Moving Day!!! Come See my New Place!

Being that it's long past Christmas, I'm starting a new blog for 2008, consistent with what I'm trying to accomplish this year. Take a look, here!

I'm in the home stretch and this will be the year that I cross the finish line (literally, as well as figuratively!) and enjoy the wonders of being at a healthy weight. How wonderful will that be?

Please come over and take a look, share your tips & struggles, and we'll walk through this 'eating thing' together. Lose ALL the weight - 2008!

Signing off,

A Much Lighter Karen

What Happened?

Well, I know what happened. I just ate how I wanted to instead of how I should have. It was sickening. I had lousy stuff, too. It wasn't worth it. Why did I do it? Why did I have a fairly easy time doing this for three months and now I want to eat everything in the house?

This morning I ate appropriately. The end is in sight. I can actually imagine being at goal. I can't give up this late in the game. I think maybe I need a shorter term goal or an event to shoot for because this is much easier in smaller chunks than just determining to stay diet-faithful for the rest of the year.

My 24th wedding anniversary is exactly one month from today. That can be my first 'chunk'. My 49th birthday is about 1.5 months after that. That can be my second challenge. After that I'll come up with something else. These little things really do help me. It's just a mind thing but it helps.

I need to rely on the Lord to help me get past these tough parts, the plateaus, and sometimes just the discouragement when I look at folks that can eat three times what I do and never gain an ounce.

Well, I have to get going. I was up early this morning and got a lot done, but we're starting our schoolday late because our other student is late this morning.

Have a good day, within your point system!

Karen

Still on Track but not Losing

No problem. It's definitely cyclical. My job is to eat within plan and I'm doing that.

Jim has joined me in Weight-Loss-World. It's a little tough for him because they have lunch brought in two or three times a week at work for staff meetings and such. He's probably going to change that a bit or make it so they bring in some low-fat options. He's already gotten them to reduce the number of catered lunches. They were delicious, but made it nearly impossible to tally points. It's just nice to have him losing with me. It makes it easier when we're eating the same stuff for dinner and provides some exercise motivation for each other with a little healthy competition. The YMCA has a point system when you work out there, and we used to try and 'outpoint' each other. He always won when we did this a few years ago (But I win, too, because he gets healthy!!) I'm glad he's hitting this with some resolve because I'd like to keep him around for a good long time!

I think that is one of the hard things when you're changing the way you eat. I love to cook, and I love to make things that my dearest husband loves. Unfortunately, when we modify them to be lower fat, etc., it does remove some of the 'yum'. Last night I made a lovely cajun chicken & pasta dish for the kids and a revised version for us. It was okay but what I REALLY wanted to serve him after a long day at work was the rich, creamy, meaty version. Instead he got whole wheat noodles and a 'cream' sauce made with skim milk and bouillon. BIG DIFFERENCE. Hey, it filled the void. I'll have to make something with eggplant and tomatoes in it tonight. That always goes over well because it's lowfat to begin with as long as it's not breaded and fried.

Staying Faithful

Today was a good day! I ate well but within plan and managed to spend 3 hours at the 'Y' playing with Carrie. Jim's NY Giants were in the NFL playoffs, so Carrie and I let him and the guys watch the game in peace and had a lot of fun at the same time.

Jim and I each got a stability ball to work on our mid-sections. If you're in the market, make sure you get one that is anti-burst (can you believe they make ones that aren't????) and get the proper size. Also, DON'T buy them at a sporting goods store unless you want to pay double the price. We bought a pair at Dick's then saw them 20 minutes later at Meijer for less than half the price. Needless to say, the first pair is going back.

We are trying to move our exercise routine to a more do-able location. The 'Y' is exactly a mile from our front door and my husband's work pays for the membership, however, I prefer not to work out with a bunch of people around and I can't just leave Carrie at home when I feel like working out. We eventually will probably get a treadmill, but if we do we'll have to spend the big bucks since my husband is very tall and you need a really good treadmill of the right size. Three of my boys are over 6 foot as well. Anyway, we're good for now. It's just nice to be able to get the exercise in even when there's a foot of snow or slop on the ground. (Today it happens to be slush)

I'm beginning to ramble so I'm off!

Eat What You Love

Just a reminder to remember and relish those things that you LOVE to eat that are still good for you. Case in point: the wonderful, tongue-tingling grapefruit. I love the wonderful citrus that you can get so inexpensively in the wintertime. I brought home an enormous bag of grapefruit from the grocery store today for only $5. They are both intensely sweet and sour. They are so huge that my husband and I split one for dessert after our Weight Watcher-friendly dinner. They're devoid of fat, and loaded with nutrition and flavor. So, instead of lamenting over those things you shouldn't eat, delight in some of those wonderful things that you can!

Oh, and YES, I am on track today.

Hang in there!

Back on Track, Doing Well!

Wow! This is so much easier now that the holidays are over. I'm having no trouble whatsoever sticking to it. I think part of me is so worn out from rich foods that the healthier food is a welcome relief to my system, especially since I've been sick. (hasn't EVERYONE this week?)

I feel I need to say a word about 2007 and the original Crisco Challenge. I stuck to my plan like glue clear on through Thanksgiving. When I saw that I wasn't going to meet goal before Christmas in spite of my flawless implementation of 'the plan', I think I just let down my defenses for the holiday season. All is not lost, I still lost a LOT of weight in those first few months and now I'm 'in the zone' again and poised to finish what I started.

This year I think I will break up the year into quarters, each with a weight-loss, fitness, or nutritional goal. I think we all do better, at least I do, when we break things down into smaller chunks and work on them a bit at a time. My first chunk is to finish this weight-loss thing. I am getting SO close but this is where it gets difficult. I hit a plateau around my current weight, the pounds come off slower and I lose my focus. So here is my self-challenge: Eat according to plan every day for the first quarter of 2008. (The only exception is my anniversary in February, and I might not even take that. ) Write SOMETHING every day in this blog for accountability's sake. ALWAYS log in my Weight Watcher points on line.

Fairly simple. Very do-able. I decided to not tie it specifically to a poundage goal, simply because I can only control what I put into my body. I cannot, however, control how fast the weight comes off.

I have to leave in a few moments to drive Dan back up to school. More tomorrow. What are your weight/fitness goals this year?

Karen

Happy New Year!

For all practical purposes, I always start the 'new year thing' on January 2nd. Usually because the first is still kind of holiday-ish, I'm entertaining some of my sons' friends with lots of gooey food, holiday mess still around, etc.

That being said, here are the things I've resolved to do in 2008. There is nothing too fancy or overwhelming as I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. My fitness/weight loss goal is this: stay on plan until I hit goal (shouldn't be too much longer), and then keep eating responsibly for the rest of my natural life; never letting myself get more than five pounds over my goal weight. Some might think that 5-pound buffer is a copout but I fluctuate like that even when I'm 100% in weight-loss mode. As far as fitness, my immediate goal is to just get moving more and start pre-training in the beginning of February for the Detroit Free Press Marathon, start training in June, and run it in October. I think that's enough!

I'm exhausted and there is a cat crawling on my neck in front of the laptop. Gotta love her.

More on resolutions tomorrow, as well as a new name for this blog. I will eventually move it but I think I'll just rename it for now!

Karen

Help!!!!

I'm actually doing okay but I know the busy-ness around our house right now is making it tough to stay on track. I am doing fine weight-wise.....I haven't gained, but I haven't been tracking the last week and a half.....so I know I'm probably eating more points than I should and I won't LOSE that way.

I suppose I need to get up a little earlier every morning so I can prepare a lunch and snacks ahead of time so I'm not 'nibbling' until I find something I 'feel' like eating. DANGEROUS! Especially during the time of year when I'm making Christmas cookies for my very thin children. I have limited myself to, say, two small spritz cookies with my tea---so I'm not going hog wild crazy. I just need to buckle down and get strict with myself again so I can be DONE once and for all with losing weight.

So, right here in front of God and all my blogging dieter friends, I re-commit to complete adherence to the diet! It makes such a difference when I'm posting every day. So, I'm back!

Have I Completely Lost My Marbles?

I picked up a book we've had sitting around the house for a while now. It's the Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer. When my husband was reading it about three years ago, it didn't pique my interest but I started thinking.......Why NOT?

Actually, there are way too many reasons why I shouldn't consider running a marathon. Training takes time. I hate to run. I'm not all that fond of exercise. I can't imagine running when it's cold or rainy. I've never run more than one tenth of a mile at any time in my nearly half-century of life.

I guess the better question to ask is WHY? I need to get in good shape. It would provide some accountability once I tell everyone I'm doing this. It would give me the opportunity to accomplish something I never dreamed I could actually achieve (and still have my doubts). It would help to whittle off those last 20 pounds while I'm doing the prelimary training in advance of the real training. It would provide long stretches of time with not a whole lot to distract me from praying or memorizing the Word. (I used to memorize while walking on the treadmill)

Right now it's kind of the "manana marathon" as in "tomorrow I'll start training." Just like the dieting, though, once I open my mouth about it and start blogging about it, I think I might actually do it.

The Detroit Free Press Marathon is October 21st, 2008. I have a book with lists of marathons all over the country and when they are held. If anyone else is interested, we can train 'together' via blogworld and run in our separate marathons all over the country. Maybe this is a little bit crazy but there are a few projects in my life that I want to get started on and completing a 26.2 mile race might just give me the dose of confidence I need to tackle other feats or dreams that I thought were out of my reach.

There is no time like the present. I'm going to get my sneakers on.



**************UPDATE****************

I just got back. I covered two miles.....almost all walking ....but threw a few short runs in there! At least I got started!

Correction: The Detroit Marathon is October 19, 2008.

I'm back!

There was just no room to bring the laptop with us without risking damage to it so I just plugged in all my Weight Watchers points this morning. I weighed myself first thing last night when we arrived home. I lost weight this week. I stuck to the plan and ate well. I almost choked when I looked up my breakfast choice yesterday. We were in a hurry to get on the road so I ordered a reduced fat blueberry muffin at Dunkin Donuts. Mind you, I usually only eat a 1-3 point breakfast, NEVER more. I looked up that muffin and it was EIGHT points. Oh well. It still did the trick and we made great time coming home.

I am way too tired to post much today. I'll be back tomorrow.

Karen

I'll say it again...

.....nothing tastes as good as thin feels. Nothing.

We went out last night for my Dad's birthday. The detroit area has the highest concentration of middle eastern people anywhere in the United States. This makes for some fantastic restaurants. We ate at one of them last night. I was able to feast on tabouleh, hoummus, fresh pitas, and lamb shish kabob. It was wonderful and I didn't go over my points. I ate probably half of what I usually do when I go there but I was plenty full. It probably helped that I drank about 6 cups of their wonderful tea. Mmmmmmm.

It was nice. The celebration was about the birthdays we were celebrating, not the food. There is life outside of a food-centered existence.

Hanging in there (with a lot less lard),
Karen

Chip, Chip, Chip

Slowly but surely, I am chipping off those extra pounds. Only one pound came off this week but I certainly won't complain. It's still going in the right direction.

Tonight is son#4's birthday and, of course, it is the tradition to make the favorite meal of each kiddo on his/her birthday. Dave's choice is Spicy Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo. I will make myself a lame version made with skim milk and a hint of a hint of a hint of cheese, thrown over some whole wheat pasta. The version I will serve him and the rest of the family would use up my daily points for the next week and a half. I also will have to make yet another version because son #3 will end up in the hospital if he eats shrimp. A day in the life of a mother.

The house is a little out of control right now, but I'm getting on top of it. I need one day with NOTHING else going on to get some of this stuff done completely. Thursdays tend to be my afternoon to do that but this week I have to run all over the place. Our trip home from NY will be through Canada and I have never gotton a copy of #5's birth certificate. I also need to pick up a few maps.

Back to reality.....

You know tomorrow might just be Weigh-in Day....

...if you had three bowls of Extra Fiber All Bran for your midnight snack.
.....if you have your alarm set at 1-hour intervals all through the night to get up and go to the bathroom.
..... if it's January and the clothes you've laid out for tomorrow consist of a lightweight t-shirt and a pair of bike shorts
.....you wear a double layer of sweats to bed and turn up the heat in the house in hopes of sweating off a little extra weight.
.....if you actually thought about making an appointment to get your hair cut in the morning before you weigh-in
.....if you trimmed your fingernails and shaved your legs and refused to wear any make-up so as not to add ONE OUNCE to that scale!

Social Sushi

Today I had fun dieting. I discovered something fun I could eat and not kill my Weight Watcher's points all in one sitting. Son#1 is my food expert. He has worked in a restaurant since he was about 14, first washing dishes but then working as a sous chef. He likes to cook but loves to eat. He likes to be adventurous with his food. I love ethnic food but he always takes it to more of an extreme and it's a lot of fun. Today he asked me if I wanted some sushi. I sprung for lunch but told him to pick out whatever he thought I should try. We had barbecued eel, some marinated but uncooked tuna, and some other wild combination. I am somewhat blissfully unaware of exactly what I was eating rolled up inside that seaweed. What a trip! There's something exhilarating about the kick you get from the wasabi paste hitting you in the back of your brain. Intense!!! Wow!! It was delicious, weight-watcher friendly, and a lot of fun all at the same time and it provided some nice time with my eldest! I ate a quick bowl of soup ahead of time and had three cups of green tea, so I didn't have to eat much to fill me up. This is good news as I was hoping to still be able to have enough points left so that I can actually eat dinner tonight.

I'm not going to eat any leftover candy. I'm not going to eat any leftover candy. I'm not going to eat any leftover candy.

The Farmers' Market on Steroids

On Saturday, son#3 and I went down to the Eastern Market in Detroit. It's a bit past the harvest season so it's not quite as huge and colorful as it would be in late August. A square mile's worth of stalls and shops participate and the fresh produce available is great! There were loads of peppers (who could resist), potatoes, winter squashes, cabbages, brussels sprouts, etc. Of course, the first thing I bought was a cabbage for a buck that must have weighed more than my daughter. Luckily #3 carried it around for me. We bought so much produce we had to make a trip back to the car in the middle of our excursion. It was great. I got home and made roasted green salsa with the tomatillos I had purchased, a huge pot full of 'fried' peppers & garlic, trimmed and cleaned the whole enormous stalk of brussels sprouts (if you've never seen how they grow, google an image of them just for fun) and put them in the fridge, made a batch of cooked salsa, and cut up raspberries and strawberries for whoever was interested. It was a fun time and I got a ton of good produce and other staples for so much less than I would have paid at the store. My son was going primarily to make sure I brought home a ton of fruit but brought all his camera equipment in hopes of getting some good shots for his photography class. That part of it was a wash. It was drizzly the whole time and very overcast. We left the house at 6:45 and got there around 7:30 so it was still fairly dark when we arrived.

Having all these great, fresh foods in the house has helped to make the weight-loss journey a little more palatable. It has made it much more work to keep the kitchen clean as I am forever chopping or peeling or cooking something. It's worth it.

The sink is not all the way there yet this morning. My bed is made. Laundry is put away. I will probably get a little off course this week as Son#1 is home for a couple weeks without his car so I'm spending a little more time playing chauffer. It's great to have him home.

I best get started. Too much to do. I doubt I will post much this week. I'm under the gun on a few projects.

The Day to Pray....oh wait.....They All Are!

As you know, today is my 'Pray with the Gals' day as well as my afternoon off from homeschooling! It always so happens that if there is a big decision to be made, it usually ends up that it comes to a make or break moment on Thursdays, right before we pray. This week it's career decisions for my dh. I won't go into detail until after the decision process but let's just say that once again, the decisions are coming down to the wire on a Thursday!

The diet is going well. Jim had a long, grueling day and we felt like going out. We ended up at the Mongolian Barbecue. I don't know if these are all over the country these days but if you've never been to one, they're pretty good when you're dieting, and when you're not because you always get exactly what you want! Here's how it works.....There's a huge long table of raw foods, steak, shrimp, scallops, squid, pork, sausage, chicken, and an enormous amount of vegetable choices. Then there are dry seasonings and many containers of premixed sauces like 'mongolian ginger', 'kung pao', or 'chili garlic'. A few other additions like sesame seeds or an egg are also there. You pile your bowl full of whatever you want and get a little bowl of seasoning. You walk over to the 'grill', which is a LARGE, round, flat cooking surface. A 'griller' takes your bowl and dumps it on the grill and tosses it around with these 3-foot-long stick-like utensils. At the end, he dumps your sauce or seasoning over it, slides it into your bowl with the sticks and your return to your table where the rice and tortillas are waiting for you. It's fun and you can go to their website and build a cyber-bowl of food so you can get the nutritional information from what you just ate. This certainly makes it easier for those of us counting WW points or calories. Oh, was it ever good!

Seeing that it was close to Borders, we spent an hour there as well. We are bookstore addicts. The coffee shop in there has something to do with it but all those books! How wonderful! Enough about my evening out.

So...............

I'm on target with my eating. My bed is made. My laundry done and put away and new load started. My kitchen is in order. The trash has all been emptied and I will put it on the curb when I leave for prayer. Aaahhhh.........peace!

Have a great day everyone!

Karen

The Dreaded Plateau

The invisible wall. The frustrating threshold. The dreaded weight-loss plateau. I've hit it. Full force! I only lost a half pound last week, none the week before, and not an ounce this week. I would not being singing the blues about it except that I have been 100% faithful to plan! I do realize that these things are very typical when you've been dieting for a while. I need to push through this, stay with the program, and keep my chin up. Thanks to the accountability I've established with you, my blogging buddies, I am not throwing in the towel. Normally at this point I'd say, "it doesn't matter what I eat, I can't lose weight!" and then I'd go back to eating the same stuff that got me tubby in the first place. Now I can't! You're watching me!

I guess what I want to say is a big THANK YOU for checking in from time to time!

As far as my other stuff goes.......My completed laundry is put away, my sink is shining, my dishwasher is running, sheets are in the washer, and I shopped for groceries this morning and had it all put away before 9:30! Do miracles ever cease?

Have a good day everyone!

A Long Walk in the Same Direction

It's been said that discipleship is a long walk in the same direction. I would have to say that weight loss is the same thing. It's not a sprint or a jog. It's more like a meandering! Progress is slow, but it's still progress. While God is pleased with us steadfastly following Him even if we falter in our ignorance sometimes, I need to be happy that I have been steadfast in my commitment to eat a healthy diet, regardless of the scale. That being said, I did lose poundage this week! Yeah!

My sink is clean, the dishwasher has been divested of its clean contents, this morning's laundry has been washed, dried, folded, and--more importantly-- PUT AWAY! Load #2 will be popped into the dryer soon. I hereby promise that it will be folded and returned to its proper places while it still retains some of the warmth from the dryer!

After Load#2 goes into said dryer, dinner will get started. Wednesday is generally 'crockpot night' because I take Carrie to gymnastics and then soccer, usually arriving at the homestead about the time when Jim is getting home from work. Having a hot dinner waiting makes us all happy!

I need to get back to my other blog soon. Homeschooling has kept me very busy. I forgot how teacher-intensive those primary years are.....especially when it involves more than just my own daughter. I'm getting into the pattern and rhythm of it once again.

Progress

I'm looking forward to my weigh-in tomorrow. I'm acting like I go somewhere to weigh in, but I just weigh myself at home like I do 10 times a day, it's just 'official' on Wednesday....the one I record at the Weight Watchers site. I seem to be going in the right direction. This week is particularly exciting because I will hit a weight I haven't seen in a good long time. Wahooooooo!

My sink is spotless. My bed is made. I already did two loads of laundry and put them away this morning. Life is good.

Right now I'm paying attention to the last three minutes of an ebay auction because I bid on an old copy of a book that I quoted in a post for my other blog, http://allthingsnerak.blogspot.com/search/label/family%20history . I have a recent reprint under another title, but this is the real deal from 1914. Hey, I just won the auction! It's coming from England. My dad was offered an original copy of the book by my great uncle but refused it because he wanted him to give it to his own son. My dad found out after he died that he REALLY had wanted him to have it and that his son wasn't all that interested. The book just got passed off to someone else. Could THIS be THAT copy? Ah, the mystery. In the description on EBAY it says there is a light signature on the first page. Wouldn't that be awesome if it was my great-grandfather's? Oh, I'm getting all carried away here. I'm just so excited that it will be on it's way to me. What a treasure.

I've STUNK at getting all my exercise in, but I have been pretty good at getting the house under increasingly more control. I probably should have made those two consecutive challenges rather than concurrent ones but I'm not going to give up. I have been active, just not as much as I'd like.

I need to get over and post on my other blog. I haven't wanted to take the time to sit down and post when I've had a lot to do around here. I'll probably get to it later today or tomorrow.

Off to do the last-minute preparations for another day of schooling.