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!