Note about my last blog and the Fried Chicken & Potatoes Treat recipe:
I forgot to note the calorie count is for 2 "medium" potatoes.
Also you can save more calories if you put the olive oil in a spray bottle and just "spritz" the pan a few times. Toss in the potatoes and spritz them again when you turn them. This will drop your calories considerably. I made them this way last night and it worked great. I prefer to add the one tablespoon of oil because I also toss in a cup or two of misc veggies plus the chicken. I limit this meal to about 3 times per week. Most of my other meals are boiled so I go ahead and splurge here. I will add this info to the last posting for anyone new that gets to see it.
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. ~ Mark Twain
OK, now for today's subject - Breaking Bad Habits. I mentioned that I had thought I was doing good things for my body. I started around Sep 08 working on pushing myself to give up things like chips and eat blueberries and grapes. No processed foods and lots more cooking from scratch. Well, I took a wrong turn with all that oil and butter. I was raised in the deep South. My mother was a horrible cook but my grandmother was awesome and it was her food I was re-creating.
But I did have some successes. You will notice a trend. I don't jump into anything in an all or nothing manner. I hold onto my bad habits with a death grip and have to pry them away bit by bit. It took me 9 weeks to quit smoking. I set up a plan and have been smoke free for 7 months as of Monday.
Over last summer I slowly weaned myself off sodas. For many years it was two - three cases per month. I went to bottles which meant about 2 dozen two liter bottles per month then I switched back to cans. Two years ago I was drinking 3-4 cases per month!! Now I drink one can every few weeks with a meal but that is it. I have a 12 pack that is half full that I purchased
in Dec:)
The bad news, I got hooked on iced tea. Two gallons a day in the summer and a gallon a day over the winter. Decaf but still too much tea and it was sweetened with Splenda. I was doing 3-4 bags a month so I cut down, down, down until I got to one cup per gallon and less than one bag a month as of Jan.
My next goal was to begin replacing every 3rd or 4th gallon with green tea and work my way up to full green. I bought the tea a few months ago but could never bring myself to do it. I am a staunch Southerner raised on really good iced tea. Ninety-five percent of the tea served in restaurants is disgusting and nothing like what I grew up on. That cloudy dark brown muck doesn't even resemble the tea served in the South.
You can imagine what a tough time I am having convincing myself to go "green". Also I tried some of those Celestial Seasonings herbal teas many years ago and YUCK!!! I have tried to use them several times and each time the taste IMO is like chewing on the weeds in my backyard. Green tea represents that same type tea to me. Evidently it is such a hideous thought that I just decided to skip it and go straight to water. Over the last two weeks I found myself drinking more and more water and less and less tea. By the beginning of this week it was all water!!!!
I also have found an unexpected benefit - more sleep. I get very little sleep and never seem to sleep more than 2-3 hours in various increments. There is no morning or evening I just lay down when I am tired and wake up a couple hours later. My kidneys keep me on alert and I am constantly getting up for mad dashes. I sleep in bits and pieces which is why I am always tired. I was drinking decaf - I gave up caffiene around 98 and have never gone back. However the water seems to run me less often so I am getting 4 to 5 hours sleep when I lay down at night. Which I am heading off to grab a few hours of right now.
A habit is something you can do without thinking - which is why most of us have to many of them - Frank A. Clark
Nite Nite
Linda B in TN:)
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