Weight Watchers Week # 4

Even Steven.  I weigh exactly the same amount as last week.  I did get off track over the weekend because I took a cooking class on making Asian dumplings...which I sampled of course!  Plus, I was hungry since the class was over lunch time so unfortunately that put me off course for the entire weekend.  I got back on track on Monday though and still feel good about the week.  I'm am trying to avoid my usual "all or nothing" mentality.  In the past when I would mess up, I would just say screw it and REALLY eat a lot.  Not this time, I got back to plan pretty quickly. 

I do have some challenges coming up.  This weekend, of course, is the Super Bowl and my husband's team is in it so we will definitely be watching.  Then in two weeks is my birthday which I normally celebrate with food.  I am planning on celebrating with sushi though so that is better than many other options.  And I have not written about it yet (posts still in the works) but I am obsessed with making cupcakes lately and all I want to do on the weekends is make more cupcakes.  I usually find someone to give them to but I need to taste before giving them away... 

I have moved up my 20 pound goal from 20 weeks to 18 weeks because I booked a vacation to St. John in May and want to be at my goal weight by then. 

Here are the totals:
Week: 0
Overall: -5.2

My Diet Pepsi Addiction

It all started with Hurricane Sandy...

I am addicted to caffeine.  I admit it.  I have previously kicked the habit, but started using it again because I get chronic headaches from a car accident.  Caffeine is known to help headaches...just look at the ingredients on a bottle of Excedrin migraine.  I gave up soda a long time ago and the only type of caffeinated beverage I would drink is unsweetened iced tea with Sweet & Low...just one with lunch each day.  I used to looooove Diet Pepsi years ago and would crave it as soon as I woke up in the morning.  I have not had diet sodas in years, except for on occasion if a restaurant did not have iced tea, which was very rare.

Then recently during Hurricane Sandy my company shut down for a few days and I worked from home.  The conditions were not good to go out in so I did not really leave the house for those days...but I needed caffeine, which I normally do not stock on the in the house except for making iced tea from tea bags.  I do love fresh iced tea, but was jut not in the mood for it so I bought the little 7.5 ounce cans of Diet Pepsi and drank them with a straw.  This was the beginning of my new addiction. 

Now I think about Diet Pepsi...a lot!  My company gives free soda so all day long I can go fill up a cup.  Not a good situation.  I think I am up to 2 or 3 a day.  Not nearly as bad as I used to be, but I am drinking it starting at about 10am.

I don't know what it is about this delicious sweet fizzy drink.  I now use it when I want something sweet to eat as well so that I do not eat something with calories.  Diet Coke never did this to me, but there is something in Diet Pepsi that my body just looooves.

My Cat...The Dog

I have always said my cats are part dog and the chart below proves it! 

 

Manny LOVES having his belly rubbed. He even lifts his leg and asks for it sometimes...he finds it soothing. In fact, you can pet my cats anywhere and they vary from loving it to tolerating it. The face/head/chin and the base of the tail are very very popular though. Manny loves a good scratching on his hind quarters too. The feet are not so popular, but they tolerate it.

Now Minky takes the dog thing to a new level.  He is a trash digger and is obsessed with food.  When he first started opening the cabinet door and digging through the trash, he was very focused and we found it amusing.  All he wanted was the wet food can.  He would surgically remove the can from the trash and lick the can clean.  He was not good at closing the cabinet door behind himself though.  Then this eventually evolved into the the contents of the trash ending up on the kitchen floor every morning.  I had to be really careful what to put in the kitchen trash because he would dig for it so I was making multiple trips a day to the garage trash can.  This eventually got to be too much and we now have a child proof lock on the cabinet...because of the cat.  Every time I try to open the cabinet door and I forget about the lock, I curse Minky's name!  I also cannot leave any food on the counter over night because he will either knock it on the floor or chew through the package.  He can even chew through the dry cat food bag...

Oh, and let's not forget the drinking out of the toilet.

I thought cats were a little more civilized than this, but they are really scoundrels at heart...who like a good belly rub.

Back to Paradise!

Just booked a trip to go back here!!!!

Weight Watchers Week # 3

It was a good week!  The Jenny Craig food helped kick start me again and kept my portions in check.  I only drank one night which helped as well since alcohol is a lot of points.  I lost 2 pounds this week which puts me over the 5 pound total mark now.  Yay!  I was even motivated to get to my meeting early this morning while it was snowing.  Another thing I am proud of is that I went to the movies and did not have any candy.  It's a tradition in our house to stop at the grocery store before a movie and boxes of candy.  This time I just brought a Jenny Craig bar with me instead.  My husband was even good too and brought a bag of Jenny Craig cereal for this snack.  He was not pleased with this, but said he wasn't getting candy if I wasn't. 

This coming week I have a big challenge.  I am taking a cooking class on making Asian dumplings.  I signed up for it a long time ago and still want to take it, but I will need to limit my tastings.

I just booked a vacation for May so now I have even more motivation.  My pants are already fitting better after losing just 5 pounds.

Here are the totals.

Week: -2.0
Overall: -5.2  

Winter Has Arrived

Weight Watchers Week # 2

You know how on the Biggest Loser they all hate week # 2?  Well, the dreaded week 2 was not kind to me.  I gained!  Only 0.2, but still I gained rather than lost.  I stayed on plan though so I am just telling myself that it is just balancing out with the first week since I had a big loss that was probably lots of water in the first week.  It put me in check though that this is not going to be easy.  Right after the WW meeting I went to Jenny Craig and stocked up on food so that I know I have low point choices available.  My goal is a pound a week and I know it will not be exactly a pound each week so I am still on plan.

Week: +0.2
Overall: -3.2 

Golden Globes Best and Worst Dressed

Picking the best dressed woman at the Golden Globes was not easy...and not in a good way.  I was overall appalled by most of the dresses.  I hated the nude toned looks and all the strapless dresses made most of them look saggy.  Anyway, I have to choose, so....

Best dressed goes to Jessica Alba (minus the distracting bag).

And Claire Danes looked amazing for just having a baby.

There were so many to choose from for worst dressed, but I'm going to pick Jennifer Lopez. 

And Sienna Miller.

Who were your favorites?  I am really hoping for a better showing at the next one.

People's Choice Awards Best And Worst Dressed

It's award season!  Which means I will be posting who I think was the best and worst dressed at each event. 

Best dressed goes to Taylor Swift!  She normally annoys me with her aw shucks good girl attitude so I like the more grown up look.

 

Next best dressed is Lea Michele!  Glee normally down plays her figure, but I think she's really cute and usually looks great on the red carpet.

I hate to say it because I am a big fan, but Jennifer Aniston was the worst dressed.  Just because your fiance likes the biker look does not mean you need it too.  Or is she hiding a bump???

Next up is the Golden Globes this Sunday!

Weight Watchers Week # 1

I have once again started Weight Watchers and had my first weigh in today.  I have been dieting most of my life...I am good at losing weight and terrible at keeping it off.  It has been a couple years since I did Weight Watchers because I was doing Jenny Craig off and on and WW has changed how points are calculated so it seems like sort of a new program to me, which is a good thing.  I'm trying to remember things I did years ago the first time I did WW and was really successful.  I lost 27 pounds in 6 months.  I have since fought for years to keep it off and have "found" 20 of it again.  My goals are to think long term so I want to lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks. 

I just finished the first week and I admit it was tough the first few days and I was cranky.  Once I got over the hump it has not been too bad.  Now I just need to keep it going.  I even took the dreaded "before" picture of myself in some form fitting work out clothes.

WW has changed how points are calculated since I last did the program with the idea that not all calories are created equal.  Fruit is now free, but they really ding you on alcohol.  A small glass of champagne used to be 2 points and now it is 4...and who drinks just one small glass of champagne at at time?

Now on to the results!  Drum roll please.....

I lost 3.4 pounds.  Yippee!!!!

Anatomy of a Cat Lady

I have 7 out of 10...does that make me a cat lady or just 70% cat lady???

Pay It Forward

Someone on Facebook recently posted something about random acts of kindness and paying it forward.  I have a couple times been on the receiving end of random acts of kindness and it sure does feel good.  I try to be kind to others, but I know I can do more.  Doing things for strangers sometimes makes people uncomfortable unfortunately. I once tried to help an elderly woman put her groceries in her car, but she declined me. I understand that though since we have learned that so many people are just out to hurt others and benefit themselves.

Here is the Facebook post:

2013 Creative Pay It Forward! The first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something from me during 2013. A gift - a book, maybe some baked goods, perhaps something crafty, a surprise! There will be no warning. It will be done when the mood strikes and will be a surprise. The catch? Those 5 people must also post this on FB and do the same.

I quickly responded to it from the person I saw post it thinking the 5 spots would go fast, but they did not.  I posted it  on Friday and I have 3 people so far.  I guess it's not really a random act of kindness if you ask people to do the same.  Either way, it will feel good to do nice things for others. Someone once reminded me that you do not need to do grand things to be kind, sometimes just smiling at someone is enough to make their day. 

I Wish I Could...

1. Speak fluent French
2. Play the guitar
3. Sing
4. Live by the beach
5. Have season tickets to the Dodgers
6. Find a fulfilling volunteer job
7. Be funny
8. Eat anything I want and not gain weight
9. Find a passion

Although I wish for a lot, I am pretty lucky.  I guess I could work on most of these things, but I just don't. 

It All Started With a Big Bang!

My husband and I keep getting hooked on TV shows that are years old and then become obsessed watching them...sometimes hours in a day.  Our current obsession is The Big Bang Theory.  It took watching a few episodes to get to know the characters and now I love them all....especially Sheldon.  It is on practically every day, sometimes up to five times a day, so although we are not watching in order, we have seen quite a few of them already.  I like that it's not a group of ridiculously good looking people pretending to be normal.  They are geeks/nerds and want to stay that way.  True, they like pretty girls (except the asexual Sheldon of course), but so do most boys. 

Before The Big Bang Theory it was Bar Rescue which is a show about a guy who tries to help failing bars become profitable.  I especially liked this one because I have been saying for years how I want to be a bartender and own a bar.  I've even thought of using vacation time to go to bartending school just for fun.  Unfortunately this show has not had too many episodes so I got through them all pretty quickly.

Storage Wars was before that, a show about people buying abandoned storage units at auction.  The original which takes place in southern California, not the Texas or New York version.  I think part of the reason we liked it so much was because it takes place in the area we are from so it was fun to hear how they would describe the towns at the beginning of each episode.  Barry was our favorite character, but we eventually gave up on the show because it was the same thing over and over and the characters started being pretty mean to each other.

There have been others before these and I am sure there will be more to come.  Any shows you think I should check out?  I have heard good things about Downtown Abbey so I might try that one next. 

Divergent

Looking for a good book?  Did you like the Hunger Games?  If so, try reading Divergent!  It’s a pretty easy read about a dystopian society with a young female heroine.  Imagine this…the country is broken up into 5 factions, each based on a particular virtue.  You are born into one and at age sixteen, based on an aptitude test, you can choose to leave your faction forever and transfer to a new faction.  “Faction before family” so you never get to see your family or friends again.  What will young Beatrice do?  Read Divergent, the first part of a trilogy, to find out!  I’m in the middle of the second book of the trilogy right now and am still enjoying it. 

The Holiday Hangover

What is it about the end of the holidays that leaves me feeling down?  Call it a holiday hangover or the post holiday blues.  Whatever it is, it sucks.  Today is my first day back at work after eleven days off.  It was nice to have a break, but getting up early and wearing something other than lounge pants was a downer.  For some reason my pants don’t fit me like they did before the holidays either!  I’m going to start Weight Watchers, again, tomorrow.  The weather doesn’t help.  It’s been grey and cold.

 

Yesterday I took down all the Christmas decorations.  It was particularly sad to me because my cats love the Christmas tree and we just recently learned that one of them is very sick and likely won’t see another Christmas.  His meds are helping him feel better though and he sat in a pile of tissue paper and played with an ornament while I put everything away.  I was happy to see him having fun though.

 

 My cure for this is to start planning vacations to warm and exciting places!  What do you do to beat the post holiday blues?

Happy New Year!

Ah the new year.  Everyone is full of hope and resolutions.  I'm terrible with resolutions and they are always the same...lose weight, keep it off and get in shape.  I did my usual in 2012 where I lost weight early in the year in time for my spring beach vacations, then steadily gained through the rest of the year.  I will try again though this year.

My second resolution is to try to make small changes.  Today I started using the reusable bags at the grocery store.  I admit that I get annoyed at the people who use these because it takes so much longer for the cashier to bag.  Today the cashier was visibly annoyed at ME when he had to bag my 3 bags. 

What are your resolutions???