Day 67 (298) Holding Steady

Wow, I have officially entered into the 200's for day left!  Thank goodness not for pounds!  ha ha ha
The scale is holding steady at 162.5.  The sad part about that is if I had been able to make some efforts this week, that number might have budged.
It was a semi-stressful weekend - family in, family issues etc.  I'm just glad it's Monday and my life is back to a new regular routine. 
Okay totally off the subject and possibly TMI - am I the only one who has issues with bra straps?!  Every bra I own/buy the straps slip down off my shoulder.  I tighten them - they slip down. I loosen them - the slide down, I tighten the band around my chest- straps still slide, I loosen the ban around my chest - straps still slide.  I'm about to start living in sports bras just for the strap issues!  I guess I could but the regular type where the straps criss-cross in back.  Grrrr - it's just annoying.
How bad is 2 egg rolls?  Cuz that is what I had for dinner last night.  And about 4 glasses of wine.  Fried food and alcohol, no wonder I feel bloated this morning.
I will be packing my lunch shortly, and not too sure what I have to throw in there.
I'm hoping this is a much better week than last week.

Day 63 (302) I Even Get It At Work!

Ive been enjoying the start of my new job.  So far just policy manuals, getting badges etc, and orientation.  So I've been getting in lots of walking!!!!!  Made the mistake of wearing heels the first day and suffered for ti big time.  Today I wore flats and know I made the right choice!! 
That lunch shot in the my last photos, well I never ate the apple, but I did hit Subway for lunch - no cheese on the sandwich.  I did also have a Diet Coke (bad bad bad) and Doritos (good grief!)  But I walked a ton so not sure it mattered in the long run.  My little lunch bag came today and I am so excited and cannot wait to use it tomorrow.  Now I have no excuses!  I packed it with the last slice of veggie sandwich, some left over pork tenderloin from tonight, my Quaker Oatmeal cereal that I love and my new found love pumpkin granola Kashi bar!!!  Only 120 calories and it is like a slice of heaven!
So today at orientation, they bring in occupational health.  They are going to immunize those lacking necessary shots, have to visit Health & Wellness and then have you sign up to see all your results in the hospital in general if you ever go.  So I had to get tetanus/pertussis, TB skin test, draw blood for a varicella titer (chicken pox vax).  After all that was done I went to the Health & Wellness - it should have been called Insult  & Injury.  They weighed me, measured my height, told me my bmi, gave me a special abdominal tapemeasure, took my blood pressure, and pretty much said I'm short, overweight, and just at the border line for BP.  What more could the do to me?  This afternoon was not fun.
The results:
Weight - 167.4   right now at the end of the day and after eating my scale reads 164.0
Height 5'3"
BMI then is 29.7 ~ argggggh!
and my bp was 119/73.

So I guess I'll chew on all of this and step up the effort.

Day 62 (313) What A Weekend

What a great weekend I had!  Jane and John, our best friends from Kansas City came down to visit! 

After a few glasses of wine Friday night, Jane and I both decided to go for a good walk Saturday morning!  What a trooper she is!  I gave her the choice, walk around the park or hit the dreaded hill route!  She chose the hill route!  And now Jane is a witness to what a PITA those hills are!  And the heals, as I have another blister!  We walked 4+ miles!!!

Unfortunately, I'm not sure that walk was enough to offset all the bad food we ate this weekend!!!  I was pleasantly surprised how good Jane was!  No Sweet N Low - I've again fallen off that wagon, lots of water, an avocado burger.  My choices were not so good and I won't go into detail, but we did have some good stuff!! Grilled chicken, broccolli rice, salads.  When I got on the scale this morning, though, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be!

I did make veggie sandwiches!!!!  Jane liked them and we even added her Italian Grinder seasoning!  That was really good.  Last night the plan was to make pizzas but Jane and I decided to be good, avoid the pizza and warm up the veggie sandwiches!

 Pizza?  No, no, no!

Veggie sandwiches?  Yes, please! 

I'm sad to Jane and John go, they're such important parts of our lives!  They to come visit us quite often and I just hope to be able to plan a trip to go up and visit them next time!

Today is my first day of work at my new job and I think I'm all prepared!  I have a Kashi bar to take for lunch with a nice apple.  I have my water bottle clean, filled, and ready to go.  I can't wait for my cutsie lunch bag to arrive tomorrow!

Wish me luck!!!

Day 52 (221) Feeling Good

Well it's been a long week.  Kids started school and a whole new schedule begins.  Exercise?  What exercise?  It's also been a patiently waiting stressingful week.  Ive had very little work this week (ended up with only 14.25 hours) and am still waiting for Vanderbilt to get back to me about my start date following my background check.  Maybe I just don't remember how long they've taken on past jobs, but it just seems that if you entered my name in a government system the little hour glass wouldn't spin very long and even then would spit out that I've had approximately 14 speeding tickets in my life!  :O  So I feel in limbo. 
Even my great new magazine from Kathi, there are tons of recipes I want to delve into, but am trying to keep grocery lists shorts and minimal - especialy after school shopping this past week!
Tonight we had our good friends over for our monthly (which is sometimes bi-or tri-monthly) Game Night!  We usually order pizza, salad and a dessert.  I thought I'd treat them and asked if they minded if I make our pizzas!!  Of course, they didn't!

Lots of good ingredients.  Yes, that is pepperoni, but really, who isn't gonna want pepperoni on their pizza?  And my sauce was even better this time!!! I had to almost sneak this photo and sure enough hubby came around the corner exasperated saying, "You take photos of your food?  What is WRONG WITH YOU?" and laughing.  He just doesn't get it.  :(

For dessert I tried a recipe I hadn't had in forever!  Margarita Keylime Pie in a Pretzel Crust!

 Oooh that looks like all whole grains, doesn't it?  Well I'll confess its melted butter, crushed pretzels and a little sugar!  It was awesome!

 Lots of lime, lime juice, lime zest and margarita flavored Jello!  oh and light Cool Whip!

 It was sooooo good!

Our good friends Dylan and Angela! 

We play games the kids can join us with, too!  Surprisingly that is Rummy which is close to poker and we use chips!  LOL

And for my decluttering/cleaning attempts I found a new website.  http://flylady.net/  You actually get set up on a routine for your home, for free.  The first step is Shiney Sink!  All I can say is WOW!  I have one clean sink!  I hope to continue her schedule and get and keep my home in tip top order!

Day 29 (325) - healthy surprises

Look what came in my mailbox yesterday!

Now for those of you who don't know, I have a memory like a block of wood.  So first I think, Hmmmm, did I order this and forget?  Then I thought, well  maybe being on Tosca's website, they send a sample of the magazine hoping to hook you (it would have worked)!  And then, in true me fashion, I forgot to worry about how I got it, and just started flipping through it with my daughter.  She was like, "Let's make this!"  "Oooh that looks sooooo good mommy!"  "Can we try this tonight?"  I posted on Facebook exactly what we were doing and then my super fabulous friend, Kathi replied, "Did you like your birthday gift?"  OMG I was so touched!!!!   How sweet is she?!  She had been asking me a lot if I'd received my gift and honestly, I was worried for her that whatever she sent got lost in the mail or stolen or something.  I can't wait to make several recipes and post them here!!!  So, thanks again, Kathi!!!
After flipping through Clean Eating, and eatting too much beef bologna today, I came up with the idea of Vegetarian Thursdays!  Now I won't even pretend to know about vegetarians, vegans (and the difference between the two), why dairy is off the menu, and if I will even like a thick flavorless bean, so please bear with me in the process and give me any feedback, information, and education that you see I may need in these Thursday posts!  I'm really excited.  Being new to this, and I giggle already, but I'm imagining corn, salad, and tomatoes on Thursdays, although I know there is soooooo much more available to me once I learn about it.
So stay tuned, and please, check out Kathi's blog on Word Press - http://katheatsvegan.com/  She is a wealth of information and has a great blog to ready!!!  You can also click on her link in My Favorite Blogs at the top and to the right!

Day 47 (327)

 

This is me just about 8 years ago today!  Maybe 2 weeks shy, but still.  Today my baby girl turned 8 years old!  I can't believe it!   True to my husband's side of our family, we've been celebrating since Friday!  Surprisngly enough I haven't eatten too horribly bad!  Friday we went to Beechbend park and had a blast!  We were there 6 1/2 hours and didn't sit still much at all!  The waterslide is about 8 stories up and you have to walk up the 9 flights of cement stairs - we went over and over and over and over again!  Lots of exercise there! 

 

We had a blast. 

Yesterday was more exercise!  MOWING!  I helped mow one of our customer's who has a couple acre lot.  When we left it was overcast and cool, about 20 minutes into mowing, the clouds cleared and the sun came out!  It was horrible!  then we still had 2 more yards to mow after that!  i was exhausted by the end of the day!

The scale yesterday was 162.3.  back down!  Finally!  I'm not going to screw up this week!  I'm going to make a pathetic goal of losing 1 pound.  so 161.3 by next sunday!  I have to do it!

The kids are back in school as of today!  And, I've got good news!  I got a call Friday from Vanderbilt - I was offered the job I interviewed for Wednesday!  I am so excited!  Full benefits (I have none currently), we think they are going to match my pay, plus I can work from home very soon!!!  I am so thrilled!!!  This week, however, is a waiting game.  I don't want to tell my current boss until the background check clears and I get a start date!  I'm not worried about the background check, but I don't want to shoot my mouth off and something happen!  I should be working my regular job this week, a full 40 hours as they requested me to turn in for a schedule, but guess what?  So far  no charts  !!! 

So i'm cleaning up and catching up and with an empty house and I was up at 2am and haven't gone back to bed yet, guess what happened?  Hunger hit me.  I did over indulge, but at least it is on something good! 

Can you guess what it is?  Or was?  

I'm cleaning up around here and then plan to hit a good ride on my bike before picking up the kids! 
It's gonna be a good good week!

 

Day 44 (330) - How I think

Today I weigh 163.4.  I was 162.0 last week.  I was 162.7 Wednesday.
Now, true, Wednesday night I had (((gulp))) a Wendy's jr cheeseburger delux  - which is simply a kids burger with cheese (which I DID NOT WANT, since I ordered a HAMBURGER delux), lettuce, onions, tomato and pickles - oh slight mayo, ketchup, mustard.  I'm just saying it's small.  And then that night we ordered Chinese food - General Tso's chicken and fried rice and an egg roll.  But I cannot believe after eatting well all week, one freaking day will ruin it. 
Ugh.  One of the reasons I love this blog, is I come here to seeking help from myself sometimes.  Does that make sense?  Prime example, just by typing what I did above, I can (cuz I am great at criticism) clearly see what happened.  And here is what my thoughts would be if I were reading this as someone elses:
1- if you have a weigh in on Thursday, why would you chose Wednesday for a cheat day?
2- the jr burger isn't that bad, but your goal for this month was no fast food, so WTH? And if you didn't order the cheese, why didn't you just take it off?
3- Chinese food?!  Have you seen the calories, fat and sodium in Chinese food?

And my rebuttle to my own criticism?  Not that it matters?
1- I didn't "choose" it to be a cheat day, it just happened for the following reasons:
2- Went to interview and got there an hour early.  Didn't plan that.  And because of my nervousness I didn't eat lunch, so Wendy's was there, I needed to kill time, and I didnt' want a growling stomach.  Thought about the goal I made, but thought this was an exception.  Removing cheese would be messy and I was dressed for an interview.
3-  Interview took longer than expected and didn't get back to my town until 6:30pm.  i didn't want to cook and hubby suggested we get Chinese food.  It'd been awhile, so I agreed.  Was just going to have 2 egg rolls, but knew that would only send me to the fridge later in the evening for bad things.  So got an entree.

My criticism to my rebuttle - Pathetic!  Start planning ahead to avoid disasters.  Sheesh!

Day 42 (332) Big Big Day

Morning!
Well today is a big day for me.  I have a job interview at Vanderbilt today.  I'm so excited and so nervous all at the same time.  I really want this job pending the salary they offer!  Wish me luck!
I have been on a bread making spree!  The other day I made the baked veggie sandwiches.  I've posted about them before, but they're just so darn good and I haven't had them in forever!  Both my kids gobbled them up this time and asked for more!!!

I'm always amazed at how soft and delicious the bread is.  I'm thinking about making just a loaf of it to have around!  And with my food processor now, it takes like 4 minutes to mix the dough.  It's just amazing!

Right out of the oven it's soooooo good!

Funny, I wanted to post about my pizza today and when I opened up Oh She Glows, that is exactly what she was posting about!!! 

I've been making home made pizza and pizza dough for several years now.  I do like getting my hands in the flour and dough and kneading it and punching it down, setting in a warm draft free space and letting it rise.  But I found out I can also make the dough in about 5 minutes in my food processor!  I am SOOO loving this food processor!  Monday, hubby said do you want to order pizza?  I said, No, but I'll make us one!  And 30 minutes later we were eating our own pizza topped with green peppers, onions, and - yes - pepperoni.  The kids love it and I guess it's a guilty pleasure for me for the week.  The pizza pan the kids got me for Christmas this past year.  Before I used a pizza stone!

My goals.  Well the scale is dropping anymore, I was 162.7 today (actually up then).  but I'm staying in at 162.  I think Im gonna have a drop here soon.  I am drinking SO MUCH water and loving it.   I've been adding flaxseed to everything, too - oatmeal, the pizza, I tried in the lemonwater like Dr Oz suggested and about died, though.  So I'm really pushing the flaxseed!

I haven't ridden since the weekend, but hope to get to it tonight.