Crock Pot Boot Camp

Good evening troops, I'm focusing today on the mess hall. By this I mean food and not the bit 'ol mess in my damn hall that nobody will clean up! Why do we have so many jackets and shoes?! Jeesh. Anywho, back to the mess hall food edition....

While on my journey to finding the thinner person within myself I have developed a deep love for my crock pot. Talk about an easy way to have healthy meals ready when you get home! On one of my recon missions I overheard a woman say that you can cook virtually any meat in the crock pot with just enough of your favorite sauce to cover the meat and set it for 8 hours on low. Hmmm. I went back to my bunker and started pondering this secret of the crock pot universe and decided I had to test this theory myself. I took my vehicle to the secret store of excess (Costco), bought some chicken, pasta sauce and veggies and set off back to the bunker. For this experiment I chose three different colors of bell peppers and a mixture of little heirloom squash, so darn cute. I cut them up, put them on the bottom, threw the chicken on the top and dumped the heart healthy pasta sauce over it all and set the crock pot to medium for 8 hours. When I woke up this morning my house smelled like an Italian restaurant and the sauce had turned into a soup with all the moisture from the veggies and steam. Damn son, this was the most tasty dish and it was only 3 points for two ladles full!! The chicken was so tender it fell apart and the veggies were perfect. Even Emma loved it which says a lot since she's no fan of chicken. I'm hooked on the easy crock pot inventions now. Tomorrow I'll do something with some chicken, teriyaki sauce, pineapple and maybe asparagus!

Now on to the real new from the battle front. I'm still struggling to hold back the sugar army. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time this time but it's kinda kicking my butt. I do really well with the fight and then I'll go nuts eating cinnamon lips from a Valentine's candy mix. We went through and made sure there was nothing to temp me, but we splurged on the candy and now I regret it. The good news is it was just a half a cup of mix. I need to eliminate the enemy, I'm going to brain wash myself in to just thinking I don't like sweets. I'll tell myself this over and over and hopefully I'll win the war. For now I just avoid as many of the sugar land mines as I can and go on about my day. Drinking green tea all day definitely helps, it's not sweet but the hot water makes me not crave the sweet so much. So if you see me marching across the battlefield with my trusty blue patterned canteen you'll know it's me marching farther away from the sugar army.

Until we meet again, keep up the good fight! I've met my next WW goal so now I'm on a mission to lose at least 5 pounds in the next couple of weeks. Root me on friends, when this war is over we'll have a ticker tape parade made from fruit leather and drink freshly blended smoothies with spinach sneaked into them! Always remember this, cans and boxes are not your friends, they disguise themselves as such but don't fall for it! They're just sugar disguised as "healthy" food, I fell for this trap and I won't see you do it too. Use the cans to throw them at your scale when you weigh yourself, it feels great!

Sgt. Sugar Lumps...out!
xoxo

Fight fat with a little Veggie soup!

Hello from the trenches. I don't really know how many days it's been since this war started, something like 14 days, maybe less, maybe more. It's hard to keep track of the days when you're at war. The sugar doesn't stop, it's everywhere I look. I am pleased to announce that even though the attacks keep coming I have now officially lost the pounds I put on during my vacation & the holidays so I'm back to 15 pounds down from the original starting weight. I'm hoping that I can keep tipping the scale in my favor. I fought the glorious fight with delicious veggie soup. I've been eating veggie soup every day for lunch during the week and lots of fruit and at night I eat a light meal so that's been helping take the weight off. I also read that green tea is great to help melt belly fat so I drink my one cup of coffee in the morning and green tea the rest of the day. Even if it does nothing for melting the fat it's way better than anything else I drink other than water. So it's a win win situation.
There's a woman at work who is doing the Medifast diet, she's been doing it since maybe a week or two after I started Weight Watchers and she's lost 25 pounds so far. Even thought I haven't lost as much as her I'm pretty proud that I've been able to make a steady decline without having to eat only dehydrated food and weird shakes. It's been eye opening learning to eat properly. Not that I'm perfect by any means, I do have a red velvet cheese cake sitting in my freezer right now, but you can't win a war without a little struggle.
OK warriors, I'm off to make my week's worth of veggie soup now, I'm going for a delicious Wonton soup this time. Mmmmmmm, mmmmm!

xoxo

Hello from the trenches

January 5, 2013....day three of my war against sugar. I'm hunkered down in my fox hole but I'm under a rapid fire attack and just trying to keep myself barricaded. The sugar is putting up a good fight and I haven't been as strong as I had hoped, I had to retreat a little this week (I say this as I'm pushing the Hot Tamales farther out of my reach). I'm regrouping, rebuilding my fortress and I'll start anew tomorrow. I'll be getting more rations tomorrow and will fortify my supply of fresh fruit and veggies. This war is going to be very tough and I'm going to take a beating, but it's a war worth fighting. I'm recruiting soldiers if any of you want to join my platoon. Oh, I have to go now, I sense a night attack coming, the hot tamales are chanting and jumping in their bag, I have to put down the computer and run away screaming. *whispering* I'll write again very soon to keep you updated on the war.

xoxo
Sgt. Sugar Lumps

It's 2013 and there are no flying cars yet!

Happy new year friends!! I can't believe it's already 2013. Do you remember when you were little and totally thought that by this time in the future we would have flying cars, houses that cooked for you and all the things they tempted us with in futuristic movies? I can tell you I never dreamed that it would still be so mundane, although technology is advancing quickly. So I'm going to do a quick recap on the year and continue back on my path to weight loss blogging. All in all this hasn't been the worst year ever. Our house didn't get robbed again, I got a new van and now I'm on my way to a healthier me. I feel like I've become a better person this year, I've put a lot of things in perspective and really determined what's important. As much as I love to shop and get new stuff, I have learned that the stuff we have is not important at all. Losing all our prized possessions last year made me realize that none of it was that important at all. The only things I lost that still make me sad are the pictures and heirloom jewelry that can't be replaced, I don't have any feelings of loss or sadness for anything else, even the stuff that wasn't replaced. On the bright side I'm awesome at backing my pics and stuff up now!! I learned that I'm a stronger person than I thought, I decided the show kindness and understanding to the woman at work who was making my life miserable and now we have a comfortable peace, I actually enjoy my job again! I realized that I'm not working to make her happy, I'm working to make my family's lives better so that makes it easy for me to be happy. Last but not least I've learned where the most delicious Mac & Cheese cart in town is so I can make a return trip and enjoy the decadence!! Happy 2013 y'all!

Now on the the real business....While in Orlando I only gained 2 lbs, woot, woot!! I was so relieved. Now for the bad news.... I got hooked on the sugar again! Ok, I can hear you all shouting "No! Say it ain't so!" but I'm coming clean. It all started with a Mickey Mouse shaped rice crispy treat (it's tradition, I always get one when I go to Disney parks!), then it's like the old comfortable coat of sugar addiction enveloped me. I really tried to say no, I even tried to be good when I came back and there were sugary treats all over my office from people baking every damn night and bringing in their poison. But it was too late, the seal had been broken and I've been struggling ever since. I think sugar addiction is harder to quit than any drug, there's no heroin added to bread or cereal, no meth or crack put in ketchup and drinks. You have to go out of your way to feed a drug addiction, you only need to open a cabinet and look at the ingredients in your most "healthy" snack and see that some form of sugar is added. So I'm back to square one and it's almost worse than before because I had a taste and it set me into a frenzy. So once again the cabinets have been cleared of anything overtly sugary (which thank goodness there wasn't much) and I did my shopping tonight and bought all fresh foods. As I sit here typing this I have a big pot of vegetable soup on the stove and the ingredients for sugar free pumpkin cookies standing by to be combined tomorrow. Maybe it will be easier this time since I've done it before. I'm optimistic and have the family dinners already planned and the new crock pot is itching to be started in the morning. So here we go again my friends, to date I have lost 12 pounds (it was 15 minus the two I gained in Orlando and the one I've gained since being back). Here's to 2013 kicking butt and minimizing my waist.

xoxo

Treading water

Happy Thanksgiving!! We cheated a little this year and celebrated turkey day last Sunday because Greg had to work today and we didn't want to have it without him. The great thing about that was, for the very first time in my life, we actually had a relaxing and great Thanksgiving meal with my parents because it was just us and them, no chaos and days of preparation, it was AWESOME!! Most of you who know me know I HATE Thanksgiving because it's always so stressful and my family was very dysfunctional and I hated being forced to be around them when I was younger. So this year was a great relief. So like a good Weight Watchers Devotee I loaded my plate with veggies and a small scoop of potatoes and stuffing. I ate the veggies first and then went to splurge on the stuffing and I was too full!!! Dag nab it, I couldn't even eat my stuffing and mashed potatoes :( I was super PO'd to say the least. Oh well, I at least I didn't over eat and feel bad about myself. I only had a little bite of Emma's Pumpkin Pie and chocolate torte so it was a good day for my healthy eating.

More good news, at my weigh in on Monday (in my bathroom) I have lost a total of 13 pounds so far! Yay me :) I had my ups and downs last week, my job situation is horrible, have you ever felt like everyone in a group is against you and you're just trying to keep your head above water? That's what it's like at work. A co-worker came back from maternity leave and has targeted me for some reason and is making my life a living hell. Of course she's the office favorite so I can't go to the boss because she's believed everything this woman has said about me and has spoken to me twice about things this woman has said about me and believed them. Yeah, it's awesome. Anywho, I was letting that get me down and not following my eating plan as well as I had been before she came back and I was nervous that I had put on a bunch of weight, but at my weigh in I had still lost weight so I just have to get back on track. So after much praying and job rejections I came to the conclusion that my job right now is just my karma for not always being nice to people and when the time is right for me I'll get responses to the applications I keep filling out. I also concluded that this woman does not define my job or how I am doing my job so I'm just going to do what's the best for my patients and make them happy. I'm also not working for her, I'm working for my family and to keep my kids fed and happy so she can stuff it up her nose. I had a good time the three days I worked this week because I did nothing the evil woman at work could complain about and I could tell she was getting pissed. She kept trying to find an error in my work but I just smiled and explained what I was doing and told her I would be more than happy to do it differently if she wanted, I was just doing things the way she trained me to. If course she couldn't find anything wrong so she was in a pissy mood, muwahahaha.

So on this Thanksgiving day I'm going to say that I'm thankful I have a job; that I'm finally getting healthy; that I have friends who care enough to read about my journey to getting healthy; that my family are all healthy and that I can say a prayer and have it answered in a way that I can understand and apply to my life. I'm also thankful that we're lucky enough to be able to go to Florida for 10 fun filled days!

I'm going to be leaving on the aforementioned trip on Sunday so I won't be checking back in until we get back as I won't be bringing my laptop with me. I'll just need everyone to send positive energy and thoughts out to the universe that I can resist the many temptations of the sweet shops and restaurants we'll be surrounded by. My goal is to at least maintain my current weight loss. So thanks for reading and I hope you have a great couple of weeks, I know I will!!!

xoxo

Oy it's been so long!

Hello friends, long time no blog! I know it's been weeks, but it has just slipped by so fast I forgot to log on and do an update. Let's start with the good news, drum roll please.........as of this past Sunday (my weigh in day) I've lost 11 pounds. Hecks to the yes my friends. It doesn't look like I've lot a lot of weight, but I can definitely tell in the way my clothes are fitting me. Thank you weight watchers! All of that AND I survived Halloween with the candy all up in my business. Let me just tell you that it wasn't easy. I got into such a fight with Kayleigh's candy bag that I accidentally inhaled 2-4 fun sized snickers! That bag put up a good fight too. It kept trying to hide up on the top shelf but I wasn't going to let that happen, no hiding in this house, if you're going to taunt me you're going to do it face to face. I showed it who the boss is, I wiped that smile right off it's Jack-O-Lantern face when I robbed it of all the best goodies. Muwahahahaha, I still rule this house.

So nothing else exciting is really happening in my life right now, I'm miserable at work because I work with a bunch of passive aggressive, insane people who make me feel like I'm on guard all the time. So I spend my days constantly pretending I'm not a smart ass, trying not to make sarcastic comments because I don't want these nuts to run to the boss who is the queen of passive aggression. We all know how difficult it is for me to not make snarky comments about things, I mostly just sit there biting my tongue because they make themselves such easy targets. It's a practice in self control.

OK, that's about all I have brain power for now, I must rest my weary head now, I just got back from the Fresh Beat Band concert with Mimi and Emma so I'm wiped out, too much hard core rocking.

xoxo

Come on shuh-shake it!

Hello, hello, hello! I know, you're all thinking "where the heck did you go? Did you kill yourself after the depressing last post?" Nope, I'm still here fighting the monkey on my back. I'd also like to make the announcement that I am 8 pounds lighter than when I started Weight Watchers. Woot woot!

Now on to the informational portion of our meeting:  Here's the low down on my video making status....it's a lot harder than anticipated. I can't have the camera on a tripod because I'm out of frame a bunch of the time. That means I must have a camera person, right? Well, I have a 7 year old helper and a 10 year old helper (the 14 year old would rather DIE than film me making a fool of myself). Both of my available helpers either want to join in the fun or are laughing so hard the camera is shaking and it looks like the Blair Witch Project. So I'm working on that for y'all. I want you all to be the first to know that I'm working on creating a new form of exercise that combines cardio, strength "training" and graceful movement. It's called spastic splendor and I discovered it while jumping around after dropping a can on my foot. I was holding two heavy cans and a can from the counter dropped on my foot. I immediately started jumping around flailing my arms, spinning in circles and chanting some very flattering words. After I stopped I noticed that I was out of breath, my arms were tired from flailing while holding cans and my thighs were starting to smart from doing some sort of squat/lunge jumping movement. I realized that this is a great way to let go of stress and get a good workout so I'm going to start holding classes in the play room for the kids to let out their inner spaz. I think I may even teach it to Emma's youth group on Mentor night, what a great way to bond with her and her friends, right? 

Hey, have you seen those shaking your fat off machines? They're supposed to be equivalent to 1 hr in the gym for 20 minutes on this machine. They have them in some malls now, you can pay a fee and do your fat shaking right there for everyone to see!! It's like a train wreck, I feel sad for the people but I must to watch them shake their stuff. It's a stand on machine with rails that shakes so fast it's like...I don't know what it's like but I'm SOOOOOO tempted to try it just to say I did. Anywho, this thing makes all the flesh on your body shake like a glorious, rippling fiesta of flubber! I want to go to that party! All I can think of is how the helicopter do those peeps not get shaken baby syndrome? They're actually doing push ups on this thing and various poses that are supposed to work the different areas of your body and then when you're done it's like having sea legs on land. You walk all crazy like you're drunk! I tried to find a vibration fitness funny video on you tube but apparently it's a very serious business so I didn't find anything funny. What is this world coming to that we need to shake our fat off in 20 minutes at the mall? Who knows the brain damage this will cause, but then I'm so curious I must know what it's like. Hmmmm, if only it weren't smack dab in the middle of one of the biggest malls around I might try it out. If I had one of these at home I would use it and make all my phone calls during that time, how fun would it be to sound like you're talking through a fan all the time? I think I may have to do a post where I try all the crazy weight loss things I come across, like the vibration exercise and colonic that I've spoken of in a past post. I'm thinking of buying adult hippity hops and making that part of my exercise plan. Would that not be the most fun ever? Although I think a 41 year old woman hippity hopping down the road might be more embarrassing than letting a machine shake my fat for the world to see. Do I care? Well, yeah, kinda, but it sounds like so much fun :) Look, I'm smiling just writing about it.

Well folks, that's the word of the week, let me know if you see any funny exercise videos, I could use good chuckle at the expense of someone else.

xoxo