Category Archives: food

Best shopping trip ever!

I’ve really miss blogging. It just doesn’t seem like there’s ever time anymore. I’m sure everyone out there can relate to that! I’ve wanted to blog about last weekend all week, so here we go.

My Dad (the best Dad in the whole world!) took me clothes shopping last Saturday so I’d have some Maui clothes. My “sister” Leeanna and her friend Marla went with us. We made a day out of it, met for an early lunch, hit the mall, then went car shopping for Leeanna, and Dad and I met up at church a little later.

I really don’t know what Dad and I would have done if Leeanna and Marla hadn’t been there. They’re both in their early twenties and know so much more about what looks good than Dad and I do. I’m still convinced that if they hadn’t been there Dad and I would still be circling the mall. But after trying on countless dresses and other clothes I ended up with several outfits (and shoes) that will be great for the summer and definitely Maui!

It was the best shopping trip I’ve had in a very long time! To be 40 pounds lighter really made a difference. Things actually fit the way they are supposed to! And looked good! (I actually fit into a couple of size 10 items. Wow. I haven’t been a size 10 since 2002.) I’m so grateful for that wonderful day. Not just for getting the new clothes, but for the time spent with everyone. We laughed so much and just really had a great day!

Thank you so much Dad, for everything you do for us and for creating opportunities that bring me and Leeanna closer together! Love you!

loving Weight Watchers again

I can give a WHOLE list of excuses for going off my diet for a few weeks, or month and a half…whatever it was. But I think the bottom line was that I was just tired of dieting. Apparently I forgot about this being a life style change and not just another diet. And it amazes me just how stupid I can be sometimes. I realized the other day that I could be at my goal weight, right now, if I had just stuck with it.Stupid, stupid, stupid!

But, with the fear of swimsuits and being on the beach in Maui next month and the realization that “doing it on my own” resulted in a 7 pound weight gain, the calender started closing in on me and I finally got motivated again. Last Saturday Zale and I renewed our committment to the Weight Watcher’s point system. It’s almost like I was never on it. Except for the 33 (was 40) pound weight loss. But much like the very first week of Weight Watchers from last year, this second first week has been pretty successful. I’ve lost over 4 pounds in 6 days. I know the weight loss won’t stay at that pace, but I’m grateful for the added incentive. I hate that I went back wards for awhile, and I know that reaching my goal by Maui is pretty unrealistic, but if I can average 2 pounds a week, I’ll be that much closer and that much more comfortable. I can live with that! :)

work out / yard work updates

We got back from Baltimore Sunday evening. I knew that the yard really needed attention before I left for our trip, but either it was raining or I didn’t have anyone to watch the girls so I could mow. I had forgotten how bad it really was until we pulled into the driveway. It looked so bad and I was embarrassed for the neighbours to see it. Finally, Monday afternoon I was able to mow while Anthony watched the girls. The grass was so high it kept killing the push mower. But I made it through the front, sides, and part of the back, with the push mower. The rest of the back I finished with the riding mower. The grass was so tall in the back that it even killed the riding mower a few times. But I finally got it done. It felt so much better to have that job complete! For a week, anyway.

Last night Zale and I took the girls for a walk around the neighborhood. We let Hannah walk instead of riding in the stroller, so we couldn’t walk quite as fast as we normally do, but we still made it around twice. I was proud of Hannah for walking so much on her own, and it good to see her wearing herself out! Then Zale had the idea of taking the kids to Sonic for a treat. Which completely negated any calories burned during our walk, but it was good family time. I think Anthony enjoyed it even though he didn’t really want to go with us. I’m so glad the weather is finally getting warmer so we can spend more time outside with the kids.

my cousin did such a good job!

Last weekend my Dad took me to Baltimore Maryland to visit our dear friends Jean, Sharon (their dog Maggie),  my cousin, his wife, and their kids. The REAL reason we were there was because it was opening weekend of the new Star Trek movie. Dad, Jean, and Kenneth are huge Scifi fans so it only made sense that they would go together, I took the opportunity to tag along. I enjoy Scifi too, but I opted to spend that time with Kenneth’s wife, Kirsten and their boys. I am looking forward to seeing the movie soon though.

Kirsten and I have gotten along so well that Kenneth even refers to her as “your friend” when he’s giving me a hard time about how well we get along. My expectations for the weekend were to spend Thursday night at Aunt Jean’s house and Kirsten was going to pick me up late Friday morning for a “girls” day. Then Saturday was dinner and movie with everyone. A low key, enjoyable time with friends and family. It was all that, but so much more.  As it turns out, I ended up spending most of Friday with Dad, Aunt Jean, and Aunt Sharon. They took us to this amazing restaurant, Pazo. The food and atmosphere were just incredible. I can’t even describe how wonderful the flavors were. I tried things I never thought I would, and liked EVERYTHING I tried. If you’re ever in Baltimore, I highly encourage you to try it!

Anyway, after dinner I met up with Kenneth and his family to spend the rest of the weekend at their house. We had missed our “girl” day, or so I thought. As it turns out, Kirsten had a whole day of pampering planned for Saturday before we met up again with Dad and Jean for dinner. For starters she treated me to a pedicure, then we went to a spa for facials and massages. I’ve never had these done professionally and let me just say I can’t wait to do it again! I left that place completely relaxed and almost zoned out.  Amazing! It’s a really good thing I wasn’t driving! And even after all that, Kirsten had also given me a Coach purse. Can I just say WOW! Happy Mother’s Day to Me! Then onto dinner at a Japanese steak house. The food was good there too, but nothing compared to Pazo’s.

I just had to tell Kenneth what a wonderful job he did in picking his wife. His response, of course, was that he’s just that awesome, so of course she couldn’t help herself but be with him. I have to say though, even better than all the pampering and gifts, I most enjoyed spending that time with friends and family. Getting to know each other even better and having wonderful conversations.

Dad, Kenneth, and Jean went to a late showing of the Star Trek movie after dinner Saturday. When Dad and Kenneth came back they were almost giddy. I think they had to stop themselves from staying at the theatre so they could watch it again. I’m guessing that if they had been to an earlier showing, they probably would have. When I asked how the movie was, Kenneth’s response (and I quote) was “It was FREAKIN AWESOME!” This from a usually very stoic military man, so I’m thinking it was a pretty good show.

So a huge thank you to Dad for taking me, Jean and Sharon for such a wonderful dinner and great conversation, Kenneth & Kirsten for the weekend of pampering and gifts. I think I gained about five pounds and I missed Zale and the kids so much, but it was a wonderful and relaxing trip! I can’t wait to see everyone again!

craving

One of the most favorite things I love to eat is chocolate milk and peanut butter. I make a glass of chocolate milk and sit down with the jar of peanut butter. (Okay, so it’s no surprise that I weighed over 200 pounds not that long ago). I get a little bit of peanut butter on a spoon, dip it in the chocolate milk and go to town. I’ve done this since I was a kid, probably middle school. The problem is that before I know it, a forth of the jar of peanut butter is gone. Of course I’d use 1% milk and low sugar chocolate syrup, but that doesn’t make it much better. Kind of like drinking a diet coke with a candy bar.

Anyway, today, for some unknown reason, I’m really wanting to sit down with that jar of peanut butter and the biggest glass of chocolate milk I can find. I don’t know why, today of all days it’s hitting me so hard. And all morning I’ve been battling with myself. “But I’m playing racquetball with Dad today, so it would be okay, I’ll have a good work out and it won’t be a big deal.” I don’t know if it’s a trait of all women, or just me, but give me five minutes and I can justify just about anything! During this inner battle I’ve tried to keep myself busy so I won’t give in to those temptations, and so far it’s worked. What really helped though was answering a comment to my before and during post. Seeing myself over 200 pounds was enough to make me back away from the peanut butter!

So thanks, Jason. For leaving a comment which lead me to that picture, which reminded me of how I got to that unhealthy and unhappy weight to begin with! Otherwise I may just be sitting in my recliner eating the last thing I should be eating right now!

Before & During

There are times that my mind knows how much weight I’ve lost, but for some reason it doesn’t feel like I’ve accomplished much. I know the numbers on the scale have gone down almost 40 pounds, and I’m wearing a smaller size, but there are still days when I don’t feel any different than I did 39 pounds ago. So when I came across these pictures, one taken last 4th of July, and the other taken a week ago, I finally realized that I really have changed. The weight loss is real. I still have 21 pounds or so to lose, but here is a picture of “before” I started Weight Watchers, and the current picture. I didn’t label them before and after, because it’s not after yet.

July 4, 2008 - "before"

July 4, 2008 - "before"

I should mention that when this picture was taken, Zale was in a 38, he’s now in a 32. We’re about even on the scale, which just kills me. I hate it when I weigh more than he does! But I’m very happy for him, that he’s done so well with this journey too! Zale’s holding Hannah, and I have Reagan. That’s our good friend in the back ground, we were at his house for their party. His wife, one of my closest friends was the one that insisted on the picture. I don’t know what my exact weight was for that day, but when I started Weight Watchers a couple of months later, my first weigh in was 204. Ouch, that even hurts to type!

Man that was hard to do, now for the “during” picture. This one is a bit easier to post.

April 16, 2009 - "during"

April 16, 2009 - "during"

This was taken at my birthday dinner last week. I’m standing with my good friend from childhood, Laura (hope she doesn’t mind me putting her picture on my blog!). She and I were inseperable until 3rd or 4th grade. We reconnected on Facebook and my Dad arranged for her and her husband to come to dinner as a surprise. Turns out we’ve lived about 20 miles away from each other for many years, but didn’t even know it.  Anyway, it was a great surprise, great food (Japanese Hibichi), and a wonderful night! I’m not satisfied weighing 165 pounds, but it sure is better than 204!

work out diary & weight loss update (two posts in one)

I wrote this a couple of weekends ago….

I had so many plans for today, the kids were at my Mom’s and Zale was going to be working at his 2nd job all day. For the first time in a long time I pretty much had a day to myself and almost didn’t know what to do or where to start first. My plan was to get up and mow the yard. It hasn’t been mowed yet this year, so it was in desperate need.

But when I woke up this morning, it felt so good to snuggle back up in the bed and go back to sleep, and that’s what I did. When I finally got up at 10:30, I realized there really wasn’t going to be time to mow, get myself ready, and go to the store before a birthday party I was invited to at 1:00. I had planned for the mowing to double as my work out today, when that fell through I figured I’d take advantage of not having the kids around, so I went upstairs and used the elliptical for 20 minutes. I would have done more, but I spent about an hour longer on the laptop than I planned. I don’t know how many of you are on Facebook, but between checking my e mail and connecting with people on Facebook, an hour can go by very quickly.

After church this evening I was able to get home and push mow the front yard, a little bit of the back yard around the house & deck, and the side yards before it got dark. It felt good to be outside getting that accomplished. I don’t know what’s been going on with the weather in Tennessee, one day it’s 65 or 70 degrees, the next it’s 45. So to be out in the sunshine felt really good! Now if I can just get back out there tomorrow and finish the back yard!

And an additional post from today…

As it turns out I was able to finish push mowing the back yard that Sunday. The yard hasn’t been mowed since. Partly because it’s been raining or too cold. Hopefully I can get it done tomorrow if the weather holds.

My weight loss has been going much slower, but I’m still losing. I haven’t been doing the Weight Watchers thing in awhile.  But I’ve been trying to keep portions down and not go too crazy. Obiviously that doesn’t work as well as Weight Watchers. I think I just got tired of being on any kind of restrictions. But with Hawaii just 9 or 10 weeks away, I REALLY need to get serious about it! So far I’ve lost 39 pounds. My original goal was to have lost 60 by now, and that would have been nice, but I’m proud of 39 too. :) I’ve gone from a 16/18 dress size to a 12, although some 12′s are almost too big, but 10′s don’t quite fit yet. My overall dress size goal is an 8. That’s when I’ve been the most comfortable with myself in the past. It’s really nice to know I’m more than 1/2 way there. :) Don’t know that I’ll make it in time for Hawaii, but I’m gonna give it my best shot! :)

I haven’t done racquetball in a very long time, and I miss it. I haven’t done my step bench aerobics or even the Pilates DVD in a week or so, maybe going on 2 weeks. So that really needs to change ASAP! Like today! This whole process  really is such a mental thing. When I’m in a good frame of mind and focused, eating right and working out are just something I want to do. Other times, I want nothing more than to sleep all day and eat whatever is in sight. This weight loss thing is such a journey. It’s not just about eating better, but I think it’s about finding out why I wasn’t taking care of myself to begin with, and fixing that problem, before I can totally get a hold of a changed lifestyle and not fall back into unhealthy patterns. Like I said, a process, and a journey, that I’m still working on. Having 39 pounds gone is a good motivation. And knowing that I’m going to have to get in a swim suit very soon helps too! :)

I can’t believe I ate baby food and liked it

I love that my husband doesn’t like to waste anything, and has made many tasty dishes by using leftovers or things we have in the cabinet or fridge that I wouldn’t have thought of putting together. Somehow he makes it work. Another talent he has is cooking by smell. I’ve never seen anything like it, he can smell something and know if it needs more salt or some other spice added. I can cook or bake just about anything as long as I have a recipe, Zale can invent dishes or just have a general idea of what he wants to make and take it from there. Many times I have cooked something and asked him to taste it and make it better, or even fix it. But I never in my wildest dreams thought he’d use baby food. I mean, come on, yuck! Or so I thought.

We had left over baby food that Reagan wouldn’t touch. Both my girls wouldn’t have anything to do with baby food. They wanted to go straight from nursing to table food. Which is fine with me. I usually give away anything baby related we’re not using anymore, I just never got around to the baby food. Yesterday as I was getting a sippy cup out of the cabinet I realized all the baby food except one container was gone. I figured Zale got tired of seeing them in the cabinet and threw it away. For some reason I didn’t put two and two together.

A couple of days ago Zale made a vegatable beef soup/stew that was the best I’d ever had. He made it in the crock pot and it was amazing. We have a pretty small kitchen, so usually if one of us is cooking we do our best to keep the girls out of the other’s way. I didn’t have any idea what he used to make the stew, I figured it was just the normal veggies, beef, and maybe some spices. Today, after we ate the rest of it, he made reference to how he got rid of the baby food. Yep, right into the stew. It’s a really good thing he didn’t tell me about it until it was gone, or I would have missed out on some wonderful stew!

best date night ever

Friday night my Mom took all three kids to spend the night at her house (thanks Mom & Andy!).  Zale and I debated for quite a while over what we wanted to do. We knew we wanted to get out of the house, but being broke and all we really didn’t want to spend a lot of money. And, with being on our diets, we didn’t want to eat something that would counteract our hard work.

But, we had coupons for Mexican food, Hardee’s, and Sonic. So pretty much whatever we ate wasn’t going to be very healthy. And we REALLY needed a date night. We finally decided to go eat Mexican food. After that we rented a couple of movies and headed home.

We ended up watching both the movies and stayed up talking and laughing for a couple hours. All of  sudden, Zale says, “I want Waffle House.” I laughed thinking how crazy would that be to go to Waffle House in the middle of the night, especially since we hadn’t even been out to a club or anything. But next thing I know we’re in the truck headed to Waffle House at 3:30 in the morning. Then, we went to WalMart, ’cause it was open.  At this point, why not!? It was great, we’re walking through WalMart at 4:30 in the morning, just browsing and talking about what items we need to start picking up for our trip to Hawaii in June. See, we’re planners, huge planners. Which is why Friday night was so unusual for us. We actually played the whole night by ear, no plans, just enjoyed that time together.

It was great, it reminded me of when we were dating. We talked and laughed and just enjoyed each other. It was so nice to really reconnect!

work out diary

This morning, finally, all the recent hard work is starting to show on the scales.  Not an official weigh in or anything, but it’s nice to see those numbers a little less than last week! :)

Tonight was our LifeGroup, it’s always a hard day for me to stay within my points when we entertain. I usually ask the kids that come to pick what they want to eat. They’re teens, so it’s usually not healthy. And the timing is usually so tight getting ready for everyone, that it’s hard to eat something healthier before the group.  Tonight I didn’t do too badly, but I didn’t want to miss a day of some sort of exercise. If I miss one day, that turns into two or three and before I know it, it’s been a month since I’ve been upstairs to use the elliptical or treadmill.

So even though it was late and past the time that Zale is usually headed to bed, he watched the girls for me while I went upstairs to work out. He even went up before me and fixed the elliptical! :) He’s such a good husband! Since it was so late and I knew he needed to get to bed I stuck to a 30 minutes work out on the elliptical. At least it was a better work out than 30 minutes on the treadmill. And I’m very grateful for that brief time alone. It helps keep me sane after (mostly)  being alone with the girls all day.  I’m hoping for a longer work out tomorrow, but we’ll see what the day brings.