I fell off. . . .

I'm talking about my 'healthy eating plan'... I fell off the wagon so to speak :-( It was probably obvious by the lack of posts in here. Since I last posted I haven't eaten good at all, I got totally off track once summer really kicked in, got lazy I guess . . . the walking stopped because it got too hot outside, that and the fact I didn't have to get up early every morning to take Kristen to school.

I hate to say this but I have gained ALL of the weight I lost in just these past 3 months. As of today I am back to 125lb. I was 126lb last summer and after Christmas I decided I wanted to lose about 10lb. I know 125 isn't big, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, none of my pants fit at this weight and my belly just feels bloated all of the time. It's not surprising at all, I've been eating what I call 'all the wrong things' - white pasta for starters, chips, chips and more chips, glasses of wine every night, peanuts, more pasta, white 'instant' potatoes.... basically everything I used to eat that got me 10lb overweight the last time! Why do we do it?!!!

Anyway, I'm blogging here because I'm ready to get back on track and blogging about it always keeps me motivated. When I look back at these posts and see what yummy food I was eating and still losing weight, it helps me focus on what I need to do to lose a little weight again, and start exercising too.

School starts back on Monday, so I will hopefully start walking every morning and eating less during the day. Dinner time will be slightly different than before, I am on a budget with grocery shopping (I have been blogging about it at my daily diary) so I am trying to use things we already have in storage (unfortunately a lot of that is pasta and potatoes!). I will just have to make a concerted effort to have a smaller portion and fill up on salad or veggies with each meal.

My goal is to get back to 117lbs which was where I was at in May. We have the holidays fast approaching and I don't want to gain another 10lb by January!!!

So, that's where I'm at today. . . . . ready to start again on Monday!

Join me for breakfast....

Hi there, another quick update from me. I wanted to share with you this morning what I had for breakfast. . . . and for only 3 WW points! Care to join me?

Being on a diet is not all about eating 'rabbit food'! In fact I don't even like to call it a diet, the way I'm eating is a life style, not just something I want to do for a few months to shed a few pounds. I must be honest and tell you I never ate a breakfast for YEARS. Of course I know how important that first meal of the day is, I've read about it so many times. But my stomach was just never in the mood for food as soon as I woke up. Actually it still isn't ready for food at 6am in the morning, but I've come to realize that I don't have to eat my breakfast the minute I fall out of bed. I get up at 6am, and usually just have a cup of coffee while Kristen is eating her breakfast and getting ready for school. When I come home about 8am is when I will make myself something to eat. Lately it has been a breakfast like this one.

Yes, this is only 3 weight watcher points (that's not including the creamer in my coffee!). Turkey bacon (1pt for 2 slices, I had 3 here but I probably only need the two - 1.5 pts), 1/2 cup of baked beans - 1pt (these are Heinz baked beans that I buy in the 'English' section of my grocery store, they are the kind I used to eat back home, and they are fat free. I've checked out the Pork and Beans we buy here, they are 2pts per 1/2 cup). 1 slice of toast - 1/2pt (I'm using Nature's Own Light bread, only 1 pt per 2 slices) :-) Mushrooms and tomato are o pts.

I'm happy to say I didn't gain any pounds back over the weekend like I usually do. (and I did have some wine and chips AND an Appletini on Friday night) ;-) started off this morning at 119.6! I did my walk this morning and have already done over 6000 steps today. This week I need to work on drinking more water.

Time for an update . . .

Well I'm obviously not getting on here on a weekly basis despite still wanting to, it's just hard to get motivated some days. But I'm here today and am happy to share with you a little update of how well I'm doing on my healthy eating plan (and losing a few pounds).

When I started this blog I weighed 126lb and I know that isn't heavy at all. Many of you have asked (or mentioned) that I don't look overweight and I don't need to lose any weight, to which I would reply "I know, you are totally right" ;-) BUT, it all boils down to the fact that I WANT to lose weight. At 126lb my jeans and capris I wore last year were uncomfortable tight and I know the weight that I lose will come straight off my belly and no where else, so that is why I chose to lose a few pounds. Of course the main part is I want to eat healthy. I really do enjoy fresh fruit, salads and veg more than fried foods. I've been trying to get back to counting Weight Watcher points and walking more each day. It's working ..... as of this morning I weight 120lb :-) Last week I was actually 119.8 - the weekends are still my downfall and although I was happy to see 119.8 on Friday morning, I was not happy to see 122.8 on Monday morning! It's my goal this week to try and eat good over the weekend too so I don't gain 2 or 3 pound again. It's not like I over eat, but I just don't watch my points and I have a few glasses of wine too.

I've started planning out some daily meal plans for myself. Rather than try to follow examples of meal plans in the Weight Watcher magazines (which always have things I wouldn't bother cooking) I've written out 7 days of 'daily eating', keeping my points below 19 as best I can and making simple meals where I don't usually have to even follow a recipe. Here's a sample of one of my days:

You can click on the menu to make it bigger if it's too small for you to read. It's much easier seeing in advance what you will eat each day rather than trying to think of things for mealtimes every few hours! Some days my snack is a smoothie made with fresh or frozen berries and a fat free yogurt, and my night time snack is often a 1pt bag of popcorn .

My sister recently sent me her WW magazine from England (which I must say is much better than the one we get here in the US). It has so many more recipes and they have a lot more ww ready meals and chips and cookies and even wine, that I wish I could get my hands on! I made a 0pt vegetable curry from the magazine, so this dish above was a total of 3pts (for the 1/2 cup of brown rice). A few have asked for the recipe so I will try to share that in the next day or so, giving you my US version.

and here's on e of my simple low point lunches. A 0 pt salad! I make it 0 points by just having lettuce, tomoatoes, cucumber and a little bell pepper and a few sprays of 'salad spritzer' instead of light ranch dressing. Then I pair it with a cup of Progresso soup that is just 1 point. If I'm still hungry (which often I'm not) I will have a fat free greek yogurt for another 1 point.

I am wearing my pedometer every day now too and trying to get in 10,000 steps per day. I go walking for half an hour most mornings with my neighbor Cheryl. If I do that then I usually can manage 10,000 steps or more. If I don't do my morning walk I average only about 6 or 7k.

So, how are you doing with your eating habits? Are they healthy, could you do better... do you want to do better? I'd love to hear from you :-)

Goodness, where'd the days go?

I had great intentions of posting here weekly and I already see it was April 11th for my last post... it's the 25th today, where'd the past 2 weeks go?

I'll be back soon with an update... doing really well I'm surprised to say, been out walking a lot more and now my neighbor has joined me too. Busy painting Kristen's room today. Happy that I got on the scale this morning and am 122lb :-) That's a full 4lb gone.

Motivation!

My friend Mel started walking on her treadmill last week. I haven't been walking for a few weeks now but just being told that someone is getting off their butt and starting to do something again really motivates you - don't you think? It certainly did me. So I decided it was time to get myself moving again too. I ordered some 'walking music' from the Biggest Loser sight last week. It was an MP3 download of an hours worth of music, it was THIS ONE to be exact! Hip Hop/R&B. You can click on the link and listen to samples of the songs. Very 'hip' and current. I went out earlier this week and power walked around the neighborhood for 35 minutes, it was great and I felt great :-) So thanks Melanie for getting me started again. Sadly I didn't get a chance to get out again the rest of the week but I will start again Tuesday. Tomorrow the kids are off school for a day and I'm going to get my hair cut!

I still weigh myself just about every day and where I used to be around 126lb I am now weighing 123 most days and on some mornings it's about 122. 4 :-) So I'm slowly making progress.

I've also started eating a better dinner. Last week I simply grilled some chicken breasts that I'd marinated in Krafts zesty Italian dressing and had it with a simple salad.

This is one of my favorite salads right now. It's simply mixed lettuce with some cherry tomatoes, a drizzle of light ranch dressing and a sprinkle of bacon bits. The ranch dressing is only 70 cals for 2 tblsps (I don't even think I use that much) and the bacon bits is only 30 cals for 1 tblsp (and again I think I barely use that much).

See that little red lettuce leaf all by itself? That is from my garden! My mesclun salad mix has started growing :-) Here's a picture of it in my garden. . .

I may have enough to make a full salad this week? So, how about you? Are you feeling motivated. What are you going to do to 'get moving' this week?

Still struggling....

I've had such lovely comments and emails from those of you who still pop in to see how I'm doing with my weight loss and I appreciate it so much. I have once again let this blog slide, basically because I feel like I'm getting no where with the weight loss! I'm not exercising at all these days either, except for yard work, which actually does feel like a work-out I must tell you. Bending and mulching flower beds and planting seeds does make you feel it in your legs.

I'm not really following any diet now either, not even weight watchers, which I was doing before. I'm really just trying to eat less during the day and have a decent meal at night, not a huge meal but just something I like. This past weekend I let myself indulge in the wonderful dinner I made of baked honey ham, creamy mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and 'watergate salad' (that green fluffy stuff made with pistachio pudding and marshmallows and pineapple) you can get the recipe for it HERE.

In saying all that about not losing and not exercising my weight is down a couple of pounds. A few of you have mentioned that I don't seem to be overweight for my height, and I will say this again.... I agree, I'm not :-) I'm not overweight at all I just know that I've gained a little weight since last summer and my pants don't feel comfortable, they feel tight. You know how it is when that happens, you just don't feel good at all do you? I know I don't. I could go out and buy the next size up but I don't want to do that. So, I'll keep at it and I'll keep posting here if it helps motivate some of you.

I want to get better at posting here and perhaps share some healthy recipes with you all (and pictures)! So, I'll try to work on that this week ;-)

A little Update...

I appreciate all of you who keep coming by here and leaving a comment :-) I feel this blog is a little boring for you but it's nice that you still take the time to say hi and encourage me with your kind notes. I really just try to keep updating here for myself, but I know some of you are wondering how I am getting on too so I shall try to do better with more posts.

Last week, after a few days of eating from the Flat Belly Detox I managed to get down to 125.2 lbs. I was rather pleased with myself but then guess what. . . I had a couple of glasses of wine on Friday and Saturday night and some cheese and crackers, and yes you guessed it, went back up to 127lb! I decided not to beat myself up about it. What was the point!

Anyway, this week I'm trying to still be very good. Yesterday and today I'm doing 'liquid', that meaning I'm having a slimfast shake for breakfast (usually around 10am), I have coffee when I first get up. Then in the afternoon I have a fruit smoothie, and last night for dinner I found a South Beach recipe for Egg Drop Soup (simply chicken broth, green onions and egg) and had that. Then later that evening I indulged in a bag of fat free (almost) popcorn and water!

My friend Judy posted on her blog this week about a smoothie she makes every morning, I am sharing this picture that Judy posted (because I didn't take a pic of the one I just made). . .


Doesn't this look so yummy? I was truly inspired so I went out this morning and stocked up on some fresh strawberries, blueberries and bananas. I also got some blackberries because they were only $1.97 (I only wish the blueberries were as cheap!). So, I made my smoothie just like this, added a few canned pineapple chunks at the bottom, then a tub of fat free greek yogurt, then 3 strawberries, some blueberries and half a banana. It blended up really easy (I was worried that it wouldn't because it didn't have much liquid in it, but it was great. I usually use frozen fruit and that is harder to blend). This was super yummy and was my lunch today.

Later today I will have a spinach salad, I know it's not liquid but I'm gonna have one anyway. I just feel in the mood for lots of fresh fruit and salads :-)