Back where I belong

I returned…to my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday.  Missing two in a row, for the first time in 54 weeks of being a member, was not sitting well with me.  I have to admit that walking back into the meeting room felt really good.

When I joined, I vowed that I would attend the meetings and actually stay for them.  I wasn’t going to get weighed in and leave.  And, I have kept that promise.  Every week that I am in town, I am sitting in the front row actively participating in the group discussion.

I think the combination of missing the familiar faces from Tuesday morning combined with feeling “out of sorts” because I wasn’t where I usually am at 9:30 a.m. made yesterday’s “homecoming” even better.

The scale wasn’t completely friendly.  I gained .2 pounds, but I never really care about that part.  I know I am doing what I set out to do, following the program and tracking my daily intake. 

Next Tuesday, I’ll be back.  The scale might not be friendly, but the people sure are a worth making the trip.

Talk to you soon.

Happy Oktoberfest

Two years ago about this time, my husband, son, sister and I hopped a plane and headed for Oktoberfest in Munich.  We had a fantastic time, and it made us want to go back for more.

This year, more came in the form of Oktoberfest in San Francisco, which we went to last evening on Pier 48.  It wasn’t quite the same as the original version, but fun all the same.

Plenty of good music, lederhosen, dirndls, German beer, sausages, pretzels and Bavarian desserts constituted a simulated Munich experience…except, I wasn’t wearing a dirndl or lederhosen, I don’t drink, and I ate nothing.  The music was the part I liked.

I didn’t care about the food and drink part of it.  I looked back at some pictures of the “real Oktoberfest” and was struck by the difference in my appearance from BWW, before Weight Watchers, and now.  I like the MOWW, member of Weight Watchers, body much better.

The perfect picture will take place next Oktoberfest, when my husband and I plan to go back to Munich, and I will be three months away from my 60 pounds off goal.  I might even invest in a dirndl.

Talk to you soon.

Chin check

I took a nap on the couch the other day and both of my Labrador retrievers were asleep in my lap.  Hard to imagine that 130 pounds of two dogs could fit on there, but they have a routine where one of them climbs on and the other one puts his head on her back.  It’s very cute when I am awake to see it.

That’s the point of this posting.  I wasn’t awake but my husband was, and he took a picture of the three of us.  When I awoke, I got to see the evidence…the dogs were still as cute as ever but I had a bit of an “issue.”

Despite the weight I lost, I was still sporting two chins.  Now, had that picture been taken one year ago, it probably would have been four chins, so I’m grateful.  But, I know that there is still work to be done. 

It’s good to have a visual reminder now and then.  It shows how far I’ve come and that the journey must continue.  I’m in it for the duration…and I will replace that picture when I’m down to one chin.

Talk to you soon.

What's for dinner tomorrow...I know

There was a big meat back-up in my refrigerator today and something had to be done about it.  I’m not sure how it got to be as bad as it did, but I know when it started.  We went to Costco on Sunday and bought organic chicken breasts and organic ground beef.  Organic protein isn’t part of our regular menu, but we wanted to check it out.

And then things happened, the stuff I can't remember, where the days were ticking by and the meat was just sitting there.  Oh, I forgot about the hot dogs that had been in there even longer and were screaming to get out.

The only solution to the dilemma was to cook almost all of the meat. The chicken and the hot dogs went on the grill.  The ground beef came in three separate vacuum- packed packages, and we cooked one of them.  I was amazed to see that the burger trio had an expiration date of October 5, so we will be having the other two packages sometime in the not too distant future.

When all was said and done, we had a good meal and now have enough leftovers for days.  Maybe it’s not so bad to get behind in your grilling because when you finally catch up, you can rest easy knowing that there is no decision making on what’s for dinner.

Talk to you soon.

Next week for sure

I had a plan in place to go to my Weight Watchers meeting this morning.  I missed last week’s meeting while I was in Las Vegas and was looking forward to getting back to my buddies and my meeting leader, Claudette.  The plan derailed, and I didn’t make it.

My husband had a scheduled outpatient procedure that involved anesthesia, and he wasn’t allowed to drive home.  So, I got dressed in my official Weight Watchers weigh-in outfit that I have been wearing faithfully for 53 weeks and headed out at 6:45 a.m. for his appointment. 

He was supposed to be ready to come home by 9, so I figured that I’d be back at our house by 9:30, drop him off, and drive the five minutes back to the meeting.  As 9 a.m. came and went, I started to worry about my husband and why he wasn’t in the car driving north with me.

Finally, at about 9:30, he was ready to roll, and we worked our way home…and arrived in time to plan next week’s meeting attendance.

The good news is that my husband’s anesthesia has worn off, and he’s feeling fine.  After our big day, I feel like I shared some of that knock-out stuff and am ready to call it a night.

Talk to you soon.

Beef treat

When you stand around in a trade show booth talking to people for 10 hours a day and don’t have time for lunch, you would think you would be starving at the end of it.  But, I wasn’t.  I was really tired and think that wiped out the desire to eat. 

After my daily naps, we did head out to dinner.  If I had been alone, I probably would have stayed in the nap mode until daylight.  But, my husband was with me and there are wonderful restaurants all over Las Vegas, so we rallied and went out later in the evening.

We dined the first night and the last night at the same place, StripSteak in the Mandalay Bay Hotel mega-complex.  The restaurant is one of Michael Mina’s creations and obviously our original meal was so good that we went back despite a million other choices that we could have made.

We asked our waiter for a recommendation, and he suggested that we split a porterhouse steak.  We went with that choice, and it was served sliced to make it easier to divide into two portions.  With sides of a baked potato and creamed corn with jalapeno, which we also split, my husband enjoyed a point appropriate delicious fare.

We finished dinner about 11 p.m. that first evening and made a beeline back to bed knowing that we needed all the sleep we could get to be ready for day two of booth work.  I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Talk to you soon.

No lunch for me

I’m home from Las Vegas as of 1:00 a.m. and glad to be back in my quiet living room.  Don’t get me wrong…my husband and I actually love going there because of the restaurants, the people watching, and the over-the-top everything.  But, after working in our trade show booth for three days, I’m happy for the peace and quiet of Novato.

I had planned ahead for my eight- hour stretches in the booth, but even the best of plans don’t always work.  We would eat breakfast at 8 a.m. each day and then head over to the booth at 9.  I ordered the same breakfast each day, fresh berries and yogurt and then took a granola bar out of my pocket and sprinkled it into the mixture.

The trade show opened at 10 and with 10,000 attendees, there was never a time to eat my healthy snacks.  I was always talking to somebody.  And, each day we had a rescue dog in our booth wearing a supercollar®, so bringing out food wasn’t the best move, if we wanted to keep the booth from turning into a disaster.

Time would fly by and suddenly it would be 5 p.m. and lunch never had happened.  But, I never noticed.  We would go back to the room, take a nap, and head out to dinner at 9. 

You’ll have to wait until tomorrow’s post to read about our very yummy dinners.  Although Las Vegas is in our time zone, I feel like I just got back from Europe…exhausted and ready for bed.

Talk to you soon.