A Good Day

Yesterday was a good day in my book. Yay!

Last night, hubby and I went to a choir event last night. It was a woman’s choir. I LOOOOVE singing and I really miss singing in choir like I did in high school. After the concert, they asked if any women would like to experience what it would be like to sing with them. So I did it. It was fun! They took my info and want me to join them, but I got to thinking about it and decided as much as I want to, I just can’t. I’m stretching myself thin, time wise, as it is right now. Maybe someday, but I can’t commit to 3.5 hours practice every week. This week has been about rejuvenation for me because if I feel as overwhelmed as I have in the past couple of weeks, I’m not going to stay sane very long!

For breakfast, I ate a lemon poppy seed muffin, egg beaters, strawberries/blueberries, and skim milk.

While working job #1, I sipped on an Almond Joy iced latte with skim.

On my first break, I ate a banana.

And 1/2 serving of pistachios.

I got off of work 1 hour and 45 minutes early!! nice! That helped my schedule out big time!

I was able to get some work done for Job #2 before lunch.

For lunch, I ate a salad with lettuce, tomato, blue cheese, chicken, and BBQ sauce.

I was still hungry, so I ate an apple with peanut butter.

And while I still had more work to be done, I had to tell myself that it could very easily be done other days of the week and that I had accomplished enough for the day. Time to relax! Getting off work early meant I had time to go to the pool—just to lounge! Something I haven’t been able to do in weeks.

Thanks to my pool pass, I can just spend an hour there and not feel out any money.

I walked to and from the pool, 20 minutes, and then swam for 10 minutes straight. There’s my 30 minute workout!

After that, I went to a local shop and bought a gift for my friend’s birthday.

I was so hungry at this point but wanted to keep my points down. I decided to get supper in the oven and workout to get my mind off of food.

I biked 6.7 miles in 30 minutes. Got in an episode of Ugly Betty. I’ve been slowly making my way through those episodes for a couple of years. I love that show and I’m sad that I only have 3 more episodes left!

For supper, I made fish tacos along with chips and salsa.

So flavorful and delicious.

I finished it up with FF/SF chocolate pudding.

And then I had a couple of these.

Good day for exercise, but I did go over my points, just a little!

Hubby and I plan on going up to the pool again for some more swimming tonight! We have our last swimming lesson this week. Hubby will sign up for more, but I think I’ve learned what I need to learn. Maybe personal training or a class for me…We’ll see!

Fitting in Exercise

I am pretty upset with myself. We went out to eat at Old Chicago last night. I had plenty of points, but thought I’d order a salad and soup to try to keep the points down. I even ate veggies for an appetizer. But the salad I ordered wasn’t in my points database. Come to find out the salad was 23 points!!! And the soup was 12! I couldn’t believe it when I figured the points—AFTER eating it. Ugh.  

So now I’m over my points. I should have known better. If I’d known that, I would have ordered a Calzone, which was less points!! When hubby and I order those, we always cut them in half and take the other half home for a second meal. That's what he did. He ate less points than me and I ordered a salad. Definitely NOT what I would chose to use so many points on. Don’t you hate that?

For breakfast this morning, I ate Cheerios with skim milk and strawberries.

Last week was so crazy busy. I ended up working 47 hours between the two jobs. No wonder I felt like I was busy! After working part of my hours on Saturday, I came home and slept for 3 hours. I guess I needed that!

But that’s why my posts last week were few and far between. I really love this blog and I love blogging but I hate it when I have to make choices on where I’m going to spend my time and have to eliminate some things. I’m sorry I’ve been a bad blogger! But I don’t think most weeks will be like last.

This week will be A LOT less busy for me. So I have my new daily planner where I am scheduling out my days. I hope to have more picture posts this week!

While working, I sipped on a caramel macchiato iced latte made with skim.

On my first break, I ate 1/3 cup 0% Vanilla Greek yogurt with blueberries and milled flax.

I ended up having to work a little later than scheduled, so my day schedule was off a bit.

For lunch I ate a spinach salad with strawberries, almonds, feta, and poppy seed dressing.

I also ate a flat out pizza with spinach, turkey sausage, and tomatoes.

I finished it up with sliced peaches.

We are down to the last few Missouri peaches. I am going to miss those when they are gone!

After lunch, I worked job #2 for my allotted time and then it was time for my workout.

My body is very sore for some reason. And this weekend I climbed a bunch of steps and my thighs are KILLING me. You know, the kind where you can’t go down stairs without wincing in pain. So I decided today would be a good day for Pilates. The workout was a little over 30 minutes.

I really felt how sore my body was by doing that workout. Yesterday was worse. Every part of my body hurt, my toes, my fingers, my wrists, back, legs, everything. I feel like an arthritic old person sometimes. And usually there’s no rhyme or reason to the aches, they just happen. Weird. But after the workout I was left feeling like that again…

It felt good mentally to finally have gotten in my workout. Of course I worried about work that maybe I should have been getting done, but in all honesty, with a little better time management, the work can wait for another day. This week will be about less time spent on work stuff, I’m already ahead, and more time spent on exercising and getting my priorities in line.

After that, I got to have a nice long chat with my Mom. She always knows how to cheer me up. Thanks, Mom. Love you!

I finally went out to the garage and dug through garage sale items to find this:

I am so glad nobody bought all of my old WW plan stuff for $4! I probably wouldn’t have either if I saw how used and dirty my points slider was!!!

lol, but it’ll do the trick! So happy to have found that stuff because I was almost ready to go on E-bay and buy it again.

For a snack, I ate 1/2 serving of mini triscuits and roasted red pepper hummus.

I even took time to do laundry, dishes and clean the kitchen. I truly believe in the saying, “A cluttered house, a cluttered mind.” I feel a lot better when the house is clean!

For supper, I made baked potatoes topped with vegetarian chili and sharp cheddar along with green beans.

This was SOOOO good. I don’t know why I’ve never made those before?

For dessert, we had FF/SF chocolate pudding with Cool Whip Free.

And I still have points left for the day!

I have an event to cover tonight for job #2 and then we will come home and relax. Looking forward to the relaxing part!

Self-control and Scheduling Workouts

I just wanted to check in and say that I am still on track. By on track, I mean that I’m still within my flex points. I’m actually in a really good condition with MOST of them left so far.

I’m still struggling with the “denying myself” part of weight loss. If I want something, I eat it. Maybe not all of it, or maybe not five of them, but I have forgotten what it means to say, “No, I don’t need that.” I could use a little more self-control, whether I’m within my points or not.

My friend sold hubby and me her used elliptical for $25! A Great deal! So now I have an elliptical, a treadmill, a bike and free weights. I also have countless workout DVDs. There is NO reason not to exercise.

I bought a daily planner because I am still struggling with time management. I’m really good at getting my work done, getting supper ready, and taking care of EVERYTHING else, except for my exercise. So the plan is that I literally plan every hour of my day out. I’m hoping this works and that seeing my day written out will help me carve out time to exercise.

How is your journey going?

Weigh in Day

Overall, I had a good week. I stayed within my points.

I finally figured out why I had terrible depression and incredible weight gain…Thanks TOM.

But most of the weight has come off, but not all of it. I gained .9 for the week. But at least I know why!

I will continue doing what I’m doing…and try to exercise more! I’m confident this will work when my body isn’t all out of sync. Hopefully this doesn’t happen every month where I have terrible depression and PMS, and then a week of TOM…Ugh.

Life is looking up though. No worries.

I’m sorry I haven’t blogged regularly this week! I’ve been on track, I promise. I’ve just been SO busy. I’ll try to update more often!

Dierks

I thought I’d share a photo I took of Dierks Bentley at a concert this past weekend. Enjoy! It looks like I was right up close but I was very far away! Thanks to a good camera, I love this shot!

Eats and Treats

I weighed in at 214.7, which is a 3.1 lb. gain for the week. I know I didn’t eat THAT many extra calories, so I’m sure it will come off shortly.

I’m just so glad to be starting fresh today.

For breakfast, I ate a piece of Blueberry Zucchini bread with a tsp. of butter, a small cup of fruit, and skim milk.

While working my first job, I sipped on coffee with FF hazelnut creamer.

On my break, I ate a carb balance tortilla, deli chicken and swiss, that I warmed up in the microwave and served as a wrap.

I also had sliced peaches.

For lunch, I ate a baked potato topped with steamed broccoli and sharp cheddar cheese.

Yum! That was So good.

I finished it up with a Fiber One brownie.

I spent the entire afternoon working. Lots and lots to do. I had to travel a bit, so that made the day go fast!

For supper, I made whole grain spaghetti with a lean turkey sausage and steam zucchini.

That was the most amazing supper. I’m a huge pasta fan.

For dessert, I had a serving of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup.

That puts me right at my points target for the day, so it was a good day!

I don’t want to do anything except go to bed. Ugh! I thought I felt better but I really don’t. I think I’m dealing with a little depression or something. Which isn’t really normal for me…

I’m happy that tomorrow is Friday though!!

Feeling Better Again

I did lose a couple of pounds this morning. Yay! But I’m still up from last week. Tomorrow is weigh in day, I’d be happy if I could at least lose the rest and stay the same for the week. But we will see.

I’m starting to feel better mentally. The only way I can explain how I feel when I don’t feel right is “cloudy”. Like I’m looking through different eyes and thinking someone else’s thoughts. Everything is tainted and blurred. Weird, huh? This doesn’t happen every month, but it does happen every few months it seems like. I’m going to start tracking when.

For breakfast, I ate Cheerios with fresh blueberries and strawberries.

While working, I sipped on an iced latte.

On my first break, I ate 1/3 cup Greek yogurt with fresh peaches and chia seeds.

For lunch, I ate a spinach salad with lettuce, 2 boiled egg whites, tomato, ham, and light ranch.

I was also craving BBQ potato straws, so I ate a serving of those.

I finished it up with an apple and PB.

And that filled me up!

After that, I got to work for job #2. My goal is to work 2 hours a day because then I will officially work 40 hours per week between the two jobs. I got in over 2 hours and called it quits for the day.

I have been thinking constantly about the two little girls that are STILL missing. This has captured the hearts of everyone around here. And so close to home. It just breaks my heart. I can’t imagine what the parents are going through. I just hope that they come home SAFELY, by some miracle.

I have a ton of zucchini from the in-law's so I decided to try  making Zucchini Blueberry Bread. I’ve never made baked goods with zucchini, so this was a first for me. I may or may not have eaten a piece of this, but I CAN tell you that it’s very moist and delicious…errr guilty.

I finished up some coffee I had in the fridge, with a little milk and FF Hazelnut creamer.

I even had some time to chat with Jessica, my weight loss buddy. Nice talking to you, Jessica!

I started some research for Job #2 and kind of got engrossed in it. I love research. Pretty happy that I get to do that for my job every once in a while. So I ended up working over an hour!

For supper, I made Sandwich Thin pizzas with green beans.

I ate another piece of Blueberry Zucchini bread, it only comes out to 2 points per piece. Amazing. I didn’t take another picture. 

I still have a few points left for the day, so I guess I did ok! It may have helped to have a breakfast that was fewer points. I seem to want to eat more in the later afternoon and evening, whether I eat a big breakfast or not.

We are officially half way through the week!!

Frustrated with Myself

I had a good day yesterday, but my evening wasn’t so great. I ended up eating some chocolate…and then felt terrible for it. Hubby has since hid the chocolate.

I weighed this morning and am back up to where I started!! Who knows what I weighed yesterday…ugh.

Why is it that something always comes up to derail my weight loss? I need to learn to roll with the punches a lot better.

But I’m not going to stop blogging about it this time just because I’m having a hard time and not being very successful at the moment.

For breakfast, I ate an egg sandwich with a bowl of fruit and skim milk.

While working, I sipped on an iced latte.

On my break, I ate a light string cheese.

My FIL gave us a big cabbage from their garden and I had it sitting on the counter. When we came downstairs this morning, there were all of these little tiny dots by the cabbage. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I cleaned them all up. Later on in the morning, I noticed more little dots.

So I peeled off the first layer and look what I found.

Ewwww!! Not sure if the little dots were from that little guy or what? I love fresh garden produce but finding bugs just grosses me out.

If we’re slow at work and we have all of our work done, we’re free to spend the time as we choose. Since I work from home, I get to do things like fold laundry.

I love being able to work from home!!

For lunch, I ate tomato sandwiches on light bread with light miracle whip.

Yummy! These are our first home grown tomatoes from the in law’s garden.

I also ate sliced Missouri peaches.

After lunch, I worked for a couple of hours for job #2. I am happy with what I got accomplished today!

For a snack, I ate a small apple with PB.

I was still hungry, so I ate some Special K wheat crackers.

For supper, I made scalloped cabbage and ate that with 1/4 cup light cottage cheese and a slice of light bread with a little chocolate PB.

I was out of points, but ate vanilla ice cream anyways. Forgot to take a picture of it. If I hadn’t eaten all of my weekly points over the weekend, I’d be ok right now… I can’t wait for Thursday to get here so I can just start fresh. I can’t seem to get it together. I am so frustrated with myself.

Tonight, we really are going to the pool. Last night, I wasn’t in the mood to do anything so I went to bed early. I will make myself swim laps.

Marcelle asked if I drink water. I drink TONS of water. At least 9 cups of pure water a day, usually more.

I’m just hoping that my issues are hormone related and I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling myself again, and my weight will drop right back off. It’s probable that’s the issue—but it doesn’t help when I don’t eat perfectly either!

How’s your week going?