Since today is the last day of my blog, I want to take this opportunity to thank Fiona, About.com's guide to Low Fat Cooking, for choosing me as her guest blogger. She is a dedicated, caring person and a great cook. I was very fortunate to get to know her during these three months.

A great big thank you goes out to all my readers. Special thanks to Cheryl, Elisabeth, Diane, Micki, Larena, Sharon, Molly, Joyce, and Jan for your words of encouragement. You are all an inspiration!

As I wrote these last few entries, I was sad. Blogging gave me a chance to share my life with you and help me make changes that will last. I had the chance to discuss the setbacks, challenges, and rewards of changing to a healthier lifestyle.

As Spring approaches, I plan to incorporate more exercise into my life, keep drinking my water, and reduce my portions, all the while moving toward my goal of a healthier lifestyle.

Thanks for reading!

DeAnne

When you start getting healthy by lowering the fat in your diet and exercising, you have to be organized. Those first few weeks were tough because I didn't plan as well as I should have. Ingredients weren't on hand, and I ended up making trips every other day to the store. Finally, I wrote out my menu for the upcoming week and made one big trip to the store.

Another challenge was my kids requesting junk food. Michael lives for doughnuts, which are probably the most calorie-laden, lowest nutrition food around. I walk a tightrope on that issue. Do I always say no to doughnuts and create an obsession in him that will never be filled, or do I allow them in moderation? Honestly, I feel like a bad mom when I let my kids eat junk food and there's so much of it everywhere we go.

I felt very supported on Low Fat Cooking at About.com; however, I probably should have sought out people locally who were eating low fat and exercising. I walked at the mall in the morning, but I didn't introduce myself to other walkers. I missed an opportunity to bond with them as well as receive encouragement from them.

Until tomorrow,

DeAnne

Before embarking on 12 weeks of healthy eating, my appetite was fierce, especially for fast food. I ate double cheeseburgers without thinking, usually while driving the car. I also ate more sweets. When I made Low Fat Carrot Cake and subsequently ate too much of it, I learned a good lesson about all the sugar in my diet and how bad it made me feel.

After these 12 weeks, the thought of fast food sickens me, but my kids still eat it occasionally. Another discovery is my lack of preparing meals when I'm the only person home. When the kids are off to their dad's home, I find that I don't feel like cooking or preparing food until I'm good and hungry. This is not a good plan. I need to eat regularly scheduled meals and take care of myself.

As far as weight loss, I've only lost about 5 pounds. The reason I didn't lose more is because my portions were still too large. I probably gained some muscle from exercising, but simply eating low fat does not guarantee weight loss.

I definitely drink more water as a result of my healthy resolution, and I feel so much better drinking at least 4 cups of water a day. I don't go one day without drinking water.

More tomorrow,

DeAnne

For the past two days, tornadoes have decimated our state of Missouri. Homes and lives have been taken, but the people of Missouri are a tough bunch. I saw their determination not long after I arrived in this state from Indiana. In the flood of '93, I saw diverse crowds of people sand-bagging just blocks from where I lived. I stood on the street as the waters rose and I kept taking steps backward after the levee broke. Then I watched buildings enveloped by the waters of the Mississippi.

The tornadoes touched down just 20 miles north of my home. On the radar, our home was in the path, but the winds blew the storms north. My kids slept in the "tornado room," a basement room with no windows.

On a lighter note, since this is the last week of my blog, I'd like to go back to the beginning for a moment. My goals for the 12 weeks were:

• Purge my kitchen of high fat foods. I purged it once, then purged it again. It takes some persistence to keep the high fat foods out.
• Replace them with low fat versions. The first food I replaced was full fat ice cream, and we've been eating the low fat version ever since. Low fat sour cream and cream cheese soon followed, as well as incorporating more fruit into our diets.
• Follow a low fat lifestyle. I checked out recipes and ideas from About’s Low Fat Cooking site. I felt like I should have tried more recipes, but I really liked the ones I tried, so made them over and over.
• Be honest. If I reverted back to my unhealthy ways, I'd admit it and spill the beans. Fried Cheesecake on New Years Eve was my biggest faux pas.
• Cook healthier meals for the kids. This was the hardest part of the entire 12 weeks because my kids are so picky about what they eat.
• Post my progress. I'd talk about how I felt both physically and emotionally, and every Monday post my weekly weight loss. I stopped posting my weight loss because ultimately the resolution was not about losing weight, but about changing the way I ate.

Stay tuned for more updates!

DeAnne

Kids are headed to their dad's house this weekend, so it's time for relaxation. My fridge seems bare right now. A few weeks ago, I cleaned it out and it's stayed clean ever since. Time to load it up with healthy foods.

I was watching a show about the secret lives of women, and one of the women was a compulsive eater. At the end of the show, she had been to a diet guru and had loaded up her fridge with grilled chicken, baked potatoes, fresh veggies, etc. Seemed a bit too strict, and the possibility of her getting in her car for a fast-food binge seemed imminent.

When I'm on strict diets, I end up dreaming about candy bars, and I'm not big into candy bars. Must be the survival mechanism kicking in, that prehistoric alarm telling me to eat something, anything. So my question is: why be strict, when you can just cook low fat?

Tonight I'm throwing together a salad and topping it with whatever's available. I've got shrimp, imitation crab meat, and lettuce and carrot, all very low fat. As the weather warms, I'm opting more for salad. Check out these tips about making a low fat salad.

Enjoy your weekend!

DeAnne

A steady rain is falling where I live, and all I can think of is curling up on the couch under a blanket. I want to snooze. The housework won't get done, but who cares?

Today's a good day for a pot of soup simmering on the stove, like Low Fat Leek and Potato Soup, Low Fat Pasta and Bean Soup, or Red Lentil and Tomato Soup.

But I've got a lunch date today, so I'm going to navigate through all the fried stuff and try to eat very clean. Did you know taco salads in most restaurants are the most deceptive dishes on the menu? Most taco salads have lots of fat grams because the shell is deep fried. So I won't be having a taco salad. I'll probably opt for grilled chicken or maybe salmon. I know, I know, salmon again!

Tonight I'm making a Mystery Stir Fry. I use chicken broth to sauté whatever veggies are in my fridge. I found some cabbage, carrots, onion, garlic and snow peas. I chop my veggies and at the end throw in some grilled chicken, soy sauce, a touch of brown sugar and a dash of cayenne pepper. I serve it over white rice. Nice and quick.

One more day 'til the weekend!

DeAnne

What Fiona writes about child obesity is so true. Kids aren't getting the exercise they need, and as a nation, we're feeding them junk. I understand how we get get into these habits, but it's up to us to change it.

When I was a kid, I spent the morning playing baseball with the neighborhood kids. I rode my bike all afternoon. We played hide and seek until after dark, all unsupervised activities. Those days are over.

The world is a dangerous place for kids, a fact we are coming to terms with. We keep our kids inside and safe in front of the computer or TV. But there are ways around the inactivity, and other things to do besides "vegging out." My kids and I go to the playground every day that's warm. We go to the arcade and play the dance game. We have a trampoline in the backyard. Last summer, we swam two or three days a week and rode our bikes.

What's so surprising is that not only is the United States waging a war on obesity, but other nations are getting fat too. A dietitician friend of mine makes trips to Africa to educate health professionals about obesity. Since carbonated soda drinks have made a debut in these countries, obesity and diabetes have become problems.

In my own quest for health, I'm making salad using chicken I grilled right before my propane tank ran out. Welcome to my life. I like to warm the chicken in the microwave, drizzle fat free or lite dressing on top, then raisins and lettuce. Raisins give the salad a tangy twist.

See you Thursday!

DeAnne

My son had a runny nose over the weekend and the prospect of an asthma attack and subsequent hospital visit kept us home most of the weekend. Luckily, his asthma was in check. By Sunday, the kids were bouncing off the walls and I was losing patience quickly. So last night, I ordered pizza and ate a few pieces with the kids.

I remember when I was pregnant with Michael and had gestational diabetes, I had two pieces of pizza and my blood sugar started spiking. I called my doctors who told me pizza and cereal were the two food types that cause a lot of problems for diabetics. I figured since cheese is a protein, it would cause a slow release of glucose into the blood. But it's the crust that's so dense and has so many carbohydrate servings. So in two pieces of pizza, you might have four or five servings of carbs, not a good thing for a diabetic.

Luckily, my diabetes went away after giving birth, but I still have higher than normal blood glucose, although not so high as to be diagnosed with diabetes. This is often called glucose intolerance or pre-diabetes. Check out what Nina Nazor, About.com's guide to Diabetes says about what to do if you've recently been diagnosed with diabetes.

I went out for lunch today and had Bourbon Marinated Salmon that was out of this world. If you have a great recipe for it, let me know.

See you tomorrow!

DeAnne

I love this article about lowering the fat in your food. Little things, like baking instead of frying and using two egg whites instead of one whole egg, make huge differences in the fat and cholesterol in your meals. Most people can't tell the difference. One of the first things I did in my quest for a healthier diet for my family was buy a lower fat ice cream, and my kids never noticed. They are still eating lite ice cream.

I also remember years ago when I first tried reduced fat products. Remember when skim milk was blue? I remember when some margarines wouldn't melt, and many other products didn't exist. Seems like lower fat salad dressings only came along a decade ago. I actually remember when aspartame came out in the 80's, and one of the first products containing it was a drink mix.

Now we have great foods with low fat and wonderful flavor, and some nice substitutions. But it's always up to the individual what stays in the diet and what gets deleted.

Have a magnificent weekend!

DeAnne

Just as the promise of Spring descended on us, a cold front moved in and chilled us again. The kids wanted to jump on the trampoline after school, but it's just too cold. They even changed into shorts when they came in, then tried to run outside.

I'm throwing a couple of lean steaks on the grill for Claire and me. I'm also in the mood for some peas--maybe I'm lacking an important vitamin that peas have. Also, I've been feeling sleepy in the middle of the day. Probably old age or chasing after a couple of kids each morning to make them get dressed and off to school.

I wonder if eating too little for breakfast might be the culprit. I've just been eating toast and drinking a cup of coffee most mornings. I know caffeine can have that rebound effect, but I can't get off the ground without it.

I picked up a nice salmon fillet and I'm going to try the Low Fat Asian Glazed Salmon again tomorrow. That frozen salmon just left me unsatisfied.

One more day until the weekend!

DeAnne