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