I Ran A 5K!!

Well, not a real race. More like my own little personal one, in my basement on my treadmill!!! Hey, but it's a start! One of my goals this year is to run a 5K race, but I have had difficulty trying to run outdoors. After receiving some great advice from some bloggers, I realized that I need to build up my lung capacity and endurance and just start SLOW. So I mainly "jogged" on the treadmill and went fairly slow (at 3 MPH speed). It took me 61 minutes and I didn't stop at all or slow to a walking pace. I know that is a ridiculous amount of time to run a real race, but I was so happy with myself and I hope to gain more endurance to be able to do this outside! During my run (okay, jog but, run sounds so much "cooler" haha), I also realized what has been holding me back from running outside.....it's ME! My mind plays tricks on me and talks me out of doing it, making me feel like I couldn't possibly run another step or that maybe I should stop so I don't overdo it! But today I said, "LA LA LA LA LA - I can't hear you!!" to the fat girl mind and I went for it! It felt so good!

I got so caught up in this workout that by the time I got done and showered, it was almost lunchtime! I hadn't eaten breakfast before my run because I didn't want to get stitches in my side or anything else that could hinder my workout, but when I was finished, I wasn't that hungry anyway. So, I waited a little then made some lunch. I had a turkey sandwich with turkey, lettuce, and a squirt of dijonnaise on an Arnold Sandwich Thin. Along with that, a 1 oz. serving of Kettle Baked Potato Chips, carrot sticks and 2 tbsp. hummus...



After that, I felt like something sweet, so I had a Weight Watchers Peanut Butter Bliss Mini Bar...

Snack this afternoon was a nice cup of cinnamon vanilla nut coffee and my last slice of apple cranberry bread from the freezer. Must make more of that!

I'm planning on making chicken again tonight and I have plenty of POINTS still left (12), so maybe I can make a yummy dessert, too! See you later...

Bye Bye Christmas

See ya Christmas. Later. Don't let the door hit ya! That's how I felt today as I was putting away all things Christmas. It was a great holiday season, but I am ready to put it all behind me (unfortunately a lot of it ended up ON my behind) and start anew! Getting on the scale this morning did help me with this new found motivation I have today! Not a pretty number:(



I was so busy helping little daughter clean her room this morning that I "forgot to eat" breakfast. Okay, that phrase could never be part of my vocabulary, so in all honesty, I just didn't want to stop what I was doing to eat something. Weird for me. No, I don't have an extremely high delusion-causing fever! When we finished cleaning I noticed it was pretty close to lunch, so I decided to just go with a slice of apple cranberry bread to tide me over...







When lunchtime rolled around, I decided to go with something different - pasta! I don't usually eat pasta at lunch. I fear it won't hold me through the day, but today I gave it a try. I used 2 oz. of Ronzoni Smart Taste Penne and topped it with 1/2c. of leftover black eyed pea salad from New Years lunch. I also sprinkled 2 tbsp. grated parmesan over it. Oh my greatness, this was so delish and only came to 6 Points...




Suprisingly, it held me over pretty well. I was busy putting away the Christmas decorations and cleaning, so I'm sure that helped, too. When all was done and put away, I sat down to a lovely snack of sliced pear, Lighthouse Reduced Sugar Caramel Dip and a 1/2 serving of pretzel sticks...

Now I'm off to catch up on some reading. See ya!

Weighed And Paid

I went to my WW meeting this morning. My last weigh-in was 12/20 before all the holiday eating hoopla. I knew I would be up because I did take a peek at the scale the other day. Usually, when I know I have gained I do go to the meeting, but I don't get weighed. Today, I decided to pay the piper and get an "official" scale reading to hopefully get my rear in gear to take off these last 20 pounds. So, it's official - I gained 1.2 lbs. I'm o.k. with that. It was actually worse the other day when I got on my home scale, but I think since I have been back on track these last couple days, my weight came down a little more. Good to know - just takes a few days of doing the right thing to get the holiday weight off. Hopefully, by next week the rest will be off, too!



I never eat before weigh-in, but I did take breakfast in the car. A slice of apple cranberry bread and more apple...







I spent the rest of the late morning and early afternoon making some dishes for the New Years Eve party we are going to tonight and also, for tomorrow when we have my parents, Gram and in-laws over for lunch. In between cooking and cleaning up, I made a quick lunch. I went with a ham and cheese sandwich (1 oz. ham, slice of 2% cheese, lettuce on a club roll), a serving of Sea Salt and Pepper Rice Chips and some grapes...




I dipped into some chocolate after that and a handful of reduced fat chips. I guess I'll let that be my snack. This afternoon/evening will be a little rough with the party starting so late. Dinner will be served and it doesn't start until 7 p.m., so we will be eating much later than I normally like. It's always a bit of a dilema; I don't know whether I should eat first and pick at the dinner, or not eat and wait or just have a snack ,then eat what's there. Ugh. My plan is to wait for the dinner and just do the best I can. I'll try to have a little of everything. I know I will not be figuring Points for all this, but since today is my first day of the weigh-in week at least I have the rest of the week to work it off!



I hope everyone has a fun night tonight, whatever you may be doing! See you all in 2009!!!

Empty Nesters

The husband and I feel like empty nesters. The daughters are spending a couple of days with their grandparents - it's so weird without them! You tend to get into certain routines when the kids are around, so when they're gone it's different. No rushing around. It's kinda relaxing. And we sure do love the uninterrupted night sleep! Little daughter still wakes up in the night - we're hoping she will outgrow this by age 16! Anyway, on to the food...

I woke up, headed to the treadmill for a lame-o run (my heart just wasn't in it) for 30 min. and then had a leisurely breakfast of apple cranberry bread and a sliced pear for 3 Points...



Then the husband and I went grocery shopping. The husband would rather stick hot pokers in his eyes than go grocery shopping, but he wanted to spend our "empty nest" day together doing things! The deal was that he could come only if he promised to "be good" because, frankly, I would rather stick hot pokers in MY eyes than have him shop with me!! He promised to be on best behavior, so together we went. On our lovely excursion in Trader Joe's ( the most crowded place in the universe), I came upon these guys...


Well, you know I am all about the chips! The nutritionals were great: 38 crisps are 120 cal, 3 gr. fat and 1 gr. fiber = 2 Points. Sold!

When we got home, I put the Sea Salt and Pepper Rice Crisps to work on my plate (huge serving - I like that!) with a Cedarlane Beans,Rice and Cheese Burrito (I mentioned these before -so awesome!) and some leftover roasted cauliflower with a little cheese. A non-colorful plate of yumminess for 8 Points...

Not sure if I'll have a snack this afternoon; I ate lunch late and we are headed to my parents for dinner and to pick up the "birdies". I'll bring a bar with me, just in case. Don't want to overeat tonight because I plan on going to my WW meeting tomorrow morning. I know it won't be pretty, but I don't want to add any more ugliness to what will surely be my weigh-in tomorrow!

Be back later...

Day Two

I woke up feeling a lot better today, both mentally and physically. Although, my legs are sore as all get out from my run/walk yesterday! I guess that's a good thing. With one good Point tracking day under my belt, I am ready for day two...

For breakfast, I had a Thomas' Light English Muffin with PB2. In case you haven't noticed, a really am a fan of this PB2 stuff!

It was a good 2 Point breakfast, but I had this waiting in the wings...

I had an idea for Apple Cranberry Bread (I am banana and pumpkined out for now!) and I wanted to give it a whirl. It came out really good, so I had to have a piece which was an additional 2 Points...

For lunch, it was split pea soup again. I had a ham wrap and some apple and grapes along with it for a filling 6 Points...

I guess I was missing my chips because I snagged a small handfull of pretzel sticks ( 1 Point) after that. I wasn't really still hungry, but I needed more "crunch".

Posting this has made me hungry, so I just ran downstairs to grab another slice of apple cranberry bread for my snack...

It's pretty hearty since it's made with whole wheat pastry flour and just a little bit sweet from the apples and cranberries. A nice 2 Point snack.

Well, day two is almost through (hey, I'm a poet) and so far so good. I wanted to share something I read that I think is spot on with respect to what we have all been going through during this holiday eating season. Great, sound advice : check out MizFit's post on Damage Limitation.

Words to live by...