I missed a couple of days...

So my behavior goal was to post daily- I missed Saturday and Sunday. Kinda intentionally, actually. Why, you ask?



That's why.

The Calendar Girls' Club means putting a sticker on the calendar every day that you're on-plan, and I decided that I would consider myself to be on-plan so long as I only used 5 of the 35 weekly points on a given day. I started this challenge on Thursday, January 10. That also happens to be the ONLY day that I've earned my sticker. Dude, I suck at this! (I really am a Flex girl at heart... this Core plan is tough!)

Saturday started off great, we hit Sam's and Costco in the morning- I probably had 3-4 pts in samples at the most. Home for Core leftovers for lunch. Hubby wanted to clean out the storage room in the basement after lunch, it needed to be done but I really didn't want to do it... we worked all afternoon. By the time we were done, we were exhausted and hungry... I wanted to go out for dinner- anything to avoid cooking or eating more leftovers. I really wanted pizza or Mexican, and knew that I'd go way overboard with pizza, so we went for Mexican. I "needed" a margarita (hey, the cleaning was stressful!), we had cheese dip for the chips, and I decided on an order of 3 tacos. The tacos were relatively safe, mainly just the cheese and the taco shell that aren't Core. The cheese dip is relatively low in pts... it's the margarita that killed me. This one was small, and tasted really watery... but I know that it's super easy to drink a full day's worth of points without realizing it.

Sunday.... latte (Core) in the morning, no lunch (too many pts the night before, I wasn't hungry so I didn't eat!), Oven-Fried Fish and a side of veggies for dinner. Yum, and Core.

Then I began a project which made me the Coolest Mom in the World (or at least, at preschool), but in terms of staying on-plan, was a disaster. If you want more info, read the posts at those links. If not, just understand that I cannot control myself around sweets. And they were good. I finished off the frosting yesterday. And had a cupcake with my latte this morning. Thank goodness that they are all gone now- about 53 flex points later.

I think I'll figure out how many pts were in the cupcake this morning, I might be able to still earn myself a sticker for today...

Crab Cakes!

Dinner last night was crab cakes.


Zoomed-out version of the photo I posted last night

This recipe needs to be mixed together 2-12 hours prior to cooking, then refrigerated to marinate until ready to cook.


My fridge is usually pretty organized, (still is, actually) but I didn't have much room for this big bowl... anyone else have this problem?

I was out running errands with SIL and MIL- hubby was home with our two and SIL's two kids (4 kids between 20 months and 5 years)... we'd been gone an hour when he sent me a text message: Bring food and booze NOW! The kids were driving him a little nuts. All of our errands were near the house, so we stopped by for a few minutes between stores; I shaped the crab cakes into patties and put them into the oven- setting the timer so he wouldn't forget to check on them. ***The kids had already eaten- chicken nuggets and fruit- I'd planned grownup food for us, and hadn't planned that the errands would take as long as they did.*** When I got home another hour later, he'd left four of them for me (I made 9). I tried one before I remembered to take a picture:



They really weren't too bad. I made a couple of changes to the recipe that I'm sure had a big effect on the turnout. First, hubby had a "moment" when he heard that I had crab meat on my shopping list and insisted that I buy imitation instead (because crab meat is expensive, you know!). So I KNOW that that changed the taste. Also, I couldn't for the life of me find my cayenne pepper or chili powder, so I didn't add that... and I refused to pay $2 each for a red bell pepper and skipped that as well. (Seriously?!? TWO DOLLARS for ONE PEPPER?!? The green ones were $.75 each!!!) BUT, I used to work at a seafood place... then a high-class/first-class/hoity-toity place... and I also lived on the Penn/Maryland border (Maryland is known for their crab cakes!)... and I'm a bit of a seafood snob. First to admit it. (If you're ever in Gettysburg- yes, THE Gettysburg- get the Homemade Crab Dip at O'Rourke's. It's an appetizer, but get it as a meal. Trust me on this.)

One of the regulars at the fancy-schmancy restaurant where I most recently worked is a cookbook author, and has a recipe for crabcakes- she worked on this recipe for over a month, and although I've never tried it, she was working to make it both easy and authentic. I think I'll try to adapt her recipe to the Core plan and see what I can come up with. Or, I'll play with several online recipes for Maryland Crab Cakes and come up with my own- and share it with you!

Either way, I'll use real crab meat.

Dinner tonight- just a hint!

Any guesses what this will be?

Change of plans

Today Taco Soup was on our dinner menu, but a glance at the contents of my refrigerator made me decide to just do leftovers... then SIL invited us over so the kids could play, and we'd all have pizza. I asked if they liked onion soup (they do not) and said that I'd take my soup and everyone else could have pizza, because I need to work hard and achieve my goal.

Yeah. Ignore pizza and have soup instead. What would you have done?

When it arrived, I caved and decided to just have one piece, which I think was really ok because the pizza was cut into squares instead of slices... my piece was 1/16th or 1/25th of a large. I strayed a bit this morning (cookies with my coffee), and hubby put a piece of chocolate into my mouth after dinner, so I'm calling today an off-plan day and don't get to put a sticker on my calendar.

Today's food log:
latte- Core
2 sm. cookies- 3 pts
leftovers for lunch- Core
1/16th of a large cheese pizza- 2 pts
1 chocolate truffle- 3 pts
12 of 35 WPA used, 8 today (I would have been ok today were it not for that chocolate!!!)

My Story, with Pictures!

I figured I'd better have something here that tells the beginning of this story, so here goes.

I've never considered myself to be skinny, just active (and big-boned). Looking back at pictures from high school, I wish I still had that body! I certainly wasn't the skinniest in school, but wasn't chubby by any means. I was on the swim team and was very active, so even though I ate like crap I kept a decent figure.

In college I gained (like everyone else) a bit, and the spring of my senior year, mom suggested we do WW together, in preparation for my wedding (about 6 weeks after graduation). She did awesome, became toothpick-ish, and made lifetime. I was living in a sorority house, working 30+ hours/week at a restaurant, and on the campus meal plan... needless to say, I DID NOT DO WELL. Even if Core had been around then, I would not have done well. I had 18-20 pts/day, and wasn't terribly motivated- after all, I was ok with how I looked/it wasn't my idea/I wasn't paying for WW.

After we got married, we moved halfway across the country so I could attend the grad school of my choice. (Hubby decided that while we were there, he'd go to school too!) We weren't concerned about our weight, and enjoyed some of the fabulous local eateries. We 'updated' our wardrobes as needed, and really weren't bothered if our pants went up a size (or were just tighter than they had been).

We moved back home after 2 years and back to the restaurant I went, but this time I was management, which meant that I got to eat for FREE. Then we found out that I was pregnant, so I ate even more- discovered that I LOVED melted butter on my crab legs (I'd never eaten them with butter before!)... and I was drowning them in butter. By the time DS was born, I'd gained over 50 lbs and topped the scale at 203. Ouch. It was while I was pregnant that I decided that I hated being fat and would never allow myself to become this big again. It sucked and I hated how out of shape, awkward, and yucky I felt.

I lost most of the weight over the next year, staying home with DS and paying more attention to what I was eating. I tried for a while to count points on my own (doing WW but not paying for it), but that didn't last too long. When DS was about 16 months old, I went back to work at another restaurant... again as management, again eating for free. This restaurant had a big focus on the bar, and on wine, and encouraged me to have a glass of wine with my meal. Over time, I was drinking quite a bit (and still coming nowhere close to what my bosses were drinking!!!)- still at no cost to me. Drinking calories- excellent, right?

When DS was two, I realized I just couldn't handle this job (terrible hours, excruciating ownership) and I quit to once again be a SAHM. I realized that I'd gained weight working there, and had again tried to do WW on my own while I was there, but it just wasn't happening for me. A few months after I left there, I was pregnant again. I didn't gain as much this time, I think mainly for two reasons: I had a toddler to chase at home and I wasn't eating high-fat, high-calorie restaurant food for 2 meals/day. I don't remember how high my weight got with pregnancy #2, but I only gained 30-35 lbs. (Only?!?)

When DD was 4 months old, I realized that I'd had it and I had to lose some weight. Now. The very next day I went to the nearest WW location and signed up on 9/12/06. I weighed in at 173. I really did pretty great, journaling constantly and eating tons of veggies. Hubby was out of town a lot for the first month or so, which really helped- I didn't have to worry about making "real" meals for dinner... often I'd have a bowl of sauteed veggies and call it good. I hit my 10% on 11/3/06, hit my WW goal on 1/9/07, and made Lifetime on 2/20/07. My last good WI was on 3/13/07, I weighed in at 134- a total of 39 lbs lost. 2 weeks later, (3/27/07) I was 137.4, and my next WI was on 4/30/07- 140 lbs. Actually, it was 140.4, but she felt bad for me and recorded it as 140 so I wouldn't have to pay for being more than 2 lbs over goal.

And that was that. I didn't return to WI, and I didn't count points. I got on a kick over the summer, got my blog active again on Roni's site (re-doing it after her crash!), and was pretty good for a while- even exercising almost every day. I wasn't going back to WW to WI until I was closer to my goal weight, because I didn't want to pay. Needless to say, I never went back... until now. I signed up for a monthly pass again, and went back on 1/3/08- weighed in at 158.8. According to the weight tracker on WW's website, I haven't weighed that much since 10/17/06. Ouch.

I weighed in yesterday (1/10/08) at 155.8, so I lost 3 lbs my first week back! My current goal is to lose 2 lbs per week until the end of February- that'll get me down 14 lbs, bringing me within 4 lbs of my WW goal- I think it's doable, I'll just have to be very careful about what goes into my mouth. I'm going to do the Calendar Girl's Club to help motivate me... putting a sticker on my calendar every day that I stay on plan. Because I'm doing Core, and because I know that even on Flex I didn't always eat well (even if I was within my points range), I'm going to consider myself as "on plan" if I use 5 or fewer of my 35 weekly points.

And now, as promised, the pictures:


2 wks before DS was born... yes, it's a pregnancy picture, but look at the chub I'd built up!


January 2005- DS was 18 months, I was working again and had gained quite a bit- no idea what I weighed (l think my face looks every bit as big as that pregnancy picture!)


May 2005- still working, still pretty chunky for me- but I was trying to watch my diet by this time


July 2006, 2 months after DD was born- check out the muffin top!


September 2006, 4 days after starting WW


April 2007, just over goal


May 2007- I was comfy in public in the swimsuit!!!


I LOVE this picture- I think this shows how much I lost! (I almost look like a teenager again!)


September 2007: Here you can tell that I'm getting bigger again- this picture actually grossed me out, knowing how much I'd gained back!

Whew! I think that's way more pictures than I'd planned on sharing, but I think they do a good job showing the fat-to-skinny-to chunky transformation that I'm working off again.

Lettuce Wraps- beyond yummy!!!

Holy smokes, was dinner good!

Today's food log:
latte and WW PB mini-bar (Core+1pt)
tamale casserole leftovers (Core +2pts)
Inside-Out Egg Roll Lettuce Wraps
WW Smores mini-bar (1pt)
4 of 35 Flex pts used for the week

I played with the recipe a bit (did you even have to ask?). This is what I did:
about 1-1.5 cups diced frozen chicken breast
about .5 cups frozen cocktail shrimp
1 Morningstar mushroom burger
tossed in pan together with some Pam, ginger, allspice, chicken broth, celery seed, and minced onion- it looked like this:


I let this cook for a while, until the meats were thawed. I took them back out of the pan and diced the shrimp, then I used my fingers and shredded the chicken and the burger and returned them all to the pan. Then I diced the water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, added them, and took another picture:


I added soy sauce, the garlic and ginger, mixed everything really well, and moved to a back burner to cook slowly while I worked on the cabbage. It was obvious that my pan wasn't big enough for everything (I doubled the recipe), so I pulled out my wok and dumped in the cole slaw mix and canola oil. I didn't think this was cooking down fast enough (and it seemed pretty dry) so I added a bit more oil and some soy sauce. It took about 10 minutes to really cook down, then I added the meat mixture, stirred well, and dinner was ready. (And it was SO freakin' good!) Here it is just before serving:


I had a head of lettuce set aside for this, we ate it as lettuce wraps and everyone was very happy- it's been awhile since everyone raved about a dinner as much as they did tonight. The best part? Plenty left over for later!

Jan/Feb '08 Personal Challenge- Updated Weekly

I'm starting this personal challenge today, Thursday, January 10, 2008. I am doing this really for my budget more than anything else, because I want to be able to cancel my Monthly Pass.

This challenge is to lose 2 lbs/week (14 lbs) for the next 7 weeks- ending February 28. If I can accomplish that, I will be exactly 3.8 lbs over my WW Lifetime goal weight. My thinking is that if I can reach this goal, I could skip the next week's weigh-in and go back 2 weeks later (March 13) back within 2 lbs of goal... which is the magic number for LT members (if you're no more than 2 lbs over goal, you don't have to pay!!!). I am 17.8 lbs over goal today.

UPDATE: Saturday, January 19- WI 1 of challenge- down 4 lbs from 1/10!!! I doubled my personal goal for this week's loss, and am now 13.8 lbs over goal.

UPDATE: Thursday, January 24- WI 2 of challenge- down 1.2 from 1/19! Roughly half of my week's goal for losing, but still on track to lose 14 lbs between 1/10 and 2/28.

UPDATE: Thursday, January 31- WI 3 of challenge- down 1.0 from 1/24! Exactly half of my week's goal for losing, but still on track to lose 14 lbs between 1/10 and 2/28. If I can lose an average of 1.95 lbs/week between now and 2/28, I will have achieved this goal! I would really like to lose a little more than that, but I know that isn't necessarily realistic. If I were doing better at counting my points, it might be more likely to happen...

UPDATE: Thursday, February 7- WI 4 of challenge- down 2.8 from 1/31! Almost 1.5 times of my week's goal for losing, this is good! I am now exactly 5 lbs away from the goal that I set for myself (which also means that I've lost exactly 9 lbs since 1/10)- this is exciting. To meet my goal, I need to lose a total of 5 lbs in the next 3 weeks... should be possible. I would be much happier, though, to lose 7 lbs in that timeframe... then I would be back within 2 lbs of goal (and FREE!).

UPDATE: Thursday, February 14- WI 5 of challenge- UP 0.6 from 2/7! Ouch. I haven't been OP and I haven't been working on losing this week, so I guess I deserve it. I'll be working hard all week to reverse this gain and see a loss next week!