Make Up Your Mind!

That's what I tell myself when I am waffling about what I am doing.  It doesn't matter what it is, I just hate indecision and half hearted attempts.  That's not to say I haven't indulged in both, but I hate it!  It smacks of lack of backbone (I am just talking about me here, folks, don't be hatin').  I am my father's daughter in the "Make Up Your Damned Mind Already!" category and I have to have that conversation with myself alot!

On the other hand, I am also my fathers daughter in that when I make up my mind to do something, do not, for the sake of your own safety, get in my way! I am tough on others around me (right, Susan?) and have expectations that others should have the same amount of determination that I have.  Sometimes that's not fair, sometimes its life changing. 

And I am my Mom's daughter (particularly my Stepmom) in that I have even higher expectation of my "sisters" blood and otherwise.  I am not a libber, but I love to prove to the world that we are the stronger sex, not the weaker.  And having strong convictions is just one aspect of that. I don't put up with asshats and I would expect anyone that was dealing with me to call me on it if I was acting like one.

Just sayin.

Have I Mentioned I Love Chinese Food?

Only like a million times, right? So last nite we had Chinese because I was too lazy to mess with dinner.  Or, at least, that was the convenient excuse I used.  We ordered our usual and I ate plenty, but I didn't eat too much, didn't go back for seconds, made myself be satisfied with a human size portion!  So there!

And this morning, I got to have Chinese food left overs for breakfast.  How smart am I, huh?!

Weigh In and ZUMBA!!!

Well, my dears, skinny jeans be damned, I was up .2 today.  And thank you all for your sweet, sweet comments.  You really did, honest and truly, make me cry.  That's not a bad thing!

Today was my first Zumba class.  What a riot!!  I have the coordination of a pregnant elephant on roller skates so I am sure I looked ridiculous, but I didn't care.  It was so much fun.  I had to take frequent breaks cause, let me tell you ladies, this is no cakewalk.  I was sweating and gasping for air like I just ran a marathon and loving every minute of it.  I don't know about the rest of that Zumba outfit (its kinda cute, tho') but I definately need one of those too cool headbands. 

Me in Skinny Jeans

I just wish me and the camera had a better relationship, but whatever.  I promised a picture and I always keep my promises.   Look at those skinny legs.  I tell eveyone "I look like Mrs. Potato Head on toothpicks".  Its a joke (sorta).

Skinny Jeans!

Yesterday, my sister called me and said she had a pair of jeans for me "These are brand new, $90 jeans, and they fit me ok around the waist, but your legs are so much skinnier than mine, they will fit you better.  Come get them."  Oh, my god, they are divine.  I will get a picture of my "skinny legs" in them, I promise.  I feel like a teenager!

Big Goal for the Week

This week, if I play my cards right, I should post a 40 lb (total) loss.  I am soo excited!

Dinner was Beautiful!

I didn't care for the sauce I made for the pasta, going to have to work on that, but otherwise, it was gorgeous and tasty. Taking the left overs for lunch tomorrow.  Almost too pretty to eat!!

Scallops for Dinner (Again!)

Man, you would think I really like scallops or something, which I do!!  I call scallops "Sea Candy", they are so good and sweet.  Today I am going to pan sear them with some mushrooms, add them to a creamy white sauce (yet to be invented!) and served over angel hair pasta.  Salad on the side for good measure.  

I am also cooking a Mexican Shredded Beef dish that I like.  I cook it and keep it in the fridge.  It lasts a long time and is good in burros or added to a salad.  This is my cooking for a week theory in practice.

Welcome New Follower Unseelie!

I just looked up and danged if someone didn't sneak in and pull up chair.  Welcome!

Wow, Good Dinner!

Well, we haven't had meatloaf in awhile and we both love it.  It goes a long way during the week for sandwiches and we just really like it alot.  I make a simple loaf with bread crumbs, eggs and Pace Picante Sauce.  Don't have to chop alot of stuff to get the same flavors.  See, told you I was lazy!

So tonight I made meatloaf, obviously, with 96% lean ground beef, so skinny meat loaf.  And squash. 

And Potatoes Anna.  My God, what an amazing dish!  Now, I just happened upon this in some of my internet travels and was interested but not about to invest in any food dish that called for a stick of butter!  However, I found Cooking Light's version and I was sunk.  Just to die for.   Plan ahead to burn a few POINTs, but this is totally worth it.    

Isn't that beautiful?!

Weigh In and Weigh to Go!

Down 1.8!  Yeah!  That's down .4 more than the gain I posted last week, so I am solidly moving in the right direction.

I continue to post my losses, but don't know if I have posted my actual weight.  Its 173.4 as of today.  I started at 216.  I ought to put a chart over to the side but then I have to maintain it and I am lazy.  That's part of how I got so porky!

If I am going hit the high side of my goal weights, I need to lose 23 lbs.  I am having a very hard time imagining being that small.  The low side of the range is 137!  Impossible?!  Maybe not, but it sure seems so right now.  They tell us to visualize meeting our goals, but that is one illusive vision, I tell you what! 

Really Hungry Today!

Ravenous and no idea why.  I had a good breakfast, eggbeaters with about 3 tablespoons chopped bacon and green chile and a biscuit because it sang to me!  That biscuit sang a country love song and I was smitten.  Anyway, I added about a cup of watermelon to this and was over 10 POINTs  for breakfast.  Not unusual for me, so ok.  This was at 7 am.  By 9 am, my stomach was raising hell with me, screaming "FEED ME".  So I ate my lunch! at 9 am.  It was a 4 POINT lunch.  Ok, I still had plenty of room for MORE lunch, when lunch time rolled around, so I went to the cafeteria and had a couple of crispy tacos as lean as I could get them.  I was finally satisfied until about 2 pm when I wanted something else.  I am telling you, I felt like a bottomless pit!

I am ok now.  Hope this was a passing thing.  Believe it or not, I still didn't break my POINTs for the day (21). 

Dinner Last Night

Well, I was supposed to post about dinner but was too busy making it, then too busy eating, then just digesting it.  It was damned good.  The Peach Bourbon Glazed Pork Loin was delicious.  With that I made some Baby Yukon Potatos and Baby Green and Yellow Scallop squash.  It was a really good dinner and well within POINTS.   I will make it again and maybe, just maybe, I will get some pictures.

Ah, Pancakes

How I love thee!  Had whole wheat pancakes for breakfast, 1 for me, 2 for hubby.  They were delicious.  With bacon, of course, but just a couple pieces. 

Will post about dinner tonite because it should be special with yummy special, Weight Watcher friendly ingredients!

Weigh In and Weighed Down

Well, as expected, I gained a little.  1.4 to be exact and I am ok with that.  In all honesty (cause if I am lying to you, I am lying to me!!) it could have and probably should have been much worse.  And I was wearing more clothing than usual.  Its cooler at 7 am and I have a problem trotting around in shorts when the temps chill off.  So I put on something a little more substantial.  This is an outfit that I like so much that I have 2 of them in different colors and I actually weighed the clothes.  1 lb 8 oz.  Not inconsequential when we are being weighed in tenths of pounds at our meetings.  So I will take it and move on.  Next week will be better.

Today we talked about Motivation and how to maintain it.  What got us on the weight loss train and what keeps us from jumping off at every convenient stop to grab a snack?! 

My motivation may seem selfish, but it comes down to taking care of ME!  I have spent so many years of my life taking care of everyone else and even more so in the last couple years with being primary care giver for my mother.  I came out of last year with a totally different perspective on who was important in my life and I was on the top of that list for a change.  And its what motivates me every day.  

I don't want to sign off without giving a bit of respect to the gravity of the day.  Like most of us, 9/11 is forever linked in my psyche and our communal psyche as well, undoubtly.  I remember where I was (home from work, sick) and watched the second plane hit the second tower.  I sat mesmerized as the morning unfolded, the towers fell and we all cried.  And I was angry and hurt.  I loaded my guns (really!) because I could only imagine that we were under attack and it wasn't going to end there.  I am not a violent person, but I truly believe I could have hurt someone that day! My kids took their kids out of school and came home to be with Mom, not because they felt bad for me, but because Mom was supposed to take care of them.  Hell, I was falling apart!!  I weep as I type this, the emotion is still so raw.  I will never forget.  I can only pray that those that perpertrated this horrible act truly get their just rewards and those that remain behind to grieve the loss of their loved ones will be comforted someday.

Tomorrow is Weigh In

...and I am optomistic.   A couple of weeks ago, our leader indicated that your total weeks POINTs were what really counted, so in retrospect, while I ate alot of really decadent stuff, I also made some really good decisions, so maybe it won't be so bad.  I don't expect a loss, but a MINOR gain would be nice! 

See you in the a.m.

Dr. Visit and other stuff

Well, I promised to report what the Dr. said and he said "Way to go, girl!" or something along those lines.  He's impressed with the weight loss and very pleased that I have not returned to smoking, like that would ever happen!   He reduced my blood pressure medication dosage by HALF!  Is that cool or what?!  I am very happy in general with the way it went, but their scales sure needed calibration.  I refuse to believe what their scales say I weighed.  I have been weighing in on the same set of scales for almost a year (can you believe it?) and I trust them.  I told the Doc too.  He also said he want to see me when I reach 160, which is 10 lbs short of what WW says should be the high end of my goal.  He thinks it may be too much.  We will discuss it then.

On the eating side of things, today was Hubby's birthday day and I took him out for a steak dinner.  I didn't do toooooo bad!  I had half a filet mignon (4 oz?), a baked sweet potato with a tbls of butter, salad with raspberry vinegrette.  I also pulled some off the Tumbleweed onion (yes, it is what you think it is) and had a biscuit that was similar to cheesy garlic toast.

This has been one crazy week food wise and I hope it ends pretty damned soon (I think its over!).  Oh, God, maybe his scales were right?

Wednesday Woes

Ok, so its Tuesday, but who's counting. I have had a tough week this week and its only half over!  It hasn't been tough in the "Woe is me" sense, but tough in the "I can't believe I really ate all that crap!" sense it has really sucked.  Here's a bit of a rundown:

Sat morning (after weigh in): 1/2 Bacon Breakfast Burrito
Sat evening                        :    2 slice combo pizza with extra cheese
Extra Sat bites                   :    Bacon Samples for Chocolate Covered Bacon recipe

Sunday morning                :   Slice Cold Pizza/Numerous taste of Chocolate Covered Bacon preps
Sunday afternoon              :   Crudite w/Ranch Dressing
                                             Chips and Salsa (not alot, but still...)
                                             Texas Chile with Beans
                                             Coleslaw
                                              Corn on the cob

Monday morning              :  Left over Chile (good stuff Wayne!)
Monday evening               :  Shrimp Scampi, Pan Seared Scallops, Mermaid Salad and Corn on Cob.

We will not discuss the amount of beer this was all washed down with!

Now, for those of you who are not counting POINTs, this may look like I eat like royalty, and I guess I do!  But I am not supposed to.  I am supposed to be a little more cognizant about what I am putting in my mouth.  Well, the truth is that the mouth has been in charge all week and the mind has taken a mini-vacation.  It came home today.   And we are back on track.  (I hope!)

Chocolate Covered Bacon

I have a co-worker that we call the Baconator.  Wayne will go to the cafeteria and make a BLT that is a mountain of B and very little L or T.  (The cafeteria lets you pile on your own stuff!) 

We were invited to a BBQ at his house today and the invitees were asked to bring the beverage of their choice and a dessert.  So what did I make?  Right!! Chocolate Covered Bacon!

You know what?  Its amazingly good!  I certainly wouldn't want a steady diet of it, but it was definately interesting and made a great gag gift, especially for this particular person. 

There is none of it left in this house.  We took it all to the party and brought none of it back.  Except for that little bit that might have crept in along my waistline. Not only am I the cook, I am also quality control.  I have to taste it before I can serve it to someone else.  That's my story and I am sticking to it! 

Zumba Shoes

Ok, so I am going to start doing Zumba!  And I am going to Zumba my kazoo off because I invested $80 in a pair of shoes that will make "dancing athletically" easier.  I have officially lost my mind!

Weigh In and Getting Closer

Yippee, down 1.8 lbs today!  I am really psyched about this weight loss and pray I can maintain this level of enthusiasm until I hit my goal.  Then I will pray to maintain it.  I see lots of prayers in my future!  I did pretty good this week with what I ate, both in portion and POINTS.  Except for the taco salads (without tortilla shell, thank you very much!) in which I ate incredible amounts of lettuce to the point of feeling over stuffed!  But everything else on the salad was either low fat (cheese), small portion (ground beef) or no points at all (salsa).  And the scale rewarded me.  I love that scale today!!

When I typed "Getting Closer" I realized it had a couple of meanings to me this week.  Yesterday I was contacted by my fathers only sibling, an aunt I have been estranged from for some time.  She wants to kiss and make up (get closer!).  I am not so sure that I'm ready to make nice.  She is high maintenance and I do not have the time nor patience anymore for that kind of nonsense.  I will meet her halfway.  See what comes of it.  I can always back away if things get hard to swallow again.  Geez, family!!

And then this morning, when I stopped to get coffee at Circle K, the man standing next to me at the coffee machine said "YOU SMELL INCREDIBLE! WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?!" (emphasis his!).  I was floored.  I told him what my perfume was and he asked me a bunch of questions about it e.g., is it expensive, who makes it.  I was flattered and a wee bit embarrassed.  Maybe that was a little too much Getting Closer!