Thats what Friends are For!

I know I have said this over and over....but I have the best friends ever.  This morning I woke up to my friend Jewell asking if I wanted to come wash my car at her house.  She and I have talked about how that is something I miss from my house.  Washing my car is not a chore I hate.  What I hate is paying someone to do it.  So I went over to her house and we washed cars together.

After the car wash I went on a long walk with Meg and our pooches.  I knew I needed to plan out my meals for the week and get situated to make this a successful week!  I went to Costco and Safeway.  Sadly at Safeway I threw all my bags in the trunk only to discover after I closed it that I didn't have my keys.  I knew I had to have them when I opening the trunk.  ARGGG!  Luckily I had my cell phone on me.  I called Jewell.  She jumped right in the car to come rescue me!  My house key was in the trunk too so I wasnt sure how we were going to get my keys out!  I did leave the sunroof open because Sophie was in the car.  I knew I was not getting my fat ass through the sunroof but my skinny-minni (she has lost a ton of weight and is looking so great!)  friend might....and DID!!!

Here is a picture of jewell scooting through my sunroof.  At this particular moment she and I were laughing historically!  Imagine.....legs kicking out the top of a car at 5pm in a bust parking lot!  She was a life saver!  

So I came home and started prepping.  If I had to list 2 things that are the key to my success I would say exercise is #1 and #2 is prep work.  The next 5 days in my life are going to be busy so I want my meals all ready to go.  Here is what I made:

Fruit cups.  I still like to eat and eat a lot!!!  I have to fill myself with fruit and veggies.  I made these fruit cups.  They are pineapple, raspberries. blueberries and strawberries. I will add fiber one yogurt (1pt) and go lean crunch 1/2 serving (0.5 pts).  What a delicious snack!!!

I then cut up 5 apples (1pt each) and made 5 servings of oatmeal (2 pts each).  I sizzled 5 links of my favorite sausage (2 pts each) to add to the top of the oatmeal.  Breakfast is served for the next 5 days!

I made 5 spinach salads (0 pts), dressings 1pt and my favorite goat cheese (1.5 pts).

I then made beef fajitas for 4 servings.  I had 6 bell peppers in it, beef, black beans.  Packaged up fat free sour cream in one serving containers, put the tortillas in zip locks so its all ready to go.  (I get most of my containers at smart and final.  I am wasteful and hope to get better at this in the future!)

Tonight I also talked to Lance, my bestest friend.  He lives in Mississippi.  We have amazingly been able to maintain our deep friendship after 10 years of living across the country from each other.  He is also on the weight loss journey.  We have been on this journey many times together only to drop off and get back in old habits.  Lance even did the crazy liquid diet with me to support me when we were in NYC!!!  Lance has lost 25 lbs since Jan.  He and I had a really encouraging talk tonight.  He knows me better than anyone and he supports me better than anyone.  Due to scheduling issues and life I have not gotten to talk to him as much as I have at other times in our friendship.  I have missed that and am making him and our friendship a higher priority.   Here is a picture of both of us when I was back home about 6 weeks ago.

I am so incredibly grateful for all my friends love and support through all of this and my blonde stupid moves like locking my keys in my car!  Thank you all of you, including my online support team many of you that I do not know in person!  

Murn

What a good day!

Ever have a day where things just go good?  Yesterday was that day for me.   Lets start with my weigh in at weight watchers.  I lost 3 lbs!  yahooo!  Making it a total of 43.0 lbs lost!  After WW Cindy and I went to PF Chang's for lunch.  I had my soup (2pts) and lettuce wraps (14 pts).  After lunch we walked around Walnut Creek shopping.  My total

After shopping I picked up Kris and we headed to San Francisco to meet up with Hannah.  San Francisco can be a very difficult place to park.  Not yesterday!  I was able to park right in front of Hannah's place.  We had a lovely 5 mile walk along the water.

After the walk we went to shower and clean up then we went to get a manicure pedicure.  Again I found parking right in front of the manicure place!  Meg met us for the rest of the evening!

We went to a lovely dinner (wasnt a chain so I dont know the points) and then back to Hannah's for cards!  Was a lovely day!  Hope I have many many more like it!

Murn!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of you had a spectacular Mother's day.  I am very blessed with a wonderful mother myself.  She is in Iowa right now helping to take care of my Grandmother (who has a broken leg....just found this out today....no one tells me anything!!)  My mom even came out last year to help me move!  That is pure love!  Thanks mom for all you do for all of us kids!  

I went to lunch at our favorite Thai food restaurant with Cindy.  Cindy and I have been going to this restaurant together for years.  Today I picked good choices....and here is the amazing thing.  I didn't order what I have ordered at that restaurant every other time I have gone there.  I usually get spring rolls and yellow curry chicken (with no onions.)  Spring rolls are fried and the curry chicken has cocoanut milk in it (not healthy!)  I had a spicy soup without cocoanut milk in it.  I then went for a green curry with chicken and peanuts.  It turned out to be delicious (I picked out the eggplant....a tad slimy for me!)  Not sure if I have ever put on here that I am a picky eater.  I am getting slightly better but there is still a long list of foods I really dislike!

I came home to have my stomach TORE up!  I don't think it was from the restaurant.  I had one episode of diarrhea in the morning before going out so I think this was something I picked up at the dear place I work at.  Anyways....spent the afternoon between bed and the toilet.  I am happy to say that I drifted off to bed and woke up feeling WAY better.  

I didn't exercise since I was having such tummy troubles!  I only had about 10 seconds to get to the bathroom once I knew I needed it so I stayed home and was lazy.  I don't think I ate all my points and I know quite a few came up and didn't get absorbed.  Tomorrow is weigh in day so we'll see how I did!

Today was a bit of a bummer day for me.  Not sure why I get in a funk of mother's day but I do sometimes.  Might be because I am president-elect of the Baron Women's Club and its not looking like that is going to change any time soon!  What do I do when I am bummed?  Yup....EAT!!  Tonight I was craving strawberry shortcake (like my mom made when she came to my house!)  I have no idea how many points this was.  I made the shortcakes out of bisquick (the recipe is on the box) and did use smart balance light instead of real butter.  The strawberry shortcake was delicious and really hit the spot.  It did also help me eat a large serving of DELICIOUS strawberries!

Hope your day is filled with Strawberry Shortcake too!

Murn

Good Week!

I have exercised every day this week except one.  I dont feel guilty about not working out that day because I got off work (from a 12 hour shift) at 11:30pm and had to be back at 7am.  It is about survival at that point.   I did go to the gym tonight after working a hellacious shift where I was in charge.  I use to be the charge nurse every shift I work.  Since switching to 11-11 I have only been in charge about 3 times.  I love taking care of my patients and letting others deal with the flow and complaints!  I was in charge again today.  Yikes!  Glad its over!  Tonight I went to the gym and did 15 min mile (I walked some and jogged some), my campus stationary bike route, and swam for 20 minutes. It was not a long workout but the gym was closing and I was tired so it will do!

This picture is with 2 of my favorite people!  Deanna and Meg are nurses I work with!  We decided to go out for drinks and dancing to celebrate nurses day!  (Who are we kidding....we wanted to go out and nurses day was a great excuse!)  Was very fun to be out with the girls!  I need to go out more!

Murn

Hug a nurse

Happy Nurses Day!  The hospital I work at has "Nightingale Award" where each unit votes on what nurse they think deserves it.  I am so very honored to say that the Emergency Dept. voted for me.  There was a ceremony to honor those that received the award.  At the celebration there was cake.  I love cake.  At first I thought...."this is for me....its like birthday cake...on your birthday...you can eat cake."  And it is true that I could of had a piece of cake and the ground would not of opened and swallowed me up.  However....I had planned all my points out for my day before I went to work.  So I started thinking about what I would not eat in order to eat that slice of cake (I was guessing a slice was 5 points.)  The conclusion was...I didn't really want the cake instead of the nutritious food that would fuel my body for the day and help me not be hungry.

Yesterday at the end of my work day I was talking to my friend Meg.  I asked her if she wanted to go for a quick walk.  So there we were walking up Treat at midnight with our puppies.  It was not a long walk and not a super fast walk but I moved.  Thats all that matters.  I love that my friends will go do crazy things like that with me!
This morning I got up and Laura and I went to Briones to do our 4 mile hike.  I absolutely love that hike!  This time of year it is the most beautiful place I know of.  I could of done a lot longer cardiovascular wise but my hiking boots were rubbing raw spots in several places so I was happy to be done!.
Laura and I had a great motivating conversation about weight.   I am a tad worried about the month coming up.  I had had plateaus in the low 220's.  We talked about ways to plow through this spot where I perceive I might have trouble.  I still have a long way to go so I can not slow down!

Going out with the girls from work to celebrate Nurses Day (we use any reason to go out!!)  Who is better to celebrate with than a bunch of Emergency dept nurses!  Thank you to ANY and ALL nurses that read this.  You are amazing for all that you do seeing people in the most vulnerable time in their lives and giving amazing care!  Its a profession I am so very proud to be part of!
Murn, RN

Yippeeee!

I went to Weight Watchers today and I am happy to say that I squeeked in at exactly 40lbs less than what I weighted in on Jan 4th (my starting day!)  I celebrated by going shopping for clothes.  I have really only bought a couple of new shirts up to this point but I am getting to the point of having to get new clothes.  I am very reluctant because I am hoping to fly through these sizes but when your pants are literally falling off....you have to do something!  I am so very happy to say that I have skipped several sizes.  I started at a size 28.  I had a lot of clothes in size 26.  Today I bought a swim suit in size 20 and a dress in size 18/20.  I dont think I ever remember being in those sizes!  Sadly I couldnt find any pants or shorts that I liked.

Anyways!  I am checking this up as a success!  I went on a walk at Lafayette Reservoir with Tracy and her son Miles today.  It was a beautiful day!

Murn!

Beautiful day!

Hannah, Holly and I met to hike at Briones in Orinda today.  It could not of been a better day for a hike.  The temperature was 80, blue sky and great company.  

After the hike Hannah came over.  I made a new soup from a Weight Watchers.  I'll post it how I made it.  

Spicy Black Bean Soup

1 onion (I left this out b/c I hate onions!)

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 large zucchini, sliced into small pieces

3 red bell peppers, diced into small pieces

1 jalapano pepper, seeds thrown away and diced into small pieces

3 (15 1/2 oz) can black beans, undrained

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 (14 1/2 oz) can vegetable broth

1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chilies (like rotel)

1 (11 oz) can sweet corn, drained

Spray large pot with nonstick spray and place over medium-high heat.  Add the onion, garlic, zucchini, bell peppers, and jalapeno.  Saute the veggies until limp.  Add 2 cans of beans, cumin, crushed red pepper and broth.  Use a submergible blender (or put all the ingredients in a blender) and puree.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer uncovered until slightly thickened, 20-25 minutes.  Serves 8

Per 1 1/2 cup serving Cal 186, Fat 0 , Fiber 10g, protein 10g  3 weight watchers points.  

Recipe adapted and taken from Best Eats by Weight Watchers.  

(I added the bell peppers, zucchini and jalapeno so the nutritional count might be slightly off. )

Side Note: I am not a fan of slimmy things in my soup so I pureed my tomatoes too.  

I served this soup with cornbread which was a ice addition but added a lot of points (because I pigged out on 2 1/2 muffins!)  But I am happy I stayed under (barely) in my point count for the day!

I weigh in tomorrow.  I am really hoping to hit 40lbs but I am not sure I can lose 1.8 lbs from thurs to monday!  Wish me luck!  I am really wanting my water proof MP3 player that I can swim with.  That is what I am rewarding myself with when I lose 40lbs!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Murn