Well today is my last day at work - I would scream with excitement but it is very quiet around here. I am meeting with HR at 10:30 and maybe I can leave after that.
Last night I did really well. I had ceviche and then a grilled shrimp salad, it was small and I had the dressing on the side and there were only 5 medium shrimp. I had probably 5 chips and are you ready - no drinks - just water. The scale is up .7 but I was sort of prepared for that, 2 really good days in a row are usually followed by some sort of gain. I also did not get any intense cardio in yesterday. Just a 35 minute walk at lunch. Today I did not bring my lunch since I hope to be back home eating but had a great breakfast, yogurt, oatmeal, blueberries, and pineapple. Yum - the berries were really good. I have more at home and I can have them for lunch or dinner, the DH doesn't like blueberries so that works for me. Planning on a bike ride this afternoon and then out for dinner. I still don't know where we are going and I really hope it is someplace that is workable. We have this dinner group of 5 of us and we take turns picking, this particular person always waits until the last minute and then it is really hard to plan. Plus he is a bad picker, he picked a restaurant so bad one time I did not even eat ay of my food and went home and had a JC meal. That said it is still going to be a great day.
I am happy to report the scale is down another 1.3 pounds and I am now .2 lower than last Saturday morning before the birthday party blow out. Now to keep that scale moving, I feel like every time something good happens like this 1.3 pounds then I go up the next day. I am all set for breakfast and lunch, brought a LC stuffed cabbage roll. Tonight we are going to meet a friend who is in town from California. So dinner out. But I am bound and determined to really stick to it and no drinks or dessert. I am hoping to get a little exercise in before we head out to meet our friend.
I did manage a 30 minute bike ride last night before a dentist appt. I was happy with that. tomorrow is dinner out again. Friday no plans - so depending on the weather either a bike ride blow out or to the gym. Friday is my first official day of freedom. No work - Yeah!! I can plan my day around exercise and running errands. I am actually pretty excited. The boss was so weird, he said oh you had said the end of the month - I never said anything about the end of the month. I said if you had someone to transition into my role, meaning another employee who already works here - you know promoting someone I could be flexible to stay and train them. Well of course does he let me know there is no one to promote - no and btw there are people they could totally promote but they just don't do that here. Anyway, 2 weeks it is and Thursday is my last day!! It is cloudy today but I don't think it is supposed to rain so I can go for my walk at lunch. I will report back on how dinner goes. Wish me luck!
Good news - I made it to the gym last night. But the news for all you Bernie fans, they had these posters up they are having free training sessions with Bernie the next couple of Saturdays at a park near our gym. Free for all even non gym members. So if you live in Chicago or you want to come to see Bernie, here is your chance.
I did 57 minutes of cardio - go me, normally I am sooo bored. 23 on the treadmill and I ran for 11 minutes without stopping and then another 2 minutes after walking. That is really good for me, back when I was sick and pregnant I could barley take 2 minutes, the 11 minutes did not even kill me. Anyway then I moved on to the eliptical - 34 minutes there. The machines said 700 calories burned but that is probably a little high. Today is our only nice day, in the 70's and no rain until later. I am going for a quick bike ride after work and then I have to go get my teeth cleaned. Tomorrow we are going out to dinner with some friends - so much for my ban on dining out. And looking at my calendar I am supposed to have a dinner on Thursday night. Well last night I had some JC turkey chili, with a slice of low fat cheese, extra peppers, onions, and Bruschetta chips crumbled on top. It was yummy. I also had mustard greens, cucmbers, and fennel. All seperate, not cooked together. Breakfast was good this morning and Have my Lean Cusine all lined up for lunch.
Sent the boss an email yesterday about my last day since he was never in his office. Well he emails me at 5pm to say he will stop by, uh - you can but I leave at 4. Now it is 10 am and has he "stoped by" - no of course not. I guess I will start moving all my files to a shared drive so someone can find them when I leave. Try to label all the stuff on my desk. That should keep me busy for a while. The scale was down 1.5 pounds today which is good but still up 1.1 from Sat morning. The inches are not moving either, I had to reject 2 pairs of pants before settling on the ones I have on. I really need to get the next 5 pounds off.
Well the scale is down .8 of the 3.4 that I gained on Saturday. I still do not understand how it is possible to gain 3.4 pounds, that would be an extra 11,900 calories and keep in mind that I went for a 70 minute bike ride that day. Anyway it puts me exactly where I was last Monday. This week is completely free of any social obligations and I am keeping it that way, not dinners out and nothing for the weekend. I am going to a wedding in TX on May 31st and I would really like to back to the pre pregnancy weight or a little lighter. I need to go look for a dress this weekend, I saw a Cynthia Rowley I like but my guess is that 12 is the largest. My upper half will not fit into a 12, that will take at least a good 20 or 30 pounds. This is a link to the dress
The one saw is a royal blue, looking on the website the largest is a size 10. OK - we won't be shopping at Cynthia Rowley for awhile.
Mother's Day was nice, and I stayed on plan. I ended up making this stuffed pepper thing for dinner and also had some asparagus. I mixed up Boca crumbles, 1 C of Brown rice, with 1/4 C egg beaters, chili powder, cumin, 2 oz. fat free feta, and carrots, onion, celery that I had chopped finely and "sauteed" in a non stick pan. I smooshed that mixtue into poblano peppers I had cut in half and taken the seeds out of, then I put canned chopped tomatoes on top and around the peppers. I cooked it for about 30 minutes then added low fat cheese to the top and cooked it for 10 more minutes. It was pretty tasty, I was really hungry so I did not let it rest, it held together pretty well piping hot so I am sure it would be fine if it had just rested. The DH even ate 2 halves and that was his dinner - usually he is so not about the no meat thing. It doesn't bother me. There was more stuffing than would fit into the 4 pepper halves so I just cooked it in a casserole dish, next time I will make the same amount of filling and just have 4 peppers to cut in half and stuff. I was going to bring the leftovers for lunch but I am going out with coworkers - hopefully to this asian place that has a really good chicken breast salad. Planning on a bike ride tonight or the gym. No exercise yesterday - awful weather. That's all for now.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Sunday. We went to Brunch with my Mom and the DH's family, ended up with lunch food but it was great. I had the grilled chicken breast salad - it was already dressed so I ate the whole chicken breast but only 1/2 the salad. I did eat some of the bread and 1/2 a dessert but no alcohol. I also had a really light breakfast, smoothie with strawberries, frozen mango, yogurt and almond milk, also 2 Boca soy sausage things.
Yesterday - I am still reeling from it. I was really telling myself to stick to it all weekend and Friday was great, did not end up going out for lunch had both lunch and dinner at home. Went to the gym on Friday, stuck to my 10 minutes of cardio and did all weight stuff. Then Saturday we got up went for a 70 minute bike ride, showered, ate a little breakfast, went shopping, had lunch - good there. But that is where the story takes an ugly turn, we went to a friend's son's birthday - he turned 1. Well I proceeded to eat M & M's, mixed nuts, a mini sandwich, pita chips with hummus, veg and dip, birthday cake, more dip stuff, more nuts, more candy, jelly bellys. So basically ended up eating from 4-6. Then on the way home stopped to get the veg I needed for dinner, we were having the neighbors over. So for dinner at 8ish I had a big lobster tail, 4 oz of steak, asparagus, roasted potatoes, salad and wine. No dessert. I was so guilty and knew the scale would go up and predictibly 3.4 pounds. Basically everything I had lost during the week so I am back to where I started again. Oy - if I could just control myself at parties, I just cannot seem to not eat, when I first started this a year ago, I just kept avoiding parties at friends houses because I know I have no control. My husband is great but no matter how many times I ask he won't call me out publically and tell me to step away from the nuts. They had plenty of stuff I could have eaten, fruit, veg without the dip etc and I had eaten lunch at 12:30 I wasn't hugry but it was all there. Anyway I am trying hard to avoid the kitchen this afternoon and am making stuffed peppers with Boca crumbles instead of meat for dinner. I will let you know what the scale says tomorrow.
of work left for me. I am not sure my boss understands that but he will when I am gone. I am leaving early today. Not exactly dedicated to sit here all afternoon with nothing to do. Yesterday I ended up not going to the gym and not riding my bike so a day off. I did get a 30 minute walk in at lunch. I also went to Costco after work. They had the new Hungry Girl book for $10 - who knew they would have something so new. Anyway it is great just like the emails. It is so worth $10 - lots and lots of tips and recipes. She has really good info for dining out - I know a lot of you have been forced to do this recently. Also has a lot of calorie shockers - like salads that have 1400 calories or turkey burgers with 1200 calories - and that is without the fries. I also got 4 lbs of strawberries so I had some in a smoothie last night and more this morning for breakfast, very yummy. I am giving half to my SIL, she has 2 hungry kids and a husband so she should be able to eat them before they go bad. The smoothie was 1/2 a frozen banana, about 5 large strawberries, ice, 1/2 cup of Almond breeze milk, 1 packet of Splenda, a squirt of SF Torani Almond suryp and blended it all, yum for a total of about 100 measly calories. I like the Blue Diamond Almond Breeze to make drinks with, it only has 40 calories for 8 oz. that is really great calorie wise and you don't have to refrigerate it until you open it. Anyhoo - going out for lunch, a salad and then having a Lean Cuisine for dinner. I think we are going to a movie tonight too. Also to the gym. I am sticking with my eating plan for the weekend, no splurges I really need the scale to be lower on Monday. I have lost about 3 pounds this week so far but that is after gaining about 4.5 somehow over the weekend. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and Mother's Day!
Well the weather gods were with me last night. It had stopped raining by the time I went home from work and was still warm enough so I went for another bike ride - 12.2 miles and for the 5th day in a row. When I got home I cut a bunch of lilacs and about the time I got inside and was nuking my dinner it started to pour. I was so glad I went last night this morning it is 50 degrees again. Anyway that is fine, good reason to go to the gym and do weight work, that is one of my goals after all. I keep telling myself, 10 minutes of cardio to warm up and that is it, all weights today.
The DH went to poker last night so I was solo for dinner and did great, I had a LC pizza but I did not eat the outside crust, I gave it to the dog. I also made a big salad and I got to put fennel and beets in it. I love fennel and beets, the DH not so much. Then I was busy posting all the lovely pics for you all that I did not snack. The scale stayed the same this morning but I am sure as long as today is good I will see a difference tomorrow. Friday mornings are usually the best for me but this week I want Sat and Sun to be good also. Going for a mani/pedi on Saturday at 1:30 conveniently located near Michigan Ave - lots of shopping so I am going down there early to see if I can find something new for Mother's Day Brunch.
Las Ramblas - this is a big street a couple of blocks from our Barcelona hotel, busy all the time, they sell birds and the street performers are always here
Cool church thing in Barcelona
A little chocolate dessert from a shop called Bubo - it tasted as good as it looks
