Alien Abduction

Despite rumors to the contrary, I am, in fact, still alive.  It's been quite an adventure.  Here's what happened.

WARNING: GRAPHIC AND POTENTIALLY DISTURBING IMAGES TO FOLLOW!

Last spring, after enjoying an evening session of heart-pounding Zumba for Senior Citizens, I toweled off and headed for the parking lot.  I noticed strange lights in the sky far away.  I stood around watching for awhile, as everyone else from the class left the lot.

Suddenly, the lights zipped over my head, and I realized it was some kind of spacecraft.  Terrified, I did what any suburban mom would do -- I ran for the safety of my SUV.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it.  The craft's lights flashed and brightened to a blinding degree.  The next thing I knew, I was being lifted into the ship.

While I'm happy to say I was NOT probed in the way you might expect (ick), I WAS injected with fat cells via inordinate amounts of delicious junk-food.  It was, as you might imagine, a harrowing experience.

Anyway, after several months of studying me for alien science (Weights and Measures Division), those creatures finally released me back to my natural habitat.

The good news is that I was left relatively unharmed; the bad news is that I was left with this alien-induced extra weight.  Not to mention that I'm constantly being trailed by Men In Black these days.

Just remember, readers.... "The Truth is Out There."

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.