Survivor: Day Two

Yesterday I started my Curves diet.  So far, so good.  I made an omelette for breakfast.  It's made from two eggs, an ounce and a half of spinach (which actually works out to quite a bit of spinach), and a quarter cup of reduced-fat cheese.  I put about 3/4 of the cheese inside the omelette and sprinkled the rest over the top.  Then I put some of the green Tabasco on it.  (Can't have eggs without Tabasco...and honestly, how many calories can there be in that?)  It actually was pretty good.  I'm going to make another one this morning.

Dinner was a 4 oz. portion of teriyaki-marinated salmon and some stir-fried green beans and carrots.  I wasn't sure how well it was going to work to stir-fry the green beans since my way of making fresh green beans is the way my dear mother-in-law taught me.  To quote her:  "Boil the snot out of them.  There won't be any nutrition left."  That's the way I've always done it, and then served them up with a lot of bacon.  Want to make a non-fattening dish fattening?  Just ask me how.  It's my life's work, and I'm very dedicated.  

Anyway, the beans were actually pretty good.  I put the lid on them while they were frying so that they steamed themselves tender.  The Curves recipe didn't tell me to add any salt, so I used this Penzey's Mural of Flavor that I received in a gift sample pack a while back.  It was quite good.

Now here's the question I've been asking.  Has anybody seen Smitty?  Honestly, I don't know where that cat gets to.  He's very clever at hiding from me.

Yesterday's mail helped me to feel better about the dearth of fat and sugar I'm currently enduring.  My little January doll quilt arrived yesterday from my swap partner, Pam.  Isn't this cute?  Pam, you know me too well.  Here I go thinking I'm keeping my love for cats a secret, and then this arrives.

The theme for the January swap was "Snow" and she used the snowflake fabric, but look at how cute the back is.

Sledding kitties!  Also, included in the package was this adorable "Dammit Doll".  Have you ever seen one of these?

The hair is a perfect likeness for mine!  If you've never seen one of these and don't know what it is, the attached card explains it all.

I could have used this while I was making those misbehaving little ladies in my pink scrappy quilt block the other day.

But that's not all.  Pam also sent my quilt folded in a special way along with the instructions for how to do it.  By folding your quilts from the corners instead of into conventional quarters, you can help it to avoid permanent creasing.  I was going to try to post a photograph of Ann Fahl's article, but then I found her blog. You can read her blog post right here.  

Thank you so much, Pam, for these lovely gifts.  It was quite a pleasure opening that box!

Today I'm going for my first Curves workout, and I'll have some questions about the diet.  For one thing, none of the recipes suggest any seasonings, so I wondered if I can add things like salt and pepper.  I'm thinking the diet is supposed to cut salt, and so maybe salt is off limits.  Also, it seems like there is a lot of food on this diet.  I didn't feel a need to eat lunch or snacks yesterday.  I was saving one of my snacks for my Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich last night--which was delicious, by the way.  

It will definitely be a good stand-in for my beloved ice cream.  The omelette I ate in the morning satisfied me all day.  I was a little hungry around 3:00, but it seemed too late for lunch.  I ate a few carrots, which are a free food--meaning, I can eat as much as I want.  So my question for my Curves coach is:  Should I eat even if I'm not hungry?  I've never been one to eat lunch.  Instead, I generally eat a candy bar.  LOL!  True, sadly.  But I'm proud of myself for not cheating, and I feel committed to the plan.  The recipes have been simple to make and tasty so far.  It might actually be a good thing to have someone tell me what to do when it comes to the food I'm eating while dieting.  I'll have to let you know later how the workout goes.

For now, I'm off to make my omelette.  I'll be working out later this morning, and then I need to make another trek to the grocery store for this week's foods.  I'll bet you're envious of the exciting day I have planned for myself, aren't you?  Hopefully, I'll have some time for sewing today too.