WW Weigh In

I didn't forget to weigh-in Friday, I just was so busy I didn't get to posting it. I weighed in at 211.6, equaling a 2.4lb loss. The weekend wasn't too bad, yesterday wasn't great, but today is going to be & I am headed to the gym today even though I can only be there apx 15 minutes. It will give me a extra few miles.

I am having a hard time pushing through this last week of my 100 mile challenge. I really do have commitment issues, but I am not cheating on this and I am going to follow through with it. I am 13 miles away from 100 as it sits right now.

Better than Great, Healthy Pizza Crust

I normally don't post more than one post per day, but I didn't want to group my ideas together but still wanted to share each of them. Yesterday I stumbled upon a Cauliflower Pizza Crust on Examiner.com, doesn't sound that great, right? But OH MY GOSH was it better than great! Luckily Steven is pretty daring when it comes to new foods & recipes and this was not exception. This was the recipe I made and it serves apx 2:

Crust:
1 cup mashed, unpacked cauliflower
1 cup Italian or Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 egg
Italian season & Garlic Powder

Mix, then thin out on a cookie or pizza sheet. Remember the cheese will melt and your crust will thin and spread a tad bit more than before cooking. Cook at 450* for 10-15 minutes, until it starts to become golden brown.

Alfredo Chicken Pizza:
1/2 lb diced and cooked chicken (any meat to top pizza will need to be cooked before topping)
Alfredo sauce (we used a powder packet mix, used low fat buttermilk instead of milk and added a little flour to help thinken sauce)
Red Onions
Fresh diced tomatoes
Real bacon bits
Fresh diced mushrooms
Shredded Italian or Mozzarella cheese ( if you are calorie or Point counting remember there is cheese in the crust already)

It was amazing! The husband was incredibly surprised and said the crust tasted like a more seasoned bread & the pizza was restaurant style. I was very proud of my self for finding & trying the recipe & now we can have pizza all the time. It is now a comfort food without the guilt.

I'd love to hear if you tried it and how you liked it.
Enjoy!

Afternoon Date Idea

I was catching up on my reading and came across a great idea for an afternoon date. Stephanie on her blog Unveiling the Diva mentioned Geocaching. What a great idea!

"Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment." ~Geocaching.com

It would be a great way to get out in the sunshine, get a little exercise - mentally and physically and enjoy the ones you are with.

Monday

Well Im still on the wagon with sticking to Weight Watchers, my usually way on doing it is doing really, really good & sticking to or coming in right under Points and then on the weekend I get to cut loose just a little & still consider what I eat but not count everything that enters my mouth. This has worked well for me the last two times I stuck to WW for a long period of time. This is why I also like to weigh in on Friday mornings, so I then have the rest of the week to work off my weekend. I didnt not count this past Friday as a weigh in though because I was not on the wagon for a full week, so my first weigh in this Friday will be for the past 10 days. I know it will be loss but hopefully it will be a good one & give me that jump start I would love. Either way though I am sticking to this & fighting it out.

I have to brag on myself a little today too (if I don't who will, right?). I had a pretty busy and kind of stressful day and still stayed on track, resisting the temptations of a quick meal over a healthy meal. I still ended up with a quick meal but it was a thins, turkey, bacon bits & melted WW chesses sandwich with a low fat yogurt. I did snack on one of my son's chicken sticks for dinner but, it was small and held me over until dinner.

A Neat Halloween Tradition

I don't remember where I came across this idea at but I thought it was very neat & wise.

After the kids get back from trick-or-treating, what is the first thing they do? I remember the first thing we would do is dump out our bag to discover what had been deposited in it by the participating treat givers. Well, the idea is to let our child pick out a piece of candy or two to set aside for each of the next 6-7 days and put the rest out on the porch that evening or where ever you choose so the Halloween Witch, Ghost or Goblin can pick it up and in exchange leave a neat gift, something such as a small toy, a book or anything else not filled with sugar. Kind of the same concept of the Tooth Fair, leave her something & when she takes it she leaves you something in return. You can come up with your own unique story about why the Halloween Witch, Ghost or Goblin needs the candy and what they will do with it. You can then donate the a charity or even someone in the office that has a candy dish. I plan on starting this next year when my son can trick-or-treat or even understands the concept of Halloween.

On a little bit of a different note I am thinking I am going to skip the gym today, my knees have always bothered me, even as a child & now that I weight more than I should, they hurt more than they should. They seem really sore today, and my workouts tend to hurt if I push my self too hard, as well as I could end up putting myself out of working out for longer than a day if I push too hard & ignore the pain. So I am going to listen to by body and enjoy the afternoon getting some things done that I have been putting off, I at least wont be sitting on my butt all evening.

W5D5 Day 1 of Weight Watchers

I have decided to find my Weight Watchers book & start back at it. I am still keeping my weigh-in day as Friday, so my first WW week will be a few more days than a week. I am not going back to meetings, but I am going to use my blog to keep track, accountability & connections. My weigh-in today put me at 216.2, not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but still higher than just a few weeks ago.

Something in my favor is that I am trying so hard to follow through & finish my 100 mile challenge. I told Steven last night that I have commitment issues, I have a hard time following through with things I start. So, just finishing this challenge is going to be huge for me. I have 3 weeks left & 41 miles left to go. I have exercise in my corner this time though, before I have just done WW, and fairly well, but without exercise. I'm excited to see what the difference will make.

W4D4

This weekend was nice, the weather was beautiful & I got a lot done. Eating wise, I don't feel like the weekend was a wash, I did a lot of moving & did my best to not over eat. I may have a little over ate for lunch yesterday, but other than that, good. I introduced my son to candy corn & he loves it. I had a little this weekend too, I think it helped bring the sugary cravings & weak will bad today. I shouldn't think of today as a failure, but it's hard. I endulged in 2 prices of buttered toast this morning, a can coke & 5 mini candy bars (not all at once). But I'm here at the gym & I'm peddling harder than usual. I'm alway excited when I am able to add more miles to my tracker. I am down to 4 of 7 weeks left to get to & hopefully over 100 miles by 10-30. I plan on getting a message if I make it to the 100 & for 110 a massage & manicure & if I can manage 120 then it's a massage & pedicure. 1 month to go - relaxing & accomplishment here I come.

W4D1

I didnt do as bad as I though I did this weekend. I gained 2.6 lbs, so that leaves me with 8.3 until I hit my first 5%. I am going grocery shopping today so that should get me set up for dinners & lunches for next week. Maybe I will even see about borrowing on of my parents bikes & taking a bike ride with Landen this weekend. We shall se.

Healthy people club

I'm here at the gym & realized that I am becoming part of a group of people not striving for perfection but for health. Being here on a military base being a healthy weight is a goal & now I am part of that goal. I am trying to keep the frame of mind that I want not only me to be healthier but my family, I feel like I am making better choices. This weekend I know I took two steps back in my weight loss but tomorrow I am expecting it and ready to get back on a tighter track. Tomorrow is a new week to accomplish great things. My goals for next week are to slow down my eating, listen to my stomach & stop eating when I'm full, not because my plate is empty. I will need to remind myself of this before each meal this week. My second goal is to make it to the gym 3 times. I am excited that I'm doing well with my 100 mile challenge, this is something I am going to finish. For myself.

Justified? ...

A fact about me: I STRESS being on the road in the heavy rain, more so riding than driving. I'd like to think I'm an aware & toughtful of my surroundings driver, but I just can't bring myself to trust the crazies the seem to drive faster & "better" in the watery conditions. Therefore, with the larger storm making the radar look like a 2 year old's finger painting, I felt it'd be best to get me & little LT home safe, sound & on the dryer side. I skipped the gym today to take some play time with my son & get us home unstressed. We had a blast this afternoon too. Since the weather took a small break, we explored & played in a soggy yard, then came inside for some good laughs & hug. Daddy decided to make me dinner then we watched some of our favorite shows, right now it's the Nip Tuck seasons & Dexter season 4. We stay behind. This way we can watch them all at once if we choose & on our schedule. It was a good night over all, I'm gonna get back on the horse, or stationary bike in my case, and keep on riding tomorrow though.

I'm proud of me

It was gloomy out today & that makes me want to be lazy, grab a blanket & take a nap, but instead I changed & took my butt to the gym. I did get to run into Landen's infant teacher & she said that Landen seems to be happy & doing well in his new class. His new teacher also said he is fitting in & developing well into the pretoddler class. All is well.

Mini Vacation

This weekend I decided to kidnap the hubs & head down to Daytona Beach for an us weekend. We stayed in a beachside hotel, planned to visit a few surf shops, some good places to eat & explore. We loved waking up & watching the sun rise over the ocean, we found a great sale on chimes for the yard, 4 for $10, we couldn't pass them up since our little guy loves them so much. We didn't find great food until Saturday night but we enjoyed exploring the little beach town & spending some time together. I knew I wanted to work a little exercise in too, Friday night we thought it would be a good idea to walk back to the hotel, though we under estimated the distance, after drinks & dinner & more drinks we ended up walking 1.5 miles back to the hotel. But we made it & felt fine afterwards, we even broke into a sprint right before we got there. Saturday after a little driving around & shopping we played a little volleyball (chase the ball, should I say), the hubs was a good sport & seemed into it. Today we went kayaking, we just left & I can already feel my muscles hurt. We paddled for an hour & a half, saw some old Florida & heards some pigs. So this weekend I can add another 3.5 miles to my ticker, because my intent with these activities were to exersice & work off some of the drinks & food. Overall it was a great weekend.

W3D1 - New Week Here I Come

I did pretty good with my weigh in & have to keep reminding myself that I am not on a timeline to loose weight, that this is not a diet I have to be on for how ever long it takes me, this is a habits & life style change.

I managed to loose one pound, I wish it would have been a little more but at least it was a whole pound & not just a fraction of one. That is always helpful, especially in the beginning. So now I am down to 211.8 - I'll be under 210 before I know it.

I am really looking forward to this weekend, I am hoping to find somewhere that rents bicycles so we can cruise around Daytona Beach and get a little exercise, I bought a volleyball to toss back & forth with the hubs on the beach & on Sunday I plan to set up a 2 hour kayaking trip. So I have a plan to get a little 'hidden' exercise (my favorite kind) in my mini vacation. We are also only staying 1.5 miles away from where we are planning to spend our evenings so we might just walk there instead of a ride, maybe even on the beach. I am overly excited to get this weekend started.

W2D7

I have been putting off posting all day, I've been busy planning our mini weekend get away. So here I am already taken my ambien & posting so I can put a check in the box for a goal I met. Waiting until the last minute or not following through with something I am known for & I want that to change, with little steps. I am proud of myself for going to the gym today though because I really did not want to go. I would have much rathered come home & plop myself on the couch & tickle my son. But I push through & though I didn't have a "push me" type workout I did do well & I did do it. I followed through with I think all my goals, I'll have to check them tomorrow. I am excited to weigh in, even though I think it will be less than I hopped for, something is anything. I guess I shouldn't let the cart get before the horse.

W2D6

I want to thank everyone for their positive comments they are very encouraging!

Today I was off to a little bit of a slow start, I think I have been going so hard & so much the past 2-3 days it is starting to catch up to me. I am a little sore and tired. Since I still have today & tomorrow to get in my 3 days this week I think I am going to go tomorrow, I also need to grocery shop today & would like to take it a little easier today.

I am looking forward to Friday for a few reasons this week, weigh in should be good as well as a planned date night with the hubby. We are planning on staying in town restaurant/bar hopping. I have a plan though! I plan on going to the gym on Friday and maybe fitting in an extra day next week, maybe even Saturday. I also already talked Steven about what we are going to aim to eat & how. I do not want to ruin all my hard work with one night out on the town. I have a plan & want to stick to it as best I can. We also have a wedding to attend on Saturday & I plan on not drinking & being conscious of what & how much I eat while I am here.

Proper Prior Planning Produces Positive Products

W2D5

Yesterday I worked hard at the gym & earned the whole 7 miles I biked, boy, was I hurting when I got home though. I think I am going to have to do the tredmil or the ellipical today though which does not give me as many miles. I might sneak in a few minutes on the bike just to rack'um up. It is one of those days that I do not feel like going to the gym though. But off to change & headed to the gym right after I finish this post.

Yesterday I felt on top of the world after the gym, I had more energy than I have had in quite some time & I sure did need it. After work & the gym I went to the commissary to pick up dinner (& for those of you who know the parking lot & store is a battle all it's own), went to the pharmacy, went to drop off movies, to pick up my son, which I find out is moving to the pretoddler room today instead of in two weeks due to another bitting insident. So, then we went to get gas, stop by another grocery store to pick up cupcakes, cookies & cards for the teachers he is leaving, then off to the house to fix Landen dinner, make the cupcakes & cookies, while doing that I managed to water our gardens outside, put LT to bed & change the litter box. I was then allowed to shower & sit for a moment. Whew (insert wipe of forhead), just typing it all made me tired. I slept great last night though.

This morning walking into work I felt great too, I was doing a little happy dance in my head for being proud of myself for doing great on my weight loss journey.

100 Mile Challenge

I found to neatest tickers, one that tracks my miles I exercise. I saw that someone wanted to 'travel' cross country in two months & though that is a little extreme for me I wouldn't mind spending the day in Daytona Beach, Fl. So, therefore I am going to start a new challenge to 'travel' or accumulate 100 miles in 7 weeks. I am going to add last week as week one being that I accomplished 12 miles at the gym, why not start with the root of my success.

My 100 Mile Challenge:
I will do my best to accumulate 100 miles by 10-31-10.

Keep watch on the right of my page to track my success with me.

W2D4

It was an eventful and good weekend, so much got done. I bought myself a go green cup as a small reward for doing so well in my first week. I stuck to all my my goals, felt great and had good self control over the weekend. I was able to get to do some gardening this weekend, finish up the teacher's bag for next week when LT starts saying good bye to the infant room and teachers and had a nice time enjoying my son. I have been feeling great, I have been sleeping better, I have noticed I have more energy during the day and I have the ambition to do more.

Here are my new short term goals:
1. Go to the gym at least 3 times for 30 minutes each time for the next two weeks.
2. Try a new healthy recipe this week.
3. Have only 1 regular Coke this week.
4. Post the next 4 days on how I am feeling, how I am doing and how I am thinking.

Tomorrow I will be on the down hill side of the week but I must stick to the straight & narrow.

W2D1 Weigh-in

I did not forget to weigh-in on Friday, I actually was very much looking forward to it, I just got busy & side track and didnt blog. Well here it is...drum roll please.

Weekly Loss - 4.2lbs
Current Weight - 212.8

I also met all of my week 1 goals. I feel on top of the world & ready to face week 2.

Now time to make new goals for week 2 and keep up my motivation to doing great.

Excited for tomorrow!

I am pretty excited to weigh in tomorrow & see how my hand work has paid off. I have managed to accomplish all my goals for this week, now to drift off to sleep thinking of the new goals I will set for next week. I didn't make it to the gym today like I had hoped but making sure LT didn't have an ear ache & hopefully a good nights sleep. I got to get a nap & catch up a bit, have lunch with Papa & spend the day with my pride & joy. We also got to meet LT's new pretodler teacher, she seems great & is very excited to have Landen join her class next month. Landen is going to have so much fun in his new class.

W1D5

Well, things are going good & I am feeling good. I keep repeating to myself that this time is it, this time I will push on and get to my goal weight. I made it to the gym yesterday & did 15 minutes on the bike & 15 minutes on the elliptical, just to help split the time up a little. It was hard, but by the time I was done & thought that it went quicker than I though. I am really hoping to make the gym a Monday through Friday after work routine. I have my clothes with me and I am ready to hit the gym again today after work. I am excited to see my success Friday morning.

It was a good weekend. W1D4

Well, I think I did pretty good this weekend with my eating & drinking. Weekends are my week point because they are not as structured and offer more options to eat off track. I had a plan going into this weekend though, I have hated before that my weekends seem to mess up my entire week of hard work.

I limited myself to one drinking night a week with the reasoning of "why do we drink?" I know some of it is because I really enjoy the taste of beer or wine but another big part of it is that it is a habit to have a few drinks every night. It is a lot of empty calories and a lot of money drank every week. I also did really good & resisted the urge to drink soda this weekend, I am proud of myself.

It was a big weekend of other reasons than that I did good staying on a better track, we moved Landen to a big boy bed & completely took down the crib. He was getting dangerously stuck in the bars of the crib and this seemed to be a good fix. He did wonderful with the transition, I shouldn't have expected anything less from my wonderful little man. We had a little grief at nap time once he discovered he could hop out of bed but we took care of that issue quick & he was off to La La Land. We took a couple trips to Home Depot to get some stuff to work on the yard, mainly a few new plants. Landen and I will have a little fun sometime this week after school/work replanting some of my flowers & preparing for nicer weather.

Weigh-In W1D1

I woke up a little late & forgot to weigh in at home, so I weighed in on the scale here at work & it put me starting out at 217lbs.

My short term weight loss goal is to loose 5% of that, equaling 10.9lbs (bringing me down to 206.1). I am hoping to have a good strong start week.

My short term goals & to do list for the next 8 days:
1. Go grocery shopping. Pick up some chicken & tuna for lunches this coming week & pick meals with less red meat than we normally eat. As well I need to buy better portion sized meat when buying red meat.
2. Boil some chicken for lunches & a healthy snack.
3. No sodas this week.
4. Exercise at least 3 times this week for at least 30 minutes each time. I am going to start out my weight-in week well & head to the gym tomorrow after work.
5. Make or find a reward jar and fill it with achievement rewards.

I'm off to a good start, I'm feeling good, now just to conquer the weekend (my hardest time) & stay on track. My plan is to drink less, spend some time in the yard with Landen & eat at home for at least one lunch. We shall see. I do have my gym clothes & a banana with me & trying to stay amped for my visit to the gym today.

Here I go again

I have got to do something about my eating choices, they have got to get better & I have to fit exercise in there somewhere. I remember just last year about this time I was tell my mom that I wouldn’t gain back everything I had worked so hard to loose while Steven was on deployment. What did I do? I gained it back & a little more. I am so tired of this!

So I am setting a goal & sharing it to help keep me accountable & motivated.

My current weight was 217 when I weighed myself earlier this week & my over all goal is to get down to the 140’s. That is quite to stretch but I know it is obtainable (now just to remember this). I need to put exercise in my routine and make my consumption habits healthier and smarter.

My short term goals & to do list for the next 8 days:
1. Go grocery shopping. Pick up some chicken & tuna for lunches this coming week & pick meals with less red meat than we normally eat. As well I need to buy better portion sized meat when buying red meat.
2. Boil some chicken for lunches & a healthy snack.
3. No sodas this week.
4. Exercise at least 3 times this week for at least 30 minutes. I am going to start out my weigh-in week well & head to the gym tomorrow after work.
5. Make or find a reward jar and fill it with achievement rewards.

My short term goal is to loose 5% of my body weight and to post at least 4 times on my blog about how I am doing & feeling. I think this will give me a great way of looking back on my success, to remember why I am doing this and how great I feel while I am.

I start tomorrow.

Off to a good start!

I’m off to a good start! I have a few starter items, a name - ALBT2, standing for A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That, a rough draft logo and tons of great ideas. Posted are a few of the items I have chosen to start with, a child’s bank that can be personalized with name and possibly colors and a few hands free key rings. I would be open and thankful for any ideas, comments or criticism.

Sharing My Creativity

I have been talking, thinking and being told that I need to sell my crafts and really share my creativity but until now I haven’t done anything. Could I have waited until a busier time in my life? Probably not. But now seems as good a time as any.

I am planning on starting an Etsy account to help me sell my items. It seems like the best route to sell a wide variety of crafts. Planning on an opening date of September 13, 2010; that will give me 6 weeks to gather up a starting inventory, get my policies and plans situated. It sounds like a lot already.

If all goes well I am hoping on being a vendor at next year’s Orange Park Fall Festival, as I don’t think I could make it happen in 2 and a half months. What a better way to advertise?

No off to work on coming up with a catchy new name, working on some ideas, spreadsheets, policies and finding supplies.

Wish me luck!

My first disappointment

Yesterday was quite a day. I started back on track with Weight Watchers, this time I have to stick with it. I am putting together a pretty good game plan; at least I hope it is. So it was a successful start to the day. When I when to pick up Landen from school I was told that he bit a kid! The child he bit was trying to take a toy away from him & he thought to bite the kido in response. It was the first time I felt disappointment in Landen’s actions, but on the other hand I do understand. Not that it is an acceptable response, but was he suppose to explain to the kid that he was not finished with the toy & even if he had would the other kid of understood Landen? I do feel bad for the kid that was bit but I also chuckle at the way children communicate.

Landen at dinner was also very testing of Mommy. He likes propping his feet up on things and getting comfy, well the dinner table is no different, he kicks his chair away from the table in order to do this, which results in him reaching for his plate & possibly treating the dog to a very tasty dinner – Landen’s dinner. My solution after spending about 5 minutes trying to work for him to stay at the table was to back him away from the table and use his high chair tray so he has nothing so kick away from or reach for. We have been working on keeping our plate on the table and have been doing very well with the concept, but last night little LT was insistent on picking up his plate & acting extra silly & loud during dinner. Mommy was calmly reaching her limit. I asked Steven to do bedtime with Landen since I had my fill, so he thought in trade for reading LT a story I should do bath time and prep LT for bedtime, then just hand him over to be read a story & place into bed. By the time I fought with Landen through dinner, then through cleaning him up and getting him ready for bed, answered routine questions for Steven about medicine and bedtime I was already in place to rock Landen & put him to bed. So much for a break…

Tonight it is just Landen & me as Daddy has to fly late, tonight will be different – there will be a bottle of wine in the house.

Looking forward to life...

I am purely blissful with life right now. I am thrilled by watching Landen grow & develop daily, surprised by what I can do, and basking in the love of my husband.

Life is good, especially with little Landen around. I love that when I have a challenging day all it takes is a few minutes of getting splashed on by Landen from the tub to relax me & make me forget about the worries of the day. LT has picked up a few new tricks since the New Year; he has become the expert crawler, though he needs to learn to look up while doing so. I have had about a handful of daycare accident reports from him crawling into things. Oh, my child. He is enjoying being able to pull up on anything that will support him & is into EVERYTHING. He does not have time to sleep at daycare, as he usually only get an hour nap (his own doing, the teachers try to get him to sleep) and has barely enough time to eat. By the time I pick him up at 3p.m. he is wiped out, he crashes about 5 minutes into the car ride home & sleeps until he is ready for dinner, we eat dinner, take a bath & head back to bed. Landen has also learned to shake his head “No”, of course when he started it was just a new “entertaining trick” but he has answered me correctly quite a few times now with shaking his head “No”, so I think he might be learning the meaning of the word.

Let’s see, other accomplishments have been, another 3 teeth, his top middle two broke through sometime after Christmas and then another top tooth just broke through within the past two weeks. So at 8 months we now have 5 teeth. I am ready for a break from teething, as I know he must be as well. Landen has become good buddies with his ‘dada; which he also says. It warms my heart to watch the two of them play and enjoy their time together.

Steven has become confident enough since arriving back home with Landen that I am able to go to the gym a couple nights a week while Steven picks up LT from daycare & gets him ready for bed. I have been enjoying the gym, I’ve always wanted to take up running as I know it is wonderful for you & I have heard so many people say how much they enjoy it. I have never been able to run a solid mile, never wanted to nor needed to, but that has changed. I still do not need to but I want to, I spend 30 minutes 2 times a week trying to better my mile time. Right now I am up to running/walking a 15 minute mile, which I know isn’t something to write home about, but for me it is an accomplishment. One of my knees have started to bother me, so I am going to give it some time to rest & try some new running shoes to see if it will help the amount my knees are effected while running.

Steven & I have both started back with Weight Watchers, though it is hard to stay on point as much as I use to. But, we are learning how to live within our ‘means’ with still loosing weight. I think we are both up to loosing about 6 lbs or so since the beginning of the year when we started together. It has been a little bit of an experiment for me to see how much exercise I need to offset what I enjoy eating & drinking on the weekends & how far I can go during the week and still get the results I am looking for. But so far so good, no weight gains yet.

Life really has been good & there is so much I am looking forward to in the future, though I am not in a rush for any of it. I will just enjoy my day dreams about things I will get to do soon enough & continue to enjoy the moment I am in now.