Cabo San Lucas, Here We Come!!

Weigh in and What Did I Expect?

Did you know that a Snickers bar weighs 1.6 lbs?  Maybe not quite that much. I am sure the addition of those Spicy Dorito Chips added to the overall impression of that significant number!  Wow!

Well, what did I expect?  I know can't eat like that and the little mini-revolution that was going on with my taste buds only proves that those items should not be any where in my world.   So, today is a new day and a new start.  I have been getting back on track and intend to stay there.  It is my intent to, at the least, maintain while I am on vacation.  Lets see if I can pull it off!

Back on Track But For How Long?

Ok, I have done ok.  Not spectacular, but ok, for the last couple of days.  However, I am getting ready to go to Cabo San Lucas.  I do not plan on being terribly on plan for a week or so.  As a matter of fact, I plan on blowing this whole thing all to hell in just a couple of days.  Not really, but that sounded so dramatic, didn't it?

Growing up around the Mexican culture I know that quality Mexican food is full of good vegetables and fish, pork and seafood, most especially in and around the Sea of Cortez area. We will be right in the thick of that.  My cousin, having lived there for a number of years has promised to show us to the "good" spots, which means those place that don't normally see alot of tourist traffic and are therefore more prone to serve things other than the regular bean burrito or greasy taco.  So, while it may be a tightrope walk, I know I can do it.  And I will still enjoy my vacation regardless.

And you know what?  I am in love with Tootsie Roll Midgees!!  Nuf said! 

What's Wrong Today?

I have been so off plan today.  I am talking candy bars and Doritos!! WTF?! This is my nightmare.  I don't want to do this.  Well, most of  me doesn't anyway.  My mouth is formenting revolt!  My tastebuds are calling for a total overthrow of the current regime!

I ate good healthy stuff too, lots of fruit in particular, but these junk food craves are gonna be the death of me.  Literally and figuratively!

Stuffed Mushrooms

Dinner was light but yummy.   Mushrooms stuffed with diced ham, bell pepper and onion.  Cooked in olive oil.  Once again, perhaps not the Point friendliest meal, but nothing overly off plan.  The crescent is low fat also. 

These were beautiful mushrooms, perfect for stuffing.

Summertime and Sangria Wine

They just go together!!  When we lived in Spain, we learned to make our own Sangria.  Here's a quicky recipe.

About 4 cups Burgundy Wine
1 Liter of Orange Soda
1 liter Lemon Lime Soda
4 jiggers Triple Sec
1 cup of Sugar
2 Red Delicious Apples, cored and cut into bite size pieces
3 Valencia Oranges, chopped into bite size pieces (leave the skin on!)
2 cups green seedless grapes, sliced in half

Mix the first 4 ingredients and stir well.  Add the fruit and some ice and allow to stew for an hour or so.  Enjoy!

Now, I Weight Watchered this up using diet sodas and Splenda.  This will serve a number of people for a day or two (unless you have a drinking problem?!) I figure its about 2 points an 8 oz serving.  It's yummy and goes good with a BarBQue or Stuffed Mushrooms which is on my menu tonite!! 

                                                                                     

This picture is before adding ice.  That will dilute it significantly.  It needs it, trust me!!

Dinner was Pretty Good

Everything was about the Corn on the Cob, which was actually so-so.  Here is what I have learned about corn.  The longer it sits after picking, the less sugar/more starch you wind up with.  So if at first harvest its 80 sugar, 20 starch and you don't get it home to the table PDQ, you wind up with 20 sugar, 80 starch.  Um, lets just say my corn was old!

Anyway, the steak was good and I made a totally not WW friendly salad but damn, did it taste good.  Made up for the disappointing corn.  Here's a pic or two. 

This is my salad.  It has PINE NUTS and GOAT CHEESE.  Its temporary insanity, I swear.  But my taste buds were very, very happy. 

This steak is exquisite.  You can't go wrong with this recipe unless you overcook the meat.  Then you should be shot or at least sent to your room without supper.

So this is what the fnal damage looked like.  I don't think I will get drummed out of my next WW meeting,

Saturday Food

Ok, yes, the title is Saturday food, but first, let me cover Friday food!  I made shrimp cakes yesterday.  I don't know what to think about them.  They taste ok, but the texture...hmmm.  Hubby liked them.  I doubt I will do them again. 

Tonite, we are having skirt steak marinated (since 5 am mind you! overnite is even better!) in a wondermous balsamic vinegar, olive oil, basil, garlic, pinch of sugar concoction that will render it amazing!  Along with that I will roast a couple ears of corn and make a salad.  I love this time of year.  If I can avoid diving head first into my meal tonite, I will try to get a picture.  I am drooling just thinking about it.

Weigh In and Blog Awards

Weigh In...Down .6 for a total of 34 lbs gone!  Ok Then!!  I was hungry this morning and took a banana and milk with me to the meeting and chowed down while we talked about breakfast.  I love breakfast.  Normal breakfast for me is an egg, a couple of slices of crisp bacon, a Sandwich Thin and fruit of some kind.  And don't forget my 12 oz of fat free milk!! I have no problem with a 9 point breakfast.  It gets me going and keeps me satisfied until lunch and that's what its about to me.  And, of course, anything with bacon is heavenly!

Suzi gave me my blog award last week and I did part of the requirements but had not passed it on as yet.  So here are my three awardees.  Love your blogs, all!!  Enjoy.

Rapunzel   Jessie   Sally

A Blog Award!

Wow, my long lost little sister (ok, maybe third cousin twice removed, but we don't care) Suzi at http://okjustonemorebeer.blogspot.com/ gave me an award! Hugs and kisses, babe! It's that flashy green thing to the right over there, the Oh My Blog award. Gorgeous, isn't it? There are rules (Aren't there always?) and they go something like this:

1. Get really excited that you got the coolest award EVER! – CHECK!!

2. Choose ONE of the following options of accepting the OMB award:
(a) Get really drunk and blog for 15 minutes straight, or for as long as you can focus.
(b) Write about your most embarrassing moment.
(c) Write a “Soundtrack of your childhood” post.
(d) Make your next blog a ‘vlog’/video blog. Basically, you’re talking to the camera about
whatever.
(e) Take a picture of yourself first thing in the morning, before you do anything else (hair,
makeup, etc) and post it.
3. Pass this award onto at least 3, but preferably more, awesome bloggers as yourself. Don’t
forget to tell them.

Excited? I am thrilled. I feel uber special. I figured out how to post a vlog. Aren't I clever?! I need to do a little research into which one of my friends does not already have this award and that is gonna take a day or two. In the meantime, I want to get it posted and thank Suzi!! With all my heart.

And yes, I am as old and tired as I look!! Especially today.

Weigh in and Shopping

Well, down again, .8 this time.  Such a crawl, but as I say, down is down.  I am not going to complain.  I am within 13 lbs of what I weighed when I got married.  I have lost 3x time that already.  I can do it, I just need to be patient!

On the other hand, just went and spent a small fortune on clothes.  I have been adjusting my wardrobe for work, but not for play and really had little in the way of summer clothes, especially pants/capris/shorts, things of that nature.  I have given all of my larger stuff away including all my brand new capris from last year that no longer fit me. 

I love Kohl's and they are having a tremendous sale right now,  so after my meeting this morning, I hit the sales racks.  I got several new capris and I think Gloria Vanderbilt rocks!!  Her clothes fit me so well.  And, despite the name, the cost is reasonable.  A winning combination, fit and affordability. So, I am set for the duration of the summer, I do believe!!  I know I have more weight to lose and am sure I will do so, but I don't think I will lose it fast enough to shrink out of these clothes before summer is over!

Going on Vacation!

OMG, I just booked travel for 2 to Cabo San Lucas!  I am on cloud 9.  We will stay for a week with a cousin that lives there.  I cannot wait!!

I have to buy a bathing suit. I am not looking forward to that!!  And my passport picture?  Dear God, its frightening just how heavy I was.

On another note, I did my 3 mile walk yesterday and wore blisters on my feet, so only did 2 today.  Notice I say ONLY.  I think I have lost my mind!!  This from someone who once did not walk more than 200 feet without complaining is now developing a guilt complex because she didn't walk 3 miles with blisters on her feet.

More Walking Talk

Ok, so I have been doing about 2 miles of aerobic walking a day and an additional 3 miles just booking around the job.  Getting my recommended 10,000 steps a day in.  But the 2 miles is getting "easy" so I have been trying to figure out what is going to kick it in gear for me and not kill me.  I can't seem to find an "attractive" route around work that will allow me to expand the length of my walk and I don't want to double up on the same route...BORING!!  Fastest way to convince me not to do that again! 

So I went to MapMyWalk and set a course around the neighborhood.  I set a 3 mile course that I know will be uphill in the beginning, but mostly downhill on the return side and I think I can do it in an hour or less.  I have changed my work hours some, so I can get an early enough start to walk first in the morning then come home and get showered and  ready to go in.   Wish me luck at least for these first few days.  I have a feeling I am going to need it. 

At least I will be walking in the dark so I don't scare the neighbors!

Imitation Crab

Costco used to sell the most awesome imitation crab and they had an awesome recipe for a salad that if my memory serves was something like Mermaid Salad.  Which kinda gave me the Willies cause I always had a vision of Ariel missing a bite out of her tail!!  Anyway, Costco quit carrying this yummy stuff and I quit eating Mermaid Salad because I am suspicious of fake food and without an opportunity to taste I wasn't investing anything into fake crab from a lesser source.  Until yesterday...

I went to Safeway to pick up a few things and I wanted some shrimp.  I didn't see any right away so asked the butcher, a young woman, and she showed me right to the shrimp.  We were talking about recipes and she asked me if I had ever tried their imitation crab and, of course, I hadn't.  And then she gave me a sample and then I swooned.  No, actually, I grabbed a package and brought it home and made some Mermaid Salad for lunch today.  Ariel be damned!!  I should have bought more, its on sale, and I might go back and get some to freeze.  Wow, just wow.  Here is the recipe.  Please note, I used full up mayonnaise and whole (white and yolk) eggs for this.  If you use light or fat free mayo and only egg white, this is probably practically Point free.  It's also nowhere near as tasty.   Also, I think next time I would add a little more fake crab.  Its good. 

Mermaid Salad
POINTS® Value: 3
Servings: 10

Ingredients

4 item(s) whole hard-boiled egg(s), diced
1 cup(s) Vidalia onion(s), diced
1 1/2 cup(s) tomato(es)
3 cup(s) Iceberg lettuce, Shredded
3 medium stalk(s) celery, diced
1/2 cup(s) Best Foods Real Mayonnaise
1 tsp table salt
2 Tbsp McCormick Ground black pepper
1/3 pound(s) imitation crab, chopped or shredded

Instructions
Mix all ingredients together. Serve on Triscuits or Flatout (rolled up).
Serving Size is about 1 cup

We put about a cup on a Flatout Flatbread and rolled it up. Oh, mermaids are yummy things!!

Weigh In and Back to the Struggle

Well, I was down -4.  Whoopee! I know, down is down, right.  Sometimes its such a struggle.  I started walking in an effort to boost my loss rate, and it seemed to work last week.  Not so much this week.  But I am not going to stop walking.  I am liking it too much!  So, if we must do this in half pound increments, I guess that's what we have to do.  I am here for the long haul.

A Few Yesterdays Ago!

Today I was reminiscing about youthful escapades and a favorite memory popped up!  One in which I was relatively thin and really young, maybe 25!

I don't recall exactly how it happened, but somehow or another I wound up being a chaperon for the Base High School's senior class trip!  Remember, my husband was in the Air Force?  Anyway, the trip was 4 days, 3 nights to Ibiza, a beautiful island in the middle of the Meditteranean Sea off the coast of Spain. I had to pay my own way, but I wanted to go so badly. My husband stayed home and it was just me, one other adult not much older than I, and about 30 teenagers. 

When we got to our hotel on the island, I called a meeting on the patio while the hotel staff processed the stampede.  I told everyone "You are or will be legal adults in the not too distant future.  I am not going to tell you how to behave, where to sleep, what to drink or not drink, etc.  I am here to make sure that there is an adult available in case of an emergency.  Otherwise, you guys all go have a good time.  I will leave word of my daily location with the front desk if you need me".   And then I prayed.  And then I headed for the beach!

Topless Beach!!  Now, before you go getting all freaked out, this is totally normal on most of the beaches in Europe.  They have a totally different attitude about the body than most Americans do.  We are really prudes!  It took me all of about 30 minutes to relax enough to actually go topless on the beach and I probably did it more because I felt out of place fully dressed (with top) when everyone around me was half naked. 

It was glorious fun and I enjoyed the rest of the time we were there getting sunburned in the damnedest places.  The kids actually did really well and we only had one mishap; a broken leg in a moped accident.
Of course, there is no telling what happened nine months after the fact.  After all, I wasn't checking beds.

New Clothes or No?

Ok, I have to ask here because I love to stir the pot and would like to know what you all think.  In the process of your weight loss, did you buy new clothes along the way?  Did you wait until you had lost 5 sizes before you could convince yourself that you needed some new duds?  I, personally, am having so much fun buying clothes and I still have a metric ton (ok, a metric 30 lbs) to lose, but I like to look nice and I don't feel like I look nice in the gunny sacks that my previous sizes have now become.  Just by virtue of the fact that they just hang on me.  I am also removing my "fat" clothes from my closet as soon as they can actually be defined that way.  I won't leave myself any excuse for backward movement.  On the other hand, I know a number of people who won't make the investment. 

To me, that is self doubt.  I know where I am headed.  I don't intend to go back where I came from.  I may never make it all the way to the goal that WW says I should be reaching for.  And that's ok.  Dammit, I am an old lady.  Even the doctors expect some fat!!  But I will no longer allow myself the indulgence of 220 lbs.  Ridiculous!! 

Cold in Arizona in May? What is that about!!?

I got my walk in this morning, but it was like 44 degrees and the wind was probably blowing about 10 mph.  Just enough to make me miserable.  It was cold, brrrrrrrr!!  I am a desert rat and anything below 60 usually has me grubbing for fleece!  I got a 1.5 mile power walk, and still managed to get my 5+miles overall in.

I am complaining about it being cold, but a few years ago, I wanted to take my grandkids to the Desert Museum, a really cool zoo here in Tucson.  It was in the summer and I had to wake their little tyke butts up really early so we could get moving before it got too hot.  We arrived at the zoo about 7 am.  It was, now no kidding, 110 degrees.  At 7 am!!  I wanted to die!!  We strolled for a couple hours, but that was it.  Nana was melting and even the damned coyotes have enough sense to get out of the heat!  Went home and got in the pool. 

Damned Chinese Food!!

Weigh in and Walking Results

Saturday morning weigh in and I am thinking "Well, if I didn't lose some serious poundage this week I don't know what is going to jump start my loss motor."  Well, Ladies and Gents, I am pleased and proud to announce that I walked off 2.8 pounds last week for a total loss of 32.2 lbs.  I also lose another  food Point this week but that's ok, I have not been eating them all anyway.   Yeehaw!!