A Halloween Post

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Our town had trick or treating last night. We had quite a few kids! They were sooo cute! Well, except the teenagers who didn’t even bother wearing a costume. Time to get a job and buy your own candy! lol.

I put on some cat ears, but we didn’t really dress up this year! I’d love to have a Halloween costume party some year. It’d be so much fun!

Scared? lol

I hope you had a good weekend! I know that we did! Saturday, I spent the day doing homework and housework. Hubby kept busy, he always keeps busy. Always on the go! Saturday evening, we enjoyed dinner out at a “new to us” restaurant. We had pizza. I had one slice and it was delicious. I tried to be very mindful this weekend. And while I wasn’t perfect, I definitely enjoyed life (including some Halloween candy) but counted every single point and made decisions throughout the day to plan for it.

After our supper, we went to see My Fair Lady, a Broadway production. It’s based on one of my favorite plays by George Bernard Shaw—Pygmalion. That was the play that really got me started thinking about becoming an English major my senior year of high school. So it was really cool to see it. I LOVED it. So good!

After that fun weekend, it was hard to get started this morning. For breakfast, I had Cheerios with a sliced banana and milk for 4 points.

While working, I sipped on some new coffee that I purchased a while back. It is orange flavored. The beans came within little chunks of dried oranges:

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this, but I drank it with FF French Vanilla creamer and it was SO good. Very different and tasty! 1 point.

On my first break, I ate a WW light string cheese for 1 point. I tried to take a picture with something Halloween-ish for each photo.

If you are on WW, you may know that WW has teamed up with Dr. Oz for Transformation Nation—Million Dollar You. I decided to sign up to see what it was all about today. You take a short quiz about your health and I was happy to see I got 4 stars! Very cool.

Looking at the information, it looks like you just have to stop in and get a verified weigh in at WW to be able to participate and be entered in to win 1 million dollars. I just might do that! Anyone else participating? I’m not 100% sure I will be able to because I haven’t looked into it that much yet.

For lunch, I ate a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, deli turkey, pecans, gorgonzola cheese and pear vinaigrette for 5 points.

This has been my “BBQ chicken salad” lately—I eat something similar almost everyday.

And since it IS Halloween after all, I ate a Reese’s peanut butter cup for 2 points.

On my break, I ate an apple with PB for 3 points.

On my last break, I ate 1/2 oz. each of candy corn and peanuts for 3 points.

I got off of work about 45 minutes early, so I headed outside for a walk. I walked my 1.55 mile loop in 27 minutes and burned 155 calories.

I made the switch to my new Progesterone only BC pill yesterday and I’ve had headaches and felt achy, etc. But I’m supposed to give it some time for my body to adjust and hopefully this will help my blood pressure. In the mean time, I will keep at my healthy living, eating right and exercising. I need to exercise harder but I feel that anything I can do to get moving is better than nothing and sometimes I find it so hard to get motivated to get out there when I’m not feeling well or I’m really tired.

I wanted to make something Halloween-ish for supper, so I found this idea online. I made Mummy dogs! And I’m actually going to make them like this again, minus the eyes, because it cuts down on the points! I also had green beans and roasted potatoes for a total of 11 points.

I finished it up with FF Cook-n-Serve chocolate pudding for 2 points.

That puts me right at goal for the day. So overall, it was a good day. I may eat some popcorn if I get hungry later.

What did you dress up for Halloween as?

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Harvest Time

Remember when hubby and I planted our garden?

Well, we ended up harvesting quite a bit. Just enough for the two of us.
We had quite a few salads made with the lettuce from our garden:

Even enjoyed some sweet and juicy strawberries:

We had more raspberries than ever this year, which our nephew also enjoyed eating right off the bush over the 4th of July:


The blackberries were the biggest I have ever seen!


We didn’t get as many tomatoes this year because our plant was slightly damaged in our wind storm. But we got a few!

We also had quite a few wax beans but I didn’t get a picture of those.
But we finally harvested the last of the garden produce this afternoon. Green onions and carrots:

Take a look at those carrots! They are as big as potatoes! Here is a picture showing them compared to a baby carrot:

It’s always rewarding to grow our own produce. It saves money and it’s fun to watch everything grow. We have stew in our future to use up those carrots!

That Girl Who is Always in her Pajamas

It’s Friday!!! This week has flown by! But I’m happy it’s almost the weekend.

Yesterday was another perfect day! I hit my points target! Whoohoo! I keep wanting to see a loss on the scale but I have stayed the same for 3 days. Patience. I even earned some AP’s yesterday when hubby and I went for a walk. It feels good to be back on track. Now I just need to do well throughout the weekend.

For breakfast this morning, I had Cheerios with a sliced banana and milk for 4 points.

While working, I sipped on spiced apple cider for 2 points. I picked up these packets at Aldi’s. It’s really tasty! I added probably double the water that it says to use. It’s a little high in sugar, with 20g per serving, but it’s not something I would drink everyday either.

It was a cooooollld day today. But working at home is fabulous because I can wear my standard work attire. Pink fleece PJ’s and fuzzy slippers! My pants are entirely too big but they’re super comfy!

My neighbors must think I’m super lazy because I wear PJ’s while working everyday and I always go out and get the mail in them. They wouldn’t know I work from home! “There’s that girl who never gets out of her pajamas.” haha

On my first break, I ate 1/2 oz. dry roasted peanuts for 2 points.

I also had a WW string cheese for 1 point.

For lunch, I had a salad with Schwan’s teriyaki chicken, gorgonzola, pecans, and pear vinaigrette for 8 points.

I bought the gorgonzola cheese at Aldi’s and Oh.My.Word. It’s rich and creamy and just the best cheese ever. And Hubby doesn’t like it. Muaaahhahahahaha. All for me!

I also had FF/SF chocolate pudding for 2 points.

Around 1:30 I was SO tired, so I made an iced coffee for 1 point.

Today was a hungry day. It’s the first hungry day I’ve had since Wednesday so it was a bit more of a struggle. I only had 12 points left, so I didn’t want to eat anything on my break. So I didn’t. Go me! I know I could have fruits or veggies but they just didn’t sound good.

For supper, I heated up the leftover creamed chicken and had that over light toast, along with whole wheat stuffing, and made up for my veggies shortage by eating squash, and green beans for 7 points.

Oh man, what a fabulous dinner. It was very Thanksgiving like.

I finished it up with a Fiber One brownie for 2 points.

I was trying to get my dessert points lower, hubby had cake ice cream which I was dying to eat. But it was a good exercise in self control. And I did it. I was satisfied.

I have 3 points left for the day. I wish it were 4 points because that’s how much my popcorn costs. Shouldn’t have had that iced coffee! But I suppose I could use 1 weekly point if I really want popcorn later. Or I could measure out 3 points worth—I think that’s a plan! Right now, I’m full!

Hubby and I are getting ready to go out for a walk again. I’m so happy it’s the weekend!!!

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A Productive Day

First, I want to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to all of you who commented on yesterday’s post. Your comments really touched me and your words meant so much to me. They really gave me some things to think about, and I know some posts will come out of them. So thank you. You are all wonderful.

Good news! Yesterday was successful! I didn’t use any weekly points, but hit my target! Whoohoo!

For breakfast this morning, I had light toast topped with PB and a sliced banana along with a glass of milk for 5 points.

I look forward to my glass of cold milk in the morning. Love it.

After hubby left, it was time to buckle down and write a paper that was due today! I sipped on hazelnut coffee with SF hazelnut creamer for 1 point.

I worked on my paper all morning and it was a HUGE relief when I was done. I have been stressing about this paper for weeks and finally found the time to get it finished!

I had a few minutes before I had to get ready for school, so I took some time to read blogs. I REALLLLY miss reading blogs. I try to read a few when I can.

I snacked on 1 cup of grapes and a WW light cheese stick for 1 point. I really love the new WW Smoked string cheese! YUMM!

I was really hungry on my way to class, so I stopped and got a Naked Mighty Mango. I had just a few sips, 1/4 of the bottle, but it was just enough to take away my hunger. I also filled up on water. What I drank of the Naked was 2 points.

I only had one class today, the one I had to turn my paper in at. My second class was canceled and we were supposed to have a speaker at my third class who canceled so the professor was going to call it a work day. I had my class projects done, so I asked him if I could just go home and work on my paper instead and he said that was fine ONLY since I said I would work on my paper. lol Any extra time is SO valuable!

I had a headache, so I thought I should probably eat something after class, so I got a 6” turkey and ham sub at Subway for 7 points.

AnyTober is almost over at Subway, but I loved that I could buy a foot long for $5 and then bring a 6” home for hubby’s lunch tomorrow. What a great deal! And thanks to my sister for the gift card!

Instead of getting baked chips, I decided to try a bag of Snapz. 1 point.

I honestly didn’t know if I really needed to count these at all since fruit is free. The only ingredients are apples and lemon juice. I looked on the WW message boards and someone asked this question and the reply was that you do need to count the points because they are considered a dried fruit. They’re still worth only 1 point!

Yeh, pretty healthy! It was perfect for my dessert after my sub and I saved a quite few points.

I had to run in to Wal-Mart to grab some shampoo, amongst other things. I have been looking for a really good shampoo. I tried an organic shampoo and I liked it better than the Herbal Essences I was using, but I wasn’t thrilled with it. This time, I am trying Suave Professionals because my sister says she really likes it. I’m not a fan at all of the standard 98 cent Suave product, so hopefully I like this! Any recommendations? I have dry hair, so I need something moisturizing. My sister also bought me this leave in conditioner called It’s a 10 that helps A TON. Absolutely LOVE it. Now I just need to find a shampoo that does my hair good too!

One of the reasons I stopped at Wal-Mart is because one of my all time favorite singers came out with a new album, which he hasn’t done in years. I grew up listening to him and he has just grown on me. He is my Mom’s favorite singer and my Dad loves him too—so we listened to him in the mini-van a lot! I think he is one of the most talented artists out there. So if you’ve never heard him before, let me present—Vince Gill! This song is beautiful. And if you don’t like country music, you might like the words.

Vince Gill

So I picked up this album so that hubby and I can both put it on our iPods. I enjoyed listening to it on my way home! Someday, we are going to go to Nashville and see this fabulous man play at The Grand Old Opry. I saw him when I was a child, but that was a long time ago!

Once I got home, I wanted to hold true to my promise and ACTUALLY work on my paper. So that’s what I did. This paper took a bit to actually get my head wrapped around. It took me 30 minutes just to come up with a thesis. But anyone who writes knows that once you have that down, it’s pretty easy going from there. So once my plan was in place, I stopped for a moment to enjoy a Lindt Truffle for 2 points.

I ended up working on the paper for 3 1/2 hours and I actually finished it!! I was so happy! I wasn’t planning on working on this paper until Saturday, so this extra time that I had today was FABULOUS! I am OFFICIALLY done with the stressful projects I’ve been working on! And now it will be time to start thinking about finals. Eek! One of the biggest lessons I have learned in college is time management—a very valuable skill!

For supper, I made baked tenderized round with veggies (carrots, onions and mushrooms). This was the first time I’ve ever baked these. I cooked them too long. I thought they were dry, but hubby liked them! I also had mashed potatoes that I made out of baked potatoes and added a little bit of milk to. They were delish! 7 point supper. I had planned on having a bunch of veggies tonight but they really cooked down and it didn’t look like much!

I made Cook’n Serve FF/SF pudding for dessert for 2 points.

I am HOOKED on that stuff now. SO good and so satisfying!

I have 4 points left for the day, which is just perfect. Last night I had healthy pop popcorn and it helped keep me from doing any other snacking because it filled me up. If I’m hungry tonight, I will do the same thing.

Hubby and I are getting ready to head out the door for a walk! I enjoy the fall walks in the crisp evening air, hand in hand with my hubby!