Mid-Week Update

So I've already missed the mark with most, if not all of my goals for this week.   It's been crazy!  But the good thing is, just because I've had a bad day or 2, I'm not giving up for the whole week.  Each day I am trying my best to stick to the program.  I'll be so glad when the next couple of weeks are over.  I've been stress-eating big time.  Fortunately, I've been moving more too so the scale is still moving in a downward direction.  I'll give a scale report this weekend.

One Week Down - 26 To Go

My first week of getting back on plan was a success!  I ended up losing 1.2 pounds, only .1 off the mark.  It could have been more had I not gone off the rails Friday night at dinner, but I'll take it.  I ended up going over my weekly points, but I had activity points to cover them.  All in all, I think it was a very successful week.

So my goals for last week was to follow the plan exactly as it was written.  I almost made it.  There were a few days where I didn't get in all of my good-health guidelines.  That is going back on this list for this week, but I'm afraid I've already failed because I'm pretty sure I didn't get them in Saturday or Sunday.  Another goal was to not eat any of my activity points.  Again, I failed on that one as well, so it's going back on the list.  My third goal was to get 30 minutes of activity in each day.  I did get this one...if you take the minutes I worked out and divide by 7.  Some days was an hour, and other days I had nothing at all.  I'm still considering this a success because I earned activity more days than not.

So here are my goals for this current week:

1. Follow the plan exactly as written, including getting in all of my good-health guidlines
2. Do not eat any activity points
3. Get an average of 30 minutes per day of activity
4. Do not eat more than my daily points, plus any remaining weekly points on Friday

Starting weight: 193.6
Current weight: 192.2
Goal weight: 161.5

Back On Track - I Mean It This Time!

I've started this blog a million times this summer, but I could never really get behind it mentally.  I've been a slacker.  I've gained back 3 and a half pounds over the summer.  I just didn't care.  I say I was busy and had a lot of things come up, but the truth is, I was just lazy.  I could have worked out, but I didn't.  I could have tracked my food, but I didn't.  I could have followed the plan, but I didn't.  I purposefully chose not to do those things and it didn't go very well.

Now, I really feel like I'm ready to get back at it.  All of the sudden my motivation has picked up and after 4 and a half days I am still 100% on plan.  The scale and my pants are thanking me.  At meeting on Saturday we talked about committing to following the plan 100% for just 1 week.  I thought, I can do that.  It's just 1 week.  I've done it before.  The extra motivation came when I weighed in on Saturday and I had gained enough weight back that I got an extra point to eat every day.  Not good.  The awesome thing is that since I've been planning my food I've been able to indulge and splurge on a few things while still staying on plan.  This includes such things as a carmel apple cobbler at BD's Mongolian BBQ, and a hot dog and beer at the ballgame tonight. 

My husband has even offered to sweeten the pot so to speak.  We leave for a cruise in 24 and a half weeks.  I really wanted to lose 20 more pounds before we go.  He challeneged me to lose 40.  I thought he was crazy, so after some negotiating, we agreed upon 32 pounds.  That's 1.28 pounds per week.  If I can do that, then he is paying for all of my expenses on the cruise up to $1000.  How awesome is that?  I know I can do it.  At first I was worried that I wouldn't be able to have those yummy, "bad" things, but after tracking and planning this week, I know I can, it just takes a little bit of time and effort on my part to fit it in.  No more mindless eating.  No more grabbing the chip bag and taking it to the couch. 

The way I'm going to make it to my big goal is to set smaller, weekly goals.  This week, my goal was to follow the Weight Watchers plan 100% as written.  There have been a couple days where I've only gotten in 4 out of my 5 fruits/veggies, but other days I've gotten more so I'm counting it as even.  Next week my goal will be to, again, follow the plan 100% as written, but make sure I get in ALL of my good health guidlines.  I have also commited to only going out for lunch once a week.  That means a lot of cooking on Sunday for me. 

I need your help with all of this though.  I need you to follow up with me, check in on me, nag me, whatever, so that I'm accountable to someone other than myself for staying on track.  At the beginning of each week I will post my goals here, and then at the end of the week I will post whether or not I met them, what I learned, and how the scale reacted. 

Starting Weight on 9/17/11: 193.6
Goal Weight for March 10, 2012: 161.5

I'm Making A Comeback

It's been almost a month since I've blogged.  My head, and heart for that matter, just haven't been into it.  I've been maintaning, but not losing.  I haven't been working the plan, and I really haven't cared.  I've been busy, and my diligence has been put on the back burner.  I'm almost 8 months into this thing and I still haven't hit my 10%.  Heck, after weigh-in this morning I'm back under 20 pounds lost.  It's not a good feeling.

The topic at the meeting this week was about busting through plateaus.  Most plateaus are caused by lack of diligence.  There was a check-list of things that could be causing a stall, and I went through those, identified the areas in which I'm struggling, and have come up with a plan to get back on track. 

1. Are you tracking everything? - I have to admit, I haven't been.  I've been tracking everything until I'm out of points, but then I keep eating and don't log it.  Starting today, if it goes into my mouth, it's going into my tracker, even if that means I go over my points.  I know that if I'm committed to logging everything, I won't want to go over my points.
2. Do you eyeball portions? - absolutely I do.  I haven't put much of anything on the scale lately.  The biggest culprit is the bag of potato chips.  I would just grab the bag after dinner and eat until I thought I had eaten 2 servings.  In reality, I was probably eating 3 or 4 servings, and then not counting it.  Starting today, everything is going on the scale.
3. Are you filling up on fruit? - fruit is healthy right?  Yes, but it still has calories and in mass quantity can pack on the pounds.  I'm pretty sure I haven't been eating too much fruit, but since it's zero points, I haven't been tracking it.  Starting today, I will measure and track all of my fruit intake, just to make sure that I'm not going over board.  I will also have to remind myself that serving is a half cup, or one small piece.
4. Do you attend meetings every week? - Yes, religiously!  Since I started on January 8th, I've only missed 3 meetings, and all 3 were because I was out of town.  The power of the meeting is having the accountability.  If you weigh on your own scale at home, but don't share it with anyone, then you're not accountable to anyone for how you are doing.  You could also be tempted to not get on the scale since you don't have to.  Knowing where you stand is the only way to stay on track. It's also a great place to get support, tips, and advice. 
5. Could you be overstimating your activity? - I can honestly say that I don't do this.  I am very careful to only record what I legitimately do, and a lot of times I will underestimate since I know I will probably end up eating those points later.
6. Do you follow the good health guidlines daily? - for my non-Weight Watcher folks, the good health guidlines include things such as liquid intake, fruit and veggie servings, dairy servings, activity, healthy oils, multivitamin, and activity.  The goal is supposed to be to check these off each day, with different minimums for each.  I have been very bad about meeting my GHG's over the last few months.  Starting today, I will make every effort to get in my minimum GHG's every day.  The one that will be the hardest will be getting in my 2 servings of dairy.  I'm a bit lactose intolerant, and I generally don't put cheese on much because of the points.  I think I'm going to make one of my daily snacks a piece of mozzarella string cheese wrapped in some lunch meat or dunked in some marinara or pizza sauce.

This week, I'm starting over.  I'm going back to the basics, and hopefully I can have a big loss on the scale. 

Starting Weight: 210.4
Current Weight: 191.4
Goal Weight: 130.0

The Power of Positive Thinking

I am officially stating that my plateau is busted.  I saw a number on my home scal this morning that I haven't seen in a looooong time.  I'm now only 12.6 pounds away from matching my driver's license weight.  I think that weight was entered in 2002 when I moved back to Ohio.  I guess all of the extra gym time is paying off.

Last week at Weight Watchers, I finally hit 20 pounds.  I'm at 20.2 to be exact.  This is the most weight I've ever lost on Weight Watchers.  In past attempts, I would get really close, get frustrated, and then quit.  Quitting is not an option this time.  I missed my 10% by 0.8, which kind of bummed me out, but I'm pretty sure I'll get it this week. 

On the Weight Watchers website, I'm part of a challenge to lose 50 pounds by the end of this year.  There is a great group of girls on there who have become part of my support network.  Every week we have a topic or question to discuss.  This week's topic was to state how much weight we'd lost and then talk about something we've gained through this journey.  We were not allowed to get down on ourselves, or wish that we had lost more by now.  I found it a little difficult to come up with an answer at first.  Yeah, I'm proud I've lost 20 pounds, but I do wish I would have lost more by now.  But once I actually sat and thought about it, I have learned a lot about myself.

I've learned patience and perseverence for sure.  It's taken me almost 8 months to lose 20 pounds.  That takes perseverence.  I've learned that I'm a lot stronger than I give myself credit for.  Even on the days I've hurt or didn't want to go, or had stuff to do at home, I've made it to the gym as scheduled.  I've learned how to stand up for myself.  It amazes me the people who have either intentionally or unintentionally tried to sabotage or derail me.  People at the meeting talk all the time about how they get upset when people tell them that they don't need to lose more weight, or they don't need to lose as much as they'd like to lose.  I have learned to take that to mean that I don't look as fat as I think I look and say thank you.  I've also learned how to say no when someone asks me for a spur of the moment lunch or treat.  I no longer feel awkward telling them that I can't because I didn't budget the points or I want a good weigh-in on the weekend. 

My goal for August is to think positive thoughts, and not beat myself up for anything that I may do poorly.  It's amazing how positive thinking can turn things around.  August is a month of happy thoughts! :)

The Gym Is My Friend?? When Did That Happen??

I vowed at the beginning of July that I would get in a minimum of 2 work outs each week.  This week is week 4 and I think it's finally becoming a habit.  We've been walking 6 miles on Sunday mornings and I've been going to water aerobics on Wednesday nights.  But I've been adding in 1-2 sessions of riding the bike at the gym on top of that.  Last night I decided to skip the gym, and at about 8:00 I found myself thinking, "I kind of want to go to the gym."  For anyone who knows me, they would think hell had frozen over if those words came out of my mouth.  My biggest problem with the gym is that I hate getting sweaty.  Now I've decided that it's a side effect I can live with.  I just think of it as the fat pouring out of my body. 

My eating has been way better this week too.  I went a little off track over the weekend, but not near as bad as I used to.  I would expect myself to be hungrier than I have been with all of the gym time, but I think the heat is working to supress my appetite, which is good.  I'm determined to at least hit 20 pounds this weekend.  I want more, but I'm not hoping for more than that.  I'm setting my expectations low so I can be pleasently surprised :)

Time for food finds!

I love Chinese food.  A free Chinese dinner is the only reason I agreed to go out with my husband on our first date (I'm glad he offered Chinese food!).  I tend to have a weakness for orange chicken from Panda Express, but 1 serving eats up most, if not all, of my daily points.  It's just not worth it to me.  Tonight, I found mandarin orange chicken at Trader Joe's for 5 points per serving, and it's a decent size serving.  Not quite as sweet as Panda Express, but every bit as good.  You cook it in the oven, but it turns out crispy just like restaurant orange chicken.  Definitely going to keep a bag of that in the freezer.

We also tried a new burger recipe last week; Asian Beef Sliders.  These things were delicious, and even though one slider doesn't sound like enough, they are pretty filling.  We ate ours with corn on the cob, but you could pair just about anything with it.  5 points for my WW peeps, and 239 calories with 8 grams of fat for my non-WW peeps.  Not to mention they only take 30 minutes to make.

Asian Beef Slidres with Pickled Cucumbers - serves 8

2 Kirby cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced (we used vidalia)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/4 pounds ground lean beef (7% fat or less) - could also use turkey?
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions
2 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons wasabi powder
1 1/2 teaspoons water
1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise (we used low-fat Miracle Whip)
8 (3 inch) mini sandwich buns (1 1/2 ounces each), split

1. Spray grill rack with non-stick spray.  Preheat grill to medium-high heat, or prepare medium-high fire.
2. Toss together cucumbers, onion, vinegar, ginger, mint, and pepper flakes in medium bowl; let stand 10 minutes.
3. Combine beef, scallions, chili-garlic sauce, and salt in large bowl and mix well.  With damp hands, form mixture into 8 patties.  Place patties on grill rack and grill until instant-read thermometer inserted into side of each burger registers 160degees for medium, 4-5 minutes on each side. (I think we cooked them 4-5 minutes total).
4. Meanwhile, to make dressing, stir together wasabi powder and water in small bowl until smooth; whisk in mayonnaise.  Spread cut sides of buns with dressing.  Place burgers in buns and top evenly with cucumber mixutre.

The Art of The Cheat

I finally have a handle on my food this week!  Granted, I've eaten all of the activity points I've earned, but I've only eaten 1 more point than that, and I'll make it up tonight.  I think my body is getting used to all of the extra activity as well because I'm shedding pounds like crazy.  For the last 3 mornings I've been under 190 on the scale at home which hasn't happened since probably 1999.  I'm positive I'll hit 20 pounds this week, and I'm hoping I'll finally hit my 10%.  It's so much easier to stay motivated when the scale is moving down.  The only downside to all of the gym time is that I feel like I'm not getting anything accomplished at home.  I think I need to find a little better balance, but with the pounds falling off I'm not about to adjust the workouts. 

As a little extra motivation, me and my neighbor joined a weight-loss challenge that starts on Monday.  It's something they are doing here in Kansas City.  We have 6 people on our team and the contest runs for 10 weeks.  Whichever teams has the highest average of percentage lost wins a trip to Arizona, including airfare, accomodations, spending money, and spa treatments.  It would be pretty awesome if we won, but at the very least at least we'll come out of it skinnier!

Through all of this I've had to rethink my "cheat" days.  I weigh in on Saturday morning.  I would then use Saturday and Sunday as days to kind of pig out and eat all of those bad things I wanted but wouldn't let myself have throughout the week.  Cheat day didn't mean just 1 splurge, it meant multiple splurges over a 2 day time period.  I would then spend the entire week playing catch up on the scale.  This week, I let myself have some indulgences on the weekend, but I made sure not to eat more than my daily and activity points.  I don't feel deprived at all, which was shocking to me.  I've also been a little better about planning some small splurges throughout the week.  I'm hooked on potato chips right now.  Probably because we found some zesty ranch kettle chips.  I make sure that I have enough points after dinner to have a serving of chips. 

I'm finding that losing weight is more mental than anything else.  I had made somewhat of a mind-shift when I started Weight Watchers in January.  I found through my plateau (if you can call it that because I definitely wasn't working the program the way I knew I should), that the path is constantly changing.  For a while, I could get away with having 2 full cheat days a week.  That came to a screeching hault and I wasn't ready for the next mind-shift.  Now, I feel as though I've made that next transition and can continue on my way.  I had to realize that while I could still have 1 or 2 splurges throughout the week, I couldn't have 10. 

It's all about prioritizing and figuring out what you truely want.  I want to be thinner.  I want to be healthy.  But I also want greasy, cheesy pizza, chinese food, french fries, and beer.  It finally clicked with me that to have the pizza I need to give up something else, whether that be high point meals for the rest of the week, or time at home because I'm at the gym.  Let's face it, deprivation diets don't work.  No one can eat like that forever, especially me.  But I've also realized that I don't need the bad food all the time in order to feel satisfied. 

Last weekend my splurge was sushi.  My dad and I went to the sushi train for lunch on Saturday.  They put 2-3 pieces of sushi on small plates, and a train pulls them around the counter.  You just pick off what you want and they count up the plates at the end to get your total for the bill.  After 4 plates, I was feeling full.  I ended up eating a 5th plate because it looked good, but all in all I ate 12 pieces of sushi and 3 potstickers.  Not necessarily an unhealthy choice, but those points add up.  That was my splurge for the week and I'm completely ok with that.  Next week I think my splurge will be Chinese food.  I haven't had any since our vacation in June and I'm craving it. 

I will update after weigh-in on Saturday.  Can't wait!!

Lack Of Planning On My Part...

Last week was not a good week.  I was crazy busy at work, plus the added gym time means I didn't have much time at home.  Breakfast and/or lunch consisted of whatever I could grab on my way out the door.  One morning that consisted of a can of tomato juice and a Ritz Whole Grain Crackerful.  I ate lunch out 3 out of the 5 days.  I went out to eat last night.  All of that added to the stress of my week.  I'm determined to not let that happen again this week, even if that means a somewhat busy weekend of prepping food. 

The stress didn't help me complete my goals last week.  The only goal I did successfully accomplish is earning back the extra points I ate last Saturday.  I was bad about tracking and measuring, so those are going on the list again for this week.  I'm also making a goal of working out at least twice this week. 

I was down a pound this week, which is good.  But I've got another 0.4 to lose to get back to my lowest weight this year.  This week is off to a much better start than last week.  So far I'm within my points for the day and shouldn't go over at all, even with eating breakfast out and going to the sushi train with my dad for lunch. 

Be on the look out for some new recipe posts this week.  I'm trying some new stuff, including Asian Beef Sliders and Spicy Thai Crab Rolls. 

Hawaiian Curried Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

This was so fantastic I had to post it.

• 3 sprays cooking spray
• 2 tsp peanut oil (we used olive oil)
• 2 tsp ginger root, finely minced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt (we used kosher)
• 1/8 tsp sugar
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 cup light coconut milk
• 2 1/2 cups pineapple, diced (we used fresh)
• 1/4 cup shallots, minced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, fresh, minced
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut meat, toasted (we used shredded in bag and toasted in oven)

1. Coat a large skillet with cooking spray; set over medium heat.  Add oil; heat until oil starts to shimmer.  Add ginger and onions; saute until onions turn translucent and start to caramelize, about 5-7 minutes.  Add curry powder, salt and sugar; cook, stirring, until curry becomes fragrant, about 1 minute.
2. Push vegetables to side of skillet and saute chicken until lightly browned, about 1-2 minutes.  Add coconut milk and reduce heat to low; simmer, partially covered, sitrring occasionally, until chicken  is done, about 2-30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, to make salsa, combine pineapple, shallots, and cilatnro; toss well to coat.
4. To serve, top chicken with salsa and sprinkle with cocounut.  Yields about 1/2 cup chicken, 1/2 cup salsa, and 2 teaspoons of coconut per serving.

Unfortunately I don't have the nutritional info on this, but for my WW friends, it's 5 points.  At first, I was a little out of my comfort zone in wanting to try this, but it was so worth the plunge!  We had it with some Uncle Ben's rice pilaf and it made a great meal.  I saw one suggestion to use the salsa on a hot dog.  May have to try that one.  Enjoy!

Time to Make a Fresh Start

As you all know, the scale hasn't exactly been my friend for the last few months.  I've been stuck.  I wouldn't necessarily call it a plateau, because I haven't been doing what I know I need to do to succeed.  I've been eating too much and moving too little, simple as that.  Last week I moved a lot more, but I still ate too much which resulted in a 1.2 pound gain at weigh-in on Saturday.  This led to a bad mood and a huge pitty party, which led to even more bad eating, and now I'm going to have to play catch up this week if I don't want another gain on Saturday. 

At Weight Watcher's we talked about making it work with the tools we have available, instead of wishing for things that we know we can't have.  This struck a cord with me.  One of the things we talked about was wishing for a personal trainer.  I've blogged about this before!  In fact, I think it was either my last post or the one before it where I said, "I wish I could plunk down $400 and hire my personal trainer back."  I really think that this has been a mental roadblock for me.  I still have all of my work-out sheets from last summer that he wrote up for me.  What's stopping me from going to the gym and doing it myself?  Absolutely nothing but my mental state (and the fact that I don't feel comfortable at the gym, again relates to mental state).

Something else that hit me like a 2x4 was the quote that is on the magnet our leader gives out when a certain milestone is reached.  It goes something like, "Some people only dream of success, while others wake up every day and work hard to achieve it."  Have I really been working hard to achieve my weight-loss goals?  Have I been making a concious effort every day to do what needs to be done to get this weight off?  Have I been making a concious effort every day to make this my lifestyle instead of just a diet?  Lately, I have not been doing this.  I've just been coasting along on autopilot, and not really working the program. 

In an attempt to get back on track and make a fresh start, here are my goals for this week:

1. Earn enough activity points to make up for the extra points I ate on Saturday/Sunday.
2. Measure/weigh EVERYTHING.
3. Track EVERYTHING.

No Soda - Day 5

So my last day of drinking soda was last Thursday, June 30.  I can honestly say, it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be.  Friday was rough because I started to get that caffeine headache around 2:30.  Saturday was really bad because I was craving soda.  I was not in a good mood.  But ever since then, it hasn't been a big deal at all!  I'm also happy to report that the only high-fructose corn syrup I've consumed was in a small amount of ketchup while out to eat Saturday and Monday morning.  This July diet may not be so bad after all.

Weigh-in was Saturday.  I was up 0.2 pounds.  I was expecting it though, I totally sabotaged myself on Friday.  I just couldn't get enough to eat on Friday night, and I think most of it was due to the caffeine headache.  The scale isn't being really friendly so far this week either, but I've been doing a lot of activity, and walked 6 miles yesterday.  I am super sore.  I know once I drop that water-weight everything will be ok.  I'm forcing down the water today, and I think I might go for a walk after work to try to work some of the soreness out.  I really need to walk the dog too.  I put her on the scale this weekend and she's at 36 pounds!  Yikes!  She should weigh about 28 pounds.  Looks like she's going on a diet as well!

I've been kind of stuck on the scale the last few months.  I know the reason.  I need to quit eating all of my weekly bonus points, and I need to start exercising.  I just haven't been ready to do either.  I'm really thinking about starting water aerobics again on Wednesdays.  I think part of the reason I quit going was because I felt like once a week wasn't enough, so why bother.  Stupid reasoning, I know.  Now I know that anything is better than nothing, and at this point, I'll take what I can get.  I've been doing this for 6 months and I've only lost 19 pounds.  Not exactly stellar.  We have a cruise coming up in about 8 months, and I would really like to drop some significant weight between now and then. 

I wish I could plunk down the $400 to re-hire my personal trainer.  I dreaded the training sessions because he made me throw up every single time, but they worked.  I lost a ton of inches last summer.  The only downfall was I didn't have control of my diet.  Had I been on Weight Watcher's then, I know I could have lost all kinds of weight.

Non-Scale Victory for the day: The guy at Planet Sub totally flirted with me today at lunch! :)

Talk About A Challenge!

So, my husband came to me this morning and asked what I thought of giving up, processed foods for 1 month.  At first, I thought he was crazy!  I always said that I could never be a clean eater.  I like my "convenience" foods to much.  After talking more about it, we've decided to try to avoid as much high-fructose corn syrup as possible, as well as artificial sweeteners, like aspertame. 

That seemed a little more do-able, especially after taking a look at ingredients for the dinners I'm planning on making for the next couple of weeks.  We are going live with this experiment on July 1st.  I think it's going to be easier for Kevin than it will be for me.  He's not going to have to give up a lot of stuff.  I'm going to have to give up diet soda, Diet Snapple, Clamato, and ketchup.  This will be no easy task for me. 

I think my biggest isssue will be the beverages.  I really can't exist on just water.  I hate drinking water.  I detest it.  And now, all of my alternative no-calorie drinks are off the menu.  Even Crystal Light powder.  I may have to resort to drinking sweet iced tea made with Splenda.  For those who know me pretty well would have thought that the ketchup would be the bigger issue.  Ironically, I actually like ketchup made with real sugar.  If it's good enough to eat in Jamaica, it's good enough to eat at home!  I am excited for the meal possibilities that are going to come out of this.  I told my husband that he's going to be doing a lot of grilling for dinner.  I'm really glad that I bought some skewers this spring. 

I'm hoping this will be good for the scale.  I lost 2.2 pounds after coming back from vacation, which was awesome, but this week hasn't been so hot.  I've been hungry, and for all the wrong things.  I also haven't been tracking like I should.  I get that tracking is the basic premise of Weight Watchers, but I've fallen off the bandwagon.  I did great last week, but I knew I had some ground to make up.  I don't know why I can't get my head into the game.  I really want to hit 20 pounds, and my 10%, which I'm very close to, but I just can't get the motivation to faithfully do what I know I need to do.  Maybe the new way of eating will give me the jumpstart I need.

A Successful Vacation

I am proud to report that vacation wasn't a complete disaster!  When I weighed myself after we got home, I had only gained 3.6 pounds.  I consider that a successful vacation.  When we went to Jamaica last year I gained 6 pounds!  I was kind of expecting that this year.

I was bad on vacation.  Well, let me define bad.  By bad, I mean that I didn't track anything that I ate.  I was somewhat concious of what I put into my mouth, but I wasn't overly concerned with it.  On the 2 day drive to DC, we ate a lot of snacks in the car...chips, Combo's, and beef jerkey were the staples.  I did have some tomatoes and light ranch too.  We also hit up White Castle on the way out because we can't get it here in KC.  It was good, but I decided that it's much better when you're drunk.  :) 

The night we got into DC we went to a seafood restaurant.  I figured that would be somewhat healthy.  I mean, seafood is low in points.  Well, when they brought the bread basket to the table it had your standard dinner rolls, but also a chopped up cinnamon roll.  Huh?  It was kind of cold so fortunately I was able to leave that alone.  We ordered the crab dip for 2 as an appetizer.  It was basically huge chunks of crab in a bath of cream cheese and parmesean, served with an entire french loaf.  We ran out of bread before we ran out of dip so I finished it off with a spoon.  It was a little self indulgent, yes, but very good.  For dinner, we split 2 entrees.  My husband got a shrimp po-boy sandwich.  It was really good and had spinach on it so I got a vegetable.  I ordered the crab casserole, which was crab in a cream and white wine sauce with cheese on top.  Very delicious.  The portion was small, especially since we split it, so that wasn't too bad.  For desert I had an italian ice that was under 100 calories. 

On Sunday and Monday we did a lot of walking.  I estimated that we did about 12 miles on Sunday alone.  I calculated that between the 2 days I earned 42 activity points.  Surely that took care of the junk that I ate in the car the 2 days prior.  We indulged in some chinese food, but made it last 2 nights, and had pretty sensible lunches.

Then we got to North Carolina.  The food was reasonable until Friday.  My sister-in-law is from Columbia, and her mom and aunt had come into town for my neice's graduation.  As soon as they got there they started cooking.  Everything was sooooo good, but I feel like all I did on Friday was eat...oh, and drink.  My brother-in-law found the caribbean beer that I like, so of course I had to indulge.  It was worth every bit of the points it cost me to drink it.  Oh, and there was a lot of regular Mountain Dew drinking.  Normally I drink diet.

Saturday and Sunday we were in the car again.  The snacks weren't quite as bad.  On Saturday we only ate breakfast and dinner, which wasn't too bad.  Sunday of course involved one last stop at White Castle.  This time we went in to order and I noticed that they had loaded fries.  That would be crinkle cut fries with bacon, cheese, and ranch dressing on top.  They were fantastic!

Considering all of this, 3.6 pounds isn't bad at all.  As of this morning I've lost all of that, plus another .4 pounds.  I will gladly take that.  I've been sticking to just my daily points this week in an attempt to actually have a loss at weigh-in on Saturday.  I'm also craving healthier foods, which helps.  Had I been diligent about tracking, I probably could have lost weight on vacation with all of the walking that we did.  Maybe I'll give that shot when we take our cruise next March. 

A Quick Vacation Update

So we have 3 days left on our vacation, and so far I don't think I've done too badly.  I haven't been able to get on a scale, but none of my shorts are fitting any tighter, so that's a good thing.  The first few days of vacation I ate like a pig, but at the same time I earned 42 activity points during our first 2 days in DC.  I think that negated most if not all of the extra food I've eaten.  I haven't been tracking my food because it's been a bit difficult, but I've been trying to only eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm full, and chose healthier foods. 

The worst part has been the driving.  When I'm in the car, all I want to do is snack because I'm bored.  I think for the 2 day drive home I'll keep the snacks out of reach and pull out my book, or maybe just sleep!  I'm really curious to get on the scale when we get home to see where I'm at.  I don't think I've lost, but I'm almost positive that I haven't gained either, which is a good thing!

Unexpected Results

I got a bit of good news this week that we think is linked to my weight loss.  I had to go to the dentist Thursday morning.  I usually dread going to the dentist.  I seem to build up tarter really quickly so there is always a lot of scraping involved.  Well, when I sat down and opened my mouth yesterday morning, my hygienist was very suprised to see that I didn't have near as much build up as I normally do.  I haven't been taking care of my teeth any differently.  I told her that back in January I had joined Weight Watcher's and that my diet had changed.  Now I'm eating a lot more fruits and vegetables.  She said she's seen this happen before, and attributed my lack of tarter to my healthier diet. 

I was ecstatic! My entire appointment only took about half an hour, which I think is a new record for me in the dentist chair.  I really needed that non-scale victory, since this week has been mediocre at best.  I've been busy, and tired, and have just had a general lack of motivation. I haven't been tracking near as diligently as I should be, and that's reflecting on the scale.  What's done is done, and I'll have to face my fate on the scale tomorrow.  I'm determined to make next week a better week.  I need to have a better week next week so I have a good jump start heading into vacation.

It Is What It Is...And It's Just Kind Of "Eh"

Ok, so I know it's been a while.  It's not that I've forgotten, or haven't wanted to write, I just haven't had any good subject material.  I'm still stuck in that place where this journey is not exciting any more.  It just is.  It's part of my every day, and that seems so boring to write about.  I haven't tried any new fantastic recipes.  I haven't done any great feats at the gym.  I haven't heard any inspirational quotes.  The scale has not been my friend lately, and I'm sick of stressing out about it and over-thinking it to death.  I just really haven't had any new material to share. 

Are any of my other Weight Watcher friends feeling like this?  I wouldn't say I'm bored by the experience, but I'm definitely not as enthusiastic as I used to be.  I guess that's a sign that it really is becoming a lifestyle.  I don't even have to log my food to know how many points I've packed in my lunch anymore.  I can just grab things off the shelf or out of the fridge and know that I'm staying within my points.  I do still track it by the way, because not tracking can lead to trouble. 

I haven't had any great news on the scale to share either.  In the last 4 weeks I've only lost a pound and a half.  I'm really hoping that I'll be down 2 tomorrow, but sometimes things don't like to cooperate come Saturday morning.  I really feel like I need to hit a big milestone this week to get me excited and get my head back in the game.  I'm so close to hitting 20 pounds as well as my 20%.  I can almost taste them.  But it's frustrating at the same time, because I thought I would have hit them by now.  My goal going into all of this was to average 1 pound a week.  That would have put me at 20 pounds this week, and my 10% next weekend.  Well, I'm sitting at 17.2 as of last Saturday.  I'm not down about the fact that I've lost 17.2 pounds.  That's awesome!  That's a little more than half the weight of my dog!  That's over a sack and a half of potatoes!  (Yeah, grab 2 10 pound bags of potatoes the next time you're at the grocery store and try to lug them around.  You'll see how good it feels to take that weight off.)  But right now I need a 5 pound sticker at meeting, or some other kind of recognition to perk me up a bit.

I really want to have a strong loss this week and next, because I'm going on vacation in June and will miss 2 weigh-ins.  Knowing how poorly I did when I went to Michigan for 2 days has me terrified of this 10 day vacation.  My husband and I are taking a road trip.  We are driving to Washington DC for 2 and a half days, then down to Jacksonville, NC for 3 and a half days, then back home.  We're going to spend approximately 40+ hours in the car during these 10 days.  I've been scouring the internet for ideas of how to "work-out" in the car.  I'm not having a lot of luck. (If you have any ideas - I don't care how crazy they sound - send them my way.)  We are also going to be eating a lot of meals out.  One good thing is we are staying at my husband's brother's house while we're in NC, but I still have no control over the cooking or what's being served.  We're also going to be doing a lot of walking while we're in DC.  I am really hoping that makes up for any of the crap that I know I'm going to eat.  I think I'm going to have to ban chips, chocolate, and regular soda from the car.  As much as I would love to come back from vacation with a loss, I will definitely settle for no gain. 

Hopefully something will inspire me at the meeting tomorrow, and hopefully the scale smiles down upon me.

Ugh!

Well, I was down this weekend.  It was only 0.6, but down is down, right?  That makes my weight-loss to date 17.2 pounds.  I just looked at my stats, and in the last 4 weeks I've only lost a total of a pound and a half.  Obviously this does not make me happy.  On Friday I went back and did some research.  I took a look at the last week I lost 2 pounds which was the beginning of April.  I had eaten the same amount of points during that 2 pound week as I had this past week.  During the 2 pound week I only earned half of the activity points that I earned last week.  This made me go, "huh?"  Then I looked at what I ate.  During the 2 pound week, I ate a lot of fatty foods.  It must have been a week when we had a lot of ballgames, because probably half of my diet was ballpark food.  This last week, even though I had eaten the same amount of points, just about everything was very healthy.  That made me decide to eat a meatball sub and some buffalo ranch fries at the stadium.  I'm not entirely sure if it was brilliant, or stupid, but I lost weight between Friday morning and Saturday morning. 

This week is off to a good start.  Granted, I've used most of my weeklies already, but I've also earned 17 activity points so far.  I'm going to up my fat intake a bit this week, as well as eat at least half of my activity points if I earn at least 30.  That has always worked for me in the past.

I'm 19 weeks into this journey, so it's possible I could be hitting my first plateau.  If this week isn't a big weight-loss week, I think I'm going to start doing strength training again.  Since I seem to be stuck anyways, why not build up some lean muscle?  That will at least up my metabolism, and I know eveneutally the scale will start moving again.

Starting Weight: 210.4
Current Weight: 193.2
Weight Lost: 17.2
Next Goal: 193 (Pre-Jamaica weight)

It's Official, I Can't Eat As Much

So, I'm thinking that the fact that I was up last week was no fluke.  It really does look like I'm going to need to cut back on eating all of my weekly points.  This makes me sad, mostly because it means I'm going to have to find a way to trim points off of my favorite Saturday morning breakfast.  I'm not quite sure what to expect on the scale tomorrow morning.  I've been down, and then back up this week.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Since it looks like this week is not going to be a scale victory, I'm going to focus on the non-scale victories that I've had.  All of the sudden I'm finding that a lot of my clothes are way too big.  I pulled out all of my summer clothese from last year and had to get rid of a bunch of them because they just hang on me.  And stuff that was tight last year fits great this year.  I've found a whole new wardrobe.  Hopefully I can make these clothes last through this entire summer, because I can't afford to buy a new summer and winter wardrobe. 

I also earned 39 activity points this week.  I did a lot of walking over last weekend, and I've been doing a bunch of stuff around my house this week.  Last night I spent 2 hours organizing clothes and putting them away, plus hauling things up and down the stairs.  I joined a challenge on the  Weight Watchers website called Spring Cleaning.  The whole premise of the challenge is the fact that often we get sick of exercising because we don't see immediate results.  Well, if we focus on getting our activity in by doing projects around the house, we still earn our activity points, but also get the immediate gratification of seeing a change.  My master bedroom looks much better this morning than it did when I got home from work last night. 

I'll update you on how weigh-in goes tomorrow morning.  Maybe something miraculous will happen over night?  I can dream, right?

Playing Catch Up

Sorry for the lack of posting in recent days.  I've been terribly busy.  Here's one I started on Sunday but didn't get a chance to finish and post.

"So I was up at this week's weigh-in.  It was only 0.4 pounds, but I still didn't like to see it.  I think most of it was due to stress.  I ate the same way that I usually do.  I even earned a few more activity points than normal.  I was retaining water like crazy as well.  I think a lot of that had to do with the high temps we had at the beginning of the week.

I went back and forth as to wether or not I wanted to start reducing the amount of weeklies that I eat and see if that makes a difference on the scale next week.  I have decided that I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing to see if this week was a fluke or if I'm trending. 

Today I proved to myself that I can eat brunch out without blowing my points.  Today was my dad's birthday, and he wanted to go to brunch at M&S Grill as his birthday meal.  We've been for brunch before, and it's really good.  I was a bit worried going into it this morning, but I went in with a plan.  They always have really good fresh fruit, as well as peel and eat shrimp.  We were seated right next to that table, so I decided I would start there.  I loaded up my first plate with a bunch of fruit, some shrimp, as well as a salad.  I used just a smidge of their caesar dressing.  The entire plate was 3 points.  I knew that if I ate this stuff first I wouldn't eat as much of the hot stuff.  As for hot food, I had about an ounce and a half of ham, 2 slices of bacon, 1 poached egg, about a 1/4 cup of potatoes, and 3 ounces of tilapia for 8 points.  So far I'm at an 11 point brunch.  For one meal on a special occasion, that's not bad at all.  What killed me was the 4 point bloody mary and the 8 point red velvet cupcake.  But I thouroughly enjoyed both of them."

This week is off to a much better start.  I've been extra hungry this week, which happens sometimes.  It's been a struggle to stick to my points, but the scale is moving down.  I hit a new low on my scale at home this morning which made me really happy.  I'm hoping that all of the activity points I earned over the weekend by walking will pay off.  We leave for vacation in 3 and a half weeks and I really want to hit my 10% before we go.  I'm going to miss 2 weigh-ins while we're gone and my goal is to just maintain.  I'll be super happy if I actually lose over vacation.  Since we're spending some time in Washington, D.C., I know I'll get a lot of walking in, which should help.  But, in the 9 days that we're gone, 4 and a half of those will be spent in the car, which can be really dangerous.  Any ideas for car friendly, point friendly snacks would be much appreciated.

Pizza Pizza

This is my new favorite dinner!  We decided to make home-made pizzas tonight for dinner.  Some of the girls at Weight Watchers were talkin about how they used Flatouts to make pizzas.  What's a Flatout you ask?  It's kind of a mix between a pita and a tortilla.  Well, really it's just a thicker tortilla.  But they are really good.  I found some Italian Herb ones at Walmart and figured they would make awesome pizzas.  Here's what I put on mine.

1 Italian Flatout (2 points)
1/2 package of Boboli pizza sauce (1 point) - if you're going to make more than 1 pizza at a time buy the big packs and use half on each pizza
56g Canadian Bacon (2 points)
1/2 cup Fat Free Mozzarella Cheese (2 points)
Onions
Tomatoes

If you read carefully you would noticed that this entire thing is only 7 points.  Load it up with as many veggies as you want for free!  Now if only I could find some 1 point complimenting breadsticks I'd be in heaven!

Christmas In May

As I've written before, I'm always on the look-out for low cal/low points recipes and foods.  Not once did it dawn on me to try to reduce the points in some of my favorite "bad" recipes.  I also never really bothered to check the points on some of my favorites because I just assumed they wouldn't be worth the points.  This has been a HUGE mistake.  Let me explain.

Last week I was working on my grocery list.  I'm getting kind of sick of my usual snacks, as they pretty much all seem to be chip related.  All of the sudden my grandma popped into my head.  I started thinking about all of the yummy food that she used to make.  Then I thought of one of her holiday specialties, ham roll-ups.  In case you don't know what a ham roll- up is (Sarah, Lisa, Rachel - I know you know what I'm talking about), it's where you take a piece of ham, slather on some cream cheese, and then roll up a dill pickle inside it.  I don't know why I had never bothered to check the points on this ymmy treat before.  Probably because we only have them at Christmas.

At the grocery store I found Oscar Mayer deli ham (smoked) for 1 point per 3 slices.  Then I picked up some fat free cream cheese, for 1 point per 2 tablespoons.  Add in some Claussen pickles and you're set.  I figured out that I can have 6 ham roll-ups for 4 points (1 slice ham, half a small Claussen pickle, and half a tablespoon of fat free cream cheese per roll-up.)  Hello 10am snack!  Plus, unlike the pop chips I've been eating, this snack has protein. 

No more waiting for Christmas!

Life and Loss

This has been a very rough weekend.  I was very excited to go to meeting on Saturday morning and weigh-in because I thought I was down about a pound, and I love seeing that on the scale.  It was a small miracle because I ate chicken finger and fries at the ballpark Friday night, and I even licked out the tub of ranch they gave me.  I had the activity points to cover it, but I try really hard not to eat those.  Anyways, I was sitting in my mom's living room, waiting for her to put her shoes on, so I decided to check Facebook on my phone.  I hadn't had a chance earlier (yes, I'm addicted to FB).  As I'm scrolling through posts, I came across one that made my heart break.  A very dear friend of mine had passed away.

Roy was not just any old friend.  Roy was like my surrogate grandfather.  I met him at church back in 1994 when my family moved to Dayton, Ohio.  He played grandpa to all of the kids, but I always felt like Roy and I had a special bond.  I was just entering the 8th grade.  He could be onery, and was stubborn, but he was also very caring, genuine, and wise.  He helped me work through a lot of things in high school and beyond.  When I moved back home in 2003 because I was getting divorced, he was there for me, whenever I needed to talk.  I felt like he really, truely listened, without judging. 

Shortly thereafter, my family moved here to Kansas City, and he and his wife moved to California and I figured I probably wouldn't see him again.  I sent cards, and every once in a while we would talk on the phone but it was few and far between.  Well, last year, I accepted a new position at work and found out that I was going out to our plant in California for a week.  When I told my dad where I was staying, he said, "You better call Roy, he lives about an hour from there."  What were the odds?  So I called up Roy-Boy and we made dinner plans.  We had a fantastic conversation.  I caught him up on my life and convinced him that I finally had my head on straight.  It was such a joy to share dinner with him.

I figured I might get back out there maybe one more time to see him, but, sadly that was not meant to be.  He went home to be with Jesus and his beloved wife on Friday night, after taking a nasty fall the week before.  This world has lost a truely great man.  While I rejoice because he is no longer in pain, it hurts.  It hurts badly.  Everything else just seems a little less important right now.

Roy made an impression and an impact on everyone he knew.  He will truely be missed. 

Starting Weight: 210.4
Current Weight: 193.4
Total Lost: 17 lbs

Food Finds

I am always on the look-out for new recipes and diffent foods that are really good points bargains.  I spend hours going through cook-books or recipe websites.  I'll spend hours at the grocery store calcuating the points values on countless foods, trying to find the best bang for my points buck.  Today, I seem to have hit the jackpot thanks to Weight Watchers and my boss's boss's wife.  (yes, there should be 2 boss's there.)

First are the tortillas.  I got an email from my boss's boss's wife telling me about some 1 point tortillas she found.  I was excited to hear about it and was planning on picking up some to try this weekend.  Well, much to my surprise, one showed up on my desk today! (Thanks Nicki!)  After dinner I decided to try it.  Let me just tell you, they are fantastic!!!  Here's the info...

Ole Mexican Foods - Xtreme Wellness High Fiber, Low Carb Tortillas
71 Calories, 2g fat, 5g carbs, 12g fiber, 8g protein

These are burrito size tortillas, and with that much fiber, very filling.  I'm seeing all kinds of new dishes on my menu like tacos, quesadillas, breafast burritos, and enchilladas.  I actually dipped the one I had tonight in some salsa and it was fantastic just like that...and only 1 point!

The second food find of the day was dinner.  I bought the new Weight Watchers complete cookbook at Costco a few weeks back.  This recipe came out of there.  It's for smoky turkey chili, and it was fantastic! It is a thick chili, not a soupy chili.   Here you go, enjoy!

• 1 pound ground skinless turkey breast (I put it in raw and it turned out great)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 (15 1/2 ounce) cans small white beans, rinsed and drained (I used Great Northern Beans)
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes (feel free to double if you want juicier chili)
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 (4 1/2 ounce) can chopped mild green chiles
• 3 Tablespoons chili powder
• 2 Tablespoons honey (I would probably half this next time because it turned out a bit sweet)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon hickory liquid smoke
• 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (I couldn't find any so I left it out)
• Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

1. Combine turkey, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a 5-6 quart slow cooker.  Stir in all remaining ingredients.  Cover and cook until flavors are blended and chili is slightly thickened, 4-5 hours on high, or 8-10 hours on low.  Serve sprinkled with parsley.

Serving size: 1 1/4 cups
5 Points Plus per serving
232 calories, 2g fat, 32g carbs, 8g fiber, 23g protein
*For an added point you can add 2 tablespoons of fat free sour cream and 2 tablespoons of fat free cheddar cheese.  I highly suggest it :)

Bon Appetit!

Flexibility

I finally figured out why I like Weight Watchers so much better than any other diet I've ever been on.  I LOVE the flexibility it provides me.  This truely is a diet that doesn't feel like a diet.

Take today for instance.  For breakfast I had a can of Spaghettio's with Meatballs.  Yes, it was a kindergarten morning.  That was 10 points.  For lunch, I had a #1 combo from Taco Bell, which included a taco supreme and beef burrito supreme.  That was 16 points.  For dinner I had a salad that consisted of steak, tomatoes, grilled onions, gorgonzola cheese, and balsamic vinagrette.  That was 4 points (less than an ounce of cheese and I barely used any of the dressing).  For desert I had a Kit Kat for 6 points.  My grand total for the day was 36 points.  Now, I only get 30 in a day, but I had 7 of my weeklies left.

How many people do you know that can eat like that on a diet?  Can I eat like that every day?  Well, if I didn't eat the Kit Kat I could.  But generally speaking, no.  But that's the awesomeness of Weight Watchers.  It allows you to eat those so-called "bad" foods when you want/need to, without feeling the least bit guilty about it.  Because of the points system it also provides a good "check yourself" mechanism, that doesn't allow you to go overboard.  Well, you can go overboard, but then you're "off program".  I just love the fact that absolutely no food is forbidden.

I've met a lot of people who do Weight Watchers who eat mostly healthy foods - lots of fruit and veggies, lean protein, reduced fat dairy - and that's awesome for them if they can do it.  That's just not me.  I enjoy my fatty, greasy, carby foods.  I have what most would consider a "cheat" food daily, and that's what works for me.

I love Weight Watchers!

Keep Moving

Today, being the first day of May, I knew I needed to earn some activity points.  I saw this morning that I tracked food, activity, and good health guidlines for 20 days in April, a new high for me.  This month I'm going for 30 days, and I seem to be well on my way. 

My husband and I decided to walk to breakfast this morning.  Like I've said before, I'll do almost anything for a free meal.  Well, then I decided that I was going to do my C25K on the way down.  It was a really tough run.  By the half way mark I was ready to quit.  I think part of it was because I hadn't eaten breakfast yet.  I did eat an apple about half an hour before we left but it just wasn't enough.  I managed to make it all the way through the session, thanks to my husband running beside me.  And then I decided to treat myself by ordering potatoes with breakfast instead of fruit :)

We managed to keep a pretty good pace on the way home, and even ran 1 very small section.  I earned 8 activity points before noon today, and that's a good feeling.  The only downside to my run is the fact that I inhaled so much pollen through my mouth that I'm having massive allergy attacks today and just generally feel miserable. 

Tomorrow is an off-day for the Royals so I've got all evening to earn my 1 activity point.  I think I'm going to try to do week 1 day 3 for C25K, but we'll see how I'm feeling.  I'm actually really sore tonight.  If I can't run, I'm definately taking the dog for a walk around the track.

No More Fat-Girl Stores!

It's official.  I no longer have to shop at the fat-girl stores.  I guess now it's safe to cut up my Lane Bryant card.  My mom and I went shopping today.  It's really the first time I've tried on clothes since I started WW 17 weeks ago.  I'm down 16.2 pounds as of this morning.  We went to Marshall's and I started to find all kinds of cute clothes, but the biggest the pants went was a 14, and the tops only went to an extra large.  I grabbed some 14's knowing I had a shot at getting them buttoned.  Then I was really brave and grabbed a couple of the extra large shirts I liked.  Even when I was in high school I had a hard time finding tops that fit correctly because the good Lord blessed me with a more than ample chest. 

Anyways, I headed to the fitting room, strangely confident.  I put on the first pair of 14 pants, and low and behold, they buttoned without much hassel.  Then they zipped...and I could still breath!!!  Granted, they would be more comfortable in about 4 or 5 more pounds, but I could totally pull them off.  Then I tried the shirt.  Amazingly, it fit as well, and looked good!  I couldn't believe it!  I think I was yelling at my mom in the fitting room because I was so excited.  The top was a flowy, sleeveless pull-over made out of a fabric that was cut on the bias, so there was no give at all.  I found 4 things I really liked, but couldn't afford all of them.  I couldn't decide which 1 piece I wanted so I didn't get anything.  In hindsight, I think I should have bought the gray top.  I have the perfect little shrug to go with it too.  Oh well. 

I'm having a hard time remembering when I could walk into any normal store and buy clothing that fit and looked good.  Right now most of my wardrobe consists of items from Lane Bryant or Torrid.  Granted, they are both great stores, but I have always hated to have to shop there.  It's very limiting.  I think I need to start putting away $5 for every pound I lose so I can buy some new clothes. 

Last week I was in a big time funk.  I blame a lot of it on the weather.  My head really wasn't in the game and I got really complaicent with my tracking.  I also didn't earn very many activity points.  The weather is finally starting to get better and I'm determined to make this a better week.

I have a goal for the month of May.  On the Weight Watchers website, you can earn "trophies" for tracking different things.  If you track food, log activty, and track good health guidlines (how much water you drank, how many fruits/veggies you ate), you can earn trophies.  The key is you have to track all 3 on a given day to earn a trophy.  The biggest one I've gotten is for tracking all 3 for 15 days during the month.  My goal for May is to earn the 30 day trophy.  I always track my food and my good health guidlines.  My problem is, I don't earn activity points every day.  So for May, I need to earn a minimum of 1 activity point every day.  Tomorrow shouldn't be a problem because me and the hubby are walking 6 miles round-trip for breakfast. 

This is going to be a good week!

Someone Has A Case Of The Mondays

Ok, I know it isn't Monday, but it feels like a Monday to me.  I'm having a really hard time staying focused and motivated this week.  I'm still on plan, even with Easter brunch, but I just can't seem to get my head into the game.  I don't know what my problem is.  I'm having really good success on the scale.  I actually made it through the first day of C25K without any issues.  I've been doing a lot of stuff around the house instead of just sitting around watching TV.  I've taken the dog for a walk.  I've stuck to my points.  I've changed up my menu.  I'm not having any cravings.  But I just feel ho hum about all of it.  I don't know why I'm in this funk.  Maybe it's all just becoming routine and habit, where as before it's all been exciting and new, even though I've been doing this for almost 4 months.  Becoming routine is good, because this is definitely a lifestyle change, not a diet, but I need something to spice it up.   

Success Breeds Success

Weigh-in this weekend was awesome!  I'm down another 2 pounds for a total of 15.8 pounds since January 8th.  That leaves me with 64.2 pounds left to lose to hit goal.  I'm at 194.6, which is almost pre-Jamaica weight.  The morning my husband and I left for Jamaica last September, I weighed 193.  I gained 6 pounds while we were on vacation, and by Christmas had gained 20!  My next goal is to be back at pre-Jamaica weight, then after that it's my 10%, which is 189.4. 

It still amazes me how good news on the scale can give so much motivation to keep doing well.  When I have a good weigh-in, I want to stay on plan, eat the right foos, make sure I drink my water, and earn as many activity points as I can.  But when I have a bad week on the scale, it's so much easier to eat over my points and lay on the couch like a blob.  It seems to me, in the logical side of my brain at least, that it would be just the opposite.  But I'll take it.

My fantastic weigh-in yesterday gave me the motivation to go out and run today.  The August 5k training has officially started!  My mom was wonderful enough to buy me some new running shoes yesterday and I had to go try them out.  I managed to get all the way through week 1, day 1 on my C25K app.  You have no idea how excited and proud of myself I am.  Normally it takes me 2 to 3 tries before I can get all the way through day 1.  Granted, my legs aren't feeling too well now, but it's a good kind of pain.  A lot of it, at least for me, is mind over matter.  I just have to keep telling myself that I can do it, even if I feel like I can't.  I actually danced a little jig at the park when I finished the last run.  A guy who was sitting at a picnic table gave me a really weird look. 

Oh, we tried a new recipe last night.  I'm a big fan of King Ranch Chicken.  Normally, I would have made it with flour tortilla's, cream of chicken soup, salsa, lots of cheese, chicken, and then eaten it like a dip with tortilla chips.  Well, I found a healthified version on http://www.eatingwell.com/.  It's a little labor intensive, but can easily be sped up by buying already chopped veggies, and a fresh rotisserie chicken.  It took me about 40 minutes to get put together and into the oven.  It turned out really good.

Ingerdients

• 1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup nonfat milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 4-ounce can green chiles, drained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, or parsley
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons canola or olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 red or green bell pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups diced coked skinless chicken
• 10 corn tortillas, cut into quarters
• 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar Cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Bring broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan.  Whisk milk and flour in a small bowl until smooth.  Add to the brotha nd cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and smoot, about 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in yogurt, tomatoes, chiles, cilantro, chili powder, oregano, and cumin.  Season with salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in a large nontick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until tender-crisp, about 3 minutes.
4. Line the bottom of a shallow 3-quart baking dish with half the tortillas.  Top with half the chicken and half the onion mixture.  Spoon half of the sauce evenly over the top.  Repeat layers with remaining tortillas, chicken, onion mixture, and sauce.  Sprinkle with Cheddar.  Bake until bubbly, 25-30 minutes.

Serving Size: approximately 1 cup
301 calories, 5g fat, 38g carbs, 25g protein, 6g fiber
7 points plus per serving

Know Before You Go

Today, I was once again reminded of the importance of planning ahead, as well as making sure you have information available.  Lunch made me think back to a couple of weeks into my journey when I unknowingly ate a 32 point baked potato for dinner. 

Today, after a mid-morning doctor appointment, my husband and I decided to go to Pei Wei for lunch.  For those of you who haven't heard of Pei Wei, it's PF Chang's fast food restaurant.  My mom and I had gone a few weeks ago for lunch, so I thought I had saved the nutritional information in my WW app on my phone.  Well, we got to the restaurant and I found out that I did not have it saved.  I didn't feel like searching all the way back to try to find the date we went, so I ordered what I thought wouldn't be too bad.  I normally get the mongolian shrimp, but I didn't want all of the sodium from the sauce since I have to weigh-in tomorrow morning.  I got a cup of hot and sour soup and 4 crab wontons.  I knew the soup was higher there than other restaurants, but I couldn't remember the points exactly.  I know on the old program the crab wontons weren't that horrible either, and I knew I could keep my sodium down as well. 

After we got done eating, my husband found an app on his phone that has Pei Wei's nutritional information.  The soup was 5 points.  That's not a huge deal, I had 17 available for lunch.  Then I looked at the crab wontons.  Well, come to find out, 4 of them are 9 points.  Ouch!  I mean, in the grand scheme of things it wasn't a big deal.  That still left me with 3 points, and I had already entered my dinner, so I didn't have to count that.  It actually did fill me up, so I wasn't left hungry.  But it just goes to show that you can't guess on points.

I have been doing Weight Watchers for 15 weeks now.  There are days when I feel like I'm completely new at it, and I'm really careful about tracking every morsel that goes into my mouth, and making sure I make good, healthy decisions.  Then there are days when I'm overly confident, feel like I know it all, and those are usually the days when I eat something without checking the points first, and it burns me. 

Tomorrow morning is weigh-in.  I know I'm going to be down, which is awesome!  I don't want to speculate as to how much because I don't want to be disappointed if I retain water overnight.  I stayed completely with-in my points the last couple of days and it's been a pretty good week.  I didn't get in as much activity as I would have liked, but that all changes on Sunday.  I'll let you know how I do!

But I'm Still Hungry!

I find myself saying that after almost every meal.  Even when the dinner I had was 8 or 9 points, has tons of protein and fiber, and I've eaten all of my points for the day, I'll still say I'm hungry.  It never made sense to me and it used to frustrate me.  But today at lunch I had an "ah ha" moment.

I need to redefine my sense of being full.  I have gotten so used to eating until I was stuffed, that it's hard for my brain to tell when I'm really satisfied and full.  If my stomach isn't bloated and hurting after a meal, I equate that with still being hungry. 

I'm struggling with that today.  For lunch I had a Lean Cuisine Garlic Chicken Pizza and a cup of sugar-free pudding.  My total lunch was 11 points, and tasted very yummy.  I didn't over-eat, but I didn't under-eat either.  I feel comfortable, and in the logical side of my brain I know that I'm satisfied and not really hungry, but the emotional side of my brain is telling me that I didn't have enough food.  Now the birthday cake sitting on the desk across the floor is staring me in the face saying, "Come eat me because you're still hungry!" 

I've realized that I need to make a conscious effort to really recognize not only my hunger signals, but also my satiety signals.  Lets be honest, the hunger signals are much easier to recognize and deal with.  Starting today I'm going to give that logical side of my brain a fighting chance to take over the emotional side of my brain when it comes to being satisfied with my food. 

Today, I'm going to plan out my meals and snacks for the rest of the week (I usually only do it 1 day at a time).  I am going to commit to only eating what is already in my food journal, and take the time to reflect after each meal to really, logically, evaluate my hunger/satiety level.  I commit to no longer being stuffed!

Have Your Baseball And Your Work-Out Too!

We are only 3 and a half weeks into the baseball season, and already I'm finding it hard to fit in time for exercise when the Boys of Summer are in town.  Let's face it, I'm not a morning person.  I can get up and head to the gym a couple of mornings for about a week and then sleep takes over.  I much prefer to get my activity in after work.  But with 81 baseball games to contend with this summer, I'm finding this could be really difficult. 

I went to the ball game last night with my parents.  My mom is doing WW with me.  We decided that to get in some movement we would do 3 laps around the ballpark.  The nice thing about Kauffman stadium is that no matter where you are in the ballpark (with the exception of the designated smoking area) you can keep an eye on the game, whether it be a direct view of the field, or on one of them many TV screens around the park.  Our 3 laps took us almost an hour (we had a couple of short stops along the way), and we didn't really miss much of the game.  Then it hit me.  I can do this for every game this summer! 

I don't have to give up my work-outs just because the Royal's are in town!  When I got home and told my husband, he upped the ante.  At Kauffman, there are stilll 2 of the old spiral ramps that lead from the ground level to the upper deck.  I hate going up them because I get winded.  I would much rather take the escalator and say hi to our favorite usher, Bob, on the way.  But what if I walked up one ramp, across the back of the stadium, and down the other a couple of times before games?  It would definately get my heart rate up.  I don't think it would take me the hour that walking all the way around the park would take, but it would definately be at a higher intensity.  There are also stairs at either end of the upper deck that I could use to get to my seats.  Do you think anyone would look at me funny if I was jogging around the outer concourse with my headphones in doing my C25K? :)

Zucchini Rice Casserole

Weigh-in was great on Saturday.  I was only expecting to be down about half a pound, but I ended up being down 1.2!  That makes 13.8 pounds gone since January 8th, and 66.8 pounds to go for goal.  Not bad for 14 weeks.  Now I just need to keep the scale moving in that direction.

I tried a new recipe tonight from EatingWell.com.  They actually have some pretty good recipes but you need to check the nutritional info on them.  Some of them may sound healthy but are really high in fat or carbs.  This one is very healthy, called Zucchini Rice Casserole.  A 1 cup serving may seem small, but it's so rich and creamy that a cup is more than enough!

• 1 1/2 cups long-grain brown rice
• 2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups diced zucchini, and/or summer squash (about 1 pound)
• 2 red or green bell peppers, chopped
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 1/2 cups low-fat milk
• 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups shredded pepper Jack cheese, divided
• 1 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) corn kernels
• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 8 ounces turkey sausage, casings removed
• 4 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped pickled jalapenos

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Pour rice into a 9x13 baking dish.  Bring broth to a simmer in a small saucepan.  Stir hot broth into the rice along with zucchini, bell peppers, onion, and salt.  Cover with foil.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Remove foil and continue baking until the rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, 35-45 minutes longer.
3. Meanwhile, whisk milk and flour in a small saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until bubbling and thickened, 3-4 minutes.  Reduce heat to low.  Add 1 1/2 cups jack cheese and corn and cook, stirring, until the cheese is melted.  Set aside.
4. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add sausage.  Cook, stirring and breaking the sausage into small pieces with a spoon, until lightly browned and no longer pink, about 4 minutes.
5. When the rice is done, stir in the sausage and cheese sauce.  Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup jack cheese on top and dollop cream cheese by the teaspoonful over the casserole.  Top with jalapenos.
6. Return the casserole to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.  Let stand for about 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 1 cup servings - 6 points
248 calories, 9g fat, 5g saturated fat, 34mg cholesterol, 29g carbs, 13g protein, 2g fiber, 491g sodium

I ended up adding another 4 ounces of the cream cheese to the top because I didn't want to waste the entire brick I bought.  It only adds a minute amount of calories and fat per serving.  Add 1 more point per serving if using the extra cream cheese.  I also left off the jalapenos because neither my husband nor I are big fans.

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/zucchini_rice_casserole.html

Enjoy!

Weekly Recap

Here I sit, another Friday night, and another week in my weight-loss journey under my belt.  This week just kind kind of ordinary, really.  I splurged on dinner a couple of times last weekend (burgers at The Flea and Chinese), stayed within my points the rest of the week, not a ton of activity because my foot was still recovering but managed to earn a few.  I did go a bit crazy last night.  I had a meatball sub at the ballpark.  I had the points so I don't really consider it a splurge.  It was mighty tasty though! 

The scale has been moving in the downward direction this week ever so slowly.  Slow is good though.  I'm really sick of this lose 3 pounds, gain a pound and a half, lose a pound, gain half a pound thing.  I would much rather just steadily lose about a pound a week.  Even though I bounced back and forth during the month of March and first part of April, I'm still averaging .9 pounds a week, which is just shy of my 1 pound a week goal.  I just want things to be more consistent. 

I'm hoping that next week I can finally start the 5k training.  This weekend I'm going to make a training chart and try to fit in the training around all of the Royal's games we have this summer.  I'm looking forward to trying some new recipes next week as well.  If they are good I will post them.  Weigh-in is tomorrow...can't wait to see how I did!

The Importance Of The Buddy System

When we were kids, we were taught about the buddy system.  Whether it was for field trips, swimming, or crossing the street, parents/teachers/adults realized that it was important to do things in pairs.  When it comes to weight loss, it's extremely important to have a buddy.  We actually talked about this a few weeks back during our meeting.  A buddy can help you stay accountable for getting up and going to meeting (I go on Saturday mornings at 7:45 and definately need that help), staying on plan, and getting to the gym.  They can give you a pep talk when you're down, and give you a reality check when you're completely off-base.  They can celebrate your successes with you, and commiserate on the not-so-good weeks. 

I have been very fortunate to have some awesome buddies since I joined Weight Watchers in January.  I started going with my mom.  We've done it together before.  We can share recipes and ideas, and I know that if I don't get out of bed on Saturdays that I'll get a phone call, and no breakfast (we go out after meetings...I know, I know).  I also have 3 cousins that are doing it with me, and while they don't live near me, we can still keep up with each other through Facebook, the WW website, and my blog.  But I am truely excited to announce my newest Weight Watchers buddy, my husband!  He texted me today and told me that he's going to start doing this with me. 

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am!  He has always been a huge support to me and this effort.  He's always there to make me feel better after a bad day, give me encouragement, and also give me a swift kick in the pants if I'm making excuses.  He has played a vital role in my weight loss thus far, and now it's only going to get better.  By him joining, it's going to make my life easier, but it's going to make his life easier as well.  He's been doing his own thing to lose weight and has had some good success.  But trying to cook point friendly dinners for myself, and then having to write down all of the nutritional information for him has been a chore, and unfortunately most nights we've just said forget it which hasn't helped him at all.  It's going to help me because now he'll know where I'm coming from on certain things because we're doing the same program.  He's going to be my ultimate buddy.  I know he's going to do fantastic on the new WW plan, and I'm so proud of him!  Thanks Babe!

Rum Glazed Pork, Onion, and Clementine Kebabs

Dinner tonight was so yummy!  I've made a lot of Weight Watcher's recipes in my day, and they used to be horribly bland.  They had absolutely no flavor and the portion sizes were terribly small.  Let me tell you, they have come a long way.  Shortly after I started this year, I bought one of their new cookbooks.  I think a big thing that has helped is the fact that fruit is zero points now.  Tonight we made rum glazed pork, onion, and clementine kabobs.  To go along with it, I made baked sweet potatoes. The recipe calls to have these broiled in the oven, but we did them on the grill and they turned out great!  Here's the recipe.

6 Clementines
2 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons rum
1 whole star anise, broken in half (I couldn't find this so I left it out and this turned out just fine)
1 pound boneless pork loin, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1small red onion, cut into 8 wedges (I used sweet onion)
1 red bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teasoon black pepper

To make basting sauce, squeeze 3 clementines to get about 1/3 cup juice.  Transfer juice toa  small saucepan; add brown sugar, rum, and star anise.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until liquid reduces to glaze, about 6 minutes.  Remove and discard star anise.

Spray broiler rack with nonstick spray and preheat broiler.

Cut remaining 3 clementines into quarters and thread clementines, pork, onion, and bell pepper alternately onto 8 metal skewers.  Sprinkle kebabs with salt and black pepper.

Arrange kebabs on broiler rack; lightly spray withnonstick spray.  Brush kebabs with half of sauce.  Broil 5 inches from heat, turning once and basting with remaining sauce, until pork is no longer pink in center, about 10 minutes.

Serving size: 2 kebabs - 6 points per serving
264 calories, 8g fat, 3g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 67mg cholesterol, 352mg sodium, 19g carbs, 15g sugar, 2g fiber, 25g protein

This dish is so versitile that you could serve just about anything as a side.  I baked some sweet potatoes...just wrap them in foil, put in a glass baking dish, and pop them in the oven at 350 for about an hour and a half.

Enjoy!

3 Months Down - A Lifetime to Go

I've been doing Weight Watchers for 3 monhts now as of Friday.  I had a really good weigh-in on Saturday.  While I'm really excited, I need to do it 2 weeks in a row.  I've been gaining and losing the same three pounds since the end of February.  As of April 9th, I've lost 12.6 pounds.  I'm officially out of the 200's which makes me really happy!  Current weight: 197.8.  My goal for this whole thing was to average a pound a week.  I'm .4 off of that pace.  I can totally live with that.  I have also officially hit my 5%, meaning I've lost 5% of my starting weight.  As you know, I'm a huge fan of stickers and I got a nice, big 5% one today. :)  That was my first goal.  As my reward I'm getting my nails done on Monday.

My next goal is to hit my 10% which is 21 pounds.  I only have 8.4 pounds to go before I hit that.  I'm still working on what my reward for that will be.  I'm open to all ideas and suggestions.  I'm toying with the idea of a massage or massage/pedi, but I don't know. 

I am sad to report that the 5k training hasn't started yet.  Apparently I did something to my foot about a week and a half ago, and today is the first day that it hasn't hurt 24/7.  I don't know if it's a stress fracture, if I just sprained it, or what, but it hasn't been fun.  The only way I've been able to walk without pain is in 6 inch heels.  I'm pretty sure I can't run a 5k in those!  I have a doctor appointment on Tuesday to have it looked at, but if it's still feeling this good come Monday morning, I may cancel.  I have until August 14th to be able to run 3.1 miles, I don't think a week and a half late start is really going to throw me off too badly.  I'm going to take it easy on the foot until water aerobics on Wednesday.  Hopefully after that I can start my running regimine. 

I'm actually going to be walking in a 5k in May.  Weight Watcher's is doing the 3rd annual Walk-It Challenge on National 5k day.  They are sponsoring a 5k here in Kansas City.  You don't have to be a Weight Watcher's member to walk in it.  If you're interested, let me know.  If you want to come out and show your support, that's great too.  Being that my husband and I walk 6 miles round trip to breakfast (or for a cupcake) a lot of weekends I don't think walking a 5k is going to be a big deal.  I did tell my husband though that he needs to be waiting at the finish line for me with a red velvet cupcake!

Eating Out On Plan

As I've said in earlier posts, I'm not much for cooking.  I'm all about convenience.  That means that we eat out quite a bit.  I think I've already blogged about my meal at Outback Steakhouse.  I love going there because I can get a really good dinner for 10 points.  That's my go-to restaurant when I'm craving steak.  I get the 6 ounce Outback special, on the light side, which includes a 6 ounce sirloin, and then for sides I get a plain baked sweet potato and mixed veggies.  By ordering it on the light side they don't use any butter or fat in the preperation.  It's very satisfying. 

Well, now I have a go-to place for seafood.  Last night, the hubby and I went to Red Lobster for dinner.  It's Lent, so seafood seemed fitting (and we were ready for dinner early enough that we could actually get in...and I had a coupon).  I think I spent 15-20 minutes looking at the menu.  I really wanted lobster and some shrimp, but a lot of the meals also included shrimp scampi, some kind of pasta, a bread based seafood stuffing, or they are cooked in a garlic butter.  After much debate I decided to order the peach bourbon BBQ bacon-wrapped scallops and shrimp.  Instead of grilling the scallops and shrimp in the BBQ sauce I asked them to put it on the side.  I also ordered a garden salad with a red-wine vinegar dressing on the side, and steamead broccoli as my side.  I took the bacon off the scallops, and just dipped my fork into the BBQ.  It was so sweet that you didn't need much to get the full effect of the flavor.  I also indulged in a Cheddar Bay biscuit.  How can you go to Red Lobster and not have a Cheddar Bay biscuit?  My entire meal was so good, and felt so indulgent, but it was only 10 points.  The biscuit was 4 and the shrimp and scallops, salad, and broccoli were 6. 

I'm still looking for a relatively low point Chinese and Mexican meal, but so far, not a whole lot of luck.  I do know that I can get a 4 point salad at Chipotle.  I get the lettuce, chicken, and pico.  Then I use my own 2 point dressing on it.  But I wouldn't really consider that Mexican food. 

By the way, don't ever be embarrased to take your own condiments into a restaurant.  I've taken my I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray, bottles of dressing, and little tupperware containers of dressing into restaurants in my purse.  I will also start taking my own sour cream if I'm going out for a baked potato or Mexican.  I don't know how widely available the Belfonte brand is, but Belfonte's fat free sour cream is 0 points for 2 tablespoons, 1 point for a quarter cup.  And it tastes fantastic!

Tonight we are going out for burgers and fries, which are very high in points, but my weekly's started over again today :)  Bring on the fried pickles and ranch!

A Few Random Thoughts

I know it's been a while since I've blogged.  Last week was not a good week.  Despite eating completely on plan and doing my routine exercise, I gained 1.2 pounds.  Since the end of February I've netted a 1 pound gain.  I cried on my way to Weight Watcher's on Saturday morning because I didn't want to weigh in.  I started thinking and the only thing that had changed was the fact that I had quit smoking.  Now, I'm hesitant to even admit this on here, but I'm smoking again.  I was at my wit's end.  I decided at this point that mentally it's more important for me to get the weight off than to be smoke free.  So far it's actually working, which is kind of sad.  But at this point I'll take what I can get.

So far baseball season is treating me pretty good.  I was really good on Thursday and Friday.  I didn't have any ballpark food.  I gave in on Saturday and Sunday, but only because that's when I use a majority of my extra points for the week.  By the way, ballpark food has come a long ways in the last decade.  Kauffman now offers a phenominal meatball sub.  That was dinner on Saturday.  Sunday consisted of an order of buffalo ranch fries.  That's a basket of french fries covered in Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce and ranch dressing.  Why no one thought of that sooner is completely beyond me because it's just about the best thing on earth.  Other than that I behaved myself pretty well. 

Unfortunately, my activity level has dropped this week.  Last Thursday my foot started hurting really badly.  I'm not sure what I did to it, but unless I'm in heels I can barely walk.  I'm going to the doctor next week to have it looked at.  I'm thinking its either a stress fracture or tendon issue.  I'm eager to start training for my 5k that I'm running in August.  Someone at work said I should start running in my heels!

That's all for now...weight-in is in 2 days and I'm really anxious to see how I'm going to do!

The Art of Self-Sabotage

I think I'm the master of this art.  If not the master, then I could definitely give anyone a run for their money.  I had an epic performance last night.  Let me explain.

Yesterday started off pretty good.  I was a bit frustrated that the scale hasn't moved all week, especially after a rather intense water aerobics session, but at the same time I hadn't drank all of my water on Wednesday and I had been a little sparse with the food, so that could be part of the problem.  I had the day off since it was Opening Day for the Royals.  I convinced my husband to walk down to Brookside for breakfast, a walk that is 6 miles round trip.  I wanted and felt that I needed the extra exercise.  So off we go at 6:22am.  It was a great walk.  I was breathing hard, and we were really moving.  Once it was time to order I made the executive decisions to order breakfast potatoes instead of fruit.  I was originally going to order the fruit in an attempt to keep breakfast somewhat low point, but lunch plans had changed so it wasn't a big deal.  After breakfast we swung by the coffee shop with the really good cupcakes.  I mean, we were already there, why not?  They had one big red velvet cupcake, and a whole bunch of mini red velvet cupcakes.  I decided to be good and just got a mini one.  The walk back was just as good, still moving at a good pace and still breathing hard.

For lunch we were originally going to go to Arthur Bryant's for BBQ, a Kansas City landmark.  But I knew I just couldn't pull it off in the points department.  So I suggested we all go to The Mixx, and everyone was on board.  I my usual, a steak salad and sweet potato fries, but I didn't eat very many of the fries.  Shocking, I know. 

I was beyond good at the ballpark.  It was mandatory that I walk around and see what each food stall had to offer, just so I would know, but I wasn't tempted by anything.  Towards the end of the game when it was almost 6:30 I started to get hungry and a hot dog was sounding (and smelling) really good, but I didn't give in.

The sabotage came after the game.  I didn't see a plate of nacho's the entire day at the ballpark, but for whatever reason I was craving Mexican food.  I said something in the car and we decided to go to El Maguey for dinner.  I was bad.  I was beyond bad.  I didn't do my research first.  I didn't look up any points values.  I was good in the fact that I stayed away from the burritos and chimichanga's (2 of my personal favorites), but I ate way too many chips (you know it's bad when your husband whisper's to you "You need to be careful, " and you just give him the evil eye), and I ordered a quesadilla.  Said quesadilla came complete with shrimp and refried beans in the middle, then it was drenched in a white cheese sauce, and served with rice, quacamole, and sour cream.  I only ate a couple fork-fulls of rice.  I left the quac and most of the sour cream alone.  But I ate the whole quesadilla.  It could have been worse, but it could have been a whole lot better.  This was all bad enough, but add to the mix that I was eating between 7:00 and 8:00.

I'm sure you can imagine what the scale said this morning.  It had moved alright, but not in the right direction.  I went way over my points yesterday and took in way too much sodium.  I am trying to combat that today by drinking a ton of water (I feel like I'm going to burst) and eating low points, but unfortunately I think I've screwed myself for weigh-in tomorrow.  Guess I'll have to wait one more week for that damn 5% sticker. 

I "Heart" Baseball

Spring is officially upon us, and that can only mean one thing...baseball is back in town.  As some of you may know, I'm a baseball junkie.  This will be the 5th summer we've had Kansas City Royal's season tickets, and I look forward to it every year.  Yes, the Royal's aren't exactly known for having a good team, but it's still fun to be at the ballpark, no matter the outcome of the game.   Who doesn't love the sunshine on their face, America's National Pasttime, and the smell of ballpark food?

This brings me to what could possibly be on of the biggest snags in my weight-loss journey.  Since we have season tickets, that means we have tickets to 81 games this summer.  Eventually, I know the smell of the ballpark food is going to win me over.  It does every year.  The hot dogs I can actually leave alone...unless they are from Dugout Doghouse downstairs.  My favorite is the All-Star BBQ Dog, complete with brisket, coleslaw, bbq sauce, and dill pickles all on top of the hot dog.  And of course it has to be washed down with a Shiner Bock beer.  Don't forget about the chili cheese fries, the mega nacho's, and loaded tater tots either.  And now I find out that there's a new sandwich this year which includes a breaded and fried pork loin, grilled onions, and fried dill pickles, plus sweet potato fries!  Oh, and I can't forget about the Sheridan's Frozen Custard store.  This could be disasterous if I let it be disasterous.

But I have a plan.  I know, imagine, me having plan.  I don't do anything without a to-do list.  Anyways, I have a plan.  I have a plan for getting through baseball season while still losing a pound a week.  For starters, I'm also going to be training for a 5K so I'll be getting a lot more exercise.  Second, I'm going to make sure that there is always something in the fridge or freezer that's easy to heat up for dinner before games.  That will keep me from having to eat at the ballpark.  I'm also going to be taking a lot of fruit and veggies with 0 point ranch dip to the park with me.  Thank goodness they let you bring food in. 

Tomorrow is opening day, and I can't do opening day without getting something at the ballpark.  It's un-American.  But in an effort to not completely sabotage my day, my husband and I are getting up and walking 6 miles tomorrow morning.  Granted we're walking to breakfast, but it totally fits within my points for the day. 

Go Royals!