Julia's Journey

Catching up and cooking

2011-04-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

It was a pretty busy but relaxed weekend - surprisingly!

Saturday I did a couple of errands for the Bar Mitzvah, we are now on final countdown to it so all the planning now has to go from the planning stage to the just do it now stage!

I have still to find the inclination to look for some outfits to wear for Friday night, Saturday morning/lunch and Saturday night, nothing like procastination.

Saturday night Aubrey and I went to a sushi/asian buffer for dinner, it was packed and the sushi was really good and fresh so I over indulged but stayed away from most of the asian fried seafoods.
Little A actaully asked yesterday when we are going to go there again so we refrained from telling him we were there Saturday night :) He is such a sushi lover yet so fussy at mealtimes.

Yesterday morning I may have had a panic attack, not sure as I have never had one but suddenly I started having panicked thoughts about my MIL's visit and wanted to eat everything in sight, I did put a couple of not so healthy things in my pie hole and then proceeded to spit them out. Oh gosh the next 3.5 weeks are going to be tough!!

I had a whole Challah bread over from Friday so Little A asked for challah french toast and reminded me to put vanilla in it. I sliced up the loaf, made my egg dipping mix which consisted of 3 eggs, more vanilla than intended, some water as I wasn't sure if the milk was good and then I added some caramel flavoured coffee creamer. It smelt heavenly and I fried the whole loaf of bread. The kids including my neice had this for lunch and the leftovers were had for an early morning breakfast today with some still in the fridge.

I made myself a large healthy salad for lunch - yum and keeping myself accountable.

For dinner I decided to use things I had on hand and made a mexican casserole, I had 2.5 large chicken breasts in the fridge that I had cooked using Jen from Slim shoppings crock pot enchalada recipe but I accidentally put a packed of taco seasoning in so then added the enchalada seasoning too. I also added thickly sliced onion to it.
I layered tortilla's on the bottom of the dish, put a layer of refried beans, shredded chicken and then I made a sauce using the enchalada/taco sauce and mixed in FF sour cream and added a layer of sauce with grated cheese on the top and baked it.
Aubrey and I had this along with roasted kobatcha squash I had in the fridge.
Little A and my neice had mac and cheese :)

We snacked on strawberries and cuties :)

One of my faves

2011-04-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I got home I snacked on a couple of my favorite things, I had some fresh mango and then feeling like some crispy snacks I had myself another fave. Some Sabra hummus and crackers, these crackers are from Trader Joe's, they are the multiseed and soy thin rice crackers. A serving is 1oz which is about 35 crackers so they can strech far. This was 1/2 a seerving with 2 tbls hummus. I had this X2.

Later in the evening I snacked on some Korean rice cookies and then little A came with the Ritz Pretzel thins so I had some of those, I buy them for the kids but hadn't tasted them myself, they were really good and after a serving I sent him with the box on his way, far away from me.

Soon after I called it a night so those snacks became my dinner :)

Daily points used: 31

Week points used/left: 2/40
Saving those weekly points for my 2 toughest days, Saturday and Sunday... = planning!!!

April Fool's

2011-04-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it is April Fool's day again :)
The year is flying by, the kids start spring break today and happy to have a week off school. We don't have a trip planned so it will be a laid back week for them while I am at work.
I have a long list of Barmi prep stuff that needs doing next week and my MIL and step son arrive Monday for a month long visit - fun fun fun!!

Yesterday was another okay day on plan.
I tracked, drank a bit to many points in the form of coffee and creamer but of well.
Not sure why I am drinking so much coffee at night but then I keep getting up to go potty in the night :)

Dinner for me was some shrimp I cooked in an asian sauce, roasted kabotcha squash and mini veggie dumplings.

Daily points used: 31
Week points used/left: 2/42

Aubrey finally got the internet at home working late last night so I can post pics etc.

Um... yes I did it.

2011-03-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday started off great, I packed leftovers for lunch the night before so it was easy to grab and head to work. I was doing so great at packing lunches, not sure why I stopped. I think the last trip got me out of the habit which I was doing for most of last year so yes habits are really easy for me to break :)

After picking up little A from school I stopped at Trader Joe's for a couple of things and needed to also get something for him to wear for next Saturday morning.

About 6 weeks ago I mentioned to Aubrey that I needed to get him a suit to wear for the morning and Aubrey's response was that he didn't need one so I left it. Yesterday morning I said I was going to get him a jacket to wear with some new pants he got and Aubrey said 'he needs a suit'!! Like hello, like anything is just going to fit him without being altered!! So it is heck no to a suit at this stage of the game.

While we were out we hit Orange leaf for some frozen yogurt, I got some FF coconut and pineapple with some mochi and white chocolate chips - I estimated 11PP for it and enjoyed without guilt.
Dinner was that and a low point salad. The white is sliced turnip :)

Yes I did it, I had an 11 point FF frozen yogurt and toppings for dinner :)

Daily points used: 33
Week points used/left: 4/44

Just the chopped liver

2011-03-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was another pretty good day on plan.
I tracked my food, drank my water etc and did a 10 minute walk, excersize is what I really need to work on, excersize is not a love I have and the hardest part of the journey for me, it takes me ages to get going and it's the first thing that goes out the window!!! I know I am not alone in this :)

Aubrey went for his first colonoscopy yesterday and everything looks great - yes I got color pictures to prove it - gross!!

Dinner was a beef stir fry, I browned (sort of) the beef and removed it from the pan, then I added the snow peas and carrot that I used the peeler to create strips, I stir fried those, removed that and then stir fried the baby bokchoy that then wilts to nothing like spinach.
I made a sauce using oyster sauce, sweet chili sauce, teriyaki and soy sauce and heated everything together with that. I made some sticky rice.
I had a spoon of rice (about 1/4 cup) with some beef stirfry and some Kobatha squash (not on plate yet), very filling and yum.
Of course little A took one look at dinner and made himself some mac and cheese!!

Our internet is still out so Tarryn went to Yogli Mogli to use there free wifi to do some school work, she works there and was on call but never got called in but hung there for a couple of hours and came home with a dish of chocolate LF yogurt with choc chips and chocolate sauce and choc cookie crumbs - see a theme here?
I took one look and said "I'm just the chopped liver here" cause this was obviously for her dad!! I am not a choc ice cream fan. I did have a spoon of it just to confirm it was not what I liked :)

Daily points used: 30
Week points used/left: 1/48

Yesterday's tracking

2011-03-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day, I tracked, hydrated and felt good.
I really need to get on the excersize wagon, I walked for 10 minutes but need to get treadmill motivated again or use my DVD's I have or the wii.

My internet at home got hit by lightening Sunday so once that is back up and running, hopefully this week, I will post some pics of my journal and foods too.

I weighed this morning (I weigh most mornings) and at least it's going in the right direction again - onwards and downwards!!!

I'm done...and...

2011-03-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness still a smidge ahead!!

I finally decided I am getting back on this train, I fell off the wagon, rolled down the hill, got run over by all the wagons coming up behind me, walked to the nearest station and I'm climbing back on board.
Destination of this train... a long journey thru hills and valleys but the finaly destination is a healthy fitter life!!

I'm done making excuses of vacations, visitors, and life happening.
It's not going to change unless I dig myself a hole and bury myself in it which is not about to happen!!

I have had difficulty mentally getting to living a healthy life while on vacation instead of inbetween vacations but have realized that with my vacation schedule being crazy and vacations being a part of my life I have too just do it!!!
The last 6 months I have been on a cruise for Thanksgiving - an excuse to be off plan, then to Florida over Christmas for a wedding (another excuse I why be healthy inbetween), a long b'day weekend in Tunica (buffet haven), another anniversary long weekend in Tunica (repeat of Paula Buffet haven) and then a cruise with friends in March.

Coming up in the next 2 weeks I have my MIL and step son coming from SA and little A's Bar Mitzvah - a weekend eating fest with friends and family!!

I have put on 15lbs of the 30 I worked so hard to lose and although I am still a smidge ahead of where i started I have got to get myself under control before I end up starting from where I was.

TODAY is the start of my tracking, writing and tracking cause this mental stuff doesn't work.
TODAY is the start of healthy clean eating of real portion sizes - not the expanded portion size!!
TODAY is the start of getting back to my walking - no excuses, I need the excersize and 10 minutes a day is NOT enough!!!

TODAY, is a new day!!!

Back from vacation but not on an eating vacation.

2011-03-17T17:37:00.000-07:00

I got back from my week long cruise without the family late Sunday night and it has taken me 4 days to get back to my 'normal'.

I have been back at work catching up with everything that got left for 'Monday when Julia is back'.
Been doing laundry that got left for 'When mom gets back'.
Been grocery shopping, cooking, tidying etc and mostly I have been eating and not able to get back on track...

SO

Tomorrow I am getting back to it!!!
Tracking, Tracking, Tracking!!

Yes, it's GREEN with red spots

2011-03-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

I made my first green smoothie, I used almond milk, a couple of handfuls of spinach, 1/2 frozen banana, some frozen raspberries and 1/2 fresh mango with a splash of SF coconut syrup.
It was good and I could not even taste the spinach.

I offered some to Miss T - who said 'Um - no Thanks!!
I offered some to Aubrey who just looked at me like I was a green martian!
I offered some to little A and the conversation went like the...
Me 'Do you want to try my green smooth?'
A 'yeah right'!!
Me 'It's a Shrek smoothie'
A 'Yeah Shrek eats sluggs and he blends them up too'!!

Me 'EEYYWWW!!!'

It's been a long time...

2011-03-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

It has been ages since I posted although I have tried to keep up with the bloggers I follow :)
Between work, ereader, blogging and life I don't have much time before I am burning the candle at both ends.

February flew by, it was our anniversary - we hit 18 years of married bliss and celebrated with another long weekend trip to Tunica so basically a repeat of my birthday trip in January with lots of eating out and 3 meals at Paula Deens. This trip we flew there on Friday and my parents drove up and met us and spent the week there, we still flew home Monday. It was fun having them thereeven though we only spent one night together.

I tried Bizzy's crab cakes for dinner, they were good, I added a few more spices like cumin etc and used panko instead of breadcrumbs. I also doubled the recipe using 16oz of lump crab. They didn't hold together very well during pan frying but that didn't stop us from enjoying them. I will make them again and decided next time I will add 1 whole egg along with the yolk to bind it.

This Sunday I am off for a week long cruise with a friend sans hubby and kids - the first cruise without Aubrey, I am looking forward to it but will miss them and starting to feel weird about going without them.

When I get back I will be in full Bar Mitzvah mode as I will have 3 weeks to D-day!!

Squash Love

2011-01-28T07:04:00.000-08:00

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be in love with squash, a couple of weeks back I bought a kabotcha squash but wasn't sure what to do with it.
I decided to wash it, prick it a couple of time and put it in the micro for a minute before cutting it up in slices and roasting.
I put it on non stick foil and misted with canola oil and sprinkled some seasoning on before roasting. It was like candy and everyday I warmed some up and snacked on it, it is very sweet even with the skin on left on.

At the store I put another one in my cart, while we were selecting other fruit and veggies I decided maybe I would get 2 so I could roast one and make a soup with one so I put another in the cart, by the time we checked out there were 4 in the cart, Aubrey just rolled his eyes :)

I put another one in the micro today to roast but I cooked it to long before slicing it up and roasting. It is not as sweet as the last one.
Who ever thought I would be craving roast squash!!

Have you tried this squash?

Paula Deen, Breakfast, Lunch, dinner

2011-01-21T11:27:00.000-08:00

Yes I did it, I ate 3 meals at her restaurant.

My mom had told me good things about it and since Aubrey and I were going to Tunica for a long b'day weekend I decided I was going to have a meal there.

Then I read the reviews online and decided that maybe it wouldn't be a good idea, there were some really bad ones :). Oh well one meal wouldn't kill me :)

We arrived Friday morning, breakfast was a cup of coffee at the airport and a muffin I took with from the batch I made - luckily as we didn't have much time at the airport!
Once lunchtime rolled around I was feeling like something, not sure if it was because I was on vacation or because my body has gotten used to eating lunch. There were a couple of options at the hotel casino for fast food, I tried to pick the healthiest but not sure if I succeeded - a dunkin donut coffee and a egg white and veggie flat bread. It was okay for a quick lunch as I knew we were headed to PD for a seafood buffet for dinner.

Dinner was pretty good, Friday and Saturday nights they have a seafood buffet, I started with a bowl of salad which all seemed fresh and good, I had some steamed crab which was tasty and I avoided the butter and other sauces and it was good just like so. I did try some fried green tomatoes, took off most of the batter too. I am not much of a southern food person as I like to see what is in the dish so I stayed away from the casseroles and dressings and those king of dishes. I did try a few tastes of other dishes and mostly enjoyed it.

Then I found the dessert bar, you have to order the dessert you want so while deciding they brought a fresh batch of red velvet cake cupcakes, they looked so good, with a swirl of cream cheese frosting on top so I decided to try that (the key lime pie looked good) it was good but the frosting had a nice cream cheese taste just way way way too sweet so I scraped it off.

Then danger struck - I saw a bar cookie that looked just my thing, caramel, nuts, choc - hmmmm, so I had to try that, it was so good but very rich and I could only manage to eat 1/2 of it.

On Sunday we decided to have lunch at PD's, it was the Sunday supper menu, I started with a large bowl of raspberies, blackberries and pineapple - yum and so good. I tried a hoecake (?) and a cheese biscuit, there were still some breakfast items so I had a spinach,onion and cheese omelet along with a cheese blintze.

I then headed over to see if they had my yum bar which they did so that was dessert and a wonderful end to my meal. I did ask the lady there and the bars are chocolate chip turtle bars, so guess what I am going to make soon, heavy points and all.

Dinner Sunday night we had in a really fancy upmarket steakhouse '37' as it was my birthday and there was no yum bar to end that meal :(.

Monday morning we had about an hour to spare before we headed to the airport for our flight home so I suggested we go try breakfast at PD. I had some fruit to start but for breakfast they don't have the berries which are my fav so I stuck with pineapple, a little potato hash and a fried green tomato which I took off the fried green tomato egg benedict - they serve it on that instead of the muffin. I had some hoecake and once again no dessert to finish my meal.

I enjoyed trying the different meals at Paula's restaurant and was very pleased I never had a bad meal like I read in the reviews, maybe after reading them my expectations weren't too high :)

I have only made one of Paula's recipes before as I tend to stay away from Southern/buttery recipes and adjusted that one. I am off to seach for a yum bar recipe :)

MMMM...muffins

2011-01-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

Another day at home due to icy roads, gosh I'm not used to hanging at home for hours and days on end.

I decided to use the Cranberry quick bread mix I had,

cranberry muffins sounds good so I ground up some flax seed to use instead of the 2 eggs required, I have never done this before so was a bit leary and knew the muffins would have flecks of flax in them and I would get questioned. I only used 1/2 the 1/3 cup of oil that was needed and replaced the rest with water. In addition I added 1/4cup of ground roasted, salted almonds (ha, now that is what the flecks are ) and 1/4 cup additional cranberries.

They tasted good, not sure if they are worth 7pp though!

Breakfast was a sandwich thin with some swiss and goats cheese grilled in the toaster oven.

Lunch was a salad of greens, a tablesoon of cranberries, some goats cheese, swiss cheese, a spoon of golden flax seeds, drizzled with some balsamic vinagarette and an oz of these crispies - yum!

This was really good.

1/11/11 - Dad's Birthday

2011-01-11T15:02:00.000-08:00

Today is dad's birthday but unfortunately we are snowed in with the roads being very icy so no birthday visit from us and a couple more days till he can enjoy his present and time with the family. After the icy roads a couple of weeks ago and so many accidents I think people are a little road shy this time and staying home - a good thing.

Aubrey cleared most of the drive - LOL we have never shovelled snow before so I'm sure he will be sore tomorrow but he is going to try head to work a little later. He was supposed to have Jury duty today but that has been cancelled.

For breakfast I made some fiber one pancakes - not my favorite but quick although I don't think I will buy them again.
Lunch was a sandwich thin with some of my garlic laden green pepper salad on it, some swiss cheese and a little goats cheese in the toaster oven for a warm gooey lunch.

I made a tuna casserole for the family for dinner - hopefully they eat it, I can already hear little A moaning! It should be a good warming comfort meal for this cold day. I am planning some of the meatball chili over spagetti squash for my dinner, a tad healthier than the casserole :)

Aubrey got out the drive but not far up the slight hill before spinning out, he left the truck on the side of the road and walked home and gave work a miss.

School is cancelled for tomorrow - third day of a long unplanned weekend.

SNOWlanta

2011-01-11T09:55:00.000-08:00

It started Sunday night around 9pm and within a couple of hours we had a good 4-6 inches at the house.

It is so pretty but causing havoc here int he ATL that is not prepared for it! School has been closed the last 2 days and the kids are happy hoping for more days couped up at home.

My office has been closed too so I have been home relaxing and not accomplishing much of the 101 things on my to do list, gosh I have become a procastinator!

Yesterday I decided to make some chili for dinner but I never had any ground beef or turkey in the freezer so decided to make a meatball chili.

I put about 40 1/2 in meatballs in the crockpot along with a can of rinsed black beans, a can of tomato sauce, a can of diced tomato, some chili powder and some cilantro.

Before serving I added about 1/2 cup of roasted corn for some color.

I served this over rice for the family and over spagetti squash with some butternut fries for myself.

A 6 meatball portion is 7pp and was a very yummy dinner on a cold snowy night.

I packed up the leftovers seperated for lunches for the rest of the week.

First WI of the New Year

2011-01-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

Meals this week have mostly been boring, I was doing so great at using up what is in the full over stuffed fridge and freezer - really really good...until today!! Urrggghh!!!

I went to WI this morning and was down 1.8lbs, even weighing in with jeans on in this cold weather so I was pleased with that :)
The meeting was jam packed, every seat occupied and about 40 people standing or sitting on the floor.
Guess lots of people have made New Years resolutions or goals to lose weight and get healthy. Being the first week of the new year the meeting topic was back to the basics of the new plan.

When I got home Aubrey had decided he wanted to go to BJ's, we just renewed our card on the 31st December and when he went by there during the week for gas there was a sign they were closing on the 17th January - ummm why didn't they tell us BEFORE we renewed as this one was a trek for us and the others are even further!! We went there and it was CRAZY - they were letting anyone shop, not just member. There were no carts to be had so it took forever before Aubrey eventually got one and we stocked up on supplies along with stuff for the Bar Mitzvah - found dinner plates, salad plates and silverware on sale.

The plans are to go out to Meehan's public house for dinner so I need to check out there menu on-line.

6 Star breakfast

2011-01-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

I started today with a 6 star breakfast, refreshing and good - I like both these fruits so much I didn't know which to eat first :) LOL.

6 stars and a persimmon - yummo!

A little later I had some Irish Cheddar cheese toast - just a tad too toasy but so good and just what I was feeling for.

I made Gina's Asian glazed drumsticks (skinnytaste.com) for dinner tonight with a couple of changes, I used a South African peri peri sauce for the hot sauce and added a tablespoon sweet chilli sauce and subbed splenda for the sugar.

Served it with a side of sticky rice and a brocolli and rice steamer.
It was yummy, didn't get as thick as I thought it would, maybe because I didn't add the sugar but it tasted good. I ate it before taking a pick so here is Aubrey's plate cause he worked late.

Aubrey's plate.

Rough start to 2011

2011-01-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

I started 2011 with a head cold and feeling blahhh! Not how I wanted to end the year or start the new one but it's not like anyone asked me and I have no idea where I picked this cold up from!

I have not reflected on my journey of 2010, don't believe I reached many of the goals I set but I did maintain some of my weight loss and am back on track with WW - intending to make 2011 a great year is my goal.

Dinner one night was chicken drums with korma sauce over some japenese sticky rice with some rice seasoning and some saute'd snow peas.

Pretty good rice seasoning!

My dinner plate

After leaving work early Friday (it was a half day) I went to WW for my WI, I was up .8 but I normally WI on the weekends and don't eat or drink before hand but with Saturday being NYD they were closed so I weighed in on Friday as I didn't want to miss 2 weeks due to the holidays. Hopefully the .8 was from my breakfast and coffee and jeans :)

New Years eve we went to my mom for dinner and then headed home early as I wasn't feeling great. I had a little of everything, even a slice of Challah and egg salad and some sugar cookie. I tracked my dinner at 20p+.

I have pretty much been hanging at home since, doing load after load of laundry and cleaning etc. Yikes the laundry is a never ending chore with 2 teens in the house.

Last night for dinner I made myself a open face 'Rueben', I used a slice of flax and fiber bread (3p+), a little pickle lilly spread on it, corned beef, sauerkraut, cheddar and grilled it.

Surgery day

2010-12-29T19:48:00.000-08:00

It finally got here and I finally had to tell little A he was going in for surgery.
He thought they were going to remove his nose so I think he stressed for a while. He survived it and is now home with a choc milkshake, some mac and cheese and Mythbusters - what more can a 13 year old ask for LOL.

I have been on plan since we got home from Florida - I AM planning to go to WI on Friday as I missed last week.

I made some black bean soup for dinner tonight - not the families best but I like it, I did it in the crock pot and even used dried beans which I cooked for a while last night and let soak all night.
After we got home today I rinsed it all, added about 2 cups salsa and 1/2 cup picante sauce along with about 8 cups of water and let it all cook for about 3 hours. I also added some cilantro that I had in the freezer.
I took about 1 cup of the beans out before blending the rest with my emersion blender.
I added some cumin, paprika, salt and garlic.

Dinner is a bowl of this soup along with a veggie burger on a sandwich thin with some hummus and green pepper salad.

Back Home for a couple of weeks

2010-12-29T16:19:00.000-08:00

We got back home after our trip to Miami on Monday, we had a great trip and the wedding was great.

As it was my WW WI last Saturday which was Christmas day I knew I would have to try find a place for WI down south, I checked the WW site before we left and there we no meetings on the schedule for Thursday, Friday or Saturday. My next plan was to stop enroute in Valdosta to WI, I noted the address but we ended up leaving Atlanta about 4 hours earlier than originally planned so were there way way way before the only noon meeting = no WI last week.

I always battle to stay on plan when we are away and this was no different. I did try make smarter choices, I didn't track but raided the starfruit tree to make sure I had fruit every day. We ate out at a Deli, at the Hard Rock Casino, a couple of family meals with the wedding party and of course the reason for the trip - the wedding which was a great brunch.

Before we left Miami I raided the Starfruit tree so any ideas what to do with 2 bagfuls?

Back to plan

2010-12-22T06:47:00.000-08:00

I'm back to my WW tracking, I'm finding the new Points + pretty easy besides the fact I have to get all the old stuff out of my head and cannot just by glancing at the NI see more or less how many points an item is.

I am loving the free fruits, it's been years since I have eaten persimmons as my last one was really nasty, I decided 2 weeks ago to try them again and have been hooked, they are very similar taste to mango, one of my favorite fruits.
Having to count points for fruits before did not stop me from enjoying them and I would try to get at least 3 to 5 in a day between snacking on them and smoothies so I am probably eating a couple more now that I don't have to count them and snacking on that rather that other junkier snacks - I guess the new plan is working :)

I lost 3.6 my first week back so was thrilled and wasn't hungry either, I think there were only 3 days I reached my target of 29 points.

This week I have been trying to reach my target as I know it helps not to be deprived. Of course with it being the holidays it won't be difficult.
We are heading down to FLL tomorrow so I know eating out and on the drive will be tough decisions to make but I know with the tools I have I CAN do it!!

Happy Holidays :)

Getting back

2010-12-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

I've been gone a month from here - I know I was only away for a little over a week but it has taken this long to finally catch up with life.

Cruise flew by so quickly, we really relaxed and didn't do many planned activities onboard, I didn't realise how much Aubrey and I needed a week to just relax.
Because the kids were with us we got off at the ports that we wouldn't have on our own as we have done all the touristy thing in most of them but we had fun as a family.

In Roatan we did some amazing snorkeling that we all enjoyed and toured the island, wow I have never driven thru such huge potholes!
Grand Caymen is always fun, we took the kids to 'Hell', mailed some postcards from there, stopped at a few beaches, tasted some rum cakes and DD and I shopped some too.
Cozumel is always my least fav but we went for a long 3+ hour walk before heading back for a little shopping and to spend time on our luxurious ship.

I drank a lot of calories onboard that I don't usually, lots of hot chocolate (I did request FF), lots of virgin cocktails, milkshakes with full fat ice cream I'm sure and I even had 2 toasted Almond martini's - LOL - my alcohol for the year :)

We then spent some time in FLL with friends which included some eating and I raided there star fruit tree - gosh it was great eating fresh picked off the tree fruit.

Aubrey then got swine flu (H1N1) so is just recovering after a tough 3 weeks and it has been a long time since I have seen him so so sick. I had lots of interrupted nights with him coughing constantly - not sure why he didn't go to the guest room.

Then Mom was rushed to the ER with chest pain so I spent a long night and day there - thankfully she was only admitted for 1 day while they did ever test and most of all thankfully she is well and has followed up with her doctors etc.

I went back to WW last week and started on PointsPlus so will post later how that is going :)

I'm trying hard to get back on track!!

Slap dash soup

2010-11-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

We leave Friday - as usual the fridge is full, I'm not so good at not buying, buying, buying. You would think I had food issues LOL.

I came up with what I think is a workable plan.

Slap dash soup.

I decided to throw all the veggies in the crock pot this morning.
Broccoli, red pepper, a cooked sweet potato, some pearl tomatoes, an onion, some tomato sauce.
Then I threw in some dried yellow peas and green lentils and left it to cook all day in my crockpot.

On High!!

I came home to overcooked veggies with very little liquid, I added some water, some spices for this.

I used my emersion blender, how do people live without crock pots and emersion blenders?

I ended up with a smooth veggie soup, added about 1/4 cup lentils while it cooked a while longer.

The kids took one look and gave my soup a miss, Aubrey and I had it for dinner over some leftover chicken taco and it was yum, filling and yum.

The rest will go in the freezer for when we return which sure beats tossing all thise veggies.

Whoo hoo 2 days till I don't have to cook, clean schlep!!

I'm still lost

2010-11-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

I was lost under that halloween candy for a while, those sour patch kids and swedish fish had me snowed over and I had to wade my way thru them.

Then I was lost in popcorn, I volunteered to be the popcorn mom for Little A's troop so had a dining room full - I'm proud to say as of now I haven't opened a bag yet even though I bought ummm, lots. I had to support the troop after all but giving some for Hunnukah gifts.

I'm still lost on the eating front, I've been making some good choices just been battling with getting back on plan like I was.

This last week was a rough one, someone smashed my car and of course didn't leave there info - made me not much of a happy Julia. Tuesday night I made a big pot of black bean soup, we had some for dinner and I was planning on having the rest for lunches but forgot to switch the stove off so burnt it - made for a more unhappy Julia. Wednesday I had the migraine from H double hockeysticks so spent the night meeting porcelain Percy which made for a sick and unhappy Julia.

I guess I need to start wearing my Philip Stein watch again which I took off to wear my HRM watch.

We are heading out Friday for our Thanksgiving cruise so this is going to be another crazy week between work, finalizing the popcorn sales, swim team every night and packing, cleaning and making sure the dogs have enough food etc for the dog sitter.

Butternut bust

2010-10-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks.

Little A loves to garden, he was born to the wrong parents cause neither Aubrey or I know anything about it although I have been trying to encourage him.

I came home to this.

But it was on my table, an awesome 2.5lb butternut but the picked it green! Reading up on butternut it has to ripen on the vine and not be harvested till ripe.

Between him and Aubrey some patience is in order.

I made a Bizzy pizza

2010-10-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have been really slacking off on the blogging, life has been busy but with lots of the daily grind boring stuff, work, kid issues, BSA popcorn sale finalizing, middle school issues and just plain lazyness on my part.

Another sad but happy milestone in our lives last week - 'my baby' Missy got her driving license - scary stuff :)

Yesterday I met Tammy of From fat to fab fame and Kim of All about the bottom line fame for lunch at chipotle, a first time there for me and yummy so I'm sure not the last.
We then headed to the farmers market, haven't been there in a couple of months so I stocked up on quinoa, couscous, flax seed, lentils and a whole slew of winter squashes - the family are going to be so happy - NOT!!!

Last night Aubrey and I went to Meehan's for dinner, I must have been in an Irish mood after watching Leap Day. I had the lamb chops which where great with lots of yummy veggies and I had leftovers for lunch today.

Dinner tonight for the family was breakfast, turkey maple sausages from the market with fried eggs, some wheat bread and goats cheese (umm only Aubrey and I had the cheese).

I decided to make myself a Bizzy Pizza of My Bizzy Kitchen fame, I used a whole wheat pita I bought at the market, topped it with sauce, one cooked turkey/maple sausage, a little goats cheese, some sharp cheddar and to make it Bizzyfied I put an egg on the top. Then I got nervous, raw egg and me are not friends sooooo while I waited and waited for the egg to cook the edges were burning.

It was different, the doggies enjoyed the edges and I enjoyed the rest - no runny egg :)

Who knew...

2010-10-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

Who knew there was such a thing as Chicago style popcorn?

Who knew it would be a trigger food for me?

Who knew how many times I could eat toooo much of it and have to call it dinner?

Ummm, yes I ate popcorn for dinner last Wednesday and Thursday night, I think I ate some Friday after work before being disgusted with myself.

Eating hasn't been great, we went out for Indian on Saturday night, samoosa's (I had a veggie one), naan bread, chicken Korma (love it), some beef vindaloo and a mixed grill Tandoori style. I also got my usual rice pudding to go which I enjoyed a bit of on Saturday night and finished Sunday night.

Sunday we went to the air show, a lot of walking, a lot of snacking on almonds and jelly beans but I stayed away from all the fried goodies which there was tons of.
We went to a sports bar for dinner where I ate too much fried onion loaf, sweet potatoe fries along with a taste of the buffalo wings I ordered but didn't feel like and some of Little A's beef rib.

Today is back on track, tracking my eats, planning my eats and guzzling water which I have let slip the last couple of weeks.

I missed my WW weigh in yesterday cause we headed to the air show so I will hopefully get there later this week but it hasn't been a good few weeks :)

Note to myself :)

2010-10-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

Okay I ate my way thru the PMS'ing, the weekend and the first part of this week! It's Wednesday Julia, get your a$$ out of the wind and into gear so you can get your MOJO back and get back on track to being fit and healthy!!

Noff said!!

PMS, driving and eating

2010-10-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

Okay this was a tough week, boy was I pms'ing and wanting to eat EVERYTHING in sight and $hit was there a lot in sight. Mexican twice and I stayed away from the rice and beans but did enough damage.

Driving, did I ever think I would be Pms'ing and having to drive with a permitted daughter in the same week, we both survived it but probably just barely - I think I will stay off the roads for a while when she gets her license LOL.

Today has been another day of non stop eating, I started off with a yummo smoothie, frozen banana, frozen mango thanks to Trader Joe's with some almond milk and ice cubes - just so yummy and moreish.
I snacked on some seaweed laver - addictive stuff this :)

I got stuck into the popcorn this afternoon - chicago style, I never even knew they had Chicago style popcorn :) then it was onto the fruit leather, chips and now I feel stuffed but thinking of the next thing I am going to snack on.

We are going to watch Letters to Juliette later as I want to see the Italian scenery - I am planning our trip there for next year - one of the joys of hubby getting old and having a BIG Birthday next year :)
We are also going to watch Killers so who knows how much snacking I will do, hopefully I will be strong and pull out the hummus and carrots :) Good luck to me!!

Autumn is here :)

2010-10-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

I had a really lazy day on Saturday, I slept late (9ish) and then lay in bed reading on my ereader till I needed to pick DD up at noon. Aubrey then said he would get her as he wanted to practice driving and parking with her. I lay on the couck ofter a couple of not so healthy snacks and read some more - oh to be able to ignore laundry, cleaning etc is so blissful :)

I decided to grill burgers for the family for dinner, I used the GF as Aubrey did not want to switch on the grill for a couple of burgers, I made a veggie burger on a sandwich thin for me with sliced cucumber and carrots as a side.

Sunday I lay in again before heading out in the cold for WI, yes it was too cold for shorts, tee and flips. I could feel the nip in the air at 57 degrees.
WI was good, down 1.4 of the over 4 I put on last week :) :)
But then I came home after a bit of shopping and munched, and snacked, and munched some more before heading out for Persian for dinner.
We ordered an appetizer to share - not sure what I pointed to on the menu but we lucked out with no broken teeth!!

13. Tahdig

Literally translated "bottom of the pot". Crispy layers of rice topped with Qeymeh, one of our delicious stews. First to disappear on any Persian dinner table, guaranteed

3 of the 4 main dishes we ordered were good and some we have had before but one was just a whole lot of rice, I think they forget to put the sirloin tips in - it honestly looked like they took one little tip, cut it into about 20 pieces and that was the meat - Aubrey was so not impressed with that dish :)

Oh well you live and learn and now it's a chilly Autumn Monday.

I ate my way thru the day

2010-10-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

I ate my way thru Wednesday, I did track though so that kept me accountable which does help :)

I also made some Cape Malay chicken tenders and veggies to serve with quinoa for dinner and packed some for lunches for a couple of days to help me get back on track.

Thursday I managed to eat a bit more controlled, I tracked too, ate what I packed for work and met Aubrey for dinner at chik fil-a where I had a Southwest chicken salad - it was yum and those fries looked so so so good - I had one then enjoyed my salad.

This weekend I am planning to get myself back into the cooking and packing lunch mode - it helps me stay within my points when I bring a good healthy home cooked meal to work and plan dinners - of course it helps when the kids will eat what I plan :)

TGIF - thank goodness cause I NEED this weekend.

Over...

2010-09-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Over my points on Monday...

Over my points on Tuesday...

See a trend here??

Well guess what Julia?? You tracked and that is what counts!!

Thanks goodness for weekly points, but at the rate I am going there won't be many left for the weekend.

Oh and did I mention I did 15 minutes on the stationary bike while watching Biggest Loser?

Oh and Thank Goodness those buffalo wings are over with there high point value!!

I'm moving on...

2010-09-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

From the past 3 weeks of endless eating!

I went to WI yesterday after missing one when WW was closed and then I missed last week as I was busy with Boy Scouts popcorn sales so it has been 3 weeks and a 4.2lb gain!!

Yikes!!

I ate non stop yesterday, I had a bagel for breakfast when I went to pick up some for dinner and then I had one for dinner when my parents and sister came over. What I ate in between is a long sad list of things that I will not rehash :(

Today is a new day, healthy eating is on the agenda along with some yoga.

Still recovering

2010-09-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

How many times do I have to do this before I learn?

I'm still recovering from dinner point shock!
And to think I went to Season's 52 whose claim is all there dishes are under 475 calories.

Julia, nowhere in that statement did they mention fat, Fat, FAT grams.

Salad = 8 points
Entree = 7 points
Dessert = 6 points
For a grand ol total of my daily allowance!!!

Yes I'm still recovering!!!

Tracking

2010-09-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day :)

Number one on my To Do List was

Track, Track, Track

Which I did, I tracked using the WW online tool which I haven't used for a couple of weeks.

Today is a new day and Tracking is number one on my list again.

Dinner at Season's 52 tonight with friends - yummo!

Weekend recap

2010-09-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Yom Kippur so I fasted, really missed my water which I guess my body has gotten used to drinking but I survived till 7.30pm. We broke our fast with friends, lots of food and chatting.

Sunday I was up early to load the car with popcorn, I volunteered to be the popcorn mom for Little A's boy scouts troop - what the heck was I thinking. I have a house full of popcorn, microwave popcorn, caramel popcorn, chocolate coated caramel popcorn, toffee popcorn, cheese popcorn - oh dear!!

After the popcorn sale I went home to unpack, have lunch, do laundry and some relaxing before heading out on a Mom/Son date with Little A. I got tickets to take him to see Rain - a tribute to the Beatles, it was a nice surprise for him as he is very into the Beatles. We enjoyed it and it was a great end to the weekend.

Today's plan is to stay on plan and track, track, track.

Ya'll aint gonna believe this

2010-09-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

Today was not the getting up and starting the trudge up the hill day.

It started off well but I soon got side tracked to the far south.
I went to Bobby and June's Kountry Kitchen, a real southern experience for lunch.
Yes it was fried chicken, mac and cheese and to top it off a serving of fried squash for lunch. Umm yes that is what I ate for lunch and it contained lots and lots and an extra helping of oil!!

Bobby was sitting outside on his rocker and inside was a super busy rush, I felt like I was in another world and will have to take Aubrey there for breakfast one day which is supposed to be great.

Tonight is the start of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement when we fast, we are going to have a quick healthy low sodium dinner with a chug down of water which will have to tide me over till tomorrow night after dark. At that time we are going to friends to break the fast and feast :)

Good weekend all :)

Falling off the wagon and rolling down the hill...

2010-09-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yes it's been a bad week, actually more than a week! I fell off the wagon and instead of getting up and getting back on track i let myself roll to the bottom of the hill. Well now I'm at the bottom and have a long climb back to the top!!

It's amazing that knowing that there was no WI last Sunday as WW was closed for the day and having 2 nights of celebrating Rosh Hashana can make me eat and eat and eat off plan. I haven't journalled since last week, tomorrow I start journalling and using the tools I have!

Mostly I was eating what I normally do, just way too much of it except for yesterday when I ate non stop!!
I was like a a bottomless pit at work - 3 100 calorie candy packs - yes 3, one after another, something I have never done before!!

I have to get back my mojo, I have Little A's Barmitzvah coming up in April, a wedding in Fort Lauderdale in December, a Thanksgiving cruise and mostly me that I need to do this for!!!

Sunday WI

2010-09-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

I went to WW this morning and was down 1.8lbs - whoo hoo not what I was expecting but I will definately take it!!

This weeks topic was about portion size, how dinner plates have grown from 9in to 12 inches so it's no surprise we have an obesity epidemic.
We also discussed Lose for Good which started today and is 7 weeks long, WW donates $$$ for each pound lost by members and members donate food equal to the weight they lose.

Major house cleaning going on here this weekend so we can start the new Year on Wednesday nice and shiny :)
I then did an hour of Yoga - yes I actually did an hour of excersize after 3 weeks of doing nothing, nil, nada not even a 15 minute walk. I felt good and sure I will feel it tomorrow before shopping and cooking starts.

This evening Aubrey, little A and I went for Indian, it was so good and we haven't been for Indian for a while, gosh that Naan bread is so good and I refrained from having my over fattening Korma but sure I did enough damage. Another danger at my fav Indian restaurant is that I always order a rice pudding to go, it takes about 2 days for me to snack on it but it is so so so good - yum.

Happy labor day all :)

Off the wagon

2010-09-04T12:50:00.000-07:00

It's a new month since I last posted :) boy where has the time gone?

I have really fallen off the wagon, tracking, blogging and sadly excersize.
It has been a crazy 2 weeks, we had a friend and his daughter come for a couple of days from Florida then the morning after they left another friend came for a week visit from Israel and it has been a week since he left. Both are guys Aubrey and I grew up with, I last saw Paul in London on our honeymoon and then when he moved to the US 2 years ago we reconnected and did a Disney cruise together last year.
Brian actually reintroduced Aubrey and I when he was back in South Africa visiting his folks, we then stopped in Israel on our was to the US nearly 17 years ago and I saw him once on a trip about 15 years ago so it was great to have visits from both and a pity they didn't overlap :).
Of course we ate out too much and snacked way too much while hanging out chatting.

My routine since the kids are back at school has been hectic as Little A's carpool kid moved to high school and I have only been able to find a part time car pool, I so miss having someone to share school carpool with. This is our 5th year having a child at the school, the first 2 years I worked a couple of minutes away so it was great, the last 2 years we have car pooled with another family, we take in the morning and they pick up in the afternoon - awesome for Aubrey and I and fits great into my work/excersize life.
This year I have only been able to find a carpool for every second week as the parents are seperated which means that every second week I have to leave work early to pick up little A which uses up my lunch walking time :( and makes me spend an extra hour aditional in the car :(

Anyhoo's enough with the bitching...
I have been eating mostly healthy, getting my fruits and veggies in, a smoothie now and then sure helps, walking and water jogging have been non existant but I have been going to my WW meeting, up .4 both weeks, it's like I'm on this roller coaster, down a week, up the same amount the next week, up 2 weeks and down a little...

This week is going to be another tough one, it's Rosh Hashana - the Jewish new Year and I have 20 peeps coming for dinner on Wednesday, I am hoping to get most of my shopping and prep done this weekend and Monday as I am still working Wednesday - oh boy what did I get myself into :)

Black Beluga lentils

2010-08-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

Last week at Trader Joes I bought a bag of the ready cooked Black Beluga Lentils, when I checked out the cashier asked if I had had them before and said they were awesome.

I thought about what to do with them and decided to make a Quinoa lentil pilaf.

I cooked about 6oz of onion and 3 pepper mix in a splash of olive oil, added some leftover quinoa that I had cooked in onion broth and then added the bag of lentils.

As usual I was the only one who ate this, it made a good side dish and lunch for me for work.

This was a very quick side dish and I got to use the leftover quinoa I had.

Next time I am going to add some other veggies - I think I am becoming addicted to quinoa :)

Half Yay me!

2010-08-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

I work in midtown Atlanta and the office block has a lobby full of different lunch places, Moe's, Chick fil-A, Blimpie, great wraps, a Thai place, a pizza place, a Greek restaurant, deli etc.

When I was first started we would go down stairs for lunch daily, mostly each day of the week would be a different lunch, Moe's on Monday, Thai on Tuesday etc etc. It was fun, social and new.
That was one unhealthy year for me, I worked long hours, ate badly and after eating a bad lunch I would stop and pickup dinner (normally the kids choice) as I was not cooking after a 10, 12 or sometimes longer stressful work day.

After starting my journey to healthiness I hardly go downstairs to eat, maybe once or twice a month and then I make healthier choices.

I packed my lunch of quinoa/lentil mix with cauliflower curry which I made on Sunday.

Around 1pm Aubrey and 'missy' came to meet me to get some errands done so they decided to have Moe's for lunch downstairs, I sat downstairs with them, didn't even pick or taste anything and declined the chips and salsa when offered.

I went upstairs, heated my lunch, ate at my desk and felt good for doing it - of course the cherry on the top would have been doing my 40 minutes of walking :)

My walking partner is out this week so I have been slacking on that front :(

Naturally More

2010-08-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

I got this tub of Naturally More peanut butter from someone at work.

I enjoy some PB so decided the stats weren't bad and it would be a nice treat for me.

I don't eat PB so often and when I buy 'healthy' kinds no one else wants to eat them and I don't remember to eat them so they go rancid before they are 1/4 done like the 2 PB2 I got :(

Anyhooos,

I opened this to find a thick layer of oil on the top so had to mix that in cause that is just gross, the mix at the bottom was so thick it was hard to mix and I landed up spilling 1/2 the oil down the tub and on the counter - not a fun cleanup job but there went 1/2 the fat per serving LOL.

I got it mostly mixed and tried some on a sandwich thin - yum I can taste the nutty flavour of the flax seed and it has a kinda smooth crunch to it.

Anyone else tried this?

Hello!!...Be realistic

2010-08-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

I bought this Edamame salad last week, I have eyed them out for a while so finally decided to try it.

The stats were not too bad...or so I thought :)

A serving size said 2 tablespoons, well a tablespoon (not a heaped one) of edamame is about 5 beans so I decided to weigh it for more accuracy.

Yep 28g is... a serving...

but barely a forkful.

Not really worth the effort of dirtying a container to take to work nor worth eating for a side for lunch :)

I ended up taking 3 servings as a side for lunch.

I think it is time companies are realistic with their serving size and stats on labels.

Not sure why I was so anal about this cause I feel like I ate everything in sight this past week - it's that time you know :)!!

Please tell me it's not so... LOL

2010-08-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

So I'm reading about some yoga classes and come across this

Highlights:
More than 30 weekly classes
Yoga for all abilities and styles
Adaptive yoga and dance
Men's nude yoga

Do they actually do that? I need to text Aubrey and see if he is interested cause that could keep me laughing for a couple of years... laughing is good excersize isn't it?

I guess I will stick with my lunchtime walking and my new found water jogging :)

Well guess what?

2010-08-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

I finally hit 30 pounds gone, I jumped on the scale before heading out for my official WW weigh in and was so thrilled the scale read 159.4. for a total loss of 30.4 pounds.

I guess resisting the evil chick fil-a, staying on plan and doing my walking along with my new found water jogging all helped.

My official WW loss was 10.4 since I started in May.

I came home and made some quick black bean soup and put the little bit of leftover turkey chili in it - lunch is packed for 3 days this week - whoo hoo on planning.

We are heading out to friends for dinner :)

I resisted

2010-08-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yep, I did!!

2 trays of chick fil-A mini biscuit sandwiches that my boss brought in.

I did hear them calling and they looked so so so good. I could have fitted them into my points but decided I was not going to eat them just for the sake of eating them.

I beat the mini's!!

Did 45 minutes walking and was I a sweaty mess after that - boy if I keep this up I will have to join the gym downstairs so I can shower after my lunchtime walks :)

This afternoon there were cupcakes in the breakroom when I went to refill my water, I checked them out - they looked good and fancy from a local cake store but was not going to allow a cupcake come between me and my goals today!

I got 2 compliments at work, one person asked if I was going for an interview as I looked so good and another if I was going for a fancy dinner all dressed up.

All I did was shop in my closet for smaller clothes LOL.

TGIF - it couldn't come quick enough :)

6 pounds

2010-08-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

Nope I didn't lose 6 pounds today or this week or this month -boo hoo.

This is what 6 pounds of cherries looks like (minus my guzzling some while washing them).

As you can see I love me some cherries :)
Set points here I come...

After work and shopping I took little A to the pool, I ran for 20 minutes in the water and I did my 40 minute walking at lunch time.

Dinner was my new favorite, I think I have had this 3 times this week.
A Morning Star veggie burger on a sandwich thin with Sabra garlic hummus, a little BBQ sauce and some relish.
Of course my side was a serving of cherries.

Cannot wait for the weekend :)

The Dragon

2010-08-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

Fruit that is...

Have you tried it?

I have been eating it dried from Trader Joe's for a couple of years but until last year has not had fresh dragon fruit.

Last year when I bought it for the first time the flesh was white with black seeds, kinda like a kiwi with a very bland taste but great to add to a fruit salad for variety.

This year I bought one, cut it open and this is what I found

It was slightly sweet and refreshing with some canteloupe.

What can go wrong...does...

2010-08-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

I have been missing for over a week - not sure where the time went :)

Last Sunday I gained .2 this Sunday I lost .4 - hope this is not a long plateau I am on and I need to step up my working out cause the 40 minute walks 3-5 times a week is obviously not enough.

I noticed my huge chandelier over my dining room table was hanging by the wire, luckily it didn't fall and with enough nagging Aubrey got that repaired yesterday - the metal piece that connects the chandelier to the chain broke and luckily Aubrey had an old one he could use. Now I need to get my dining room back together.
All up and working again.

Last night I went to fold the load of towels and they were still wet, the dryer had stopped with 30 minutes time and wouldn't start - we were going to my mom for coffee so I packed up the load to laundry from the washer and the towels from the dryer and we spent the evening drying everything there. The belt snapped on my dryer, Aubrey bought one today and will replace it tomorrow so I can do the rest of the laundry that I tried to ignore all weekend:)

Of course all this was after our aircon in the keeping room packed up yesterday morning - with temps in the high 90's that room was hot as all heck and with more warm air blowing in - aarr I really don't want to replace the aircon now but have little choice. Luckily the other 3 are okay as we have already replaced 2 of those but this is the most used area of the house.

I just had the compressor for my car's air replaced a couple of weeks ago cause that stopped working while we were at the beach.

Hopefully nothing else can go wrong??

I think I'm addicted

2010-07-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

I headed out early this morning to a meeting for Boy Scouts as I volunteered to be the troops popcorn mom - Little A joined this year so I have no clue what is all involved - yikes :)

During the night I was dreaming of lychee's so on my way home I did a round about to the store that sells them and bought another 2 lbs worth - I'm happily working my way thru it :)

This is the first year since living here that I have found them more readily available and for a reasonable price - I remember years ago buying 8 small ones for $5 - yikes. We used to eat boxes of them during summer as kids.
Last year I found them for $4.99 a pound and this year I have been buying them at an Asian grocery store with prices ranging from $3.99 to $1.49 a pound so I am making hay while the sun shines and guzzling away. I think I'm addicted!

I came home and did some painting in the guest room, love love love the color - it's called soothing tea green. I plan to finish painting the walls tomorrow and then do the trim in the evenings after work next week so I can get the room back together by the end of the month.

Tonight we are just hanging out at home, Little A is sleeping over at my brother again tonight and we are just relaxing after a tiring week.

Fruitful bounty

2010-07-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

We were down to one small over ripe banana and one apple - even little A was asking when I was going to buy fruit :) How times have changed.

I stopped on my way home and bought way more than I should have because it all looked good - I don't like cold fruit so it doesn't last long on the counter in this heat.

This is my fruit bounty...

Bowl of lychee's - my fav and only lasted the night :)
Bowl of Apricots - yum

My large fruit bowl, 4 black plums, 3 dino plums, bag clementines, 2 large white peaches, 2 large white nectarines, 2 large yellow nectarines, large bunch of banana's, 7 apples.
1 large canteloupe for speedy and I to share for the week, a bunch of spinach and some cherry tomatoes.

I was chatting to my Mom on the phone when she told me that little A told her they eat too much bread in her house - she thought I had told him that but it must come from watching 'you are what you eat' on BBC - LOL :).

Whoo hoo happy it's weekend :)

Evening eating

2010-07-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

The last couple of evenings I have been wanting to snack non stop!

I eat well all day and stick with what I have packed for breakfast and lunch and then when I walk into the house after work it is like a switch is being turned on and I just want to munch, the good, the bad and the ugly - anything seems to go!

Little A has been sleeping at my mom since Sunday, I think he took one look at the veggies in the fridge, asked me what veggie was for dinner and has been gone since LOL.

Anyhoo's for dinner tonight I decided to use a bunch of spring onion that needed using along with a head of cauliflower and a bag of bok choy.

I sauted the onion in a little olive oil, added 1/2 a head of cauliflower florets and browned a little and then removed from pan, I then added the bok choy which I had washed but left the leaves whole and wilted them, I then added some light soy sauce and about 2 tablespoons oyster sauce and added back the onion/cauliflower mix.

I served this over quinoa with apple turkey sausages and it was good and filling.

What a feeling

2010-07-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Finally getting back to life.

Friday I had the weirdest feeling in the afternoon - I was sitting at work and suddenly thought 'I wanna run' I wasn't sure what or where that thought came from. It's not like I'm a runner or very energetic when I get home but decided I was going to run when I got home.

By the time I got home as much as I didn't want to I walked on the treadmill and ran - 6 minutes of running without stopping which for me was something LOL.

Funny I have not had the urge to run since :)

I had another crazy idea earlier last week, I decided to paint the guest room, what was I thinking!!

I chose the colours and we did some prep on Saturday, taping moving furniture etc.

Sunday we started painting, 2 coats on the ceiling and the first coat on the accent wall - Aubrey and I both decided we don't like painting but now that we have started I am going to finish.

I plan on getting all the walls done this week after work so we can do the trim on the weekend and then move all the furniture back.

I went to my WW meeting Sunday, lost the 1.4 I found last week, hope I can do a couple of repeat weeks like that :)

Sunday night Aubrey and I went for 'date' night to Stoney River to discuss our Bar Mitzvah plans for little A as it's creaping up fast and furious and we never get chance to discuss without a zillion why's when and hows from the kids :)

I'm gonna make this a great week :)

Reality

2010-07-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

It is back to reality.

Back from the beach and catching up and getting into the swing of things again.

Happy it's weekend :)

BYOF

2010-07-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

We are back from vaca...

Okay we have been back a week and it has taken me till now to get back to reality and life :)

We had a wonderful relaxing week and glorious weather.

On the Friday before we left I decided to BYOF - bring your own fruit, this way I would have the fruit and veggies available and would therefore eat more of it than I would buy there.

I headed to my fav fruit and veggie store to stock up for the week - this is the stash I took with:

Watermelon
Lychees
Broccoli
Spinach
Apples
Nectarines
Papaya
Cantelope
Sprite melon
Box of Mangoes
Tomatoes
Pineapple
Kiwi
Turnips

Yes I know it's like taking ice to Iceland but my thinking was if I schlepped it I wouldn't have an excuse to eat it. I probably would not have bought as much buying there so it worked out good to take so much.

We had a full kitchen for the week so I had already warned Aubrey we were going to eat in more than out much to his disgust :)

I believe we ate healthier this vacation than any other - whoo hoo!

Dang!

2010-07-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

Up again this morning - can you imagine the damage if I was not staying within my points?

Oh well - off to the beach later :)

What is up???

2010-07-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Every day this week I have jumped on the scale per usual in the morning and every day that number has been up!!
I have been tracking, eating healthy even when going over my points it has been on healthy foods and fruits etc.
Last night we went to the Braves game, I had my blueberries and chobani yogurt for dinner as I didn't eat them in the morning and even weighed my brown rice chips to take to the game so I could stay on plan and not be tempted :)
Yet the scale is going up up up!
I have 25lbs to go to get to my WW goal and I would like to try lose an extra 5 after that at least.
I have been walking either 4-5 days at work during my lunch for 40 minutes but need to step up my exercise and do more although I don't want to do what I am not going to make a lifestyle change - need to figure this out and maybe it will help budge that darn scale!!

I'm getting frustrated!!

Another eating fest...

2010-06-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday landed up being another eating fest.

I went over my daily points by 8 after tracking everything I ate - yikes :(

The day started off great with a fruit smoothie on my way to work, then I had some blueberries cause I bought 4 punnets of them so it is going to be a blue berry week - they are yum-o with some chobani yogurt and flax seed.

Lunch was some of the chili I packed with a couple of the teeny tiny potatoes from Trader Joe's that I had left from our BBQ on the weekend.
Then the munchies set in and I just *had* to have a clif bar - 5 points worth - normally I can eat 1/2 and be done but oh no I just had to eat it and could have eaten 3 more easily!

When I got home the eating continued - I made a mango and strawberry smoothie and shared it witht he B'day gal.
Then I needed something crunchy so a serving of my fav brown rice chips was in order then a second serving somehow landed up being consumed.

Dinner was a veggie burger for me on a bagel thin with pickles and BBQ sauce and a large serving of cauliflower.

I bought a Carvel ice cream cake so had a small sliver of that, about a 1/3 of a serving.
Then I needed some watermelon - cause it needs to be eaten before we head to the beach on Saturday :)

Tonight we are headed to the baseball game - yikes I better have a plan in place cause I am also going out for sushi lunch and the weekend isn't here yet not vacation!! But the vacation eating seems to have begun!!

16 years

2010-06-29T14:16:00.000-07:00

16 years ago my life changed.
I became mom to a wonderful princess :)

Happy Birthday Tarryn.

Saterday we had a swim and BBQ party. I made pretty good choices even had a veggie burger and stayed away from the gerridelli chocolate cake and stuck with the watermelon.
Having WI on Sunday morning sure helped :)
I stayed the same - yikes what is up with this paying to go to meetings? I was hovering around the same few pounds while doing WW on my own!

I have pretty much been sticking to my points, eating lots and lots of summer fruits which may be why I'm not losing weight - do you think it's possible to over eat on fruit?

Life has been pretty much the same daily grind - nothing exciting but we head to the beach this weekend - whoo hoo I live from one vacation to the next :)

Finally Friday

2010-06-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

The eating has been a bit more of a challenge this week, I have used all my daily points each day and a couple of my weekly points which is fine as that's what they are there for :)

I don't think I am going to be seeing a loss at my meeting on Sunday as the scale has been in all directions this week but mostly -> up, then a little down, then up some more and so on and so forth.

Yesterday I didn't walk at work during lunch as I had a meeting - yes lunch was served, I had forgotten and not planned for it so I had 1/2 sandwich but didn't eat the bread just the beef and sprouts with a couple of tomatoes and some corn and black bean salad - I stayed away from the pasta salad and cookies and brownies and had water to drink - pretty good choices :)
I came home and walked and even ran on the treadmill, I only did 20 minutes but felt so good afterwards and even actually enjoyed the little running I did - I haven't run for months and never thought I would say I enjoyed it - LOL.

Last night my WW location had a Weight watchers success stories live event, they had 5 people that attend local meetings with the leaders from that location - it was pretty interesting hearing there ah ha moments, challenges and about their journeys.

This weekend is going to be a tough one, 'missy' is having a swim BBQ party on Saturday, I am going to have mostly healthy options, hummus, carrots, baby roasted potatoes to go with the burgers and serve watermelon along with a small birthday cake. Hope I can refrain from the cake the night before my WI...

Continuing the crazy eating

2010-06-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Gosh it has been a tough week so far and it's only Wednesday - I have wanted to eat everything that is not screwed down.
I have used 7 of my weekly points already, normally that about what I use the whole week :)
It's been a constant searching for something to eat but I'm trying to make it healthy stuff that I'm stuffing in my piehole with an occasional ww choc thrown in for good measure.

Is it the weather, stress or just boredom...

Crazy hectic

2010-06-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

We had a huge storn last Tuesday and out internet was hit, we got a new modem and everything connected but it has been spotty since then with hardly any connection - I think the wireless routed got fried so need time to sort that out.

With no internet at home you would think lots of other things would be getting done in the house - nope not in our house!!

We bought a new TV last week so I have been shopping for a stand, I have only seen one I could live with and it was sold and we were unable to order one like that. Grrr why does everything have to be so difficult - I refuse to just buy one for the sake of it so will carry on looking :)

With no internet at home I didn't get to track online on the weekend, did track though which was good cause it is so easy to just let it go after so long - amazing how quick good habits can turn.

I went to WI yesterday - up 1lb. those darn visitors Tom and Flo.

I made a couple of newbies for us this weekend - I finally bought Quinoa, yes I was humming and hawing about it and was a bit nervous but finally decided on Saturday to take the plunge.
Decided to make a large batch - 2 cups so we would have it for the week, put it on the boil, turned it down to simmer with the lid on and promtly left to go to the store and pick up DD.
About an hour later I called Aubrey when I finally remembered it was cooking - it was just starting to scortch - he added a bit of water and turned it off.
It was cought just in time and actually had a nutty flavour :)

Little A loved it, even asked for seconds :)

Yesterday I made Kale chips - I washed the kale and dried it after taking it off the stem. Lightly coated with olive oil in a zip lock then baked it with salt on - I ground sea salt and it was a little over salted so will try less salt later this week.
The kids didn't try this and Aubrey thought it was okay :)

I have been slack on the picture taking but haven't had many new food finds just lots and lots and lots of fruit.
Yikes those lychee's were so good yesterday :)

Eating Fest

2010-06-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday turned into an eating fest, I ate what I packed for breakfast and lunch, healthy good nutritious food but by mid afternoon I was looking for a snack even after eating what I brought for snacking. I looked around my drawers at work, calculated the points on a couple of granola type bars but decided not to use the points, I then hummed and hawed about going to make a 1 point bag of popcorn but decided I didn't want to make the whole office smell the popcorn so refrained from that.

Anyhow I made it home without eating the dashboard - just!
Walked in the house and started, I sat down and had a Mango, so good and filling and healthy.
Then I decided to make some custard, 4 cups of it as the milk was getting close to it's expiry date, once it was done I packed 3 cups into individual containers for the fridge and promptly sat down and ate the remainder - stuffed as I was.
I then ate a serving of brown rice chips - love these and couple easily eat more but measuring out a serving helps me refrain from that.
By this time it was dinner time so I grilled some asparagus and had a small fillet steak Aubrey grilled and was ready to burst - gosh I was full and not used to eating so much in a couple of hours.

Aubrey then cut a watermelon so I had some of that before deciding 'kitchen closed' for the night.

I tracked my food and went over my daily by a couple of points, luckily I have nearly all my weekly points left :)

Even though I had an eating fest I think I made healthy choices cause I could so easily have eaten the slab of Cadbury's mint on my coffee table :)

Hope the Scale feels the same come Sunday :)

Weekend update

2010-06-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

It was a pretty busy weekend - although I did get some relaxing in :)

Friday we went for sushi for lunch, it was so good per usual and it had been a couple of weeks or more since I had sushi, I was stuffed and even when dinner time rolled around I was stuffed from lunch - hmmm, guess I ate too much :)

Saturday was off to have 'missy's' eyes tested and get he new glasses - a costly morning cause she has expensive taste. Lots of soccer talk with the game showing there so we watched a bit. We also watched some we had Tivo'd at home while playing on the laptop, tidying house and what not.
Soccer fever has hit the family in SA who are spreading the fever to us LOL.

We hit the pool for a while after Little A got home from camp which he enjoyed, except for the food which was gross so most of his $$ was spent on nacho's and hot dogs from the store with candy thrown in I'm sure.

Sunday was official WI so I headed off to my WW meeting - whoo hoo 3 more pounds gone and I hit my 5% so got my star for that :)
Steven only came to WI and lost .4 - I need to get on him about staying for the meetings :) He will be out of the country for 4 weeks - they leave Thursday so when he gets back I will have to get him back on track!!

Aubrey and I went to a new market, I knew they had lychee's so wanted some but didn't want to buy too much stuff with it being so hot I wanted to use up what I had.
No such luck :)

I got lychee's, blue berries, blackberries, tomatoes, watermelon, another box of mango's, cherries, turnips, clementines, asparagus, strawberries, Fuji apples, yellow nectarines, peaches, roasted seaweed, broccoli, garlic, bananas.

Of course then I had to come home and make space in the full fridge for it all - when am I going to stop buying way more than we need?

We then headed to the pool and Aubrey grilled dinner while I threw some sides together.

A busy good weekend :)

Use it or lose it!

2010-06-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Last night was kinda BAD!!

The day started out good, I had my favorite for breakfast, plain Chobani with Nutella, flax seed and my favorite granola :)

We walked for 30 minutes at lunch - whoo hoo my walking partner is back - no excuses now!

I then got a overachiever taco sans the cheese and sour cream for lunch and I only ate 3 chips.

I have so many veggies in the fridge I haven't used as I have found I have been eating tons of fruit but not been in the mood for cooking veggies. I decided it was use it or lose it so made a large veggie curry. It was so good, Aubrey had 2 large helpings but did roll his eyes when I said it was only veggies - I can just guess what he was thinking and didn't say LOL.

Little A is still at camp and 'missy' was out with friends, Aubrey headed to work and then the eating started - boredom eating! Not that I have any reason to be bored as I have tons to do in the house :)
First I made a mango smoothie before having an urge for something snacky so I had a serving of brown rice chips - yummo!
I had a craving for dulce de leche so opened a can of it that has been in the cupboard for years, I had some then while reading the can found a recipe for a DDL milkshake, so I made one, it had a banana in it so was semi healthy I told myself.
I could have gone on and on but decided when 'missy' got home to get ready for bed and figuratively close the kitchen!

Mad not bad!

2010-06-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday I was mad!

I was on program and points all week, I weigh myself every morning and the scale was moving in the right direction the way it's supposed to do.

Saturday night Aubrey wanted to go out for dinner, what is it with men and eating out? We dropped little A off at a party and had 5 hours to kill before picking him up at mid night so we went shopping to look at TV's and then headed to dinner.
Aubrey decided on Longhorn so we put it in the GPS to find the closest one and headed over to the Mall where it was located to find it closed down, we saw an Applebee's close by so headed there.

We shared an appetizer of boneless wings - yes I know not the smartest choice but Aubrey's choice cause nothing healthy or that I would choose would be good LOL. I had a couple of pieces of chicken.
For dinner I ordered a 7oz steak of which I ate about 5oz with steamed veggies and a plain baked potato. I had some A1 sauce and we skipped dessert luckily cause those little shot glass desserts are double loaded with calories.

Sunday I woke up and the scale was 2.5lbs up - darn darn darn.
I headed over to my WW meeting and was up 1lb on there scale - dang it, 2 weeks of staying the same and one gain - Not a great month of May :(

I did the WW 5k walk with the group before heading home.

Hopefully this week will be onwards and downwards and I have forwarned Aubrey there will be no Saturday dinners out!

Monday morning the scale looked so so so much better, even down from Saturdays WI.

Tasty 2

2010-06-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

Fruit in a bottle.

Have you tried these?

I threw it in the cart and so glad I did.

It was tasty, filling and different for a change from eating my fruit.

Quick easy filling soup

2010-06-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

I made this soup, I found the recipe on the web and changed it for what I had at home.

Easy black bean soup.

2 cans black beans rinsed
1 cup salsa
I can beef broth - I didn't have veggie broth
fresh cilantro
The recipe called for lime juice which I never had - since bought some limes so I can make this again.
Optional: Avocado, ff sour cream

I brought the first 3 ingredients to a boil, then added the cilantro and simmered for 15 minutes.
I then removed 1/2 of the bean mixture and blended the rest with my immersion blender.
added in the unblended mix and simmered to desired consistancy.

I served mine with sliced avocado and ff sour cream
Made 3 large servings.

Recent eats...

2010-06-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

I've taken pics of some recent eats

I had so much taco chicken left, I love it but the rest of the family not so much so I used it to make chicken pita pizza's. Taco chicken, red pepper, mushrooms, 2% cheese grilled and topped with salsa and ff sour cream - yummo!

Dinner salad, persian cucumber, tomatoes, red and yellow pepper, radish sprouts, beef filet with a drizzle of LF ranch - another yummo!

Breakfast for dinner, I picked up these chicken maple sausages from the farmers market and had it with a scramble of pepper mix and spring onion with a piece of tomato basil mozerella foccasia bread.

I really need to remember to have breakfast for dinner more often cause we never have it for breakfast with our crazy life!

Breakfast, lunch, dinner or anytime, this has become one of my favorites - so filling and healthy.

Black berries and blueberries with Chobani yogurt.

Love it when I am home alone for dinner cause I get to eat things like this for dinner :)

101 days of summer challenge

2010-06-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

I have joined the challenge - I really need to keep myself motivated as I have seen this last week how lazy I can become. My walking partner is in Europe for 2 weeks and I haven't walked since she has been gone - disgusting isn't it :(

So My challenge for the 101 days of summer is
a) track my points daily
b) Lose 15 pounds
c) Work out at least 5 times a week
d) Stay on plan while on vacation and not use it as an excuse!

I tracked my points yesterday - I am normally good at tracking points while I am home and crazy as it sounds I actually enjoy it, weird I am :)

I went for a 15 minute short walk last night, it was already 9pm, the kids didn't want to walk and it was about to rain, as I got back home the heavens opened up - not a workout but better than nothing like the last week.

The week flew by...

2010-05-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy week and it has flown by, I cannot believe it is Sunday again and I haven't posted for a whole week and unfortunately haven't had much time to read blogs either :(.

This was the first week of summer vacation from school for the kids, 'Missy' started her first 'real' job as a councellor in training at the community center camp so this was orientation week for her and very tiring. I dropped her off on my way to work and picked her up on my way home for the most part, she enjoyed meeting the kids at the open house on Thursday and Tuesday is the first day of camp. Unfortunately for her the pay is laughable, less than I get an hour she will get for a whole week but it should be a fun experience for her.

Little A is at a friends lake house for the long weekend, having fun I hope and then he is off to scout camp. The house is pretty quiet without him here.

Work has been busy and my walking partner has been on vacation so I have had a really bad week on the excersize from and besides 10 minutes of biking haven't done anything else - I need to get my a$$ off the couch and away from the vacation research to get MOVING!!!

I went to WI today - darn another week that I stayed the same, even there scale is telling me to move, move and move some more!

Today's meeting was about how to be successful, different forms of tracking.
We discussed tracking points, activity, measuring foods, body measurements and a couple of others - I really need to take pen and paper so I can make notes as I was tired this morning after only about 5 hours of sleep but that is another story!

Next week we are doing a 5k walk between the 2 weight watchers meetings and I am going to do that, going to try get Steve to do it too, he didn't stay for the meeting today but did weigh and also stayed the same - I think it's their scale as it's the same one I was on last week and the first time Steve was on that one and seems to be the 'stay the same scale' LOL.
I'm switching next week ;)

This afternoon I went fruit shopping and got yummy fruit, cherries, lychees, mango's, blue berries, blackberries, apples, banana's, papaya and picked up some for Steve.

I have some pics of eats from during the week and some new things I tried so I will try post tomorrow.

Happy Memorial day weekend and take a moment to show your appreciation and thanks to the men and woman who have fought too keep this country free :)

WI update

2010-05-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning I headed over to my WW meeting, I was meeting my brother there, I got weighed and stinking stayed the same!! Probably a good thing after eating some of mom's yummy caramel birthday cake on Saturday and also having uncle Tom and Aunt Flo stopping by for a visit :)

Steve lost 4.6 and I am so proud of him, he was very good on Saturday, ate fruit and stayed away from the cake laden table.
It was a great plan for my Sister in law and I to bring a fruit platter and vegetable platter with dip for tea to balance out all the cakes and cookies.

The remainder of Sunday was more of an eating frenzy than I have had in a while, I went to a friend for a BBQ party, I got stuck into the starbursts and even had a small sliver of cake x2 cause it was so good.

Yesterday was a pretty good day, I did have 1/2 a piece of cake but no frosting for my boss's birthday (what is up with all the May b'days?) but besides that was pretty on plan and did count points for it so hopefully I will see a loss even if a small one.

I made spagetti and meatballs for dinner last night, meat ones for the family and some meatless ones for me, they were made with mushroom and tasted really good. I cooked them with Ragu and I had mine on a whole wheat 1 point hot dog bun.
It ended up a disorganized dinner as Little A had a scouts meeting so Aubrey took him and they were cooking out there - of well we have lots of leftovers and I have lunch for the week.

Sunny Saturday :)

2010-05-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

After a full day of rain yesterday the sun finally came out mid morning today - whoo hoo.

I met my friend Nikki for breakfast this morning at J. Christophers, I chose a Goddess Omelet.
Egg white omelet with spinach, tomato and feta cheese, it came with an english muffin and oven roasted potato cubes. I ate 1/2 the omelet, half the potatoes and 1/2 the muffin.

I then headed to my hair appointment to get my color done and my bangs trimmed, 2 hours of relaxing and reading.

I then headed home and ate an apple and finished my cherries from earlier on the way, when I got home I ate the leftover omelet and muffin along with a persian cucumber, put together a veggie tray and ff dip and made some garlic bagel chip savories before heading to Zena's birthday tea - yes I have a 50 year old sister - yikes!

Mom made a yummy caramel cake (I had a small thin sliver), I declined the homemade cheese cake but had a small serving of melktert (a South African milktart, similar to a custard pie). I then had a hearty healthy helping of pineapple and watermelon and snacked on veggies.

I came home full but not stuffed and pleased with the choices I made - lets see what dinner has in store for me cause WI is tomorrow :)

This weeks meeting

2010-05-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

Our Weight Watchers meeting this week was about Breakfast.

As a child I remember eating breakfast every morning, strawberry pops were my favorite and I remember in primary school one morning there were no strawberry pops so I refused to go to school, my mom didn't work so was a home but I remember her not allowing me in the house until school finished and I sat on our back step the whole morning :)
(I don't remember if I was punished by dad when he got home or not, gosh I was a brat!)

As a teen I remember not eating breakfast before school, we were always rushing as dad dropped us on his way (not exactly on his way) to the office so mom could sleep in or do her thing.

As I got older I believed I didn't 'like to eat so early' so most days would skip breakfast and then eat lunch, sometimes not have lunch at all, I guess it depended on the diet of the moment or my feelings at the time etc. For the longest time I believed that eating in the morning made me more hungry and apt to eat all day long.

Since I have started WW I have been eating breakfast, it varies depending on the mood and the planning I have done but mostly during the week I bring a Greek yogurt (my new daily addiction) to work and have that with about 1/4 cup granola. My decadent breakfast is a Greek yogurt with a tsp of Nutella and 1/4 cup of chocolate chunk hazelnut biscotti granola, I could eat this daily but limit it to once or twice a month for my thighs sake :)

The last couple of weeks with so much summer fruit in the house I have been making smoothies in the morning (time permitting) to drink on my drive, usually it is a banana, 1 other fruit, some almond milk and ice and Missy and I usually split it.

I then have my yogurt a little later as my morning snack around 10am.

On the weekends when I am not as organized/disorganised as during the week I tend to be a little laxidasicle in my time and choices but still tend to have a brekkie.
It took some strong willpower to get out of the Sunday social bagel store visit/habit we were in and now I'm replacing it with a WW meeting.

Missing in action but on track...

2010-05-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

About a month ago before my trip I was discussing with my brother about loosing weight and told him I would join WW with him as he needs to loose and has never dieted before so I'm sure didn't know where to start. Much to my surprise he agreed and said when I got back we would join.
I didcussed with my SIL about him doing the points so he could learn portion size and have someone to show him the way as coming from me or his wife won't make the same impact.

Last Monday I sent him a text saying we had a date and we joined WW, we stayed for the meeting and the getting started meeting even though I know the plan and besides my cruise have been following it and lost 28 points I am going to be a supportive sister.

We had a few good laughs during the week like when he went to Subway for a healthy lunch at 3pm cause he was starving and ordered a foot long tuna sandwich not realizing till later that it was 25 points and ended up eating fruit for dinner :) (this was before he read the info).

I had a good week, journalled, took my vitamins, drank my water and made smart choices as I was sticking to my promise to myself of getting back on plan the first day back from my trip and not months later like normal.

Sunday we went for our WI, I lost 7.2lbs and my brother lost 8.2lbs.

On to week 2 :)

I'm BACK!

2010-05-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

I'm back from vacation along with 5 pounds and back from the liberty to eat what I fancy :)

We had a wonderful week which feels like it was 3 weeks vacation - that's why I loooove to cruise, I get more relaxation time for my $$$.

I made smarter choices than normal, made sure to eat lots of fruits and veggies along with the afternoon ice cream cone and some other snacks.
Most days I ate a large salad for lunch, yes I had some toppings I don't normally have at home but I allowed myself knowing I was back on plan when I got back home.

This trip we didn't get soda cards as I didn't want to drink soda so Aubrey bought cans when he wanted and I had 2 cans during the trip, I did drink decaf coffee daily but mostly stuck to my water and was happy I took my wide topped Brita bottle as it was easy to fill with ice and water - it's going to become my cruising bottle.

Besides the food we only went to the gym once - those good intentions didn't pan out but we did the stairs all week and walked a lot in the 2 ports we got off at.

I wore my bathing suits and all I can say was I was so glad I have lost the weight I have, even though I have a ways to go I wasn't as self conscious as I would have been - whoo hooo.

Relaxing week

2010-05-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

We still have a couple more days before we head home and I have really been bad about getting on the internet - it's not what I planned to do onboard so wasn't a priority.
We have done a whole lot of relaxing and eating - I have been trying to make healthier choices and have succeeded mostly especially with the fruits and veggies - a whole lot of that being consumed and it's wonderful to have so much selection available.

I did hit the gym once and lasted about 3 minutes on the eliptical, I then walked for 20 minutes and did the bike for 15 minutes but have not been back to the gym again :(

I have been doing the stairs and going up all those flights has been a battle but besides getting to our cabin that first day I have not used the elevators - go me!!

Tomorrow is our last port day - Bermuda which is a new one for us so hopefully we have another glorious day - who knows maybe I will attempt that monster eliptical again before we head home.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

What's up...

2010-04-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well besides the scale that is...

I jumped on yesterday morning per my usual routine and it was up...2.5lbs up. I know I ate a little more than usual Monday but still mostly healthy things, I did have a small portion of cashews that I normally don't eat so carried on as usual or at least until some stinking Chick Fil A came a knocking at the office so I had a chicken biscuit - ate half and threw the rest out.

Later I decided the cinnamon rolls were calling me so I took one and when I did the one guy I work with said 'you know those are 9 points' nine frigging points for that so I ate one of the 6 mini's which make up the thing and even that wasn't worth the point and a half.

Breakfast came in at a 9 point total of unhealthiness. I missed my Greek yogurt that I brought but ate my packed lunch and walked.

Dinner was sushi with the kids, they love love love it and we used to go so often but haven't been for a while and decided to take them as we will be gone next week and I know mom and dad won't be doing the sushi thing.

Today the scale was as mad as yesterday, same number staring at me bit at least it wasn't adding digits :)

Today I tried Fage yogurt, I love love love Chobani so was hesitant to try it but I loved it, just as decadent tasting - how I am going to live without my greek treat I don't know?

I walked for an hour at lunch, it flew by and we didn't realize it was an hour, we normally do 30-45 minutes.

Lunch was turkey on a sandwich thin with a tomato, snack was a kellogs 90 calorie bar and an apple, when I got home I made a banana, papaya and juice smoothie.

I found this mango, carrot juice mixture on the weekend so decided to try it, not bad to add flavour to a smoothie.

Dinner was a huge beef stirfry, I ate mostly veggies from it over asparagus and then dessert was a slice of peppermint cheesecake - yikes what will the scale show tomorrow?

Counting the sleeps

2010-04-26T08:52:00.001-07:00

So it's been a couple of days, they were pretty good ones.

Friday I went to my parents for dinner with the kids, Aubrey was working. Mom made a typical South African dish of pickled fish, she used Cod and fried it first and it was so so good and very tasty. Little A took one look and said he was not eating yellow fish LOL. 'Missy' tasted it and enjoyed it. I had it with a large serving of salad and a small spoon of potato pudding.

Saturday I was rudely awoken by a huge bolt of thunder and lightening with a cuss word or two, it sounded like the world was coming to an end and rained, thundered and blew pretty much all day.

Eats were okay, pretty health stuff although probably too much and a half hearted attempt at journalling it.

I did some shopping at Kohl's, Old Navy, a couple of other stops and picked up some movies.

Serious Moonlight with Meg Ryan, 90% of this movie took place with her husband taped to the toilet - well we did laugh about the junk they can produce and we wasted our time.

Up in the air with George Clooney, pretty much another waste of time and I can't figure out what the awards were for - guess it wasn't my cup of tea.

Crimes of fashion - the gay guy in line told us it was good so we picked it up, it was the best of the 3, nothing great that was a 'must see' but been the previous bathroom movie big time.

Sunday I worked in the garden for about 1.5 hours with little A, Aubrey went to work on a job and 'Missy' was cathing up on beauty rest. I bought 35 2 gallon plants so got busy digging holes and planting, Aubrey came home about 2/3 of the way thru and helped out.

I did a bit of laundry, put some things aside for vacation packing, cleaned the guest room for dad to use while we are away.

Then mom and I hit the stores, fruit and vegatable shopping along with picking up some memory cards for our trip etc.

I cam e home and made dinner, salad, tuna pie, baked Mahi Mahi, steamed asparagus and green beans and helped 'Missy' make a choc peanut butter pie which was really yummy even without setting for the 4 hours as per the recipe - she needs cooking school big time. We did use 1/3 fat cream cheese, FF cool whip, 2% milk etc.

On the excersize front I had good intentions but that's all they were.

Journalling - not much, pretty half hearted but over all nothing terrible on the eating front.

Pretty good family weekend overall.

5 sleeps till we leave - whoo hoo!!

Watch the migraine.

2010-04-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

I grew up with a Mom and sister who suffered with chronic migraines, I remember them getting them and going to sleep for hours, throwing up and not being able to handle light or noise.

I luckily never experienced one until about 11 years ago,, I was at work and suddenly i could not see my computer screen and my whole right side of my body went numb, I thought I was having a Bell Palsy attack as I knew someone who had one or maybe I was having a stroke and I didn't realize that the numbness was a symptom of migrains, I was scared $hitless cause I had 2 young kids so went to the doctor who said it was migrains.

I have had hundreds since then but thank goodness never those symptoms of numbness etc.

About 2 years ago I was perusing my favorite cruising sight when I came across a post about a watch that helped with motion sickness and migraines. I was very suspect about it and til a couple of months later when I was working long hours on a contract and coming home every night with a migraine and going straight to bed, throwing up and all the wonderful joys of suffering with migraines.

I decided I had spent more money on worse things and got myself a watch, I have been wearing it for a little under 2 years, I still have migraines but not as often or bad as I did. I can go a month without one, until about 1 month ago when I started getting them more often.

Hmm, what was up... it took a couple of days for me to realize that after loosing close to 30lbs the strap on the watch was loose and moving about on my wrist. It was already on the last hole so I had another added and guess what - NO migraine since then. This watch uses natural frequency technology.

I know I know I sound like a freaky crazy person but I swear this watch has helped. Of course it could all be in my head but I haven't been tempted to not wear the watch to test it.

Major catchup...

2010-04-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't been here for a while, okay I have been reading just haven't posted but I have been journalling what I have been eating.

The last 2 days were crazy at work and it felt like Friday today instead of humpday but it sure made the days go fast.

Breakfast all week has been plain yogurt with some world market cappucino spread, flax seed and my favorite non healthy granola.

Lunch Monday was leftover persian from the weekend, it was actually better than at the restaurant and I added a slice of left over grilled pineapple.

For some reason this week I have made different dinner for myself than the family, I had a morningstar 'chic' pattie on a sandwich thin with some brie, pineapple and tomato.

Lunch Tuesday was a Trader Joe's noodle soup with none of the oil and half the spice pack cause I was so not in the mood to go get something equally unhealthy or worse downstairs.

Dinner was a persian cucumber, tomato wedges and grilled asparagus with some hummus. My mouth was sore from all the matzah brittle I ate!

Today's lunch was a slice of spinach cheese pie I had in the freezer with a fiber1 yogurt and a tomato. I had a string cheese and apple on the way home.

Dinner was roasted veggies and I made a pita pizza with some of the grilled onion and broccoli on.

Monday I walked an hour at lunch and did my walking/running in the evening, it was tough but I did it.

Tuesday I missed lunchtime walking but did the 60 minute challenge that Jen, prior fat girl had.

Today I walked at lunch for 40 minutes and was supposed to do my walk/run tonight but so not motivated so will wake up early tomorrow to do it.

I have been making banana and pineapple smoothies with almond milk for evening snacks and sharing with missy.

Tomorrow night is dinner with the girls and we are going to fire of brazil, haven't been there in a long long time and not telling Aubrey cause he will want to dress in my clothes and join us!

9 days before we leave and I have to start thinking of what to take so we only need to check one bag - yikes :) I am getting so excited :)

I have had sciatic pain on and off all week, I was so sore all night that I was exhausted when i got up this morning and was nearly in tears when I got out of the car at work this morning. It seems better now but I wonder if the running is causing the pain.

Yikes can I stop?

2010-04-17T20:16:00.001-07:00

Stop eating that is!! Today or at least this afternoon and evening I didn't stop!

This morning I got up grabbed a shower, a yogurt and apple cause I was late and headed out. I was planning to do my run/walking but over slept and knew I wouldn't do it later.

I went to the hairdresser - 4 hours later I walked out with the rat tail hair gone, the grey washed out and my first experience of having my eyebrows and upper lip 'threaded'.

Okay I must really be an old fart cause I had never even heard or seen this before so when they asked wax or thread I was like 'either'. When I saw the thread I was waiting for the needle to come out like they were going to sew my mouth shut - that's one way to get thinner!

After this punishment I am going to enjoy my hair all done up for a day before sweating it out!

Then I stopped at Aldi's, I have only been there once before about 4 years ago and did a bit of shopping there - not that I NEEDED anything but I walked out with 2 bags full. My cupboards, fridges (yes 2) and freezers (yes 3) are stuffed. I could barely find place for the stuff I bought - I seriously think I have a grocery shopping addiction!

I bought this and we had it for lunch, it says it serves 2 but we shared it 3 ways and I had sliced banana on mine - it was really tasty and I wouldn't have found space for it in the freezer LOL.

This was after I ate about 1/2 a bag (3 servings) of veggie chips and an apple.

Tarryn and I went to the library, I renewed my book cause I have been spending so much time blog reading I am doing very little other reading. I also bought some books to take on vacation with me so once I am done with them I can leave them in the ships library for the next lucky passenger.

Aubrey and I went for Persian for dinner, we started with persian bread and an appetizer of mixed herbs (cilantro, mint, parsley and some grass looking green), onion, walnuts, goats cheese, radish.
I ordered a lentil and beef stew with eggplant instead of potatoes, it was so so and Aubrey won out when I chose for him a yummy dish of some green flavoured rice with lima beans and a lamb shank.

Dessert was some hazelnut flavoured coffee with 4 Hershey bliss chocs.

Hopefully I can stop stuffing food in my piehole tomorrow.

I attacked the snacks...

2010-04-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

I was so stoked to see the number on the scale for the last couple of days is back to where it was last month, of course I would love it to be going down from there but better this than up.

yesterday I knew I was having lunch with friends and it would not be good so I has a Greek yogurt for breakfast and tried to stay away from snacking till lunch which was earlier than i normally do lunch. I went downstairs and decided instead for trying the new pizza place I would go to the chinese place, I chose beef and brocolli and a Thai chicken dish and my 2 sides were steamed broccoli and steamer broccoli, the guy laughed that I had so much broccoli but I wanted to stay away from the fried rice and noodles. I ate about 1/2 the meat and 3/4 of the broccoli.

About an hour later I felt like snacking so I ate some of the new quaker rice cakes, then I had some jelly beans X2 and my apple of the way home. I just wanted to snack all night!

Dinner was a bagel thin with some hummus and turkey and a Tomato, I still felt snacky so I had a flatout with hummus and cabbage, I then had some rice chips and a small bag of popcorn.

Oh well I tried to make healthier choices for my snacking besides that double dose of jelly beans, tried to include some veggies and fruits to snack on too.

Strawberried out

2010-04-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

I bitched to myself on the blog last night about my weight being up about 2lbs since my lowest last month so when I jumped on the scale this morning I was happy to see I was down and now just a smidgeon about that number. Maybe I should complain to myself more often... think this will work... I need some $$$ winning the lottery would help! Tomorrow i am stopping to buy a ticket.

I made a strawberry smoothie - that was the end of the strawberries and I'm kinda strawberried out :).

For breakfast I had a fiber one strawberry yogurt - hello sweet after eating greek yogurts, I added some flax and granola to it but a little later I had a craving for sweet so had some jelly beans - writing this just made me realize it may be the sugar in the yogurt that started that craving - my normal greek yogurt normally holds me for the morning even without a smoothie.

Lunch was a bagelthin with hummus and turkey and a plump red tomato, choc cheerios were the snack of the moment with an apple on the way home.

Little A asked for fried chicken for dinner so that was dinner for the family with this plate, cause i was not in a salad making mood.

I made a Morningstar chicken patty for me and had that on a bagelthin with lettuce, some black bean salsa, tomato, carrots and cucumber.

It was a good filling dinner for a warm night and pretty healthy to boot until little A, missy and i shared a little bag of coconut MM's.

April showers...

2010-04-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

We are supposed to have April showers, we are except they consist of yellow pollen, everything is yellow and we need some rain to wash it all away, so many are suffering from allergies including 'missy' and Aubrey.

I was hoping that April was going to be a great month fitness and healthiness wise but it seems like it is not to be, I have been hovering around 2 pounds more than my lowest weight in March and seem to be eating more - choosing healthy stuff just too much of it and I guess not journalling consistantly is part of the problem.

Saturday was my great hike up the falls along with my earlier walk/run and since then my calves have been so sore, I have been hobbling around like an 80 year old unfit lady. I did walk on Monday, Tuesday and today but took a break from mt running program until tonight.
I made myself do it tonight, it took a lot of covincing but I did it... hope I can walk tomorrow!!

I have been eating pretty healthy, packing lunches, making smoothies in the morning for my drive to work, having greek yogurts for breakfast, apples for my way home, snacking on healthy things with a couple of chocs in between.

I have made the family apple chompers, I bought 25 fuji last night and 1/2 are gone or close to that.
Little A ate 2 when I got home last night and then I made him eat the veggie stir fry I made with dinner - it took him an hour and a half but eventually he ate it LOL.

2 weeks till I leave for vacation and lots to do before then.

R.I.P dear friend

2010-04-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

I woke up today to the news that Thomas passed away in the early morning hours.
He is at peace now without any pain - R.I.P and I will always cherish our wonderful friendship and miss you lots and your smiling face will not be forgotten.

Life can be crap...

2010-04-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a tough one and showed me how crappy life can be while we also need to make the most of it as it can be short.

I went to visit my friend Thomas, I haven't seen him for about a month, he has cancer but I wasn't prepared for the decline in his health in a month. Last time I saw him he was walking and we chatted for about 40 minutes and you could see he had been sick but not drastic.
Yesterday he looked like a skelaton lying in the bed, he is not talking and has just shrunk away, he didn't even recognize me at first. It was really traumatic seeing my ping pong champ smiling friend like this. They are giving him about a week, he is home with his wife and what a tough thing to watch. Life is crap!! Short and crap!!

I did not have a good nights sleep so heading off to bed.

Days recap

2010-04-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

It seems I took off a couple of days from here.

Thursday I did my walking/running program from the ww magazine, I did an hour total and felt hot, sweaty but great afterwards.

Eating has mostly been on plan, haven't journalled as well as I should be but life seemed to get in the way.

Friday was dinner at my mom and my niece(6) and nephew(3) slept over at me. I have forgotten what it's like to have little ones.

Saturday I got up and did my last day of week one of the walking/running program, I did a total of 2 miles on the treadmill, make a picnic lunch and we headed out for a 1.5 hour drive to Amacalola falls.

We walked up the trail to the falls, it was rough but not as bad as my Stone Mountain hike but I should be a bit fitter by now. It was really pretty, can't believe it took us so long to go there.

We walked down the over 600 stairs and we (hubby, missy and I) had noodle legs. If I knew I was going to do all that I wouldn't have walked/run in the morning.

We picniked at the bottom then walked to the play ground where the kids played with energy you would not believe that had just walked that mountain.

We dropped the little ones at home, Little A landed up sleeping there and we went for a quick mediterranean dinner before heading home.

Lots of fresh air, excersize and fun day.

Hmmm, Hummus

2010-04-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

I love me some hummus, I have eaten it most of my life in many many places so when I read a blog about the Publix deli hummus being the bloggers favorite I decided to give it a try, it was BOGO that week so I picked up a classic and roasted red pepper one. While at Kroger I picked up one of there private selction brand ones too.
They were good but nothing compared to my favorite brand...

Sabra, I love the roasted garlic hence the large tub and the roasted pine nut but I'm the only one who will eat the pine nut one so I get the small one. The Sabra brand is much creamier and smoother tasting to me.
Growing up when we would order hummus at the local Israeli hang out it would come spread on a plate with some tehina in the middle, a dollop of olive oil over it and some paprika sprinkled on top served with pita bread. Yum.
Sabra has a little oil on it and always brings back fond memories.

Spring/summer is here and hummus is a great addition to quick light meals.

I bought all these brands of hummus myself and was not paid or reimbursed for my views :)

Flying by

2010-04-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

This week is flying, it feels like it was just Sunday and it's already hump day tomorrow.

Yesterday was a great day on plan, I made a smoothie for myself before heading out for work, I had more time as the kids are on spring break. I totally forgot to eat my yogurt and when I looked it was 1pm so I did my 45 minute walk and then had the lunch and snack I brought.

Dinner was a flatout with hummus, 2 slices turkey bacon and coleslaw with a snack of those huge strawberries.

Then I was flatout on the couch with a migraine :)

Today was another strawberry and banana smoothie on the way to work, around 10am I had my yogurt with flax seed.

Lunch was a 45 minute walk with leftover spagetti and meatballs and a persian cucumber - so good and fresh and filling.

Then the munchies hit, I had a kashi bar, 1 clementine, an apple on my way home and 2 servings of brown rice chips when I got home - yikes!!

The kids are both sleeping out tonight so Aubrey and I went to meet some friends at a mediteraneam restaurant and I had a beef shwarma - so good but I'm nervous to even look at the points.

Aubrey headed off to work and I headed to my dreadmill, it's been a while since I spent time on the dreadmill.

I got the new ww magazine last week and there is a walking program in it so I decided to incorporate that into my hour walk while watching biggest loser.

NSV - I have had at least 2 people a day for the last 3-4 days acknowledge my weight loss. I actually 'felt' thin yesterday even though the scale is a bit up from last week and I still have a couple of pounds before I get halfway to what I want to lose.

I am going to make this a good April!!!

Lazy Sunday

2010-04-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

I got up this morning after a lazy morning reading in bed and made myself a strawberry and kiwi fruit smoothie before we headed out to drop little A at B-M lessons and headed to the bagel store - I only had coffee while we chatted to our friends.

After picking up little A we headed to buy fruits and veggies for the week as we had very little left so I am stocked up for the week :)

Lunch was 1/2 a tuna croquette with salad.

We then watched the blind side and I munched on a fuji apple, a clementine and an peppermint aero - one of my favorite chocolates from back home.

I made the kids ww spagetti with meat sauce, I bought some huge prawns for Aubrey and marinated them in Nando's peri peri sauce before cooking them in foil in the oven cause he didn't want to grill them. I had one and it was delish. I had some leftover shredded bbq chicken, with hummus and sliced cucumber and coleslaw on a flat out bread.

We then went for a 35 minute walk around the sub division and then I had a snack of these huge strawberries I got today.

I journalled and walked today - I have packed lunches for the week, yogurt and fruit and veggies for the week so no excuses!!
Back on track!

Bad week...

2010-04-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

This was a bad week pretty much all round (not a shape I want to be :).

Minimum journalling and excersize happened this week - not a good plan to stay on plan.

Passover started on Monday and it seemed to be the start of a disorganized week.

Tuesday I took the day off work - I'm so much more organized food wise when at work but I stuck with Chobani yogurt and some mango and strawberries for breakfast, I decided to make matzah brittle - not a good plan as I ate too much of it, after dinner I had a LARGE serving of lemon merangue ice cream.

Wednesday was the only day I walked at work - my normal 45 minutes, I did start my walk on Friday but had bad sciatic pain so decided to sit with some friends and socialize.

Oh well - the scale was up 2lbs this week, I am obviously not ready to give up journalling, walking or cooking healthy of which there was not much of this week.
I still mostly make healthy choices - ate fruits and salads, a couple of days I had a handful of starburst jellybeans at work - too much sugar but not too horendous like in days past where I would consume 'stuff' cause I was having a 'bad' food day!!

Back on track for me...

Trip stressing already

2010-03-30T05:23:00.000-07:00

I have been really slack on the blogging and excersize front since Friday.

This past weekend I just relaxed, did some hanging on the couch and planning of a trip.

Before I even booked the trip I woke up Sunday morning stressing about this journey with a cruise - it has always been my downfall and here I am heading in that direction.

In 2007 I made a new years resolution to 'get thin', it was probably the same resolution I have made for years but I decided to follow ww and journal as I knew that worked for me if I did it, I stuck to it till September 19th and lost 35 pounds before heading off to Seattle to meet our friends from Oz and boarding our new home for the next month.

I had all these plans to eat healthy, excersize but enjoy my once (hopefully not) in a lifetime cruise to Oz. I did make healthier food choices along with some 'just because I'm on vacation ones' and we walked and were active and it wouldn't have been bad if I had come home and gotten back on track, but by that time I had lost my mojo, then it was halloween, then thanksgiving, then hannukah/christmas, the new year and finding a job in a tough market.

2008 was a tough year with lots of 15-18 hour days and picking up dinner on the way home - usually the kids choice.

Diet and healthyness were far from my mind while the pounds crept back on.

Since september 2009 (yes it took me 2 years) I am back on plan and journalling and on my way to a healthier fitter life I am nervous to cruise - I did book and pay for it in full so no backing out, now I need to decide on a plan of action so it doesn't derail me for 2 years.

I need to remember it is a week of my life and a vacation, not a free pass to eat anything and everything for months. I love to travel and love to cruise so it is not something I want to give up but trips always seem to hamper my journey - how do I make it part of my journey?

Some eats I made over the weekend...

Chicken Korean stirfry, this was so good - it took little A 1.5 hours to eat a small portion, he eventually resorted to dipping each veggie into alfredo sauce, he did love the chicken though LOL.

Smoothies, we made a couple of different fruit smoothies, this one was frozen mango, kiwi fruit, strawberries, almond milk, banana.

Crock pot bean and veggie soup, lentils (3 kinds, barley, yellow pea, green pea, aduki beans, carrots, green pepper, green onion, onion, chicken broth.

Bean salad, chopped cucumber, tomato, red onion, black beans and chick peas with some balsamic vinagarette dressing - yum

Obsession...

2010-03-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

I needed a laugh today and this gave it to me LOL

Mums in group therapy...

A psychiatrist was conducting a group therapy session with four young mothers and their small children.

'You all have obsessions', he observed.

To the first mother, Mary, he said, 'You are obsessed with eating. You've even named your daughter Candy.'

He turned to the second Mum, Ann: 'Your obsession is with money. Again, it manifests itself in your child's name, Penny.'

He turned to the third Mum, Kathy: 'Your obsession is alcohol. This too shows itself in your child's name, Brandy.'

At this point, the fourth mother, Joyce, quietly got up, took her little boy by the hand and wispered, 'Come on Dick, this guy has no idea what he's talking about. Lets pick Willy up from school and go home.'

How many calories can you eat at a meal?

2010-03-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty good week so far and I was pretty busy with somethings which took lots of phone calls, emails and follow up's so I have been on the laptop just not much blogging being done.

I had some NSV this week, yesterday my workmate couldn't walk at lunch and I decided I was not going to let that stop me so I put on my walking shoes and did 45 minutes - it was gorgeous out and I felt great after a good walk and quality thinking time.

Yesterday in the restroom our senior VP told me I am looking great and she can see how much weight I have lost - it felt so good.

Last night I went to dinner with friends and they too said they could see how much I have lost and I'm looking good.

One of my size 10 pants I can take on and off without unzipping the zipper - whoo hoo. But then I tried on some The Limited pants and the 12's are tight - hmmmm, that sure sucks, pant sizing sucks!!!

So last night I met some friends for dinner - Cheesecake factory of all places.

The day after we chose the place last month I received the HG news letter about how many points everything was - ha did that stop me... not a chance!!

I ate very light for both breakfast and lunch as I knew what was instore...

I decided it was one meal and back on track and I was going to enjoy it...

I had 2 small slices of their brown bread... it was yum but not sure why I ate it - I can normally avoid the bread...

Stuck to water while cocktails were ordered all around...

And then started the caramel binge...

I ordered the Caramel chicken for my main meal - it was so good and tough to not eat the whole thing but I managed to stop at 1/2 and brought the rest home.

Then came reading the whole list of cheesecake, normally I let Aubrey order what he wants (choc, choc, choc) and I have a bite or two, NOT last night, I was getting what I wanted - Dulce d'leche cheesecake - we might as well keep the theme going.

I ate half of it and a little more at home while responding to some emails.

How much caramel can a person eat in a meal...3000 calories worth :(

I just looked up the points for the 2 items I ordered
Caramel chicken 1779 calories
Dulce de leche cheesecake 1079 calories

So not cool but so so good.

Today started with a clean slate...

6, 27, 100 Important numbers for today.

2010-03-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

Today is 6 months since I started this journey, I am down 27 pounds with another 33 to go and this is also my 100th post on my blog.

Today is rainy and miserable - guess I spoke to soon about the last 2 days and how wonderful they were LOL.

We all slept pretty late today and even then I was up first and tending to calls I had to make - why I make all this extra 'work' for myself sometimes is beyond me!!

I did get some tidying done in my room - after reading Diane's post but still have a loooooong way to go to get myself, hubby and the kids inline.

Breakfast was a Oikos blueberry yogurt with sliced banana - I will stick with my Chobani yogurt as I enjoy those so much more.

Yesterday I bought some Vanilla Almond milk - I have been wanting to try this but for some unknown reason have been nervous too, maybe later I will have a snack of some cereal and try it.

Lunch was a spinach flatout with some roast pepper hummus, some warmed up leftover BBQ chicken breast with slices of tomato, cucumber and lettuce - it was really good and very filling and I may have the same for dinner.

The other thing I tried yesterday - a non edible item was the crock pot liners - what a great invention - or at least Aubrey thinks so as he is the one having to wash the crockpot after it's use. These fit both the round and oval crockpots which is great as I have one of each.

Lunch was good I had the same for dinner - Little A asked for the BBQ chicken on a ww bun and 1/2 way thru asked for a second one it was so good.

Then I made this, fresh strawberries, almond milk and ice - the verdict is not in yet, I will have to try it with cereal to get a real taste.

So it rained all day and I didn't go out, I was busy with laundry, reservations, facebook and blogging. I ran up and down my drive while I was out in the rain with the dogs - 8 times each time and road my bike for about 10 minutes (the bike tires me).

Hoping for a good week weather wise.

Sunny Saturday

2010-03-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

Today is a perfect spring day, blue sky with some white clouds floating by and in the mid 70's, what more could we ask for!

I got up and made myself a green smoothie - nothing scary in it though. Banana, kiwi fruit with a little virgin pina colado mix.

I had a couple of sips and decided it just wasn't making the grade so I changed it to a pink monster by adding some frozen strawberries and then shared it with 'missy' before we headed out.

We dropped little A at school and headed to super Target where we picked up some fruit, then we headed over to Kohl's and got a couple of things. We had a half hour before we needed to get little A so we did a quick run thru Kroger and got some things on the list that didn't need the freezer.

A quick stop at the library, past my parents who were out and then home for lunch.

I made myself a spinach flatout with some roast red pepper hummus, a little turkey, some turkey bacon with salad and a tsp of ceasar dressing. Filling and satisfying.

Went to Sports Authority to look at there boxing bags and gloves - go talked into getting a hanging bag and to wait till the basement is done - I could have done a lot of damage there if Aubrey was not with me LOL.

Made a trip back to finish my kroger shopping and then came home to organize dinner which has been in the crockpot all afternoon.

It was so good, I made BBQ chicken breasts and shredded them, I had mine over a huge bowl of mixed lettuce with some cucumber with some leftover butternut fries, the kids had it over pasta with some steamer carrots and broccoli and Aubrey had it with the veggies and cucumber.

I was hungry, it looked so good I forgot to take a picture but here is a pic of the leftover chicken.

TGIF!

2010-03-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

What a long long week - it just dragged by :)

Eating on Thursday was good - stayed on plan and even got a 45 minute walk in.

Today I forgot to have breakfast - yes can you believe it I was so busy at work that when I looked around it was 11am and I had lunch plans with a friend to go to the sushi buffet so I ate a tomato and skipped the yogurt, flax and granola.

I made up for it at lunch - I ate a loooooottt of sushi, it was so good and I left there stuffed, I was so full I didn't even have oranges which I normally end my meal there with.
I didn't feel so good afterwards, I am not used to eating that amount of food at one meal.

Little A was at a friend for dinner, Missy went to a school play and then for dinner and I need to pick her up in a bit. Aubrey had some leftover roast before heading off to work so I had a couple of crackers with some of my brie cheese topped with almonds and fig preserve.

Tomorrow is back to schlepping, little A has a flying lesson, lots of chores and errands to run too - yuck I hope I get some time to walk, cycle and relax :)

Mid week blahs

2010-03-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

Work has been hectic this week, for 2 days I have worked thru lunch so no walking. Hopefully tomorrow and friday will be better.

Yesterday's eats were pretty good and OP, I didn't have leftovers for lunch so made myself a turkey sandwich on a bagelthin. Dinner was a bit of a disaster, I bought BBQ chicken and put it into the oven to heat and forgot about it (darn bejeweled game) so it was a little black, I had some of the breast wrapped in a spinach flatout with some salad and caesar dressing.

I snacked on not 2 but 3 ww chocolates and iced coffee along with some star fruits and probably some things I have forgotten.

Today was not a good day on the eating front, I was chowing down on my Chobani with flax and granola when I got interupted for a meeting - before I knew it I was eating mini chick fil-A, I had 3 and the chicken from a 4th - yikes 7ww points without my yogurt. One meal and move on was my plan.
Lunch at my desk at around 3pm was my turkey bagelthin and I snacked on my tomato and an apple on my way to the store.
I bought one of my brie cheese with toppings - that cheese bar will be my downfall, I skip the sushi bar, the salad bar, the soup bar, the deli, the olive bar but the cheeses with the different toppings has my mouth hanging open!
I snacked on about 1oz cheese with some toppings with whole wheat pita chips while going through mail.
I told the kids we were having breakfast for dinner tonight and they were looking forward to it as we do it about once a year. Little A had 2 fried eggs, turkey bacon and 2 slices toast. Missy had an omellete with cheese and turkey bacon on toast. I had a scrambled egg with 2 slices TB and some red bell peppers all wrapped in a spinach flat out wrap - yum and filling.
I made Aubrey dinner when he got up - he is working horid hours this week and working thru the weekend - not fun!

Missed not walking today but cold and lazy to do anything tonight - I think this time change is playing havoc with me this week.