Weight Watchers Update

We had our first meeting yesterday, and had our first official weigh in. I now have my starting weight and a healthy range I’m supposed to be in for my height and age. All I have to do is pick my goal weight – which will be at next week’s meeting. Our leader wanted us to just use this first week to find a good rhythm and get used to tracking before making any big decisions. That way, we can find out the best way that works for us to track our activities, and make the rest of the program really work for us.

I’m really pumped about it! The meeting leader, Pat, said that’s normal. For the first 4 weeks or so, members get really excited and track everything they eat and exercise – and then you start to get “worn down” with all the different things you need to monitor. Officially, I’m in Week 1, but I did start tracking my food and making Weight Watchers meals 2 weeks ago, so I’m around Week 3 in reality. So technically, I’m close to the stage where most people start losing motivation.

What’s really hard for me in regards to “dieting” is keeping motivated. I’m a very big “giver-upper” when things start slowing down, and one of my biggest fears with this program is that after 4 or 5 weeks of being on track that I will start to “slack off” or give up. I’m being very conscious of my decisions so far, and I can honestly say I’m very proud of myself when I’m faced with a good food vs. bad food choice and I pick the good choice. Hopefully this is a good feeling that can keep driving me to pick the good choice.

I just hope I don’t feel bogged down with all the tracking or get sick of making all the different meals. Hopefully, I can find 4 or 5 “staples” of really easy, healthy meals that can be fallbacks for when I don’t feel like thinking to hard. And then just toss in a new meal twice a week for a while (or more often!).

Ultimately, I’m just really proud of myself for finally doing something about losing weight – I’ve been stalling for far too long, and it’s a big step that I’m even starting something like this. Plus, it’s been a New Year’s Resolution for the past 3 New Year’s that I eat better and lose some weight, and this is the first time I’ve actually tried (if I can be perfectly honest).

Here’s to a healthy New Year for me! (Finally!!)

Thumbs Down: Yesterday was when I learned what my “allotted” points per day were. Unfortunately, by lunch today, I’ve already used up all of my allotted points! (I didn’t have anything prepared for lunch, and I tried to wing it). So I have to dip into my “extra/emergency” points just for dinner!

Thumbs Up: This morning at our monthly staff meeting, I had a choice of a muffin, a frosted donut or a Yoplait, and I picked the yogurt. So I started off my day in a good mood, because I made what I felt was the smartest choice for me. It was like giving myself a mini-pat on the back.

But I could have killed for the chocolate frosted donut with sprinkles.

Home-cookin!

The past few weeks have been really interesting with a lot of home cooking going on! I've been doing really well with cooking Weight Watchers meals and sticking to the idea of smaller portions. The funny thing is - I haven't had my first meeting yet, so I don't know how many points a day I'm supposed to have, but I still feel good about the meals I'm making and eating. I feel like I can do this!!

So here's a peak into the meals I've been having...very yummy!

Chicken and shrimp stir fry...

Justin is cutting up garlic in this photo for another stir fry recipe that we tried...

This is the first "official" WW meal I made, a chicken wrap...so good I made it twice!

Found a great chicken casserole recipe. We ended up having it for lunch the next 2 days!

I don't really like how I look in this one, but I'm on the way to looking better and feeling better about myself! I'm making a side dish of broccoli to a WW meal my mom made and I reheated.

Justin wanted stir fry again, so since it wasn't a WW recepie, I made sure to give myself a small bowl and small portion, and shockingly enough for me - I was full! This is great!

Then tonight, I made a chicken cous cous with veggies salad, and a side of broccoli. It turned out really well! And there was enough left over that I can have it as a small snack tomorrow if I'm hungry.

Whew. Those were some good meals! The healthy stuff can be expensive...so I may have to do a WW meal only once or twice a week and just be smart with the "regular" stuff. But I'm feelin' good!

Out again...

I'm home again today for a full day feeling sick. My sore throat was worse than it was yesterday, and I felt like whatever I had moved "down" my throat and into my chest. It's been so long since the last time I was sick that it's hard to tell if I'm coming down with something or just having a "bad day".

So far I've wasted most of the morning by sleeping from 7 to 10:30 and now I'm just watching t.v. But I have every intention of having a healthy lunch (left over WW pizza from last night!) and taking some DayQuil. I need to be fine by tomorrow because I have to do a tour for work on a Saturday. Which now doesn't sound so bad because I had today "off"!

Weight Watchers update

I am glad to report that even though we have not had our first official weigh-in or meeting, since the informational meeting last Thursday, I have been making and eating Weight Watchers food all week!! And the best news is - - I've already lost a few pounds! (Weight Watchers rule - never say how much you've lost or how much you weigh, but just say that you've either lost or gained).

Now, it's hard for me to tell if it's just because weight tends to fluxuate day by day, so this could be a normal weight loss/gain for me, but if it is an official lost, then I'm very siked!!

We have our first official meeting next Thursday, where we get weighed in for the first time and set our goal weight. We also find out what our allotted points are for the day. So since I don't know what that number is yet, for me at least, I've just been picking out recepies that sound good and it seems to be working. So yay for me!

On a sad note, I've been waking up the past few days with a weird sore-throat thing, and then today, it started really bothering me and making my head feel "fuzzy". It's hard to explain, and I don't have a fever, but I left work early today to recooperate. I've felt fine for a while, but a few minutes ago, it all kinda got worse again. Who knows...I don't ever really get sick enough to get a fever. I'm the "half-way" sick person, who gets all the symptoms and then they all go away before fully manifesting. Normal people don't want to get sick, but I'm ok with getting a sick day once in a while - why not?

Rent-a-puppy

I tried to post this video a while back but couldn't get it to work. I figured it out!!!

I think this is an extremely funny commercial...couldn't be more true!!

Weekend Update

So I had a great weekend. I didn't really do anything, but I still feel like I had a productive weekend. Justin was going fishing early Saturday morning, so I had all day to myself with the 3 dogs. I mostly kept them entertained around the house, and they alternated chasing each other with taking a 2 hour nap. Easy enough. I stayed over at the house with the dogs since he would be getting up t 5:30 am. No thank you.

Turns out the water was about 15 degrees and they didn't bring their "cold gear", so they didn't go fishing, but Justin had every intention of going on Sunday, so I knew I'd have another day all to myself. I ended Saturday night watching tv in my parent's basement with the dogs and staying there again. When I say "with the dogs", I mean that I watched tv and they did this:

So cute!! So Sunday morning was a nice, quiet morning at the house spending some fun time with the dogs. I wanted to pick up the house since my parents were coming home tonight. And I also had a weird urge to make some cookies from scratch! I'm a regular Martha Stewart these days! Homemade Chicken Divan, stirfry twice last week, onion rings from scratch, and cookies...I'm on a roll!!

Of course the dogs were right there with me, but they weren't doing what you might expect - no begging for food, just sleeping.

I think Bailey and Baxter really "bonded" this week - Cody was at the vet during the week so he could be let out several times a day, so I only had Baxter at night. He stayed at the apartment each night, and somehow both of them ended up in bed with me when I woke up in the morning! They love cuddling...Best buds!!

Had to share this one of Cody - he was chewing on this toy, and fell asleep mid-chew!

And even though I hadn't really done anything strenuous today, I was still feeling too tired to cook, but didn't want to take the easy way out and get pizza. And I wanted something easy. So I made my first Weight Watchers meal!

It's a chicken wrap with some Asian sauce to give it taste, but not a lot of calories. And it was really good, and surprisingly filling. I had it around 6:30, and it's now 10:15, and I'm not hungry. That's unusual for me, since this late is when I normally start getting snack cravings. I think I can really do this!!

So the Weight Watchers meetings start on Thursday, and those meetings will help me hold my eating habits accountable. It's so easy when you do things like diet alone to reason or rationalize why you can have one more serving, one more bite, one more cookie. But when you have to write it down or share it honestly with someone, it makes it a tiny bit easier to put the fork down! I'm actually sitting next to a big box of the cookies I made, and part of my mind is saying "Oh those were so good, I should just have one or two for that really good taste". But the other part of my mind, the one that's now developing a friendship with my stomach/hunger is saying "but you're not hungry. Why have a cookie?"

And I actually feel very good about not having a cookie. Makes me proud of myself. It may sound small, but it's a big step for me. And I haven't even started the program yet!! I'm feeling good about this....check back for updates!

Culture

I had a random thought today.

There are so many different cultures around the world and each and every one are just so interesting! We all perform the same tasks, but in different ways. It’s just amazing how we each have our own way of doing things, but it all gets done, and we’re all still here. Basically, there are many different means to an end. I only wish I could travel to every single country and learn everything about each culture. It’s all just really amazing. And to be perfectly honest, part of me wishes I was a part of one of the cultures with the interesting history and elaborate traditions.

But my favorite thing about different cultures is – and I know it sounds weird – is the colors. There is never a time where I see a picture with brightly colored images from a culture where I can’t tear my eyes away from it. It’s like every time I see that picture, my mind gets sucked right in and carried away and I just start thinking of stories. Pictures with bright colors just get my creative juices flowing. And to help demonstrate to you what my crazy little blog means, I’ve found some photos that “spoke” to me and posted them below along with what country they’re from.

Hopefully these images will inspire you to watch PBS, or the History Channel, or the Travel Channel – or go to the library and read some books and learn more!

The Netherlands

Mexico

Italy

India

Honduras

Brazil

Argentina

Africa

Chicken Divan Recipe

I made another AMAZING chicken dinner a few nights ago, but it's not from a written recipe. Which was a huge feat for me!

I was thinking all day at work about what to make for dinner when all I thought I had was chicken breasts. I got home and realized we had a ton of rice so I thought I'd make an easy chicken and rice dish. Then, the more I thought about it, I remembered I had some shredded cheese and broccoli in the fridge and then - BAM! - what if I made a casserole?

It immeadiately sounded yummy sound I started to Google recipes. I had a brief moment of panic when I remembered that you need Cream of Chicken soup to "hold" the casserole "together" and so I opened my cabinet while I held my breath - and there was a can! I was smarter than I thought and had bought the can a while back "just in case", and finally it came in handy!!

But then I had a thought - my mom probably has a really awesome, easy recipe for this. Well duh - I was right! She told it to me over the phone, so I mostly had to do it from memory, and since I know I will want to make it again, I figured I might as well write it down so I don't have to keep calling my mom and at the same time share it with you!

It's easy and has few ingredients - Enjoy!

Chicken Divan

Ingredients:
2-3 Chicken breasts
1 cup shredded cheese (or more if you LOVE cheese!)
1 10.75 oz can Cream of Chicken soup
1 pkg frozen broccoli
4 tblsp butter or margarine
2 cups rice (or 1 package of 10 minute rice, or your favorite kind)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Follow package directions on broccoli to warm up it up (if it's frozen). If you choose fresh broccoli, use your discretion/taste to decide how much you want in your dish, and cook as normal in steamer.
3. As broccoli is warming, cut up chicken breasts into small, bite-size pieces. Saute these pieces in a sauce pan on your stove top on low to medium heat to cook.
4. Place all broccoli in a glass baking dish, size depending on how much broccoli/chicken you use. The pan needs to be just big enough for the broccoli to make a layer evenly covering your dish.
5. Once the chicken is cooked, layer it evenly on top of the broccoli.
6. Mix the can of soup, 1 cup of cheese and the butter/margarine (melted first). Spread mixture evenly over the broccoli and chicken.
7. Put pan in oven for 20 minutes.
8. While dish is in oven, cook rice as normal.

Serve Chicken Divan over rice - YUM!!

New Years Resolutions

I have a few things I would like to see myself do in this new year:

1. Save money!!!
2. Read 1 book a month.
3. Catch up on my scrapbooking.
4. Lose some stinkin' weight! I want to be back to my "I just moved to Colorado" weight, which means 30 lbs by the end of the year!
5. Try to eat healthier and branch out into trying new recipes!

And on a side note, I'm really enjoying logging in and seeing that I have comments!! So thank you, and keep them coming!

More puppy love

Even though he's not mine, I just can't get enough! And...he finally has a name!!

CODY!!!

Here's Bailey playing with him at my parent's house - he was so sweet and actually brought Cody toys!

And in typical Weim fashion (those who own one know what I'm talking about), he's already sitting like a person at 3 months!!

I puppy-sat for my parents on Sunday night while they went out for dinner. They didn't want him to sleep the entire time they were gone, so it was my job to keep him awake for 2 hours straight so he would sleep the whole night. It worked! My parents even brought him over with his toys to keep him occupied...they bought him little plastic keys, like what you get for babies!

Bailey wasn't too sure about Cody being in his "territory" - my apartment, but he did play with him occasionally. I swear he isn't being mean in this shot...

Bailey checked Cody out everytime he came near him - here he is deeming if Cody is worthy of sharing his water bowl.

Cody did have one accident inside, but I caught it as it was coming out so after shouting "NO" and immeadiately picking him up and running outside, he was fine the rest of the night. I hope he got the point!