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!

Not Slacking

I've been lax in my blogging the last few weeks, but that does NOT mean I'm slacking off.  Nope.  In fact, I've really been staying on my plan with eating, and I've been hitting the gym regularly as well.

The past week was Spring Break for the kids, and we traveled to visit family for the week.  I amazed myself and did great with my food intake, though I got very little exercise.   I had to miss my weigh-in last Thursday since we were out of town, but I'm actually looking forward to this next one.  I am determined to see a loss.

I also got a B12 shot yesterday.  I have no idea if they do anything, but I've heard they're good when you're trying to lose weight, so I got one.  Maybe it's all in my mind, but I did feel more energetic afterward.

Lots going on lately, but I'm feeling really focused on the weight loss effort and feel like my heart is getting healthier with my workouts.

Sticky Stickers!

I've missed you, my bloggy friends!

Just a quick update...At my last weigh-in, I FINALLY got another 5-pound sticker!  That's a total of 31.8 pounds gone!

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.

Jumping the Gun

Normally I wouldn't post anything right before a weigh-in, but I've decided to do just that today.  Here's why.  My friend Mandy mentioned the need to remind herself that no matter what her weight today, she has worked the program and done what she's supposed to.  I'm doing that too.

First off, I did weigh at home this morning, and it showed a little gain.  I could let this get me down, but I'm not going to.  Instead, I'm going to learn from it.  I did what I was supposed to do this week, and I added in exercise.  So why the gain, you wonder?

Here's my theory.  I ate out several times this week, and I tracked everything and didn't go over my Points allowance.  So I thought.  What I've decided is that I must have just misjudged my restaurant servings.  It's the only explanation.  I really enjoy going out to eat (don't we all?), but I need to cut it down a little if I can, at least while I'm trying to lose weight.

The hubs and I met up with about 16 other people for dinner at the new Japanese restaurant on Monday.  It was lots of fun.  Judging from all the butter slathered all over everything, I'm guessing this could have been a contributing factor to my gain.

Wish I'd gotten a photo of the flaming volcano onion!

Where's the rice?  P.S. - That's my husband's beer, not mine!

This was my plate (before the little bit of beef was added).  I actually did order steamed rice, but for some reason it didn't get delivered.  I didn't ask for it, and still enjoyed the meal without the extra carbs/calories/points.  

Sunday, our family went to a late lunch/early dinner at Mamacita's Mexican Restaurant.  Afterward, we were walking to the car and I couldn't help noticing how warm and perfect the weather was.  We got in the car and I said, "It's so beautiful outside, it makes me wish I could just walk home from here."  Mike stopped the car and said, "Then walk home!"  He was joking in an "I-dare-you" sort of way.  I looked at my shoes (not workout shoes, but Skechers), and figured they'd work just fine.  So I hopped out and hoofed it on home.  Now, it's not really all that far from there to my house -- maybe 1.5 miles -- but it was a great feeling.  I was doing something spontaneous, just because it would be good for me, got a little exercise, and got to enjoy the sunshine.  It's hard to believe it was around 80 degrees just a few days ago, and right now it's like 16 here!  

I have another friend who just got certified to teach Zumba, and that will start on Monday.  I'm going to go try it out and will let you know how that goes!

To close, I just want to say that I probably will see a gain today at Weight Watchers, but it's not because I didn't try.  I just made some mistakes somewhere in my estimations, I think, and I want to learn from this and keep going for more losses coming up.  Not gonna let this get me down, but I'm also not going to take any gain lightly!