I Found it! Finally.

My cell phone. We have two pre-paid cell phones (besides the fancy smart phone DH uses for work). Way back at the beginning of July I lost mine. I thought I'd lost it while traveling back from Seattle, on one of the planes. Gone forever. Not so. I was driving today and slipped my fingers down between the seat and the center console and, much to my surprise, came up with my very own cell phone. That's the good news. I tried to call to have the number reinstated. Several transfers later, many explanations, many repetitions of my cell phone number and pin code and I finally got to the right agent to help me accomplish my goal. Long story short, he couldn't understand what I wanted and I couldn't explain it so that he did. His English was minimal at best. I finally gave up. I'll go into my local T Mobile and take care of it in a couple of days. Very frustrating.

Oh, and maybe, just maybe, I've found my mojo, too! One entire week of being OP, feeling confident, exercising, tracking, trying new recipes, and generally feeling good about myself and my weight loss and health goals. I was rewarded with a 3.0 pound loss at my WI today. Yay me! It's amazing the contrast in my outlook from just a couple of weeks ago. I'm an optimist--I'd wake up every morning feeling that maybe, somehow, that day would be the day I got back on track. My optimism lasted until the first temptation and subsequent bite of some non-program food. I can't tell you what did the trick. I'm just very grateful.

We had Chicken Tetrazzini for dinner tonight.  One of DH's favorites and nice and hot for a cool rainy day.  I made a WW online recipe which was yummy and only cost 9 points.

I also bought a half bushel of peaches at the Farmers' Market.  My favorite seller says this may be the last week for the yellow peaches (which I prefer over the white variety).  I hope to get some frozen while the grand babies are napping tomorrow.

One of my recent photo finds while sifting through one of the many boxes from my parents' attic (now in our attic!).  This is my mother, about two years old, in 1922.  I got none of those natural curls, BTW, nor the blond hair.  The puppy is Dis-Donc  and appears to have been her constant companion for the first few years of her life.

New Beginnings

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving--full of kids and grandkids and family.  It really made me feel thankful for my many blessings.  Here are a couple pictures we took before everybody went home.

with our grandchildren

all our kids and grands!

All that thankfulness involved lots of food too and, as wonderful as it was, I'm most thankful that all the tempting calorific not-on-my-plan things are finally out of the house.  My weight has been drifting slowing upwards over the last two months so that I now have 7.4 pounds to lose get down to where I was at the beginning of October.  No more.  Did you notice the title of this post?  New Beginnings. That's because today is the day, now is the time that I rededicate myself to reaching my goal.

All this coincides nicely with WW's new program which was introduced yesterday.   The WW website must have been overwhelmed because it took all day before I could finally get to the site.  This is the first major change to their plan in a dozen years.  It is different because they have reconfigured the points system.  I like what they've done.  Most fruits and veggies are no points.  The new points calculator now looks at the carbs, fiber, protein, and fats.  The old one looked at just calories, fiber, & fat.  Things make more sense to me in the new plan.  And, wonder of wonders, they still allow me to follow my "CORE" plan.  They don't call it "Core" anymore, it's Simply Filling, but it's there and that's what I'm going to go back to.  For now, though, I'm doing to regular program.  I get 29 points per day plus the 49 weekly points.  I imagine I'll eat the same things that I'd eat with the Core/Simply Filling, but for now I want the reassurance that I'm eating correct portions.  After I get used to the new way, I'll switch over to the Core/Simply Filling plan, because I don't want to be tied to counting points for every single bite.

They now allow me 49 points per week over and above the 0 point Power foods (skim milk, lean protein, eggs, veggies, fruit, etc).  And they encourage you to use all 49.  My beloved Latte Bars which say 1 point on the box, are now worth 2 points.  So are the Strawberry Smoothie bars.  They will still be on my plan, but I'll save my points to include them.  I haven't been to my WW meeting yet to hear the official explanation, but this is what I'm thinking now.  I'll let you know more about it tomorrow when I understand more.

To go along with the new food plan, I'm revving up my exercise, too.  Back to my good 6 out of 7 days per week with solid exercise each day--half cardio, half strength.  Today I ran 3.5 miles (in the drizzle).  Tomorrow I think it will be the exercise bike.  

My sweet Dad fell yesterday and has a compound fracture of the hip (the top of his femur).  They were able to do the portable x-ray at his nursing home so that he doesn't have to go to the hospital which is always very upsetting to him.  It's hard to see that he's in such fragile health. I'm thankful for the good days we enjoyed with him a couple of weeks ago.

 J&E are napping right now and I need to go take advantage of this time to finish up my Bible study for tomorrow.

I'm feeling strong and confident about reaching my goals.  I'm excited about the new plan and motivated to use it to advantage.  The hardest hurdles (celebration-wise) are behind me.

How about you?  Are the T-giving temptations out of your life and your fridge now??

Do It Anyway!

It's Saturday afternoon and I need to run today.  I should have gone out this morning.  It's one of the goals I set in the Hot 100 Challenge. I've planned it, there's nothing else I have to do instead, I'm already dressed and my ipod is fully charged.  The thing is, I don't wanna go run right now.  It's hot today, tomorrow's supposed to be lots cooler. Stanford is playing Notre Dame in football starting in 10 minutes. (GO Cardinal!) Maybe later? Maybe tomorrow?  Maybe after I spend a couple of hours in blog land?

Ironically, my motivational reading for today (from 100 Days of Weight Loss) was titled:  Do it Anyway.  There are all kinds of things in life that we don't want to or like to do.  Changing a dirty diaper.  Running to the bathroom in the middle of a movie.  Doing the laundry.  We might procrastinate a little, but, in the end, you have to do it anyway.  

Running today is something that I have to do.  Even though I don't want to, I'm going to do it anyway. I can cheer on Stanford after I get back.  

See you later--I'm heading out for a run.

UPDATE
I did it anyway.  I just got back from a 4+ mile run.  It wasn't the best run ever; it was hot and I walked more than I'd have liked to.  All that is true.  But, I DID it.  And that feels great.  And Stanford is ahead at half time.  :D


How am I doing on my goals for the Hot 100?

• 60 minutes of exercise--CHECK
• No chocolate--CHECK
• Eating on my WW plan--CHECK  to lose 17 pounds by Jan 1st--We'll See!

Oh, you might have noticed another challenge in my sidebar--the Fall Focus Challenge with the orange & black with a Jack-o-Lantern logo.  Because I have a strong sense of loyalty and the Spring and Summer Focus Challenges really got me going I've joined yet another challenge.  This one starts on Monday September 27th and goes until December 6th.  For this challenge I have kept the same goals as the goals I set for the Hot 100 (above), only adjusting the weight loss goal to 13 pounds because this is a shorter time.  I figure it can't hurt to reinforce those goals.  If you'd like to join, just click on the Jack-o-Lantern in the right sidebar to link to the site.

I'm feeling very confident about riding out the rest of the day following my goals, herewith my chart:

I Don't Wanna, WI

(Diane, at Fit to the Finish, wrote a great post on motivation yesterday that got me to thinking about what I do when my motivation lags.)

I have a willful child living inside my head. You'd never know it unless you we're privy to my internal dialog. Yes, I talk to myself a lot. Usually it's a silent conversation, thank goodness. Like this morning. DH popped up to the alarm CD with his usually cheery morning routine. My own alarm was set for 30 minutes later. I mumbled my "goodbye, I love you, have a good day," and turned my pillow to the cool side and dove back under the covers.  When my alarm went off I was strongly tempted to push "pause."  I didn't, but only because I remembered how fast the temperature was supposed to get hot and awful this morning.  Wednesday morning is a running morning for me.  I have my WI at noon, and the Wednesday morning run has been my "last chance workout" for over a year and a half.  But I looked at the temperature outside and saw how hot it was already. "I don't wanna run when it's this hot," I whined to myself.  I weighed myself and saw that it was less than last week's weight.  Well and good.  Maybe I could get by and still lose this week without running.  I put on my running outfit, but only because I had laid out my clothes last night.  I had breakfast.  I stuck my nose out the back door and confirmed that it was hot and awful, as predicted.  Well, I was dressed, and it was still early, and, if I got out the door right then, I'd have time to watch some of the USA/Algeria game when I got back.  I had a good run, and ran an extra mile, just because.   Yes, it was hot, but I felt good and proud of myself.

Routine won again.  It's good to have established routines.   It worked with raising willful kids, too.

And my WI, today?   I lost 5 sticks o' butter (1.2 pounds).

What routines do you have that get you through the "I don't wannas" in your day?

[my normal signature is giving me fits, sometimes it's there and sometimes you get the blue box with the question mark.  If you can tell me why, you'll be my friend forever!]

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