Weight for the Laugh

Huh?....What?....How?

2010-11-01T10:04:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I told you I spent a few days traveling and eating at McDonalds. I also forgot to tell you about eating at Johnny Rockets. They have this fabulous Orange Creme shake. I didn't bother to look at calories. I knew I was busting it alone with just dinner. Anyway, through all of that I managed to still lose 1 pound. I would say I'm proud of myself but I'm really not. It could just be water weight or just the fact that I weighed myself on the carpet instead of on a flat surface. (Just kidding) But seriously, I did lose 1 pound. Talk about a kick in the pants to motivation! This morning I'm having an egg sandwich with water! I'm ready for work! ~Denise

Crazy, Crazy, and Special Prayers

2010-10-31T19:02:00.000-04:00

This week has been super crazy. I never made it to Yoga or Pilates. Why? Because I completely forgot that we were going out of town for a few days. My husband is in the military and had his annual training conference. This year it was held in Lake George, NY at the Six Flags Indoor Waterpark. We tagged along and had a great time! Then the kids and I drove up to Vermont to surprise my cousin. She was taking a nap with her son when we came banging on the door. We didn't let up on the doorbell and she was ready to pounce on the UPS guy when she opened the door and found us standing there. The look on her face was priceless!

So alas, that meant no working out and having to eat at McDonald's while traveling. I would say this is a new week but I can't make it to the Zumba class tomorrow. My kitten has a vet appointment and my daughter has a doctor's appointment. In case I haven't mentioned it yet, I'm borderline diabetic. I have glucose intolerance. My levels like to play hockey inside my body. One moment I'll be fine, and the next I'll be shaking and sick as a dog. So I have to monitor myself. Well, my daughter who is only 9 is showing some of the same problems. All this week, with the exception of the past 2 days, she's been shaking uncontrollably and feels sick to her stomach. Within 30 minutes of eating, she's fine. So I'm going to ask for some blood work tomorrow. So I have nothing on my schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday so I'll go to Yoga and Pilates then!

So what are my special prayers? There is a blog that I've been following. Her name is Ann and her blog is located HERE. I've directed you to a specific link on her blog. She found out about a month ago that she has breast cancer. I'm very hurt by this discovery and I don't even know her in the literal sense. What I do know is the fear that her family is going to feel. The heartache of "what if." The idea of having to watch your loved one going through such a horrible moment and wanting to switch with them to take the pain away, if even for a day. You can also find a link to her blog under my "Special Friends" category.

My grandmother was diagnosed with Oral Pharyngeal Cancer. In addition, she had breast cancer. It wasn't the breast cancer that took her life, it was the oral cancer. But I know the feelings of chemo treatments, fears of losing your loved ones, and the constant struggle to remain positive because everyone affected needs that special energy. Unfortunately, I lost my grandmother in December 2004 but as I said, it wasn't due to breast cancer. My great grandmother passed away when I was a teenager from Lung Cancer but she never smoked. And my husband's mother passed away when he was a teenager from cancer. So many more people in my family and my husband's family have been affected by this nasty disease. So when I say it hurts me, I mean it in the true sense. I'm begging you to go over to her blog and leave her a prayer. Any prayer. Even if it's just to say the words "I'm praying for you." I know she'll appreciate all the love and support she can get.

Thank you so much for reading this post! It may seem like a depressing one but in reality I find it an inspiring one. It helps people to pray for others, it helps people to be prayed for, and it brings everyone closer to God. If you aren't a Christian, you don't have to say "prayers" but you can tell her that you'll be thinking of her and her family. ~Denise

I did it....

2010-10-25T12:33:00.000-04:00

Okay, first of all I have to tell you about my weight this week and food. I got myself "out of the habit" of keeping track of my calories. It came down to one thing - laziness. Yep! I was too lazy to write it all down. I did cheat some but I did manage to get in all of my water each day except one. I know, no excuse is a good excuse. I'll tell you what I've had so far today in a second. First I want to tell you that I made a promise to myself a couple of weeks ago and have managed to keep it. I promised I would take this diet slow. I want to get into better habits so that when I take the weight off, it stays off. So I started out with just trying to watch what I ate. Then I went to getting all of my water in - and now, the next step is to start working out. Well, I did it.

Today I managed to gather up enough courage to walk into the gym and join a Zumba class. I was so scared. I'm the woman who hates fitness classes because I'm afraid everyone is going to be staring at me. I'm the woman who trips over her own two feet when I'm walking down the street because I'm so uncoordinated. I have no rhythm and figure that if God had wanted me to be a great dancer, he would have given me long gorgeous legs instead of my short stumpy ones! However, I went to the back of the class and came out a sweaty mess. My shirt was wet, my adrenaline was pumped, and my body felt great. I stayed for 30 minutes of the 1 hour class. There were 2 things that I didn't like about the class:

You never knew what the instructor was going to do. It seemed like no one really knew but once they saw the beginning move, they knew what to do next. I was the one in the back going "huh?"
The mirror in the room that everyone looks at while they are working out seems to be one of those distorted mirrors you see at a carnival. I swear I put on 20 pounds when I walked into the room. I looked rounder and even more uncoordinated than normal.

All-in-all I had a good time and will definitely go back next Monday. This specific class is only taught once a week. I've just changed my kitten's vet appointment tomorrow to afternoon so I can try and hit the yoga scene. I'll let you know how that goes.

So what did I do after working out? I went to Burger King. Yep - what a dope! Negate everything you just took off and put on more. Smart move girl. This morning for breakfast I had some Raisin Nut Bran. That was a good move until you read the side of the box. Did you know that one serving is equal to 3/4 of a cup? Uh, who eats that little of an amount. My best guesstimate is that I had 2 cups. Hmmm, I think I'm going about this whole thing wrong. The last bit of news that I have is about my weight. As you know, I lost 2 pounds last week. I was so excited. Today I weighed in and lost nothing. I was bummed. But then I had to remind myself that while I may not have lost, I didn't gain either! Maybe now that I'm working out I'll start to lose - that is, if I stay away from Burger King! ~Denise

My day and week

2010-10-21T22:22:00.000-04:00

It's almost the end of my day! Woo Hoo! I've been so busy with things around the house. Let me start off by telling you my bad news. Normally I like good news first but it will explain why I haven't been around for a few days. My children have been sick. They have been sick within the past couple of weeks but things came to a full halt around here. My son ended up with strep throat and my daughter had another illness. Thankfully, they are both back in school as of today. So the bad news is that with all of my "nursing" during the day, I didn't have time to keep track of any of my food. But I did try to watch what I ate, so I guess that's good. There were a couple of days I cheated but only minimally. I'm figuring out that you don't have to give up everything and can have some of the good stuff in moderation. I kind of feel like I'm growing up and maturing in the food department.

The good news? I lost a grand total of 2 pounds this week. Yeah! Do the happy dance:

Remember that baby from many years ago? That thing was all over the place! Yeah, no picture of me. I want to save that one for when I reach my goal. But don't expect a bikini as I've outlined in a previous post that for some reason I just can't find. Oh well, trust me - it was a hoot! So why did I say a grand total of 2 pounds? Initially I was down 3 pounds but when I stopped "watching what I ate" I put that 1 pound back on. Hey, at least I'm still down!

I'd love to know how you all are doing. It would really help to inspire me. A friend of mine called me today and gave me the boot in my butt that I needed. So I wanted to let you all know that I got my water in today and plan on starting to work out next week. I wanted to do it this week but with illnesses, it just wasn't in the cards. Hope to hear from you soon. ~Denise

Not MIA

2010-10-20T21:43:00.000-04:00

You may think I've gone off the deep end again with my diet but I haven't. I actually have good news/bad news to report. Unfortunately, my unbalanced checkbook and homework are calling my name. I haven't had the energy to post lately because I've had 2 sick children on my hands since Saturday. I'll be back full force tomorrow! ~Denise

Never, never, NEVER again.....I hope.

2010-10-15T11:35:00.000-04:00

WOW! Talk about a wake up call. I was tired at the end of the day yesterday so I opted to tell you about yesterday, today. On Thursdays it's "Girls Day." That means for 1 hour my daughter has my full attention and no one else gets to interrupt us. Sounds sad, huh? Not really. It means we drop my son off at gymnastics and walk around the mall while he's doing his thing. We will go shopping, get nails done, eat a snack, whatever. Now that I'm on a diet, I'm keeping track of everything as you know. I wrote it all down this morning and just about had a heart attack when I saw what was included. Check it out:

Total Calories: 1399 (in the middle between 1200 - 1500. Not bad, right? Keep reading)
Total Carbs: 213 (are you KIDDING ME? What happened to 120?)

Okay, let me say what I felt good about first before I rip myself to shreds. Got all my water in like a good girl. Woo Hoo! I didn't snack throughout the day - double woo hoo! Ate well for breakfast and lunch, even though lunch was tomato soup with milk and goldfish crackers. It came to 413 cals and *gulp* 65 carbs (I'm supposed to be at 30).

So where did I go wrong? *Enter the mall scene here* Took my daughter around the mall and we stopped for a Mrs. Field's cookie. I had 1 1/2 and she had 2. First mistake, right? I really didn't even want the thing but I didn't want to be rude, ha ha! Turns out those cookies are 200 calories a piece and about 30 carbs a piece. Second mistake? Stopping by Auntie Anne's to get a soda and picked up some of their yummy new nugget pretzels. We walked away with Cinnamon Sugar and Original Salted. Here's the really bad news in case you didn't know this:

Each cup of Auntie Anne's Cinnamon Sugar Nuggets has 490 calories and a whoppingly disgusting 99 carbs. OH MY GOSH!!!! The original has 390 calories and 75 carbs. I feel like running to the toilet now and puking my guts up just thinking about it. I will never again look at Auntie Anne's with respect. That should be against the law to sell something that high in carbs and calories. Jeez! Now I'll just have to exercise restraint whenever I smell the goodness and train my brain to remember those nasty numbers. ACK!

So now I'm onto a new day. Starting off great. Stopped by and purchased some cottage cheese with fruit. My favorite is the pineapple. They now have ones with fiber added. I was so excited and wanted to grab the peach ones. They were slid back a bit so I grabbed them. That's when I noticed the expiration dates of August and September. Are you kidding me? I might be able to understand someone not rotating the blasted food if the expiration date were at the end of September, but August? By the way, I was at Walmart. If that doesn't keep me from buying there in the future, nothing will. Gross! I reported it but feel like going by just to check and see if they actually remove it. I wonder if everyone looks for an expiration date like I do. Makes me worried someone might get sick. Talk to you later tonight! ~Denise

On target...Dessert Pizza

2010-10-13T23:48:00.000-04:00

I did really well with calories today but need to make sure I hit at least the minimum mark from now on. Did you know that if you deprive your body of calories, it feeds from the rest of your bodies nutrients. This includes from your bones and muscles. I believe I heard that one on "Dr. Oz," but don't quote me. It does make sense though. Think about it, if you're used to getting 1800 calories a day, to lower it some really isn't a big deal. However, if you're still as active as you were or more so, and you only get 1200 calories, you're going to have to feed your body somehow, right? So here's how I did today:

Total Calories: 1,030 (admittedly, I am a bit hungry and it's almost midnight but it's just recently happened)
Total Carbs: 126 (oooh! Better!)

I managed to get in all of my water today which is another bonus. I'm feeling pretty good today about what I've done! I feel like I need to take it up a notch - maybe work out now. However, I said I was going to take things slowly. I have noticed that if I jump in full force, I quit full force. So I will continue to just monitor what I eat and make sure I get in my water. It's getting easier as I go along.

So guess what I did today? I ate at Panera Bread. It's a HUGE downfall for me. I love that place. I'm originally from San Francisco and just LOVE soup in a bread bowl. I used to go down to Pier 39 and buy it. In my opinion, the only good bread is the kind you have to rip apart with the jaws of life. I think that's why I fit so well with Europeans. I lived in Germany for awhile and traveled. Each place I went to had the same kind of bread that you had to rip apart. Yummy! I need to find a recipe for that. Anyway, I had a full Asian Chicken Salad. It's a large salad but only 400 calories (or so they say!).

So how about a wonderful recipe that I made for my son's class earlier this year? It was a hit with his entire Kindergarten class. You can use whatever fruit you want. But I am writing what I used.

Dessert Pizza

Ingredients:

1 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 cup sliced plums
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup seedless grapes, sliced

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Spread out cookie dough on either a pizza pan or cookie pan. (This doesn't have to be round, I made mine rectangle). Cook the dough for 15 - 20 minutes, or until it's just starting to get slightly brown. It's important that you don't overcook it or the "crust" will be hard.
Remove from the oven and cool the dough completely.
Spread out whipped topping on cooled cookie dough crust. This will act as your sauce.
Layer fruit on top in no specific order. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I will look through my pictures and see if I can find a copy of my pizza. I can't remember where it's at right now. The greatest thing about this sweet dessert is that it's healthy and the kids love it. Enjoy! ~Denise

Water, check. Sodium - OMG!

2010-10-12T21:31:00.001-04:00

I updated my Facebook diary with my downfalls in the discussion area. But let me tell you what I did right first! I drank all of my water today! Yeah me! The toilet fairy wasn't too happy but she sprinkled me with plenty of paper so I should be good to go for tomorrow too, ha ha. I did figure out one thing today. I need better planning. Since we have such a busy life, I find that I don't really plan meals because things may change. However, I think I can work on this! Not planning is not going to help me lose weight!

So here's how I did on my calories and carbs:

Total Calories - 1380 (better. Gotta be between 1200 - 1500)
Total Carbs - 169 (better than yesterday but still need to be around 120 - 135)

Where did I go wrong? 2 corn dogs and some chips for lunch! See, I believe in using the food I have at home before I spend money on anymore. Oh yeah, and the Sodium thing? Well, that comes into play with the corn dogs and the Lean Cuisine dinner I had. Wow! Way too much! So now I need to sit down tonight and make out a menu for tomorrow. Then again, the footage for the Chilean Miners is happening LIVE and I want to see their beautiful faces as they are pulled up from Mother Earth. Planning can wait until tomorrow! ~Denise

My day with a Breakfast Egg Sandwich

2010-10-11T19:39:00.000-04:00

Well, it's the end of the day for me. I know it's only 7 in the evening where I'm at but I'm going to call it a "food night." I'm hoping to not eat anything else for the rest of the evening. With the way that I'm feeling, I'm guessing that I should be alright. So how did I do? Well, let's see:

Breakfast - Egg Sandwich
Lunch - Leftover Olive Garden Spaghetti with 5-cheese Marinara (can you say YUMMY?)
Snack - Chips
Dinner - (biggest mistake) I went to Taco Bell. In case you don't know it, my daughter is an ice skater. She spends 3 days a week on the ice - right near dinner time! Then I have two other days where there are activities around the same time. One is for gymnastics for my son and the other is swimming for both kids. Yeah, bad timing but it's not available any other time!

Overall I ate a whopping 1792 calories and 198 carbs. I'm not supposed to take in more than 135 carbs. My goal is 120 in carbs. Why do I have to worry about this anyway? I'm pre-diabetic. So what does that mean? I'm not diabetic. However, for years I have suffered what's termed "glucose intolerance." It doesn't matter if I eat good or not, about an hour later I run the risk of having my sugars bottom out. The lowest I've seen is 34. That's close to passing out. Not good. There really isn't anything the doctors can do. They have told me to watch what I eat and exercise. I also watch my levels periodically. So that's where the whole carb thing comes into play.

Then I have the other end of the spectrum. I can eat really good and find that my after dinner reading (usually 2 hours after) can be really high. The highest I've seen is about 207 but it's normal around 183. Yep, not good. However, none of these readings are consistently the same. Other times I will just run normal. So they gave me that poppycock term to throw around and I have an excuse to not worry about what I eat because my glucose levels will do what they want. LOL.

So how would you like to have my Egg Sandwich recipe? It's really simple.

Ingredients:

1 large egg
1 slice bread of choice
1 teaspoon mayonnaise (or as I prefer to call it - Miracle Whip)
1 slice American White Cheese (or other if you prefer)
1 Slice Turkey or Ham
Cooking Spray

Directions:

Place bread into a toaster to brown. If you don't have a toaster, put your oven on broil but leave it cracked open a bit so the heat doesn't become too much for the bread. Watch for browning so you can flip to get the other side.
I always buy cooking spray that doesn't have any calories or carbs. My favorite is Pam. Spray a little in a pan and heat it up.
Crack open the egg and put it in the heated pan. After the whites start cooking, you can break the yolk so it cooks better. (I'm not a fan of sunny side up even though I'm from California where the sun always shines!). Flip egg until almost done cooking.(about 5 - 10 minutes).
Add slice of cheese on top of egg to melt.
After bread is done toasting, remove and add Miracle Whip (or mayonnaise). Remove egg and cheese from pan and place on top of the toast.
Add meat to pan and cook on both sides for about 2 - 3 minutes, or until browned. Add on top of sandwich.

This is actually a very low carb/calorie breakfast and it fills you up. Depending on your bread choice and mayonnaise, you could end up with a sandwich that has about 200 calories and only 18 carbs. My personal sandwich had 246 cals/18 carbs. If I were to purchase low carb bread it would be even lower. Since I'm not a huge fan of the bread I've seen on the market, I just get Price Chopper's 99 cents a loaf bread. Works for me! Hope your day went well. Remember, if you want to share what you ate you can do it in the comments area or click on my Facebook link and come over to share in the discussion area! ~Denise

Today is a new day!

2010-10-11T13:45:00.000-04:00

I'm making good on my promise - a little later than I had a desire to but I'm still doing it. I wanted to make sure I was going to be committed. No, not to the mental institution - at least not at this point. I've tried to make things as easy on myself as possible. I also want to make sure I'm going to lose this weight. So I've stepped it up a notch. I created a Facebook account for the blog. You can join by clicking on the fancy new icon on the right.

A few friends are already there but I'm creating discussions so we can keep track of all the progress we make. I also need someone to KICK MY **S into gear. That's where you come in. When I was in the military, you had people at basic training (or boot camp) that would wake you up and make you exercise. It was a forced buddy system. Well, I need that in order to get my tail into gear. So we don't have to hold back our support any longer. Join me over there and keep track of your food and exercise. If you don't get the chance to work out or just say forget it to keeping track, then just come over for the extra support. We all need it, right?

I'm also putting down what I eat and drink/exercise in my SparkPeople account. In case you don't know what that is, it's a free site that allows you to keep track of everything. I'm trying to do things right. I've given myself a goal of 1 year. The last time I actually weighed in at SparkPeople was in March of this year. Guess what I found out? I've gained 10 pounds since doing that! HELLO! That means taking charge of my weight really does help. So now I have to do this. Tell your friends we all need to help each other. Ask them to join my Facebook page and share their woes with me! I'll be posting here later tonight once I've eaten all of my meals.

Well, well, well

2010-08-18T14:13:00.000-04:00

It's been a long road to nowhere! So it's time to get back on the fat band wagon and get to work on hijacking the skinny band wagon. Who's with me? I have been homeschooling for about 2 years now. In addition, I have been working on my Master's degree. So how's that working for me? It's not! The homeschooling was taking more time than I imagined and my own homework was suffering. So this year I'm going to attempt to send both kids to public school (ack! shutter the thought). The good news is that the teachers where both kids will be going are good. I'm also a "hands-on" mom so my children will never be the type who have low math or reading skills. The scary part will come if my daughter has to go to the middle school here next year. No one in my area likes that school - not the parents or the kids. Kind of makes me sick to think about it!

So now that the kids will start school on September 7th, I have decided that's the day I will begin my hardcore diet. What does that mean? Going to the gym 4 days a week. As a minimum, I want to get on the treadmill and do 30 minutes. That's an attainable goal. Anything else over that will be the icing on the cake. I would have said gravy but I hate gravy! I've also decided to take my blog to the next level and change the way it looks before that date. I will have recipes for low carb and low calories. I have to do something to keep myself motivated! My initial goal is to lose 10 pounds. That will just be a start. My overall goal is to lose 50 pounds. I really need it! But the 10 pound goal is just a mini-goal. Start slow and continue, right? Hope you'll work with me to get this weight off! See you back here soon!

~Denise

Day 2 - No Soda

2010-04-23T22:01:00.000-04:00

Whew! Today was rough. I woke up this morning craving a soda. Instead, I drank an Ocean Spray Peach Tea - caffeine free and only 5 calories. Now that it's nighttime, I started craving another soda and BAD! Grabbed another tea and was good to go once I grabbed a piece of sugarless gum too. Now it's close to bedtime and I'm doing pretty good. But it was not easy by any means!

Day 1 - No Soda!

2010-04-22T19:35:00.000-04:00

I'm feeling good and my motivation is working its way back up! So I woke up this morning with a goal in mind - no sodas for a week. It seems lately that I've noticed that I never drink water anymore. From the time I get up in the morning, to the time I go to bed, I'm drinking Diet Dr. Pepper. That's not right in so many ways! It's now 7:30 at night and I haven't touched one - yet! It was hard going by McDonald's and not ordering a soda. Then again, not really because I hate Coke! If it had been Burger King or Wendy's, it would have been a lot harder. So now I'm at the end of the day and I'm hoping for a great achievement. So I'm keeping the fridge closed so I don't grab anything! Wish me luck!

Crash, Burn, and Sploosh!

2010-04-08T11:18:00.000-04:00

Things have been so very hectic around my house. In case I haven't mentioned it, I homeschool my daughter full time and my son, part time. He attends a 1/2 day Kindergarten. The past few weeks have been challenging to say the least. Because I was so frustrated with attitudes and lack of accomplishments, I fell off my diet hard. If I'd waited just one more week, the title would have read "Crash, Burn, Sploosh, & bloop...bloop...bloop" indicating my drowning!

I'm not a fan of the saying "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade." By nature, I am a pessimist. Why? My mother is one and raised me in that atmosphere. I work hard at not being one but deep down, I feel it in my bones. I'm trying my very hardest to ensure my children don't end up pessimists. With that said, I'm working on being a better mother, better teacher, better wife, and better person. The only way I can accomplish that is with support. Unfortunately, I find that I don't get much support on the home front because there is so much going on that I kind of get lost. I don't mind that. But when I do need the support, I usually reach out to others for it.

That's where you come in. If you know of people who are struggling with life issues, be it weight, family, school, etc. Send them to my blog. We'll support each other. If they have a blog let me know and I'll follow it to show them my support. In "support" of that I am creating a new sidebar addition. It's called my "Support Hose." Yep, we all need support. Since most people balk at the idea of being called a "ho" and rightly so, I've changed the name to Hose. It has double meaning and gives me a complete giggle! That's why this blog is dedicated to laughing at ourselves so that we can lighten life. So I've already added some blog links. If you don't have a blog, just leave me your name and tell me you're following either via RSS or Here and I will add your name.

In loving support,
Denise

Great week!

2010-03-09T17:37:00.000-05:00

I kind of went off the deep end. Again with the ups and downs that I spoke about last time. I believe it was last week that I weighed myself and I was up 2 pounds. That meant since the beginning I'd only lost 2 pounds. The good news is that I've lost those 2 pounds so I'm back to my original 4 pound loss. I've decided to add some tickers on the side of my blog. One will show my progress and the other is to show the total progress of everyone following my blog. My goal is to have us hit the highest weight loss for any blog. I'll have to do some research to find out if anyone has a cumulative count going.

Unfortunately, I could only get the ticker that says exercise for total but that's okay. We'll know it's for total weight loss. So when you lose weight, let me know how many pounds and I'll add it to that week's total. If you gain, let me know that too as we want to have a true representation of how much is lost here. I hope you'll join me in trying to get rid of these unsightly pounds!

This week I've had some "issues." Most of them are related to lack of sleep. It's hard to maintain a blog when you're in desperate need of sleep. I'm good now and that's probably why I lost those extra pounds to get back to where I was. The best part about this week came yesterday. I've had some problems putting on my pants and feel like I just have to get out of them as quickly as possible. And it's not because my husband is HOT - even though I think he's good looking. It's because they are so blasted uncomfortable! They just SCREAM - rip me off! So I listen and normally wear sweats or pajama bottoms.

Yesterday, I happened to grab a pair of jeans that I haven't worn in months. Guess what? They were comfortable. I know it's not because I've lost 4 pounds. I'm guessing I might have lost some "inches." I put that into quotations because in reality it's probably just a fraction of an inch but enough to make my pants comfortable. It really made me feel good. Then today, I decided to do the same thing. Grabbed a pair of pants that have been uncomfortable for months. Put them on and wore them all day! That just really bumped up the motivation level. I'm so excited! It's a small thing but I'm taking this road in small steps. Please let me know how you've done!

Good Days and Bad

2010-03-04T23:31:00.000-05:00

We all have good days and bad, right? So I haven't been diligent about counting calories. But, I have done well with eating. I'm just watching to make sure I don't eat a lot of junk. I did blow it a bit tonight though. I had some milk duds. However, tomorrow I'm hitting the gym! Woo Hoo! I know I can do the treadmill and the bike. I kind of get bored after that! What I really want to do is buy some flippers and go swimming. I'm a bit weak on the swimming thing and was told by my daughter's swim coach to wear these as it will help to build my stamina. As it increases, I'll need them less. I'm good with that. I just need to get to a sporting goods store and buy some. I really don't want to walk out in the pool though with my fat flabbing all over the place. I usually wear swim shorts and a rash guard (with swim shirt underneath). Heck, if I could get away with it, I'd just wear this:

What I'd really like to wear though, is this:

But seeing that I'm 43 now and have 2 young children, I'm more likely to wear this:

Now if I could just get my husband to look like this in a suit, I'd be all set!

Okay! So off the subject of bathing suits. But seriously, as winter starts to come to a close, don't you start thinking about those things and how much you hate going shopping for that and shorts? Anyway, I was thinking about recipes. A friend of mine sent me a fabulous recipe so it got me to thinking. I need to put some recipes up here for you. I am going to give you my cheap way of making Chicken Cacciatore. Seriously, this is super cheap!

2 large chicken breasts, boneless and skinless

1 can diced tomatoes

3 teaspoons garlic powder (or salt if you are out)

3 tablespoons italian seasoning (if you don't have this, use oregano, thyme, sage, basil and whatever other green leafy dried seasonings you have)

Olive oil

Spaghetti noodles (preferrably the thin ones as they are less in carbs)

1 can tomato sauce

Directions - Start water for noodles. Once boiling, add noodles and cook until you can throw them on the wall and they stick (just kidding, make sure they stick to the floor). Place can of tomato sauce in small pan. Add 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1 tablespoon of italian seasoning to sauce. Keep on low heat.

In frying pan, heat oil. Place chicken breasts in pan and cook thoroughly on medium heat. In order to speed up the process of cooking, you can place a lid on the pan to seal in the heat. Once cooked, add can of diced tomatoes, and remainder of seasonings. Continue cooking for about 20 minutes or until water from diced tomatoes is almost gone.

Place chicken and tomatoes on plate. Add noodles to the side with about 3 tablespoons of sauce over the noodles for taste. This happens to be a very low carb dinner and low in calories. But don't overdo it on the pasta! Enjoy!

This recipe is cooked in my house often. I have a diabetic cookbook but find that some of the items are really expensive in ingredients. So I usually try to pare it down but make it taste similar. This simple recipe seen here accomplishes that and it's easy on the pocketbook! Let me know what you think!

Depressing and exciting

2010-03-01T21:50:00.000-05:00

Okay, so how is that possible you ask, right? Well, the exciting part is that I surpassed my goal of losing 1 pound this week. I ended up losing 1.4 pounds. I was so proud of myself. The depressing part came in about 3/4 through the day when I hit a snag in my day and it just brought me downhill. I'm not an emotional eater, meaning that I seek food when I'm depressed or happy, or whatever. But today was so bad that I wanted to cry. So I was really wanting something sweet and ate some girl scout cookies. I even ate some turkey kielbasa - yikes!

With that said, I finally stopped counting my calories this evening. I didn't get in even half of my water intake and just said forget it to working out. What had me so down? My daughter is an ice skater. She's been doing this since she was 4 years old. We've been at the same rink for 2 years now (she's 8). The area around here is wonderful. I love it because people are so friendly. However, I have read and heard about ice skating mom's that just make you feel like you're an outsider. If you aren't part of the in crowd, you're nothing. I haven't been part of the in crowd the entire time I've been here and I'm fine with that. I don't care about being a part of a group. As long as my daughter loves what she's doing, then I will continue to do it. However, I'm starting to see it have an effect on her. She really doesn't have any friends at the rink and kids that have been there less time than she has have been widely accepted. It may have something to do with the fact that we only go 2 days a week vs. their 4 or 5 days but it's still a bit depressing.

So I spoke to my husband tonight about it. She may love to ice skate but she also loves to draw. We're thinking of having her quit skating once summer comes and start doing art classes at the YMCA. They have an awesome program there. She's already taking a homeschooler's art class but this would strictly be drawing. She can't do it right now because it's on a night that she skates. We've decided to let her make the choice but we're going to try and influence her decision by presenting her with the "cool" new things she could learn. It's heartbreaking because she loves it so much but I don't ever want her feeling like I do right now - an outcast or a freak. Am I being silly?

Excellent Day!

2010-02-28T20:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, maybe I'm going overboard on the excellent thing but I still feel it was a great day! Here's the outlook:

Calories in: 1194 (minimum 1200)
Burned: 103
Water: 9 glasses!

I can't believe I managed to get in 9 glasses of water. I'll probably be paying for it all night long! My goal is to have 10 glasses. I just can't do it anymore! So I'm done with that. Depending on how I feel later, I may have a muffin. I made some Fiber One blueberry muffins today. They taste great and are low in calories but the carbs will kill you! They are 28 carbs for one little muffin. Yikes! So I'll only do it if I'm feeling itchy for food.

So here's some negative thoughts about today. Even though I didn't eat quite 1200 calories (not sure if I'm supposed to or not), I ate quite a bit of food. I don't recall eating this much ever! I was just watching the calories and carbs. I chose to work the Wii Fit Plus. Oh my gosh! It's quite difficult to get in 150 burned calories. That's why I stopped at 103. It was crazy! It took me about 40 minutes to get in that much and I didn't do it all at once. Most of the time it's because my children are around going, "can I play now, huh huh? Can I?"

I did find some really cool games on the Fit Plus though. I found out you can do a snowball fight - which is pretty difficult for someone who's not coordinated (like me!). I also rode the segway - WOW, did my legs burn after that! There's a pretty neat obstacle course on there too that my children loved watching me play. I think it was mostly because I'd get knocked off and fall in the water. All-in-all it was a lot of fun. I don't have any goals for tomorrow other than to keep doing what I'm doing. I will be weighing in though so I'll let you know if I've lost!

What a night!

2010-02-28T13:22:00.000-05:00

I was so exhausted last night that I couldn't even think about getting on the computer. My daughter is a girl scout and they volunteered to help raise money for a local pet organization that helps pay for spay and neutering. They had an auction for art so we checked in coats, sold raffle tickets, gave out programs, etc. These are 8 - 10 year old girls that were standing on their feet from 4 - 9 at night. There were some grumbles about feet hurting and being hungry but once we told the adults to relax, it was fine (hee hee). No seriously, I am SOOO proud of each and every one of those girls. They helped out a great cause and the visiting adults loved them so much that they just kept giving out the money!

So I got back late, with my daughter half asleep in the car, and decided that I too, was tired! Into bed I went. The great news for me was that I kept well within my calorie intake. I didn't get very much water in though because I didn't want to keep running to the bathroom. Here's what it looked like yesterday:

Calories: 1206 (minimum was 1200). I even went to Panera Bread for a late lunch. It was so hard for me but I'm glad I looked online at the nutrition count. Normally I have a soup in a bread bowl. I looked at the calories and carbs and just about threw up! No way! So I did some checking and came up with the best lunch! Now I know what I can eat there. Get the U Pick 2. Order up a bowl of soup and a salad. You should be well within a decent amount of carbs. Go to Panera Bread's Nutrition Page and you can even build your own meal to see how you'll fare through so that you'll know what to order when you get there. I ended up getting a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup and asian chicken salad and was at 390 calories and 31 carbs. I was so excited because I love both of those things!

Yesterday wasn't a "required" day for exercise but since I am still starting out, I want to keep up the motivation. Since I was literally on my feet all night long, I estimated it at 150 calories burned. How did I do that? Just a WAG (wild a** guess). Yep! I wasn't just standing but I was also walking around. I know I had to have burned at least that! So that's what I put down!

Today I'm starting out great too! My husband went and bought the kids donuts. He came home and said, "and I didn't get you any." Yeah! My husband is keeping the temptations away from me and I didn't even ask him. What a sweetie! I jumped on the Wii Fit Plus to show the kids the new things they can do and I've already burned 38 calories. I'll get on it again and try to hit 150 since it's still not a required day of fitness.

Better day!

2010-02-26T21:51:00.000-05:00

I think I did pretty well today. Of course, there's always room for improvement. I watched what I ate and wrote everything in on my iPod Touch. I LOVE that Spark People application. It's helping me a lot. I also found out that by using the regular Wii Fit, you struggle to figure out how many calories you've burned. I worked out for about 15 minutes and supposedly I burned about 68 calories. Huh? So I gave up and went down to Target and picked up the new Wii Fit Plus. I found out that Amazon carries it for $19.99 and so does Target. So why not pick it up now?

After I worked out with that, I had burned an additional 38 calories. It was only about 6 minutes but I was just trying to get a feel for it. That riding of the bike isn't easy! So here are the rest of my stats for today:

Calories eaten - 1414 (max allowed is 1550)
Calories burned - 106 (well short of the required 187 but I'll do better tomorrow)
Water intake wasn't so good. I need 10 glasses of water but only drank 6. I may or may not get in two more but with the amount of time I spend in the bathroom, I may just skip it!

Overall, I think I did well. I'm proud of myself. I think I've finally gotten myself committed to my cause. I'm curious where I'm sitting on weight loss though. Think I'll wait until Monday. Hope your day went well. (Oh yeah! Forgot to tell you that I even had 4 pieces of chocolate inside of that 1414 calories that I ate!)

I'm back!

2010-02-25T20:29:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I took a dive off the edge of the earth for awhile. Sunday morning I woke up with pain in my chest. It hurt so bad that I knew I needed to go to the doctor's. Since my doctor's offices are open 7 days a week, I waited until 9 to make an appointment. I woke up at 5 with the pain and didn't get in until 10:20. The pain was so bad that I was crying hard. I knew in my heart (ha! No pun intended) that it wasn't a heart attack. So I showed up. The doctor was hot!!!! No, not looks hot, but angry. He made me go to the emergency room. This isn't my normal doctor, it's just the weekend jockey.

To make matters worse, he made me use oxygen and go in the ambulance. How embarrassing!!!! So I showed up and told them I knew I wasn't having a heart attack. But that the pains did happen about a week and a half ago too. Long story that's now going to be shortened so I can spare you the major 6 hour details, the doctor came back into the room. I was with my husband and children by this time. My little boy is holding my hand - he's such a sweetie who loves to comfort people. His exact words were "you're perfect!" I said back to him, "See? That's what I've been telling my husband for years! I don't even have a crack in my butt." The doctor laughed at that and then told me that I was probably having musculoskeletal issues. In other words, I was having muscle spasms in my chest cavity and to take some motrin. Anything could have caused it. But it sure did hurt.

On top of that, the crying made my eyes so raw that they felt sunburned through Monday. I was wiped out physically. So I didn't worry about doing anything. Tuesday I had an album to do for a photographer and Wednesday I just said - fuhgettaboutit. Now I'm back full force. I belong to a wonderful group of women who scrapbook. We are such great friends and offer support to each other. One of them decided she was going to cut way back on her coffee and mentioned an application she got for her iPhone to track calories. Since I now own an iPod Touch, I decided I'd get one of the free ones. I also told her that since she was cutting back on coffee, I could do the same with soda - no more than 1 per day!

The one I chose is from a good site that I also belong to. It's FREE! It's called Spark People. The great thing about the app is that it's also free from iTunes. You can input your calorie intake, see how you fare through the day and go from there. If you decide to join, please use my name "wererich" or "Denise Rich" because I will earn 10 Spark Points. You can't do anything physical with the points. It's just a motivator. You can purchase virtual goodies though but I've never looked to see what they have. I just like the site!

So, I didn't exactly put in the foods I ate correctly but I did a roundabout. We made homemade enchiladas for dinner but I just wrote down that I had some kind of enchilada that was in the database because I was being lazy. The bad thing now is that it looks like I WAYYYY over ate today. Here's my outlook:

Total calorie intake it states 4,745. It's WAY off but I'll stay lazy for today.
Total carbs 499 - again, WAY off!
Fat - 244
Exercise (40 minutes of snowblowing, yes - it's in the database!) 214 calories burned

So if you go by this, I've probably gained about 5 pounds just by eating and such a small amount of exercise! Well, I'll keep better track tomorrow since I didn't really do it until this evening.

Hope your fitness quest is going well and you'll continue to support me in mine!

Bad day!

2010-02-19T22:28:00.000-05:00

I was supposed to take the kids to a museum today to wrap up our week off from school. My son woke up sick and hugging a bowl. Sorry, didn't want to use actual words that would describe it so as to not give you a complete visual. Poor baby though! So we had to stay home. So I figured I'd work out today. It never happened. I just watched what I ate. While hubby and the kids had pizza, I ate a Weight Watchers Smart Ones meal. I think I'm going to have to go shopping for those next time. My husband did the shopping and he doesn't look at the back for the carb count. I don't blame him because that's a lot of work. I just leave the ones with high counts for him to take to work. By the way, in case you didn't know it, there are a lot of meals similar to Smart Ones that aren't "weight related" that have much lower carbs inside than the actual low weight ones. Just look on the back and you'll see what I mean.

So how did I do on the water thing and junk food? Not so good. I think I just pretty much gave up today. I didn't even "watch" that part of my eating. Very disappointed in myself. However, focusing on the positive with motivation, I managed to get some work done today. I'm working on an album for a photographer friend of mine. She has a client in need of a coffee table book and it's my first time creating it by scratch. It's exciting because I love doing this kind of work! I'm starting to get to know the software so it makes it a lot easier! Then I found a home for all of my scrapbooking junk, uh, I mean supplies. I stopped paper scrapping several years ago when I picked up digital scrapbooking. If you're ever interested in getting involved, check out my other blog. You'll find several freebies on there! It's called FlutterButter Designs. I don't sell anything over there. I just give away stuff! And show off stuff.

Anyway, I called an assisted living facility and asked if they'd like to have my items. They are so excited about getting it. So I will gather all the items tomorrow and make a run. I'm going to be very happy to have it out of my bedroom! So will hubby!

So getting back to the weight thing. I did something I said I wouldn't do, step on the scale. So far, somehow, I have managed to keep those 3 pounds off that I lost earlier. Let's see if it stays that way until Monday. If it does, then I'll be tickled because that will mean a loss of 3 pounds for a week. I really shouldn't be losing more than that anyway if I want to keep it off. So tomorrow I need to be more motivated about working out! That's my goal......

I worked out!

2010-02-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

I'm excited because I actually worked out. It was only 15 minutes but it's a start. It made me realize how out of shape I really am because I was sweating! I used my Wii Fitness Coach Cardio workout today. I'm taking the kids to another museum tomorrow so I doubt I'll get the chance to do that again tomorrow. I'll try on Saturday instead. As far as meals go, I did pretty well. I skipped out on fries since "I wanted them." I did have pasta this evening but for whatever reason, I ate more than normal. I also got in a lot more water than normal, which is a great thing!

The only bad thing that happened today was eating chocolate (4 hearts) and several jelly beans. Ugh! I can tell I've been stressing all day because the inside of my lips are raw. I bite them when I'm stressing. I need to just relax. It was kind of nice tonight because my daughter asked me to teach her how to knit on a loom. She received them for Christmas and I haven't taught her yet. I'm still learning myself. So I take out the directions, learn and then teach her. I'm also in the process of learning how to knit on 4 needles. I've never done that before. The furthest I've ever gotten on knitting is making blankets. I need to buy larger needles tomorrow so that I can try and make some leg warmers for my daughter. They use them a lot in ice skating.

Hope your day has gone well and that you are able to stick better to a diet than I have. Sometimes I feel like I'm pointing out my weaknesses instead of focusing on the strengths. That's why I started out by telling you the good things so that I can focus on being positive rather than negative. It will only help you to fail by focusing on the negative.

Good Day (for the most part!)

2010-02-17T21:44:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I made the goal. I feel good. We stopped at a museum and spent about 2 hours there with my walking about half of that. Then we drove home for about 2 1/2 hours. My breakfast consisted of cinnamon french toast with very little syrup, a glass of water, and a cup of hot cocoa. Hey! It's cold in the Northeast. For lunch, I wanted to be on the road and eat so I chose Taco Bell. I do know from when I was looking at fast food calories and carbs that the crunchy tacos are the best. It was better than a hamburger and fries. I also had a Pepsi.

Then we stopped about half way home and the kids wanted a snack. I kept looking and thinking "do I want this or do I need this?" I settled on a package that said it was low carbs and no chocolate! It was a package that included the word "soy" in it. I almost ate the whole thing, it was SOOOO good. It actually reminded me of when I lived in Japan. No one could understand why the burgers at McDonald's tasted different than the ones in the states. I knew. They were made from soy. Very few people knew that. Hamburger is outrageously expensive in Japan so they use soy to cut down on costs. They were the best burgers I've ever eaten!

For dinner, we had left over pot roast and corn. My drink was just water. I felt very good overall about the choices I made. Oops! I did forget one thing. I had a handful of white jelly beans. Yep, forgot to say "do I need these or do I want them?" The good news is that they have no fat, just carbs. Tomorrow we'll do a local museum. That means I'll be at home for part of the day. I could get myself into trouble there. So I'm going to try and enlist the kids in a Wii workout!

New goal

2010-02-17T08:40:00.000-05:00

I think I've figured out what will work for me. To save money, I will look at an item when I'm shopping and ask myself, "do I need this or do I want this?" When I say I want it, I always put it back. I'm going to use that strategy when it comes to my eating. Wish me luck!

Good news and Bad news!

2010-02-16T21:29:00.000-05:00

We left this morning around 11. My son was carrying a few things downstairs, including his glasses. He didn't realize it but he'd dropped them and then proceeded to step on them. Wearing glasses is still a new thing for him and not habit. He's only had them for about 2 weeks. So we had to go to the eyeglass place and have them fixed before we left. About 2 hours into our drive, the snow started coming down pretty hard. It was difficult to see, especially for the large trucks. So we pulled over at a rest area and had lunch at McDonald's. Yep! I cheated big time. I can't stand McD's salads. I can never tell how long they've had those things! So I had a grilled chicken sandwich and fries.

That's not the worst of it though! We finally made our way to the museum. It was just as small as the museum we hit yesterday but they had some pretty neat stuff. The kids even got to pretend they were weather forecasters in front of a green screen. It was recorded and they got to watch it. So I recorded it too. They had a great time. Then we saw a barred owl demonstration, looked at scorpions, lizards, geckos (aren't they lizards?), and the worst - snakes! I couldn't believe it though. They had dead mice on plates in the tanks. Yuck! Last thing we did before leaving was to watch a 20 minute show in the planetarium. It was pretty cool because they had mats that you laid down on so you could look up at the screen. Best layout I've seen for a planetarium anywhere!

Overall, it took us only an hour and 45 minutes. I think I walked about 35 minutes of that. Then we headed to the hotel to check in. We hit the mall and saw, of all places, "Cheesecake Factory." We knew we had to go there for dinner. I never go someplace we have at home. We did well there. My daughter and I split a chicken salad. I truly believe they put entirely too much dressing on that thing though! I like my salads to just be parched with dressing. You know, thirsty for more. Drank a coke and called it a day.

That is until I walked by this place:

That's the photo I took with my cell phone. I thought, hmmm I'll just take a photo and pretend I went in. It didn't take me long to talk myself out of that! I ended up buying 6 chocolates with caramel and 2 other boxes of things that were on clearance "for the husband and kids." That one will ring true because they aren't anything that I like. But, I did eat all 6 of those other chocolates. Now really, do I NEED all this chocolate? I really need to join choco-holics anonymous (a.k.a CA). "Hi, my name is Denise and I'm a Chocoholic." What is my problem??? I've never felt the need to eat chocolate like this before. It's really odd.

So I ended up getting another 30 minutes of walking at the mall. The good news I mentioned in the title is that I weighed myself this morning and was down 3 pounds. The bad news is that I probably put it back on with my eating habits today. I'm not going to weigh myself again until Monday. I did manage to get in a LOT more water today than previous days which made me feel really good. I think overall I'm starting to be more conscious about choices and trying to get in walking time each day. Now if I could just get in some cardio, it might work to my benefit. Now I have to think of an attainable goal for tomorrow. I've missed all my goals this week so far and I'd like to meet just one!

New Day again!

2010-02-16T07:52:00.000-05:00

Okay, since I messed up yesterday's goals, let's see if I can make today's. No candy! I think I'll run out and buy a wide-bold marker and write it on my forehead. Ha! Then I could walk around and see how many people tell me what I have written there. I just looked out the window and it's snowing. I love the snow but not when I have to drive a lengthy distance. We're taking a trip to eastern upstate New York. It will take about 2 1/2 hours. I wish there was a reputable site that would allow you to write down your route so that you could see the weather the entire way! Wouldn't that be great? Well, I'm off. I'll let you know how I do with my goals.

Ack! What did I do?

2010-02-15T20:22:00.000-05:00

I wrote my goal down here but should have written it across my hands or even taped it across my mouth! My husband got "rid" of all the kisses. No problem. But what did I do this evening when I went to the store? Go down the Seasonal aisle and look at all the yummy Easter candy. It's my favorite time of year to buy. My all-time favorite candies are the Robin eggs. Yummy!!!! My next fave are Cadbury Cream eggs. I picked some up "for the kids and husband." Yeah, right! After dinner I ate one. Then I opened my blog and saw that my goal was to NOT eat 1 piece of chocolate. I feel like such a failure! But you know what? Doing this blog is helping me to be accountable so I guess that's what it's all about.

I took my children to a museum today and an education store. Bought a poster with the Presidents on it to help them learn. I also bought a few other things for the school room. We ended up walking for about an hour and a half between the two places. That's all the exercise I got in today. I had a great breakfast with a glass of milk, oatmeal, and 1 slice of toast with butter. Had another one of those Slimquick powdered drinks (should have had it after dinner even though I know I would have been awake all night!). While we were out we went to a Buffet. I had salad, small amount of mashed potatoes, 1 hot wing, and carrots. I didn't go back for seconds (never do anyway) and I skipped dessert. I also had a Dr. Pepper.

Dinner, however, was bad! I had fried rice. If you've never made it you add eggs, peas, carrots, chicken, white rice, and Teriyaki Sauce. Carbs and Fat aren't bad at all but it's the Sodium that will kill you! Ugh! Well, I'm taking the kids to two museums tomorrow away from home. No chance for chocolate because we're not taking it with us! I bought some (not-so) "yummy" Special K breakfast bars to have as a snack. We'll have about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the first museum. Walk around. Go to a Hotel. Get up. Go to another museum. Drive back. Yeah. No exercise! Well, I'll take my laptop and let my fingers get the exercise!

New start

2010-02-15T08:53:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I hit the chocolate yesterday. Today, my goal is to not eat even 1 piece of chocolate. I'll let you know how it goes! This week my son is off from school and I've decided to let me daughter take a week off too. Since we homeschool her, that's an easy thing to do. So our plans are to hit museums in the surrounding area. We're in upstate New York so we have plenty of places to visit. My husband even set up a hotel for us near 2 museums so that we don't have to come home. The kids and I are SO excited. To start the week off, we found out that hubby doesn't have to work today so he's going with us. Woo Hoo!

My quest for a better body!

2010-02-14T18:38:00.000-05:00

Okay, so ultimately I'm not REALLY looking for a better body. At least that's what I keep trying to tell myself. Ultimately it's about being healthy. I have 2 younger children who need their mom around for years to come. I am 43 years old *gasp*! I really have no idea how I got this old so quickly! I gained my weight after having my 2nd baby. I now weigh more than I did when I was 9 months pregnant. The only difference is the weight has shifted.

I'm tired of the pants not fitting. I'm tired of not having energy. I'm REALLY tired of not wearing shorts. So this morning, I woke up and decided today was the day to start. I had a great breakfast. Just a simple egg sandwich. A slice of white bread with 2 eggs and a slice of cheese. I didn't have any Miracle Whip which is something I always HAVE to have on my sandwiches. Don't give me any lectures about white bread. I can't stand any other kind of bread other than white. It's too dry!

The best part about waking up this morning to start was finding a website through another one that I follow that helps me to save money by using coupons. That specific site is called Couponing to Disney. Kristin owns that site and really has helped me to save money by learning how to shop with coupons. When I opened my Google Reader, she spoke about another site that her and Marisa had created to lose weight. It's called Wii to a new Mii. I couldn't believe it. Two women who were using their Wii to try and lose weight and I get to read about it on the very day I decide I have to take action!

Action is what I did. I am not a very motivated person when it comes to losing weight. I need someone to push me. I think it's in part because as a child and young adult, I never had to work at being skinny. I was anorexic and also had a very fast metabolism. Enter Mommy-hood and that metabolism slows down and the weight comes on. This morning I thought to myself, "wow, I need to lose 60 pounds!" That will put me at a good weight. It will be 5 pounds below what the doctor says is a safe range. The stupid Wii says I'm obese! That's hard to believe but I can agree that I'm overweight.

This evening I finally stepped on the scale. Guess what? I only need to lose 50 pounds. I was wrong in what I weighed. That means I've already lost 10 pounds without even trying! LOL. So here's what I did on my first day. I told you about my breakfast. I had a healthy lunchable - not the packaged Oscar Mayer kind with tons of preservatives. I did cheat a bit. I feel like I have to have a boost to get me going or I won't do anything. So to keep from snacking (a VERY bad habit of mine) I drank one Slimquick powdered drink. In my opinion it's better than doing Hydroxy Cut. Tonight I did have some stir fry and rice. However, I ate an appropriate amount and skipped the gyoza (Japanese potsticker). I also drank a medium sized Dr. Pepper (another weakness) from Burger King. If you know anything about Burger King's drinks, you know they are HUGE! I think it was 32 oz. Just a guess though!

Last but certainly NOT least. I had about 12 Hershey's kisses. Why? Like a mountain climber says when asked "why do you climb?" I said, "because it was there." I have another weakness called "chocolate." That's why I thought it was appropriate to make today's cartoon in the upper right corner about chocolate. I'm very picky about my chocolate though. No dark, yuck! I realize it's lower in calories but it just tastes disgusting in my opinion. I especially love Swiss milk chocolate! My favorite chocolates are with caramel.

Workout? Well, that involved working at a soup kitchen serving food for about an hour a half of walking/standing. Does that count?

Today may not have been the greatest day to start this diet but I'm going to do it. My daughter is in the Girl Scouts and I had to pick up all the cookies today. I can get all of them out of the house except 13. Those are the ones we bought. Yikes! So now you know what I'm going to try and do for the next year (or so). I'd love it if you'd join me. I think we could all use as much support as we can get. If you'd like some additional motivation? Make my blog your home page so that it will remind you of your goals. Let me know if you do! I'd love to hear from you!

~Denise