Let's try this again, shall we?

Well, here I am back after forever away.  Can't say I'll post daily or even weekly but I think I need to get back to it. 

Let's see, what I have been doing?  Losing weight - yes!  And no.  And yes again!  And then no again. Can you feel the wind on that roller coaster?!  

Going to school - may be going to school the rest of my natural life if I don't buckle down again.  I can only manage about 12 units per term on top of working full time, church, volunteer work and of course my boys. They do take a lot of time - but we have fun!  Bug is 13 and my Sweet Potato is 5 now.  It is an adventure.

Frustrating and infuriating.  I'm mad at myself because if I just stuck with anything I would be more where I want to be and not even further from it than I was when I first started this blog. But no.  BUT, I'm not here to beat myself up.  I'm here to start again. Current weight?  Not a clue.  Haven't stepped on a scale in months. So what am I doing this time?  No set diet - just a series of life changes that NEED to become permanent. And I mean NEED.  My health has taken a bit of a dive.  Blood pressure is up; I get winded doing simple things; my back, hip and knees ache terribly; I don't sleep well.  It's pretty awful.  I'm only 47 and if I plan on being an active and interesting 100-year-old I better turn this crap around.  Right now I've cut the carbs drastically.  No, I'm not doing Atkins but I need to get my carb craving under control because it leads to massive over-eating, a ton of excess calories, etc.  It's hard because I love bread. And pasta. And pasta with bread. So I'm cutting it out for a little while and then will add it back in slowly later.  Except for game nights.  I have given myself permission to eat & drink anything on game nights!

So yup, I'm back.  We'll see how well I stick with it this time! 

DOWN 6.8 LBS THIS WEEK!!!

WHOO HOO!  I am so excited to see such a jump!  Now I must continue to capitalize on this! 

Let's see, what did I do to maybe cause this?  Not much honestly.  I was so busy at work last week that I didn't eat much during the day and when I got home I was also busy and tired and just didn't sit and eat a lot.  BUT - I also drank a lot of water, got some exersize, and made sure that what I did eat was healthy and the best "bang for my buck." 

SO - what does this mean for this week, when I have already found myself eating more than last week?  Well, I have been re-motivated by last weeks loss.  I also remember that it really didn't take some huge plate of food for me to feel full and satisfied.  So I am trying to go back to that sort of thing: much smaller portions, taking longer to eat what I have, and making sure that what is on that plate is healthy and filling.  And of course trying to get some exersize in as well.  

I don't think a 6+ lb loss every week is the healthiest way to go, nor is it really feasible for me, but boy did it feel good!

THANK YOU MICHELLE and other ramblings

Right off the bat let me say THANK YOU to my dear friend Michelle for the “Appetite for Reduction” cookbook!  It is full of low-fat vegan recipes and while I am no longer doing the full-on vegan or vegetarian experiment I still try to keep at least 60% of my meals meat-free.  One of the biggest problems I had was finding low-fat options that kept the variety in my diet so that I wouldn’t get bored.  So many vegan & vegetarian recipes that I found used quite a bit of oil/butter/etc which while keeping the flavor level high did absolutely nothing for my WW Points+ values.  In fact, several items I made were so high in points that I would have been better off with steak and a salad.  I have been looking through my new cookbook in eager anticipation of the culinary delights to soon grace my plate!  I will post pictures and reviews as I make them!

I really have no excuse for not posting more often.  Yes, I’ve been exceedingly busy, was out of town for a few days and I currently have an apartment full of company but I should be able to find at least a few minutes each day to post my progress for that day.  As for progress, I am making some!  I worked really really hard during the week before and week of Memorial Day.  I stayed within points, did my Zumba workouts, walked at lunch, etc.  I FELT better and my clothes fit a little better – but for all that on my WW weigh in after 2 weeks (because they were closed on Memorial Day and I weigh in on Mondays) was only a 1 lb loss.  I know I’m doing well because of how I feel and how my clothes fit but still – that was really discouraging.  I haven’t been working out as hard the last 2 weeks but I have been watching what I eat so it will be interesting to see what the weigh-in is like tonight.  I can’t trust my scale at home – I got on it 3 times this morning and each reading was different – by up to 6lbs!  Obviously time for a new scale!

I’ve also been looking over my blog page and it could use some spiffing up.  I need to figure out how to do the tabs across the top so that I can rearrange how this looks and add some more information.  There is a lot of stuff I’d like to add or do but I don’t want to keep trying to cram it all onto one page.  So if my page starts looking weird or doing odd things please bear with me because I don’t know what I’m doing in that respect!

Thanks for reading!