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This past Wednesday night was my WW weigh-in.  I lost 1.8 pounds, for a total of 54.2 pounds in 23 weeks.  I have 38.2 pounds to go, to get to my WW goal and a Lifetime member of WW.

That’s all I’ve got to say right now…I’m busy with my new iPod and my youngest grandson is here with me now.

My only granddaughter turned 3 years old yesterday and her Mommy had a Tea Party for her.  As you know, I baked and decorated the “princess cake”.  Along with the cake, there were cookies of all kinds, a plate of candy (I’ll bet it was candy that was given to my daughter-in-law for Christmas….you know, the kind out of the box.  She’s a hair stylist, so she gets all kinds of gifts like that).  I took my banana with me, and my banana I ate.  I didn’t touch the cookies or candy or cake!  Hoorayyyyyyyyyyyy!  The party was  a success.

Man, my weekends go by so fast, I can practically feel them whiz past me.  Friday night, of course, I spent decorating the birthday cake.  Saturday morning, I slept in until 9, since I was up past midnight the night before.  I could have slept longer, too….but my mother woke me up with a phone call.  Imagine that!  Then I went to my grandson’s basketball game, to Subway for lunch, to the dollar store for a gift bag, tissue paper and a card.  Then on to the birthday party.  After the party, I rushed home to clean up my house and get ready to receive grandchildren.  I started dinner, (mine, and also my grandchildren’s), then the grandchildren came.  I was completely busy with them until bedtime, and shortly after that, I went to bed.  They got picked up by their Mommy at a little after 10 this morning, and then I set to work putting the house back in order.  Then I cooked some homemade lentil soup, did a one hour pilates routine, ate, cleaned the kitchen again, high speed dubbed a cassette tape of the one hour pilates routine, did some computer work, paid some bills, did some laundry, put away my Christmas decorations (finally…they’ve been taken down but sitting in the dining room), left to mail some bills and pick up a newspaper, returned home and made zuchini & spaghetti squash lazagna, ate, cleaned up the kitchen again, read the newspaper while watching a little TV, made some FF, SF cook and serve chocolate pudding, ate it with Cool Whip Free, cleaned up from that and started the dishwasher, and here I am posting on my blog.  I’ll be in bed within the hour, and then the week starts all over again.  Geeeeesh.  If only the weekends could last longer.

I’m beginning to wonder about this blog.  I started it because Roni was having that contest, and now the contest is over.  Nobody ever reads my blog, so it’s starting to feel like a lot of work for nothing.  I need to contemplate this…and see if I should continue or stop.

That’s it for tonight.  Bye.

OK….don’t eat cake…just bake and decorate it.  My only granddaughter turns 3 tomorrow, so last night I baked a Cinderella cake, and tonight I decorated it.  Sheesh!  What a job!  What a lotta icing!  And I didn’t even lick my fingers.

Her Mommy is having a Princess Tea Party for her.  It’s an open house, where the invitees can stop by, or hang out……and have tea, of course.  And cake, and cookies, and who knows what all!  I will bring my own Weight Watcher friendly treats, and have my tea with Splenda.  But it’s OK….I’ll do fine.

I always buy my grandchildren a savings bond for Christmas and birthdays.  So since her birthday is right after Christmas, I bought them both at the same time.  And I thought I’d lost her birthday bond.  So I asked her Mommy if by chance I put both of them in her Christmas card together.  And her Mommy said….”well…..I’ve misplaced it”.  So wow…both of us!  Who woulda thought?  However, just a few moments ago, I found her birthday bond.  Yayyyyyy!  No, I’m not going to tell you my secret hiding place!

Here’s what i ate today:

24 oz. water on the way to work

Breakfast: coffee with equal and powdered creamer, 2 bran muffins

Lunch: leftover butternut, chicken and carrot stew, piece of mock coconut cream pie made with spaghetti squash, 24 oz. water

Snack: orange, bran muffin

Dinner: sesame chicken and broccoli, brown rice, 1 pt. rice krispie treat, water

Snack: popcorn, Weight Watcher chocolate snack cake

I didn’t exercise….I was just too busy.  I’m going to bed now, as it is going on midnight, and my grandson has a basketball game tomorrow morning, then off to the 3 year old birthday partyy!

Well, I had my Weight Watchers meeting last night, so I weighed in.  I only lost 0.8 pounds!!  That’s the SMALLEST amount I’ve ever lost in 22 weeks!  And what’s weird is, I thought I was going to lose a lot last night, because for the last week, all my clothes are getting too big, and I’m needing to clean out my closet again.  Oh well….I know that I have been on plan, so maybe next Wednesday night I will lose a lot.  And maybe not…but it’s OK.  It was a loss!

At my meeting last night, I brought treats to taste test, so to speak!  Isn’t that mean of me?  Bringing treats to a Weight Watcher meeting?  No, I just gave whoever wanted it, a small, approx. 1 inch square of a piece of pie called Mock Coconut Cream Pie, which is made with spaghetti squash.  It’s really delicious, but the 2 weeks prior, I had been talking about this dessert, which is what I made for Christmas, and what I ate while everyone else in my family were eating Christmas cookies, candy, cheesecake, chocolate lush, etc.  So anyway, some of the people at my meeting were saying that there was no way that could be good.  So I had to bake one, bring it, and prove them wrong!  I have no idea where I got this recipe….somewhere on the internet.  I go so many places, that I can’t keep track of things like that.  Sorry, whoever created it, but I’m not sorry that you placed it on the internet, because I love it!  Here is the recipe. 

Mock Coconut Cream Pie,WW Favorite Recipes

Serving Size : 8

2 cps cooked spaghetti squash
1 cp skim milk
4 eggs
1/2 cp evaporated skim milk
1/4 cp flour and sugar(Could sub Splenda)
2 T and 2t reduced calorie margarine
1/2 t vanilla and coconut extract
1/4 t double acting baking powder

Preheat oven to 350*F. Spray 9″ pie pan with nonsticking spray, using the back of a spoon, spread squash over bottom and up sides of pan. Set aside.
In blender container combine remaining ingred and process til smooth; pour over squash and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Transfer pie pan to wire rack and let stand for 1 hour. Cover with plastic and refrigerator overnight.
Makes 8 servings
130 cal, 6 g protein, 5 g fat, 4 g fiber per serving
If you sub egg beaters, the fat should come down.
I promise you this is delic

I hope you like it!

Here’s what I ate today!

24 oz. water on the way to work

Breakfast: coffee with Equal and powdered creamer, 1 cup quick oatmeal with Splenda

Lunch: About 2/3 can great northern beans, 1/2 c. FF cottage cheese, a bit of ketchup, a cornbread VitaTop, 24 oz. water

Dinner: Butternut, chicken, carrot stew - 2 cups, 1 piece of mock coconut cream pie, water

Snack: I still have 6 points left, so I will probably have popcorn and maybe something else, or maybe I’ll just leave 2 points.

Update on my Sleep Number bed.  I haven’t figured out my sleep number yet.  I started on 40, then moved to 50, then on to 60.  I can’t decide if it’s too hard now, or not hard enough.  I’m sleeping pretty good though, only waking up once in the night.  That’s way better than waking up 2, 3 or more times.

Oh…..I worked out at Curves last night after meeting, then had an hour long pilates class.  I wasn’t able to work out tonight, because my truck is in the shop.

That’s enough talking tonight.  Bye!

Yesterday, when I left work, I thought to myself, “now there’s no need to take my laptop home because I have Curves right after work, and a one hour pilates class after that.  My truck is empty, so I have to get gas, so by the time I get home it will be nearly 8 o’clock, so there’s no way I’ll do any work tonight.  So I left my laptop in my office, and what do you know…..we got major rain in the night, which flooded our parking lot and the septic system (my office is in the middle of cornfields, on a frontage road next to an interstate).  Therefore, while I was on my way to my office (a 35 mile one-way trip), my boss called and told me that because we had no bathroom, I couldn’t work at the office today.  Well, I normally work in a remote location one day a week anyway, so he suggested I go there today.  It wasn’t really a good day to go there, as I had other work that needed to be done, so now I’m going to the remote location 2 days in a row.  The only problem was….I still had to go clear out to my office to pick up my laptop.  How stupid of me.  If I had taken my laptop home, my boss probably would have called me and said to just work from home today.  Darn it!  So anyway, I went to the remote location to work…..where….the guy I work for there was having a birthday party (given by the girls in the office), and they had birthday cake, of course.  But I didn’t eat any.  I was prepared.  I had a 1/2 cup serving of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal in a baggy in my purse.  So I ate the Kashi while everyone else pigged out on cake with very rich icing.  I felt very good about myself.  And after work, I went to Curves and worked out.

Now, about the neti pots.  Has anyone watched Oprah when Dr. Oz is on?  Well, I woke up in the middle of the night last night, about time to watch Oprah from 1:30 to 2:30 AM…and Dr. Oz was on.  This is the 2nd time that I’ve seen him when he was talking about people with sinusitis and using a neti pot (also known as a nose bidet) to cleanse out your sinuses.  I knew that warm water was put into the neti pot and over a sink, you pour the warm water into one nostril, it flows up into the sinuses, and back down and out the other nostril into the sink.  But I also knew that the warm water had salt in it, however, I missed the part both times when he told how much salt goes into the water.  Well, I looked it up on the internet and got to see a little movie about the sinuses, and Dr. Oz talking, and I did find out that you use 1/4 teaspoon of NON-iodized salt to 8 oz. of lukewarm water.  So then I went to Walgreens on the way to Curves from work to inquire if they had neti pots, and they did!!  So I bought two of them…one for me and one for my oldest son, who has had trouble with his sinuses since he was 3 years old (he’s 34 now and a husband and father).  So after Curves, I took his neti pot to him and explained it all to him.  He and I are both a little nervous about using it, but we both said we would.  On the first Oprah show where Dr. Oz was talking about the neti pot, a lady from the audience volunteered to try it out.  She said that before she did it, she imagined that it might feel like drowning, and she was a little nervous.  But she said that it did not, that it actually felt good.  So before bed, I’m gonna do it!  I’ll let you know tomorrow, how it goes.  Tomorrow after work is Weight Watchers weigh-in!  This is my first weigh-in since I started this blog.  Talk to you tomorrow night.  Bye!

We’re back to having a normal week…..which means working 5 days in a row, and working out 4 days in a row.  In a way, I’m glad….but I miss having days off…besides weekends, I mean.  Trouble is, there’s never enough time in my evenings to get everything done that I need to.  I mean, here it is 10:49 pm, and I’m just blogging.  So I’m keeping it short tonight.

My workout after work consisted of doing the Curves circuit for 30 minutes, and 1 hour of pilates.  I love those pilates! Wow…it just thundered here and scared me to death.  Another reason to do this fast….get off the computer and shut it down.

Here’s what I ate today:

24 oz. water on the way to work

Breakfast at my desk: coffee with Equal and a little powdered creamer, and 2 bran muffins

Lunch at my desk: leftover pork chop in tomato sauce and potato, yogurt

Dinner at home after workout: Boca burger, mushroom burger, light buns, onion, pickle, mustard, ketchup, zuchinni squash fries

Snack: popcorn, homemade frozen yogurt

I’ve still got 2 points left, but I’m tired, so as soon as I gather up stuff to do bills tomorrow at work, I’m going to bed…..well, after I clean out my gym bag and wash my face and brush my teeth and put my jammas on.

Later!

Man, I’ve been busy this weekend!  First off, I had ordered a new Sleep Number bed from QVC on the weekend prior to Christmas, and it was delivered on Thursday.  It wasn’t supposed to have been  here until January 9th, according to QVC, but it came early.  Thanks goodness I shopped last weekend for a bedframe and headboard, a mattress cover, sheets, blanket, quilt, pillows, etc., or I wouldn’t have been ready.  I just bought a new queen size foam mattress bed about 3 years ago, and I really love it, but I had been wanting a Sleep Number Bed for 10+ years, and QVC had this great close-out price, so I did it!  What to do with the other bed, that was in superb condition?  Well, in my grandchildren bedroom (guest room too, now), I had a crib and a twin bed.  Wow…the babies don’t stay in the crib long…that bed still looks like brand new.  When I became a Grandma 6 years ago, I started with a ready-made 3 1/2 year old grandson (my youngest son’s girlfriends’ little boy).  But when my oldest son and his wife had their first baby, I bought a new crib.  He is now 4 1/2 years old and his little brother will be 2 in March, and doesn’t sleep in a crib any longer at home.  My youngest son and his wife (the same one that USED to be his girlfriend) had my only granddaughter 3 years ago next Saturday, so naturally, she’s been out of the crib for over a year now.  So there is no use for the crib any longer, since both of my sons and their wives say, “no more babies”.  I don’t know whether to be happy or to cry.  Also, the twin bed then, really only fits one child well, although at one time when I kept all 4 of them at once (that doesn’t happen very often), I put Nic at one end of the twin bed and Jax at the other end.  Nadalyn, my granddaughter, slept with me, and the baby Jovan was in the crib.  Sooooo……I decided to put my 3 year old queen foam bed in their room.  Therefore, I had to buy all that stuff that I mentioned at the beginning, for their room.  Then my Mom and I put together my Sleep Number Bed.  So tonight is my first night to sleep in it….I can’t wait!  I stayed in a Radisson Hotel back in early October when I had to travel to Jacksonville Florida on business (I’m from Illinois).  Radisson’s have Sleep Number beds, and I had the best night’s sleep I have EVER had in a hotel in my life.  Then, of course, when you’re moving things, you end up cleaning other aspects of the same room(s), therefore, I got all that done.  Also, I washed ALL the bedding from the old beds that were taken down, and what was on my bed previously, so I got all THAT done.  The Sleep Number bed was started on Saturday, and finished on Sunday.

 Then, today, I bought a whole pork loin, that my local grocer had for $1.99 a pound, and I cut 30 pork chops from it, and vacuumed sealed them and put them in the freezer; well, all but 4 of them, I’m cooking right now, Pork Chops in Tomato Sauce.  It’s a recipe that my WW leader gave us at my very first WW meeting back in August.  I love this recipe, however, I’ve only made it once….only because I have since found SO MANY other good recipes, that I just haven’t had the time.

Last night, after I finished the “beds” for the day, I got cleaned up and actually went out….to a karaoke night with some of my friends.  I had a blast, although the place we went, (where we used to go every Saturday night back before I had grandchildren), was packed with really young people…I mean, they couldn’t have been more than 21.  They acted like they were, but since it was a bar, I believe they had to be at least 21.  But it was still fun.  I was “kind of hoping” that this one guy would be there….but he wasn’t.  Oh well…he’ll show up eventually.  I haven’t seen him since last July, and I began WW in August, so he hasn’t seen me since I weighed 51.6 pounds more than I do now.  So….when I finally do run into him, I will weigh even less, right?

So anyway, it’s been an action packed weekend!  I also spent quite a bit of time with my Mom, which she always likes….and I’m sure I will too when I’m her age.  Right now (and well…always) my life is so full and so busy and so fast, that I can’t imagine being bored or lonely…even though I live alone.  When you work 40+ hours a week, and you exercise at Curves 4 times a week, and attend a WW meeting and take 2 hour long pilates classes, and search out recipes and cook them and clean and watch grandchildren….there isn’t a lot of time to get bored or lonely.  And I have MANY hobbies and interests….too numerous to mention.

Here’s what I ate yesterday….and then today.

I know it’s wrong, but I was too busy to eat breakfast, so all I had was coffee with Equal and a little powdered creamer.

Lunch–6″ Subway (roast beef on wheat with all the veggies and spicy mustard, Lay’s Light chips, Diet Coke.

Dinner–Big salad with onions, cucs, green pepper & the BEST FF Italian salad dressing I have ever eaten (The Pasta House FF Italian). I put  a little Splenda in the bottle when I first open it, because I like a sweet & sour taste. It’s only 10 calories for 2 Tablespoons, so I had 20 calories worth of the dressing, and it has no fat or fiber.  So that’s 0 points.  Then I had a salmon patty that I had made at another meal and froze, and some frozen peas. At this point, I had 11.5 points left and needed to get ready to go out for karaoke, so I first ate some dessert.  I had a leftover piece of 4 point chocolate cake (made with the cake mix and the diet coke) that I had made for my son’s birthday in October and froze the rest in individual pieces.  I had that with 1/2 cup of vanilla FF SF ice cream.  Then I also ate a leftover and frozen rice krispie treat (a LF LS treat from Christmas).

When I got home from karaoke at 12:30 am, I ate some popcorn before going to bed.  I know….I know….it was too late to be eating.  But….all my friends went out for breakfast, and I did not go….OK?  So I still went to bed with 1 point left.

 Today

Again, my bad…I didn’t eat breakfast.  I’m sometimes just too busy, and I know that’s no excuse, but my Mom was coming over to help me with the bed, and I couldn’t say…well…you just sit there and wait on me while I eat my breakfast….could I?  So I just had coffee again.

At lunch, my Mom and I went out to this new little restaurant in town (small town) and the ONLY thing to eat on this menu was a grilled chicken salad.  Of course, I ordered it with no cheese and add as many veggies as they had.  But all they had was bag salad and tomato.  So OK.  I ordered FF Ranch dressing, and of course when it came (thank goodness it was a Newman’s Own packet), it was REDUCED Fat, not FAT FREE.  The whole packet was 3 points…..that is NOT a FAT FREE dressing.  I told the waitress that they needed to change the menu to say reduced fat, not fat free, as it had 12 grams of fat in it.  I could tell she wasn’t going to say a thing.  They don’t get the most of their business from us Weight Watchers…..you know what I mean?  So I drank water, which I needed to drink anyway.

I had an afternoon snack of a cup of homemade frozen yogurt that my Mom is experimenting with.  It was good, but we decided it tasted too sour, like yogurt.  I like yogurt, but my Mom doesn’t.  But when we figured the points, it was going to be 1.7 points for a whole cup.  However, we were only figuring it would make a gallon, and it ended up making more than 1 1/2 gallons.

That gets us to dinner, which I haven’t had yet.  I am going to have what I mentioned above…pork chop in tomato sauce and potato.  The sauce also has green pepper, onion and garlic in it.

Here is the recipe:

Pork Chops in Tomato Sauce. 3 garlic cloves3 T. red-wine vinegar4 tsp extra virgin olive oil1 tsp dried oregano1 tsp dried basil4 boneless pork chops (I use approx. 3.5 oz. ones, usually)1/2 tsp salt1 onion, chopped1 green pepper, chopped1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce Mince garlic, put in large bowl. Stir in vinegar, 2 tsp. oil oregano & basil.  Add chops and toss to coat.  Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes. Remove pork from marinate, pat dry with paper towel. Heat 1 tsp. oil in skillet, add pork, cook about 3 minutes, turning to brown both sides.  Move pork to plate.  In same skillet, add remaining tsp. oil, garlic, onion and pepper.  Cook about 3 minutes (just to soften the onion and pepper).  Add tomato sauce, and put pork chops back in.  Reduce heat, cook about 5 minutes.  Turnaround Cookbook.  This is CORE 5 points.  Add 1 cup potatoes for 2 points more. 

I found some discrepancies in this recipe.  She just has 3 garlic cloves, yet she tells us to do 2 different things with the garlic.  I, personally, used 3 garlic cloves each time.  I wasn’t sure why we had to pat dry with a paper towel, the pork chops…but I did it…slightly.  At the end, when it says to reduce heat and cook 5 minutes…..there was no way my pork chops were done enough for only 5 minutes of cooking.  Now, granted, I cut my own pork chops from a pork loin and froze them.  So one…my pork chops weren’t entirely thawed out, and two…they were probably thicker than what she was actually referring to.  So I let my dish simmer for about 30 minutes…or maybe a little more.  Also….when she says 1 cup of potatoes…..I took a medium large potato for each pork chop and scrubbed it, leaving the skin on.  Then I cut it in 4 pieces lengthwise.  Then I laid the pieces all around the outer edge of the skillet, plus where ever they would fit in amongst the pork chops…and basically, when the potatoes were done, is when I took the meat off too.  And I counted 3 points for my potato.

So….I guess that’s enough talking for today.  See ya around.

Well, I still haven’t learned anything more about this blog.  Geeeesh.  I just don’t have the time to just sit here and play with it.  I’ve got so many other things I need to be doing.

Man, I got spoiled over the Christmas and New Years holidays, since I was on vacation from the Friday before Christmas, until New Years Eve.  Then another day off, then just 3 days to work.  I was SO glad when today was over and it was the weekend!  Gosh, how in the world am I going to be able to get through a whole 5 days at work next week?  I suppose I will, however.

I have one point left today, but I don’t know if I’m going to use it or not….probably not….since it’s 10:45 pm.  Yesterday I went to bed with 3 points left.  And I’m really tired tonight.  Here’s what I ate today.

Breakfast - 1 cup of Quaker Quick Oats oatmeal and coffee with Equal & a little powdered creamer & (24 oz. of water on the way to work).

Lunch–2 cups of veggie chili (I’ll talk about it in a bit), leftover baked sweet potato & 24 oz. water.

Snack–apple & WW sourdough pretzel thins sample pack

Dinner–1/4 cup remaining veggie chili, whole wheat pasta with maranara, onion rings (baked with fiber one crust)

Snack–Popcorn (loose kernals microwaved in brown paper bag), WW fudgecicle, Hostess 100 cal. pack

I think my dinner could have been a lot better tonight, but I didn’t even get home until 8pm, because I went shopping after work.  Therefore, I grabbed something easy from the fridge, and I didn’t bother to make a vegetable.  So then I had quite a few points left, and ate too many snacks.  But I’ve done this before, and I continue to be successful at losing.

 The Veggie Chili that I talked about is wonderful.  I can’t remember even where I got the recipe…somewhere online.  But here is the recipe.

ONE PT VEGGIE CHILI

1 lb ground turkey

1 med onion, diced

2- 28oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained

2 med zucchini, diced

2 med yellow squash, diced

1 15oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 15oz can fat free beef broth

4 celery stalks, diced

2 green bell peppers, diced

1 pkg dry chili seasoning mix

Spray a large nonstick skillet with Pam and set over med-high heat. Add turkey & onion and sauté until browned, about 5 min. Transfer the meat and onion mixture to a large soup pot and remaining ingredients. Bring to simmer over med-heat. Continue to simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 min.

20 servings = 1 cup = 1 point

I don’t start with a skillet, then transfer to the large soup pot.  I do it all in the large soup pot.  I also add Splenda to taste (I like my chili a little bit sweet), and for half of the canned tomatoes, I use Rotel, to give it a kick.  If you don’t like it that hot, then just use 1 can Rotel, and 3 small cans (14.5 or 15 oz. cans) of regular tomatoes.  I really like this chili, and it’s really filling for just one point.

That’s it for tonight.  Talk later!

I want to start talking about getting healthy, and losing weight.  But man, I am just so illiterate with this blogging thing.  I can’t figure anything out.

Before I start talking about getting healthy and losing weight, however, I want to mention the contest that Roni is having http://weightwatchen.com that involves Orville Redenbacher popcorn http://orville.com and movies on Netflix.  If you are a blogger, or would like to become one, as I did, you will be interested in this contest, so check it out at  http://weightwatchen.com

In my first post yesterday, I already did tell you a lot of my story….however, I didn’t tell you everything.  So I’m trying to add my story over on the side, and I think I do that with a page…but I’m just not sure.  I haven’t figured all this out yet.  I may never figure it all out.

I have, however, figured out how to lose weight and get healthy.  At least, it’s working, so I must have figured it out, right?  I’ve lost 51.6 pounds in 20 weeks!  That’s a lot!  Even I am amazed, and I’ve been with myself the whole time!  I also continue to be amazed that I’m not suffering.  Isn’t that weird?  I mean, every other time in my life that I have tried to lose weight, or was successful at losing weight, I suffered….in some way or another.  I don’t know whether the sun and moon and stars were all lined up just right when I started, or God answered my prayers, or exactly what happened.  I just know that the last 20 weeks of my life has been great!  I want the rest of my life to go this way!

I do spend a lot of time online, searching out recipes and ideas, and hearing what others have had to say.  And I spend a lot of time cooking, and washing dishes….AND MEASURING CUPS!!!  Ohmygod…..the number of times I wash my measuring cups!  But ya gotta have ‘em.  And then I spend a lot of time exercising.  As I said yesterday, I go to Curves for Women four days a week and have done that since February 2007, and starting in early September 2007, I began taking a pilates class 2 days a week.  The first class there was so much I couldn’t do.  I had not been working my core muscles previous to this, plus, I had probably only lost between 10 and 15 pounds by then.  So I had a hard time in my first class….such a hard time that I was being a class clown, in order to draw attention away from the fact that I couldn’t do a lot of this stuff.  And everyone else in my class had taken these pilates classes before.  At least I had everyone else laughing too, even the teacher.  But by the 2nd class, I could do things that I couldn’t do in the first class, and by the 3rd class, I could do things that I couldn’t do in the second class….and so it continued.  I began to feel myself getting stronger from one class to the next.  It’s amazing to me the things that I can do now…after just four months of twice a week pilates classes.  Of course, during that time, I continued to lose weight.  I don’t know what this particular “move” is called, but imagine me lying on my back, now I lift my legs up off the floor, continue lifting them until they are straight up in the air, and then lifting my rump up off the floor and continue moving in the same direction until my toes are touching the floor behind my head.  Well, at first, I could only get as far as my legs being straight up in the air.  When I could finally get my rump up off the floor, but I couldn’t touch my toes to the ground yet (but almost), all the blubber from my too big belly and my boobs, all came together in this heap right at my neck and I couldn’t breathe!  But believe it or not, I can do it now!  I can touch my toes to the floor and hold them there!  It’s because my belly keeps getting smaller, so now the heap at my neck is much smaller, and I can actually breathe through this exercise.  Wow!  It’s hard, but I love it!  I love it so much, that on Christmas Eve morning, I took a class and taped it (because our teacher is going on a 2 week vacation to Hawaii in January).  And since I had the tape, I did the hour pilates routine twice while I was on vacation the week between Christmas and New Years.  My son was surprised and congratulated me that I worked out on New Years Day.  He had called me to tell me where he and my other son were going to be to watch the Rose Bowl Game (I’m from Illinois!), and when I called him back I told him why I didn’t answer my cell phone when he called….that I was in the middle of my pilates routine.

 You know it’s funny though.  All the exercise I do, if I sit for very long, then get up, I’m still stiff and sore and can barely move for a few seconds, until I “get warmed up”.  Dang…it’s hell getting old.  My Dad said to me before he died, “It’s hell to get old, Bon…take care of your knees!”  I learned what he was talking about….which is one thing I’ve noticed about exercising and losing weight….my knees don’t hurt as much any more!

 Another benefit I’ve had is that my Dr. has taken me off one of the two high blood pressure medications that I was on.  I’m hoping to eventually get off the 2nd one.  I’ve had high blood pressure since I was pregnant with my first son…in 1973 when I was only 18 years old.  And I wasn’t really overweight then. 

Well, that’s enough for tonight.  I’ve got to figure out all the ins and outs of this blog, before it drives me crazy.  Talk to you later!

This is my very first post of my very first blog, and I really have no idea what I’m doing…..with blogs anyway.  I know very well what I’m doing, that has caused me to start this blog.  I began a new venture last year to get healthy, and I’m actually doing it!  I began in late February 2007 by joining Curves for Women.  I joined because I felt old….really old, and I didn’t like it.  So I started going to Curves to work out 4 days a week, and I kept it up, even when I was traveling on business.  When I first began, my oldest son said, “That’s great, Mom, that you’re working out and trying to get healthy, but don’t think you’re going to lose weight by exercise alone.”  And I felt downtrodden.  I wasn’t ready to give up all the yummy unhealthy food I was eating.  So I think, in a way, I set out to prove him wrong.  :)  But he was right, and by August, I had decided that I needed a healthy food plan too.  So on August 8th, I joined Weight Watchers.  I decided right off that I wasn’t sorry that I began going to Curves 6 months prior, because I already had made exercising 4 times a week, a habit.  So now, I wasn’t going to have to learn how to eat better, (and less of it), AND learn to exercise several times a week, all at the same time.  Exercise was already a habit for me, so all I had to do was figure out how to curb the voracious appetite that I had.

 I started scouring the Weight Watchers web site for food I could eat, and recipes I could cook.  And I was having fun!  I really was!  I can honestly say that I haven’t had any struggles this time.  Now, I say “this time” because I have been on many diets in my life, including  starving myself, which netted 75 lbs. lost, but….my hair started falling out….not in huge amounts, but…that was the beginning of my hair getting thinner, (which wasn’t exactly what I had in mind to get thin).

 Well, this time, I started out 17.4 pounds heavier than when I lost 75 pounds in 1994, so I had a total of 92.4 pounds to lose.  As of my Weight Watcher weigh-in tonight, I have lost 51.6 pounds, and have 40.8 pounds to go, to get to my Weight Watcher goal.  Once I get there,  I may decide to go a little lower, as the goal I chose is the top of my healthy weight range for my age and height.  The reason I chose that weight for my goal, is because, that is what I got down to in 1994, when I was 13-14 years younger than I am now.  I guess I should tell you my age….I’m 52.  I was 39 when I lost the 75 pounds.  So, I have always heard that as you age, you cannot weigh as little as you did, say, when you were in high school.  I’m not exactly sure why that is, but it’s what I’ve always heard.  In High School, I weighed roughly 130 pounds.  I think my first drivers license said 129, because I thought 130 was fat.  Well….all my girlfriends weighed 100…or less…and wore size 2, 4 or 6, and I wore a 10 or a 12.  So naturally, I would think 130 was fat!  I was a teen! Oh if only we could understand how much worse it would get as we aged.

Well, by now, you may have figured out what my starting weight was on August 8th, 2007.  But in case you haven’t bothered,  I will tell you.  I was a whopping 247.4 pounds.  Ohmygod!  I weighed more than either of my grown sons.  I was disgusted with myself….and embarrassed.  And there’s no way I would have actually told anyone how much I weighed back then.  (Well, there are actually people I don’t really want to tell now…even though I’ve lost over 50 pounds of it!….namely men.)  Men don’t understand.  I really believe that most men think that most women weigh 120.  They haven’t got a clue.  And I don’t really want to be the first one to tell them.

Well, until I figure this whole blog thing out, I think that’s enough talking for one post.  So I’ll talk to you later.  See ya around!