behind... no pun intended

I joined Weight Watchers Aug 31. After year's of saying I know what to do and how to eat I just sucked it up and joined. I do know but I overdo it. Often. It was time to get back on the healthy living wagon and drop some luggage. I'm using the point system that I thought was stupid and it's working. So there's that. It will be 2 weeks on Monday and I don't mind eating a little of what I want and stopping at that. I don't mind eating the salads for lunch and the diet soda. I'm ready to get it done and then continue to travel the rest of my days paying attention to my health instead of saying one day. Today is the day.

I'm surprised I rarely go over my points for the day and last week I had leftovers for the week. I thought it must be a fluke but this week is the same. I add in my half a cupcake or bite of donut and I'm still fine. It does help that Hub's is dieting too. Of course he just stops eating or eats meat. That did not work for me. I say it's not healthy and he says being 50 lbs overweight isn't healthy. Word. 

Friends and WW

The message you send is that you don't have time for our chit chat, which is fine, but that tells us you aren't friends with us. Remember that. If you are so busy, so important that you aren't listening to our thoughts and concerns do not expect us to listen to yours.

I've been doing weight watchers for almost a month and I've been steadily losing. Here's what I've learned....
1- I used to think the whole point system was stupid. I didn't want to learn something so complicated when I understand calories. But then I joined and added the app and I don't need to 'learn' anything I just track and add and, whalah, it's working. I've always used the excuse I know what I'm supposed to be eating and not eating I just, to quote my dr, 'celebrate too much'. True but for some reason it just clicked this time. I've resolved to not enter one more new year having made no progress.
2- I love that I can eat/drink anything I want... in moderation. I've done Atkins and South Beach and whatever else came along and they all work but I hate saying no to a donut. It hurts Holtman's feelings when I turn my head. The beauty of WW is I can have a bite as long as I track it and don't continuously step out of the box (or into it as it may be).
3- I've never gone hungry. I knew this from others diets- we just eat way too much- but it's surprising to me how little I eat and my stomach isn't growling.

Olive you!

Monday Yo, mom, Bub's and I went down to Ludlow to dine at Olives. The garlic cheese bread was more like pizza dough with a little seasoning. We could have done without because the salads were fabulous. I ordered the white pizza, Bub's had the Fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp. The Alfredo could have been from anywhere but the white pizza was exceptional. I finished it off this morning.
My 2nd visit to water aerobics was just as strenuous. A great workout.

Festivities

Scrapbook madness ensues.. I haven't scraped in so long I can't remember where I am. Today I hopped on Kodakgallery.com because they have .10$ prints and... I can't find what I need to print. I am sure I already scraped Christmas but I can't find the album???

I'm starting to get a handle on those summer to do's. We have so much stuff to just sort through, find a place for or get rid of.

The fire works Saturday night here at the lake were marvelous. A spectacular show. Then Monday we went 'into town' for the parade and festival. Bub pretended not to know as he walked around with friends. Later that evening the fireworks lasted 7 minutes. That includes a 2 minute break after apparently someone set off the finale first. Opps. Funny thing. Bville draws over 500 cars out to see the works and then... yikes. Poor showing.

Sunday Bub's, a fishing club friend and I went to my high school best friend's child's bday party at Loveland Riverview Park. Although it was 90 degress it was a wonderful time spent with an old friend who has come so far. Amazing. What a blessing.

Yesterday I tried out water aerobics with a friend. I almost didn't go thinking, "how hard could it be. you can't sweat." Umm. Yeah it was a really hard workout. I was sore this morning so I took Marina for a long walk to warm up for Zumba. Then sweated like a freak at Zumba!

 Somehow I am not in any of the pontoon pictures! We had 5 on our  boat and then hooked up with a smaller boat that needed to unload some people.

 

 Here come the late comers! See those little orbs? I like to think they are the old souls of Lorelei coming to celebrate with us. Or bugs, they could be bugs.

 The boats in front of us enjoying a close up view of the fireworks.

 My Sunday OOTD. Church and party in the park.

 How cute is this older gentleman?

 Can you see those sparkling fingertips celebrating the Fourth?!?

Warm Weather Walks and Simple Supper

Beautiful walk today... almost 60 degrees so tomorrow i'm going to try only 2 layers of clothing! totally enjoyable~ marina and i meandered for almost an hour because i found myself wishing for spring. I started reviewing the Foreword Award books this past weekend, also started reading Going Bovine, a YA novel that is, shall we say- interesting!

Meals: Boys were not home so i had a easy time with supper. Brown rice, pine nuts, corn, black beans and roasted tomatoes... yum. why oh why can't my boys like this kind of simple meal? WWtoast w pb and homemade j, also finished off the egg salad with carrots, celery and onions for lunch w some potato soup left over from the weekend. a handful of nuts before walking marina.

Spending: I can not believe it cost me $77 for gasoline today. i really should stay home more often! of course if i lived closer to Target or DSW i'd be there this evening to check out the Liberty London line at Target (the flowery pic is theirs) and the Madden shabooties on What I Wore Today blog.

Think the boys are ready for spring?

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. ~ Jane Austen

I love staying home and Jane Austen but enjoyed neither today. Bub had basketball games almost 2 hours away. So my family and hub's dad and bub piled in the sub.

Back in January, I had forgotten how exciting it was to get a package until I found a box in the mail for me… I opened it and found a new book- The Writing Diet, a blank journal, and a card from my friend Bev. We scrap together once a month and we were talking about really trying to get back on track this year. She thought this might help… God love her- I really appreciated it. Julia Cameron is the author and she points out “weight loss is a common by product of creativity” which I believe. I crave to create and when I don’t I feel life slipping past me.

When I was trying to pull my house together for the staff book club coming to my house I started trying to see what it looked like through someone else's eyes. Yikes! I love creating and decorating and collecting and it shows in every nook and cranny of my house. But in the end I also thought well the look i'm going for is quirky and artsy and inspiring. i feel calmed and peaceful when i walk through my house so i hope that is how they saw it. Of course as soon as i would get it clean bub would "redecorate" all over everything because it seemed like he was sick the whole month of january and part of february... really... but the upside was the house was REALLY clean and sanitized.

Finished A Dog Year by Jon Katz and loved it... just comforting or commiserating but a good read. Georgette from book club will like it for sure and maybe some dog loving students. Now I really need to get busy on these books I need to review for Foreward Magazine. 13 more showed up today. In addition to the 6 from Monday. Yikes! So my two categories are Adventure and Mind, Body, Spirit. Looks like some good ones in both categories though so I'm excited and not too daunted.

Eating Plan: not too bad today given we were on the road- egg salad on wwheat toast, Crystal lite, Wendy's small chili w cheese, baked potato w butter and water, Damon's grilled chicken with cheese, 2 rolls w butter, small serving of onion loaf, water, Coke Zero and a yummy Bare Naked chocolaty cherry Grain-ola bar, jasmine tea

Exercise Plan: walked Marina for 45 minutes this morning before leaving

I am so looking forward to springtime but I love fall and winter clothing. Is there anything more comfortable than my gray thrifted hoody sweater? I think not. But I'm getting itchy to get into the garden. March has snuck up on me. I carried my bright red patent Tusk purse all February and wore my pink Odille tapestry coat but now it's March and what do I have that's green?

I bought Where Women Create by Jo Packham at JoAnn's today and it has a wonderful layout on Paula Best one of our favorite artist at Stampaway each year.

Tomorrow is March 1st so I'm renewing my resolve because that is what spring is all about right?

New eating plan: 64 oz. of water/ Breakfast=whole wheat toast with natural pb and jelly or egg salad, milk/ Lunch= salad or vegetable soup/ Dinner= meat, veggies, brown rice/ 2 snacks of fruit, nuts, cheese, tea, a Coke Zero with Vanilla.

New exercise plan:30 minutes on the treadmill at 4mph. 30 minutes of walking Marina in the evening. 15 minutes of Wii., 25 push ups, 50 crunches, 5 minutes working on 1 pull up.

And those nails... yikes!

Tomorrow's immediate plan is cleaning this house back up after a few weeks of neglect...