Sistah Pat

Two more days till school’s out!  HooRah!  Scales introduced me to 183 this morning, another BIG Hoo Rah!  I need to be really diligent today though.  I could feel old habits creeping up on me yesterday.  Gotta keep dodging the doughnuts, cookies and chips today.

6:15
I’m totally exhausted!  Work was non-stop.  After work, I had a meeting from 2:30 to 4:30.  Got home at 5:00 and raced upstairs to do the treadmill thing and it was NOT a good workout.  It was hot, hot, HOT upstairs and I didn’t want to workout.  My legs felt like lead.  I told myself I would try to do 30 minutes and then I went for 45.  At 45, I started coming back down, slowed the speed to 2.9 and dropped the incline from 8, to 5, to 3, to 1.  I only made it to 8% today but I’m glad I was up for even that much!  Went for 60 minutes, 2.9 miles, burned 330 calories. 

On other topics, some people really get on my nerves.  At work today, an office worker told me to try the jam cake someone made.  I told her “No, not really hungry.” and she said, “Oh, you’ve got to have at least a little of it, it’s homemade and it’s delicious.”  I told her no again and said I was dieting.  Here’s the kicker…She actually took a spoon and scooped up a big spoonful of the caramel icing and stuck it in my face and said, “Taste this icing, she uses brown sugar and whipping cream.  You can at least have a bite of that.”  I wish I’d told her what she could do with her brown sugar and whipping cream but I didn’t.  I just said, “No, really, if I even taste it, I know I’ll have to eat a piece and I don’t want to do that.”  I walked away and left her standing there slurping on her spoonful of icing.

Sistah Pam was leading the meeting today and she had brought some snacks but they were pretty decent.  I was wowed by the chocolate meringue cookies she brought.  Sugar free, fat free, no artificial ingredients and delicious.  Only 110 calories for 16 cookies!  I ate at least 10 and loved every one!  Also had a few pretzels and a couple of chocolate covered raisins.  I’m going to give it 200 calories.  That should be safe.

I’ve got to get up off this chair and go fix dinner before I collapse.

Lunch
Salad with Light Dressing (50)
Light Whole Wheat Bun (75)
Roast Beef (50)
Fat Free Swiss (25)

Dinner
Sesame pork tenderloin (350)
Baked Apples (75)
Cabbage (50)

Snacks
Fudgesicle (45)
Chocolate Meringue Cookies (100)
Pretzels (100)
Raisins (50)

Total 970

Breakfast
Orange (70)

Dinner Binge!
Asian Sesame Salad (400)
French Onion Soup (120)
Iced Chai Tea Latte (130)
Bread (200)

Total (920)

Starting that countdown! Three more days of school for the kids. Teachers have to go back on Tuesday of next week but that’s not a problem. With the kids out of the building, it’s just a day of packing up, enjoying friends, and clearing up any last minute paperwork. For me, that’s pretty easy because I’m already finished with students for the year and have been working on last minute stuff the last few days.

183.5 is my new acquaintance. I won’t say friend because we’re not all that close yet. I met him this morning but I’m learning about these new friends. They like to tease and come and go before they get serious. Still, it’s a pound lighter and I know I’ll be seeing more of him.

9:30
There is so much food floating around this place I’m afraid I’ll gain weight just walking down the hall! Everywhere I turn, someone’s inviting me to have a doughbut, a bagel, a piece of coffee cake, some cookies. I have to admit, most years I’m tickled pink about all the food but this year it’s like a bear trap (or a butt trap). Students have to take finals but teachers are not heartless. Many of them bring treats for the kids or allow the kids, themselves, to bring stuff in. Of course, there’s always the administration providing goodies for teachers and good hearted parents sending stuff in. Man, it’s dangerous around here!

7:00 p.m.
Oh, Amigos, I have fallen off the wagon!  Got a bump on my head but I don’t think it’s  life threatening.  Things got very hectic this afternoon and I went with the tide instead of swimming hard against the current.  Another teacher sent out an email that she had bought a new house and it came with all new appliances.  Wanted to sell her stove immediately for $100.00.  Two years old, like new, seldom used (she doesn’t cook).  My stove is getting rather worn and I jumped on the email and told her I’d meet her after school to look at it.  I was supposed to meet Sistah Pam after school so I emailed her and asked if we could meet at the gym at 4:00.  My sister, Donna, was in town today for lasic (spelling?) surgery on her eye and I was supposed to hook up with her so I figured I’d try to do that after the gym around 5:30.  Traffic was worse than I expected and it took a while to get to the other teacher’s house to look at the stove, which, by the way, was not for me.  Looked good but very basic with no bells and whistles.  Not even self-cleaning!  The way my stove takes a beating, that’s a must.  So I’m heading to the gym and I realize there’s no way I’m going to make it by 4:00 so I call Pam to let her know I won’t be there until around 4:30.  Turns out, she was wanting to cancel because she didn’t feel well so that worked out pretty good.  Hooked up with little sis and she wanted to go over to Panera because we needed to do some stuff on her blog and she didn’t want to pay an extra $11.00 on the motel to get wifi.  Okay, so all this rushing around has got me a little frazzeled and I didn’t eat lunch so I decide to get the citrus lime salad, and the onion soup, and an iced chai tea latte with skim milk.  Rationalizing that I won’t eat all of it but it all sounds good and I haven’t been out to eat in a long time.

I’m chatting with Donna and paying no attention as I’m munching away and a friend of hers joins us so we’re all chatting and munching and I realize (actually, little sis points out) that I’ve eaten almost all the salad, almost all the soup, and a good sized chunk of whole grain bread (don’t forget my iced chai tea latte!)

Now I’m home, it’s getting late and I still have to help Andrew and Steven with homework so I’m not going to get to my workout tonight.  (sigh) Guess I’d better log on to Panera’s site and get the breakdown on calories.

Asian Sesame Salad (440)
French Onion Soup (160)
Iced Chai Tea Latte (150)
Bread (200)

Geez!  That’s 950 calories for one meal!  Okay, can I take off 100 for the little bit that I didn’t finish?  That’s still 850 calories.  I know that’s not bad for the whole day because I only had an orange for breakfast and things were so hectic at work that I didn’t get lunch but the point is, I need to be careful with this kind of stuff.  This is way too many calories for one sitting.  Nothing else to eat tonight!

Something’s going on with my laptop and I’m getting really frustrated!  It keeps losing my stuff on this site.  I just finished writing and when I clicked on “Publish”, I got a message that Internet Explorer cannot display the page.  Lost the entire thing.  It’s happened a couple of times with comments, too.  As soon as I click on submit, IE gets all upset and loses it.  I guess I’m going to have to copy everything before I submit.  Anyway, here’s a shorter version of my blog this morning:

184.5 seems to be my new best friend.  He’s been hanging around for almost a week now and I have a goal of hooking up with 180 in just 11 days.  much shorter version…

11:40
Let’s talk about endurance, stamina, whatever you want to call it.  My family does a lot of traveling.  When my boys were little, they would get bored and antsy and start whining “How much farther????” and I would always answer, “about three more miles”.  That would usually calm them.  Anyone can hang in there for three more miles.  It’s not a big deal.  It was just a tiny little piece in the context of the entire journey.  I’ve always been that way.  I’ve always tried to hang in there for a just a little bit longer.  I can’t deal with the big picture.  It’s overwhelming and I can’t imagine ever getting there.

As some of you know, my “short-term, long-term” goal is to hike Lower Calf Creek Falls next month with my husband, son, and grandsons.  The first time we did it was about nine years ago.  DH and I took my youngest son (27 years old at the time) and his long, lean, girlfriend out west with us in the RV.  The temperature was 110 degrees in the desert and the hike was 5 miles.  I was considerably younger, lighter, and my ankles hadn’t started giving me any problems yet.  The halfway point of the hike is coming through the desert into a box canyon where a waterfall comes out of nowhere and cascades down the canyon walls into a crystal clear, icy cold, sand bottom pool.

We began the hike with lots of warnings about how difficult it would be in the heat, through the sand, and were advised to take lots of water.  For me, that meant a quart bottle.  We started on our way and soon discovered how difficult and demanding the hike was.  DH and I were kind of struggling and David said, “This must be kind of tough for you, Mom.  You’re so short you have to take two steps for every one of ours.”  It wasn’t quite that bad but I did feel like I was slowing everyone down so I told David and Stacy to go ahead and DH and I would meet up with them at the pool.  They left us behind pretty quickly and we plodded on.  A quart of water got me about a mile into the hike and it was really rough.  I was hot, tired, and parched.   I knew I couldn’t complain too loudly because the hike had been my idea and DH had been outvoted when he suggested that we skip the thing entirely.  We alternately trudged through the burning sand or wound through passageways between the blistering rocks.  I couldn’t decide which was worse, walking through the sand or standing on firm footing between  the canyon walls where the heat from the rocks surrounded us like an airless oven.

We trudged through a narrow passageway, being careful not to touch the blistering rocks and turned a corner and there it was.  A breathtakingly beautiful box canyon surrounded us and water plummeted down the sides of the cliffs in an unbelievably magnificent oasis.  I understood, then, why this was a national monument.  DH and I finally made it to the pool and jumped in.  Even though we were burning up, the water still felt icy and we couldn’t stay in very long.  By the time we climbed out, DS and girlfriend were ready to head back.  Hubby and I were still trying to recuperate so we told them to go ahead. 

DH and I knew the trip back would be just as grueling as the hike in but we finally decided to get it done.  Probably not wise, but I refilled my water bottle from the waterfall because we both knew we’d be in trouble if we headed back without water.

It was miserably hot and David had left his bandanna with me so I kept mopping my brow and moving ahead.  The sand was deep and it seemed like every step was an effort.  We came around some rocks and gazed out on a wide, seemingly endless stretch of sand and there, right in the middle of it, someone had stamped out, “just three more miles, Mom.”

It still brings a smile to my lips and, sometimes, a tear to my eyes.  Anyone can hang in there for a little bit.  That’s the way it went today with my workout.  I’m really pleased with it.  I decided to take it at 3.0 mph up to an incline of 7 and then drop the speed down.  When I got to 7%, I decided to try to make it to 8 and then to 9, and I kept telling myself if I could hang in there for 5 minutes at 10%, I would drop it down and start cooling off.  When I finished doing 5 minutes at 3.0 at 10%, I rationalized that when I reduced the incline on the way back down, that would be a relief and I might be able to keep the speed at 3mph until I got down to 8%.  Needless to say, I managed to hang in there at 3.0 all the way up and all the way back down.  Burned 634 calories and went 5 miles! 

Lower Calf Creek Falls is looming.  I know I can do it.  I’m building my strength and endurance a little bit at a time.  I’ll take lots of water this time.  I just hope I can manage to get a little bit ahead of everyone else and leave a message in the sand:

 3 more miles… 

 ;-)

6:00  p.m. - DH is being a real Sh8t tonight!  There are days when I love him because and there are days when I love him in spite of.  This evening is definitely an “in spite of” case.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean (200)
Soymilk (50)

Lunch
2 slices Light Whole Grain Bread (70)
6 slices turkey pastrami (60)
1 slice Fat Free Swiss Cheese (25)
1 orange (70)
Popcorn flavored mini rice cakes (70)

Dinner
Chicken Parmegiana (300)
1 cup angel hair (200)
green beans (50)
salad (50)

Snack
Rice Cakes (90)

Total 1235

Down 1/2 pound this morning to 184. Hey! I like that!

Finals are driving me crazy. Andrew and Steven are now facing final exams all week. Since our school uses block scheduling, that means 7 finals. They both worked hard this weekend. Andrew worked like a dog and didn’t get finished. Steven worked like a dog “for him” and is claiming to be sick this morning. He let a bunch of last minute work pile up on him and although he worked all weekend, I suspect he didn’t have time to get ready for his geometry final today. I’ve hassled him and he’s sticking to his guns. He is too sick to go to school. I finally relented although I have some misgivings. Andrew’s U.S. History teacher gave him a study guide for the final that’s composed of 80 questions that require short essay type answers. Completing it is worth 80 points and he can use it on the final itself. So, with that much at stake, he worked like a dog but still wasn’t able to get it all finished. He’s going to get out of his 2nd block class today and come to the library to try to get it finished. Second block is an elective and he’s already taken that final. If it’s this hard on the parents, what must it be like for the kids? In order to improve attendance during the last week of school, all classes are supposed to give rigorous final exams everyday this week alternating so that each day, the student has one or two finals. Poor kids…I remember when we were in school and the last week or so was so relaxed. It was like we had finished everything and could finally relax and do some fun stuff the last few days. Of course, that was almost 40 years ago.

12:40 - Lunchtime!  It’s been crazy this morning with everyone trying to get everything done.  I also discovered that Steven’s portfolio entry for science is not what he was supposed to do so I guess I’ll spend the evening standing over him as if he were 7 instead of 17 to get it done the right way.  There’s no school tomorrow (which is crazy at this point in the year) because of elections but I guess I’m going to be cracking the whip all day on Steven.

Even though there are “NO PARTIES ALLOWED” this week, there seem to be a lot of goodies floating around.  I’ve been offered pizza, cake, and cookies today.  I’ve been good!
Mostly because I know if I eat a piece of pizza, I’m dead, I don’t like store-bought sheet cake, and the cookies are not homemade.  If it was some kind of exotic homemade cake like Red Velvet or something, I wouldn’t have a chance.  Ditto for homemade chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies.

4:30 - Home again.  I’ve been helping Steven with his science lab report/portfolio piece for the last hour.  I don’t think he had a clue about what he needed to do but he steadfastly refused my help for the past week on getting it done.  Once I sat him down and said, “Don’t even think about moving until this is done.  I’m going to help you whether you want me to or not.” he seemed to show an interest in taking care of business.  I realized very quickly that he didn’t have any idea how to get started and I pushed him through the first couple of sections.  Now he’s sitting on the other side of the table working away.

7:15
So there I am, blogging away and Steven’s working and I’m kind of munching on some rice cakes (I think I’m overdoing the rice cakes) and Crystal Light and DH says “Aren’t you going to exercise this afternoon?”  Well, duh!  I forgot about that.  How can I exercise everyday and then just forget?  Anyway, I shot upstairs and did my treadmill thing.  I’ve noticed that I’m getting a lot stronger and have a lot more stamina but I never wrote anything down in the beginning so I decided to start keeping track of it every now and then.  Because I’ve had a long day and it was NOT fun tonight, I only did an hour.  I kept wanting to quit but I decided I would write down what I did tonight and knowing that I’d be posting it kept me going for an hour.  Thanks, Amigos!  If I hadn’t known someone was watching, I might not have gotten through it.  I’ve noticed that my ankle is much better.  Don’t get me wrong, it hurts about the middle 30 minutes of my workout but I know it’ll ease up if I can just work through the first 40 minutes or so and I can tell that I’m getting a lot more flexibility and strength in it.

 As soon as I said we were having veggie burgers for dinner, everyone vanished.  Donnie decided he wanted some leftovers and Andrew and Steven wanted to fix a frozen pizza.  Darryl asked Holly if she’d like to go to McDonalds and they took off.  I guess it’s just me and George Foreman.  Maybe I should tell them we’re having veggie burgers more often.

9:30 I’m hungry!  I just totaled up my calories for the day and I’m at 970.  That’s about what I’ve been eating.  Why am I so hungry?  Let me see what I can find.

10:15 - Weird!  All of a sudden I got really hungry, cold, and sleepy.  I put a frozen entree in the microwave, went out and sat in the spa while it nuked.  Now I’m warm and full and going to bed.

Breakfast
Orange (70)

Lunch
2 slices Light Whole Grain Bread (70)
Lite Mayo (20)
Fat free swiss (30)
Deli roast beef (60)
BBQ flavored rice cakes (100)

Dinner
Veggie Burger (150)
Light Bun (70)
Fat Free Cheese (30)
Baked Sweet Potato (150)

Snacks
Rice Cakes (120)
Angel Food Cake (100)

Total (970)

Frozen Entree (320) brings the total to 1290.  Higher than I wanted but, hey, a girl’s gotta eat!

Weighed in at 184.5. That’s good, still on track. I want to be down to 180 by June 1 which gives me plenty of time as long as I stay on track.

Meeting Sistah Pam at the gym in an hour or so to jog around the pool. I wish our pool was available but it’s still too cold.

I hate body maintenance. All the girlie stuff like nails and shaving legs and haircuts and hair color. Wait a minute, let me rephrase that…I hate finding time to do all the body maintenance. Today, I need to find time to do all that stuff. My haircut is one of those where it’s fine one day and too long the next. It’s like overnight I can’t stand it. It looks flat and stringy and I have to get it cut today or wait till next weekend. I also promised myself a manicure and pedicure if I reached my goal on the 15th so I want to get that done today. Right now, it’s off to the shower to scrub and shave and then off to the gym.

12:00 - Back from the gym.  I haven’t eaten yet today and that’s not good so I’m wolfing down some leftover green beans from last night’s dinner before I head out again.  DH has to be at a dedication for his recently deceased sister at 2:00 and I need to get my running done before then so I can be here to watch Jake and Scout.  SIL passed away in February and was always very active in working with the local firehouse and Crusade for Children.  They’re dedicating a memorial to her at the fire station today.  I was going to go but DH seems okay with me staying here.  He’ll be with all his sisters and several friends.

7:00 - Okay, the poor old bod is about as maintained as it’s gonna get for a while.  Manicure, pedicure, legs shaved, haircut, brows waxed, and hair colored.  Here’s a surprise, I don’t get my nails done very often because I usually just do them myself but when I do, I go to a snazzy little place that’s a bit pretentious.  A manicure is $30.00 and a pedicure is $40.00.  So, everytime I go, it’s $80.00 with the tip.  Now you know why I don’t go very often.  Anyway, this is a spur of the moment thing so I thought I’d try the nail salon in Walmart.  Yes…Walmart!  Guess what?  It was great!  They did a better job than the snobby little place.  Guess Walmart is my new nail salon.

I just got home and haven’t eaten anything but some green beans today so I just made a fake pastrami on rye.  Instead of pastrami and swiss piled on rye, I had turkey pastrami, fake fat-free swiss cheese, and light Whole Grain bread.  Not too bad!

Breadfast? Lunch? Brunch?
Green Beans (50)
Strawberries (25)

Lunch? Dinner?
Pastrami (80)
2 Slices whole grain bread (70)
Fat Free Swiss Cheese (30)

Dinner (I think)
Garlic Lemon Chicken Breasts (200)
Kale Greens (50)

Total (505) Crap! It’s 10:00 p.m. and I can’t leave it this low. What can I eat?

Add 2 pkgs rice cakes for another 180.  That brings it up to 685.  Not good but I’m going to bed.

Breakfast
Orange (70)

Dinner
Chicken breasts in wine (350)
Green beans (100)
Rice (100)

Snacks
Rice cakes (90)
Lemon tart (100)

Total 810 (not enough, I’ll eat an orange to bring it up to 880 and then I’m going to bed)

Here’s an oldie but a goodie from Cooking Light, 1986.  I always buy cheap wine for cooking.  I used to buy cooking wine in the grocery but it has a lot of sodium and I’ve discovered over the years that the cheapest wine on the shelf is still much better for cooking than the cooking wine from the grocery.  I usually serve this dinner with steamed broccoli.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/8 tsp. salt
Vegetable Cooking Spray
2/3 cup Chablis or other dry white wine
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, quartered
2 Tablespoons minced onion
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tsp. Chablis or other dry white wine
1 cup hot cooked rice

Sprinkle chicken with salt.  Coat a heavy skillet with Vegetable Spray; place over medium heat till hot.  Place chicken in skillet and cook until browned on both sides.  Add 2/3 cup wine, mushrooms, and onion.  Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat, simmer 15 minutes.  Remove chicken from skillet and keep warm.

Combine cornstarch and 2 tsp. wine; stir into mushroom mixture in skillet.  Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly.

Serve chicken and wine sauce over hot cooked rice.  Yield 2 servings (about 209 calories per serving plus 90 calories per 1/2 cup cooked rice)

This morning I’m at 185. Up .5 from the last couple of days but I’m fine with it. I ate more than I should have last night but still kept it below 1500 calories so I know it will gradually melt away. Little ups and downs don’t bother me as long as they don’t last too long. I know I’m going to have these little flucuations if I weigh myself everyday.

Went on a mission to record measurements this morning. The daggone measuring tape was rolled up into this little bitty coil and it kept twisting and turning like a snake but I think I managed to get it straight enough to yield some numbers. I found this site which gives a good guide on how to do them. I’ve been really good about the cardio on the treadmill, pool, and bike but I haven’t gotten around to toning and building muscle. Guess I’ll have to now. Those numbers are pretty grim…

11:40 - Take that, veggie burgers! Worked 1 1/2 hours on the treadmill. Burned 560 calories, went 4.25 miles. Heatrate (pun intended) at 145 at height of workout, 125 at end. Jotting this down quickly because I have to get a fast shower and get over to school to chaperone car wash fundraiser.

2:20 - Crap!  Drove all the way over to school (not right around the corner) and no one was there. Drove all the way around.  Waited 15 minutes, drove around again…still no one.  Came home and asked Steven if I made a mistake on the day or what?  He said, “Oh, they said on yesterday afternoon’s announcements that it was cancelled.”  Well, that’s just peachy!  You can’t hear the announcements if you’re in the office, restroom, library, hall, gym, or theatre.  Obviously, I was in one of these locations.  They hunted me down to beg me to chaperone but didn’t bother hunting me down to let me know that it was cancelled.  Steven works at McDonald’s on Saturdays so he wasn’t here this morning when I left or I’m sure he would have clued me in.  Not real happy at the moment.  It’s bad enough to give up my free time on Saturday to help the school out but to give up time and drive all the way out there for nothing is a monumental pain in the ace!

9:30 p.m. - I’m so drowsy. I was eating dinner and couldn’t hardly keep my eyes open. Jake and Scout are here (two of the grandkids) to spend the night. They’re real sweethearts but as needy as you’d expect for 6 and 8 years old. Wonder if I can talk DH into keeping an eye on them for a couple of hours while I hit the bed early for a change.

I went to this site to see how to take accurate body measurements and followed their guidelines.

5/17/08
Bust 47.5 inches
Chest 40.5 inches
Waist 40 inches
Hips 47 inches
Midway 46 inches
Thigh 24.5 in.
Right Knee 18 in.
Left Knee 17 in.
Right Calf 15.5 in.
Left Calf 14.75 in.
Right Upper Arm 13 in.
Left Upper Arm 13 in.
Right Forearm 10 in.
Left Forearm 10.5 in.

184.5 is still visiting and I’m thoroughly enjoying him. At least for a short visit.

What do you wear to work on the next to last Friday before the end of school? I don’t have any students today and will probably spend all day checking and cleaning computers. Not really my job but considering that teachers are not exactly clammoring for my help during the last week of school, I probably won’t be resourcing in any classrooms today. I think it’s definitely a jeans day!

7:00 Ready for work and waiting for Steven to finish flossing, brushing, combing, etc. I think teenage boys spend almost as much time in the bathroom as girls. Thanks for the comments last night, brseay, for helping me to see that I can bitch about it and still be human. Guess I’d better go hurry him up or we’ll all be late.

12:00 - Know what really makes me mad? When the doctor nags you to death to do something you don’t want to do anyway and then you can’t seem to get anybody on the phone to even make the appointment! Does anybody want to have a colonoscopy? I mean, they should be grateful for us even making the effort to schedule one but to have to call over and over and play phone tag for a month to even set up an appointment is ridiculous. I’ve been trying to get this done for six months! First I set up the appointment and was only able to choke down about 2/3 of the junk I was supposed to drink. I called the next morning and told them that I thought I was fine but I wasn’t able to drink all that crap and they said they didn’t think I should have the procedure. So…they rescheduled me for six weeks later but then they called me four days before the procedure to tell me that the doctor had to go out of town and they would need to reschedule. I told them I would call them back but I forgot. I went back to the doctor and he wasn’t happy that I still didn’t have a colonoscopy because I’m over the age of fifty!! So I try to make another appointment but their scheduling clerk is only in from 10:00 to 2:00 each day. What? So…for a month, I call her at 10 and leave a message and she calls the school and they tell her they won’t interrupt me during class but they’ll give me a message so she leaves a message for me to call and I call and leave a message on her voice mail and she calls my house but I get home after 2:00 so she’s not there so I call her back and leave a voice mail…yada, yada, yada. Why is it that the clerk is only there from 10:00 to 2:00 but I can only get her voice mail? I mean, if you had hours like that, couldn’t you sit at a desk and answer your own phone?

3:20…home again. I don’t hang around school on Friday afternoon. Don’t look for me at meetings or committees or anything else. I do, however, have to go over there tomorrow to chaperone a fund-raising car wash for 3 hours.

Now, here’s the thing, Friday evenings around my house have always been special. We celebrate the end of the week by having lots of good food and being couch potatoes. I like to open a bottle of wine on occasion and sit out in the spa and we like to rent a movie and munch on goodies. Now that I’m dieting, I don’t know what to do with my Fridays. I get off work and rush home and do what? I don’t want to exercise because I feel like I should have the night off. I can’t order a pizza or chinese. I really don’t like to sit around and watch a movie without being able to join in with the goodies. I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. DH just went to the store to pick up hamburger and french fries for him and the boys and I told him to pick up veggie burgers, lite whole grain buns, and a sweet potato for me. I can sit in the spa but I certainly can’t open a bottle of wine because I’m the only one who drinks it (hubby says my wine is Kool Aid and I have to admit he’s right. I’m not much of a connoisseur and a sweet dessert wine has 270 calories in 6 ounces!). Even if I were to break down and open a bottle, I’m certainly not going to open a $20.00 bottle of wine and drink 6 ounces. So, my special “fun” night is pretty blah. They’ll all sit around and munch on nachos and drink cokes and watch the movie and I’ll munch on a rice cake and drink unsweetened tea. They’ll grill burgers and have deep fried french fries with lots of ketchup and I’ll have a sweet potato. DH will guzzle beer and potato chips and I’ll…what?

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll be fine. I’ll be good and eat healthy but I have to admit, I miss my Friday evening entertainment.

10:15…I thought I’d be fine.  I didn’t do too well.  DH brought home a different kind of veggie burger than what I usually get.  The ones I get have 80 calories.  The ones he bought had 170 calories.   That’s pretty steep for a veggie burger!  I fixed dinner with a burger on Whole Grain Light Bun and baked sweet potato.  After dinner, I snacked on some rice cakes.  I was still wanting to eat so I fixed another veggie burger and then I ate some more rice cakes until I realized that I was actually feeling pretty gross and it didn’t taste good.  I stopped but what did I do?  250 calories for each burger and 100 for the sweet potato and at least 200 in rice cakes.  Sh8t!  Can’t wait to add it all up!  On the bright side, at least I caught it and QUIT!

Breakfast
Kashi (200)
Strawberries (15)
Soymilk (50)

Lunch
Frozen Entree 350

Dinner
2 Veggie Burgers (500)
Baked Sweet Potato (100)

Snack
Whole bunch or chocolate flavored rice cakes (200)

Total 1,450

Cover your ears, Amigos…

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

184.5 this morning!!!!!

This is starting out to be a great day! Oldest son, Darryl, gets in from New York a couple of minutes after I get up this morning, takes a look at me, and says “You are losing weight, Mom” This is the same son who said to me last summer, “Mom, I don’t want to hurt your feelings but have you looked in the mirror lately? You’re getting really wide.”

I took my shower, consoling myself the entire time that I might not be losing the pounds like I’d like but, evidently, I must be slimming down. I was wondering if I should adjust my goals to reflect new numbers for the next two weeks or try to lose the couple that were still hanging on along with five more over my next short term goal. Luckily, I didn’t have to make that decision. I stepped on the scales and they showed 184.5! I pulled on my PJs and hollered for Darryl to come and look. They still showed 184.5 and that was after I used deodorant and hair conditioner!

10:45 - Really busy today! My desk is covered in paperwork, I’m just now getting a bite of Kashi (and I do mean just a bite)

11:45 - Didn’t get to finish my little bit of Kashi but now it’s lunch time. Didn’t go out with the others but asked them to bring me back a Subway Club (320) calories with lettuce and tomato. Got my German kids through their final this morning. This is an on-line course and they have to finish in time for their work to be graded and show up in the course. As of today, they’re finished for the year.

The dust hasn’t even settled from this morning and I’m already looking at the next phase. Five more pounds in the next two weeks. That will be on June 1st. I want to be down to 180 by then. This shouldn’t be all that difficult because there are actually 16 days between today and June 1st. If I can stay on track, that will have me hiking Lower Calf Creek at 170 which is lower than I’ve been for at least six years. Still, that’s looking six weeks into the future and I don’t want to go beyond that. Six weeks and 15 pounds, that’s something I can deal with.

3:45 - Home again, better change and hit that treadmill.  The Subway sandwich at lunch was wonderful!

8:00 pm - Feeling just a little low right now.  I started my workout, got up to 45 minutes and was really starting to steam when Andrew came upstairs and said he really needed help with his schoolwork.  Since the boys have CAP tonight, I knew I would have to stop and deal with it so I did a quick cool down.  I only went 2.5 miles and burned 275 calories.  I helped the boys until they finished and went to CAP.  Darryl is back in town so he took them.  You’d think I’d be feeling good to have the house to myself for a change but it’s bothering me that I don’t ever seem to have the kind of control over my life that I should have by now.  I should be able to come home from work and hit the treadmill without being stopped.  It’s a little thing but it makes me aware of the fact that I’m raising two boys 15 years after I thought I was finished raising boys.  Sometimes it feels like I’m never going to reach a place where I can say what I want and do what I want without so many things getting in the way.  Will I ever get to retirement?  When we do, we’re going to move to our place in Florida and do what we want.  So what?  Five more years?  Seven?  Andrew and Steven are such wonderful boys that it makes me feel guilty to even think this way.  I wish I could enjoy my grandkids the way other grandparents do.  Love them and enjoy them and have nothing but happiness.  Not have to worry about their laundry, their dinner, their homework.  I feel guilty for even having written this.

Breakfast
about two bites of Kashi and soymilk (100)

Lunch
Subway Club with lettuce and tomato on Whole Grain Bread (320)

Dinner
Frozen Entree (350)
2 Strawberry Tarts (120)

Snack (looks more like a meal to me!)
Sandwich on Light Whole Grain Bread (200)
Orange (70)

Total 1160