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Friday, November 30, 2012

The day before the Holiday Weigh In! Eeekkkk!

Light breakfast....for me anyhow. :)

2 PPV



Lunch

Leftover Food Truck "Boom Boom Pork Tacos"
1 = 8 PPV




Damn if I didn't eat TWO!

Another 8 PPV




I am guessing heavy on those, but I eat them at least twice a month, so I had to come up with a number.

My afternoon was busy, but I did snack on a few un-pictured items while I was working for one of the families I work for. I cooked them a pasta dish for dinner, and I kept tasting, then adding ingredients. Then I had a few bites of dry cereal. They have like a GAZZILION boxes of cereal, and that's something I don't buy anymore. I kinda miss it, but know I can't keep it at home.

At least......

5 PPV

Again, I wasn't real hungry at home when it was time for dinner. Mike made himself a breakfast sandwich, and I ended up finishing up my Trader Joes Soup, along with toast with Better N Peanut Butter and a Banana.

I walked for an hour outside, and it felt good to get that in!

As I type this post about my day yesterday, I am headed out the door to my WW meeting. The weigh in after a big Holiday Week of Two Thanksgiving Dinners and my birthday week. I am honestly happy staying out of the 170's and I have been at 165-168 for several weeks now, so maintaining somewhere in that range will keep me happy.

I really hope to move forward over these next few weeks because the maintaining has really been bringing me down personally. Lots of feelings of failure. I am a positive person, so I can usually bring myself out of my slump, but the negative feelings I have towards myself about where I am in my weight loss journey are tiring. I am very much a realist, and I know losing weight in the month of December for me is almost next to impossible, so I am struggling with just planning to maintain, or actually moving forward and losing. I will think about it a lot and write a "reflection" post for tomorrow.

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Refresh...I can eat 26 points a day.
I can earn Activity Points by doing exercise.
I have an allowance of 49 points that I can dip into if I chose.
I should drink a minimum of 6 (8 oz) glasses of water each day.


The food I ate today and it's PPV.

Breakfast = 2
Lunch = 16
Snack = 5
Dinner = 6

Total = 29

Activity Points Earned Today = 4
Remaining points from my 49 Points Allowance = 0
How many glasses of water I drank today = 9







"Love the life you live, live the life you love"

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Super Weird Food Day.....

Breakfast....no problem, not real hungry.

Toast with Trader Joes Honey Apple Butter, Banana
3 PPV




Lunch
Food Truck!
Roasted veggies with sausage and turkey
8 PPV?

Then I snuck a few bites of Mac and Cheese, but I couldn't take a picture cuz I SNUCK it!
5 PPV?




When I got home, I was craving something sweet, so I topped a small piece of toast with a Strawberry Laughing Cow Cheese Wedge and Strawberry Jam.....with coffee.
3 PPV




Then I took my doggies for a walk. Nice walk. Beautiful weather. But by the time I got home my left eye was watering like crazy and itching, and all of a sudden my left eye and the entire left side of my head was POUNDING! So I took some Advil and accomplished a whole lot of nothing the rest of the day.

Around 8:30 I had a bowl of soup.
3 PPV




Mike is officially addicted to the 1000 piece puzzle we started over the weekend. He is SO competitive! He cracks me up! Working on the puzzle for a few minutes did NOT help my headache, so I just watched.

:)

Refresh...I can eat 26 points a day.
I can earn Activity Points by doing exercise.
I have an allowance of 49 points that I can dip into if I chose.
I should drink a minimum of 6 (8 oz) glasses of water each day.


The food I ate today and it's PPV.

Breakfast = 3
Lunch = 8
Snack = 5
Snack = 3
Dinner = 3

Total = 22

Activity Points Earned Today = 2
Remaining points from my 49 Points Allowance = 0
How many glasses of water I drank today = 10




"love the life you live, live the life you love"

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Back to Basics.....

Lots to do, and I needed the energy to do it!

Breakfast?

My Oatmeal Banana Pancake.

After cooking, I divided my 1 T. of Better N Peanut Butter on each quarter, then I added 3 dark chocolate chips to each quarter. This added 1 PPV to my breakfast, but it was totally worth it!





After just a sec, I gave it a good swirl........




Then topped with my nanner slices!




Thank You, Bananas! You make me happy.




6 PPV of yumminesss.....
1 PPV for my steamed nonfat milk in my coffee....




After a very accomplished morning at home, I was ready for some more turkey chili. I may have to freeze the rest. Not sure I can convince Mike to eat the same thing for dinner three nights in a row. Dinner Out? Maybe!

I started with two, small, cooked potatoes, cut into bit size pieces. I love chili on a baked potato!
2 PPV




I topped that with 3/4 cup of Turkey Chili, and popped it in the microwave.
5 PPV




Then I added a LITTLE (1/8 Cup) Light Cheddar Cheese.
1 PPV




I sat at the kitchen table and stared at my new Christmas centerpiece, trying to decide if I liked it or to.
Total = 8 PPV





My "Baked Potato Turkey Chili Cheese" concoction sucked! (not really)




Moving along.........

I had lots to do after lunch, and exercising was on the list. While letting my chili settle, I showered and got dressed, so I could exercise? Don't ask. I'm weird. I needed a little "Pick me Up"!

After showering and lunch settling, I jumped on the treadmill. Twenty minutes in, I realized I was yawning.....on the treadmill.......so I increased my speed and my incline, and after 60 minutes, I had a good sweat going, but now I didn't have time for a shower. So I did a quick mirror check, and headed out the door to finish up the rest of my day. It's how I usually look anyhow.

Snack time!

Pretzel sandwiches made with Laughing Cow Cheese and Turkey Pepperoni.
3 PPV
Apple
0 PPV





By dinner time, I wasn't super hungry. While driving home, Mike and I were chatting away on the phone. While contemplating exactly what to do about dinner, I said to Mike....."Can I ask you a question?" He said...."Yes, I am fine eating chili again for dinner."

I LOVE THAT MAN!

I figured I would eat some soup and something green. Turns out, WE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING GREEN!

So I ate this......




With this......





A plate and a bowl of orange.

Baked Sweet Potato and Trader Joe's Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup.

Potato and Light Butter
4 PPV

One Cup of Soup
3 PPV

I felt great about the day choices!


Refresh.......I can eat 26 points a day.
I can earn Activity Points by doing exercise.
I have an allowance of 49 points that I can dip into if I chose.
I should drink a minimum of 6 (8 oz) glasses of water each day.


The food I ate today and it's PPV.

Breakfast = 7
Lunch = 8
Snack = 3
Dinner = 7

Total = 25

Activity Points Earned Today = 4
Remaining points from my 49 Points Allowance = 0
How many glasses of water I drank today = 8


'love the life you live, live the life you love"

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Playing Catch Up!

Well, Thanksgiving Number Two on Saturday was a success......even after this upside down, double thermometer, brined from Trader Joe's........turkey fiasco!

Nobody died. Nobody vomited.





Mike said he just doesn't understand what the big deal is about cooking the perfect turkey. He volunteered to cook the turkey next year. Says he's just going to buy it, get a frier, fry it up and be done with it. I'm giving him about 360 days to think about it. If he changes his mind, I might just go with some turkey breast and a nice big beef tenderloin.

We started the morning off with Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pancake Mix.....Tess did the cooking in the morning. I think I forced her, but she was glad she did it. Grandma was coming over early to help in the kitchen, so we saved one for her. We were all super impressed. Really no need for butter OR syrup, but of course, we did.




I decided to pair it up with a nice Pumpkin Spice Coffee.....ahhhhh......




Then I got the Mulled Apple Cider going. I love the way this makes the house smell, and I love being able to offer it up as everyone arrives. This was delicious and I will for certain do this again for Christmas. Pretty tasty with a little Apricot Brandy in it too.





Family all arrived, and the table(s) was set......





After a little prayer (I always cry, so I made my mom do it), we formed a line for the buffet. Guess who joined in the line????

Tucker has now been with our family for One Year! Happy Anniversary Little Guy! I love the dickens out of YOU!!




It's hard to remember to take a picture of your food with fifteen guest at the dinner table, but a couple of bites in, I remembered.
(I did not count points today)




My dry, upside down turkey tasted just fine combined with potatoes and gravy and the Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce I discovered a recipe for this year. I still bought the can of Ocean Spray for dad. He loves that stuff! But he loved my recipe too!






Then, my dad and brother surprised me with a birthday cake! My birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year, and they both decided we should continue the celebration! Uhhh....Okay! :)

There were so many candles, it took TWO people to light it!




Look how pretty!




They insisted on singing. Awe.....golly gee whizzzz...... (LOUDER!)



Deep breath!!!!




Make a wish and Blow!




Then, the Checkers Challenge was on! I kicked my dad's butt! Then Tess gave it a try.......Dad was really stressed out from his loss. He he he he he......




It was a great birthday and a great long weekend spent with family!

When I woke up on Sunday, I decided I wasn't going to do a darn thing.

An hour later, I knew I couldn't stand it. I HAVE to decorate for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. It's tradition!

So, I made a yummy breakfast while I pondered the rest of my day.......



It was just cool enough outside, that I knew a big bowl of turkey chili (geeezzzz, always thinking food first) after a long day of decorating would be perfect. So I got to work. Chili complete and simmering in the crockpot all day, I headed to the basement.

Sooooo many boxes. I have gotten so much better at labeling things. Pat myself on the back, thank you very much.

After fifteen trips up and down the stairs, I knew I had my activity in for the day and stopped counting. I still would have to take all those boxes back down!

Mike even put the outside lights up, and this makes me very happy......That man truly loves me. (He also knows how cranky I am every year until the lights go up outside.)

Several hours and boxes later, I snuck a few leftovers. Mike seemed to busy to interrupt, and Tess was at the Chiefs/Broncos game, so I got first dibs on the goodies in the fridge........





Then I decorated my favorite part first.

There's just something about the fireplace mantel and the stockings hung that make it feel like Christmas!




Now for the tree. I don't do a theme tree. We just have the one. All of the kids homemade ornaments are on it, along with other ornaments we have collected over the years. Some are from before we were married. It's fun each year to hang them and think about a memory that goes along with it. We debate each year if all of the ornaments in the "Ornament Tub" will actually fit on the tree. And they do. It's a big Christmas mess, and I love it.

Mike had this tree long before we were married. We think it's about twenty years old. I can't really imagine a Christmas where we aren't looking for a color on the end of the branch to stick into the tree trunk and arguing about the faded colors and where they actually belong. The thing is huge and it makes me really Christmas Happy! (Real tree's scare me).






Every year, I try really hard to make the bannister look gorgeous! It never works. Whatever, Bannister!!!!








This is my grandma's piano. The Santa Pitcher and mugs belonged to my other grandma. It's a good memory place.......(I really need to get back to my self taught piano lessons. I wanna play Here Comes Santa Claus!)







At the end of the day, the house felt cozy and warm. We curled up on the couch with a bowl of chili............





and admired the Christmas Tree while we sat in the dark.

Tess came home after the Chiefs loss (SURPRISE!), and decided to head back to school. While loading up her car, the largest Bulldog in the whole entire world came into our garage. I can NOT believe I forgot to take a picture of "Daisy". She would NOT leave the garage, and instead, laid down between our cars until somebody scratched her belly. She had no collar or ID on her. I am quite certain they do not make a collar large enough to go around that neck! Would you believe I put a message on Facebook, and within 10 minutes, we were able to locate her owner! Ahhh.......Facebook. :) Come back anytime Daisy!

Then......I decided to follow through with a threat I've been making for about five years. We did a puzzle at Christmas time when I was a kid. I remember the card table being set up in the living room right beside the Christmas Tree and spending HOURS at that table, determined to find the corner piece and all of the edges.

I bought the puzzle a couple of weeks ago.





Mike and I are officially addicted!





I fear that this 1000 piece puzzle will consume the next few weeks. We may not be able to leave the house.




Monday morning I got up and threw away all of the pie and cake! Good bye sugar, I am on Weight Watchers! (I almost forgot.)

Monday I was back on track.

Breakfast
Latte and Oatmeal, from Starbucks





Lunch
Fruit Tray Clean up from the weekend.......





Dinner....
Chopped Salad and Turkey Chili
(I love my salad chopper)




I didn't actually count points........

:(




Lots of Self Talk Monday evening. I have enjoyed the last few days, I have been fairly careful to make good choices and keep active, but I have not kept track of points.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I will eat only 26 PPV, my daily limit, and I will walk for one hour each day.

Friday I will attend my WW meeting and weigh in.

I hope everyone of you had a wonderful Holiday Weekend and that you have many things to be Thankful for!





'love the life you live, live the life you love"