GREAT NEWS!!!!!

I DID IT! I'm a LIFETIME MEMBER of Weight Watchers! I need to go next week so they can officially get me marked in as a lifetimer....but it's all done. I'm there!!! WOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO Todd went with me and snapped a few pictures. The first one here is of me up at the scales as I weighed in.
This is a snap of me signing my name to the lifetime board.
And of course my handy dandy 10% key chain with my charms on it. WOO HOOO!!!!
Well, I thought that the mower saga was over. Not hardly. This morning I went out to mow. The grass was dry, but the ground is just plain and simple saturated. (I had the same problem last week) SO I was being careful. At one point I was swinging around in the mower on a very slight grade. The mower started to slide and I kinda slide into the front deck/porch. Uhhh yeah, I dented up the mower something fierce. I'm OK, the porch is OK (only a mark on the support post) and the mower (other than being dented on the front end) is OK. I actually finished mowing after the 'wreck'. What's next though?? I told Todd he didn't believe me at first. He took it well....could it be because it was only 5 or 6 months ago that he backed up and hit my car (the car that had just come back from the auto body shop after getting the side fixed where the deer had run into me). So he dinged and dented up TWO cars!

Sad..my weight watcher meeting is closing. They are taking away the meeting that I attend. Tis no wonder...the leader was...uhhh...lackluster. The only problem..that was the only meeting that I could/can consistently get to each week at my center. To attend a meeting regularly, I'll have to switch centers (I think this other place has one that I can get to each week). Other than that, I'll simply float from meeting to meeting. Who knows! SO a bit of a downer at my lifetime meeting.

Chocolate Meringue Cookies and Morning Update

Zero point Chocolate Meringue Cookies

3 egg whites

dash salt

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp unsweetened cocoa

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

*Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line non-stick baking sheets with parchment paper, silpat sheets or tin foil.

*In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 cocoa and sugar together; set aside.

* IN a large bowl beat egg whites until foamy/frothy. While beating add salt, cream of tartar and vanilla extract. After reaching the frothy stage, add the cocoa sugar mixture one tablespoon at a time. Continue beating until egg whites are stiff and glossy.

*Drop batter by spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets. In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1 tsp cocoa and cinnamon. Using a sieve or a sifter, sprinkle mixture over the non-baked cookies.

*Bake 90 minutes; turn off the oven, open the door slightly (secure with a wooden spoon), and allow cookies to cool in the oven. Remove from oven and store in a airtight container.

Nutrition Facts
48 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories-10.8
Total Fat-0.1 g
Cholesterol-0.0 mg
Sodium-13.3 mg
Potassium-11.0 mg
Total Carbohydrate-2.4 g
Dietary Fiber-0.2 g
Sugar-2.1 g
Protein-0.4 g

Each cookie is zero points. In fact, you can have two cookies for zero points. However, that third cookie knocks you up to 1 point! They are not the ooey gooey cookie that I love, but they are tasty.

I weighed myself this morning 178.4. WHEW! I shouldn't be in any danger for my official weigh in tonight! I'll post tonight the official results!

Clean eating......I normally eat as cleanly as possible. And as low fat and healthy as possible. Well, last night I ate at my parents house. I had worked the eating into my budget so I could eat with them last night (the night before I took a lunchbox with my own food...kinda weird but hey, if it works) I ate the food that my mom prepared. It was tasty...but you know.....I'm not used to the higher fat content foods. So even stuff like mashed potatoes a normal dish that I make at home were much more laden with fat (I use skim milk, she uses whole. etc etc etc) Well, we ate and then I headed home because I had a few things that needed to be done here at the house. Half way down the pike...ohhhh my stomach started aching. I know it was from the higher fat content. It eventually settled down...but very interesting.

Monday Madness

Well, the morning started out early. I woke up at my normal 'early work day and exercise before hand' time. I decided that I was going out for a jog this morning. I got myself dressed and ready to go. I got out on the road and commenced with a fast walk for a ways down the road. Shortly I was ready to kick into my jog. Well, I made it about 10 paces (if that) and I just KNEW that my knees were not going to cooperate today. They HURT and the felt like jelly. It was not good. In retrospection, I shouldn't have even attempted to jog today as my knees have been hurting me (mostly my left knee) since last Wednesday. In fact, yesterday morning on the elliptical, my knee kept giving out on me and I'd catch myself. Ahhh such is the life of an arthritic knee. Anyway, I walked home and I didn't allow my failed jog to get me. I hopped on the bike and pulled myself together for a 30 minute ride. Hey, something is better than nothing! I plan on mowing my parents properties this afternoon...so I will be getting about an hour of exercise with the push mower. That should help the cause some also.

My weight this morning was down just a tad bit more. I was at 179.6. Down is down, even if it is just 2/10ths of a pound! I'll take it! Being just about 2.5 pounds away from the high mark for me to be under to get lifetime tomorrow is much less stressful than being only .5 ounces away (like last week). Especially since Todd is planning on going to the meeting to celebrate with me. And Sherry said she is planning on being there for the same reason. That would totally bite the big one to have them there to celebrate...camera's poised and then not make it! I had been toying around (for like well over a year now) about taking in some low point treat to celebrate my lifetime. I'm still toying with it. I could make something tonight...or tomorrow morning. I'm actually leaning toward the meringue cookie things. I'm just not sure though. :-) I think they are zero points..so it would work...and be a nice little treat for my meeting. I had at one point thought about making homemade fortune cookies......they would be 1 point. I'll search around online to see what I can find about those meringue cookies. That will give me something to do.

I'll probably come home tonight early from my parents house to make them if I do it.....because tomorrow morning I NEED to mow our yard! The grass is high high high...and I'm embarrassed about the chop job I did last week. (I missed complete sections and strips!)

Well, the muscle soreness in my legs has subsided for the most part. There is still a bit of a small twinge here and there...but nothing major. This morning though, it's my shoulders and upper arms. Eii yiii yiii! Oh well...tis all good. Lets build those muscles up...the more i build them, the more they will burn!!!!! OK, I'm off to look for cookie recipes!

back in the 170's

I tried something this morning. Every once in a while when I"m making my oatmeal and we happen to have banana's here at the house, I always sit back and say....."Banana's in my oatmeal, that sounds good" So this morning I said it and then I was like: NO, why keep saying it...let me try it. So I made my oatmeal and sliced some bananas on top. Well, I didn't like it. The banana's were room temp in the cold milk that was swimming on top of the hot oatmeal. It was not worth my time. It felt like I was eating three different things all jumbled together. Under normal situations, the milk and the oatmeal almost combine into one yummy breakfast. Not so this morning. On retrospection I'm thinking that if I had cut up the banana into even smaller pieces and put it in the oatmeal BEFORE I cooked it...maybe it would have been better. BUT I'm a little gun shy...not sure if I"ll do that tomorrow. :-) Not sure if I want to mess up some tasty oohhy gooeyy oatmeal two days in a row!

Weighed myself this morning. I almost didn't want to look at the scales when it beeped to tell me that my weight was posted. But I did. 179.8. WOOO HOOO I sooo hope that my weight holds for my Tuesday official weigh in at the meeting! Incidentally, if I can hold my weight down for that official meeting, I will make lifetime! I'm scared that I'll be back up tomorrow......I just seem to yo yo so much.

We went to the gym early this morning. I did 35 minutes of strength training and an hour on the elliptical. Felt good. :-) I came home and made lunch for Todd and I and then I packed a dinner for myself. After that I headed up to town to my parents house. Mom and I hung out for about an hour or so until my brother and his family arrived. The kids have grown SOOOOOO much! Alex was so shy at first that if I looked at him he would hide. Ali and Riley who are older and remember us were fine of course! When they had their fattening dinner, I ate my packed lunch. Yes, it was weird to actually pack a meal to eat at my mom's...and to ignore the yummy foods that she prepared. But I did.

I'm planning on getting up early in the morning and riding. And then I work at 7:45. At 2 I get off and I'll head up to my parents to be with my family. I'm taking old clothes so that I can mow while I'm up there. And then I'll play with the kids and visit with my brother and his wife. Todd is going to come up to town to join us for dinner. So it will be a full day. I'll have to focus on getting my water consumption in and all that.

Excitement abounds

I don't have much to say today.

* I didn't weigh myself today...so I have no clue how I'm doing.

*I did get 50 minutes in on the exercise bike. It's been raining off and on all day today, with intermitent thunderstorms, so my grand plans for an outside jog had to be scratched.

*Got the weekly grocery shopping done. AND all the prep work (cleaning and cutting up the produce so there is no excuse not to eat it!)

*Worked this morning. Was assigned to work in the lobby at the bank...I prefer working drive through...but oh well, we all can't have what we want all the time.

And that's my day in a nutshell. Hell, what am I saying...that's my day period! Wasn't that an exciting day?????

Friday afternoon chat

Do I actually have a brain? I do wonder. I had the brain child idea of going for a walk on my lunch break. How wonderful would that be...a half an hour of walking to add to my morning activity. Well, I walked outside and started walking toward the edge of the town proper. (Lets not forget that this is a small town, I can pretty much walk the circumference of the town during my 30 minute break.....I exaggerate not). For the first 10 minutes or so i was feeling wonderful. The warmth was a delicious feeling on my cool skin. (lets also not forget that I'm always cold....I'm usually wrapped up in extra sweaters at work). Ohhhh at about 15 minutes I started to feel comfortable. By about 20 minutes (and on the opposite end of town) it was stinkin' freakin' boilin' hot out there. Sweat was dripping down my back (luckily I am wearing a camisole with a button down shirt over it...so the wet sweat marks on my camisole are not visible to my co-workers and customers). Dang was it ever hot! I got back to the bank and came inside. My first words to my co-workers was "Whew...hot" they turned toward me and laughed....yeah, my face was red. Apparently I got a bit of a sunburn in the 30 freakin' minutes I was outside. What??? I've been outside this summer....30 minutes and my nose is burnt???? So here I sit at the drive through window...basking in the cool (note that this is the same air that I usually refer to as frigidly cold) breeze blowing over me from the vents. AHHHHHHHHHH

AUGUST ALREADY?????

Whew! Relief is in the air! After my little splurge day on Wednesday and not weighing in yesterday (oh yeah and late last night I had a total craving for a PB&J sandwich....and no I didn't have the points for it...and yes, it tasted so darn good) I was nervous about the scales this morning. The scales were very friendly to me. ON Tuesday morning they had me at 181.0. This morning I was at 181.2 I'm tickled with that! 2/10ths of a pound is the difference between going to the bathroom before I weigh, or wearing socks or not...tee hee hee. Honestly, I was so afraid that I had blown it, so I'm much relieved!

Yes, I'll fess up to the PB&J sandwich last night. It was about 3 hours after dinner. It was ALL I could think of. I waited and I just couldn't get it out of my head. I was DREAMING of how it would taste! My mouth was salivating. I just HAD to have that sandwich. SO I did. I'll also fess up to the little Hershey's chocolate stick (2 points) that I ate before the PB& J in an attempt to not eat the higher point sandwich. Yeah, I know that really doesn't work. But hey, the dark chocolate tasted mighty mighty good also!

Woke up early this morning. I had to be at work here at 10AM. I was up at 6AM....made Todd coffee, put last nights dishes away, ate breakfast, packed my lunch for work, etc etc etc. And Todd and I were out the door shortly after 7 to hit the gym. I did about 40 minutes of strength training. While I'm not sore yet, I can feel tiny tendrils of muscle soreness creeping upon me. And then I did about 30 minutes on the elliptical. At that point I was out of time. We had to leave so I could get home and be at work on time. But, I did it! And I feel good. In fact, I welcome the pain if it means I'll fit into that dress!

Read an interesting article today about a moretorium on fast food locations in a low economic area that has very high obese rates. This article basically said that they are holding off on building any new fast food restaurants to try to give some restaurants with some more healthy options to come to the area. Great idea. I give them two thumbs up for trying! However, fast food is so cheap.....can the healthy options even compete with the fast food prices??? Does this area even want a change? And of course last but not least......this area already probably has 5 million fast food joints....will not building any for one year really make a difference?

I didn't weigh myself today. I've decided to wait a day or two. Optimally I'd like to wait until Saturday or Sunday. However, I know me and I'm thinking that I may give in and weigh myself tomorrow. We'll have to see.

However I did get up early and ride that exercise bike. I pushed up the resistance today quite a bit. I'm still suffering a bit of soreness but nothing terribly bad. I need to get myself to the gym to get my strength training in. I should go tomorrow. But that's going to be a hard one for me. I work from 10Am until 6PM. I could get up early and go in the morning. I know that after work I will probably not go. Yes, I guess tomorrow morning should be it. Maybe I should go this afternoon? I shouldn't because I need to give it a day between strength training workouts. I guess it's tomorrow morning.

Nothing else to post about thus far today. I'm working to eat clean and within my plan. I had oatmeal for breakfast. Lunch is a sandwich (2 points...tis a good thing that I love butter/jelly sandwhiches), an apple, grapes and some raw carrots. Dinner will be corn on the cob and chicken. I'm not sure how the chicken will be prepared yet..but I'll figure something out. Oh yeah, and I have a serving of leftover sauerkraut that I'll have with my meal. So I'll be well within my points range. :-)

Ramblings from a somewhat feeble mind

Found the neatest tee shirt today. I just had to buy it. On the front it says Get off the Couch. The back has a picture of a bike and over top of that it says: You could ride off a cliff and die, You could get lost and die, You could hit a tree and die. YOU COULD STAY HOME AND FALL OFF THE COUCH AND DIE. This just hit a funny bone on me! So I bought it! I debated long and hard. I tried on the medium and it fit...a bit tight but it fit. The large was a nice fit now. What do you do in these cases? I bought the large. I'll still be able to wear it later, and if not, hopefully Todd will get to a large! :-)

Well, last night I couldn't sleep worth a darn. I laid in bed and tossed and turned for what seemed like hours. I finally got to sleep and woke up an hour or so later. It then took me about another hour to fall back to sleep. NOT good when you have early morning plans. You see, we had decided to set the alarm for 6AM and get a move on early. We wanted to bike in Cumberland which is a little more than an hour away by car. Leaving early would get us onto the bikes before the heat and humidity got too bad. I actually woke up before the alarm went off. (What's up with that....4 hours of sleep) I got my shower, breakfast and packed us clothes to change into. I prepared our water bottles, loaded the bikes onto the car and made sure I pulled the money from the safe to put into my purse all before I even got Todd up. We were out the door, in Cumberland and on our bikes by 8:30 or so. We had a really nice ride. We didn't push it. I didn't ride in some super high gear to really push my muscles. Nor did I ride in some easy smeasy gear to garner high rpm's. It was a nice middle grade ride. We were out until about 11:30. I'll admit my constant companion of muscle aches was present before I even got onto the bike. But the aches and pains pretty much 'disappeared' OK, pushed aside in my mind while I was on the bike.

After our ride, we changed our clothes (ahhhhh the train station/visitor center place had some clean bathrooms...what a treat....I hate when I have to change my clothes in some parking lot) and headed to downtown Cumberland where we had been told that there were some decent restaurants. My my my...for a town that is economically depressed, they had a really nice little arts district thing going on. (relative to the town I should say). Todd and I really couldn't decide which little neat looking place to eat at so we literally did rock/paper/ scissors to decide. I got this pasta dish...it as supposed to be hot and spicy. And I got a side salad to go with it (prices were VERY reasonable). Todd got a salmon salad (in a taco shell). The salad was really good. They make all their own salad dressings. I had some Dijon vinaigrette....it was to die for! Todd LOVED his dinner salad. (nope, I didn't even try his as it was salmon and I don't do seafood....well, except for tuna salad). I'll have to admit though that disappointment of all...my pasta dish was...well......lackluster. It was bland. The chicken was tough and well, it just lacked. I ate maybe a 1/4 of my plate and then pushed it aside. No use eating something I wasn't really enjoying. HUGE victory for me! (don't get too excited for me.......I turned around and this evening gave in to my craving for pizza. I've known it was coming and I've been OK with it. I'm not here to deprive myself. I just try to manage it. SO this evening for dinner I got a pizza. Thin crust...even though I prefer a thick greasy crust, I went with a thin cracker crust. Ohh dang, was it tasty! I'm not going to weigh myself for a day or so....and manage my eating very closely the next few days...and I'm sure I"ll be fine!)

After lunch, we walked around for another couple hours. We finally got home at around 4:30. My lower body was TIRED TIRED TIRED! I rested and dang...turned around and went to the gym for a session with the personal trainer. THANK GOODNESS it was to work up a new routine for my arms! I laughed and told her that my bottom half felt dead. She looked at me and laughed and said, "then lets make the arms feel dead also" Oh yeah, I think it's gonna be a whole body thing tomorrow! LOL We'll have to see.

Well, there you have my day. I've not drank all my water that I should have drank. Well, actually upon further thought, I probably have drank my minimum of 64 ounces. Lets see...my main water bottle that I used today is 24 ounces...and I finished that and started on my back up bottle. I think the waitress refilled my water glass at lunch 4 times (they looked to be about 16 ounce glasses....minus the room for the ice of course...so maybe 10 ounces of water each drainage) And looking at my big 'sippy cup' water mug, it shows that I'm 32 ounces down...so yeah, I've done it...but still with the sweating (it was still hot outside) from riding and walking I probably didn't drink enough. Oh well what a boring rambling paragraph!

My constant companion

I have a new constant companion. I've had this companion since last Thursday.....well Friday to be exact. And that companion, muscle soreness. It's no where near what it was last Friday. But it's still there as a dull ache. I guess why I'm writing about it is because I wouldn't mind this companion if the scales had been friendly to me today at my official weigh in. Well, let me take that back. They were friendly in that I did not show a gain. However, I also did not show a loss. I held onto a direct and complete maintain of my weight. My home scales showed me at 181.0 this morning while the weight watchers scales had me pegged at 181.4. That is typical...the weight watchers scales are usually within a half pound or so (sometimes up and sometimes down) from my home weight. So while I'm happy that I didn't gain and that I'm still hanging onto my maintenance period (by the skin of my teeth...I have to be below 182...as my doctor set my weight that he wants me at 180 pounds) I'm a bit disgusted to not be seeing any results as of yet. Now I know that they say that it takes a week or two to start seeing results so I'm OK. But still! OK....5 days down and counting until I start to see incredible results on the scales.

As aforementioned, today is my day off from cardio, my rest day. I'm going to try to do my strength training at home this evening to get it in. That will put me down at twice already this week. That's a good thing. Dang, now I sound like Martha Stewart. Todd is still waffling on our bike ride tomorrow morning. I'm pushing for it! I think it would be great. I would like to do it somewhat early in the morning so that we don't have to contend with any of the mid-day sun or anything. We'll have to see. Stay tuned for the outcome of this one.

On a different note. Richard Simmons has recently went onto Capital Hill to try to get people to see that one of the biggest problems facing us today is the rise in the obesity rates, particularly amongst our children. He was urging our country to do something about it. Focus more on physical education in schools, get our kids moving, etc etc etc. HOPEFULLY people stood up and noticed. I'm not saying the more physical education classes in school will cut it. I mean, I found every excuse to get out of PE in school (and look where I ended up...315 pounds) but if parents become more cognizant and schools are more cognizant and everyone is working together then we may get somewhere. The problem, our society has actually forgotten (or never learned) how to be healthy. We have people that don't know how to cook and or don't want to cook. We have whole families that don't know what it is like to get on their bikes and go for a family ride. (or whatever activity would fit for that family). When the family unit started splintering, so did healthy habits. And how do you get it back?

Todd and I were talking today on the way back from H-town. (he rode into town with me to my meeting). His comment was that if our government can't give universal health care (OK, I'll admit it, I don't have health insurance...as a part time employee it is not available to me and we can't afford self employed health insurance......so a universal system sounds mighty nice...and for you nay-Sayers, it works in Canada and other countries) then they should be subsidizing healthy options and programs. Help subsidize gym memberships...IF the person proves that they spent a certain amount of time. Subsidize weight loss programs (ones that are based on healthy guidelines) and visits to nutritionists. Work to make our country healthier and by doing that, our health care costs will decrease. Weight related illnesses (diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, etc etc )are at an all time high and rising. I can speak from experience with the cholesterol...weight management is the true cure! (yes, there are those cases that weight management wouldn't fix...but I'd wager a bet and say that many of them would be fixed). Even my husband with his IBS. After spending hundreds of hundreds of dollars (when we had insurance even) at the gastroentenologist we are able to control it by eating clean...meaning eating healthy natural foods and by exercise. WHOA! The problem.....and I don't want to say this too loudly because it will reek of political mumbo jumbo and it will sound like I'm on a soapbox but here goes.......people are getting rich off of our poor health habits!

Wow, I had not one iota of an idea that this entry would turn to that subject. I usually have no idea what I'm going to write, I just write away at whatever comes to mind! I guess I just needed to let loose that cannon!

The brutal and honest truth, (now that I have the figures)

OK, yesterday I alluded to the fact that I had put on a good deal of poundage between my Friday weigh in and my Saturday weigh in. I didn't have the exact figures in front of me and I was too darn lazy to open the book to actually get the figures, so I estimated yesterday in my blog entry. The true figure is that I was somewhere roughly at 181.5 and on Saturday morning my weight had ballooned to 185. On Sunday morning it had only gone down to 184.8. I'm so utterly happy to state that this morning, my weight was back down to 181.4. Still higher than I'd like it to be. And still dangerously close to that fine line of knocking myself out of maintenance, but much better than 185 pounds! Whew! I've eaten really clean thus far today and I have plans to really be careful tonight. And hopefully tomorrow morning I'll be even a bit lower for my official weigh in.

I've decided to go to the morning meeting tomorrow. My friend is going to be going to that one, so hey, why not! Plus, I'll get it out of the way and over with. If my weight cooperates tomorrow, I'll be one week from being a lifetime member. FREE meetings!!! WOO HOOOO! And as I still have a pretty decent amount of weight to lose, I plan on attending meetings weekly still, even though I will only technically have to weigh once a month.

Went to the gym again today. I hopped on the treadmill today (I had done the elliptical yesterday). I had a slight headache (still do) but I worked out anyway. For the first thirty minutes on the treadmill I alternated running/jogging with a speed walk. To make it easy for me when I'm reading this later......I jogged 15 minutes out of 30 minutes. Listening to my body, I KNEW that my jogging was done after that thirty minutes. So, I speed walked for another 30 minutes (oh yeah, and I upped the incline during the last 30 minutes). All in all, I feel good about my cardio today.

Tomorrow is my day off from cardio. I think I'm going to try to get in my strength training tomorrow though instead of putting it off an extra day. Probably at home. Because I can do everything but one...ok, maybe two things at home with the equipment that I have. And I can adjust and use what I do have at home for those two things.

Depending on the weather (and my husband) we are thinking about going west on the canal and riding our bikes up near Cumberland on Wednesday morning. It is nice to be seeing things you don't see as often, so we like to drive to more 'remote' (to us at least) locations and ride our bikes. SOooo that is what we are thinking about. However Todd is starting to hedge on this one. His comment, "well, since you are going to the personal trainer at 6PM on Wednesday, we won't do the ride in the morning." I keep trying to tell him that it doesn't matter, the trainer is setting me up on my arm and upper body exercises and we won't be doing anything cardio. I've told him that regardless if we go or not on a ride in the morning, I'm STILL going to have to do something cardio-wise throughout the day. SOOO I'm hoping that we will go! I would want to ride in the morning as early as possible anyway to beat the heat. So I know that getting back by 6PM would not be an issue. SOOO we'll have to see.

I hung my new/old dress up on my bedroom door. I can see it while I sit at the table when I'm eating if I look down the hallway. That wasn't the plan when I put it there. I just put it there so that it would be visible to me as I go through my daily routine. I want to keep that dress first and foremost in my mind, to keep me focused. BUT, now that I think about it, how wonderful that i can actually see it from my position at the table! That should help keep me from shoving more food into my mouth! Maybe I should print up a picture and post it on the fridge also....hmmm now that's an idea!

Focused and ready to lose!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday all rolled into one

The ride home Friday. BRUTAL! Ok, it wasn't that bad. Once I got on the bike and started moving the muscles loosened up. We went out to eat and then did our weekly grocery shopping after we got home on our bikes. My thigh muscles stiffened up again and I just wanted to groan when I stood up at the restaurant. Wouldn't that have drawn some stares? :-)

Friday afternoon at work we had a bit of a scare. I was talking to my manager and the other two tellers were sitting at their stations. We heard a noise that was defininitely normal in the area by the back door. Diana's (my manager) and my eyes grew wide. SHe and I went back to investigate. It turns out it was the tray to the water cooler. I put it back and and I had to really snap it into place. I looked at her and I was like, "HOW did this happen". SHe walked over to the back door and checked it....it was unlocked! Ok, this is a bank...not cool! We immediately went back into the main bank area (locking the fire door between us and the back door vestibule). We thoroughly checked the bank over, and when Todd showed up to ride home with me (about 1/2 hour later) we sent him through the bank to double check it all. And Saturday morning Todd followed me to work and he checked the building again in the morning for us. Weird.


Saturday morning the alarm went off bright and early (darn to working on Saturday mornings). I was good though. I didn't lay in bed and read or fall back asleep. I got up and got on the exercise bike. I rode. The legs were still sore, but I rode away! I also push mowed mom and dad's properties yesterday afternoon, so I got a nice bit of exercise in! I also had to run around town and hit up a few stores (Dick's sporting goods for some ankle weights, Sam's club, Martins grocery store, Target and Kohls.)

I hit up the yard sale again. They put out new stuff. This time I bought an antique crock and a bottle. I also found a vintage dress that I fell in love with. Here it is.





I took it home and tried it on. I'm sooooo close to fitting into it! I can actually put it totally on, but it doesn't zip up the whole way. SOOOO darn close. I am totally motivated...to fit into this dress!

I love the dresses from the 50's! They are so awesome!

Buying the dress and being so close renewed my motivation. It made me think about something. It made me think about the fact that my original weight loss goals had all been met. At least the main ones. I originally thought that 225 was the poundage goal...I reached that, and I've far exceeded that goal. Yeah, I'd like to go further, but my original goal was met. I had a goal dress.....I wore that in March. I'm wondering if some of the reason that my weight loss has been stalled may be because of the fact that my goals are no longer concrete. My weight loss goal is 'something'. I don't know what it will be, I've never been this low as an adult. I'd like to say 150...but honestly that may be too low (according to the doctor 160 should be as low as I would ever want to go....and only go lower if I was in prime athletic condition). So it's all a very 'loose' goal. This dress is my next goal. I want to wear this dress...BADLY! As I said earlier, it's close...very close!

Yesterday, we had a bad storm, and it knocked our power out for a few hours. We got it back late late late last night. This morning Todd had power in the studio, but alas a tree came down and knocked the power back out over there. Just our luck! So he had to cancel on the clients.

Ok, yesterday, Saturday morning my weight was up about 2.5 pounds! I was hoping that it was down today. However it was only down about 2/10ths of a pound. ARRGGGHHH


Today, Sunday.....Todd and I woke up and hit up the gym. I did 45 minutes on the elliptical, keeping my heart rate at about 160. I then went through my strength training routine. The muscles are sore again. :-) I came home and I did a thorough house cleaning. I mowed our lawn and I did a few loads of laundry, which are hanging on the lines. I just got finished everything, I'm showered and I"m relaxing a bit before I have to get dinner in the oven. (it's a 'long baking time' meal...so I'll be putting it into the oven within an hour...so it has ample time to bake)...and bring the clothes off the line when they are dry. But other than that...I'm just relaxing now! :-) But hey, I"m in a clean house! :-)

PAIN

OH MY WORD! We didn't even run through a full strength training workout yesterday (we did pretty much one set of each) but my muscles are feelin' it today! EIi yii yiii! Well, my thighs are the worst. And I admit that i was uhhh probably a little stupid today. I woke up and I laid in bed thinking about how I need to get back into the routine of cardio 5-6 days a week. I debated long and hard about what I wanted to do. Did I want to get up and jog a bit (which the trainer did recommend, she said to just watch that I don't do things that trigger the arthritis, since I seem to know what motions and movements do it), ride outside on my bike or ride the recumbant indoor exercise bike. Well, I chose the lazy mans exercise...the indoor bike (hey, I was able to play online while I did it too!). Well, a recumbant relies heavily on the thigh muscles.....yeah, the ones that were already sore from yesterday. But I did it. 8.3 miles. I was putzing through the house and Todd then made a comment. "Since the weather is supposed to be so wonderful today, how about you ride your bike to work and I'll meet you there on my bike when you get off and we'll bike home. Maybe we'll even go the long way home, on the canal." Well, I'm not going to pass up that opportunity. Plus, I was halfway toying with ridign my bike to work while I was laying in bed anyway. SOOOO I Packed my bag with my work clothes and rode my bike to town. (2.5 miles) Now my legs are literally begging for mercy! OUCH! And I've got to ride home yet. (ok, not for another 6 hours)

The scales were up this morning. Dang pesky thing. Tis my fault.....popcorn...with salt last night. I'll beat this weight though! I WILL win this game.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the parking lot here at work is a lady having a yard sale. She has her stuff priced to MOVE. I went over (yep, on the clock) and bought a few jackets. They still had the tags on them! Paid 2 bucks a jacket. Can't beat that. They just fit me, maybe a little tight. Motivation to lose the rest of the weight.....I'll try anything I can!

50 lashes with a wet noodle for me!

I'm due for a big verbal tongue lashing. Uhhh well, I didn't get any cardio in last night! I actually set up the dance dance revolution dance pads for Todd and i to play. And stupid me...waited for him. Ok, it's not totally his fault. He can't help it that he has some major issues with his digestion system. And I'm positive that he would have been much happier to have not spent the evening sick. BUT, I don't exercise based on his promise to exercise with me later. And then it gets thrown out the window and I don't get any exercise in. Stupid me, how many times does this have to happen? So I didn't exercise yesterday.



I did wake up and even though I was honestly dreading it, I went to the gym to have my hour with the personal trainer. She wants me to continue (ok, restart) my cardio routine. We talked about varying the intensity level, time and routine of my cardio workouts. (all of which I already d0). She recommended the spin classes. She said that they are a KILLER way to actually burn calories! And then she started setting up a strength training routine for me to work on. I go back next Wednesday to finish up with the arms and all that it entails. We did legs and core stuff today. She actually tailored the workouts and exercises for me. She watched me attempt or to do the exercises like a hawk and then we adjusted them to be harder or easier based on my individual level. MUCH better session than the one at the previous gym. I'll readily admit that I've let my strength training really fall by the wayside in the last 6 months to a year. It's really amazing how quickly you 'fall back' and lose what you did have. I'm here at work and I can feel it in my muscles from what i did today...and you know what's sad??? I only did one set of each thing today. (well, some more as we fiddled with the best level for me).



She is focusing on all the different muscles (of course) but she is leaning toward building my core strength at the same time...therefore she doesn't have me using any of the machines that target the one area.



Funny thing though....she asked me a few times, "You didn't have surgery?" Uhhh no, I lost 130 pounds naturally. The good old fashioned way. That made her setting things up I guess a little trickier...well heck, maybe easier. Because for the last umpteen years (forever it seems) I've focused on reading about health, diet and exercise. SO I know what I need to do. She was also blown away because she made suggestions and I was like, "OK" I finally looked at her and was like, "losing 130 pounds is sheer determination.....what your asking me to do is not impossible or even out of line. If that's what I need to do to get to the next level, so be it. I'll do it." Therefore we made my strength workout as challenging as possible. (some of my instructions are 3 sets or failure...which ever comes first....lol) At one point I was having difficulty with one thing she was setting me up to do. I looked at her and I had said, "I can't" Before she could even open her mouth I looked at her and said, "That's wrong...it's mind over matter" And it was true...my body hadn't given 'any' signal that it couldn't go on...it was my mind messing with me.



Enough about that. I go back next Wednesday evening (6pm) to finish setting up my strength training routine.



Eating wise, today I've been right on target. I've got my points laid out for the evening and I'll be in very good shape points wise as long as I stay to whats in the book. And I'll even be able to have a little dessert or something special this evening should I want...I'll have the points available. For a while back, maybe a year or so ago, before I ate anything I would convert that into how 'long' I would have to exercise or do something in order for me to 'negate' the food that i was eating. It really worked and kept me from eating lots of bad stuff. I need to start doing that again!



Not much else happening here. I did a few loads of laundry early this morning, hung them out and between the gym and work, I've been able to take them off the line. They are folded and sitting in baskets on the bed, ready to be put away. So tomorrow it's just sheets and towels. (and I can postpone those if I so chose....they can sit in the basket for a day or so if I don't want to wash them tomorrow).

Excuses

Didn't go to Pizza Hut today. So the craving is still there...but we went to something that I probably ate more wisely at. Well, I ate more veggies and stuff where we went. Tis all good. The bad thing about the day. The day just seemed to go catawumpus. I didn't get to the gym as planned. We are 'planning' on doing Dance Dance Revolution tonight. ANd if I don't I've GOT to ride the exercise bike. I've GOT to! No if's and's or buts!

Tomorrow I'll be going to the gym....I have an appointment with a personal trainer at our new gym. SO it's a preset appointment....so I'll definitely get to the gym tomorrow. Remains to be seen if she'll work me out or spend most of it setting up a plan for me. We'll see. Either way it will be good. Quite honestly I'd like her to set up a plan and get me started.....I need a kick in the tail end!

OTher than the miserable pouring rain we've had off an on all day......well, that's just about it! Ohhh I did break down and buy a rain jacket with a hood today! I 'fit' into the size medium, which I was pretty darn tickled about...but I decided to go with the size large....it was a bit more roomy for me. BUT I FIT IN A SIZE MEDIUM!

Meeting comparison

Well, I went to a second weight watcher meeting this week. I wanted to see some friends from my normal meeting and I wanted to have a clear comparison between leaders. ANd how better than to see two different leaders present the same material. I definitely like yesterdays leader much better. I did enjoy talking to my receptionist at tonights meeting (I actually stayed after about 30 minutes to talk to her...she is struggling with her weight right now also..she and I are actually in the 'same place'). However, would you believe that not a one of my friends was at the meeting.



Well, I just had my own banana split. Well, not exactly a banana split. I was thinking a while back about banana splits and how good they taste. I started thinking about what I really like about a banana split. Is it the pineapple topping? The Strawberry topping? The chocolate ice cream? THe cherries? What really makes a banana split so yummy for me. I thought about it and it turns out that I love banana splits becuase I LOVE the chocolate that drizzles onto the banana. SOO when I get a craving now, I cut up a banana and drizzle chocolate syrup on top. Totally takes away the craving. Well, not takes away...satisfies the craving...because I'm really craving that chocolate syrup over banana taste. :-) So I just had chocolate and banana. YUM



My weight was actually down a bit this morning. I was tickled about that. We'll see how tomorrow goes! Tomorrow we are going to splurge and have pizza. I will have the thin crust, even though I would prefer to have pan pizza...but I'll save the points and eat thin crust! I can't wait! I can taste the pizza in my dreams! Oh pizza pie, it's been way too long!



Exercise? What's that? I seem to have fallen off the face of the exercise earth today! And yesterday!

I went to a totally different weight watcher meeting this morning. As in totally different weight watcher center...totally different leader. Totally different attendees. Everything. Actually it was even in a totally different state....which changed up a little bit of the celebrations and stuff like that. Kinda interesting. :-) BUT, that said, let me say that I LOVED this meeting. It was supposed to be an express meeting...so I assumed that it would be a shorter meeting. NO...the meetings that I've normally attended are 30 minutes....this meeting went for 50 minutes this morning. The group of people were great and I liked the leaders energy. SOOO this may be something I consider switching to. We'll have to see. You see, I Loved the leader that I started with...she was absolutely great. Unfortunately she stopped doing my evening meetings. I have been to a few of her morning meetings, however the groups are HUGE and talk to each other during the meeting.....and it was hard to hear her. The next leader I had totally did not understand what it is like to have a problem with food. Her advice was always way off target and I left her meetings feeling more depressed. (I continued because of the people that went to the meetings..they are where I learned things and received my support and advice). The next leader...well, her meetings and leading style is just all over the place. She can't seem to stay with one thought.....there is no rhyme or reason what she is talking about. I walk out of the meetings and have no idea what the meeting was about. SO I'm looking to switch.

After the meeting I went home and put the pirogi casserole in the oven. Why oh why? Ohhh it was tasty. It was super tasty. HOWEVER it was too much carbs and way too much butter....and now my belly is paying the consequences for it. ARRRGGGHHHHH I have to workout tonight. Honestly, if I could work out right now, I'd probably feel tons better! But alas, I have 4 more hours of work!

Weigh in...well. this morning I weighed in at 180.6 on my home scales (which is the weight that I report on here on a daily basis.) My official weight watcher weight was 181.4. Dang, I didn't realize that blowing my nose and spitting before the weigh in would be so crucial! I squeaked by on that maintenance thing. I've got 2 weeks left until I'm free, AKA a lifetime member. I've got to get away from that 180 mark though (I can be 2 pounds over it).

I don't know what I'm going to do for exercise tonight. Part of me says to go to the gym. however, I already drove to Kearneysville this morning...and to drive to town...that's a bit of a waste of gas. So I'm thinking about the exercise bike (heck no to the outside bike...it's hotter than Hades out there) or maybe a step aerobics video. I know I've got to do something!

I'm kind of worried about the next two eating days also. Todd asked for pancakes for breakfast. (high in carbs) tomorrow. And then he wants to get pizza on Wednesday. I can manage......I've got my plan set on how to negotiate (yes, and still indulge a bit). BUT I'm still worried!

Dang.....I just feel yucky! It's a combination of the ick and that heavy lunchtime meal! Ohhh and I've barely drank even 10 ounces of water thus far today. For me, usually by this time I'm close to having finished at least 50 ounces. Wow....Bottoms up!

Hopefully the final chapter in the mower saga.

180.0 this morning. I'll take it. That's 6/10ths of a pound down from yesterday. I started thinking and realized that I've quickly relaxed on the habit of taking my multi-vitamin. IN fact, it's been a few weeks. I personally feel that my body loses better when I'm taking them (1 multi-vitamin and I also take a calcium pill). Go figure. Maybe it's all in my head. Who knows. But anyway, I'm going to do my best to remember to take them every day. We'll see what happens. I started today!

Todd and I went up to the gym this morning. I did an intense workout on the elliptical for an hour. My heart rate was between 140 and 160 at all times (depending on where I was in the program). I then did a circuit on the weights. Now I'm tired! Ok, I'm not tired from working out....I was tired when I woke up. Tired and just blah feeling. What is this with me. It's not a normal thing for me to feel blah so much!

After working out a the gym Todd and I seriously considered going out to eat. We thought about eating at Mr. D's....it's a locally owned deli style place. Or since one of our quick stops was by our favorite Chinese place, we talked about going to A-Wok. BUT, we chose to be calorically and financially frugal and eat at home. We did stop and pick up a movie from the video rental store. Yeah yeah yeah....kinda crazy, we get netflix, but every once in a while we just like to go into the rental store and get something. And we picked up gas for our mower. Here in a few minutes (Todd is installing anew hard drive in his computer...and I'm waiting for him) I'll go out and fire up that puppy, drop the cutting deck and we'll see if she actually does work. Won't that be a novel concept. Mow my own yard instead of having someone else do it.....even though I bought a mower 3 months ago! The way my luck has gone, it will probably blow up on me! Why I'm waiting for Todd. He has some limbs that he needs to cut down with the chainsaw. We try not to use equipment like a chainsaw unless there is someone else outside. Safety reasons. So I'll keep an eye on him while I mow.

Ok, so people laugh and say I"m accident prone. I've always laughed and said..."NAW". But I'm starting to wonder if it is true. Well, I think I mentioned my accident the other week...where I whacked my knee against the panic button under my desk at work (I work at a bank). My knee hurt for quite some time. (Irritated the good old arthritis). Well, yesterday I was working the drive through and put the money and receipt into the bucket and I depressed the button to push the bucket through to the driver in the car. Well...I wasn't paying attention (don't ask me how.....I have no clue) and my hand was still int he bucket! Yeah, that sucker closed on my wrist! Dang if it didn't hurt! Tore some skin off my wrist...and my wrist was all red.....still hurts a bit. Nothing major......just hurts if I apply pressure to one spot. It will pass I'm sure. Yes, the manager knows...and NO I am not going to the doctor. I immediately told my co-workers...because it is so utterly funny.

That brings me to my next subject....work. I'm starting to feel as if my time working low paying mindless jobs is over.....well at least ones that pay squat. I've enjoyed my last two years of mindless jobs...but I'm thinking it's time to start looking for something else. I've actually even half way toyed with the idea of going back to teaching. But I do throw that idea out! Ok, it's not even the money that I need....it's the insurance.

Ahhhh the mower calls.......Hopefully this will be the final chapter in that saga!

Saturday morning boredom

Maintained my weight down to the ounce this morning. Shucks! I was hoping that it would drop off some! What do I need to do to make the weight drop??? Ok ok ok...continue doing what I'm doing. Eating wisely and exercise. Well, maybe kick the exercise back up to where I usually am. I've been a bit of a sluggard lately...exercising only every other day.



Got up early and hung some clothes out on the line. Todd turned on the mower. It's not blowing black smoke and it seemed to have power as he ran through the yard with it. He didn't drop the blades as the grass was super wet...so we won't know for sure until we do that...but the mower seems to be ok as of right this moment.



We are hoping to get to the gym this afternoon. I'm actually looking forward to it. Crazy as that sounds! :-)



Other than that...It's 9:45 here at work...and I'm bored! Sometimes I wish that we'd get really busy because it makes the time go so much faster. But then if I'm busy I don't have time to write in my journal, read blogs, answer personal emails, read books, and surf the Internet! Ahhhh I guess I'm never happy!

Somethings missing!

Well, my weight was up to 181.6 today. That is actually oly 2/10ths of a pound up. So I'm not bummed out or anything. I mean I don't like to see it go up at all, but I can't be upset about a flucuation of 2/10ths. I will say that I was hoping for a drop. I worked out hard yesterday and ate quite wisely also. Oh well....maybe it will show up tomorrow on the scales!

I've been so hungry for beef stew lately...so I have some in the crockpot for when I get home from work. I'm only working a 4 hour shift...so I just got to work. The stew was smelling heavenly! I'm also trying a low points biscuit to go with dinner. We'll see how that turns out. All the dry ingredients are mixed up, just have to add the wet stuff, mix, roll and bake when I get home.

Didn't exercise today. I spent the morning either on the phone or researching information online. Just a crazy day. Sadly enough, I don't feel as if I got anything accomlished. Well, I did make todd a shrimp salad sandwich, and I made my lunch also. And i washed the dishes....and put dinner in the crockpot. I did get stuff done...it just isn't anything tangible.

Well, the mower. The warranty service called and told me that I'd have it back by Tuesday evening or Wednesday afternoon at the latest. Low and behold it didn't show. SOOO this morning at around 10 I walked around the house (to make sure that there was no mower) and called the warranty people. Within three hours I looked out the window and there sat my mower in the driveway. Thanks guys for knocking on the door to let me know it was there. I actually WAS at home all morning. Well, I was busy (doing those non-tangible things) but the warranty people called back and said to check the mower out immediately and make sure it works. And call them back either way. So outside I trooped. Uhhhhh there sat the mower...but something was mysteriously missing from the ignition switch. Oh yeah, they returned the mower with no keys! I called them back and told them and also called the warranty people. At this point all I can do is laugh. I mean....come on???? NO keys?

Will the new gym help?

The disgust was still there yesterday so I decided to do something a little un-orthodox. OK, I didn't really set out to do it...but half way through the day i said to myself I've sacrificed and it has backfired.....and now I'm a bit down and depressed about it. So screw it....FOR ONE DAY. So, I ate as one that wasn't worried about my weight. I didn't overdo it. But I ate WAY WAY WAY over my points. Yeah, my dinner alone was a meal that I love....but never make because well, the entree alone uses up my whole daily allowance of points. I didn't eat my fruits and veggies. Milk....what's that? I also had cheesecake (OK, that was low fat....as low fat as cheesecake can be made...but I do try). Water consumption...didn't worry about it (oh yeah, looking back I was probably close by the end of the day). We stopped to get a gallon of ice tea from Chick-fil-A for Todd and I got a diet coke. OK, that's a splurge for me. It is my cardinal rule to not drink anything other than water until after my 64 ounces are down the hatch. Yesterday...who cares! I also popped open a bottle of that Tropicana Light Lemonade (got a 2 liter bottle for free...what can I say). Yep, drank that all night. NO, not the whole 2 liters...but at least 2-3 glasses.

Yesterday we did make it to that other gym. We took the tour and we left. Todd and I had already decided to not make any rash decisions. So as we ran our errands yesterday (Sam's club, the mall, oil change for my car, mowing for mom and dad, etc etc etc) we talked about the pros and cons. There are a few cons to this new gym. It's a smaller sized gym. In terms of space...it's more cramped and crowded. This new gym seemed to have pretty much the same machines....but with the weight machines they had ONE of each...while the old gym had 2 or three of each. The new gym is closed on Saturdays at I think 5 and Sundays at 2. The old gym was 8Pm on each day (the new gym is open an hour earlier if that counts for anything). The new gym doesn't have a cardio cinema (which we like but rarely used anyway) or the sauna's in the locker rooms (at least they didn't' tell us that there were...and I'm sure they would have told us). Todd will miss the sauna (doesn't' bother me). The pros....instead of driving 25 minutes one way to the gym the new one is only 10 minutes away (or less). The old gym was in a section of town that we hardly ever had to go to on our errands. The new gym is RIGHT on the way to town. We pretty much pass it (or go within 1/4 of a mile of it every time we go to town). The new gym is $21 dollars cheaper a month. And I'm impressed that they supply the bath towels....no more wet towels in the gym bag to start getting moldy and icky in a hot car! The new gym also seems to have a much more extensive exercise class and spin class schedule. So we talked about it all day. And we went back and signed up. We haven't worked out there yet...but quite possibly today. We are hoping that having the gym more local to us will help us get ther more regularly. BUT also that having something new and interesting will motivate us to go more often!

SOOOOO waking up this morning, how am I feeling and doing?

*Weight Wise-Well, I stepped onto the scale. I was roughly 183 (I actually think I was a bit higher..but I'm at work so I don't' have my stats with me). This morning after eating like a pig yesterday I am 181.4. WHOA! What's up with that. I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth! NOT AT ALL! I'll take any loss I can get!
*Exercise Motivation wise-I'm anxious to get to our new gym and work out. But because of the comfort level (I was comfortable at the old gym....not so at the new one...which will change after I've worked out there...nothing to do other than dive right on in)I'm nervous about starting at a new gym. I'm actually not looking forward to working out period. Just don't feel like it. And I haven't felt like it all week. But I know that I need to! SOOOO I'm probably going to be heading there later this afternoon!
*Eating Motivation wise-After my splurge day yesterday I'm ready to get back to a more 'normal' eating routine. I'm ready to watch what I'm eating again. I know that come this evening when I'm fighting the craving for something sweet or something else to eat that I'll be saying something different. But I'm ready to do this!
*Emotionally- I'm still down about this. How long am I going to have to struggle with this stupid 180 pound wall? I've been within 5 pounds of this 180 pounds (for the most part...I think there was a short period that I jumped up a bit over 5 pounds higher) since NOVEMBER of 2007. I've been stuck here for that long! During this whole journey....through over a hundred pounds, I've NEVER been stuck this long. I know that the 200 barrier was hard to break...but that was only a month or two! NOTHING like this. I'm onto 9 months! So I'm still frustrated and down. I'll make it through though. I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to let it beat me. I'm just going to focus and keep plugging along!

I guess one of the things that got me thinking yesterday was the fact that we were able to jettison $21 off of our budget...money saved by switching gyms. When I can hit lifetime (3 more weeks of meetings where I can be under that stupid number) then I can get rid of my monthly pass for Weight Watchers. That's $40. So we are talking about a total of $61 saved. That's a chunk of money each month. We are talking about $732 a year! That's a savings that I can get excited about!

Looking at my 'splurge' day. Years ago, yesterdays eating would have been murder for me. I would have thought that I was depriving myself. We ate that meal (chicken enchilada's with a creamy white sauce) at least 2-3 times a month (not to mention other highly fattening meals that I no longer prepare....well other than the way way way rare occasion). It's no wonder I had a total weight problem! And I can look and see how even on my splurge day, my new healthy habits and lifestyle changes were still in evidence. :-) (yeah, I only had two enchiladas....in the past I would possibly have eaten 3 or 4!)

After all that mess with the mower, all of a sudden the warranty place decided that 'oh yes, we can have the mower fixed. They are overnighting the part to the repair company and you will have your mower back 'today (which was actually yesterday) or tomorrow (today) at the latest. We didn't' get it back yesterday...so I guess we are looking at today. Darn....could we not have made it 4 more days....to make it an even two months! Sorry.....the sarcasm was uncalled for! I have mixed feelings. Part of me just wanted to be done with Lowes. I mean, what if the mower isn't fixed right and still doesn't work......I'll be back to square one! What if it breaks down again???? I did fax the paperwork this morning to get my measly $50 fix it fast money from them. Yeah, if it's over 3 weeks for the repair, they will give you $50 to pay for the cost of having someone else do the work for you. Uhhhhhh it's been 2 months....how far do you think $50 got me? Oh well...I'm not going to rant any further. I should have a mower by the end of the day! I'm honestly happy that this saga is ending.

So there you have it! The update to my life and my weight loss journey.

.A dream is make believe until blood, sweat, and tears turn pain to will.

Still feeling blue. But both my husband and I have had a song stuck in our heads since we attended a concert last Wednesday night. It is a song by Chicago, named Stone of Sisyphus. I didn't know all the words but decided to look it up online here a few minutes ago. Well.......I also decided to read a bit about Sisyphus at the same time. To paraphrase, in Greek Mythology Sisyphus was a king that was cursed to have to move a huge stone....and every time he got it 'just about there' the stone rolled back down the hill and he had to start again...and he did this for all of eternity For a more full explanation (and because I probably totally butchered the story) you can check out more here. That struck a chord, because isn't that what I'm doing....I"m rolling that stone up the hill and right when I get it close I lose control (sometimes my fault and others through no fault of my own) and that stone rolls backwards again. And I have to start again.

So anyway, I read about this and pulled up the actual lyrics to the song by Chicago. The song really hit a nerve with me. Especially the line A dream is make believe until Blood, sweat and tears turn pain to will. Hello weight loss..that describes it to a tee! I started out with a dream and it truly had been blood, sweat and tears!

Anyway, here are the lyrics, and check out the song, I put it on my sidebar for those of you who may care to listen!

Tomorrow is teasing me.Time seems to run away from the future.But this could be that lucky day.A dream is make believe until Blood, sweat, and tears turn pain to will.It's gonna take some doing for me To show them the way.I'm gonna take the stone of sisyphus I'm gonna roll it back to you.Building a wall of stone.Sometimes you know what's right Sometimes wrong is better than nothing.They cast a stone so heavy to turn.I believe in a love so true.I believe you get what's coming to you.We get so tired of living a dream For some other day.I'm gonna take the stone of sisyphus I'm gonna roll it back to you.Wall of stone around the two of us.That only angels can break through.Looks like it's another of those long nights.Will we always be alone?Let's not stop before it's done.I'm gonna take the stone of sisyphus I'm gonna roll it back to you.I'll take the stone of sisyphus.Wall of stone round the two of us.I'm gonna roll it back to you.

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