Count 'Em!

Thursday's weigh-in was really good.  I hit a milestone!

Count those 5-pound stars!  And FYI - don't try to do the math.  That 5% sticker is just stuck on randomly.  I know someone thought she figured out my starting weight at 300 pounds from this pic.  Nope!  

 This is big news for me, because 35 pounds is halfway to my "high goal" with Weight Watchers.  What's my high goal, you might ask?  It's the highest I can weigh at WW and still make lifetime status.  My "big goal" is to be even below that, but I'm taking it a step at a time.  Oh, yeah, and I'm actually down 36.2 pounds total!!


And now for my Weekend Update...

Friday Night:
Big party animal that I am, I hit the gym.  Apparently I'm the only one in town with no social life this night, if the gym attendance is any indication.  At least I had my choice of ANY machine I wanted!

Lonely gym

Saturday Afternoon:
Back to the gym.  I decided to try to break my record for stats on the elliptical machine, and I did it!  Now, I don't know how accurate these things are, but it looked pretty good to me either way.  I did an hour plus a 5-minute cool-down, and it shows 6.56 miles distance and 912.9 calories burned.  Even if it's off by half, that's not too shabby!

My record high!

Saturday Night:
Casino Night Fundraiser for a local school.

 It was lots of fun, even though I didn't win any prizes.  The food was catered by one of my fave restaurants (Rails), and I think I ate sensibly.   I chose the spring mix salad over the Caesar salad, with vinaigrette dressing (just a drizzle) instead of the Ranch dressing.  I didn't take any bread or potatoes (hard to do, but not that big of a deal).  Then I had a smallish portion of chicken breast and a tiny bit of pork tenderloin, green beans, and a tomato/onion/pepper creole side item.  No dessert (cheesecake and chocolate cake), and a small glass of white wine.

My losing raffle tickets

Sunday:
My birthday!
Went with the family to eat Mexican food.  I wanted to have an enjoyable meal without going nuts, since it was my birthday.  I had chicken fajitas (just ate the chicken and veggies) with pinto beans (not refried) and a dab of guacamole (yum-o!).  I had a couple of chips with salsa, then asked for corn tortillas to dip instead.  That's GOOOOD!  I also had 1/2 of a flour tortilla, because they make them there at the restaurant and are my favorites.  It was a great time, and my kids were good while we were there, even though my daughter was disappointed that I wouldn't let them ask the wait staff to cram a sequined sombrero on my head and sing happy birthday.  (Fear of wearing a multi-use hat, not fear of attention.  Clearly, I love attention.)

Later we drove to Comfort, a little town nearby.  One of our friends was there and mentioned she saw my favorite (red velvet) in little cupcakes at a little restaurant/shop called High's, so we went out on a quest.  I really want to go back to High's for lunch one day.  It looked really cute, and the menu looked tasty.  Click here for the link if you want to check it out.  We took some of these little beauties home.

Red Velvet Cupcake - The Best!

Birthday Chick

 Because I'm still tracking everything I eat this day, I looked up the Points Plus value for red velvet cupcakes.  Uh, yeah, 14 Points Plus!  Yikes!  But it WAS my birthday, so I couldn't deprive myself and just cut mine in half.  Ah, just right!

Half the cupcake, all the flavor!

We also went to Sweet Comfort, a little candy and ice cream shop down the road from High's.  We picked up two of the biggest chocolate-covered strawberries I've ever seen.  I had a little bite of this (just enough) and let the family have the rest.  It's fun to share sometimes!

So.  Good.

 After all that indulgence, yes, I actually went to the gym this evening.  I didn't hit my record on the elliptical again, but I did come close.  It's probably because I had to change my age from 40 to 41 when I set it up, right?

Birthday Stats

 As I was leaving, the girl at the front desk wished me a Happy Birthday.  Then she asked why on earth I was at the gym on my birthday.  As I walked out, I realized something.  I was there on my birthday because I wanted to be.  Because I wanted to give myself a gift I've been denying myself for a long time.  I want to be healthy and take time just for me.  And that's a very good thing, and it was a very happy birthday indeed!

Food Choices

Our family was invited to a Super Bowl party on Sunday.  I decided to bring a veggie tray, to help me make better food choices there.  I wound up taking home almost the whole thing!  I guess veggies were not as popular as the meatballs, stuffed mushroom caps, and cheese dips that were available.  Oh, it was all so tempting!  I did have a few tastes here and there, but I loaded up on the veggies.  I could have done better, but I was quite restrained nonetheless.

Yesterday my husband took me to lunch at one of my favorite local restaurants.  I had my standby "Farmer's Market Salad" which is baby spring mix with green apples, a little Texas goat cheese, walnuts, dried cranberries, and grilled chicken.  It comes with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing, and I used that sparingly.

Yum!

This restaurant is called Rails - A Cafe at the Depot.  It's in an old railroad depot, and has a cool vibe about it and really good food.  I highly recommend trying this place if you're ever in the Texas Hill Country.  Besides the food, one of my favorite things is the ceiling:

Inside Rails

I'm trying to learn to enjoy dining out and enjoying healthier options when doing so.  I'm trying to focus more on the conversation, presentation of food, and details of my surroundings.  There are so many perks to going out to eat other than seeing how much fat and carbs I can cram down my throat.  It's not an easy transition, I must admit, but I'm working on it one meal at a time.

Giving In Just a Little

The Spurs game Friday night was so much fun!  And the Spurs won!

Photo: http://www.sportnooz.com/tag/okafor

It's always fun watching my boyfriend at work.

Tony Parker -- Okay, so maybe he doesn't know he's my boyfriend yet, but I'm sure I'll be a refreshing change of pace after Eva Longoria!

We watched the basketball action from the suite, where all kinds of food was served.

Fajitas!

I had some chicken with hot sauce -- no tortillas, cheese, sour cream, etc. -- and just a few cashews (I counted them like a nerd and had 8.)

Snacks everywhere!

Lots of drinks were available, including all kinds of beer and wine.  I prefer hard liquor, so I was safe and drinking water or Sprite Zero, until someone opened the liquor cabinet.  I couldn't resist and had a little Jack & Diet Coke.

The dessert cart came around, and I just went out for a peek and a photo.

The Delightfully Evil Dessert Cart

Then someone came in with a shot of DiSaronno in a little chocolate shot cup.  Okay, so I had one, minus the chocolate cup.  I got mine in a regular glass.  I don't normally drink much, but it looks like my big splurges for the night were alcohol related.  We had a great time, and I tracked everything, so it's all good.

Saturday night was a fundraising gala in Kerrville.  That was fun too, but I had already decided not to drink.  I had a big salad, a little pork tenderloin, and lots of veggies on the side.  No bread, just because I knew if I started on that, I would get that carb rush and go nuts.  And then dessert was served.  Turtle brownies.  This could be trouble.

Are you kidding me?!

I took one tiny bite, then my husband had a bite.  Then I took another little bite.  It was the best dessert I've had in a long time.  So I passed the dessert to my husband and made him place it far away from me.  My tactic worked!

The Turtle Brownie in Exile

Then, of course, there was dancing and socializing, and I got out of there feeling pretty good about it and having had a wonderful time.

I had planned to work out on Sunday, but started feeling really bad and didn't feel up to it.  I think it's just a bad cold, but it's put me in slow-motion.

Aside from feeling under the weather Sunday and today, I had a really fun weekend and feel good about the food choices I made.  Exercise is on tap this week, and I'm determined to have another loss at Weight Watchers this week.  

Betcha Can't Eat Just One

Yesterday I fouled up.

Here's what did it:



Feeling festive, I bought a bag of candy corn.  I don't normally keep treats like this in the house anymore, and this is one of those items that only comes out once a year.  "It's for the kids," I told myself.  Apparently, I lie to myself on a regular basis.

I realize there are worse things in the world, but I shouldn't have eaten as many as I did.  On a positive note, I wrote down the calories, calculated the Points, and went light on the rest of the day.  This enabled me to stay within my calorie range for the day, despite having about three servings of tri-colored sweetness.

Who said, "A calorie is a calorie, no matter what the food is"?  I'm gonna have to call B.S. on that.  As far as weight loss/gain, I might not argue the point.  However, by last night, I felt gross from all the sugar.  Had I enjoyed 480 calories worth of, say, apples or veggies or almonds, I don't think I would have felt the same as I did after 480 calories of corn-shaped sugar and corn syrup.

My plan for today is this:

Eat my regular breakfast and lunch.
One or two SMALL, healthy snacks between lunch and dinner.
Extra water.
Lean dinner.
Nothing after 6:00 PM.
Cardio.

I weigh in tomorrow at noon.  Hope I haven't blown it.  I've exercised more in the past two weeks than I normally ever do, so at least I know I'm doing something good for my heart.

I will be very diligent today and might try to come in a couple hundred calories below my norm.  I'm not going to starve by doing this for one day.  Tomorrow I will resume my regular pattern.

This is a good reminder to me that I need to be more careful with my environment, especially around the holidays.  I make it far too easy to set myself up with excuses during these months.  I really convinced myself that candy corn would be a safe bet, since it's not chocolate.  Clearly, I'm not that picky in how I blast sugar into my system.  Good to know!

Anyone else have a Halloween food item that triggers overeating?

Queen B

The birthday party I attended was at Queen B's English Tea Room.  It's in this old house which is filled with shelves and shelves bursting with antique teapots and cups and little knickknacks, all of it for sale.  The tables are right in the midst of all these items, and it's very cozy.  In the mood to be a little silly? Queen B's has loads of hats and boas and lacy gloves to add to your "posh afternoon."

The Tea - About ten of us ladies shared the day's celebration for our friend.  We each had our own little pot of tea, which we poured through strainers into our floral cups.  I chose vanilla, but the choices were endless.  There was Summer (fruity), Winter (spicy), Gunpowder (a strong green tea), and Chocolate (yep, chocolate), just to name a few.

The food - Wonderful and abundant food, with choices from soup and salad and sandwiches to more traditional English fare.  Then I had one little treat and put it in my food journal.  Still stayed within my calorie range for the day!  However, I must admit that despite my wee indulgence, I showed incredible restraint while sitting in front of this:

The gifts - We were instructed not to bring gifts.  I always feel a little funny about this, for some reason, but I obeyed the request.  At one point, the birthday girl said that she wanted to let us know that we had already given her gifts.  She then presented each of us with a slip of paper containing her account of ways our friendship had blessed her.  Each was specific to the recipient.  I thought this was such a sweet gesture and was a real celebration of friendship.  

The bonus - In the central area of Queen B's is a little shop with British items for sale.  I'm sure it's actually a lovely product, but I had to snap a picture of this item that caught my attention purely for its interesting name.

Cheerio, loves!

There's a Taco in My Soup

No pizza was ordered while my parents were visiting this weekend!  This just might be a first in my life.  I'm so blessed that they're so supportive of my weight loss efforts.  I think they realize that I need to lose weight for my health and not just for my jeans size.  They were very good about accepting my food choices and staying with my kids while I went to the gym.  I did make some white chocolate macadamia nut cookies while they were here, but luckily they were already prepared and ready to pop into the oven.  They were from a fundraiser, and I mentioned being afraid of them in an earlier post.  But no fear this time!  I thought they were pretty and smelled really good, but I didn't feel like having one.  Instead, I had a mini ice cream sandwich (100 calories), and it was good and took me about three times as long to eat as a cookie would have.

Last night for dinner, I made Taco Soup.  Now, I know most of you already have a favorite version of taco soup, but I'm going to put my version here, just in case one of you hasn't tried it yet.  I put the ingredients into the recipe builder on the Weight Watchers site, and it came out to 3 Points per 8 oz serving (makes about 17 servings.)  This will make a lot of soup, and it couldn't be easier to do!

taco soup

CHAR'S FAVORITE TACO SOUP

Cook Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes

Ingredients:

         - 2 pounds ground beef (96% lean)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 can pinto beans
- 1 can kidney beans
- 1 can black beans
- 1 can whole kernel corn
- 1 can stewed tomatoes - mexican style (I also like fire-roasted with garlic)
- 1 can Rotel tomatoes
- 1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies
- 1 pkg. taco seasoning mix (dry mix)
- 1 pkg. original Hidden Valley Ranch dressing (dry mix)
- 2 1/2 cups water or more, to make soup broth

Preparation:

Brown ground beef and onions in a large pan, drain off fat. Add remaining ingredients (no need to drain items before adding) and simmer for an hour or so before serving.

Top with cheese and sour cream, if desired.  Can be served with tortilla chips or flour tortillas.  (Cheese, sour cream, chips, tortillas will add points to the total.)

Spooky Shindig

I took my three-year-old son to a Halloween-themed birthday party full of preschoolers yesterday.  So cute!

Instead of a big cake, there was an army of skeleton cupcakes  (forgive the photo quality - I took them with my mobile phone):

Beware!

Luckily for my weight loss efforts, these little guys couldn't be quickly and discreetly gobbled down in a corner somewhere, so I passed on the cupcakes.  Instead, I watched the kids play sweet little games like "Pin the Spider on the Web," "Musical Ghosts," "Bobbing for Apples," "Painting Pumpkins," and a mummy game where they wrapped each other in toilet paper.

Smiling Skeletons

This was also served, so I could munch without fear.

Haunted Bunny Food

 Then after partying down with the preschoolers, I headed to the gym, where the elliptical was my evening activity.

Making Progress!

This was a good test run for the upcoming holiday parties, I think!  What strategies do you have for dealing with the holiday festivities?

Weekly Weigh-In and Hot 100 Update

Weigh-In:

Well, my weight loss has slowed considerably, with 0.8 lost again for this week.  It's okay, but I'm going to have to lose just over a pound a week to meet my goal of 15 additional pounds lost by the end of the challenge.

I'm now down a total of 16.6 total.  It's still too soon to tell by looking at me that I've lost any weight, but I'll get there!

Hot 100:

Speaking of the Hot 100 Challenge, here's my update for this week:

1.  Lose 15-plus pounds by the end of the year / end of the challenge.  Despite a mild start, I'm still heading in the right direction with 13.4 pounds to lose by the end of the year.

2.  Get more sleep.  Still failing miserably.  I need to get a grip on my time management in order to make this happen, so I'm not scrambling around at night trying to finish everything up.

3.  Start taking vitamins.  I'm rocking this one!  By the way, I enjoyed everyone's comments about the Horny Goat Weed from my last update.  Still not sure what it really is intended for.

4.  Make a plan for eating and exercising over the holidays and stick to it.  This one is still several weeks off, but I'm already mentally rehearsing for it.

Book Club:

Last night was my monthly book club meeting.  It is one of my favorite activities ever.  In case anyone is interested, we'll be discussing The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton at our next meeting.

We always start with drinks and appetizers, followed by salad and main course, plus dessert.  I passed on the sangria, which looked and smelled delicious, and I ate one Triscuit but none of the cheeses or meats on the appetizer tray.  

Then we had a nice green salad (dressing on the side).  My friend Wendy hosted last night, and bless her heart, she made a very healthy soup for the main meal.  Big chunks of veggies and chicken in a clear broth with nice spices.  Yum!  By the way, Wendy is my "tiny friend" I referred to in my post about the Chocolate Lounge.  Don't hate her for being thin - she really is one of the sweetest people I know.  She also served her world-famous artichoke bread, and I had one small piece of that.  

Then came dessert.  It was a lovely thick pound cake with berries and whipped cream.

Book Club Dessert

I had my dessert, but without the cake.  Still yummy!

My Version of the Dessert

Have a wonderful weekend!

Pretty in Pink

October is National 

Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

Today I attended the "Baubles & Beads Style Show and Luncheon," which assists local women who might require financial help with their breast cancer treatments, medications, or other needs in order to battle their disease effectively.  This annual event has provided funds to the Peterson Regional Medical Center Breast Cancer Assistance Fund since 2002.

Our Table

Before the crowd arrived

Pink everywhere!

Rose petals on the runway

Baubles & Beads

Naturally, I started thinking about health and wellness during this luncheon.  I thought about how lucky I am not to be dealing with a life-threatening illness, even though I've eaten loads of junky foods and gone long stretches of time being sedentary.  

Sitting at my table were Jennifer and Kacy, who are both runners.  We talked about health and the importance of physical activity.  Jennifer started running just recently.  She has a friend with breast cancer who is beating it and credits that partly to her active lifestyle.  Kacy has been running for about two years, but is really getting serious about it lately (after having major knee surgery, mind you).  She's recently lost almost 50 pounds!  They were very supportive of my efforts to get healthier, and I had a great time visiting with them today.

Jennifer and Kacy

This got me excited thinking about what I might work up to.  I'll be sensible about it, of course.  I've recently recovered from a year-long foot injury, so I won't try to run right now.  I'll need to build up to it.  But already I can see improvement in my abilities.  If I try it and have a problem, I'll just build up more.  But I think I would like to try to run.  Maybe not a marathon, or even a 10K.  But how about a mile?  I know for a fact I couldn't run a mile right now, but maybe someday.

And speaking of physically fit, next up came the local firemen, strutting down the runway to collect money for the cause.  They really knew how to work the crowd, and women were stuffing those boots with cash!

Firemen on the Runway

These little pink gift boxes were at each of our place settings.  What could be inside?  

Open it!

Surprise!

Ah, looks like my two kiddos will each get a little treat!

And speaking of little treats, even the dessert was pink.  Here's where serendipity hit... One guest at our table was not served her dessert.  She asked the waiter for it, but it never came.  So instead of sitting there thinking about how to resist eating the whole thing, I offered my untouched dessert to the other woman.  It worked out great!  

I heard it was delicious!

Today's luncheon was very emotional.  I'd encourage everyone reading this to do what you can to help eradicate breast cancer.  Donate time and money, if you can.  Wear your pink ribbon awareness gear.  Talk about it.  Sign up for events to raise awareness.  This can happen to anyone (and statistically, most of us will be affected by breast cancer during our lifetimes - either personally or through someone we care about.)

So here are my final words (stolen from a t-shirt I saw for sale today): "Feel your boobies."  Check yourselves, and remind others to do the same!

Ouch!

Well, the P90X workouts have begun.  My friend Denise and I started Friday.  I'm still sore from that day, but in a good way.  Not pain like I'm injured, but that reminder that I've actually tapped into some muscles that have gone unused for far too long.  Tomorrow is my least favorite workout - Yoga.  Yes, I know, lots of people adore yoga.  Me, not so much.  But I'm going to do it anyway and try to find that inner peace I keep hearing you can get from yoga.

Yesterday I attended a fundraiser for Young Life.  The event was at an open-air pavilion at one of the many camps located here in the Texas Hill Country.  The weather was perfect, and the pavilion was between a pond and the river.  It was catered by Acapulco Mexican Restaurant, but I still managed to stay within my food range - fajita meat, one tortilla, beans, guacamole, lots and lots of salsa and pico.  No chips,  no rice, no cheese, just one tortilla, no dessert.  No regrets.  It was good, and I enjoyed what I had.

Also, I got my first blogger award!  Thanks to Becky at My Walk From Flab to Fab for the "A Blog With Substance" award.  I'm so excited and so honored!  Becky puts it all out there and is very open with sharing her struggles and successes.  Check her out, and let her know I sent you to visit.

According to Becky, upon receiving the award, I must:

1. Explain my blogging philosophy, motivation and experience in five words.

2. Give the award to ten other bloggers.

Part I - Explaining My Blogging Philosophy, Motivation and Experience in Five Words

Like others, I wondered how in the world I could do this in just give words.  Ask me again in a month, and I'll probably have a different answer. But for now, five words that explain my blogging philosophy, motivation and experience would be this:  Being open grows my soul.  

Part II - Awarding 10 Other Bloggers

I'm still quite new to the blogging community, so I had a really hard time with this.  I don't really know all the etiquette of the blog awards, so I'm going to offer the award privately and will post the recipients after they reply.  

And since Becky said it so beautifully, I'm going to quote her:  "Thank you to all of you bloggers who don't settle for what yesteryear had to offer. Thank you for creating tomorrow anew and inspiring me and so many others to do the same."