Kim’s Journey to a Healthier Place

There seems to be a common holiday tradition I’ve seen pop up several times on blogs… bake day. Yummy! My bake day will be Saturday with my mom. I just love this tradition… baking, spending time with mom, listening to Christmas music, it’s all so very nice. This is probably the day of the season that starts the avalanche of over-eating for me. I’m doing my very best to not do that this year. In fact, I’m making the family weight watchers, too. I’ve decided to make a couple of WH’s favorite cookies (oatmeal and maybe peanut butter) that I don’t care for, but the rest are WW recipes. So there! At least if I eat more than I plan to, it won’t be too disastrous. I can’t wait to try them out. I’ll post the recipes (Holiday sugar cookies, Frosted mini cookies, oatmeal-pecan lace cookies, chocolate-fudge cookie bites) with a review after we give them a whirl. I’m getting hungry just typing about them!

Yesterday was a pretty good day, but we’ve eaten out three nights in a row. Saturday night was Melting Pot (fondue) with friends, Sun. night was Macaroni Grill (skinny chicken= 6 points!), and last night was Felix’s Fish Camp. Last night I ordered grilled fish dry, with no extra butter. So far, I haven’t found a restaurant that understands what that means. Grilled fish STILL always comes out dripping in butter. What gives? Anyway, I only ate 1 of the fillets, ate green beans almondine (butter, bacon, beans…yum), and 2 huge rolls. I couldn’t resist the rolls. WD’s steak had a sauce on it that the rolls were screaming to be smothered in. So I did and ate them. Honestly, I think it was worth it! (c: Tonight is WI and feeling pretty good about it. We’ll see how it goes!

Although a little late, here is my review of the goals I made for November. I did pretty well. A few things I was doing very well with, but some health issues prevented me from continuing/completing a couple of them in the exercise department. I was really sad that I didn’t get to run the 8K, but I’ll find another one to run next year.  

1) I WILL jog in a 5K on 11/10/07 : Ran it!

2) I WILL be 160 by Thanksgiving. (~6 lbs away, 19 days away) : Lost it!

3) I WILL jog in an 8K on 12/8/07 : Didn’t run due to health issues.  )c:

4) I WILL work out at least 4 days a week until the 8K. : Worked out! (until health issues)

5) Out of those 4 workouts, I WILL do strength exercises at least 2 times. : Strength! (until health issues)

6) I WILL run a 10 minute mile by the end of my WW’s 12 week interval (11/27/07). : Ran it! (11/13/07)

7) I WILL eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. : Ate it! (I’m not sure if I always got in 5 servings, but I definitely ate more than usual because I was pushing myself to eat more of them.)

8 ) I WILL journal! :Journaled it! (But not as much as I could have.)

HOLIDAY GOALS

1) I will have lost a total of 50 pounds by New Year’s Day (2 pounds away).

2) I will exercise at least 2 times a week (taking in consideration holiday schedule).

3) I will include strength in at least 2 workouts a week.

4) I will eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

5) I will stay within my points values during the week (Challenge coming up with baking day with Mom).

6) I’ll stop making daily comments about my weight with WH.

 So those are the goals for now until Jan. 1. We’ll re-evaluate then. I’m thinking of some more long-term goals for 2008. I can’t wait for the New Year and the prospect of wonderful things to come!

Goal #6 above was added because I feel like I talk and ask too many questions about my weight and weight loss with my hubby. A little gab is okay, but I feel like I say something about it everyday. It’s not as bad as it once was, because it’s not so new to me anymore. I’d like to consciously make fewer comments to him about it. I know he’d probably appreciate it, even though he’s never said anything about it.

Last night WH and I were at a Christmas party. Our plan was to eat out afterwards and weren’t going to eat the finger food. Well, I was starving when we got there so I went ahead and ate some fruit; no harm. A little while later, WH thought he’d try a couple things. As we walked away from the food tables, a gentleman that knew my husband (I didn’t know him) made a comment to us that included the phrase “your thin wife…” Uh, WHAT? Could you repeat that again?!? Did this stranger just call me thin? WOO-HOO! I’ve NEVER been referred to as thin…NEVER. My head grew 2 sizes bigger before we left the party. Afterwards we found ourselves at Chik-Fil-A, and I got a chargrilled sandwich with a fruit cup. I’m glad Roni agrees that their establishment is a cut above the other fast food chains.

Bret over at Heart Healthy threw a question out there about inexpensive rewards for meeting mini goals. It was such a great question, I mulled over it a bit and decided to post about it here. This list is also a great idea for inexpensive Christmas gifts. Be sure to stop by Bret’s site to add more ideas to her blog, too!

Christmas socks

Splurge on a $10 Christmas ornament that you normally wouldn’t buy

Smelly candle for a long, hot, bubble bath

Bubble Bath for bath mentioned above (c:

New smelly lotions or scrubs

New nail polish or lipstick

Loose stem flowers from the grocery store to arrange in a vase at home

Ticket to a movie you’ve been wanting to see and haven’t made time for

A book- Amazon.com sells used books for VERY reasonable prices

Purchase a pre-viewed DVD from the video store

A new picture frame for that “current” picture of yourself (Because you look so good since you met your mini-goal!)

Kitchen gadget (ex. peeler, baking pan, cutting board, dish towels, etc.)

New spices for new recipes

WW or Low-Fat recipe book (Check for used books at Amazon.com.)

I have to say, not a bad list! Who knew that rewards didn’t have to be so expensive! Originally I had made rewards for my 5% weight losses to include pedicures, facials, massages. Um yeah, that got expensive and stopped after the facial (At least I had a gift card from graduation to cover that.) So thanks again to Bret for this great idea. This will really help me from being broke when I get to goal. They’re good gift ideas for the holidays, too!

Oh wonderful sugar-free gum,

How great you are.

Hushing the candy dish

That’s calling my name from afar. 

Gum is the best stuff. I so often forget that gum works so well at squelching my cravings. There’s a candy dish in my office calling my name as I type. But thanks to the gum that I’m now chewing, it’s beginning to hush. There’s a huge possibility that when the flavor wears off this piece, I’ll have to chew on a new one to help me resist the temptation of the candy dish. 

I lost another pound this week! I’m not sure how with being off the wagon part of the week, but maybe it’s just the accumulation of good habits for the past 6 months. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come back to haunt me at next week’s WI! (c: With my meetings being on Tuesday nights, I’m going to have to rearrange my WI’s thanks to Christmas and New Year’s Day. I think I’ll go to my leader’s Thursday night classes those weeks if she still holds them those weeks. I really want to get through this maintenance phase and move on to Lifetime. Plus this is the time of year that I need the meetings the most to keep me motivated! Missing 2 weeks in a row during the heat of the holidays is not an option I want to consider! It’s always been a scary month for me, but I’m doing okay so far. I just want the support system available.

I’ve notice that a lot of blogging folks that weigh in at meetings go by tenths of a pound (ex- 150.3 lbs). I find it interesting that the scale at our meetings measure tenths of a pound, but our leader chooses to round down to the nearest half pound. I think it’s MUCH LESS STRESSFUL this way. I don’t like the idea of accounting for every tenth of a pound of water that’s still sitting in my bladder. Any of you have a preference one way or the other?

Last night WH and I went to see the local Pops group (wind and percussion) for a Christmas concert.  It’s an amazing non-profit group of volunteers that practice and play concerts all year long in our county. They’re fabulous, and I just love their Christmas concerts! WH and I had a blast. We sat in the back and flirted/ whispered/ and acted like a couple teenagers on a date. It was wonderful. I love him so much, and times like last night just really warm my heart. Those times are what make the holidays, or any day, so special to me!

If you haven’t checked out Roni’s super easy food table template yet, you really should. It’s great!  (c: Have a great day OP!

I finally crawled back on the wagon. I had about 4 days of trying but failing in the PM. It feels so good to be in control again. BTW…I did the Firm Boot-camp DVD on Friday night. Whew! If you did that 3 times a week, talk about some hot buns! For now, mine are still a bit sore! (c: 

This weekend WH and I went to dinner with friends that we only see a few times a year because they live in a different state (but not too far). We had about 10 friends there and we have seen about 1/2 of them in the past 6 months. At that point I had already lost 20-30 pounds and most noticed somewhat then that I’d lost weight. But the reaction I received at this dinner was UNBELIEVABLE! There was so much hoopla over how different I looked with the weight off, I kind of got tired of hearing it. And don’t you find it’s hard to know what to say? I was telling WH on the way home that it just makes me realize how large I really was- for EVERYONE to be in such shock. Hopefully it will feel nice the next time I see them. I’ll be close to the same size I am now (really I hope a little smaller) and the “WOW” response won’t be necessary. I’ll just be Kim, the average size friend that neither lost a lot of weight nor gained a lot of weight since we last saw her. Just Kim.