Three Things Thursday

I'm catching a few minutes to myself here while J & E are napping and B is happily reading a Wishbone mystery.  I'll try to be quick and keep it to just three thoughts.  No pix today.

1.  Splenda Campaign.  This is going really well.  I proudly report that yesterday I had only one of my two alloted splenda packets.  I'm learning to enjoy my cereal sweetened only with chunks of luscious peach, so yesterday, when I ordered iced tea with my lunch, I had a panic moment when I thought but I need at least 4 packets of Splenda with a glass this big.  Not so.  With a generous, restaurant sized serving of iced tea, I used . . . only ONE packet of splenda, and I liked it.    I feel like my little E when she learned that she was grown enough to use the booster seat instead of the high chair.

2.  Bachelorette Days.   DH is flying back to Seattle with B, so I'll be a bachelorette here for four or five days.  I'm looking forward to it (yes, honey, I'll miss you, too, if you're reading this!).  I look forward to reading late in bed (I just received the newest book by one of my favorite authors); I want to spend a long afternoon at the Smithsonian in DC,  I'll play my favorite kind of music at a volume level that might surprise you, and I'll get my exercise in without regard to family meal times.   That said, the one thing I have to watch out for is overcoming a past tendency to eat too much of the wrong kinds of things when I'm alone.   C'mon, I can do this, surely.  Food is just food, right??   Pray for me.

3.  Blessed quietude.  Actually the other thing I'm looking forward to is quiet time.   I noticed that someone I follow has a new post up about extrovert/introvert.  I haven't opened it yet, but I can sure tell you that I'm an introvert in the sense that I need time alone, completely to myself, to recharge my batteries.   I loves me my babies and kids and hubby, but my batteries are pretty darn low right now.

I hear J has awakened and he's calling my name . . . . !

Do you need time alone to recharge, or do you get your recharge from being with friends and family?

Rosemary, WI

I love the flavor of rosemary and have two very healthy bushes of it snuggled right next to the house.  Friends who live in the area are envious of my plants which don't seem to be affected adversely by our cold, snowy winters  or the hot, humid summers.   I have several recipes that feature my fresh rosemary--my favorites are roasted red potatoes, roasted pork tenderloin, and kebabs skewered on rosemary sticks.  Mmmm.  They  are flowering now with lovely, lavender-blue flowers that I happily include in any recipe.

I chose to feature rosemary today because it is also associated with remembrance.  "There's rosemary; that's for remembrance," to quote Shakespeare (Hamlet).  In the language of flowers, it was used in wedding arrangements to signify that the couple would remember their marriage vows.  It was also used in funeral arrangements to symbolize that we will remember the deceased.

I use it today for a much less serious idea.  I want to remind myself to remember the progress I am making.   I had what my leader calls a "maintenance practice week" this week.  At my WI, my weight was exactly the same.  Whereas I was very happy with that number last week, this week that exact same number has lost its shine.  I know, in my head, that this is fine, not a problem, and not a reason to give up or comfort myself with sugar, and that next week, or even the week after that my scale will show the progress I'm making.  For now, though, I'm hanging on to my rosemary thoughts.

I need to remember that:

I have lost 22 pounds since the beginning of May.
My skinny clothes are beginning to fit again.
I've lost inches from hips, waist, bust, thighs and arms.
I'm exercising for at least 45 minutes a day every day of the week.
I've adopted many healthy habits that are becoming part of the way I live.
The sport-bra thing.  :-)
I like catching glimpses of myself in the mirror and noticing that my face is thinner.
My BP is wonderfully low, both upper and lower numbers, without any medication.
I have run over 50 miles each month since May, and will run 70 miles this month!
The scale is "not the boss of me" and shouldn't and won't dictate my mood for the week, day, or hour.

AND, there are many, many happy, good, wonderful things in my life that have nothing to do with that number on the scale--this morning my BFF welcomed her first little granddaughter into the world.

Happy Birth Day, little Grace Elizabeth!

Thank you for listening, dear Bloggy Friends.   What happy, good thing do you remember to remember when other things try to get you down?



186.2

Whew!

And who says SAHM's don't work.  I've had my three grands (8, 2.5, and 1) since about 7:30.  I've helped put together two jigsaw puzzles, organized a swim in the little backyard pool,  watched them chase big beautiful butterflies around the garden, played backup safety to J's multiple attempts to crawl up the stairs, played name that tune on the "p-nan-o," had multiple potty/new diaper excursions, made "surprise sandwiches" for a picnic lunch, dealt with the county inspector who was checking out our new furnace/AC system, wiped up lots of spills, searched for bathing suits, sun block, sun glasses,  & towels, put J down for his morning nap, played a board game with the two older kids, read stories for each one, folded one load of laundry, started defrosting the fish we'll have for dinner tonight, refereed a few territorial squabbles, found a necessary pacifier, and, finally, gotten the younger two down for their afternoon naps.  I'm bushed.  Right now I have B watching a Star Wars video and I have a good book and a huge glass of ice water waiting for me.    The babies sleep until 3:30 or 4, so we'll have another flurry of activity then until their parents come for them between 5:30 and six.    Tonight, a quiet dinner, then to the gym for my Tuesday workout.

Mr. Munch is flitting around the house trying to tempt me with dried apricots and a small piece of dark chocolate.  I thwarted him somewhat, by including those two things as key ingredients for the kids' "surprise sandwiches."  Peanut butter, strawberry jam and today's surprise ingredients.  I might have hinted to them that the next time might feature M&M's.

I'm wearing a shirt that hasn't fit for almost a year.  Not only was it too snug at tummy and bust, but the short sleeves were way too tight.  Not anymore.  It fits well and I feel good in it.  I keep snatching glimpses of it in the mirror to remind myself that I don't really want to snack mindlessly.  I want to keep on losing and toning and being able to wear cute stuff from the closet.

My Splenda campaign is going swimmingly.  I've set a goal to limit my added Splenda intake to two packets/day.   This morning, I'm proud to report, I had my shredded mini-wheats sweetened with . . . peaches!!  SCORE!  They were great, as is.   I've got a few more weeks of peach season to learn to enjoy the taste before I face naked shredded wheat sans Splenda.  Think I can do it?  I do.

My WI is tomorrow and I have, in the past, managed to sabotage my good week with senseless, day-before-WI high-salt snacks.  Get out of my face, Mr. Munch!  I don't care that there's a package of indivual chip bags in the garage.  I'm not gonna play your games today.

I'm not entirely confident that I will actually lose anything tomorrow.  I sure want to and my weekly loss usually only shows on the scale on the very last day--all at once.  Even if I'm not going to lose, I don't want to add to any possible gain by blowing it today.  I feel that I've been following my plan closely enough to have earned a loss.  Exercised 45+ minutes for 6 of 7 days; OP every single meal of the week; eating more slowly at dinners; cutting down Splenda; keeping portions under control.  I'll for sure do my "last chance" Wednesday morning run before I go to my WI.   I run every single Wed morning (no kiddo's) so if I didn't I would through things off.

At my WW meeting a couple of weeks ago the leader was talking about plateaus.  She didn't say, but strongly implied that a plateau is indicative of some lapse in adherence to the program.  I'm not sure I agree.  I've had weeks where I was positively angelic, but registered no change at all.  I do think that in the process of weight loss, there are going to be periods when your weight stabilizes for a few weeks before it starts going down again.  Maybe the checking for discrepancies process that my leader suggested is a positive thing in any case, in that it's always useful to spot check things in any venture and you might just find something you can do better.

What do you think?  Do you think that plateaus are a natural part of weight loss, or should they be seen as clues that one needs to mind the p's and q's of the Plan more closely.

Be sure to check in tomorrow evening to learn . . . the rest of the story!

Blessed Relief

The long-promised cold front finally blew in this afternoon bringing a torrential thunder storm and a 27 degree drop in the temperature!  It feels so good that I almost don't even care that I was in the line at Safeway with a full cart of groceries when the rain let loose.  Picture me dashing out to my car (virtuously parked at the far end of the lot from the door) with a hastily contrived  plastic bag rain hat, complete with the Safeway logo.  LOL  It reminds me of the funny little fan shaped plastic rain hats that my mother used to keep, always, in her purse--I used to make fun of her, but I'm older and wiser now and I just got my hair beautified yesterday.

B, J, and E trying to beat the heat in a little back yard pool.  At least I thought it was a little pool until I had to blow it up.  I think the 40 minutes I spent blowing into that thing must be worth several hundred calories.  LOL

My Splenda Reduction campaign is going well.  I'm opting to put both of my two daily alloted packets on my morning cereal.  It's okay that way and I may cut down to one packet in a few days.  I don't like unsweetened coffee, so I'm going without now. It's interesting how many people offered me coffee today.  Two different friends suggested we get coffee after church and  DH had made me a gorgeous glass of iced coffee (doctored with a few packets of splenda) which I had to turn down.   Not a great hardship; I usually only drink it two or three times a week and I've always preferred coffee ice cream to real coffee!

Our thermometer reached 105 yesterday--that's hot HUMID 105, not the dry 105.  I basically stayed inside all day.  I thought about running early, and even set my alarm, but the thermometer was up to 89 at 6 am and I decided to skip the run.  I ended up not doing any exercise--the first day since June 5 that I've not exercised.  I missed it.  I don't want to make a habit of skipping, but I'm not going to obsess about it either.  Today I got up early and ran for 30 minutes before church.

I've been fighting Mr. Munch today.  I thought I'd kicked him to the curb, but he must have blown in with the storm.  The damage is one 3.5 oz dark chocolate & hazelnut bar--eaten half-soaked in the car on my way home from the storm.  It was good, but it's behind me now.  Pan seared scallops with mango-avocado salsa, petite peas, and couscous are on the menu tonight.  I think we'll eat early.  DH took B (our visiting 8 yr old grandson) to the movies to see Toy Story 3 this afternoon.  He had a coupon for a free movie popcorn & drink, so I imagine B won't be too hungry.  DH, going on 2 years at his WW lifetime goal weight, won't indulge in movie munchies and will be very hungry.

Do you remember Lot?  And specifically Lot's wife?  She's the one who was being hustled away from her home in the sin-ridden city of Sodom and Gomorra, but she looked back once too often at her comfortable home and was turned into a pillar of salt.  I sympathize with her.  I think of my former way of living and know that it wasn't healthy, but, once in a while, I remember waking up to pancakes and syrup with a big glass of OJ and no run through the sweltering heat in sight.   Now I don't want to go back there, but sometimes . . .  I'm just saying.

Now, so you don't think I'm going to turn into a pillar of salt, I'll give you FIVE reasons I like living  (and eating) just the way I am:

1.  It so much easier to get out of my hot sweaty sports bra  now.  

There were times when I seriously thought I'd have to call for help.

2.  Today I ducked out of my shower to make sure J. was getting ready for church.  My bath towel wrapped nicely around my body without leaving any gaps.  (You know what I mean!)

3.  I like being able to say that I run 12-15 miles per week.

4.  Clothes shopping is so much easier.

5.  I love cooking great, healthy, delicious meals for myself and for my family.

Leave a comment and tell me one reason why you'll never go back to the "bad old days."

The Next Step

I keep learning things from my young'ns.  This is my granddaughter, E. She's J's big sister and she'll be three in October. She's looking at her bowl of cereal with a skeptical look because I've just told her that she doesn't need me to pour on some of the "sugar" from the little yellow packets that I always use on my cereal.  Those are Whole O's (basically plain cheerios from Whole Foods), a diced, ripe peach, and some skim milk.   (I know her parents don't add sugar, and certainly not artificial sweetener, to her food) She's into all things "grown up" now.  She wears "big girl" panties,  uses a spoon and a fork, loves sunglasses, uses the "grown up" toilet in preference to a potty chair, and eats her hot dogs whole, and not chopped up like "baby J" does.  She wanted to indulge in what she saw as another "grown up" habit--using artificial sweetener on her food.  I had to use my best persuasive skills to talk her into enjoying her cereal without Splenda.

I've known about my excessive love of sweets for many, many years.  My parents didn't buy the sugared cereals, but I knew where the sugar bowl was and always added three or four secretive spoons full to my plain cereal.  When I first began to try to lose weight (my HS years), I started using artificial sweeteners.  I've changed brands over the years, but I've always had them close at hand to give my foods the sweet-sweet taste I love. I use them on cereal,  in my coffee or tea, on grapefruit, and sprinkled on popcorn.  I tried Stevia, but didn't like the aftertaste. I buy Splenda packets in the biggest size (1000 packets/box) and always have an emergency ziplock-stash of them in my purse when we travel.  About eight weeks ago, in this post, I included a picture of a breakfast we had on a trip.  I was proud of the planning I'd done to eat a good healthy breakfast every day on our trip.  When I look at that picture today, I see a good breakfast with, probably, eight packets of added Splenda (on the cereal in a white heavy snowfall and, surely, sweetening up that Starbucks skim latte).  Even then, I noticed the obvious over-indulgence in Splenda and noted that some day I'd work on that bad habit.

That "some day" has arrived.  I could wait to announce a new goal for the new week of the Summer Diet Buddies challenge, but I'm not a "wait-until-Monday" person.  As of now, this minute, I will begin to give up my dependence on  Splenda.  I mostly use unprocessed foods, but I know that a few of my regulars  (like my beloved WW latte bars) use Splenda or Sucralose, I'll work on those later.  For now, I will reduce my added Splenda to two total packets per day.   I don't like coffee without sweetener, so this means that unless I'm willing to eat my cereal "au naturel" like E, I give up coffee.  I really like sweetener in my tea, too--aaak!   Maybe 1 packet for cereal and one for a hot beverage.  I can do this.  Watch me!

OT:  Head on over the Sharon's latest post for an interesting discussion on the challenges of weight loss for the "more mature" loser.  Lots of great comments.

Do you ever fall back on the "do as I say, not as I do" excuse in regard to food?

Wordless Wednesday, WI

I'm  Georgia-born and I love, love, love peaches.  Peach season is here!

WI, today.  Down 2 pounds.  Yay me!

What's your favorite fruit?

186.2

Of Wasps, Bees, and a Touch of Envy

The other day I decided to do a long run on my favorite running trail along the Potomac River.  It was very hot and humid, as it has been all summer long in Virginia, but I wanted to run six miles (long for me).  I got on my way fairly early and got started.  I had to walk a bit, but, on the whole it was shaping up to be a pretty good run.  I was past the 4 mile point and heading back toward my car.  I was feeling great.  Hot and sweaty, but great.


Until I met the wasp (or maybe it was a bee--it wouldn't be still for an up-close inspection).   At first I thought it was a leaf that had fallen from one of the nearby trees.  I brushed it away.  A few seconds later I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  And then I heard a buzzing.  The bee (or wasp) was focussed on me.  It was flitting about around my head.  Sometimes it would land on my hair.  Other times it would dive right by my face without landing.  I kept trying to swat it away, but it kept on coming.  It was circling my head.  I could see it in the sun shadows on the path.  I didn't think I was going to get stung, but who knows.   The irritation factor of the stinging insect, along with the constant buzz  and attacks on my head made things miserable.  I decided to sprint to try to lose it.  No luck.  My fastest pace for about 100 feet did not lose my new-found running partner.  I wondered if it would leave me when I left its territory.  Do bees/wasps have territories?  We'd gone about a mile down the path together.   I was seriously considering jogging up to the parkway and flagging down a passing car to try to beg a bug-free ride back to my car.  Then I noticed another runner coming toward us.

She was young and beautiful. A vision of loveliness.  Long blond hair. Wonderfully slim  (I always notice). She was attired all in spring-green--sport bra and the briefest of silken running shorts.  She sported a tiny golden ring in her navel.  She looked athletic, cool, calm, and collected.  I felt hot, miserable, sweaty, tired, and bug-ridden.   As she approached, I noticed a lovely cloud of spring blossom scent that travelled with her. I was envious.  I wanted to be her.  For about half a minute. Then I noticed that my buggy companion had apparently deserted me,  preferring her cool, calm, collected and flower-scented presence to my own.

Moral of the story:   Don't wear perfume on a run.

Musings about Meals

This is my youngest grandson, J, finishing off his first birthday Cookie Monster birthday cupcake.  I secretly think of him as the "Eyelash King."  He's a good little eater, but he never cracked a smile while he was eating this.  I think he was bothered by the blue icing on his hand.  I took a cue from him and decided to forego trying one of the cupcakes.   I did pretty well with the rest of the meal--grilled chicken tenders, corn on the cob, green salad, and chips and guacamole.  I had some of everything, but limited myself to 13 (unbroken!) tortilla chips, which I seem to recall is about 2 or 3 WW points.  Everything else fit in my CORE plan.

I've been thinking recently about my progress this summer.  I am losing well, exercising a lot, eating well and feeling great.   I think one thing that has been working for me is the idea of having just one major meal a day.  This is one of the 12  suggestions "tough rules"  in Barbara Berkeley's Refuse to Regain.  I don't follow every rule, but most of them make a lot of sense to me.   This summer, for the first time, I've drifted into having one major meal a day.   I started doing it by chance, but recognized it as a successful diet strategy when I saw it explained in her book.

I believe that eating a healthy breakfast is important, but I was never a big breakfast eater.  You know the drill, in my foolish fat days, I'd skip breakfast to "save calories" for later splurges.  No breakfast calories = two trips to the vending machine calories when I got hungry a couple hours after lunch.   This type of thinking obviously didn't work for me.  This last time I joined WW, I decided to eat breakfast.  I'm not usually hungry then, but I got in the habit of eating breakfast--cereal (shredded wheat in the summer, sw or oatmeal in the winter), fruit, and ff milk.   Early this summer, right about when I started this blog, I decided to change my habit of eating dinner leftovers for lunch (good, WW  CORE plan food, but almost always including pasta/corn/ or brown rice and the main dish and side vegetables).  Because I'm often busy with my grand babies at lunch time, I fell into the habit of eating ff (that's fat free, not full fat!) cottage cheese and mandarin oranges every day.  Filling, easy, easy to keep on hand.

Berkeley's theory of the major meal, encourages you to eat one full, healthy meal per day [it doesn't matter which meal you choose; I chose dinner because I need to feed my two fellas, but if I lived by myself, I'd probably have chosen lunch].  The other meals should be small--just two or three ingredients, and boring--not so exciting that you're tempted to overeat at that meal.  This really works for me.  I'm satisfied with my breakfast and lunch, but if I'm tempted, I just remind myself that I'm fixing an awesome  pasta salad (or stir fry, or chicken picatta, lamb chop dinner, or WW lasagna, or, well, you get the picture) for dinner.  And, if I'm tempted into overeating a bit a special dinners (like last night's tortilla chips) I know I'll be right back on the straight and narrow at my very next meal.  It's easier to resist the "I've blown it with the tortilla chips, so I might as well fix chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast" mentality.

My morning visits to my scale are making me smile.  My weight loss goal in the Summer Diet Buddies (see red logo in right column) is 12 pounds in 8 weeks.  I think I may do it!

What works for you?  Do you have a major meal each day?

AWOL Blogger Returns, WI

I think I'm really back now.  We flew overnight Sunday night (DH loves the idea of the red-eye, and he made these reservations) and arrived home early Monday morning.  I had the two little ones that day and my sister, who had gone with us, stayed here until this morning.  We also have our 8 yr old grandson, B, for the next three weeks.  (The west coast grand kids get to visit here for a few weeks when they are 8, 11, and 14--it works out to one kid per year and we all love it).  Here a picture of B (8), R (6), and J (10) with our sparkler fun on the 4th.

In retrospect, I did pretty well staying with my plan while we were away.  As is always the way with traveling, meals were a bit tricky.  My lovely daughter, Laura,  knows I'm "watching it" and cooked fairly reasonable meals while we were with her.  She even stocked up on my favorite WW Latte Bars!  The eating up at the beach (west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada) was full of land mines--homemade molasses cookies, long cocktail hours with fancy drinks for the grownups, at least 5 bags of chips on the shelf at all times, 2   s'more cookouts,  high fat beach burgers, and not one, but three birthday cakes (for me) in different flavors they know I like.  I did have some of those goodies--half a cookie, No chips (!), small slivers of each type of cake, none of the fancy drinks--totally not worth the calories!,  a beach burger on a lettuce "bun," and . . . NO s'mores.  It was easy to resist the first time.  I just told myself I could have them, if I wanted to, on my birthday.  Then, on my b-day, I'd just had small pieces of cake and decided to go on a sunset beach walk with DH, instead of having a second dessert.   Here's the dinner I cooked.  That's Pacific salmon straight off the boat, corn on the cob, and new potatoes.  No greens as there was nothing green (even frozen) except iceberg lettuce at the little local co-op.  The cherries in Seattle were awesome, and also about half the price of the ones I bought here, today.   

I was also able to keep to my goal of exercise.  DD took my sister and me along to her Zumba class twice, I ran on the gorgeous Seattle area bike trails several times,  we hiked, and, when all else failed,  I walked laps on the 3 hour ferry ride and at the airport.  These beautiful ferns were about 4 miles into our July 4th hike through a gentle rain to the gold mining ghost town of Monte Cristo.

This visit was not without excitement from the local fauna.  This young bear was happily roaming on the beach, about 20 feet from the hiking trail we were on in the Pacific Rim National Park.  He posed very nicely for pix.  He was not there when we returned and we kept the children close while we wondered where he might be!  I failed to snap a picture of the wasp that decided to sting me on the arm as I tried to make my way through a very narrow path through some wild rose bushes.  All things considered, I decided to leave the path to the wasp.

I went to my WI last week (in Seattle) and had another stay the same week.  Disappointing.  Today, though, I scored a 2.8 loss!  Down 30 from my starting weight of 218.2.  Nothing like a little success to fire my burners!   

I joined DietBuddyDaily's Summer Diet Buddies--see logo at right.  Join us, we've just started!  My goals for the next 8 weeks are:

I'd like to lose at least 12 pounds in this 8 weeks. I'll measure my weight by my WW weigh-ins, which are on Wednesday. 

Other goals are to keep up some of the habits I've developed over the last two months-
*Drinking 8+ cups of water daily
*Exercising 45+ minutes daily (running, walking, hiking, Zumba, biking, & weight lifting)
*Eating more slowly--taking at least 17 minutes to finish dinner and never again being the first "clean plate kid" when in a group.
*Keeping my portions in control
*Eating small meals a breakfast and lunch, with a major meal at dinner time.
Not eating pasta, rice, or potatoes at lunch time.

If you've read this far, sorry for this long post! I'll be better about posting shorter posts more frequently.

How are you keeping yourself on track this summer??

188.2

Birthday Edition

Hi Bloggy Friends!  Today is my birthday, I'm on vacation, the weather is perfect, I'm with lots of family including  my three west-coast grandkids, and my weight was down a bit this morning!  DH just ran out to buy me some just-picked strawberries for my cereal and I'm going to  take a 5 mile run right after breakfast.  

I've avoided one s'more opportunity so far with the final one tonight.  Still haven't decided.  :-)   Last night DH went down to the docks and picked up fresh-off-the-boat salmon and I cooked for everybody.  About 25 of us including cousins, nephews, nieces, brothers- and sisters-in law,  and our travel group of 9.  Corn on the cob, new potatoes.  Not especially balanced, but the best the little co-op could offer (no greens at all except iceberg lettuce).

I'm too lazy to go find my downoad cable in my suitcase, but here's a picture of the beach where we're staying.   There's a never ending beach volleyball game going on on the sand there this week!  The mountains in the distance have little snow caps right now.

I'll have a lot of catch up to do on blog reading and commenting when I get home early next week.   Take care!

59 (!)

Final Spring Focus Update, WI

Just about two months ago, I was reading Karen's blog and found out about Sarah's Spring Focus Challenge.  I had just started this bog and decided it was just the thing to help me get started.  It turns out it was wonderfully timed to help me focus on my weight loss and exercise goals.  Now, we've reached the end and here is what has happened in the meanwhile.

Exercise:  When the challenge started my main exercise goal was to complete the C25K program to re-kindle my running.  I did finish it and am now running regularly 3-4 times per week.  I still walk a bit when I get too hot or tired, but I feel like I can call myself a runner again and my overall pace is starting to come down.   Because I'm older, I don't think I want to run every day, so I intersperse the running with regular visits to the gym to lift weights (with Fitlinxx resistance machines).  I also bike a couple of times per week. Other exercise includes occasional hikes, Wii tennis or yoga,  and any other exercise opportunity that comes my way, like the two 1-hour sessions of Zumba I've done in the past couple of days with my DD.  One month ago (on June 5) I decided to challenge myself to exercise every day.  I did it!    In June :

     I ran 64 miles,
     I lifted 176,090 pounds
     I biked 65 miles
     I hiked 14 miles
     I played 3 hours of Wii tennis
     I walked 7 miles

I think I've mentioned that I'm a statistics nerd!  I keep a little red journal and record my daily weight.  I also keep track of other  things, like measurements and daily exercise.  It makes it easier to remember how I've done and to see how my weight loss is related to the exercise I do.

Eating: My plan of choice is WW.  I follow the CORE plan (what they now call Simply Filling) and which is apparently pretty similar to South Beach.  I like it because it doesn't involve any calorie counting or points tracking.   I set several focus goals regarding my eating during this time.  

The first was to drink 8+ cups of water daily.  This I did very well and continue to do now.  It makes me feel full and keeps me from confusing thirst signals with hunger signals.  It is a lot easier to develop this habit when the weather is hot and awful, but I intend to maintain this for life.


Another goal was to check my portion sizes and rein in some overly generous portions.  I did this short term and put a halt to some insidious habits of excess that had snuck into my routine.  No more double size pasta servings.  I intend to repeat the checking periodically.


My final major goal was to eat more slowly.  I'm still working on this one.  At first I just set myself the goal of taking at least 15 minutes to eat dinner.  I can do this pretty well by now.  I'm trying to stretch this to 20 minutes and to be mindful of eating more slowly at breakfast and lunch too.  Breakfast is hard, because I'm often in a hurry, but lunch is coming along.  I like this goal.  It feels good not to always be the first one done at a family dinner.  It also helps big time in letting me be more aware of "full," not-hungry-anymore signals that my tummy might be trying to send me.


Weight: And, of course, the prime motivating reason for the blog and the Spring Focus.  I wanted to lose weight.  I very tentatively set a goal weight loss of 12 pounds over the two months.  I lost like gang-busters from the outset.  Very surprising and gratifying for a certified slow loser.  I went to my WI this morning (a day early for me) and so can tell you that my total loss for the two months is 17 pounds.  Five pounds more than my goal.   Yay!   I seem to be on a mini-plateau right now--same exact weight three weeks running, but I'm confident that with my exercise and good eating in line, the weight loss will follow.  


Thanks to Sarah for starting this, to Karen for posting about it, and to all my bloggy friends for encouragement, suggestions, laughter, and inspiration!


The jury is still out on the s'more. . .   stay tuned!  We're heading up towards Vancouver Island this evening.  The weather is supposed to be perfect.  High 70s and bright sun!

191.0

Not Sleepless in Seattle

We left home quite early to catch a 7 am flight and drove into my daughter's driveway at about 11 am west coast time.  With the three hour time change and a very late night the night before, I ended up going to bed at about 6:30 last night and slept straight through until 7 am this morning.  Definitely not sleepless in Seattle!

Just about one month ago, I committed  to exercise every day.  I had planned to get in a run yesterday afternoon, but DD had plans to go to her Zumba class and I decided to tag along.   I'd heard lots of positives about Zumba classes, but it was even better than I'd imagined.   Sixty minutes of really good exercise with fun music.  I was very tired, but in an exhilarated kind of way at the end.   I'll have to see if our gym has Zumba.

This morning I got up and out the door to finish a 5+ mile run by about 9.  The weather here is delightful.  Maybe high 50s with a sprinkle of rain here and there.  I want to get in some more runs in this great running weather.


We went sight seeing in downtown Seattle.   The Seattle Center, the fish-throwing fish mongers at the Pike Street Market, and Ivar's.  Ivar's Acres of Clams is one of the places I remember from when we used to live here 30 years ago, but neither their signature clam chowder nor their fish and chips fit my menu requirements.  It turns out that they also had a shrimp cocktail (served in a plastic cup with cocktail sauce and chopped celery).   Probably too much cocktail sauce, but definitely a more diet-friendly choice than fish & chips.  DD is aware of my diet druthers and is serving great meals that fit my plan.  She even stocked up on my favorite WW latte bars!

In case you're wondering, I did bring my scale along this trip.  It helps keep me honest about sticking to my plans.  Even though I stayed the same at my WI last week, my recorded weights for this week are all less than my weights for the previous week.  I can see progress.   I hope to find a local WW meeting for my WI on Tuesday morning.  We'll be heading up to Canada early Wednesday.

Thank you all for your advice on the s'mores.  I still haven't quite decided on the final verdict.  For now, I'm planning to not have any until our last night there (Friday, my birthday).  I may decide to have one that last night (hoping that any sugar rush cravings will be quelled by the fact that we'll be in the car all the next day) or I might just decide to give myself the birthday present of not having one.  It will help me get through all the preceding s'more opportunities to think that I can have one on the last night.

Hope you all have a delightful 4th!

Will Return

The last load of laundry is in the washer and my dining room table is covered with piles of folded laundry.  My suitcase is almost packed, DH & Jay's are still empty.  I'll pack Jay's; DH is on his own.  I would be in very good shape but for the fact that one of the responsible adults in the family decided that it would be a good idea to have people over for dinner tonight.   I love him dearly, but, ^%$&^%$, I'd planned on a fairly relaxed evening getting organized and packed.  My sister is visiting.  I have the two babies napping, but they'll be up soon.  No time to blog now and I'll be busy until we leave at O-dark-thirty tomorrow morning.   We'll be at dear-daughter's (DD's) in Seattle by noon and will have a day filled with fun and laughter and grandkids (6,8,10).  Maybe I'll get to run on the trail near Lake Washington with the kids riding their bikes along with me.

I've committed to exercising every day.  I'm pushing our dinner guests (DS and his family--beloved, enjoyed and welcome, but they've got to leave by 7:30) out the door so I can get to the gym tonight.

So, no more bloggy land for me today.   Take care, I'll get to catch up on blog reading and commenting later this week.   Wish me luck with the s'more challenge.   This vacation with these people always means lots of s'more opportunities (lots of big group campfires with singing, story telling, and laughter).   Hard to resist.  Maybe I'll just have one on my birthday next week.  We'll see.

My scale was very friendly this morning, trying to make up for my stay-the-same WI yesterday.  It was touch and go for a bit, but I was able to talk myself out of a consolation stop at the Krispy Kreme donut place.  I had one of my nice strawberry WW bars, instead.

Any advice on the S'more situation??