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

two week updates

Sorry I didn't update last week (I only lost 0.2 lbs the week I forgot to post, so not a lot to report from that week. haha) This week however I lost 1.2 lbs, so I'm down 52 lbs thus far! Only 10 more lbs till I get to my goal of 150. I might keep going if I feel like it when I hit 150, but it won't be as important to me to get to a number under that when I hit it.
Basic updates- Enjoyed some theater friends' Tony Awards party- lots of foodies, which is probably why I didn't do so well that particular week. My hubs' famous buffalo chicken dip went so quick (didn't even make it to the table- it was gone before you could announce it was brought right out of the oven), that I didn't have any, therefore luckily didn't have to use the points I saved for it- and got to use it for something else- like the awesome hummus someone brought.

 (we each got these cards, and if one of your nominees won, you got a prize)

(Hubs made alcoholic juice also for the party. I loved the apple one.)

This week has been filled with rehearsal for Music Man, meeting with people for the housing situation, and lots of work and such. Last week I worked 6 days straight (one of the days was a swap so I could have a day off in July for a friend's bday). Also did some Salvation Army/Walmart shopping and scored some great stuff which I'll show off on my MadcapFrenzy site later.

Saturday after practice we went to Tony's Place with theater buds and I had a bbq chicken sandwich and a salad (instead of fries). Their fat free sesame dressing was amazing. It was the first salad that I've had in a long time where I actually wanted to have more of! haha. If we go back there ever, I'm just getting a salad (I can't believe I'm actually saying that, since I'm not a huge salad person). All of their food looked and tasted amazing. One of our friends got a stuffed pepper with crab meat, and it look amazing (and I don't even like peppers or crab).

On Monday after meeting with the Bucks County Housing Group to apply for stuff for our house, the hubs and I went to The Green Parrot restaurant and enjoyed a good lunch before running errands and going to another theater practice. I had their personal Tomato pie. They did it perfect. Even though mostly the traditional tomato pie is served cold, I like my sauce to be at least room temperature and to have a good spice, which they excelled at. The hubs got a potato soup and a large salad.

On Tuesday (my weigh in day where I saw I lost 1.2 lbs) we went to Friendly's with some theater buds after practice for Music Man (does this seem like a trend- practice followed by food?- that is why I gained most productions I was in, but I'm determined to eat good while out). They actually have a 550 calorie menu, so I had the half turkey club melt and salad with fat free italian dressing. Was a good deal. Also got two scoops of sugar-free ice cream (I couldn't resist because we were at Friendly's after all, but sugar free ice cream is only 2 pp per scoop. So 2 scoops wasn't bad for 4 pp total).
Wednesday we went to a diner after practice and I had chicken noodle soup and salad with fat free italian.
So it has been a very Salad kind of week- that's the problem with going out to eat a lot- not a lot of options when it is the end of the day and you have not a lot of points left. So Salad it is.
It's kind of been a lot of microwave time at work in the past few weeks. As much as it gets a little boring, it really does help me portion control and since I am lazy in packing my lunch, it works for me.

 (a typical lunch/dinner at work- sugar free jello, diet soda, smartone/leancuisine/healthychoice, just one veg side and/or fruit- which I ate the fruit before this picture. Sometimes I throw in a string cheese)

(My jello matched my nails! haha)

Anyways, down 52 lbs, only 10 to goal! Hoping these last 10 aren't extremely horrible and hard to lose.
Happy weight loss!
-M

A Milestone down...

So I lost another 3.2 lbs this week. Not only was this great because I lost so much, but also because that means I have lost a total of 50.6 lbs since I started Weight Watchers back in October. I am now under 10 lbs away from my goal (I might keep going if I find it goes ok, but overall, my goal is 150). I have lost more than 50 lbs in under 8 months. This milestone is such a big deal, as it means I am on the home stretch of my weight loss. This however also means I cannot relax too much, otherwise those pounds will come back (which I DO NOT WANT- I want to look good for my friend's wedding in September and decent this summer).
Clothes are still not fitting right, as I'm between sizes again. I do also hope to start doing some upper body exercises, as I'm find that my arms are the flabby part left right now (especially the underarm area- looks gross when you wear a strapless dress- like I will be wearing for my friend's wedding).
Here's this week's numbers:

Basically this week I stuck extremely close to my points. I didn't use ANY weekly points and only uses a few of my exercise earned points. It also was time for me to drop my daily points value down a point to 28. If I find that I'm not losing enough after a few weeks, I might need to drop to 27 daily points, as I'm pretty sure I need to be at 27 or 26 points plus for my height and current weight. We shall see.
Hopefully things go well this coming week, as thus far I've been pretty darn good- but I know Sunday, my friend's Tony Award party, is going to be tough to be good at.

 (Considering I had 2 slices of this kind of pizza for dinner out with friends on Sunday, I was surprised I lost so much. But I guess because I didn't go over in points, it worked out good.)

 (I wanted to reward myself for hitting the 50 lbs down mark with a mani/pedi, but since we are saving up every penny for our new house, I just did it myself. I was later surprised by my mom, who got me a gift certificate to get a mani/pedi at a place near the theater we do shows at as a Congrats on my 50 lb loss- I'll use it when it gets closer to the show. :D I decided to go with bright neon green for good luck on the last 10 lbs.)

Happy weight loss and *crossing fingers* the last 10 lbs go by smoothly and quickly.
-M

Even out...

Ok. So this week still wasn't my best week, I enjoyed a wine tasting the day before Memorial Day. However I tried my darnest to do well every single other day except the wine tasting. This paid off with me losing 0.4 lbs (the exact amount I gained last week). I am determined to do even better this week, being the last full week I have before I start practice for the show I got cast in. (I'm still in disbelief of that fact).
Here's some happenings this week in weight-loss land.

(

(The hubs made this lovely avacado ranch dip after I was raving over it from TexMex. It's 1 points plus for 2 tablespoons!)

(Last Wednesday we celebrated our one newspaper I work for winning Best in the State. I however was good and bypassed having a piece of this lovely cake. I instead enjoyed the free salad and sandwiches.)

(What a rarity- I had taco bell for dinner. I only had 2 soft tacos (10 points plus for 2 soft beef tacos) but getting off of work and after grocery shopping late at night, I didn't feel like cooking)

(My first glass of wine at my friend's Wine tasting. It was some white wine of some sort)

(This is my "I'm bad" cheesecake. I was good with everything else, but I REALLY wanted a piece of this)

 (On Memorial Day, we used a Groupon to go mini golfing with two of our friends before I had to work night shift. It was super fun, but super hot outside.)

(Here is the lunch I had at Ruby Tuesday's. I even avoided the dreaded cheese garlic biscuits they give out. This was actually a very healthy dinner. I've become obsessed with roasted zucchini!)

 (My numbers for this week)

(Here is 3 pictures all from the Holiday dinner at my husband's work- Top picture is 2009, middle 2010, and bottom 2011. Can you tell the gains and losses going on here?)

(lastly, here is my new drink of choice if I'm going to have a soda. Yummy!)

Overall, not the best, but not the worst week. I hope to rock this coming week, as I have no major parties or get together to bog my weight loss down. *fingers crossed* We are also hoping that the housing situation all goes smoothly this week as well. *double fingers crossed*

-M

Trucking along...

Down another 1.6 lbs this week. So that makes me down 47.4 lbs since October. I'm nearing the 50 lbs mark!

Here's my numbers:

Other than the usual, I tried my hardest to not use any weekly points (only my exercise), since I still haven't dropped my daily points yet- I can't bring myself to do it.
Though on a happy note, I am able to get into most size 12 jeans- got two pair at the SalVal during the week, so I don't spend a fortune on clothes I'm going to grow out of.
Also, my friend's sister (another bridemaid in her wedding) got the wrong size and needed bigger, so we hoped we could swap dresses since mine was way too big- sure enough, hers fits like a glove (might need a tiny bit taken out at the top, since I'm top heavy compared to her) but overall, the waist portion fits beautiful- still need it shortened though. It made me super happy to try that one and see what the dress is supposed to look like, instead of swimming in the dress everytime.
Speaking of swimming, it is starting to be summertime, so I'm going to try on my swimsuits tonight and see if they look better, or if I have to get a new one. who knows...I hate swimsuits, so hopefully it goes alright.
Happy weight loss all. I'll leave you with a picture from my photo a day project- the prompt was, "Something that makes you happy" which for me is big sunglasses and pearls. :D

later all.
-M

Rocking the loss

So I lost another 2.4 lbs this week! Woot woot! That's one of my better losses for a week yet! :D
I tried out a few new dinners this week:

 (This one was fantastic, and only 4 points plus!)

(I guess I've been on a sweet potato kick, since both had sweet potatoes. But this one was also yummy and had great rosemary flavor. I have found the Healthy Choice steamers tend to have some of the better flavors.)

The hubs also made homemade pizza (even homemade the crust from scratch!) He has been on a baking kick- breads mostly, but decided to try his hand at pizza. It turned out quite good. Perfect crust. Was similar to the typical points of pizza (5 points plus a slice) because he didn't use my weight watchers cheese (I only had mexican grated WW cheese, not mozzarella). It was quite awesome.

I also have been (and will) volunteering at the Newtown Student Theatre Festival this week (Monday, Thursday, Friday). Thus far I've avoided the dreaded popcorn and candy...its been tough. This looks so yummy.

Other than my usual, I've gotten better at keeping my portion sizes down when at potlucks and such. I'm not nearly as good at figuring out the points by looking at the nutrition info like the hubs can, but at least I'm being better at smaller portions.
To leave you off for the week, here are my numbers for the week, from my dry erase board at home:

Happy weight loss!
-M

Another milestone

So today I lost another 1.4 lbs this week. That means I have lost 40.4 lbs since I started my weight loss plan in October. I am 1.25 lbs away from having lost 5 gallons of water worth of weight (hopefully will achieve that next week). Yeah, you read it right. See what I mean:

Crazy right?
Anyways, some weekly updates on the food front.
We had hot dogs and peanuts at work last Thursday to celebrate the start of baseball season. I decided to try one of the veggie dogs they had. Was only 2points plus for the dog and 3 points plus for the bun (they didn't have any wheat buns- poo). To be honest, I really thought the veggie dog tasted gross- bland, boring, and kind of rubbery. Not worth it. Luckily there was peanuts galore, and you can have 8 peanuts for single points plus.

 Didn't try any new frozen dinners this week. Sticking with my usual favorites that often have rice with them. :D

Our local Bottom Dollar had Banana twin pops! I haven't had these since I was a little kid. Always kind of reminded me of the banana runts but sweeter. I think if they banana Runts would of tasted like twin pops, I would of actually liked eatting them as a kid. haha. Anyways, these babies are only 1 points plus! Heck yeah, a bag went home with us. hehe

 The hubs tried out making what I call "Manly potatoes." Basically roasted potatoes, corn, and beef that was marinade in A1 sauce, with lots of spices. Certainly had a kick, and was pretty good tasting. One bowl (or 1/4 of a casserole dish that he made) was 11 points. Not horrible, and was quite filling with one bowl. Next time I'm going to suggest he uses slightly less salt (I can't handle salty things much anymore since I basically stopped putting it on things) and use more than just a 1 lb of meat in the whole casserole- needed a little something more than just potatoes. But overall it was tasty, and I'd have it again. To think, it all started because he wanted Shepard's Pie, and I wanted roasted potatoes.

Being Easter over the weeken, we decided to dye some hardboiled eggs.
I tried the rubber band method. Sadly, they didn't work nearly as nice, partially due to us not having vinegar to make the dye really nice.

But, the eggs are a good thing to snack on with some pepper on them. I like the egg whites, but don't like hard-boiled yokes. I can have 3 egg whites before I even dip into a single points plus!

So, I'll just have to keep on trucking along. This past week I didn't use any of my weekly points, but did use up some exercise points. I even splurged yesterday and had a Dorito Taco from Taco Bell (*gasp*) Surprisingly enough, hard tacos are only 4 points each, where soft are 5!
I also looked through a pile of photos I am looking to scrapbook this weekend while on a Scrapbook retreat/crop for Autism, and noticed for the first time since I started loosing weigh, how big I really was. I guess I never really noticed I had gotten that bad, but I look at photos of me during the summer and boy was it not pretty. Makes me cringe just looking at those photos. I guess I'm going to have to crop a bunch so they don't show my weight. haha
Anyways, *crossing fingers* for more losses!
-M

Another one bites the dust!

yay! I'm down another 1.6 lbs this week! I'm trucking along in my losses....hooray!
Here are my numbers:

This week I didn't do a whole hell of a lot of new things, except one day this past week I walked twice in one day (8 laps = 1 hour 10 minutes)...I didn't use any of my weekly points either, just my exercise points.

The hubs tried making buffalo pasta salad. It was good, it just needed some cheese cubes or something other than chicken and pasta in it.

Other than that, not a whole lot to talk about. Off to eat my snack: Special K crackers and a Weight Watchers spread cheese (total 4 points plus for one cheese wedge and 24 crackers).

Happy weight loss all!
-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