Feeling REALLY blue and depressed

I'm totally down and depressed. Why you may ask? My weight. It's just creeping up for apparently no reason. I was up about a pound and a half today!!! Yeah, I had a sliver of low fat cheesecake last night...I had the points for it! I guess what makes it worse is that the last two days I've made some difficult food decisions and WON the battle with them. The two major things that I'm talking about are the salad when we went out on Sunday versus the heavenly looking and smelling burger and then having a taco salad with minimal bad stuff last night instead of the taco's that I would have preferred. Don't get me wrong, I've actually been satisfied with my decision when I've eaten those meals. And I would have said that they were a worthwhile sacrifice. Will I say that it would have been my first choice? NO, but I was ok with it. SOOOOOO to see my weight go up each day has just been totally demoralizing. I'm up just about 2 1/2 pounds! That does not make me feel as if those sacrifices were worth it at all. I'm just bummed out about it all!

Oh yeah, and then the mower saga...that continues. Last week, it was supposed to be resolved. The check should have been her by tomorrow. Yeah, I wasn't totally happy with the resolution..but at least it was going to be over. OHHHH no....they called me yesterday...the check is on hold. Today when I was finally able to get a hold of them she said that she wanted to work on something different. HELLO! Yeah,I'd like it resolved so that I'm not being screwed out of $400 bucks (the difference in the total price of what I paid for the mower and package.....versus what they want to return to me)...but at this point I just want it to be over. I'm tired of dealing with these people! When I got off the phone this morning, I'll admit that I just wanted to cry. I tried to hold it together, but I'll admit that I let a few tears of frustration and encroaching depression escape.

Other than that....my day is fair to middlin'. Todd and I went for a walk over on the battlefield early this morning before the heat hit. We are planning on touring a different gym tomorrow...one that is closer to our house.....AND $21 cheaper. It doesn't have all the amenities that ours does...so we'll have to see. Personally I'm to the point of saying that we don't use our gym much because it's out of the way....lets save money and be closer to home to boot..because that would probably make us more likely to use it! We'll have to see. At least we are looking into it. That's more than I got when I first broached this subject a few months back. Also on the docket for tomorrow is mowing my parents place. I'm hoping that the weather will be nice so that we can head out with our bikes and get a nice ride in somewhere. We are talking about driving up to Cumberland and finishing up the last section of the canal that we've never ridden up there. Speaking of the canal. Todd and I would eventually like to bike the whole canal continuously. IN the meantime we are working at biking it piecemeal...one bit at a time. From Roughly Dickerson west on the C&O canal, we have biked it all except for some stupid 10 mile stretch at Cumberland. SO we may try to finish that tomorrow. Who knows.

Monday EVening update

Feeling blah. My weight is up by .6 pounds this morning. Could be that I had ham and I was quite generous with the salt shaker on my corn on the cob last night. Who knows. I did cave in tonight and had a piece of cheesecake...at least it was a lite version! I was going to make cookies to give to the neighbor that has kindly been taking care of the mowing of our yard. Turned the oven on and stood there. And I just KNEW that I didn't have the willpower to resist the temptation to eat the dough tonight. Oh yeah not to mention the finished baked cookie. So I turned off the oven and walked out of the kitchen.

I didn't have to work until noon today. So after I rode this morning (I did another short ride...what's up with this? At least I'm doing something..but I just can't seem to get into anything bit. I keep saying that I'm going to do some step aerobics or something..but it just doesn't happen.) Anyway, after my short ride, I did a few loads of laundry. Sheets and the quilt from the bed....laundered and hung outside. I then cleaned the house really good. And while I was doing that moved the furniture in the living room. Yeah, I'm one of those people that can't leave furniture in the same spot. I'm forever moving furniture. I got done, ate lunch and barely had time to get tot work. I worked until 6. Came home, took the stuff off the line and had just changed my clothes when Todd got home. I made dinner, ate, cleaned up and I've been a sluggard since then.

For dinner tonight we had tacos. I did a taco salad...emphasis on lettuce, onions and the 'free' stuff. I didn't put much meat on the salad and crumbled up two taco shells to add. A little fat free cheese, taco sauce and some sour cream and I had a delicious meal! Oh yeah, I had a side dish of re fried beans (fat free version of course) and some more of the lemon mousse/pudding with strawberries.

I can barely keep my eyes opn....sad, it's only 9:20! So I'm going to get off here and mosey on to the bedroom and lay in there and read a bit. Got a phone call to make at 8AM about the mower. They left a message saying that they stopped the check because they sensed I was not happy. HELLO, and stopping the check will make me happy???? ARRGGGHH I just want that to be over!

Sunday of Hometown Tourism

Todd at Jefferson Rock, Harpers Ferry, WV
Me looking disheveled and content while we waited for our lunch at The Secret Six Tavern.
The catholic church high up on the hill was very pretty....I snapped a ton of pictures in and around the church!

Potomac Street in lower Harpers Ferry, WV

Shenandoah Street in lower Harpers Ferry, WV

John Brown's Fort....the Armory Firehouse.

Living in an area that is so rich in history, we sometimes take it for granted and just see it as scenery. And Todd and I realized that some of these places that are in our backyard (quite literally in some cases) have never been officially explored. Yeah, we ride our bikes on the grounds but to actually tour these places, we've never done. SOOO today we went to Harper's Ferry and did the whole tourist thing. :-) We have been there umpteen times...but usually to go to a restaurant or some other business place. But today we actually did the tourist thing. It's so crazy being a tourist when it's pretty much in your back yard. It was fun though. Got a TON of walking in! And of course the walking was up and down hills and steps! So hopefully that counts for something as I didn't exercise today (or yesterday). And I just haven't had the energy to exercise since coming home.

After getting home and downloading my pictures I realized that I had not really gotten and general pictures of Harper's Ferry for my blog. Therefore, the black and whites I pulled from a file from a hike Todd and I took about a month ago when we crossed the bridge for a short time while walking on the canal.

I was proud of myself. We went to the Secret Six Tavern for lunch. The burgers looked TO DIE FOR. But I got a salad. A healthy salad too boot (so many times if you order a salad at a restaurant it is loaded with this and that that adds calories and it in the end makes the salad as many calories as what you would 'rather' be eating.) I was very satisfied with the salad. :-) Why did I watch at lunch you ask. I had corn on the cob at home that I knew we were having for dinner...and ham steak with grilled pineapple. YUMMY. And I"m within my points allotment for food for the day! Very proud of myself.

My weight...it's slowly going down after my fourth of July weekend extravaganza of eating and splurging. I've been careful eating sensibly and conscious of my decisions. Not living like a monk in terms of my eating...but just being wise. And it's working......SLOWLY I just want to get back to my low weight.....arrggghhh One little slip up and I've got to re-lose 6 pounds! (three left)

Not much else new to report here. The mower saga continues. I just want it to be over...give me my money back....which they 'approved' last Wednesday....but then on Friday afternoon they called to say that they had put that on hold again. WHAT? Lets just drag our feet a little more....heck, maybe we can make it three months to get this resolved. Three months of prime mowing time let me add! Can you see my eyes roll?

Reflections

180.6 this morning! You know..I'm kinda getting tired of this up and down pattern that I've been doing with my weight. It's getting old! Don't get me wrong, I'm tickled that my weight is going back down. I just feel super redundant. Like I wrote this post two weeks ago....and then three weeks before that......preceeded by a similar post right before that.

I have been thinking about something recently. And I'm trying to come to terms with it and what it really means to me. I'll use the pre-packaged ice cream cups taht I do as an example. When my husband pulls one out and pops the lid, he lays the lid down, grabs a spoon and eats the ice cream in the bowl. I catch myself looking at the lid...because he literally wastes a bite...ok a lick of ice cream...but it's still wasted. Myself on the other hand. I pop the lid and lick the ice cream off the inside of the lid. THEN I commence with the ice cream in the dish. And I practically scrap the insides clean. OK, I've been found out, I have on more than one occaision used my finger to get all the melted goodness off the side of the bowl. So, what's up with that. I know that I can have more. I could understand if I were eating some once in a lifetime food (or even something I get very rarely).....but this happens on normal everyday things. Stuff that I can easily have the next day....or even the next minute. Whatever. I know that it's sooo good I want to enjoy every little morsel...but why????? It's actually a very greedy trait to have, and not at all a becoming trait!

Woke up this morning when the alarm went off. And I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't push myself to the bike. SOOO now I have to get some form of exercise in after the grocery shopping and the following prep work that I'll do on the food when i get it home. What's up with that?

Dropping!

My weight this morning was down to 181.2. I can't wait to get out of these pesky 180's.....AGAIN. And this time, I'm determined to stay out of them forever! My weight is dropping pretty quickly. For which I'm pretty happy. I guess I was having some water retention issues.

This morning the alarm went off super early, in order for me to get up and ride. I hit snooze TWICE. That is so abnormal for me. Usually when the alarm wakes up, I'm awake. I may still be tired. I may still want to sleep longer. But it wakes me up. I've learned through past experience that under normal conditions that if I hit snooze I simply lay there awake, waiting for the alarm to go off. NOT today. I hit snooze and was back asleep almost instanaeously. I was soooo tempted to throw my bike ride over the barell and say screw it. BUT, I didn't. I got a little itty bitty short 7.07 ride in. Todd works tonight, so the plan is to either get another ride in or do a video or take a jog...SOMETHING!

So, here I sit at work yawning. I have however been productive since I've been at work. Lets see...I've answered my personal email. I've created my menu for the upcoming week...and the corresponding grocery lists. I'll just go through the kitchen tonight and cross off things I already have and add the other things I will need to buy for everyday items. Then of course, being the anal person that I can be when it comes to my grocery list...I'll rewrite the list, organized by how the grocery store is laid out. And the last task will be flipping through my coupons and seeing what i have a coupon for...and notating my grocery list with the corresponding coupon. Ok, it's not as complicated and convoluted as I just made it seem. After I write in my journal, I'll go and pick up any new entries on some of the other blogs that I read. I've got my reading book ready, sitting here on the edge of my desk. I just started the book entitled "First They Killed my father: a daughter of cambodia remembers" by Loung Ung. Tis a biography about a young girl in cambodia when Pol Pot's regime came into being. Very nasty stuff. Dad has been to Cambodia a few times on missions trips...and so I'm familiar with the history and have seen lots of pictures of places such as the killing fields and the prisons and such. So when i saw the book, I thought it would be an interesting read...so I bought it. I haven't gotten too far into it, so I can't comment on it at this time. :-)

Lets see...my menu for the upcoming week. And yes, I plan a meal for everyday. HOwever I know that there will be at least one or two nights that we'll go out or something will happen to render that meal not eaten on that night....but hey, I'm prepared at least. Of coruse I'm making these dishes as light and healthy as possible. And yes, they all work into my eating plan for the week.
**tacos and refried beans (I'll probably do a taco salad....emphasis on lettuce and onions. Yeah, not my first choice...but I'm satisfied when I do that)...this meal a special request by my husband
**Grilled Ham Steak with grilled pineapple and corn on the cob -another request
**Salsa Baked Chicken, baked butter beans
**Grilled chicken, pesto, pasta (I'll have to be careful and measure out my pasta as it's a bad tendancy for me to take HUGE portions)
**Maple pecan Chicken, sweet potato pudding
**Beef Stew
**Chili Relleno Casserole
**Alfredo, (topped with shrimp most likely....at least for my husband...I dont' do seafood) I have the most delightful little recipe for an alfredo.....it's only 2 maybe three points for the alfredo sauce.....which is a HUGE difference from the 'regular' stuff.
**Chili
That takes me about 8 days out, in case I don't get to the store like clockwork next week!

So there you have it.

Wednesday and Thursday all rolled into one

Wednesday Update
Well, yesterday morning I weighed myself and I had dropped down to 182.4. I was quite tickled with that as 182.4 was a 1.2 pound difference. I was on the right track! Since I'm back on the oatmeal kick for breakfast, I ate my oatmeal and Todd and I headed down to the DC metro area to spend the day. Todd and I mosied around. We visited some specialty type stores for some things for his business and hit up a Borders. We went to Bertucci's an Italian restaurant. Yes, it's a chain. But their food is pretty darn good. I got the lunch portion of the Four Cheese Ravioli (described as Home-style ravioli stuffed with a blend of ricotta, Parmesan, Romano and Fontina. Topped with tomato sauce and fresh basil.) and a salad. Uhhh yeah, the rolls....the ones that they bake in their brick wood fired oven...yeah, those delicious morsels of goodness...Uhhhh do I really have to say how many I ate. I'm rather embarrassed and ashamed. I did dip them in the herbed olive oil...so I got my healthy oils in! OK OK OK......so I ate three of them! Why did they put 5 on our table in the first place...there was only two of us there??????? That's not the worst of it though. When we walked in I saw a dessert on their seasonal menu. Strawberries & Lemon Cream. Which is fresh strawberries served with a light, lemon cream mousse. Yeah, of course....fresh strawberries DEFINITELY a fruit serving for the day. My thought was that "I'll focus on the strawberries and leave the cream mousse for Todd" HA How delusional was I???? It tasted sooo good! Todd had eaten a full portion of chicken alfredo with asparagus, a salad and he had had a wine..so he sampled my dessert but didn't eat too much of it. (I'm going to recreate the dessert at home.....with lots less points!). We spent some time at Tyson's corner and hit up both Borders and Barnes and Noble. Yeah, gotta love books. I did buy some books....and I got to read a book while sitting at the bookstore. More on that later. We hit up Tyson's Corner and mosied through the mall. And finally headed down to Wolf Trap. I bought my customary tee-shirt. I bought one that I'm 'barely' into. I did that last year...and the tee shirt now is loose on me. I got it home though and it is REALLY tight. Oh well...gives me something to work towards. By the time we were inside the venue for the concert, it was about 7:15...we had eaten lunch at around 12:30 or 1PM. I was only slightly hungry...but I know that skipping meals is not a good thing. Well, I didn't really have a meal. I did however have a soft pretzel. Man, I could have just licked the salt off the pretzel and off the paper that they had it wrapped in.....oh wait, I did! YUMMY. I drank three glasses of water with my lunch and drank a bottle of water at the concert. Oh yes, I had an italian soda at the Barnes and Noble cafe also. SOOOOO, while my eating wasn't the greatest.....it wasn't TOTALLY out of whack. Well, what I mean to say is that at least I didn't eat two huge meals....splurging on both of them.

The concert! Chicago! Sadly enough Jimmy and Walt were not with the group tonight. (They were both there three weeks ago when we saw them.) That made me sad because Jimmy is one of my favorite members. Their replacements though.....WHEW! Spectacular! Let me tell you, there was a vibe or an energy on stage last night that just made this one of the better shows that I have seen them perform. Todd also felt that way.....and we see them usually at least twice a year.. for me for the last 10 years...for my husband...for the last 20 years.

We had a safe trip home. Uneventful. We saw a bunch of deer on the edge of the road, so I had to stay super vigilent. For some odd reason, we also saw a ton of cats foraging on the side of the road. What's up with that?

Todd and I both discussed on the way home how we felt rejuvenated after our day way from the normal humdrum. And how relaxed we were. Well, we got home and checked the messages on the phone. Low and behold, Lowes called. And they seemed all happy with the news that they had to give us. They are scrapping our mower. They are going to no longer attempt to repair it. (after 6 weeks they made that decision...6 weeks of me having to get someone else to mow my yard). They will give me such and such amount of money for my BRAND NEW MOWER (that I had used exactly 4 times). They were all happy. Of course they were. When we actually looked into this... we can't even buy the replacement for what they are giving us. To get a new mower up and running again on my property......the SAME model mower...literally the same purchase....We will have to invest another $400. WHAT????? But they will send me a gift card for what they ARE willing to give me. I have called the service plan people...the managment at the Lowes where I purchased it...and the Lowes Customer care center. Not sure I'm going to get anywhere. HOWEVER, I told them that I want a check....not a gift certificate. Honestly, I don't know that I will EVER go to lowes again....I'm that bothered by this whole mess. I guess it will totally depend on what kind of satisfaction that I get. ARRGGHHHHH

The book that I read at the bookstore. The book is titled 90 minutes in Heaven. I've always been fascinated with the stories of people that have been pronounced dead.....but then 'wake' up and go on to describe a visit to heaven. (I heard one first hand account...and the lady actually woke up in the morgue..with a toe tag!) This book was griping. I struggled wtih tears at one point. His explanation and description of his visit to heaven was actually very short......most of the book was based on his recovery and how he has used his experience for the good..and what he learned through this experience. It's a bit religous in it's presentation...but hello...the guy says he was in heaven, how could it not be.

Thursday and back to the normal grind

Ok, I guess I already talked about my Thursday morning early phone calls. We had the message last night. I woke up at 6:30 and started making my phones calls. I just want this mess to be over and things to be back to being hunky dory! I don't like this one bit.

I got off the phone at around 8am...and realized that I hadn't weighed myself for the day. I'll be honest, last night I had seriously contemplated not weighing myself for a few days. BUT, I decided to just go ahead and do it. 182.8. That is only 4/10ths of a pound up from yesterday! I will be honest and say that I ate so poorly yesterday (the choices were better than i would have made in previous years..but still not overly healthy).....I'll also be honest and say that it was so muggy and I did have that wonderful salt on those pretzels...so water retention may have affected me a bit. Who knows. Regardless...I'm still up overall. I've got a bit to lose to put me back on the 'winning' side of things. But I will get there.

After I ate, I did go for a ride. So I did get some exercise in. And then I went into the library and worked on cataloging all of our books. I had already done my fiction a while back..and I don't put any fiction on the shelves until it's been added. But still only puts me less than 1/5 of the way through the library books....twill be a long project! Never ending as we are always buying books! I had lunch (healthy) and then I did a few more chores around the house. The laundry is just about done, the dishes have been washed (at least until I start cooking dinner and dirty some up again) and other little things like that.

Dinner tonight.....picked up a steak for Todd at the meat market this morning. Since I dont' like steak, (yeah yeah yeah...I'm a nut) I'll have mostly veggies. Todd asked for mashed potatoes....s I will make some. (homemade, real of course...is there anything else?) I may throw together a pb&j sandwich for me to eat with dinner. 1. Because i love pb&j's and 2. Because I need some protein for today...I'm sorely lacking!

Tuesday morning bike ride

Hey! What's up with that?!?!?!?!?!?! Tuesdays are supposed to be my day of 'rest'! So why was I on the bike? Well, Todd wanted to go for a ride. He wanted to go on the canal. So I thought it would be a nice relaxing ride. I mean, the canal is shaded and it's flat. What a wonderful combination. Well, we went down to the canal about 10 miles downstream from the general area that we live in. Hopped on the canal and commenced with our ride. It was a mud bog! Terrible mud issues. So Todd is like, "hey, lets get off at Snyders landing and go up to the town, and swing down on the roads." Uhhh Todd, hello, that is a climb. Oh we, had a bit of a disagreement. (Why, he's lived in this area all his life...he should know these things!) I had to remind him that I had come down that hill on my bike yesterday...coasting doing about 35 mph. Which reminded me to tell him about my bug on the sunglasses incident that happened on that same stretch. I thought he was going to fall off his bike laughing. I won that round...so we rode on further and then swung up on the road back to our house. My legs felt like iron! It was not a good ride for me.

I weighed myself today. How in the world can I gain 5 pounds in one week? I'm up to 183.6. Wait....that's closer to 6 pounds!!! This is just not funny! I'll get it back off...but how daunting is it to realize that one little slip up and it's that bad on the scales!

I ate healthy today. I did splurge and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch instead of the toast with jelly that I normally have. I wanted to have something with a bit more protein for my lunch.

Well...I went to take my shower after i ate lunch and I was looking at my hair that had come out of my ponytail and was wispy around my face. That got me to thinking about bangs and how i've had bangs in the past on and off. And that made me realize that it had been a long time since I had bangs. I stared for quite some time...and finally picked up the scissors and snipped away. I didn't do a heavy bang.....but it looks pretty good. For something so simple, EVERYONE has noticed immediately that something is different. Apparently it makes my whole hair cut look differently. Todd kept insisting that i did something to all of it.....and my co-workers asked also. My co-workers told me to wear bangs all the time because it looks good. Hmmmmm

Monday's ride from hell

The holiday weekend is officially over, I'm back to work. ...... uhhh ....... hmmmm ........ Well, that's all I can really say about that. Other than to say that this year just seems to be flying by at warp speed!

This morning, I woke up so gung ho to make another day of healthy eating. Well, Todd wanted pancakes. Not exactly healthy eating. But I made them. I'll just watch what I eat the rest of the day. I did go for a ride. A section of my ride was on the towpath...which was extremely muddy! A bug hit my sunglasses and squashed up against the lense. AND I switched up and did a new route.....hillier than I'm used to. Oh my word, toward the end...on that last hill up from the river, I thought I was going to toss my cookies, er pancakes, on the side of the road. And I only went 10 miles!!! I'm hoping to have time tonight to hop onto the exercise bike and get a little more exercise in. We'll have to see about that one though!

I've got 7 points for dinner tonight. That should be doable. :-)

Sunday Shenanigans

Happy Sunday! I'm really tired and can't seem to get my thoughts together to actually write out a complete journal entry. At least not one with complete sentences AND paragraphs! So here's the alternative:

**didn't do tooo badly today. I did have some more of that cake. BUT it's gone now! No more temptation from that cake!

**Last night I felt miserable. I forgot how yucky excessive eating makes me feel! I actually woke up still feeling yucky! Probably a good reminder for me. Especially when I remember that I used to always feel that way. Why did I do it to myself? Well, I can answer that. I was stupid and didn't realize that I was doing it to myself through my eating habits!

**Knocked our 16.2 miles today. That puts me at right around 75 miles for this week....with two more days to go.

**Went raspberry picking in the woods this morning. I'm happy to say that I came across no snakes and gathered a plethora of raspberries.

**Spent the afternoon making jelly and syrups....seedless of course. 63 jars of wild raspberry jelly and 23 jars of raspberry syrup. I'm set for raspberry jelly for the upcoming year now. And yes, I'll use most of that (and actually already had about 30 jars done before today). I give it away as gifts. And if people come to visit, many times they leave with a jar of jelly. It's just fun to do.

**Accidentally (like I would do it on purpose) poured scalding/boiling hot water on my left hand. Mostly got my three fingers....(not the thumb and pinkie). It didn't do too much damage. Thank heavens I was at the sink and had the cold water on.......and my hand was pretty much right there beside the cold water as the hot water hit it...so immediately it was under cold water. So luckily no blisters or anything....(but I feel good that it wont happen now). The skin just feels really tight on my fingers and they hurt a bit. I did take off my engagement and wedding bands. In case my fingers swelled. Feels crazy without them..

**Oh yes, went to town also today. Went to lunch with husband, hit up Sam's club and the grocery store. I got a new tee shirt at Sam's club. (Yeah, I still frequently wear some 2x...and maybe every once in a while a 3x tee shirt.......so buying a tee shirt that actually is my size is a big thing). Oh yeah, and I got the hungry girl cookbook. Looked like it was 'normal' food and not 'health foods' that the average person would NEVER eat. And then the rest was normal Sam's club purchases. Same for the grocery store....normal and boring.

**I forgot to get gas in my car while I was in town. That means I'll either end up stealing it from the gas cans we keep for the lawn mower, and equipment or I'll have to suck it up and go to the one gas station in town and pay the outrageous gas prices....made worse because they are the only gas station and they charge about 10-15 cents more than every where else.

OK, I think I'm all typed out! Hopefully I'll be more cohesive and coherent tomorrow!

Report on the festive, shindig, eating event.

First and foremost let me answer a question that was asked about my pics that I posted earlier. I recently bought myself a Canon Digital Rebel XSI as a reward for a weight loss accomplishment. I'm having a blast taking pictures in a variety of different locations, lighting and whatnot. I was quite happy with my fireworks pics from last night.

Well, best laid plans. Well, I can honestly say that I probably would have done worse in previous years. NOt that that is any consolation. But that's all I can say. I'm thinking that I'm going to simply ignore the scales until Tuesday morning and just focus on keeping myself on track with my eating. Oh yeah...and exercise like a banshee!!!! I don't even want to go into what I ate...all though I will say that the 'jello cake' was scrumptious. I have been so hungry for one for a while. It was one of my grandmothers favorites. A jello cake......take a regular cake in a pan, poke holes in it. Prepare a box of jello as directed on the package and pour the unjelled jello over the cake. Put in refridge. Cover with cool whip. SO, I got the bright idea that I could make the diet coke cake. Then going one step further I could use fat free/sugar free jello. ANd of course I used fat free cool whip. I was a bit nervous because there are a few things that the fat free and sugar free stuff just doesn't cut it. BUT this was soooo goood! Yeah, I ate a little bit too much cake.

More Fireworks

Mindless Ramble

Well, the fourth of July for the year 2008 is officially over. Todd and I worked around the house all day. I spent much of my time cleaning the house and working in the kitchen on the food for tonight's festivities at our house. Yesterday it started to rain at around 3 pm. By the time we left the house at 4:45 or so, it had already rained an inch. I didn't look to see how much rain we got by the time we got home...or even this morning. It is still raining on and off today. We'll see about tonight. Our party is in conjunction with the Antietam Battlefield Celebration...which is tonight. However, in recent years, most of our guests have actually ignored the battlefield activities. So, even though we moved (very close to the other place...but further away from the battlefield) we are still holding our party. Our party is rain or shine. We were originally planning on having the food outside on that newly re screened porch...but I'm scrambling...I'm thinking that I'll probably end up setting up the food tables inside. We'll have to see. (I'd rather have it outside...but I don't think the weather will cooperate)

Oh yes...the pictures posted above. Last night we went to dinner at mom and dad's. Dinner was yummy. We had a nice evening with my parents. And then we watched the fireworks that they set off in Hagerstown. They have pretty decent fireworks..which I find somewhat amazing...we are talking about Hagerstown. :-) I took my camera and played a bit. I dumped my pics onto my computer this morning early...and quickly chose 4 to stick on here. I'll take a closer look at all of them when I get home from work.

Ok, I guess it's obvious that I'm dragging my feet about talking about the weight thing. Lets say first of all that I really didn't eat too awfully bad yesterday.....I was actually right at my points allotment. Using one or two flex points at most. BUT, this morning I was up on the scales. ARRGGHHH

Yesterday I knocked out a 21 mile ride...so I did at least I can say that I did exercise. This morning I also got up and rode. It was difficult this morning. For some reason, they started the fireworks last night an hour late. So they were not even done until after 11. And then of course getting our stuff from mom and dad's house...and getting out of town and home....We didn't get home until midnight or later (didn't look at the clock when I got home). SO this morning when the alarm went off at 5:30 in order for me to ride......it just wasn't happening. I laid in bed for about a half hour or so.....and then decided that enough was enough. I got up and did a short ride on the exercise bike.....7 miles or there abouts. So at least something was done today.

The big question is about tonight. We will have TONS of food at the house. Will I be able to resist the temptation of the yummy fattening things? Should I simply ignore the bad stuff...knowing that to start eating will trigger my desire for more...and trigger that uncontrollable eating? Or should I stay firm and eat the healthy options and ignore the bad stuff?

I was talking to Julie the other day about temptations of food and how she was just not able to stay away from the chips and taco dip at a potluck at her job. I realized suddenly that for me, once I get the taste, I can't stop. I'll keep going back for 'one more' until I realize that I've had like 5 million chips (ok, so I exaggerate..but you get the point) Where as if I simply do not indulge in that first bite, I am ok. I have more willpower BEFORE I taste the food. Once I taste, it's not a losing battle....it's a LOST battle! Tis better for me to just not partake.

Back to that gain...what's up with this today? I worked HARD yesterday. I drank a fair amount of water (ok, probably close to a gallon). I know that in the middle of the night I was thirsty...and thirst was my first thought this morning....so maybe it's water weight. Not sure......but that means I have to be more careful tonight!

And here is the final thought for this entry. What a messed up entry. I feel as if I've not kept one thought in my head for more than a brief second. Oh well................

Tax time!

Oh joy...just when we recover from the ickiness of paying in income taxes (oh the joys of self-employment) then it hits again. Went to the post office this morning. Joy of joys, the bill for our property taxes. Does the fun ever stop??? ROFL

Saw the funniest video on youtube this morning. Oh my word, I just sat and laughed. Tis of course about cats!

Lets see, my weight first of all. Yep, it's up 1 pound today. I'm not shocked. While I worked my tail end off yesterday....I did splurge a bit at dinner. (more on that later). I'm not worried. It will come back off. No problems.

My splurge. Well, we went out to eat and I got a cup of soup and the salad bar. We were at a restaurant where the salad bar is that...salad. Not all the desserts and hot foods....none of that. Salad fixin's. Oh well..there was potato salad and some grapes on there also! So my splurge.....it was from the salad bar. So even though I went over my points, it was healthier foods. I feel no guilt what-so-ever about it either.

But while we were eating, Todd and I got to talking about how we are eating now versus how we WERE eating and then it rolled the conversation around to how we think we'll be eating in the future. Well, of course we used to eat ourselves silly....we'd each get an appetizer, an entree and we'd each get our own desserts. Many times we'd get a salad also. I mean..TONS of food. We talked about the future and what our eating will hold once we get to our goal weights. I couldn't help but laugh and say that I will STILL love food then. I'll STILL be addicted to food. But the difference is that I realize that I will have to 'earn' my right to eat the foods. Basically I will have to exercise to eat. I will NEVER be able to go back to eating the way that I used to. Nor do I want to. But I know that the more I exercise, the better I'll be able to handle any little eating situations. My brother has commented many times to me about how he has many friends (guys and gals that he bikes with) that say that they started biking because they simply loved food and that when they bike, they can eat what they want with less worry about the reprocussions. Now of course there is a downside. The downside? His friends tend to gain weight during the winter when it's cold outside and they are less apt to bike! I think he once told me that it's nothing for some of his friends to gain between 10 and 15 pounds during the cold months (I actually want to say it was 20 pounds...but that seems awful high).

Talked to my brother the other night about my desire to buy a new bike. Yeah yeah yeah...I don't really NEED a new bike. I just want another bike. NO WAY am I getting rid of my current bike. I love my bike! Well....after talking to him...and really thinking about the money that I'd be spending (yeah, lets not forget I just dumped close to a grand down for a new camera......and I'm not made of money...NO WHERE CLOSE) I'm going to stick with my bike. He recommended gettings slicks for my bike so when I do ride on the road. NOW....this is the new dilema. Do I want to just change out my tires.......or do I want to get whole new rims......and keep my current rims so that I can change out wheels for whatever/whereever I'm going to be??? I stopped by the bike shop yesterday......new wheels, i'm looking at just under $200. New tires to put on my current rims....I'm talking about $40. Don't chastise me....I know, I know I know! New tires...keep the old rims. Well, no matter. I'm not gonna purchase anything now. Getting a new re-railer is actually first on my list of things to do for my bike. BUt you know what...I've ridden with it out for a year and a half now...and it's just annoying. I still have 7 gears at any one time....and if I get tired of those 7...all I have to do is get off my bike and move the chain with my finger. (uhhh that doesn't happen often...lol)

Last night I just cringed. I went to bed and Todd was like, 'set the alarm for 6AM'. I just groaned. of course, the days that I dont' need to wake up, he wants to wake up early. And typically the days that I have to wake up early for work, he lays in bed sleeping the whole time I'm tiptoeing around the house. AND of course he can sleep through it all...but me, when that alarm goes off..I'm awake...no more sleep for me. To make matters worse....half the time when we have to wake up early for him, he rolls over and goes back to sleep...leaving me wide awake. Well this morning he did sleep for maybe another half hour. But that's not too bad. I however was super productive. Before 8AM, I'd had breakfast, re-upholstered the chairs that go with my glass top table that's on the screened in porch, scoured the drip pans (all of them) on my stove (and of course the stove got a good scrubbing also), the dishes had been washed, the kitchen cleaned (except for the floor, which I'll do tomorrow when I do all the floors), and the guest bathroom thoroughly cleaned....spotless. (I told Todd that we are not using that bathroom until the party...haa haa haa...I'll probably be the first to use it..forgetting my edict). By 8:30, I was tired and worn out. Didn't do much else of use this morning.....haa haa haa Oh wait, before I showered and got ready to come to work, I did go for a ride......just shy of 10 miles today. Tomorrow will be my busy day in the house...getting stuff ready....and some light cooking and baking. Yep, I'll get my normal ride in first thing in the morning!

Two rides and a half day off.

Did two rides today. One in the morning before work...my normal ride. And then one this afternoon with Todd! The above picture is from after my second ride. We rode out of Williamsport on the canal (I'm standing on the east wing wall of the Catoctin Aqueduct).

I didn't weigh myself this morning. I should have. BUT, I didn't. I didn't eat all that great today...but I wasn't way overboard if that makes sense.

I only worked this morning and then Todd and I had a half day together. I can't wait until we are fully staffed once again at work so that I don't have to work on Wednesdays! That will be a huge relief!

I feel as if I've not held one thought together in this blog entry....so thus I will end it now!

Week three of mainenance done

Something interesting that I realized about myself today. When I'm eating a larger or even a 'normal' portion of food, I find myself taking bigger bites and mouthfuls of food. As compared to when I'm eating something that is strictly portion controlled. I noticed it earlier when I was eating my 1/2 cup of ice cream (which is STILL working great might I add). I was taking teeny tiny bites. ANd now I"m splurging and eating a 100 cal choc bar. And I'm taking baby bites. I know it's simply because it's so 'small' and I want it to last! And I'm enjoying it a heck of a lot more than if I were taking huge honkin' bites!

Weighed in officially today.....1.4 down! WOO HOOO! 177.6 as my official weight! 3 mores weeks left before I become a lifetime member. What a relief financially at least!

Today was my day off from riding. Tomorrow it's back up at 5:30 to ride. Weird thing. The last few mornings I've had to DRAG myself out of bed to ride. SO this morning when I could sleep in a bit.....I woke up raring to go! What's up with that???

I've been on a mission lately. I'm tired of all these little errands and jobs that come up in life. The ones that you put on a pile on your desk and say , "I'll get to that soon" And sometimes its ultra important things. (one of my things was upping the personal property insurance on our place....we were grossly under insured!). I'm tackling one or two things each day. Sadly enough, a good many of these things are turning into multi-day projects/tasks. But I'm determined to get through them! Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the boat and it's registration. I've sent in the registration papers for this stupid thing 2 times now...and DNR keeps sending it back saying something is missing the last time I put everything they said was missing...a signature from the seller..and resent it. NOW supposedly it's missing something else! Go figure. And each time it gets sent back, it ends up on that 'soon' pile. Well......I think that will be tomorrow's project...start working on getting the 'missing' piece of the puzzle and sending it in! Well, and following up on the other things I've started this week! I will get this list of 'to-do's' eradicated!

URrggghhhh...why oh why did I just eat that portion controlled 100 cal chocolate bar?????? It's sitting in the pit of my belly. I'm not feeling sick from it...but I'm not feeling overly great. BLECH!!!

Monday Madness

Ok, my weight was down a few ounces. SO I feel much better about my day yesterday. It wasn't down by much...but it was down by a bit...and that's what counts!

Got a nice long ride in this morning. 19.7 miles. My knee is still acting up....but I'm simply working through the pain. Ate wisely for breakfast and lunch (an egg and cheese sandwich..and with my ingredients....3 points). A salad (three points), strawberries and a small banana for lunch. I'm making chili for dinner....so I'll be in good shape point wise. This week is just a terribly busy week. I think I've worked it out that I'll be able to get to a meeting. I'm kinda worried..because I won't be at my normal meeting...and attendance has fallen WAY off at that meeting...as in it's probably in danger of being closed. BUT, I can't worry about the fact that I'm not goign to that meeting this week. I need to focus on ME and what I can do, and which meeting I can most reasonably go to. (I could go to my normal meeting, but it would require me to either make two trips to town thus wasting gas. OR go into town at lunchtime and stick around town pretty much doing nothing until my normal meeting at 7PM). For me, missing more than one meeting in a row is not an option. I know that for me, I need to go to meetings. ANd I realize that I will most likely need to regularly attend meetings the rest of my life. My plan is to make an effort to attend weekly even after I hit lifetime.

Well, the mower saga. I called the repair place and got the run around once again. And when they finally called me back, they made it clear that they A. think troybilt is a pain and B. don't consider me their customer. IN their words, "You have to understand, we contract this stuff." HELLO....you have my mower...that makes me your customer. Just because the money is coming from someone else..I'm ultimately your customer! Well, of course I got off the phone with them and turned right around to call Lowes (the place I bought the mower from and the people that I purchased the service plan from). They are going to see what I can do. They also told me that they have a fix it fast program...the mower should have been returned to me within 3 weeks of my first call. HELLO....this company didn't even pick it up until 2 weeks after my call. And that was three weeks ago....we are talking 5 weeks! Well...at least I"m going to get a $50 reimbursment for having someone else have to mow my yard (since it's been over three weeks) This is just nutty!

Lets see I also called the insurance company that holds our homeowners policy. Before we moved in we only had minimal insurance on the contents of this place. Well, now that we are living here, we have tons more stuff here.......as in we are GROSSLY under-insured for contents for this place. We need to get that fixed ASAP. I called and they said that they 'could' do it over the phone but would prefer not to....so Todd and I are going to head in there on Wednesday and get that done.

Ok, researched the cancellation thing with my monthly pass for weight watchers. I had looked and realized that they bill me on the seventh of each month. SO I was gung ho to cancel by that time, to avoid being billed again. I had calculated that I would have just enough time on my current pass to make lifetime. But I read the paperwork that they gave me when I signed up. They will refund if you make lifetime apparently. So I may delay cancelling it a bit. I guess I"m just nervous about cancelling it until I know that I'm not going to need it. It's kinda my safety net!

What is it with Todd and I???? Is there any particular reason why we've had such incredibly bad luck this year? We are almost exactly at midpoint in the year. Will that be the turning point to our year??? Or are we going to have a full year of this crap???????

I was talking to Todd and wanting to get a different bike...a road bike. His words were to start checking out these used sporting goods places. Good idea! I was looking at road bikes last night. My oh my......I saw some that I was literally drooling over. The drool dried up when I saw the price tag though. :-) I've always said I want to eventually get a recumbant bike also...for 'cruisin'. Oh to actually have enough money to get what I want, instead of dreaming!

Sitting with my leg elevated

Well...between the two rides I got in today, I logged 34.2 miles. I'm happy with that! I probably shouldn't have ridden that much. I'm really suffering. ON Saturday while at work, I went to move and whacked my knee against the panic button underneath my desk. NO, I didn't set off the alarm (although that would have been funny). I felt that terrible pain for a few minutes. (you know...the pain like when you hit your funny bone). But it passed relatively quickly or so I thought. BUT, when I stood up and went to move...eii yiii yiiil......hurts hurts hurts. I do feel as if it just irritated the good old arthritis...as that's what the pain feels like. AND I've had a few instances where my knee has just buckled under me. I haven't had that not so pleasant experience since about 100 pounds ago. I just want to lay around with my knee propped up becaues that helps ease the pain. However, I didn't do that all day....just NOW. Beyond logging 34.2 miles today. I reorganized the screened in porch (I had moved everything to finish painting the floor yesterday). Oh yes, the screened in porch is now truely screened in again! WOO HOOO! I got a bit of chipping done also...before the rain at least!

Now for the bad part. I've been sooo hungry today. I'm hoping that all my miles and my outdoor work. (and even this morning, I was moving at the grocery store and then at home while I took care of all that) is the reason my body was demanding food and that it won't show on the scales tomorrow. I hate this part of weight loss!!!!!!!

Speaking of weight loss...I"m goign to go on to cancel my monthly pass tonight. I just got my renewal card...and I"m paid up until July 21. That is on a Monday. If I go in on MOnday the 21st instead of my normal Tuesday night weigh in that week, I SHOULD meet my lifetime goal that night....that would be the 6th week of maintenance. And if I don't make it on the 21'st...I can simply pay for that last meeting.....or if I have to...last two or three meetings! As long as it is only 2 or three meetings I'll be ok. But if it segued into more than three, I'd be losing money. OK, I just checked my credit card statement...they bill it on the 7th of the month. I"ll wait until a day or so before that....that way I'll have another weigh in under my belt and I'll also be right around the corner from yet another weigh in...so I'll be reasonably sure how that one will go. :-)

My weight was up a bit this morning. But I pretty much expected it. We went out to dinner with mom and dad last night. And while I ate sensibly there, I did come home and sample (ok, I ate) one of the chocolate muffins that I made for my husband (at his request). That pushed me over my points for the day. So it pushed me from 177.2 to 178.4 Not a big deal...I'll get it back off...no problems.

This morning I got up early and read a bit in bed. I then headed to town and ran into Lowes to get one or two things for Todd and then into the grocery store. I brought everything home and I spent the time washing, chopping, slicing and separating everything. My salad 'mix' that I create is ready for me this week. My fruits are washed and in some cases sliced. I made homemade croutons from my low cal high fiber bread. And the ice cream is divied up into the 1/2 containers for this week. I'll admit to tasting the Bryers Cookies and Cream Ice cream. 2 points for 1/2 cup! YUMMY! After everything was put away and the kitchen cleaned.....I headed for the exercise bike. Gotta get in my ride! Shortly I'll be heading to eat my lunch....a salad! YUMMY!

Hopefully I'll be able to get some work done around the house outside this afternoon!

Saturday Ramblings

177.2 This morning I've once again hit uncharted territory in my weight loss journey. Yes, 177.2 is the lowest I have ever been since I was a teen...or whenever I hit that weight on the way up.



I'm pretty tickled about my weight this morning. However, I can't get too excited. Why you say? Well, because I feel miserable! I woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well. And this morning when the alarm went off I all of a sudden realized the most probable reason why my body has been craving sleep so much. It's been fighting off getting sick. And apparently last night, it gave it up. Right now my main complaint is that my throat hurts like a demon. I feel washed out and just out of it...I can deal with that though. I have no congestion of anything like that. We'll see how this shakes out. I just don't have time to be sick! Not this week.....tee hee hee...like I have a choice of when I get sick.



Even not feeling well this morning, I got on the bike. As I got on I made a conscious decision to ride and not worry about the odometer or whatever. I just wanted to get "something" in on the exercise log. My first thought was back to April when I had a sinus issue.....I stopped exercising that week. I don't want to do that. So I decided that even if I do light rides or light workouts that I would be happy with myself. SO I rode for 27 minutes. I was actually shocked, because I assumed it would be about 4-5 miles. I actually knocked out 6.89 miles in that 27 minutes. Not my normal pace...but definitely nothing to sneeze at.



Well, I work this morning. After work I'm coming home and hopefully I'll be able to get the porch painting finished this afternoon. Todd has a friend that will be over here helping him wiht the insulation under the house today. So I'll have to run and pick up lunch for them before I can start working myself. And no...as tempting as it will be to pick myself up a sub when I pick up theirs, I have already written down my lunch foods into my journal and I'm planning on sticking with it. I'll be eating mostly fruits and veggies for lunch :-)

A while back I was looking at biking events and such. I talked to Todd and with everything that's going on this year, I knew that I didn't have the time to train for one this year. But there are some out there that I SOOO badly want to do. The Covered Bridges ride looked like something I would LOVE. Not to mention the fall ride in Staunton, VA. BUT, yesterday I was introduced to a different kind of ride. It's not a race.....but it raises money for a really good cause....cancer. Which many people in my family has battled, and some has lost the battle (go dad....cancer free now for 9 years!) The 24 hours of Booty sounds SOOO interesting. Basically you go to this event and they have a track/path/route set aside, no traffic in which you ride for 24 hours. You are not required to ride the complete 24 hours, you ride what you want to ride..and what you can ride. I'm really tempted to ride in it this year....even though it will be a bit close for me to get my fundraising done in time. I've already run it by a co-worker (my manager) and she seemed interested in getting a team together for next years ride. (that way we can get our employer involved as a sponsor for our team!) I may go for it myself this year...however I need to get my bike fixed...I'm having a problem with one tier of gears. It's been on my list of stuff to do, I just haven't gotten around to it...and meanwhile, when I ride that bike, I just ride without that tier of gears. LOL Makes me work harder..tee hee hee Actually, if I'd start to do these rides, I'd have to invest in a road bike. My hybrid would be ok, but a road bike would be better. :-) Ahhh expensive hobbies. Well...maybe not...my hybrid is now 7 years old......and still going strong except for that gear issue (and that gear issue is because I was stopped on a trail at one point and my dearest husband ran into me and bent up my rerailer...yeah, I just need a new rerailer).

Oh well......I'm going to keep myself on my pace of training and see what happens! :-)

Drastic drop

WOO HOOOO! Man, I knew that sodium could wreak havoc...and I knew that the ick did the same thing...both in the name of water retention. BUT I've never been stupid enough to pair the two together. Until last weekend! Well, in defense of myself, I wasn't expecting the ick for another week. But, woah, my weight jumped up about 3 pounds! ANd nothing I could do would get it down. I admit that during that time I did snack a bit more than normal. BUT nothing out of control....and still right around my point range (using maybe one or two flex points per day). SOOOO this morning when I stepped on the scales and that weight was just magically GONE! Whew, what a relief! There is nothing more troubling than seeing your weight jump.

Morning ride is in....16.1 miles. I've been quite productive since my ride. I've sat and entered foods onto the fitday program. With my points that I currently get with weight watchers, I'm eating about 1300 calories. That is good. I'm happy with that. I'm curious though....because weight watchers will keep having me drop my points and I know that everything I've ever read says do not go below 1200 calories. So I want to keep a close eye on that! I've also sat down and created my menu for next weeks meals. I've checked the cabinets for what we have and made up the grocery list. AND while looking to see what we had, I cleaned and organized the cupboards! And I've still got an hour before I need to leave for work! WOO HOOOO!

On to other news. Todd told me last night that he went ahead and called the non-emergency police number yesterday. WHen I asked why, I flipped out! Turns out that he has been receiving calls from a guy that is insisting that Todd work with him. Now number one, he doesn't work with the type of music that this guy is into, for two reasons....one he doesn't like that style and secondly the typical musicians in stereotypically in the genre are very disrespectful and just out of control. So he has turned the guy down and actually referred him to a recording studio that actually does work with that style of music. Well this guy has continued to insist and badger and apparently yesterday it came down to death threats!! WHAT????? Someone has made death threats against my husband????? They actually made some of the threats via email. Our only recourse at this time.....print the emails and notate everything and get it up to the police station to have on file in case this guy does something. OHhh yeah, I feel comforted! Yes, I know that most likely this kid (he is in his late teens early 20's) is blowing smoke and just threatening. However, there is no way to know for sure! Yeah, I"m not comforted. Ahhh life....isn't it grand?????

STarting the downward thrust!

Well....at least my weight went down a little bit this morning. It WAS 181.6. Today it was 181.4. I've been a very good girl thus far today. In fact, I still have about 2 points left for my day...and it's 7:30...so as long as I can chew away on my gum (to keep me from wanting to actually eat food), I'll be good as gold! WOO HOO. Lets hope that the scales show something positive tomorrow!



Last night Todd and I were watching tv together, laying on the couch. We both fell asleep at around 7:30 to 8 PM. Todd woke me up at 9 so that we could go to bed. I stumbled to the bedroom and fell back asleep. I slept straight through until the alarm went off at 6AM. That is a LONG night's sleep. I got up and I got mad at myself because I should have set the alarm for 5:30.....because today was a long ride. I decided to go ahead with the longer ride and just make up the time difference in my morning preparations for work. SO, I took a shorter shower.....left my hair just a bit damper, rushed my breakfast along....and did my longer ride! Yeah me!!!!!!! I may try to jump on the exercise tonight.

Ok, exercising tonight isn't an option anylonger. As I was typing earlier, I heard a beep. My parents stopped by for a visit. Ok, I live out in the country..there is not 'stopping by' they drove down specifically to see me. SO it was a nice little visit. But now it's 9:30....so I'll be honest and say that exercise is a no go for me tonight. But hey, I rode this morning! WOO HOOO!

My job is starting to bore me to tears. The only reason I'm still ok at the job at this point is the fact that I can surf the internet, write, and read books all day! Why can I not find a job that I adore???

A synopsis of my downward spiral

You know, I made it through Hershey Park with flying colors. I headed into the weekend strong...and on Saturday I ate foods REALLy high in sodium. My weight jumped. I was like, "I know why" so I wasn't really worried. Then Todd made plans to eat with friends at a CHINESE restaurant on Sunday....MORe sodium. (oh yeah, we worked outside a lot on Saturday and Sunday...hard to stay hydrated ANYWAY). Well...of course Chinese is a food that just doesn't stick to my bones. So even though I had no points left...by 6:30 (we had eaten at like 4) I was STARVING! I ate and ate! Oh, I had a PB&J, some pretzels, a hundred calorie pack, a pudding cup, ohhh and a little bit of ice cream. Oh yeah, and the ick hit the same day! (A week early...what's up with this every three week thing???? I don't like it!) Since Sunday evening I've struggled with eating. I haven't done too badly. I've stayed relatively 'close' to my points. I've had one or two over each day. (yeah, those flex points are supposed to be there for such occaisions...but I don't lose if I eat them...sucks to be me!) So my weight is UP UP UP! I didn't go to my weigh in this week........probably because I would have not been considered 'maintaining'.

This week....STRESS city. On Monday, todd had a front tire blow out on his car. Ended up buying 4 new tires. Then his pump on his coolant in his computer (basically his computer is cooled with antifreeze instead of fans) blew up....there goes another $100 (actually probably more when all said and done). AND last night we went out to work trying to get ready for our 4th of July party (actually it's on the 5th).....SOMETHING crawled under the house (in the crawlspace) and died! We started looking for it at 6AM this morning....and we ended up and had to call in a professional! $100 bucks more to find this HUGE cat and drag it away! What else??????

A battle with the scales...and the scales won!

Faced the scales this morning, I did. Oh boy oh boy. Was I ever tickled to see the results. Oh yeah! (note the excessive sarcasm just oozing from my pores!) My weight....181.6! NOT at all looking for that. I was hoping that my weight had gone down a bit...even just a hair from Sunday's weigh in results! NOT up another half pound! I'll admit though that on top of the sodium issues, I cheated a bit last night....and uhhhhh the night before. I didn't do much...just one or two points above my daily allowance. They "SAY" it shouldn't affect me.....it's flex points I'm allowed to eat. However, I just can't seem to eat my flex points and still lose! Oh well....my nose is to the grindstone. I'm gonna work this plan and get this weight OFF! There are no ifs ands or buts about it!

Rode the bike this morning.....30 minutes, 9 miles. Then Todd and I went out for a walk. We did about 2 miles. :-) The bad thing...we had gone to a place that I had wanted to photograph. Got there and my battery went dead after just a few pics. Yeah, my stupid fault for not having put the battery on the charger! I accept full responsibility!

Hopefully I can get my second round of activity in this evening. Twould be nice. I'll take whatever activity I can get!

Had read about a neat idea. Someone (sorry, can't remember who) wrote that they saved their old pudding cup containers and reused them to create individual portions of ice cream by dishing the ice cream into the cups, and then covering them with saran wrap or tin foil. That seemed like a grand idea to me. So I immediately started saving my cups. BUT as I was washing the first ones that I saved, I realized how incredibly flimsy they were. SOOOO on Sunday I checked out the storage container area at the store. I saw that Glad had 1/2 cup 'disposable' containers. I think they were on sale....$2 for a package of 8 containers. Now, I personally use the disposable containers as long as I can...and when the crack, break or just look disgusting, I pitch them. (I'm trying to switch out household to all glass....but didn't want to sink the money into this project until i know if it works). Sooooo at the grocery store, I bought a half gallon of 'healthy' ice cream. I got home. I put the groceries away....and like normal I put stuff that i wanted to 'prepare' for the week onto the counter. Normally that's fruits and veggies....any dips or things that I want to have fixed and ready to grab. Well, I put the icecream in that grouping of things. I pulled out the containers and dished up the icecream. It was WONDERFUL..the icecream was soft from the drive home...so it dished up like a dream...and I was easily able to fill up the cups. I snapped the lids on and popped the containers into the freezer. And there they sat. I spent about 3 or 4 dollars on the half gallon of ice cream....where as the individual serving cups I spend 4-5 dollars for 3 or 4...and sometimes two. Well, last night after dinner Todd mentioned ice cream. We pulled two out. We each ate our 1/2 cup serving. Worked like a charm! I washed up the containers and they are sitting ready for the next ice cream buying time! WOO HOOOO!

Monday...a day for ignorance!

I've decided to live Monday June 23, 2008 in a state of ignorance. Nope, I did not get on the scales this morning. I'm assuming that the scales are still up. Come on now...I had Chinese food last night....salt city! Plus of course the ick is still with me. I'd HOPE that maybe the scales went down a bit...but oh well....ignorance is bliss. Ok, ok ok...I say that all cocky, but I'll admit to sitting here and worrying and wondering about it! I will however definitely weigh in tomorrow!

I am trying to eat healthy and I did get a ride in this morning. I'd like to get another ride or some other form of exercise in this evening!

Whew! What a morning! Todd had me set the alarm for 6:30 for him. We have a friend that was working last fall and fell off a thirty foot ladder. He shattered his leg. He’s at home now and he’s recuperating, but he needs to go to Physical Therapy 3 times a week. Well, every so often Todd offers to take Shane up to the physical therapy place so that Shane’s wife gets a break. Today was one of those days. So Todd had to leave our house at 7:15. I putzed around the house and had breakfast and was just ready to get to my bike ride when the phone rang. It was Todd. He had headed south and picked up Shane and while heading back through Sharpsburg on the way up to Hagerstown, the front tire started making a crazy noise. So Todd had headed towards our place to switch cars and he’d look at the tire when he got home. WELL…he didn’t make it home. The tire blew. (front drivers side). They were ok (thank heavens!). So I rushed out to get my car to them. We left the old car sitting and they took me home. I did my ride (15.4 miles) while they were gone. They came back and we went down to change that tire. FIRST of all, the car was parked weirdly (or the road was angled or something) because it was a pain in the arse to jack up. We popped the lugs off easily…BUT oh my word…we couldn’t get the darn tire OFF the car! I then remembered that when we switched from Cellular One to AT&T for our cell phone service, that they had automatically put on a roadside assistance program onto our cell phone bill. I had planned on removing it, but Todd was like, “hey, we don’t have triple A on our cars….lets just leave it” (my car is covered under the Honda Auto coverage…at least until I reach 100 K miles…which I’m only at 54 K so I’m good for a while longer). So we did. I looked and sure enough, it covered tire changing…so I called them. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. They came and changed that tire for me..AND pumped air into the donut tire (it was low). Todd got back right as they were finishing up…so we went home and had lunch…and then Todd turned his butt around to go up to Sears to get new tires. We are ending up getting 4 new ones…the back tires were on the edge of needing to be replaced….and of course it was a front tire that blew. PLUS, they are fazing out the 13 inch tires….which is what the old Honda takes. LOVELY. They had them today…but can’t guarantee in the future…so we are doing all four…and then if the car lasts that long (tis an old car), we’ll probably have to get new rims for the car. JOY JOY. While Todd has it there though, he’s going to get an oil change…it needs it. May as well do it all on one stop. So there goes $350 bucks out the window. I’m sooooo ready for our string of bad luck to end! I mean, wouldn’t you think replacing the hvac in our house was enough for one year??? Me hitting a deer wasn’t enough????? Come on now!!! Oh well……Todd and Shane were safe. That is the important thing. Todd was quick to remember that just the other day he had gone to DC in his car…and if that tire had blown on the interstate, it would not have been pretty….and could have caused a major accident. So we will look on the bright side of things!

At least I'm getting settled now that I'm sitting at work, and all calmed down. (I got home at 11:40.....and in 20 minutes, I ate lunch, showered, dressed and got to work!...yeah, my hair was still wet....I just pulled it back into a bun...not high fashion...but I'm here!)

Sodium Sunday

You know, after our day at Hershey Park, I told Todd that I was going to buckle down and live frugally, well eat frugally...point wise this week. So on Thursday night he comes home and says, "I was talking to Paul, and if it's ok with you ladies, we wanna hook up on Sunday to go to such and such Asian Restaurant" (Paul and Todd love their Sushi...and their Sushi bar that they have on Sundays.....we wives order off the traditional menu). OK.....BUT of course Chinese isn't all that great. But I figured I'd make it. Well, I did fairly well. I got basically chicken and broccoli (but instead of the traditional chicken and broccoli sauce, I got a garlic sauce. Chicken was NOT breaded. I got plain rice instead of fried rice...and I drank water! BUT man oh man.....Chinese food does NOT stay with me. It's only been like 3 hours and I'm HUNGRY again! With no points left for the day! NOT good!

Yesterday I worked outside for quite a bit in the afternoon. I came in to go to the bathroom...and luckily glanced in the mirror. I flipped out at how pale I was. I called out to Todd and yelled that I was needing to stay inside and asked him to take care of putting the chipper away along with the rest of my gear. He took one look at my face and was like, "SIT DOWN...NOW" Well, I rested a bit...and then showered and made dinner. I made this nacho chicken bake. It was pretty good....and actually not that bad point wise. HOWEVER, I should have thought about how much sodium was in the recipe! This morning I was up to 181.2! OUCH. that's up from 179.8 OUCH OUCH OUCH! I know that it HAS to be mostly water retention. I KNOW my sodium was super high yesterday. PLUS then of course the ick hit this morning/early afternoon. SO that added to the water retention issue! SOOOO of course, what do I eat today? Chinese....sodium city again! I don't even know if I want to get on the scales tomorrow morning!!!!!!

I did ride this morning....I knocked out about 17 miles today. woo hooo!

Meanwhile, I'm reading an awesome book. I was super skeptical when it was recommended to me. It is a book by Lisa See entitled, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan". I"m not usually into the Chinese culture (what is up with Chinese and this post) but it came highly recommended and the brief synopsis caught my eye because it mentioned the practice of foot binding..which does intrigue me. So I followed the recommendation. I'll be honest, I almost passed on reading it. But I started....and I can't put the darn book down. There have been passages and chapters that I've literally read with my jaw dropped to my chest (in particular the passages when the main character is describing the first weeks of her foot binding). I've gasped and gotten teary eyed at this work of fiction! When a book can do that to me.....it's darn good! Lets see...what else have I read this week...... Bought "Turbulance" by John Nance on Tuesday night. Started reading that on Thursday...at about lunch. Finished it Friday afternoon! (gotta love a job I can read at!) Excellent read!!!! I flew through that! Lets see...I had gone to the library on Tuesday...and picked up "the Blue Zone" by Andrew Gross. That was another. I started reading that...and even with being away all day Wednesday (didn't read a word on Wednsday) I still finished that one on Thursday by lunch. Today I was at Ollies and bought a book by Michael Connelly, can't remember the title right at this moment. So I'll probably start that book when I get the chinese based book done! Ahhhh I love to read!!!

Change?

No, there was no change in my weight this morning. I was still exactly 179.8 pounds. I just want to get away from that 180 pound mark! I'm hovering at 179.something now...and I want to put some distance between us!

I woke up and rode the bike for about 45 minutes this mornng. Felt good (to be done...haa haa haa, j/k). I'm at work now and hopefully all this afternoon I'll be working outside. I hope to work some more on the chipping! That's a workout! Last week I was sore...from using muscles that don't normally get used as heavily. I'm thinking that if I work all afternoon, that the pile of trees/brush that I'm currently working on may be almost gone by tonight! That would be sooo awesome! I also want to move the boat and trailer to a different spot in the yard. (further down towards the woods!). The old riding lawn mower needs to be moved down there also! I want them out of my yard proper! :-) So hopefully I can do that today also! If I have the energy, I will also paint a bit more of the floor on the screened in porch. I'm painting it in sections. I've got almost half of it done. I've got about a 5x5 section to finish until I can say that I've done enough to satisfy what NEEDS to be done (bare minimum) for our fourth of July Party. Once I get that much of the floor painted, Todd and I need to borrow the van from mom and dad and get the glass topped table and the small freezer moved over! I've decided that I may for the time being leave the big freezer over at the studio apartment. It's not hurting anything over there..and it's a pretty old freezer. Todd's grandmother gave it to us...and when we moved it over we were afraid that it would die on us as they say sometimes when you move old freezers and refridgerators that the compressor or some such piece of them goes out. The chest freezer is relatively new (actually it was just replaced through warranty last may). That would give us the freezer space that we need at the house....but yet we'd still have the big freezer for storage at the other place. It would also keep my screened in porch a little less crowded. I told Todd taht eventually we would buy another freezer for the house. The old one is ...well old. The seals and such are not the greatest anymore! Energy efficient it is not. Plus, we can move those two things in my parents van! We'd like to get the picnic table...but I'm not sure that will fit into the van! We'll have to measure, but I think we need to get a friend that has a pickup truck to move that one! I can see the end getting closer. Well, maybe not the end...but at least one project closer to being finished!

The preliminary results

Well, yesterday I DID get on the bike before I went to work. I made it exactly 15 minutes before I got off. It just wasn't happening. My body was so tired and depleted to begin with! Hey, that's ok...I got some form of exercise into my day! I'd rather look back and say I did something versus nothing! I had my eating plan all laid out. I had left myself a point or two for a evening snack should I need it. BUT, after dinner I went to get a snack. I saw the little containers of tapioca and rice pudding. (One point each). Well, I started wondering how they really compare in taste. SOoooo instead of eating ONE, I grabbed one of EACH and ate them both....alternating bites of course to fully judge them! (I prefer the tapioca!) And then, as if the two little things were not enough, I went to the box of Weight Watchers lemon cakes and had one of those. (once again one point). Well, yeah...those things are all one point items...but together they were at least three points! So I worried throughout the evening...wondering if I had ruined it and if my weight would go up. Well, this morning I got up and stepped onto the scales. WHEW! Huge sigh of relief. Yesterday had me at 180.8. Today i was at 179.8! One pound down. So still a little bit more to recoup my little gain...but all is well! I can do this! I just need to keep my eye on the end result!

Speaking of end results....and some thoughts about where I've been and where I've come from. The last time I went to Hershey Park, I was with my friend Julie and Todd (he and I were dating at the time). This was about 7 years ago. I had just left teaching, a time in which my weight dropped...but by that time, it was already starting to skyrocket back up to my all time highest. I know that at some of the coasters I stood in worry that I wouldn't fit. And in fact, one of the coasters we had to go to the middle row where the restraints were a bit more accommodating for a larger person. How utterly embarrassing. I didn't let it bother me all that much, I liked myself...and my friends liked me, so I just let it slide off of me. BUT, the other day at the park, those memories came rushing back. I was worried that I wouldn't fit. I literally had to keep telling myself, "MaryFran, you are less than 180 pounds, you fit...and you will fit in ANYTHING". It just hasn't sunk in!

The other thing that was an eye opener for me. The turnstiles in the rides! Woah, for so long I had to turn sideways, suck in my gut, and squeeze it all in to get through a turnstile. While leaving the first ride and going through the turnstile, I just started to laugh! OH my word, I just breezed through it! All day it was just amazing to me. Without thinking I'd go into my old 'routine' in which I would suck and squeeze it in to get through....but I didn't need to! Amazing!

Well, as I already said, I was down one pound this morning. I'm tickled about that! I ate a healthy breakfast and a healthy lunch. I'll admit that I'm already thinking ahead to dinner...but it's all good! I'll make it. Especially since I'm here at work and the temptations are easier to avoid here. WHY? Well, because I can sit back here in the drive through and ignore the food up on the counter. And secondly, I'm a bit of a closet eater......I would be in much more danger if they were to all leave me alone with that food sitting on the counter! IN a way, that's good, at least here at work!

Rode the bike for 8.75 miles this morning. I plan on getting up early tomorrow and going longer! Anything to push this weight off my body! I'm determined!!!! Especially since I am officially TWO weeks into maintenance! 4 more weeks to go and I will be considered a lifetime member at weight watchers! (meaning I no longer pay!!!!!!) I can do this!

Report on HersheyPark and the concert

We were in Hershey yesterday. We spent the day in the actual amusement park! Then in the evening we mosied over to the Star Pavillion and saw a concert. We saw the Doobie Brothers and Chicago! As usual, the concert was excellent. I've seen Chicago every year pretty much since Todd and I met and each year they just blow me away! I only hope that when I'm the age as some of those guys that I'm still operating like they are!

I had decided that I would try to be responsible with my eating, yet I was going to enjoy the food I ate, and eat WHAT I wanted. That said, I ate a reasonable breakfast (egg beater sandwich) for lunch I had a Grilled Chicken wrap, and for dinner I splurged and had a cheeseburger (I've been dying for one lately). I did ask if I could substitute something else for the fries...and got about 1/4 cup of baked beans instead. Here is the bad stuff. My husband and I split a SMALL dippin dot's. I had a chocolate covered banana (hey, at least it was mostly fruit!). I did splurge and have a chocolate milkshake. ANd I ate four miniature pieces of the free candy that you get here and there throughout the day. After the milkshake...which as at 6PM, I called it quits and said no more...I ignored the venders inside the concert (except for the bottled water that I purchased at the concert) AND on the way home when I stopped to get a drink (diet Dr. Pepper) I really fought the urge to buy some kind of food snack. That is immensely better than I would have done recently. Previously I would have eaten my way through the park, through the concert and stopped on the way home to get something else. (tis no wonder I ballooned up to over 300 pounds eh?) SOOOO are you curious what the damage was? Well, let me first tell you that my pedometer counted my steps at close to 30K steps for yesterday. THe last time I weighed I was at 179.4. This morning I was at 180.8. I'm of course not happy to be up 1.4 pounds...but that's managable! I did drink a fair amount of water yesterday....but probably not what I should have. SO even though I can probably blame some of the weight gain on that (and probably some on the upcoming ick if I really wanted to), I'm not going to. that was 1.5 pounds of food! I enjoyed myself and I"m not going to feel guilty about it or worry about it. I've made my plans for getting myself back down and all will be good!

So what is my plan? Simply watch what I eat and hop back into my exercise routine! However, I usually do it first thing in the mornings...and this morning I still haven't! I'll get to it though! 4 hours of sleep and I just don't seem to have the energy! I however am getting ready to clean the house...and get some laundry out on the line. WHen that's done I plan on riding right before I shower!

Monday!

Ok.....my weight was down eight-tenths of a pound today. That puts me back at 179! Hopefully I can hold onto that or go a little lower for my weigh in tomorrow night! I was planning on having pasta with a pesto tonight...topped with chicken. And while I can fit it into my points values, I know that days where I am totally high in carbs, I just don't lose as well, and in fact sometimes gain. SOOO I'm going to make Southwest Chicken....which is yummy in it's own right. :-)

Rode the bike this morning...and then when Todd woke up we went for a walk. SO I've been active thus far!

SORE SORE SORE. That's all I can say. My upper body is so extremely sore! Eii yii yiii! ALl that chipping yesterday!