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

trucking towards my goal

Ok, so I'm writing this on Saturday (so over mid-ways through my next week), however this past week (on Tuesday) I had lost 2.4 lbs! Hooray! Making total loss at 54.4 lbs.
However, I forewarn you, I can't guarantee that this week will be as good- I blame the dreaded Friendly's ice cream.
See this:

This is my my weakness- peanut butter ice cream, shared among friends. I couldn't pass it up. I've been SOOOO good for so many months, it was just CALLING my name. So if I gain or don't lose anything, this is why.

As far as other things, I have come to realized it is so darn tough to find healthy within my point values at restaurants. Chain foods- easy, I have an app for that- the ITrackBites app I use to track my points came out with a $1.99 restaurant guide app here, and I couldn't pass it up. So far it has been SUPER helpful. These are my cheap knockoff Weight Watchers apps that I've been using since November, as I can't afford the monthly fee for Weight Watchers online. Basically I just take what I learned from the 10 weeks I went to meetings (and whatever my mom tells me about her meetings) and do everything else with the above two apps. So far it's worked great for me. But the hardest part is family owned restaurants that you don't have nutritional information on...you have to guess- and for me, I SUCK at guessing- because I never guess correctly- I'm usually way off in either direction. Either way too many points or way too little. That's why as much as I'd like to eat at these more often, I never am sure of what I downed.

With the show, we have practices 4 times a week- this makes meal time difficult, as we 90% of the time want to go out to eat afterwards (either because it is super late when we get home, or we need to kill time before I have to head to work on the Saturday rehearsals.). This means, money spent more often at restaurants and much harder to be healthier. But we're trying our hardest to order cheaply all the while being health- means LOTS of water with lemon and LOTS of salads (*tears- I hate salads all the time).

 Though this beef vegetable soup and spinach quiche was AWESOME from Isaac Newton's in Newtown.

The other problem with this week- battling a sinus infection. Yeah, I know what you're thinking...AGAIN!? I agree- I feel like I'm sick all the time. After this one goes away, I'm making an appointment with my family doctor (I went to the minute clinic for this as it was over last weekend it started to get bad) and telling them they NEED to test me for allergies or something- this singer's voice can't handle all the phlem!

Anyways, had a good loss week. Tried on my corset from my wedding and it was too big!- It had the hooks on the back, and I would probably need to get a tighter row added if I was to wear it. yay! I also tried on my outwear corsets I used to wear in college, and they fit- I had to loosen the back a tiny bit, but that's at least a start.

*crossing fingers* for an ok week.
M

WooHoo- Down another 2.8!

So I had a wonderful weigh in yesterday- down another 2.8 lbs this week! hooray! I guess walking 5 days in a row for 35 minutes each day helped. :D

(here is my dry-erase board with my current figures)

So this past week I've tried a lot of new lean cuisines, and today I got my free lunchbox! Hooray! Here are a few I tried that are new to me.

The Asian pot stickers were surprisingly good. They were the perfect cooked and the rice was very good with the sauce. The Glazed chicken wasn't bad. My microwave at work kind of over cooked it a little on the edges, but overall not bad either. I really am liking any of the ones with rice and sauce these days.


I did some extra walking around town this past week, as the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Look at these amazing flowers in my neighborhood.

On St. Patrick's Day, I had to work, but found these delicious cookies at the store. Sadly however, a single one of these bad-boys is 4 weight watchers points plus! Holy Moly!

Over the weekend, the hubs and I went out for a late lunch/early dinner to TGIFridays. I remembered they had the parmesan crusted chicken, and got that with the spinach tortolini and a house salad with lowfat vinigrette. Was a great meal, and supposably is only 15 points plus for the whole thing (don't quote me on that though- as there was very little information on this dish at all in the internet world).

Yesterday my hubs made his fav. Chicken Enchilada lowfat soup, and tried out some new Chili powder he got from the guy who exterminates the bugs at his work. He made a huge batch of the soup to bring to work and to give to the exterminator to try out with is powder mixed in. Was pretty good- slightly more spicy than it normally is. He even gave us the chili powder in this cute little jar. :D

Lastly, today is Rita's Italian Ice day at work (every Wednesday in the Spring/Summer my co-workers get Rita's). After some research, I found that a regular Sugar-Free Cherry Gelati with Slenderita low-fat vanilla custard is only 6 weight watchers points plus! I HAD to get it. And let me tell you, it was SO worth the 6 points- perfectly filling and dealing with my Rita's craving. yay! It was on the fence of 5 or 6 points, so I just rounded up to be safe.

Anyways, I'm excited I lost another 2.8 lbs, and I hope next week goes as good- getting closer and closer to my goal! *crossing fingers* for another good week of weight loss and another great week in everything else in my life currently.
Happy weight loss all!
-M

A little delayed

So I'm a little delayed with my weekly update. So on Tuesday I lost another pound (sadly not 1.4 lbs as I hoped to reach 30) but I better/hopefully will get to 30 lbs down since October next Tuesday.
The hubs and I tried a new recipe on Wednesday night- Skinnytaste.com's Chicken Enchilada Soup. We tweaked a few minor things and also didn't make it in a crock pot, but it still was mighty yummy.
Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/12/crock-pot-chicken-enchilada-soup.html

(below is my photo of it before I put weight watchers cheese on top)

I'm finally really starting to notice clothes fitting looser this week, as most of my pants are getting loose in the front of my thighs and my behind area...and a little from the waist. I also am comfortably fitting my pretty embroidered coat, so that means I'm doing good.

Of course we had some Chipotle- how could I resist...luckily  get the same thing every time and know the points for it.

Monday was really tough (the day before my weigh) because it was our Pre-Valentine's Day dinner (I worked late Tuesday, so we couldn't really go out to eat). I made sure I saved all of my weekly points for this special dinner, as I was determined to have one of their famous margaritas. The hubs made me a skinny margarita when I got home, but it still is no where near as good as these-

Other than the soup, I haven't tried a whole lot of new things this week, just trucking along. Hopefully I'll hit my 30 lbs down next week, so I can do my closet binge and re-try on my whole closet and my "skinny clothes."
Looking forward to that day. Maybe I'll get a manicure when that happens. lol
Happy Weight Loss!
-M

Enjoying the good things in life, and still losing weight

So I am down another 1.8 lbs this week- grand total of 27.4 lbs since I started Weight Watchers. :D
Today my pants and shirt are loose- haven't really noticed the clothing difference except for the pants. Some things I learned this past week:

Pepperidge Farm Light Style soft wheat (says 45 calories per slice on the front) is an amazing alternative to the Weight Watchers wheat bread (I couldn't find it at my local grocery store, but found the Pepperidge farm one and it tastes just as good and is only 1 points plus a slice!)

It is always so hard to go out to eat and be healthy. My favorite soup in the world is Chili's Chicken enchilada soup. So when the hubs suggested we go get some lunch on Monday (my last day before my weigh in on Tuesday mornings) I knew I HAD to have the soup and salad combo. Now, chili's has great chips and salsa as well. Luckily I had a light breakfast, and hadn't touched my weekly points at all this week. So I kind of splurged and had an extra cup of soup at the end of the meal, because I think that soup is THAT good. So this is what I got at Chili's:

• 1/4 of Chips and salsa (they said the entire basket and salsa is 27 points plus): 6.75 pp
• 1 bowl of Chicken enchilada soup: 11pp
• 1 salad with low fat ranch on the side (just for dipping), no tomatoes and I ate only 1/2 the croutons: I said it was only a 2 pp salad because I didn't use all the dressing and didn't eat all the croutons. It might of even been only a 1 pp salad, but better to over shoot.
• then finished with 1 additional cup of chicken enchilada soup: 5pp

Total meal (with a large glass of water): 24.75 (25) points plus
(it could of been a LOT worse, but that soup was killer- if I had used some of my weekly points, I would of skipped the chips and the extra cup of soup, but I was good all week, so I couldn't pass it up)

So overall, a very large meal- very filling too, but I didn't have much for breakfast and had a very light dinner, so it all worked out. We didn't do any entertaining or go out really all week (except Chipotle- which at this point, we are such regulars, I get the same thing every time). Later I'll upload my own photos of the soup and chips, but for now, you get this filler photo above. hehe

So, I also plan on creating this awesomely cute idea I picked up from Pintrest (which in turn is actually from this site: http://hotmessprincess.com/2012/01/the-motivational-marbles-project/

When I make my own, I'll photograph it and add it up here too. :D

Gotta keep on trucking along. I'm less than 4 lbs away from my midway point. Can't wait till I hit those 30 lbs mark!

Happy weight loss!

-M

Lessons learned

Been busy trying new things and came across some more interesting foods.
I have come to the conclusion that a whole wheat english muffin with turkey and fat-free cheese is just as yummy as a turkey sandwich on white bread, if not more yummy.

This is 5 points- 3 pts for english muffin whole wheat, 1 pt for 5 slices of turkey, and 1 slice of fat-free cheese.

I've also found that the Progressive light chicken noodle soup isn't bad. A lot more broth than I usually like, but it was only 4 pts for the whole can!

Today we went out to eat for lunch with a few friends, and they chose to go for italian. Man is it hard to be good. Luckily, I was able to get half of my pasta packed up, and got my salad with light italian dressing. Not the best meal, but I'm getting there! But boy did I feel it later that evening...I haven't had much pasta since I start Weight Watchers- more rice and potatoes as opposed to pasta, so it didn't agree with me that much later. Goes to show you that your body doesn't like when you have that rich of food.


Since my last weigh in I was down 7.4 lbs since I started Weight Watchers. I've been averaging 1.5-2 pounds a week. It is a healthy weight loss. Not crazy magnificent, but still something more than I've started with. My goal was 20 pounds by Xmas, but I'll be happy with being below 200 lbs by then.

I feel thus far that I'm doing decent. I'm not killing myself with exercise or eating ALL vegs and fruits. I'm having the things I like, but in smaller portions, and also just down right making slightly better decisions.
*crossing fingers* that things keep up!
-M