~*~ Picture alert! I got the Glamour Shots scanned and posted a few. ~*~
At 8:00 last night (right after writing my last entry, actually) I broke out my 2-mile WATP DVD. Good God that was easy! I don't think I'd ever gotten through it before, and it has been 2 years since I last tried. That made me feel really good. I think I might be able to force myself to do at least the 1-mile on nights the girls give me fits. It's only 20 minutes or so. I know that I really need to kick up the workouts if I'm planning to keep any of this weight off once it's gone.
After finishing, I sat down at my computer to unwind. Not long after that, I got an IM from someone who I thought was one of the moms in this playgroup I just joined last week. Ohhhh boy was I ever wrong!! In a good way though. It was actually someone who had emailed me on a dating site that I'd all but forgotten about. Thankfully, he's the forgiving sort and I got to spend my night chatting with a really hot Italian guy from Dallas...who called me "sexy". That's not something I hear every day.
Heh...that title made me flash back to the old Bartles & James commercialsin the late 80's, early 90's. But I digress...
Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement the end of last week. I was really feeling rather blah about the entire ordeal. I was definitely bloated on Friday. Today, the bathroom scale showed me down a bit from Friday morning. In light of that, I am happy to report a very good weekend.
Saturday, I took the girls to have their pictures taken and then out to lunch at "the apple place" as my oldest calls it. Had the Teriyaki Shrimp Skewer off the Weight Watchers menu and about a quarter of the apple pie that I ordered for the girls after the oldest fell backward out of her chair and conked her head on the floor. Don't ask me how it happened...I blinked. Anyway, Saturday was awesome. Calorie total was around 1900.
Today we went grocery shopping to restock the fruit, veggie and yogurt supply for next week. I stuck to the program all day. Just had a yummy Klondike Slim-a-Bear for part of my evening snack. I'll have some strawberries and yogurt in a while (since I didn't have any yogurt on hand to eat this morning). Calorie total will be around 2000.
I will be making one small, yet huge, change this week from what I've been doing. Instead of using powdered creamer in my coffee, I'm switching to fat free half and half. 3/4 cup is the caloric equivalent to 1 cup of milk. That will let me have 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning without adding all the creamer calories (which I think might be part of my problem of late...I've been drinking more coffee the past couple of weeks.). So yay. I'm looking forward to the end of the week to see how much progress I've made.
I hate weighing in. I was up 0.2 pounds this week to revisit 228.6. However, I'm all about taking measurements. I just completed my 8th week, so this was my 3rd measuring. I'm down 1 in the chest, 1 in the upper abdomen, 3 in the lower abdomen, but the same in the hips. 5 more inches gone for a total of 10.5. Okay, so I've lost as many inches as pounds.
Next week has to be better. Perhaps I won't be bloated...
I feel like I'm going crazy this week, though I'm not sure why. Between work and home, I've been under an unusual amount of stress. We had boss-types in for meetings most of the week and the girls haven't been sleeping well. Not a fun combination.
I don't think I've done so well staying on program either. Maybe I'm fooking myself. It just feels like I've done horrid all week. Yesterday was b-a-d. We had a BBQ lunch at work. I had a couple small pieces of brisket (about the amount in the JC Sirloin & Rice bowl), a tablespoon of cole slaw, 1/4 cup baked beans, 2 strawberries, 2 pieces of pineapple, 3 grapes, and a roll. There were no vegetables! Aaaaaaaaah! Someone had signed up to bring a veggie tray, but it wasn't there. I signed up to bring the fruit so I wouldn't be tempted by the desserts. Then last night, I took the girls up to the mall to get my pictures and took them to Chili's for dinner. I ordered the Southwest Eggrolls for my meal and ate half of it at 405 calories, 25 g fat...ugh. I didn't eat an afternoon snack and just had a fat-free sugar-free pudding cup for dessert. I might have been okay overall. I did drink water all day.
The bathroom scale this morning hadn't budged. But who the hell knows anymore? When I've felt like crap about my week I've lost. When I thought I did really well, I maintained or lost very little. The whole process is so damned confusing and frustrating. Not enough to make me quit, but I wish I could just stick to the program perfectly.
I had pancakes and sausage for breakfast, banana and yogurt mid-morning. Lunch is the tuna salad kit and lettuce salad w/ FF thousand island. Afternoon snack is a meal replacement bar (230 cal...exchanges are 2 carb, 1 protein, 1 fat). Saving my fruit from mid-morning and lunch for later. I'll have one in the car between JC and the daycare and the other with my evening snack. I'm drinking water like crazy trying to get 8-10 glasses in before 1:30. I weigh-in at 3:15, so I want some time to get it all out of my system. Hoping it will get rid of some of yesterday's sodium overload.
And on top of all that, AF showed up this morning. May I scream now, please?
Friday night I was told by my oldest that we were having pizza for dinner. Yeah, she's 2 1/2 and demanding! Sooo, since I had none on hand, I placed the order as soon as we got home. Then, after dinner, I promptly took them to their father for the weekend. That pizza has been sitting in my fridge since Friday. I had 1 piece on Saturday, but it wasn't that great. Last night, it called to me again, but I resisted. Instead, I put the sucker in the trash can. I should have frozen it Friday night, but it's too dry to do that now. Oh well, it's just money...I'll earn more.
Time to time, I find myself struggling with the junk that is left in my pantry and freezer. It's not often, maybe once a week, but often enough to bother me. I suppose I should just take the time to purge everything that is remotely bad. If I shouldn't eat it, the girls shouldn't either. I want to raise them knowing how to eat well. It is something I have struggled with my entire life.
The older I get, the more I realize how horrible my parents were with teaching us real-world things. Food choices and money management are the two things I struggle with the most. They were also discussed the least. My parents were both teachers, and we learned a lot from them. All three of us are intelligent. It's too bad none of us are very smart.
I don't want to do that to my kids. I want them to be able to look at me when they're 25 or 30 and say, "thanks for teaching me how to live well."
I finally tackled one of the entrees in my freezer that has been tormenting me since the beginning...beef chow mein. See, I am very picky about oriental spices/seasoning. Most dishes don't appeal to me, and that was well proven with the sweet & sour chicken as well as the lemongrass chicken. So Sunday noon rolls around and I was ready. I had bought some stir fry veggies specifically for the occasion. Popped those in the microwave to be steamed and then cooked the chow mein. Dumped the veggies on my plate and then the rest of the food on top. Surprise, surprise...I liked it! It may have to become a weekly thing for awhile.
Right now, I'm starving. Actually, I woke up hungry and it hasn't gone away even though I've had breakfast and yogurt. Only 35 minutes until lunch, so I don't want to eat anything else...including the piece of fruit I didn't eat mid-morning that I'm saving to go with my afternoon snack of cheese and popcorn. Water? Why, yes, I do think I'll have some more.
So weigh-in yesterday afternoon wasn't so fabulous. I maintained for the week. Here I thought I did so awesome and it didn't show up. Oh well...there's always next week. And the week after that...and the 10 months after that. Right?
Last night after I dropped the girls with their dad, I hit JCPenney and Kohl's for some shopping. Ended up with 2 bras and a top from JCP. And then 2 tops, a dress, a pair of sandals, and some cheap-o but cute jewelry from Kohl's. This morning I ran to Wal-Mart for a garment bag and found a cute white top and another pair of sandals (yes, I'm a shoe whore...hehe).
My session at Glamour Shot was great! There are some really great ones. I ordered twice as many pictures as I'd planned, but I really wanted the proof sheet with all of them and it was cheaper to buy more pictures than it was to just get the proof sheet...weird pricing scale, I know. I hope to get them back next weekend, but it might be the middle of that next week...dang it!
I feel like I have had an exceptional week. Not only have I stayed at 2000-2200 calories every day, I have also done some sort of activity...mostly toning, but I also did pilates one day and yoga another. I noticed that my pants are no longer skin tight, and I'm not bursting zippers. Shirts are a slightly different story, but that's just going to be the way things go until the baby stops nursing.
Clothes shopping this weekend should be an enjoyable experience. JC Penney is having a big sale tomorrow morning. I may scope out their "little black dress" selection tonight and go back first thing to pick one up. I need to decide what kinds of outfits I want to wear for the photo session. Obvioulsy the LBD if I find one. My jeans fit perfectly right now, so I'll wear them with my skinny heeled boots. I have a top to go with that, but I want to see if I can find something I love more. I need at least one more idea.
And then I get to search for a bra that doesn't show. I've needed to buy new bras for quite awhile but not because they don't fit. I'm still wearing my nursing bra every single day, and it's not necessary. However, being a 36H/I makes finding a bra in a store impossible. I can get by with a 40DD, but they don't fit quite as perfectly. I have a black one that I love, but it's not cut right. I really need to find one that's low-cut and/or strapless...that's going to be a challenge.
The reward of new clothes and photos will be even sweeter if my weigh-in this afternoon goes well. I saw 227.5 on the bathroom scale this morning...a full pound lower than it was this time last week. I'll know the official verdict in about 6 hours .
This afternoon was my 8th visit for toning. At the end, I got measured. I'm not sure that the numbers are right since a different person measured me this time than 2 weeks ago. Anyhow, are you ready for this? No, really...seriously. I was astonished. Even if the reality is that I've only lost half this much I'm impressed...
Okay, here goes...
11.25 inches
That was in just 2 weeks. Holy crap! Granted, they measure in like 10 places vs. Jenny's 5 or so. Anyhow, the combination is working just like it's supposed to be.
Tonight, after I put the girls to bed, I put in my Pilates for Dummies DVD and got through about half of it. In the intro, she says to start with 5-6 moves and work up to all of them, so that's exactly what I did. I think I got through 6. It's a decent start, but pilates is a lot more difficult (for me) than yoga. I'm not going to not do it, but I probably won't do it as often as the yoga DVD...at least until I'm in slightly better shape.
While I was bored at work this afternoon, I decided what the girls are going to get me for Mother's Day. "They" are buying me a session at Glamor Shots this weekend. They're also "letting" me buy some new clothes for the occasion...even though I'll likely have to have them altered soon (which mom and/or I can do, so it's not a big deal). I'm going shopping Friday night and again Saturday morning (after I hit the farmer's market for produce) if I have to. My appointment is at 1:00. It's actually not going to cost much unless the pictures are fabulous and I cave. I have a coupon for session, hair, makeup, 1 - 8x10, and $10 off any purchase. Happy Mother's Day to me...
So why do this now instead of waiting until I've hit my goal?
My parents have this wall full of family photos and the one of me and the girls that is up there was taken the 2nd day I was home with the new baby. That one is there to replace one of my ex and me. My sister's and brother's wedding photos are there, yet there I am looking like I just gave birth or something.
I want a nice "before" shot...I'll do it again when I'm at my weight goal. No one ever has good before shots!! If they turn out nice, I'll go back for the "after" shot.
If I decide to get back into the online dating scene, I want a good picture. The ones I have are crappy.
Happy May Day!! Where did April go? Man, oh, man! My baby girl will be ONE on the 25th. Holy crap! I haven't even started planning the party. We're having it Memorial Day weekend at my parents' place.
I think I'm over the funk that got me off track the last couple of weeks. This weekend went really well even though I was busy as hell keeping the girls occupied. We even went out for lunch Sunday (simply because I didn't want to heat up the house by turning on the oven). I took the girls to Applebee's for the very first time by myself. It was an adventure, but they were such angels!! Neither of them gave me a bit of trouble the entire time we were gone!! I ordered the southwestern cobb salad, but ate just over half of it because it was so huge. I brought the rest to have with my broccoli & cheese potato for lunch today. Mmm-mmm, yummy!
I decided to join a couple of challenges on the JC boards for the month. I've committed myself to doing 15 hours of exercise (on top of toning) and have a 5 pound goal for the month. I think that when I set real goals for myself I do better to stick with things. If I just commit to eating on plan with no goal except the eventual end, it's a lot more difficult. Here's to getting there!!
