Grammpaula's Space

Weigh in day

2012-02-13T18:16:00.000-05:00

WOO HOO!! I was down another .4 today. That is a total of 42.4 pounds so far. I was a little surprised with the loss today.

I went to Jazzercise this morning. We did a preview of the Ballet Body workout. Boy was it ever intense. I hope I can walk tomorrow morning. There was a lot of leg exercises in the routine. I haven't decided yet if I want to shell out the extra money to do it or not.

Eating yesterday went well. Today is my off day so I don't really track on my weigh in day. I take one day a week off. We went out tonight and had Mexican. Back on track tomorrow.

What's going on with all of you?

Winter Has Arrived

2012-02-11T11:43:00.000-05:00

We've been really lucky this year with the weather. When it's snowed we had a nice warm day to melt it all. Today we are getting another burst of winter. It's snowing and blowing. It looks all wintery out there.

Yesterday's eating went very well. I stayed within my points. I really like doing my tracking starting with dinner. My weight is still down and I'm hoping to show another loss on Monday. I am really going to try hard to stay on track the whole weekend, which never happens.

I tried on more clothes this morning. I have some black jeans that are still snug. I looked at the size and they are a slim fit size 10. These were bought at least 9 years ago and have only been wore once. I remember the day I wore them. They were snug then too. I think I'll see if my daughter wants them. I just can't see me wearing a slim cut ever!! I've tried on all my skinny clothes that I've saved and I have 1 pair of jeans that I could wear if I had to, but they are a little tight. Another couple pounds and I will be able to wear them without any problem. Could it be that someday I might have to go and buy more clothes because the size 10s are too big? I just can't imagine this happening. Of course, I never saw me getting back into my old skinny clothes either.

So, how's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Where Have I Been?

2012-02-10T14:10:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that it's been so long since I've been on my blog to update. I think working threw a wrench into my schedule. I am no longer working and haven't been for a month, so that really isn't an excuse. I've been watching weight loss and couponing videos on You Tube and playing on Facebook.

OK, now to what is most important. I am now at my WW goal weight. I got to my free weight last month and was able to be below my goal weight this week. I weighed in at 144.8 on Monday. That is a 41.8 total weight loss since December 2010. I took my measurements today and I've lost a total of 25.5 inches overall. I can't believe I've lost that much. I still have a lot of inches to lose.

I rejoined Jazzercise. I've been going 3 times a week. They just started an 8:15 AM class and I love it. It's a smaller class and I love getting in and out early in the day. I can go to class before my 10:00 Monday weigh in too. I'm so ready for summer so I can get out and walk and work in the gardens. We have not had a bad winter this year, but it's not been warm enough to walk. Well, it was nice enough a couple weeks ago and I took advantage of it and took the dog for a walk. It felt so good to be out in the fresh air.

After taking my measurements I decided to try on my next size down jeans. Guess what? They now fit. The last time I tried them on I could get them zipped, but they were not comfortable. Today, I can sit here at the computer in them and still breathe. When I started this journey I couldn't even begin to zip my size 14 jeans. Today I'm able to wear my size 10 jeans.

I learned a great tip for tracking at my last WW meeting. Our leader suggested that we start tracking with our dinner. She said it doesn't matter what 24 hour period you start with. So far this week I've tracked everyday and I've stayed within my points everyday. I go to the next day and log in my dinner and evening snack. Then in the morning I know how much I have left for breakfast and lunch. Those 2 meals a easier to tweak to stay in my point range than dinner. The other day I realized I didn't have any points left for lunch, so I decided a fruit plate would work. I just put a lot of fresh fruit on a plate and ate that.All were zero points so I stayed within my points that day too.

OK, that takes care of food and exercise. Now for the water intake. I'm still working on that. I think I'm doing better, but I'm still not where I need to be. It's hard to drink water in the winter.

How is everyone else doing on their journey? I guess I'll go look at my Google Reader to see what everyone is posting.

Clay Aiken Fan

2011-12-21T10:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got the best gift ever. Clay released his newest single. It is the most beautiful song I think I've ever heard. I've played it over and over. I've never bought any music on the internet before, but I'm glad I bought this song. It's worth so much more than the 99 cents I spent on it. Are there any other Clay fans here?
I've read that Clay's going to be on the next Celebrity Apprentice. They are filming it now and it will air in February. I will be watching this season for sure. I hope he makes it to the end.

Newest update

2011-12-20T10:21:00.000-05:00

Gee, I haven't posted since Dec. 5th. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago. Last week at WW I gained 1 pound. I wasn't happy about it, but things happen. This week I lost 3 more pounds. I am so close to my goal. Actually I forgot that I can be 2 pounds above my goal to be free at WW, so I only have to lose .8 to not have to pay anymore. Now that is really close. I almost took off my bra and weighted in again. I'm going to try my hardest to make it next week. I will have to be REALLY good all week and really limit myself on Christmas. I'm not really tempted by the cookies or sweets, but we are having ham and we all know what happens when you eat salty food. I have not made my goal to be back to 145 by my 1 year anniversary of rejoining WW, but I will try my hardest to get there by the new year. That is 2.8 pounds in 2 weeks. It is doable.

The job is going well. I've been super busy. I really think all the walking and not being around home to snack has really helped me with the 3 pounds losses. This past week we had a cookie exchange at work (really everyone brought in cookies and shared them) and I went to a party with my hubby on Saturday. I was a little surprised to see such a big loss this week, but I'm not complaining. I didn't go to Jazzercise all week either and only walked with Leslie Sansone on Monday before weigh-in.

I hope everyone else is having a good holiday. I have not been reading any of the blogs, so I'm so far behind on what all of your progresses are. Someday, I hope to get caught back up. Probably not until after the first of the year.

I must be dreaming

2011-12-05T13:33:00.000-05:00

First of all. I got on my scale this morning and was so happy at what I saw. I couldn't wait to go weigh-in at my WW meeting. I did my Leslie Sansone 4 mile walk, put on my regular weigh-in clothes, made my smoothie, put on my jacket and shoes and grabbed my purse. I put my hand in to grab my keys and NO KEYS!!! Where could they be? I took everything out of my purse and still NO KEYS!!! No, this couldn't be happening. I called my hubby and he said he hadn't seen them. I cleaned off the dining room table, I cleaned off my desk. I drank 1/2 of my smoothie. I was so mad and disappointed. I really wanted to go to my meeting this week. First of all to weigh-in since I knew I had done so well and second to hear about the new things with the program. I just wanted to cry. As a matter of fact I did get teary eyed. I went into the living room and picked up the Christmas lights that were on the couch and there were MY KEYS!!! I have no idea how they got under the lights. Anyway, by now the meeting had already started, but I decided to go to weigh in anyway. I got there when the meeting was almost over. I weighed in and lost 3.2 pounds. WOO HOO!!! I have 4.8 more pounds to go to be back to my lifetime weight. I don't think I will be able to do it by the 20th (my rejoining anniversary), but maybe by the new year which was my first goal I set anyway.

On the job front. I ended up being on the register all by 15 minutes of my shift yesterday. That means no one in shoes to put things away, no one to straighten the shoes, and no one to run and get boxes on shoes people need in their size. I just hope that they don't evaluate me by the way the shoe department looks at the end of my day. One good thing is I'm getting plenty of experience on the register and I'm not having to ask as many questions. When I walked back by the shoes at the end of the day, a lady showed me a box of shoes that had someone's old, dirty, disgusting shoes in it. Looks like that person got a nice new pair of shoes to wear out of the store. I chalk this up to not having enough supervision in the department. This Kohl's operates on a very lean employment staff. It makes me wonder how many other things get walked out of the store without notice?

I have the day off today, so it will be laundry day and getting things in order. I'm making a rotisserie chicken for dinner tonight and will use leftover chicken in meals later in the week. I'm thinking a sweet potato with a little Splenda brown sugar, Knorr side dish noodles, and broccoli will make a pretty good meal for tonight. I've already calculated my points for today and I will still have 10 points left for the day. If I'm hungry later on this evening I will enjoy some veggies and dip and still be below in points. I really have to say that I really don't feel that hungry during the day. My stomach might growl, but as far as a physical hunger I don't really notice it.

Sunday

2011-12-04T08:56:00.000-05:00

I have to go to work at 11:30 today. I'll be the first one in shoes for the day. Since I was the last one there yesterday I know (kinda) what to expect. This is the worst I've ever seen it. I know that the girl before me worked all day on trying to keep things picked up and put away, but when I got there it didn't look like anyone had been there in a month. Things were everywhere. I'm not just talking shoes. People also leave all their other stuff that they decide they don't want in the shoe department. I had 2 coats hanging on the shelves along with kids clothes, candles and a frame were also left behind. So besides picking up and putting away the shoes, these slobs leave just everywhere, I also have to clean up their other messes. It just amazes me. The store looked a little better when I left, but it will be unattended until I get there today. It truly looked like no one was working in that department yesterday. I would clean an area and the next time I walked through it it would be a mess again. It got to the point ant I decided to just do the best I could to get the area looking decent and maybe today I can work on getting things that have been returned back on the shelves and start all over again. That's another thing. We have A LOT!! of shoes returned. I'm not sure what that is all about. The shoe return cubby was full when I got there and mid way through my shift they called me to the service desk to clean it out again, because it was full. At closing I checked again it was full again. We had 2 carts full of shoes waiting to be put back on the shelves that were returns. AMAZING!!

OK, enough of the ranting. I ate pretty good yesterday. I had my smoothie for breakfast and a bowl of homemade turkey noodle soup as a mid morning snack. I had a small salad at the restaurant for dinner. I took my veggies and dip to work to share. No one had brought any veggies all day so they were a big hit. By the time I got back to the break room for my break all the carrots were gone. I only like the carrots and green peppers so I had some dip and green peppers. I calculated the points for the dip and the whole thing comes to 10 points. It makes a lot of dip so I counted it high and put 2 points in the tracker. When I got home I had some more dip and a few carrots.

Tomorrow is weigh-in. I'm down on my scale so let's hope I keep it off today and I show a loss on their scale too. I'm so close to being in the 140s. Maybe this will be the week I do it!! I really wanted to be to goal again by next week. I don't see that happening, but I'm a lot closer than I was a year ago.

Lower Points Plus in 2012

2011-12-03T13:11:00.000-05:00

Well, actually they kicked in this week. I now only have 26 points instead of 29. Our leader told us a little about the new points on Monday, but will be explaining it in more detail at our next meeting. I don't know if it's going to make that much of a difference or not. Many times I wasn't eating all my points anyway, so maybe now I will. I am definitely eating less now that I'm working. No more time to snack.

Speaking of work... I still like it. I am always busy. I can't believe what slobs some people are. The other day there were 10 boxes of shoes sitting on the bench waiting for me to put them away. The sad thing is the place they belonged was right next to the bench. I am constantly closing open boxes and putting one shoe back in boxes with their mates. I can understand people putting the size 10 on top of the stack instead of putting it at the bottom where it belongs, but to just leave boxes sitting where you tried them on and to leave lids off of shoes in the shelves is a little much. I feel like I'm working in the children's section of the library where they ask the kids to not return the books on the shelves. I guess I'm lucky that was my previous job. Who know I was working in the schools as a librarian for training for a job in Kohl's shoe department later on in life. I also have to fill in at the registers when they get busy. The other day I was working for 6 hours and I probably spent 1/2 an hour in shoes. At least I'm learning more about the register each time I'm working on it. Pretty soon I'll be an expert! ;-)

Today is dip day at work. They will be furnishing some dip and chips and if we wish we can bring in some to share. I made some of my diet friendlier dip and cut up some veggies. I know what is in my dip so it will be easier to calculate the points. I'll probably leave it there so I can have it for lunch tomorrow too.

So, how is everyone else doing. I haven't been reading the blogs so I have no idea what's going on in everyone's life right now.

Weigh in after Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T12:21:00.000-05:00

OK, so I really wanted to show a loss. I didn't lose this week, but I did only gain .4. I really don't think I ate all that bad. I know that I missed some meals due to working. I find it very hard to get my 15 minute breaks in. The shoe department is always busy and it's hard to find someone to cover for me.

I did take my measurements and I'm down another inch in my bust, waist and hips. I know that my clothes are fitting a lot more loose. I am going to have to get some new pants soon for work. Mine are really baggy. It's a shame to lose weight and wear baggy clothes so no one can even tell. I, in no way, want to wear skin tight clothes, but something that fits better would be nice.

I liked the condensed post last week, but I found that I was wanting to also write about things that happened the day I was writing on, so I think I'll go back to semi daily blogs entries.

Is every body decorated for Christmas already? We are suppose to get a new roof in the very near future so we didn't want to put up the outside lights yet. We usually turn them on after dinner on Thanksgiving. It seems odd to not have them up and lit. I haven't started on the inside of the house yet either. I'm hoping to get that at least started today. I work all but 2 days this week and 3 of those days are until midnight. I hate driving at night. I'm glad that Kohl's is not far away and I only have to make a couple turns and I'm home.

OK, I'd better get some laundry done and get started on decorating the living room.

Week in Review: Nov 20 - 26

2011-11-21T11:51:00.007-05:00

I am totally "stealing" this idea from Watchmeshine's blog .

I thought I would start a post that I could update on a daily basis and be able to reflect on each day of that week, in one place. So, this is my first "Week in Review" post, where I will reflect upon each day after it has passed and I am "safely" into the next day.

SUNDAY:
I didn't do too much. I ate pretty good. I haven't been tracking, so I'm going to have to get back into the habit of that. We went out to dinner and I had a spinach salad. I'm still not having any pop or candy. This new habit is going very well. Status: Feeling good with myself.

MONDAY:
Today was weigh-in I'm down another .4. That's a total of 34 pounds so far. 7.6 more to go. I don't think I'll make it by my 1 year WW rejoining anniversary, but I will make it. I'll write more tomorrow!
I ended the day with zero points left. I did my 4 mile Leslie Sansone DVD.
Status: Feeling OK with the way the day went.

TUESDAY:
I had planned on going to Jazzercise today, but went shopping with my daughter instead. I did my Lislie Sansone 4 mile DVD before I went to my weight loss challenge meeting. I was up 1 pound for that weigh in.
I went over my points by 6 points. I now have 43 weekly left.
Status: Gonna try to do better tomorrow.

WEDNESDAY:
Went to Jazzercise in the morning. It felt good to be back. It was a good workout.
Made my stuffing so it all ready to stuff into the turkey.
Ended the day with 2 points left over.
Status: Feeling good about the day. More energy today.

THURSDAY:
Thanksgiving went well. I got a 30 minute walk in before dinner. I used a small plate and filled it with all the goodies. No seconds. I had a piece of pie. Actually I had a half of a piece of the regular pumpkin pie and a half piece of the pumpkin fluff pie.
When I entered things in the WW etools it said I went over by 11 points. It's had to calculate when things are homemade. I feel good with how I ate.
Status:Feeling Thankful.

FRIDAY:
I went to Jazzercise in the morning. We used the balls. Had a good work out.
Dinner was the same as yesterday. We had all the leftovers. I skipped the mashed potatoes this time around. I didn't even bother to enter everything in the etools. I'm sure the points would be pretty close to Thursday except we ate early so it was my lunch instead of dinner.
I had to go to work at 4 till 12:30 am. I took my pie and had it for my dinner break. I walked for 7 hours putting away shoes that were left laying around and getting shoes that people needed in a different size. I was pooped when I got home.
Status:Tired

SATURDAY:
Worked, which means I walked for 6 hours. Those shoe boxes get heavy near the end of the shift. There's lots of lifting and reaching and bending too. All in all it's quite a workout. My arms and legs are tender.
I went to dinner after work. I had a soup and salad. I had my pie for my evening snack. All in all a pretty good day.
Status: Tired. Early bedtime.

Weigh-in was yesterday

2011-11-08T07:12:00.000-05:00

I had a .4 gain this week. Now I have to lose 2 pounds next week to make my end of the year goal. I know I wasn't eating right last week. With my husband being sick and not wanting to eat I just didn't cook healthy food. Actually I really don't think I was eating enough.

I went in to work last night for my 1st night of training. I spend almost 4 hours sitting in front of a computer watching videos and answering questions. The manager scheduled it too tight and didn't give enough time for the extra activities that needed to be done. We all ran out of time doing the training. I would much rather just do on the job training. I think it really helps you retain more when you are learning hands on. Watching a video doesn't actually give you the feel of what the stock room is really like and how to stock the shelves. I watch more videos and train on the register Thursday and then shadow a buddy on Saturday. They already offered me extra time on next Tuesday morning to run the register.

I'm going to take my car to my daughter's this morning and then walk back home. She needs to use my car today and I need to get in more exercise. I will walk to the weigh-in challenge meeting tonight too.

I hope everyone is having a good week so far.

Tomorrow is weigh-in day

2011-11-06T15:14:00.001-05:00

I'm hoping that I will have another pound loss. Eating has been pretty good this week. I've gotten some exercise in. Today I raked leaves and cut down some flower stalks. It's a beautiful day today. I'm afraid there aren't many left this year.

This is the week of Birthday cake. I made a chocolate cake for my daughter's birthday. Since I will be working Monday and Wednesday and we have the weight loss challenge meeting on her real birthday, Tuesday, we are going to celebrate today. My grandson's birthday is Thursday, so there will be another cake that day. I will have a small piece of cake, but that's it. The rest of the cake will remain at her house.

My hubby's been sick. He came home early on Wednesday and stayed home on Thursday. He went back to work on Friday and started feeling bad again. I told him to take the extra day off, but he didn't listen to me. He's been running a fever and feels weak. On Friday night he kept sweating all night , but he felt cold. He soaked thorough 2 sets of clothes during the night. His temperature was below normal. Very strange. He said he feels better today, but is still weak. He really doesn't much of an appetite.

How is everyone else doing? Rosie, how's your arm?

Orientation

2011-11-03T15:04:00.000-04:00

I went to my job orientation last night. It lasted almost 4 hours. I felt a little over-whelmed. It sure will be interesting once I get the hang of it. I have 2 more training sessions and then I shadow a sales associate for 4 hours Next Saturday.

Eating been going pretty good. I made some turkey noodle soup yesterday for dinner. My hubby came home early from work yesterday with a fever. I thought soup would be good for him. He's spent the day in bed today. His fever is down, but still not to normal. He's such a big baby when he's sick.

Job Update and more

2011-11-01T09:46:00.001-04:00

I got a call from Kohl's yesterday. They wanted phone numbers for my past employments. I explained to the girl that I had not worked at these places for close to 20 years and I was not sure if they would even remember me working there. I looked up the numbers and called her back. One place was no longer in business and one of the supervisors was in a completely different department, but I did have a phone number. I asked her if I could give her a couple personal reference numbers just in case she was unable to get anything from the employers. She took one name which was my neighbor. My neighbor called a little later and said that they had called her and she told them that I was a wonder neighbor and that I took care of her cat when they go out of town and they feel I'm trustworthy of having a key to their house. The girl thanked her for calling them back and that she got the same impression from me when I talked to her and that she would also put in a good recommendation for me. Now on to more waiting. (UPDATE) They just called and I got the job. I go to orientation tomorrow evening and they I do training and then I work. I'm schedule to work in the shoe department, but from what I understand they do cross training so I could be working in any area of the store.

Halloween was OK. I bought 1 bag of candy with sweet tarts, laffy taffy, and nerds. There were 200 pieces of candy in the bag. I gave 2 pieces to each begger and I still have at least a half bag left. Each year our numbers go down. Less and less people give out candy on my street which hurts the attendance. The other streets near me go all out for Halloween. They decorate and every house has their porch light lit. The kids would rather go where they don't have to walk by a lot of houses to get to more candy. The weather was not bad. It had sprinkled earlier in the day, but did not rain during the begger hours and it was not too cold. I got a bit chilled sitting there waiting for more kids. I made some hot cocoa when I came in to help me warm up.

Yesterday was the last day of the eat more protein challenge. I weigh in tonight at my Weight loss challenge meeting. I have to make another batch of dump soup. I really think that helped me with my WW weight loss this week. Filling and no points.

Boy, it must be cold out. I just looked out the window and the roofs have a lot of frost on them It looks like snow. I'm going to do Zumba on wii this morning and walk to my meeting tonight so that's my exercise for the day. How is everyone else doing with their exercise program?

Weigh-in Day

2011-10-31T14:39:00.000-04:00

At today's weigh-in I lost 1 pound. That makes me right on track. 8 more pounds and 8 more weeks to get there for my 1 year anniversary of rejoining. A total of 33.4 pounds so far. That puts me at 153.2 pounds.

The other weight loss challenge I'm in has helped me this week. It really seems like I've been eating a lot more foods, but it must be the right kind of foods. The protein has helped me stay fuller longer and the no junk food is a plus. I really don't eat much junk food anyway, but I have found myself reaching for things that I shouldn't and had to double think it. I've gotten all the points and bonus points for the challenge all week. I hope to have a loss when I weigh in there tomorrow.

I didn't eat any cake at my grandson's graduation party. I did bring 2 small pieces home and I will enjoy them tomorrow night after my weight loss challenge weigh-in. Next week the challenge will only be weight loss so no extra thing to work on.

Tonight is our trick or treat. I bought 1 large bag of assorted candy to hand out. I made sure it was something I didn't like so I wouldn't be tempted. I can't believe it's been at least a year since I've had candy. I'm amazed at my will power. I really don't even crave it. There was one lonely small peanut butter cup in my pantry and I've even had it in my hand and moved it several times and I haven't been tempted to open it and eat it. I am a little glad that my grandson finally ate it today.

I got a call from Kohl's asking for phone numbers for my background check. I explained to the girl that it's been more that 18 years since I worked at these places. I know that the principal at the last school I worked at is no longer there and the supervisor at the board of education has a new job higher up than the supervisor position and I'm not sure after 20 years she will remember me. I did give her a personal reference just in case she wanted it so she could talk to someone that actually knows me now. We will see what happens. I would hope to hear something soon since there's a week training and we have to work the day after Thanksgiving. That doesn't give a lot of time to get training and a little experience under our belts before the mad holiday rush.

How is everyone else doing today?

It Can't Already Be Friday Again.

2011-10-28T09:49:00.000-04:00

Oh my. The time is just flying by. Next week it will be November already. I am not ready for the year to be over. It just seems like it was the holidays and here we are again and they upon it again. November is a very busy month. I have 3 birthdays that I have to furnish the cakes for. My daughter's birthday is the 8th and her husband's birthday is the 13th. My grandson's birthday is the 10th. Then I have Thanksgiving dinner at my house with all the fixings and all the leftovers. All this and then my other grandson is having his graduation party tomorrow. You know there will be food there. I'm getting the cake. You might wonder why a graduation party in November? He had to take his math class in summer school. Things have been busy over the summer, so he's having it tomorrow.

Yesterday's eating went OK. I ate more than the day before, but I stayed within my points and calories. I did a little walking, but not as much as I needed. It's all foggy out today and there's frost on the roofs, but I might go for a a walk outside anyway. I feel like getting some fresh air. I'll just bundle up before I go. Here's my Spark People chart of what I ate yesterday.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Breakfast

Calories

Fat

Carbohydrates

Protein

Sodium, Na

Fiber, total dietary

Banana, fresh, 1 medium (7" to 7-7/8" long)

109

Juice, Naked Juice Red Machine, 4 oz

Egg, fresh, 1 large

Egg white, 1 serving

Weight Watchers Strawberry Yogurt, 1 serving

100

110

Best Choice Mixed Berries, 1 cup

Swiss Cheese, 30 grams

113

Hillshire Farm Deli Select Smoked Ham, 1 oz

170

588

492

Lunch

Calories

Fat

Carbohydrates

Protein

Sodium, Na

Fiber, total dietary

5 Can Dump Soup, 1 serving

120

532

120

532

Dinner

Calories

Fat

Carbohydrates

Protein

Sodium, Na

Fiber, total dietary

Hard Boiled Egg, 1 large

Chick Peas, 0.3 cup

Carrots, raw, 0.5 small (5-1/2" long)

Bib Lettuce, 1 cup, shredded or chopped

Kikkoman Lite Soy Sauce, 0.3 tbsp

173

Good Seasons Asian Sesame with Ginger Dressing, 1 tbsp

150

Apple Cider, fresh, 8 oz

120

Chicken Breast, no skin, 3 ounces

Broccoli, cooked, 0.5 cup, chopped

brown rice (1 cup cooked), 0.5 serving

109

Cheddar Cheese, 0.3 cup, shredded

137

211

713

767

Snack

Calories

Fat

Carbohydrates

Protein

Sodium, Na

Fiber, total dietary

Apples, fresh, 1 medium (2-3/4" dia) (approx 3 per lb)

1,503

204

1,791

1367 - 1605

35 - 61

176 - 254

56 - 136

500 - 2300

35 - 40

Could it be?

2011-10-27T07:32:00.000-04:00

I was afraid to step on the scale this morning. I still feel full from yesterday, but know I have to eat breakfast. I want that point. When I got on the scale it said I was down 1.5 pounds today. Could it be that I haven't been eating enough or enough protein? I still was down in calories according to Spark People. With WW I really never know how many calories I'm eating, I've been trying the Simply Filling Technique this week. I decided to eat a string cheese last night to get my last 8 proteins in. The yogurt and breakfast bread just seemed too much to eat in the evening. I think I'll start off with eggs with my smoothie this morning. I can't have so much protein left at the end of the day. Here's what I ate yesterday.

	Calories	Fat	Carbohydrates	Protein	Sodium, Na	Fiber, total dietary
Breakfast
Best Choice Mixed Berries, 1 cup	70	1	17	1	0	5
Weight Watchers Strawberry Yogurt, 1 serving	100	1	17	6	110	3
Banana, fresh, 1 medium (7" to 7-7/8" long)	109	1	28	1	1	3
Juice, Naked Juice Red Machine, 4 oz	80	2	16	1	8	2
bestlife buttery spread, 0.5 tbsp	30	3	0	0	50	0
Sara Lee Blueberry Crumble Breakfast Bread, 1 serving	90	1	18	3	95	3
	479	7	96	12	264	16
Lunch
	Calories	Fat	Carbohydrates	Protein	Sodium, Na	Fiber, total dietary
5 Can Dump Soup, 1 serving	120	1	23	7	532	9
	120	1	23	7	532	9
Dinner
	Calories	Fat	Carbohydrates	Protein	Sodium, Na	Fiber, total dietary
cottage cheese small curd 1% milkfat, 0.25 cup	40	1	3	7	205	0
Green Giant Sugar Snap Peas, no sauce, 0.5 cup	40	0	10	2	95	2
Chicken Breast, no skin, 3 ounces	94	1	0	20	55	0
Carrots, cooked, 0.5 cup slices	27	0	6	1	45	2
Butternut Squash, 0.5 cup, cubes	41	0	11	1	4	3
	242	2	30	30	405	7
Snack
	Calories	Fat	Carbohydrates	Protein	Sodium, Na	Fiber, total dietary
Frigo Light String Cheese, 1 oz	60	3	0	8	230	0
	60	3	0	8	230	0
	901	12	149	56	1,431	32

Today I have to exercise. Maybe I'll do a Leslie Sansone DVD this morning and Zumba this evening. Depending on how full I am tonight. I just can't exercise when I'm too full.

Today's Job Iterview

2011-10-26T19:03:00.000-04:00

OK, so I get there early so I can fill out the application, since I filled mine out online and they wanted a hard copy for their files. I decided to wear black dress pants and a black turtleneck sweater with argyle print going down the front. I curled my hair and I think I looked pretty good. I even put makeup on. ;-) Anyway while I was filling out the papers a young girl walks up to the desk and said she was there for the interview. She was wearing tight jeans, a fleece jacket zipped up and flip flops. Is it me or is this NOT proper interview attire. Another girl had a low cut sleeveless top on and tight pants. A man that might have been around my age had on jeans and a very casual polo shirt and leather type jacket. There was an elder lady that was dressed in a nice outfit. The 2 of us were by far the best dressed ones there. The interview had 7 of us and 2 interviewers. One was a girl from HR and one was the manager. I think it went pretty well. They asked several questions and we all had to answer the same questions. I was the 6th one to answer. I thought I had a couple answers that were better than the others. We will see what happens. They said they would let us know in a week or 2. This will be a seasonal position (which wasn't in the ad I answered), but they may decide to keep some of us after the holidays in a part time position.

I went to my weight loss challenge last night. I lost .2. A loss is a loss so I'm not complaining. This week we have a food challenge. I have to eat 56 grams of protein each day for 1 point. Eating breakfast is worth 1 point, eating 3 times a day 1 point, eating 5 serving of fruits and veggies 1 point, not eating any junk food is 1 point, staying on our personal plan is 1 point, journaling is 1 point, and eating 14 grams of fiber for every 1000 calories consumed is 1 point. If we meet all the guidelines we get 2 bonus points for that day. This is going to be a hard one for me. I've had all of my meals including breakfast so I got those points I've journaled so another point I've gotten in the fruits and veggies another point. NO junk food, another point I've stayed on plan, so another point. I still have to get in 8 more grams of protein. I'm thinking about eating a yogurt and slice of breakfast bread for my evening snack. That will put me 1 protein over and I have plenty of fiber already thanks to my Dump Soup. I sure hope I don't gain weight eating this way. It's only for 1 week, so I can go back to my normal eating next week if I show a gain. I know now that I'm going to have to budget the protein through out the day to get it all in. I think egg whites for breakfast will help. That's what I'm doing tomorrow. I don't want to have to eat so much in the evening. Tomorrow will be an exercise day for sure.

EKK!!! Job interview tomorrow.

2011-10-25T12:35:00.000-04:00

The last time I had a job interview was 20 years ago. The last time I worked for someone other than myself was 19 years ago. I applied online for a job at Kohl's in their shoe department over the weekend and I got a call this morning asking if I was still interested I the job. The interview will be a group interview at 10:00 tomorrow morning. What do I wear? What should I expect from a group interview? I've only had a couple one on one interviews in my life. I started working after my girls were out of school. Can you tell I'm nervous.

I'm not letting my nervousness get me into eating things I shouldn't. I'm doing pretty good sticking to plan. I'll walk to my Weight-loss challenge meeting tonight, so that will be my exercise.

Wish me luck with my interview and I'll let everyone know how it went tomorrow.

Weekly weigh-in

2011-10-24T11:41:00.000-04:00

I had a .4 loss this week. Of course, I had a 1 pound gain last week so I'm still behind. That's OK, at least it was a loss. I have 9 more weeks until it's my 1 year anniversary of rejoining Weight Watchers. I have 9.2 pounds to lose to get to my goal again. That means I have to lose at least a pound each week from now until December 20th to make my personal goal. I can do this. No, I WILL do this. I lost last year over the holidays and I can do it again this year. It will take a lot of planning and a lot of work, but I WILL do it. I am back to tracking as of today. I got in my 4 fast miles with Leslie Sansone this morning. I am going to fill up my water bottle and get all my water in today. I have no idea but we are having for dinner, so I have to look in the freezer and find something. I really wanted to do the meatless Monday thing, but it just isn't working out. My hubby just has to have his meat. I have to make this weeks meal plan menu, so I know what I'm having the rest of the week, so I don't fall into a bad choice. The next 9 weeks are going to be GOOD weeks and I hope they show it on the scale.

I took my measurements yesterday since my old clothes were fitting again. Here's the results from when I took my measurements in January until now:
Arms -.5
Hips -4.5
Bust -4
Waist -6
Thighs -3.5

That's a total on 18.5 inches overall. That's amazing. I still see that fat girl in the mirror, but I am shrinking even if I don't see it myself. Others have notices and that's all that counts. Someday I will see the change.

I've got a pot of dump soup on the stove, so I will be set for lunches this week. I'm going back to basics.

NSV

2011-10-23T13:21:00.000-04:00

I had a nice NSV (Non-scale victory) yesterday. I was switching out my summer and winter clothes and I got out the tub that had my "skinny" clothes in it. I thought I would take a chance and try some things on. It turns out that some of the pants are too big. When I started this journey I couldn't wear my size 14 jeans. They lacked closing by at least 4 inches. I am now wearing them and they are loose in the butt and legs. I can button them with no problem with room to spare. I tried on my size 12 jeans yesterday. THEY FIT! They were a little tight, but I could button them and zip them without laying on the bed to do so. I thought , "What the heck, try on the size 10." I got them on and they were 2 inches or less from zipping and buttoning. If I had laid on the bed I could have probably gotten them zipped. My muffin top would be enormous, but they would have been zipped. I was thinking I would need to go buy new clothes if I got a job, but I think I'll be OK as far as pants go. I have some nice dressy pants that will work out fine and they all fit.

Tomorrow morning is my weigh-in. I'm hoping for a loss. Right now I'm not showing one, but after my smooth move tea and my Leslie Sansone DVD I might make it. I will have a salad for dinner tonight. I haven't been tracking my meals. Monday I'm back to tracking what I eat. It really does help. I'm just lazy!

The sun's been shining yesterday and today, but it's cold outside. I have to get the plants out of the ground that I want to try and winter over. I want to do that today.

How is everyone else doing this weekend?

Is it Friday already?

2011-10-21T08:20:00.000-04:00

This week has gone by so fast. I can't believe October is almost over. The older I get the faster the time seems to fly by. It will be the end of December before I know it and I want to be back to goal by that time. I know I can do it, but if I don't step things up it's not going to happen. The holidays are tucked in this time frame too. Last year I lost weight during the holidays and it was before I started back to WW. I was losing on my own. This year I have WW and all my internet friends to help me get there.

I made my butternut squash yesterday for dinner. I just sliced it and put olive oil and Splenda brown sugar on it and baked it. Some of it got over done and very hard from the sugar. It was like hard candy. It really didn't taste much different than when I make sweet potatoes the same way. I still have the neck and the whole bulb end to cook so I'm going to try them other ways and see if I like it cooked different ways.

I applied for a job at our local grocery store the other day. It's for a demo person to serve samples to customers while they shop. This sounds like a fun job. They also have the position open at another grocery store near me so, I'm thinking about applying there too. I have not worked outside the home except in my own children's clothing store for 18 years. I worked in the school system as an early identification aide and library aide in elementary schools for several years before that and had a job in a seasonal Christmas store for 3 years. I had my online costumes that have kept me busy until sales fell off a couple years ago. At one time I would be working day and night getting orders filled in time for Halloween. Now you can get some really cute costumes in the retail stores for much cheaper than I sell them for. This year I've made 1 costume and 3 cheerleader skirt and that's it. I could use a little extra money to help pay my credit cards off. My hubby is planning on retiring in a couple years and I don't want to have any balances on my cards when that happens. We can survive on his SS if we don't have extra money going out to those kind of bills. I don't want to work at a job I hate and these types of jobs sound like they could be fun.

I got on the scale this morning and I weighed 154.5. This is good!! Of course here we are, back to the weekend. I'm going to try my hardest to stay on track all weekend and maybe lose more for my WW on Monday and MAYBE show a loss for this week. The weather had been very WET and I haven't been out walking since Tuesday and then I didn't walk as far as usual because it was cold and had just rained. Most of the leaves are off the trees and now need to be raked. I would much rather wait until they have dried out some, so they aren't so heavy to rake.

I finally broke down and turned on the heat last night. Temps are in the 30's overnight and that is kinda cold, so I caved in and told my hubby I give up and we put the storm windows down and flipped the furnace switch to heat. The thermostat is set low, but it's on. I keep the temp down all winter. I hear a lot of complaining, but I just tell hubby to put on more layers. The poor dog actually sits in front of of the fake fire stove heater when I turn it on. He's such a drama king. ;-) My grandson was fighting the dog for the prime heater spot last night.

I think I'll go to Goodwill today to see if I can find any good deals. I love to look at their video/DVDs and see if they have any exercise tapes and I look at their diet cookbooks. They had a WW cookbook on Monday when I stopped in to look. I didn't have any cash with me and I didn't want to have them run such a small amount on my debit card, so I'll see if they still have it. I have a few bucks in my wallet today, so I can pay cash for it if I don't find anything else to buy. So I'm off to have breakfast and then shower, so I can get going.

Butternut Squash??

2011-10-19T16:04:00.000-04:00

I had to go to Joann Fabrics this morning to get some satin for a cape for my nephew's costume and I drove right past an Aldi's, so I decided to stop in and see what they had in the veggie section. They had Butternut squash for $.99. They also had some acorn squash for the same price. I decided to get the butternut squash. I've seen a lot of recipes for it and thought I would give it a try. Now that I have it here I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I thought maybe some oven fries would be good. Hungry Girl made some on her show and they looked easy to make. Has anyone made anything that really turned out good using the squash? How about acorn squash. I could try that next time if it's cheap enough. Also I really don't know if $.99 is a good price or not since I've never bought it before.

I went to my weight loss challenge last night. I was also up a pound at that weigh in. They did measurements again and I have lost inches since starting 5 weeks ago. I know that my clothes are getting looser. I'm going to have to go on a shopping spree if this keeps up.

Rosie how are you doing? I haven't seen an update since I read you thought you might have broken your arm. Have I missed the update or can't you type because you have your arm in a cast? I'm thinking about you!!

Weigh-in after vacation not so bad!

2011-10-17T13:27:00.000-04:00

I was up 1 pound. Totally better than I expected. I can live with a pound gain. It would have been nice to have a no gain or a loss, but 1 pound should be easy to get off. This week I'm going to get back into eating better and drinking my water. I have to walk everyday again. I did my new Leslie Sansone 5 mile walk today. WOW it was 75 minutes of walking. I was sweating for sure!!!

When I was at my WW meeting today the girl that checked me was saying that WW was going to change things again. She said she wasn't sure yet what they were going to do, but they would know in a few weeks. They have the cookbooks on sale 1/2 off to try and get rid of them. I really like the points plus and I think it's stupid if they are going to change it to something else so soon. They just got all the new packaging in the stores and now they are going to change it? I know a lot of people were complaining that they weren't happy with the new plan and were going back to the old one because they were losing weight better with it. Isn't that like everything that changes. You always have people not liking the change. I will do whatever plan they have, because WW works if you work the plan.

Down 2- 2 to go

2011-10-16T13:31:00.000-04:00

When I weighed-in this morning I was down 2 pounds. I need to lose 2 more pounds by tomorrow so I can at least have a maintain for my official WW weigh-in. My hubby did get me a 5 mile Leslie Sansone DVD, so I will do it in the morning and hopefully sweat off some weight.

I will be glad when my hubby goes back to work. He live for meal to meal. He starts talking about the next meal while we are eating a meal. I really didn't find myself hungry at all while we were gone, but since he wanted to eat, I ate too. Once he's not around I will be able to get back into eating less and maybe I will actually get hungry before I eat my meals. If I don't show a loss this week I should next week. I'm not going to stress if the scale is not my friend this week. I have to get back into drinking my water and exercising too.

Tupperware Quick Chef Pro System Giveaway 10/19

2011-10-15T20:48:00.000-04:00

Tupperware giveaway

I ran across this giveaway while catching up on my blog reading. I'm thinking it would be a good gadget to have in the kitchen to help prepare my healthy foods.

Home from vacation with some unwanted visitors

2011-10-15T11:53:00.000-04:00

I got on the scale when I got home and 4 pounds followed me home. YIKES!! I'm going to have to work hard to get them to go back to they they were and not on me! I didn't eat too bad, but I'm sure I could have done better. I did not get ANY exercise in. It rained one whole day so we just stayed in and worked a jigsaw puzzle. We did walk to a falls stop, but I have trouble breathing in high attitudes. I just couldn't catch my breath, so we didn't do any more talking. I was really hoping to get some walking in.

We did have a nice time at the cabin. It was just so peaceful and charming. I really hated to come back home. We drove around one day and went to NC to check out the Indian reservation. It was so commercialized. We drove through the casino parking lot and I said we shouldn't waste our money. I love Vegas, but this was only 1 casino and I didn't feel like going in and only staying a few minutes while we lost $20 or $40 at the machines. We enjoyed the hot tub at the cabin. Even though it was chilly outside we were nice and warm in the 100 degree water bubbling around us.

Now I'm back in the real world and I an going to have to get back to my real life. It is rainy and VERY windy here in Ohio today, so I'm not going out walking. I'm getting the vacation wash done and some fall cleaning that should get in some exercise. I am going to eat on target today and tomorrow and I hope to see at least a maintain on the scale. Plus since I always have a problem with going to bathroom while on vacation I'm hoping to get that back on track too. That could be a big reason for the gain.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. When I weighed in last Monday I had a 1.6 loss. That put me at 153.6 with a 33 pounds total loss. Only 2 more pounds to getting another 5 pound star. That puts me 8.6 from my lifetime goal again. While I was at my meeting I had my smoothie and a snack bar and then I stopped by to weigh I for my weight loss challenge and I was 154.6. I weighed in a day early since I was leaving for my vacation and wouldn't be here for the meeting.

OK, back to working on the things that need to be done here around the house. My hubby has left for the day, but he's getting me a Leslie Sansone 5 mile walk DVD for Sweetest Day, so I can do that tomorrow if it's not nice enough to get outside and walk. I made him some brownies. I'm not planning on eating any of those. Well, maybe just a small one. ;-)

Leaving for the cabin on Monday.

2011-10-09T12:15:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. Last week's weigh-in was a maintain. Better than the gain I thought I would have. I was up 1/2 pound at my challenge weigh-in. I did very well on the exercise challenge. I got all my points. Only 3 of us managed to get all the points. The leader of the challenge pulls a winner and runner up and out of the 3 names she pulled I was not the winner.

Eating's been good. I haven't been tracking, but I'm eating small portions and no junk except the chips I had the last 2 nights. I'm getting in most of my water and I've walked every morning for a mile. The weather's been beautiful so I've been outside cutting down the dying plants and getting ready for winter. Before long I will be raking leaves onto the flower beds. There's plenty of exercise to be had working in the yard. As a matter of fact I should be out there now soaking up the rays and getting some much needed vitamin D. ;-) Plus I want to get the house clean and in order before I leave tomorrow. My 18 year old grandson will be staying here so who knows what I will come home to. As long as he feeds the animals I will be happy.

We are leaving on Monday after my weigh-in to go to TN. We are planning on staying somewhere half way there and getting to the cabin on Tuesday. We will be coming home on Friday. I'm hoping to get a lot of walking in and to making wise choices when eating. Wish me luck on both of those. They are predicting rain while we are there. As long as it's not an all day rain I can live with it.

OK I'm off to put another load in the washer and go outside for a bit. I hope everyone has a great week and loses a lot of weight.

Week's going great

2011-09-29T10:01:00.000-04:00

Things here are going great. The menu has been working out great. So far we've enjoyed all the new recipes. The points haven't been that bad either. It's nice to know each day what I'm going to make and not have to worry about not having what I need to make a recipe. I've divided the recipes in half so we don't have leftovers. I still had enough of the chili to have 2 lunches out of it. I would have liked it without the chicken, but you know my hubby would never go of 2 meatless meals in the same week. ;-)

This morning I put a handful of spinach in my smoothie. I keep reading that you would never know it was there and after doing it, I agree, except it was a little zombie looking in color. The green and pink turned a ghoulish shade of green. It was tasty though. I used a frozen banana, frozen strawberries, fresh raspberries, WW cherry cheesecake yogurt and the spinach.

On Tuesday I had my Weight loss challenge meeting I was down another pound, making it a 2.5. I'm happy with that. This weeks challenge is exercise. We get 5 points for 30 minutes of any exercise, 1 point for each additional 30 minutes up to an hour, 1 point for cardio, and 2 points for each strength training (3 times a week) for a max total of 54 points for the week. Yesterday I got up early and as soon as it was light enough to go walking the dog and I went for a 30 minute walk. In the evening I got out the DVDs and picked Leslie Sansone's strength and toning walk for 40 minutes and I tried out the Zumba for Wii for 20 minutes. That made my total of max 9 points for the day.

The scale said 154.5 Tuesday morning, but has been stuck at 155 all the rest of the week. That's OK, I can live with that for now. I'm hoping for a loss on Monday though with the good eating and exercising. My daughter said when she saw me walking away from her on Tuesday night that my butt looked skinny! HA HA HA!! I am far from SKINNY! I'm working on it though. We will see if I ever get to where I think I look skinny. My hubby can see the change too. He said that he can really see a change recently. I can tell that my boobs are getting smaller. I can see that in the mirror.

How's everyone else doing this week?

WOO! HOO! 155

2011-09-26T13:36:00.000-04:00

OK it's really 155.2, but it's not 156. Now on to 150. I would like to be at that number by Halloween. A total loss this week of 1.6 pounds and a total overall loss of 31.4 pounds. And I got my 5 pound star today. AWESOME!!! We shared our weight loss victories, scale or non scale at today's meeting. I shared that my pants are too big and when I walk my back seams end up on the side of my butt cheek. It's too close to not being able to wear short pants the rest of the year, so I don't want to go buy the next size or 2 down. The leader said they would be on sale now and I told her that next year I hope to be even smaller and the new ones I bought this year wouldn't fit me then.

Not much else to report. I'm going to try doing the planned menus this week. My hubby is home today, so we did have meat for lunch so it's not a complete meatless Monday. He's already complaining that there's not going to meat in the dinner meal. I told him he would never miss it. I'll make a nice salad with boiled eggs in it and cheese. I'm going to enter all the recipes in the recipe builder, so I know how many points each meals going to be for the week. This will help me decide what to have for the other meals for the day.

It's another rainy day here. I'm really tired of this wet stuff. I haven't looked at the forecast for the rest of the week.

Meal planning

2011-09-25T14:07:00.000-04:00

I'm going to try meal planning. I usually just make whatever I have in the freezer or what I pick up at the store. I've decided I will have a Meatless Monday and Tuesday we will have chicken, Wednesday will be beef, Thursday will be pork and on Friday I will make soup with either a salad or sandwich. Each week I will go with these same meats and work out a recipe each day to use them in. I did a lot of searching today for new recipes. I didn't know it would be so hard to find pork recipes. My husband isn't going to like Meatless Mondays very much!! He's a meat and potatoes man.

So my plan for this week is:
Monday- Bowties with ricotta tomato sauce. I will probably make a side salad to go with it.
Tuesday- Black beans, corn and chicken chili. Maybe I'll make corn muffins.
Wednesday- Marinated grilled Flank steak and roasted chili garlic broccoli. Not sure what else I'll have with this.
Thursday- Red beans & rice with ham. This looks like a hearty meal.
Friday- grilled hamburgers with pasta salad. I might also make some sweet potato fries with it.
Saturday and Sunday- dinner out

Of course this is always subject to change.

I'm not feeling so hot today. I have terrible heartburn and I'm all bloated. Back in April (on my birthday) I almost passed out after dinner and 2 margarita. Everyone teases me that it was the margaritas, but I don't think so. It happened when I was sitting at my daughter table eating my birthday cake. I just zoned out and my hubby called EMS to come and check me out. They said my BP was extremely low and kept taking it and did a EKG while I sat at the table. I refused to go to the hospital and when my BP came back to near normal they OKed me to just go home and rest. I was very bloated when this all happened. I went to the Dr. a couple days later and she said I was dehydrated and that I had high a potassium level. I had another EKG in her office and she sent me to the hospital to have a head CAT scan and a ultra sound on my neck. Everything came back normal. Then yesterday just when we got in the restaurant and was waiting to be seated I felt like I was going to pass out again. Everything started getting black and I sat down in a hurry. Last night when I went to bed I had awful heartburn and today I still have it and I am very bloated.

I haven't added up my points for yesterday, but I didn't do to bad eating wise. I spent most of the yesterday pulling out the English ivy next to my house. I got it all pulled out and I'm ready to put the boarder rocks in and transplant the hostas. My plan today was to take the dieing plants out of my window boxes and to start cutting the flowers that are looking bad in the flower gardens. I don't feel like doing anything so I guess that task will have to wait for another day.

Walk At Home GIVEAWAY! by Diary of a Fat Girl

2011-09-24T22:22:00.000-04:00

Diary of a Fat Girl is having a giveaway. I would love to win this myself. If you would like to win the things listed below why don't you enter to win too?

Walk At Home GIVEAWAY!

Well readers, its giveaway time! I am so excited to do this giveaway! Leslie Sansone's Walk Eat Lose program! A four DVD program to help you 'walk away the pounds'. This giveaway includes:

2-mile Super Walk DVD; approximately 35-minute run time
Eating a Healthy Breakfast DVD; approximately 30-minute run time
3-mile Super Walk DVD; approximately 45-minute run time
Eating a Healthy Lunch DVD; approximately 30-minute run time
4-mile Super Walk DVD; approximately 58-minute run time
Eating a Healthy Dinner DVD; approximately 30-minute run time
Mini Walks DVD; approximately 60-minute run time
Two approximately 26"L workout-boosting cables
21-day eating plan

Sorry to be MIA this week

2011-09-23T09:58:00.000-04:00

I don't have a real excuse to why I haven't posted this week. I haven't been that busy. I guess I just didn't have anything important to say. Let me catch you up on what's been going on here.

Recap of Monday- I went to my WW weigh-in. It was a little disappointing since I was drinking all that water all week. I only lost .2. I know a loss is a loss, but I was hoping to get my 5 pound star at least. If I would have lost another .2 I would have had a 30 pound loss and gotten my star. I weighed in at 156.8. I'm so close to that 155 mark. Next weigh-in will be the week I finally get there. Fingers crossed!! My scall all this week has said 155.5 pounds. YEAH!! Finally at 155. 10 more pounds to go.

My eating was about the same as usual. I ate 20 points+ and got in my 4 miles with Leslie Sansone.
B- smoothie and breakfast bar at meeting
L- 1/2 pits with ham, lettuce and mustard and a pickle spear on the side
D- Meatloaf, 1/2 sweet potato, steamed broccoli & cauliflower. Cider to drink
Total points+ 20

Tuesday- I went to my weigh in at the weight loss challenge meeting. I lost 1.5 pounds putting me at 156.4 there. I walked to and from the meeting so that was my activity plus did a little gardening while I was waiting for my daughter to pick up her dog. I dog sit for her while she's at work so I take him out to run around for an hour and I get some gardening done.

My eating was:
B- Cheerios, banana, almond milk
L- Meatloaf sandwich, pickle spear, apple
D- WW frozen meal
Snack- String cheese and potato chips
total points+ 22

Wednesday morning I woke up with another Charley horse. This time it's in my right leg. It's another lingering hurt leg. I didn't get in any exercise except for a little gardening since it hurts to walk or do anything but sit or stand still.

My eating was:
B- Cheerios, banana, almond milk
L- Meatloaf sandwich, pickle spear, apple
D- Pork loin chop, WW mac and cheese, Bush's grillin beans and cider
S- watermelon, thin pretzels
total points+ 27

Thursday I went shopping with my daughter and out for lunch with her and my hubby. I got a little gardening done while I waited for my daughter to get the dog again. We have a lot of that invasive ground cover ivy and I keep pulling it out. Pretty soon all we will have is dirt because the ivy drowning out the grass. I also made reservations for a mini vacation. We haven't been on a vacation in a long time and my hubby is having a lot of stress at work and really needs to get away for a while. I rented a log cabin in TN for 3 nights in October. We might even take our time and drive back roads to get there and stay somewhere overnight along the way. I told my hubby it was not going to be our usual vacation where every minute is planned out. We are going to be in the same spot the whole time and we are going to enjoy sitting around reading and walking in the woods and watching the leaves change colors. He can take his golf clubs and golf at the nearby golf course. Most of our vacations are planned to the minute. When the girls were young we went to Colorado and my hubby got food poisoning and since we had to be somewhere else the next day we had to go on even though he felt like he was going to die. That's the engineer in him I guess. I will cook most of our meals and we can go out for dinner or even grill up a couple steaks. I don't want to gain weight while I'm gone. We'll have a lot of fruit and veggies with us to snack on.

Yesterday eating:
B- Cheerios, banana, almond milk
L- 1 cabbage roll and 1 pierogie
D- Crock pot Italian chicken breast, 1/2 ear of corn , GG antioxidant veggies and roasted red potato, cider
S- watermelon
Total points+ 20

It's a rainy day today and I'm stuck here without a car so it will be an inside day today. I have a cheerleader skirt I need to get cutout and sewn so I will probably do that today? I DVRed X Factor so I can watch that too. The house could use some cleaning so I'm sure I will stay busy today.

Found Out The Answer To My Questions (kinda)

2011-09-19T13:46:00.000-04:00

I ask the WW leader about the difference in a smoothie and a non smoothie. She said that when you enter all the ingredients into the recipe builder it takes into account all the nutritional values of the items listed. Even thought these things are zero points. She said I could count it either way, as a 2 point or a 6 point smoothie. She said if it were her she would probably count it as a 2 points. She said that this happens with a lot of recipes that have zero points+ items. I know that I've noticed it when I make dump soup and all the veggies should be zero and they are not when you enter them in the recipe builder. It's interesting and depending on how you are counting them could affect your points total at the end of the day. So I think I will count the smoothie as a 2 point+ smoothie.

I didn't got for a walk yesterday like I had planned. No real reason I just didn't go. I know. Shame on me! I really have to start doing more activity.

Yesterday's eating wasn't so good. I told you I was going to the new burger place. I feel you need to treat yourself from time to time so you don't feel deprived. For breakfast we had bacon and eggs. I had 1 slice of bacon and 1 & 1/2 scrambled eggs and a wedge of cantaloupe. For lunch we went to the root beer stand and I had a coney dog. That's it. I couldn't have a root beer because of my challenge. For dinner I had a single patty burger and onion rings. No shake even though I've heard they are really yummy and my hubby and daughter seemed to enjoy theirs. I had an apple for my snack. I ended up with 32 points+ for the day. I guess that wasn't too bad, but those rings were dripping with grease.

This morning I did my usual Monday morning before weigh-in Leslie Sansone 4 mile fast walk. My weigh in was a little disappointing. I only lost .2 pounds. That's a total of 29.8 pounds lost. Next week I had better get my 5 pound sticker. Only .2 more to go. 11.8 more to get back to my goal weight. I'm going to set my date to be back to goal for Thanksgiving. That gives me plenty of time to do it. I should be able to lose 12 pounds in 9 weeks, but I will be happy if I'm there by the new year.

What do you see in the mirror?

2011-09-18T15:01:00.000-04:00

When I look in the mirror I really don't see much of a change. My face looks thinner. I have dimples in front of my ears. I now have a turkey wobbler. When I look at my body I just don't see the difference. I know I'm smaller. I've lost inches and pounds and my clothes are fitting a lot looser. I'm actually going to have to retire some of the pants I wore this spring because they are TOO BAGGY!! When I look in the mirror I still see the rolls that are still there. My stomach is still too big. My rings keep twisting around on my fingers, but I still can't get them off. So what do you see when you look in the mirror?

I went to the apple orchard today and got some honey crisp apples and some fresh cider. I'm not sure I can have the cider yet due to my challenge. I might have to wait until Tuesday to enjoy it. So far I've gotten all my water in and all my bonus points.

Eating Friday and Saturday was under points again. I just can't get the points in. Friday"s breakfast was Rice Chex with almond milk and splenda. For lunch I had 1 slice of bacon, a friend egg and 2 slices of toast. For dinner we grilled some pork loin chops and I made mini pierogies, green giant healthy weight veggies and some cauliflower. A very filling meal. For a snack after the football game I had a snack bar. On Saturday we had for breakfast, 1 slice of bacon 1 fried egg, 2 slices of toast and a smoothie. For lunch I had leftovers from Fridays dinner minus the pierogies. For dinner we went out for dinner and I ordered rigatoni and ate half of it and a side salad. I had a small piece of bread. I had 79 ounces of water both days. Total points+ for Friday was 21 and Saturday 23.

I think we're going to a walk in the park after dinner to get some exercise in for today.

Chilly Night For Football

2011-09-17T00:31:00.000-04:00

We went to the high school football game tonight. It was brisk night. I had on 3 shirts and was covered up in a blanket. My grand daughter was playing with the band. Every year they let the 8th graders play at one game and tonight was the night. They played 2 Beatles songs. She did a good job. We left at the beginning of the 3rd quarter.

I'm sitting here at 12 midnight trying to finish my water. Since I haven't gone to bed yet I'm still counting it as Friday. ;-) I've gotten max points every day so far and I want to get them tonight. Looks like it's going to be another night of getting up to go to the bathroom. I never had to do that until this week. I don't feel hungry at all during the day. I'm too full of water.

No exercise today. No real reason for it. I was just being lazy. I did get my Zumba game in the mail today, so I'm going to have to try that out soon.

I went over in points yesterday. Breakfast was 2 slices of french toast with lite syrup and a cantaloupe wedge. For lunch I ate Cream of Chicken soup. I was numb up to eyes from my dentist visit, so I just had soup. For dinner I was on my own since my hubby went to his golf banquet. I had sliced cucumbers with salad dressing, leftover hamburger patty, and a WW dinner. For a snack I had a snack bar. Total points+ used was 34.

Even though I'm finished eating for the day, I'll save what I ate today for tomorrows blog.

The scale has gone up 2 pounds. I know it's from drinking all this water. I am peeing a lot, but my bowels aren't moving. I will drink my Smooth Move tea tomorrow instead of Sunday. I don't want to be too bound up.

OK , I have to finish this water and get to bed. My sister is coming to visit tomorrow around noon and I haven't touched the house. I have to run the sweeper and dust at least. All in all things don't look too bad.

Another trip to the dentist today

2011-09-15T08:57:00.000-04:00

My dentist appointment yesterday went OK except he wants to replace 2 of my silver fillings with white ones. They had a cancellation for today so I took it. I might as well get it done and over with. I have a 10:30 appointment, so I should be able to eat by lunch time.

I went to an event last night called "Taste of Wadsworth". It's where many of the local restaurants set up tents in a parking lot and everyone buys tickets and goes around and tastes what they brought. I walked the whole area before I picked what I wanted. No real "wise" choices there. I didn't want a BBQ pork sandwich and several tents had that. I didn't want pizza and there was several tents with that. OH!!! and lots of yummy looking treat items. I really wanted some of that, but just passed them by. I decided I would get the 1/4 meatball sub. It only had 1/2 meatball on it so I didn't think that would be too bad. That's it. That's all I got. My hubby ate enough for both of us and brought treats home to eat. He offered me some and I declined. I just went in and got some zero points cantaloupe. We walked to and from the event so I got in some activity points too.

Eating yesterday was good, but still under in points. I have to start doing better to get those all in. Breakfast was Rice Chex and almond milk with 1 packet of splenda. Lunch was a ham sandwich again with laughing cow cheese and a pickle spear. For dinner I had the meatball sub and when I got home I had some leftover grillin' beans and cheese. For snacks yesterday I had cantaloupe and peanut butter filled pretzels. My points total was 24 points+

My activity was pulling weeds for an hour and walking to downtown and back. I would say it's probably a mile.

I managed to get in all my water for the challenge and I got all the bonus points. Day 1 down! I've already started on the water this morning with breakfast.

I have to get ready for my dentist appointment. My hubby has a golf banquet tonight, so it will probably be a WW dinner for me and I'm going to try and get a walk in. It's rainy this morning, but it's suppose to clear up around 10, so I will try and sneak in a walk today sometime plus get in a little more weeding.

Joined A Weight Loss Challenge Last Night

2011-09-14T09:28:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine started a weight loss challenge as a fund raiser for The 3 Day Walk. We meet every Tuesday for 12 weeks. Last night was the 1st meeting. We weighed in and got measured and got before photos taken. I weighed in at 157.8. I'm OK with that number. It's a .8 is a gain from my WW weigh in, but it's a different scale and it was an evening weigh in instead of a morning one. Each week we have a different challenge to complete. This week we have to drink 64 oz of water for 5 points If we drink 1/2 our body weight (79 for me) we get an extra point. If we don't have any artificially flavored drinks we get an additional point. Drinking no caffeine gets another point This runs for 6 days with a possible 8 points per day. I don't drink caffeine and since I'm not drinking pop I should get the extra points without much problem. I am going to try my hardest to max out the points each day.

I watched my DVR of Dr. Oz's Monday show . It was good show. I made lists of things I want to try. I cut my 32 inch ribbon for my waist measurement goal. I have about 4 inches till it meets.

My eating yesterday was good. Breakfast was Kashi cereal and almond milk. I had ham, laughing cow, mustard sandwich and a pickle spear. I had a WW frozen meal for dinner. For a snack I had a string cheese and a serving of potato chips. My total points today was 23. I notice I'm not getting in all my healthy foods so my next goal is to start filling in the boxes and try to get everything in that I'm suppose to.

Exercise was pretty good. I walked to the challenge. It's by my usual walking route so it was 1.5 miles. It was such a nice day out I did some much needed weeding. I was out for at least an hour doing that. The weeds are growing very nicely with all this rain we've had. I have a lot more that needs done. Maybe I'll get out again today if it doesn't rain. All the crab grass is going to seed and I sure don't want them spreading their seeds around. The forecast is no rain until 7:00 this evening and temps not over 70 all day.

Now I have to get my shower and get ready for my dental cleaning. Then it will be drinking lots of water the rest of the day.

Still can't decide.

2011-09-13T12:49:00.000-04:00

I think I'll present the question I asked yesterday to my leader at our next meeting. I can understand if you are juicing that the points would be different because you are not getting the whole fruit, but if I sat at the table and ate 1 banana, 1/4 of a mango and a yogurt I would get 2 points but, because I put them all in the blender I have to count them as 6. It just doesn't make since to me.

Another beautiful day today. The sun is shining and there's a gentle breeze blowing my curtains. The forecast says we are suppose to get thunderstorms later today with a 30% starting at 7:00 PM. I don't mind the rain at night, but I sure don't like it during the day when I can enjoy being outside.

Is anyone watching the new season of Dr. Oz? I DVRed it yesterday when I saw what his topic was. I still have to watch it.

I went to the Goodwill after my weigh-in yesterday. You just never know what you're going to find there. They had a salad spinner for $2.50. I thought that would be a good purchase so I got it. I can't wait to try it out.

My eating yesterday was, breakfast the smoothie and a breakfast bar at my meeting. Lunch was leftover rigatoni. For dinner we grilled hamburgers. I bought extra lean ground beef. They were on wheat buns and we added a slice of cheese. I used 1/2 T of miracle whip. I ate a dill pickle spear. I made pasta salad and beans for sides. For our evening snack we had cantaloupe. I ended up with using 33 points if you count the smoothie as 6 points.

For exercise I did the 4 Fast Miles Leslie Sansone DVD in the morning and then in the evening I went for a 1.5 mile walk.

My hubby is golfing tonight so dinner will be by myself. I might make a WW frozen meal.

So close, but yet so far away!!

2011-09-12T15:45:00.000-04:00

Today was weigh-in. I lost 2.8 in 2 weeks. The scale said 157. I'm down a total of 29.6. I really wanted to be at 155 this week. If I hadn't had a problem with my calves I might have made it. Now I REALLY want it next week. I am stepping up my exercise this week. I have 12 more pounds before I'm back to my goal weight and I'm back to being a free member.

So, I have a question. I read a blog yesterday that said that if you list each thing into your tacker it would have a different total than if you entered into the recipe builder. This is so true. I make a smoothie and take it with me to my WW meeting. I use 1 container of WW yogurt, 5 ice cubes, a little water to get thing moving, a frozen banana and today I put in 1/4 or a mango. I use whatever fruit I have on hand and today it was mango since my blackberries were moldy when I went out to pick them. TOO MUCH RAIN! Anyway, If you list each thing in the online tracker it comes up as being a 2 point smoothie. When I put it into the recipe builder it is a 6 point smoothie. This seems a little high if you ask me. Since I don't get a lot of other fruit in during the day should I count it as 2 for the yogurt and zero for the fruit or should I make it 6?

OK, now for how I did yesterday. I went for a 1.5 mile walk in-between thunderstorms. I barely made it back before it started to pour!! My eating was OK. Breakfast was the usual Kashi cereal, almond milk and 1/2 slice of bacon. For lunch I sliced up a 1/2 of cucumber from the garden and put 2T salad dressing on. For dinner I had rigatoni with tomato sauce and a salad and 1/4 a hoagie bun with garlic butter. My total was 23 points+

I have not had a chocolate candy bar since before Halloween of last year. I don't remember when the last time was, I just know that I bought candy that I didn't like for the trick or treaters and I know I haven't had since that date. I did have a Payday, but I'm not counting that. It is not a chocolate bar and I've only had 2 of them. The other day I went to CVS and I got a coupon for a free Dove bar or Milky Way. I got the dark chocolate Dove bar. It was sitting on the table and I really wanted it. I said NO!! I put it upstairs and will put it in my hubby's Christmas stocking. I'm going to see how long I can go without giving in to the temptation. If I make it to goal by Christmas I might ask for my favorite candy assortment and I will share it with my hubby. He usually gets me it for every occasion, but I've asked him to not get it this past year. Now I'm going to see how long I can go without drinking pop. I don't drink diet pop at all. I usually only drink pop when I got out to eat. I haven't had any pop now for at least 2 weeks. I have had Iced Tea with Splenda and I made some sweet tea, but no pop. Wish me luck on this one. I love cherry coke made with cherry syrup they serve at the restaurant we go to every week.

I think I'll go for a walk outside after dinner. It's a beautiful day out today. Gotta grab days like this when you can.

10 years ago today...

2011-09-11T08:58:00.000-04:00

I remember what I was doing when the 1st tower was hit. I was at my daughters helping get the kids ready for school. She had the TV on and when I saw the news report I couldn't believe it. I loaded up my TV and took it to my children's store we owned at the time and watched the 2nd tower get hit. What a shocking day!! What I really remember most is that we had just been at that exact spot just 29 days earlier. My younger daughter LOVES NY city. She's been there several times before and since 9/11. Both my daughters and my 2 grandsons (then 6 & 8) had gone to NY for a mini vacation. Little did we know at the time that this would be the last time we would see the twin towers.

What is that thing in the sky? It's a big, round, bright ball!! What could that be?? Oh yes, I think I remember my friend the sun. You have finally come back for a visit. I just turned on the weather channel and they say we are suppose to have scattered thunderstorms today and tonight. I should get some breakfast and then head out for a walk before that happens. These days you have to grab the nice times then you can.

My eating yesterday was good. Actually I really didn't eat enough in points. I only used 19 points leaving 10. For breakfast I had the usual Kashi cereal and almond milk. I added some fresh picked blackberries. For lunch I had 1 slice of peanut butter toast. We went out for dinner and I had the soup and salad special. They had vegetable beef soup. It's hard to calculate points when you go out to eat. I might have actually used more points.

My exercise was doing a Richard Simmon's tape. I did the Sweat and Shout tape. The most fun part about this is that I tweeted about this to Richard and he tweeted back. I LOVE Richard.

OK off to eat breakfast and then maybe head out for a walk. If the weather hold out I might even finish pulling the ivy out of the side yard.

Gloomy Weather Day

2011-09-10T11:41:00.000-04:00

Another dark dismal morning. It's 11:30 am and I need to have the lights on to see. Since it looks like it could rain any minute I'm not even going to go to the farmer's market today. I'm so not looking forward to the upcoming winter. It did clear up for a while yesterday evening. I took advantage of it and took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood. It felt good to be outside walking.

Not much happening here. I really lead a pretty boring life. I have an online business sewing children's Halloween costumes . I got an order for a cheerleader top 2 days ago. I got it cut out and started sewing it. I had emailed the customer with the cheerleader skirt site in case she meant to order it as well. It turns out that she had actually meant to order the skirt instead of the top so now I have to cut that out and sew it. Maybe she'll decide she wants the top after all and my time won't have been wasted.

Eating yesterday was good. Breakfast was the usual Kashi cereal and almond milk. I had a grilled ham and cheese for lunch with a pickle and a handful of potato chips. Since my hubby is out of town my daughter and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner. I had the salad bar and 1 slice of cheese pizza. In the evening I had a handful of peanut butter stuffed pretzels. I ended up using 28 points+ and got a 1.5 mile walk in.

Now I'm going to go do a Richard Simmons tape since it doesn't look like an outside day today.

Rain, Rain Go Away!!

2011-09-09T09:03:00.000-04:00

I was watching the weather channel last night and there is so much flooding going on. This has been the wettest year. We had a lot of rain in the spring and now in the fall. It rained or looked like rain most of yesterday and this morning it's foggy and no sun in sight. It is very depressing.

Not much happened here yesterday. I did some sewing and watched some TV and that's about it. Today, I have to get some activity in. I don't know what it's going to be yet, but I have to do something. Either I will do a walking CD or play on the Wii or walk on the treadmill, but I will do something.

I watched Big Brother last night and Jordan ended up leaving. Now I have to hope Rachel wins.

Eating was pretty much as I predicted yesterday. Breakfast was Kashi cereal with almond milk and 1 slice of bacon. I switched lunch and dinner around and had the spaghetti for lunch and the taco salad for dinner. Since I didn't have meatballs left I added some cheddar cheese to the spaghetti. I ended up not eating any cantaloupe. I did have a string cheese with a WW yogurt in the afternoon. Total points used yesterday was 25. The scale still says 157.

Where's The Sun?

2011-09-08T09:10:00.000-04:00

It was rainy and gloomy all day yesterday. After looking at the hourly weather forecast it looks like we might see sun between noon and 3 today. That's about it. Rain all day tomorrow again. I guess I'd better get the treadmill ready to use again.

Is anyone watching Big Brother? I just love Jeff and Jordan. I know Jordan won before, but I'm hoping she will again. She is just so darn cute. I hated Rachel before, but she's starting to grow on me. I just don't find her quite as annoying this season. I guess I would pick her as my second choice and third would be Adam. I will start watching Survivor next week. I loved Ozzy before. There again he's such a cutie. If you can't tell I'm a reality TV junky of sorts. Another reality TV show I love to watch is Amazing Race. And it goes without saying that I'm so looking forward to Biggest Loser. I have to admit I will miss Jillian.

Yesterday's eating went very well. Breakfast was Kashi cereal and almond milk and 1 slice of bacon. Lunch was Taco salad and a peach. For dinner I made whole wheat spaghetti & meatballs with broccoli. For my evening snack I had watermelon and a handful of peanut butter filled pretzels. I used 24 of my 29 points. I know I should be eating all my points, but I think it's silly to eat when I'm not hungry. The scale is still saying 157.

My hubby left to go out of town until Sunday, so today's menu will probably be pretty much the same as yesterday, only no meatball and cantaloupe instead of the watermelon.

How is everyone else doing?

Rainy Morning

2011-09-07T08:35:00.000-04:00

It rained all night and it's still very gloomy outside. I'm glad I decided to go for a walk last night, because I don't think it would have happened this morning. I am going to the mall later, so I see a a little walking in my future.

As I said I did walk last night. I did my usual 1.5 mile walk. My legs feel OK this morning. I think I'll start back slow and maybe only do every other day for a while. I don't want to be laid up for another week with hurt legs. My left leg still hurts a little. It's just below my knee in the back instead of the whole calf like before.

I got all 3 meals in yesterday and enjoyed an evening treat. Breakfast was Kashi cereal and 1/2 cup 1% milk. Lunch I finished my chicken picatta & a peach later on. For dinner I made a taco salad. In the evening I had a WW Wildberry ice cream/sorbet frozen treat. I used a total of 27 points+

My scale said 157 this morning. I hope I can hold in the 150s again this week and have a loss on Monday. Fingers crossed that I get to 155 for that weight in.

Cool day in Ohio

2011-09-06T08:57:00.000-04:00

The weather is VERY cool this morning. It's only in the 50s this morning and isn't going to get above 65 today. This is far from the 90s we had last week.

I did manage to go out and start to remove the English ivy on my side of the fence yesterday. What a job. That stuff is so hard to get rid of. It's a constant battle. I want to plant flowers and put in a little walkway. There was a lot of bending and pulling and more bending so that was my exercise for yesterday. I still have a little left to do, so I'm hoping to finish that today.

My eating on the weekends is always not as healthy as during the week. We go out to eat a lot and my husband is home, so I cook a different breakfast. For breakfast yesterday I made a ham and swiss cheese omelet, fried potatoes with onions and green pepper, cantaloupe, and a smoothie. I only had 3 eggs so I used 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites and split it with my husband. I actually only had 1/3 of the omelet. I fried 1 med. potato and also split it. All in all that wasn't too bad. I didn't eat lunch (I only ate a peach) so we had an early dinner around 2:00. My grandson was here and asked for KFC. I got the grilled breast with corn and mashed potatoes. I drank some sweet tea. Later on, I was a little hungry and those potato chips were calling my name, so I had 2 handfuls. We had some watermelon to finish off the day. I ended up with 26 points, but not really healthy points.
For the week I used 14 of my 49 weekly points.

Labor Day

2011-09-05T09:51:00.000-04:00

Today is Labor Day. It rained all day yesterday and is suppose to rain until noon today. I don't think I'll get out to do much weeding today. Everything will be too muddy to do much digging. I might clip the ivy that's growing over the neighbor's fence and try to get some control of that today. I hate to miss days being outside when I know winter isn't too far in the future. As much as I hate to think about it, before too long it will be too cold to be outside enjoying nature.

My leg feels a little better today. I didn't do anything yesterday but sit with a heating pad on it. It still hurts a little, but it is much better then it has been. I really want to get back to walking. I think I'll rest it again today and maybe tomorrow I can get back to my regular routine.

Yesterday's eating was OK. Breakfast was a country style breakfast. I made scrambled eggs with leftover smoked turkey sausage and fried potatoes. We also had a lowfat blueberry muffin and a cataloupe wedge. Lunch was Taco Bell I got the Chicken Chalupa Baja and a fresh peach. I also had 2 sweet teas. We went out for dinner and I got a garden salad with creamy italian dressing and I had a slice of garlic toast. I ended up using 28 points. My scale is still saying 159 so all week I never got out of the 150!! I'm going to try to be 155 for next Monday's weight-in. Can I do it??? That would leave me only having to lose 10 more pounds to get by to my goal weight and not having to pay since I'm a lifetime member.

Calf Still Hurts

2011-09-04T10:20:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure why it's still hurting. I think I'll put a heating pad on it today. It hurts all the time. When I stand it hurts. When I walk it hurts. When I go up and down the steps it REALLY hurts. I have to get it feeling better so I can get back to walking. Lucky for me the scale is still in the 150s, even though I haven't done any exercise for several days. I know this won't last forever.

Yesterday's eating was ok. Breakfast was a lowfat blueberry muffin and cantaloupe. I had a slice of swiss cheese and sweet tea for lunch. I went to dinner with my daughter. She wanted to try Bravo! Italian Cucina. They had Chicken Piccata on their summer menu. I ate half on my meal and brought the other half home. I had watermelon for my evening snack. I finished off the day with 22 points+.

Weight Watchers Points for the week

2011-09-03T09:54:00.000-04:00

I added everything I've eaten for the week in my eTools just to see when I ended up for the week so far. I guess I didn't do too bad. Some days I went over and some days I was under. I am suppose to eat 29 points + each day. Here's how I ended up for each day.

Monday 18 pts+
Tuesday 41 pts+ (pizza hut stuffed crust pizza 2 slices)
Wednesday 31 (Lone Star)
Thursday 21 pts+
Friday 28 pts+

I still have 35 weekly's left. I actually ended up under my points 3 days. I know I'm suppose to eat all my points. I didn't add up my activity points. I never figure them into my daily's anyway.

A little slip up yesterday

2011-09-03T08:22:00.000-04:00

First of all, I want to thank 1 chicks journey on weight watchers for all the kind words. It's nice to know that someone is actually reading my blog.

My left calf is still killing me. It hurts and feels tight all the time. I think I need to go to the store and buy some bananas. I've read that they help with Charley Horses. At least my shins feel better today.

I didn't make it out to weed yesterday. It was WAY TOO HOT to be doing much outside. There was a heat advisory yesterday and they might issue one for today as well. It was 94 with high humidity yesterday. It felt a lot hotter than that. Today's forecast is 92.

I want to go to the local farmer's market this morning and see what they have. I really miss having homegrown tomatoes. My plants are finally getting a few tomatoes on them. By now I should be giving them away. What a terrible growing year. My cucumbers are doing great though. In the past I've terrible luck with them This year I went with a burpless variety and they are doing great. The peppers are also doing terrible. One pepper per plant isn't what I wanted. Last year was a great year for my peppers. Only half of my beans came up, so my bean stock will be slim this year too. They are about ready to pick and I will be lucky to get a half pot full. Next year I'm going to add a lot of compost in hopes to get the garden back in shape. I planted a square foot garden, but I think I need to add some nutrients to it.

OK, now to how I did yesterday. I started out OK. For breakfast I had a lowfat blueberry muffin and cantaloupe. For lunch I had cottage cheese with flax seed meal sprinkled on it and a fresh sliced peach. Now's when think fell apart a little. My grandson left his potato chips bag sitting by my computer. There was only 2 handfuls left, so I ate them. It tasted good to have something salty. For dinner we had grilled smoked turkey sausage, sliced potatoes, and 1/2 ear of corn. Not too bad. Well, I hate to even tell you what happen next. I suggested we go to Dairy Queen to get a Blizzard. I got an email from them talking about this Ooey Gooey Caramel Brownie Blizzard . It sounded really good. When I got the blizzard it was mostly vanilla ice cream with a few brownie chunks and a tiny bit of caramel. I did not see any chocolate chunks in this thing. I will NOT get that kind again. My scale still says 158.5 this morning so I'm OK with it. Today will be a better day!!

Today will be my day off!

2011-09-02T08:26:00.000-04:00

My shins still hurt and this morning I woke up to my calves hurting. I got a Charley Horse before I got out of bed. I will probably be working on the weed gardens again today, so it won't be a complete day off. I do a lot of bending and pulling and digging when I'm weeding, so I still get a workout.

The scale says I'm still in the 150s today. Can I make it through the weekend with this till happening? I sure am going to try.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I "Sweat To The Oldies" with Richard Simmons. And boy, was I sweating. It was pouring off me. I am so out of shape. I used to go to Jazzercise before I went back to WW. I couldn't afford to do both so I quit Jazzercise and started back to WW. Once I make it back to goal and I can go free again I plan of going back to Jazzercise. I enjoyed it and the people were like family. I would love to try Zumba. I might check into that too.

Eating yesterday was good. My husband was home in the morning, so I made his breakfast too. I had 1 fried egg, 2 slices of toast, 1 slice of bacon and a wedge of cantaloupe. For lunch I had a leftover stuffed green pepper and mashed potatoes, a salad and a peach. For dinner I had 1/2 grilled pork loin chop, 1/2 ear of corn, salad with 2 slices of Swiss cheese. For an evening snack we tried yet another watermelon. This one was delicious. I've bought several and none of them have had any taste or were dried out inside. I got this one at Walmart on my way home from my WW meeting and couldn't wait to try it. I said this was my last attempt to find the perfect watermelon and I'm glad I finally found one. I'm doing good at tracking what I eat. Now I need to start tracking my points again.

I've been working on getting more water in. Yesterday I got in around 60 oz. Plus I had the watermelon, so I had to get up in the middle of the night to go pee. Usually I can hold it till morning, but not this time.

I have to finish sewing a cow costume and get it mailed out today and then get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. Before too long it will be cold and I will be stuck in the house. Let me tell you now. I HATE WINTER and I am NOT looking forward to it!!

Shin Splints!

2011-09-01T08:11:00.000-04:00

OUCH!! The front to my legs are killing me. I did the Leslie Sansone Fast 4 Miles on Monday and walked with the dog on Tuesday and Wednesday. My legs did not hurt while I was walking, but they started walking shortly after I got home and they've never stopped. I think I will take a break from walking today. I don't really think I could do a walk justice today. I think I'll go through my exercise tapes and pick something out that I haven't done in a while. Maybe I'll drag out Richard Simmons and do that. I can't remember the last time I did one of his tapes. I LOVE that man!!

Yesterday went pretty well. Breakfast was Kashi cereal. I worked in the garden weeding in the afternoon and ate 2 slices of swiss cheese while doing that. I did go to dinner at Lone Star Steakhouse for dinner. I had the new Tostada Salad. It was very yummy.

The scale has been very good to me this week. I've remained in the 150s all day. I usually gain during the day, but so far so good. This morning I was down to 158 on my scale. I have to continue to lose or at least maintain during the week and decide if I want to go to a different WW meeting since mine will be closed on Monday.

Dinner and a movie

2011-08-30T22:18:00.000-04:00

I went for a 1.5 mile walk this morning. I have to get back on track with the exercise. The dog was happy to go too. It was a beautiful morning.

I had oatmeal for breakfast. I haven't had that in a long time. Lunch was cottage cheese and cantaloupe. Dinner was 2 slices of stuffed crust cheese pizza and 1 bread stick. I went to see "The Help" and I can't go to the movie without having popcorn. Our local theater still has small popcorn not the HUGE bags you get at the big theaters.

Now I'm tired and think I'll go to bed. I plan on walking again in the morning and will probably do some weeding in the flower gardens in the afternoon.

Finally in the 150s

2011-08-29T14:48:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm barely in them, but I'm taking it. Today I weighed in at 159.8. That was a .2 loss this week. Much better than I thought I was going to do. I really thought I would have a 2 pound gain. I did my Leslie Sansone 4 Fast Miles this morning, so it must have really helped me have a loss.

So far, the eating has been very good. I made my usual WW meeting smoothie and I took a Cascadian Farm organic Trail Mix bar with me to eat with the smoothie. For lunch I mixed up some Good Season's salad dressing. I used balsamic vinegar and olive oil to make it. I put 1 tablespoon of the dressing on a cut up tomato and cucumber salad. I also had a peach. YUMMO!! Stuff peppers are in the slow cooker and I got some Bob Evans mashed potatoes to have with it. I'll also make some corn on the cob and I'll have a half ear if that. Sounds like a good dinner. I'm going to really try hard this week to be good and on point. I am going to splurge on Wednesday and go out for steak. It would have been my Dad's 90th birthday and we always go out to eat on his birthday even though he's no longer with us. I won't get cupcakes like I usually do though. No dessert this year. I really want to have a good loss at next weeks meeting. Wait. Next week is Labor day so we will not have a meeting on Monday. I might go to another meeting on Wednesday. I hate to miss too many meetings. It's a waste of good money and I like to see what they talk about at the meetings.

Missed last weeks WW meeting. ;-(

2011-08-28T19:30:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday I was very sleepy and my neck hurt. When I went to bed I had a small lump on my neck just under my ear. I thought it was just a sinus condition and thought nothing of it. I took 2 Ny-Quil and went to bed. When I woke up in the morning, what a surprise. My ear was double in size. It was all swollen and my neck was also swollen and red. I was very dizzy when I stood up and I had the chills. My husband came home early from work and after looking at me he called the doctor. She said I should go straight to the ER. I am not one to even go to the doctor, so this ER thing was something I really didn't want to do, but I went. They didn't really know what was the cause of my symptoms. They said it might be from a nasty bug bite or from some kind of allergy. As far as I know, I have no allergies. They gave me 2 prescriptions and sent me home. I had to have a follow up with my doctor which happened on Friday. She also has no idea what had caused the symptoms. Earlier in the week, my face also had a large red bump, as big around as a golf ball, on it right in front of my ear. By the time I went to my doctor appointment my ear was back to normal, except for starting to peel and my neck was only a little swollen. My face was still a little swollen and a little red. Much better than the almost purple color that it had been. Everything that had been swollen is now itching like crazy. The doctor said she would like to give me a steroid shot. Today, I feel very tired and I'm freezing again. I sure hope I don't get up in the morning with last Monday's symptoms again. I can't miss another WW meeting.

I was so disappoint to not be able to go to my meeting. Of all meetings, I was looking forward to this one the most. They were going to discuss Plateau. The closer I get back to goal I now I'm going to need all the info I can get on this subject. I sure hope they have extra "Weekly's" at the meeting tomorrow, so I can get a copy. If my WW friend that always sits by me is there I'm hoping she was there last week and we can talk about what went on at last week's meeting.

I'm really not looking forward to getting on the scale this week. I have not done anything that even resembles exercise all week. I've spent a lot of time just laying or sitting around. Plus don't you gain weight when you are on steroids? I took 5 days worth, plus the shot and the antibiotics. I'm not going to stress if I gained (which I'm VERY sure I did). I will have to just work hard to get the weight back off. This was not really my fault. I have not been eating very much, because I'm never really hungry. I've been drinking my water. We have had frozen custard a couple times this week though. I've had mine in a cup to avoid the cost of the extra calories in the cone.

Wish me luck that tomorrow isn't as bad as I think it will be.

Win It: a Month’s Supply of 3 points+ PopChips!

2011-08-25T09:34:00.000-04:00

Friends For Weight Loss is having a give away for a month's supply of PopChips. If you are on Weight Watchers you can eat a whole bag for only 3 points Plus. Head on over before August 31st to enter to win like I did.

Frugal & Fabulous: Havaianas Flip Flop Giveaway!

2011-08-25T08:33:00.000-04:00

Frugal & Fabulous: Havaianas Flip Flop Giveaway!

I've just entered a fabulous giveaway. Follow this link above and you can also enter to win. Be sure to do it before September 2nd though.

Total loss = 26 pounds

2011-08-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

At my meeting this week my weigh in was great. I lost 2.2 pounds for a total of 26 pounds. I received my 25 pounds anchor. This must have been the week for losses. There were 3 other 25 pounds losers and a guy that lost 100 pounds total. It's a little disappointing to know that he lost 100 pounds in the same time it took me to lose my 25. He did have a lot more to lose than I did and he still has a lot to go. My new total to lose to get to goal is 15.6 pounds. I want to be at goal by Christmas so I will continue on my journey to hopefully lose my 1-2 pounds a week. Slow and steady is the name of the game.

I've been reading my Fiber 35 Diet book. I like the idea of getting more fiber in, but you also have to count calories on that diet. I have a hard enough time counting points. They do have some good sounding recipes in the book that I might enter into the WW calculator and see how many points they are and go from there. I'm going to go back and reread my free online copy of The Full Plate Diet and remind myself what they say about counting calories. Once again you eat a lot of fiber, but I can't remember if they have you also count calories or not.

I went to the farmers market and got some good veggies on Sunday, so we are eating those for dinner. I had a taco salad yesterday with a fresh out of my garden tomato. Oh, how I've missed them. Tonight we will have green beans and corn on the cob. I'm going to make a grocery run and get some meat to go with them.

The weather had cooled off this week so I also have to get more walking in. The weeds in the flower gardens are doing just great. If only the flowers would do as well. I guess I should also get some weeding in before they start choking out all the new "real" plants we bought. It's just been so wet this year that the mosquitoes try to eat you alive when you get out there.

I'm off to enjoy a low fat blueberry banana muffin and then a shower. Off the store to buy some healthy food for me and some junk food for my grandson. I will make sure I buy stuff I don't like so I won't be tempted to eat his food too. Then maybe I'll take a walk around the neighborhood with the dog.

No Longer Obese

2011-08-06T22:19:00.000-04:00

I just calculated my BMI and I am no longer obese. I am now just over weight. If I lose my target of 2 pounds per week I will make my goal on my 1 year Weight Watchers anniversary. That would be awesome. My anniversary date is November 11th. I lost last year during the holidays, but that was when I first started which is much easier to do than at the end of your journey. I will be very happy if I make my goal weight by the end of the year. This is very doable. I am reading the Fiber35 Book. I would like to incorporate this into my WW diet. I love the idea of eating more fiber and cutting out all the bad things. I think I will try it and see how it goes. I will continue to track my points and see how the two diets work together.

I went to the farmers market today and got some good fresh veggies and fruit. I got green beans, tomatoes, corn and blueberries. Everything is cleaned and ready to go. I went to grocery store and got some peaches and bagged lettuce that was on sale for 89 cents. While I was there I looked at the discound rack. They had asparagus for 98 cents and bundle. They were the thin kind, which I love. I grilled all 3 bunches and saved some for my omelets and salad next week. The peaches are really good too. I think I'll go back before the sale ends and get some more. I love peaches and at that price I can afford to get several. If they start to get to ripe I can always put them in my smoothies.

The walking is going OK. It's been hot still, but I've managed to walk all but 2 days this week. Next week it's suppose to cool off and only be in the 70s so I will enjoy walking then much better.

We went to Steak & Shake for dinner tonight. I'm so proud of myself. I always get a milkshake and some kind of burger. Tonight I got sweet tea and a bowl of vegetable beef soup. The soup was very salty, so I am going to have drink a lot of water to help wash it all out of my system.

Here's to hoping for a loss this week. We will see how it goes on Monday.

It's Been A While

2011-08-01T22:08:00.000-04:00

I've been going to WW meetings and I've been doing the program pretty well. I am at a 23.8 loss. The last 2 weeks I have had a .4 gain each week. Birthdays and hot weather have played with me. I hope to show a loss next Monday. This weeks meeting topic was snacking. I am not going to snack unless I'm hungry. It's not wise to eat when I'm bored or it's just "snack" time.

I've joined a walking challenge. The goal is to walk 1000 miles over the next year. The challenge started today. I did a 4 minute Leslie Sansone tape before weigh in. It's been so hot and humid it's hard to get out and walk. I think I'm going to have to start walking on the treadmill if it's too hot to walk outside. I have to get moving. I'm gardening and weeding on the weekends.

The vegetable garden is suffering this year. We had so much rain in the beginning of the growing season and then it turned super hot. My favorite tomatoes are doing awful. Something seems to be eating the leaves off the pepper plants even though we have a fence around the garden. I planted some burpless cukes this year. Usually the bush cukes have not done well. This year I've gotten 3 nice size cuke off the plants so far and they are yummy. I made some macaroni salad with 2 of them last week and tonight I just cut one up for a side dish with the grilled pork loin chop and green beans.

Weight Watchers 5K Walk

2011-05-21T09:55:00.000-04:00

I just got back from walking with my fellow Weight Watcher friends. What a nice time. Of course I was at the end of the pack with the lady that usually sits by me at meetings. We were the 2 oldest walkers there, but it was a nice time anyway. We got to talk and get to know each other better. We had about 10 walkers show up.

Since I didn't write after my last weight I'll update now. I lost .8 and finally made my 10% on Monday. I got my Weight Watcher's key chain. I put my 16 weeks charm on it and on Monday I will be able to put my walking charm on it. My next charm goal is to get my 25 pound anchor charm. That is 6.8 more pounds. My next personal goal is to be at 165 by the end of the month. I have 3.4 pounds to go and 2 weigh-ins to do it in. Wish me luck!!

The weather is finally nice here in Ohio, so today I am going to get out and play in the dirt. I'm going to rake the leaves from around the plants and decide what needs to be replaces. I'm also going to do more weeding. I'm going to plant my onion sets and see if I can find my bean seeds so I can get them planted too. It's going to be a busy day outside in the fresh air. I hope it helps me show a loss at Monday's weigh-in.

Yesterday's Weigh-In

2011-05-10T09:28:00.000-04:00

I had a 2.2 loss this week. This put me officially in the 160s. I am a half pound from being at my 10%. That is next weeks goal. I guess amping up the activity helped me this week. Now, I have to keep it up. It's been so nice the last couple days that I've been able to get out and do some much needed weeding in the flower gardens on top of all the extra walking I've been doing.

I went out to eat a lot this past weekend. This is something I always do. I'm learning to make better choices and I bring half home for another day.

Yesterday's meals: total 27 points 2 points left for day

Breakfast= 2 points
Smoothie
grapes

Lunch= 13 points
pizza
orange

Dinner= 12
hamburger on whole wheat bun
broccoli slaw
1/2 ear corn

Exercise= 9 points
30 minutes walking outside
4 mile walk with Leslie Sansone

Outdoor walking

2011-05-06T13:57:00.000-04:00

The sun was actually out for a change so I took the dog for a walk. I met my daughter and her dog and we walked around the neighborhood. It was nice to get out and get some fresh air. I walked a 30 minute mile outside and then came home and walked with Leslie Sansone doing her Fast & Firm 4 really "BIG" miles. That makes another 5 miles today. I was going to go out and move some rocks around to make my flower beds, but it's starting to cloud up. The forecast is rain everyday for the next 7 days.

My husband is going motorcycle riding for the weekend. He took me out to lunch before he left. I had the salad bar. I did ok until I went back for a bowl of fruit. They had a Black Forest dessert. I took a 1/2 piece (1"x2"). It was the best thing I've ever eaten. YUM!!! I would have loved to go back and get more, but I didn't. I shared my 1/2 piece with my husband. I have no idea how many points to put in my tracker for it.

Thursday's Meals:

Breakfast 5 points
smoothie
1/2 english muffin w/ 1 T peanut butter

Lunch 10 points
Spaghetti w/ 1 meatball
grapes

Dinner 20 points
General Tso's chicken w/ rice
Lemonade

Snack 2 points
WW dark chocolate raspberry frozen treat

Total points used today 37 leaving me with 39 remaining weekly points

Activity points
9 today with a total of 28 weekly points.

Today's weight on my home scale 171 Probably due to the salt in the chinese food.

FINALLY!!!

2011-05-05T11:45:00.000-04:00

After doing a 20 minute mile on the treadmill and doing the 4 Fast Miles walk with Leslie Sansone, I finally got into the 160s. It was 169.5 on my scale. My scale only does the 1/2 pounds. Now I have to stay here or lose more for Monday's weigh in. I made my May 15th goal. Now I have to lose 4 more pounds to meet my end of the month goal.

My eating been good. I went over 2 point yesterday, but I was under both Monday and Tuesday so I feel OK about it. I think instead of posting what I plan to eat on the days I post I will review what I ate the day before since the menu changes.

Wednesday's meals:

Breakfast 5 points
Smoothie
1/2 english muffin w/ 1 T peanut butter

Lunch 10 points
egg salad pita
1 oz thin pretzels
Snack- 1 oz almonds

Dinner 12 points
1/2 cup broccolini
1 cup Whole wheat pasta
pasta sauce and 1 meatball
1/2 english muffin w/ 1/2 wedge laughing cow

Evening snack 4
WW dessert

Total points used today 31 leaving me with 47 remaining weekly points

Activity points
5 today with a total of 12 weekly points.

1st Day of Extended Exercise

2011-05-03T13:56:00.000-04:00

I got up early this morning and made my husband's breakfast. I made myself a smoothie using a 1/2 banana, pineapple, blueberries and raspberries. I added a WW yogurt worth 2 points and some ice cubes. This made enough for me to have a glass for breakfast and another one for lunch. Since fruit is zero points I'm counting this as a 2 point smoothie

I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes and then did a Leslie Sansone strength walk CD for 40 minutes, so I got in an hour workout today. I'm going to continue this for the week and see if it helps my next weigh in. After I worked out I had 1/2 english muffin with 1 T peanut butter.

I went shopping at Walmart for a few things. I got some turkey sausage crumbles and turkey pepperoni so I could have some english muffin pizzas for lunch. This is 4 points. They are remodeling our Walmart and it's almost impossible to find anything.

Dinner is going to be an egg salad sandwich using pita pockets 3 points for a half sandwich and I'm using up the last of the Easter ham and making some Ham Corn Chowder. It is 8 points for a cup.

I will have some watermelon for my evening snack while I watch Biggest Loser. Zero points.

I am low on points today. It's hard to get points in when fruits and veggies are zero points.
Breakfast= 4
Lunch=6
Dinner= 11
Total= 21
I'm suppose to have 29. I might add some almonds for an afternoon snack if I'm hungry.

I have 5 activity points

Today's weight on my home scale 171

Why Is It So Hard?

2011-05-02T14:23:00.000-04:00

Why is it so hard to get to the next 10 pound mark? It seems to take forever to get out of the 180s and now I'm stuck in the 170s. I've been stuck in the 170s since January. I am so close. Last week I weighed 170.8. I was hoping for a pound loss this week so I could finally be in the 160s. NOPE!! I had a .6 gain so now I have to lose a pound and a half to get into the 160s. It just doesn't seem fair. I'm going to up my exercise so I can hopefully get there next Monday. I've been walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes everyday. I think I'll still do that and then follow-up with some kind of exercise tape or wii game. I wish the weather would get better so I could go out walking too. It was so nice last year when we would go for a walk in the park after dinner. It's been raining so much that I'm sure that the park trails are very muddy.

I took my monthly measurements and I'm down 3 inches overall. I have a pair of jeans that I'm using for my clothing guide and I finally got them zipped without having to lay on the bed first. They are still too tight to wear, but I did get the zipped!!

My May goals are to be in the 160s by May 15th and to be 165 by Memorial Day. My original goal was to lose 1 pound a week. Today was my 19th week of Weight Watchers and I'm down 15.2 so I'm 4 pounds behind on my goal.

One Pound Valentine Surprise

2011-02-14T14:52:00.001-05:00

Today was weigh-in. I'm down another 1 pound. That is a total of 9 pounds in 8 weeks. It looks like the tracking and exercise is doing it's thing. I have walked on the treadmill everyday this month and I've don't the Wii almost everyday. I've been tracking my food on e-tools and I've stayed within my points almost every day and have never used my total weekly points. I don't trade in my activity points.

Today is Valentines Day and we are going to go out to dinner. We are going to have Mexican food. I will enjoy a margarita, but I will count it and since it's the same day as weigh-in I have a week to work it off. The rest of the week I will stay on program and I hope to see another loss net week.

Started February out with a loss

2011-02-08T10:18:00.000-05:00

Weigh-in was Monday. I lost 1.2 pounds this week. Last week I had a .4 gain so I'm glad I made up for that gain plus more. In 7 weeks I've lost 8 pounds. I'm still ahead of the my goal to lose a pound a week. Slow and steady!!

I walked on the treadmill all but 7 days in January. I also got some extra activity in a few days. So far I've walked on the treadmill everyday in February and I've done the Wii-fit several times. I ordered the "Walk-It-Out" and it's fun. I add some side bends and pump my arms as I walk so I'm getting extra exercise while I do it.

My eating has been pretty good. I've been staying within my WW points most days and I never go over my weekly allowance points. I don't trade in my activity points either. I did have a mini blizzard from DQ on Sunday. It was tiny, but plenty to get the taste that I wanted. It totaled 10 points and I wouldn't do it everyday, but as a special treat it wasn't bad. I was at the mall and did quite a bit of walking when I got it so I worked some of it off. I still had a loss so I guess it didn't hurt me too much.

I've been watching a lot of WW members on you tube and I've been getting some good recipe ideas and a lot of encouragement. From the sounds of a lot of the posters they gained last week too. Maybe it was the way the stars were aligned or something.

Last week was Groundhog's Day. I'm so glad he didn't see his shadow this year. I am so tired of winter. We have had snow on the ground since before Christmas and it just keeps piling on. This week it's really going to be cold. They are saying below zero wind chills over the next couple days and single digits at night. I just want to get outside and play in the garden. I can't wait to get fresh veggies out of my own garden and visit the farmers market.

Next week is Valentine's day. I'm gong to tell my hubby to forget my favorite chocolates this year and maybe we can go out and get a nice dinner instead. I'm thinking about getting some strawberries and dark chocolate and giving him some dipped strawberries this year. Maybe he'll even share a couple with me. Strawberries are zero points and the chocolate shouldn't be too bad is I go with dark chocolate. Weigh-in is Monday so I can work off any damage during the week.

Biggest Mistake of My LIfe

2011-01-29T08:54:00.001-05:00

The biggest mistake of my life is that I quit going to Weight Watchers after I made lifetime 7 years ago. Don't get me wrong. I've made a lot of mistakes in my lifetime, but working so hard to get to goal and then quitting the one thing that helped me get there was the biggest mistake. When (I was going to say if, but that would be a negative remark) I make goal this time I will continue going back no matter what happens on the scale. I swore before that I would never get fat again and what happened. I got fat again. This is the last time I'm going to have to lose 50 pounds. Why did I think that 5 pounds was the end of the world? It would have so easy to get those 5 pounds off and work at keeping it off. Now I'm back to working hard every week to just get a pound off and get a little back to goal. This is one mistake I will not make again. I've learned by my mistake.

Hello, my name is Paula...

2011-01-25T13:21:00.000-05:00

and I have a grocery shopping habit. What is wrong with me? I just can't go into a store without spending at least $100.00. I had about 10 things on my list and walked into the store geared up to buy only those items. As I walked around I found other things that I thought we needed. Of course we didn't really "NEED" these items. I bought dessert options for our evening snacks. I got yogurt that wasn't on sale. I did have a coupon for them. I think I'll be doing the pantry challenge for the month of February too. I still have plenty of food and I really need to cut the grocery bill. If I can stay out of the store I can actually save the money.

My Wwi fit arrived. I've heard so many good things about the wwi fit that I can;t wait to try it out. I think I will try it after dinner and before Biggest Loser. I already did my walking this morning so the extra exercise will be a bonus.

Finally out of the 180s

2011-01-24T12:58:00.000-05:00

Great weigh-in this morning. I lost 1.8 pounds bring me to a total 7.2 pounds in 5 weeks. My goal to lose 1 pound a week is working and better yet, I'm out of the 180s. This just proves that Weight Watchers works. I'm going a slow pace, but I don't mind as long as the scale is moving in the right direction.

I walked on the treadmill 5 times so that is good. I ordered my Wwi fit over the weekend and it's suppose to be here tomorrow. I've heard so many good things about it. One of the lady's at WW this morning said she got the Michael Jackson game for Christmas and it really gives you a work out. She lost over 5 pounds this week. This weeks meeting was all about getting up and moving.

I did go to the store this past week and got some fruits and some canned veggies. I heard about dump soup at the WW meeting a couple weeks ago and looked it up. I made some and that's what I've been eating every day for lunch. Lots of veggies and low in points.

I've been busy sewing so I've been sitting a lot this past week. I get my walking in first thing in the morning so I don't have any excuses about not doing it. It's done and out of the way before my day really starts.

Wish me luck for another loss next week.

1 pound = 5.4 total gone

2011-01-17T11:43:00.000-05:00

Today was my WW weigh-in. I'm down another pounds. That makes 5.4 total since I went back. I'm feeling good that I'm still ahead of goal of losing a pound a week.

I walked on the treadmill 3 times this week. It snowed a lot on Tuesday, so I walked to my daughter's to pick up her dog. The snow was deep and no one had shoveled their walks. It was like walking on sand duns. I am counting that as a work out, plus I shoveled my whole driveway. I didn't do any other exercise this week. If I had I would have probably lost more. I will try harder to do more this week. My weekly goal is to walk at least 4 times this week and try and do some other exercise the other 3 days.

The Pantry Challenge is still going OK. I'm managing to eat healthy while still eating out of the pantry and freezer. I did go shopping on Friday and bought some milk, eggs, english muffins and cheese. I knew my grandson would be here part of the weekend so I also bought some chips for him. I did not eat any of them and he took them home with him yesterday. I ended up spending $44.19. So far I've spent $54.00 on groceries this month. I feel good about that. A plus is that I still have a lot of food left in the house to work with for the rest of the month.

My challenge tonight is going out to eat at Tumbleweed. I'm off to check their menu so I can make a wise choice before I get there tonight.

The mini goals are working

2011-01-10T12:03:00.000-05:00

Last week I made a mini week goal to walk on the treadmill 4 days. I ended up walking all 7 days. YEAH for me. I continued to watch my portions and drank my water. It was a good week. This week I am going to make my mini goal to be to walk 4 days and do some other type of activity for 3 days. I was planning on doing the celebrity workout on FitTV, but it looks like they took it off the morning programming and put it only in the evening. I used to enjoy doing them because everyday it was a different style workout. Now I think I might dig out the old Richard Simmon's tapes and do them 3 days. It's too hard to do exercise in the evening after I've eaten dinner.

So now for the big news. Today was my WW weigh-in. I lost 2 pounds this week. That's a total of 4.4 since I started back to meetings. I feel good about that. My long term goal is to lose 1 pound a week so I'm 1 pound ahead of goal. I know the longer you go the harder it is to lose the weight so that's why I'm trying to mix up the weekly goals so I don't get too bored doing the same thing and to help trick my body into not knowing what's coming next.

The Pantry Cooking Challenge is going well. I haven't been to the grocery store yet. I did get some pistachios that were on sale for a good price, but that's it so far. I am going to have to go tonight and get some cat food, so I might double check the sales and see if there's any real bargains in the fruits and veggies that I can't live without. My pantry and freezer are still full so I think I can do this for the whole month. The last week might be harder, but we will see.

Down a little bit at this week's meeting

2011-01-03T13:13:00.000-05:00

My weigh-in wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. At least I didn't gain. I lost .6 pounds this week. Not quite the pound I had on my goal. I still have a 2.4 total loss since re-joining WW. Now that the holidays are out of the way and the grandkids are back to school I can get my life back in order. The exercise room will be back instead of it being the kids bedroom, I can concentrate on eating healthier foods, and I can have more me time.

I am going to try and save some grocery money this month by cleaning out the pantry and freezer when I'm creating our meals. There's plenty of food to start me out with a pretty good menu. Near the end of the month I might have to be more creative to serve a healthy meal. I will try to only spend my grocery budget on fresh fruits, veggies and milk. When I restock my pantry it will be with healthy foods so I'm not tempted to eat things that I shouldn't have. Next month I am going to try to cook double meals so I can restock the freezer with healthy meals that I can pull out when I'm stuck on what to make.

This week's mini goal is to walk on the treadmill 4 times this week. I ended up walking on it a total of 4 times last week so I walked 1 extra day over my goal. I walked today so only 3 more days to make goal this week. I'm going to get the Wii out of the box and get it set up so I can maybe get a little exercise in by playing some of the games until I can get the Wii-Fit.

Survived New Years Weekend

2011-01-02T19:30:00.001-05:00

I made it through the New Year food fest without doing too much damage. I did make you veggie dip using low fat cream cheese and lite mayo. I put it in my WW calculator and it comes up to 2 points a tablespoon. I use 2 tablespoons and manage to get a lot of veggies (green peppers and carrots) in. I didn't eat a single potato chip or fried food. I tried making some sauerkraut balls in the oven, but that's didn't turn out very well. I did eat a couple cheese cubes (which I cut in smaller cubes). I had one drink on NYE and a glass of wine on New years day with dinner. I made my usual New Years dinner consisting of meatballs, sauerkraut and cabbage. I ate 2 meatballs and a little of the cabbage and sauerkraut. I didn't have any rolls with dinner. My lunch yesterday and today were veggies and dip. We did go out to dinner tonight and I had one slice of a small pizza and a salad. Since I didn't have much for dinner I thought I could afford it.

Tomorrow is weigh-in again. I'm hoping for a pound or more. To stay on track to get to goal by Dec 2011 I have to lose at least 1 pound a week. I will post how I did tomorrow.

This weeks goal met!

2010-12-30T11:51:00.001-05:00

I finished walking on the treadmill my 3rd time this week. Any more walking is a bonus. I like the idea of making a weekly goal. Each week I will pick a different goal and see if it helps me stay motivated. Mini goals help keep me from getting stressed and overwhelmed. Every year I make the same resolution on New Years Eve and every year I'm sitting her weighing the same if not more. Sticking to my mini goals should help me stay on track and with any luck I hope to lose at least a pound a week which should bring me to goal my this time next year. One week at a time. I can do anything for a week.

I'm a loser. My WW meeting proved it!

2010-12-28T07:38:00.000-05:00

I had my WW my weigh-in yesterday morning. I'm down 1.8 pounds. I was hoping for more, since it's my first weigh from my long return, but an almost 2 pound loss over a holiday is great.

My goal for this week is to lose 2 pounds. Of course this is another holiday weekend. I will have to work hard all week so the weekend doesn't ruin me. I will also watch what I eat and stay away from the fried foods. We have family over here on New Years Eve so I'm in control of the food. I will continue having what they like, but when I make the veggie dip I will use the reduced fat cream cheese and mayo. I will eat lots of veggies and avoid the bad things that the others are eating. I can do it. I will enjoy 1 drink to toast in the new year with and that's it. The rest of the time I will be drinking my water. Heck I might splurge and get lemons and put my water in a flute glass and garnish it with a lemon slice.

I missed walking on the treadmill 4 days last week. The week started out good and then the grandchildren came to stay and the exercise room turned back into their bedroom. I put the trundle bed back and opened up the treadmill again this morning. I walked before I went to weigh-in. My walking goal is to walk at least 3 days this week (that's what I did last week), but would really like to do it everyday. We learned today to set goal at our meeting and to make them realistic. the 3 days is realistic, but if I do more it is a bonus. I'm setting myself up for failure so 3 will work for me.

Thinking about re-joining Weight Watchers

2010-12-16T13:36:00.000-05:00

I lost weight when I was going to Weight Watchers before and I think I might start back and see if it will work again. I found all my weight-in cards. I joined June 18, 2001, weighing 180.5. The 1st week I lost 18 pounds. That is amazing seeing I can't seem to lose a pound now. I had set my goal to be 145 pounds. I really think this is too low. I did manage to make my goal on March 15 2003. It took me 2 years to make goal. I became a lifetime member on April 14, 2003. I was able to maintain for 3 weeks. In the 4th week I gained 22 pounds (it might have been Easter week, I don't remember) and continued to gain for 2 weeks after that. I got disappointed and quit going. BIG MISTAKE!! Now here it is almost 2011 and I'm at 188.5. I looked up when and where the meeting are and I think I'll start back on Monday.

I've been getting exercise in everyday this week. We were hit with a big snowstorm on Monday & Tuesday so I spend quite a bit of time shoveling snow both days. I walked on the treadmill yesterday and today before my morning shower. I've been trying to eat better too. I really need to get some fresh veggies and fruit in the house though. I'm thinking a trip to Aldi's is in order.

Starting over with a healthier lifestyle

2010-12-09T11:31:00.001-05:00

I really have to start over again. I have maintained for a year. I guess that's better than gaining, but I really need to lose at least 30 pounds. I really don't think I eat all that bad. I know I could do better.

I've started to use more strict portion control. I've bought smaller plates to eat on and we now use the smaller forks for our meals. I only drink water at meals we eat at home. We do eat out on the weekends, but I try and make wiser choices.

I know it's a hard time to try and lose weight . I just don't want to gain through the holidays. I will really be happy to continue maintaining and then start losing in January. I don't have any Christmas parties to go to and I'm not planning on making a lot of cookies. My plan is to stay on plan up till Christmas day's dinner and try to limit one plate full then.

OK, now for my big problem. I just can't stay motivated to exercise. I know I should and I do sometimes. I have a treadmill, but don't keep up on using it. I just bought myself a Wii and will get the Wii Fit when I see a good price or when I get enough Amazon gift credits to get it cheap. I'm going to try and walk on the treadmill at least 3 days a week. I will start today!! Ok, now I've written it so I will have to do it. There's nothing good on TV tonight, so I will do it after dinner.

Another problem is getting the water in. I'm doing better with this, but still not as much as I should be getting in. I just bought a Brita pitcher to help save on the plastic bottles. The pitcher holds 5 cups and I try to drink a pitcher a day. This is a good start for me. Drinking cold water is hard when it's cold outside.

Today's menu:
B- Peanut butter on toast- 2 slices of white bread
     1 cup OJ
S- Yoplait light yogurt
L- left over spaghetti (wheat pasta)
D- 1/2 chicken breast (baked)

    mashed potatoes
    noodles
    homemade applesauce
S- WW jello pie

Mail Update

2010-04-05T13:08:00.000-04:00

Mail update for last week:

Free Shape Magazine
Free Weight Watchers Magazine
Free sheet of coupons for Farmland products
Free Yoplait Yogurt coupon
Several birthday cards

Not So Good Mail Week

2010-03-23T10:41:00.000-04:00

This week was a terrible mail week. Here's what I got:

All You Magazine
Taste of Home Magazine
$1.00 coupon for Cheer laundry detergent.

That's it. I paid for both of the magazine subscriptions so I didn't even get those free. I hope this week is better.

Weekly Mail Update

2010-03-17T12:42:00.000-04:00

This week I got the following in the mail:

Breyers Inspirations Yogurt coupons 1 for a free yogurt and a .50 off coupon.
Free Prevention Magazine
Free Organic Gardening Magazine
Axe Shower Gel sample from Sam's Club
$3.00 coupon for Ensure
Full bottle of Pantene Shampoo from Focal Point.

That's all the free goodies for this week. I don't want to discuss my US Bank charge bill. My zero% finance charge promotion ran out so OUCH!!! It isn't pretty.

2 Weeks of Mail

2010-03-08T15:35:00.000-05:00

Today I'm listing 2 weeks of mail.

1 Free Excederin Coupon

$15.00 worth of coupons for Bayer products

$5.00 Johnson & Johnson rebate check

(2) 50 cent coupons for Breyer's yogurt

Free coupon for Hellva Good products

Free SportsCar magazine and calendar

Flip, Clip & Save coupons booklet from Target

Gold Medal Mail Call

2010-02-21T19:25:00.000-05:00

This week I got some good Freebies.

A free Uniball pen
Free Family Fun magazine
Free Weight Watchers magazine
Tidy Cat coupons. 1 free 20# and (2) $2.00 off any
I had a problem with my scoopable litter not clumping, so I wrote to Tidy Cat to complain and they sent me these coupons.
I also got a Garden Gate magazine that I got a cheap subscription to.

Not a bad week for freebies

Weekly Mail Update

2010-02-14T14:02:00.000-05:00

This weeks mail was a little sparse again this week.

Free Oreos coupon from facebook

$1.00 coupon from Arbor Mist rebate

ConAgra coupon booklet

Sample of Celestial Green Tea

Free American Motorcyclist Magazine

That's it for this week.

Weekly Mail Call

2010-02-07T08:51:00.000-05:00

This was a very slow mail week. It was so slow that I'm going include freebies I got with today's newspaper.

This is what I got.

Free Prevention Magazine

Cheap All You Magazine

$15 worth of Save-A-Lot coupons

$5.40 worth of Dove coupons

$5.00 check from my sister-in-law for her Relay For Life Chili cook-off ticket

A post card announcing my 40th class reunion

And on today's newspaper wrapper a free sample of Fiber one ceral and 90 calorie bar with coupons

Now that I typed it all out I guess it wasn't such a bad week after all.

This Weeks Mail

2010-01-30T19:44:00.000-05:00

This week I didn't get a lot of goodies in the mail.

I got:

A free Pillsbury Calendar

$5.00 check form Johnson's rebate

That's it. I'm hoping for a better mail week next week.

Weekly Mail Call

2010-01-23T18:10:00.000-05:00

This was a much better week for freebies in the mail.

This week I got:

Free Weight Watchers Magazine (which had several coupons I cut out)
Free Family Fun Magazine
Free Shape Magazine
Free Self Magazine
Free Delalio calendar with coupons attached
$10 Eukanuba puppy food coupon
Stripes card for T.G.I. Friday's
$5.00 off $300 coupon for Donzell's Garden Center.

I also got a box returned that I sent in for the Biggest Loser Pound for Pound Challenge sponsored by Yoplait yogurt. I know they would have received the box before the Dec. 31st cut off date, but it was returned saying that the box was closed. What a rip off. I guess they could have raised the $275,000 alloted for this cause before I mailed the lids. I mailed the pink labels for Yoplait the same day so lets see if they come back too.

Weekly Mail Call

2010-01-16T16:55:00.000-05:00

This wasn't a very exciting mail week. I got:

20 Nut-trition coupons I ordered from Ebay

All You Magazine

Woman's Day Magazine (free subscription)

Taste of Home Magazine

88 cent check from Capital One. This was the credit balance still on our closed Credit Card.

Presidential Memorial Certificate in memory of my father-in-law signed by President Obama

A letter stating that Office Max will now take my used canon ink cartridges

That's all the good stuff. I also got my Discover and US Bank credit bills.

WEEKLY MAIL RECAP

2010-01-10T13:17:00.000-05:00

This was a pretty good mail week. This is what I got:

2- FREE coupons for Hefty trash bags. One is for up to $8.00 and the other is for up to $9.00. I had a problem with a box of trashbags and contacted the company and they were kind enough to send me these free coupons. I love it when companies appreciate their consumers.

9- $1.00 coupons for Coke. I enrolled at http://www.recyclebank.com/ and the coupons were my reward. It's well worth enrolling even if your community doesn't participate in the program. If you are lucky enough to have it in your area you can earn more points than the startup reward.

1- .75 coupon for Hellman's mayo plus 2 samples to see if you can tell the difference between the light and regular mayo.

3- .50 coupons for Charmin TP. I commented on their website that they are offering a $1.00 coupon and when you click on it you get a message that there is no coupon for that campaign. So I'm now .50 ahead of the game.

Free Gardening Magazine from a free subscription.

There might have been more goodies, but this is all I can remember. I'll try to keep track better this week.

Black Friday

2009-11-27T11:45:00.001-05:00

I haven't logged in for a few days. It's been busy here getting ready for the big Turkey Day!! I had to do my last minute shopping for fresh veggies and bread for the stuffing. I bought a pre-made pie in the bakery department so I didn't have to make several pies homemade.

I went to Jazzercise on Wednesday. Our center wasn't open yesterday. I should have gone today, but I slept in and my hubby and grandson were here so I had to make a better breakfast than the cereal I usually eat on Friday . Next week I will really try hard to get there 3 times.

Yesterday's dinner turned out good. The food was very yummy. I limited myself to one helping of everything. I started out with a salad to help fill me up. I only had pumpkin pie for dessert instead of the usual several thing to pick from. I enjoyed a slice of pie with fat free cool whip. I didn't have anything after dinner even though we had an early dinner. I was wondering what the scale would say this morning. I only gained a 1/2 pound. Not bad after a Thanksgiving dinner. We will have leftovers today so I hope to do just as well today.

I don't do the Black Friday shopping in the stores. If I really want something I order it online. Most of my shopping is done anyway so I'm going to spend the day relaxing and maybe rearranging my bedroom. I need a change. I also have to switch out my winter wardrobe for my winter one. It was snowing today.

How did everyone else do with yesterday's meal?

Sporty Saturday

2009-11-21T12:34:00.001-05:00

I went today to watch my oldest grandson in his first ever wrestling scrimmage. It was so hard to watch him be tossed around like a rag doll. He just decided last Sunday that he wanted to join the team. All the rest of these boys have been doing this for a lot longer from the looks of it. My grandson is a tall skinny boy. He's 16 years old and weighs 110. There is skin on his bones and that's about it. He texted his mom and told her he had a busted lip and is bruised up but, he was OK. I just wanted to go over to him and wrap him up in his baby quilt and carry him out of there. I'll have to wait to hear what he has to say about it himself.

Not much else going on today.

Friday not Fryday

2009-11-20T12:46:00.001-05:00

No Jazzercise today. I wanted to go, but I have a killer headache.. I did make it 2 times this week and I will try and make it there 3 days next week. Our center isn't open Thanksgiving Day so I will have to work around that.

I did go to the grocery store today. I had to get my turkey so it can thaw. Even with my coupons, I spent too much. Eating healthy is more expensive that eating junk food. I'm going to have to really watch for specials on fresh fruits and veggies. Of course, I did get more stuff because of Thanksgiving dinner, so that didn't help.

Here we are the weekend again. Last weekend wasn't too bad so I'm hoping to stick to the diet again this week.

Tasty Thusday

2009-11-19T13:05:00.001-05:00

I made it to Jazzercise this morning. One more class and I will make my goal of 3 this week. It was a good workout!

I just got back from Pizza Hut for lunch. I had a nice salad and 2 slices of thin crust pizza. I asked for water even though I really wanted a Pepsi. My hubby is going to a Men's Club fish dinner so I'm on my own for dinner. I'll have some homemade veggie soup.

It's still raining today. It's just a drizzle. I wish we would just have a downpour and get it over with. The temps are going to be in the 50s the rest of the week.

Survivor's on tonight so we will watch that while we enjoy our WW pie. A nice way to finish off the day.

Wet Wednesday

2009-11-18T19:04:00.000-05:00

I ended up sleeping in this morning. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. I didn't go to Jazzercise today. That means I have to go tomorrow and Friday in order to get 3 days in.

Not much else happened today. It was drizzling rain most of the day, so nothing to do outside. It's getting colder too. I afraid winter's on it's way.

Dinner was good. I made wheat pasta with left over plain sauce. We had a nice salad I since I don't like chicken in tomato sauce I put my chicken in my salad. My hubby had his chicken thigh in the sauce with mushrooms. No cheating again today. The only problem I'm having is getting all the water in. I'm doing better, but not good enough. I'm still working on it though. I'm not giving up.

Terrific Tuesday

2009-11-17T11:50:00.000-05:00

I was afraid of how I would feel after Jazzercizing yesterday, but I don't feel too bad. I'm a little sore in the shoulders, but I will live. I didn't go to class today because I wanted time to heal. I will go tomorrow. I think I might go for a walk later on this afternoon. Today is weight in. I'm down 4 pounds. I feel good about it. I will continue to do what I did last week with the Jazzercise thrown in so hopefully next Tuesday I will show even more of a loss.

I decided to make a chicken for dinner. I used Mrs. Dash for the seasoning instead of the salty rub I usually use. I'm sure my hubby won't even know the difference. He didn't with the baked meatballs last night, which turned out great as a matter of fact. I have a recipe for baked in the oven potato fries , from the DASH diet, that I think I'll try too. I'll also roast some asparagus and have a garden salad. Boy I'm hungry already. Guess it's time to put a bowl of my homemade soup on to cook.

I'm getting my hair trimmed tonight so I don't look like a saggy dog, then dinner then later we'LL watch Biggest Loser while we eat out Weight Watcher pie that I make with jello, yogurt and cool whip. A low fat dessert that doesn't taste like it. I'd better get busy and make the pie so it has time to get set up.

Till tomorrow!

Relay For Life

2009-09-18T13:05:00.000-04:00

I just joined a team for Relay For Life. It is a family team. My 2 daughters and grand-daughter are also on the team. My daughters are co-chairs. I've participated the last couple years. My brother is a colon cancer survivor. If you would like to help with the cause and donate please use the link above so I can get credit and hoepfully raise more money than the rest of my team. ;-)

Swidget 1.0 13

2009-07-02T13:37:00.001-04:00

Swidget 1.0great free widgetsWidgetbox

Swidget 1.0 12

2009-07-02T13:32:00.001-04:00

Use the registration code - CASHISKING - and you will start out w/5 FREE swagbucks!

New appliances on their way

2009-05-09T13:16:00.000-04:00

We decided to check out Lowe's before we headed out to HH Gregg's. Since I really need the washer asap and I knew that Lowe's delivers next day I thought if they had any good sales they might be the place to get at least the washer. The salesman said that he could give us the 10% off all the appliances and we could also get the 12 months 0%. My new washer and stove is being delivered tomorrow morning. I will have to wait for the refrigerator since it was not in stock. That is OK.

I'm going to list my old stove on freecycle to a needy family. The oven and 2 smaller top burners work fine. It would be a great stove for someone that doesn't have one. I'll list the refrigerator when the new one is going to be delivered.