Weigh in Monday!

I went to WW this morning before work. I am happy to say that I lost 3.4 lbs for a total of 33 lbs gone! I made some people at work pose for a picture cause I didnt have any other pic to put on here. Kim, Me, CJ and Heather! I work with the best people!

Murn

Sunday hike

Amelia and I went to hike Black Diamond Mones trail in Antioch today. It was a beautiful day! The amazing thing is I lived about a mile from these trails for 10 years and never went to them! Sad really! Anyways it was quite a hike up and then a sharp descent down some slippery rocks.

Amelia and I were happy in conversation when there was a very loud rattle sound to the left of us! I jumped! To the left there was creature that was not happy to share his yard with us. I dont know if you can see the big snake in the picture below!

We got down to the mines. It is amazing how cold the air coming out of there was!

Was a great day!

Murn

Murn's non-pasta salad, pasta salad!

I have created a pasta salad that I love. I do not like the normal grocery store pasta salad. I hate onions and mayo which are staples in most pasta salads. I have created my own and I must say it is pretty damn good! No two times are the same but I have a set of ingredients that I love in it. Here it is:

Boil a bag of twisty noodles. Drain them and set them aside. They can not be hot when you put them with all the veggies or they will all wilt! (no one likes a wilted cucumber!) I then take a package of turkey kielbasa and slice it longways once and then make slices. (where you get 2 half circles.) Sizzle those in a skillet til browned and yummy! Let those cool too (remember.....no wilting the veggies!) I have tried several varieties of turkey kielbasa. I like Hillshire Farm best by far. I do not like Trader Joe's.

I then put all of these things in a big bowl:

1 cucumber, diced up

1 zucchini, diced up

1 carrot chopped up

1 bell pepper (I use red cause thats the kind I like best)

1/2 bag of spinach loosely cut up

1 bunch of cilantro chopped up

1 small can of diced olives

1 can of artichoke hearts chopped up

handful of non-oil packed sun dried tomatoes diced up

cut up small squares of extra sharp cheddar

add the sausage and pasta and toss it with:

I use 1/2 the bottle for the above amount. Toss and there you go:

I made this over at Harmony's house today cause she and I had talked about it last night on the phone. Her hubby said that if he was at a buffet and saw it he would never taste it but was shocked how good it was. I told him I am not a pasta salad person either....hence the name. After eating Harmony and I went on a lovely 4.2 mile walk. It was a perfect day to be outside.

This last week I have been having a problem with my shirts. The necks are too big for me now. I didn't anticipate this. I am constantly shifting my shirts around so I am not showing my bra etc. I went to the store and bought 3 shirts in a smaller size. I was hoping to not have to do this. I wanted to keep wearing my big shirts longer. I have pants in a size smaller (12 pairs to be exact!) so I have pants at this point. I will report when I have to get more pants. Hoping it is soon!

Hiking with Amelia in the morning. Pictures to follow!

Murn

bad case of the blahs!

I am still feeling less than great today. I even called in sick to work with hopes if I sleep and take it easy that I will get over this cold much fast than in the past. In the past when a cold gets into my chest I can not shake it for months! (ask my coworkers and little sister....they all complain when I am STILL coughing months later!) I will let you know how this works. So today I have been drinking green tea and resting. I am starting to get a bit stir crazy! I cant remember the last day I did nothing! Tomorrow I am hoping to get up in the morning and if I am feeling ok I want to go walk. (typing this made me want to make plans...calling Harmony....stand by to see if she is available to walk tomorrow....)

So tomorrow I am going to go walking with Harmony then maybe go out on the boat with her and her family. I am going to get stuff to make my yummy pasta salad on the way over there. Recipe and pictures on tomorrow's post.

This morning I was not in the mood for my oatmeal that I had prepped. I have found a yummy pancake mix that is not too bad for me. 3 pancakes of Fiber one pancakes are 3 points. I added blueberries to the mix today but most days I add an apple. I am always trying to sneak fruit and veggies into my foods! I then sliced these awesome strawberries I got at costco earlier this week on the pancakes. I was planning on taking a picture of these pancakes but I had a bit of a flipping mishap so no pictures are available! (they were really ugly pancakes but still pretty yummy!) I put some smart balance light on them then topped them off with sugar free syrup. Delicious! (3 points for pancakes, 2 points butter...went a little overboard with that, 1 point for strawberries and blueberries for a total of 6 points)

Tonight I was wanting comfort foods. I get lazier than my normal lazy when I am not feeling good. I went rumaging in my kitchen looking for something to eat. Torn between what I wanted....and what I knew I should eat. I think I came up with a good compromise.

I cooked some whole wheat pasta. The box said there were 7 servings so I divided up the box of dry pasta into 7 servings before I cooked it. It said one serving was 3/4 cup but I didnt know if that was cooked or not. I put 5 of the servings in individula baggies to cook another time and then cooked 2 servings tonight. For the sauce I used one of my veggie containers I made a couple days ago and are pictured in that post. I chopped the veggies up a lot smaller (2 cups worth) and put them in a skillet. I added 2 servings of tomato sauce and 2 servings of a light alfredo sauce (I like my sauces mixed!) and put them in the skillet with 8 oz of already browned lean ground beef (I keep these for handy cooking in my freezer.) I added about 1/2 cup of water and let all of this cook for a while together to meld flavors as well as cook the veggies. I divided the sauce into 3 servings. Turned into a delicious meal esp after I topped it off with 1/2 oz of parmesan cheese.

I hope all of you are feeling 100%! Dont take your health for granite!

Murn

under the weather

Yesterday Kim and Meghan came over. We went for a 4.5 mile walk then came back to my house and cooked. I made these fake chicken breast (I'll post more on these another time), asparagus, artichokes and a salad. It was a very healthy meal and very yummy! After dinner we watched "The Blind Side." Love that movie! We didnt end up going to bed til 2:30 am. Kim spent the night so she wouldnt have to fight traffic for work meetings this morning.

When I woke up this morning I started not feeling great. Have a bit of the post nasal drip (I am sure it has nothing to do with my 4 hours of total sleep!) I am ready for bed as soon as I eat my soup! There are few things in this world that I love as much as sleep!

murn

Weigh in Monday!

Today was weigh in day. I was a little nervous since this was a short week. I weighed in on Wed last week so I only had 5 days this week. I am happy to say I lost 3.4lbs this week for a total of 29.6. I got my 10% award today at the meeting. I am knocking on the door of 30lbs! Feeling good about that.

I have been salivating and obsessing thinking about the maui zaui pizza from roundtable pizza. Tonight I treated myself to a personal size one. I was impressed with how small the slices are and the roundtable web site says each slice is a serving. I took a picture of the pizza but I thought that it looked big so then I took a picture of the slice so you can see it is really not that big of a pizza. The whole pizza was 15 points.

I then came home (after stopping by 3 different grocery stores...Safeway, Whole Foods and then trader Joe's...each one has diffrent things I get at it!) I came home and chopped and cooked for over 2 hours. I am working the next 4 days and so I prepped what I was going to take. Thought you might like to see what I take. Here is my veggie bowl. It includes asparagus, green beans, zucchini, squash and carrots. I put a little seasoning on it and will microwave it at work for 2.5 min and YUM! 0 points!

While I was chopping veggies I had a pot of steele cut oatmeal cooking. It makes 4 servings and I chopped 4 apples up in it to sneak in a fruit. I also get a big bowl of it so I feel like I am getting a lot! (apple=1 point, oatmeal is 3 points)

I love a little sausage in my oatmeal. I browed up 6 links which is 6 servings and each serving is 2 points.

I make a lot of things and freeze them. Here is how I freeze my soup to make it easy for later serving it. I make the joke that this is a Marion Lean Cuisine.

I made a wrap to take each day too. Here is a wheat tortilla, laughing cow cheese spread on it chicken and veggies galore. Total of 6 points for the wrap.

I cut up fruit. I put yogurt on it and some Koshi Lean cereal and it is a very happy parfait for 4 points and much filling power. I use a lot of zip lock bags but what I am doing works for me right now.

Hope this gives you some ideas and hope you had a great monday!

Murn

Hill Week

Well it seems that hills are being worked into my life. Most of my walks in the past were faily flat. Not this week. As you saw yesterday Briones was anything but flat and then Hannah took me on a walk through the Presidio that had quite a climb. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! MOst of these pictures were taken in the area of the presidio that George Lucas has his film office. It is amazingly beautiful. I am really trying to slow down in my postings of the GG bridge!

Hope all of you got out and enjoyed the Sun of this Sunday!

Murn

Go take a hike!

About a month ago I ordered a book from Amazon called 60 hikes within 60 miles of San Francisco. Somehow I ordered 2 so I gave the extra copy to Amelia. Amelia, Laura and I made plans to go hike Briones today.

Briones trail has you climb up in the hills between Martinez and Orinda. It is a bunch of rolling big hills that have cows everywhere. Here we are before we start:

This is taken once we got up in the hills. There is a road you can see below.....we started down there.

I am looking rough here. It was a hard climb up but oh so worth it!!!

Its hard to see it but the bay is out there!

I hope you can see why California cows are so happy! They have some of the best views! Wisconsin cows are not looking at the San Francisco bay!

I got a bit muddy! My friends managed to avoid the mud. Guess messes follow me where I go!

Overall I think we hiked about 5 miles (it was suppose to be 4.4 miles but I lead us a bit off the trail...a couple of times!)

So who wants to hike next time with me????

Murn!

Every once in a while...

Today I was a real Emergency Dept nurse. On many of my shifts I am there as an educator to the staff so I am in an office working on "stuff." BUt today I was in the ED with a full patient assignment. I enjoy being a real nurse but as you can imagine it has its challenges. Today was a good shift. All of my patients needed to be there. All of my patients appreciated me being their nurse. I didnt have one single drug seeker trying to manipulate me to get their fix. I didnt have one rude patient who was asking for excessive number of warm blankets or ice chips (how is it that EVERYONE knows we have those 2 things???) There was one code that we worked on for a while but were unsuccessful in getting back. Sadly that is just part of the job. I came home being proud of my profession and happy to be a nurse. It was just a day that clicked and I am glad I was there for that.

Better late than never!

I went to bed last night thinking how glorious it was that I could go to bed without having to set my alarm (I even put it on facebook!) I was wide awake at 8 am which was pissing me off! Why waste a perfectly good sleeping in morning being awake? I stayed in bed enjoying not being anywhere! Well come to find out I did have somewhere to go! Laura and I had planned to walk the reservoir this morning! OOOPPPS! She called....I jumped out of bed to meet her. It was a beautiful morning out there with Sophie (my dog), Laura (my friend) and Kyra (Laura's german sheppard.) It amazes Laura and myself that Sophie and Kyra really get along quite well. Sophie was not crazy about sittng next to her but she is not good at the "sit" command in general. Come to think about it she has no tricks....as she is spoiled and rotten.

Tonight I was really craving foods that are not going to help me hit my 10% loss goal on monday! Roundtable Maui Zaui Pizza and a big piece of vanilla cake were calling my name!!! So far I have managed to avoid those temptations but I did make a snack and thought I would share it with you! I get the 100 cal popcorn bags. I enjoy the kettle corn as well as the butter variety. While the popcorn is still hot I spritz it with the "Grapeseed Popcorn Spritzer" and liberally cover it all in white cheddar seasoning! The grapeseed oil helps the seasoning stick. I CAN NOT stand using tub butters on popcorn! It has too much water in it and makes the popcorn soggy! (thank you Cindy for showing me this product!)

Let me know some great low calorie (low point) snacks!

Murn

Happy St Patricks Day to you!

Well lets start with the important stuff! We went to WW this morning and all 3 of that go together lost!! Woohooo! I lost 2.4lbs this week bring my grand total to (drum roll please!!!)

26.2 lbs

I think I have mentioned before that you get 5 pound awards. I got that for hitting 25 pounds. I got another 5 lbs start for my bookmark (the lower yellow star is the new one.)

Apparently WW also gives you a "charm" for your keychain when you hit a loss of 25 lbs. There is a slight problem with this though.....you dont get your WW keychain until you lose 10% of your weight. 10% of my beginning weight is 27.2 lbs so I am still a pound away from it. I guess they assume that you start under 250lbs so you hit your 10% before your 25lbs loss award. I am hoping I have the keychain on monday at my next weigh in. Here is my charm.

I went to the gym with my best gym rat friend DJ! We went after work today. I did only 1 mile on the treadmill but I jogged the first 1/2 of that mile then I jogged the last 0.1. I know this is sad.....I can not run a mile.....but mark my word...I will. SOON! Anyways....after my mile I did the stationary bike. The gym only has 2 of these specific bikes that I LOVE. You pick your course and on the screen infront of me is the trail you are riding on. You pass other riders and have to steer the bike. I have been doing the course called "campus." You start and end at the football stadium and the finishing line says....Go Tigers! What is not to love about this course?? I feel like I am riding through Auburn University when I am doing this course. Sadly there is not a farm in the middle of the university like Auburn but it cant be exactly like home! It also helps that this course is only 2 miles and I can do it in only 9 minutes. Here is what the screen looks like:

After hitting the treadmill and the stationary bike I jumped in the pool. I am someone that wants credit for every bit of exercise I do. I have a hard time keeping track of how many laps I have swam. I bought a fancy clock and timer thingy that I can just hit and it keeps track. That is the theory anyways. Here in lies the problem....I cant figure out how to turn the blastin thing off. Also it takes me about 10 minutes before each swim to figure out how to get it to where it counts the laps and not time them etc. It was frustrating me more than anything. I went to Sports basement and bought a $6 counter and I am much happier with it. Only to prove more expensive is not always better and I should try simple before I go for my gizmo and gadgets! (oh how I love them!)

Lastly I work with the best group of people! Here is a green glimpse of everyone dressed in green! I caught poor Hannah in the middle of a task so she still has her gloves on.

Hope all of you had a great St Patrick's Day!

Murn

kitchen is officially closed

This is something my mom use to say right before she "went off duty." That ment she had had all she could take from her 4 bratty kids and was going in her room for peace and quiet. (After being the charge nurse for a busy shift I now understand the value of quiet time!) Anyways....its only 8pm and I am going to my room to retire....mostly so I dont go in the kitchen to look for more food to eat! I have already eaten over my points for the day and could easily eat more so I am going to take a shower and get in bed to read. I did go to the gym after work today and I did 2 miles in 31 min on the treadmill. I was having a hard time getting into running today so I gave up on it. I was going to swim and infact was looking forward to it all day but I forgot my swimsuit at my house. Goodnight to all!

Murn

Food

I love food. I have loved as long as I can remember. I did not use to like "healthy" foods. I was more of a snack food eater...all day long. Lately I have been craving things like Spinach and butternut squash. Huh? Me? I find it as hard to believe as you do. Now I do not want to mislead you and say that I dont have moments where I still want a HUGE bag of cheetos! (mmmmm...Cheetos! ....orange fingers and all! )Since my WW leader said I had to eat all my points I did go get a few snacks this last week. I bought serveral of the 100 cal packs. Mostly I find they just leaving me wanting more. I did find one tasty snack. They are a bit expensive but a tasty sweet and salty snack for 2 points.

I have another secret to my success. I have started eating at my table. I put the food I am eating in containers for how many servings. For instance, tonight I made rice-a-roni (well an off brand of the san francisco treat.) I calculated up the points for the container for 3 servings (the box said 2.5 servings but that was 6 points a serving so I spread it out a bit more.) I put a serving on my plate for dinner tonight then I put 2 more containers out for left overs. If I left it to serve as much as I wanted for dinner I would eat way more than 1/3 of the box. Anyways....many times when I am done eating my dinner (or lunch/breakfast) I am still wanting to eat more. I have a big bowl of fruit of all colors and sizes. I allow myself as much out of the fruit bowl as I want. (Please ignore the scratches on my table!)

Laura and I were on the way to my house then the gym after work. Sadly I had to go to Fry's to pick up some earphones (mine were missing since they were on my iphone when it disappeared.) Laura's car was hit in the parking lot so that put an end to us working out. I am happy to say that all were ok but it was a sucky end to the day for her. I came home and cooked and am getting ready for bed now. I am way behind on my sleep and since I walked over 8 miles yesterday I am giving myself a pass for today.

Murn

What is your defining sentence?

I walked in the city with Hannah tonight. She asked me if I had anythings I repeated over and over when I am walking or running. I told her I had a few. One is from "A Million Little Pieces" and is Hold On. It is true for exercise or food....hold on and it will pass. If I resist the temptation will go away or if I hold on I will get done with this workout. Another is from a fishy friend....Nemo, "Just keep swimming." I also do the mean talking....."you have been fat all your life....want to stay that way...then go ahead and stop this walk." Anyways....what was my theme was on my head. Then on the drive home I was listening to the "soul series" on Oprah radio (usually a show I turn the channel immediately.) Today she had a guy on there that said everyone shoudl have their defining sentence. His was "make today better than yesterday." So I thought the whole drive home about what my theme sentence is. Here is what I came up with:

I dont need one sentence for the rest of my life. I think I can have different sentences for different chapters in my life. So what is my sentence for this journey? I thought of many but kept coming back to the same one. I know it will make many roll their eyes and yes....I was a supporter but this is not about the man that made this famous. Its about what it means. "YES I CAN!" I have made so many excuses over my life as to why I was not at the top of my list. I am done with the excuses and I am going to think about how I CAN make the changes.

Quickly let me recap the day....walked with Amelia at the reservoir 3 hilly miles. I went to work for 4 hours (a little extra work never hurts) then Hannah asked me to come to the city to walk. So I walked an additional 5 miles with her. I will tell you my feet are in pain but I walked a little over 8 miles and worked 4 hours with a good bit of walking. Hannah and I talked some about running and the joy of it so I even did a couple spurts of running. I am pleased.

Not going to WW tomorrow. Mia and I have a computer training class from 8am-4pm. I am going on wed at 9 am so look for that update on Wed.

I would love to hear what any of your life sentences are.

Murn

Sharing my walks

Kris (my friend from work) wanted to go in the city to walk so she and I made plans to go do that today. CJ (another friend from work) is also working on losing weight and mentioned that he needs to exercise more so I invited him to join us. CJ brought his bf Dillon and Kris brought her brother Lance and so we had a great group for our walk. I love sharing my favorite walk with others. (Thank you Hannah for sharing it with me!)

After our walk we went to a mexican place on Chestnut St. I had a regular burrito. I ate too many chips but its ok cause I had a lot of points for the day.

So if there is anyone that wants to go on my favorite walk too...just let me know! I love sharing this city!!

I have not exercised much this week. I am scheduled for a walk with Amelia in the morning. I am hoping I can talk her into walking the reservoir 2 times for a total of just under 6 miles. I signed up to work 3pm-7pm tomorrow also so I am going to go swimming after that. trying to sneak a bunch in this weekend to make up for several days of nothing. Its a journey right? I am feeling good though.

One day at a time!

Murn

a little bit of chicken fried!

I went to see Zac Brown Band tonight in Oakland with Hannah and Deanna! What a great concert! They really put on a fantastic show and are amazingly talented. Before the concert we went to a restaurant called Pican ( but said Pecan.) It is a southern restaurant which seemed very fitting considering what concert we were going to. I had tried to get reservations to a diffrent place that looked a bit healthier but was unsucessful. I enjoyed what I really wanted but I dont think I over indulged. Here is what I had and the points I gave them:

Cornbread:4 pts

Butter on cornbread:2 pts

Salad (noncreamy dressing): 5 pts

Baby Back ribs 4 ribs (I only ate 1/2 of what you see in the picture):10 pts. (I was guessing it was about 6 oz of meat)

Cocktails: 2 pts X2 (had one at the concert too but didnt drink all of either one)

In honor of Zac Brown Band's popular song Chicken Fried, Hannah and Deanna had Fried Chicken and Grits! MMMM!

To prepare for this extravaganza of food I went to the gym and worked my bootie off. I did 30 min on the treadmill. That was a total of 2 miles and I must admit that against several people's advice I jogged 10 min of the first mile. It felt great! I then did 12 min on the bike, 8 minutes of hell on the row machine followed by 20 laps in the pool. I was feeling so great when I got back into the locker room until I discovered I left my locker unlocked and my purse was missing! I quickly went to the front desk where I was thrilled that they had it....except my phone was missing. Sadly it was never turned in so I am off to buy a new phone tomorrow. I can not believe how out of sorts I feel without my schedule or texting abilities!! Its really sad!

Anyways...I came home from the concert tonight and although I really wanted to just get into bed I prepped my meals for the next 3 days as I am working. I will be very glad in the morning. I am not sure how I am going to wake up in the morning as my cell phone was also my alarm clock!

Hope everyone had a lovely day today too and that you all still have your cell phones!

Murn!