The final countdown... being 0.2 lbs from my goal weight

Ok. Firstly, I am happy to announce I lost another 1.6 lbs this week (and 1 lb last week, forgot to report). This means I am down 61.8 lbs total since October (it is now August) and 0.2 lbs from my goal weight of 150. Once I hit that, I will continue to keep up the losses, but if I bounce up and down around 150 lbs weight, I will be extremely happy, and not be as crazy about the weight loss as I have been.
I was surprised I lost as much as I did, considering that I ate horribly the final days of our theater production (which is now done), and ate a decent amount over my points the day before my weigh in.
Here are the current numbers:

My biggest boost over the week was on Monday I did a lot of stuff around town. First had a dentist appointment (where the dental hygienist comment how thin I was since last I was there in February.) I then had time to pick up a quick bit of lunch. I got me the super healthy 8 points plus meal at Panera Bread: standard turkey sandwich (no cheese) -half with a half- chicken noodle soup, apple and water. I was proud of how healthy I was, considering I'm in love with their breads, I resisted from the high point valued ones.

I then however was tempted by the frozen yogurt place that was 2 doors down, Bliss Yogurt Bar. I've never been to any of these yogurt bars, but decided to try it, but load up on the fruit. I got 1/3 dulche de leche frozen yogurt, 2/3 of the low-fat original creamy frozen yogurt with lots of mangoes and a few marshmallows for a tiny sweetness on top. I asked for the nutritional info, but since they were newly opened, they didn't really have it except the calories for the yogurts. They said the dulche de leche frozen yogurt was 35 calories per oz and 3.5 g of fat. The low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt was 23 calories per oz.

After all of this I was super full, but had to go to my final dress fitting for my bridesmaid dress for a friend's wedding. It fit nicely after she shortened it and my new strapless bra worked great with it- no need for the corset in this dress!

Then I wandered around the one mall till my friend (the bride) was done with work and I stopped by NY & Co. I was in desperate need of a new belt- since that's the only real way to show off I have a thinner waist now without buying an entirely new wardrobe. I headed straight to the sales rack and a pair of white Capri caught my eye. They only had a size 10, so I thought, what the heck, lets see if they fit. Up to this point, recently I've been wearing 12s. When I first started my weight loss journey back in October I was a since 18 (sometimes 16). I tried them on and tada! They fit nicely! They had to come home with me.
I mentioned to the one worker at the store if those on the rack were the only belts they had. She pointed me in the direction of a large jar at the counter of more belts (70% off too). I started chatting with her and divulged that I was in need of a new belt to show off my recent weight loss. After talking about weight watchers and losing 60+ lbs she said "I think we have more belts in the back. Let me get them and see if we can't find you a dream belt". She brings out this huge box of 70% off belts. I found 3 that I really liked- 1 gray, 1 red, and 1 black. They all have that elastics back, so the size really stretches nicely to whatever size you are. I also ended up getting a skirt besides the Capri and belts, but overall it made me super confident in my weight loss.

After my friend, I, and her sister-in-law enjoyed massages, we ate at this lovely place, Pandini's, where I had a chicken pesto labretti, (below) which was amazing. I've been in this pesto kick for some reason!

Another thing I found out, Saltwater Taffy.... Yeah- this kind (below)...

is 1 points plus per piece... I LOVE taffy, and being we are only an hour or 2 away from the jersey shore, my co-workers have been bringing it back to the office in loads. So after researching the nutrition on the back of the one box, For the most part, saltwater taffy is 1 points plus per taffy piece. Crazy! (could be worse though)

This week I've also been having a lot of soup at work. I cleared out our pantries this weekend and decided to try and pack a meal for work only from items we already have in the pantry- which means lots of soup and rice. So many of the Progressive soups are super boring and all broth, that by adding some brown rice, it kicked it up and made a hearty dinner at work. However after 3 days in a row of soup and rice, I was glad to get to the grocery store. lol

Lastly the hubs picked me up some Weight Watchers ice cream sandwiches and he found some new lean cuisines I've never tried before- who knew sending your husband to pick up your "essentials" would mean trying new things. So here is the cherry cheesecake weight watchers ice cream sandwich. Only 2 points plus!

Anyways, I can't believe I'm so close to my goal. I'll have to do a side by side if I make it next week, which to be honest, not sure if that will happen or not- had a crummy day yesterday and tomorrow is my wedding anniversary (wine certainly), but who knows... I do tend to lose weight when I have wine. lol
Happy losses!
M

Getting close to my goal weight!

Firstly, this past Tuesday (so by the time I post this it will be Tuesday- my weigh in day)- so we shall see how that goes, but back to what I was saying- this past Tuesday I lost 3 lbs! That means I am 2.8 lbs from my goal weight of 150, and 12.8 lbs away from my ideal weight of 140. It's been a crazy long week with practices and performances for our show. We only have 2 shows left (Tuesday and Wednesday) so we shall see how performance week affected my weight loss come tomorrow (later today).

The number one problem- late night dinner. We don't get dinner till we are done with the shows, so not eatting till 10:30/11pm- not cool. Also not cool- the $$$$$ spent eating that late and not at home, most of the time at Applebee's- our bank account is NOT liking these past few weeks AT ALL.
I've been doing pretty good at the bee- point wise, by sticking to one of the weight watchers meals, one of the 550 calorie meals or the steak and vegs meals. I discovered the chile lime chicken (below) is actually quite good, minus the broccoli.

(panini from Friends grill. we shall see if that hurt me this week or not. I tried to be good and only ate 1/4 of the fries)

I also discovered that they are now putting the weight watchers points of my yogurt! Woo!

This past week I also got to have a lovely meal with my friend Cat and her sister after Cat's wedding gown fitting- we ate at this AWESOME thai food restaurant where they are so creative and make your dishes look so lovely! It was wonderful. I also got to have some delicious Squash bread (very similar to zucchini bread) made by Cat's hubby-to-be Dave when we got back.

We shall see how all that Applebee's affected my weight loss later today. *crossing fingers* the scale will be nice to me, considering I'm stressing out about money woes at the moment- and we all know how stress is never good for your diet!

(two more shows with hair and makeup like this)

We shall see!
Laters.
-M

The Ups and Downs of dieting while doing theater

Firstly, I apologize for being so slow to getting a new post up. Since we open in a week with our production of "The Music Man" I've had little time to do anything but do theater stuff or work.
So I'll start it off with, I lost a pound this week (on Tuesday). If my scale keeps it up, I hope I will lose more this coming Tuesday as well if I can help it.
However I was very surprised I actually lost a pound, considering the gigantic cupcake and yummy goodies I had at my friend Cat's Bridal Shower. I mean, look at this wonderful Vanillabean cupcake! (I have a Dulche de leche one waiting for me in the fridge, but I can't bring myself to eat it by myself, so I'm waiting to share it with my hubs).

 (vanilla bean cupcake)

 (dulche de leche cupcake)

 (the bride to be, Cat and me)

 (some of the amazing food spread displayed on my fun array of cake stands!)

 (more food- tarts, apricot things and cucumber sandwich things)

 (these were quite amazing- apricots, goat cheese, and nuts)

(The redish orange dress I wore to the bridal shower. I picked it up when I lost about 45 lbs just for this occasion, so luckily it tightens around the waist, so it still looks fab, if I do say so myself)

Doing theater is so difficult on my diet. Why? Because theater people (ok, community theater people) like to go out to eat after practice. We are all too tired to pack lunches before or cook dinner after practice, so going out to eat is easier- and more fun to hang out with your castmates. Going to diners and chain restaurants that stay open late becomes a weekly thing. So I've been having to be VERY careful in what I order- so as not to break the bank or my diet.
Here are some highlights of my meals since I got back from my CHA trip.

 (This has become my staple if we go to a few of the places- quiche and soup)

 (board meeting bbq- so difficult to give into hot dogs and hamburgers. I think I broke down and had a single burger, but then had lots of fruit)

 (Gigantic zucchini co-worker gave me. We turned it into many loaves of bread-below)

 (zucchini bread!)

 (had a glass of wine on Saturday evening. I gave into temptation)

 (my hubs does makes some of the best pizza. It's all in the crust)

 (nom nom nom)

 (screen shot from my restaurant app- I decided to go with the create your own pasta at the Macaroni Grill with my friend. It totally helped me stay within the points I had saved for that meal)

 (I ended up having wheat pasta with chicken and spinach in the spicy pomodoro sauce- was 17 points plus for the entire dish, I had half there and half left over for another meal)

 (At Denny's. You can get fruit with their slim breakfast items- I was missing fruit for the day, so I actually asked for a second fruit cup later in the meal! Helped fill me up when my slim omelette with 2 strips of turkey bacon didn't do the trick).

 (my numbers for this week)

 (Last night's dinner at the Diner. Beef stew over egg noodles and green beans on the side after a salad. I actually was so full- This wasn't too bad of a meal, lots of vegs. Not the best meal point wise, but I was really tired of salads and soup. It kind of looks gross, but it was pretty good tasting.)

I also was surprisingly getting slightly more comfortable in my 2-piece bathing suit. I was invited over to my friend's house to go swimming, so again the bathing suit issue came up. I just sucked it up and put the 2-piece on and prayed that I didn't look too balloon-ish in it. Luckily it was so darn hot and the pool was so nice that I forgot all about my insecurities long enough to enjoy the pool. I would show you a picture, but I don't want those floating around the inter-webs (as my friend calls it).

(This was taken during the promo shoot for the second Music Man promo- taken by our assistant stage manager Natalie. It's become one of my favs, since normally I don't like pictures of myself, it is nice to have one that you actually like. haha)

Anyways, I am hoping to keep up the good losses this week, as I am working tonight, tomorrow and Saturday, so I have to pack my meals accordingly. *crossing fingers* for another good loss of a week and the next time I post will probably be either during or after tech (hell) week for the show. *squee!*
Oh, and for those that care, here is another promo for our show, this one with me singing in the beginning. :D

Later.
-M

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