Sistah Pat

166.5

That’s where perfect week has left me. I said I’d be satisfied with that and I will, as long as it stays down, but I can’t help feeling a little let down that this is where I was after the first day of Perfect Week.  Logically, I know I wouldn’t still be here if I hadn’t worked my butt off all week but still…Today, I’m going to rest. Take in more calories and I may skip exercise. Compared to last week, this week should be much easier. No after school meetings, no cooking for the masses. Maybe I can get some paperwork caught up and see my desk again.

1:00 p.m. - I’m actually sitting down and eating my lunch.  Taking a real “lunch break” as it were.  Don’t know if it’s just me or everybody else but people keep making me mad!  I got to work at 7:10 this morning and one of the counselors grabbed me the minute I walked in the door with an emergency computer issue.  I took care of it for her and then headed to the office to sign in.  Mind you, I don’t start getting paid till 7:30.  I go up to the counter to sign in and the sign-in sheet is missing and the secretary is gabbing on the phone.  So…I stand there a minute or so and then the 7:30 bell rings and she’s still talking and then, when she gets off the phone, she sets out the RED sign-in sheet that you have to use if you sign in after 7:30.  I have never signed in on red and wasn’t about to do it this morning.  I refused to sign it and the same damn counselor that kept me occupied for 15 minutes fixing her computer says, “It really doesn’t mean anything, Pat.  I know you were here on time.  Just go ahead and sign it.  It’s not a problem.”  Maybe it’s not a problem for her but it’s definitely a problem for me.  I still refused to sign it so she initialed it for me.  I told her the only way I would sign a red sheet would be if they also put out a green one that we can use to sign out at 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. after putting in five or six hours of unpaid work.  Really!  That put me in a crummy mood.  Usually, I work straight through lunch but I’m taking it off today!  I’ll also be out that door at 2:30 on the nose.

Breakfast:
Nutrisystem Protein Bar (180)

Lunch:
Nutrisystem Pizza (270)  - Gross!

Checked out some weight tables yesterday to find my ideal weight. Something I haven’t looked at for a long time. For my age, height, and frame, I should be between 108 and 135. Funny…I remember looking at this stuff years ago when I was in the 130s and thinking it was crazy to say I’d be at my ideal weight in the 130s when I felt so FAT! Now I’m looking at it and thinking “120??? Are they crazy???” I’m not sure I want to aim for a particular long term goal. I guess I should but I prefer to stay here where it’s warm and cozy. Losing weight, working out, and not thinking about the end game. BUT - if I were to take aim…I guess it should be around 125 which is still a long way down the road. This morning, I’m still at 166.5 which is where this week seems to be taking me. That’s okay. I’d be really happy if this week just gets me beyond the plateau of 167 - 169.

I got busy yesterday and didn’t blog much. I spent a good part of the day trying to track down a virus that’s really slowing down my computer. I think I may have gotten it taken care of. I wanted to download some Mike Oldfield music from i-tunes and it took almost three hours! Interesting how he’s gone from the New Age Tubular Bells, through the Celtic Voyager and now to the almost classical sound of Music of the Spheres. Hubby reaped the benefits of the download because he got an hour long massage to Music of the Spheres. In fact, he’s still snoozing and it’s 9:40!

I got through yesterday okay but I’m really tired of keeping the calories so low and getting such intense exercise every day. Hubby worked 13 hours overtime yesterday so we didn’t get to close the pool but I did jog in it for 45 minutes. Pam and I are supposed to workout at the gym today but we didn’t set an actual time.

1:20 - Just in case Pam doesn’t call, I went ahead and did the treadmill. I upped the speed to 3.6 for a lot of the time and 3.4 for the higher inclines. Burned up 5.6 miles and 882 calories. Now, if I can just keep the calories around 1,000 today, I can finish up Perfect Week with a bang.

5:30 - I’m feeling seriously pissed off with DH at the moment. He promised to help me clear out my workout room this weekend. He’s got all this computer crap and boxes in there and he’s been storing stuff in the room that ought to go in the attic. He didn’t get up until almost 10:00 and then he fooled around until around 1:30 when I got in from the store and found him asleep again. I finally made him get up about an hour ago and go upstairs with me and he just kind of looked around and said, “You know, I really just don’t feel like getting into this today.” Well, Hell! Does he think I do? Our quarterly junk pickup is tomorrow and then we don’t have another one until December. I’ve been dragging boxes and crap down the stairs and hauling it out to the curb for three hours now and he hasn’t helped me at all. What’s so damn aggravating is that it’s his crap! I spent twenty minutes wrestling the giant Christmas tree box out of the doorway to the attic so I could get past it and it probably would have taken him about three minutes. I’m steamed!!!

8:00 p.m. - I finally got my room cleared out. There’s still a ton of DH’s computer crap but I put it all in one area. The rest of the room is CLEAN! I even wrestled my treadmill and stationary bike to the other side of the room so I could vacuum under it. I was sooo tempted to drag all of his crap out to the curb but I took the high road. Boxed it up and put it away the best I could. He had EIGHT monitors and SIX printers up there. I threw out an old fax machine that we haven’t used in two or three years and four of the monitors and three printers that used to belong to me. I figure if they’re mine, I can throw them out. Hope he didn’t want them too bad because scavengers already took them from the curb and hauled them off. The entire time, he’s been in the family room drinking beer, eating peanuts, and watching the sci fi channel. I hope some of those sci fi junkies beam him up and give him a rectal probe tonight.

Breakfast:
Lite Yogurt (80)

Lunch:
Marie Callander’s Frozen Turkey Dinner (350)

Dinner
1 cup baked ziti (300)
1 small glass white wine (100)

Snacks:
1 fudgesicle (45)
1 pkg. mini rice cakes (90)

Total 965

Not much of a surprise this month.  This isn’t really after a month because I forgot to do it so it’s been a month and a half.  Still losing some inches but not much on the upper body.  I really need to work my upper body!  Total for the month is 6.75 inches.  Total so far is 25.5 inches.

8:45 a.m. - Seems like perfect week has been going on for about two weeks but I guess it’s just six days. I won’t do this again. Being all over everything for a couple of days is one thing but a week? On top of everything, I’m showing 166.5 this morning. Probably all the salt and salad dressing Holly served me for dinner. My poor cod. It’s so expensive and DH got it for me because he knows I’ve been really enjoying tilapia lately. I broiled the fish but never dreamed she would sprinkle a ton of salt and pepper on it after I had it on my plate. It was worth it however, she beamed all evening about the dinner she fixed me and told everyone who would listen about how to toss the perfect salad and make perfect tea. I did get away with turning down the ice cream she brought me. Seems that her little mind was churning and she decided vanilla ice cream with honey drizzled all over it would be a perfect dessert. She came down to the family room bearing a big bowl of it around 9:00 for me to enjoy. I told her I couldn’t have it although it looked “absolutely delicious” because I was on a diet. I also managed to convey to her, without hurting her feelings, that the kitchen was closed for the night. The ice cream must have been pretty bad. She ate a couple of bites of it and didn’t like it. One thing’s for sure…I gotta teach that girl how to cook.

It’s grey and gloomy this morning. It’s been raining since yesterday morning and we needed it sooooo bad. I slept in until 8:30. DH woke up around 5:00 and I expected him to come back to bed but there’s a note on the kitchen table that says he went to work and will call later. He doesn’t usually do overtime although they’re always calling. It’s so quiet and peaceful this morning. I don’t get the house to myself very often. I can walk on the treadmill as long as I want. My plan is to do the treadmill this morning and the pool this afternoon. It’s time to close the pool. The cool nights will bring the temperature down real fast and the rain is bringing down a lot of leaves that are falling into the pool and clogging the skimmer. I guess I’ll clean it one last time this afternoon, do my laps, and then we’ll cover it.

12:30 - Squeezed 820 calories and 5.2 miles out of the treadmill.  Did the 3 more miles workout at 3.3 mph.  It occured to me that I forgot to take my measurements in August.  I’m going to try to do that today.  It also occured to me that, with the pool closed, I’m going to want some variety.  I used to do my own workouts with just a boom box blarring.  I might try that again.

Lunch:
7 grain salad (200)

Protein Bar (140)

Dinner:
2 cups Low Fat Tortilla Soup (300)
Whole Grain Tortilla with lowfat cheese and jalapenos (200)

Snacks:
Mini delights rice cakes (90)
Low fat frozen yogurt (110)

Total 1,040

5:15 a.m. - I feel so tired and heavy this morning. It feels like there’s all this extra weight bogging me down. This has been such a killer week. I know it was a short week but I think they got their money’s worth out of me. Friday afternoon can not come early enough! I’m going to be running through the halls like the kids this afternoon. “Get out of my way! Make a hole! I’m coming through and hittin the road!”

I got quite a bit of sleep last night. I was in bed by 11:00 and don’t remember anything after my head hit the pillow but I’m having a rough time getting going this morning. Come to think of it…I’ve had a hard time getting going every day this week. Think I’ll spend a long time in the shower this morning. Wake me up if I’m not out by 6:00.

6:15 a.m. - The shower helped but my eyes are all scratchy. The Visine is not where it’s supposed to be and I saw DH using it a couple of days ago. It’s probably in one of his stashes but I don’t have the energy to look for it. I’m boiling water for rice vermicelli. Several of my amigos are joining me for lunch today. We’re having a summer roll bar. Each of us is bringing some stuff to put in the rolls. I’m bringing rice vermicelli and grilled chicken. Should be fun!

The scales are telling me 166 this morning. I think the extra half pound is the weight of that exhaustion.

6:00 p.m. - Alright…let the weekend begin. Work was rough again today. Not as bad as it’s been the rest of the week but I still didn’t have a free minute. Our summer roll lunch didn’t quite work out. None of us could get free to sit down and eat lunch so everyone kind of ran in, made a couple of summer rolls, threw them on a paper plate and ran back to the classroom to try to eat while doing other stuff. Sharon brought some coconut macaroons in. Wicked woman. I don’t know why I ate a couple of them. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even glance at them but they were dipped in chocolate and so I ate a couple. Really yummy! Surprised the heck out of me. I’m not real fond of coconut. Of course, as soon as I checked the calorie count I had to give them up. A hundred calories each!

Got home and Stacy came by with grandsons. Both of them in trouble for not doing their homework. It seems they’ve been throwing it away and telling her they don’t have any. So…I went up to Kentucky School Supply and bought each of them a rather hefty, grade appropriate workbook of general studies. Now they have homework every night. Either they bring it home from school or they get assignments out of the workbooks. Hopefully, once they see that they’re going to have it one way or the other, they’ll start bringing home their class assignments. To soften the blow, I also got them books. Jake wanted a Goosebumps and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I wasn’t familiar with the ones Scout chose but Stacy said they were on his list of desirable books. Sixty bucks and two hours later, I’m finally home again.

I’m thawing some cod. DH bought it for a treat for me. I think I’m going to broil it, have a fish sandwich and salad and then collapse in front of the boob tube this evening. I’m rationalizing that if I get up and do the treadmill and then do laps in the pool tomorrow evening, that should make up for skipping exercise tonight.

7:15 - Darling granddaughter Holly is killing me.  Came to visit as I was fixing my dinner.  Helped make the salad and chatted with me (nonstop) as I grilled the cod.  I pulled the fish out of the oven and put it on a plate and she insisted that I go to the family room and relax and let her serve my dinner.

Bless her heart.  She proudly served my fish (which she salted and peppered), my salad, (which has at least half a bottle of Paul Newman’s Sesame Ginger poured over it, and a glass of tea.  The tea has no ice and is hot because it was made with hot tap water.  She says that’s the secret to make the Cold Brew Tea really taste good.  That and at least 5 spoonfuls of Splenda per glass.  I asked her if I could have some ice but she says that makes it too watery and it doesn’t taste good.  Yeah, she salted and peppered the fish alright.  Gag!  Sob!  Wish I was a wicked old bitch so I didn’t have to eat it and try to wash it down with the tea.  That, my friends is enough to qualify as tonight’s workout.

Lunch:
4 summer rolls (200)
2 coconut macaroons (200)

Dinner:
Two hefty cod fillets (400)
Salad (150)

Total 950

Wake up! Last night’s pain pill knocked me out. I slept like a rock. Don’t think I even got up to go to the bathroom. At least the tailbone feels a little better!

Scale is telling me 165.5 this morning and the bastard better stay there. If this week doesn’t get me off this plateau, I don’t know what will.

Today will be another killer day. I have to work and then we have open house tonight. Depending on how things go, I may be able to run home and swim laps and then go back to school. It was so late last night that I was doing laps in the dark. We get off work at 2:30 and have to be back around 5:00 or 5:30 and stay to 8:00. We had two trays of baked ziti left last night and a huge tray of salad. I think I’ll probably set it up for the teachers who won’t be able to go home for 13 or 14 hours today. Of course, the problem with that is that I’d have to be there to set it up and I’m not sure I have the energy today. I’ll have to see how it goes after I’ve been up for a while. One thing is for sure…I am dressing for comfort today! No delicate little shoes to make my back hurt.

6:45 a.m. - Alrighty! I’m feeling much better. Had a hot shower and my back isn’t hurting. Took a couple of Tylenol and I’m ready for whatever the day throws at me!

8:30 p.m. - Done, done, stick a fork in me, I’m DONE! These long days are killing me. Worked hard all day. Had an internet lesson for my kiddos, the internet was down. Started something else and it came back on. Went back to the original lesson and, halfway through it, we’re down again. Not to mention that the air conditioning was out again for the first three hours of school. I was wearing a jacket and a tank top. Took the jacket off and my pretty pink bra straps wouldn’t stay in place so I had to go back to the jacket. I guess I could have looked for some safety pins for my bra straps but even if I pinned my straps, I couldn’t pin my bat wings so I gave up.

I decided to go ahead and do the dinner for the teachers so I took the boys home at 2:30 and then went back to school to try to bake the ziti and bread again and have it ready by 5:00. I figured they could eat at 5:00 and be ready for open house at 6:00. I’m getting pretty good in the big old cafeteria kitchen! Set out the bread, salad, ziti, and cake and called them all down. Things went pretty well. Teachers are always grateful for a little treat and they enjoyed a dinner break in the long day. While I was heating the ziti, the principal called down to the cafeteria because she wanted to make sure the new cafeteria manager was coming along okay on the lemonade and cookies for open house. I told her there wasn’t anyone in the kitchen, the lights were off, and it was all closed up. She panicked and sent me on a search for the lemonade and cookies. I turned the kitchen upside down and found a cart full of lemonade dispensers and cups in the walk-in freezer but the cookies were nowhere to be found. The principal was in panic mode and had us turning the building upside down looking for cookies. I took the lemonade cart upstairs and told her I’d go to Kroger and buy cookies if necessary after I finished getting the ziti out of the oven. Like Kroger’s going to have a thousand cookies lying around. Figured I’d probably be hitting every grocery in town. Forty five minutes later, the cafeteria manager is in a panic because she went home and changed clothes and came back to school with the cookies but she can’t find the lemonade. Okay. We’re good. Crisis averted. I still don’t know where she had all the cookies but they appeared in time for open house.

Finally got out of school at 7:30. It wasn’t over till 8:00 but MY part was over and I was out of there! Came home and did laps in the pool. It was dark and there doesn’t appear to be a moon so I decided to skinny dip. Skinny dipping is nice for a jump in the lake or a casual swim but it’s not so good for jogging in the water. The boobs were definitely slowing me down so I put my suit back on, finished 45 minutes and now I’m finished!

I’ve eaten salad and ziti today because it was there and I didn’t have time to deal with anything else. I think I’m okay because I didn’t eat too much ziti. Mostly salad and I didn’t eat bread or cake. Another perfect day under my belt (which is definitely looser). I can be very stubborn and determined when I set my mind to a task but I do not want to do another perfect week. It just gets too hectic when I’m trying to work and have a million things bogging me down. Still, I’ll finish the week and hopefully get past this plateau and be able to keep some of the weight off.

Breakfast:
Protein Bar (140)

Lunch:
salad (75)
1 cup baked ziti (300)

Dinner:
Salad (75)
1 cup baked ziti (300)

Total 890

I’m really tired this morning! I’m not sure what happened last night. I sat in the spa a few minutes, came in and cleaned up from my dinner, laid out my clothes for today, and then it was midnight! That makes 5:00 a.m. come awfully early! It’s going to be a killer day. I thought about it when I was in the spa last night and getting the exercise in is not going to be easy. Canceled my doctor’s appointment because that was just pushing it way too much but it’s still going to be tough. I’ve got to work and then leave after school to bring the boys home. I’ll only have an hour or so before I have to head back to school and then work the ROTC dinner from 4:30 to 8:00. That’ll put me home around 8:30 and I’ll do a workout in the pool for 45 minutes which should have me finishing up around 9:30 or so. Hopefully, I can hit the bed early tonight. If I chug a couple of Tylenol PMs, I should be able to get a good night’s sleep. Right now, it’s off to the showers.

6:00 a.m. - The scales are showing 166.5 this morning and I’m happy with that. After yesterday’s big drop, I expected to weigh in around 167.5 this morning so I’m delighted that it’s where it is.

9:00 p.m. - I think we can call this an “Escalante Day”. That is, I’m not sure if I beat the day or the day beat me. I did what I set out to do but the obstacles were huge and have left me exhausted. I worked all day and then left school at 2:45 to go pick up the Baked Ziti and bread. Today was really busy and I realized there was no way I was going to be able to go till after work which meant I wouldn’t get to come home at all. I called DH and told him he would have to pick up Andrew and I would keep Steven with me.  Drove across town to where DS works and got the ziti, went to Walmart and got 12 loaves of bread and Country Crock (with a free dinner, you don’t get real butter!) By the time I got back to school, it was 4:00 and the dinner started at 6:00.

DS prepared 5 huge trays of ziti and I had to get all of them loaded into the huge convection ovens at school. Of course, the trays were too big and I had to remove every other rack to get them all in. Got that going and started on the bread. I sliced all the bread but got some of the ROTC cadets to butter em up and then I had to get all 12 loaves going in another oven. As soon as I got all that done, I started on the salad. I had huge bags of spring mix and a romaine mix but I had to slice and add cucumbers, grape tomatoes and croutons. Got that done and started slicing the four sheet cakes. As soon as I finished that, Sarge asked me if I would speak to the parents for a few minutes after the principal and I agreed. Got the plates, plastic ware, napkins, cups and ice ready and then realized the timers were going off and the ziti was ready to come out of the oven. To make a long story a little shorter…everything was organized and ready to go but I didn’t have a minute to sit down.

People started arriving, the major spoke, the principal spoke, and then it was my turn. Don’t know what happened, maybe it was hormones, maybe it was exhaustion, maybe it was just me, but I started talking to parents about how I’ve seen the ROTC take kids who need a little discipline and teach them self control and restraint and I’ve seen them take kids who are shy and withdrawn and give them the confidence and self-esteem they need to be successful and, all of a sudden, I broke down and started crying! I was mortified! I was all choked up and I couldn’t speak. Finally, I got myself under control enough to say, “Well, I guess you can see how I feel about the program! What do you say we let these cadets serve us some dinner?” They all clapped and I turned away and I was totally embarrassed! I guess it was okay…Major W. and Sarge said if anything could get us some assistance, that oughta do it! Several parents told me they were really touched and I was thinking, “No, I’m the one that’s a little touched!” At any rate…it finally ended and I ate a tiny bit of ziti (maybe a cup) and some salad without dressing because Sarge got the dressing and none of it was low-fat.

Then came cleanup! I was so tired and the kids were more than willing to do the actual labor but I had to supervise them to make sure the cafeteria was left the way we found it. I finally got out of there and home at 8:00. I only had one more thing to do and that was to swim my laps.

Went out to the pool and discovered that DH put the solar cover on it. I was so tempted to give up. I really, really wanted to quit but I got Steven to help me remove the cover and swam laps for 45 minutes. I noticed that my tailbone is really hurting! Probably TMI but it hurts, dammit! Probably from wearing cute little Barbie shoes all day and being on my feet non-stop.

So there we are. It was a totally exhausting and trying day but it’s done and it was perfect, dammit! Now, I’m going to take a pain pill, sleep with the heating pad and try to recouperate.

Breakfast:
Light Yogurt (80)

Lunch
Salad (75)
watermelon (50)

Dinner:
Baked ziti (500?)
Salad (50)

Snacks:
Popcorn (200)
fudgesicle (45)

Total 1,000

166 pounds this morning! Who’s yur Mama, Mr. Scale! I think it’s probably Mr. Scale’s little ploy to get me to reconsider my perfect week but it’s not going to work. I know if I don’t continue, I’ll get hit with 169 tomorrow and then 170 the next day. Still, even if I finish the entire week at 166, I’ll be thrilled.

Thinking about Perfect Week, I wish this wasn’t the week DS was fixing the ROTC dinner because he makes unbelievable baked ziti. I’ve gotta think about how to handle that. Didn’t get to eat those last few calories yesterday because I had a nice long soak, shaved my legs, and got ready for bed and DH decided I deserved a massage! By the time he (we?) finished, I was ready for sleep!

Okay, let’s see what’s on my agenda today…Gotta get to work but I’m going to have to leave school for a couple of hours to go shopping with DS and get the stuff for the dinner. I have to pay for it with ROTC funds. Then I have water aerobics with Phyllisann at 6:00 this evening. Actually, it’s not a bad day!

4:10 - Finally home from work and I have about an hour before I have to get ready to go to the gym. Work was really hectic and I didn’t have a spare minute. Didn’t get a chance to get away until 1:30 and then I met DS at GFS to get all the stuff for dinner tomorrow. Cost was $224.00 which is a lot more than I’d like to spend (it is, after all, to get more parents involved and more money for ROTC activities) but that’s a fantastic price to feed 100 people. The menu is salad, baked ziti, garlic bread, and cake. Beverage is iced tea or soft drinks. I feel kind of guilty getting DS into this. It’s his day off and he’ll be cooking all afternoon. One thing that gripes me is that the letter said we wanted to have a “meet and greet” for the parents of the ROTC cadets and people have sent in responses saying they would be a party of 4, or 6. One even said there would be 7 of them. Give me a break, folks! It’s not supposed to be a free dinner for your entire family. Anyway, I hope we get some parents who really want to help out. We can’t have a lot of activites or do a lot of things with the kids if parents won’t help chaperone or volunteer.

Enough about work…I’m well into another perfect day. Lunch kind of made me irritated. I was in a hurry so I grabbed a Lean Cuisine from the freezer without checking it. Turns out it was Sesame Chicken and I went to enter the calories on today’s menu and discovered the damn thing had 330 calories! Most of them have around 250 or 260. I didn’t even like it that much. That means I only have 590 left for the rest of the day. I guess that’s okay, though. I have to go to water aerobics here in a few minutes and won’t get home until around 7:30. I’ll fix a salad and some grilled tilapia and ought to be able to keep everything under 1,000. Gotta run now!

9:15 - Word of warning…Do Not Get Between Me and My Dinner! Just got home a little while ago and discovered DH forgot to put my fish out to thaw. Of course, it only takes about 15 or 20 minutes in some cold water but I was hungry! Anyway, I’m finally getting dinner so the danger is over as long as no one interrupts the passage of my fork to my mouth!

I got really frustrated before I went to the gym. I went on a guest pass from a friend and wound up joining. Pam and Jana went on guest passes and wound up joining. So it gets to be about 5:15 or so and it dawns on me that I should probably call the gym and just make sure everything is kosher for taking Phyllisann in as a guest. (Granted, I should have done this days ago but I just forgot) I call the gym and ask the skinny little girl who answers (I know she was a skinny little girl - they all are) about the guest pass and she tells me they don’t have guest passes. I’m telling her that I know they do because I used one and she’s telling me they don’t. She says I can get a one day pass for $15.00 for Phyllisann. I was really aggravated because I couldn’t reach Phyllisann and I knew she was making a long drive to meet me at the gym. I just decided to go ahead and pay for her because they whole mixup was my fault. I knew it was going to be a hassle because she’d be insisting on paying it herself and I’d be argueing the point because it was my fault. I drove to the gym and, as soon as I pulled in, my cell phone rings and it’s Phyllisann telling me she’s already in the dressing room getting her bathing suit on so I shouldn’t be looking for her in the lobby. I asked her how she got in and she said she had to go to the bathroom and asked them where it was and they told her it was in the women’s locker room so she just went on back. Is that karma or what? I just waltzed right in, joined her in the pool and then we spent several minutes baking in the sauna after water aerobics. Take that, Urban Active!

The beast is tamed. My tummy is full. Just finished two broiled tilapia fillets and a salad along with two pieces of fake diet bread. I sprinkled a tablespoon of something called McCormick Salad Toppins on my salad and it’s good stuff. Only 25 calories for a tablespoon and it really makes the salad special. DH, bless his heart, picked it up for me.

I can’t believe it’s 9:30 already. I owe myself a relaxing soak in the spa and a few minutes of mindless TV. Thanks for all the comments and support, Chickets! It looks like we’ve had another perfect day!

Breakfast
Light Yogurt (80)

Lunch:
Lean Cuisine (330)

Snack;
1 slice watermelon (50)
1 pkg peanut butter mini delights (90)

Dinner:
2 broiled tilapia fillets (160)
2 slices diet bread (70)
Salad (100)

Total 880

Seems like they could find a better name for it.  I mean, we’re supposed to have a day off.  They could call it Labor Day NOT!  or Lack of Labor Day. Either way, I don’t plan on doing a whole lot of labor today.

Continued to work on organizing the bedroom yesterday.  It’s amazing how long it takes when you’re pulling all these boxes of stuff out and sorting it.  I found a necklace and watch I’d been looking for.  DH had put them in his underwear drawer.  Took all the drawers out of the dresser and found a blouse that had fallen behind one of the drawers.  In one of the boxes DH put on the very top shelf of the closet I found 3 of my belts, 2 paperbacks, two pair of scissors, a bottle of nail polish, three pair of socks, one of DH’s sweatshirts, a pair of pliers, 3 rolls of scotch tape and a roll of masking tape, and a glue gun.  What do all these things have in common?  They were probably lying around the house one day when DH cleaned it and he grabbed them all up, threw them in a box, stashed it on the top shelf and then waited for me to thank him for straightening the house.  Either that, or they were lying around and the phone rang and somebody said they’d be right over so he did the quick “tidy up” thing.

The scales are showing 169 this morning.  I’ve been hanging around with this guy for a long time.  Wish he’d give it up and let 167 or 168 spend some time with me.  At this rate, I’ll never make it to 150 by Christmas.  Don’t know what else I can do.  I’m watching the calories and exercising.  I know I could do better if I didn’t have to deal with work but I do.  It consumes so much of my time I’m not able to plan meals and exercise as much as I’d like.  Wednesday, for example, I have to give a “Meet and Greet” for the ROTC Booster Club.  I was elected treasurer but Sarge and the Major are freaking out because none of the other officers are stepping up to the plate.  We’ve had a couple of meetings and they couldn’t make it.  Some of the summer activities were cancelled because they didn’t have the support of the parents.  ROTC had seven seniors whose parents were very active but the guys all graduated last year and now the booster club is empty.  My idea was to have a “Meet and Greet” dinner to get parents in and then pitch the club and try to get some help.  My poor DS (chef) agreed to make baked ziti, garlic bread, salad, and sheet cake for the dinner which we estimated to be about 50 people.  Now it looks like it’s going to be closer to 100.  So, I’ll be tied up with that after work on Wednesday and Thursday is our open house so we’re all expected to be back at school from 5:00 to 8:00 for that.  I can do water aerobics tomorrow but Wednesday and Thursday are a wash as far as exercise goes.

I’m not happy about my weight.  I just added the last two weeks to my data and graphed it and I’m really not showing a lot of movement the last three weeks or so.  Of course, that’s about when we started back to work. (sigh)

9:00 a.m. - Okay, I’ve been sitting here staring at this graph for a few minutes and it’s starting to look like a challenge.  I’ve decided this week will be a perfect week.  Every day I’ll find a way to get my exercise in and I’m going to stay around 1,000 calories each day.  In fact, I was supposed to clean the pool today so I thought I’d jog in the pool after I finished for exercise.  Now I’m determined to go upstairs and do the treadmill AND jog in the pool.  Watch our chicklets!  This week is really going to shake things up!

11:15 - Okay!  I kicked ass on that treadmill!  Managed to wring 870 calories out of it and 5.2 miles.  I spent a lot longer at the higher inclines.  Plastered bandaids all over my heels before I put on my trusty old Reeboks because they gave me blisters the last couple of times I wore them.  I can’t help wondering what the corellelation is between the stride of someone who’s tiptoeing to make it to 5′2″ and someone who’s 5.10 or so.  I just can not get the speed above 3.6 without jogging.  Did most of the workout at 3.4 and that pushes me pretty hard. 

So that’s step one in perfect day number one of perfect week number one.

5:45 - I’m tired!  I worked in the garden quite a bit today.  Planted a bunch of perennials and did some weeding and mulching.  I vacuumed the pool and then did laps for 45 minutes.  Not jogging, mind you, but laps.  Don’t know how long it’s been since I did that but it wore me out!  Alternated the crawl, side stroke, breast stroke, and back stroke.  The breast stroke damn near did me in.  My arms are really wussy these days.  The pool was really nice.  It got too cold for a while and we threw the solar cover on it a couple of weeks ago.  Took it off today and the water was 86 degrees.  Perfect!  These 90 degree days the last couple of weeks have really warmed it up.

I’ve still got to fertilize all the flowers and do a couple loads of laundry but right now, I’m just going to sit here a couple of minutes and munch on edamame beans.

8:15 - Well, Okay!  I did a perfect day!  Got all the plants fertilized (I need to stop doing that and let them go dormant but a lot of them are annuals anyway) and got the laundry done.  Ate two veggies burgers for dinner and now I can relax.  Still need to find a couple hundred calories but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.  I can always find something to eat! :-)  Now I’m freezing and my nails are dirty and my legs are hairy.  Sounds like a nice relaxing soak is in order!

Breakfast:
Lite Yogurt (80)

Snacks:
1 pkg. chocolate mint mini rice cakes (90)
Edamame beans (100)

Dinner:
2 Lite whole wheat buns (150)
2 veggie burgers (340)

Total 760