Valentine's weekend

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's weekend. Enjoyment wise, it couldn't have been better. Food wise, I've had better days. : ( I honestly don't feel like I did horrible, but I know that I indulged a bit more then I should have.

Friday night my Mom and I took my nieces and my boyfriend's daughter to a tea party. This place was adorable! They let the girls (and grown ups) do a little dress up before going their table and the kids just had a blast with this. This was our table.


The lady brought us individual tea pots with different flavored teas. One was chocolate, which the younger crowd enjoyed, but I liked the one that had apples and cinnamon. They also brought trays of the most yummy finger foods. I had exactly one of everything, but that totaled eight things. They were pretty small and I did have 16 points left for the day but I honestly have no idea how to count them. This was the adult tray.


And here is my lovely hat. : )


Yesterday started out good and I had plans to cook a Valentine's dinner but my boyfriend surprised me by taking me to Outback. That is one of my favorite restaurants. I don't feel that I did too badly there either. I had a few pieces of the bread, my salad with dressing on the side, about 1/2 of a 6 oz steak and the French green beans. I had never had those before since I usually go for the loaded potato, they were really good.

That night we got together with friends and there were lots of munchies. Since we had eaten so early, I definitely ate too much there. But Saturday was my Super High Day so I was just going to move on and start fresh today.

Big sigh ... today at the last minute I went to a movie and then to the Olive Garden. I was so proud of myself for declining anything at the movies even though the popcorn smelled delicious. And at Olive Garden I had two big plates of salad, with my dressing on the side, and a flatbread grilled chicken appetizer. It had alfredo sauce on it, which I'm sure wasn't great, but I didn't finish the whole thing.

So three days of being pretty much completely off program BUT I feel like I really made good choices. I never once felt stuffed or like I had eaten too much. And that used to be a big problem with me. So I may not see much of or any loss this week, but I feel like I did good anyway. And I do have three days left to kick it in gear and see if I can pull something out of my hat. But if not ... eh. I'm okay with it this week.

And for anyone thinking about seeing it, Confessions of a Shopaholic is a really cute movie.

Week #5 Results

Wendie rocks! I am definitely sticking to the plan again this week. I ended up only using 23 of my 35 flex points but apparently it worked. (I also exercised 4 times this week so I need to keep that up too.)

I weighed in this morning at 182.5 for a loss of 2.5 this week. I am sooooo happy! Its not that I wasn't happy about the other losses, I just felt like all the hard work I have put in should have been justified a bit. So now if/when the next few weeks are small losses again, I think this will keep me going. I am only 6.5 pounds away from my first goal of 10%. How exciting.

We had a beautiful day today. It was fairly warm, the sun was shining. And now I have total spring fever. I am just ready for nicer weather and to be outside. I'm not a cold weather person at all. And now I have the goal of being able to buy all new clothes this summer because mine don't fit. : )

For dinner tonight I bought a fresh salmon filet that was on sale for 4.99 a pound. It ended up being only 6 oz, which was 9 points. I just put salt and pepper on it and cooked it on the George Foreman. Wow, was it good. I have always liked salmon but just got it when eating out or in a can. I will definitely be buying this more.

One month measurements

I took these again Sunday night but am just now getting around to posting them. I've read many other bloggers that have taken their measurements from the beginning and check them regularly. And when they have a stall in their weight loss usually the inches continue to go down. I think that would really help me because as you might have noticed previously, I get really discouraged when I'm doing everything right and the weight is not going down. I was pretty happy with these. The beginning measurements are in blue, 1 month in black.

Weight: 195 185 (-10)
BMI: 35 33 (-2)
R Arm: 13 1/2 13 (-1/2)
L Arm: 13 1/2 13 (-1/2)
Waist: 43 41 (-2)
Hips: 46 44 1/2 (-1.5)
R Calf: 16 1/2 16 (-1/2)
L Calf: 16 16 (0)
Chest: 43 1/242 (-1 1/2)

So that is a total of 6.5 inches gone. I don't really know what to compare that to as far as results but it looks good to me.

I did have one very cool NSV this week. I had bought a pair of size 16 jeans a few months ago and they fit perfectly. I can now take them off and on without even unbuttoning them. And today when I came home I took my cordaroy pants off without unbuttoning them either. I guess the waist really is where I've lost the most. I think I may have to go find some 14's. Yippee!

Goals Revisited

So last Sunday I posted my goals for the week. I think I will keep these on a Sunday basis and then with my weigh in on Thursday that gives me two goals for the week at two different times and I don't feel so stressed on Wednesday.

So here is what I had aimed for last week and here is how I did ...

1. Exercise for 40 minutes at least 3 times a week. (I'd like to increase this to 4-5 times by the end of the month). I exercised on Monday for 40 minutes, Thursday for 46 minutes, and Saturday for 30 minutes. So I guess I fell 4 minutes short of my goal, but I'm still pretty happy with that. Exercise seems to be the hardest for me to get going.

2. Drink only one diet soft drink a day. (I stole this from TJ but it seemed like a really good one. I have already cut way back so I'd like to see how this works). Definitely didn't do too well at this. I think out of 7 days I had 3 days of only drinking one a day. I only drink diet now, but I could still do better at this.

3. Eat my five fruits and vegetables each day. (My week started on Thursday (now going from Sunday to Sunday so this didn't really pertain so I did not make it two days of my week so far but yesterday and today are on target). I got all five servings in 4 days out of 7. Again, not too great but I do notice I am making more of an effort to get them all in so I feel like I am improving.

4. Do a post at least every other day. (This helps me stay accountable too and I love reading everyone else). I posted on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Hmmm....close.

Okay, so out of all 4 goals I didn't complete one of them. But I do feel like aiming for them helped me make better choices. So I think my goal for this week will be the same four BUT my main goal will be to improve on what I did this week. Eventually I hope to be perfect at all of them but I will settle for improving on them for now.

I think slow, steady changes instead of my normal "all or nothing" attitude will help make these habits more of a lifestyle change that I can keep doing over the long term.

Week #4 Results

Sorry, I am a day late but school work kept me busy, busy, busy yesterday. I am hoping to finally graduate this June but these last few classes are extremely time consuming.

My weigh in yesterday was 185 exactly. That gives me a -.5 loss for the week but brings me to exactly 10 pounds lost total. I was so happy to reach that 10 pound mark. And I am still feeling a little frustrated that the weight seems to be coming off so slowly now but it is coming off. Thanks again for all your comments, they really help me put things in perspective and keep going instead of throwing in the towel.

I did decide to change things up a bit with my WW plan. I am going to try the Wendie plan for a week and see how it goes. The last two weeks I have hardly used any of my 35 flex points, and I really don’t want my body to get used to that and then spike my weight up if I decide to use them one week. Even if it slows my weight loss down, I think I’ll be a lot happier this way. And I am making Saturday my Super High Day since that’s the day I tend to eat the most or want to eat out.

I also read a really good interview with Bob and Jillian here. And this is what my idol Jillian has to say “You can have a high-calorie day, but not a cheat day. I don't even like the word "cheat." It makes a person feel dirty. Forget that. Take a day out of your week and raise your calories up to 2,000. This way you can have some high-calorie foods but with boundaries so you don't wreck all your progress in one day. Additionally, you won't feel like you blew it and then beat yourself up.” That makes a lot of sense to me. And when I looked at her eating plan once I noticed she varied the amount of calories each day. So if its good enough for Jillian, it must be good for me. J

Yesterday was a great day food and exercise wise. I love to cook but it seems I never have much time but I am making an attempt at trying new recipes. I tried the Hungry Girl recipe for Chicken Alfredo last night using whole wheat pasta. It was so yummy! I used a garlic and herb Laughing Cow wedge instead of the original and added mushrooms for a veggie.

I am also obsessed with kale chips. I’ve read about them on various other blogs and since I love kale I finally tried them. They are addictive. And if you use Pam and no cheese they are zero points! Although I really enjoy 1 point of Parmesan sprinkled over the top.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Temperatures are supposed to warm up here so I’m hoping to get out of the house for a bit. I’ll be back on Sunday at the latest for a weekend recap and to post my 1 month measurements. I’m pretty excited to see what they are.

Baby it's cold outside ...

lol, I have been singing that all day for some strange reason. Yes, it is bitterly cold outside but usually I am grumpy and annoyed by it, not walking around singing. : )

I have been having a really rough week and I honestly don't know what I am going to see tomorrow morning. I did what I should NOT do and kept hopping on the scale every other day instead of waiting until my weigh in day. Saturday I was down a pound, Monday I was back up a half pound. Monday night I got annoyed at that and just started eating and eating and eating.

That is exactly what I always do. The weight loss slows down, I get discouraged and just give up. Of course Tuesday I was up a full pound from my last weigh in. Which usually would lead to me getting even more discouraged and having a complete free for all. But luckily, it did not this time. I got right back on track and had two fairly good days on plan even though I didn't count my points.

So I am not sure what tomorrow will bring. What I do know is that I am getting off the computer now and I'm planning out my food for tomorrow. I am going to count every bite that goes into my mouth tomorrow and I am going to come home and exercise. And I'm NOT giving up no matter what that scale says. I've come too far in the past 4 weeks to throw it all away.

Superbowl weekend

The weekend has been really good so far. I spent most of yesterday doing homework but I finally managed to get 2 miles on my treadmill and that felt good. I seem to be doing wonderful food wise but really struggling with getting my exercise in.

I had planned on using part of my 35 flex points today at a Superbowl party but they had to cancel at the last minute because of an emergency. So I still have 4 points for the day now, but I may splurge a bit while watching the show.

TJ from TJ's Weigh or the Highway suggested everyone come up with some February goals and I think that is a good idea to keep me motivated. I am going to try to do them in week increments and see how I did at the end of each week and if possible do even better the next week. So here we go...

1. Exercise for 40 minutes at least 3 times a week. (I'd like to increase this to 4-5 times by the end of the month).

2. Drink only one diet soft drink a day. (I stole this from TJ but it seemed like a really good one. I have already cut way back so I'd like to see how this works).

3. Eat my five fruits and vegetables each day. (My week started on Thursday so I did not make it two days of my week so far but yesterday and today are on target).

4. Do a post at least every other day. (This helps me stay accountable too and I love reading everyone else).

Hope everyone else has a great Superbowl.