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!