Unhappy mom

Looking at pictures on my daughter's computer, I came across one of us at a football game in August, 2007. Pre-Weight Watchers. Probably at my starting weight of 220. Wow. I hate this picture. but I have to realize that that is how I looked. How could I be smiling, I surely was not happy.

Even though this shot doesn't show my body per se, you get the idea.

Above are 2 photos from my vacation in October, over 40 lbs. less.

My Thanksgiviing Contribution

First off, I like the ease of blogging here. I like being able to make this journal look pretty and add pictures, and it doesn't take a degree in computer programming to do!

So, just so I can post a pretty picture, is my contribution to the Thanksgiving table tomorrow. Mince meat pie! There are a few of us who really enjoy mincemeat. I am one of them. I do make the pie pretty, making a cutout on top in the shape of a star usually. (when i can find my star cookie cutter!)

For anyone who is not familiar with mince meat, or is it mincemeat, there is no meat in the recipe these days. In the old days, there was beef suet, I believe. Now, it is a mixture of raisins and apples and lots of spices. Possibly brandy or rum. It is also really sweet. Maybe it's an aquired taste, but I like it!

I'm also bringing wine and I have a little book I bought with Thanksgiving recipes. I may peruse it and see if something else catches my eye.

Italian Market

Several people have told me recently of a store where they have some wines, cheap. I also heard there are many cheeses. I decided to give this place a visit since I wanted to pick up some wine for Thanksgiving.

I was there yesterday, at lunch time. I was already hungry when I walked in. It was a huge warehouse type room. Counters and counters and coolers of cheese. Thankfully all wrapped and no samples. Now, I'm not that versed in cheese, but if there was any special cheese that you needed, this would be the place to find it. Looking at the website now, they have over 1000 types of cheese!!!

I didn't see much wine, so I picked up a few bottles and started looking for a cash register. I didn't want to buy cheese since I don't want it calling me from the fridge.

There was a big arrow pointing out a door, but it went into another room. A Ha! This is not just a wine/cheese store. This room had much more wine, Italian grocery products of all kinds. Cookies, canned goods, jars of giardiannera. Then there was another room, which had a huge deli counter and tables and chairs. Here you could purchase meats, cheeses and salads to take home or have a sandwich or huge piece of pizza or soup to eat there. Being hungry, I was so tempted to buy one of the Italian sub sandwiches they had on display.

They also had a bakery display with Italian cookies, cannolis and cakes. Need I say "yum"????

I made it out of there with 4 bottles of wine for $25. I think only 1 or 2 will stay here at home, the others I will take for gifts. It is nice to know that this store is there!

Pre-Thanksgiving Update

The lack of posting here is an indication that there is a lack of any weight loss!

But, it's ok. My goal this holiday season is to maintain. Not go over the 180 mark. Jan. I hope to be rededicated.

Last year at this time, I was so determined to hit my 10% by Christmas. And, when I went first thing in the morning on Christmas Eve, not wearing jeans, not having eaten or drank even a cup of coffee, I made it! Nice Christmas present! My starting weight was 220, my 10% goal was 198. I believe I weighed around 197 that morning. Got my keychain, and I was thrilled.

I did make cookies because I do give them to my customers and also like to have them for giving to friends and family. I don't think I ate any of them. What determination!

This year, I don't think I want to deprive myself quite so much. I'm a true size 12, looking pretty good. Had a guy tell me the other day that I look so good, 25years old, and shouldn't lose anymore! Easy for him to say! I will probably never be thin enough. I can always look in the mirror and be unhappy with my body.

But, it is so hard for me to lose now, to think that I will during this time is setting me up for failure. On Sunday we had a family thing and they had deep dish pizza as the main course. I did have a good helping of salad and fruit. But i also had a piece of pizza and then another half that i split with my daughter. A piece of apple cake and eclair cake and 1 crescent cookie.

Last night was another stumble. We went downtown to see a play and dinner before. We went to one of my favorite places, Harry Carrey's. I had a great martini at the bar, made with rum and pineapple juice. They have kettle-cooked potato chips in baskets on the tables in the bar. I was not able to resist them, they make them there I'm sure.

We went into the dining room for dinner. It was my daughter and I. We split a chicken chopped salad. I at least avoided the bread on the table!

I usually order the chicken vesuvio or eggplant parmigiana. They are big on steaks, but I didn't feel like steak or want to spend a fortune. I saw this pasta on the menu which sounded good to me. It was a spinach noodle, large flat noodles, with basil, and a tomato cream sauce. Also there was crumbled italian sausage in the sauce. It had a kick. It was delicious! I ate maybe half of it, my daughter, K, had half of hers also. We wrapped the rest to go.

After the spice of the sauce I felt like something cool. Even though we were so full, I decided I had room for ice cream. I ordered a cappucinno chocolate chip ice cream to split. K told me she would only have a taste. Thank goodness for me, she had almost half of it. It was just okay, not chocolatey enough for me. And we were both soooooo full.

We had a short walk to the theatre. The usher taking our tickets told me we couldn't bring the food inside! I asked, "what can i do with it?" She directed me to a garbage can outside. Then she looked and saw that K had a large purse. She said, "she has a large bag, put it in there!" So we walked back outside to the sidewalk and put our leftovers in K's bag. We went back to the same usher and she let us in! I hate to throw away good food, and there is enough there for us to have 2 more meals!

When we finally got home, I was very thirsty. I started looking for snacks, but just grabbed a large peach water and took it with me to bed.

I've been up now for about an hour, just having coffee. I want to be good today, but those leftovers are already calling my name. I may say we will have them for dinner tonite.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Not till after 3. My plan will be to stay low points, maybe go for a nice long walk. But, you see, it is going to be impossible to LOSE anythng right now!

Tuesday Update

I can't believe almost a week has passed since I've updated here. Not much going on. I've done pretty good at staying on plan, within my points. No exercise, though, and that's where I need to improve.
I did not go to weigh in again tonite. Missed last week also. I have to admit I'm considering stopping the $40/month payment. But there is supposed to be a new plan coming out on Dec. 7th, I'm curious to see what they've tweaked. Rumor has it that it is a version of "Flore", Core eating but counting Flex points.
I have been weighing at home in the mornings, and the scale is back down to 175. My goal is to not go back into the 180's over the holidays. I will concentrate on losing again come January 2. Just seems to be a more realistic goal for me.
So, I wanted to post my breakfast from the weekend.
I try to get the most for my points. I flip-flopped a few things in my mind for breakfast on Saturday morning. Wanted something different, but wanted to stay low in points and not be hungry. Here's what I came up with, only 4 points and so filling I couldn't finish!

Chop an apple, place in bowl with a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg, add a little water and microwave for 2 minutes.
On a separate dish, place 1 cup grapes. 1/2 cup plain, fat-free yogurt, splenda, and 1/2 cup fiber one cereal.
Add 1 Thomas english muffin, the 100 calorie version, toasted. I sprayed with some I can't believe it's not butter.
That's it. So fresh and filling for four points!

Mid-week update

I've been lax at my blogging. Although i don't have much to report, I feel the need to update today.
I've been sticking with the flex. Even though I had lunch out over the weekend, we went to Panera and I was able to count the points for the lunch I had. I like the "pick two" and had a cup of the bean soup and 1/2 turkey sandwich. I believe it came to around 11 points for the meal. Because hubby has been sick with the flu or something similar, I've been able to eat at home most of the week! So much easier to count points and stay op that way.
I ended up not going to weigh in yesterday, probably not a good thing. But the scale in the morning didn't lead me to think it would be too encouraging, so maybe just as well. I could possibly go on Sat. morning to weigh, before eating anything. That might give me some motivation.
I went to dinner with a friend tonite and had a small greek salad, which had 3 nice size pieces of very yummy feta cheese on top. I had to eat them. I ate 1/2 of my chicken shishkabob, some of the rice. It came with dessert and we both had spumoni. It was 7 points! I still came home and had my popcorn and twizzlers.
Those twizzlers could become a problem for me. There is only one more serving left in the bag, maybe I should not buy any more. 4 of them are 3 points. It's a nice snack that I really look forward to. I haven't gone past the 4 piece serving, but easily could eat the whole bag!
I've decided that I will try to use my 35 extra points on Fri, Sat & Sundays. Actually, kind of what I've been doing all along! Today I figure I already used 4 of those points.
I have to say that it's crossed my mind that I could try doing low carb for a week. I wonder if that would get me to finally lose some poundage. Just a thought.

Fox sighting

First off, I have never seen this guy before. Out my back window, I saw a fox. Our yard is large and I have many pplantings and trees. Lots of cover. Last week there was a possum face to face with my dog, Xena. Xena was barking and the possum was hissing at her. I had to call her off.
So the fox was wandering around the yard, sniffing, etc. He left. I went upstairs. I was updating my blog. Husband called me and said he was back in the ayrd, by my shed. I looked, and he had caught something. It looked like a rabbit, and was already dead, not moving. Husband wanted to let the dog out and I said no. Whatever it was was already dead. The fox had to eat. He would've gone to kill something else, and we'd have a dead rabbit to clean up. What's the sense of that?
So, I took this opportynity to take lots of pictures. He is a beautiful animal. I feel bad that there has been so much building, that these wild animals don't have a place to go and are forced to live with us. I think he is probably living in a hole under a shed in the neighbors yard. The woodchucks used to live there, but I haven't seen them in a long time.
I warned my neighbor to keep her little dog inside and always keep her eye on him.

Just a quick update reporting yesterday's success. My menu was similar to the ones I've been following since Wed. when I decided to county my points. But then after dinner, Kim and I went to the movies. I didn't have time to pop a bag of popcorn to bring with. We didn't have any snacks during the movie, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts after and I got a coffee to bring home. Yes, I can drink coffee at nite and it does not keep me up! I had what has been my nitetime treat while computing last nite. With my coffee, a Chex bar (2), popcorn (1), and 4 Twizzlers (3). So I stayed within my 21 points for the day once again!

I feel good, maybe the scale will move.

But now the weekend is here. I'm thinking of doing a variety of points for the week, adding up to my weekly total. Sort of like the Wendie plan, or Lyn's plan. Lyn is doing it monthly, based on her monthly bank of calories. (escapefromobesity). I would do it weekly, based on my flex points. That way, I could adjust for the weekends. We'll see, I haven't figured it out yet, but I haven't gone into my 35 extra points for the week, yet.
So far today I had:
Breakfast: 1 cup Cheerios, 1/2 cup Fiber One, 1/2 cup skim milk, 1 1/2 cup strawberries. That's a total of 4 points.
Later!

Chex Bars

When I first saw these in the store I wondered how they were. A couple weeks ago they were giving samples at Meier's. I tried both the chocolate and the turtle. My favorite by far was the turtle. It tastes like a candy bar with chocolate and gooey caramel. I have had to do the WW math several times to make sure that these sweet delights are really only 2 pts. But they are! They are selling them in big boxes at Sam's Club. But I also had some $1 off coupons and they had them $2/box at Woodman's, so I picked up a couple boxes for only $1/box! Need to see if I can get back to Woodman's to pick up some more. They are $3/box at the Jewel! Try them!

Happy to report another day of sticking to my flex plan.

Seems I have a couple new favorites which will become staples. Cheerios for breakfast and a turkey sandwich on this new bread I found. They are Arnold's Sandwich Thins and they are only 1 pt each. I used 1 pt. worth of turkey today for a 2 pt. sandwich! I've had the Progresso 0 pt. soup along with my sandwich for a great 2 pt. lunch!
I've also successfully saved enough points so that I could have lots of snacking at nite!

So for today:
1 cup Cheerios 2
1/2 cup Fiber one 0
1/2 cup skim milk 1

cup grapes 1

Progresso soup 0
Sandwich thin 1
Turkey 1
cup pineapple 1

salad 0
light dressing 1
chicken leg 4

popcorn 1
twizzlers 3
ww ice cream 2
chex bar 2

actually, comes to 20/21 points.

Flex Update

Yesterday went well. I stayed on plan, using only 21/21 points. And I wasn't hungry! The only time I was was when I first got home from work right at dinner time, and I did have a few chunks of watermelon while making dinner. Since we ate at home it was easier to stay within my points. Eating out is always a guess.
I made the fam eggs, sausage, hash browns and bagels. I had chicken, salad and green beans.
Having 7 points left after dinner was nice! Although I would've eaten healthier stuff on Core.
Here's last nites breakdown-
Watermelon - 1
Chex Bar - 2
4 Twizzlers - 3
popcorn- 1
The Twizzlers were a nice treat. I already picked out that new chex bar (turtle) this is a WONDERFUL 2 pt. treat! I had 3 points to use and couldn't figure out what else to have. I almost grabbed 3 hershey miniatures, then remembered I had a bag of opened Twizzlers in the pantry. 4 of them are 3 points. Yum.
Thinking of breakfast. I'll probably have my Cheerios again. I save 2 points by not having a banana with them. On core I didn't have to count the banana!
Wishing me an on point day!

Flex Plan

Yesterday went worse than expected. I didn't think I lost any weight, but didn't expect to gain 1 and be back at 179.2. That is up 2.2 from before Cancun, 177, my lowest weight on WW. Disappointed doesn't begin to describe how I felt. I even thought about quitting my membership and just doing it on my own. I'm paying $40/month for the monthly pass.
But I haven't canceled my membership yet. I decided to make the switch to Flex plan, and started right on it this morning. I haven't been hungry yet, maybe those Dex C20's help in that respect.
I've got 21 daily points.
My menu today so far:
Bfast: 1 cup Cheerios (2)
1/2 cup Fiber One (0)
1/2 cup skim milk (1)
Lunch: 2 oz. turkey (2)
sandwich thin (1)
1 cup progresso soup (0)
ww yogurt (1)
midday: small skim latte (1) I hope they make lattes with skim milk and not skim something else?
Apple
Dinner: lettuce w/2 Tblsp. Newman's Lite Ginger Dressing (!)
green beans (0)
chicken breast (3) picked up a chicken from Sam's Club, they are the best!
So I have 7 points left for the evening! That's great!
I will allow 1 point for my popcorn that i make in a paper bag in the microwave, and still have 6 for a dessert. When I did Flex originally, I'd usually have a bunch of points left at the end of the day and used them on things such as ice cream, fiber one bars, even candy. And that's when I was LOSING WEIGHT! It' s nice to know I have enough points left over.

Reassessment

Tomorrow is weigh in. I don't expect there to be any loss from last week. I think a Corgi is correct, although I'm not eating any "bad" things, I'm probably eating too much of the "good" things. I eat a lot of fruit. Probably should try to eat more veggies instead. What I like about Core is that you don't have to count points. But this doesn't mean that I should eat non-stop. Maybe I should do portions of the core foods I eat. Or maybe I should just go back to Flex. I'll try to figure out my new plan of attack by tomorrow, or at least by Wednesday when I start my new week.
On another note, I had a good lunch today. I didn't have a lot of fruit in the house, and didn't feel like bringing my cereal and yogurt for lunch. I kind of wanted tuna, but w/o crackers. I had a green pepper in the fridge, chopped that up and put in a baggie. I also packed about 1/2 cup ff cottage cheese. I had a package of tuna. When it came to lunch time, I didn't know how or what of this to eat! None of it sounded good. But I mixed it together, and it was quite tasty! I may bring the same thing tomorrow!

Rewards

Just a quick thought. I've not had 1 piece of Halloween candy! Yay! When hungry, I've been grabbing some watermelon or popcorn. But this morning, it doesn't look like the scale has gone downwards, but may have edged up a little! That makes me mad! I'm not getting a reward for my hard work! I need to see some benefits soon to giving up this candy!!!

Love my Dunkin Donuts coffee!

Halloween

First off, I made it through Halloween without eating any candy! I think that after a year of WW, my tastes have changed somewhat. I'm not saying I don't love chocolate, candy or ice cream. But I don't really ever crave it, or even think about it. There is ice cream in the freezer in the basement. I have a huge supply of WW ice creams, which I like a lot, in addition to regular ice cream. I would buy the WW stuff when it was on sale since it is so expensive. But it is stacked neatly in the basement freezer, forgotten.
For Halloween we had a bag of Starburst/Skittles (which I can pass up easily) and the 2nd bag is the assortment of Hershey's. Peanut butter cups, almond joys, 2 others that I can't even think of. It was a beautiful day/night, so we ended up staying outside with the neighbors. The one woman was eating a bunch of the Reese's pb cups. I made myself a popcorn since I came home from work hungry. I did end up having 1 light beer while we were outside. When we finally came in, I had an egg sandwich, (2 eggs, 1 piece of ff cheese on a low carb bagel)
As for the Dex C20, I think that has helped curb my appetite. Unfortunately, I haven't stopped eating. The eating is more of a habit.
Today I had breakfast, and then we went out to the mall. My daughter wanted to stop for lunch. I wasn't hungry AT ALL, and was looking at the menu to figure out what I could have that was small. I thought about just having a muffin and coffee. But they had a new sandwich, turkey, avocado and bacon melt. I ordered that and ate it all plus a half bag of potato chips! I easily could've skipped lunch all together.
So tonite, still not hungry, I ordered a pizza for the family. I ate one square, didn't really care for it. I sliced up the half a watermelon I had and ate some of that. When I did get hungry, I made a bowl of oatmeal. It is a core food, and i've been trying to stick with core. When I decided I was still hungry, I made ANOTHER bowl of oatmeal!!! Well, at 150 cals/bowl, that's 300 cals for dinner (plus a square of cheese pizza) I could've done worse. If I had gone crazy with the pizza it would've been way more than 300 calories.
The scale seemed a little lower this morning. I don't have a digital scale, and it's hard for me to read, so I'm never exact with my scale at home, I just look for the trend. Official weigh in is Tuesday afternoon.
Hopefully I have a good couple more days and can get back to pre-vacation weight.