Losingmore

with this site recently!  I am having problems leaving comments, and approving them for myself ( sorry Nikki!, it’s not letting me approve you!)  Whatever it is that is going on, I wish they would fix it already.  I know, I know, FREE site, but then there are MANY free sites, much better than this one out there.  I see Anna has moved.  I like her new blog…and you know what?  It tells you when ppl on your blogroll have UPDATED their blogs….so many other sites do that.  Why in the world this one can’t, is beyond me.  Its not like we haven’t asked for that feature.  IDK, if Anna ends up liking her new blog a lot, I might have to go over and join her.  Sad though, I have been a faithfull fat chick for many years.  I don’t WANT to have to do that.  I WANT to stay here, but if this site continues to fall behind the others…..well…..

So anyway.  Hopped on the scale this morning.  Still waiting for TOM to arrive.  On the scale was a really nice reading.  :)  If I hold onto this number by Tuesday, I will have made my 5% goal and then some.  So we will see.

Took the boys to the mall yesterday.  Made myself walk the entire mall once for some extra exercise.  ( I had already done the 3mile WATP dvd in the morning ) We did stop to have a snack.  Each boy got a filled crepe.  I had three bites of each, and recorded it as 6pts.  A pt a bite.  It might have been overestimating a bit, but thats ok.  Bites are the hardest thing to figure out with this point thing.

I came home from the mall, and made dinner.  We could have stayed at the mall and had dinner, but after the crepes, I really didn’t have enough points left for a decent dinner, and knew if I went home and made it, I could eat more food.  Humph.  So we came home.  For me….that is a HUGE NSV.  haha  We had fish, pierogie, ( I think the spelling is wrong, but spell check on this thing is another sore spot…it basically sucks! ) and fresh green beans with shallots.  I had three pierogie.  I could eat a ton of those things!  But three was one serving size….so that is all I had.

Heading into the weekend, I have all my flex points saved.  Yay!  Even if I end up not using them all over the weekend, its nice insurance to know that they are there.  Weekends continue to be a big challenge for me.  I think I am actually beginning to believe I can do this…..lose this weight and get down to a normal size.  Not skinny, Lord, I will never be skinny again.  That was for when I was in my 20’s.  Just within a nice healthy range, before any unhealthy medical issues creep up on me.

Have a great weekend everyone!

and i loved it!  :)  Went to the grocery store yesterday, with the intention of getting most of the items I need for next weeks Thanksgiving dinner.  Going to host again ( as always ) but without all the addtional ppl of DH’s family.  It ended up working out ok last year, but 30 ppl is just too many.  My MIL told me they were going to her daughters house this year.  Which was fine by me.  That pretty much makes my obligation about half.  And my SIL about the same amount of ppl.  Anyway….I saw a nice, smallish spaghetti squash, and I have been wanting to try it for a while now.  I decided I would make the rest of my family spaghetti with meatballs for dinner, and I would substitute the squash for the pasta.  I split it in half, seasoned it, and nuked it till it was soft.  I like pasta ok….but I would not consider myself a pasta lover, so I really liked the squash in place of the noodles.  I liked the bit of a bite you get with the squash.  I am so glad I finally tried it!  Lunch will be leftovers today.

I just finished up my breakfast of a light english muffin toasted with eggbeaters and spinach and the HG fake hollindaise sauce for 4 points.  OMG…that sauce is so good.  Its basically ff mayo ( I use light), dijonaise, lemon yogurt, and brummel and brown spread.  ( My new fav butter spread….45 cal, 45 g fat, tastes wonderful, melts great)  Mix it, nuke it, pour it on.  YUM!  I think I will also have a cup of blackberries.  All berries were on sale yesterday, except strawberries, which were $5.99!  Yikes!  I passed.

I worked up my menu for Thanksgiving before I went to the store.  I got most things, but will need to go back early next week for some produce, so its fresher.  The good thing about being the cook for most of the food, is that I can control what goes in it.  I am going for lighter dishes this year.  Less butter in the stuffing, brown sugar splenda in the sweet potatoes ( sometimes I don’t even sweeten except with fresh squeezed oj…but it all depends on the sweetness of the oranges) and I am going to do half sugar, half splenda in my cranberry sauce.  I am hoping no one will really notice the changes.  I also fully intend on sending home with everyone, all of my favorites, so they aren’t sitting in the fridge, tempting me.  In past years, I have held on to the fav leftovers like gold.  Only to keep creeping back to the fridge to have some again and again until its gone.  Its time to let that go.  ONE DAY…..like I said yesterday.   I am going to make the pumpkin smash ( made it last week- very good) and plan on making the HG chocolate cake with pumpkin.  There will be some traditional pumpkin pie with the crust as well, but I like the smash better anyway.  So that is the plan.

Raining today, but honestly, very mild for the middle/end of November.  I scheduled my boob squish and an ultrasound for Dec. 1 yesterday…..I had forgotten you need a full bladder for the US, so I am sooooo looking forward to that!  NOT!  All the bloodwork from my physical last week came back fine.  I have got A LOT of laundry to do today…..so it will be exercise, shower and laundry…and then when the kids come home, I promised the boys I would take them to the mall to get some new winter coats.  I see the grocery store has a coats for kids box….I will probably put the ones they have outgrown in there.

Have a great day, all!!

a very small loss again…but hey, I was going to be happy with maintaining…so a tiny loss is a bonus.  Especially because TOM will be here any day now, and I have always, always, had some fluid retention right before.  So ya….I am happy.  I guess I did ok in Chicago.

One thing I really need to get more consistent with is exercise.  I have been doing it, but its been pretty sporatic.  I really need to get a handle on it. With that being said, today is the start of a fresh consistent routine.  I need to be a serious with this as I am with my food.

One thing I need to keep in mind in the next few months is that Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day are just that, DAYS, not an entire season where I give myself permission to indulge on a daily basis.  That is my number one plan of attack for this year.   They are TWO DAYS, I can let the guard down just a bit….only two.

The bean at Millenium Park….

The dance convention was absolutely fabulous!  The girls had so much fun…and they got to meet some BIG time celebs in the dance world, and learned the choreography to the numbers that were taught to the top 20 on So you think you can dance this season.  They had classes with Jaquel, who choreographed Beyonces All the single Ladies, and Mia Micheals super creative contemporary style.  OMG…..it gives me shivers to think of it right now!!

We could not have asked for a more beautiful weekend in the middle of November if we wanted to!  My SIL and I were able to do some sight seeing while the girls were at classes.  We took a taxi to the Navy Pier, and then walked to Millenium Park.  It was a LONG walk, but great exercise!  We had lunch on the Pier, at Bubba Gumps, I had shrimp.   Boiled, not fried…with veggies.  I tried to eye up the best choice on the menus and get that. I substituted pasta for veggies whenever I could.  I felt pretty good about most of my choices.  I had some great meals, but didn’t go overboard, and I didn’t deprive myself either.  I had one third of a red velvet cheesecake at Cheesecake factory, and I enjoyed every bit of it.  My breakfasts were the hard boiled egg whites with either a ff yogurt or a plain oatmeal with splenda.  I was worried about being thrown completely off track, but I kept reminding myself, that to totally deprive is worse than having small amounts of something you like, esp when you are travelling for a mini vaca sort of thing like this.  I am happy with the weekend.  I weighed the same this morning, as I did when I left on Friday, even though TOM is due this week.  I don’t care if I didn’t lose anything this week, its more important that I enjoyed myself and maintained, as far as I am concerned.  I did the best I could. On Sunday, after we dropped the girls off, we headed to Michigan Ave for some serious window shopping to work off the cheesecake!  hahaha  I almost had an impulse moment in the Coach store…but stopped myself.  I might have found my Xmas present this year!!  I did buy a beautiful black wool coat in Nordstroms on Clearance for 140.00…and was really happy with my purchase!!  We tried to look for the Oprah store, but had no luck!  haha

I am really tired.  We didn’t get back home until well after 12:30am, and then the alarm sounded at 6.  NOT enough sleep.  I was going to go back to bed after everyone left, but then my mom called, wanting to hear all about the trip, and then I was up…so I will just need to get to bed early tonight.  DD didn’t go to school today, except her college class, so she is going to have a bit of makeup to do.  Oh well, I think I would rather see her get sleep, so she doesn’t have a greater chance of getting sick and then missing more days than just two.  She was really exhausted after two full days of dancing….

Well, its late, and this is a late post.  Hope to catch up with everyone tomorrow.

So yesterday, DH had decided since Applebees was honoring veterans for Veterans Day, we would take his WW2 vet father out to dinner.  DD and I had a meeting at school at 7:30, so I told him that was fine, but we needed to eat early so we could go to the meeting.  I was all set.  Applebees has the WW menu with points, so it was going to be easy!  I had plenty of points left for a nice meal and still within my points for the day.  But when we got there at 5:30, ppl were waiting OUT THE DOOR for a table.  There were 7 of us, and I was certain we would never get a table and then DD and I be out in enough time to get to the meeting.  So we ended up having dinner at the Mexican place next door.  I ordered the pollo loco, which is a grilled chx breast covered in enchilada sauce and is served with what looked like a half a cup of rice ( I have been faithfully measuring EVERYTHING…so I feel my estimate was probably very close) and a guacamole salad ( lettuce, tomato, guac. ) which had about 1/4c guac on it. I had no cheese on anything, and I did limit myself to 10 chips with salsa, counted them out.   I feel I did good, under the circumstances, but still, after trying to figure out the pts as best as I could, ended up dipping into the flex pts.  I was really trying to save those pts for Chicago.  So IDK, I need to move on, but part of me is disappointed that these change of plans had to ultimately alter my plans for the weekend.   I know, what can you do…but still….this is the kind of stuff that irks me!

The meeting DD and I had to go to was a pathetically lame waste of our time!  It was required for Dance team ( although this is the first year they have lumped dance team with the athletics) and it was on the code of conduct for athletics.  It was 45 min of the athletic director reading word for word from the code of conduct book we were all given at the start of the meeting, and he wasn’t even there!  He was on a tv, on a video tape.  I have never been so insulted by such a total waste of my time and intelligence.  I mean, both my daughter and I do know how to read!  Geesh!  I am often miffed by those in the education arena that really lack such total common sense.   Afterward, we needed to go to another meeting, for the Dance Team with the new coach.  She seems much better than the old one ( who got ousted by a criminal lawsuit regarding inappropriate conduct with a student….geesh!) and as far as I am concerned, her being gone is 4 years to late!  I never cared for her.  While I don’t believe the charges will hold, and I think she is not guilty, she is one of the flightiest ppl I have ever met.  I am not really sorry to see her gone at all.  She was NEVER an advocate for the team, which is one reason why dance team floats between club and athletic….although my comment to the new coach last night was, if they made us sit through that awful presentation last night then we should be able to tap into some of the booster money and funds that are set aside for all the other “sports”.  She said she was going to look into it, and I believe she will.  The old coach never would step up to do that.

I was able to cross off a bunch of things off my to do list yesterday, but still have more to finish up today.  We are leaving tomorrow morning for Chi-town.  Make it a great day and weekend everyone!

oh, I almost forgot to mention…..WW has a new mobile app for Iphones and Itouch.  I was soooo excited.  So I tried to download it on my itouch…but was quickly bummed because you need to have the 3G download.  :(  maybe I can find some time to see if I can get that for my itouch.  It would be a good way to track pts in Chicago.

bringing my three week total to 9.4, and I am very happy about that!

I had a very broken sleep last night.  Woke and went to the bathroom, then started thinking of all the things I need to do before we leave for Chi-town on Friday….ugh….I had better get some of it done today!  I got up, and made a list first thing, to keep me focused  Its not a bunch of major things…just things that need to get done.

I wasted WAY too much time in the docs office yesterday.  Appt was at 2:15, I got out of there at nearly 5.  Too flippin long!!  That did include time to get some bloodwork, but still.  Everything checked out fine, she didn’t say a word about my NOT coming for three years.  I have never had an abnormal pap, and I think the recommendation is every three years now for that anyway…as for the mammogram, I know they still want those done every year, but I have some mixed feeling about the accumulating factor of the low dose radiation over many years.  So I have conflicting feelings about the whole thing anyway.  She didn’t mention anything about my weight, although I was two pounds more than on my scale at home, I brought up that I wasn’t happy with my weight and I joined WW and told her how much I have lost, and she was very happy.  I told her about my heavy bleeding problem, and that I know I have a fibroid, as they spotted one on the ultrasound when I was pg with my last son.  So she ordered some bloodwork ( a thyroid test was one..) and then a pelvic ultrasound I will need to schedule.  I am very certain I am not anemic, I only deal with the heaviness one or two days.  Soooooo….we shall see what comes of that.  My mother had to have a hysterectomy in her 50’s d/t fibroids, but she was much worse than I am right now.

I decided to use the crockpot as suggested for dinner yesterday.  Popped some frozen cabbage rolls in there in the morning and added some sauce.  Whipped up some lowfat mashed potatoes and some corn for the kids and DH, and then went off to my WW meeting.  As previously stated, I was happy with my WI, which was one pound less than the scale at the doctors!  LOL

My mom tried to take the boys up to get their game, but the drivers license of the adult needed to match the name on the reservation…..sooooo they had to wait until DH got home to go up and get it.  It was a bummer for them!  LOL

So ok….I am boiling eggs so I can take hard boiled egg whites with me for breakfast in Chicago.  I also am bringing some plain instant oatmeal ( ew, I never eat instant) and some truvia to sweeten it.  My feelings are mixed about truvia.  I hardly use artificial sweeteners, and when I do, its splenda, but I thought I would give this a try.  I got a box, and well, I still  think it has a chemical after taste.  Maybe its just me.  Oh well, I bought it, now I need to use it up.  We are taking lowfat milk in a cooler, and have a fridge in the hotel room.  We are going to eat breakfast in, to save money and time, and for me, calories.  One less meal I need to eat out the better.  I think this is a great plan!!  Not that I won’t be enjoying some good meals out while we are there.  How could I not??  That would be so disappointing.

So off to do the day!  make it a great one all!

WW meeting tonight.  Market day pick up….so my mom will be over later this afternoon.  Annual gyn appt ( which I have stretched out to nearly three years!  gasp! ) this afternoon…ALWAYS fun.  At Least I wont be freaked out by the scale, and I can proclaim that I have actively decided to do something about the numbers by joining WW.  DD has a counseling appt to schedules college classes for next semester, which I won’t be able to go, d/t scheduling conflicts.  But she should be ok on her own. Still, she is only 17 and still a High School student.  The boys have reserved a copy of the new call of duty game that comes out today….but they have already decided to hit my mom up to take them up to Gamestop to get it.  They have been saving their monies, and have enough to buy it for themselves.

As I suspected, DH HATES his new progressive bifocals.  I shouldn’t talk.  I don’t wear them, not sure I would be happy with the adjustment either.  He came home from work yesterday and said they were making him sick….LOL….I told him he probably had them on too long in one stretch.  He keeps thinking he wants to go and get line bifocals…..yeah…not sure how I feel about that…but if he must, he must.  But come on…..who wants lined bifocals at 44??  Getting old really does suck.

I forgot to mention some delicious product I discovered last week.  I normally don’t do much frozen prepared meals or desserts.  But my store had some WW frozen desserts on sale.  I am NOT a fan of their frozen meals….yuck to most of it!  But I saw these three point chocolate mousse sundaes, and thought what the heck?  Every now and then, in the evenings, I get this BIG craving for something chocolaty and decadent.  This is probably MY biggest hurdle, aside from restaurant meals.  So I had one the other day….and much to my surprise, it WAS decadent and chocolaty and definitely hit the spot!  I saw SuperWalmart had them on sale for $2 a box…in other varieties as well.  That comes out to a $1 a dessert.  Not bad.

So I best get moving…..I think I should see a loss today at my weigh in, if my scale is right.  :)  So close to the 5% loss right now…..so close.

Wow, what  spectacular weekend weather we had this past weekend!  We did get a lot done in the yard, but the days aren’t long enough anymore to get it all done!  Got dark way to early, but what did I hear last night?  Chirping crickets…in NOVEMBER!  Today is clouding up, but supposed to get up into the 70’s.  I really want to get around to washing the windows and storing the screens for the winter.

Food wise, I felt I was more in control this weekend.  I still have flex pts left over.  We did eat out, but somehow it felt ok this weekend.  Saturday, I got a bonus walk in….while waiting for dh to shower so we could go out and get dinner.  :)  I chose to walk over sitting and messing around with the computer while I waited.  A small NSV for the day, I guess.

DD and I are leaving for Chicago at the end of the week.  Going with my SIL, niece, and DD’s best friend for a dance convention.  I hope the weather is cooperative.  NOT looking forward to the 5+ hour drive…but oh well.  I have to start packing and getting things ready for the trip.  The boys are NOT looking forward to me being gone again for a weekend (as I just went to NYC a few weeks ago) but oh well…they will survive.  LOL

After dinner yesterday, we stopped in to check out the new superwalmart that was remodeled a few months ago. I have never really been much of a walmart fan.  Esp of this one….it seemed always dirty and disorganized.  So I just avoided going there.  But I have to say, the new remodel is very nice.  Really different from what it used to be.  I still don’t think it will be my store of choice, but I can see myself going there more often then before. I thought maybe we could pick up some winterizing fertilizer for the lawn, but it looks like we waited too long on this one, as they were all out….I will have to go to the garden store.  I am miffed though, by the tremendous amount of Christmas merchandise that is already out!  Geesh!

The scale is being kind….hopefully it will be reflective of the numbers it is showing on Tuesday night at WI.  Making a lean meatloaf for dinner with some potatoes and a veggie.

Enjoy the day!

Haha!  Times Square! I am not in this picture, btw.  These are just random ppl.  This was taken on 10-15-09

OK….the cabbage and noodles recipe as requested….

1TBS olive oil

1 med onion, chopped

1 cup carrots, shredded ( I used the preshredded ones in the pkg)

about 3 cups of  green cabbage ( or more if you have it or like it heavy on the cabbage), shredded

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

about 1/4 c of ff chicken broth

8 oz pkg of extra wide egg noodles

2 TBS unsalted butter

salt and pepper to taste

1.  Heat lg skillet, and add olive oil.  Saute onion and carrots until they start to brown.   Season with salt and pepper.  Add in garlic. Saute for a few minutes, then add cabbage and chicken stock.   Season again.  Cover and let simmer until the cabbage softens.   Usually takes about 15 min or so.

2. Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to pkg directions.  Drain.  Add to the cabbage mixture and stir in two TBS of unsalted butter.

This can be eaten this way….1 cup = 4 pts ( makes about 7 cups or so)  or to make it esp. delicious, add either turkey smoked sausage or diced up ham slices.    Traditionally, it calls for bacon in the beginning.  I omit, so adding the sausage or ham in the end, helps make it more traditional.

Enjoy.  Yes!  Its very easy!

another weekend is here.  Lets hope this one is a little easier for me with the food than the last.  Having my eating out guide should help somewhat.  Even though its harder to stay on track on the weekends….I am still glad when they come.  A bit of a change of pace from the mundane weeks chores.

Dinner last night will be todays lunch.  Finished cooking up the GIANT head of cabbage that I got a few weeks ago for a $1.  Cabbage is such an underrated vegetable.  Honestly.  Its relatively cheap, has a long shelf life in the fridge, and I think, tastes yummy.  I made your classic cabbage and noodles dish (haluski, for those of you who have any eastern European backgrounds ) …but added in some shredded carrots and some garlic and of course, some onion. Only used a TBS of olive oil to saute in, and some chicken broth, and then 2 TBS of butter to finish it.  Came out to 4pt for a cup.  Pretty good and pretty tasty.  Had ham slices with it….yum.

I had 8 points left last night…..eight…..so I treated myself to a glass of milk ( yes, I have been doing better getting dairy in) and a glazed donut.  The grocery store I shop at has glazed donuts, homemade, 6 for $1.50 every Thursday.  For this reason, I usually try to shop when the daily deal is on fruit, milk, or something I won’t be tempted by.  But the boys do enjoy the donuts, and why should I NOT let them have the treat.  So I got some.  I really wasn’t planning on having any.  But when I saw I had sooooo many pts left to kill ( some days are like this….a ton of pts left over at the end of the day….well, not a ton, but 8 pts in WW land IS a ton!  LOL ) I decided I could treat myself.   Some interesting food finds yesterday were these new Wheat Thins flatbreads.  They work out to 1 pt for two flatbreads.  I haven’t tried them yet, but imagine they will be good to go with soup.  I also found this SF Mousse stuff by jello in the refrigerator section.  Also. 1 pt.  They had the caramel flavor….I really wanted chocolate.  I did have one of those, and they were good.  Small, but good.  I suppose for a creamy, chocolaty craving, the chocolate ones would hit the spot without doing a ton of damage. They were not as chemically tasting as the SF puddings.

I must pay bills today, and take time to clean my bathroom.  DH ordered a pair of glasses that are ready to pick up, his first pair of progressive bifocals….which I already know he will HATE!  LOL  But what can you do?  The man cannot read without taking his glasses off….actually, he takes his glasses off to eat!!!  We will see.  Men are such babies about these things.  So we may go and get those tonight or sometime this weekend.  Also on the agenda for the weekend, is yard work.  Hopefully the last of the year.