No matter how many exclamation points I use, I just can't get excited about Monday. And I don't even work outside of the home LOL I've had a good day though AND it's my mom's 69th birthday - so happy bday, Mom!!!!
Exercise:
Hi Def Sculpt Express (The Firm)
Power Yoga (The Firm)
I've been doing great with food today. I got up late so I just had water and my thyroid med for breakfast, but had lunch an hour or so later. For lunch I made a yummy taco salad which was supposed to be topped with tomatoes fresh from my garden, but I ate them before they made it to the plate LOL I sure wish they'd grow faster! For dinner I'm making a very simple unstuffed peppers recipe using bulgar in place of the rice.
Unstuffed peppers
2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes with basil, onion and garlic (or you can add those in separately - I'm just lazy)
2 cups of bulgar
2 1/3 cups chicken broth
2 diced green peppers (more if you like lots of peppers)
1# cooked ground beef
salt to taste
Put the tomatoes, bulgar, chicken broth and peppers in a large skillet and bring to a boil. Add cooked ground beef, turn down heat, cover and let simmer for 20ish minutes until bulgar is cooked and peppers are tender. Stir occasionally.
This makes a huge amount - enough to feed a family of 2 adults/3 children for a couple of meals. Feel free to cut it in half unless you want lots of leftovers. This would freeze fine, btw.
If you cut up and add your own garlic and onion, this is a Core dish. The Hunt's canned stuff that I use has added sugar so it's not techincally Core, but the added points would be less than one/serving so I don't worry about it unless I'm eating A LOT at one time.
We had a really nice 4th! We spent the early part of the day in the pool, then B grilled us up a wonderful dinner before we went to the marina to watch the fireworks. I was smart and took some drinks and air-popped popcorn for us to snack on so we weren't even remotely tempted by all the fair food. The result: I woke up this morning to a nice loss that I plan to GROW by Wednesday's weigh in.
BTW, the Dreamsicle cake was FABULOUS!!!! It was a little soggy so I'll use less soda if I make it again, but the flavor was out of this world...and I don't even like cake!
Today we are going down town to buy a new mower because ours died. Again. It's becoming our tradition to buy a new mower each July This year we are going with a human-powered reel mower. Good for the environment and a good workout too. I don't know if I'll actually use it since push mowing an acre of lawn in Florida in July doesn't sound too appealing, but I may help hubby out from time to time. Maybe.
I got in a great workout today - 2 miles with perky, little Leslie followed by 30 minutes of Firm Yoga. I'm feeling adequately stretched and toned this afternoon.
Last year we took the kids to the beach for the 4th and had a really nice time, but this year we are looking forward to staying home. We have a 2.5 foot kiddie pool that is perfect for us all to splash around in - plus there's a CLEAN bathroom nearby. Who can beat that??? So we plan to cook on the grill and have a fairly relaxing day.
For dessert I'm going to try a new recipe:
Dreamsicle Cake (3 points)
-for cake-
1 Duncan Heinz Classic White cake mix
2 egg whites
1 can diet orange soda (Slice, Sunkist, etc.)
-for filling-
1 sm. pkg. orange flavor sugar free Jello
1 cup hot water
1 cup cold water
-for frosting-
1 sm. pkg. orange flavor sugar free Jello
1 sm. pkg. INSTANT fat free, sugar free vanilla pudding
1 cup 2% milk
1 tsp. vanilla
8 oz. tub Cool Whip Free topping
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x13 cake pan with Pam. Mix dry cake mix with orange soda and egg whites. Blend 30 seconds until moistened and then 2 minutes on medium speed. Pour batter into pan and bake 33-35 minutes, or until done in center.
Mix 1 pkg. orange jello powder with hot water until dissolved. Add cold water and stir.
Poke holes in cake with fork that the tines have been sprayed with Pam. Pour orange mixture evenly over hot cake. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.
For frosting, mix together the second dry orange jello mix and the dry vanilla pudding mix. Then add milk and vanilla, stir well. Gently fold in the Cool Whip. Spread on COLD cake. Keep refrigerated.
Your family will not know this is a points-friendly recipe!
Nutritional Info: 1 serving = 1/15 of cake
Calories - 140
Fat - 2.8 gr.
Calories from fat - 25
Fiber - 0
Carbohydrates - 27.2
Protein - 1.6 gr.
WW points - 3
Oh how I miss going through every week KNOWING I'd pull a loss at the scale.
Things are finally starting to stabilize a bit for me though and I had my 4th loss in a row. Talk about craziness!!!! It was only 0.8, but that's a total of 4 pounds in 4 weeks which FINALLY brings my loss average to a pound/week. I know it doesn't sound great, but if you look at my weightloss graph, you can see why that would thrill me to the ends of the earth.
I tried a couple of new CORE recipes this week. One was Inside Out Egg Rolls and the other was Aloha Chicken. Both have soy and could cause water retention, but I did ok this week. Hubby even liked them both which is a HUGE bonus in my book.
I'm starting to make my plans for the fourth and love that I'm doing CORE and can relax a bit. We'll have grilled steak, shrimp and corn on the cob which are all CORE. I'll also make some potato salad which should be CORE 1 (or maybe 2) since I don't like FF mayo. Now all I need to do is come up with some sort of dessert, but I'm sure the kids would be just as happy with popsicles. Easy Peasy
Back again after a lengthy absence. I haven't given up my weightloss efforts, but haven't made much progress either. My thyroid continues to be a problem for me, but I think we are narrowing in on the correct dosage. I need to see the dr either today or tomorrow to get my latest test results and then we'll see what happens next. My hair is still falling out, but I've had good losses the last couple of weeks so maybe we are getting close to a point of stability.
I've been following the Core plan of Weight Watchers since Saturday (6/21) and it's been going well. I just love the freedom to eat when I'm hungry - as long as I stick to the Core foods, of course. But it's pretty easy to be satisfied with the list.
I've been thinking and that's always a dangerous thing
I am supposed to take my thyroid meds on an empty stomach to help absorption. This means I can not eat one hour before or two to three hours after I take them. With three kids and a dog and life to distract me, this generally means that I don't eat until lunch time each day. While I know this isn't the best way to handle my nutritional needs, the way I handle the morning hunger does leave me curious.
Why is it that I can easily ignore those hunger pangs in the morning? Why can I acknowledge that I'm hungry and be satisfied with a glass of water or one piece of sushi until I have the time to sit down and have a regular lunch? Why can I handle it so easily in the morning, but then have a complete and total break down after 8PM nearly every night. Why do those night time hunger pangs seem so much worse than the ones I have in the morning?
I don't know yet, but I need to get a handle on those night time eating issues or I'll never lose this weight.
In case anyone is curious, I have not given up on losing weight. I'm still here fighting the good fight every day. I'm just seriously frustrated by my sloooow internet connection and don't generally possess the patience to wait for the EP pages to load. God has blessed me in a lot of ways, but patience is not one of my gifts.
So here I am for another brief check in. I think I posted before about getting my new thyroid meds and they have helped, but my weight loss continues to be a crazy roller coaster ride. I'm not giving up though. Last week I had some more bloodwork done and am hoping to get the meds bumped up at least a little bit more, but I'm not overly impressed with this guy's attitude and may need to do some dr shopping. In the mean time, I'm just hanging on by my fingernails - trying to inch out a few good losses each month.
I read a fantastic quote the other day:
You can either make EXCUSES or make PROGRESS
I also read an interesting thought that gave me a swift kick in the behind. I will have to paraphrase, but basically the poster was agreeing that it IS hard and sometimes painful to lose weight, but it's also hard (and painful) to watch other people playing with their kids at the park, sitting comfortably in airplane or theatre seats, shopping for new clothes, playing at the beach and basically enjoying their lives while we hide in the shadows because we're too embarrassed or uncomfortable or out of breath/shape to participate in life. *doh!* That one hit me hard. So yeah - it is hard to lose weight, but it's even harder to keep the weight on!
I've been MIA. Again. I'm still around, but haven't had much extra time for blogging since my computer is soooo slow and takes forever to load each page. I am constantly fighting the urge to toss the dang thing out the window.
I'm still plodding along though. My weight loss continues to be up and down, but I did finally get my blood work done and am back on my thyroid meds - so that should help. My new dr insisted on re-starting me at the lowest dose, so I went from 175 mcg to 25 mcg. Talk about a killer change! I think I could hear my metabolism coming to a screeching halt. Thankfully he saw how nasty the bloodwork results were without the meds and ordered me to increase them weekly and retest in a couple more weeks. Overall I am feeling much better, but still dealing with the weight craziness, leg cramps, hair loss and dry skin. My mood swings seem to be a little better though. At least I don't FEEL like a raving lunatic these days. Of course I'm afraid to ask the family what they think...they might tell me the truth LOL.
B & I bought bikes today so we can start taking family rides on the weekends. My goal is to take the kids at least 3 days during the week, but you know they are going to be asking me to take them every day. I should have some killer legs come May!
I've been doing The Firm's Simple Solutions Yoga workout a few times each week. I am soooooooo inflexible that I should probably do it every day. It's a good workout for beginners and those not interested in yoga-speak - this one is purely physical and I do enjoy it. The set came with a pilates workout and I need to give that one a try too.
I'm still getting in a few of the TransFIRMation workouts, but need to do that more regularly - especially since they work so well. I've been feeling really run down lately though (thanks to my thyroid) and just getting through my day has been about all the exercise I can stand. But I'm beginning to feel like a human and all the kids seem to be healthy, so I'll be ramping things up a bit in the near future.
Yeah I know I'm a bad EP'er, but I'm still around. My children and their cold and flu bugs are KILLING me this year. It seems like I get one healthy and another one comes down with it. I suppose that's the hazzard that comes with having 3 children who basically hang out together 24/7 though, isn't it? At any rate, this week all 3 of them are sick so I threw in the towel and called a sick week. We've done nothing but watch movies basically all week long. I've been working on laundry, cleaning and decluttering, but it is hard to get much done in between my nursemaid duties. They seem to be feeling better today though. I am sooooooo hopeful that we will be over this SOON!
My weight loss has been all over the place for the last 6 weeks. I made it to a low of 236, then jumped up to 240 the following week and maintained that for 3 weeks. Last week I jumped up to 243, but I'm down to 241 this week. I assume it's all thyroid related with a few other hormone issues thrown in there, but I refuse to give up. I was supposed to see the dr today, but can't make it because (1) the kids are still iffy and (2) we're supposed to get another bad electrical storm at the time I'd be going. No worries though, I WILL go next week.
I got The Firm's SImple Solutions Yoga workout and would highly recommend it for beginners! I am terribly inflexible, but this set comes with a brick and a strap to help with the stretching. It also DOES NOT place any focus on any spiritual aspect of yoga - there's no talk of being at one with yourself or anything like that. It's a pure workout. Love it
The problem with living in a house with 4 other people (3 under the age of 9) is that someone is always sick. Such has been my life for the last 3 months and it's getting kinda' old. Fortunately it's nothing more serious than a yucky cold, but I'm soooo done with it already.
In Weight Watcher world - things are moving sloooooowly. I did great in December - managed to drop 8.2 pounds - and went onto add 1.8 pounds in the first part of January. TOM hit and I had a 4.8 pound gain - and it's been with me ever since. I ended January at 3 and have been maintaining since then. If I wasn't about 90 pounds from goal, I think I would be thrilled with how "easy" it's been to maintain.
I'm still doing my thing though. I haven't been working out regularly since I've been dealing with this chest cold dealie, but otherwise things are moving right along.
So that's it from me. Still here. Still working it. Not getting any results lately, but not giving up either.
This year we are going with a human-powered reel mower. Good for the environment and a good workout too. I don't know if I'll actually use it since push mowing an acre of lawn in Florida in July doesn't sound too appealing, but I may help hubby out from time to time. Maybe.
LOL