A New 30 Day Challenge

Well the past couple of weeks have been rough for me. I was doing very well fitting in exercise then...
I got strep so I was sidelined for a bit.
Baby got a fever for 2 days so I was taking care of her.
My mother in law visited for the weekend.
Now that was all in about a week and a half to 2 week period. I planned on starting again when my mother in law left but....
I got a cold. I read about when to exercise with a cold and sure enough mine was in my chest so exercise is not really recommended. Damn it all to heck. By then I totally lost all momentum and was a little concerned about what my fake trianer on the Wii Active would say.

SO fast forward...I then had to go to outdoor ed with my sixth grade student. Totally sucked leaving my baby for the first time. I was very negative going into the whole thing and it showed. I was also being very negative in general. I took a step back and realized what I sounded like. I tried being more agreeable and it made a difference in my attitude. Then I went on the trip and had a pretty good time. I noticed a lot of negative talk while I was there and I also saw some thing that made me understand more. It was an attitude adjustment. I even took off work today to get some work done but I really did not succeed. I did however get my own house in order so that makes me feel better.

On the work thing...I need to pull back from the socializing. I never really hung out with people from work or anything but I chatted a lot during the day. I am seeing that it keeps me from getting my work done and is really not necessary. I have a friend who is very professional at work. I also have an assistant principle who is very professional. I plan to look to them as role models.

Now about WW. I had a .3 lb gain one week. Blamed it on the illness and mother in law visit. Now I have had a 2.6 lb gain. Blamed it on outdoor ed and drinking excess water (did a lot of walking and not a lot of peeing). SO now I sit on my 3rd day of my week. WI is Saturday. I went out to dinner both Saturday and Sunday night. I tracked on Sunday and was way over. I have tracked today and I just binged on Paydays that were sitting here. Why I don't know. A little stress I am thinking. I did exercise today and now tomorrow is a new day.

It is 8:15 here and it is off to bed with me. I get up around 5am and sleep should help my mood and energy. I took today off so tomorrow I go to work a little less social and more professional.

Want to Run a 5K

I hear so many people talk about running a 5K. I would like to run a 5K but I really do not want to let certain people know I am aiming toward this. For instance, I have a coworker that I have mentioned before. I think she would want to give me advice and I really don't want it. Maybe it is jealousy since she has been successful. Maybe it is the attitude that she knows what I should do when really we have very different lives. I have a child, she does not. I have to take care of my husband, hers is pretty self sufficient. I have more paperwork...yada yada yada.

I am doing the Wii Active 30 Day challenge right now and walking a few days a week. Both leave me breathless. I have missed my workout for about 3 days now since I have been sick so I need to get back on the wagon tomorrow.

I am thinking a year from now might be a good goal. I want to surprise everyone and just do it. BTW....Let's hear it for more procrastination.

I Find Myself Sitting

Celebration first. I lost 2.6 lbs this week. I am down a total of 7.something. I am so thrilled. I concentrated all my efforts this week on staying within my points. I was either under 1 or 2 or over only 1 or 2. I used some of my weekly allowance to go out to dinner on Friday night. We ordered Chicken Saltimboca (breaded chicken breast with Prosciutto ham and cheese on top) served on top of spaghetti with sauteed spinach. I took the spinach and a little spaghetti and 1 of the 3 fillets that come with this one meal. We gave the baby a fillet and ordered her a pasta. I ate a little of her pasta. Hubby had a fillet and all the spaghetti. We ordered side salads with house Italian. MMMMM....I also ate a roll. This was after all my night out and I am not depriving myself.

Onto other news. I had a UTI that I was on antibiotic for. Finished that on about Tuesday. While out to dinner on Friday night I was freezing. Sweating my tush off on Saturday morning at WW. Never did take my temperature...guess I should have. I had a sore throat from Friday night on. I went to Urgent Care on Saturday after WW. Negative strep and negative mono but based on how my throat looks they are presuming strep. The antibiotic earlier in the week could cause the negative rapid strep test. I don't feel overly horrid so that is good. This is my third bout of strep in a year. Yucky.

Now why do I find myself sitting...other than being sick? Well I just do. I have a boat load to do. I have a good little baby that takes 2 hour naps and goes to bed at 7:30. I sit and watch TV or play on the computer. I could be doing school work. I should be. I had so much time today and got nothing done. I procrastinate without realizing it now. It just happens and then the day is gone and I realize I did nothing. I did pick up the basement and clean off the counters (they had become a catch all) and I made Fiber one muffins in mini muffin tins. MMMMM one point snack.

SO now that we know I have a problem with procrastination. I will be bidding everyone good night as I go to pick up baby toys and write sub plans before bed.

Good in Theory

Using the blog to record what I ate was great in theory but very poorly executed. I can't always use it during the day and then I was spending extra time in the evening to copy from WW and put it in and then format it so it would be readable. Not an efficient use of time. So no more Daily meals blog. I will leave it up since I might come back to it.

How will I remain accountable to the internet world you ask...Well, Facebook. Granted the people that read this are not on my facebook but lots of people that I know in real life and even see daily are. I guess it was about a week ago I put 33 out of 32 at the end of my status. I had a lot of friends comment and send me messages since they knew what it was. I had a few ask about it. It just became a little habit. I would update my status before heading to bed and then add my points for the day at the end. Kinda weird but works for me.

Now to celebrate. I am down 4.6 I lost 3.6 week one and then today was down one more. My cousin has lost a total of 7. Yipppppeeeeee for her. I am excited for her. I tried a new recipe today and made an old standby that I love.

Typically I make 1/4 of this recipe and hubby and I eat it all. Now this recipe is for 2 casserole that serve 8-10 each. You do the math. I was eating about 2 servings essentially and a serving is 8 points. This time I made 1/2 of the recipe and seperated it into 4 small disposable casserole dishes as opposed to 2. We had one tonite and the rest went into the freezer. We broke open a bag of salad and had a tasty salad with dinner. It was enough but I am a little hungry now. I am also 10 points shy for the day. As I get more accustomed to making food with correct portions and not eating emotionally I think that will be a problem.

Spicy Tortilla Pizza Mexicali

So my cousin came over and we walked a mile. Whew. Let me tell you one thing. Walking when you are recovering from a cold while pushing your 1 year old in a stroller into the wind uphill will leave you winded. I was totally out of breath when I got to the top of the hill. Like gasping for breath could not really carry a conversation kinda out of breath. Good thing...I recovered very quickly, like within 5 minutes. I think that is a good sign that I am not in too bad of shape.

For dinner we had salad and a hungry girl recipe. My verdict...Not too bad. I have read a few reviews and comment on the WW boards about how she uses all processed crap and you should fix real food from cooking light or WW cookbooks. Don't eat high fructose corn syrup since it is evil. My assistant at work eats only whole foods and is very careful about processed foods and stuff with HFCS. I asked her about the recent articles on the hazard of eating too much soy...Her response. "I don't listen to those articles." My point. We each read the articles that we choose. You will choose ones to put stock in that fit with our thinking. We take from them what we need. For me, I crave mexican pizza from Taco Bell so processed or not, that is a great a recipe for me. I am okay with HFCS in moderation and I eat meat. She eats neither. I think as long as you are informed and make a choice for you and yours then that is fine.

Many people are the same way with parenting...Really people there is more than one way and not only one is right. I sometimes avoid parenting or food and health conversations with certain people because there is only one way in their mind.

I went BACK

to WW. It was not fun to see the "official" scale number but I had to do it. 251 was my starting weight for this go round. The first week I lost 3.6. Not as great as I thought it should have been being my first week back on track. I think I might have not been as on track as I thought. I am going to try and track better this week.

As for moving forward...I bought Hungry Girl 200 under 200 calories. Some of the recipes look really good and I am trying one tomorrow night. I will let you know how it is. MMMM Mexican pizza.

Just to show off

and to remind myself why I am doing all of this. My number one reason to lose weight is for my daughter. I am very careful about her eating. I serve her a veggie first and then her protein and she gets her starch last. I make sure I give her correct portions and healthy snacks. I do not want her to struggle as I have so I am working to teach her and model good eating habits. We are off to a good start

She loves her fruit. Especially watermelon.