Pumpkin Problems......

For breakfast I was going for variety. I truly love my Oatmeal Banana Pancake. I thought today I would replace the banana with some pumpkin. I know I have been eating way too many bananas and I thought this would give me a little variety. I have been trying also to make a conscious effort to reduce my consumption of processed foods, so I was trying to avoid my packets of instant oatmeal this morning. I went to one of my best advice friends, Google, for some recipe ideas. I found a few and decided on one. I loved the consistency of it.




The batter was really thick!



The pancake was almost cookie like!


I was super excited for my first taste. I was thinking oatmeal cookie, pumpkin loaf. No. I did NOT like the way it tasted at all. It was almost bitter. There was nothing sweet about it at all. It had cinnamon and vanilla in it, but even maple syrup wasn't going to make this pancake do anything for me. It was just a looker!

So I went to the next recipe. It had less baking soda in it, and along with the cinnamon and vanilla, it called for agave syrup. Perfect.





The batter wasn't as thick, so i was bummed.





But they too, looked good.




No. It was mushy and not sweet at all. I couldn't even take a second bite to think about what it needed.

I ended up mixing instant oatmeal, (exactly what I didn't want to do) egg whites and pumpkin. It was delicious.





Lunch was some left over tilapia for a small taco!




I need to use different plates for all my pictures in one day, huh?

The rest of the day got kinda crazy and I became cranky again, so photos didn't happen.

I made pizza and salad for dinner. A bag of Asian salad from the produce department, and pizza with rotisserie chicken mixed in with some peanut sauce, green onions, shredded carrots and mozzarella cheese. I think I have an old picture of one? Yip. Same pizza. Different day.




A New Challenge.....and the timing couldn't be better!

After dinner, a neighbor called to see if I was interested in signing up for an 8 week boot camp. Long story. In the end, I said yes. The way I understand it, you go three times a week for weights, cardio is on your own the other three days. Of all of the different types of exercises there are, weights are my favorite, but I get bored and end up doing a lot of the same things. So I am really looking forward to the challenge and the variety, and super excited to see the difference! I am hoping to come out of it with some awesome arms!

I will keep you posted!

The food I ate today and it's PPV.

Breakfast = 6
Lunch = 4
Dinner = 18

Total = 28

Activity Points Earned Today = 6
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"

Binging? Or just lots of healthy choices?

It was one of THOSE days where I just never felt satisfied, so I kept trying, with things like bananas, watermelon, almonds, carrots, and sugar free Jello.

The day started out so well too.......English muffin with peanut butter, pears and grapes.......(4 PPV)




I had so much going on, I still hadn't been to the store, so a leftover turkey burger and carrots for lunch! (5 PPV)




Then maybe 45 minutes later.....(3 PPV)




I did get out of the house for a few hours to run errands.....the empty stomach continued.......so I enjoyed one of these...(1 PPV)





10 minutes later....I had another........again (1 PPV)...(they're so small!)





Then at some point, I had one of these...it's like a rice cake type thingymabob...(0 PPV)




Then I ate these......yip....both of them! (0 PPV)




Then I had a banana.......(0 PPV)

(not pictured)

Then I drank this...Crystal Light......(0 PPV)




It tasted good with 12 of these.......(2 PPV)




Then it was finally time to start dinner......do I have any points left?????

Yes, actually 10!

I made tilapia Taco's....





Black bean and corn salsa.......





Finally, a plate of food! Salad (2 PPV), black beans and corn (3 PPV), and tacos (6 PPV). A total of 11.





Watermelon for dessert! (0 PPV)




I think I'm full.....

I went (1 PPV) over, but I had it left over in my 49, and I have earned activity points, so I still think I'm good!

I did feel like I was binging today, but I was writing everything down as I was eating it, and also keeping my apparent PHOTO journal!

After looking at what I ate, I needed more protein during the early part of the day. Lesson learned. I know Fridays weigh in is going to be an awesome one!




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

Just an awesome weekend!

We spent the weekend doing lots of fun Memorial day things......visiting the WWI memorial, spending time with friends, eating out and enjoying the deck in the mornings and evenings. Last night we watched Red Tails. Slow to start, but then it got really good. I so wish I would have been more interested in history as a kid!

Today Mike worked and I spent the entire day doing chores that didn't get done Saturday or Sunday. I needed to go to the store today, but I had several other things on the agenda.....laundry, lawn mowing, housework, so the store never did happen, which somewhat explains some of the odd things I ate today.

Normal breakfast for me......bacon and cheese egg white omelet.





On the deck, of course......With strawberries and blueberries.





Then the day just got crazy. I was trying to get the treadmill in between loads of laundry and incoming phone calls, and before lunch! But it wasn't happening. While trying to not eat lunch, I ate two containers of sugar free jello......





The last of my Cheese and Veggie soup......




.......almonds, a banana and two pieces of string cheese. Great.

I finally decided to get out of the house and mow. It was crazy hot, Tucker got out of the backyard and I had to get in the car to go find him (two houses away), I had to heave the weed eater over my fence and trim the neighbors side, because SHE WON'T DO IT! Then I ran out of weed whacker string and quite possibly cursed.......a lot.......to myself. I was cranky, hot, thirsty and tired. I came inside and lifted weights (really working on these arms!) then called it a day for the exercise. I worked on the yard for a good hour and a half. According to my lovely WW online tools, I earned at least 4 activity points for mowing the lawn. I'll take it!

I looked in the freezer for something healthy to eat since the veggie crisper was bare and I feel I might be overdoing a bit on the fruit. I did not get fat eating too much fruit, but eating too much of it can slow down the weight loss process. I had a package of this.........



Some brussels sprouts I bought some time ago. I have roasted fresh ones and really liked them, but I hadn't tried these.

And I won't again......not a fan. Mushy.....ick.



Now I was just craving a treat, and I was out of my smoothie mix. What to do? Peanut butter! So I toasted a frozen waffle and topped it with Better N Peanut Butter and a sliced banana! That hit the spot!





Dinner was turkey burgers topped with caramelized red onions and sweet potato fries, but my pictures did not turn out to appealing.....

The burgers topped with onions.....sooooo good! They serve them this way at a restaurant we go to, but with a bun, and we love it! Now we just have them at home a lot! No bun needed.




Fries! Yum!





Not bad for having no groceries in the house?





To or row? Groceries!

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
Snack, Lunch, Snack, = 11
Dinner = 12

Total = 26

Activity Points Earned Today = 4
Remaining points from my 49 Points Allowance = 1
How many glasses of water I drank today = 12





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

Staycation!

Yip, that's right. We stayed in town and tried really hard to do things you would do while on vacation in a new city!

We have listened to some live music, checked out the new casino, went to the WWI museum, went bowling with friends last night, and today we did some shopping, had a great lunch at a new place outside, then went to a movie!

I didn't want to worry about pictures, so I didn't. :)

I did, however, walk for 60 minutes on the treadmill and do arm weights!

I knew our plans today included a late lunch/early dinner.....so I tried to be cautious of what I was eating early in the day. After looking up the nutritional info for what I ate out, I was really glad I had planned well.

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 was a banana and strawberries = 0
Snack was a smoothie with blueberries = 2
Snack of celery, cheese, peanut butter = 2
Lunch was a BBQ flatbread pizza...I looked up the nutritional info on the restaurants website...... = 20
Dinner was nonfat vanilla yogurt with fresh blueberries and strawberries = 2

Total = 26

Activity Points Earned Today = 6
Remaining points from my 49 Points Allowance = 1
How many glasses of water I drank today = 9

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

I really don't know what I ate?

Yesterday was an awesome, fun day with the hubby playing around town. We started downtown for breakfast and I ordered an egg white, turkey sausage, spinach omelet. I knew it came with fried potatoes, and I would eat half. I did NOT know the waitress would first offer a Bloody Mary or a Mimosa!! I was a good girl and stuck with coffee and water. When breakfast was delivered, I ate only half of the potatoes. And they were hard to pass up on the second half! They were crunchy fried and oh so tasty!
Then we went to the Liberty Memorial. I have lived in KC my entire life and have never done that. We went to the top and got an amazing view of the city!


Here is the website for The Liberty Memorial

The Liberty Memorial

Then we toured the actual museum. I had know idea such a large museum even existed there. Very interesting, very educational. I really wish I would have had more interest and appreciation for history as a kid!

Then we came home to make sure the dogs weren't dying of boredom. I know that last sentence was pathetic, but Tucker requires the kennel while we are gone, and I have this incredible guilt about it. We were gone from 10-3! That's a LONG time! Mike ran a couple of errands and grabbed himself a sandwich out. I ate some celery and cheese, a thing of sugar free jello, and a serving of my WW cheese and veggie soup. Right before we left, I ate a greek yogurt. I kinda had a feeling dinner would be at the bowling alley. We got a good nap in and picked up our friends. We went bowling with three other couples.
I guessed right. For dinner I had popcorn and beer. On the way home we all hit the Taco Bell drive thru like a bunch of teenagers. I ordered two Doritos tacos, but only ate one and a half. Too salty!
I am giving my best guess to last nights points eaten.
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 = 10
Snacks = 6
Dinner (popcorn, beer, tacos) = 52
Total = 68
Activity Points Earned Today = 0
Remaining points from my 49 Points Allowance = 1
How many glasses of water I drank today = 10
I gave it my best guesstimate. This is where the socializing gets me in trouble. I hope I have over estimated. Going to exercise the next five days so I can still get that 160 something on Friday!
"love the life you live, live the life you love"

Just Keep Moving Forward

Last week I decided it was time to stop maintaining and move forward. I decided if the 160's were not going to come to me, I was going to have to go and get them! I worked really hard this week. Last week I did not work so hard. Sometimes it can take two weeks for my actions to show up on my body. As hard as I worked, I knew I may not see the 2.0 pound loss I was looking for due to last weeks eats. I wanted to lose 2.0 pounds because that would put me at 169.8 and I just wanted to see 160 SOMETHING! I weighed in at 170.0. For being such a measly little amount, 0.2 pounds was weighing a LOT! Right away I decided it was fine.

I had a good talk with myself on the way to my meeting. I knew there was a possibility that I might not make it. I decided that no matter what, it would not get me down and I know my hard work last week, and the hard work I will put in this week will give me the 160's next week.

So I'm keeping my chin up and moving forward!

This week I will again blog every little detail and I have a plan for socializing.

Mike and I are going to listen to Jazz tonight and I know I will want a drink. I will limit it to 2 tonight.

Tomorrow we are bowling with friends for something stupid and fun to do. None of us have been in years and it should be entertaining. I know I will drink beer, so I will drink 4 light beers, or less.

I will exercise 5 days this week.

Breakfast.....apple and a banana....



For lunch I was craving something warm. It isn't cold today at all, but it is raining and super dreary outside and sometimes the rain makes me want a big bowl of soup. This is an old WW recipe that I haven't made in a long time.

Velveta is probably not the best thing for you, but once in a while you have to go for taste, in moderation of course.

10 oz. light velveta cheese
1 can mild Rotel
45 oz FF Chicken broth
2 lbs frozen veggies

I used fresh broccoli and cauliflower today. I boiled the veggies for about 4 minutes, then added it to the other ingredients.




1 C. = 1 PPV! I ate 2 cups......




For a snack, I was craving something sweet! We talked about PB2 in my WW meeting this morning, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. It is a powder you mix with water to make peanut butter. I have never done that before, but I love it in a smoothie. I made a smoothie and added PB2, 1/2 of a frozen banana and 1 T. of Hershey's Lite Syrup. The whole thing was 4 PPV!

Thick and Creamy.....




So good.....



Knowing our plans to go out to Jazz tonight for some music and dinner, I really tried to keep my eating light during the day.

I sat on the deck in the afternoon and had one light beer and some celery and cheese.



At dinner, I had 2 light beers and a chicken dish with dirty rice. I ordered a half order and ate HALF of the half order. I didn't read it real well. It was a chicken breast topped with crab and shrimp. Okay. Well it was a FRIED chicken breast. It was sooooo good. The crab and shrimp were in a cream sauce and it was all on a bed of dirty rice with a side of steamed zucchini. I ate all of the zucchini and cut the chicken in half as soon as I realized what it was. God it was good. After putting my napkin over the second half, (that was really hard), I wanted an after dinner beer, but I ordered coffee instead.

Later we went to the casino and I ordered WATER! Who IS this person?

Now we are home and I have a ridiculous stomach ache! That darned rich, fried food!

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 = 0
Lunch = 2
Smoothie = 4
Celery and Laughing cow cheese wedge = 1
Beers = 11
Dinner = 14

Total = 32

Activity Points Earned Today = 0
Remaining points from my 49 Points Allowance = 43
How many glasses of water I drank today = 10









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

Day 7 of 7

Well, I made it through the week achieving all but one of my goals. I was going to exercise a minimum of 30 minutes everyday. It just didn't happen today. I accompanied Mike to a Dr. appt at 7:00 am this morning. Then we went to breakfast.......He had to be on a liquid diet for 24 hours, and I skipped breakfast to be polite. I WAS DYING!!

We went to First Watch and I had my usual. The Healthy Turkey. Its an egg white, turkey sausage, feta and spinach omelet. I had dry toast that I added a little strawberry jam to......I only ate one full piece of toast, but after eating a half of a slice, I was ecstatic to take this picture when I remembered I had my IPad with me!





After breakfast I went shopping for a dress for my son's wedding coming up in July. I think I found it.......I'm gonna ponder it for a bit. I did have a great shopping experience at Nordstrom today. I am not a shopper. I never have been. Partly because I have such a hard time finding things to fit right, and partly because I am never willing to spend the money I should on well made clothing that fits properly. Well, today I met Anette. She was awesome. She was great to point out all of my positive features and help me figure out what works best for my body type! She even sent me for a bra fitting when I told her I really liked the dress, but could never find a strapless bra that would fit me. Boy did I have that all wrong! I left with the dress, a new strapless bra, and a new everyday bra, and a hefty credit card receipt! I also left feeling great. This could be bad for my shopping future?? :)

I stopped at the grocery store salad bar for lunch on the way home......


After eating lunch and hanging out with the mutts on the deck for a short bit, I headed over to my future daughter-in-laws house to stuff, seal and stamp wedding invitations. They are beautiful! I was super tired, so on the way to her house, I grabbed an iced, nonfat, sugar free carmel latte. We worked on the invitations with her mom and Maid of Honor for THREE hours! Yikes! I came home sleepy and just plum worn out. I fixed some frozen veggies and a chicken sausage and called it a night! I think I'm even to tired to write this blog.......










I am anxious for my weigh in tomorrow and anxious to blog about my plan for next week. I feel like having a well outlined plan helped me move forward this week. Thanks again to all of you for your comments and support.

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 = 10
Lunch = 6
Latte = 3
WW String Cheese = 1
Dinner = 6

Total = 26

Activity Points Earned Today = 0
Remaining points from my 49 Points Allowance = 41
How many glasses of water I drank today = 8





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