Pizza, Wine, and Cake (oh, my!)

Well...I finally made it back to the gym and it was HARD!!  I was only able to stay on the elliptical for 10 minutes and every minute was a struggle.  I also did the leg and ab machines.  I did a weight that was a challenge and did as many reps as I could before becoming very tired.  Most machines I ended up with about 20 reps.  I'd really like to get to the gym five days a week but I know that in reality it will be great if I could make it at least twice in addition to my regular Wednesday night dance class.  Speaking of dance class - I really need to push myself more in class and stop phoning it in.  While it's a great social outlet for me I need to also dial in more to the physical aspect of the class.

I also started counting WW points again and yesterday was a perfect 30 day!  I tried a few new things and for the most part they were pretty good.  Brianna from Diva and the Divine raves about the Trader Joe's Guiltless Mac & Cheese so I tried one for lunch and I have to admit I wasn't too blown away with it - sorry Brianna :-(.  However, she doctors hers up with extra cheese, crab, and bacon bits.  Unfortunately all I had to use was the crab.  I might try it again with her additions before I make a final determination.  Mac & cheese is one of my all time favorite comfort foods (yep...the blue box stuff!!) so I think my psyche messes with my ability to enjoy other mac & cheese's when they don't taste like the blue box.

Last night we had pizzas made on Flat Out flatbread.  I liked it much more than my husband did but he was a really good sport about it.  I just brushed the flatbread with EVOO and then topped it with mostly zero point toppings (artichokes, basil, jalapeños, capers, and mushrooms) but also included black olives (1SP), jalapeño pepperoni (2SP), and shredded pizza cheese (2SP).  All in all the pizza cost me 8SP and it was very filling.

I also had 4SP worth of red wine (totally worth it!!) and ended the evening trying out the 3-2-1 Mug Cake.  I was quite impressed how good it was!  You take 3 tablespoons of any cake mix, add 2 tablespoons of water, and cook it on high in the microwave for 1 minute.  I used spice cake mix and drizzled 1SP worth of sugar free chocolate syrup on top.  It doesn't make a huge amount but the flavor is quite intensified due to only adding water.  I'm looking forward to trying some other flavors!

Tonight I am trying a new recipe from the WW site - Grilled Chicken with a Corn/Tomato Salsa.  I'll let you know how it is.  I also have dance class tonight so I don't have to wait long to push myself to be present in the dancing moment!!

Back At It!

Well...it's been so long since I've written here.  I see that my last post was at the end of February.  Shortly after that post we began a very hard journey with my mother-in-law.  It would require leaving home and traveling a two days drive away to Tennessee to care for her during her final months on this earth.  It was hard, exhausting, and frustrating but at the same time incredibly fulfilling and we both know we were where we were supposed to be.  It was a huge comfort to know that no matter how much we wanted to just lay down and give up that God had everything under control.

What wasn't under control was food!!  I ended up gaining about 24# over those nearly five months.  There were lots of desserts and comfort food over those months and it showed!!  So...when we got home we got together our plan to do a reboot.  We started with a week of vegetarian eating and then my husband had to quickly go back to TN to get some emergency repairs done to the house there so things got a little wonky on the food front.  When he got back we ate a few special dinners out and then got back on the reboot wagon full steam.  We've been at it for 11 days now and I've lost 8.6#!  It hasn't been easy and the last five or so days have been incredibly frustrating for me.  I know I shouldn't let the scale take as central a part in my life as I do but when you are juicing like this (for weight loss) the scale is really the best barometer of daily progress (and dare I say motivation).  I lost really good for the first five days but then I started leveling off and had several days where I lost nothing or just a few tenths.  I know in my head that these things will happen and that if I just push through, I will be successful.  But (you knew there'd be a "but" in there) it can really sap your willpower and motivation.  However, I am so blessed that when I am weak on this journey my husband steps up and can push us both through.  If it would have been just me, I would have thrown in the towel days ago.  But...here we are on day 11 and I woke up today to a .8 loss!!

Another piece of this pie is that I know I need to get back to the gym to at least do some walking on the elliptical if nothing else.  We have a vacation coming up in about seven weeks and I know we will be doing a LOT of walking.  I really need to get my stamina back up - keeping up with my very physical and very TALL husband is a challenge on a good day!!  I've been feeling so tired and exhausted but I think I just need to push myself to do these things anyway (and come back here to stay accountable!).    I WILL call the gym today and get my account taken out of a frozen status and WILL get my hiney to the gym no later than tomorrow!!  I WILL be kind to myself and even if all I can squeeze out is 10 minutes on the elliptical, I will be proud of myself for getting out the door and showing up.  Yep...this will definitely be a participation trophy sort of event!

Wooo....watch me go!!  ;-)