I have no excuse...

...other than the fact that I was more interested in seeing the new Stampin' UP! catalog than getting a workout in. That's it, that's my reason. I can't even blame it on the hair anymore (though I did skip washing again today to let the colour REALLY set)...it's all about Stampin' UP!

I would share what I saw in the new catty...but I can't. It's strictly off limits till July 1st, but oh my!!!

Anyway...Points tally for today:

Yogurt - 1 pt.
Tea with Milk - 1 pt.
Coffee with Cream and Sugar - 3 pts. (there are some things I absolutely refuse to give up!)
WW English Muffin, Reduced Fat Cheese, Egg - 6 pts. (this was lunch today for a change - LOL!)
Welch's Fruit Snacks - 2 pts
Made in Japan Teriyaki Meal - 10 pts. (CRAP! And I thought that was healthy!)
Tea with Milk - 1 pt.

Total - 24 pts - despite that whole Teriyaki thing - YIKES!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Day!

No workout again today, because again, can't wash the hair...my hair is GROSS when it's sweaty and not washed - ICK!!! The colour needs to set, so that's why no washing. I gotta tell ya though, it looks FAB!!!

Points Tally Today:

Raisin Bran Cereal with Milk - 4 pts.
Mini Carrot Muffins (2) - 3 pts.
Tea with Milk - 1 pt.
WW English Muffin, Reduced Fat Cheese, Egg - 6 pts.
Skim Milk (1/2 c.) - 1 pt.
Banana - 2 pts
Small Italian Sausage - 4 pts. (God those things are evil!)
Asparagus - 0 pts.
Yogurt - 1 pt.
Tea with Milk - 1 pt.

Total - 23 pts. (Another great day!)

Thanks for visiting!

No treadmill or weights today...

DS and his class are having a family "picnic", which basically means that everyone brings snacks and we play in the park for a couple of hours. It's not SUPER warm out there, so I'm not sure how it will go. There was a rain date, in case of inclement weather, but it's not raining, so I guess we're still on.

So far today:
WW English Muffin, Reduced Fat Cheese, Egg - 6 pts.
Tea with Milk - 1 pt.
Mini Carrot Muffins (evil little buggers!) - 6 pts.
Tomato and Cucumber Salad with 2 Tbsp. dressing - 2 pts.
Chocolate Chip Cookie - 3 pts.
Asparagus - 0 pts.
Bacon - 2 pts.
Ginger Cake (1/16th of 8" sq. pan) - 2 pts.
Tea with Milk - 1 pt.

Total - 23 pts - WOOHOO!!!

In other news, I had my hair hi-lited and cut today and it looks AMAZING!!! I will try and get a decent picture in decent light tomorrow to put up on here...

Thanks for peeking in today!

Today was...

...a pretty good day!

Points Tally:

WW English Muffin, Reduced Fat Cheese, Egg - 6 pts.
Tea with Milk - 1 pt.
Lean Cusine Instant Lunch - 5 pts.
Cucumber (mid-aft snack) - 0 pts.
Almonds - 3 pts.
Mini Carrot Muffins (home made) - 6 pts.
Chicken Leg (no skin) - 5 pts.
1/2 cup white rice - 2 pts.
Carrots - 0 pts.
Tea with Honey - 1 pt.

Total for the day - 29 pts.


I TOTALLY slacked this morning and did not hit the treadmill. What I did do was walk up and down stairs when I went to get DS at the bus. Here's how I do this: We live on the 9th floor and each floor has two short (7 steps) flights of stairs. I walk down two, then turn around and walk up one, walk down two, then turn around and walk up one, etc...till I get to the ground floor. It's not nearly as strenuous as the treadmill, but it definitely gets the heart pumping faster. Then, I walked the long way around the underground to get to the car. Again, not super strenuous, but every little bit counts, right?

There will be no treadmill tomorrow either as I am having my hair cut and coloured (hilites) and the colourist requests that hair not be washed. I'm certainly not going in there with a head full of sweat - ICK! I will likely do weights tomorrow and then back on the treadmill on Thursday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hard Core WW? How's that working for you?

Not quite as good as I would have liked, but I still posted a loss, so that's good!

Yesterday looked like this:

WW English Muffin, Reduced Fat Cheese, Egg - 6 pts.
Walnuts - 5 pts
Tuna with Light Mayo/Seasonings - 4 pts
Decaf Grande Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte - 3 pts
Five tiny Gingersnaps - 1 pt
1 slice Reduced Fat Cheese - 2 pts
Pork Tenderloin - 3 pts
1/4 c. Mashed Potato - 1 pt
Green Beans - 0 pts
Vex (that my husband offered and I should have said no, but just couldn't - UGH!) - 4 pts
Tea with Milk - 1 pt.

Total for the day? 30 pts - BLECH!!!

I did however (as mentioned) manage my regular trek on the treadmill and did upper body/core/legs weights after the treadmill. So I'd say that's like one step forward and 1 1/2 back...let's make today a better day!

What do you get when you cross...

...a week of Aunt Flo, overindulging and not working out...topped off with a weekend at the Bread and Honey Festival and an early birthday celebration?

You get a three pound weight gain...that's what you get!

And I was SO close to dropping to 22 pts for my birthday too - DAMN IT!!!

It's my own fault of course...so this week will be TOTALLY hard core WW. LOTS of water, sticking to points and hitting the gym EVERY day! My birthday is 6 days away and while I don't think I can get to 22 pts, I can certainly undo the damage I did last week - UGH!

So...my goal is to post here EVERY day to let you (whoever is following along) know how things are going.

Today, even after not hitting the gym for a week, I still managed the cross-country program as well as I was doing last week, so that is a step in the right direction for sure! I've had 6 points so far today and they were filling points, so they'll keep me going till lunch - another step in the right direction.

DS's cooking school called and they had to cancel tomorrow's class, so that's more good news, though not for him...but at least I won't be eating what he's cooking - LOL!

Off to the shower and then DS and I will be makin some home made granola and I'll be doing some paper crafting.

Thanks for checking in!

Another Day, Another Workout

I did the cross country program on the treadmill again today and this time, I did the whole thing at 4.0 mph, except for the 5 minutes of flat terrain which were at 5.0 mph - AMAZING!

I did some weights today too...upper body stuff, so my pecs and shoulders as well as biceps and triceps got quite the workout. I did remember to stretch, so hopefully I won't feel it TOO much tomorrow - YIKES!

Yesterday was GREAT points wise as I only ended up using 20 of my available 24 points. Go me!!!

Bring on bikini season, baby! This year, I'm gonna be ready!

That was AMAZING!!!!

This morning, I decided to stop pussy footing around with the treadmill and just go for the burn...quite the feat since I haven't even looked at the gym in close to three weeks!

Rather than just do my regular walk at 3% incline and 3.8 mph, I decided to go back to where I was last year and do the cross country routine. It has hills as high as 12% incline - CRAZY!

I did all but the last 2 minutes or so at 4.0 mph and even ran the flats at 5.0 mph (there is 5 minutes worth of "flat terrain").

The result? 2.23 miles walked and over 300 calories burned!

Like I said, THAT WAS AMAZING!!! WOOHOO!!!

So let's see...

What the heck have I been up to? I haven't been counting points and I haven't been hitting the gym.

I have been battling two back to back head colds, the second of which turned into a sinus infection, and I had a root canal to top it all off - OH JOY!!!

The good news is, I haven't gained any of the weight back that I lost - WOOHOO!!!

Tomorrow is back to the gym and back to counting points. I still want to meet my goal of 22-point days by my birthday and I know I can still do it!

Thanks for visiting!

Back on Track

Last week was NOT good! I came down with a nasty head cold that completely sucked the life right out of me...so, there were no trips to the gym. It was all I could do to sit upright for more than 10 minutes at a time - NOT fun!

This week will be better. I still have the cold, but at least it's not life sucking anymore and that is a good thing. I went to the gym this morning. Nothing too crazy just a walk at 3.8 MPH and 3% incline for 30 minutes. I'll slowly get back into my routine of running the last 5 minutes at 4.7 MPH and no incline, but not right now.

The upshot (if there can be one!) is that because I felt so crummy, I didn't eat a whole lot...so, despite not going to the gym for 7 days, I am still down 2 lbs. WOOHOO!!!

Keep up the good work!

Setting Goals

One of my original goals was to be at 22 points by my birthday...no specific weight, just somewhere in the 22 point range. I'm getting close to that, so this is great!

Onward and upward! Or downward in the case of the scale!

I've also been hitting the treadmill most days...though not so much this week as I have come down with a nasty sore throat/stuffy head and I feel completely miserable. There are no body aches/chills/vomitting so I am fairly certain that is not the dreaded H1N1 virus.

Hope everyone is having a GREAT day!

Family Movie Night

A few weeks ago, we decided to start a Family Movie Night at our house. So, on Fridays, either Scott or I hit Blockbuster and pick up a movie we'd all like to see.

So far, we've seen Bolt, Bedtime Stories and, last night, Night at the Museum.

Since I started counting points, we've had two Family Movie Nights. The first one, last Friday, I did great. Only ate about 1/2 dozen chips or so, which amounts to about 3 or 4 points. Not bad.

Last night, I made the mistake of making salsa (fresh) and onion soup dip. Now, to my credit, the salsa was zero points. Unfortunately, the chips weren't. So, about a dozen of those - 6 points. That would have been fine, but then I decided to tuck into the regular chips and onion dip. The onion dip was fat free (made with fat free sour cream), the chips, well...not. So the movie night cost me about 10 points - YIKES!!!

Normally, I try not to use the extra flexible points (35 per week), but this week, I'm glad I have 'em!!!

Today has been pretty good, though we did have home made donuts for breakfast. I ate four (one point each). Before that, I did hit the gym and actually ran the last 2 minutes of my treadmill time, so go me!

I did manage to get to the gym every day this week, so all in all it was a good week.

Oh! And that activity points thing? I figured it out. I'd have to run flat out like a crazy person to get four more per day. The way I walk/run is considered light to moderate and would net me one to two more points per day...so yeah...not gonna worry about that!!!

Hmmm...So I tallied up the points for yesterday...

...and the results were NOT so good! 36 points...that's 12 over my daily allotment - YIKES!

Now, the good news is, I do get 35 "mess around" points as a bonus each week, but I really don't like to use those if I can help it. There's activity points too, but I never use those...can't really figure them out anyway, so it's no big deal.

In other good news, I upped my treadmill time from 25 minutes to 30 minutes. Yesterday I did 12 minutes @ 3% incline and 18 @ 2% and today I did 15 minutes @ 3% and 15 @ 2%. So, we're getting up there.

Last year at this time, I was running on the treadmill and that's where I want to be again. I could run the length of "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights" (by Meatloaf). If you know the song, that's a pretty big deal!!!

Today the point count is MUCH better as lunch was only 2 points (the salad dressing on the mixed green/arugula/tomato salad I had). I love, love, LOVE that most veggies are FREE!!! No points = a GOOD thing!!!

So I started counting points again...

I'm one of those stubborn people who refuses to join Weight Watchers because there is SO much free information available out there, that it doesn't make sense to me.

But then...there's that whole accountability thing. If you have to weigh in every week, you have to make sure you count your points and stick to the plan.

My husband is GREAT about asking how many points I've had today (for now, I'm allowed 24), but (and no offense here), he's my husband. He'll love me no matter what.

I've thought about losing weight for him...or losing weight for the kids...but it boils down to wanting to do it for myself. If you're going to do it for somebody else, you shouldn't be doing it. You have to own it and you have to want to do it for you.

I've done it before...and post baby got down to 147 lbs. It's unrealistic to try and "weigh what I did in High School" because really...after 3 kids your body changes and some things just aren't possible!

So this, the world wide web, along with anyone who happens to stumble upon this blog and wants to keep track of my progress, will be my accountability.

I started back to the gym (we have facilities downstairs in our condo building) and have been doing that daily for almost two weeks. I'm already starting to see a difference.

Last week, my husband was out of town for two days and when he came home and hugged me, he even said it felt like there was less of me and at that point, I'd been counting points and going to the gym for only 3 days! So...I know it works!

Look here to keep tabs on how I'm doing...you might even find the occasional recipe as a treat!