Sterling Renaissance Festival...

Saturday was the day the kids and I had been looking forward to for a while…we got up early and headed off to the Sterling Renaissance Festival!! We had gone a couple years ago and the kids really loved it and we wanted to get back.  I let the kids pick which theme weekend we would go and they decided on Pirate weekend.  The weather looked, well I could say iffy, but it looked horrible when we got up in the morning.  It was rainy and gray and miserable.  We drove the 2 hours through the rain to Sterling and for the first hour or so that we were there, it was still a little wet and rainy but it soon cleared up and turned out to be a wonderful day.  If you have never been there, it is an experience.  It is like you step through the gate back into the Renaissance time.  I love looking at most of the costumes and listening to the people talk.  I say most of the costumes, because, well, some are downright strange and some need to have more material than they do. 

The food at the festival is AMAZING to say the least.  There is food everywhere.  And not all of it is something that someone on WW should even consider, but it is all delicious.  I stuck to a steak gyro for lunch, which Jacob truly regretted not getting after having a couple bites of mine.  It was very delicious.  I will be trying to re-create this for a dinner soon.  I have already enlisted one of my good friends for a recipe of sauce that she makes. 

Steak Gyro

For my splurge, I opted for the least of all dessert evils there and had a black raspberry waffle ice cream cone. Again, yummy!!  There were fruit smoothies, fried dough, hot fudge brownies with vanilla ice cream, mile high cakes, apple dumplings… I could go on and on…



My ice cream splurge!!



We arrived at the festival at 10am and left at 5pm and during that time, we walked, and we walked, and we walked… up hills, down hill, up again, down again.  Other than the occasional show we watched and watching the jousting on horseback, we walked the entire time.  Walking is and always will be great exercise.  Especially when it is on uneven hilly ground.  



The kids and I - love them!!



Sunday for me turned into a work around the house, put off grocery shopping and not shower until much later in the afternoon kind of day.  Not too much to say about that day.  I was completely on points for my WW and ate some delicious meals.  Breakfast was my usual of Greek yogurt with cereal or granola mixed in and banana, lunch was the rest of my taco lettuce wraps from the other night (might be my new favorite way of eating tacos!), afternoon snack of Special K crackers and laughing cow cheese wedge, and dinner was a salmon burger on FoldIt bread with a tossed salad with balsamic vinaigrette and baked zucchini that I simply seasoned with some olive oil spray, garlic powder and Tastefully Simple garlic garlic and pepper and baked for 35 minutes.  So easy, so good and so healthy.

I have many vacation days (12 to be exact) planned off from work in August to spend with the kids so there will be many food tests ahead for me and I promise I will share all my struggles and triumphs with you.

Busy Weekend, Pesky Visitor...

This weekend was a tad bit busy for me.  We had 2 parties to go to on Saturday, one family friendly one for a friend of mine, and one adults only alumni reunion night.  Adults only.  Can I get a woo hoo?!?!  Of course, a night out requires a new top to wear!!  So I went shopping on Friday after work.  New tank top, check!!  Losing close to 30 pounds makes a huge difference on the enjoyment you feel when shopping.

Brandon and I went in a little early for dinner and a drink before the others were set to start arriving.  It was a nice quality-time dinner for us.  Once everyone started showing up the festivities began.  It was a fun night with drinking, fun and lots of laughing.  My husband is a wonderful sport to hang out with people that he mostly, does not know.  There is one of my truest, bestest friends in the world that, luckily, Brandon also enjoys hanging out with.  This makes me beyond happy.

Prior to all our plans on Saturday I did get up and get moving and was able to get a good workout in.  I did Week 1 of Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 and I also planned my attack food wise.  I ate lunch before heading out to party #1 which helped tremendously.  It kept me from grazing the whole time.  I did sneak a couple handfuls of popcorn and a couple peanuts but that was it, other than several bottles of water.

Sunday I took as a day of rest, for no other reason than, I wanted one.  I wanted a lazy day.  My lazy days also consist of grocery shopping, cleaning up the house, laundry… you get the picture.  But this Sunday it also consisted of a small nap on the couch.  Sunday afternoon naps – is there anything better??

Yesterday the knee high socks that I ordered for our upcoming Dirty Girl Mud Run, in September, arrived in the mail!!! SO. EXCITED.  Of course we at work felt the need to pick ours out and model them.  I do believe our boss thinks we all need to be committed.  He may be right.  Yes, the socks were the highlight of our day at work.  Because, after all, it is a day at WORK.

Last night as soon as I got home I walked over to the gym and did my Day 2 of Week 4 of the C25K program on the treadmill.  It was 91 when I got home and extremely humid so the treadmill won.  Jacob went over with me and also ran next to me on the other treadmill (LOVE THAT) and after dinner we went back over for about 30 minutes and lifted some weights and I totally showed him up.  Hehehe : )  Madison was also in and out of the gym on one of her normal little adventures with a neon bandana/headband wrapped around her head with her backpack on.  The imagination that girl has just makes me smile.

Oh!!  Raccoons.  I don’t mind them from a distance.  They are cute enough.  Not in my back yard.  In the middle of the afternoon.  Under our deck.  Where I had just brought my dog inside from.  I will say that he must have been a quick little bugger because when we went out to get him, he was gone.  Brandon even searched on the 4-wheeler to no avail.  We think (read…HOPE) he went across the street and has found a new area to continue his adventures in.

Mean Mother Nature

I think Mother Nature was against me running last night. On my way home from picking up the kids, I was approximately 2 miles from home when… drop, drop, drop on my windshield. It had been cloudy all day but we had no rain. Until then. My intention was to run my Week 4, Day 1 of the C25K program as soon as I got home. I pouted a little bit, kept walking outside to see if I thought I could squeeze 30 minutes out but no, it wasn’t going to work.  It wasn’t raining hard, I am not afraid of getting rained on, but what I am afraid of, is getting my iPhone wet and ruined.  I waited a little while and then made the executive decision to go over to my landlords gym.  I used to go there quite often and for being created in a barn, it is really very nice.  If I couldn’t run outside, then I would use the treadmill.  This is the first time I have ever really run on a treadmill (sad, yes I know).  To be honest, I liked it.  I enjoyed being forced to be at a consistent speed (no slacking off for me!).  I did not burn as many calories as I do with my runs outside but it was still very respectable.  Outside has many more challenges with the hills, uneven terrain, and bugs, lots and lots of bugs.  I did love not having to swing my arms around like a lunatic to swat any away on the treadmill. 

Some people have asked me what I eat on a normal day, and some people have also made the comments to me that I don’t eat anything all day…so I am going to share with you what my day consisted of food-wise yesterday.

Morning:

Mug of fat free Nestle hot cocoa

Banana

Fage Greek Yogurt with cherry with ½ cup Cascadian Farms Organic Cinnamon Crunch cereal mixed in

Mid-Morning Snack:

Fiber One Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Lunch:

Tuna (made with onion, red pepper, light Miracle Whip) on a Flatout FoldIt bread- wheat with flax, topped with mixed baby lettuces and tomato slices

WW BBQ popped crisps

Baby Carrots with Bolthouse Ranch as a dip

Afternoon Snack:

WW Berrylicious bar

Banana

Dinner:

  Recipe made by me the other night : )

Bacon BBQ Turkey loaf (one and a half pieces)

Peas

Garden salad with Greek Feta Dressing

Evening Snack:

WW Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Bar

After all that eating, I was still left with 2 daily points on WW and also earned 3 activity points (AP) with my run.

So there you have it, I eat, I eat often, and I eat a lot.  Smaller consistent meals and snacks is one thing I believe helped me to lose the weight that I have.  I am never to the starving point and sometimes not even to the hungry point. I try extremely hard to be consistent with my eating.

Weigh In Wednesday...

Last night was weigh in (WI) night at Weight Watchers (WW). I was up slightly, but still well within range of my maintaining.  One of the hardest things I found in my weight loss journey was switching from losing to maintaining.  You work so hard to lose and you get to really love seeing that scale decrease and know that all your hard work is paying off.  Then once everything you are doing works so well that you hit your goal and stay there for a little while, you switch to maintenance.  You now have to train your brain to be happy to see the scale remain the same, maybe go down just a little bit, or even rise!!  There is no one in the world that can keep their weight the EXACT same all day, every day.  Fluctuations are a fact of life and completely normal.  That said, it doesn’t mean that I like seeing the scale rise, and even after months of maintaining, I am still working on training my brain to be ok with it.  It is definitely a transition.  Not one that is so hard that I am willing to throw everything away and gain a bunch of weight just so I can go back to losing mode J

 I have yet another confession to make, from the time I walked in the door from my meeting last night, I ate. And I ate. And I ate.  Like I had not eaten in weeks.  It happens to the most disciplined people.  The trick is to put it behind you, don’t let it get you down, but to use it to motivate you to be better.  No one is perfect.  And if you are trying to be perfect, you will fail.  A person’s goals should be to be better than they were the day before.  Or a week ago, or a year ago… There should be no comparisons to anyone else because as we all know, everyone is different.  What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another.   Be true to yourself and set your goals to make yourself better.

Yesterday was also a day where I was irritated with how my hair looked.  It hasn’t made me overly happy at all lately but yesterday was just one of those “oh come on!!” days.  So within a matter of a couple hours, I found a picture, stopped and talked to the hair stylist, and then went back and got my hair cut!!  I like it so much better.  It is not exactly like the picture but definitely close enough and better than it was.  I have been trying to grow it out long but it just wasn’t cooperating the way it was.  This may help.  Granted, now I have to re-grow several inches but hey, I am not going anywhere J



Before



After



                              

                                                                                        

Good Sweaty Day...

Yesterday was a good day.  Considering I went into the day with only 3 hours of sleep, it was good.  I had work, as usual (not my favorite part of the day!! J)  Before I left work I changed into my workout clothes, pulled my hair back, grabbed a bottle of water and headed out the door to the kids school to wait for them to get out of the rec program.  I followed through with my plans on walking/running the track and doing some sprints up the steep hill.  I even remembered my heart rate monitor and my pedometer!!  I am famous for forgetting one or both.  Oops.  Hey, I am a busy mom whose mind is not always with me!  I ended up with 2 miles on the track and 20 sprints up the hill.  I did 2 sections of 10 each.  I burned 350 calories which I was quite happy with.  And I was a hot sweaty mess.  And I mean sweaty.  Yuck (but yeah!! at the same time)  Sweat = hard work.  Ya, ok, it also equals 90 degree heat and sun.  But I prefer the hard work senario.

After getting back home, it was life as usual for the most part, dishes, straightening up, blah blah blah… Until my lovely and ultimately creative daughter asked me if she put her bathing suit back on if I would spray her with the hose, or could she spray herself, or could she (with WIDE eyes) fill one of THOSE with water????  Those being totes that we use when we go camping for hauling stuff back and forth.  Sure why not?  And from there my simple gray tote became a redneck swimming pool, diving expedition and all around fun time for her!!  I love that girls creativity!! She had a ball!  And kept cool.  She already has plans for more of the same tonight.

Dinner for me was leftover grilled hot italian chicken burgers (taste just like hot italian sausage patties) from Al Fresco, on a Flatout Foldit bread (LOVE!!), some Baked Tostitos with hot salsa, and green beans.  I have always loved italian sausage but as far as WW goes, it is not overly points friendly.  Until I found these wonderful chicken sausages.  They have several varieties.  I have had several varieties.  They are all YUM.  I think I have 3 different kinds in my fridge as I type.  Most that I get are made by Al Fresco but I also discovered some others at BJ’s Wholesale club recently.  They are spicy mango jalapeno and a spinach feta type.  Other than the patties, I believe they all fall in the 3 points plus value range, the patties are 4.  Well worth it when you grill out a lot during the summer months like we do. 

Once dinner was done and the redneck pool closed down for the night, I decided I would try to step up my game a little and move up to level 2 of Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown.  Level one is the only yoga that I have ever done so to say I am clueless is close to the understatement of the year.  Jillian does a good job of reminding me of my cluelessness.  I work out in a bedroom upstairs with not a lot of room so it is cramped to begin with, and then I have to try to watch the tv to see what kind of contortionist move she is pulling off at the moment.  The best part of the workout came during the crow pose.  If anyone has ever done it, you will know exactly what I am talking about.  For those of you that havent, you put your hand on the ground in front of you bracing you, as you take your knees and set them above your elbows and one foot at a time attempt to raise your feet off the floor and balance only on your hands.  Ya well, I fell on my head.  Yep. Leaned a little too forward and fell. On. My. HEAD.  I couldnt stop laughing after that.  Thank God I was far enough back from the dresser or I may have knocked myself out!! :)

The ability to laugh at ourselves is something we should never lose.  Especially when you are attempting to learn something that you have never done before.  Like Crow.  It still brings a smile to my face.

One of those days...

I have a confession to make... I did not work out yesterday :(  I had every opportunity to, I had every reason to.  I just didn't.  And I am upset with myself for it. 

Ever have one of those days where you wake up and for some reason you are just miserable?  And it seems that everyone that you come in contact with just makes you more miserable?  I was beginning to try to blame every person in Walmart for trying to tick me off when I realized, nope, it was me.  I was miserable, emotional, cranky... you name it.  Every great reason to get in a workout.  I know that.  But I didn't.  I have only been doing this whole exercise thing for a few months now and I must admit that occasionally the lazy Tracy sneaks back into my system.  I don't like her.  And usually, when she rears her ugly head, I punish her :) As I will today when I get out of work.  I usually have about an hour or so before I have to head to get the kids so I may run to the store, tan (yes, I know it is not good for me), whatever else may tickle my fancy for the day and then go home and workout to a video in the comfort of my air conditioning living room.  Today however, I have brought my workout clothes, and for that extra hour you will be able to find me at the track at the school running/walking the track and running the hills there.  It is supposed to be near 90 today and humid so it won't be pretty!! But it will be done.  And then I will go home and do my video.

It is my hope that the next time I wuss out of a workout, I will think twice about it, and simply hike up my big girl panties and get to it!!

On Saturday, I took the kids to the mall on a mission to get Madison's glasses, get some ideas for the kids school sneakers and find myself a bright neon pink tank top for my Dirty Girl Mud Run in September.  I had already purchased a neon yellow tank for it, but in the spirit of my Sweat Pink Ambassadorship, I knew I had to find a pink one.  With all the popularity of neon right now, you wouldn't think this would be a big deal.  Oh but it was, probably 10 stores later I finally found one!!  And it was the last small in the pile.  Happy girl! :)  And a great big thank you to my kids for helping on this mission.  They truly are the best.

After getting back home from our trip, the kids went to their dad's to stay for the rest of the weekend and I went home and did my Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 (week 1) workout and a couple of hours later I did my week 3 day 3 of the C25K program.  I felt very accomplished that day.  I do love that feeling.  And that is my goal for today. 

Holy Snacking!

Wednesday was the night my Weight Watchers meeting moved to its new location.  Madison and I, along with my co-worker/friend went to help my leader get set up.  I took the zucchini tots that I made, there were also yummy mini cola cupcakes (only 1 pt each), some to die for oatmeal raisin bites (2 pts each), smoothies, pistachio bars, and free WW sample foods.  This is where my snacking began.  It didn't end until I went to bed. Ugh. I have discovered that I am great when I sit down with a MEAL.  I can think about the ice cream bar or snack that I am going to have later, and it doesn't bother me, but when I graze, holy moly look out!  Note to self... no more grazing!!  It wasn't pretty.  The joy of having a night like last night, is that you need to learn how to learn from it and understand and never let it get you down. It was not the end of my life, it was not the end of my healthy lifestyle, it was simply the end of that day.  Today is a new day all together.

Speaking of today, I had already planned on splurging on Chinese for lunch today (pre-snack binge), so I am going to still splurge.  I haven't had it in at least 6 months, and I would really like some.  Again, a lesson to be learned. Avoiding things you enjoy for the rest of your life is not a mentally healthy lifestyle.  I have planned for this day and I will be just fine.  Dinner will be extra light to counteract the chinese (and the sodium!!).

The prior two paragraphs were written before the following...note to self, when you are already having shooting stomach pains, spicy Chinese food is not the best choice.  Dinner was light as planned, it consisted of a Chobani Yogurt with a little granola mixed in. And that was only because I knew I had to have something. I was extremely sick and in pain last night but still did manage to fight my way through Week one of Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30.  It was the first time I had done it and I liked it a lot.  So far I am not a fan of the running man move but maybe it will grow on me : )

A sidenote from my first post, those jeans and clothes that used to want to cut me in half like David Copperfield, well they are too big now and in a bag to be given away. Not. Going. Back. EVER.

Night with my kids :)

I had every intention of working out doing Level 3 of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred tonight but since my hubby is out of town until tomorrow night, I hereby declare this night....quality time chillin' with my kids!!  Sometimes that is just as fulfilling as exercising.  Jillian will be there tomorrow to kick my butt!!  After my WW meeting of course!

I made 60 Zucchini tots (thanks to www.emilybites.com) for my Weight Watchers meeting tomorrow -well, I actually made 64 but had 4 for dinner with my salmon burger and salad. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Sorry for such a quick post but the kids and Ice Age the Meltdown are calling my name!!

Have a great evening all!

Just Starting Out...

Well, here begins my blog.  Please bare with me as I figure out what I want to do with this and what people want to read!

Where to begin... Let's start at the beginning of my weight loss/healthy living/changing myself journey... I have never been "big" by most people's standards which means when I decided to start Weight Watchers on September 1, 2011, I heard a lot of "why do you want to lose weight?" "Why are you going to Weight Watchers? You look fine." "You don't need to lose any weight!" And so on and so forth. Well, compared to some people, no I didnt NEED to lose weight.  But to me, I WANTED and NEEDED to lose weight.  I was uncomfortable. I felt tired, I felt cranky, I was u.nhappy with myself.  I have always had self esteem issues and having your jeans feel like they might cut you in half like a magic act, certainly did not help those issues.  But I was not going to give in and by a bigger size.  That would be too easy. 

A little background on my weight gain, my Dad, my #1 man in my life, my partner in crime, passed away in June of 2010 from emphysema.  I was devastated.  I missed him terribly and I still do every day.  But I have children, and life for them must go on, every day.  But I did not focus on myself.  I didnt take care of myself.  I gained 20 pounds.  Fast foward to July 2011, my 20 year class reunion. 20 years??? Really???  I needed to do something.  I didnt. I went to my class reunion 20-25 pounds over where I wanted to be.  For some reason, August 31st 2011 when I walked through that door of the church for my first (again) Weight Watchers meeting, something clicked.  I started my journey September 1st and never looked back.  My goal was to lose 20 pounds.  I now hover right around the 27 pounds lost mark and I feel wonderful. 

March 2012 I decided now that I have lost the weight and I am "thin", that is not really what I want.  I want to be healthy, and toned, and in shape.  So starts my exercise.  I have never been a fan of exercise... until now.  I love the way I feel when I am done, I love the stress that it melts away from me and I love what it is turning my body into.  I set a goal for myself to be in the best shape of my life by the time my 40th birthday rolls around (March 17th, 2013) and I am going to meet that goal.  I am in the process of running the C25K program, I am biking with my kids and husband, and I am allowing Jillian Michaels to kick my butt by video in the privacy of my own home. 

I am hoping to bring a little motivation to those of you that read this, a little "hey, if she can do it, so can I" and a lot of friendship and companionship.