Picnics and Good Times

Hi all, It has been a great weekend. I can hardly believe I am on vacation for 2 whole weeks. I took a week off late October last year between jobs, but I didn't keep the kids home with me - I had been through the ringer and needed some alone time. I took 3 whole days the year before, and the year before that was when I came off maternity leave. So I am really looking forward to this year.

Last night we went to friends for a barbecue and swimming. I brought my own potatoes which were juliened by yours truly with a new kitchen gadget, shaken in a ziploc bag with olive oil, salt, pepper, italian seasonings and some bran for breading. Also brought a tomatoe and green pepper and my own low point burger and some chicken breasts. Not sure how I'm doing overall on points. I'm trying to write things down, but suspect I'm missing the odd thing. Mark let the 9yo pick out her own meat at the grocery as she doesn't like hamburger. The monkey came home with a small piece of fresh tuna and a small steak. She did share with others, but I had to laugh. I had a frozen burger while she chowed down on surf and turf. Someone has Daddy wrapped around her finger.

We had a lot of fun and came home with movies for everyone. Since it rained today, it was nice to have some new selections. Even in the rain, we headed to the pool tonight. Only 4 other people in the pool. I took the girls because, as a youngster, swimming in the rain was so much fun for me. I did get in, some lame attempts at laps in the 1ft end so I could stay near the 4yo (yeah for butterfly stroke). The water is crazy warm.

We've decided to get away from the house on Wednesday and won't likely be back until the end of my vacation. We're visiting m-i-l, then heading to her cottage for a few days. On Sunday I'm going to my Mom's cottage and helping her clean as it's being rented this week. My sis is due at the cottage on Monday, so will spend until Thursday with her. Hubby's meeting us back at his Mom's cottage where we'll hang out for the last weekend.

So Gosh Darn Hot Today

Today was a scorcher and Scarlett Barbie was busy turning heads, especially Ken's (aka Rhett, aka Mark). Today Scarlett Barbie focused on herself and what she wanted. Well surely I do feel a little badly about my poor behaviour towards Ken (said in her best southern accent), but he certainly was no gentleman today, allowing me to do much housework this morning before taking us all out for a nice breakfast.

Barbie's on Parade

I AM SCARLET BARBIE!

I promise to uphold the Barbie ways which include whining when you feel like it, being bitchy on cue and knowing that NO MATTER WHAT or WHO (yeah even if she is a rich, plastic surgery induced, exercise obsessed, bubble head) comes across your path - that I am Barbie.....beautiful and worthy!!! Size 6 or 60, Porsche or Pinto, flat belly and good boobs or pannus and dried prunes - we are AWESOME!!

I'm so happy to be a part of the Barbie Brigadde. To learn more, check out http://wherethehellisbarbie.blogspot.com/2007/07/barbie-unplugged.html (I really need to learn how to do those cute little link titles).

If you aren't interested in being a Barbie, "Quite Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." LMAO.

Forgive me, I have sinned

I have neglected 'Multi-Vitamin' who only wants what's best for me, I have had unhealthy thoughts towards myself, and, the purpose of this post, I have stolen from my child.
First, I want to relay a perceived NSV on Wednesday when a co-worker was having a birthday party. I was so drawn to the chocolate cake, but heard lots of voices in my head - some yours and some mine. The most predominant one insisted that it was weigh-in night and to forego. I made one fatal mistake and took 2 pieces of cake home to my children.
In all fairness, I did expect that they would eat this cake on Wednesday night, and when I noticed that some was placed back in the fridge I attempted to avoid this issue by asking hubby to put them in containers. Well, Men don't take hints (at least mine doesn't) subtle or direct. The cake remained in the bowl and last night I caved. Instead of throwing it in the garbage I scraped every bit of cake and icing off the bowl. My resolve just isn't there yet - maybe it will never be. I have learned my lesson. Sorry kids, Mommy is a chocolaholic and will not be bringing home cake from work anymore.
The sad part, I began daydreaming of chocolates cakes of yesterdays. The 'death-by-chocolate' with whip-cream icing and 'dragon berries' from 5 years ago. The birthday cakes of last month. And all the ones in between. Sad, Sad, Sad! I was almost angrythat the 'other' daughter had eaten all of hers.
Of course, this whole thing lead to lots of negative self-talk which flowed into my not taking my multi-vitamins. Funny where conversations with ourselves lead.

Cheers all, and have a great weekend.

17 Again!

Last night at meeting we were talking about body image. None of us at meeting wanted to be like the Paris Hilton's and Nicole Richie's of the world - too thin, too unhealthy. One lady told about a conversation she had with a friend. Now, this lady has lost almost 50 lbs - she's done amazing - but has a ways to go. Anyway, she was telling her friend that she thought the cellulite was moving up her leg (none on the bottom of her legs anymore) and was wondering about when it would disappear from the top of her legs. The friend said, "You'll never be 16 again." Plain and simple, I will never be 17 again.

Yes, I have pictures of me when I was 17 that I pull out and say, "If I could just get to 135 again.". At 135 lbs I was thin - hell, I was hot. I will never be 17 again. I also have a picture of me at 27. I was thin (140 lbs) and I was healthy (and Mark thought I was hot). I will never be 27 again. I have a picture of me at 37 (ugh). Can't wait to say goodbye to the almost 190 lb frame I've been carrying around - I think Mark is the ONLY one who said I was hot, but I just wasn't feeling it. This frame is diminishing weekly, thanks to Weight Watchers and the support of my fellow bloggers. I have until December left to live with myself at 37 and then I will never be 37 again.

I think, though, that by the end of this age I can take a picture that I will be happy with, because this is my year of making a change and embracing the future and taking time for me. I think that I can be beautiful to myself at any age and I will embrace that I am healthy. I will strive to be a healthy 47 year old, 57 year old, and 67 year old - you get the picture. Health and loving yourself, that is the true source of beauty. And this outlook is a good thing - because I will never be 17 again.

Run, Girl, Run

LOL, Not me! I do good to jog for a few minutes. The ticker girl just keeps on moving, though. This week I am posting a 2.2 lb loss:-)). I fully expect to get knocked on my butt one of these days with a plateau, but I'm running with this success while I can. My lovely 9yo, gorgeous daughter said "Great Job!" I just love her!

Neat Table

OK, I did a thingy on Sparks for my daily eats yesterday and this is what I got:

Not sure what all this means, but for my calories, fat, protein I seem to be in the range for everything according to the accompanying table. The chart is kinda cool. Tells you where you are vs. where somebody says you should be. It's a hard balance, boy.

Great OP week

I did use some FP, but not as many as I had intended - I think I have used around 16 (plus mis-counts), but I forgot my book today, so can't be sure.
I am going to have to re-think the 'free' baby carrots. Took a look at the nutritional info and the 2C I down amost daily is actually 2 pts :0)
I also realized when I measured my nuts and pretzels today (cashews today, yum) that my serving sizes had gradually been getting larger (bit-by-bit) over the past couple of weeks. Another :0) and time to get back to basics.
I bought some frozen chicken breast - you know, the bulk ones. I usually just count chicken breast as 1pt/oz or so. I calculated these babies using the nutritional information and 100g (approx 4oz) was only 2 pts. A good :0)

Today I treated myself to sushi. I don't usually eat sushi in the days before WI because you can't eat sushi without soy sauce. And soy sauce is water retention. The container was crying out my name at the grocery last night, so I brought it home. How can you just walk away from that lovely 4pt lunch. So, I'm going to down another 600 ml of water (hmmm, there are 2C in 500ml) this afternoon before stopping until after WI. I learned my lesson drinking too much too close to WI.

I got in a fair bit of exercise this week, considering I was going to say "Heck, I can't do 150 minutes by the end of Tuesday". Today is the last day of my WW week and the first day of my new challenge week. The exercise relates to both, I guess, but mostly to the challenge. I managed: 15 mins of lawn mowing on Sat before the mower ran out of gas, 15 min walk to the coffee shop and back on Mon, 35 mins of dancing on Mon night, 45 mins on Tues night (stairs and lawn mowing) - for a total of 110 minutes. And today I've already did a 20 min walk at noon, but that's towards next weeks challenge numbers.

I'm feeling good this week, but we'll see what the scales have to say tonight.
Cheers, Candace

Boxed Chili

OK, no matter what the box says, how much fibre is in it or how many points you can get by on, instant, just add water, Chili is never a good idea.

Feeling Better

Last night the 10's of minutes slipped past. After supper there was laundry to bring in, a grocery list to prepare and bathing suite to wear. The girls and I went to the pool while hubby went to the grocery with a very specific list. Funny, it was hot and sunny on the deck hauling those clothes in, but it suddenly got cool at the pool. I only went in to my knees and played with the LO.
The 9yo got her mid-term report card for swimming lessons yesterday and hopefully will pass this level as I don't think she'll be able to enroll in another session this summer.
At 9:00 I really should have put the kids to bed, but instead I put Twister DVD on. It's kinda slow (just my speed), but I try to keep moving even during the talking parts. I got through all of the moves at 'Aqua Beach', a couple of which were not intended for an overweight 37 year old woman, but I did them slower and as best I could - I really do need curtains up in the living room. Now I will be able to move onto the Aqua Beach choreographed dances or move onto another segment.
I did around 35 minutes including cool down. I skipped warm-up, but won't do that again. Although it moves into things slowly, you do need the warm up stretches.
OTOH, I skipped stretches this morning. I'm thinking I'll go for a walk at noon as lunch shouldn't take long (frozen, so no prep). Well, a walk, or maybe hitting the mall for a new sweat suite.

OK, I'm Lame - Get Over It!

So here I was complaining about pigging out on baby carrots while members of my support team (every link is my daily inspiration) was stressing over much more serious matters, such as cravings, ice cream, cake, cake mix and diet coke (ew!) and so forth. How lame am I?
I think the problem was really the Shrimp Marinara (lunch before the carrots). Must have gotten something bad as my tummy was just not right the rest of the day or this morning. I managed to eat 24 points yesterday, but the last couple were very difficult and upset me all over again. I really just consumed them to meet the GHG's. I'm finally feeling better and appologize for lamenting about carrots.
In all seriousness though, I have been giving thought to Core, but am nervous about it.

Challenge: I've been neglecting the exercise part of my Challenge commitment this week. I think I have about 15 minutes of lawn mowing in and may count 15 minutes of running up and down the stairs doing laundry, but I doubt I'll reach 150 minutes this week. Now is the time to get over myself though. Forgive myself for my poor behaviour, re-set my weekly goals to something that can be done by Wednesday (say, 75 minutes - Mon walk 30, Tues stretch 15, Tues walk 30) and put the past behind me.

Onward and upward: Met today with senior management and will need to do a bunch of analysis stuff (ugh). Maybe this is why I've been 'off' for a few days - I always stress about meetings with management. I know they're just people and we're all after the same goal, but man the pending meeting really messes with me. This analysis is going to be even more difficult because I am on vacation for 2 weeks starting Friday at 5pm, baby, and I'm not coming in for it!

Vacation: OK, enough work talk, something fun. Mark (aka hubby) has to work every other weekend, but is off my 1st and last weekend and will try to take the last Friday off with me (YEAH!). Even when he works he's home at 9:30am, so I shouldn't complain, but he's just so gosh-darn tired until after a nap, so he maysawill work 'till noon.
More exciting stuff: My little sister is coming home and will be going to the cottage on the Monday of my 2nd week off. Woohoo - I really miss her and her little angels. So, I think we'll pack the tent and head up for a few days, then back-track to my mil's cottage and meet up with Mark for the last weekend. The first week I just don't know...decisions, decisions...we might just hang out around home and spend afternoons and evenings at the pool. I'm really gonna have to plan the 4yo's birthday party soon (July 4 - been and gone) and vacation seems like a good time to fit it in.

Eat Until Stuffed!

OK, I know we're not supposed to do this, and mostly I am pretty good. But, I am not the girl who can bring a box of healthy (or otherwise) treats to work and leave them in her desk, indulging in only 1 a day. So, I packed 2 cups of baby carrots to pick at over the afternoon and ate my lunch. Free or not, I did not need the carrots when I sat down to catch up on the blogs. Now they're gone and I am stuffed. Yes, I recognized at various points of my mindless munching that I did not need anymore, but they are so nice and crunchy and sweet.
I would not do well on Core,
I would not do well on Core,
I would not do well on Core.

The plus - it wasn't chips, chocolates, or Satan's dehydrated veggies (poor Barbie).
OK, now to get off my butt and find something to distract myself.

The Clown let me Down

So, the folks at McDonald's HQ must figure that Canadians live in igloos and require fat and carbs to keep warm. Sadly, the only Southwest Chicken I can buy is the deli sandwich for 12 pts. I was heartbroken. Really, I was devastated at this realization. Why, oh why, Ronald, do you withhold this glory from your Canadian patrons? Is our money worth less? (Oh yeah, it is). Is our happiness of no concern?

I did order a salad - the grilled oriental one - and the sauce is so HOT (probably to keep my figers from freezing on the way back to the igloo). Then a thought came over me. Yes, I 'm a genious! Next time I'll order the oriental salad with the Southwest sauce. I wonder if they have the packets? Yes, they must. They MUST!

Next time clown, I'll be the one laughing!

TGIF

Tonight hubby is taking the 9yo to see Nancy Drew before it leaves the big screen in our little neck of the woods. That means I will pick up the LO. And I am very excited about our plans - I am going to take her the McD's. Yup, the sign says they have the Southwest Chicken Deli, so I presume they also have the salad.
I don't tend to like McD's much, nor does the 9yo (except for breakfast - #6, I think). Weird, maybe, but they used to take them on school trips and she would always lament over what to get. See, she's allergic to dairy, so that means no cheese or ice cream. She doesn't like hamburgers or chicken nuggets. When she was in daycare I would bring her to the grocery and let her pick out something for supper she'd go for salmon fillet or thick juicy steak. For veggies she'd choose spinach or brocolli, and for snacks she'd choose dried prunes. Tell me how I managed to put on weight with that kind of selection in the house! And all that changed once she started school, except for the hamburger and nuggets.
Well, the LO LOVES McD's and all like product - gotta watch that one.
Anyhoo, looking forward to trying out this famous salad. It's piss-down raining here so hopefully that means the humidity will break. Gotta go and work on some vis-a-vis-a claims before they fire my azz.
Take care and have a great OP day!
Cheers, Candace

PS - I added the clock for Randi. See, I'm home having supper when you post. Not gonna respond - T'aint gonna happen. Hangin' with my babe on a Friday night.

The Last Black Bean Fudge

Sadly I finished off my last black bean fudge today. My huband wasn't crazy about these and the kids weren't trying to steal them (I mean, why do I buy LF Brownie mix and go through the trouble of actually adding water and putting them in the oven if they're just gonna eat the whole thing and leave the crumbs for me?). I have gotten used to my fudge and coffee over the past several days, though. They satisfied that 'I want something sweet and chocolatey' but didn't make me feel the 'I want to eat the whole batch' - taking 1/day in my lunch helps. It's because of all this that I know I will make them again. The recipe is thanks to Roni and can be found at http://weightwatchen.com/2007/12/frozen-black-bean-fudge.html - I used the food processor instead so I was able to mix the dry ingredients in without dirtying another dish (oh yeah, not only am I not a fan of cooking/baking, but I dislike clean-up as well).

All totalled, I give this a 3/5. The texture is odd, but the added benefit of the black beans as a great source of protein and fibre works for me. The taste is not quite fudgy and I needed to get used to it. This 4 item recipe is just my speed and was a snap to throw together. I forgot to metion - they're 1pt each. So, definately more good than bad - at least in my books.

Hope everyone has a great OP day.
Cheers, Candace

Wednesday Weigh-In (Down 0.4)

Weighed tonight and down 0.4lbs. My scales have come down too, interestingly. I'm guessing that it was retention in the heat and humidity that caused the scale spike - I'll keep and eye on that in the coming weeks. It cooled off tonight and is supposed to rain. Hopefully that'll clear the air.

So, I'll get up tomorrow and resume some crunches, etc. I did reach 150 minutes of real exercise this week plus some housecleaning on the weekend, and I feel really good about that. I think I'll stick with my plan to consume 28 weekly points only and see how it pans out next week. If it's another small loss I'll haul it back a bit. It's after 9pm now and I've gotta get myself and the kids to bed. Will check in tomorrow.

Cheers, Candace

Wednesday - Product review

OK, I'm exhausted after 4 late nights and too tired to think. Randi did a product review on her site and I'm gonna copy (isn't that the sincerest form of flattery?).

Thick and Juicy Lean Beef Burgers by PC Blue Menu! OK, I've written about PC Blue Menu in the past, even this item. This is a store brand by the Superstore - I don't know if this product is available in the USA or not, but I also presume there are similar products down there. These things are good! With very little shrinkage, they are nice and juicy. I really enjoy these tasty things (5pts each) on a Weight Watcher whole wheat burger bun (2pts) with dressings. I use veggies and mustard. When I cook it in the George Forman only a skimming of fat is left on the grill (no drippings), so go ahead and BBQ or fry them if that's a preferred method.

This burger, with a potatoe and/or veggies on the side, leaves me totally satisfied. The price makes me happy too at just over $1/burger. I love products that make me feel like I am cheating, but where, I mean WHERE, can you get a large hamburger on a bun for 7 points? PC Blue Menu, you've done it again!

Nutritional information Per burger (142 g) :

200 Calories

Fat 12 g (Saturates 5 g, Trans 0.5 g, Saturates + Trans 28)
Cholesterol 70 mg
Sodium 490 mg
Carbohydrate 0 g
Fibre 0 g
Sugars 0 g
Protein 24 g

Tuesday Blues

What a day. It did not start off great - Lots of running around to do that I did NOT have time for. Oh well.
So, my mother is buying a house. She sold hers last year and was renting, but is going to buy again and still try to swing a trip south this year. The kids are really enjoying her visit.
I journaled, and forgot a couple of things yesterday. This morning I thought, did I write down that 1/4 cup nuts and that chunk of chicken I grabbed. Nope. What a drag too, because I allowed myself a glass of wine and a cup of soy drink last night to get to the -4 points for my day. Anyhoo, the nuts and chicken were another 6 pts (10 weeklies yesterday), so maybe I can re-coupe some of those by not using any weekly points today.
Tomorrow is WI - ugh! I've been journaling and sticking to my plan of averaging 4 pts/day in weeklies, but the scales at home are being very naughty. I really have to move those to under the bed! I don't know if it is the humid weather - does that make you retain? Or maybe the exercising? Or maybe a combination? Or maybe the scale is broken? Shit, I wish I knew the reason the damn things are up 5-6lbs - and this has been creeping up all week, so it's not just my mis-calc yesterday. My journal is not helping in the least to pin-point a reason. This is bad timing in my first week of the challenge. Don't want to let the team down, but more importantly, I don't know what I'm doing wrong! Guess if I weigh in with a gain this week I'll have a sit-down with the leader to see if she has any ideas.
Guess I'll go get some water and try to flush out any retention that may be happening. I do think that humidity may be playing a role.

Weekends - Challenge or Opportunity

Well, that went well, I think. Having decided to take part in Kim's challenge, I was making a concerted effort to get in activity time. I had a 20 minute walk on Saturday morning with the dog followed by 10 minutes of glute and ab moves with the 4yo. She told me I should be doing them faster. Later in the day I walked to the local pool with the 9yo while she biked. I took Sunday off, except for the house cleaning. Points wise, things went OK. I've been focusing on getting at least 8 pts in protein/day and this is still a work-in-progress. Got kind of weak cleaning on Sunday and had to stop to remind myself to eat. This may have as much to do with the fact that hubby and I stayed up Saturday night to watch MI3 - too late and I was close to sick most of Sunday.

My mother is visiting for a few days - thus the cleaning frenzy. She arrived at around 8:00 last night and we talked until going on midnight. She is diabetic and took my blood-sugar and it was 7.2. Apparently that's kind of high. My oldest brother is also diabetic and on quite strong meds for it. I think I may wait until I lose some more weight before visiting the doc as he tests me for diabetes and thyroid every year. That tag is just so restrictive in terms of insurance, etc. I just know I feel so much better now than I did a couple of months ago and I'm sure in another 10 lbs I'll feel that much better again. Hopefully I'm catching myself in time.

It's back to work again. It'll be a very busy day, but I had to check in on everyone. I love that Colette is re-motivated and that Steph is going to find some activity suited to herself rather than Trixie. I can't wait to read on their progress. I've been averaging my daily points + 4 weekly points/day. I haven't been giving myself extra AP points for the activity I've put in this week. I feel good that my motivation lasted more than a couple of days, though.

The 9yo is home with Nanny today and just called upset (so that's where my cell phone is) because I have her bathing suite in the car, Nanny is on the phone with a lawyer and she just missed swimming lessons. It's the end of the world! OK, just got off the phone - Nanny is going to take her shopping for a new bathing suite today, so all is right in the world again.

Cheers everyone, and have a great OP day!

TV and Weights - Making it Fit You

I've been reading a fair bit lately on the subject of fitness, etc on everyone's blog, plus on Sparks site (for some reason, the links I created to that site just aren't working for me). Is it summer that's sparking all of this discussion? I loved the suggestion that I do weights or other exercise while watching my favourite TV show. I'm gonna share a secret with everyone now - I don't watch TV. Well, that's a bit of a lie, but back in the days after buying our house, hubby and I realized that we were in WAY over our heads and cut out all non-essentials, including cable. Life changes and now cable is just soemthing we never did get around to getting. Total squares, huh? We used to watch the 'freebie' channels, but with the airport so close it interferes with the reception, so we don't even try anymore.

I don't mean to be a mean Mom - the kids watch TV at the sitters' and when we visit Nanny. I suppose as the 9yo gets a bit older it may be considered abuse to continue not having cable. After all, I never had cable growing up and I turned out totally messed up. For now, I don't see a problem. We do have one good size stack of videos and DVD's. We also love to borrow new ones from the library or occassionally rent one. Friends of ours have their own massive collection that doesn't revolve around Disney and Feature Films for Families and we 'use' them as a lending service for variety. God Bless Friends! Most recently we watched "Ghost Rider" - that was a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, the hubby and I don't secure the TV very often and end up watching Care Bear Nutcracker or Friendship Fields for the upteenth time. He's up so early in the morning and I'm just not a night owl anymore. We tend to go to bed around the same time as the girls.

I thought we had weights in the house at one point, but they're probably buried in the workshop. Quite some time ago someone mentioned to me that you could start with smaller weights found in household items, like canned foods. Interestinlgly, a bottle of 3-bean salad in my pantry weighs approximately 3.5lbs - perfect for starting out.

So, since last night was really too humid to go out, and to the tune of the Care Bears, I braced my arm on my leg and lifted beans until my arm hurt, then switched sides. The 9yo must have been bored because she decided to join me - saying that it looks easy - harumph. I instructed her on how to brace her arm and after 3 lifts she gave up, lol - maybe next time a can of condensed tomatoe soup.

The LO was kind of needy last night, too. Is it resistance training to do squates while having an extra 40lbs wrapped around your neck and waist?

All of this actually amused the chickens for the better part of half hour, and let hubby in peace to search the dial-up web in frustration for bike parts. Exercise to fit my life!

Hmm, pizza in the lunch room - and not just any pizza - I swear they order from the pizza joint with the highest points. Someone is out to sabotage my weight loss efforts! You think I'm joking? Earlier this week one of the girls looked at me and said "Ice Cream Sandwich! You know you want one." Then she went out and got one - it wasn't even hot out. I fooled her though - I resisted and lost weight this week - ahh, small victories. I do feel badly for her, though - she was talking about wanting to lose weight (put on 30 lbs over the winter - hmm, wonder why) and it was one of several things that spurred me into action, so I can't be too hard on her. She's young (28) and is likely a few years away from realizing she needs more than a quick starvation diet.

Exercise, Food portions and Procrastination

After 7 weeks of being on Weight Watchers I think I have finally excepted the lessons learned in week 3. I have tried to incorporate activity into my daily routine, but DAMN, it's hard. Yes, I really enjoy it (sometimes) once I get going and yes, I recognize the need for it. But when to exercise. I have a million guizzillion reasons why I can't do it NOW - like last night when I finally got home from weigh-in. The family was at the local swimming pool and I was all alone, but hell - a girl needs her supper. Then hell - I had to go on Roni's site RIGHT THIS INSTANT and use the calculator because I forgot mine at work. Then hell - I HAD to post my loss... You get the picture. Next thing I know I'm hauling my butt out of the computer chair and putting the chickens to bed.


SO, I need the same focus with my exercise that I seem to have mastered with my food. Well, not mastered - apprectice knowledge we'll call it, and it'll always be a work-in-progress - right? And there's still so much I don't know, but some of it I don't really care about, either. Thanks to Randi for pointing out the benefits of nuts. It got me thinking about the whole protein thing. They are worth more points, and they're not listed as a GHG, but maybe they should be. I also remembered our leader telling one of the other ladies that with 'that much' walking she should be eating at least 8pts in protein/day. I don't know 'how much' walking that was, but I don't think I've been getting to that except on occassion when I enjoy some salmon (6pts anyway). So today I opted for soy nuts again - just because they are what I have in the cupboard, and last night my 'veggie' was some peas vs. other options.

In the 'portion' department, it's funny that I used to be happy with 1/4C peas on my plate at night (such a good girl eating veggies!) and would take 1C soy nuts to work for snack. Amazing how we choose our portion sizes up before learning that we got it all backwards.


Somehow I think the exercise thing is going to be more elusive. Oh, there's plenty of information out there - none I really WANT to incorporate into my life, but rather feel the need to. A similar attitude I had for food not so long ago...


On the plus side, I did do stretches, crunches, leg-lifts and push-ups 2 mornings running. Man are my abs and arms weak. I'm counting both mornings as 15 minutes total; although I think it was a few more than that. I'm thinking I can get in over 50 minutes/week just doing that, so I'm only left with 100 for walking, etc. If I could only convince the 4yo that she wants to just sit in the jogger while we walk all would be so easy. I mean, let's face it - strolling along behind a 4yo on a tricycle can hardly be classified as exercise.

Cheers, Candace

Wednesday weigh-in - down 3.2

Weighed-in at 174lbs. I am VERY happy about this!!

I was more conscientous in tracking what I ate this week. Funny how you can 'lie' or 'cheat' ourself, but if you're putting it out there then there is more incentive to try to find out what that meal out 'costs' rather than a general estimate that could be off by several points - regardless of whether someone else is keeping track or not - and I doubt anyone is, overall - it's hard enough to just keep track of ourselves.

Thank you all for your support this week. I think I'm going to ramp up my weekly points consumption to 4/day on average and generally watch the amount of sodium I eat in the couple of days before weigh-in. I will also need to be sure I'm getting enough protein with all of this new activity I'll be adding. My body doesn't know what's coming yet as tonight was busy with a new 'do and weigh-in.

I finished off my day with what started out as a pizza tortilla with pasta sauce, chicken and cheese and turned into a wrap. Some peas on the side and I'll top it all off with a banana before bed. That's 11 more points, 27 for the day - that's 4 more weekly points gone, but a new week starts tomorrow.

Cheers, Candace

Wed menu brief

Weigh-in tonight and I just realized that it's only 2:00 and I've already eaten 16 points today. Giving my head a shake and wondering what the heck I was thinking.

B-fast: Oatmeal, jam, 1C LF soy drink (5pts)
Snack: Coffee with whole milk, black bean fudge (2pts)
2nd snack - and this is the bad one: 1/4C soy nuts (4pts - WTH?)
Lunch: PC BM Sesame ginger chicken with 2cups extra veggies, 1/2C left-over hot&sour soup (5pts)

Mostly, it looks good except for the soy nuts. Fortunately they don't weigh much - why didn't I bring 1/4C pretzels for 1pt instead?

Also, I'm tried to get the bulk of my water in before 2:00 so it leaves my system before 6:30 when I weigh-in. I'm trying to reach 8cups and have just finished 7. Hard to believe I spent years dehydrated with headaches a few times/week. I've had 1 mild headache since starting weight watchers - now that's a benefit that can't be weighed!

You know, I can stress a bit about this stuff, but at the end of the day - I guess sticking to plan (or getting back on plan after a slip-up) is what counts. Not just today's weight results, but next week/month/year - that the results WILL be there (eventually) regardless of whether I ate soy nuts or pretzels for snack on Week 8 weigh day.

Tues menu brief

OK, I just realized my posts have been getting really long, so I'll stick to the pertinent details for this.

Daily points: 23
Weekly points: 0 (Woohoo - it IS possible)
Day-in-week: 6
Weekly points remaining: 19
Activity: Nada. Worked late and after supper took the kids to the grocery store.

Would you believe that I was actually satisfied on 19 points? I sat on the kitchen floor with the 4yo and ate a 4pt berry cobbler before bed just to get to 23. It kinda felt naughty;-)

Challenge Prep and Bathing suits

Challenge Prep:
I am getting so excited about the challenge. I don't think, other than consciously trying to hit 8 cups of water/day and exercising 150 mins/week, that it will be a stretch from what I'm currently doing. So, to prepare:
- I am going to buy a tape measure and take my measurements in the morning. This is something I haven't done, but know others did. I think that isolating this 12 weeks and documenting these things for this time period will be good for me.
- I am going to buy more water from the grocery store tonight. Our tap water at home is starting to taste yucky. Hubby says it always tastes off, but it never bothers me in the winter.
- I am going to dig out that yoga video that I bought over a year ago (and watched once).

For exercise I thought I would:
- Yoga 1/week
- Twister DVD dancing 2/week (for a child's game, this is impressively the most intense of my choices - and fun with the kids - the challenge is securing the TV for 20-30 mins)
- Walk/Jog 2/week
- Crunches or other abdominal exercise for 5-10 mins/morning (this I am not looking forward to, but the belly-butt needs this to get the best it can be without surgery - sorry Roni, but it just looks so painful - , so we'll see how this pans out)
- Other options: I have a set of in-line skates and may try them out, plus we go to the pool regularly, so if it's hot enough to get in and someone is watching the 4yo I can try some laps. I always feel foolish swimming in front of the teenage life guards as I never took lessons, just learned to keep afloat in the ocean. But I also don't look that great wearing a 3-piece bathing suit so no-one can see my body.

3-Piece Bathing Suit:
Actually, I also have a 1-piece suit, but the 3-piece is my preferred choice. These were purchased as separates last year from Wally-Mart on my quest for something that fit and covered all my required parts (which is totally different than pertinent parts). I don't really like the 'skirt' suits and find they hold a lot of water, so I looked for something that was suitable for a 30-something size 16 and came across a top that has a bikini top, but a flowy part that covers the tummy. I also picked out a nice pair of bathing shorts to go with it that have elastic at the waist and cover the top of my thighs (on a side, if you didn't shave the bikini area recently, they also cover that - love those shorts). Once I got home I realized that the shorts were not suitable for swimming and required a 'panty', so went back and purchased the traditional bathing suit bottom to wear under the shorts. These are relatively low on the outer thigh and high in the waist - NOT a bikini bottom. That doesn't matter, though as no one has ever seen them as the shorts always cover them.
A mini-goal is to actually get to a point where I can wear this suit without the shorts THIS summer. I don't expect anyone IMRL to notice, but if I ever get there, I'll let ya'll know. So VERY much to look forward to.

Monday menu brief

PC Blue Menu (BM) items were the staple of the day.

Breakfast: BM Whole grain muffin and 1C LF Soy drink (5pts)
Snacks: Black bean fudge and coffee w. whole milk (2pts), Baby carrots
Lunch: BM frozen dinner linguine w. shrimp marinara and extra veggies (4pts)
Snack: Apple, Steamed veggies with spray dressing
Supper: Fried with 1tsp oil and some soy sauce: 1/2C Rice, 1 oz pork and extra veggies (4pts)
Dessert: BM Berry cobbler with extra berries, 1C LF Soy drink (6.5pts)
Before bed: Black bean fudge (1pt) - Didn't need this, but ate it anyway. Nice that it's only a point.

Daily points: 23
Weekly points: 2
Day-in-week: 5
Weekly points remaining: 19
Activity: Learned some new dance moves using Twister CD.

For the first time this week I met and exceeded all of my GHG's. Yeah for me.

Challenged to do What's Right

OK, I was scanning through some blogs today and came across 'Journey' who has joined Kim's challenge. I read up on it and thought, all of this is what I should be doing anyway. What a neat way to stay accountable, especially if we break up into teams. If anyone is interested in checking this out and turning the summer months into some fun challenges, check out Kim's site (also listed as KimPossible on the links)

http://icannotbelieveiamblogging.blogspot.com/

Sunday menu brief

Today went well - over 3pts again, so I'm going to bathe the chickens and get ready for tomorrow before I fall victim to anymore BLTs
Breakfast: Slushie and Coffee with whole milk (6pts)
Lunch: Leftover fried rice w. 1oz pork, extra veggies and stir-fry sauce and 1C Hot and Sour soup (9.5pts)
Snack: 1/2C LF Soy drink with 1C berries (2pts)
Supper: Boiled egg, Lentil burger on Weight Watcher whole wheat bread with mustard and relish (6pts)
1/2 Light Beer, 2 spoonfulls jello and whip cream, licks of black bean fudge, 1/4C LF Soy drink (2.5pts)
Daily Points: 23
Weekly points: 3
Day-in-week: 4
Weekly points remaining: 21
Shy 1 vegetable. I'll grab a cup of baby carrots.

Basically, I'm not doing so good sticking to my daily points. I was super lazy all weekend, too and got no APs. Tomorrow is another day.
Cheers, Candace

Pics and Chinese food

OK, This is me after having lost close to 10lbs. or 25% of my excess weight. My daughter took this yesterday and I realized that I don't have a picture of just myself in the last few years without children covering my front. Only a week and a half ago I couldn't get those pants buttoned up. I bought a pair of shorts and a black summer dress at Winners yesterday - all size 14!

In other news, I did good planning for Chinese, but still managed 14pts on lunch. Since I slept in, I only had a banana in the morning and I brought some carrots and an apple for an afternoon snack. Some pork in the evening and I have some left-over hot and sour soup for lunch today. I ended up with 2 coffees yesterday, but put milk in the second one and rounded off the evening with half glass of wine. I was shy a bit of water and a milk yesterday, but will get back on track with those today. All totalled:

Daily points: 23

Weekly points: 3

Day in week: 3

Weekly points remaining: 24

Activity: Nil unless you count a mall crawl with the family - nah.

Lazy Saturday (Fairly long)

I slept in. Hubby was at work early and the chickens were very good this morning. OK, I didn't really sleep, but getting to stay in bed is pretty cool. He brought me home a coffee (my old one without sugar, so I gave him half and added Splenda). OK, vice satisfied. Now he's gone for a nap.
Gonna take monkey #1 shopping today. She's got $45 in birthday money burning a whole in her vinyl purse and I promised her the Twister Dance game. I also have to buy some birthday party stuff for the LO's party. I am going to try Brownie cupcakes as I think all of these birthday cakes are really testing my resolve - there was the 9yo's party, a co-worker the following week, the the family cake on the girls real birthday, now I need something for the 4yo's party. Here goes:
1 package Betty Crocker LF Brownie mix
3C Bran (not the cereal - I bought generic)
2/3C water
Now that I've tried the Brownies and know they are chocolate-worthy, I will attempt this one. Apparently only 1 pt/cupcake and I don't have to mail-order. Unlike many of you, I am not a fan of baking or cooking. You'd think boiling water would be easy. I looks so simple! NOT say my graveyard of once-beloved kettles. I need to get me one of those fancy shmancy electric ones that shut off - they're just so...generic. I always seem to fancy something out of the ordinary and end up buying a stove top one for too much money that is more of a conversation piece and another element-destruction waiting to happen. For now, I use a pot on the stove top - I think we've only lost 1 of those. I love pretty things, but recognize that hubby and/or the monkeys will not allow me to display pretty things without making a clutter in front of it. So, I have moved my focus to anything that makes my life easier.
My favourite kitchen tools are:
Slow Cooker
Blender
A good teflon fry pan
George Forman grill with bun warmer (gonna take mine to Mom's cottage and upgrade to the family sized one like Collette's - 4 chicken breasts at once, WOW).
Microwave (actually I hate mine, it's from the 80's and won't die. I tried to sell it at a yard sale once - someone bought the microwave stand and the microwave now takes up SO much valuable counter top space. I really want a cute white one, or a range one).
Coffee maker (Oh, I don't actually make the coffee. I buy mine at Tim's or hubby makes it on the weekends. Still I need it and wouldn't be without one).
Toaster (I've actually given some thought to trading it in for a convection oven. Mom has one at the cottage and I really like it - maybe I'll steal it for next winter when she shuts down).

My favourite space savers are:
Shelf saver racks from Wally-Mart. This doubles my cup capacity and allows me to not have to 'stack' plates without using extra room.
Storing spices in a drawer. I put them in little baskets from the dollar store and have been meaning to lable the tops of bottle for a long time, but never made it to that. It saves them falling out of the cupboard all the time. Thanks for my friend Heather who told me to do that around 1.5 years ago.

Now, if I could only convince hubby it's time to get rid of the second fridge. Ahh, we bought a new one last December because the old one leaked from the freezer down below the crisper and out onto the floor. Anyway, it was Christmas so we kept both temporarily. Then a friend was going to take it for his workshop once the weather cleared up then changed his mind. 7 months later and I still have 2 fridges. Amazingly, both are full. Maybe I'll clean them out once I get the monkeys settled down - yup, they can't see you actually sitting doing something and not paying 100% attention to them for any length of time without arguing and getting into stuff.

Cheers, Candace

Friday menu - past and future

OK, let's do this one more time, with feeling:

DAY 2: 23 daily pts, 0 weekly pts ->1weekly pts
Breakfast: 1C Yogurt, 1C Frozen field berries, 3Tbsp Granola, 1Tbsp Wheat Germ - 6pts
Snack: Apple 1pt
Lunch: Frozen PC Blue Menu dinner (Ginger-glazed salmon) with approx. 1.5C extra frozen veggies for bulk - 6pts
Vice: Instant coffee w. 2% milk & nutra sweet 0.5pts (It was raining, so I wasn't walking to the coffee shop)
So far: 9.5 pts remaining
Planned: (- GRRR Hubby called and wants to go for Chinese. I said NO, I have to plan for those things. I told him to take the kids and just go. He thinks he's being supportive by telling everyone how great I'm doing (just shut your f'n mouth up), then does something so thoughtless. Now the kids are all upset 'cause they wanna go for Chinese with Mommy - MEN!!@!) - OK we're going for Chinese on Sat noon

Supper: 2oz pork (5), 1/2C white rice (2), ->3 baby potaoes (1) I need another 3/4C dairy-yogurt or soy drink (1.5), some frozen or fresh veggies with some oil dressing (1) , glass of wine (2)
Activity: I'd like to get out for a walk tonight, weather pending. I don't count these, but am trying to add regular movement into my routine as I sit all day. TOO Tired.
Day-in-week; 2
Weekly Points remaining: 28 ->27

I'd like to get through the rest of the week without using any more weekly points. Phasing out the 2pt coffee cream could help with this, but I know it won't last for long - this is, after all, my vice. I gave coffee up for lent one year - I think cutting 'er down to 1/day is pretty cool. I will try to make it at the office with milk for the 3 days next week, and I never go out for coffee on the weekend - hubby always makes it for me.

Menus and Pitfalls

OK, I wasn't sure if I was going to post menu's, but once in a while, why not. My plan was to have 1 scrambled egg for supper with some grilled tomatoe and then some sorbet with berries later in the evening. Well, I was so late getting home that I was VERY hungry and thought, egg - 2pt, pizza 3 pts, pb&j sand 2pts, still good. Ahem - anyhoo - NOT!


DAY 1: 23 daily pts, 7 weekly pts
Breakfast:
1/2C Bran cereal with 1 Banana and 1C LF Soy Drink - 5pts
Snack: Apple 1pt

Lunch:
Subway 6" Sw Onion Chicken Ter on wheat with sw onion sauce 8 pts
Vice: Coffee w. cream & splenda 2pts

Supper:
2 scrambled eggs in oil 5pts
1/6 Thin Crust greek pizza approx 3 pts
PB&J Sandwich 3 pts
Small piece of b-day cake approx 3 pts

Activity: fast walk 15 mins at lunch (rain, rain, go away)
Day-in-week; 1
Weekly Points remaining: 28

Another NSV!

So I figured if those white pants fit, some other stuff I had boughten around that time would also fit, so I started digging through the bucket of saved favs and picked something out. When I got to work 2 of the girls asked me to turn around and were commenting that they could tell I've lost. This is Candace, wearing clothes that aren't too big:), signing off.

Wednesday WI #7

Well, It's July 4! Happy Independence Day all my Yankee friends! And Happy Birthday my beautiful daughters! They are now officially 9 and 4.

My goal had been to get to the same weight today as I was 9 years ago today, going into labour. I'm not quite there, but hey, I'm a whole lot closer than I was a couple of months ago. So, here goes (drum role, please), down 2.8! OK, so if we discount last weeks 1.6 gain because I had a big supper before WI, I am still down 1.2 over 2 weeks. I'm not ecstatic, but I am please and realize the reasons it was less than it could have been, 1) in both weeks I did not journal as I went at all times (most, but not all) and played catch-up after the fact - this means I could have forgotten items. 2) eating out and some other items I didn't have points for and guesstimated, like birthday cake. 3) I ate until I was more than full a few times, even though I was within my points. I have to pay attention to my comfort zone regardless of the fact that I'm on points. 4) I began to eyeball some quantities rather than measure. Note to self - you bought the food scale, so use it!

Still I will celebrate this loss and continue to work towards my 175.


Cheers, Candace

Technical idiocy

OK, I'm stunned. I was playing with the settings on this last Friday and set it so I had to moderate the comments. Anyhoo, I think I got it figured out now, but think I will go and try to find how to undo that setting.

Good Choices and NSVs!

NSV #1: Made healthy choices while camping. OK, for the 2-day camping trip, I planned the menu, went shopping, packed the right stuff and then lost the menu. But that's OK. We didn't eat as scheduled, I didn't journal as the day progressed, but I had healthy choices. When I wanted to snack, I had apples, carrots and other stuff. When we Barbecued I had my 5pt burger.

We stopped at a friends on the way out and I had a 4pt homemade beer (he's on WW, too) and a 2pt homemade wine. I think I worked some of that off by helping hubby put some plants in the garden (our friend is legally blind and couldn't get them in himself). We kinda skipped lunch so we all got hungry and were starved by the time we hit the camp site. Thank goodness I had cooked a chicken before heading out. I was really hungry in the middle of the night and grabbed the first granola bar I've eaten since starting WW - I figured it was better than being hungry. I also ate half a smore and a couple extra pieces of chocolate - could've gotten out of hand, but didn't.

Sunday went well. I did indulge in some BBQ taters with canned gravy. Everyone really enjoyed my 1pt Brownies (hehe, didn't tell them they were healthy). A lot of people were drinking, but that just made me more determined not to drink as I wanted to keep an eye on the kids. I know I didn't hit all of my GHGs except for water, but I'm not going to focus on that. Tuesday is a new day. I can really feel the affects of my good choices, too. I was able to go to the pool, let the kids play and not get worn out just following the little one around. Also, the mad dash to the outhouse Monday morning with the little one in my arms hurt my bare feet rather than my legs or lungs. All good signs.

NSV #2: OK, so we got home and I tried on, like I've done periodically the past few weeks, a pair of white pants I bought 2 years ago. I couldn't wear them last year and, up to last week couldn't button them up. THEY FIT! They fit again! When I sit the button holes stretch a bit, but that's OK. They button up and they FIT! This makes me soooo happy! I'm gonna wear them to work tomorrow.

Cheers, Candace