The Perfect New Years Eve Beverage brought to you by Sweet’N Low® and the DailyBuzz Food Tastemaker program

Low Calorie Hot Mocha

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1-2 packets Sweet’N Low®
• 1 cup hot coffee
• skim milk (optional)

Directions:

1. Mix the cocoa powder and Sweet’N Low® contents in a mug.
2. Pour the hot coffee in the mug and mix with the cocoa powder and Sweet’N Low®.
3. Add steamed skim milk or skim milk, if preferred.

This makes a delicious, and low calorie, hot mocha! Who needs an expensive coffee drink when you can make it at home for a fraction of the cost! You probably even have the ingredients on hand. You can find the original recipe here. I simplified it just a bit.

I was sent a Sweet’N Low® Sweetener gift pack. This post is sponsored by the DailyBuzz Food Tastemaker program and Sweet’N Low®.

SuperMe!

I couldn't resist taking this picture at a rest stop in Metropolis. :)

Hello!

I hope you all had a great holiday! Just thought I would check in to say hello. We are enjoying our vacation. Here are a couple pics of hubby and me in Charleston. More to come Soon!

A Christmas Miracle

There’s no other explanation…lol.

I set a goal to lose 5 lbs. from Monday to Friday…and as of this morning, I lost 5.5 lbs.!

As you know from my previous posts, I was expecting the worst. So this was a delightful surprise and puts me in a much better place as I start traveling!

Today, I will dig us out of the drifts. I’ll take some pics and post them if I have time!

A Blizzard!

Today was a snowed in kind of day…except for me that means I literally had to work all day. Since I have the ability to work from home, I volunteered to work all day for coverage since a lot of people couldn’t make it into the office.

With a few hiccups… the day went pretty quickly. I lost power about 10 times. The longest episode was about 30 minutes. Thankfully it hasn’t been off since!

This picture pretty much explains what it looked like outside. This was my attempt to take a picture but it was so windy!

You can see the drifts (this was VERY early, so they’re bigger now)…I will have the privilege of plowing those out tomorrow!

What is it about snowed in days… I wanted to EAT! I had a couple of episodes with chocolate, which made me feel like I had completely ruined my day. But I realized those were isolated events and otherwise I did ok. I don’t normally even keep it in the house! But I had a bag of dark chocolate chips on hand to make peppermint bark. Ugh. There’s a reason I don’t keep them in the house! See?!

My weight has gone up after I lost the 4.9 lbs. on Tuesday morning…not back up ALL the way…but back up. Prolly won’t make it to the 5 lbs. after today. *sigh*

Mostly, I just need to keep it under control until I am back at home next year and can start afresh.

I am officially on VACATION NOW!!! I will be off of work until January 3rd! SO EXCITED!!! The awesome thing is that I will still have a bunch of vacation time left after this… that’s one thing I LOVE about my job… TONS of vacation time.

I don’t know if I ever told you all this, but I have a new position at my employer. I am a full time technical writer and it’s absolutely a dream to me. I love it. Such a good feeling. Today I was back in my old role for coverage though…made me realize how much I love my new job!!

There’s my update for the day! I’ll check in again tomorrow!

Later, my loves!

Christmas Party

I'm blogging Today because I said I would every day... I could have done much better at the party... I did bring a healthy lettuce salad though...not many ate it. Lol. Tomorrow will be much better. I will be snowed in during this blizzard! But working ALL day. Have a good one!

How much did I lose?

This morning I weighed in and had lost 4.9 lbs.! Yippee!! I knew that it wouldn’t stay around for long. Now the trick will be keeping it off until Friday!

Today has actually gone well. I thought I overdid it at supper because by the time I got home I was starving and just ate! But I counted it afterwards and I’m right on track. Yay!

Tomorrow is the Christmas party at work—I will try to watch my portions!

We are gearing up for a massive snowstorm…I never even saw a snowstorm last year because we hardly got any snow and we were on vacation during the one major snow storm! I’m hoping to be able to just cozy up at home.

Stay safe!

Food Photo Diary

Just a quick post as I am ready to get to bed! I haven’t been feeling the greatest all day—a cold and sick to my stomach for most of the day. Bleh!

For breakfast, I ate 2 slices of light toast with 1 hard boiled egg, a banana, and skim milk.

At work, I sipped on coffee with creamer. Forgot to take a picture in my rush to get there on time!

On my break, I ate Greek 0% yogurt—pineapple flavor, with fresh blackberries. Forgot to take a pic of that too!

For lunch, I ate a salad with lettuce, raspberries, feta, sliced almonds and lite poppyseed dressing.

Yum! I love that salad!

After lunch, I drank some coffee in my soup mug.

I was craving a little something sweet later, so I ate a Fiber One bar—only 2 points.

Wasn’t feeling well the rest of the day, so I didn’t eat anything else while at work.

After work, I had to run a few errands. I decided to grab supper at the Pita Pit. A chicken breast pita…YUM!

And I had enough points for baked BBQ Lay’s.

I picked up up a small gift for our office grab and steal gift exchange. The scissors are pink studded. Cute! There are mostly ladies at the office…What do you think?

I also found this:

I thought it was perfect. I’m going to put it above my treadmill. It was only $15.

I grabbed a tall skinny peppermint mocha at Starbucks for the drive home.

Thanks to their sign, I knew this would only be 100 calories and it turned out to only be 2 points. Totally worth it too. It was really tasty without being too rich, like peppermint mochas can often be.

I was going to just go to bed, but I thought to myself, how hard is it to walk 1 mile…not that hard! So I got on the treadmill and walked my mile.

I have 5 points left for the day, so I stuck with my plan for the week. Whoohoo! This is a huge feat for me.

My plan for the night is to grab a bottle of diet 7 up and relax…hopefully my tummy feels better very soon!

5 lbs. by Friday

I keep talking about maintaining but it seems all I keep doing is GAINING.

Another depressing morning on the scale.

I want to lose 5 lbs. by Friday.

There. I’m putting it out there. 5 lbs. will take off the extras that I have gained over the past few days/weeks.

That seems like a lot of weight to lose in a few days but I’m pretty sure it’s possible because it came on so fast. I’m guessing some of it is water weight.

Here’s my plan:

1. Track my points.
2. Stay within my points!
3. Walk or run at least 1 mile every day. (I am sick…so if I’m not up to running…at least I could walk)
4. Bring a healthy dish to my work Christmas party on Wednesday
5. Keep drinking my water
6. Blog every day. I am going to try to take food photos, but we will see if time permits…

I want to lose 5 lbs. by Friday because that’s when I’ll start traveling again.

I have a lot more to say, but I’ll save it for another blog post. I am going to try to start blogging more regularly again, even if it’s just expressing what’s going on in my head. Someone made a good point, when commenting on my blog recently, about figuring out the WHY.

WHY am I eating lately? I’m going to be thinking about that and hopefully have some answers soon.

A New Year is ahead…

With all of my struggles this past year, I just want to say that I am looking forward to a new year beginning in 2013!

If I can just make it through these last couple of weeks in 2012 without gaining any more—that would be fabulous.

I have been focusing on a lot of negativity lately. When you’ve lost almost 90 lbs. and gained back 20 of it, it really wrecks havoc on your emotional well being.

I have recognized that the negativity isn’t going to help me get anywhere.

What I need to do is accept that I have gained 20 lbs. As angry at myself as that makes me, it’s reality. It happened. It’s out there. I am not “cured” of any weight issues. I am obviously still fighting whatever it was that got me to 288 lbs. in the first place and I have to figure that out.

I cannot dwell on the past. I can’t  beat myself up over it. I must move on.

I’m going to be one of those New Years Reolutioners this coming year. I am being realistic in saying that I probably won’t be losing a ton of weight in the next 2 weeks—so maintenance is all I’m going for. I will be traveling (yay!) and as we all know, there are a couple of holidays coming up. So, coming January, I will put 2012 behind me and focus on what I can change—the present and the future.

For any of you that are in the same boat as me, feeling like you are beyond help, HAVE HOPE. We can do this with a fresh new start ahead.

Weigh in day

Today was weigh in day and it wasn’t good. I basically gained a couple of pounds the day after weigh in and maintained that all week, only to have another jump in my weight this morning. Total gain of 3 lbs.

As terrible as that sounds, I don’t think it will stick around. Here’s why:

Over the course of last week, I have progressively gotten better. At first, I still didn’t track. I had every intention to but never got it done.

On Monday night I had a bit of a break down and a talk with hubby. I realized that I am absolutely miserable. I hate myself and that pours over into other areas of my life. So that means I am certainly not comfortable where I’m at.

That brings a new motivation to this. Something that I seemed to have lost along the way. I DO THIS FOR ME. I do it to feel good about myself. Because I am happier when I’m on track.

Tuesday and Wednesday were good days. The days are progressively getting better. I started tracking. And today I plan to continue that.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have been a bit MIA because I have been overwhelmingly busy. But, I’ve been struggling with that and having to go into the office every day for work. I’m finally settling into a routine and setting healthy habits in my new schedule.

I am packing my lunch bag FULL of healthy foods. Fruits, veggies, and even a 2 point granola bar if I start to feel a sweets craving—better that than a 6 point cookie, right?! I also bought Starbucks instant coffee to keep in my desk to drink. This often keeps me from snacking. As always, I have continued to drink lots and lots of water. The past few days my goal has been to eat the RIGHT foods, even if I went over my points a bit.

Now it’s time to move to the next level with it being the beginning of my WW week again. I will eat the right foods and stay within my points.

I worked out before work on Tuesday and Thursday (this morning). I biked both days, which I know doesn’t compare to running, but it’s better than nothing at all.

I questioned if I should even come on here to tell you all that I gained…YET again. This is supposed to be the journey to THIN, not the journey to FAT! Good grief!

It’s hard for me to admit that I’m not doing so well. I keep falling down and I keep getting up. You’ve seen this pattern again and again. But I figure as long as I keep getting up, that’s really all that matters.

I will get this. I’m hoping in the next few days to be able to report those 3 lbs. are back off again! Right now, with all that’s going on, I’d seriously be happy to maintain. A loss would make me ecstatic!!

Thanks for reading. Sorry it’s not anything inspirational…it is what it is! This is where I’m at right now.

Where are YOU at right now?

What I need right now…

Be as you are- Kenny Chesney

#BestBodyBootcamp Week 7 in Review

You can read about the Best Body Bootcamp, if you are interested!

My 2 personal goals:

1. Drink 64 oz. of water.
2. Eat 3 servings of vegetables.

Overall personal goal analysis: I drank my water all 7 days and ate 3 servings of veggies 6 days. This was probably the most consistent part of my week!

You’re probably going to wonder why I am even bothering updating you all on my stats for this week, but I’m just trying to stay accountable.

Here’s how my workouts went:

Monday: I completed Workout A. I never found the time to fit the sprints in. But at least I got part of the workout in!

Tuesday: This was a rest day.

Wednesday: And then I decided to take another rest day, after all, I get two per week, right?

Thursday: I knew I had to get some kind of workout in, so I took my cardio of choice day and biked for 20 minutes in between jobs.

Friday: I completed a Pick Your Cardio day by running on the treadmill. I ran 1 mile and walked to warm up and cool down. It was a quick 20 minute workout before work.

Saturday: I had every intention of getting up early to work out, which I did…but then I had other things that HAD to get done and before I knew it, it was time for me to leave for the day. And of course by the time I got home, I wasn’t in the mood to workout.

Sunday: I spent the morning getting the house straightened up, and then there was church, I came home and worked the rest of the afternoon. By the evening, I really didn’t feel like working out again.

Overall workout analysis:

How I feel: Like a loser.

I know that all of my reasons for missing my workouts are just excuses. Working out is an important part of health and I just HAVE TO FIND THE TIME to get them in.

My biggest struggle this past week was being busy. I worked 47 hours last week and then had numerous social events thrown in there too.

The hardest part about all of it has been that I have had to go into the office to work. As you know, I normally work from home. By the time I am done for the day, I am absolutely beat. I have allergy/asthma issues in the office so I’m never feeling my best either.

BUT, I did workout 3 days last week. I burned 511 calories. It’s better than nothing. But I really need to get my act together and finish out this last 8th week of boot camp strong!

For next week: Like I said before, I need to follow through with my workouts. I need to schedule the workout in my day and then stick with my plan and actually do it.

If you’re following the Best Body Bootcamp, how was your week?

If you’re not following the Best Body Bootcamp, how is your endeavor to meet your goals going?

Weigh in Day

Today was my first weigh in after being gone for two weeks. I gained 1.6 lbs. Honestly, I feel like that’s a success. That seems kind of sad, huh?

I am having a tough time! I’m just busy, busy, busy. I have had to work in the office every day this week. I normally work from home. I packed my lunch most of the week. I pack healthy snacks. Overall, I’m not doing so bad. But I have been stopping at the gas station to get my afternoon coffee and have also been buying one (normal size- not giant) cookie. One sweet isn’t so bad, is it? I think it’s ok.

The main problem is that I haven’t been counting my points. I’m not eating like a crazy person though. Just eating my meals and healthy snacks when I’m hungry. Sure there are moments of weakness, but that’s nothing new. For all I know, I’m under my points or over my points. That’s a problem. I should be counting them, so that’s the goal starting now!

I’d like to have a loss this week and if I’m not tracking what I’m doing, there’s no way to gauge my progress. Ever feel like sometimes you’d be happy just keeping it all together without a gain? That’s kind of how I feel right now!

But I need to keep my eye on the prize.

I have been struggling to get my workouts in, but so far I’m on track for the week. I must get all 5 workouts in this week!

How is your weight loss journey going?

#BestBodyBootcamp Week 6 in Review

You can read about the Best Body Bootcamp, if you are interested!

My 2 personal goals:

1. Drink 64 oz. of water.
2. Eat 3 servings of vegetables.

Overall personal goal analysis: This was a hard week for me. I was away on a business trip. I ate breakfast at the hotel, lunches were served to us, and supper was out at really nice restaurants.

With that said, I drank my water every day. However, I only met my veggie goal one day last week!! It wasn’t that I didn’t eat any veggies in any given day, it’s just that I didn’t eat 3 servings. I struggle to meet this goal AT HOME, which made it much more difficult to meet when I was away. I always made sure to get in my fruits and some veggies though.

Here’s how my workouts went:

Monday: Monday was a travel day. I ended up taking it as a rest day.

Tuesday: The hotel we stayed at didn’t have a fitness center, so I packed warm. I got up at 5 a.m., headed outside in the 17 degree weather, and ran 2 miles. I have to admit I felt a little unsafe running in the dark by myself! (Cardio A)

Wednesday: My co-worker offered to walk with me, so we were up at 5 a.m. to get a 30 minute walk in. We walked 1.74 miles. (Optional Cardio)

Thursday: Another 1.74 mile walk with my co-worker again. (Cardio B substitute)

Friday: This was my first day home, except I had to go into the office to work and it was just a busy, busy day. I took my second rest day.

Saturday: I completed Workout A and a 5 mile bike ride. I have to admit that I was feeling it after not having done one of the scheduled workouts for a few days! It felt good though.

Sunday: And here’s where I got lazy. After working most of the day for my second job, I was just tired after the whole week and failed to get my fifth workout in for the week. This was my first week to miss my workout goal.

Overall workout analysis: I am disappointed that I didn’t meet my goal, but I honestly feel that I did the best I could with what I had this week. It was a tough one, but I still made exercise a priority, even when I was gone (for the second week in a row).

How I feel: Tired. Not much to stay about that!

For next week: I want to get my five workouts in this week. It’s going to be another tough week, getting used to working a full time job and a part time job…AND working at the office everyday this week. But I have to keep my priorities in line and get it done.

If you’re following the Best Body Bootcamp, how was your week?

If you’re not following the plan, how do you make sure to get your workouts in during those crazy busy weeks?

#THB5K WINNERS!

And FINALLY… the winners are announced! Thanks again to all of you who participated and a special thanks to the sponsors of the third annual THB5K!

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Prize #1- Sponsored by Zippearz, Nouveau Earbuds

PRIZE #1 WINNER: EMILY 

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Prize #2- Sponsored by Zippearz, ZPro Arm Band and Mouse Pad

PRIZE #2 WINNER: ALLISON

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Prize #3: ALSO sponsored by Zippearz, Zwaist away waistband

Prize #3 WINNER: VICKIE

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Prize #4: Sponsored by SunglassesShop.com, Dirty Dog Ecco Sunglasses

PRIZE #4 WINNER: JENNA

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Prize #5: Sponsored by JOLLY TIME Popcorn, Prize Pack

PRIZE #5 WINNER: KATHRYN

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Prize #6: Sponsored by GlitzBandz, Run Like a Girl headband

PRIZE #6 WINNER: CRAFTY LOSER

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Prize #7: Sponsored by EatSmart, EatSmart Precision GetFit Digital Body Fat Scale

PRIZE #7 WINNER: SARA WENDT

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Prize #8: Sponsored by Active Accessories, On-the-go accessory pouch

PRIZE #8 WINNER: JULIA

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Prize #9: Sponsored by me, Prize Pack

PRIZE #9 WINNER: SARAH S.

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Congratulations to all of you!! Please shoot me an email at AJourney2Thin@gmail.com with your full name and mailing address and I will get the prizes out to you!

You will have two weeks from this post to claim your prize or the prize is forfeited and a new winner will be chosen. Prize must be claimed by December 19th.

Who’s ready for next year!?!? I’ve appreciated all of your feedback regarding the 5k.

One person suggested that next year I charge a fee and have t-shirts made. Who would be interested in that possibility?

Any other suggestions or feedback you have to make next year’s THB5K even better? Let me know!

#THB5K Participants Post!

We had 86 participants (AND two dogs!) in the THB5K this year! I am very happy with that number, we fell just short of the goal of 100 participants. But 86 is FABULOUS!  That’s 33 more participants than last year!

I am so proud of each and every one of you who made it a priority to get out there and get active on Thanksgiving!

I want to make a special shout out to MarathonMom28, who reported the fastest time at 19:43! Congrats!!

Here are the 5K participants in the order that they came in. Take a look at all of you!!

Crafty Loser: Walked a little over 3.1 miles in 1 hour. This was her first time participating in the THB5K and had never walked around the lake three times before today!

Angie: Ran a 5K in 25:32 with her friend Shane. This is my sister, and she has participated each year (that she knew about it)!

Mabelle N: 5K in 50:26.

Chubby McGhee: Completed an organized 5K in 44:25 and is planning on doing more after this race.

Sarah: Here is Sarah with her brother, mom and dad. They walked farther than a 5k (probably more like 4 miles) in 1hour 3minutes.

Michele: Participated in her school district's "Turkey Trot for Education" 5K race. It was the first official 5K she has ever run and she did the whole thing without stopping to walk once! She ran with her coworker.

Me and Hubby: We ran the Feet to Feast 5K in Palm Coast, Florida. It was a great race! Our time was 37:23, which is great for me!

Sara Weber: Completed the Turkey Trot 2012 in Eau Claire, WI with her friend Carrie Brunner. The race was 5 miles and they completed it in 1:15:37. Next year, they hope to bring along their older daughters.

Sara Wendt: Completed 5 miles in 48:34, keeping up a 9:43/mile pace. She recruited her husband to run with her and four little ones to run the fun run!

Elisabeth Hillier: Ran the first annual Bootcamp Chicks Turkey Trot with her friends and family. Her son and hubby joined her for the first mile. She completed this even thought she is not crazy about running, but running helped me take off 60lbs!

Allison: Completed a Turkey Trot in Lansing, MI with four others. Her time was 27:44, which was a personal best!

DebsDailyLife: Completed a 5k in 50:03!

Traci: Completed her 5k in under 48 minutes!

 

Ashlee: Completed the 5K at 3.5 mph with a 7.5% incline and was done in 53 minutes. She recently had her first baby and is working her way back to her pre-baby fitness level. She has participated in every THB5K!

Susan: Completed her 5K on the treadmill in 41:31. She also had a great idea for next year’s 5k…but it’ll be our little secret for now!

Leah: Completed her 5K in 29:14, which was her new PR! She also talked one of her friends in Arizona into running. My favorite part, this was the first time in 14 years that she exercised on Thanksgiving!! BRAVO!

Suzanne: She and her husband ran this together on the beach. What a beautiful setting! They finished it in 42:46.

Betta: Her son rode his bike while she ran for the first mile and then she completed the rest of her 5K by herself in 36 minutes total. This is my sister-in-law!

Amanda: She and her boyfriend, Brandon, ran a 5K in 33:41 on a hilly route. This was her first THB5K and is looking forward to doing it again next year!

Lori (Finding Radiance): Did her 5K in 2 installments. She and her husband John powerwalked for 2 miles in the morning and then after dinner they recruited her sister and one of her daughters to go out on another walk to do the rest. They did a total of probably 3.5 miles on the day. Total time was 60 minutes (give or take).

MarathonMom28: She had the fastest time!! WAY TO GO!!!Completed her 5k in 19:43, which is a new PR for her!

Morgan: Participated in a Race Against Hunger 5k with her my Mom and Sister-in-Law. She finished in 54m and 49s which was under her goal of 1hr.

Kathryn: Ran the Lifetime Turkey Day 5K in Minneapolis with her sister. She set a new PR of 26:25! Great job!

Jennifer:

Jen: Walked with her husband and daughter.

Penny: Ran her 5k in 27:21!

Erin: Erin recruited her boyfriend to run. She finished in 30:23 and he finished in 29:23. She said it made them feel better after eating a heavy meal.

Kim: Kim walked 3.24 miles, Schrodinger's Cat walked .1 mile and Slugger sat on the chair and supervised. :)

Mary, Julia, Deborah (sisters): Mary set a new PR with, 27:35. Julia ran it in 29 minutes. Deborah ran it in 34 minutes.

Brenda: This was her second year participating, she did it in 2010 and missed last year. She walked/jogged the 5k in 40 minutes. “It made me feel so good to have completed this before eating and helped make me more mindful of my food choices.” Love that!

Tayla: finished the 5k in 31:25, which was a new PR!

Jessica: She recruited her two dogs to go along with her. Pets need exercise too!

Natalie: Finished in 38:15!

Vickie: She finished in 40:36 and 15th in her age group of 57 people! way to go!

Amy: She completed the 5k with her daughter and stepdaughter. Amy’s time was 35:13! The 5k benefited a local girl who is battling cancer.

Stacy: Completed 5 miles!

Kim (Just) Trying is for Little Girls: Finished in 29:46. This is her second year participating in the THB5K!

Ahnekki: Completed the 5k in 54 minutes!

Jessica: Completed a 5k AND a Jazzercise class!

Daphne: Walked and jogged to finish in 53:20.

Julie: Completed a 4 mile race for the homeless with her sister.

Heather: Heather ran a 5k, while pushing her son in a stroller, in 26:40. She then dropped him off at home and ran a 10k in 51:17! Rock star! I love this pic of her drinking her post run smoothie.

April: Walked the 5k with her son in 50:09!

Jury- Diet Chick on a mission: Finished her 5k in 37:15! Great job!

Jenna: She and her husband ran the 5k in 38:21! Great job, you two!

Emily: She recruited her Mom and finished the 5k in 46:48! She improved her time over last year’s turkey trot by over 3 minutes!! That’s great!

GREAT job everyone!!

If I happened to miss you, please shoot me at email at AJourney2Thin@gmail.com. With the greater number of people involved this year, I want to make sure I didn’t miss anyone by accident before I draw the winners! You have until Monday evening to let me know!

Winners will be announced on Tuesday!! Stay tuned!