Catching up a little

As you can see by the lack of updates here, I've been very busy. Here are my trackers for Thursday through Sunday. 

I lost 3.8 pounds last week. I ate way too much over the weekend, but I tracked it all and I have activity points left, so I'm calling the weekend done and moving on. 

8.5 mile training run on Saturday morning and San Diego AIDS walk on Sunday ...and then walking around Disneyland all day after the walk. Tons of activity points and a bit stiff and sore this Monday morning!

Tuesday 9/24/13

I will get here to post a real update soon. But for now there's just too much on my plate. I am tracking though....yay me!!

Sunday 9/22/13

Busy, busy, busy!! No time for a real update but here's my tracker for Sunday. Stayed on plan all weekend!! 

Saturday September 21, 2013

I started the day with a 5.2 mile walk/run. I did intervals for the first three miles. Then I walked the 4th mile. And finished with intervals for the 5th. I'm working on increasing my walking pace and find myself doing more walking recently. 

This time, before heading out for my run, I had a tablespoon of chia seeds and a half of a banana. I find that my run goes better when I have a little something to fuel my muscles. It's so easy to run around in the morning getting ready to head out, and forget to eat something. When that happens I find myself fading at about mile four. So anyway, the banana and chia seemed to do the trick. I hadn't been out for about 10 days and it felt really good to get out and get it done!

We had a family BBQ get together at my mom's house. I did well with my choices. I had to remain mindful because it's so easy to just keep popping chips and appetizers in my mouth while sitting around visiting! I allowed myself some indulgences but I PICKED what I wanted rather than just mindlessly munching. And I tracked it all. I brought veggie burger patties to substitute for the hamburgers and I ate mine wrapped in lettuce. 

Dinner was leftover spaghetti squash with tofu and spaghetti sauce. And I had popcorn, which I probably really didn't need, as a nighttime snack. 

So, I had a 34 point day and used 8 weekly points. I earned 7 activity points so I'm calling it even. I'm happy with the choices I made and proud of maintaining control in a setting that usually triggers me to go way overboard. 

Whoa! I didn't expect that!

Oh my goodness! I knew I would gain this week but I didn't expect to gain over 4 pounds. On my way home from my WW meeting it dawned on me that I have been out of my BP medication since Sunday....and it's a diuretic. It all makes sense now...lol. My medication came in the mail today. :)

TGIF!

It's 4:33am and I'm having coffee and getting ready for my WW meeting. I'm not looking forward to my weigh in after my weekend of eating, drinking, and general merrymaking...lol. I can feel the weight gain. 

Just like anyone who has ever had to face the weekly weigh in after a questionable week, I find myself having thoughts of skipping the meeting or using the option of going to the meeting but not weighing in...but then I remember that I made a commitment to myself. Not weighing in doesn't change the reality of the numbers. It is what it is. So I'll go and I'll weigh in, and I'll face reality....and then I'll move on with a refreshed resolve to continue on this journey to a healthier me. 

It's Friday, the beginning of a whole new week. There are 7 days of blank trackers just waiting for me to fill them with healthy choices. Lets do this!

Thursday Morning Update

Good morning! It's Thursday morning and I haven't worked out all week! I am finding that those weekends at Disneyland leave me exhausted and lazy when we get home! Thankfully, we don't have plans for any more extended weekend trips for a while! I need a few weeks of normal routine. 

I am mentally preparing for a run on Saturday morning to get me back on track. I am going to pop in my PointsPlus Cardio Stretch DVD when I am done with this update. I've been stretching this week but not the full 30 minute, guided stretch that the DVD offers. 

I'm still feeling a little puffy from my weekend and fully expect to see a gain on the scale tomorrow at my weigh in. 

I didn't do my Sunday afternoon meal prep for the week so my lunches this week are ready made salad bowls from Vons. They're really quite good. 

Okay...so that's where I'm at :)

Here's my  tracker for Wednesday: 

Update: Tuesday 9/17/13

Yay!! First day back to normal after the long weekend! It's always good to get back to normal, back to the routines that keep me on a healthy path. 

Being gone all weekend, I didn't get to the grocery store. So, I had to find something to take for lunch or the temptation to have fast food would have been too much. I had some squash that I roasted when we got home (to keep it from going bad), and I dug around and found a can of turkey chili in the cupboard...perfect! 

I made a quick trip to the store after work to get some fresh fruit and salads for lunch. Rather than making my own salads this week, I picked up some ready made salad bowls from Von's. they have several different varieties, they average 5-8 PointsPlus, and cost $2.99 when you buy 3 or more. I find them to be an easy lunch and it saves me the washing, slicing, and assembling on weeks when I'm short on time. 

I'm discovering that these long Disneyland weekends exhaust me and I find it difficult to get back to my exercise routine. I haven't been out running yet this week, and I'm typing this on Wednesday morning...sigh....I might try and get out there tonight after work. If not, then tomorrow morning for sure. 

Here's my tracker for Tuesday. 

Tuesday morning, 9/17/13...home from 

a 4 day weekend, girl's road trip, weekend away with hubby....date night, eating out, on again off again food wise, walked a bazillion steps :) 

Today is back to routines that help me to stay on track, drinking water like it's my job, tracking, counting, planning....

Wednesday 9/11/13

Tuesday 9/10/13

I had a good day. I started the day with the 15 minute express version of the Full Body Cardio Stretch before going out for my walk/run. I'm sore from the stretching and from the planks that are part of the workout. But, it's the kind of sore that tells you're doing good things for those muscles. My run was 3.3 miles. It's getting light later and later and I know the day is coming soon when I'll need to move inside to the treadmill for my weekday runs. I know it's coming but I am not looking forward to it and I'm enjoying being outdoors in the morning while I can. 

I stayed within my points allowance and tracked and drank my water ....Yay me!!

I saw a recipe for chili that was just a bunch of cans of stuff heated together. I made my own version if a similar chili for dinner. It was hearty and tasty. I'm posting the recipe along with this post. 

That's it, nothing really exciting, just me, sticking to my healthy plans and making routines that make this all easier! 

Monday September 9, 2013

I've been achy and sore for a while now and I decided that I need to stretch more. So I pulled out my Weight Watchers PointsPlus DVDs and committed to doing the "Full Body Cardio Stretch" one every day for a while and see how that goes. I'll do the full workout on my non-run days and the shorter, express workout in the days I run. The full workout is 30 minutes of stretching, using basic yoga moves. I like that it's not all spiritual and metaphysical like so many of the yoga DVDs I've tried, but it is rather boring. The fact that it hurts when I stretch confirms to me that I really need it. So I did the 30 minutes to start the day.  (And I'm sore)

After work we went to a pot luck get together. Those can be challenging but this one had some healthy options   

So...just a regular day....working, tracking, drinking water....

There we go...

Oatmeal/Chia Seed Breakfast Bar

2 very ripe medium size bananas

1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

1/4 cup chia seeds

1 cup nonfat  powdered milk, dry

1 tsp baking powder

Mash the bananas and mix everything together. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then spread it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. I spread it pretty thin. Bake it at 350 for 12-15 minutes until its browned and a little crispy on the edges. Cut into 4 bars at 6 points each. 

Sunday September 8, 2013

This was a pretty good day. It could have been better but it could have been worse. 

I had my Oatmeal/Chia Seed/Banana Bar for breakfast. I love this bar. It's filling and it's like eating cookies for breakfast. I'll post the recipe. 

It's become one of our traditions to have lunch at the San Diego Chicken Pie Shop after church on Sundays. One of these times I really am going to stick to my plan to either order just the pie, or to ask for a to-go box at the start of the meal and put half away. This was not that day.   I did, however, make some small changes. I left food on my plate. I had part of a roll. I ate the filling from the pumpkin pie and left the crust. Not huge changes but small changes that help a little. 

The lunch was so filling that we didn't have dinner. I had some frozen grapes and nibbled on a few bites of roasted veggies when I got them out of the oven. 

So all in all it was an acceptable day. I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon preparing breakfasts, lunches, and salads for the week ahead. I'm ready for a healthy, on plan week!

Saturday September 7, 2013

This was a good day. I started the day with my usual coffee and then a 6.26 mile walk/run. It was hot and muggy out there!

I had a smoothie for breakfast as I dashed out the door to run errands and visit my mom and my sister. 

Time flew while I was at my mom's and before I knew it, it was almost 4:00. So much for lunch!

I still had to go to the grocery store as I was out of any fresh fruits and veggies. So off to the store I went. I was now hungry and oh-so-tempted to get something fast! But I held out and filled my cart with fresh veggies and thought about how good they would taste when I roasted them! 

When I got home,as I was putting things away, a banana split open when I was breaking them apart to fit in the fruit basket...must be a sign that I need to eat that banana...lol!! So the banana took the edge off my hunger while I finished putting things away and getting the veggies ready to roast. I wish I would have taken photos! I roasted cabbage, rutabagas, eggplant, zuchini & yellow squash, onions, and cauliflower. It was a sight to behold! I also washed and cut two bunches of red and green leaf lettuce for my salads and put it in the fridge to crisp up. 

When the veggies came out of the oven, I put some on a plate and added some shredded fat free cheese and a half a cup of black beans. I sprinkled the whole thing with taco seasoning. Oh.my.goodness! Food nirvana!!

Night time snack was chia pudding with frozen strawberries. Yummy stuff!

We started a new motivational thing at Weight Watchers. It's called "I'm a 10" and it's a challenge to reach a goal of losing 10% of your body weight by November 30th. That comes out to 18 pounds for me, 1.4 pounds per week. That's rather a lot for me to expect to lose on a consistent basis but I'm going to give it my best shot. I'd really love to be at a significantly lower weight for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend in January. 

So there we go. That was my day. 

Here's my tracker for Saturday:

Friday 9/6/13

Wouldn't you know I would come back and start journaling publicly again on a week when I gain weight! Yep, that happened. I gained 2.4 this week. I knew it was coming and it is what it is. We spent 3 days at Disneyland this past weekend. It was the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. I didn't participate in either of the longer runs but Vern and I did do the 5K. It was super hot and we walked it. Funny thing, I ended up walking over 15 miles that day! I made the choice to throw caution to the wind and eat all if the wonderful junk that Disneyland has to offer. And, of course, it's so difficult to get back on track afterward....so my week was on again off again. Anyhow...yeah...I gained 2.4 pounds and it's done and I'm putting it behind me and moving on. 

I've actually been doing much better in the last few weeks and I'm down a little over 3 pounds since the last time I posted.

My head is in a much better place than it was back in June...thank goodness! My toe is completely healed and I'm run/walking again. In fact, I'm headed out for a training run this morning. 

I'm signed up for all three races for Tinkerbell Half Marathon Weekend in January. I'll be doing the 5K on Friday, the 10K on Saturday, and the half marathon on Sunday! I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Vern has signed up to do the 5K and the 10K with me! How cool is that!? I'm doing the Half with my friends, Tiam & Rick. I am so looking forward to it!!

I'm doing some things recently in planning and preparing to stay on plan more easily during the work week, like preparing my breakfasts and lunches for the week on Sunday. I'll post more about that later. 

So there we go, I just wanted to post a little update about what I've been up to and where I'm at. If you're reading this, I thank you for sticking with me through the ups, downs, and "I can't do this anymores!" I'm back, my head is in the game and I need the accountability and support that this journal gives me. 

Let's all have a happy and healthy weekend!!

...and my tracker for the day...

Here I am...

Psssst...I think I'm ready to come back and start journaling here again. :) I'm on my way out to my Weight Watcher meeting and I'll post an update later.