Tuesday - Some Yummy Dinners

I really need to start cooking some yummy, nutritious meals for dinner each night.  Most nights my husband comes home from work and asks me what's for dinner and I just sit there with a blank look on my face.  We end up eating breakfast burritos, tuna, or chili.  Not very tasty nor healthy...  It's time I started having dinner ready when DH gets home, started cooking with more than two ingredients, and started offering side dishes of fruit and veggies!  So, here are some ideas for foods I'd like to put on my weekly rotation:

• Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans
• Steak with roasted new potatoes in olive oil and herbs and asparagus
• Chicken Cordon Bleu with yellow squash
• King Ranch Chicken casserole with green beans
• Baked Chicken with olive oil and herbs and yellow squash baked with onions, ritz crackers and shredded cheese
• Grilled Halibut or Salmon with peas and carrots
• Breakfast for dinner with eggs, sausage, waffles, pancakes, and fresh fruit
• Homemade chili or stew with meat, veggies and potatoes

What are some of your favorite dinner recipes?

Tuesday - A Subtle Sign from my Son

Little Bit was playing with the Wii remote this afternoon and accidentally played one of the work out videos in my instant que.  I decided to take it as a message from my son {and God since I did ask for help in my prayers this morning} and stop what I was doing to get 10 minutes of yoga in.  I found that just 10 minutes had me shaking and sweating and that I really like this instructor.  Her voice is soothing yet still easy to understand, and her instructions are simple enough for the yoga beginner.  She explained the yoga terms in a way that I could follow without having to break pose and see what she was doing.  If you have Netflix I highly suggest you try out 10 Minute Solutions: Yoga guided by Lara Hudson.  If I'm going to be honest, I don't know if I'll be doing this routine everyday, but I will definitely be turning to it more often.  However, right now I need a shower! :0P

Saturday - Gained This Week

And you know what?  It's okay!  This is the first time I have gained weight since starting Weight Watchers and I am encouraged. {Yes, encouraged.} It means that WWers is working for me, because, as you can see, I did not follow the plan last week.  I tried something different and it didn't work for me.  I have learned my lesson and can move forward.

All I need to do is stick to the plan and I will lose weight.  If I can get myself to add daily exercise I'll lose even quicker.  My current goal is to lose 5lbs a month but it would be AWESOME if I could lose closer to 8-10lbs a month until I get closer to my goal weight.  I have exactly 70lbs left to lose, which means I have lost a total of 50lbs!  Not too shabby I'd say.  No, this obviously isn't the least I've weighed during this process, but it's just that - a process, and gaining is a part of finding out what works well for your body.  This week I am planning on eating WWers meals to work on my portion control and see how that goes.  They all range from 6-8 points which gives me plenty left over each day to eat snacks in the mid-morning and afternoon.  I'm looking forward to seeing a nice big loss next Saturday.  Wish me luck!

Tuesday - Made It Two Days

Well I made it two whole days without tracking my food but I don't think I can do it any longer.  This experiment has proved that I am still thinking of food for the majority of the day so it isn't the tracking that is my problem.  Also, I've been snacking more and reaching for sweets more.  I have decided that if I don't want to undo all the work I've been doing this last month on Weight Watchers I need to go ahead and begin tracking my food again. Not tracking works really well for some of the ladies in my group, but I have discovered that it's a tool I need to stay on track.  So today I will begin tracking my food again.  I think it was a good lesson to learn and I'm glad I gave it a try.

My big hurdle now is to add more exercise.  I need to be deliberately working out each and every day.  Yesterday I got up and did some step for about 15 minutes while I watched Project Runway on DVD.  I know it did me some good because this morning I woke up hungry.  That only happens when I've got my metabolism working where it ought to be.  Right now we are working on getting Little Bit into a pre-preschool to help him with his social and speech delays.  That will free up two hours in the afternoons Monday-Thursday.  I can use that time to alternate between weight lifting and swimming at the gym while he's in school each day.  Then I can rest on Friday, swim for fun with the whole family on Saturday, and rest again on Sunday.  Until he gets admitted and enrolled I'll just have to keep finding ways to work out at home.  I have plenty of work out videos on instant netflix, both low impact yoga and high energy cardio.  I just need to make myself get up and get moving to one.

My ultimate plan is to wake up, do my daily devotional, get at least 15 minutes of cardio before LB wakes up in the morning, get him up, fix/eat breakfast with LB and my honey, send my honey off to work and play with LB until lunch time.  Eat lunch with the family, take my sweetie back to work, drop LB off at his half day school, go to the gym, grab a shower and apply my skin tightening lotion, pick up the hubby and baby, come home for dinner, go through LB's night time routine, and do some relaxing yoga before heading up to bed.  Phew!  That seems like a lot to do each day, but I know it's possible.  I'll just have to use my rest days to work on the house and get boxes unpacked.  I'll be one busy woman... but at least I won't have time to think about food!

Monday - Feeling Hungry

I've been feeling hungry these last few days as I've been sticking to my points plus daily goal.  I've been trying to fill myself with fruit and water but I am craving other foods.  It's been hard this week.  I think it's from all the stress this week.  Little Bit isn't doing well; he's not using any words to communicate and instead just screams and screams.  It's getting hard to deal with his tantrums every day.  For the first time today I felt like a mom of a special needs child.  I've seen children with severe cases of autism and downs syndrome and thought how lucky we were that LB's issues are fairly minor.  At times I've felt like I was cheating in having him in therapy.  I know the doctors don't haphazardly label a child with a disability and put him in the exceptional family member program, but it felt like a mistake until recently.  The stress of him not being able to communicate with us is really draining me.  It's like having a 30lb newborn who knows they need something but have no way of telling you what.  He just screams and we have to try everything until we find the right answer.  It wouldn't be so bad if he gave some sort of warning like when a toddler gets sleepy and you know a tantrum is coming, but there is nothing.  He'll be playing happily one second then BAM he's screaming bloody murder the next.

So this week I've been craving comfort food.  Today I did well and have enough points to order a pizza.  I plan on "treating" myself but I'll also stay in my points so that's good I think.  A lot of my fellow weight watcher members don't track their food 100% of the time and lose weight by focusing on exercise instead.  I am the opposite but I really think I need to focus less on food and more on movement.  This week I have done well in keeping at my daily goal so I think next week I might experiment and not track my food.  Instead I will focus on eating the foods I normally eat in a healthy portion sizes and exercise every single day.  Who knows, it might be the thing I need to keep this weight loss going.

Goals for Next Week:

• Lower stress levels by: 
• doing nightly calming yoga
• using the massage chair
• and nights out both alone and with the hubby
• find a babysitter!
• Focus on healthy portion sizes
• not how many ounces per food I'm eating
• Work out in some way every single day!