Happy New Year!!

Wishing you a Happy New Year!! I wish for you many blessings and joyful moments and good health in 2010!!

(I'm talkin' to you, Sarah. My lone reader) :-)

Week 6, Day 7

Today's weight - 128.4! Yay!! I hit the 120s!! Only 8.4 pounds until I hit my goal! (Although I'd love to get to 115, but that's my secret goal)

I tried on a bunch of pants this morning that used to be too tight, and they all fit! Very exciting and motivating!

Only one more holiday to get through (NYE) and I'll have survived the 2009 holiday season with not putting ON weight, but taking it OFF!

I really love WW. I never, ever, ever thought I could lose weight through dieting since I love to eat so much... but I can honestly say it hasn't been that hard and I don't feel terribly deprived!

I really do think I can make WW a part of my life forever. (famous last words?)

anyway, back to the regularly scheduled program:

breakfast
coffee (1 pt)
english muffin + 1/2 Tb pb (2 pts)

lunch
1 serving WW Mexican Meatloaf (3 pts)
1 cup berries -blueberries and raspberries (1 pt)
10 baby carrots (0 pts)
7 whole wheat Triscuits (2 pts)

Week 6, Day 6 (snack attack!)

I've had the munchies something terrible lately! :-( Luckily I'm stocked up on healthy snacks like fruit! My local Safeway has been having a sale on berries and the blueberries and raspberries are surprisingly sweet and delicious for this time of year! yum!

breakfast
coffee (1 pt)
english muffin + 1/2 T margarine (2 pts)

lunch
Lean Cuisine (6 pts)
10 baby carrots (0 pts)
1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup raspberries (1 pt)

snacks
90-cal snack pack of mini rice cakes drizzled w/chocolate (2 pts)
20ish jelly bellies (2 pts)
7 baked lays (1 pt)

dinner
1 serving WW meatloaf (3 pts)
1/2 cup green beans (0 pts

snack
2 cups cherries (2 pts)

Total points = 20 pts
Allowed points = 18 pts
2 flex points used


If you're looking for a really yummy and easy WW recipe that's only 3 pts a serving, try this Mexican Meatloaf! :-)

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
1/2 pound extra lean ground beef
1/2 pound lean ground turkey breast
2 large egg whites
2 oz. cornbread stuffing dry mix (about 1 cup)
1 medium chopped onion
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
4 oz canned green chili peppers, diced
8 oz canned enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a broiler pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix beef, turkey, egg whites, stuffing mix, onion, chili powder, cumin, chilies, and half of enchilada sauce together. Shape into an oval with your hands and place on prepared broiler pan. Cook for 1 hour, top with remaining enchilada sauce and bake for 5 minutes more. Slice into 6 pieces and serve.

Week 6, Day 3

breakfast:
2 slices turkey bacon (2 pts)
1 orange (1 pt)
low-cal english muffing + 1/2 T pb (2pts)

lunch:
1 slice vegetarian lasagna (6 pts?)


snack:
popcorn (1pt)
Jello pudding cup (1 pt)
1 oz Baked Lays (2 pts)

ACK! I got the munchies!

Week 6, Day 2

Merry Christmas!! (Happy Birthday to our Savior!!)

I hosted Christmas dinner, but it was potluck so it wasn't too much work. I made two WW main course recipes (Herbed Rib Roast- 6 pts and Roasted Pork with Sage Berry Dressing- 7 pts) and two WW sides (Roasted Acorn Squash with Orange-Ginger Dressing- 3 pts and Millet Pilaf with Cranberries, Sweet Potatoes and Thyme- 3 pts).

Unfortunately, even though dinner was supposed to start at 4:00pm, my BIL's family didn't show up until close to 5:30pm!! GRRRRRR. So the rib roast was cool by the time I served it and the roasted pork was completely dried out. ugh. Not surprisingly, the WW recipes was NOT a hit. :-( If we had eaten an hour earlier, I think it would have been 10X better.

I barely ate anything b/c I was so busy running around in the kitchen, but here's a list of what I can remember eating:

two bites rib roast w/2 T horseradish dressing (2 pts?)
two bites roast pork (3 pts?)
two bites millet pilaf (1 pt)
1/2 roasted acorn squash (2 pts)
1 slice sweet potato tempura (2 pts?)
2 pieces california roll (2 pts)
1/2 slice wheat beer bread (? pts)

I only nibbled for dinner. I was too exhausted to eat. I woke up the next morning with a growling stomach. I was so hungry!

Week 6, Day 1

lunch
lean cuisine (5 pts)

dinner
1 slice vegetarian lasagna (6 pts?)
salad w/balsamic vinegar (0 pts)
1 slice choc. chip bundt cake (3 pts)
1 slice beer bread (4 pts?)
1 glass white wine (2 pts)

Week 5, Day 7

breakfast
coffee (1 pt)
low-cal English muffin + 1/2 T pb (2 pts)

lunch
thai red curry with shrimp
1 cup white rice (4 pts)

Week 5, Day 6

breakfast
coffee (1 pt)
english muffin + pb (2 pts)

lunch
lean cuisine (6 pts)
1 orange (1 pt)
10 baby carrots (0 pts)

Only one more day until the long weekend!!

I can do it... I can do it... I can do it...


snack
jello pudding cup (1 pt)
1 small piece of peanut brittle (1 pt?)
1 small pretzel that had a hershey kiss looking think melted to it and topped with an m&M (2 pts?)

I need to sew my mouth shut for the rest of the afternoon

Sugar O.D.

Even though the party was cancelled, the cafeteria had already been decorated for the luncheon and a bunch of people had made desserts for the bake-off so my boss told people to grab their lunches and come down and share desserts.

ugh. big mistake. I should have dropped off my pie and left.

Instead, I ate the following desserts:
white chocolate/raspberry cheesecake (3 big bites)
1/2 orange juice ball (some sort of no-bake ball of dough)
1 small slice pecan pie (I had to see if it was edible. it was)
1 nibble of peanut butter fudge
1 tiny sugar cookie shaped like a teeny tiny snowman (it was seriously like 1/2 inch tall, so cute!)

For lunch, I went to Panera and ordered 1/2 chicken salad sandwich and small cup of French Onion soup with no cheese and no croutons with an apple as my side.

To make my pissy day even worse, when I got to work and opened up my lunch sack, the soup had lots of cheese in it and croutons and instead of an apple they put in a baguette! HMPH!! I fished out the croutons and tried to get as much cheese out of the soup as possible, but it definitely wasn't the 1 pt soup it would have been without the cheese and croutons.

so annoying. I'm having a cranky day.

Week 5, Day 5

breakfast
coffee (1 pt)
low cal english muffin + 1/2T Pb (2 pts)

snack
1 orange (1 pt)
10 baby carrots (0 pts)

lunch
Panera 1/2 chicken salad sandwich (6 pts)
Panera French Onion Soup (2 pts) This should have been 1, but they didn't follow my instructions and put in croutons and cheese!! Grrrr. I had to fish out them out, but I'm sure some of the grease had already seeped out into the soup.
assorted sweets (see "Sugar OD" post) (I don't know, 10 pts?)

dinner
1/2 cup white rice (2 pts)
1/4 cup Thai Red Curry with 2 oz chicken and mushrooms and spinach (5 pts)

total points = 29 (used 11 flex points)


I am supremely annoyed today for the following reasons:

1. Even though there's almost 2 feet of snow outside, all public schools are closed, all local government offices are closed and the federal government is closed, my company is still open.

2. I stayed up late last night baking this pecan pie:



3. I stayed up late last night baking the pie because I was so sure the office would be closed today and therefore the departmental holiday luncheon and bake-off would also be cancelled so I didn't start baking the pie until 9pm last night when I got texts from work friends who informed me that work would not be closing.

4. I arrived at work only to get an email that the departmental lunch and bake-off is postponed until after the holidays because not enough people showed up today.

5. So now i'm stuck with this pie full of butter and corn syrup and no lunch.

What's a WWer supposed to do?

Week 5, Day 4

breakfast
coffee (1 pt)
english muffin with 1/2T peanut butter (2 pts)
2 slices turkey bacon (2 pts)
1/2 orange (0 pts)

lunch
Lean Cuisine (5 pts)
Salad (romaine, baby spinach, garbanzo beans, beets, carrots, red onion) (1 pt)
balsamic vinegar for dressing (0 pts)

Snack
94% fat free microwave popcorn (1 pt)

Activity - shoveled snow for 30 minutes

whoa, the snow... the snow!!

when will it let up??

J and I just finished round 1 of shoveling. That has to be at least a couple of activity points!

look how deep the drifts were!


Benji in his snow outfit (it's really a raincoat but that's all he's got)


we shoveled a little area in the backyard for him to do his business in


and if he can't go there, I shoveled around this little tree by our driveway


Looks like we'll be back outside in a couple of hours for some more shoveling!

Week 5, Day 3

breakfast
low-cal english muffin (1 pt)
1 fried egg (2 pts)
2 slices turkey bacon (2 pts)
coffee (1 pt)
1/2 orange (0 pt)

lunch
big salad:
romaine lettuce (0 pts)
baby spinach leaves (0 pts)
beets (0 pts)
carrots (0 pts)
a couple spoonfuls of garbanzo beans (1 pt)
drizzled with balsamic vinegar (0 pts)
1/2 a 10" frozen cheese pizza (12 pts)

Dinner
two bites of nasty shepherd's pie (1 pt?)
1 naval orange (1 pt)

Total points = 21 points
Activity point = 1 (for shoveling snow)
Points used = 20 (used 2 flex points)

SNOW DAY!!!! :-)




I'm going to make this recipe tonight for dinner:



Turkey Shepherd's Pie
with Mashed Sweet Potatoes


POINTS® Value: 6
Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 20 min
Cooking Time: 40 min
Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients
1 large sweet potato(es), peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/3 cup(s) buttermilk
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp table salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, or to taste
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup(s) red onion(s), chopped
2 medium garlic clove(s), minced
6 medium baby carrots, chopped
20 oz raw turkey sausage, sweet Italian-variety, casings removed
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
10 3/4 fl oz canned tomato soup, made with low-fat milk
Instructions

* Preheat oven to 400ºF.

* Place potatoes in a medium saucepan and pour in enough water to cover potatoes. Set pan over high heat and bring to a boil; boil until fork-tender, about 8 minutes. Drain potatoes; return potatoes to pan. Mash potatoes with buttermilk and garlic powder until smooth; season to taste with salt and pepper.

* Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until tender, about 3 minutes. Add carrots; sauté 1 minute. Remove vegetables from skillet; set aside.

* Add sausage to skillet; sauté until browned, breaking up sausage as it cooks with a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes. Return vegetables to skillet; stir to combine. Add oregano, thyme and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper; cook 1 minute. Add soup; simmer until liquid is absorbed and mixture is thick, about 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and spoon mixture into a 9-inch pie plate.

* Spoon mashed potatoes over turkey mixture and spread into an even layer using the back of a wooden spoon.

* Bake until filling is bubbly, about 25 minutes. Slice into 6 pieces and serve. Yields 1 piece per serving.

***************

I stopped by the grocery store last night after work and it was a ZOO!! People were going nuts in anticipation for the snow. I have never seen such empty shelves at the Safeway!

They were out of turkey sausage, but I had some ground turkey in the freezer at home, so I just bought some spices and am going to fake the turkey "sausage". They were also out of milk (MILK! yikes!) so I bought a can of tomato soup that was labeled "creamy tomato soup". I saw that it had milk in the ingredients list and each serving was only 2 pts, so I figured it was close enough. We'll see how it goes. Will update with pics later!

::::EDIT:::::
yuck. the recipe was NOT good. Maybe the recipe as-written is good, but my modified turkey sausage and milk substitute were big failures. I took two bites and decided it wasn't worth the points. Thankfully, John is not a picky eater and thought it was good enough to eat. Guess who will be eating turkey shepherd pie for the next two days? Hint: it won't be me. ;-)

Week 5, Day 2

breakfast
coffee (1 pt)
low fat English muffin + 1/2 T PB (2 pts)

lunch
1 spicy tuna roll (brown rice) (2 pts)
1 spicy califonia roll (brown rice) (3-4 pts?)
1 cucumber roll (brown rice) (2 pts)
green tea


uh oh, I only have one English muffin left and it's supposed to snow up to 12" of snow here tomorrow! Guess I'll have to hit the grocery store (along with thousands of other people) after work today. I mean, what am I supposed to have for breakfast if I don't have my English muffins?? ;-)

Last night, J and I hit the mall to pick up Christmas presents. We are such procrastinators. We do this every year. When will we ever learn?? I hate feeling desperate to find the "perfect" gift and since we're so pressed for time, we can never find the "perfect" gift and end up getting everyone sweaters that look incredibly similar to the sweaters everyone got last year.

I've also been eyeing this gorgeous mirror from Restoration Hardware for months:

I think it would look perfect above our family room mantle and with the RH "friends and family" sale over the weekend where everything in the store was 20% off, J said he'd get it for me as a Christmas gift. I called the store during the sale and asked if they had the mirror in stock and they said they didn't have any and suggested I either buy it on-line (and pay ridiculous shipping) or drive 60 miles to another RH (forget it!). I was bummed.

Then last night when we were at the mall, we stopped by RH and J asked if they would sell us their sample and still give us the friends & family 20% off. They said no to both, but said since the mirror was a stock item that they didn't have (rather than an "internet only" item), they could order it for us and have it delivered to our house for free! They offered us 10% off (their current sale), but I have a hard time buying something where I could have had $100 off just the day before and only $50 off now!

I'm annoyed that the salesperson I talked to the other day didn't tell me of this option b/c if she had, I would have had her order it for me to be delivered to my house for free AND I would have gotten 20% off!!

Grrrr.

anyway, I know it's a silly thing to be annoyed about. I just had to vent. ;-)

And to make this post diet-related... I actually had to wear a belt today to keep my jeans up! I used to "muffin top" over these jeans, so it's nice to see progress. I kind of regret not taking a before shot of my belly. I never carried weight in my stomach before so having rolls on my stomach was a "new" thing for me (even though I've been carrying the rolls for at least 2 years now), so it's not a surprise that it's the first place the weight is coming off. Now I'm just waiting for my thighs and butt... (but I'm a pear so I've always had a butt and thighs, so I shouldn't get my hopes up.)

Week 5, Day 1 (Weigh-In Day!!)

breakfast
wait for it...
coffee (1 pt)
low-cal English muffin with 1/2T PB (2 pts)

lunch
Lean Cuisine turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes (5 pts)
handful of microwave popcorn (0 pt)
1 naval orange (1 pt)

dinner
Chipotle (burrito bowl with 1/2 the usual rice, black beans, barbacoa, tomato salsa, medium salsa, corn salsa, lettuce, hot sauce) (11 pts)

Total points = 20 (used 2 flex points)


Today is my 2nd weigh-in! I'm nervous because the day before, when I weighed myself in the evening, I weighed the same as I did at my 1st weigh-in (134 lbs).

This morning when I weighed myself, I weighed 131.6 lbs. I know my weight fluctuates during the day and I'm the lightest when I first wake up, but can I really fluctuate that much?? I also think I'm about to have a visit from AF soon so some of it was probably water weight, right?

I really, really want my silly 5 lb sticker today!!

anyway, T minus 1 hr until weigh-in. *gulp*

**EDIT**
I got my 5 lb star!! WOOT WOOT!!


I weighed in at 132.8 lbs so I've lost a total of 5.4 lbs so far. I'm really excited about that b/c it was relatively easy to do (just took a little self-control and a LOT of food planning) and I didn't feel terribly deprived and I wasn't ever too hungry... but I was a little disappointed that I didn't make my 5% goal.

At least that gives me a goal for next week! Only 1.1 lbs to go to meet my 5%!

I also bought myself a handy dandy point calculator. It'll be easy to carry around in my purse. It looks kinda like a blackberry! ;-)



But it opens up to be a point calculator!


You just log in the calorie, fat, and fiber content of your food and out comes the number of WW points! It also tracks your daily points!

Week 4, day 7

breakfast
coffee (1 pt)
low-cal english muffin + 1/2 T PB (2 pts)

lunch
6" Subway roast beef on wheat (lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, onions, red wine vinegar) (6 pts)
1 small bag Baked Lays (2 pts)

dinner
korean kimchi stew, leftovers from yesterday (5 pts)
1 cup brown rice (4 pts)

Total points = 20, which means I've used up 2 of my 35 flex points.

yikes, tomorrow is weigh-in! I weighed myself last night after my filling dinner, with clothes on, and I weighed 134.0 pounds. Wait, what??!! I really want to make my 5 lb goal at tomorrow's WW weigh-in!!

However on the bright side, I am wearing a pair of pants today that I have had for over a year but have never worn. I got them on-line during one of J. Crew's "Final Sales" (no returns, so very risky!). I buy a lot of J. Crew stuff so I know what size fits me (10P) so I figured it wouldn't be a problem, but nope. My two new pairs of City Fit trousers arrived and I could barely get the button closed and I was bulging out of the top of the pants and they were skintight around the thighs and crotch. Really, I looked indecent. I think it's because they are lined, they are not as roomy as my unlined pants since my other (unlined) City Fit wool slacks fit me fine. Anyway, they have been hanging in my closet for over a year now.

This morning, they caught my eye so I tried them on.

I was so excited when they zipped up easily and they're not plastered to my crotch. yay me! :-)

(stealth photo in the bathroom at work today)



And finally, a picture of Benji from last night. He kept ringing the bell to go outside so even though I knew he didn't need to go potty, I let him out. 15 minutes later, I called him back in and this is how he showed up. Apparently he took his bully stick outside with him and buried it for safekeeping.


The photo doesn't clearly show the ball of mud that was balanced on top of his nose. He's such a mess. A lovable mess, but still... a mess.

Week 4, Day 6

breakfast:
low-cal English muffin with 1/2 T PB (2 pts)
coffee (1 pt)

lunch
1 cup Progresso light soup (1 pt)
big salad w/romaine, baby spinach, carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, garbanzo beans, beets (2 pts?)
balsamic vinegar for dressing (0 pts)
1 orange (1 pt)

snack
Starbucks tall Skinny cinnamon dolce latte (2 pts)
This was an impulse snack with a co-worker and had I known it would be 2 pts, I would have passed on it. I'd rather have string cheese for 2 pts. I'm a salty snack gal.

dinner
korean kimchi stew (kimchi (0 pts), 1/2 sliced zucchini (0 pts), scallions (0 pts), tofu (3 pts), tuna in water (3 pts), 1/2 T honey (? pts), 1 T red pepper paste (1 pt), 1 T soy paste (1 pt))
1 cup brown rice (4 pts)

I only ate half the stew so I guess that gives me about 4-5 pts for the stew plus 4 for the rice.

I skipped dinner last night b/c by the time I got home from Benji's obedience class, it was past 9:00pm. I was really tired so I took a shower and went straight to bed. I know I shouldn't be skipping meals though, so I have to do better. I could have eaten a 5pt Lean Cuisine and only gone 1 pt over my daily allowance and it would have taken 5 minutes to heat up.

Shows you how lazy I truly am.

I am wearing a sweater with wide horizontal stripes today. I think it was a mistake. Once again, I looked at myself in the mirror and thought I looked pretty good. I took a self-portrait on my point-and-shoot before I left the house today and I looked chubby in the picture. Damn that skinny mirror!

I can't wait to hit my weight-loss goal.

Encounter at the Chipotle

To my horror, as I was eating my Chipotle lunch (with 1/2 the usual rice portion and minus the cheese, sour cream, and guacamole. yay, me!), who walks through the door but Joe. My trainer. I mean, my ex-trainer.

He was looking as fit as ever. I, on the other hand... well, you know.

My first instinct was to duck and hide my face behind the bag of chips, so I did. (the chips belong to my friend, I promise) I didn't want him to see me this way. All the work we put into my body... all for naught!! :-(

But as he made his way through the Chipotle line, I worked up my courage and as he was paying his bill, I sucked in my gut and tapped him on the shoulder. Shockingly, he was able to recognize me through the chub.

Anyway, I'm glad I mustered up the courage to say hello b/c he told me that I should set up an appointment with him, he'd get me a visitor's pass at the gym and show me a program that I can do at home since I have a treadmill, free weights, a bench, and a workout ball at home. sweet!!! :-)

Week 4, Day 5

Weight this morning (on an empty stomach sans clothes): 132.4

I'm about 6 lbs down since I started almost 5 weeks ago, and even though 6 lbs really isn't that much, I can tell the difference in how my clothes fit already. It's very motivating! My stomach is flatter and I can see my waistline again! I can tuck my shirts into my pants again without having muffin top and my arms look a little thinner too.

but then again, I'm looking at myself through my skinny mirrors so maybe I should take a photo of myself. I'll do that tonight.

Anyway, I ate pretty decently this weekend. If my point calculations are correct, I mostly stayed within my 18 points a day... although I had to use 6 of my 35 extra weekly points. I won't bore you with the list of what I ate, but I stocked up on veggies so I ate a lot of salads with lots of different kinds of veggies (with balsamic vinegar for dressing - yummy! I didn't know how tasty plain balsamic vinegar could be! who needs oil? not me!)

I also bought a case of Florida naval oranges from my niece for her school fundraiser and have been eating a couple a day. They're so juicy and delicious! A very refreshing treat!

Breakfast:
coffee (1 pt)
low-cal English muffin + 1/2 T Pb (2 pts)

lunch
A friend of mine called and asked if I wanted to meet up with her for lunch. My WW-friendly packed lunch stayed in the mini-fridge and I went to Chipotle. But not before I checked out this website:
http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=nutrition_calculator

ok, so I ate a whopping 11 pts at lunch, but I'll go super light on dinner. I have 4 pts to spare and I can always dig into some of my remaining 29 flex points.

I love WW!! :-)

Project Benji - FAIL

I'm terrible at keeping up with my blog on the weekends. Is it bad that the only time I update it is when I'm at work? ;-)

well, the week went by without any exercise. :-( ugh, I feel like such a slacker. I tell Benji every night that I will walk him the next morning, but then the next morning I find myself crawling back into the warm bed after taking him out for potty.

I shouldn't be able to resist this face:


but my laziness consumes me.

Saturday, I invited a few girlfriends over for lunch. It was part of my soon-to-be year-long "Project Benji". We adopted Benji, a little terrier mix, from a local rescue about 3 months ago and he's been a fantastic addition to our little family, but as we are also in the midst of adopting a human baby, we want to be sure that he'll transition well when the baby arrives sometime late next year.

I've been reading books on preparing dog for baby, and one of the suggestions they made is to expose the dog often to well-behaved children. I had my BFF over a few weeks ago with her kids and Benji snapped at her 10-month-old when he reached for Benji's stuffed moose. Thankfully, Benji missed making full-on contact and no one was injured (although tears were shed), but in my opinion, it was still a major FAIL.

On Saturday, things were going great until my friend's 5-year-old, Bella, reached to rub Benji's chin as he was chewing on his bully stick. Benji snapped at her and left a bruise on her forearm! FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL!!!

I am SO upset. :-( I feel like such a failure b/c I should have been watching more carefully. Benji is so NOT food or toy possessive with J and I that I got too complacent and assumed he would be ok with others. Obviously not!

Next time, I will have to put away all his treats and toys when little ones are around. If anyone is even brave enough to bring their kids around our house. :-(

Benji has obedience class tonight so I plan on asking the trainer what I could do better next time. I can't have him snapping at little ones!!

Week 4, Day 2

Breakfast:
coffee (1 pt)
low-fat English muffin with 1/2 Tb pb (2 pts)
lunch:
1 serving WW meatloaf (3 pts)
1 orange (1 pt)
8 baby carrots (0 pts)
1 jello pudding cup (1 pt)

This is getting a bit repetitious. I have eaten the same breakfast all week. It tastes good though and is filling and I can grab it and eat it in the car, which is the way I like it!

Maybe next week I'll start adding more protein to it, like add a fried egg or something... but that's adding 2 more points to breakfast. Hmmmm... maybe not worth it.

Tonight I'm going to a Pampered Chef party. It starts at 6:30pm and it's near my office so I'm going straight there after work. I should have packed myself an extra slice of WW meatloaf so I could eat it before the party. Now I'm going to be hungry and it's going to be hard to resist scarfing down some high-calorie Pampered Chef treat. Darn.

I have one bag of 94% fat free microwave popcorn in my desk drawer, so I'll at least have that. Unfortunately, I got a bum bag yesterday and I cooked it for a whopping 5 minutes and only 3 kernels popped... then proceeded to burn and stink up the entire 2nd floor of this wing of the building. yikes. An hour and a half after the incident, the building still reeked of burnt popcorn. I don't think anyone saw that it was me though. phew.

Anyway, it's Friday and I still haven't gotten any exercise this week. I was going to take Benji for a walk in the mornings before work... but it's been SO cold and I wimped out and crawled back under the covers and cuddled with J after Benji went potty. (excuses, I know...)

WW Weigh-In #1

actually, this should have been my second weigh-in, but I missed last week's meeting b/c I was in L.A.

Anyway, I weighed in at 134.0. The scale initially hit at 133.8, then it drifted to 134.0 before locking in. darn! every 0.2 lb counts to me!

I wore the thinnest winter clothes I had in my closet in the hopes that it would be as close to my naked weight as possible. ;-)

Unfortunately, this strategy sucks when I'm parking in the far lot and I have to walk in the freezing cold with the wind whipping through my thin wool pants. Then probably as punishment for my vanity, it wasn't until I got into my office that I realized I left my laptop in my car! So another trip to the far lot in my thin wool pants! booooo. :-(

anyway, I didn't know you got star stickers and applause from everyone when you hit 5 lbs lost or your 5% target!! so exciting!! 3 people hit the 5 lbs lost goal and one person hit their 5% target! yay!!

My goal for next week is to make both the 5 lbs lost (only 0.8 to go, easy peasy!) and the 5% target (need to lose 2.3 more lbs, this will be harder) so I can get two stickers!

When I was little, I was obsessed with stickers. I collected them in a shoebox - rainbow ones, unicorn ones, puffy ones, smelly ones, you name it, I had it. As soon as I got my allowance, I'd ask my mom to take me and my BFF to the mall so we could go to Spencer's and buy stickers. I never actually got around to sticking any of them anywhere though. It's one of my biggest regrets. ;-P

meals for today (so far):
breakfast:
coffee (1 pt)
1 lowfat english muffin with 1/2 Tb peanut butter (2 pts)
lunch:
1 serving WW meatloaf (3 pts)
2 oranges (2 pts)
10 baby carrots (0 pts)
jello pudding cup (1 pt)
dinner:
1/2 Panera Turkey Artichoke Panini sandwich (7 pts)
small French Onion soup (no croutons or cheese (1 pt)

skinny husband

this is going to sound terrible, but I wish my husband was fat. ok, not FAT FAT, but a little chunky. That way we can diet together. My husband, however, is really thin. Like SKINNY SKINNY.

He's just not that into food like I am. He eats to live. I live to eat. I could grab a bag of chips and eat half of it in one sitting while watching TV. DH grabs a bag of chips and it sits on the sofa next to him, unopened, because he'll get immersed in a TV program and forget that he had wanted a snack. I just don't get it.

He also eats r-e-a-l-l-y s...l...o...w...l...y. When we sit down to eat, I inhale my food within a few minutes, clear my dishes, load the dishwasher, wipe down the counter and watch TV before he's even halfway through.

I've read eating slowly helps you lose weight. It's so hard for me to eat slowly.

anyway, tonight I ate two dinners b/c I skipped my afternoon snack and by the time I made DH's fat-full dinner and got my WW meatloaf in the oven, it was 8:30pm and the meatloaf needed to cook for an hour! argh! I was starving!! So I proceeded to inhale two oranges. I thought that would tide me over, but then I found myself making an English muffin pizza. I did use a low-cal muffin (1pt) and just two pinches of low-fat cheese so I'm hoping it wasn't more than 3 pts total.

Then when the meatloaf was done, I had a slice (3 pts). It was delicious! Other than the 1 hr cook time (which is way too long for a weeknight dinner, IMO), it was super easy to make. And now I have lunch and dinner for the next few days b/c one loaf = 6 servings. yay!

Week 3, Day 6

So we ended up going to Famous Dave's BBQ last night with my colleague from the UK. I guess he wanted something "American".

Before we went, I looked up WW points on-line and saw that I could order the Char-grilled Chicken Sandwich since it's only 5 points. Wilbur beans (my favorite!) were shockingly only 2 points considering it's got ham and sausage in it.

With some BBQ sauce (2 pts only b/c I slathered that dry, boring chicken breast with BBQ sauce), my dinner was 9 points. Not too shabby!! I went over my 18 daily points, but not by much and considering I was at a BBQ place and ordered grilled chicken instead of yummy, greasy ribs, I'm kinda proud of myself. :-)

I also braved the scale today and... drum roll please...

133.8 lbs! I haven't lost weight, but I haven't gained any either since my LA debacle, so I'm pleased. We did walk around a lot and I wasn't counting activity points, so I guess it all evened out. phew!

ok, so my meals for today:
breakfast:
coffee w/creamer (1 pt)
low cal English muffin with 1/2 tb pb (2 pts)
lunch:
~4 oz grilled chicken (from Moby Dick's) (? pts)
2 pita bread triangles (? pts)
salad w/shredded lettuce, 2 black olives, 1 pepperocini, white onions, tomato. vinegar for dressing (? pts)
pre-dinner snack:
low cal English muffin (1pt) topped with 1 TB tomato sauce (? pts) and 2 small sprinkles 2% lowfat shredded cheddar (? pts)
dinner:
WW meatloaf, 1 slice (3 pts)
2 oranges (2 pts)

I can't find my WW book with point values. grrrr. luckily tomorrow is my weigh-in meeting so hopefully I can get a new one.

Week 3, Day 5

gah! what a terrible WW weekend!! I really, really fell off the wagon, although I struggled mightily to stay on in the beginning. Once I fell off though, it was like I had a huge "WTF" moment and just stuffed my face. :-( so disappointing.

Our flight to L.A. was early Thursday morning. I prepared a bunch of healthy snacks b/c I have a tendency to snack with I'm bored. I told J that I wanted to leave a little earlier for the airport b/c I wanted to have enough time to browse the bookstore at the airport to buy a book for the flight.

We were flying AirTran and they don't have TVs or movies on board... even for a 6 hr flight! gah!

But of course J wouldn't wake up, the satellite parking shuttle was super late and we got stuck in the slow check-in lane so we got to our gate barely in the nick of time. No time to buy a book! Grrrrrr. so annoying.

Anyway, my WW weekend started off well, but progressively got worse. ::::sigh:::: Here's what I can recall eating:

Thursday:
breakfast:
2 slices wheat toast w/1Tb peanut butter (3 pts)
snacks on the plane:
1 bag microwave popcorn (1 pt)
10 baby carrots (0 pts)
1 90-calorie bag of chocolate-drizzled rice cakes (2 or 3 pts)
1 small bag of AirTran pretzels (? pts)
1 bite of John's Quizno's sub (which had copious amounts of a mayonnaise-like sauce) (? pts)
lunch:
1 large slice of thin crust (NY-style) pizza
1 small garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette
dinner:
1 cup-ish brown rice
1 cup-ish Japanese chicken curry
2 orange wedges

see? not so bad, right? I would guess 25-ish points.

Friday:
breakfast:
1 cup coffee with soy milk
lunch:
3 slices (maybe 4) pizza (thin crust with sauce, cheese, shrimp, roasted peppers)
2 bites of John's linguini with white clam sauce
snack:
Pinkberry pomegranate-flavored fro yo with mochi and pomegranate seeds
dinner:
2 pieces fried chicken (wing and half breast - but it was fried in olive oil. does that count for "good oil"? I know, I'm reaching here...)
4-5 pieces teriyaki chicken wings
1/2 c ddukbokki (Korean spicy rice cake dish)

Saturday:
breakfast
1 cup coffee with non-dairy creamer
1 brownie-sized dduk (Korean rice cake)
lunch:
1/2 large bowl Tom Yum noodles
2 bites of fried banana "eggroll"
dinner:
2 small crab cakes (cocktail hr at the wedding)
1 small salad (wedding dinner)
bacon-wrapped filet mignon (wedding dinner)
scalloped potatoes - very buttery and cheesey (wedding dinner)
veggies (wedding dinner)
2 slices of french bread and butter (wedding dinner. I'm such a sucker for bread)
1 slice + 1 extra bite (from J) wedding cake - carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
1 cup coffee with half-and-half (they didn't have skim :-( )
snacks:
3 bites ddukbokki (at the post-reception party)
1 small bowl of korean fish cake soup (at the post-reception)
and as if all that food wasn't enough...
2nd dinner:
1 In-N-Out burger (no cheese though. do I get a pat on the back for that?)
2 handfuls Chex Mix

points? too many to count. :-(

Sunday:
breakfast:
coffee with half-and-half
1 bite butter croissant
4 handfuls "potato skins" chips (so unnecessary)
lunch:
chinese chicken salad with fat-free dressing (at the airport. I tried to be good to make up for al the bad, but this salad sucked big time)
2 fried chicken tenders, borrowed from John's meal (b/c my salad sucked and I'd already had the taste of fried food on my palate from the weekend and I had no self-control)
snack:
1 small bag of pretzels (on the plane)
dinner:
1/2 turkey club sandwich (split a whole sandwich with J on the plane)
1 small gingerbread cookie (on the plane)
snack:
2 clementines (when I got home)

Monday (took the day off to recuperate):
breakfast:
slept in until noon, so no breakfast
lunch:
3 slices pizza (I really need to lay off the pizza, but there's a new place in our neighborhood that got rave reviews that J wanted to try out. ::::sigh:::: it was some GOOD pizza!) (18 pts? ACK!)
1 baked chicken drummette (3 pts)
1 large garden salad with balsamic vinegar (I think veggies with vinegar is 0 pts)
snack:
1 jello dk chocolate pudding cup (1 pt)
2 clementines (1 pt)
dinner:
skipped dinner. wasn't hungry after eating lunch at 3pm

that brings us to today, Tuesday:
breakfast:
1 cup coffee with non-dairy creamer (1 pt)
1 low-cal english muffin, toasted with 1/2 tb peanut butter and 1/2 tb margarine (2 pts)
lunch:
Lean Cuisine spaghetti and meatballs (5 pts)
8 baby carrots (0 pts)
1 clementine (0.5 pt)
Jello pudding cup (1 pt)
snack:
94% fat free microwave popcorn (1 pt)


Only 2 more days until my weigh-in. eeeek. I'm scared to see what I weigh. I'll weigh myself tomorrow morning and report back. scared to see....

edited to add: lunch and snack. I had planned on making the WW meatloaf recipe (5 pts) for dinner tonight, but now I've been asked to go to dinner with some colleagues from out-of-town. Original plan was to go to a sports bar (checked on-line and the only remotely healthy item is the rotisserie chicken) but then they changed it to a BBQ joint (ACK! nothing healthy at all!)... I'm going to try to talk them into going to a local brewery that has some salads that will work with my diet.

Week 2, Day 7

Weight: 133.8 lbs (nekkid at home with an empty belly) / 135.3 (with clothes on after eating lunch)

Looks like WW has been working so far! :-) Although, the numbers are probably a bit skewed b/c when I got weighed in at WW, I was wearing clothes, but when I weigh myself at home, I strip down nekkid. I'm not letting some clothes weigh me down!

Our first weigh-in is tomorrow, but I'll be in Los Angeles so I'll be missing it. I hope I don't gain the weight back while I'm in L.A. but I'm thinking the odds are pretty good that I'll gain some of it back. We are going to a wedding, after all. And I've booked up every evening out there meeting up with old friends and family for dinner. gah. wish me luck.

I think I'll start tracking what I've been eating each day. I get 18 points on WW plus 35 points to use however I want throughout the week. Unfortunately, the points don't carry-over week-to-week, so it's use it or lose it. I prefer to use it. In fact, I think I used all 35 on Thanksgiving. Good thing my new week starts tomorrow!

What I've eaten so far today:
- Breakfast: oatmeal (3 pts) and coffee (1 pt)

- Lunch: WW pasta salad (bow tie pasta, grape tomatoes, arugula, and low-fat feta) (5 pts), 1 clementine orange (0.5 pts), 10 baby carrots (0 pts), diet coke (0 pts)

- Snack: 6 almonds (1 pt), 1 clementine (0.5 pts)

(total points so far, 11. that leaves me 7 for dinner. I'm planning on getting sushi with a friend so 6 tuna roll pieces and 6 california roll pieces should be about 6 points)

I know, that's a terrible breakfast. But at least I'm eating breakfast now. Baby steps... I really need to make a trip to the grocery store. I'm seriously lacking in fruits and veggies.

I'm not that hungry though b/c this morning Benji (our dog) got carsick (he's staying with Auntie T while we're in LA) and threw up his breakfast all over me... while I was driving. nice.

pictures don't lie... but skinny mirrors do

That's me, the chubby one on the far left.

ugh.

I think all the mirrors in my house are "skinny mirrors". Every morning after I get dressed, I look at myself in the mirror and think,"not too shabby, Ro", give myself an imaginary pat on the back and head on my merry way.

Then I see pictures of myself and am aghast. The mirror lied! Is there such a thing as "fat cameras" that make you look fatter than you really are?? Sadly, I don't think so.

So how did I get here? My whole life I was a "normal" weight. Not too thin, not too fat... just normal. Sure, I had big hips, but I knew big hips would come in handy for child-bearing (ha! funny in hindsight...) so I was cool with it. I was also lucky that I never really had to watch what I ate. My weight always fluctuated between 110-115 pounds, but it was easy to maintain. In fact, in college, I could eat 60 buffalo wings with my two roomates in one sitting and not gain a single pound.

As I've gotten older, I've maintained my impressive eating abilities. Unfortunately, my metabolism decided to take an early retirement.

Here I am at my wedding in 2003. I weighed about 120 pounds then, but had probably lost a few pounds in the weeks leading up to my wedding. At the time, I was at my all time biggest.

sure, the arm is a little flabby, but for a girl who didn't workout, not too shabby! And I actually had collar bones!

Here I am in Hawaii on our 1st Anniversary trip. The scale was starting to creep up... or at least it would have been if I had a scale. These were the years I refused to weigh myself, so I actually have no idea how much I weighed, but I was definitely starting to get fleshier. I should have nipped it in the bud then.



By the following year, we had plans to start trying to conceive. I wanted to be in the best shape possible before I got pregnant, so I joined a gym and hired a trainer. I was addicted to working out. I didn't really lose that much weight since I still ate what I wanted, but I toned up, lost inches and felt great!

Here I am in Greece for our 3rd anniversary trip. I had been working with the trainer for about 2 months at this point.


well, lookie here! I had collar bones and a waist! And my arms didn't have cellulite!

Unfortunately, the baby-making business wasn't going as planned. We ended up having to do fertility treatments, and with the start of IVF, I was told I had to quit my intensive workouts. After two years of working out 5-6x a week, I had to quit cold turkey.

I suppose I could have found other things to do during my exercise hiatus... like reading books or knitting or doing crafty stuff... but it was easier to watch HGTV and eat potato chips. I can't entirely blame IVF for my weight gain, but it's easier to blame my infertility than have to admit I totally let myself go.

So now here we are... 4 years and 5 IVF cycles later and we have decided to build our family through adoption!

I can't blame my infertility for my weight gain anymore. And that picture of me at the beginning of this post was the nail in the coffin. I could barely recognize myself.

So I joined Weight Watchers!

I officially weighed in at 138.2 pounds on November 29, 2009. (yeah, I know. What dummy starts WW the week before Thanksgiving? me!) I'm only 5'2" and I can't blame "big bones". My ideal weight would be 115-120 pounds, but I'd be happy with 125.

I'm allowed to eat 18 points a day and I get 35 freebie points a week to use as I wish! So far, it hasn't been too bad! I'm never too hungry and the WW recipes are pretty tasty! I think I can actually see myself making a lifestyle change and staying on this program.

But then again, it's only week 2. I probably shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch.

I'm hoping that blogging about my weight loss will keep me inspired. Let's go, Ro!!