I am Alive!

This will be shocking, but I am alive.  Work has been very intense.  I've had to be online/available 24x7 for almost 2 weeks now.  I haven't had time to go to the grocery store, swim or do much of any thing.  It's been pretty horrible.  The first week I was driving to San Jose every day.  This last week, I ended up spending most of the week at home because I had a fever, sore throat, and cold.  Not good.

After all of that, they ended up delaying the release for three weeks.  So we got to take the weekend off.  It was wonderful to have a few nights with 8 hours of sleep! 

Needless to say, this hasn't been a good time in terms of eating or exercising.  I'm lucky if the dogs are getting two short walks in if I'm at home or one medium walk if I head to the office.  Since I have no food in the house, I've had delivery - chinese or pizza.  Not the best for a diet.  What makes it worse is when I'm in the office, there are bagels every morning, they bring in lunch (actually a few of them).  On they way there & home I end up on calls and I have to do a call shortly when I get home so there isn't even time to stop then......

Hopefully, this delay won't be too bad.  We have another release in January, so I'm hoping they don't want us to work over the holiday shut down.

Anyway, I feel like I'm whining.  I hope everyone is doing well.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will be better this week so I can take care of myself!

xxoo

Deb

Work, Work, Work

It wasn't all work today, but it was too much of it.  The sad part of it is that I should have done more.  This release is going to kill us all!  I don't think it will ever be done.  I was very grateful for the extra hour of sleep this morning.

If you are in the Bay Area and want to start cycling, I highly recommend the clinics by Savvy Bike.  I took the 101 - Basic skills clinic Saturday and it was wonderful!  I still can't ride without hands, but I am a lot more comfortable on my bike.  I've even signed up for the hills clinic in February. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned in my last post, but I decided to sign up for a Cinderella Classic bike ride in Pleasanton.  It's 65 miles with some hills.  Hills scare the crap out of me!  I know if I train I can do the distance, but the hills.....  I was looking a bike groups and Velo Girls has a group that will be training for the ride starting in January so I went ahead and signed up.  The first ride is 15 miles and the second is 20 so I'd better get riding!

Swimming wise, I'm very glad that I can swim three nights this week.  It was really hard for me to only swim one night last week.  My mental health needs more than one night!  I found an open water swim on January 4th from Alcatraz, but I'm not sure if my surgeon will clear me for the swim.  I'm having my dog ears taken off on December 20th and I can't swim for 2 weeks.  The swim is 15 days, so that might be a bit too close.

Somewhere in here I'm going to start the couch to 5k.  I haven't figured that out yet.  I updated the app today so I'm ready to go.  I have 10k on Sunday that I'm totally not trained for.  I'm just going to join and enjoy the walk.  If I can run a little in there I will, but if not, that's ok too.

I'm still looking for a tri next year.  I just can't find anything until September/October.  I didn't really want to wait that long, but I guess I can if I have to.

Do you have any goals for next year?

Food wise, the weekend hasn't been great.  After the clinic yesterday, I stopped at the Lobster Shack and had a lobster roll - they are sooooo good!  And I had a tri tip sandwich at the Warriors game.  Trena did help - an It's It sounded really good, but I didn't REALLY want it so she talked me out of it.  Tonight, I ordered a pizza.  After finishing the slides, I just didn't want to be in the kitchen. 

Hopefully I can plan meals for the rest of the week tomorrow.

Hope you had a great weekend!

xxoo

Deb

Happy Halloween!!

I can't believe that it's Halloween already!  That means it's already November....  Sadly, my only tricker treater was the UPS man. 

I know I've said it too many times before, but it still surprises me that work is getting crazier and more intense.  At some pont someone needs to make a decision and we either need to stop testing or restrict what we do when we go live.  We just need someone higher up than I am and with enough balls to say it!

It also helps that I set some goals for next year.  Swimming wise, mom wants to have a family vacation in Hawaii so we will be in Kona in February.  I want to do the swim leg of the Kona Ironman.  I also want to do a swim from Alzatraz.

Swimming is my main stress relief, but I need something that I can do on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays or Sundays.  Since I want to do more tris, I really need to work on the bike.  The bike is my worst leg.  I'm just not comfortable on the bike.  Some of it is my size.  I think that makes me really slow, which makes me uncomfortable.  The smaller girls should make things easier.  So I'm going to take a class on Saturday morning to brush up on my skills.  There is an afternoon class on hills, but I think that may be a bit too much for one day

Then in January there is a kick off for a Cinderella ride in Pleasanton in April.  It's 65 miles will about a 1,465 feet rise through the course so it shouldn't be too bad.   I was hoping to do the same tri I did last year in June, but it looks like it won't be held until October.  I've spent the last 45 minutes searching for alternative races so now it's time to finish this up & head to bed!

Walking/Running wise, I'd like to start doing some more run/walking for an extended period of time.  I'm hoping that my book club group will do the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Las Vegas next year.  That will get me training in all three of my sports!

So much for getting to bed early this tonight!  I have early calls in the morning so I'm hoping I walk up in time.  I need to hop in the shower by 6:30 (which  is REALLY early for me) so I can be outside of WW for the 7:30 call.  There is a meeting at 8.  I'm hoping I can be in and out for my 8:30 call; home for my 9 am call and then the rest of the morning is full of calls. 

Tomorrow night we are getting foot massages and dinner with the book club girls should be really fun.  I have to be really good and get home early so I can make it to Redwood City by 8 am for the bike class Saturday!  Let's hope I can get a nap in before the Warriors game Saturday night!

I'll let you know how I do tomorrow at WW.

Have a great Friday!

xxoo

Deb

A Great Swim

Oh my goodness.  I had such a great swim tonight. I wasn't going to write about it until tomorrow since it was getting late and I would really like to start getting to bed earlier.

So much for that. I laid in bed forever & finally got up to fold laundry at 3. It's now almost 4. I'm not sure if I should even try to sleep at this point. Of course my first call is is 8.....

Anyway, back to the swim.  It was a 1,000 yd warm up & then a mile broken up into different sub-sets. I figured I would start to see how far I got.  I was really disappointed when I looked at the clock & realized that I had 5 minutes to do 850 yards. The coach said to see how far I could get so I kept going. By the time I hit the last 450 there was no way I was stopping!  He was very nice and stayed about 20 late so that another lady and I could finish up. The last 50 yards was timed at I was at 48 seconds. A lot longer than hen I was a kid, but not bad after swimming almost 1 3/4 miles. That's the farthest I've gone in well over 30 years!!!

Since its late I'm going to fess up. I LOVE the Monday night coach. He always has time for everyone. He's also quite the cutie patootie (QP).  I finally found enough information to google him. I'm really not a stalker, I just act like one one occasion. He looks like he's 12. I don't know about you, but as I get older everyone I think is my age is really much younger. I guess I'm not ready to be old. Anyway, at least he's in his upper 20s. I was really surprised to learn he's a pro athlete. He has won several tris and Ironmans. That makes him all the nicer!

Anyway, all stop rambling now. It was such a great workout. I felt really strong and powerful when it was over with. Maybe that's why I can't sleep!!

I have decided I'm going to train for another half marathon in December 2014.  I would really like to do a run/walk rather than just a walk. I also want to do the Mermaid tri in the spring. I have to figure out the rest of my fitness goals for next year now!!

Happy Tuesday!!!

Xoxoxo

Deb

Back on Track

I almost wrote this last night.  It was such a relaxing evening and then I realized it was SATURDAY!!!  I still had one more day without work!  So I just stayed off of the computer.  It was wonderful!

Anyway, as I mentioned the other night, I recommitted to WW.  I overslept, but I did go weigh in.  Shockingly I actually lost 1.8 pounds in the last 2 weeks!  I'm down to 257.2 pounds.  That's a total loss of  12.8.  It's been very, very slow!  Right now it feels good to be back on track.  Let's hope I can keep it up the rest of this week. 

On thing I'm learning is that I just need to keep taking things one day, one hour, one meal, even one bite at a time!

Hope you had a great weekend!

xxoo

Deb

A Very Late Post

Today was a pretty good day. I feel like I've been off; missing the spring in my step lately. It felt like things started to fall back into place today.

As I was swimming tonight I really wanted to post something. Of course I got home, ate dinner, and started to watch some TV.  I honestly think I can't get to sleep because I need to write!!

I don't know if this attitude shift is because:

• We started getting some testing done for this project that is about 2 months behind.
• This is the first weekend in 6 weeks I haven't had to be on call and/or work (knock on wood!!).
• My shrink is back after having been gone for 7 weeks to have her knees replaced. 
• I was able to get more walking mileage in with the dogs for the firśt time in a few weeks

Whatever it is I'm taking it!!  I feel ready to commit to WW tomorrow morning. I really want to get the new magazine.   One of the bloggers I really like - CurveyFitGirl - is featured as a success story. I think it helps that tomorrow is the first day in many, many weeks that I don't have something planned with someone else.  I'm taking advantage of it and getting a massage, but otherwise it just me & the muffins all day!!!

I think I really did need to write, I'm starting to fade. Maybe because hen pecking on the iPad is much slower than typing on the laptop!  

I'll let you know how I do tomorrow. I may be up, but that's ok. It's a new day & a good time or a fresh start!!

Xoxoxo

Deb

Tuesday, Tuesday

Sometimes the day just gets away from you.  That's been what's happened the last few days.  Sunday I went down to San Jose to a flea market and for dinner.  We had a VERY healthy dinner of meatloaf made with a ton of veggies, green beans, asparagus, a huge salad with a lot more veggies, and a third of a sweet potato!  It was a ton of food and it was so good!  I don't know what I liked better.  The best part was that she gave me a meatloaf to take home!

Yesterday was crazy.  I think the next few weeks with this project at work will make my life insane.  I snuck out with the dogs and tripped on a hole in the sidewalk.  At least it was my good ankle so it was just twisted and not strained, but I did really bang my knee and when I landed the poop bags popped.  This of course scared Cherry who started to run, the collar caught her and she fell and was bleeding from her ankle.  I just sat there for a minute looking like an idiot gathering my thoughts.  Of course I was supposed to do some volunteer with the Warriors in 30 minutes.  I was able to get home, patch up Cherry, change clothes, take some Advil, just in case and was ready to go.  My friend and I were assigned to blackberry clean-up duty.  It was over 2 hours of hard labor.  By the end I could barely lift the loppers and squeeze them.  But we cleared a huge area of about 8' tall by 4' deep.  I even pulled out a huge hunk of a pine tree.  I was so tired from this that I didn't go swim; my knee was also swollen and purple by this point so that did factor into the decision.

Today was another day on the crazy train.  I spent the morning on the phone.  I forgot to pull some english muffins out of the freezer so I thawed a chocolate croissant for breakfast.  Not really WW friendly.  I've really had a hard time staying on plan.  A REALLY hard time.  I was surprised that I felt rested when I woke up this morning since I didn't swim.  I was exhausted by 3 so I took a nap, which is why I'm still up, but I'm fading fast.

Ok, tomorrow is Wednesday, if I'm going to be stiff from the fall and/or the blackberries, it will be at it's worst tomorrow.  Swimming will help.  That is my number one goal for tomorrow.  The number two goal is that I will eat a frozen omelet for breakfast, leftover chicken pasta for lunch, and meatloaf for dinner.  Goal number three - NO See's candy.  I will put them in the freezer on the way to bed.

Have a great hump day tomorrow!

xxoo

Deb

A VERY Long Week

I can't believe how long it's been since I've written.  It's been such a crazy week. I found out Monday at 3:47 that we had a meetings every day from 4-7pm.  That put swimming in jeopardy and makes for a very long day if you start at 7 am!

I'm very happy to say that I did swim Monday, Wednesday and Friday and that helped so much.  I was very grateful that I had the release from the stress of work. 

I wasn't so good about eating or logging my food.  I know it sounds like an excuse, but when you only have a few 10-15 minute breaks in your day, it makes it hard to plan/make meals.

As I write this I'm watching the very last "What Not to Wear" show.  They weren't supposed to end the show without helping me!!!

There were a few things that I did this week that surprised me.  Both were on Wednesday.  First, walking on Wednesday, I noticed that a lady down the street was getting rid of a bunch of furniture.  One of the pieces was an antique buffet.  It was beautiful!  I actually went back and took it off of the street!

The other thing I did was Botox!  When I went for my 4 month post-op I met with aesthetic practitioner to see if there were things I could do to help preserve my skin.  One of the things she recommended was Botox for my huge worry line between my eyes.  Since I get a lot of migraines, especially recently, I asked if it would help with those.  She can't do the type for insurance, but many of her patients have headache relief.  So I went ahead and did it!  Something I never thought I would do!

One thing that I realized while swimming tonight was that I really don't have any active goals right now.  I read several other blogs they have inspired me to set some goals.  I will be looking at events over the weekend to find something for next year.

Do you guys have any goals that you are working towards?  Also, how do you pick yourself up and start over when you feel like you are stuck and not moving forward?  That's kind of where I am.

I have meetings from 7-7 most of next week so it will be hectic again.  Of course there are 20 million things this weekend so I don't have a lot of time to cook ahead for the week.  Hopefully I will figure something out!

Have a great weekend!

xxoo

Deb

Will the World Ever Stop?

I've decided that I'm not going to stress if I don't write every day.  As much as I want to, work is way to crazy right now.  The day is basically starting at 7 and ending at 7 with minimal breaks.  I barely got the dogs out for 15 minutes today.  I had to eat, drink & potty all while on the phone.  Thank goodness for mute buttons!

The sad part is that the calls are stressful so I'm not being good about logging.  Last night I was so grateful that I was able to take the dogs while on the call so I could go swim.  There was no way I was going to miss the swim last night.  I needed to turn off of my brain.  It took a long time to happen, longer than it ever has, but it finally happened.  I was so exhausted by the time I got home.

Tomorrow I go to my surgeon for her to look at my boobs to see how they are healing.  I'm also going to meet with the skin consultant as a treat to myself.  I'm hoping to find out what I can to keep my skin in good shape

Tomorrow I'm also going to track all of my food and I will swim tomorrow night.  I can do those two things.

I hope you have a good day!

xxoo

Deb

Sunday, Sunday

Today was such a nice day.  I was supposed to head to San Jose to visit a friend, walk a flea market and have dinner.  I was looking forward to it, but I've been really tired for the last week or so.  I was grateful to have been cancelled on.

I slept in and woke up without an alarm.  When I did wake up, I read and lounged in bed.  It was wonderful.  After that I slowly got up and took the kids out.  I read the paper,  made some lunch and caught up on things on the DVR.  It was a great day.

Food wise, I didn't have the best eating day, but again, I was so tired.  I hope this figures itself out.  Last night I completed my goal and didn't have popcorn at the movie.  I was very glad I didn't, I was so full from dinner that I would have been miserable throughout the show.

Speaking of the show, we saw Enough Said.  It was really good.  One of my biggest fear is dating again, how do you start this once you are over 40?  This should how it could be done, baggage and all.

Heading to bed early.  Hope you had a great weekend!

xxoo

Up 1.4 & Still Spacey!

Well today I was up 1.4 pounds at weigh it.  I wasn't too surprised with the week I've had.  Still disappointing, but sad.  It feels like I should be further along than I am.  Even though 1) I missed last week's meeting 2) I haven't been tracking 2) I haven't been planning..... let's see, why am I up this week???

On another note, I did the same thing I did on Wednesday night.  I got home from swimming and was a basket case.  I just sat down and vegged in front of the TV.  We did 2,950 yards last night and it felt really good.

Tonight we have a book club birthday.  My goal for tonight is to not get popcorn at the movie.  Last time we went to the movies after dinner, the popcorn made me feel really ill and I realized that I generally ate at the movies out of habit.  Not that I was hungry.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

xxoo

Deb

Space Cadet

I am such a space cadet!  I didn't even realize that I forgot to post something yesterday until just a few minutes ago.  I think I'm going to have to start posting in the late afternoon.  I'm just too tired at night before bed.

It felt so good to swim last night!  I really needed the exercise.  Even though it wasn't a strenuous workout, it was about 2,000 yards and it felt good to move.  I must have really spaced out afterwards.

Eating wise, it wasn't my best day.  I ended up swinging by Mickey D's not once, but twice!  First, I had to fast for a blood draw and I had an annual doctor's visit.  One thing that was really nice to see was that I had lost 25 pounds from last year's appointment!  That made my day!  I was so hungry afterwards that I just needed something before the drive home and the calls started.

After I got home it was constant calls.  I don't know why it's so tiring to sit on the phone.  It doesn't help that they now last until 6pm. 

I'm not sure if you guys have every heard of Dream Dinners.  You prepare a bunch of meals at once, freeze them and you are set for about a month.  The last few months have been meals that have had high Points Plus values so I haven't gone in a while.  This month they has some leaner options and I stocked up. 

Now that the freezer is stocked up I just need to plan my meals and I'm good to go.  They even had a bunch of veggies.

Tomorrow afternoon looks fairly free so I'm hoping I can get some work done and before I head to the pool.

I hope everyone has had a good day!

xxoo

Deb

Basketball

It might be a long basketball season!  I didn't plan well at all.  I didn't eat much during the day and so I was hungry before the game.  I ended up getting a hot dog because I knew they were 7 points.  The hot dog was good, but the bun was really bad - I'm not sure how you can get a bad bun at the first game!

I also got some kettle corn because I would get the munchies during the game.  It was very interesting to find that regular kettle corn didn't taste good anymore!  I'm so used to the 94% fat free single serving stuff that this was way too salty.

Unfortunately, I totally forgot to write when I got back from the game.  I sat down for the news and barely made it to bed.  I didn't even realize that I didn't post anything until this morning.

Today was a little better with the food.  I was able to make dinner tonight - some tacos.  The homemade taco seasoning is much better with a heaping tablespoon/pound of meat.  At least I have something to eat before I swim tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be interesting to see if I can stand my ground.  I found out at 2:30 this afternoon that I should be in a call from 4-9pm tomorrow.  I've decided that I can join the call until 6:15 or so.  That gives me time to walk the dogs and swim.

I'll make sure to write the rest of the week!

Happy hump day tomorrow!

xxoo

Deb

Sunday, Sunday.......

Well, I didn't make it to weigh in this morning.  I hit snooze a few too many times and woke up with barely enough time to shower, get the kids out, and make it to San Mateo.  A friend and I met at the women's expo.  It wasn't quite what I expected.  There was a bunch of crap there!  The Macy's beauty boutique was the best.

After we were at the expo, we headed to the Old Port Lobster Shack - it was wonderful!  I had a lobster role and even brought a lobster, crap and shrimp louie salad for dinner.  It was just as good as lunch.  I ordered the half salad and it was huge!  I was so full!

I did a lot of walking today, but not enough to make up for not swimming.  I'm really trying to ease up on myself and realize that I don't need to be perfect.  It's ok if I listen to my body and sleep when I'm tired.  I can plan my meals, and rethink things as things change.  For example, the salad was great, even though I didn't make tacos for dinner so I won't have leftovers for later in the week.

It's also ok that I missed weighing in.  I will just continue tracking and weighing in on Saturday with the normal plan.  I just need to breathe!

More tomorrow.

xxoo

Deb

Oops!

I was so tired last night that I could barely stay awake and I really over slept this morning.  It was 11:30 when I woke up!  I was shocked!  I got the kids out for a jaunt and headed out for "Beautiful," the Carol King musical.  It's wonderful!  I highly recommend it if you are in the bay area.  I actually would like to see it again.

The bad part of over sleeping this morning was that I missed all of the meetings.  Part of me was relieved because I was scared of what the scale would say.  You can't tell how shocked I was when I got on my scale and it said 258.8!  That's the lowest it's been!  Of course I was really disappointed that I missed the weigh in.

I did find a meeting tomorrow at 9:30 so I can go swimming and then hit the meeting.  This means that I have to get up when the alarm goes off!

Wish me luck!

xxoo

Deb

A Long Few Days

I have to keep this one short.  Last night I ended up going to dinner with a vendor. I had wine and whole wheat pasta with braised short ribs.  It was so good!  Even though it was an early night, 9:30, when I got back to my room (vs 10:30 the night before) I was so tired, I just headed to bed.  I didn't even turn on the TV.

I was tired this morning, but was excited to finish the conference and head home.  Unfortunately, I got a call from Animal Care & Control (ACC).  Dad had sat down with the garage door opener in his pocket and off they went.  They got really far today and I spend almost 2 hours calling dad, ACC, and the people who picked them up.  All I wanted to do was get home but I didn't want to get on the highway until I knew everyone was safe.

I was almost too tired to drive by the time everyone made it home.  The last 30 minutes of the drive was horrible.  I basically walked in and laid down on the sofa for a nap.  It felt so good to sleep.  Unfortunately, I didn't wake up in time to swim.  After all the food this week, I needed the exercise!  It doesn't help that I have the first Warriors pre-season game on Monday, so unless I can get my butt out of bed Sunday  morning, I'm not swimming until Wednesday.

That being said, I'm really scared to weigh in tomorrow.  I know I'm up several pounds and the stress of today isn't going to help.  But I do know that the best thing for me to do is head to the meeting and just keep going.  That's the only way I'm going to get back on track.

More tomorrow!

xxoo

Deb

Oh My!

Remember how I was wondering about eating at the conference?  I ended up being invited out with a large group - a mix of consultants and industry folks.  It was a GREAT dinner; not diet wise, but it was marvelous.  I just decided to just relax and enjoy the evening.  Maybe that was the wine talking, but it's been a long time since I've had a dinner that was $75/person!

I had a salad to start and salmon as the entree.  I really wanted the corn raviolis, but that was just too many carbs.  We shared a bread pudding for dessert.  The restaurant is famous for it and I can see why!  It's funny, it's only 11 and I'm pooped!  I don't think I'll get much work done this evening.

I'm off to bed and I write more later!

xxoo

Deb

A Short Post

Today is a bit odd.  Not a lot happened.  I didn't have a lot of calls today and I was able to get through a bunch of emails and look at some test results.

Now if I can just get motivated to pack for the conference!  I never can seem to get motivated to pack until after midnight the night before.  I'm looking to the conference and to speaking.  I am a bit worried about food.  They always have sooo much food and most of it is not very healthy.

I will probably keep things short the next few days while I'm at the conference.  I should be back Friday early evening, hopefully in time to swim. 

Have a great hump day!

xxoo

Deb

A Crazy Busy Day

Today was a day that kept me running.  I overslept, which didn't help things.  At least I made it to San Jose in time for the first call.  I hate taking calls when on the road.  I just can't do it anymore; I just can't concentrate and drive at the same time.

The lunch was good.  We went to On The Border.  I did have some of my favorites, but I made sure to share the queso! 

I ended up spending more time in San Jose than I expected so I was rushed to make it home for the sunset call.  By the time I made it home I had a few minutes before the call.  Of course the phone was ringing off of the wall.  By the time the sunset call was finished, I just wanted to have a nap!  Instead, I got the muffins out for their long walk.

I was still tired but I headed out for swimming.  I'm very glad I did.  I left it all in the pool this evening.  I didn't think I was stressed, but I must have been.  I exhausted myself and I finished the full workout!  That was a first.  It was 2,300 yards with lots of pulling and some strokes thrown in.

Even eating out for lunch, I don't think I did too bad today.  Here's to a good tomorrow!

xxoo

Deb

Lemondrops

This is going to be really short.  My friend and I went to see the Bulgari exhibit at the De Young.  I don't care so much for their 70s or 80s stuff, but boy, the early jewels were spectacular!

After that we went to Le Colonial, a french-Vietnamese restaurant downtown.   This wasn't a restaurant I probably would have chosen, but it was wonderful!  We had a break before dinner and stopped at the St. Francis downtown and had some lemon drops.  I very rarely have one drink, let alone two, so I was pretty liquored up.

Probably not the best way to start the week.  Especially since I have a team lunch at On The Border tomorrow and head to the conference in Monterey at the end of the week.  I definitely need to swim tomorrow and Friday night!

Anyway, I'm pooped so off to bed we go!

xxoo

Deb

2 Pounds!

I was totally surprised this morning at my weigh in.  I really didn't want to get out of bed, so I decided on the 10:30 meeting rather than the 9.  I took the muffins our for a quick walk before because I didn't know who much time I'd have to get ready for the Giants game afterwards.

I don't know if it was the swimming last night or the walk this morning, but I was down 2 pounds!  As I said - I was totally shocked!  That's 12.4 pounds.  Now I just have to stay on track while at my conference.  If I can lose 1.1 pound I'm at 5%!  That's incentive!

As I mentioned yesterday, I had been really considering NOT attending the meeting today, but I'm really glad I went.  I really like the Saturday leaders and I really enjoy the meetings.  They really keep me honest with myself and you guys.

Here's to surprises!

xxoo

Deb

Friday!

I am so glad it's Friday!  It's been such a long week.  I fell asleep this afternoon and missed my last call.  Oops!  Even though I was tired, I went ahead and went swimming.  It felt so good to move, even though I was tired.  I only got in 2,100 yards, it was a good swim.

It's funny, about mid-week, I just seemed to let the stress go and decided to trust the plan and I've felt lighter ever sense.  Yea!  I hope the scale doesn't show that I've gained too much from the stress eating.

I'm keeping this short since I'm a tired child.  Have a good weekend!

xxoo

Deb

A Better Day

Today was a much better day.  First, I didn't have nearly as many calls as I have had earlier in the week.   That allowed me to actually get some work done.  What a novel idea!

I also had a break this around lunch time so I was able to hit Whole Foods and stock my fridge.  I think having some time to buy some fresh fruit & veggies really helped me mentally.  Even though I had leftovers tonight, I know what I'm going to have tomorrow for lunch and a snack before swimming.

I can't say how good swimming has been for me.  Life is so much better when I swim and physically exhaust myself.  The best part is that that I felt lighter this morning and I had lost 2 of the 4 pounds I gained over last weekend.

Tomorrow I get a hair cut and it's another swimming night - yea! 

At the beginning of the week I was really thinking of skipping  the weigh in Saturday.  But I really need to suck it up and go face the music.  The meetings really help me with the program.  Next week I will be in Monterey Wednesday through Friday for a conference.  That means that next week could be a hard weigh in as well.  No swimming for 2 nights and heavy conference food for 3 days!

I just need to take one day, one meal and one bite at a time.

Happy Friday!

xxoo

Deb

A So-So Day

Well, today was a mixed bag.  I did really well this morning with the tracking and staying on plan.  Then the meetings started and I had to try to resolved a ton of issues and the stress eating started. 

I was so grateful for the end of the day when I could take the dogs for their long walk and get ready for swimming.  Part of me was so tired that I didn't even want to swim but I knew it would be so good for my mental state. 

It was a great swim.  I swam for 2,200 yards.  It was mainly freestyle, but there was a 200 IM at the end.  I did a 50 fly!  I'm very proud of myself for that.  Of course I forgot my ActiveLink so I can't tell if I earned any exercise points or  not.  If I don't I'm not sure what I can do other than get a really expensive tri watch that I can use in the pool.  I haven't found anything other than the ActiveLink that can go in the water.

Tomorrow will be a better day.  I am committing to tracking everything I eat and following the plan.  I think I need to take each day as it comes and one day at a time.

I'm heading off to bed early tonight.  I'm so grateful that swimming is making me physically exhausted.  I'm mentally there because of work, but now my body matches and I'm getting great sleep.

Have a great day tomorrow.

xxoo

Deb

Frustration

I'm very frustrated today.  I was so tired after swimming I just couldn't work.  I barely got the blog out!  What started the frustration was when I plugged in the ActiveLink at was only at 86% of goal!  Every time I've swam before I earned 5 or 6 points!  I'm not sure what's up!


Then with work, we were supposed to talk about a change request this morning at 8, but it wasn't even on the agenda!  The worst part was that I was still so tired I was falling asleep.  I took a quick nap afterwards, but I've just been exhausted all day.  I'm sure some of it was stress, but this is  craziness!

I was stress eating quite a bit today as well and I even gave in an ordered a pizza for dinner.  I've been craving one so badly for the last few weeks.  I'd even bought cauliflower to try a veggie crust, but that wasn't going to do it today.

I went ahead and ate a few slices and then picked at the rest.  I decided it would be best to just order the pizza that I wanted and get rid of the craving. 

I'm wondering if some of this has to do with the 250 mark.   I've always really stressed about that number and I freak out anytime I get in this area.

As I said yesterday, I just need to suck it up and follow the plan.  It will work.  It will work.  It will work!

xxoo

Deb

Stress Eating

It was really obvious today that I'm a stress eater.  The phone calls over the weekend did get escalated several levels so there was a lot of discussions today.  It pretty much took over everything else.  At least we got it resolved.

But, I just wanted to eat today.  I had my English muffin for breakfast, and I was ready for lunch.  I had some cashews, but I kept wanting more.  I didn't do too badly, but I didn't track my points either.

I almost didn't go swimming because there was so much work to do.  I just couldn't do that to myself.  I really needed to get rid of the stress.  It worked.  My good moment of the day was that I was REALLY craving McDonald's after the workout and I forced myself to drive home and eat leftover turkey tacos.  They were actually really good.  I did need to eat something munchy afterwords so I had some popcorn. 

 


I'm about to fall asleep so I'm keeping this one short.  Sorry about that.


No matter how bad I think I'm doing, I need to keep the faith that the plan does work it you follow it.  I just need to get back on it, track what I'm eating, plan my meals, stock up on fruit & veggies, and attend meetings (even if I don't really want to!).

Hope everyone had a great day!

xxoo

Deb

A Long Weekend!

As I mentioned Friday morning, I headed to a quilt retreat this weekend.  Overall, it was a good weekend. 

I started a quilt over 10 years ago during the last project that was this stressful.  That project was named Everest.  I saw the quilt pattern and knew it would be named "Dreaming of Green."  This current project made me crazy enough to finish it.  I turned it over to the lady who will quilt it.  Here are some pictures of it.  It doesn't lay very flat on the wall, but I'm hoping it will quilt out well.

I didn't do a very good job of tracking food, it was hard as we didn't have an internet connection to look up things.  I did pretty good with my eating and didn't snack much.

The one bad part of the weekend was due of course to work.  In one building there was an on/off again internet service and I looked at my phone.  BIG mistake.  There were several pages/texts from work with an "emergency."  Of course I responded to 2 emails, which led to 20 more.  Everyone wanted me to dial into a call, but there was no cell service.  I refused to leave and find service unless they reimbursed me for the weekend.  I was so frustrated as they were threatening to go to VPs on me since I wasn't cooperating.  Not that I dealt with this exact issue twice during the week with two other teams.......

Anyway, that did lead to 3 chocolate chip cookies.  Nothing like homemade chocolate chip cookies.

I'm very glad that it's over.  As I spend most of the time stressed about work after the calls.  It was always in the back of my head. 

One of the gotcha moments of the weekend was when I was in the bathroom and saw my legs.  They are more flabby that I thought.  I think I'm going to be a bit more self conscious swimming now.  Funny what new/different mirrors will show you.

I'm very glad that tomorrow is Monday and a fresh start for eating, logging, and back to swimming!

Did you have a good weekend?  What do you do when work throws you for a loop?

Have a good week!

xxoo

Deb

Craziness

All day yesterday I kept thinking that I needed to type my entry because I had a do-it-herself workshop at Home Depot.  I was right.  I got home sat down on the sofa and the next thing I knew it was 10:30!  I didn't do anything but brush my teeth and get in bed.  Not good when you have a bunch to do today!

I did go in and weigh in yesterday morning, even though it was 2 days early.  Everything was the same.  It looks like I have a pattern of a loss one week and either stay the same/gain a pound the next.  It's more than frustrating when I'm really getting a good workout with my swims.  I didn't even come close to eating my points on Wednesday night.

The sad part was is that I did binge yesterday - let's just say Oreos were involved!  They are out of the house now so I'm back on track.

My next post will be on Sunday.  I'm heading out to Marin for a quilting retreat.  It's at Walker Ranch, and I'm VERY excited to get away.  They have no cell/Internet service, so it's a good break from the world.  I'm taking way too many projects, but I'll have a choice as to what I work on! 

The best part of this ranch is that the meals are very healthy.  Most of the produce is grown  organically in their garden.  I was a bit hesitant the first time I was there and I always found something to eat.  I can say I'm not a big fan on buckwheat/flax seed pancakes, but maybe they will be better this time around since I haven't eaten normal breakfast foods in ages.

My goal for the weekend is to stay on plan.  I'm bringing some single serving microwave popcorn, cashews and string cheese for some healthier snacks. 

I'll let you know how I do on Sunday evening.  Have a good weekend!

xxoo

Deb

Hump Day!

I was so happy today was Wednesday.  After a few calls on Friday morning, I'm taking off for a quilting retreat for the weekend.

It may have been hump day, but boy it went really slowly.  At lunch I needed some stress relief so I went downstairs and pounded on drywall and a cabinet to take them down.  PG&E needs to get to my gas meter and it was really tight squeeze.  They mentioned it might be "necessary" to move it outside and I really don't want them to do that.  They put these three foot poles with reflective tape.  Not exactly welcoming!  This will prevent them from trying to do that.

Unfortunately, the demo work didn't take the stress away for very long!  It was back in force this afternoon.  We are really behind on the testing for this project and it looks like they are wanting us to work weekend for the next two months.  I don't do weekend work very well.  It just means poor planning.

I was really ready for swimming tonight.  I needed to burn some of this frustration out!  I'm not real fond of the Wednesday night coach.  He doesn't spend much time with the slow folks.  In fact, I had to move into the middle lanes to even see what was on the board for the rest of the workout.

Overall, it was a good swim.  I didn't do as many yards tonight (1,700) as I did on Monday, but we did a lot of Individual Medleys (IMs) and my butterfly is a bit slow.  At least it really cleared my head so I relax this evening.

I think I might weigh in tomorrow rather than Friday since there is so much going on before I head out of town.

Wish me luck!

xxoo

Deb

An Uneventful Day

There are some days that just uneventful.  Work was pretty typical, no major crisis.  PG&E had me blocked in my house most of the day, but they weren't too loud so I could still take my calls on the speaker phone.  I think the worst thing that happened was that my iPad wasn't ready.  If you are in the bay area, Shakeel the iPhone guy is the man for any type of phone, tablet, laptop or computer repairs.

I guess there were two things about today.  First, I had calls through lunch.  At 1 I took the muffins out for a walk.  By the time I got back it was just about time for the next calls.  All of a sudden I was done with my last call and it was after 5!  No lunch!  Of course, what is the monthly goal/habit at WW?  Lunch!  So much for that.  I was all set to make turkey tacos for dinner and could I find the spice mix?  I guess I'll have that for tomorrow.  So it was left over chicken for me.  At least there was a back up!

At work I stood up to my boss.  The next project will involve working with several teams in China.  On the calendar, they have stated that the calls will be coordinated from 6-11pm Pacific or start at 9am their time.  Why can't they start at 7 or 8?  We do that for the EMEA teams.  Anyway, since this project will go for on for the next year.  That's a very long time to give up your Sunday - Thursday nights.  Of course, we would still be working San Jose times as well. 

As I've mentioned, I'm really enjoying swimming.  They practices are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 5:30-7 and 7:30-8:30 in the same evenings.  As you know, I'm not a morning person so the evening times are what works for me.  If I had to be up for meetings until 11 at night, I wouldn't get to bed until 1ish and there would be no way I could get up to swim at 5.

I told my boss today that I was very concerned about the work load and since swimming was the one thing that really turned off my brain from work.  I focus on breathing, exhaling, not losing my swim cap, at ton of other stuff, but NOT work!  He agreed that turning off work is a good and healthy thing and I shouldn't plan on working every evening.  I agreed that I could do evenings on occasion, but not as the norm.

I guess this is pretty long for an uneventful day!  What do you guys do when you have to confront your boss?  Is it hard for you to justify you having work/life balance?

xxoo

Deb

Getting Naked

Ok - I wish this was about really getting naked with someone, but I'm not there yet!  I did however, take a shower after swimming and actually take my swimsuit off in the shower.  Now, I'm not a person to get naked in locker rooms.  I'm just not that confident!  However, I started chaffing in the pool tonight and all of the other women were naked so I went ahead and took off my suit.  You know what, the world didn't end.  I don't think anyone even noticed!  This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but it really is for me!

The swim went really well tonight.  I even moved out of the slow lane - people were slower than I was - gasp!  Not only did I swim 2,250 yards, but I almost finished the workout!  I did everything by 2 x 100 swims and a 100 yard kick.  That was a huge jump from the 1,400 yards on Friday.  The coach tonight was really nice.  He spent time at the slow end of the pool and we did some interval work.  I'm really liking swimming again!

On the food side of things, I had to run an errand today and it seemed to take forever!  I walked out of the building and there was a Jack in the Box across the street and I had a $5 gift card from a Warriors game last season.  I got a sourdough Jack.  Didn't look at points, just ordered it & ate it.  When I went to log my food this afternoon I was shocked to see that it was 18 - EIGHTEEN -  points! Thank goodness it was a good swim that gave my 4 activity points!

That's about it for tonight!  I need to get some food in my body before bed.

Hope you had a great Monday!

xxoo

Deb

A Lazy Day

I was VERY glad I wrote yesterday afternoon before book club.  It was after 11 by the time we got home. 

I made a vegetable dish so I knew I would have something with low Points Plus to fill be up.  It turned out really good.  I found it on Pinterest.  It was a link to Kalyn's Kitchen roasted green beans and mushrooms.   I haven't had much luck with broccoli recipes from Pinterest, so I was glad that these turned out.

For the most part, I did really good. I stuck to snap peas for appetizers.  I had one slice of sour dough bread and 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes.   Robin had made a pork loin from Trader Joe's.  That was great!  Everything else were 0 point vegetables!  I planned for a glass of wine.  I was really glad to find out those are only 4 points! 

I had so many points left that I even had a slice of cake.  It was an eruption cake from Whole Foods.  It's chocolate cake, with chocolate whipped filling, butter cream frosting, with a ganache topping.  It was so good.

We did go see a movie afterwards, The Family with Robert DeNiro.  It was good; I just had expected more of a comedy.  I did learn a lesson.  It's a habit for me to get popcorn.  Cinemark sends out coupons weekly and I like to take advantage of them.  This week was a small popcorn with a large soda.  I wasn't even hungry, but I got the popcorn with extra butter - out of HABIT.  I used to just get a bottle of water and be done.  I really need to get back to that.

Today was very lazy.  I got everything ready last night to swim this morning.  As you can tell, I'm NOT a morning person so when the alarm went of at 7 I slept right through it.  I didn't wake up until 10:30!

I was planning on making some taco meat for the week, but I just wasn't ambitious.  I hope I don't regret that later.  I have a quilting retreat this weekend and my dad is dog sitting for me so I'm trying to make and freeze some meals for him.

Anyway, I hope you guys had a more productive day than I did!  Have a great week!

xxoo

Deb

1.4 Pounds!

I'm posting early today since I have book club tonight and a few of us are heading to a late movie afterwards. 

Today was weight in day.  I lost 1.4 pounds.  I'm a little disappointed, because of all the swimming I did this week, but it was a loss so I'm going to take it.  That makes it 10.4 pounds!

 For those of you who do WW where you weigh in, do you have a favorite scale?  There are three at this location.  The one at the right is here I first weighed in and where I had my best loss.  The one on the left and the middle seem to weigh heavier.  I just like using the same scale!!

This will be short, A&M is playing Alabama.  I'm rooting for the Aggies and my fried in Florida is rooting for Bama.  We are having a text conversation, which makes it fun.

For book club, I'm making green beans and mushrooms with balsamic and Parmesan.  I hope it's good.  My last few veggie recipes from the Internet have not turned out well.  And I need some good veggies so that I can use my points for wine!

Gig 'Em Ags!

xxoo

Deb

Another Great Day!

Yea!

I did it.  I was really nervous, but I made it to the swim workout.  I was a bit worried because I'm VERY slow.  Of course, when I got there, there was a notice that the time had changed from 7 to 7:30.  There were a bunch of kids in the pool so I hung out and texted with a friend since I was really nervous.

Finally another guy showed up and I was able to ask a few questions - enough to find out which lane was the slow one.

It turned out that the guy coaching the kids was the same guy for the masters.  I thought that it was odd that he didn't introduce himself or ask me any questions.  He just put up a workout on a white board and set us off.  I was extremely grateful that I had a lane to myself.  I was really worried about slowing someone else down.

This is a lot like swim workouts from when I was a kid.  I about fell over when he said that there was a 1600 IM set.  He had it set up that you would do the fly, back, or breast strokes for 100 yards and then do 100 freestyle.  I figured I would just swim free style.  At the end of 25 yards, I got a wild hair and decided to see if I could even do the fly for 25 yards.  It wasn't pretty, but I did it!  Twice!  I did some back and breast stroke laps as well.  I don't think they were pretty either.  I pretty much stuck to free style.  I made if for over 45 minutes!

The one oops of the evening was I took off my ActiveLink and shook it to see how I had done on my activity for the day - and it fell into the splash area at the side of the pool.  I'm thinking it's gone forever.  I'll check with them tomorrow, but I'll probably order another one.  Neither the Fitbit or the Jawbone UP can be used for swimming.

I'm not sure if I'll like the coach, but it felt really good to be in the pool, so I think I'll sign up and keep it up at least three days a week.

I was also proud of myself in that I was really hungry afterwards and I really didn't want to wait for some chicken to cook so I just had an artichoke and some string cheese.  Probably not the dinner of champions, but I did well with my meals and tracking today so I'm not going to knock it.

More tomorrow!

xxoo

Deb

Better

Today was much better than yesterday.  I had no problems tracking my food.  I was off to a great start with breakfast.  I had my english muffin and a banana for breakfast.  Where I fell down was at lunch time.  I can definitely feel my head cold.  I had early meetings so by the time I had a break I was so tired I just needed a nap. 

Of course I had lunch meetings so that threw the rest of the day off.  I ended up having some popcorn after the meeting.  I got caught up on other calls, so lunch never happened.  I was grateful that I wasn't hungry. 

The last call ended a little after 7 so it was after 8 by the time I got back with the dogs from  our walk.  I decided to finish some leftovers and have a sweet potato.  I diced it and tried to roast it.  It was really good last time I did that, but not this time.  I'm not sure what I did, but they were really bad.  I ate a few of them, but that was all I could do.

The bad part of eating leftovers tonight, I have to come up with something to eat tomorrow.  I'm planning on heading to the swim practice from 7-8 so I'd better get started.

It's funny, there have been some really good days so far where this program (WW) seems to be fairly easy to follow.  There are other days, like yesterday, that seem REALLY hard.  Today was better but I wasn't fully on track.  I need to forgive myself for not being perfect and let it go.  I can only do the best I can.  It look a lot of years for me to get to this weight, so it's not going to be easy to take it off.

I just need to have patience with myself.  What do you do when you have the hard days?

Here's to a better day tomorrow.

xxoo

Deb

Binging? Not Logging?

Today was a tough one.  I'd really like to say it was due to work or something stressful, but I can't.  It was a really slow day at work.  I only had a  few meetings so I was able to get almost caught up on emails (almost being the key word!). 

Maybe it was because I definitely have a cold.  I just felt like eating.  I ended up eating about 20 pieces of taffy and 2 of the single serving ice creams.  No bananas, no fruit.......  I just wanted to eat.  I wasn't even that hungry.  This is also the first day I just couldn't make my self log what I was eating.

I really thought it would help if I could try swimming tonight.  Unfortunately, I was in slow motion with the dogs and they seemed to be as well.  By the time we got back, I didn't have time to make it there in time.  I will be there on Wednesday from 7-8.  The evening swims are Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays.  I don't think that I'll be able to get up in time for the morning sessions from 5:30-7!  That is way to early for me!

I seem to do much better when I write down what I need to work on so for the rest of the week I will get back to eating a fruit or vegetable with every meal.  I will also log everything that I will eat and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the normal times.

On a totally different note, I watched a French film, The Hedgehog, based on the book called The Elegance of the Hedgehog.  I listen to a log of books via audible.com and this is one that I really enjoyed.  It's about a lady who is a building super and doesn't feel good about herself.  She starts meeting with an 11 year old in the building who wants to kill herself on her 12th birthday.  A new tenant in the building who takes an interest in her.  She begins to see herself in their eyes and begins to transform herself.  As she realizes that she is lovable, she gets hit by a truck trying to save someone else.  Paloma, the little girl makes a statement, "It's not how you die, but it's about what you were doing when you die, and Renee, you were ready to love."  I don't know what that touches me, but it really does.  I think I'm ready to transform myself and love as well.

Till tomorrow.....

xxoo

Deb

Lazy & Sweaty Day

Hi guys -

I know this probably sounds like a contradiction, but the first part of the day was quite lazy.  The night before last, it was really hot, so I slept with the window open.  Of course yesterday my throat was sore. 

I couldn't sleep last night because I just felt stuffed up.  I finally took some cough syrup and thought that would be it.  Of course not, I woke up with a migraine at 2:45.  The funny thing is that I fell asleep sitting up trying to decide if I should take some migraine medicine.  At 3:30 I woke up and decided I should take the medicine and try to sleep!  That did the trick.

Unfortunately, something woke me up.  It was my freezer running really loudly.  It's supposed to beep when the door is left open, but I guess it doesn't beep if it's just slightly ajar.  It was so loud that I just started reading.  Saturday our bookclub meets and we are reading We The Drowned by Carsten Jensen.  On the nook it's 600 pages and it's a hard read.  I'm a fairly quick reader, but I was lucky if I got through 20 pages a night.  I read for several hours and finished it up!

That was the lazy part of the day.  After that I ended up cleaning up the back yard and putting together a new porch/earthquake box.  It was humid and boy was I sweating out there.  There was a lot of screws that needed to be done for the assembly.  It seems like that should have been more ActiveLink points - but I'm still at 93% of my activity for the day!

One good thing about the freezer was that my english muffins were thawed so I had breakfast in bed.  Unfortunately, I was really craving pizza for dinner.  I had a small frozen pizza & thought it wouldn't be too bad.  Unfortunately, it was 20 (yes, TWENTY) points.    No snacks for me tonight!

Hope you had a good weekend!

xxoo

Deb

Three Pounds!

I was so excited this morning (I still am!).  I lost 3.6 pounds.  The .6 that I gained last week and another 3!  That's a total of 9 pounds. 

For some reasons I just feel heavy on Saturday mornings.  I did NOT want to get up this morning.  I realized there were two other meetings this morning so I went ahead and hit snooze.  Because I felt heavy I went ahead and walked the dogs.  I can't believe how hot it was at 9 am!  But,  maybe that's what loosened me up so I had a loss.  What ever it was, I was sure happy!

Of course when I got in the car, I realized that I was late for the meeting, not 20 minutes early.  I went ahead and went anyway and I'm glad I did.  It was a different leader and a much larger group.  I really liked him so I may start going to the 10:30 meeting.  That lets me sleep in on Saturdays!

Tonight, I met my uncle and his partner for dinner at my favorite restaurant in Petaluma.  It's called Le Bistro and I started going there with my grandmother Sarge (Marge the Sarge) close to 25 years ago.  The sad thing is, I almost always have the same thing.  I start with a salad, they chop a bunch of veggies into confetti for the top of the salad.  For the entree I had pan seared Parmesan crusted tiger prawns.  You get 5 prawns and 5 potato medallions along with 6 green beans & 2 asparagus spears.  It doesn't sound like  a lot, but it's the perfect size. 

Normally for dessert I get the Kahlua Gelato torte but they had some homemade chocolate pots de creme.  Oh my - was it wonderful!  I had brought a bottle for Brounello wine from Italy.  To have a bite of the chocolate and then a sip of wine - heaven!  It was so good.  If you are ever near Petaluma, I highly recommend this restaurant.  They are only open for dinner, don't take parties larger than 4 and reservations are generally required.  They had to turn away two tables this evening because they didn't have room for them.

I'll try to track my points tomorrow.  I'm sure that I used most of my weekly extra points, but every bite was worth it!  I just have to stay on plan the rest of the week!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

xxoo

Deb

Friday!

I'm so glad it's Friday!  Why do the short weeks always seem to be the longest?  I thought I might weigh in today, but I over slept so tomorrow morning it is! 

It's been so hot that I didn't want to cook much, but I was dying to try this recipe for a broccoli stir fry.  It was broccoli with a sauce of soy sauce, broth and garlic. It was ok, but I wouldn't make it again.  It's disappointing when something looks and sounds so good but doesn't turn out that way.  I'm glad I didn't make it a double batch!

Tomorrow night my uncle is taking me to dinner at my favorite restaurant in Petaluma, Le Bistro.  I have the same thing every time I go in.  I think I've varied my entree once and tried the prawns with the pasta, but the only other time I've changed is when they changed the menu and took off the tiger prawn saute.  I still don't know what the name is for what I order!  It's only been on the menu for at least 5 years!

One other quick note; my last wound from my surgery is almost healed so I'm going to go to a swim practice next week!  I can't  wait!  I've been doing pretty well on making my ActiveLink goals, but I'm anxious to get in the water again.

I'll let you know how the weigh in goes in the morning!

xxoo

Deb

Bad Chinese

Hi guys -

I can't believe I missed a night.  As you may remember I had a dinner for work yesterday evening.  I was a bit worried because the person who chose the restaurant picked a place that, per Yelp, was great for Dim Sum, but not so much for dinner. 

Yelp was right!  I was so controlled yesterday and ate a bunch of 0 calorie items during the day so I had almost all of my points ready for dinner.  Unfortunately, I didn't get much of a chance to use them.  It was REALLY bad.  Some of the group were late so we tried to order some appetizers.  Who heard of a Chinese restaurant not having egg rolls??  The Chinese chicken salad didn't even have lettuce or cabbage!  Anyway, we got a pre-set menu for 10 people.  The two best dishes had shrimp and scallops with fresh veggies in a light sauce.  The "fried" rice was really jasmine rice with a bit of scrambled egg on top and this gravy mixture on top.  Needless to say, I didn't use very many points!

Unfortunately, the drive home was not pleasant.  Something did not sit well so I decided it was best for me to just head to bed and not to write anything.

It was fun seeing my co-workers from Amsterdam and Australia, but the rest of the evening, not so much.

I was proud of myself that I was able to stay within my points and plan for a meal throughout the day.  I hope I can keep it up!

Because of my tummy, I didn't eat a lot today.  I had a banana for breakfast (at noon) and a sweet potato for dinner.  That really helped me so I had some string cheese for some protein. 

I think I'm going to weigh in tomorrow rather than Saturday.  I just need to sleep in one day a week!  Keep your fingers crossed!

xxoo

Deb

Stress Eating

I am officially a stress eater.  I didn't want to be on several of my calls today and I definitely had the munchies.

I started well with an English muffin for breakfast.  During the lunch time calls I grabbed a few cashews until I could get something else.  Around three I gave up and put the phone on mute and made a grilled cheese sandwich.  I grabbed a few cashews while I was waiting.  The good news is that I counted everything and I didn't eat as much as I used to, but I was still snacking.

It was so hot here today (68 at six - that may not sound like much by in San Francisco it's a heat wave!) so I didn't want to turn on the oven or the crock pot.  I ended up heating up some of last night's baked sweet & sour chicken.  It's just as yummy the second time around. 

Unfortunately, it just didn't hold me over.  I had some popcorn (the individual popcorn packets are wonderful!).  Then I had a craving for some ice cream.  Maybe I need to stop buying the small, single serving ice creams!  It just felt like I'm snacking a lot.  It's better than I would have done in the past, but it's still snacking.

When I looked over the healthy routines, what I'm noticing is that I'm not getting enough fruits/veggies in during the day.  I think that's why I'm not full.  How do you guys do it?  Did you start by setting goals like having a fruit or vegetable with each meal?

I've hit my ActiveLink goals everyday for the last week (except for the days where I've forgotten it for most of the day!).  So I think that will be my new goal - a fruit/veggie with each meal.

On another note - my last open wound from my surgery is almost closed!  That means I can start swimming!  I've looked up the PacMasters swim clubs and have the hours/training times, so I'm going to put on my big girl panties (or swimsuit in this case) and just go to one of the trainings.  I used to swim as a kid and that was my favorite part of my tri training so I can't wait to pick it up again.  I just hope they are as welcoming of slow people as the web-site says!

I really need to be diligent tomorrow since we have a work dinner - Chinese.  The specifically chose Chinese so we could eat family style, which will make it hard for me to focus on the healthy options that I choose and not feel like I'm "hogging" them and not sharing with others.

Wish me luck!

xxoo

Deb

An Earlier Time

Well, I didn't get much done today.  I had grand plans, but not much happened.  My friend inspired me to try a Pinterest recipe for baked sweet & sour chicken.  It was wonderful!  I wish I had taken a picture of it before I put it away.  I made a huge batch of brown rice to go with it.  I have a bunch left over for chicken or vegetable fried rice later this week. 

The recipe came from Life as a Lofthouse blog: http://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken-with-fried-rice/ 


The big outing of the day was to Safeway.  I spent a bunch of time yesterday and today reviewing the recipes I pinned or from Spark people. I planned out the week and headed to the grocery store.  What I thought would be a small trip ended up with 6 bags and $250 spent.  I'd better have the staples I need for a while!


Tomorrow will be flank steak and roasted broccoli.  The broccoli had really great reviews so I'm excited to try it.

Have a great week!

xxoo

Deb

A Good Day

I really need to start writing this earlier!  The last few nights I've been so tired when I write this.

Anyway, today was a nice day.  I slept in,  I REALLY slept in.  I spent the afternoon at my friend, Trena's, house helping her hand pictures.  It felt really good getting stuff done.  I just wish it was at my house!  It did motivate me to get stuff done at my house!  I have several things planned for tomorrow.  I would really like to get the dog dish trays spray painted and reset up in the dining room.  They've been in the bathroom for several months while my kitchen has been redone.

She also made a baked sweet & sour chicken that I found on Pintrest.  It looked so good and she highly recommended it so I might try that tomorrow night.

Today was another day that I earned several activity points with ActiveLink.  So that was nice.  I didn't use all my points today either!

Let's hope that I can do as well tomorrow!

xxoo

Deb

Weigh In & No Drama!!!

I was sooo grateful that today was drama free!  Let me start at the beginning.  You know how there are some days where you just feel heavy?  Today was one of those days.  Not that eating taffy for dinner was a factor or anything......

Anyway, I was worried that I would have a huge weight gain today.  I was so grateful that it was only .6 of a pound!  I was so tired this morning and I almost hit snooze and said forget weighing in.  I'm proud of myself that I got my butt up and headed in.  Going to the meetings really does help you be accountable.  It was a good meeting.  The discussion was about things you would recommend to a new member.  The first thing was keep coming back after an event, a hard week, anything - just come back to your meeting.  That was very helpful.

After the meeting, which ran long, I realized that I left my phone at home.  I didn't really want to go back to get it, but because traffic is a bit crazy this weekend with the bay bridge closure.  I thought I really needed it so back I went.  I'm glad I stopped.  It took me an additional 20 minutes, but it took me almost 90 minutes to get from my house to the golden gate.  It normally takes about 20, so I was running a late for the party.  Once I got to the bridge, things opened up and I made fairly good time.  After the stop at Safeway to get the cake and some veggies, I made it to Larry's right at 11.  So much for making in there early to help set up!

The reunion was nice.  It was really nice to see my cousins (I think they are second cousins, but anyway...).  After a quick toast of all the family events the grilling got started and we had burgers and hot dogs.  There were also lots of salads to balance things out.  We decided that we needed to do this more than once ever decade.  Hopefully we can make this an annual event!

I was worried about meeting my brother's new fiancee.  She was very nice and straight forward.  I think I will like her as I get to know her more.  That's where I thought the drama might be, so I was glad that there wasn't any!

I did fall off the wagon today.   Someone made some homemade salsa with homegrown tomatoes.  I can't tell you how good it was!  Needless to say, chips were the delivery method.  I had a hamburger with a bun as well as part of a hot dog.  They were gourmet dogs so I had to try.  I also didn't have breakfast so I was starving by the time we got to the food. 

Where I'm feeling slightly guilty is the cake.  Doughy food is my downfall.  The cake was white with lemon filling and butter cream frosting.  I had a small piece which wasn't to bad, but the cake was right in front of me and I picked off the bits of icing that was around the tray that didn't make it to the plates.  It was so fresh and yummy.  One of the other things that was mentioned was to forgive yourself and let things go. 

So that's my plan for the rest of this week.  I'm going to let today go and start fresh tomorrow.

Here's to a better week that's on track!  Hopefully I can make it to the farmers market to get some fresh veggies for the week!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

xxoo 

Deb

Weigh in Nerves

I'm really nervous about tomorrow.  I'm going to the 9am weigh in and then heading to our family reunion.

First, I played hooky today.  We generally cut out of work around before a holiday.  Because of everything go on and my birthday yesterday my friend and I went whale watching today.  I had saved my extra points plus to go out to lunch.  We went for seafood afterwords.  I had a wonderful crab melt. 

One of my downfalls is salt water taffy - peppermint flavor.  Nothing fancy, but so yummy.  Of course one of the only places you can get taffy separated by flavor is at fisherman's wharf.  Needless to say, that's what I had for dinner. 

At least I earned activity points today!  I stood a lot on the boat.  We saw lots of sea lions, harbor seals, pelicans, other birds, porpoises, and a few humpback whales.  It was a great day.  The water is so relaxing.  I'm so glad I don't get motion sickness!  The only downside was that my face is really sunburned!

I'm not only worried about tomorrow's weigh in, but its our family reunion.  It started out as a surprise 50th anniversary party for my parents, but with all the drama over the summer its really a reunion with a cake and champagne toast for the anniversay.  I'm excited to see my cousins that I haven't seen in several years.  I'm not so excited about seeing some other family members.  My uncle has turned into an anal planner this week even though we worked through the details weeks ago.  My brother got engaged over the 4th of July - to someone no one has met.  Mom says she's nice, but the last wife didn't turn out so well. Overall, I just don't want the drama.  I plan on hanging out with my cousins and my other uncle.  If I have to leave early for my own sanity, then that's what I will do.

If I get home early, my 80 year old neighbor is having a birthday party for her cat.  She turns 2.  Don't you know I'm excited!

What do you do when you when you know there is a stressful situation and stress eating is an issue?

Anyway, I just hope I lose a few pounds when I weigh in.  Next, I hope I survive the day!!!  Wish my luck!

xxoo

Deb

Happy Birthday!

Have you ever had a day where you really want things to go well?  Today was one of those days.  It's my birthday.  I got lots of good wishes on Facebook which was really great.  Don't get me wrong, but I really like to do something on my birthday.

I did make a nice dinner for myself and rather than have wine, I went and got myself a cupcake to celebrate.  What is it about cake that you just need a slice for your birthday?

Work is so crazy and there a ton of unreasonable deadlines.  I'm so glad I'm going to play hooky tomorrow and go watch some whales.  I'm not sure I'm ready to get up at 5:30 in the morning!  I certainly hope we see some whales and other sea life!

What I am worried about it food.  Why is it that when you start counting calories/points, dieting, etc that all you seem to think about is food??   Anyway, as you can probably can tell by my previous posts that I'm not really a morning person.  The thought of getting up that early to get ready is scary enough.  I'm not sure that I will have time to eat breakfast! 

The trip is between 4-5 hours long and they say on the web-site to bring snacks.  Hopefully, we won't need anything!  I figured I would bring some nuts and string cheese for snacks and some water for the boat. 

After the boat ride Beverly is taking me to lunch for my birthday.  She wants it to be special, but it can't be too heavy with the weigh in on Saturday morning!

What do you do when you stress out at work?

xxoo

Deb

I'm not how to describe today.  It was full of meetings and a bit nutty.  It was so nutty that I forgot to eat!  By the time I was done with calls it was almost 6.  So by the time I got back with the dogs it was after 7.  So what to do when you have 26 points?

I finally settled on a huge scrambled breakfast burrito.  I sauteed some onion, red pepper, and mushrooms.  Then I added some sausage crumbles and the egg.  I topped it all off with salsa.  It was huge, but it was so good!

I think the most frustrating part of today was that I forgot to wear my ActivityLink monitor during the first walk with the kids.  I don't know if I'll make 100% today.  I just don't have it in me for another jaunt.  We shall see...

What do you do when you have such a day?

More tomorrow.

xxoo

Deb

A Good Day

It's funny, as I sit to write this I'm a little surprised at how relaxed I am.  Today was a little stressful at work.  We are at the point in the project where things could either fall in place or totally fall apart and people are panicking.  Not only is everyone concerned about this release, but we are starting to work on the next one.  There is a major deadline for that project on Friday.  I don't think that one will be met.  

Anyway, I was on calls until 5:30 so by the time I got the dogs out I really needed the walk!  Unfortunately, when I got home I had a little more work to do.  Once that was done I decided to head to Whole Foods for some fresh veggies as well as a roasted chicken.  I just couldn't fix something tonight and the chicken was so good.  The muffins enjoyed the little bits in their dish as well! 

Once dinner was done I turned on Extreme Weight Loss while I decided to prep my veggies for the week.  I got things washed, in nice bowls, and ready to go.  On the "Healthy Checks" section in the WW tool, I've noticed that I haven't done well on my veggies the last few days.  Last week I specifically made some entrees with lots of veggies and it was time to make more.  One thing that I stocked up on was logs of snacky veggies - snap peas, carrots, green beans and cauliflower.  Now that they are washed and ready I'm ready to snack when I'm on those stressful calls!

So far, I've made my 100% goal on the ActiveLink for the last two days.  I need a little more activity tonight so I can earn a point!

Lesson learned - taking care of yourself can be relaxing!

More tomorrow!

xxoo

Deb

Exercise

One thing that I haven't really focused on is exercise.  Before my surgery, I was meeting with a personal trainer 2-3 times a week.  It was great.  I had $ in my flexible spending account at the end of last year, so this was a good way to prep for surgery. 

I also did a lot of walking, more than just with the dogs.  I did some tri training - biking and swimming along with walking.  So I was fairly active.

Since my surgery, not so much.  I wasn't even able to walk the dogs for almost 6 weeks!  That was really hard.  Once I was able to move, I had to be very careful.  Of course as soon as thought I was clear, I had some wound separation.  Basically I had a large open area that had to heal on its own.  I had to wear these surgical maxi pads (8x10) around my boobs - so much fun!  Basically, I felt like I was leaking when I moved and it was hard to stop the pads from moving around.  It was just really uncomfortable to exercise. 

Since August, things have gotten somewhat better the wound was actually over healing and the doc put some drugs on it to help the healing.  They really helped so my wound it now about an inch square. 

That being said, I started wearing my ActiveLink from WW.  When I first got it, I was working with the trainer so I was getting 2-6 additional points per day.  I redid the assessment and was shocked that with walking the dogs, I didn't earn any!  I know they are slow, but we walk almost 2 miles!

So I'm adding a new goal this week.  I need to get to 100% of my activity goal every day this week.  I'm at 86% so far today.  That means the dogs will get an extra walk tonight and I'm going to do some cleaning!

Hope everyone has a great week!

xxoo

Deb

Drama

Howdy!

Did I mention family drama?  There was a ton of it today.  I won't go into it, but it was another hard day.

I was afraid that my dad would be here a little early for the baseball game that I felt like I was rushing (yes, I should have gotten up earlier, but my bed was soooo comfy!).  I did decently at the game, I had a dog and water.  Where I tripped up was that the Ghiradelli sunday was calling my  name. 

My seats were in the full sun today.  It's not often in San Francisco that you sweat through your shorts!  Lots of water, sunscreen and a few breezes really helped but it was very toasty!

When I got home and the calls about our family reunion started.  This is when the stress eating started.  I grabbed some cashews thinking that protein would help.  It did until about 7.  At that point I tried to think of the lowest point food that would fill me up.  I ended up with turkey sausage crumbles and scrambled eggs.  It was a good break from the mushrooms, but I will keep with the veggies as the norm.

I'm not happy with my tracking, but at least I'm tracking everything.

Hopefully this week will be smooth.  I think everyone is ready for the long weekend.

Have a good week.

xxoo

Deb

Relax

Today I did something that I very rarely do.  I met a friend and we just relaxed.  We went for lunch at Amici's.  We started with salad and then when shared some veggie pizza.  I'm normally not a veggie pizza gal, but it was a good change.
 
We then walked from her house to the neighborhood where we read magazines and sat in the sun.  I don't let myself just sit and relax.  It's even better when you are with a childhood friend.  Christy and I have known each other since we were 5.  That's almost 42 years! 

When it was time to head home, she cut some beautiful flowers from her garden for me.  It's so nice to have fresh flowers in the house.

Tomorrow will be interesting.  I'm taking my dad to the Giants game for his birthday.  There's been a lot of family drama lately (think ice cream for dinner last week...) so I'm hoping it goes ok.  Since lunch at the ballpark is part of the tradition, I'm already thinking of how to adapt.  I think I sleep a bit later, take the dogs for their jaunt and then scramble eggs & mushrooms.  That will give me some protein before I head to the game.

Here's to a great, relaxing day with childhood friends!

xxoo

Deb

WooHoo!

First, I need to just say how much I love my friends.  One of the side benefits of our book club is that we celebrate each others birthdays.  This month is mine (the 29th) and Robins.  We met at Eric's for Chinese (yum!!) and went to a movie on a whim afterwards.  We saw Blue Jasmine.  Cate Blanchett was OUTSTANDING.  I'm not a big Woody Allen fan, but it was a good show.  I did need a bit more closure.

Now on to the matters at hand.  I think I'm going to change my weigh in day to Friday mornings.  That was I can sleep in.  There was no way I was going to weigh in tomorrow after eating Chinese with all of that sodium!  But I was down 5.8 pounds this week.  It made me quite happy!

Tomorrow I'm going to meet my childhood friend, Christy to just hang out.  We met when I was 5 so we've known each other for over 40 years.  That is amazing.  It also ages me!

Anyway, it's been a great start to the weekend!

xxoo

Deb

Back on Track

Today was just weird.  I didn't sleep well.  My neighbor has a plum tree whose fruit is almost ripe and the neighborhood raccoons have been visiting the back yard.  Of course the dogs hear some noise, run to the front of the house barking, run back to the stairs and charge downstairs.  After they secure the yard, they settle down until thy critters come back about 30 minutes later.  I finally closed the stair door, but they kept it up for another hour or so.

Of course today was another crazy one with a ton of calls.  At least I had a break so I could eat a good breakfast.  I'm really enjoying scrambled eggs with sauteed mushrooms (done with PAM) and some salsa.  It really holds me over.

I had calls through lunch so I just grabbed some snap peas and carrots.  They really hit the spot.

Left over flank steak got the nod for dinner.  The kids even got some so they were very happy!

Tomorrow my book club is taking me and the other August birthday girl for dinner.  Normally my weigh in day would be Saturday, but I've been saving my weekly points and I will be having wine as well as Chinese.  With all of that sodium I don't want to be on the scale afterwords.  So I'm weighing in tomorrow morning.

I'm back on track and I know I've lost weight so hopefully it goes well.  Wish me luck!

xxoo

Deb

Another Hard One

It was another hard one. I am shocked at how strong cravings can be.  I made a point to eat breakfast this morning.  I should have made eggs rather than toast.  It would have lasted longer.  I even had a banana on the way down.    But let me tell you - I wanted that Quarter Pounder with Cheese - BAD!

Driving home I looked up the points.  It was 14.  High, but not as many as I thought and I did it.  I had the QP w/C.  It was SOOO good.  No fries, not soda, just the burger.  I know it was a bad food choice, but at least I don't regret it.  I stayed within my points range and I am tracking everything.

I made myself have lots of veggies for dinner.  I'm glad that I've only had 6 of my weekly 49 allowance. 

This is going to be short.  I friend's granny is in the hospital.  They think she had a stroke and I need to get back on the phone with her.

xxoo

Deb

Not an Easy Day

Ok, I know it's only day 4 and it was insane.  As I mentioned the other day, I work from home and have a really stressful job.  I spend most of the day on the phone in meetings and dealing with issues for the project that I'm currently working on.

Today started at 8 am sharp.  I thought I had two hours after the first call to grab a bite to eat and get caught up on emails.  Well that went out the window quickly.  Finally I didn't have to lead the call at 11 so I scrambled eggs with mushrooms and salsa with the computer and speaker phone in the kitchen.  It was so good & I was so hungry at that point (mistake).  The afternoon didn't get any better and at 4 I realized I hadn't eaten and grabbed some string cheese.  By 6:30 we had some family drama after work so I got the dogs out for their long walk (just over a mile).  That helped some, but I realized I needed to eat.  The leftover stir fry or fajitas just bothered my tummy to even look at them so I ended up with a grilled cheese.

I was tracking my food like a good muffin and had only eaten 23 of my 40 points.  Here's where I didn't treat myself well - I had some ice cream and two fun size candy bars.  Day 4 and I'm eating crap.  It didn't even taste good!  I know in WW there aren't any good/bad foods and I didn't go over my point allowance, but it was still crap!

At least Thursday is trash day so I'm getting rid of this ice cream and some of the stuff that shouldn't be in the house.  I need to find a place to hide some Blue Bell.  For those of you who aren't from Texas or the Southeast, Blue Bell is ice cream made in Brennan, Texas.  It is WONDERFUL.  You can get the Homemade Vanilla flavor at Outback Steakhouse (you can even talk to the manager and they can order you a 2 1/2 gallon tub for a party).  My favorite flavor is Chocolate Chip which is only available on a rotating schedule.  My friend placed an order for me during my surgery recovery, but somehow it got lost.  But the silver lining is that when she went to fix the order chocolate chip was back on the menu.  They overnight 4 half gallons so I have 3 in my freezer.  I did ask myself if today was Blue Bell worthy and it wasn't.  I'm hoping I can keep that up & really save it for special occasions.

I'll end today's note with a few promises to myself.  Tomorrow I will throw out the non-Blue Bell and other tempting items.  I see my shrink tomorrow and I normally stop for fast food (Mickey D's or Taco Bell).  I'm going to bring some carrots & snap peas to snack on in the car so I won't be hungry.  I also need to make sure I eat breakfast which is also something that I tend to skip on Wednesdays.

Here's to less stress tomorrow!

xxoo

Deb

The Befores

Today was another good day.  I made steak fajitas tonight.  I did the marinade with some soy sauce, lime juice, salt, pepper and crushed garlic.  I sauteed with a ton of onions and red peppers.  Very tasty!  So my main two goals of cooking my meals and tracking are going well. Yea!!

I promised that I would get some before pictures posted.  They are at the bottom of the post (I can't figure out how to type below them!).  The first one is more recent, from a few weeks ago at a 10k that a friend and I did.  The second one is from last year.  There is a pretty big change between the two - the boobs!

On June 10th, I had a breast reduction.  I'm still healing a bit, but I'm able to start walking and training.  They removed 8lbs (4 lbs each!).  I should be going from an H cup to a B/C.  I got a lot of negative attention with the girls (I had all of the older 69+ men in my neighborhood hitting on me!!) so it was hard to lose weight as it would just make them more obvious.

I'm much more motivated now since they will be in proportion to the rest of me.  It's all very exciting!  Well that's the starting point.

xxoo

Deb

SF Giants Race - August 4, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wedding - October, 2012