5:30 am workouts

I haven't weighed myself since Saturday and I am kind of okay with that.

Besides Sunday, the reason I haven't weighed myself this week is I have gotten up at 5:30 3 days in a row to work out! And the logistics of changing into workout gear and such, I don't have access to the scale.

Gotta love these pictures - I stink at selfies and since I haven't even looked in the mirror, this is what you get!

I have been doing Beachbody's 21 Fix - So far I've done Total Body Cardio Fix, Upper Fix and Lower Fix. All I can say is wow my body is sore! Like having a lot of time sitting on the toilet sore, but it is worth it!

This morning I wasn't sure if my body could handle the Lower Fix as my legs are still really sore from squats on Monday. I brought my headphones downstairs thinking I may just walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes, but I wanted to try it and it didn't go so badly. I will say that I am always heavily modifying all the exercises, but it is better than nothing and using muscles I wouldn't otherwise, so win-win.

Another thing I've had to step back on the last couple of days is not hitting my 10K steps. Obviously you don't get a lot of steps in doing this but it is 30 minutes of exercise. So I've told myself that I really only need 60 minutes, so another 30 minutes of walking through the day and I am okay with that, so I've had between 8000 and 9000 steps the last 2 days. Plus I've had this big project at work which hadn't afforded me as much time to walk around (and my legs are thanking me).

Eating? So-so.
Monday a co-worker brought in cran-orange muffins so I had that as a mid-morning snack and still had my snack stuff with lunch. I didn't get to eat my mid-afternoon snack because we were so head's down with work. Dinner I made teriyaki chicken, stir fried peas pods and a combo of cauliflower rice (my first time attempting it - didn't go so well!) and regular rice made into friend rice. Only one person, put another serving for leftovers.

Tuesday I worked from home. I decided to forego the Lean Cuisine pizza for lunch and made my spiralized sweet potato bowl with 1/2 a leftover avacado, chicken, goat cheese, dried cherries and pepitas. 4:15 I had a snack attack of nuts/seeds/cherries-  too much of all. And dinner was roasted broccoli (another first, it was very good!), pasta, chicken, and homemade alfredo sauce (not incredibly healthy, and very yummy). Only 1 serving. Win!

Today they are bringing in lunch from Wahlburgers. I had getting a cob salad.....but I am also getting a coffee shake :) There are certain things that if they are on the menu I will order them and a coffee shake it one of those things. Dinner is going to be leftovers as we have a lot of them!

Happy Hump Day

WW Weigh-in #7 and Weekend Recap

I made it to my meeting!
Friday I ate well all day which was challenging because my whole family was away so it would have been nice to cook myself a good meal, but I stuck to my normal Friday meal plan.

Weight this morning: 226.0, so that is a 2.8 lb gain (but really a maintain for the one week)
The difference between my scale and WW was only 1.4 lbs (when it was 1.8 2 weeks ago) so they thought I had less of a gain :)

After my meeting I went grocery shopping since it is going to be pouring rain tomorrow.

I had a banana and a flaxseed waffle with some almond butter and jelly then did some chores around the house before doing my run.

I could have run outside but it was only in the high 20s and with the couple of small snow falls this week the roads were narrower than normal and icy due to it being in the high 40s yesterday then freezing overnight, so I chose to treadmill the 2.5 miles I had in store.

Not a good run. The temperature in our basement was 67 (too warm) and over though I turned on the fans, they weren’t close enough to me. And even thought I was only going for 32 minutes I turned on a movie which was distracting. Needless to say I did do it,  hanging multiple times between 4.8 mph and 5.0, but I wanted to give up at 1.5 miles and the last 1/4 miles I was giving myself a pep talk outload.

My lunch consisted of spiralized sweet potato, 1/2 avacado, fried egg, goat cheese, dried cheeries, pepitas. So yummy!

After lunch the weekend eating kind of went downhill from there. I spent the afternoon reading and waiting for my family to return (the didn't get back until about 5:30).
My mid afternoon snack was:
Box of sugar free chocolate pudding - I made the box of instant pudding and ate it all
Popcorn with a little butter - I bought a bowl from WW to make popcorn in the microwave so not a huge amount - I need real butter but not too much.

My family stopped by a BBQ place after the memorial service they went to. I looked at the menu online and told my husband to get some take out for me :) It was a sampler platter so not much of any of it: 2 kids of meat with BBQ sauce, coleslaw, beans, mac and cheese. And I did ask for a piece of cornbread with bacon. Yummy!

Sunday's eating was kind of a disaster. I woke up pretty early (7:00). I got a ton done around the house and some reading done. At 9:30 I TRIED to make breakfast - the 2 bananas we had left in the house looked good on the outside - not so much inside. Then I decided to try to microwave oatmeal - the bowl was too short and it ended up all over the microwave. So I finally settled on the 2 microwaveable bowls of Mac and Cheese we had left in the house.

11:00 snack was nuts and dried cherries.

I had made stew in the morning, originally for dinner, but since it was done and warm I had a bowl for lunch along with some french bread.

3:00 snack was 4 sugar free fudgicles, slightly melted, with skippy PB.

I didn't feel like more stew for dinner and the kids wanted pasta so I cooked a whole box of regular white pasta and had a couple small helpings :(

You'll notice that no mention of weighing in or walking. Yep, because neither happened on Sunday. And I am okay with it. It was a wonderful day!

 On to Monday!

Longest week ever!

Not that is over yet - I've still got Friday to get through, with lots of meetings on late Friday afternoon - what a crappy way to end the week!

Wednesday was a crazy work day. I ate normal in the morning but had so many conference calls that I only got one walk in at 8:15.

My daughter had been begging my for chicken fingers from this fast food place in town and she and my son wanted Shamrock Shakes, so she and I drive through TWO Drive Thrus. We usually never do drive thrus or food delivery, so 2 that are about 1/4 mile apart just seemed glutenous (and expensive! Wow!). It was almost 2 when we went because I had meetings until 1:30 so I decided to get McDonald's (I only have it maybe 2-3 times a year) - Big Mac, fries, chocolate shakes. But boy did it taste good! (I should note I ate this at home - I don't eat in the car)

Then I had meetings for another couple of hours before leaving to get our hair cut. We didn't get home until 6:00 but I wasn't too hungry from having had lunch at 2:00 pm, so I hopped on the treadmill for 20 minutes and then had for dinner what I would have had for lunch - carrots and a Lean Cuisine pizza.

Then at 7:15 I went grocery shopping! It was going to be icy in Thursday morning and I was eager to just get some healthy food in the house. I will need to go again on Sunday to stock up for the upcoming week.

And then when I got home I go back on the treadmill for 20 minutes just to get to my 10K goal.

Thursday morning the scale was STILL above 228. Since it was icy, I worked from home again. I did well until 1:15 when a 30 minute binge of sorts happened. First it was nut/dried fruit combo, followed by my actual lunch (Lean Cuisine pizza) followed by more nuts/dried fruit followed by my single serving Nutella which was supposed to be for my dinner on Friday.

I had planned to run at 5:00 but I just felt so sluggish so only got a mile in - my stomach just felt so full. But I reached my 10K goal. Dinner was a salad and some leftover spaghetti. I still was just so full feeling. Can my monthly please just arrive (it isn't supposed to until Tuesday).  Next month I NEED to do better - overeating/under hydrating during this time just makes me feel awful!

And now it is Friday. I am just going to get through the day. Since i had the Nutella yesterday, I will have PB instead in my tortilla/banana wrap.

Silence is not golden

It's been a struggle but I refuse to give in. I am not going to wait until the monthly visitor arrives to turn things around. Or wait until next week when the kids are back in school (because the week won't be "typical" for me as I have a huge project and a lot of hours in the office). And if you wait until "typical" you can be waiting forever.

Despite being 228.2 on Monday morning, Monday was a pretty good day until dinner. I worked from home and got in 4 walks so was at 12K steps by dinner. I hadn't menu planned my snacks so my snack was a Nutella/Banana/Tortilla (aka my pre-WW dinner).

My husband and I had a date night planned. I chose Mexican. 3 drinks (should have stopped at 1), chips and salsa, queso and tortillas, and steak/fajitas later I felt gross. The food was awesome (this was a more high-end Mexican restaurant) but I just ate way too much. I should have gotten a salad, not fajitas. I lay in bed and had to prop myself up because I just felt so sick (I really try to not eat anything for 3-4 hours before I go to bed but that wasn't the case). Around 1:00 my husband didn't feel great so I decided to go sleep in my son's room (he was at my mom's) so didn't sleep well (I had visions of the stomach bug making it's way through our house - thankfully my husband didn't get sick).

Tuesday he woke me up telling me we had no heat on our 1st floor but he was able to get it running again.

Tuesday was kind a s*** show.
It started out with my breaking my streak. My weigh-in-every-day streak. I felt horrible about it. But I knew no good could come from it. So 47 days. But I will start a new one! This will NOT be a habit!

From then on it was a pretty normal day until 10:00. But then I had a ton of conference calls, our cleaning people were here from 11-1 so I felt trapped in my office so by the time they left at 1:00 I had only gotten 1 walk in and hadn't eaten in more than 3 hours. Yeah, that wasn't pretty. "Food" consisted of trail mix, way too much Nutella and my husbands leftover fajitas.

Then I was stuck doing work until 4:30 so still had only walked once. I did a 20 minute walk. At this point I realized the treadmill wasn't at a 1.5% incline- it was flat. I am not sure how long it had been that way. My husband was fixing the vent over the treadmill last week so perhaps he moved it (which means my fantastic run on Saturday was flat.....). So I moved it back to 1.5% as well as upping my speed to 3.2 (from 3.1).

Dinner wasn't until 7:00 and an everyone-for-himself. I made spaghetti with zucchini. This time I cooked the whole box so there would be leftovers for the kids and I definitely ate too much :(

After dinner I fit in another 20 minute walk to just get me over the 10K mark.

So here we are at Wednesday. 228.4 this morning. Telling myself that despite the Nutella in the closet and lots of leftover spaghetti in the fridge, I am going to TRY to have a "normal" day. I am getting my hair done tonight (one of my least favorite things to do) and normally we get a pizza after, but we've got frozen pizza in the basement and lots of salad fixings that need to be eaten, so that will be the plan.

Weekend didn't help make things better

Friday I did eat well (except 2 small cupcakes, but they were my snack). I got in 3 walks totaling 60 minutes and had my normal Nutella/Fruit/Tortilla dinner.

Saturday I woke up with a splitting headache and dizzy. 3 lb gain (226.2). I decided to go back to sleep. My husband was leaving in the morning for an overnight with the guys and I just wanted a relaxing morning. I went back to sleep for 2 1/2 hours - Weighed myself again (225.2).

I had a banana and then went for a 20 minute walk on the treadmill.
Later had a flax waffle with almond butter and jelly and then at 11:30 went for a 2.25 mile run on the treadmill. I could have gone outside but just wasn't feeling it and people had said it was icy earlier in the morning, so since I was Single Mom for the weekend I figured the treadmill was better.

The run felt fantastic!

I had my normal weekday snack and lunch. My daughter needed to go to the mall so I had some PB crackers before we left. She really wanted a Shamrock Shake so after the mall we went through the McDonalds drive thru and I didn't get anything. Win!

I did munch on a bunch of homemade salsa and chips and then dinner made myself spaghetti and sauteed zucchini (the zucchini was too small to spiralize so I just cut it up). there was 5.2 oz of spaghetti left in the box so I just made it all which is more than I normally would make, though I didn't quite eat it all.

I did have a small bowl of ice cream.

Overall I got in 15,000 steps for the day.

Sunday was just a craptastic day (but at the same time it was wonderfully relaxing!)
I slept horribly but just lounged in bed watching TV and reading until 10:00. And this is the breakfast of champions:
Rest of the ice cream
6 chocolate chip panckaes
Leftover spaghetti (very small amount)

I spent the morning reading (not walking, not exercising, doing nothing!). I did snack on 2 string cheese and some peaches at 1:00. At 2:00 my kids hadn't had lunch either so I made us Kraft Mac and Cheese (2 boxes and I probably ate almost a whole one).

I did manage ONE 15 minute walk on the treadmill around 3:15.

My husband doesn't go to the grocery store very often mainly because he buys junk along with whatever items I've asked him to buy. this time the culprit was buffalo pretzel bits - 2 small bowls full.

I wasn't really in the mood for anything for dinner, but was a little hungry so I had Nutella/Banana/Flax tortilla.

Last night again I slept horribly. I feel like I didn't sleep at all. I had set my alarm for 5:30 but turned that off around 2:00.

Scale was 228.2 today. Ugh.

The rest of my family is off today and I was WFH - Walking and water, again the mantra. Though is some of this is due to the joys of "perimenopause" I am not sure how successful I will be at feeling better. But all I need to do is try every.single.day.

It's going to be a weird week because the kids are on break. So schedules are off, but I am going to try to keep mine as well as I can (we have no kids this evening though so we are going on a rare Monday night date night).

And I WILL go to WW on Saturday NO MATTER WHAT!

Examining what went wrong this week

Right now I have the desire to sleep in tomorrow, not get up and go to WW, not get on the scale and face the music. But I will get up and go even if it shows a 5 lb gain. While I've done nothing worthy of losing weight this week and perhaps my Saturday weight was too low (down 2+ lbs from the day before). But this much of a gain.

Let's examine the week..... (and I should say that the week isn't even over yet. It's only 10:15 on Friday, but I need to reverse this NOW)

Saturday: was a good day except perhaps the water
Sunday : +1 lb - The start of the Energy Ball consumption. Not enough water drank. Not enough steps (as I hit 10K at 10:00 am and probably didn't have 12K for the whole day). Not enough fruits and veggies
Monday: Stayed the same. Good day until 2:30 when got home and binged on Energy Balls. Stressed in general. Not enough water. Not enough walking. Dinner was grilled cheese, corn and tater tots = not enough fruits and veggies.
Tuesday: +1.6 - WFH: Woke up very dehydrated. But had no calories until 9:00 am, my normal breakfast not until 10:30 and fell off the wagon big time at 12:00 - Didn't eat my normal foods (stress!). And then had a salty meal at 7:00 pm. Not enough water. Not enough fruits and veggies.
Wednesday: +1 - WFH: Okay until 11:00 then binged on not horrible foods (because we don't really have any in the house) from 11:15-11:45 and then didn't eat again until 6:00. Not enough water. Not enough fruits and veggies.
Thursday: +1.2 - Woke up to ovulation pain.Add well until afternoon snack - they were having fantastic cupcakes for Valentine's Day - Had 1. Had salty mexican food for V-day. I did skip the crappy grocery store cupcakes. First day all year that I didn't hit 10K steps - Probably ended up with 9100 but didn't have any extra steps until 4:00 pm and just didn't feel like walking after dinner (overate at dinner for the first time in a long, long time)
Friday: +.4 - Grand total of +5.2 in 6 days. When the scale jumps 3-4 lbs in a day, you know it is water weight. When it is a steady gain all week, that is here to stay. So my sole focus needs to be to get rid of it!

So the consensus is:

• Keep with my schedule - do no deviate - Eat the foods I normally do at the times I should
• Get in my waters - know mater how hard it is
• Have dinner with not so much starch and lots of veggies
• Get in my steps

Every morning I wrote a note about water and walks - but really not sticking to the foods I normally do and not the schedule (ie letting myself get too hungry) didn't help. Even today I decided to have a smoothie but I just had it at 10:20 - That is NOT good!!

So I will continue with my day and get through this and try to think about next month - while this isn't all ovulation, part of it is - maybe I am more stressed during ovulation?!

But I did keep weighing myself this week no matter what and that is a HUGE plus!!! Win for the week.

What will next week bring?
It's a little odd week. The kids are on vacation, but I am not taking any time. My husband has Monday off and he's taking Thursday and Friday off. I may WFH days I don't normally. And the weather seems a little iffy next week, but I am really going to TRY for it to be as normal a week for me as possible. *crossing my fingers*

It keeps going up and up and up

228.0 this morning - yes, almost 5 lbs from Saturday.

Wednesday started out well, but at 11:15 I ended up having what I am calling a 30 minute binge:
2 small bowls of pumpkin seeds and dried fruit
4 string cheese
2 packages of PB/Ritz crackers

Yes, overall the food wasn't bad but all was unnecessary. If I was hungry at 11:15 I should have just had my normal 11:30 snack of 2 string cheese and peaches.

I didn't end up eating anything for the rest of the day until dinner. I got in 2 25-minute walks in the afternoon so got in my 10K steps.

Dinner was spaghetti/sauce/cheese (1 helping, though potentially slightly larger than normal), salad (which also had croutons and bacon on it) and 1 piece of garlic bread.

I was just feeling so gross yesterday afternoon/evening and then this morning. I definitely have what I feel is ovulation pain. So now my challenge for the next 2 week is to get some of this 5 lb OFF. Not using the next 2 weeks to eat like crap.

Tonight for Valentine's Day we are having fajitas, chips and homemade salsa, and cupcakes and ice cream. I bought a little bit of chocolate. But nothing crazy.

Then honestly, after tonight there is NO reason to have dessert type foods until St Patrick's birthday. So not going crazy today and back on track tomorrow.

Life will always have up and downs. That is life. But getting back to a healthy lifestyle as quickly as possible is what is important.

Another poor eating day

Writing it down is helping me own it and I've just got to move on!

Even though I woke up very dehydrated on Tuesday, the eating didn't go that well. I've got to stick to my normal schedule!

I didn't have a banana until 9:00 (when it is usually 7:30, though I had already gotten a walk in)

I didn't have my yogurt until 10:30 (while on a conference call)

By 12:15 I should have had my 2 cheese sticks and peaches. Instead I had 2 small microwaveable Mac & Cheeses, followed by 2 sugar free puddings.

I knew the snow would be coming and I knew I wanted to get a run in, so I decided there was no reason not to run outside!

I hadn't run outside since November, in Disney, and I hadn't run non-stop outside since who knows when - 2017?

I decided to run 1 mile down the street and turn around. But once my Garmin beeped at 1 mile I decided to keep running to the end of the street (1.4 miles) and then turn around.

I am so not used to running with my Garmin that at one point I looked at it and thought I was at 1.95 miles but really I was at 19:50 minutes, so instead of .05 miles, I still had 4 minutes to go! Those last 4 minutes seemed like forever!

I've been running at 12:30 on the treadmill at a 1.5% incline. But I ran at about 12:00 outside. I won't say it was easy - it was cold (hence the Frosty badge I got - the last time I was running we weren't getting badges like that!)

 

I forgot to eat anything when I got back so at 3:30 I realized I  was hungry. Even with the Chicken Salad in the fridge, snack was 2 more puddings (now they are gone!) and a bowl of almonds/salted pumpkin seeds/dried cherries.

Dinner wasn't until 6:45 - I made the Thai Chicken Curry with Jasmine Rice that I made a few weeks ago. I only had one serving though.

And the scale this morning was up even more. 226.8. Nothing like a 3.6 lb gain since Saturday. 3 days to get it down somewhat - don't think it will get back down to 223.2 but I need it until 225!

Another day of working at home. Challenging, but a challenge I am excited to take on!

Why I can't have "nice" things in the house......

Sunday I decided to make energy balls. Not so much because I am doing anything these days that would require them, but I wanted to practice how to make them and see how they tasted.

Well, they were really, really yummy.

 

 So yummy that Monday afternoon I ate all the rest of them. Yep, all of them. It was 2:30 in the afternoon. I wasn't scheduled to have my snack for another hour. I had JUST had lunch at 1:00. I was not hungry. But I came home stressed about work, my daughter came home from school and immediately stressed me out. I had a project ahead of me that I really didn't want to do. I had stayed up WAY too late the night before (11:30). But I did track them. Because I ate them in 3 batches....over 15 minutes.

So even though I had put the remainder of the dark chocolate bits in the freezer, I decided this morning that I couldn't have them in the house. I had done a purge of the refrigerator this morning before trash day, but didn't get to these. Plus the whole family was watching me and I didn't want them to see me throwing out chocolate. So after they left (with the bag of trash!) I did this to the dark chocolate because throwing away a sealed bag into an empty trash bag doesn't always work (and to add, the water was warm, so extra ewww, the chocolate will not be seen again).



We are getting snow this afternoon so when I was getting gas for my car and a gallon of milk, I decided to be nice to my husband and daughter and get them the pints of ice cream on the right. The other pint my husband had gotten me this weekend. But typically I don't like ice cream that has chunks in it. So this pint could stay in the freezer for a while. Notice my word of "stay" because once it comes out, most likely it will stay out. And I strategically placed the ice cream next to my no-sugar fudgicles.

I woke up this morning to a 2 lb gain. Yes, perhaps the energy balls contributed somewhat. But last night's dinner was grilled cheese, tater tots and corn (not a menu planned by me!) and I was crazy thirsty this morning. So I downed 20 oz of water pretty quickly.

So today's focus will be water and walks. I've already gotten in a 20 minute walk and walked to the bus stuff. Unfortunately later will also include shoveling, so not sure if I will be getting in a run also. But for today walks and water (and my normal eating) will also be in order.
 

Weekend Recap

It was a nice low-key weekend. After my grocery shopping in the biting wind, I didn't want to leave the house again. Thankfully I didn't need to!

I had a late breakfast of just cheerios and bananas - I just wasn't in the mood for my normal go tos. Other foods:
Mid-day snack of string cheese and peaches following a 25 minute walk on the treadmill
Lunch of sweet potato/dried cherries/goat cheese/chicken/blueberries
Quick bowl of peaches prior to my....
2 mile run on the treadmill! 4.8 mph (last .25 at 5.0)
Dinner was 3.5 oz of Barilla Plus spaghetti, plus zoodles, and Parmesan cheese

I don't think I got enough water in. I woke up on Sunday up a pound (or like I said, I think my 223.2 was not a "real" number)

Thankfully there wasn't a lot of wind on Sunday. Knowing we will be getting some snow this week, I wanted to get the reservoir again. And my husband opted to join me - impromptu date! We walked around twice. It was wonderful to plan our summer vacation.

And I hit 10K steps on our walk....which meant I sat on my butt for most of the day.

I had had a flaxseed waffle PB&J sandwich before I went and my lunch/2nd breakfast was oatmeal (because I was SO cold!) - I made 2 servings and made it with milk. I added 2 t. brown sugar, blueberries, whole almonds, dollup of vanilla greej yogurt and unsalted pumpkin seeds. Yummy!

Then I did some food prep:
bagged my carrots for lunch
mixed together my yogurt/blueberries/granola for 2 days
ground some Parmesan cheese
hardboiled some eggs
made chicken salad for 2 snacks
made chocolate coconut almond balls

And then I sat in front of the computer for the rest of the day planning our historic April vacation (Philly/Williamsburg/DC).

I did take time out to make dinner with the whole family - Breakfast for Dinner:
bacon
scrambled eggs - my son made!
strawberries
hashed browns - my husband helped make!
kodiak dark chocolate pancakes (made with milk and eggs) - my daughter made!

I definitely know I didn't drink enough water and didn't get many steps after 1:00 pm. Weight was the same this morning.

More water, more steps today.....and don't eat all the energy balls!

WW Weigh-in #6

I am not sure how accurate this weight is, but today was 223.2 - That is a 10 lb loss in 5 weeks!!! And I am going to work hard this week to keep it there!

Friday was my endoscopy. I had my "last meal" around 6:30 on Thursday - spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and a brownie. And then I couldn't eat or drink anything after 8:45, but since I don't usually eat after dinner anyways (like ever, after dinner snacking thankfully has never been an issue for me), I was fine. I crawled into bed at 6:30 and watched TV for hours.

I had to be at the hospital at 8:45 am and while they took me back to prep at 9:00 I didn't get taken in for the procedure until 11:45 :( I had gotten bumped for an emergency situation. I didn't have my phone, there wasn't a TV in my area, so I just lay there for hours (except for the 1 time I had to go to the bathroom thanks to the almost whole bag of IV fluid I went through). All I wanted to do was get up and pace around, but I couldn't. And by the time I was brought back I was starving!. Thankfully the procedure was very quick and when I woke up I had water and PB crackers.

I was home around 1:00 and my husband heated up some leftover spaghetti and later I had some vanilla ice cream.

My insides were a somewhat upset in the afternoon - I think either from the ice cream or if my husband put real butter on the spaghetti. I'll have to ask him. I do believe that I have gotten somewhat of a dairy issue, but not all the time. Or should I say for all foods.

And then I had my normal Friday night pre-WW "dinner" (flax tortilla, strawberries and Nutella).

I spent all afternoon in bed watching cheesy TV. Not that I needed to, but I figured I was owed a day to do nothing. I didn't have my Fitbit on and for the 1st time in 38 days I didn't walk 10K steps (I'd be surprised if I had 1000 steps!).  But I think I get a pass for that!

After my WW meeting I went to the grocery store since I hadn't gone yesterday (I almost didn't go because I had forgot to put my Fitbit back on!) and I stocked up on healthy foods. We just had too much junk in the house this week. Valentine's Day is on Thursday and I know some more junk will probably come in for that as well, but that is 5 days away!

We have nothing planned for this weekend and that is wonderful. It is very windy today so feels like 12, so a good day to stay inside!


 

One day at a time.....

Tuesday was a battle of wills being at home, but I feel like I made the right choice to stay home with less temptations than go to work. Plus it was beautiful out (63 degrees!) so I kept going out and standing in the sun. If only it were spring already!

I worked really hard to get in all my water even though I just wasn't feeling it. And my stomach kept growling, but I knew I wasn't really hungry.

I didn't get around to prepping for afternoon snacks (I really, really, really need to get back into this for next week!) so my snack was a small bowl of almonds, salted roasted pumpkin seeds and dried cherries. After that I did my 1.75 mile run on the treadmill. Ugh I didn't wait long enough after eating, but I got through it, even though it was mentally challenging. For the last 1/4 mile I upped the speed to 5 mph (12:00 min/mile).

Since I never made the pepper nachos for the Super Bowl, I still had the cut up peppers, so I turned them into one of our go-to meals - peppers and onions, chicken apple sausage, dried cranberries with some poultry seasoning. Usually we eat it over Israeli couscous - I usually eat too much of it plus we didn't have any in the house so we just had it over brown rice. 1 serving (usually unheard of). Score!

Wednesday was another work-from-home-day. We were in desperate need to some groceries so I fit in a quick trip before getting my son to school. I did pick up some vanilla ice cream, lemon sherbet and chocolate pudding for myself for Friday. But also a lot of produce which we needed.

The only not so good thing on Wednesday was my afternoon snack was a microwaveable Kraft Mac and Cheese bowl. But I am trying to get these things out of my house! And part of the result was a smaller dinner too - We had leftover Chorizo and turkey meat from the Superbowl which got turned into tacos. But instead of a tortilla and rice, I had a small amount of meat, a lot of black beans, cheese/lettuce/salsa/light sour cream and I did crumble a few chips over for the crunch. Again, just 1 serving!

So the scale is back down to 225.4 this morning.

Tomorrow I am having an endoscopy so I can't eat or drink anything after 8:30. I haven't been told I'll be restricted on my eating after the procedure, but the ice cream/sherbet/pudding are in case my throat hurts and I figure they'll be gentle.

But before that I am enjoying spaghetti, homemade sauce, salad and garlic bread for dinner. Is it 6:00 yet?!

Dialing it back in today

Scale up 4 pounds this morning from Saturday!!

Yep, yesterday didn't go quite as well as planned. I was fine until I got home - leftover cupcakes calling my name, didn't have a good snack planned, leftover queso and chips calling me.

Dinner was leftover pizza and a salad.....and too much ice cream.

But I did get in my walks to get to 10K even though it was a struggle.

And I fell asleep sitting up in bed at 9:15.

But today is another day!

Big purge this morning for trash day. I am WFH today -  I couldn't decide which was worse - going to work and having the pull of the cafeteria and Coke, or staying home and having the pull of all the food at my house. I decided home was the better choice (plus I have a lot of work to do so not having a 30 minute commute each way will help).

Crossing my fingers I can be successful today!!

WW Weigh-in #5 and Weekend Recap

Trying to muster up some energy this post-Super Bowl Monday. And will try hard not to derail myself today just because I am tired because this weekend involved lots of treats.

First of all - WW Meeting
I was 224.8 on Saturday morning. That was a 1.6 loss for the week!

After the meeting I measured my waist and it was 40" - a 2" loss! (I am not taking any other measurements right now)

I ate during my meeting knowing I needed to run when I got home. I ran for 1.75 miles at 4.8 (12:30). It felt fantastic! I had a hearty breakfast of oatmeal with blueberries and almonds (and yes, a teaspoon of brown sugar).

Me and my husband had a day date at a museum to see an Ansel Adams exhibit and finished the date at a local brewery/restaurant that had recently opened. I took advantage of my 1 non-water drink for the month (well, in this case, a 1 non-water drink event because I had 2 1 /2 drinks). Last month I had a coffee/hot chocolate drink the day after the AFC Championship.

Lunch was a variety of stuff - potato chips and onion dip, a sausage platter, devilled eggs, and pumpkin bisque (this was a win because I really wanted a burger)!

I had left my fitbit in the charger after I ran so I didn't get the steps while I was walking at the museum or to get to the restaurant, but I did take a 20 minute walk on the treadmill later in the day.

For dinner I made beer stroganoff with noodes from a recipe a friend gave me. I cooked some mushrooms on the side since my husband doesn't like them. It was yummy and I probably had too much (though not a second helping). But I felt gross the whole afternoon - it's not like I had a ton of food at lunch, but I think the beer just made me feel bloated.

Super Bowl Sunday - could have been a lot worse!
I had planned on walking on Sunday morning while watching Patriots hype videos, and even had a pre-exercise breakfast. But then I sat down in front of the fire under a blanket and started reading and just couldn't pull myself away. I rarely, rarely get to do this so just kept sitting and reading until I had to pick up my daughter at 12:30. I had 400 steps by 1:00. A late lunch included TWO helpings of beef stroganoff :( Followed later my a cupcake.

But then I walked for 65 minutes while watching highlights of the Patriots 2001 season and got to my 10K steps.

While I wasn't as nervous as previous super bowls, I didn't really feel like eating all the food we had made, but I did have some: queso and chips, 7 layer dip and chips and a small piece of pizza and a cupcake. And then around 8:30 I had another cupcake and some ice cream.

Needless to say the scale was way up this morning and I feel bloated so trying to get in my water and walks today at work.

TGIF!

No just Thank Goodness It's Friday. But Thank Goodness It's February!!!!!!
January is by far my least favorite month, but this one went especially slowly. But thank goodness it is over!

And I have a lot to be grateful for this month. On Thursday January 3rd I weighed 236.4. While that wasn't a "real" weight, I was horrified by it. Today I was 225.6. I need to keep crushing this weight loss through February (and beyond). But I need to get out of the 220s. I saw 219.8 for 1 day 3 years ago and not since.

In January I:
*Ran 25 miles (some run/walking, but now it is all walking)
*Went to bed at 10:00 pm for 29 out of 31 days
*Walked 10K steps or more every day
*Tracked (not necessarily weights and measures) every day
*Rejoined Weight Watchers

In February I would like to:
*Run another 25 miles - this time all running!
*Keep up with the good bedtimes
*Keep up with the 10K steps
*Keep up with the tracking
*Go to Weight Watchers every week (even next week, the day after my endoscopy)
*Get out of the 220s!
*Aim for continued success (though not perfect, but I don't need perfect) on smaller portions at dinner and healthy snacking

I would also like to potentially start doing some other exercising, but I am not going to put that as a hard goal - I am on a roll right now and don't potentially want to rock the boat until I am out of the 220s.

I am also not committing to giving up my Lean Cuisine Pizza for lunches yet either.

And I want to continue with cooking different meals. I do love to cook, but in the past I get myself into trouble because I end up eating too much when I do cook different, yummy meals.

On to Groundhog Day tomorrow!!!