Hi all! It was good to catch up on your adventures so far this week. This is a long message; your executive summary is: scroll down to the end and get a great chicken recipe and some points values for party foods!
Wednesday was even weirder than usual - a real roller coaster. My husband has been waiting for news of whether he'd be laid off because his bank was bought out by a larger one. It was generally assumed that they would close the original office and consolidate in snowy Buffalo! But he got a job offer with the new bank today. They are keeping the trust and brokerage section (which is the reason why they bought our bank) in Delaware, and DH was offered a BETTER job at a HIGHER salary. So we were boggled to say the least. I think we're both in shock, because we'd made plans to keep body and soul together without his income until DH could officially retire in 2012. We'd been living frugally, preparing to liquidate investments, etc. We'd agreed that rather than moving, we'd just do without his salary for a year. Now we're suddenly back to normal, and we're both feeling exhausted and a bit confused. But happy, very happy.
Immediately after I got to work, I found myself counseling a suicidal and very Catholic Alzheimer's patient. On a day when I decided (due to a weigh-in at WW) to dress very lightly in civilian clothes. So she wasn't buying me as a clergy person at all. We don't have a Catholic chaplain right now, as our previous one passed away recently. So after making phone calls and finding no priests willing to help, I just went in there, talked about how weird it is to be a female minister, won her over to my side, and kept her reasonably calm until the tranquilizers kicked in and she fell asleep. It was a rough couple of hours.
Moreover, she's recently been moved into the same room as my best friend (not just at the nursing home but in the "real world" too), who gets confused and frightened when there's a lot of noises and turmoil. So another hour with her afterwards, just playing dominoes and getting her back to normal. Two Bible studies, some more personal visitations, a hospital visit to an Independent Living resident who just had hernia surgery, and it was off to Weight Watchers for a later-than-usual weigh-in!
I'd been on program all day, no matter what. But I expected my cortisol levels to be all out of whack, and assumed I'd be holding water (my shoes felt tight, but that was probably just because I was on my feet even more than usual). I'm hypersensitive to emotional stresses, always a real plus in my profession.
I came to a deeper understanding, while waiting to get on the scale: my job is to eat 33 points per day, and to tick all those boxes, and to stay active. The weight loss is up to God. I was really able to turn it over to Him yesterday.
I stepped onto the scale, the weigher asked me how my week had been, and I started laughing almost hysterically. She finally interrupted me to tell me that I'd lost another 0.8 pounds! So now I'm down a total of 9 pounds exactly, at the end of three weeks on the WW program. Amazing!
I'm working out the real points cost of my regional brand of diet popcorn right now. The book says 1 point for five cups for generic popcorn of this type; which is so different than similar items that I don't believe it. The box label suggests 6 points per bag (if everything pops, which is dubious considering that my microwave is from my college graduation in 1983.) Finally decided on 3 points per 5 cups popped, which is the same as a national brand with identical nutritionals. Yay! That's a lot of popcorn! I'll check it with my leader next week, but in the meanwhile I'll assume that if I've underestimated the points value, it'll be covered by the fact that I don't use the weekly points allowance or activity points; I just do the straight 33 points per day.
Today, I ended up taking the day off (I was only coming in for an hour, and I checked up on everybody by phone) because I'm just so tired. Sorta shell-shocked, I guess. But I'm on call for emergencies, so I'm ready to get out there if needed. Till then, I'm filling up on popcorn, leftover skinless stewed chicken from the crock pot, and fruit. Eagerly waiting for our Thursday evening frozen pizza (regional store brand, ultra thin crust, 14 points per half pizza, vs. 32 points per half pizza from a pizzeria).
Sorry that this is such a long message. It's been another week of learning how to work this program more effectively. Now I'm going to make it even longer by giving you my stewed chicken recipe, which my hubby adores. Skin and de-bone some chicken (we recently got a gift of an industrial-sized package of chicken parts from my mom, who was cleaning out the food pantry closet at her church and de-stocking stuff which is a month or less from expiration date, as the local Food Bank insists on this. We however, are not so picky in our personal lives!) Put the chicken in the crock pot with a tablespoon or more of the following spices: Celery powder, onion powder, parsley. Add two or three servings of non-fat, low-sodium bouillon, then water to cover the chicken pieces if needed. Cook till it's done (3 hours on high, or all day on low which tastes even better). This makes really amazing chicken for sandwiches, with lots of added flavor but no added points and very little sodium. It's as delicious as prepared lunch meat, but without the preservatives and salt.