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!

Where you at?

Life is starting to return to a bit of normal lately. The holidays are over. My class (although NOT my certification exam) is finished. And I have discovered that sitting and studying while eating Chili Cheese Frito's will cause a very noticeable tightening of the pants. Uffda. The nice thing about falling off the horse is you can dust yourself off and get right back on!

So I rejoined weight watchers on-line and started tracking my food. Today is Day 1 (again) and I found I had quickly forgotten how to eat in a points system. (Guess I wasn't bending it like I thought I was and pretty much just snapped those point rules in half and ran happy happy joy joy crazy with BBQ sauce and all the other little things that REALLY add up!)

 

So this morning I made myself a really healthy breakfast and I thought I would share it. It was pretty simple and I think the variety I can use in the formula for making it will keep me interested. 

Ingredients:

	1 serving(s) BrownBerry Sandwiches Thins Multi-Grain
	1 slice(s) Sargento Ultra Thin Cheddar
	2 tbsp Pace Chunky Salsa, Medium
	1/4 cup Egg Beaters Frozen Egg Product, Pasteurized

Points Plus Value = 5

I sprayed my tiny omelet egg pan with olive oil non-stick spray (I used Pam) and set the heat to medium. (The egg pan is not required - I have it and I love how it fits my bread - Like a healthy McMuffin!) I added the egg beaters and a little salt and pepper. When the eggs were mostly cooked on one side I popped the toast in the toaster. Then I flipped the eggs and let the other side cook. (I flip my pan to cook the other side of the eggs when the eggs are bubbled and mostly cooked. I turn off the heat when I flip it since the eggs are about 90% cooked at this point.) When the toast pops up, I pour the egg disk out of the pan onto one side of the toast, throw a slice of ultra thin Sargento Cheese on the eggs, and top with medium heat Chunky Pace Salsa. Top it with the other slice of toast and enjoy! I had a cup of coffee with fat free creamer and a tablespoon of Mocha coffee creamer (worth the 1 point for me!) and was a happy girl!

There are a lot of 100 calorie sandwich breads like this out on the market now, and lots of varieties of egg beaters. I look forward to throwing some veggies into the eggs in the future too - it will give it even more fill and I will get some veggies in first thing in the morning.

All in all a great start back on the healthy train!

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!

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!

Saturday Morning Weight In

Well - I was chewing my nails all week, but I ended up having a really great weight in! Down 4.2 lbs this week! (Take THAT weight gain from last week!) So I am now a total of 36 lbs lighter than my heaviest weight and since I joined Weight Watchers I am down almost 21 lbs. Very nice!

I spent much of this week thinking about the weight gain last weekend and telling myself things like "You are on the right path!" and "Trust the process!" but it was really hard to beat down the Stinkin' Thinkin' that ran more along the lines of "You knew it was too good to last - and now you will slowly fail!" Or "Did you really think you could lose weight AND eat Skinny Cow ice cream and drink wine? You aren't suffering enough to be thin!" Yeah. My inner voice is a REAL beyotch. So I was really trying to stay religious on my point system this week and really trying to focus on positive change.

I know I will have set backs. That is life ya know? I think it's all about how you deal with them.

 So after weight in this morning I let Emma out (again) and saw a lovely sunrise again. Nice to keep having happy Saturday sunrises that make you feel all inspired and junk. Notice our AWESOME Mayfly sculpture. It moved to the back deck for the time being. Makes me smile every time I see it.

Emma looked at me like I was nuts for poking my head out in my jammies. I could almost hear her say......"Good God Human! At least brush your hair or throw on a bra before you poke your head out!" Heh. I am sure my neighbors find my camera activity just charming. Yeah. Right.

A mere six hours later this is the mess happening outside. The birds don't seem to mind it though. It's the humans who are collectively groaning at this. We had 8 months of snow last winter. Eight. Months. Just revolting. So I am pretty sure everyone in the Twin Cities area is sighing right now and looking for their scrapers. GROSS!

You can see the back deck is already completely covered. Guess I better turn on the weather channel and see how much of this stuff we are actually going to get.

Have a great weekend all!

Saturday Morning Weight in - OH NO'S!

Well - I knew it was going to happen eventually. I weighed in this morning and I showed a gain of 1.5 lbs. OUCH! I am trying to not focus on it - to go steady on and to believe in myself. Fluctuations ARE normal. These things happen. Blah blah blah. It sucks. Weight gain sucks. There I said it! I am trying not to focus on this - but I want to think about why I gained this week and correct the behavior so I don't see a repeat next week. I think the culprits are:

1) Birthday Entitlement. "It's my Birthday so I get to eat....." Dangerous thinking that. Why does an event entitle you to abandon your goals? I think I need to find a better way to handle special occasions. Especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up in the next few weeks. The focus will be on food and celebrations for the next couple of weeks and I need to handle this well or I will be on a painful roller coaster.

2) Too much drinking! This goes with the celebrations - but I had a hungry week because I was drinking too many of my calories. I stayed in my points for my Weight Watchers goals - but I didn't spend them well and ended up eating more than I normally would because of the wine and Salty Dog splurging. Alcohol doesn't do much for a diet. I need to watch this.

3) I hardly drank any water this week! I was on a good stretch of water drinking for weeks and lately it's slacking off. I think the colder temperatures make cold water less enjoyable - so I need to think about sipping Hot water instead.

4) Stress. I am stressed about work and family situations, which leads to "Stinking Thinking" and makes my sleep issues worst. My sleep issues are getting worse lately and I really need to make sleep a more important part of my life.

So this next week I am going to try and get more sleep. Try and drink more water. Keep exercising. And try and focus on my food. I saw a clip on The Biggest Loser where they talked about how important it is to sit and eat at a table with no television and no distractions so you are very aware of the food you consume. I am SOOOOO bad at this. I rarely eat at a table and always have TV, a book or a computer in front of me when I eat. Something for me to think about going forward. Focus is important!

Today I am going to roast my first chicken. I think it's kind of funny that I am 40 years old and I have no clue how to roast a chicken! I spent some time watching uTube Videos on how to do it and I think I get it. The one by Fine Cooking looked very simple and was easy to follow. This chicken is some of the meat we got when we were on vacation and we went to Ferndale Market in Canon Falls, MN. I am excited to have found a source of meats that is local and from farmers who are trying to raise there animals as naturally as possible. my next step after that will be determining Weight Watchers values on Roasted chicken. Hmmmmm. I might need to use my scale for something other than yarn!

Have a great weekend everyone!