Traveling is the most difficult thing to do while on a diet

So I finally got to go to the Craft and Hobby Association Conference in Chicago (semi-vacation). However, let me tell you. That was the roughest I've ever had thus far on this diet- all the food at the airport was either A) bad for you  or B) expensive  or C) both.  Then while at the conference, their food was the same way. I think I ate soup and salads 90% of the time! My mom and I (she is also on Weight Watchers) actually walked to the Aldi's down the street from our hotel JUST so we could pick up some fruit, jello, and fruit frozen bars- so we would have at least SOMETHING on our diet.

 (I drank water the entire trip- except one time I did get a margarita, but other than that, water with lemon please!)

 (3 bean soup. It was good, but after having soup and/or salad all trip, I was glad to get some more sustenance by the end of it).

 (Somehow managed to enjoy vegs and chicken (stuffed with spinach and feta))

By the 4th day of my trip, I was so tired of salads that I broke down and ate pesto tortellini with chicken in cream sauce at this italian restaurant that we got invited to go to with 2 ladies we met while at the conference (they were so sweet to take us! They don't know how much it ment to us). It was so delicious, I didn't care how many weekly points I was wasting on that dish, because it was so good.

 (most amazing pesto pasta!)

Surprisingly enough, when I got home, I weighed in on Friday (my weigh ins are normally on Tuesdays, so I was a few days late) and I had only gained 0.4 lbs. *phew* I'll take less than a 1/2 a pound gained during my trip. I can deal with that. I was fearing it would be worse. Since I dropped down to 26 points plus, I've had such a difficult time having just that- I usually can eat and feel full at 28 points plus. I guess that means I gotta do some more exercise.

(Lunch today: quiche and soup.)

(Co-worker gave me HUGE zucchini from his garden- time to make some yummy foods from it!)

 Hopefully I'll be getting plenty of exercise with practices for our show ramping up in full speed. We open August 9th, so we are dancing pretty much every practice now. (and boy do my calves feel it after dancing in character shoes all day). Here is the promo for the musical. I'm Marian the Librarian (pink top, black skirt).

Stay tuned for another promo (featuring just me singing a part of "Goodnight my Someone". Hopefully this show keeps me in check by exercise, since packing lunches/dinners is very hard with the theater group- we all like to go out to eat after practices and shows. *crossing fingers* for a better week. However I already was bad today- tortellini got me again! Eek!

 (bad bad bad)

Here's to hoping I have a better weight loss week.
later.
-M

A little closer and cute dresses

So today I weighed in and had lost another 1.4 lbs this week! Hooray! I made up for my last week's ickyness, so I'm back on track with things and with a new low daily point value (however, I can't go any lower in daily points anymore, so if I get in a rut, I'll just need to exercise more or something- I hope it doesn't come to that though!)
Anyways, this week has been super milestone and eye-opening. So I'm done a total of 55.8 lbs total since October. I have only 6.2 lbs left to lose till my goal, so I'm super happy to be closing in on my goal weight. I might continue down to 140 lbs if I feel like it, but once I hit that awesome 150, I'm singing to the heavens and not going to cry if I don't lose any more once I reach that goal.
So some things that really made me go "whow" this week in my weight loss journey.
1) On Sunday I decided to wear a sundress- I hadn't worn a dress in a while, so I thought- it's a nice day, and I need to look nice for the promo shots being taken later in the day for the show I'm in, so what the heck, let me put on a dress I haven't worn in over a year. So I pulled out this blue and white dress. I just so happened to have worn that exact dress to my friend's wedding last October (the very week I started Weight Watchers), so I thought- "I should get the hubs to photograph me in this dress and I'll do a side by side of me in it at my friend's wedding and me now." I mostly wanted to do it because I distinctly remember looking at those pictures from their wedding and thinking to myself "damn I'm such a hefer!" So, here is the side by side- the first was last October, and the second was on Sunday. (and 2 close up shots afterwards)

Now I am down almost a pound from that, as I'm at 156.2 lbs this morning, but close enough. Crazy to see how you look in less than a year when you actually try to lose weight. Crazy!!!
I also started packing today for my trip to CHA on Sunday through Thursday, so I threw 2 sundresses in the suitcase after trying them on. They look so much better on than how I remember them before. haha!

2) I've become a fan of beer, finally. I know what you're thinking- You're on a diet, why the heck would you get into beer now? Well, I guess I just never really liked most beers, then on a whim I decided to order a Heineken light bottle of beer, and now, once a week I try to allow myself 1 beer (right now it is Heineken light that I order all the time). For some reason I like it, I don't know why, but I do. I don't think I normally would ever say that, but maybe it is the summer talking, but man, sometimes you just want a freak'n beer! haha

3) I wore a 2-piece bikini for the first time in over 5 years. It isn't extremely skimpy- it has a cute heart skirt that goes over the bottoms and the top is a halter bikini, so it holds me up a little better. But either way, I still have not worn it in over 5 years. So how did I get the courage to wear said bikini? Well, we got invited to go swimming with friends at our friend's pool at night and the hubs convinced me to go and to wear "that" suit. I thought, what the heck, its at night and only with 3 other friends (all girls mind you) so I'm not going to be embarrassing myself as much (also no one took a single picture that night, so no dreaded icky bathing suit pictures exist.) Anyways, so I got to the pool and mentioned it was the first time wearing the suit in over 5 years, and my friends reply, "why? It looks great on you!" And that just made my week- being able to wear a 2-piece bathing suit and not feel like a hippo. I'm not 100% comfortable in it yet, but boy is it a step in the right direction.

4) Lastly, I have come to LOVE my restaurant app through iTrackBites for the iphone. It makes ordering at chain restaurants so easy! Especially since my buds love to eat at Applebee's and I'm getting tired of ordering the weight watchers meals (since the below parm-chicken and vegs and rice is kind of my go-to meal there, however I'm tired of ordering the same thing all the time). Just saying how technology has made my weight loss journey SO much easier.

(Also, they now make the LARGE diet snapple half 'n'half bottles, so I am super happy to have that at home as well as my water and diet cherry dr. pepper. Hey, a girl's gotta have variety!)

I also was able to restrain myself from eating any of the donuts that were brought in for our co-worker's b-day or any of the goodies brought in for anniversaries at the company this past week. Whenever there is food around the office, I immediately head to the fruit and vegs tray, and if there is none of those, I bypass it all together. I'm to the point where the food is not worth the points, so better to be good, than to have to starve or not lose at all in the week because you wanted that HUGE piece of cake that you didn't totally like in the first place. However, someday I hope to come up with a recipe for a low-fat, low-points plus ice cream cake- because I LOVE that stuff. lol
Anyways, happy weight loss and I am closing in on the goal! yippie!
M

Wonky Week

Ok, so on my "official" weigh in, I gained 2.2 lbs (I blame the ice cream I had the day before). However, I hopped on the scale today (Thursday, so 2 days later) and had lost those 2.2 lbs to put me back at what I was the week before. So I'm going to take this week as a lesson, and hope that for the next 5 days I can lose something!
It's been a busy week as usual, since we are well into practices for the show and we are getting to the point where there is little time. Luckily however, the 4th of July happened in the middle of the week to give us a break from pretty much everything.

The hubs made this wonderful sour-cream casserole, 10 points plus for 1/4 of the casserole dish. Perfect!

For 4th of July we enjoyed margaritas and buffalo chicken dip at our one friend's place and chatted the night away with fellow friends while watching Dr. Who. (Yes, we are super geeks).

Lastly, while at a restaurant after practice on Tuesday, I had a beer. If you know me, you know I am NOT a beer person. But for some reason, I had 3 spare points and I really felt like one. So I got a light Heineken. I had never had one, but it was the only non-crappy brand in Light. Afterwards I thought to myself, "I actually liked that!" Who knew!? haha

Anyways, lesson learned- do NOT give into the temptation if you don't want to pay for it weigh in day. Aka, don't give into this:

I MUST be good the rest of the week, otherwise I'll start getting in a downward spiral. I am so close to that goal, but I gotta keep with it.
It's funny, so many people I know have started Weight Watchers lately, that it doesn't feel weird talking about it anymore. Even my boss started it!
Anywho, I MUST do good this week!
Happy weight loss all.
-M