and various ways and we're just NOT fans...  Plus it never gets past the thickness of soupy slop.

So I found that regular milk has the 12 carbs per cup.  Also found that Fairlife milk has 6 carbs per cup.  aha...  I think I found where to cut the carbs.  Oh and sweetened condensed milk can be replaced with artificial sweetener if you want...  We stir in a little after the fact.  I'll make the next batch with it mixed in and some vanilla.

Apparently Fairlife milk has filtered the milk out into it's basic parts and then puts it back together in various types of milk...  Fats, carbs, lactose, etc.  

This is not a commercial...  I actually wish they were paying me for this...  But they might not approve of what I say.  Fairlife is expensive and I've balked at buying it for a LONG time.  I have dredged ALL over the interweb to find a way to do it myself, but don't have the means to buy the big equipment for our house...  and we don't have a cow.  SO I finally broke down and bought a half gallon of the stuff.  It's expensive!  $3.12 for a half gallon and that would be over $6 for a gallon??  Regular old 2% at Aldi is less than $2.  Whole milk might be a little bit more.

But when a small container of low carb yogurt costs $1.50, what's $3.12 for a half gallon of milk??  That makes each little container (about 8 of them) around 39 cents per and less than 5 carbs per container.  I'll do it.

I've only got one Instant Pot (and it's actually an off brand) that has a yogurt button on it.  Heretofore referred to as the IP.

I rinsed out the pot with super hot water and then dumped in the milk and 2 tablespoons of previous made whey.  Whisked well.  Covered the pot with a couple paper towels and the lid to hold it down.  Pushed the yogurt button for 12 hours and the next morning at 11 hours, I checked it.

Everyone on my FB IP yogurt groups keep talking about the "spoon test" and I thought yeah yeah yeah.  But wow.  This yogurt was SO much thicker and creamier than the boil method...  The spoon really stood upright without wavering one way or another...  Plus I didn't have to drain the whey off at ALL!

Sigh.  I'm a convert.  But I'll still do the boil method with regular old milk for Jen.  She likes it. and it's cheaper for me to make that...  But for Robb and me, I'm so doing this from now on.

Above, my legs this morning.  Wearing jeans that used to be way to small for me but I hung onto them just in case I lost weight.  And now I may need a belt for them.  I also have some jeans from college days and if I ever get back into them I will restart the button fly trend again.  Oh yes I will!

Oh!!!! My weight is down 15 pounds since what it was at Maddy's wedding!!  That is my benchmark. 

Never thought I'd be Keto

Due to changes in our diets in our house, I've been getting a little caught up in looking for Keto or low to no carb recipes.  

My cookbook shelves are starting to look a little different...

My cupboards are starting to look like a witch's cupboard...

Arrowroot flour

Guar gum

Erthyritol

Monk fruit

Almond flour

Psyllium powder

as well as a ton more miscellaneous bags of odd ingredients.

The only thing I'm missing is eye of newt.

But I'm pretty sure there is an incantation of some kind I'm supposed to be saying over the food processor as I mix all these things up.  Or at least a cackle.

The main chant is, "he probably won't like it" so I guess it's all for me.

  The health food store is beginning to know me by name.

And I'm overbuying on cauliflower.  It used to be potatoes.  So much so that I just pulled 6 heads of frozen cauliflower out of our garage fridge which freezes things...  I'm letting it thaw out a bit before I rice it all and throw it back in the deep freeze for future use.

Cauliflower has taken over my shopping so that when I see a good deal I stock up on it.  Found out lately that it has a LOT more carbs than say spaghetti squash, so it won't be used as often as we had been eating it.

If it's frozen and riced, I can use it on occasion and won't feel so pressured to add it to every meal.

I'm planning on spiralizing some turnips and a rutabaga that got prefrozen too and then refreezing them.

Life has changed and we're adapting.

The deep freeze will never look the same again.  I'll probably have to throw out those cream cheese mints...

what a shame!

BUT I have lost another 4 pounds since starting this.  Things look good all around.

If you have any recipes that have next to no carbs, we'd be appreciative.

Working Things Out

I got up early today and worked out with Meri!!

There is a space where we go that has a bunch of equipment there, untouched.

She has a whole routine that she used to do, so I tagged along and did it too.

The weights felt powerful, the treadmill even more powerful and then when I did a torso turny thing while holding a weight, I started feeling less powerful...

We worked out for 30 minutes and I worked off all the calories of my cappuccino just on the treadmill.  It tells you how many calories you've burned.  nice...

So I came home and had breakfast, totally wrecking what I'd done. Well, not really, it was a normal calorie counting breakfast.  I'm determined to lose more weight...

We're going to try and do this a few times a week together.  She's more ambitious and will go more often than that.

We're both doing the My Fitness Pal app too.  If you want to be my friend on there, let me know!

Everyone needs a little encouragement!

I had given Meri my old scale and just recently replaced it with a new one. 

It'll take some getting used to.

When you first step on it, it gives me good news.

When I step off and back on, it's 2 pounds heavier.

Bi-polar scale...

So I'm going to use the first number it gives me, because it's being consistently weird about it.

I may trade back for my older scale as the numbers are lit up on that one.

Meri got Robb's old bike out and got it road ready. Shub bought a bike and they've been biking around.  Plus Meri has been riding bikes with her only charge the last couple weeks and has been enjoying it a lot.

The pic below is Ryan and my brother, Mark in 2008 when they went on the RAGBRAI bike ride across Iowa.  Mark used to go every year and that year, he talked us into helping Ryan buy a super duper bike and go with him for a couple days.

I should probably get my bike fixed up too, but eh... I know where I can work out...

Updated Mug Shots, Weight Loss & Kids

I am 4 pounds away from the weight I was for Maddy and Matthew's wedding.  

WHEW!!!  That means I've lost ten pounds.  You know what packs on the weight for me?  Chips and dip...  

However I'd like to lose more than that!  But the cruise is in two weeks and that's what I'm shooting for for now.

My goal is another 17 pounds.  And if I can get there, another 10 would be awesome!  I don't want to get to the weight I was for OUR wedding as I think I was underweight by a lot, even tho the doctor's scale said I was borderline obese...  The chart that I looked at back in the 80's, didn't take into consideration my height or bone structure.  

Or love for french onion dip.

Meri has made her decision and will be starting her own daycare!!!  It starts in October.  The other day, she was over and we came up with the hours, pricing structure and FB page together.  Immediately messages started sending to her messenger box.  So we knew we had some work to do.  

She and I worked hard on her house, baby proofing, cleaning, washing down my old baby things and toys and moving them in.  I was exhausted by the end of the day!  It's helping me clean things out of my garage tho!  And there are still lots to go.  Good thing SHE had a large garage and storage too!

I KNEW there was a reason I was hanging onto all that baby stuff...  Now we know.

Meri had one appointment last night and it went really well.  The little boy had a blast playing with the toys we'd brought over, including the toy work bench.  I still have the kitchenette and baby doll bunk beds, given us by Meri's godmother, to dig out so hopefully they'll be at her house by the time she interviews with someone with a little girl.  We'll get it cleaned up for this weekend.

Found out that her hose faucet had been shut off from the inside, so I had to go into her Silence of the Lamb basement to figure out how to turn it on.  Did that and the cat went into the crawl space under the house...  here kitty kitty kitty!!!!  

Faucet started working and then the hose that I gave Meri burst in the middle.  crud.  Leaving it wadded up in the garage was not good for it.  At least we got the things cleaned off that we needed to and shut it down quick.  

She's going to love running her own daycare.  Robb and I were skeptical at first, but she has a plan and she'll be making a lot more than she was, plus she'll love her job again.  Her happiest job was playing with toddlers at the big daycare in her last town.  We're on board now but she keeps rubbing in that time that we weren't...  sigh...  

She can't complain about it anymore.  I vacuumed for her.

While I was there, she and I took pics of each other for the upcoming cruise online check-in.  The first ones we took looked like drunk mug shots, TERRIBLE! WON'T EVEN SHOW YOU! so we brushed our hair and did a bit of a smile for them.  Better, but not great. Oh well.  They just have to identify us with them.  We're not looking for framed artwork...  Meri had her hair dyed lately so she looks different than her passport and the check-in said, use a pic of what you look like currently.  fine. 

 I look like heck, but yep that's me!  

and her. I love her natural hair color but I'll also love her whatever way she looks.  Just don't...*oh never mind.. some kids take that sort of talk as a challenge...*

Anyway, on to the day AND weekend!!!  Lots of yard work to do if the rain holds off.  Stupid Dorian...  Plus I've got to wrap up some sewing projects and get a few more started.  I don't want to be in the Bahamas nekkid!  OR looking like a hick...  But I'm sure that won't stop me from looking like one anyway...  

Free Food

I made some cabbage stew this week.  So far, I've lost a few pounds!  Yay!

Years ago, Robb and I saw a diet that is used for people who have to lose weight fast to get ready for heart surgery.  Why not?!  The main thing that we took away from the information was to make a cabbage stew with lots of veggies and tomato juice and/or chicken broth.

So basically, chop up a head of cabbage, different colored cabbage makes it look pretty, but not necessary.

Chop up an onion and green pepper and toss it into the crock pot too.

Steer clear of veggies with starches or sugars, like potatoes or carrots.

Then maybe a teaspoon of minced garlic or a little garlic powder.

Add a cup or two of water and then fill up the rest with tomato/vegetable juice to cover the cabbage and let it go all day on low.

Sometimes we'd add a package of onion soup mix but I'm trying to cut my salt intake (just a little)...

You wouldn't guess it from supper last night however.

In the diet, this stew was considered free food. ANYTIME you got hungry, you get a bowl of this out of the fridge (microwave it)  or straight from the crock pot and eat.  So I've been having this for lunch this week.

Then for supper, I still eat whatever everyone is having.  But if I'm able to control my lunches, I typically will lose weight.

Looking forward to weighing myself again tomorrow!

Cruise body, here I come!

Helps the medicine go down

I'm sick of dieting.  If I diet all week, it bounces back after a handful of chips on the weekend.  I am making ZILCH progress.  And I'm pretty sure this isn't my ideal weight...

Not that I'm going to tell YOU what it is currently!  I just know that I don't like my stomach protruding the way that it is.  Middle aged-ness kind of sucks.  

Wait - if THIS is middle aged, then I'm going to live to be over 100, right?!  In some ways yay, in other ways, sigh...  

I'm just going to do a bunch of tummy crunches and hope for the best, cruise-wise.

And my chiropractor is closing his office in our town.  yuck.  I'm happy that his main office is booming but that he can't spare a morning a week over here??!  Not so happy.

Oh well.  I felt like this when the last chiropractor retired and I lived without one for over a year.  If I ever go out and work in my office in the garage again, I can start cracking my back over my office chair again to tide me over until another good one moves to town.

It doesn't help that I was ill most of last week.  Poor Meri, she's caught it now.

Anyway, the weekend.  As usual, it went too fast.  I got about 30 minutes of sewing in.  Yikes!  This project needs to get DONE!!!  I think for the most part, it is now, but needs maybe to be washed and ironed.

Meri had been talking with a friend, for whom I'd sewn some belt loops onto some pants for his dad last spring.  The pants in question lay on my railing until yesterday when he and his parents had some more work for me to do.  Meri had him text me and I came away from their house last night with several items to work on.  Mostly sewing buttons onto coats, hemming a pair of pants and working a miracle on a torn elbow of his mom's favorite sweater.  Not sure how I'm going to do that yet...  I wonder how she likes seude patches...  Just kidding, that wouldn't match at all.

Oh!  Saturday!!!  Leon and I went to town, met up with Meri and did a little shopping.  I was in the mood for ingredients to make Christmas candies.  The weather was really cool and I just felt like it.  If I make a bunch ahead of time, I can pop them in the freezer and have them ready for anything.  Leon just wanted M&M cookies.  While Leon spent a little more time with his dad during Ryan's break, I took Meri out to lunch at one of my favorite Irish restaurants.  

Robb asked how my shepherds pie was...  Apparently I'm predictable.  It's ALWAYS good!  

Meri and I had a nice time getting caught up with each other's lives and plans.  I'm pretty sure I didn't blog about this, but Meri is going to audition for America's Got Talent and the Voice, both in 2019.  She's been scouting for the perfect songs to learn and what to do with her life afterwards.  Her piano is finally getting tuned tomorrow and then she can practice in full force.  She's also on the lookout for a voice coach to help fine tune them and get some advice from.

Meri and Leon came back to the house with me that afternoon and we got to work on the goodies.  Leon mostly played with his toys, but came in for stray M&Ms occasionally.  We made the M&M cookies and I made some chocolate mocha truffle mix.  

It's in the fridge now.  Oh, is it good!!!  I love this recipe as you can tell by the stains.  It's been used for years.  I need to see if I can find my mini "mini" scoop so I can make the little mocha balls as small as possible.  The inch thick ones I've made in the past, are just TOO much...  at a single time.  I mean, I can eat a whole batch of this at one sitting, but if there is too much in a biteful, it's too rich.

Robb was out and about on Saturday but that evening was just Leon and myself.  We splurged and rented a movie from Amazon Prime.  We're almost out of Halloween movies that I'll let him watch...  But that night we watched The Witches.  OOH!! Good fun!  I love when people turn into tiny mice!

It just doesn't happen often enough.

And the fact that the little boy lived with his grandmother definitely made it OUR movie.

It's another cold, rainy blustery day.  56 for a high today!  I took Leon to the bus stop with two umbrellas.  My feet and lower legs were drenched and cold.  I left my shoes downstairs to dry out.  

Back to work.  Have a wonderful day!

Here I Come!

I splurged and picked up four heads of cauliflower yesterday.  Had to dig for my food processor and I think I'm missing a couple pieces.  But I used the ones I had and filled two gallon size freezer bags full of riced/pulverized cauliflower.  Not sure when I'm going to use it all but I might make a cauliflower crust pizza tonight for dinner.  We'll see what my energy level is around that time today.

By late in the day yesterday, my knees felt terrible.  I think it's a delayed reaction from last weekend's move. It's been mostly my hips and knees screaming when I get up from sitting, but the last few days just my knees.  Maybe I'm getting better....?

However there are two good things about today.

1) It's Friday!!!! :)

2) I've lost 5 pounds this week!  I am well aware it's because I just started eating healthier and every diet lets you lose 5-7 pounds of water weight the first week, but I'll take it!  What a great boost!

If I could just keep this rate up for another few years, I'll finally get down to my birth weight!!!

SO you want to lose weight?

I REALLY wanted to show off some sewing from last night.  I really did!  But I'm not going to.  All I did was cut out the lining and iron it.  Burned part of it actually...  Iron got a little hot.  I did the same thing making microwave popcorn yesterday and nearly smoked us all out of the house.

Anyway, what I WILL share with you today is that I don't always burn fabric and/or food.  I CAN cook!  If I'm paying attention.  

I'll say it, lately I've put on a little weight.  Ok, more than I'll admit to.  Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter and Wednesdays have taken their toll on me.  Candy is just too good and tempting.  We'll be attending a wedding in 1.5 months and I'd like to fit into something I either already have or would like to make something for myself to wear that I don't have to scrimp on the side seam allowances.

I used to go to Curves, but I don't have time anymore nor the excess of money that I just don't know what to do with.  BUT I still have the low carb, high protein recipe books and things I'd gleaned from being a member!  I was thinking of the egg cake recipe yesterday and decided to have those on hand again for quick meals, etc.  So, today I'm sharing my egg cake recipe with you!  I had Robb pick me up some heavy whipping cream last night and more eggs and here we go!  

Egg Cakes/torillas/pancakes

 3 Eggs

 1 Cup Heavy whipping cream

 2 Tablespoons butter (oops - I forgot that part this morning...)

 3/4 Cup flour (or cornmeal)

 1/4 teaspoon salt

Beat eggs, cream, butter, salt.  Add flour and mix.  I use an electric beater and whip it up good.  

Heat a non-stick pan with a small amount of butter or Pam spray.  Spoon or pour about 2 tablespoons of the batter and tilt pan in a circle to spread to very thin.  Cook over medium-low heat until set, not brown.  Stack the cakes up.  Fill them with any fillings you want.

Various things to do with them.  Make a mixture of cream cheese and salsa, spread it on a cake, roll it up and voila!  You've got at least half of a quick meal! IF I'm following the plan, it's probably more like 3/4s of a quick meal...  BUT you've got to start somewhere! 

Other things are to put in a little shredded cheese, leftover ham bits, or any leftovers really and roll them up.  Use them like a tortilla and put taco meat in them.  Use them like a pancake and drench them with syrup, although that's probably not advisable if you really want to lose any weight at all...

Anyway, I'll keep a stash of them in an air tight container in my fridge and should be set for a few days.  It would be nice not to have a paunch on me come summer...