Freakin' Hypocrites Drive Me Freakin' Crazy

So, I'm just trolling through my Facebook newsfeed to encounter a picture of candy with a ranting caption designed to insult the intelligence of another human being for giving their child a little ol' box of candy.  Either that or designed as self-reassurance of self-perfection. 

That's not the problem, either way, although I find that harsh and unreasonable or naive when sending one's child to a public school and out and about in, ya know, the real world.  Even worse was watching the responses she had to those who Feel like me--not a big deal.

The real issue is two posts later, there's a video, and in this video is talk about what happens when there is no meal plan--of making, you know, bad food choices and eating fast food. Um, yeah, out of her own mouth.

Need I say more?

I just can't stand hypocrites. After reading her comment of "You must not follow my blog." to one reader who Felt it was not that big of a deal, I had to Force myself to resist the overwhelming urge to write, "Good thing or she might have watched your video wherein you discuss making bad food choices and eating fast food." Because, honestly, the "You must not follow my blog." translation is, "I'm all about health and healthy eating and NOTHING else. YOU'RE obviously not because anything in moderation is okay with you. Slacker parent!" lol

Anyway....Hypocrites....just....ugh. My biggest pet peeve.

Side Dish Recipe - Green Rice for 4 Weight Watchers Points

As with everything, you can lessen your portion size or enlarge it and Figure your Weight Watcher points accordingly.  For this Flavorful recipe, I have Figured the points based on long-grain organic brown rice that I used this time for the entire recipe.  The total is 16 points, so dividing the entire batch into four servings gives huge portion sizes at 4 points each.  Divide it further and Figure out your new Fewer points, which is what I do. AND, it's cholesterol friendly because there are 0 mg of cholesterol.

Ingredients:

1 cup long-grain organic brown rice (recipe originally calls for 1 cup white rice)
1 Tbsp. olive oil (I use extra-virgin olive oil)
2 c. 99% fat-free chicken broth
10 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro, divided into 2 Tbsp. and 8 Tbsp.
2 Tbsp. chopped green onion
1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Instructions:

In large skillet heat, cook, and stir rice in hot oil until golden over medium heat.  Carefully stir in chicken broth (could be a huge popping, think oil and water here, so go slow!), 2 tablespoons of the cilantro, green onion, an garlic powder into the rice.  Bring to boiling and reduce heat.  Dover and simmer for as long as your rice-package cooking instructions indicate over low heat. Remove from heat and sprinkle with remaining 8 tablespoons of cilantro. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Points: 4 points per serving
Servings: 4 servings

Nutritional Information: 206 calories, 37 g carbohydrates, 44 g protein, 4 g fat, 1 g fiber, 0 mg cholesterol, 248 mg sodium. (This nutritional information is based on using white rice, but it's also still 4 points per serving).

Weigh-In Wednesday and a Two-Point Weight Watchers Gazpacho Recipe!

It's been a long time since I've shared a recipe, and in celebration of my 3-pound weight loss despite my week full of baking and my very own birthday. Yay, NOT--I'm Freakin' Forty-Five! Forty-Five! A new F word. I know it's just a number, but I can't help but feel like Sally here. Just replace 40 with 50 below.

I Found an old recipe I have had for Green Gazpacho, an old Weight Watchers recipe for the only Winning Points plan I successfully did eons ago, so I made it this week.  Yup, still love it. BONUS: 0 mg of cholesterol!

Now, I've had regular Gazpacho a handful of times, and only one single time did I love that. Unfortunately, a coworker had brought that into work back when I was 19 and had no interest in making some for my single, childless self and therefore did not ask her for her recipe.  I had never heard of it, had never seen it, and had never tried it.  I took for granted that all Gazpacho was made that way, and one day I'd find the recipe and make it. Duh. All other recipes I've tried over the years made by others were absolutely horrible in my opinion. Sorry sissy!

So, if you've never been a fan, you should probably give this a go just to see if you might like it. I love the crisp, fresh taste of the veggies in vegetable broth.

It's only 2 Weight Watchers points for my old plan.  If green vegetables are still zero points for you on the new plan, then you just need to figure out the total for a few ingredients as a whole and divide by servings!

It's very difficult to get a photo of this dish, as all of the ingredients float! What you see on top are all of the herbs and vegetables. Guess you have to be lightening fast to whisk and then take a photo! 

GREEN GAZPACHO:

Ingredients:

2 slice oatmeal bread
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped
2 cups watercress leaves
1/2 cup cilantro sprigs
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley sprigs
1 small garlic clove, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded, cut into chunks
3 scallions, trimmed, coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, peeled, cut into chunks (just get the tendrils off)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, minced (gloves)
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Soak the oatmeal bread in enough cold water to cover for about 5 minutes. Prep the cucumbers, watercress, cilantro, parsley, and garlic while the bread is soaking.  Now place the bread and 1 prepared cucumber, watercress, cilantro, parsley, and garlic into a food processor and pulse to almost pureed. I pulse until the contents take on a "grainy" appearance to give it more substance. Now spoon the grainy-pureed mixture into a large bowl.

You can follow the following instructions, as I type them, or just take the remaining ingredients listed below and chop them into bite-size chunks instead of putting them into the food processor, as I find running them through the food processor makes the pieces a little too small for my liking. 

Combine the remaining cucumber, bell pepper, scallions, celery, and jalapeno pepper in the same food processor. Pulse until coarsely chopped (or cut into bite size chunks manually).  Add this to the cucumber mixture in the bowl. Stir in the broth, oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Refrigerate for at leas several hours or overnight to let the flavors blend and serve chilled. Enjoy!

POINTS: 2 per serving (old plan)
NUTRITION INFORMATION: Total Fat 4 g; Saturated Fat 1 g; Cholesterol 0; Sodium 186 mg; Total Carb 9 g; Fiber 1 g; Protein 2 g; Calcium 36 mg; Calories 72

The Shock of My Life at Almost Forty-Five!

My birthday is in a couple of days.  Yes, I know I've been off plan for a long time.  I can even admit that I just threw caution to the wind with this "Gonna start back soon." attitude I've been holding onto.  I was just waiting for things to calm back down, and they haven't.  The worst thing I've done is taking back up pop drinking.  I've been drinking at least 40 ounces of pop a day. I didn't even WANT to give it up.  I haven't had any today after what I will affectionately refer to as "Scalegate" this morning. I know the pop drinking is probably the biggest reason my cholesterol numbers were so horrifying as well.

The ONLY reason I went entirely off plan was due to a rash I've had since February 2014.  I could get rid of it, but it kept coming back. I went to an Urgent Care who diagnosed it as a fungal infection and started me on an oral antifungal with a topical.  It went away just in time for my sister's wedding, but it came back the day before! Then I had to wait for an appointment to get established with a new primary care provider.....long story short, I have now seen a dermatologist, but by the time I saw them, the rash was gone and we are now waiting to see if it pops back up with a promise to be worked into the day immediately for an accurate assessment.  I've had to promise not to treat it with anything prior.  I have a few bumps, but nothing that can be assessed. It can't be I guess until it really flares. Soooo, I originally just quit working out/exercising because it seemed to exacerbate the rash, but slowly and surely, the diet was ditched entirely too. So here I am AGAIN today. With this promise of getting me in pronto, I am going to begin exercising again. 

My husband bought me a video camera that I can use to document my journey for my birthday and gave it to me early to see if I could Figure it out so he could either exchange it or take it back before my birthday, so I decided to play with it this morning. Oh, the Freaking Horror!

I expected to have gained a Few pounds over the last Few months, but not THIS much!  I've never seen the scale so high.  I went to the doctor last month and it wasn't that bad.  I know my scale differs from their scale, but it goes down with weight loss and that is all I really care about.  I was still shocked.

Here is my First weigh-in video.  It's in the basement, so the lighting is horrible.  It's an old doctor's scale that is much too large to put anywhere up in the main living space.  I should probably just buy a new digital scale, but this still works. Bear with me as I learn how to operate it and learn how to edit the videos for sharing. One day, I'll even videotape myself and have a big reveal.  I just need to have a Few pep talks with myself about not caring whether or not people I know run across my blog or videos.

My daughter joined cheerleading for her high school.  I can't believe the prison I've been in since she has.  We've spent over a thousand dollars on her participation, and the time! Oh my word. It's horrible, and I truly can't believe they do this to kids.  I think she has an egomaniac for a coach, but I'm not allowed to say anything because she loves this.  I don't want to since she loves it so much and is so dedicated.

This woman insists people, and the girls, call her by a nickname I assume she had as a premarried teen herself, and she even wants them to refer to her by this nickname when she is serving as their teacher in the classroom.  To top it off, she is so in love with her maiden name, she named her baby this maiden name. Let go sister. Move on.  I wouldn't dare insist people call me the nickname they had for me in high school that was related to my maiden name like she is.  They still do, of course, whenever I run into someone, so why isn't that good enough for her? They've worked these girls until they've puked.  This past summer was the First summer I wasn't even able to drive 1.5 hours to visit my mother because the egomaniac held practices in the morning and training of some sort or another in the afternoon.  My daughter was only 14 and can't drive herself, so guess whose life it has taken over and dictated? Mine.

I wish upon her something like a mother's curse....i.e., I hope you have three to Five children, and you all enjoy sleeping in once in a while and no longer can or need to see a doctor but it conflicts with a stupid coach's schedule, and I wish you tons of stress lady. My favorite is that she had scheduled meets and practices on Freaking Christmas Break and snow days! To me, she is a sick puppy.

I worry about my daughter because on school days, she is getting up at 5:45 a.m. and going some days until 7:30 p.m. I'll support her as long as she is happy, but based on the Fact that the whole varsity team quit and the things she is sharing with me, I'm hoping this is a sign for her to choose either sideline or competitive and not both next year. I keep that to myself, however, because I want to be supportive of her.

She has told me this woman badmouths the people that "can't hack it" and quit to all of the other remaining girls.  How unprofessional, immature, and desperate of her.  I explained to my daughter that when one or more people have had enough and they walk off, they're making a statement and that this coach knows it. I explained that this coach is completely aware that this movement can spread like a virus and out of desperation is trying to bully the remaining girls psychologically into staying.  We'll see how it all pans out.  I'm not happy.

I guess this is another sacrifice-myself-for-my-children epiphany after typing this, huh?