Health and Happy things

My smurfy nail polish looks awesome next to the first Snapdragon to open in my garden this year

I weight in every Saturday and am still a member of Weight Watchers on-line. I still have work to do in the health and fitness arena, and I am just going to keep plugging away at it. I find myself bouncing between eating in a way that will help me loose weight and then giving up on other days and doing whatever I want. The yo-yo between being "good" and being "bad" is stressful, and I find the scale hasn't impressed me in months as a result.

Yesterday I found myself pretty crabby and feeling a little soul crushed after my weigh in. I had been "good" for two or three days before my weight in so I felt like I should have seen a drop in the scale - not a gain. Thinking back I realized I had been very NOT good the weekend before, drinking high calorie coffee's at Caribou and snacks (brownie and cookie) to go with them. Camping almost always means straying from my diet. And it often takes a couple days to reel myself in from a camping weekend. I wonder what the scale would have read if I hadn't worked harder the days leading up to it. Probably it would have been worse.

So I find myself spending time on the weekends reevaluating how I am eating and exercising, and this weekend has been no exception. I decided to do some pampering things to make myself happy, I puttered in my gardens and I have newly polished toes and fingers. I almost never polish my fingernails as my job wears nail polish off in minutes, but I just really wanted to gussy up my fingers and I went for it! It was fun and it makes me happy to see this vaguely smurfy nail polish on my fingers as I knit or type.

Sometimes little things like polishing your nails or playing with your dog can really make you feel better. Also, it's hard to snack with wet nails!

Fugly Update

I thought I would update on my Fugly blanket this week. I spent a couple hours last night weaving in the ends and tacking down the fugly seams I created when I crocheted chunks together. Today I pulled my blanket our and measured it and took a few pictures. It's currently 56 inches by 52 inches (142 cm x 132cm). I feel like if I make it too much larger it will hit "blanket" or "afghan" level rather than throw. I wonder if there is a real division in the those or if that is just my feelings? Anyway - I don't want a HUGE blanket. I want a mini blanket for throwing over my shoulders in bed at night or wearing on my lap while I knit. My internal voice told me I was there.

My next challenge is picking out the color I want to edge it in. I THINK I have it figured out now, but honestly I have changed my mind three times this morning already, so.... Yeah.

My only requirement is that it be in my stash. I have a whole bin of cotton - so that's really not an issue I don't think. This whole blanket is an experiment and since I have declared it FUGLY from day one there really is nothing I can do to it to make it worse. That really takes the pressure off.

In other news, my weekly weight in was pretty successful considering how much I consumed over the 4th of July holiday! I gained about half a pound this week and I was pretty happy with that since I was sure it would be much worse.

Another blessing is our heat wave finally broke. We hit 102F (38.88C) yesterday and it was over a week of temperatures like that. Last night we had storms roll in and today we are a bit cooler - so yay for that!

Is anyone doing the Stephen West KAL that starts next Friday? Lord help me - I signed up for it! I don't work with small needles  - like ever - and I am thinking if I am lucky I will be knitting this up on a size 4, but the yarn states size 1-3 needles so I may end up smaller than I think. Uffda. What have I gotten myself into?!?! My other concern is that this KAL will only be halfway over when the Olympic Games starts and I have a project geared up for that as well! So.... Yeah. We will have to see how this goes!

The Week in review

Saturday morning and my weight in was NOT pretty. I knew by the level of praying I was doing as I hit the scale that it wasn't going to be a joy filled weight in. I exercised really hard this week - but the food and the Salty Dogs were a little over the top this week. It was a really warm week and those ice cold Salty Dogs (Cold Grapefruit juice + 1 Shot of vodka over ice = YUM!) add up in the calories. Uffda. Will have to back away from the fruity booze drinks!

I have been trying a few new recipes to try and break free of the frozen meals. I found several great links to Flatout Flatbread Pizza's and they carry them at my local store so I gave that a whirl this week. LOVE THEM!

The recipe I followed came from this wonderful blog LaaLoosh.com and it was really easy and tasted wonderful. The photo above is from last night's dinner. The flatbread has pizza sauce, oregano, garlic salt, reduced fat mozzarella, mushrooms (canned - it's what I had on hand), purple onion, and one sliced red roma tomato. You can cook it on a piece of aluminum foil so no dishes!

And the flat out bread ends up being really crisp and wonderful. You actually bake the flatbread in the over for 8-10 minutes before adding the toppings. After I add the toppings I put the wrack in the oven all the way to the top to kind of broil the veggies and cheese into a melted yum pile. Works perfect! It's a lot of food and it has close to the same point value as the weight watchers frozen pizza I purchase at the store - but with fresh ingredients and FLAVOR! And this is like - twice the food. Sooooo good!

**Crickets** & Health

I have been kind of quiet here lately. There has been a lot of drama at my job lately and in my personal life as well. When I go through changes I tend to shut down a bit. I am trying to work on that - but change is hard. :)

We are trying to tighten our belt around here. This is impacting things in many ways. One of which is that I stopped my Weight Watchers account. I am pretty nervous about this, but I really have just been paying them to keep track of my weight for the last 6 months. I have been terrible about tracking my food, so I would do it a day or two and then give up until the next weight-in. Repeat weekly for months. So I decided to stop paying them to track my weight.

I took all my weight-in totals since last August when I joined and put them in a spread sheet. I will continue to weight-in every Saturday morning and tracking my weight, but I will now enter it on a spread sheet rather than a snazzy web site.

So my weight-in this morning was with trepidation. My first week without my WW crutch. Did I put on 5 lbs by clicking the "Cancel my Membership" button? Nope! I think the fear of going on my own actually made me more diligent then I had been in the past as I lost 3.1 lbs this week! WOOT! So now I am feeling like I can do this on my own and not pack the weight back on. I just have to use the principles that Weight Watchers taught me and keep myself honest about what I am doing. And yeah - I am still nervous about the decision, but having a good first weight-in on my own goes far in making me feel like I can do this.

So - My total weight loss thus far is 48.9 lbs. (SO CLOSE TO 50!)
I have lost 7 inches from my waist, 5.5 inches from my hips and 5.5 inches from my bust.
I was a US 16 when I started on Weight Watchers, and I am now between a US 10 and a US 12.

I still don't have an end number in site. I don't really feel like there is a finish line for getting healthy and strong. I am still overweight and I will continue to fight the fight. I want to get as much weight off my joints as I can so I can avoid spending my golden years getting new knees and hips if I can.

In the next couple weeks I want to teach myself to cook some new meals. I have been eating a lot of the pre-packaged Weight Watchers, Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine meals for many months. There is no reason I can't make those myself and save some money! I recently had the Epiphany that eating canned potatoes was crazy and started buying 5 lb bags of potato's. I don't eat them quite fast enough - but even if I only manage half a bag I am still eating a fresh potato rather than a canned one AND a canned potato costs so much more than a fresh one! Plus environmentally it's a win as well. Less cans to recycle. Less processing costs. There are so many little things like that which I would really like to change.

And how have all of you been?!?

Hot and Heavy with a Flower on Top

I weighed in this morning and it wasn't very pretty. Not surprising - but not pretty. I put on 1.5 lbs this last week and actually I am pretty happy it wasn't more! I did half the work outs I normally do and I had a lot of food that is not really on my diet. (Eat more + Work out less = weight gain.) So this next week I will try and bring it around the other way. (Eat BETTER! + WORK OUT MORE! = Not feeling like a sausage in my jeans!)

This week has been a bit stressful. We had to get our hot water heater replaced which cost a pretty penny, and our central air conditioning stopped working as well. Normally if your Air is going to die May is a pretty good month for that, as our average temp is 70F (21.1C). However this week has been REALLY warm here in Minnesota and we broke the record high temp yesterday set in 1911 and ended at 93F (33.9C). Just. Miserable.

We had to have our windows open (sadly we have a lot of windows in our house that DO NOT open!) and the light of our TV at night attracted these charming fellows.

June Bugs. So very gross. I shiver every time I see one of these guys. They slam into our screens at night attracted by the light of our TV, and the cat just about poops herself with wanting to jump in the windows and swipe at these critters. Yuck. I will be happy when the go away!

I have been doing a little gardening this last week. I planted a bunch of viola in a red pot because it made me really happy. I love the red and purple combo.

I also picked up a "Pansy Bowl" which was on special for a great deal. It fit perfectly in our planter and I was thrilled with the ease of just dropping a plant in and not having to scrounge dirt and arrange a bunch of plants I paid too much for. Sometimes instant is thrilling! (Especially when it's cheaper than what I would have ended up planting!)

I got a set of these planters from my brother (who made them from siding and cedar! Clever!) and we place them at the front of our deck every year. They see a lot of heat/sun, so this year I tried a simple geranium surrounded by verbena. Hopefully they will survive and (dare I hope?) thrive in the hot summer sun.

And lastly I thought I would show off the cute little green berries that are popping out of our strawberry patch now. So cute! It won't be long until we have awesome strawberries to nibble on! Hooray!

Alright - Off to get my workout in before the temperature gets too much higher. I have been sweating for hours already - so I am trying to think how good a cool shower will feel when I get done with my workout! :) Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

How does your Garden Grow?

Part of the joy of having a mild winter and a warm spring is that all of our garden's have gone insane much earlier than normal. My Growth Hardiness Zone is in the 4 range here in Minnesota. The rule of thumb for us is that you don't stick a plant in the ground until after Mother's Day - which is the second Sunday in May here in the USA.

 It's still getting cold at night here, but that doesn't seem to stop the perennials from thriving. Which is wonderful! I love looking at my gardens and seeing what is coming up and what made it through the winter. The downside is that I am anxious to get in some annuals and my veggies. I spent a good chunk of time yesterday at some garden centers. They are scrambling to get stuff in. I ended up coming home with 10 bags of cedar mulch for my gardens. Got 7 bags down and the lawn mowed before it rained - which just made everything all that more lush looking.

My Lupine is very happy this year and there are lots of babies shooting up all over the place. I suspect I will be having to transplant some lupine out of this bed in the next year or two as they take off.

I have been slowly scattering my ornaments as well. We can't keep them out over winter or they will shatter, so ever spring I get to put the whimsy back in my gardens. And since the plants grow (and occasionally die) every year things are never the same year to year.

I struggle with hitting the right balance in my beds. This bed is a bit more shrub and fall blooming - so I should really plant some bulbs in here or something to get some Spring blooms. Although in the fall this bed looks really great. Balance is tough.

Our Strawberries are looking pretty good this year and we already have lots of blossoms. There are more bald spots in the bed this year that last year - but I suspect the lack of snow is partly to blame. If we don't get enough snow the plants seem to freeze out a bit. I have some plants in my new butterfly garden that I don't know if they made it. One has come back strong - but two others are barely there. I sort of can't tell if the plants have come back or if I am looking at weeds. Time will tell.

In Health News, I am still going strong with my new healthy life style. I am doing my Zumba 2 for my Wii 4 days a week for 45-60 minutes a shot. Still love it! Am still amazed that I can be dripping with sweat and smiling. It feels good to feel strong! I am still struggling with water consumption. I have no problem drinking a lot of water when I exercise, but on a normal day I struggle a bit more. I know it's important - so I am working on it. I have been taking my vitamins more consistently. I have to take them with food and it pretty much has to be my lunch meal. The vitamins really upset my stomach and breakfast is too light (and too coffee rich) to take vitamins with, and I suspect my taking them with dinner been a factor with my insomnia. So I am trying to remember to take them with lunch every day.

I tell myself every week I will track my points on Weight Watchers, and never make it through a week. I am still trying to drop weight and I know being accountable for what I put in my body will make a difference in my weight results at the end of the week, and yet I fizzle off a couple of days in. So that needs some work. I have shown a small weight loss the last two weeks, so that is moving in the right direction.

OK - This is getting kind of long, so I think I will sign off.  Everyone have a wonderful weekend!

Saturday Morning Health Check in

Good morning! I am getting back into the routine of doing a Saturday morning reflection and goal setting for my health. I weigh in on my Weight Watchers online every Saturday morning, so this is always a good time to reflect on what is going on with me.

This morning I had a slight increase in my weight with the weight-in again. I decided to pull up my statistics on Weight Watchers to see where I was with my Weight on January first compared to now. I am two pounds lighter today then I was on January 1st. I really have been bouncing up and down in the same five pound spot for the last 5 months. It was good to see. I can't really fool myself when I see the chart right in front of me. I have been working out a lot and I am seeing changes in my size and shape, but the weight loss has really dried up in the last five months.

So I am back to tracking my food and measuring it out accurately. I am going to spend some time looking at the recipes on WW online to try and find something exciting. I got out of the pattern of trying a recipe every week and have been way to dependent on sandwiches and box meals. This week I will get back in the rhythm of tracking my food. I feel like that is where I am going astray since I have never stopped working out and pushing myself that way. The good news is that I held a pretty good maintenance schedule over the last five months - so I know when I get my weight to a level where I am comfortable I can hold myself there with comfort. BUT I am not in maintenance mode yet - I still need to get my weight down.

The level of joint pain I have now compared to last summer is so much less with the weight loss I have already achieved. As I march proudly into my 40's I really want to get as much of my bulk off as I can so I don't spend my 60's and 70's having knee surgery and unable to garden or ride a bike. I am proud of what I have achieved but I still have distance to cover. I still have swollen knees that ache and I get excited thinking about what my energy level and my ache level will be like when I drop xx amount of more weight.

And no - I don't have an end number in my mind. I have an area I would like to get toward - but I want to see how I feel when I get to certain levels of health. I know for my height I need to get my weight down AT LEAST another 20 pounds to enter the "normal" range on the BMI scale, sothat is where my path is taking me right now. I would also love it if my Wii Fit didn't say "That's Overweight" after every weight in. (After years of it telling me "That's Obese" it doesn't seem as bad, but still - I want it to say something nice!)

So that's where I am at!

Health, Weight Loss and Feeling good

I haven't talked a whole lot about my health and weight loss lately. I am still trucking along!

Here is a picture of me on Easter a couple weeks back. I am feeling really good and loving all the new clothes I have been having to buy in smaller sizes. (I loved writing that!) There are so many things that I am loving about getting my weight managed, making healthy eating a way of life, and making exercise a part of my life. Things you don't think about or just take for granted.

I have been somewhat stagnant in my weight loss and am still hovering in that ALMOST to 50 pounds mark. I haven't crossed that threshold yet, but I will get there and beyond. Even though the numbers aren't moving much on the scale, I am still shrinking physically. I admit, it's frustrating to weight in week after week and to bounce up and down over the same 5 pounds, but I am still moving in the right direction, and I know plateau happens!

I have been working out with the newest version of Zumba for the Wii. I love it! It's really different in it's graphics, music and exercise then the last one so it was a bit of a shock, but I have to say I find this one far superior to the first at this point.  I am sweating, panting and soar from the exercise - and I LOVE IT!

I still have hopes that I will fall back in love with bike riding, but so far the 20 mile trail ride a few weeks ago is all I have under my belt. Since then I have just been the Zumba Queen.

I am still doing Weight Watchers online, but I have not been tracking my food. It's not shocking that my weight has not progressed much right around the time I lost my will to track my food. I know I need to buckle down on that, I just can't seem to get there on that one for some reason. Something to think about.

Saturday is my weight in day for Weight Watchers, and I used to blog about my weekly journey every Saturday. I would like to get back in the habit of doing that. I think I have been letting myself off the hook with accountability by moving away from that and away from tracking my food. It's too easy to gobble Skinny Cow treats when you don't have to put it on your daily points tracker!

SO....Back to blogging about my health journey every Saturday and back to tracking my food. (See what happens? You put it in writing and YOU HAVE TO DO IT!)

A return to normal

This is our last morning with our mother-in-law's Dog Minnie. She will be gone when I get home from work today. It's amazing how fast you get used to having another critter in the house. We developed a routine and I have to say I think I will miss the little beast. :)

Conversely I cannot wait to come home today and hit my Zumba! I have only been able to do it once in the last week with Minnie staying with us. Tom took Minnie out of the house for an hour so I could get a workout in. Minnie is a great dog but she is so excitable - we just new me flaying around like a crazy Zumba Warrior would cause her to go into fits - so I did more on the treadmill this week. I miss my Zumba!

I have had a lot of insomnia this past week. I woke up at 11:30 pm one night and could not go back to sleep. Last night I woke at 2:30 and could not go back to sleep. Hopefully that stop pretty soon. It's hard to not be crabby when you are sleep deprived. I suspect it's also hard on the diet and health in general. I am more prone toward a binge when I am in a Zombie state. Zombie eating is nobodies friend!

Busy day!

I had a very busy day today! I woke up at 3:00 this morning and could not go back to sleep so I got up. As is the hazard of getting less than enough sleep, I ended up buying a little something something on-line. (Oops!) More on that when it arrives. Insomnia is getting expensive!

Since I was up early I decided to go in to work a little early. And then I had the "Can't stand my job-idis" hit and ended up taking a half vacation day. (Again - Insomnia and impulse control!) On the way home I stopped at a gas station and filled my car up and got a MUCH needed car wash. Then home to a light lunch and a hello to the hubby and kitty. I then made an appointment to get my hair cut this Friday (WOOT!) and managed to get my dog in to the vet today! Love it when I can get an immediate appointment! So Emma got poked and prodded. She has put on a little weight since last time (She was 34 lbs and is now 37) but she gets less running time in the winter. We are naughty parents and don't take her for many walks. Partly because she is cold sensitive and mostly because we are lazy people.

Emma was great at the vet and is in really good health. She has a cyst that showed up a couple months ago - which they said to watch - but that they didn't think anything needed to be done at this point. So yay for that! I picked up her heart worm and her flea and tick stuff while I was there since there are already reports of ticks! That is insane!

One other thing I did today was to organize my cowl bin. I have this in my closet in my den and it's been just a hot mess. Today I got fed up and dumped the whole thing out on my table and sorted it out. I had not only cowls in here but headbands, a pair of slippers, a pair of leg warmers, several hats, several scarves... it was a mess.

And I have a few things in there that I really should just donate or ... something. I know when I made this pink and black striped cowl I was thinking ooh la la french something. Yeah. I never wear this because it's just straight up a hot mess. This might actually be a cute purse with the right lining? Or a good item to go in the donation bin. :)

 In the end I have all my cowls neatly folded in the large bin and the smaller bin is all headbands and one pair of leg warmers that I had no idea where to put. This is MUCH better! I actually tried on several of my cowls that I didn't love before and found that they look much better (and fit much better) on me now that I have dropped a few lbs. YAY for that!

And to top all this off I hit the treadmill on my new program tonight. I have been struggling with wanting to hit the treadmill lately. So when I was watching the Biggest Loser this week I had the thought of changing my approach to the treadmill. So now I am going to do 5K (which is only 3.1 miles!) every time and I am going to try and do my best every time - pushing my speed and my length of runs and so forth. I am hoping to get to the point where I can jog the whole thing. This is just shocking to me. I spent years telling people I would only run if I had a bear chasing me, and now I am trying to get to where I can run on my own - without the aid of giant hostile wildlife spurring me on! Who the heck am I turning into?!?! :)

If anyone reading this has any treadmill tips or motivations that work for you I would love to hear them!

In the meantime - I am off to a MUCH needed shower. ;)

Monday in your face

Good Morning World. It's time for Insomniac Theater! Woke up at 1:00 this morning and could NOT get back to sleep. This always makes me so very happy. Nothing like starting out the week exhausted and crabby. **sigh**

I am pretty sure my neighbors don't appreciate my sleepless nights either. I put Emma out when I got out of bed at 2:12 this morning and she immediately ran to the very back of our yard and started barking like a mad dog. Nothing carries on a cold winter night like the sound of a dog barking. Then the sound of a tired woman in owl pajamas shivering in the doorway making kissing noises and whisper yelling "Emma!" and shaking the treat container. Yup. People know when I am up.

Then Emma curls up on her bed in the den while I amuse myself with the Internet, sighing a lot and getting excited for food every time I get up and go to the kitchen for more coffee. On a normal day when I wake up, it means the food will happen for the cat and the dog very soon. So when I wake up hours early - it's chaos. The cat has a timed feeder because she used to wake me up when she thought it was time to eat by standing on my sleeping form. Then the claws would come out when just walking on me didn't work. (ouch.) Then she figured out that I put my glasses on when I would get up, so she took to walking to my night stand and batting my glasses on the floor. That's when we decided to get a battery operated feeder.

 Here she is at 2:40 in the morning licking the empty bowl. She pretty much walks around glaring at me all morning because the food is not happening. Add to that I took her out of the bedroom where my husband is sleeping - so she can't go into that room. She will make the occasional walk to the bedroom door and claw frantically at it hoping she can get in. That makes for a fun game too. I will go and shush her away and when she hears me retreat and start typing again she will start back up.

Good times.

So that is what my Insomnia mornings look like. Add to that me wondering how early I can go into work for the day so I can leave early as I know I will be a wreck by around noon when I am up at this hour. I generally don't go in early on insomnia mornings - but I think I will today.

Insomnia days are just so hard. My brain is moosh. I can't generally knit much because I do bad things to patterns when I try. Any form of exercise is out. My diet takes a hit because I don't know when to eat and get confused about hunger and tired. (If I get up at 1:00 and eat breakfast at 4:00 do I eat lunch at 10:00 and and dinner at 3:00 and then second dinner at 7:00????) And if I go into work early THAT will throw everything off too. And if I go in early and come home early can I or should I take a nap or am I better off just going to bed early and trying to get a long sleep so I don't end up not being able to sleep a second night in a row? Meh. I know when I can't sleep it's going to be a long long day.

Wish me luck!

Checking in

I haven't been talking much about my weight loss goals and how things have been going. I am still working hard on my goals - but I have been struggling with the weight loss. When I weighed in yesterday (Zero loss/Zero gain) my weight watchers report told me I have lost 2.2 lbs in the last 4 weeks. Uffda. Something is not right here. They recently changed my daily weight watchers allowance from 29 points to 26. You wouldn't THINK three points a day would make that large of a difference, but it really has been throwing me for a loop. I used to have extra points every day, and now I am digging into my weekly allowance every day. Which has lead to me not wanting to track what I eat, which leads to only dropping 2.2 lbs this last month.

So I am heading back to the grindstone here. I have been exercising consistantly, but I am going to work harder on the food input and tracking. I am also going back to exploring recipies so I am eating some fresher foods that are more satisfying. As good as the frozen lunches I eat have been, they are still frozen meals.

I will also be taking a que from my Cat Izzi and trying to get more sleep!

January and February are always a hard time in Minnesota. It's cold. It's gray. There is no light. You feel like you are constantly bundled up and running from one warm area to another. We have actually had a very mild winter here this year, but it's still winter and it's still long, dark and cold. I know that affects my spirit. I am trying to not let stuff get me down, to take deep breaths, to slow down.

There will always be stressers in life. Always. So I need to learn how to shake them off and roll with the rough times. Something I have been trying to improve for awhile. It's not easy! But I am learning.

How is everyone else doing this winter? You all hanging in there? I know it's not winter everywhere, it's sunny and warm and awesome somewhere right now. I think New Zealand and Australia are in high summer now. Oh to be a Kiwi!

Maybe it's time to make an appointment to get a hair cut and throw some color on my toes. A little make-over might go a long way toward some much needed lifted spirits!

Wednesday night pig out

I have been hungry lately. I mean HUNGRY. Hard to stop eating - pacing around like a tiger in a cage hungry. It sucks. I think it's holiday hangover - but regardless of the reason its my current reality. So in an effort to slap the hungry girl down a bit, I have been trying to branch out in my veggie eating. I have seen a lot on spaghetti squash lately - so I picked one up this weekend.

I had very little clue about how to eat this thing or cook it for that matter. Yay for Google! I found this wonderful tutorial on Food.com and decided to try the boil in a pot method. (Mostly because I didn't have a nice poking device for ... well.... poking it with. I know I have a metal skewer somewhere....)



So I filled a pot with water. The pot had to be big enough to cover the squash. Being inexperienced in this I had concerns. Is it supposed to float? How will it cook evenly? Turns out the squash sort of rolled in the boiling water - which was really neat! The downside to boiling a squash is you kind of have to hang out in the kitchen while it cooks. They said up to a half hour (I gave it 45 minutes) to get your squash cooked, so I grabbed a magazine and a glass of wine!

I have to say I didn't have high hopes for the February Knit 'n Style based on the cover sweater. (Didn't I wear this in 1993?) But I actually found quite a few things of interest in this magazine. If you click here you can see the Gallery of the items featured in the magazine. I really love the knit Bulky Cabled Vest by Melissa Leapman. I have been aching to knit myself a vest for about a year now - and this one is so interesting. A bit of peek-a-boo with the cables so your shirt under the vest shows. Really like this! (Wonder how it would look on my size rather than a model though?)

I also really liked the shaping of the Kaleidoscope sweater. Not thrilled with the pattern of the yarn - but the shaping of the sweater itself is nice. I think this would be nice in a solid or ombre yarn. Maybe even kettle dyed.

The Lattice Pullover with Peplum was neat too. Reminds me of the Jane Austin Knits magazine that was all the rage in the last few months.

I also really liked the Nordic Ice sweater. Pretty basic Nordic design - but I am really geeking out on Nordic Sweaters right now. I kind of want to knit a giant Lopi Sweater.

So I enjoyed my flip through the magazine and the wine was pretty nice too. :) Before I knew it my squash was done. (I stuck a fork in it and it went in easy - that's how you know it's cooked.) So I dumped it out in the sink and let it cool for a minute while I washed the pan. Then I cut it in half.

It was still quite hot at this point. You can see the seeds in there a little bit. I had to get those out - so I grabbed a spoon and started scooping away the seeds and attached squash. (This was kind of like scooping seeds out of a pumpkin - but a lot warmer. Boiling a squash for 45 minutes REALLY makes it warm. Just saying.)

Once the seeds were out I grabbed a fork and started pulling the squash out. Wow. You get a LOT Of squash! The outer skin sort of peels off and a half squash filled this plate up and then some. I ended up taking one cup of Wee Willy's Pasta Sauce and just a shake of reduced fat Parmesan cheese on top. It was really good and SO filling! I could have halved the amount I ate easily. As it was, I pigged out and got really full and did it guilt free. A very healthy dinner and I am quite pleased.

AND I have a nice bunch of leftovers for lunch tomorrow too! Yay!

Where you at?!?

Time management is a bugger sometimes. I want to blog on a close to daily basis. Like 5-7 times a week. Lately I can barely squeak a weekly post in. I thought once the holidays were over I would settle down, but I don't feel like I can find a rhythm lately. It's tough.

I have been continuing to work on my health goals. I am proud to say I lost weight every single week of the holiday season and am now over the 40 lb loss for my overall weight loss and over the 25 lb mark on weight watchers. I often think about how much that weight is and try to savor it NOT being on my body anymore. So when I pick something up (like the 25 pound box of cat litter this weekend) and I am grunting away trying to get it into the grocery cart, I try and stop and say "this is how much you were walking around with on your body last August - and you dropped 15 pounds more to boot!" It's so easy to just see yourself as the same weight when you are slowly melting it off a pound or two a week. So I think it's good to step back and appreciate the enormity of the accomplishments.

Over the last couple of weeks I changed my work out routine and I now set a goal of 6 days a week. I do three days of tread milling for an hour session and three days of Zumba on the Wii (45 minute session.) I still love Zumba. Still smile while I am sweating my butt off. Love it.

And just so this post isn't all about me sweating my bum off, here are a few gratuitous pet photos.

 Emma is our dog and she is looking at me like I am a nutball for snapping her picture. You can see the curtain is parted - she loves to scope the front yard for raccoons and paper carriers in the mornings. (Not much else going on at this hour of the morning - you can see it's still dark out....) Izzi, our cat, is curled up in the heated cat bed and just happy to doze.

This is a day or two later. I think it was pretty cold out this morning. They were both curled up together in here when I came out for my coffee refill. (Please excuse the ghost eyes - it was dark in here and I had to use a flash.) My girls are just too cute.

Saturday Morning - Health update and goal setting

Saturday morning weight in and health evaluation time. I like to take time to think about the week ahead on Saturday mornings and how I can make it a better week. What can I do to be stronger and healthier? What are my concerns?

This last week was a struggle with food. I didn't go crazy - but I felt a little out of control. The voice of justification (It's ok - eat a cookie!) was in my head too much and usually that means other things are going on that make me feel like I need extra. Extra love, extra food, Extra stuff to fill the holes in my soul. I try to be mindful of that voice - it's a trickster and will lead me astray.

So I did the "Please let me not have gained" prayer as I stepped on my Wii this morning and was happy that I saw a little loss. Not even a pound, but it's the right direction and I consider that a win.

I have noticed my Zumba workouts aren't destroying me as much anymore, so I want to step up the workouts. Either the intensity of the short work-outs (Since I am on beginner) or trying the 40 minute work outs. I am not sure what makes sense to do yet - but I need to change something there.

I only have three more work outs to go on my 2nd tread-mill afghan and then I can be done knitting on my treadmill. I have been wanting that to be harder too, and I just can't go too fast while knitting. Visions of being impaled on my pretty hard wood knitting needles fill my head. No thank you! I have the incline at 50% and walk for an hour every time. It's enough that I drip with sweat every work out - but I am to the point that I really want to work harder.

I REALLY need to finish putting together my first tread mill afghan. I pretty much just have to finish stitching on the seed stitch borders surrounding the blanket and it's done. I run screaming from finish work.

I thought I would include a couple pictured of Emma in the cat bed. We purchased the largest heated bed we could thinking the girls might share. We find Emma in the bed as often as the cat. They have a nice view of the bird feeders from the bed and some nice sunlight. Pretty sweet spot.

This is how she curls - all her feet together in a pile of cuteness. She is giving me the "What? What now? I just want to nap!" look.  Love my fur-babies.

Saturday Morning: Weight in - Check in

It's been a busy busy week around here! This week was filled with: Insomnia, projects galore, work (but not much of that...), Thanksgiving Holiday, and (joy of joys) my period.

So after last weeks OUTSTANDING weight loss I was a little concerned about this week. I knew I was due for my period. I knew it was Thanksgiving and that it would be really hard to face that meal. I haven't had to handle too many celebrations since going on Weight Watchers and I admit - I was scared! I heard statistics all week about how that average American eats 4500 calories on Thanksgiving day. And I love our Thanksgiving meals. Turkey, Mashed potato's with thick brown gravy. Rolls. Cranberries. Stuffing. Green bean casserole. Pumpkin pie..... The list goes on and on! So I was trying to gird my loins for going into celebration mode. My motto was: "Eat with intent. Enjoy what you eat." Oh - and the period hit the night before Thanksgiving, so I went into the day with cramps, feeling fat, and wanting to eat the house down. (Yeah - thanks for THAT body!)

So on Thanksgiving day I ate my normal breakfast and then went to my parents for Brunch. My mom really tried to cut back on the amount of food and tried to go leaner on things which was really nice. I ate a little bit of everything I wanted. The taste of these foods was just amazing and so rich. I wanted to gobble it up just because it smelled and tasted so good! I ate a minimum of snacks and then when we sat for dinner I had a small serving of everything I HAD to have. I was shocked at how full I got so fast and I actually never made it to eating my Turkey! I had to stop before I got to it and ended up taking it home in a doggy bag. So I was really pleased with how I handled myself and now I feel just a little more confident about handling food situations like this in the future. (Which is good because we are in full holiday mode!)

So this morning was weight in and I was trying to be prepared for what could be a bummer with the factors working against me. (Period, Thanksgiving eating, insomnia at the beginning of the week, and a really good loss the week before.) I did my usual pep talk (You are on the right path, have faith in the process, one week is not the whole picture of your journey......) and then did my weight in. Yay! I LOST weight this week! I did a snoopy dance and celebrated losing my 1.1 lbs! YAY! Every success just strengthens my faith in myself and my belief that I can really get myself to a healthy weight and feel healthy. It's just such a wonderful thing to feel in control of your body and to know you can handle situations that come up. Crazy to be 40 years old and just getting my feet under my body in this area, but I am happy to FINALLY be getting there.

So I had insomnia this week which generally means less knitting. I had to rip out a few things I attempted because I just can't focus when I am exhausted and I make mistakes. But I did make a little headway on two projects.

I started the Pocketbook Slipper pattern that had been in my Que on Ravelry forever. I wanted something very simple that I could work on over Thanksgiving and it is a very simple pattern. I am anxious to get the other one done and to seem them up so they are done. I think they will be perfect for taking with when I go to friends/family homes this winter. You can't really tromp around in snow covered boots at other people's houses so having a little pair of throw on slippers that I can just have in my purse is pretty ideal. I chose a lighter color so that dog and cat hair doesn't show us badly. (I have learned that lesson well in my own home!) The yarn is a stash bust, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in the color Green Tea Heather. The first one weighted in at 25 grams - and the skein is 50 grams, so I might just make it in 1 skein. (I have a second one standing by just in case.) I love the construction of these and think they would make great X-mas gifts too. (Free pattern on Ravelry!)

My other project I made progress on this week was a pair of gloves to go with my

Hood and Shoulders above the Rest hat I made a couple weeks ago. I had most of one skein of yarn left over from the hat, so I thought a nice set of mittens to go with it would be wonderful. (My hands are already cracking and bleeding this winter and we have only had one snow so far!) I have a pattern I really like for using the Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn, the Wool-Ease Mitten pattern by Stephanie Taylor on Ravelry. (Also a free pattern.) I need to weave in the ends on mitten 1 (Pictured above - inside out so I can just grab a needle and get to it!) and then move on to mitten 2. It makes me twitch to be EXACTLY half done on two projects. I do not want to come down with half-done idis!

 

The other project we have been working on this week was to get my basement craft/treadmill room updated a little. I did not take a before picture (Argh!) but what I wanted was more storage and a place to have my sewing machine out and ready to use at all times. Previously I would take my sewing machine upstairs and set it up in my dining room everytime I needed to make something. This resulted in me sewing almost never because it was a giant pain in the toosh to set up! So now I have two new bookcases on either side of the tv that are housing craft books, which really opened the space up a lot. I am so happy to be able to see all my craft books! They were stacked previously in a way that I could not see what I had - so I am very excited to see all my books! The Tv is set up better for tread milling. AND I have the ability to listen to my Ipod as well! It's very exciting!

I am still organizing and tweaking the space. I want a rolling chair for my sewing table and I still have stacks of stuff laying all over. My Yarn Balling station fit perfectly next to my sewing table and that made me really happy. I used to keep my swift and baller in a drawer and then set it up every time I needed to ball my yarn up. It's awesome to just have stuff in the ready position!

I am pretty excited to treadmill this morning in my new and improved space!

Have a wonderful weekend all!

Saturday Mornings are Good Mornings

My trusty work-out sneakers. I am going to DESTROY you!

It's Saturday morning - So it's Weight in day. I actually LOVE Saturday mornings. Not just because I don't have to work - that is just a Du! But I love everything else too. The last two Fridays I have fallen asleep well before 9:00pm. This morning I slept until just past 7:00 - so I really got some good rest. I get up and let the dog out and feed her. Then I can sit at my computer and sip on a cup of coffee and wake up s l o w l y. How lovely to not rushrushrush. Then when I am ready I head over to my Wii Fit and weight in.

This week I had my biggest loss - 2.7 lbs. (-13 on WW and -28 from my heaviest). I found this surprising since last Sunday I splurged and ate a calorie & fat laden extravaganza from our local Mexican Restaurant. Re-fried beans and cheese galore. It was amazing and I have no regrets whatsoever about eating it. But I thought it would slow my weight loss this week. Apparently not. Good lesson learned. One meal does not a fat-ass make. Flipping that coin around, I am learning patience and persistence is key in lifestyle change. I am still delighting in how much and the variety I can eat. I have ice cream frequently - It's just not a pint of Ben & Jerry's anymore - now it's a Skinny Cow drumstick - which are VERY good btw. Love them.

My increased exercise has been doing me good. I feel like my body is pulling in and I kind of feel like I have a little of the ol' Jenny swagger back. Not quite up to Old Spice Guy on a horse level of Swagger - but I am slowly getting my mojo back.

One of the joys of this journey and this steady slow drop in weight is that every day when I pull something out of my closet to wear I get the joy of it slipping on and instead of trying to find something I can fit into. To wear clothing that I could never really fit into and have it kind of hang on me now is soooooooo gratifying. Yesterday I wore a blouse that I had avoided for some time. I would have to wear a tank or tight tee under it and then button one or two buttons rather strategically to hide bulges. Yesterday it buttoned top to bottom and there was much room to spare! I actually had the thought that I should wear a tank under it because it is a little too big and gaps open. Oh yeah! I will take that my friends!

This next week:
I feel like I am pretty on track for my goals. I want to continue with my exercise routine and always always always drink more water. (Why is this so hard?)

Hang in there - It's almost the weekend!

My weeks are really flying by quickly lately. I think this is in part due to my increased work out schedule. I went from tread-milling three times a week for an hour (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday (still an hour a session) and added a 20 minute Wii Zumba session after each tread mill session. My days are just FLYING by!

That being said I am always so grateful for Friday to arrive. I am pretty tuckered out at the end of a work week and look forward to a little rejuvenation on the weekends. Sleeping past 4:45 am and getting more than 6 or 7 hours sleep is wonderful. I always seem to be short on sleep and I know I will have to work on that as part of my health quest. Being on Weight Watchers is helping with that as well - I have cut my coffee back to one cup most days with only an occasional Starbucks Skinny Cinnamon Dulce Latte as a treat. I have cut way back on my wine drinking (although I always like wine better in the winter - so we will see how that goes....) which seems to bother my sleep quite a bit. And I am training myself to be able to get up and use the restroom in the middle of the night and go back to sleep. I am increasing my water intake quite a bit - so this has become a needed skill. And I feel like the more I exercise the better the odds of me getting a good nights rest.

Sleep is so important but it is so readily sacrificed.

Health Quest & ZUMBA

Today was my 5 week weight in on Weight Watchers. I am down -10.3 pounds on WW and just over 25 pounds less than my highest weight two years ago. GO ME! Am very pleased with my progress and am still in love with Weight Watchers online.

I confess - I was initially a little disappointed in my weight loss when I got on my Wii this morning. And I blame The Biggest Loser on my unrealistic expectations. I watched the first two episodes of the new season this week and I think watching these people drop such massive amounts of weight on week 1 and then still pretty amazing amounts week 2 (although almost all of them were in tears for ONLY dropping 2-10 pounds.....) it kind of skewed my perception of what reality is for a normal mortal. I am averaging a 2.1 pound loss per week since starting WW. Before Weight Watchers I would drop weight one week and then gain it back the next. Boing Boing Boing. So I need to use caution on my brain when I watch shows like that. I do not have Bob Harper standing on my throat and screaming at me. (Nor would I want that! Yuck!) Inspirational? Yes. Expectational? - NO.

So I am very pleased with how this week went. I did increase my Tread Mill from 3 one hour sessions to 4. AND!!!!!! I got my Wii Zumba in the mail this week.
LOVE IT! I got it in the mail on Tuesday and after my tread mill session I turned it on and started on it. I found it a little confusing to navigate the menu. And the tutorial would either stick on a step forever (if I did it without the wii stick in my hand) or skip through at lightning speed if I did hold the Wii stick, but once I got into the actual work out I was a happy girl. I was dripping with sweat at the end of the 20 minute beginner routine and panting for air. (Whether that is a commentary on my level of fitness or how good this is for a workout - I don't know. Either way.....) So on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday I added a session of Zumba to my workouts. After the first day I was VERY sore in my upper body and back. Day 2 was hard. I was sore and my list of excuses was mighty. Told myself to "Woman up!" and did it. Day three I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be and was looking forward to getting my three days of exercise behind my belt. When I woke up on Friday I was surprised at the lack of stiffness in my back and body in general. Nice!

So my new exercise schedule is: Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and I am doing one hour of knitting/walking on my treadmill at a 50% incline and then hitting my Wii when I finish on the treadmill for a Zumba session. Sunday, Monday & Friday are rest and recovery days. If I stick to this for the Tread Mill schedule I will be done with knitting on my Afghan in 7 more weeks. I am anxious to be done with it so I can ramp up my speed and change my focus. I can't go too fast on the tread mill when I am knitting so I have jacked the incline up to compensate and make it harder. I drip with sweat every session and my heart rate goes up - so I know I am burning calories and doing some good to my body, but I really want to keep ramping up the work outs - so that means this will probably be my final afghan on the tread mill.

I am trying to focus on the little things to see my success on the health quest. Like my pajama bottoms are all dragging on the floor now. And when I went to put on a long sleeve T that I lived in last winter I was sure it must be a 2XL because it was just too big. When I took it off and looked it was a 1XL - which means I am sneaking slowly into Large girl territory and will soon not be an XL girl. (Happily said goodbye to 2XL Jen awhile ago.) My jeans fit better every week and I foresee needing to go shopping for the holidays. And I am excited about being more comfortable in my own skin this holiday season. AND my 40th Birthday is 5 weeks away and I am excited to see where I am at on my 40th birthday! Go me!

THIS WEEK:
I want to stay on my exercise routine that I started this week.
I want to keep ramping up my water consumption. (I drink more water when I exercise!)
Take all my vitamins every day.
Try a new WW recipe.
Get. More. Sleep.

My Health Quest

This morning was my 4th weight in and I am very pleased with my progress. I am down 8.1 pounds on Weight Watchers and 23 lbs from my heaviest about 2 years ago. Feels really good to be making steady progress.

I am still amazed at what I can eat on this "diet". For the first time in years I am eating bread and ice cream again. No - I don't go hog wild - and yes it's light bread and WW or Skinny Cow ice cream - but knowing I can work these little ice cream treats into my health plan is helping me to not grab a candy bar when I gas my car up and sit in the parking lot eating it in practially one bite. Never a proud moment that.

I am still a little nervous about things like outings, restaurants and camping trips. I went on a camping trip my second week on weight watchers and spent HOURS trying to plan food. I think because I was new to WW I was really worried about how it would go and had visions of destroying my diet. Nope. I did just fine. I weighted in the Monday morning after I got back instead of the Saturday I normally weight in and still showed a nice loss. I tried to pack as much power foods as I could and walked the trails at the park with my husband and dog. It was really nice and I felt rather empowered to have eaten healthy meals and felt satisfied all weekend and STILL lost weight.

I think one of the things I am enjoying most is the feeling that I am actually in control of this body. I have spent so many years at war with it, and when did my body become seperate from me come to think about it. Time to realize that I AM MY BODY. Time to own this form I took and work with it rather than against it.

This week I want to try a few new recipies and branch out a little more in my foods. The more I know about what I can eat and how it affects me the more empowered and in control I will feel.

I want to up my tread-milling this week. I want to go from three one hour sessions to four. Currently I am knitting on my treadmill so I walk at around 2.5 for a speed with the incline at 50%. I drip sweat and my heart rate is increased and my muscles feel it - so I am satisfied that I am getting some exercise. Conversly I am anxious to finish this afghan I am knitting so I can step up the intensity. Also I just ordered Zumba for the Wii and want that to arrive so I can start working my core and tail feathers.

Must. Drink. More. Water.