The look ahead.....

I am not even going to reflect on what happened in 2018. It wasn't all bad
1) We went on a cruise in April
2) We rented a house in Maine in August
3) My husband and I went on a much needed trip away to Walt Disney World without kids
4) We didn't lose any more relatives and we both took many steps for healthy screenings, some of them greatly overdue
5) We paid down a lot of debt

But we still have some debt going into 2019 but a plan to get rid of it if we can stay the course over the next few months.
And I need to be happier with myself - it isn't a surprise that there is a huge lacking of pictures of me in 2018. And I have a HUGE trip coming up in less than 6 months that I want to be photographed in! But it isn't all about losing weight......

So, this is what I need to do in 2019:

Lose Weight - first and foremost. I stepped on the scale this morning, despite having a salt dinner, and saw 235. I've never seen that! These are the baby steps I need to take that I can start immediately:
1) Drink more water - 100 oz per day; don't drink my calories (except perhaps smoothies)
2) Track my food - even if it is what I ate, not how much (that can come later)
3) Sleep better - in bed by 9:30-10:00 every night
4) Move more at work - Walk 1000 steps every 2 hours at work; wear my Fitbit

The next set of steps, which I can start immediately, but are harder
5) Get back to Weight Watchers (and preferably pay for the coaching option)
6) Food prep and menu planning
7) Exercise - TBD exactly what this will look like


Mental Health:
Get outside more
Work on my photography skills

Spend less/do more - this has been a "to do" for so long. I have so much "stuff", "stuff" I want to use:
1) Gym and sports equipment - inside and out
2) Kitchen gadgets - mix it up in the kitchen - I did some of this this year and loved it
3) Craft items - me and my daughter did some over the holidays - it was so much fun!
4) Book I want to read!

And I know I am more successful when I write stuff down, so I really hope to be posting more to keep myself accountable.

So I am not going to try to say a goal by end of 2019 (um, under 200 would be WONDERFUL!!) but moving more, eating less/better, and writing it all down should hopefully do wonders!

 

Bye Bye 2018

Pictures are worth a 1,000 words and this one is the icing on the Cake from Hell. It was taken by my lovely daughter at Christmas Eve. I already felt bloated and gross at the beginning of the meal - stress of the holidays will do that to you!

But overall, we had a wonderful holidays
We went to the Patriots game

We wore matching PJs

We went to the Nutcracker and a Chocolate Buffet

We went to Maine to see lights and trees

We took an impromptu trip to NYC

And I got to take lots of pictures

 

But the fridge and pantry and freezer are cleared out, and except for one final meal (which won't be all that crazy except for the Chocolate Mousse I made), I am ready for 2019 to be here. 2018 was supposed to be great and it wasn't by any means. I am ready for 2019 to be a year of change. More on that to come.

 



 

Then and now...the same

I do exist. It's been a crazy busy fall. But, even though the holidays are starting, our lull period has begun now that fall sports are over.

I'll do more of a re-cap soon. But just a couple of pictures. Me and my husband recently went on an adult-only trip to Disney. And the pictures had me cringing......



But we did run a 5K race while we were there. One that required us to get up at 3 am, without kids!


Here is me 6 years ago. I weigh as much as I did back then. The trip that had me running to WW and losing 50 lbs over 18 months.....and the weight is officially all back on.

I'll be back very, very soon to talk about where I go from here!

What I ate on Tuesday

I am trying to take pictures of what I ate. The day started out being artsy and quickly went downhill.

At 7:30 I gave my banana and vitamin and since I M trying to push out my real breakfast from 9:00 to 9:30 I am adding in a cheddar cheese stick for protein. No Weight Wafchers or light, but actual full fat cheese.

At 9:30 I have 1 cup of Greek yogurt - combination of plain and vanilla (mainly plain), blueberries and a dozen or so almonds (change from granola)

Lunch should be at 12:30 but was later today. Last week when I had leftover chicken I was more full longer but yesterday I had a chicken salad wrap and was starving. I decided to have the chicken salad (chicken, celery, red grapes, light mayo, curry powder) not in the wrap so I could see how much food I was eating. I put some in the wrap. Didn’t finish all the carrots.

With a slightly later lunch and a crazy afternoon I didn’t get in a snack. I had to hurry to eat between 6:30 and 7:30 before an 8:00 pm field hockey game. I wasn’t responsible for feeding anyone else. So I made a taco bowl of sorts. 1 cup leftover pasta, 3 Oz cold chicken, 3/4 cup black beans, queso freso, light sour cream, bit of guacamole, salsa and lettuce. Yummy!

Back to....everything

I've been thinking about posting since I last posted about my bike ride at the end of July. But life got away from me.

School started for the kids almost 2 weeks ago, but with the extreme heat (which led to 1/2 days) and a 4 day weekend for the holiday, it's been a whirlwind.

But the good thing is that as of September 1st I've finally started running again. Very slowly and doing a 5 minute run/ 1 minute walk method (though have been trying do some singular miles running the whole thing).
I've got a 10K on November 3rd, so I figured starting with 3 miles on September 1st, adding 1/2 mile per week I could get up to 6.5 miles. I also ran 2x last week with friends at 5 am :(
Sunday I couldn't get my 3.5 miles done at 6:30 am, but I didn't make myself go at 5:00 pm to stay on my training plan. It was no humid and almost chilly. Wonderful running weather. Too bad it won't last. But hopefully we will have some sort of fall this year, unlike last fall.



August was a long month - I spent most of it being pretty miserable with my weight. Here I am on August 7th before we went to The Melting Pot to celebrate 4 family birthdays.



We were on vacation the 3rd week of August - here is celebrating my birthday with lobster in Maine. Yum!



I am not a huge beach person, so one day we drove up to the mountains at Sunday River resort. See me pulling the "hide behind my family" tactic :(














Tuesday September 4th I decided to go see a nutritionist to get another perspective (I'll write a whole post about her advice (and not) and what changes I've been making).

I think she had me at 232.6 (and that was taking 2 lbs off for clothes). This morning I was 228.8. Mini-goal is 227. Below that is the lowest weight I will have seen in over a year.

Cross my fingers I can make some positive changes this fall. I've got 2 vacations, 1 in a couple of month, and one at the end of June, that I want to feel GOOD about!
 

Bike ride!

Good news is that my sugar came back as 87 - 12 points lower than 18 months ago. But I won't let that give me a false sense of security. I still need to get this weight off!

Friday night I made dinner for the first time in a very long time- Friday is usually the night I take off and just feed the kids kid food (pasta, mac and cheese, hot dogs, etc) and my husband is left to fend for himself. But I had produce I wanted to use up and it was my husband's birthday on Saturday and he was going to cook/grill dinner that night, so I figured I'd cook.

Saturday was never going to be a healthy day - I started off the day with Shakeology before we headed to this brewery he wanted to go to. We met up with our friends and were there for about 4 1/2 hours. I only had 2 beers, but I had brought homemade cupcakes for all of us, and then we got food from the food trucks as we were leaving at 3:30 (some people had gotten food earlier) - I was starving so go a regular Coke and a taco salad. Dinner was steak, baked potato (on the grill) and grilled squash. And cupcakes, ice cream and chocolate sauce for dinner.

I had been wanting to check out the extension to my favorite rail trail - it had been 5 miles from where I park to the old end. Since there is no way I am going to be training to run 10+ miles anytime soon, I figured I would bike down there. I have not been biking in years. I've had my current bike for 4-5 years and barely made it out of our driveway. We also don't have a bike rack for my new car - I haven't gotten around to having the tow hitch installed which our Yakima fits into. But I folded down my seats and got my bike in.

I had set my alarm for 6:00, then at 11:00 pm turned it off, but I woke up at 5:30, and despite it saying 90% humidity and 67 degrees at that time, I knew I had zero excuse not to go.

I filled my hydration vest with ice and water from the fridge and set out.

I didn't know how long it would be to where I knew I would turn around - I figured it would be 7-8 miles. It turned out to by 7.85. I tried really hard to pedal the majority of the way and not "cheat" and coast. The 15.7 mile trip took 95 minutes. Not too shabby for someone who hasn't biked in years and years.


The whole trip I kept thinking about how a triathlon is on my bucket list (my bike is a hybrid, so I would have to get an additional bike - though can't I just bike 12 miles with my hybrid? It's not like I would really be racing the thing).

I knew I wanted to walk down to the stream like I usually do after my runs, so I had decided after the ride, I would do a cool down run or walk. Yeah, I think I ran .2 miles before walking - My legs were jelly. I walked a mile and got my picture.









The rest of the day was spent in the kitchen. I had 6 bananas over ripe and only 1 loaf pan, so I made 2 loaves of banana bread - one for now, one to freeze for vacation. And a batch of zucchini/blueberry muffins to freeze. I also did a bunch of food prep for the week which I haven't done in ages.

I hope to sleep well tonight!

Checking in - Physical

I suck. Another month went by with no checking in! I know I need to write more to be successful. But if I don't have a good day, I don't want to write about it - Vicious cycle.

But here I am.

I am annoyed, because my new app is no longer allowing me to attach pictures - ugh.

So, where am I?

I had my physical this morning, which 2 days ago I was tempted to cancel. I am so glad I didn't. Weight is not where I want to be (230.8 this morning) - Yesterday was the first time I stepped on the scale in weeks and weeks - Honestly I expected 235+.

I got blood taken for my blood sugar "since I've gained weight in the last 18 months" - Didn't need cholesterol checked.

Waiting to schedule a consult for colonoscopy, which I am completely freaked out about.

Mammogram is after Labor Day.

And I took her suggestion of seeing a nutritionist because any help I can get!

So glad I didn't cancel.

What have I been up to:
June 29-July 1 - My son and I went camping together - we tried to climb a mountain (3.2 miles to the summit) but the humidity got the best of of us so we turned back after 1:30 hours, with 2:20 in total, so still a good hike.

4th of July we hung out at my mom's pool

July 7-8 - It was the first beautiful day after 10 days of heat wave and my son had a mid-day baseball game, but I went hiking anyways! It was 2:30 hours round trip, no humidity, 52 degrees at the start, beautiful views! Such a better day after the weekend before. The first solo hike I'd done in 16 years. And then I had the whole day to myself so I continued on a road trip through New Hampshire and Maine and ended up at the ocean. Great day! And the next day was spent at our friends pool.

July 13-14 - We went to Vermont - Again, were supposed to do a big hike (Camels Hump), but it was raining in the morning, so mid-day we did a short hike (1 mile to the summit).

July 20-21 - Parents Day/Picked up my daughter at camp

This weekend is my husband's birthday so he has a walk/hike planned and then visiting a brewery, but the weather tomorrow is not looking promising.

I can't wait for vacation - my first time every renting a house by the beach (not directly on, but one street back). While I won't feel good about myself in a bathing suit, I'm going to enjoy the vacation!

Happy Hump Day

I have made it 1/2 way through the middle of the work week. Hurrah!

Me and my son continue to make adjustments to our morning routine. The evening routines have been thrown off a little because my husband is prepping for a colonoscopy tomorrow - tonight is the worst of it - I'll be sleeping in my daughter's room! But hopefully next week we'll be able to get into a groove, though it will be thrown off a little by 4th of July activities through out the week.

By Monday night I had already turned off my alarm for Tuesday morning! I found myself sucked into a Netflix Original Movie and didn't want to turn it off at 10:00.
But Tuesday night is "Younger" which is on at 10:00 and even though I needed to get up at 4:30, I stayed up until 10:40 watching it. I really thought I would fall asleep immediately, but I tossed and turned all night which I usually do before getting up that early (because I am paranoid of sleeping through).

My running friend took this picture on the way to our run. I know, sadly, that the longest day of the year has passed, and while we have a few more days of longer evenings (by seconds), the mornings have already started to get earlier. But I am really hoping to make this a habit again. We went 3 miles with run/walk 5:1, though one of the intervals I needed to stop before 5 minutes.








My goal is to be able to run 3 miles by the end of July and 4 miles by the end of August, even if I have to slow down my already very slow pace.

Depending on how the evening goes, I'd like to get up at 5:30 and ride the bike. We will see!

As for the eating, I've brought my same old food the last 3 days. I've reverted back (temporarily) to my Lean Cuisine pizzas so I can concentrate on the other aspects of my eating. Today, being tired and hungry, I ate my snack at 10:30 (instead of 11:30) and had part of my afternoon snack in the morning. I forced myself to wait until 1:00 for lunch. Which leaves a fruit cup (normally part of my lunch) and a hard boiled egg for my afternoon snack. Could be a long afternoon!

Summer Routine

It's been a long 2 weeks and pretty hectic.

Thursday June 14, after dentist and orthodontist appointments, me and the kids drove to NYC. It was the first time driving in the city (not that I had to drive that far into the city) without another adult, but my almost-12-year-old was a great help!

We spent 3 fun filled days - we walked 35 miles!! (13.5 of them in 1 day - though we did have a 3 hour break in the afternoon). The first day was perfect weather, the 2nd day a little hotter, and the third day (the day we were leaving, so we were on the road by 2:00) was hot as heck. But we had a blast! I ate pretty well, and while I didn't get a ton of sleep, overall I was thrilled with the trip.

Last week was exhausting though. We got home at 7:00 pm Sunday and I was in bed at 9:00. All day Monday I was in client meetings and after work as well - I finally left the restaurant at 8:40, just as our food was arriving (we have been there for over an hour!) and my head hit the pillow at 9:05! Tuesday I had more client meetings, had to run out to get to a hair appointment, and then run to a softball game (the season that kept on going....until that night, in the semi-finals). I was supposed to do some work, but was too tired (and when I checked on Wednesday - which was supposed to be a day off, they were okay with me not doing the work until the evening).

I had Wednesday - Friday off - the kids got out for the summer mid-day Thursday. Immediately my son and husband took off to Maine until Saturday. And my daughter went to a pool party that turned into an overnight, so I had an unexpected night to myself. But I wasn't feeling great last week, so my days off were pretty low-key and a lot of time relaxing on the couch (and eating like crap :( ). But I did get the majority of my organizing done so I feel pretty good going into the summer.

Sunday I took my daughter to overnight camp for 4 weeks. And today was my son's first day of day camp (it is his 5th year going and when my daughter gets back from overnight camp, it will be her 6th year going). So we have started our 8 week summer routine.

I am going to TRY to work out in the mornings.
The time me and my son will leave will remain the same as during the school year (8:00)
He gets up at 7:15
I get in the shower at 6:45

Up until March, I had been sleeping until 6:45 (with the occasional running at 5 am). Since March I've been getting  up at 6:00 to assist my daughter getting up and getting ready (she wasn't getting up, my husband was supposed to help and it was just a battle) and then I get in the shower when he and she would leave.

With needing to be available from 6:00 on, I wasn't working out in the morning. I am going to experiment with workout out this summer - I've set my alarm for 5:30 on Tuesday and Thursday and 4:30 on Wednesday and Friday (with the hopes of getting back to running with a friend) and Mondays I get to sleep in until 6:30.

I am hoping that in the fall that I won't be needed, but I have little faith that will happen. But even if I could not be available until 6:15 (ie help her with breakfast and lunch and getting out the door, but not helping her get up), that could allow some time to work out. But I really don't want is to have to get up before 5:30 those days in order to be done by 6:00.

A negative of the summer routine is not getting in the steps going to the bus stop.  I've been literally sitting at my desk since 9:00 (not a typical day - but since I'm just back from PTO, I've got a lot of meetings and emails) and here at 11:30 I am at 994 steps!!!!

Another negative is having to actually be in the office until 4:45 - But  I packed my afternoon snacks again and I should be able to get in more step breaks. Today isn't a typical day.

The evenings will be interesting. I don't get home until 5:45 - 6:00. In years past, my husband would have dinner waiting for us (though I would be the one to decide on the meal). Based on his behavior this whole school year, I doubt that will happen (he will get home at 4:30 and most likely will spend that time to do yard work and his own work out). But I will have to talk to him - Me and my son will be starving (I eat my snack at 3:30).

I also want to do stuff in the evenings (another reason to get dinner done with quickly) - There is very little TV on in the summer, so no excuse to be outside or go out and do stuff. 

This week won't be completely normal. My husband is having his first colonoscopy on Thursday, so meals and evening will be a-typical. Next week with the 4th being on Wednesday, we will be busy earlier in the week as our town has a 4 days 4th celebration.

And the best part is at the end of this, another vacation - a relaxing vacation!!!!

Sunday hike

I did a great job of tracking on Saturday, even though I went completely over daily and weekly (not good when your week starts on a Saturday) - We had a soccer party for my son and it is amazing how easy it is to rack up points with 2 pieces of cheese pizza and a piece of cake (the app had the piece of cake as 23 points!)

Sunday we finally had a free day and our last full day together, all 4 of us, for a long time. So we decided on a hike (okay, me and my husband decided on a hike - the almost-12 year old was less than pleased). It was a beautiful day - low 70s, low humidity. It was a new hike for us, and was beautiful.



He's enjoying the views - we could see all the way to Boston



I am trying to take pictures together on all our hikes - hoping that my next year I will look very different!



I didn't want to bring my real camera, but was having fun with my phone












This site always makes me happy - 4 Camel Baks hanging in my favorite part of our finished basement.


Eating wasn't great, but not horrible yesterday.
I had Greek yogurt with blueberries and a little granola for breakfast.
On the hike, I made a trail mix of pumpkin seeds, unsalted whole almonds, beef jerky, and dark chocolate.
We stopped at an ice cream/restaurant for lunch - I had grilled cheese on wheat (not white), coleslaw (not fries) and didn't order ice cream, but neither of my kids could finish there's, so I did.
We were going to grill for dinner, but we were all tired and had things to do to get ready for Monday, so I just made some pasta and we will grill tonight.

Monday, Monday, Monday. I work 3 days this week (2 in the office) and 2 days next week (both in the office) - the kids officially have 9 days of school but they aren't going 1 day. We are just hobbling and limping along until the end - which is why I always take a break at the end of school to recharge for the 8 weeks of camp before vacation.

Happy Monday!

Friday again!

I started out Friday in a good mood - scale said 227.8! But the good mood was also brought on that I felt good about getting on the scale - even though I didn't have enough water or fruits and veggies yesterday.

I went grocery shopping this morning and realized I didn't need to buy too much - we are trying to be diligent with the budget so I tried not to buy foods we didn't need. And I didn't buy "much" junk - yes I bought Mint Oreos for the kids and I will try to stay away from them because I don't really love them. They were cleaning out the freezer compartment where they usually have the Klondike bars, so I didn't pick up any for the kids (again, food I don't really liked).

The junk I did buy, stuff to make s'mores, and dark chocolate for our potential hike on Saturday, I tied in a grocery bag and hid in a chest in our dining room. My daughter keeps eating all the s'mores fixings) and I have been known to too. I am hoping out of sight, out of mind for me.

After tracking well last Friday, illness and busyness kept we away. So I am going to try it again today and this weekend. The goal is to be mindful through Thursday afternoon, at which point I am taking a mini vacation.

Here is to a great weekend! It is supposed to be the first weekend in 7 weeks with NO rain!

How quickly I forget to write

Woops, a day went by I didn't get to write and before I knew it, it is mid-day Thursday!

Saturday was a busy day with lots of kids sports. I ate pretty well during the day but then went out for dinner (something we haven't done as a family in a while and probably won't again for a while as we are trying to be good with the budget) - It was a beautiful evening and they had Blueberry Lemonade Sangria on the menu- 2 glasses of that tasted so good! I had a couple small pretzel bites, 3 chicken wings, all the carrots and celery that came with the wings, and my dinner was a Mediterranean Bowl and pretty healthy. We did have dessert though :(

Sunday was drizzly weather and I slept in and didn't run (despite my clothes lying out - story of my life!). Most of the afternoon was spent starting to get my daughter ready for camp and that included a big trip to Target. And then a wonderful lazy evening reading.

Monday morning I woke up at 3 am and my stomach wasn't feeling great. Nothing "happened" but I didn't feel great and couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to take a sick day. That was WONDERFUL!!! I got so much stuff done around the house!

And the rest of this week has been crazy busy trying to get stuff done around the house, more kids projects and field trips and sports seasons starting to wrap up (we are hoping we are all done this coming Saturday!).

Throw in a monthly visitor and it hasn't been a great week. The highlight was stepping on the scale and having it say 228.2!!! Wonderful sight and completely unexpected. I am TRYING to eat well. I need to stay in the 220s and I REALLY want to get under 225 by the end of June. With my monthly visitor on its way out, means I am in my "good" 2 weeks of the month. Which is good, because in 2 weeks school will be out for the summer!

Tracked Day

I tracked in 3 places today - my HabitMaster, My Water (which tracks exactly that), WW App, and Woops, also FitBit. 

Since it was Friday, I was WFH so NoSoda and DoNotBuyLunch were easy.

I got in my steps - I went down to the treadmill for 3 10-minute/half mile walks which are about 1,100 steps each. But I went to bed (at 10:00!) with 9,600 steps - no, I didn’t want to wander around the house for 400 steps.

I got my water in - with 3 rotating bottles, 1 was always cold and easier to drink.

While I tracked in WW, overall I wasn’t thrilled with my choices. It was a busy work day so I didn’t have a lot of time.

1) I didn’t have my breakfast until 10:30. I have plain Greek yogurt with a little vanilla Greek yogurt to make it manageable. I add blueberries. I chose to not have my 1/2 cup Cheerios. 

2) I love the Chocolate Hummus and while I’ve been know to buy a small tub of it and eat it like pudding, lately I’ve been getting a snack size that comes with pretzels. Scanning it with the WW app - 10 points. Yikes!

3) since I had the 10 points I decided lunch would just be 2 hard boiled eggs - then decided on deviled eggs, hence the mayo

4) An afternoon of conference calls (who does that on a Friday afternoon?) left no time to eat but I did end up having a 5 minute break so I grabbed one of my daughters Carnation Light packets and measured out 1 cup of skim milk - 7 points

5) we got home at 6:30 from soccer practice (after taking my daughter to Dunkin Donuts so she could get a free donut (but required a drink to be bought - so she got a frozen hit chocolate - I didn’t get anything). I was starving so bare myself some spaghetti - but too much - I measured 5 oz and the 3 TB of grated cheese.

I woke up this morning at my normal time and decided not to lounge in bed. But my stomach felt a little, um, bound up. Yes, if you’ll notice, except for the blueberries in my yogurt and the banana I eat while my son eats breakfast at 7:30, I had no fruits and veggies, and perhaps not enough good fats to make things “move along”. 

But over all for a tracked, but not menu planned day, it could have been a lot worse!

June 1st

Here I go again ....
Pretty much I've done nothing in the last week, nothing good. No running, no workouts, but plenty of poor eating. Hello ovulation time.

But I decided to start using some tools to keep tracking - not just tracking food.









Ive had this App HabitMaster for a while, so I decided I would try it again.
Yesterday I bought my lunch (for the first time in a while) along with a soda, so I'll start a streak there.

Healthy Snacks is my way to try to eliminate the afternoon weight gain, which is where all my weight gain has happened this year. I've got to nip that in the butt.

Water - I've definitely found that my water intake has been lacking which makes me feel like crap. I have 3 20 oz water bottles I rotate - I just want to make sure I get them in -
1) Before I leave the house
2) Before I get to work
3) AM
4) PM
5) Dinner/After (but not too late - that was an opposite issue I was having - drinking too late = waking up in the middle of the night

Asleep by 10:00 - Sleep is so important and I have definitely felt better when I've been diligent about turning out the light at 10:00 - I just haven't been getting up early to work out. But once the end of June happens, I should be able to be getting a work out in consistently.

Weigh in every day/Eat and Proud of Myself go hand in hand. I only weigh myself if I know I am going to see positive results. I will  only see positive results if I eat well. Well, I haven't been weighing myself because I haven't been eating well. I need to eat every day like I know i am going to weigh myself the next morning.

Tracking - like tracking my habits, I need to get back to tracking food - even if it is ugly (which hopefully it won't be)

Deliberate 3 1000 step breaks - I've been so busy at work that despite wearing my fitbit, I haven't been getting up at all (hence also the lack of water as well). I am no longer working with my walking buddy, so I need to make sure I do this - 9:00 (ie before I settle for the day), 11:00 and 1:00 is what I will aim for. Once the end of June happens I will need to do more because I won't have the walk to the bus stop to add steps, but I will be at work later, so I'll be able to fit in a 3:00 and maybe even 5:00 (well more like 4:30).

Let's see how it goes!

Better than nothing!

Day 3 was not terrific, but could have been worse - I could have skipped the work out.
I wasn't able to work out at 4:00 pm because I had to finish work before taking my son to his baseball game. I got home around 7:15. I figured I would do Day 3. What I hadn't looked at was that it was a cardio day! The good news was that it was only 40 minutes. I did a pretty good job except I skipped the last section which re-did all the ab work together in 1 workout. I was starving at this point and couldn't imagine being on my hands and knees. But I am glad I did it.

Thursday - Day 4 didn't happen. I was out in the morning at school activities and then had to leave promptly at 4:00 to run a bunch of errands so I wouldn't have to do it this weekend. I came home at 7:00 for a quick bite to eat and then back out. Once I was home and settled it was 9:00. I am not hard core enough to work out at 9:00. Plus I needed to get up at 4:30 to run with a friend.

The run this morning was a little sluggish. We ended up walking (by my need) one of the running intervals. But 3 miles is 3 miles. I hope to get Day 4 done tonight! And tomorrow a walk/hike....in 90 degree weather!

Obsessed Day 2

I finally got a new app so I can post from my phone again and perhaps include pictures again! My old app was discontinued and I never got around to finding a new one.

Like usual, my day started out well. I got in a good walk before settling into my desk for the day and another shorter one around 11:00.

I went home and like usual that was when the day went to crap. Too many temptations at home. I really need to just have NOTHING in the house. Bug I also need to find something to redirect myself away from food. 

I was convinced I wouldn’t get to Day 2 of 80 Day Obsession. But I was an accountability buddy and I didn’t want to screw up day 2! So I started around 7:15.

It wasn’t pretty but I got it done! 

Not really Obsessed Day 1

A friend of mine is starting 80 Day Obsession over and wants encouragement, so about 4 weeks ago I said I would try it with her. In my mind I said I would do the 21 Day Fix again and then the week before do the Little Obsession. None of which happened.

But yesterday came and I knew I needed to give it a try. Not that I am expecting miracles to happen because I won't be doing the Program to a T, but it will get my body moving and I am slowly learn the new moves and most of all it will help me schedule my workouts.

All this week I can be home and working out between 4 pm and 5 pm, so I have blocked off the time on my calendar.

And yesterday was Day 1.

I wanted to quit after 5 minutes. Even though I had had lunch 3 hours earlier, I overate (in a healthy way - Thai ground turkey, a few noodles, bean sprouts ) and I felt sick. And then I felt majorly uncoordinated, but by the end of the hour I learned to modify things my own way and excited for Day 2.

An hour was a long time. Knowing that you do all the exercises once and then go back and do them all again, I could stop at 30 minutes at times if I needed to, though I know that isn't what they want!

When I was done, the rest of my family was out, so I was on my own for dinner. Again, I ate healthy (ground turkey taco meat, spiralized sweet potato, corn, black beans, a little sour cream (light) and a little cheese (not light!) but I ate too much.

Today I am in the office for a while, perhaps the only day this week. I am going to get my steps in and bring a healthy, small lunch!

Happy 13 Years

So many times in the last 2 months I've looked at the computer and wanted to write and just haven't, but I figure my 13th wedding anniversary is a good time to do it.

How I long to be 184 pounds again, but I can't even think that. Right now I need to take 1 pound at a time.

Last time we "talked" I was 227 - I was loving WW and eager to go every week. I knew I would need to take 2 weeks off in April, but I would be back at it. But I missed a week even before that....and haven't been back since.

We went on vacation and I was miserable, miserable looking at the pictures. The saving grace was I had been so nervous about the size restraints at Universal Florida and being that made me realize that they didn't mean me! That there were lots, and lots, and lots of people larger than me!.

So today I weigh 230. I put back on my FitBit. I am going to get more active. I am going to drink my water. Baby steps.

Oh yeah, and Friday I went running with a friend. We did 3 miles at 4:00/1:00 run/walk. I was supposed to go yesterday with another friend by she bailed Saturday night- that is probably best - it was almost 70 at 99% humidity when we were supposed to go.

Yesterday I meal prepped and got my work out area organized. Crossing my fingers!

And hoping 1 of the weekend days is nice this weekend so we can get a hike in. Body movement, here I come!

Good news, bad news

Saturday!

I made it to Weight Watchers this morning. I was 227 on my scale at home (which was the same as last week) but I went to a different station at the meeting, so they had me up .2 (1.6 difference between scales instead of 1.4).

Overall the week wasn't great.
I only exercised Monday and Tuesday and had every excuse in the book for the last 3 days. I do think I used too heavy weights on Tuesday so I will go back down for my "lighter weights".
And there were definitely some no so great eating - A jar of Nutella (thankfully not the whole thing! The rest got filled with water and thrown in the trash), yesterday popcorn while catching up on Harry Potter with my son. My lunches this week weren't fantastic - instead of my chicken salad, I had chicken, coleslaw and a tortilla, but with PB dressing - could not have been healthy!

What's in store for this week? Grilling tonight, Easter tomorrow where we are going to a buffet at my mom's. I found myself adding MORE candy into my cart yesterday (the Easter colored Reeses minis and Hersey's kisses got to me at 8 am on an empty stomach) - I am hoping what isn't put into the kids' baskets or used in their Easter egg hunt make their way into the trash as well!

Work is going to be crazy stressful this week and they've told us they are bringing in food a few times. So I need to go to work prepared with extra healthy snacks and drink lots of water. I've been definitely slacking in the water department. And I need to get my exercise in and take lots of walk breaks at work.

Happy Hump Day

Thank goodness it is Wednesday, albeit a cloudy, raw one, but a few warmer days (but still rainy) are ahead of us, and a pseudo long weekend. The kids don't have school Friday but we still have to work. We are going to my mom's for Easter so I don't have to cook - very excited! And not having leftovers in the house - even better!

I did 21 Day Fix Monday and Tuesday. For my light weights I used 5 lbs instead of 3 lbs. My knees are a little sore, as are my arms, but my arms are a good sore. Today is Lower Fix - I may take is slightly easy.

Scale said 226.8 this morning - I haven't seen anything below 227 in 3 months.

Now if only my sleep was better. I've been waking up at 4-4:30 every day for a few weeks now. I usually fall back asleep but it is getting really annoying! I've been going to bed at 10:00, which is great, but I need more than 6 hours of sleep!

I am anxious for Friday to come because we will finally be able to pay off our credit card and pay off camp, which are 2 things hanging over our head. We are going to try to be budget conscious on our vacation and then when we get back we have some house things to attend to. And then we can start saving for our next vacations!

Happy Monday?

The only reason I am happy that is Monday is so that time can go by and hopefully spring will decide to show up. This morning it was 25 degrees and there is still so much snow on the ground. There is hopes of some slightly higher temps later this week, but for now we have to deal with it not getting out of the 30s today.

And three weeks until spring break!!!

I worked out Thursday, Friday and Saturday and they all felt great! I was going to go for a run on Sunday but it was snowing and I didn't feel like dealing with the treadmill, plus I figured after 6 days I needed a break. I was so busy during the day on Sunday that I didn't have time to change and do the yoga that comes with 21 Day Fix.

Friday I ate fairly well! And woke up Saturday morning weighing 227.0. WW registered a 1.4 loss (I hadn't weighed in last week - otherwise it would have shown like a 3 pound loss!)

This weekend felt really busy. Friday night we went to BJs to stock up - my only impulse buy was some queso. I did buy some chocolate milk, but I only drink those after runs of 5 miles or more, so I am not sure why I bought it now because I don't plan on running 5 miles until May.

Saturday the kids needed some equipment for spring sports, so we went to Dick's and I got my better, thicker mat for working out. We also took another trip to Kohl's - I needed another pair of jeans because one of mine was wearing out in the thighs due to chub rub. I also needed a new belt because mine was old. I did get a new shirt to wear on Easter and a wear of white capris for the cruise.

I made sure I had a large breakfast before our errands because I knew we wouldn't be back until 1-2. I then had another healthy snack before going to the mall with my daughter. We had planned on eating at the Cheesecake Factory, but it was too crowded. We did hit Starbucks on the way home - I got a small with no whipped cream, but didn't ask for skim milk. And I had a fairly small breakfast.

Sunday was more errands. Finally when I was making Mexican casserole for dinner I decided to break out the queso and these really yummy chips. I indulged some, but threw the rest out this morning.

On to another week!

No Snow! More Workouts!

I know my friends further south got pummeled by this storm, but thankfully we got spared. Over the last couple of days they kept changing to forecast from 10-12" to a coating. Thankfully the latter ended up being true. Some towns had early releases yesterday and some towns (including Boston) cancelled school for today yesterday. I went to bed not knowing what today would bring. I woke up at 5:30 am at it was snowing but it had barely started. It was actually fairly pretty, but now it all had melted (I wish the feet and feet of snow that still exist would melt!).

Tuesday ToM finally did arrive but I still did my Upper Fix. I didn't get it in until after dinner. I waited 90 minutes but still felt like I was going to throw up while trying to do push ups and planks.

Yesterday I worked from home because I wasn't sure what the snow would do, plus I was pretty crampy and did not feel like putting on real clothes. My nice husband brought my son to piano so I able to fit in Lower Fix (which I had never done before). Today will be on to Pilates Fix! This weekend I definitely need to buy a more plush pad to do work on my knees. I have re-configured the order of the work outs to fit in a run on Sunday and do Yoga Fix on Mondays (ie start my Fix week on Tuesday).

Even though I felt like crap yesterday morning, less than 48 hours into ToM, I feel like a million dollars. And will feel this way for 2 weeks. I've really got to figure out a way to work through this second half of the month and actually get the scale to register a loss within a 4 week period of time. I know I will be stressed leading up to vacation, but I am really going to try! I know I will feel so much better in my clothing if I continue this healthy living for the next 4 weeks until we leave (and try to be mindful on vacation and continue it after!)

Horrible eating, a workout, and more snow!

Short and not very sweet.

After last week's 2 snow days and not doing enough food prep and a weekend full of celebrating my son's 9th birthday and a friend's birthday, the eating has been horrible, horrible, horrible (but oh so good!) but we've purged everything a moved on.

Actually the party we went to on Sunday started at 1:30 so I didn't expect them to serve a meal. There were snacks and then chicken fingers and Mac and Cheese, but I passed on it all, but did have ice cream and cake (and more ice cream and cake when we got home to finish off from my son's birthday!).

I did go to WW on Saturday but didn't weigh in.
I weighed myself on Sunday - 229.8.
I am on Day 30, so waiting for ToM to arrive -crabby and ravenous!

But yesterday I did do the 1st day of 21 Day Fix (Total Cardio Body Fix I think). I am determined to do all 7 days this week, even with ANOTHER freaking snow storm coming Wednesday into Thursday. I am going to push through and not let it get me down.

Less than 4 weeks until vacation. I need to get moving!!

The lazy weekend....and more snow to come.....

A week ago yesterday I was gloriously running outside, excited about continuing the pattern, excited about the spring.

This morning was 24 degrees, with a foot of cold hard snow on the ground with another 15" coming tomorrow. Yep. Tomorrow will be snow day #6 for the kids. This is getting ridiculous.

Saturday I went to WW. I was up by .2 (.4 by my scale at home) and as always I am glad I went but on week #7 and the scale really hasn't budged at all.

Saturday I had every intention of being "good" - We had my son's Pinewood Derby in the morning from 9-11. I had 1 small bag of popcorn. When we got home we all got in the car to go clothes shopping. What a fun outing - not! I had a protein bar before I left to try to curb any hunger (seeing that we didn't leave until 11:30). But after more than an hour in Kohls, we were all starving so went to On the Border for lunch. I had a burrito, which I hadn't had in a long time - I ate too much of it.

After shopping the family for a while I dropped them at home and went to Target by myself (always a good thing!) - I got all the kids' Easter candy (because they are at the age where all they get is candy) and I had had a major craving for M&Ms so did get myself a bag. But I didn't have much dinner.

Sunday was kind of a weird day - I am not sure why. I did round 2 of grocery shopping (when I had gone on Friday the shelves were still fairly bare from storm #2) and my family was in and out during the day, so I did get some time to myself (during which I did our taxes - fun!). Eating was so-so during the day. For dinner I made PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps (though I made them with a combo of chicken and pork, and i served it over rice, not wrapped up). But I had 2 servings.

Did you see any mention of exercise? Nope, haven't done any since Tuesday :(

Now it is Monday and tomorrow will be another snow day. I am feeling very weak - I was so close to buying breakfast this morning. I am seriously contemplating buying lunch today. I have made it 10 weeks without buying lunch at work.

But I can't let the whole week go to crap. ToM will be coming next weekend and it will be my son's birthday next weekend, so I am going to TRY to eat reasonably this week, but snow days really throw my for a loop.

Snowday = horrible eating and no exercise

Wednesday I was going to do Day 3 of 21 Day Fix, but due to a variety of reasons, it never happened even though I tried THREE times. Finally I gave up.

My husband brought home pizza - I had 2 slices and a lot of homemade Greek salad.

The snow finally started at 8:30 pm and we had 9-12" of heavy wet snow. But thankfully we had power. We lost it for 30 minutes in the middle of the night - I was woken up at 12:30 by the power coming back ON. We had a few downed limbs in our driveway, so my husband had a lot of work to do in order to get the driveway snowblowed.

What is it about a snow day that makes me eat like crap? I attribute it mainly to the stress of trying to balance the Mom hat and the Worker hat. Both fail miserably on a snow day. I found myself eating PB Ritz crackers and protein bars around 11:00 and my daughter was bored so she made brownies. For dinner I made spaghetti - I tried not to eat too much. But the scale was WAY up this morning. I didn't even get 4,500 steps yesterday! I shoveled part of our walk way but not the stairs going down to the driveway. I kept saying to myself - It is March 8, it will melt quickly. But the temps are not going to rise much in the foreseeable future and we could have ANOTHER storm next week!!!

So I am TRYING to eat well today - the kids are in school but have a 1/2 day. And I am still trying to recover from some disasters at work. I just want the day to be over! I did go grocery shopping this morning and did pretty well. It's going to be a long, long day.

Here comes the snow (???)......

The weather people still can't quite get their acts together. Where I live, we are going to get anywhere from 3" to 18".

I am working from home because with the uncertainty of the storm, I didn't want to be stuck up here. But now I am sitting on my hands trying to prevent myself from eating anything more than I would normally if I were at work.

I didn't do as much food prep work on Sunday as I would have liked, but I had 4 hard boiled eggs to use so I made them into egg salad for Monday and Tuesday lunch. I pre-mixed my yogurt (right now i am doing 1/2 plain, 1/2 vanilla - next week I'd like to go back to all plain with just a small amount of vanilla). I also made up 2 days of celery/almond butter/raisins.

So this morning I had to make my chicken salad, more yogurt, more celery. I knew if I didn't do it, today would be a disaster! But at 12:30 I am getting itchy - I know the snow is coming (maybe), I know the kids may be home tomorrow (hoping not!), and for some reason those 2 things just make me want to eat myself out of house and home.

I have done Total Cardio Fix and Upper Fix of 21 Day Fix this week. And yesterday, I also ran/walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes to get to my 10,000 steps.

But pre-workout yesterday my eating was no very good. I found my way into a bag of chips my husband has brought home - seasoned homemade tortilla chips. Yum, yum, yum. I didn't really end up having much dinner though. After 3 nights of making dinner I called it quits! Everyone for himself, without my actually declaring that!

Tonight is supposed to be Lower Fix. Bring it on! But for now I just need to get through the next 5 hours!

I ran, so snow, snow go away!

March is definitely coming in like a lion.

Thursday was a beautiful day and I did get in a partial work-out before having to leave to get my haircut.

Friday was the storm and for the life of me I can't remember why I didn't work out. I had been home all day by myself listening to all the rain and wind and thanking God that the rain wasn't snow. And praying that we didn't lose power. I had a ton of work to do and my cozy spot in front of the fire was much better than working out (my daughter did do 1/2 of the leg workout - go her!)

Saturday I did make it to Weight Watchers (6 weeks in a row!) - I was down slightly, but still not down to the 227 I was on week 2. I didn't work out Saturday because I knew I wanted to run on Saturday. I need to get out of the mentality that I can't do anything on Saturday just because I want to be as fresh as possible on Sunday.

And Sunday I ran (well, ran/walked) 4 miles. It almost didn't happen. At 5:30 I did turn off my clock (set for 6:30) and said that I would see how I felt when I actually woke up. We didn't have any plans on Sunday, so I could have run whenever I woke up. I woke up at 7:00 so was on the rail trail by 8:00.

Saturday I have learned how to set my watch to Intervals. I decided to try 4:00 running and 1:00 walking. I had a slight mishap at the beginning where I thought I had started my watch and then I said that it must have been at least 4:00 minutes and when I looked down I realized it hadn't started. So I started it and continued running so I probably ran 9:00 minutes to begin with. Woops! Overall my time as 56 minutes, which is awful for 4:00, but it is just the beginning. Hopefully next weekend I can do 6:00 minutes running. And by hopefully, I mean.....I probably won't be able to go on the rail trail because it will be covered in snow. Yes, snow!! :( We are supposed to get a storm on Wednesday/Thursday and then one Sunday night. Come on people!

A now it is March....and no work out yesterday

It is another beautiful day here in Massachusetts. Tomorrow will be another story. But for today, we will enjoy the nice weather, because no nice weather is coming in the foreseeable future.

No, I did not work out last night without my daughter. I was sore! I know you can work out if you are sore - but I never have! This is definitely something I need to start doing.
Also, part of my excuse was that while downloading my book for Book Club, I saw a title for a chick lit Christmas book - I have bought plenty of them in the past, and I usually read them in the fall, but I was in the mood for something light before digging into something less unlifting. If I wasn't going to do my workout, I should have at least walked on the treadmill and read. Excuses, excuses.

But not looking back, just looking forward. Easter will be here in a month!! It needs to be a good month for me exercise and eating wise because our tropical vacation will be here before we know it!

It's almost March! It's almost March!

I get the most excited for Groundhog Day, but knowing I need to slog through my 2nd favorite month is hard, but February has been pretty kind to us up here in the Northeast! I was so confused last week - I kept thinking it was April. Alas, it's not. And the beginning of March is supposed to be like a lion - but just hoping for now more snow days!

The weekend was pretty low key. A lot of it was finishing up my binge-watching of Downton Abbey - now I am obsessed with that time period in England - I bought a bunch of books that came on Monday and more coming on Friday.

I did make to WW on Saturday - since I hadn't weighed in the previous Saturday it showed me down .8. Yep, the good side of the cycle. But still up 2 lbs from 3 weeks ago :(

I still wasn't feeling great over the weekend, so didn't push myself and do ANY exercise! Not even extra steps.

I am trying hard this week to be good, but it can be hard!

But Tuesday afternoon me and my daughter did Day 1 of 21 Day Fix. I finally set up my dad's computer in the basement so we can work out there. And after the 30 minutes, during which I modified heavily, I wanted more exercise so I rode the stationary bike for 20 minutes (5 miles) while my daughter walked on the treadmill (1 mile). She is at ski club today so it will be up to me to do exercise on my own. I tell myself there is NO reason not to do 30 minutes in my own basement!

10,000 Steps

Yesterday was my first day at work with my FitBit. Even though my routine in the morning wasn't normal due to the kids/husband being in bed, thus I arrived at work with less steps than I normally would, I ended up taking 4 walk breaks at work! Around 9,11, 1 and 3 (since I didn't have to run home to kids, I stayed at work for a full day). I think I left with about 7,000 steps. I joked to my manager that I would probably end the day with less than 8,000.

On the way home I had to pick up a new bicycle for my daughter. With today being in the 60s and tomorrow being almost 70, I hope we all can get out for some rides.

Before dinner I took a short 1/2 mile walk on the treadmill to get in some more steps.

After dinner I was helping my daughter set up her fit bit and I noticed I was at 19,990 steps so we walked around her room to see what would happen when I hit 10,000.

I also signed up for Beachbody On Demand. I am no where near ready for 80 Day Obsession, so I am going to try 21 Day Fix. Anything to get my body moving in a different way, even if I heavily modify the routines at first.

This morning I hadn't gotten to re-make the chicken salad my husband ate Sunday night, so I was very tempted to buy today, but I like the streak. So I packed one of my Lean Cuisine pizzas - not great, but better than buying!

And I stepped on the scale this morning - 229.6. But I did it - hadn't stepped on the scale in 10 days. I NEED to do it every day!

3 weeks away is never good

I am really going to try to figure this whole cycle thing this month. Because I can't get an traction with how things are going.

So where were we when I last wrote. End of January. Superbowl 52 was coming up. Even though I really can't care THAT much if Tom Brady won a 6th Super Bowl (last year I cared - we wanted 1 for each finger; we wanted it for him for his mother; 2 years before that we wanted it because it had been 10 years). This year I just didn't care that much. But I was still a bundle of nerves. And that weekend also corresponded to "ovulation weekend" which lately has been way worse foodwise than PM.

I went to Weight Watchers on Saturday February 3rd - I lost 2.6 lbs. I bought flowers because that is what I do over Super Bowl weekend (ie 1/2 way through winter). Saturday we drove up to the area we are renting a house in August and I got to take pictures on the beach with snow. We went and had pizza and the same wonderful pizza place we are over Thanksgiving weekend, but I didn't go crazy and I didn't eat the rest of the day. Sunday I spent cooking for the Superbowl. We weren't going crazy. I made some healthy stuff.....But then I decided to drink a whole entire bottle of white wine during the game. I stayed up late watching This is Us.

Monday I was hungover and tired and dragging. I didn't make wise food choices. That carried into Tuesday.

Saturday I went to WW and was up by 2.2. But I declared in front of the whole meeting that I was challenging myself with how many meetings I could go to. But then I chose not to eat healthy at all that week - Valentine's Day and such. Not a good week.

But this past Saturday I did go. I chose not to weigh in. But I still went. I don't want to keep using the "no weigh in" because that was part of why I gained 30 of the 50 lbs back while still going to WW. Because I gave up caring what the scale said.

And my period arrived yesterday and even with cramps, my mood immediately changes (we won't think about how in 8 weeks I will be on vacation - you do the math :( But at least that means that vacation should correspond with me feeling good)

I wasn't perfect, by any means, this weekend, but I did try. It is a weird week because my kids are on vacation so our schedule is thrown off a bit. I am working most of the weekend, but my morning routine is different, the evening will be different. I haven't menu planned at all because I am not sure what their plans will be.

But through this all, I have still not bought my lunch. Last night my husband ate my lunch but I just made another. Last week I had lunch with a friend and she needed to buy and I was tempted to myself. So at least I've got that going for me.

This week I've got to start incorporating exercise again. I bought a FitBit (even though I have a Garmin) and I am temped to try BeachBody. Vacation is 8 weeks away - I need my clothes to fit better by then. I can do it!

Hump Day Check In

Thank goodness it is Wednesday - I just want this week to be over and I want it to be Sunday night. Why do I let a freaking sports team stress me out??!! Every year I tell myself I won't go through it. The years we don't make it to the Super Bowl I sigh a sigh of relief that I can be done with football for the year. I said last year that I wouldn't care again, but this time I REALLY mean it! I would love 2 Dynasties and then he can retire, but we know he won't. But he should. No way he is going to play until 45. I don't think his wife will let him! I just don't think he knows what he will do when he is done. And if we don't win (And I am pretty nervous that we won't), I still really won't care, because then it wouldn't be 2 Dynasties. It would just be a 6th ring (that and his winning/losing % goes down - Win 6, lose 2 looks much better than Win 5, lose 3).

This past weekend was another quiet one. I thought the weather would be nicer, that we could get to the beach, but Sunday was going to be overcast and not make it to 50 as planned. So we puttered about and my son got a lot of Cub Scout items checked off his list.

But some time during the weekend I ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's (in 2 seatings) - It was supposed to be for my husband, but tween angst caused me to overeat. Not good! We've got a lot more of that coming - I can't let that happen! In addition to the ice cream, I downed a bunch of chips too (these really good Mexican tortilla chips which are 1/2 sugary, 1/2 spicy).

But I got a lot of menu planning done and have had a fairly good week....until last night. I made this Thai basil Beef with Coconut Rice. It was SO yummy - I did add in a some hoisin sauce because I thought it may not have been flavorful enough. I had 2 cans of Coconut Milk in the house - the light one was expired so I had to use the regular one, which did add Points....And I had 2 servings. THIS is so much of my issue! I made things I love and then I overeat. Eating junk (okay, forget about the Ben & Jerry's!) is not so much my issue. Overeating definitely is.

I think I need to start making a tupperware of leftovers when I am dishing out dinner. But I don't tend to like leftovers. And I can't track leftovers quite as well (I have such a hard time tracking dinners I make for the family).

I didn't weigh myself this morning because I knew with the 2 helpings and soy sauce it wouldn't be pretty and I have a pretty stressful day at work planned. I didn't need this extra stress!

I've got 3 days to make up for the mistakes of the week.

Tonight we are menu planning for the Super Bowl - Every year I tell myself not to eat anything because I can't eat because I am so nervous - Though with the game being at 6:30, there is no real reason to eat during the game.

Back to Weight Watchers and Bagels, Bagels, Bagels

I made it back to Weight Watchers this morning! I was thrilled to be back. Not thrilled with my weight (229.8) but the important thing is I got back. Since I wasn't there the week they rolled out Freestyle, I got all the info. And I threw out my old book, so I started fresh. I even stayed after the meeting to get the shpeal from the leader. So I am armed, ready to go!



Last night I decided to try the Skinnytaste Easy Bagels. I had bought the Everything Bagel mix from Trader Joes. Turns out our top oven is not working right, so the first batch didn't really turn out great. But I tried it again this morning (since we had turned on both ovens and found the bottom one is working fine - couldn't waste a good hot oven! But my thing is I don't usually eat bagels, so I don't feel like I am substituting something not as health with these. I am eating these in addition to my normal food.

This morning I tried on my clothes for the cruise. They fit okay, not fantastic. If someone gave me a free cruise tomorrow I could go without having to shop, but I wouldn't be as comfortable as hopefully I am in 11 weeks, after 11 weeks of doing well and at some point getting some exercise in.

Speaking of exercise, I am hoping to get in a nice long walk tomorrow. It is supposed to be 50 degrees! (Not that it is going to last).

 

 

Friday already?!

Wow, how did we get here already??

I ended up working from home both Tuesday and Wednesday because it was pure ice. The kids really shouldn't have had school on Tuesday. Me, my daughter and my son all fell - the only reason my husband didn't fall was because he never had to go outside - he drove from garage to garage and back.

My eating wasn't TOO bad except for Tuesday night. My running group had a fundraiser at The 99 (15% of our food $ was donated) - We hadn't been out to to eat in a long time and I was starving because we had no fun food in the house, so I had a pineapple jalapeno margarita (wow was that good!) and we shared some apps, I had a salad with chicken for dinner, and we shared some desserts.

My walking wasn't good this week - I was really, really busy at work so really glued to my desk. My husband is going to start on the bike again, so hopefully I will get motivated.

I need to try on my spring clothes for the cruise this weekend. That could be no fun, but I've got to do it.

Scale this morning - 231. Really not good.

WW tomorrow morning?! We shall see. It is the plan.....but it has been the plan all month too.

Not a lot planned for this weekend. Just figuring out the clothing for the cruise and some cub scout stuff for my son. I may want to take a drive on Sunday if we get all our chores done tomorrow. It is supposed to be almost 50 before it gets cold again.

Lazy, lazy weekend

It was very nice to have another weekend of really doing nothing! I spent the majority of the time reading 2 books I got for Christmas about Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Both were written by women who moved there.

I finished up Yellowstone has teeth

 And started and finished Altitude Adjustment

Both books made me eager to get back out West - I am really hoping that me and my husband can next summer but I am tempted to go even if he can't get the time off!

Friday night I went grocery shopping and was very successful in not buying any junk, even though later in the weekend I regretted it!

Saturday was also spent finally getting our flu shots. We went to CVS at 11:15 and the wait had jumped to over an hour (which really meant 90 minutes, but then she had to take a lunch, which meant 2 hours) - but when we checked in we were able to leave our cell phone #s so we went home and waited (and read) until we were instructed to come back.

We did family movie night on both Friday and Saturday night where we introduced the kids to Back to the Future and Back to the Future II. I hadn't seen them in years so it was fun.

I actually cooked Friday and Saturday night! Friday was just pasta and a salad, while Saturday was Pear Chutney Chicken with Israeli Couscous and green beans.

 Saturday I also made chili to eat during the football games on Sunday. But with how my stomach felt towards the end of the Patriot's game, I didn't eat until it was well over.

Monthly visitor arrived Saturday evening, more on the early side, and I was pretty crampy Sunday morning (enough that I actually took Tylenol), so another excuse to be lazy and read all morning. I then got my food prep done before sitting and watching football.

Yesterday I was doing laundry and was looking at my jeans that I wear to work. While they are the correct size, they are starting to get worn between the legs :( Which means I will need to get new pairs fairly soon.

Once the monthly visitor is gone, I also need to review my clothing for the cruise. I did 90 day Online Check-in Friday night, so the clock is ticking! Usually dates sent the scale climbing, but in the case I REALLY need to lose 10 lbs (AND exercise so my legs are smaller) prior to vacation because I REFUSE to buy new clothes!!!)

Really back to the beginning

Scale was 232.2 this morning - that was my starting weight at WW on 12/1/2012. Yep, all the way back to the beginning.

But I am feeling energized (despite having pulled a muscle in my quad squatting down to play with my cat) this morning - I realize this is the first full Friday I've had to myself at home in a month! Feels great, despite it being freezing cold again (though we have slightly warmer temps to look forward to this weekend). And I get to do on-line check in for our cruise, so I need to get cracking! I want to be down 12.2 lbs by then!

I purged some more food today and made my grocery list for shopping tonight. I added in Vitatops again, which has been part of my afternoon snack. I am thinking that I made too many changes at once, so I going back to basics for my snack and see how that goes. I was so tempted to just say "Screw it" and go back to my Lean Cuisine lunches, but I really want to keep going with this. I'll skip the egg salad for next week, because I realize that isn't something I can have every week. Since I didn't make chicken salad for this week, I'll make some for next and try something new next week as well.

I am making chili for dinner on Sunday - I usually make it once a year and during the NFL playoffs. I can't wait to have it! I sometimes make stew as well, but I am not feeling like it this year. IF we end up in the Super Bowl AGAIN I will make our usual cake, but even if we don't, I do make something sugary because Super Bowl weekend corresponds with Ground Hog day!

But for now we have another quiet weekend, which is fantastic!

I just need to do it!

Tuesday I had my annual GYN appointment - always a fun time. It was at 1:40 -I had a large snack around 11:30 but hadn't had lunch because who wants to be poked and prodded on a full stomach. I got on the scale with jeans and a heavy belt and heavy shoes - 236.4 - She took away 2 pounds for clothing. Thanks :(  I got on the scale today - 232.4. Ugh, really? No surprise. I've just been out of control I feel for the last couple of weeks.

After my appointment I changed my annual PCP to mid-July from April 2, the day after Easter. I do prefer to have the 2 appointments 6 months apart, but I also just didn't want to face the scale for the doctor that will say something.  6 months to get it together and have the scale go DOWN instead of up.

These freaking snow days kill my mojo as well - the kids had yesterday off - they totally could have gone to school - we only got 3 inches. I found my way into marshmallows and dark chocolate bits yesterday.

But this morning everything went in the trash - no chocolate bits, no marshmallows, no boxes of frozen appetizers, nothing junky at all. I will make a good meal plan for the week. I will make lunches for all days next week. Despite PMS (or wherever I am in the 2nd half of my cycle), I will prevail!

Another thing that has been weighing (no pun intended) on my mind this week is our upcoming trip to Universal in 3 months. Universal has a lot more "real" rides than Disney and a lot that have size restrictions. While I know that a lot of people are a lot bigger than me (and some of the rides, when they talk about size restrictions they may mean broad shoulders, long legs, but some also mean large chests (not me!) and large middles), I am paranoid. While I am not a big thrill ride person (I was until I had kids) so I may not want to go on all of them anyways, I want it to be my choice, not my size.

Here comes the rain!

I've always known that I get bad spring fever, and even though it is only January 12th and it will be below freezing by Saturday night, the fact that I was just outside soaking up the sun before the rain storm in the 61 degree weather was wonderful. A lot of the snow still remains but a ton of it has disappeared, and with the heavy showers coming, more will wash away. But then in a period of 12 hours or less it will all freeze which is not fun, but in the meantime, I'll take it!

I am a little nervous being so excited for this weekend, with really nothing to do, because 52 weeks ago was the Stomach Bug of 2017. Not fun at all! *knock on wood* there hasn't been much word about illnesses going around (though I did see a news report of a school in Plymouth, MA shutting today because 20% of the school called in the sick yesterday with the stomach bug).

As usual I am glad to get another week behind us, though I still have 4 hours until the weekend actually begins. I wasn't overly thrilled with my eating this week, so I'll be glad to try harder this coming week (and not have the weekend be a free-for-all). I haven't exactly decided on my lunches for the week. I went grocery shopping last night so I wouldn't have to go in the pouring rain tonight. But I will need to go again on Sunday or Monday as there were some produce not available (I've heard that Thursday night is the worst time to go at our store).

Have I mentioned that I am going to start doing a 2nd and even 3rd trip to the store each week? I hate that we are kind of limping our way to the end of the week which doesn't always result in the best choices. And with my renewed desire to eat more produce, you can't just buy it once a week. And there are the occasions where I don't get what I want (this is especially true of bananas - I like to eat one a day before I leave the house, partially so I am not starving when I get to work, partially to give me a little energy, and partially because my vitamin makes me nauseous if I eat it on an empty stomach). Last week I lucked out with my bananas - I didn't go shopping until Sunday morning and they were slightly under ripe, so they lasted me the whole week. Last night there were no bananas except bright green ones (and only a few of them) so I skipped that.

I do hope though that these extra trip(s) won't add to our food bill. The store that I would go to on the way home from work is pricier than the one I normally go to. I could potentially go to our normal one during cub scouts on Monday but I tend to like to go home during that. Plus going to the other store does allow me to get a few items that aren't available at the other store. But I also have to be good about sticking to my list!

All week I have been eager to make this Thai Crunch Salad with Thai Peanut Dressing for lunch, but last night ended up being a "everyone for yourself" dinner (my daughter made Mac and Cheese for them both - the joys of having someone else able to use the stove! A game changer!) so I decided to make this for myself. I didn't even ask my husband to share :) But I was feeling hungry and we had pre-cooked Asian noodles in the house (I just had to microwave them for 90 seconds) so I included them as well. Not as healthy, but oh so good! Except I ate 2 servings of it! I have coleslaw left over, so unless I have more over the weekend, which is very possible, I'll try it without the noodles for lunch next week. This is the issue with me making yummy sounding stuff for lunch, I want to eat too much of it!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Not feeling great.....

This week so far hasn't been great, hasn't been horrible.

Tuesday night I made a fantastic dinner - stir fry beef, stir fried pea pods with water chestnuts, and fried rice with pineapple, edameme, and scrambled eggs. But I ate too much of it.

Wednesday night dinner was spaghetti and salad and I only had 1 helping - that was really hard!

One day this week, and I can't remember which day because I haven't been as good as tracking, though I have gone back and tried to fill it out, I had another chicken salad tortilla as part (yes, only part) of my snack.

And yesterday, in desperation I found myself eating chocolate PB2 powder with water.

Things I have learned this week:
1) I need to mix up my lunches
2) In the afternoon I really am craving something sweet, and something crunchy. Apple slices with peanut butter perhaps?
3) Do better about tracking and also journaling
4) Get in more steps - last night my legs were so twitchy for inactivity

Life was a little easier this week because the school lunch menus were a lot of the kids favorites so I didn't have to oversee many lunches, but that just means in the weeks to come there could be weeks where they make their lunches every day.

I haven't menu planned for next week yet. I plan on doing that. Just because there is football on this weekend doesn't mean we have to do anything special. After all, my team is on at 8:15 Saturday night. If they make it another week then we will do something special for next Sunday afternoon.

For now I will enjoy that we will be in the 50s until Saturday mid-day and hopefully the rain will wash away a lot of snow.

Back on track?

Last week's storm and frigid weather just through me for a loop and off my newly found game plan.

By Friday I had run out of pre-made lunch foods (due to my husband eating 1 day's worth of egg salad), and having to WFH with kids cooped up in the house does not lend itself well to eating healthy.

Weight Watchers didn't happen Saturday morning due to the 2 days of poor eating and the fact that it was 0 degrees (with a wind chill of -15), and I barely slept Friday night due to work stress, and I had no other reason to leave the house that early.

Saturday's eating wasn't great, wasn't horrible.
We did finally leave the house at 2:30 to go see Star Wars again, where I had a water, small popcorn, and a box of Raisinets (there is fruit in there!) and then we didn't have an organized dinner.

Sunday was a blur. I got up around 8:00 and went grocery shopping, again in the bitter cold. I did make a couple of impulse buys - a bag of Jerky trail mix, and another dish of chocolate hummus (despite the fact that it didn't go well with the first one last week!).

I actually made dinner and did some work prep (my normal putting carrots and Cheerios in to bags, more hard boiled eggs, and made more egg salad and chicken salad).

Monday was good until I got home - My son had Cub Scouts so it was a little disorganized, so another tub of chocolate hummus gone (alone with bananas, grapes and pretzels), a little left over pasta, and I feel like some pseudo junk in there as well. I didn't really have dinner so did go to bed hungry.

One thing you have have noticed was no mention of any exercise at all. Friday and Saturday I barely had any steps (the only reason I had more on Saturday was walking from the car to the movie theatre and back).

Monday I took one deliberate walk but ended the day with less than 6,000 steps. I need to change that!

One snow day down, one to go

Today technically isn't snowing, but because it didn't stop snowing until 9 am and today is going to be bitterly cold (and it being a Friday may have factored in), the kids don't have school again today. The sun is shining but the temps are plummeting - though my husband was able to drive into Boston today. And now a snow day for me - Working hard both days.

Yesterday eating was okay until about 1:00 and then work got more stressful and the snow got more stressful and the eating kind of went to crap.

I barely had any steps because I was sitting in my recliner working, trying to avoid everyone in my family!

After my lunch of egg salad (which I think I have decided won't be part of the rotation, unless I make it that morning), I found myself nibbling on hot fries and chocolate covered pretzels. And I found myself eating a whole entire tub of chocolate hummus - first with grapes, then pretzels, then, just by itself!

Dinner was re-heated pasta prior to going out to brave the clean-up. Because my side of the garage door is broken, I had to dig out my SUV (thank goodness I bought a snow rake last week), then I moved it, cleared it off even more, shoveled out the rest of the original spot, and put my car back. This is all while my husband was snow blowing 18" of snow. i also shoveled the front porch and the front steps and a thin path down to the driveway (my husband later shoveled out the rest), I shoveled  path on our back deck (I am all about safety and wanted as many ways to get out of the house as possible - I must be my dad's daughter) and then I waded out the back of the house to verify that all the pipes were free.

I ended the day with 7,500 steps (you don't get a lot of steps shoveling) and collapsed in bed in exhaustion.

Today it is windy and sunny and bitter cold and just going to get colder through today and tomorrow. I am feeling stress about work. I am feeling very weak in the food department but I will try to be strong.

I would really like to go to my meeting in the morning but it is supposed to be -2 (not wind chill) tomorrow morning. So I may give it another week! But still work the plan on my own. I need to make a grocery list, but I don't anticipate going until Sunday morning (oh look, it will be -7 on Sunday morning). Thank goodness my husband bought milk on Wednesday night!

The good news is I paid off our cruise in April yesterday and I know it will be warmer by then, unlike friends who are in Disney this weekend for Marathon weekend and it is freezing!

Wednesday - the day that ended with ice cream

What is it about the stress of an upcoming storm that makes you want to eat crap??!!

The rest of the day went pretty well. A normal work day with some things of note:

1) I only ended up taking one deliberate walk break during the morning, so I left work at 3:00 with less than 5,000 steps. I should have gotten a 2nd break in

2) I made my chicken salad with 2 flax tortillas - 4 SmartPoints instead of 2, but I was afraid that just 1 tortilla wouldn't be enough filling, but I felt that both was too much food. I will definitely buy 2 packages of these tortillas next week - much better than the flaxseed Lavish bread.

3) I don't think I had an afternoon snack! I hadn't packed one because I knew I would be home in the afternoon but I got home around 3:30 we had to leave at 4:15 for piano - so I don't think I had a snack!

4) My daughter was a ski club until 7:00 pm and I didn't have anything planned for dinner, so it was a "everyone for themselves" day - I spiralized a sweet potato and cooked it with a little chicken, taco seasonings and added goat cheese and dried blueberries on top - I didn't measure anything which I should have. I also spiralized a zucchini and cooked it with some garlic and put a little pasta cheese on top.

5) I really didn't want to exercise and I was only at 6,500 steps at 7 pm, but I didn't have anything else to do, so I rode the exercise bike. I attached my Garmin to my sneaker, but after 5 miles/22 minutes, I only was at 8,000 steps. While the Garmin didn't register 10,000 steps for the day, with the exercise I am taking it as a win.

6) And then the ice cream happened. No, the kids were not having ice cream. I had finished my bike ride and the chocolate ice cream was calling my name, so yep, I had a bowl. I did leave a small amount in the carton for my daughter to have.

So now it is a snow day (but since I can WFH, I am) - I am going to do my best to eat normally, but it is 11:00 am and I've only gotten 975 steps and drank 20 oz of water. No every day can be perfect!