Falling Apart in my Old Age

My mother used to say laughingly, when some new symptom of growing older showed up... "I'm falling apart in my old age." I am beginning to know what she meant.

My eyes have been bothering me a bit in the last year or so. It could be the hours of knitting but it most likely has to do with the fact that the big FOUR-ZERO is looming in a couple years. In just a few short weeks I'll be 38. I have noticed for a while now that my distant vision, when driving, is not as good as it once was. But that's no big deal, I can still see pretty well, I just have to wait until I'm a bit closer to read road signs but still within a safe distance. However, in the last six months or so I'm noticing that when I'm doing something like reading or knitting, up close, when I glance up at the kids or the TV its taking my eyes a long while to adjust. One day this week I looked up from some mail I was reading, as Andrew was calling me... and he had 3 heads for the couple of moments it took my eyes to adjust. Crazy!

So I made the call. Yesterday I had my eyes examined. Sure enough, I need glasses. And not just reading glasses, or driving glasses. Bifocals. BIFOCALS?!?! Yep. Apparently I have those up close issues and those distant issues. So I found myself in the optical department of Sears last night picking out glasses. And this is not an easy task. Glasses that must be worn all of the time have to be flattering, at the very least, and comfortable more importantly. This is hard!

So I picked them out.... my new eyes so to speak, better eyes even. They will be here in a few days. I wonder how I'll feel... how well they will work. How I'll adjust to lenses with different focus points for my same old eyes. We shall see.

Three Bean Tex-Mex Chili

Ohhh man this is good. Hubby was on his second bowl before he realized there was no meat in it. Hahaha!

Three Bean Tex-Mex Chili...
adapted from a recipe in the Feb 2008 Martha Stewart Living

Ingredients:

1 lb dried pinto beans, rinsed, soaked and cooked until tender
14 oz black beans
14 oz kidney beans
1 tsp olive oil
1 c finely diced carrots
1/2 c chopped celery
1/2 c chopped onion
1 clove garlic
lg can crushed tomatoes
2 ancho peppers, diced (I hydrated 2 dried ones, used the liquid in the chili too)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried cilantro
1 tsp salt (or to taste)


The night before, soak pintos.

Cook pintos (just covered in water) for 2 hrs, or until tender. Add the black beans and kidney beans. Dice and chop your veggies as directed from the ingredient list and sautee them until tender in the olive oil. Add them to the beans with the tomatoes, anchos and spices. Simmer for 1 hr or longer depending on the consistency you like.

You could use all canned or all dried beans, depending your your preference and time you have to prep. All canned would be fast and easy.

12 servings
Calories: 366
Fat: 2g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 219mg
Carbs: 67g
Fiber: 17g
Protein: 23g

Less of me, in more ways than one

50 pounds!!
Originally uploaded by wenjomatic.

I'm celebrating the 50 pound mark here, and apologizing for being a poor blogger lately. I'll try to do better.

After 8 months of trying to get healthy, progress is really feeling good. I've stepped up exercizing in a big way but its time to make some more changes. Portion control is still working great, but I need to branch out. I'm starting to cook some new things, and in new ways, hoping the changes will be a really good long term step up for me and the fam. For example, I'm making chili tonight... its flipping cold! Instead of eating a small portion of my traditional chili (high salt, high fat), I'm trying a new 3 bean, low fat recipe.

I hope hubby likes it!!!