Weight Loss Wk 4

Well I'm another pound down so that is good but this is going to be a tough week. I'm traveling for buisness so its going to be really hard to stick to my diet.

When the company is paying for your food you just don't pass up the steak house and the loaded potatoes - I have a very very hard time keeping portions in control or even choosing something that is healthy for me. And then there is all the drinks..... And working out just does not happen. By the time we get done with work we are heading out for dinner which will last 2 - 3 hours and then your back at the hotel and then the people you are with want to go great drinks since they never get to go out. And normally I'm so tired because you just don't sleep well in a hotel I just want to get some sleep. I do walk quite a bit more (thru airports and such) but still....

I'm pretty good for breakfast and since lunch is normally brought in and is just sandwiches I'm good there - but dinner is where I loose it all the time.

The scale will tell next week how bad this week is going to be for me. At least its really only going to be 2 days I'll have to worry about.

Weight loss Wk 3

So its the start of Wk3 and so far I've lost a good 3 lbs and thats with being off the diet last week while traveling. For those that have travled for work in the past - you do not pass up a steak dinner paid for by the company for anything.

Since I'm doing WW and counting points I have noticed that except for occasions like today where it took almost a full bag of popcorn to fill me up I'm not necessarly using all my points. I've pretty much had enough left at the end of the day for a glass of wine. I've also noticed that when I limit myself to a cup of pasta and 3 oz of chicken and some veggies I'm full - and if I try to eat any more than that I feel icky and stuffed.

And now since I had a bag of popcorn at 3pm I'm not hungry for dinner - I'll probably get hungry a bit later but that is alot better than normal when I'm starved at 5pm and want to eat now.

Any ideas for other things I can do for an afternoon snack to hold me over till we get home and I make dinner?

Inaguration

So who watched the Inaguration today? I've never watched one before so it was interesting. It was really interesting to see all those people - having been on the mall before and knowing how big it is I can't wait till they come back with some numbers.

I watched it in the break room at work. We have a TV that gets iffy reception as it just has rabbit ears so we missed parts of the speeches but by the time the Obama spoke there were probably a good 40 people standing around watching it.

Joining the band wagon

Okay - I admit... I'm trying to loose weight as well.

So today is day 2 back on weight watchers and so far I'm doing pretty good. From my last stint actually going to meetings I've got alot of good tips and tricks to play with - now to get them to stick. Following the WW rules I typically eat core foods but count points because my main problem is portion control - I need to eat less. The goal is to loose about 20 lbs - once I get there I'll set my next goal.

It seems like half the office is on weight watchers again and they are trying to get an at work group going again so we can go to meetings there. Lots of motivation here. Plus Chris wants to loose weight so anything I buy and cook he will eat. Last night I made chicken and pasta for dinner and I weighed out (thanks for the scale sib) and measured everything and it was just enough food. And it gave me a great lunch for today since I cooked too much. I had enough points extra I even got a glass of wine with dinner.

So how is everyone else doing with the first days back on a life style modification exercise?

Made it home

Well I'm finally back at home. After being gone about a week and a half, it feels good to come home to my own nest. I'm really glad I cleaned before I left because as we emptied the car out it looked like christmas threw up in the living room.

Let me tell you I don't know how we will do this when we have kids. The Jetta barley held all our crap in it (2 large duffle bags, boots, cold weather gear, a couple boxes of presents, a large cooler, 4 cases of beer and a partridge in a pear tree). I think we need a bigger car for long duration trips like this. We ended up coming home with alot more stuff than we left with.

So tonight I unpack and start playing with all the cool stuff I got that I haven't opened before now because I would just need to figure out how to put it back in the box to take it home. That also means I need to get rid of stuff in order to find homes for the new stuff - so its in with the new and out with the old.

Oh and I also have to deal with a cat that was left home alone for the past week and a half (the neighbor checked on her periodically). Currently she is purring as loud as she can in my lap and I suspect she will be sharing my pillow tonight to make sure I don't leave her again. She will be like this for a couple weeks until she gets bored with us and starts ignoring us again.

Ice Ice Baby

Okay - I now offically hate Indiana. We don't get snow, we get ice - and lots of it.

Yesterday about 3pm the freezing rain started. At our house it let up about 7pm and turned over to rain which was good as the rain started to melt the ice. But in other areas the freezing rain didn't stop till alot later.

So yesterday it was in the low 30's with freezing rain. What do I wake up to this morning? Upper 40's and its just pouring out. I am sort of glad its not snowing but if it were cold enough to snow it probably would just be coming down as more freezing rain!!

This is the 3rd time we have had freezing rain in the last 2 weeks. The road that goes thru town and continues west to the next town was shut down last night - don't know what happened there. And they knew we were going to get this but until it started I never saw a salt truck nor did they put down the slurry mix they often use.

My neighbor up the hill had to park in my driveway last night. He made it up the hill to his house and parked the car. The car then proceeded to slide backwards down his driveway and out into the street. He was able to gain control and slide it back down the street and get it in my driveway.

As it is, when I parked in the driveway my car slide back a couple feet before the gravel took hold. This morning the asphalt protion of the driveway is free of ice but any where there is gravel its still frozen solid. Makes it so much fun getting the paper.

Update

Okay - I've set up my face book profile so come find me.

And I put the pictures I took from the festivle of lights up on my flick sight so check them out.

My decorating

This is about the extent of my decorating this year. I have my painted tree full of lights, my bell Santa's, all my bell hanging things, my card holder, our stockings, a couple candle holders and kitchen towels out on display. Instead of getting a tree and then figuring out where to put it I decorated my Jade plant with bows and a couple ornaments. If I would have gotten out the box of lights I might have put some on it but the painted tree gives me the light I want. Basically I've only put out about a box and a half of stuff out of the 7 boxes of xmas stuff I have.

I've decided I'm going to go with a blue snow man / ice cube motif (I have a kitchen towel set I'm using as my inspiration). As I was going thru the couple of boxes I got out I realized nothing matched - all different colors and styles and when everything was out it just looked cluttered. So I now have a pile of stuff to get rid of - right now its mostly xmas kitchen towels and such (as that was the box I was going thru)

I'm liking the minimalist approach. So much easier and alot less cluttered this way. And it only took me about an hour to decorate and will probably take even less to put away.

My decorating

This is about the extent of my decorating this year. I have my painted tree full of lights, my bell Santa's, all my bell hanging things, my card holder, our stockings, a couple candle holders and kitchen towels out on display. Instead of getting a tree and then figuring out where to put it I decorated my Jade plant with bows and a couple ornaments. If I would have gotten out the box of lights I might have put some on it but the painted tree gives me the light I want. Basically I've only put out about a box and a half of stuff out of the 7 boxes of xmas stuff I have.

I've decided I'm going to go with a blue snow man / ice cube motif (I have a kitchen towel set I'm using as my inspiration). As I was going thru the couple of boxes I got out I realized nothing matched - all different colors and styles and when everything was out it just looked cluttered. So I now have a pile of stuff to get rid of - right now its mostly xmas kitchen towels and such (as that was the box I was going thru)

I'm liking the minimalist approach. So much easier and alot less cluttered this way. And it only took me about an hour to decorate and will probably take even less to put away.

Snow

Well we offically got our first measurable snow fall yesterday. No snow was predicted so when you wake up and everything is white it does come as quite a shock. We probably have about 2 inches on the ground.

And because they didn't perdict it, they were not really prepared for it. It started snowing about 7am and really never let up all day - there were a couple breaks but when it wasn't actually snowing the wind picked up and blew it all around.

Lot of accidents and form what the neighbors said the grocery store was packed.

Glad I didn't have anywhere to go yesterday. Just stayed home and baked cookies.