Days 5-7

Oops! I got a little busy. I have had so many photo shoots! I am super excited about that, but I slipped up on posting on my blog. So . . . . . .I am going to go back to Sunday, Day 5.

We were planning to meet our friends for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. To allow me to eat what I wanted, I had grapefruit for breakfast. I had planned on having fajitas or something grilled. Didn't work. We found out that they did not allow ordering off the menu until after 12. That meant my only option was the brunch buffet. Yeah. Not the best situation. I managed to get some eggs, a little bbq style shredded chicken, and a tortilla. Thankfully, they had lots of yummy fruit. I did splurge on a piece of toast. I only had half- really was probably like a 1/4 of a hamburger bun size (just the top) but it had butter on it. I survived. I did another aerobic photoshoot in the late afternoon and then for dinner, we met Rick and Suzy at Road house. I had salad, kbobs, and a dry baked potato. I know it is weird, but I like them that way.

Monday, day 6. I started the Made to crave Bible study with three friends. We met at 9,. I needed to go to walmart before the class, so I spent 8 points on a burrito from McDonald's. I also had a diet coke. I try so hard not to have them, but they feel so good on my throat. My throat has been really hurting the last couple of weeks. For lunch, I enjoyed another piece of the cabbage casserole. Yummy. Dinner was grilled chicken and veggies, a salad, and some refried beans. Overall, it was a good food day for me. I had another photoshoot, too!

Tuesday, day 7. Breakfast was my usual egg, canadian bacon and ff cheese. I really enjoyed the 2 cups of chai that was only 1 point. It was grand. I went to work at the office. I started training my replacement. She is going to be great. I am so excited that I have the opportunity to actually do photography. I am also going to really work hard on Zizi Jewelery. Hopefully, that will really make a financial difference for me. Lunch was at Ripe. I had the grilled veggie sandwich without bread and a salad. I did eat two tiny little shortbread cookies. It was minimal in points. I said 10 to be on the safe side. We were rushing like crazy for dinner because there were so many meetings tonight. We went to eat Mexican. I enjoyed my enchiladas. The book says 10 points for chicken enchiladas. Again, it seems like the book over does the points. But, I use it anyway.

Tonight I placed a great order from my shoot on Saturday night. I also ordered some photos of Joy Anna and Jeremy. Really cute.

Made it through week one! Score! I did well, I think. I hope the scale shows it tomorrow, but even if it doesn't, I am excited that I am making changes for me. Healthier eating, moving more . . . . . . . . . .

Day 4

Woohoo! Made it through a Saturday. Dean and I slept late. Well, late for him. I could have kept sleeping. We piddled around and took our time getting out of the house. We ended up at corner bakery for brunch. Below is a photo of my 13 point breakfast. I am not sure why it is so many as there is fruit and eggwhites, but that is what my app on my Iphone says it is. It was supposed to have cheese and bacon, but I don't think there was anywhere close to that many points of bacon and cheese. Oh well.

After brunch, we had my car cleaned up and then went to the airport to meet the missioners. We had had the Snow's dog while they were gone. After they were all delivered home, Dean and I headed over the mountain for a photo shoot. I got in several points in activity credit out there. The little boy was a whirlwind of activity. I am glad I have lost some weight, but boy, doing a shoot like that reminds me how much easier it would be if I weighed less. I was really Dean went with me as I had a flat when I came out of the theater in the canyon.

We tried to get it fixed, but we couldn't. I only had a few shots left on my memory cards. Taking photos of a whirlwind takes lots more frames. It was a lot of fun though. We went to a couple of places to see if we could find a memory card, but we couldn't. We decided I would just have to make sure I had the shot before shooting it. We were doing that because it was the night of the super moon. We were going out to the desert to take photos. Before we did that, we went to dinner at the Edge of Texas Steak House. That was the best steak I had had since we moved to El Paso. I did great on the food plan. The sirloin was very lean, but very tender. I did not eat the butter or sour cream on my potato. I only had vinegar on my salad. I scraped off the croutons. I did have one small slice of bread with olive oil. I still stayed at my point level for the day!

Tomorrow will be another challenge. We are going to a mexican place for lunch with friends. I am planning to have fruit and one string cheese for breakfast and that will give me more points for lunch. I can do it!

And on the third day . . .

I did ok. I worked at the office again today. I started the day with the same breakfast. It is easy and fills me up. I need to get some whole wheat bread and add some toast. Maybe that would help me not have so many points left at the end of the day. I think I am going to buy an air popper for pop corn. I think that would help me too.

For lunch I had left over pesto pasta - added in some string cheese and it was really, really yummy.

Dinner was an experience. I made a cabbage casserole. It was quite time consuming to make. I liked it. Dean thought it was ok. It made a huge dish for 6 servings. The servings were more than ample. I had all these left over points. I hate that. Need to plan better. That is going to be slightly difficult for the weekend. We have lunch plans for Sunday noon. I have a photo shoot tomorrow at 4:30. I'll take along water and string cheese to keep up my strength.

Tomorrow is a new day!

Day 2 on 'the plan'

Aside from one slight screw up on the amount of points that my applesauce 'cost' I had a pretty good day. For breakfast I had canadian bacon, ff cheese, and an egg (oh and that pesky applesauce). Lunch was a tv dinner and a banana. Dinner was a wonderful pasta dish. It was pesto. I had planned to put chicken with it, but I forgot. The lack of protein made me hungry in the evening. Thank goodness for string cheese. I will make the pasta again. but I will find the right kind of pasta and I'll add chicken.

I know weight watchers works. I see too many good results for it not to. The big drawback is it makes me focus on food too much. I am trying to take my focus off food. Not focus more on it. Not sure how to make this work. Thinking on it.

Day One - All over again

I wonder how many days I have had a Day One on a particular diet, food plan, lifestyle change, etc? I'm 47 and have dieted for most all of those years - at least as early as middle school. So, say I went on my first diet when I was 12 (I am groaning at the thought of having actually done that) and only started one diet per year, I have had 35 of them. I think some years I probably did two or three or even four day ones. Two of those first days resulted in losing nearly 100 pounds. Thankfully, I don't have that much to lose this time. I do have probably 60. Wow, how do I do this to myself? I always promise I am going to do better at that. I am going to be watchful and not let it get out of control. Each time I do.

And so, Day One - All over again

Let me tell you about Day One. I guess I need to give you a little back story as well. Over the last few weeks, I have been hearing about Made to Crave. It is a Bible Study focusing on changing the focus of what you crave. Instead of craving food to satisfy you, you crave a closer relationship with God. I certainly need more focus on God. So, this week bought the book for my kindle app. It is like she has been watching me, listening to me, living in my shoes and on my scale. One of the things she encourages is getting a plan. I have lost weight on weight watchers before. I am not as crazy about the point system as I was the exchanges, but I know it does work. Today, I joined up.

I was going to do what I always do the day before day one. I was going to eat anything and everything I want to eat. After all, if I am going to make a lifestyle change, I won't get to eat it anymore, right? I couldn't do it. I had stopped at McDonald's and had a breakfast burrito. I really would have rather had a biscuit, but even though I was having my last day, I decided to go ahead and make a wiser choice.

After the meeting, I signed up for the e-tools on www.weightwatchers.com and decided to go ahead and turn my last day into my first day. Thankfully, the burrito was only 8 points and you get a lot more now than you did this time last year. I had a light lunch of sirloin tacos on corn tortillas. Thanks to the app for my Iphone, I was able to make decent selections at Corner Bakery for dinner. I had a cup of chicken noodle soup and half of a ham sandwich on pretzel bread. I was glad I had the soup as the bread was sort of hard. I am a dipper, so I just dipped it in my soup. It worked.

Fruits and veggies are now free on Weight Watchers. I need to make a run for the store to get some of those.

One of the truths of weight loss is eat less and move more. I am trying to move more. Having been sick for nearly two weeks, moving is something I have not been doing much at all. Tonight I walked for 15 minutes. WooHoo! it wore me out, though.

after a trip to the grocery store, I am set for food for a few days. Here we go!

How do I let four months pass?

Well, it has happened again. I huge jump in time from the last time I posted on this blog. So much has happened.

We had a rather slim Christmas when it came to gift giving. Our renter had bounced his rent check and refused to pay it. That left us in the hole for a whole lot! A dear friend showed up one day and blessed us with $200.00. Exactly what I needed to pay the IRS their monthly bill.

Praise God, our house sold! Once again, God proved His timing and not ours. December 30 - 2 weeks from the day we were leaving for India. We paid off bills, we caught up on our giving commitment to our church, we donated to a mission organization to which we have close ties, and we paid for our trip. What an answer to prayer.

Our trip to India was amazing. If you want to read about it, you can check out http://rowelltravel.blogspot.com There are lots of photos since I sort of like photography and Dean and I decided to invest in a the new Canon 5d before we left. It really takes some nice photos.

We came home on the last day of January. We started right back into the daily grind. I had been really stressing over work before I left for India. I thought it was because I was trying to do things in advance. When I came home, I stressed because I felt like I was behind even though I had worked so hard to have things done before I left. I had really wanted to quit back last fall. I didn't quit, but I did go part time. I thought that was going to work. I finally gave my notice this week. I feel relieved in a way. I so want to be able to be creative and take beautiful photos without feeling pressured- pressure I put on myself. I am so good at putting pressure on myself for so many, many things. So, now in two weeks, I will have that freedom. I am trying not to pressure myself even though I know I need to have a certain number of photo jobs in order to make up for the money I will not be bringing in.

I have been very, very sick. I think it started as the flu, but rapidly progressed into a respiratory issue. My asthma is horrible. I am going to a different doctor tomorrow. I saw my regular doctor last week. I am thinking I might have pneumonia. I am in a lot of pain.

I am reading Made to Crave. I need a lifestyle change. Maybe this will motivate me to do that.