~~SNOW~~

The results of my Tuesday night weigh in...... 182.8 pounds. That put me at a 2.6 loss for last week. I'm so utterly proud of that loss! What an amazing loss to have when we were at parties...and I did all that baking! Actually Wednesday morning I weighed in at 181.4 pounds! I couldn't believe it. I forgot to weigh in this morning...so I'm not sure what's up today.

Yesterday morning I woke up and laid in bed for a while. I knew that I had to take my rings in to have their yearly check up. So I mentally put that on my to do list. All of a sudden, I decided that I'd waited long enough to have my rings sized! It's been a year since I wore my engagment ring and the wrap that Todd got me to go with it. A year...actually more than a year! I want to wear my rings! SOOOO...I went ahead and took them in. Had them checked and I left them there to be sized and to be soldered together into one ring! I'm so excited. They said that the work should be done by Thursday evening! SOOO I'm hoping to be able to go in tomorrow morning to pick them up! :-) Now I'm hoping that this last 30 pounds that I need to lose won't make that much of a difference in my ring size! Otherwise i'll have paid for the sizing in vain!

We got snow yesterday! Woo hooo! It made driving a bit sketchy...but it sure was pretty! I shovelled a bit yesterday and I went out today and finished up the shovelling and cleaned off the cars! I was pretty busy this morning/active wise. That's good. Tonight Todd works, so it will be a 'quiet' night for me. I'll probably work on my scrapbook some more! I'm having a lot of fun working on my scrapping. It is so much more fun when I don't have to worry about getting everything put away and the area cleaned up! Yeah, when I'm done I don't leave stuff just scattered here and there...but I don't have to pack up the whole shebang! I'm actually almost caught up with my last years worth of stuff! Does this mean that I can go back to all the stored stuff from years gone by (college even...eii yii yii) and get that stuff scrapped?????

This morning my weight was sitting at 183.4. Not my lowest. But, that should be a maintain or somewhere in the vacinity of a maintain. Yes, I have my goal to be 175 by New Years. But, realistically speaking, if I can make it through this rough birthday/holiday month with a maintain, I'll be satisfied. HOWEVER, I got to work at around 10Am. Shortly thereafter, I started to notice that every half hour or so I'd have to run to the bathroom. What's up with this. I usually only have problems 'holding' my water when I'm dehydrated. The day following a 'low drink' day I usually have to run to the bathroom constantly. I didn't have a low water consumption day yesterday...so why is my water running straight through me. Could I still have been somewhat dehyrdated for whatever reason???? I'm crossing my fingers...because with me drinking today.....and the constant trips to the bathroom to get rid of it...could mean a lower weight on the scales tonight! Dare I dream????

Nuggets of information from my recent read!

I feel as if I chose my foods wisely yesterday. We went to a church party last night.....and yes, I did eat a bit there. We ate late though...at roughly 9PM. So, this morning, when I was going about my normal routine, I was getting ready to step onto the scales and decided not to. My reasoning. Number one, I ate late last night. Number two, lets just say that elmination hadn't occured yet! Nuff said!

I just finished a book called Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink, PH.D. I found the book to be fascinating. It talked in depth about how certain things in our surroundings cause us to be unaware of our food choices, portions, and perceptions. Quite interesting for me, as I'm someone that is working to conquer my food addiction! So, here are some more little nuggets from the book.

If a person believs that a food is healthy, the food has what can be reffered to as a "health halo" where we imbibe in that food becuase it is "healthy". The problem is..this healthy halo frequently causes us to eat something, or more than we would normally eat. In essence, if we eat more of something because of the health halo, then the food is no longer good. I've seen people chose a healthy option of food, lets say the 25% less fat oreos. But they eat 4 instead of one...because it's 25% less which to them equates to being able to eat 3 extra!

The second nugget of information is the ice water versus room temperature water. I'll just do a direct quote on this one versus paraphrasing. "Interestingly, if you load that drink (32 ounces) with ice, you'll actually burn off a few of those calories. Since your body has to use energy to heat up an iced beverage, you actually burn about one calorie for every ice cold ounce you drink. So that 32 ounce drink will take you about 32 ounces to warm up in your body.

The third thing is the types of eaters out there. The first is the meal stuffer. This person doesn't eat badly any other time...but during meals they eat to excess. The second is the Snack Grazer...this person eats anytime food is available. The third is The party Binger. This person eats mostly and heavily at high distraction events. The fourth is the restaurant indulger. This person eats dinner out a LOT! The fifth is the desktop diner or dashboard diner...they are always eating on the run...multi tasking.

I can see myself mainly as a meal stuffer and also a bit of a restaurant indulger! Looks to me like the tips that he gave for these two tips of eaters are things I'm already doing....EXCEPT for the half plate thing...half the plate is filled with veggies and the other half is proten and starch. The other thing that I don't religiously do is to use a smaller plate!!! I'm goign to try to use the smaller plate at Christmas!!!

LOW DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!

I was nervous. Yesterday afternoon, I kinda lost control for a few short moments. I had three....or was it four (hmmmm, I can't remember, it's all a blur) cookies! YIKES! I so wanted to throw in the towel and eat at will last night. HOWEVER, I didn't. I prayed for wisdom and strength to eat conciously. I chose carefully! This morning I stepped on the scales. 182.4! That is my lowest weight thus far!!!! WOO HOOO! It really brings home how easily it is to throw in the towel when all is not truely lost!!!!!!!

I'm once again praying for wisdom and strength in my eating today! Another function tonight...with desserts and yummy things! I've already exercised...and Todd and I are running around all day today...so at least I won't be immobile!

Happy December

The cookie making last night went fairly well. I took a small amount of raw cookie dough....probably less than or equal to one cookie and I ate one completed/baked cookie. The rest of the time I chewed gum. Todd did ask for popcorn when I was done baking...so I did make that and I had a small bowl. (the problem with that...he likes parasean cheese on his). So this morning I stepped on the scale...up one pound. WHAT??? I actually HAD the points for the cookies......I had the points for the popcorn...WHAT'S up with that????? Well, I did wake up thirsty, and as I realized/wrote about last week....by the time you are thirsty you are already dehydrated. Last week I was up a pound the morning I woke up thirsty. ALSO, I had not...well.....eliminated my waste before my weigh in. That I know can also affect it by at least a pound (from my experience). SOOO in light of those two things....I think being a pound up isn't all that bad!!!!

I plan on eating tonight at the party. I think it was last years Christmas party (the same people) that I ate before I went to the party and then didn't eat there. I'm planning on eating lightly for lunch...so that I can have a taste of the good stuff tonight. After I've had a HEALTHY portion. (not healthy as in a large portion...but healthy as in healthy portions and options) I am going to pop the gum into my mouth and chew chew chew my way into good health!

The last day of November

I'm getting ready to usher in the month of December. I'm sitting here looking at my computer screen and I can see the sticky note that I put on the edge of the monitor at the beginning of the month. I was 187 pounds and I had a goal of 175 pounds to reach by January first. As of this morning I was at 183.6. That means I have a little more than 7 pounds to lose by the end of the year....one month. 31 days (ok, 32 if I include today.) That's a lot of pounds. We are talking of a consistant 2 pounds a week. I could do it! Will it be difficult...VERY!

I had to run to the store to buy cat liter yesterday morning. I bought three packs of gum! I plan on chewing gum while I bake tonight. I'm baking for two dessert trays that I am taking to two different christmas functions/parties. I hope that will keep me from eating the dough uncontrollably! I know that I'll probably end up eating a bite of each dough. I'm honest enough with myself to know that it will happen. SOOOO I've planned low points meals for today to compensate for any cookie dough I may end up eating. Hopefully the gum will work 100 percent though! :-)

As for the parties. Tomorrow night will be a full meal....so that one will be rough as they almost NEVER have healthy things at their parties/meals. Not to mention that the food is there to nibble on ALL night! Sunday night is just refreshments. I think I may be able to manage that one better!

On to better subjects. My weight was back to 183.6 this morning! I'm almost back to my lowest ever weight...which was 182.8.

Weigh in results and further damage?

I went to my weigh in, stepped on the scales and low and behold I gained a pound. Quite disappointing. Everyone but ONE other person at my meeting posted losses. SO that was discouraging...especially when they mentioned that they imbibed in the desserts a few times. I ate really good and what did it get me???? Oh well. I will continue to plod along!

Yesterday morning I woke up and was in the throes of my morning exercise when I thought about a treat for Todd. He's been sick for a few days and was feeling better. I had been planning on dragging him around while I finished Christmas shopping. So what better way to treat him than at Panera bread for a breakfast bagel. I don't normally imbibe in their bagels as they are HIGH HIGH HIGH points. (much more than I normally use for breakfast). He jumped at that offer. I cautioned him that I would take a snack for us in case our shopping carried us past the lunch hour. That way we could hold off until we got home to eat our lunch. Well, I'm PROUD to say that I finished my Christmas shopping! WOO HOOO! Lunchtime rolled around and we were hungry. We still had a $10 comp coupon for Longhorn Steakhouse to use. Yep, we decided to go there and get salads and soup. (I actually got a sweet potato instead of soup). So there goes round two of eating out....not to mention about 20 of my daily points for the day (out of 24....dinner wasn't looking good.) Oh wait did I remember to mention that I was doing a mystery shop at a restaurant that evening at 7PM? NO.....well, the mystery shop had specific regulations about what we had to order. We had to order at least one non-alcoholic drink. No problem, Todd always gets iced tea and I always get water. We had to order two entrees. Once again...not to much of a problem....I rarely get an entree and instead chose a lighter dish...but the entree would still be manageable. BUT, we also had to order an appetizer to share. Yep....an appetizer. We ordered buffalo wings. Just 10...to split. So it wasn't THAT bad. For my entree I got a 10 spice chicken, with parsley butter on top, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. It was all very yummy. But, with only 4 points left for the day...WAY over my allowance!

Oh yes, yesterday...while I did drink with every meal, (a bottle of water with breakfast, two glasses at lunch and three at dinner) I was still lacking in my water consumption.

I actually debated on the whole get on the scales thing this morning. But I did it. I was surprised to see that I was only up 1 pound!!! Not bad....especially since knowing that the water issue alone can cause me to retain a pound or so!!!!

We had to run to the store to pick up cat liter (bad me, I forget it when I went shopping the other day). I picked up three packs of gum! I plan on chewing it heavily here soon when I'm baking. Yes, we are attending a few parties this weekend. AND for two of them I'm taking desserts! So I'll be baking and all that! The gum will be in my mouth the whole time!!! That and I'll be praying to be able to refrain from trying each bite!!!

Did I mention that my Christmas shopping is DONE! Well...we got home yesterday afternoon and I pulled out the wrapping supplies. EVERYTHING is not only bought...but wrapped! I'm going to take it up to mom's house to store. She has the room and that's where it will be needed on Christmas morning!!! WOOOO HOOOO!

I picked up a few new books at the bookstore yesterday. The one is called Mindless Eating. I'm fascinated thus far. It is going into depth, using research data that shows how things in our society influences how much and what we eat. I also got one that talks about the mindset and the shift in mindset from being an overweight person to someone that is no longer over-weight. I know that I have a problem with this. I still find myself in the 'overweight' mindset. It freaks Todd out...because he's like "that's how anorexics and bulimics are created". I honestly don't think that will happen to me....but it is scary.

One thing...I get so disgusts about how long this weight is taking to come off.....well this morning I was reading and this is what I came across. The actual body of the book had this statement " It's estimated that over 95% of all people who lose weight on a diet gain it back." It had an end note, so I flipped back to see what else was there...and this is what was written as the end note. "The speed at which you gain weight after going off a diet is almost always directly related to the speed you lost the weight to begin with. If you miraculously lose 10 pounds in two days, with the new Celebrity Fad Diet, you're more likely to miraculously gain it back almost as fast". Yes, I know that I'm not on a diet...and this is more of a lifestyle change. But it's still the same premise for me if I would substitute the words 'after going off a diet' with "when I'm done losing"

The other thing that really hit me is that the author talked about volume versus calories. We as humans work on volume of food and not calories. The caloric count does not affect our hunger and relative satisfaction....the volume of food does! They actually talked about a making two smoothies. Beating/aerating the one so it looked bigger and leaving the other one looking smaller...even though it was the exact same portion size. EVERY TIME, the people that got the aerated one (the big looking one) said they were fuller and ate less at the following meal because of their 'big' smoothie! Crazy.....

It just reinforces my belief that this weight loss is a total mind game!!!!!

In the homestretch

I'm in the home stretch as I wait for my weigh in tonight. I'm hoping for a maintain. It will be close. If it happens to be one of those 'friendly' weeks where my weight matches the weight watchers scales, then I'll post a loss. If it's pretty close to last week in comparison, then I'll be ok and have a maintain or close to it. However, if it's one of those terrible weeks where the scales at the meeting weigh me higher than my home scales...then oops, I'm in trouble! It seems as if my home scales are pretty solid...but the meeting scales flucuate. Makes no sense!

Tomorrow night I accepted a mystery shopper position. So that means that Todd and I will be eating out. Yeah, we'll have to pay up front...but we will be reimbursed plus a bonus for doing it. It's always a bit fun to do a mystery shop. :-) I'll try to order and eat wisely!

Right now...I'm hungry! However, I don't eat until after my weigh in. I get off at 6:15...and I'll run to my meeting.....the meeting is at 7PM. I'll get home between 8 and 8:30. I do have a little snack to eat after I weigh in. I'm not starving hungry thank goodness. I've actually not been starving hungry much! That is totally awesome! I was talking to a co-worker and we were talking about how when we eat healthy it seems as if we are eating so much more food! It's crazy! When I'd pack my lunch in the past, the lunchbox would be partially full. NOW my lunch box seems to be bulging with food. What's up with that???????

We were also talking today...and it reminded me of my discovery about this food addiction that i have. It reminded me of the experience I had recently where I tasted something that was heavenly tasting. So I went back and ate more....trying to recapture that rapture...that orgasmic first bite feel. The second helping didn't help...but I still wanted that feeling...so I went back again. It took me three times (and it was CAKE) until I realized that i was looking for that "first' high you get after eating something. And that can't be recaptured in the same setting! ADDICTION!

This morning I was in the bathroom...and as I was taking care of my morning business I KNEW that my weight would be a bit up today. I knew it mainly because last night, I had finished my 64 ounce mug (pitcher...bowl...etc etc etc) of water earlier and I even though I was thirsty, I was too lazy to get up and go to the kitchen to get a refill. I went to bed...an still didn't get a drink. Yeah...STUPID. Because as they say, if you get to the point that you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated! So....yeppers...I was up about a pound! Makes me mad...but interesting that I've discovered and learned how my body works!

I'm making sure that I'm drinking regularly today! I'm not risking that for my weigh in tomorrow. BECAUSE according to my home scales yesterday...my weight should be right at where it was last week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one!

I'm so disgusted. Last Wednesday Todd and I were walking through the mall and I saw a sweater/long sleeve shirt that was a decent price...and I liked it. I bought it and brought it home. I didn't wear it throughout the week...for one reason or another. So today, I put on my new shirt and here I sit at work with my new shirt. Well...about an hour into my day I looked down and on the right sleeve there is a small stain! Where did that come from????????? ARRGGHHH! I don't have a plethera of clothing as I'm trying to do with only a small wardrobe as I lose. So this is quite distressing!

I exercised this morning. Yes, got up an h0ur early.....exercised for about 40 minutes. Felt good. At first I was miserable because my back and hips were stiff. (yeah, sleeping...arthritis...old age...haa haa haa) But, they loosened up quite nicely and by the end I felt pretty good. Todd and I may run to the gym this afternoon. It's been a while...so that may be nice. Yes, it would be a day of double workouts for me. I think I'd be ok with that....I just know that my light lunch would not be sufficient....so I'd need to eat a snack or something before we went.

Later this week I'll be baking up a storm. We have a bunch of parties and get togethers this coming weekend. Two of them, I've been volunteered (or volunteered on my own in one case) to take the desserts. I'm thinking about doing a cookie tray. Cut out cookies (sugar), chocolate chip, soft sugar cookies, banana bread, and maybe mini muffins. We'll have to see what all I get done. :-) I'll be doing a heap of praying for willpower and strength to resist the temptation of all that yummy batter and cookie dough! That is my downfall...the uncooked doughs/batters! Once they are baked, it's not as tempting to me! Yeah, I'm weird.

Waffle House

This morning I stepped on the scales. Wow oh wee. I was down to 183.8! That's almost where I was last Tuesday! I was tickled. SOOOO what did we do. We went to the Waffle House for breakfast before church. Yeah, not high fine dining...but good and greasy. Yes, I enjoyed the food. I did compensate my eating the rest of the day to manage my intake. I feel pretty good. We'll see how the scales treat me tomorrow morning. :-)

Seeing as how I used my 'morning exercise time' to go out for breakfast I was a bit worried about exercise for the day. We got home from church at noon. That gave me one hour before Todd's clients came in...rendering my exercise room closed for business. So, I hooked up the xbox and played about 40 minutes of dance dance revolution. I was proud that I was moving...but I "knew' that I wasn't getting the best of workouts. I then ate lunch and headed to town to buy groceries. Man, does that take forever! I came home....put everything away an mosied around a bit. TOdd got done work and we had dinner. And you'll never guess what I did after we ate dinner. Yessiree bob! I did a high intensity work out! Persistence!

I work from 7:45 until 2 tomorrow. So I've got my lunch all planned out in my mind...all I have to do is throw it together tomorrow morning. That should make it easier to fit my workout in!!!!!!

The Million Dollar Question

Yes, the million dollar question is....Did I actually get my workout in last night after working over 10 hours? ABSOLUTELY! I kicked Todd out of the living room about a half hour after dinner and I exerercised for an hour!

The scales moved back down 2 pounds today. So now I'm only up about 2 - 2.5 pounds from where I was on Tuesday. Just thought about it...I had sauerkraut...VERY high in sodium...and ham...also very high in sodium. Could that be contributing??? Probably! Oh well.....I'm going to do my best to be able to call Thanksgiving week a 'maintain' or better week! That means I'll be watching what I eat and do very carefully....even more than normal, if that is possible.

The alarm was set an hour early this morning. However, when it went off, I just didn't want to get up! I hit the snooze...and snuggled close to Todd. Man, that nine minutes goes by FAST! When it off the second time, I got up...grabbed my exercise clothes and went at it. So....now I sit here at work...I'm already exercised up for the day and all that good stuff! Todd has a break in the studio from like 4-6. Then he worked an hour or so...and we are eating after that. So I may exercise or play DDR a bit in that break to get a bit more exercise in! :-)

Afternoon update

I had my super yummy lunch. Lots of leftovers. I had leftover sauerkraut and green beans and some pumpkin mousse/fluff. YUMMY. I also threw in a clemantine and a kiwi! Filled me right up!

Now to make sure I exercise tonight when I get home!!!! What do to... I was dissapointed becasue the two nice days that we've had recently...I wanted so bad to be out on my bike riding outside...and alas, I was stuck inside and busy! That really bites! At least dinner won't be much work as I actually prepared it yesterday and I have left instructions for Todd to put it in the oven so that it is ready when I get home.

So far today the foot isn't aching as badly as it was yesterday. That's a really good thing!!! Especially when it comes to exercising tonight!

Thanksgiving, aches and pains and extreme tiredness

The day before Thanksgiving was busy. Todd and I ran around and did errends all morning. We went to Longhorn for lunch. We had a complimentary meal coupon (because of a problem during a previous visit). I had a salad, a baked sweet potato, brandied apples and some steamed veggies. I could only eat half of the steamed veggies...there was too much food (todd helped a bit with the apples also). When we got home, we moved a piece of furniture to our storage place, moved some train layout boards to a shed and brought down the Christmas decorations from the attic. I then spent a couple hours really cleaning the living room (moved furniture and all that) and putting up the Christmas decorations. I ran out and got us subs from Subway at around 6PM. Came home, ate my sub and went into the kitchen where I did my cooking for Thanksgiving day. At about 8:30 our piano tuner came (it was a scheduled visit)....so it was about 9:30 or so until I was able to fall into bed exhausted. (Oh yes, I had exercised early that morning).

The alarm went off at 6AM on Thanksgiving day. I diligently went to the living room (aka workout room) and worked out for just under an hour. I had breakfast, showered, did a load of laundry and got everything ready to take to mom's. I also got Todd's breakfast ready...he was exhausted on Tuesday so I wanted him to be able to sleep as long as possible. (He hadn't budged as I'd moved around the house). I woke him up 20 minutes before we had to leave.

We got to mom's at around 9:30 (we left our house at 8:15...picked up Ronnie at 9...and at mom's by 9:30). I peeled potatoes and helped mom out in the kitchen for a bit....and we took time to sit in the living room and chat when we could. For lunch I ate a little bit of meat, sauerkraut, green beans, baked butter beans, mashed potatoes, harvard beets, peas, stuffing (yum, I LOVE my mom's stuffing). For my sweet tooth I had some jello with mandarin oranges and some pumpkin mousse! (Yummy!.....I'm having more for lunch today.... 1 point for 1/2 cup!). My indulgance yesterday...I had a piece of applesauce cake and a snickerdoodle cookie that mom had made for dad. I also drank my full 64 ounces of water!

Soooooo....knowing that...and seeing that I didn't eat like a mad woman. WHY THE HECK is my weight showing me up 5 POUNDS since Tuesday morning???????? Ok....5 pounds times 3500 calories that make up a pound....that's a HECK of a lot of food! In fact, that's 17500 calories to make up that five pounds. There is NO WAY IN HECK that I ate 17500 extra calories in two days! I'm not overly upset...because I know that I didn't eat that much food. I'm just disgusted...because I do feel as if I ate wisely! Oh well...that's the nature of the beast!

I'm thinking about not weighing myself again until next Tuesday morning. SO I don't panic or obsess about. Just eat right the next couple days and take it like a man....err woman!

What's up with the weather??? One day I'm wearing shorts and tee shirts...the next day my winter coat????? I don't like this.....because i'm STILL constantly cold!

Yesterday evening I was just exhausted. I think the busyness of my few days just really caught up with me! We got home and I put my leftovers away...and put together a Shepherds pie for dinner tonight. It was all I could do stay awake. I ended up falling asleep for about a half our or so. ANd that was good enough to hold me through until a 'decent' time to go to bed. HOWEVER, Todd and i were in bed at 7PM...watching tv. :-)

Aches....my feet are soooo sore! The one hurts so horribly! It's a real struggle to exercise because of the pain! In fact, this morning...I struggled with actually exercising. The alarm went off an hour early so I could get up and exercise. However, it was cool in the house (dang weather changes), my foot hurt like a banshee, and last but not least...I was just struggling with waking up! I WILL exercise tonight!!! I even asked Todd to help me to actually do it!!!!

Holiday Manifesto

Saw this online and it was a good reminder! It would work for any special occaision!!!
1) it's ONE DAY out of the year. So have anything (within reason), and don't stress. Enjoy it.
2) Savor foods that are particular to that holiday, and skip anything that you don't really care as well as things that are always available throughout the year - ie. the bread basket, cheese tray, etc.
3) Remember: one day means back to good habits the next day - no excuses.
4) Go for a long walk after the meal!

Core Day 7....and The END

Well....day seven of my core week is almost over. I can see why people would like to do core. However, I know without a shadow of a doubt that it is not for me. :-) Although I would be tempted to do core over a holiday, for the simple fact that if I chose my foods carefully I wouldn't have to worry about portions or how much I was eating!

Woah.......it's now Tuesday morning. I forgot that I was in the middle of writing my blog...turned off the monitor to go make dinner...and never went back to the computerlast night. Turned on my monitor this morning and was confronted with the first paragraph of my blog entry!

Well....Core is officiallly done. I'm glad that I experienced. I can see why people like it. But I'm happy to be back to flex!

I did weigh in at my lowest ever this morning.....182.8. SO I"m happy about that!

Core Day 6

I'm gonna finish this week if it kills me! Ok, so today wasn't all that bad. I can just realize that this option in the weight watchers is just not for me. I'm down to about 183.2 pounds. So it hasn't been all that bad. However, that's where I was before the ick hit. So for me, at least I didn't gain! Oh well.

Spent some time with mom again today. We had to make our plans for Thanksgiving day. We are in the process of changing out plans. :-) I think we are going to end up making a T-day dinner ourselves. Why spend $100 dollar for 5 people to eat...when we can prepare the exact same thing for a fraction of the cost.

Day Five Core

Core is going ok. I'm on day five. I've already figured out that Core is definitely NOT something that I would be satisfied doing long term. It is way to restrictive. Yeah, I know that I could use my flex points for those 'extras'. But it just still seems too restrictive! I'm determined to go through the entire week though...and considering I'm on day 5, I think I'll make it. There is merit to this plan..just not for me.

Yesterday I was 183.0 Today I weighed in at 183.6. I've been trying to figure out exactly why. We had a crock pot meal...diet coke chicken....over whole wheat pasta. Corn (frozen...from my garden), and applesauce. I did use 3 flex points and had a bite of dessert. I've been trying to figure out what caused my weight to jump .6 pounds. The only thing I can think of. I put salt in the corn. The diet coke has sodium...and ketchup is high in sodium (right?). I did drink more than my 64 ounces yesterday...so that shouldn't be a factor. So I'm thinking the sodium is probably it. We'll see though! Not too worried about it though.

Had a nice visit with the pastor last night. He seems like a really down to earth guy. Not overly legalistic or anything like that....which is good! :-) His preaching is top notch, which is the important thing. We are very impressed with him and his views. He was apologetic about some and was like, if this scares you off, then so be it. I was like, "I'm here because of that view!" Basically he said he is more concerned about our spiritual walk versus building the church into a huge number. AMEN!

Thank heavens dinner last night turned out! haa haa haa. Ok, I knew it would...it's one that we've had before! :-)

Tonight for dinner we are having ham steak, pasta salad (not core....but that's for todd) and a variety of vegetables. I haven't decided, but I was originally planning on having parsley potatoes (yes, I can make them core...with the fat free butter)..but Todd mentioned wanting the pasta salad (luckily for me, he likes a creamy pasta salad...which I don't like...I prefer oil based pasta salads...so I won't be as tempted). So....the pasta salad may be parsley potatoes.....who knows. :-) I'd probably be better off without the potatoes! :-) What to do...what to do....hmmm. Well, considering we will eat late tonight because of Todd's work schedule, I have plenty of time to think about it! Lunch will probably be tuna salad (made with FF mayo to be core), fruits and veggies. Yummy!

Core day 4

Ok, I'm feeling marginally better about this core thing today. I thought of a few options for lunch instead of salad that works. That eased my mind a whole lot! :-)

My lunch...I made homemade chicken salad (fat free mayo, celery, etc etc etc). I paired that with leftover corn from last night, pineapple, a kiwi and a clementine. Woah doggie, that clementine literally had 18 seeds in it!!!!! What they hey?

I'm not sure what's happening...but I think some emails that I'm sending AND receiving are disappearing out into oblivion! I have had about three people have to resend me something because I haven't received it. Go figure. Luckily my friends all know that as long as it isn't some foward, and is a real email...I respond....even if it's just to say thanks again! I don't know..but I have this thing that I don't like to be the last one to respond.

I had a nice productive morning today. I woke up and actually took an hour or so in bed to read. At 8, I mosied out to the living room (aka the workout room) and proceeded to do a workout. I had breakfast (oatmeal) ...then took pity on Todd and made him a western omelet. I made chicken salad for lunch, mixed up some jello (yeah, I always forget about jello, but I actually do like it), and put dinner in the crockpot (diet coke chicken). I emptied the dishwasher and reloaded it, straightened the kitchen, straightened the rest of the house, vacumned the whole house, folded and put away a load of laundry, showered, ate lunch and came to work. And here I sit. Tonight the pastor of the church that we recently started attending is coming over to talk. I'm not really looking foward to it.......Todd and I just went through this about a year an a half ago. We settled in the church, became members....became active...and then the rug was pulled out from under us. It's no fun! We tried to leave that church gracefully, without hard feelings and all that. BUT, the hurt is still there on our end. This on top of what the church that i was a member of (where my dad was a preacher) did a few years back.....not cool. BUT, Todd and I immediately tried a few churches. This one seemed to fit the best. So...tonight we get the 'home visit'.

Core Deep thoughts

Ok, I"ll get to the deep thoughts on core. However I need to vent and rant a bit. WHen I planned to do this 'core' thing. I sat down, looked online and at my recipe books and created a menu of core foods. I found recipes that we already eat that is core...and interspersed a few new 'experiemental' meals in to the menu. So I got off work at 6PM and came home all anxious to try out the meal for tonight...which was one of the 'experimental ones'. I had even found a 'core' dessert recipe to try for this meal. Well one hour later...and YUCK! The dessert...eeewwwww. The main dish was yucky also! I called Todd into the kitchen to give him the options. I had him try the main dish....he spit it out in the garbage can! What the heck???? Ok, so we win some, and we lose some.

So...I'm trying this core thing. I firmly believe in the weight watchers program. I myself am a flex girl. I think I've known it from the get go. I never had any real desire to try the core. But you hear people that rave about it. Then you hear about people that kick start their plateaus with one or two weeks of following the core plan versus the flex plan. I've been in this weird whirlpool of weight loss and that has prompted a bunch of people to encourage me to try the core plan. SOOOOOO I did. Day one wasn't too bad. I breezed right through it. Day two wasn't too bad. Then Day three hit. This morning was nice. I had my oatmeal...and thouroughly enjoyed not measuring it out. (Deducted one flex point for my brown sugar). Lunch wasn't too bad either. I had a banana and a big salad with all the trimmin's and fixin's. Doin' good. THEN hits dinner...and the fiasco with the new recipes. So that left me foodless. Todd said he wasn't all that hungry so he made a sandwich. Uhhhh what do I eat..what do I eat. I'm a more picky eater than some. My week was carefully planned out because of that. I stood in the kitchen literally in a tailspin. I ended up eating the corn (that was the only thing edible out of the meal...the corn that I had prepared as a sidedish), jello, a small salad (oh yeah..that's the next problem...I'll save that for the next paragraph though), Butter and Jelly BREAD (ww bread...fat free butter and Jelly...yep, there goes two more points deducted from my weekly totals). I finished eating and I was literally still hungry. So I trooped back to the kitchen and had some oatmeal...yep chalk up another point for more brown sugar! I feel satisfied now. But I was literally miserable because the options were not there. I stood in the kitchen and even though I rarely eat any of teh baked tortilla chips that my husband eats, I looked at them and thought, "I can't eat those" and that made me want them. EVERY WHERE I LOOKED, I saw food that I couldn't eat (shouldn't I should say) and I wanted it!!!! I'm much more able to manage it with the flex program . I think because nothing is taboo. If I want it, I eat it. Yeah, core is the same way...but becuase I'm a picky eater to begin with, I'm using some of those 35 flex points for stuff like the brown sugar. Hmmmmm.........

OK....salads. About a month ago (give or take) I went through a HUGE salad craze. I was hungry for salad's all the time. I hadn't had salad fixin's at the house for a few weeks and it actually sounded like a good idea for my lunches (ok...picky eaters options are more limited). Well....I've eaten...and I'm already sick of salads! What to do the rest of the week! :-)

So, on day three I can pretty much garauntee that the core plan will be something that I do very rarely if ever again! I do plan on sticking it out the rest of the week. AND, I BETTER lose big like so many people claim will happen!!!!!!

Core-Day three

Day three of my core experiment has commenced. I had my oatmeal....counted my flex point for the brown sugar and I'm rollin'! My weight yesterday was still floating at 185.2. Today it was down to 184.4. A couple things that may be affecting the weight to make it go down. Walking for like 5 hours straight. Core eating. The ick having arrived....which will in the very near future alleviate some water retention. So any of those things could have caused the drop in my weight. Looking realistically...I didn't drink enough water yesterday, so I highly doubt that water retention had anything to do with it. I'm tipping the bottle (the water bottle) today!

Battlefield Hike fallout........hmmmmm that sounds ominous! As for sore....my muscles are a bit sore from our walk yesterday. No becuase walking is so strenuous or anything...but because of the length of time we walked. What really hurts are my feet. I've always had feet problems......so being on them for that long kinda kicked up the pain a bit. It will pass...I'll just deal with it. :-) As Todd and I neared our home yesterday at the end of our walk/hike we were talking about how our feet were a bit sore and how we could feel that our muscles had been worked out. It brought up remembrances of some of our previous LONG walks/hikes. This was every bit as long as some of the past ones. There was one that we called the 'death march'....so you know how we felt when it was over! :-) So it has been neat to see how our endurance has changed over the years!

Didn't want to exercise today.....back to that slight soreness from yesterday. HOwever, I went ahead and thirty minutes down! I didn't do anything super high intensity...but I did something. Felt good! Woo hooo!