Righ on Point!

I can't believe the January Challenge is almost over! But not to worry... this just means that there's a new challenge right around the corner. I believe that Michelle is accepting new people... so if you're lurking out there and wanna get in on the fun DO IT! It's been a great motivation throughout January and it's also been wonderful getting to know all the other challengers.

My goals for Feb have been submitted... but I'll keep the hush hush til Feb 1. Just trying to build a little suspense. haha.

I havent been to the gym in a few days... but I have been painting - so I feel like that has to count for something! The living room and bedroom are now both finished. And I'm hoping to get the whole kitchen done tonight! And as soon as I finish and get the apartment back to looking clean (furniture has been moved around and in the process my clean apt from Saturday has diminished a bit) I'll take pictures so you can see. I'm mad that I didnt think to take before pictures, but oh well!

Yesterday I did great with my points. I stayed right in my limit. And I wasnt hungry at all! I'm hoping to do the same again today. So far... so good! And my cramps are finally gone... WOOHOO! Just a few more days and I'll be totally human again (because I'm sure you guys have all been dying to know all of that heehee).

I have been slacking on water the past few days. So I'm going to guzzle some big time today! I stepped on the scale this morning and saw that I was up .5. Hopefully most of that is bloating which should be gone by Saturday. And hopefully getting back to drinking tons of water the next few days should help. Keep your fingers crossed.

Strugglin Through...

I think I'm PMSing. I HOPE I'm PMSing. Because temptation is totally getting the best of me. And while I'm usually not perfect, I usually dont give in AS easily as I have been lately. Guys have it so much easier. No bloating. No PMS. I swear they cut out beer and lose like 20 pounds. Damn them! hahaha.

I did go to step class last night, so thats good. It felt good to get a good sweat going. Tonight I'm not sure whats on the gym agenda... I think I'll be spinning, but we'll see. I'm thinking of doing spinning tonight and then tomorrow I'll try Group Power (its a group class that does all kinds of strength training with a barbell) and then if I'm not totally pooped stick around for Step Class right after it. I've got to combat my eating somehow! heehee.

I know youve heard it all before, but today I'm totally going to get my eating in check. I'm going to eat 25 points. No flexies. But some APs if I need them. I'm generally ravenous after the gym, so we'll see.

Bfast:
smoothie - 3
dry life cereal - 2

Snack:
hot tea (I'm FREEZING today) - 0
grapes - 1

Lunch:
Lean Cuisine Cheese Stuffed Rigatoni (delish!) - 5
bell pepper soup - 1

Snack:
100 cal pack (cheez its) - 2
strawberries - 0
ww lemon cake - 1

Dinner (Thinking I'll keep it simple):
1/2 cup egg beaters - 1
cheese - 2
onions and pepps - 0
light english muffin - 1

Inevitably I'll snack on pretzels while I'm making dinner (like I said I get ravenous after the gym) so I'll count those 2 points.

And I'll still have points left for a snack while I watch TV (or do laundry at our friends house). And it seems like thats a lot of food already... so whew... I feel much better.

Internet!!

I finally am back to the land of internet! I had off yesterday for MLK Day... and my internet at home was STILL not working (I'll try not to go off... but let's just say between Sat, Sun and Mon I spent an overall total of about 6 hours on the phone with Bell South. I was NOT a happy camper... but last night as of 11.45pm my internet was connected! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!)

So yes... I'm back at work and back to posting daily. I know you're all so excited. Try to contain yourselves. teehee. So do you want the good news? Or the bad news?

The good news: When I weighed in on Saturday I was down 5.6 pounds!!! Talk about exciting!!!

The bad news: Sat, Sun and Mon were horrible food and excercize wise. I didnt track (which Id been so good about), I didnt drink enough water, and I didnt get in a good workout at all.... I did eat lots of crap and had a lot of fun though. haha.

But I'm back to work and back on track today! I'm not expecting to see a loss this week between having a piss poor weekend and having such a huge loss last week! But I'd like to maintain.

And I've definitely come to the conclusion that there is a direct corrilation between me not having internet and me eating like crap all weekend long. I knew I wouldnt have to post my mistakes and I knew I wouldnt be able to read your posts to get my ass back in gear. Thank goodness I wont have anymore internet-less weekends! Whew!

With that I'm off to catch up on everyone else's blogs!!

Slip Ups

I was having a GREAT week... until yesterday, which kind of followed me into today. But I refues to sabotage myself! I'm putting a stop to it now!

See yesterday morning there were both chocolates AND panera bagels in the kitchen. I had two tiny chocolates and counted the points. I ate my cereal and thought I was good. But these werent just any bagels, they were cinnoman swirl bagels from Panera, which are pretty much like danish. They have this crunchy coffee cake like topping... ugh! So I caved and had half of one. Again, I counted the points.

Then last night Ar and I went out to dinner. I actually did ok. We went to LAVA and I got the Bistro salad with no cheese and dressing on the side (3 points) and the crabcakes (I didnt know the points on them but I estimated 9 as I only ate 1.5 of them). It was delish and I was def full!

Ar and I then went to Target. We wanted to get drapes for our living room as Fiona (our puppy) ruined the blinds a while ago (ooops!). Of course we walked out of there having spent $150 (got some storage bins, cereal, new sports bra for me (YESSS), drapes, hangers, clorox wipes, a blender and who knows what else haha). We got home, straightened up the apartment and then I was making my lunch and Ar was like "I'm really craving choc chip cookies... do we have the stuff to make them?" And of course we did, so she started making them. Uh oh. I did dishes and made my lunch while she was making them and then since it was late we decided to just make them in bar form instead of scooping out the cookies. I did ok, had a few small bites of the batter and just a little taste of them out of the oven. And... I counted the points! But I didnt go to the gym and I was way over my points for the day. But I had the flexies for it, so I was in the clear!

Fast forward to this morning. I got up a little early and made a smoothie for breakfast (putting that new blender to work!) - off to a great start. I had my lunch all packed and ready to go and even anticipated the smoothie not keeping me full til lunch so I packed Life cereal as a snack. But I got to work and those damn bagels were STILL there.... so I ate another half of one. And then someone whipped out freakin Middle Eastern pastries. Where they came from I have no idea... but I've had like 3. Theyre small... but still! Where did my willpower go? Id been so good all week!

But... even this slip up doesnt meen I need to sabotage myself and say 'well I went off program... might as well just start over on Saturday.' No way! Not this time. I'm going to track the points and keep with my January challenge to write what I bite! I'm also going to hit up step class tonight so I can get another 5 APs. And I still have a bunch of flex points, so if I steer clear of the goodies the rest of today I should be ok!

And... to keep me going I actually stepped on the scale this morning and it was a BIG loss... so I need to keep up so that number doesnt go up before Saturday!!

Off to go add up the points on those damn pastries! Eeekads....

Inspired

I got home from the food store yesterday with tons of yummy, healthy snacks... but opened up my cabinets and realized they were a TOTAL disaster! And had no room for my new treats! I then though about how I was so proud to show off my fridge last week as it was freshly cleaned out and stocked with healthy foods... so I decided to take some before and afters of my cabinets/shelves. They were a MESS!!!! But I'm happy to say I got it under control!

Cabinet/Pantry - before

Cabinet/Pantry - after
Top shelf: barilla cheese and spinach tortellini and other rice/pasta boxed items
Middle Shelf: Baking items, lots of leftover choc chips etc from Christmas baking, cuscus and Bisquick, honey and cashews (for my salads)
Bottom shelf: canned goods! Soups, canned veggies, pasta sauce, cup o noodles (for Ar, I generally stay away from them), seasoning packets, Jiffy muffin mixes and SKIPPY PB!

Food shelves - before (AHHHH!)

Food shevles - after (whew!)
Top shelf: cereal, pretzels, crackers, 100 cal packs (in the open tupperware), oatmeal and instant grits (again, NOT MINE... ick. They are for Ar)
Bottom shelf: mostly overstock heehee, more oatmeal (tehy were buy one get one), more 100 cal packs (also buy one get one), popcorn, 2 point snack bars (granolla and cereal), pringles (also Ars) and extra cereal

Ok... I feel much better now that I've addmitted to the fact that I'm a messy cabinet person... but that I'm doing my best to keep them neat and stocked with weight loss friendly items. Having all of my 100 cal packs and snack bars out and in the open is huge! I can easily grab one instead of going for something a little less friendly.

Fridge Fotos

I've stepped up to the challenge, and here are pictures of my fridge and freezer. Keep in mind that I JUST restocked on Tuesday as we'd been gone for 10 days and our fridge was literally empty. Hence why it's so healthy looking (with a few exceptions...)

Here's the top shelf, reserved for beverages. Water, OJ and skim milk (I try to stay away from the OJ, but every now and then it's a nice treat)

Food shelves: in the small containers on the top right are diced onions, green peppers and cucumbers. When I'm real good I get this out of the way at the begining of the week so I can throw salads together quickly. Behind those containers are grapes all washed and taken off the vine and strawberries cut up and ready to go. Bottom shelf is 93% lean ground beef, leftover canned pumpkin, leftover pasta and half a can of crushed tomatoes that I need to use soon. Then Ar's bread (mine is in the freezer) and eggs.

Meat/Cheese drawer: turkey breast, american cheese, some shredded cheese, laughing cow light (which is the best stuff ever), light cream cheese and I think thats about it.

The left "crisper" drawer doesnt open all the way because of where our fridge is, so you cant really see in there but its basically asparagus and baby carrots. Then on the right is 1/2 cucumber, a lemon, onion and green pepper.

The fridge door is a mess of condiments. There are two things that I def dont use: the jelly/peanut butter swirls in the purple container and the strawberry jelly behind it. Im a big fan of pollaner's sugar free jellies.... YUM! And I have to admit that every now and then I whip out the choc syrup and have chocolate milk.....

Freezer time!! We've got super pretzels (3 points each) which were onsale buy one get one (I'd never buy 2 at once if it wasnt buy one get one because as you see freezer space is limited). Then some lean cuisines - my new obsession is the stuffed rigatoni. TRY IT! Light english muffins, morning star wings (which I havent tried yet, I'm scared), my bread, frozen veggies... and yes, 2 frozen pizzas (also buy one get one) which I like to have on hand for those nights when I just can't bring myself to whip up dinner. I know they're bad. And what you cant see is the gallon of bryers twix ice cream behind my bread. Which has been in there for quite some time and if Ar doesnt finish it up soon I'm throwing it out so I dont finish it up!!

Freezer door: WW bagels, frozen fruit, chicken, coffee in the stylish 1970s orange tupperware, then ww snacks that I've made in the other two containers (choc chip cakies and 3 berry scones)

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my fridge :) What a great challenge, Michelle!!