Let the festivities begin! Today, my Safeway delivery included a frozen turkey for my “not on Thanksgiving” turkey dinner. We are lucky enough to be invited to somebody else’s house for the holiday, but the only negative part of that invitation is the fact that I won’t have that smell of holiday turkey in my house.
While some are worried about getting through the holiday without blowing it out on points, I’m not worried at all. Remember, I had my first Thanksgiving meal in a Florida sports bar and made it through the meal with points to spare.
The upcoming festivities at my friend’s house will be filled with visiting folks we haven’t seen since last year’s Thanksgiving celebration, so I know that the food part will take second place to the socialization.
By the time I am ready to make the turkey at my house, which by my preliminary guesstimation will be next Sunday, I believe that I will have had enough practice runs to build my point structure for appropriate enjoyment. And, I will know that my next weigh-in is two days later.
Time to collect recipes for the rest of my home-cooked meal.
Talk to you soon.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
You'll find me on your television
A while back, I shared with you how my weight generally comes off. I mentioned that my face shows it first. So, as I pass mirrors, I am seeing a smaller head looking back at me. I also told you that I would post pictures of my chins as they, hopefully, turned into one.
Well, I’m going to do one better for you. Tomorrow, at 9:30 p.m. on HGTV, which is Comcast channels 67 and 746 on my TV, you can watch 30 minutes of my chins on the program Color Splash. My husband and I had a backyard makeover in May, which was four months before joining Weight Watchers.
I think you will enjoy the great job that David Bromstad and his team did in turning a beige rectangle into an outdoor oasis reminiscent of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
Tune in and check it out. And if you are one of my buddies from Tuesday’s Weight Watchers meeting, let me know when I see you if you see less chins.
Talk to you soon.
Well, I’m going to do one better for you. Tomorrow, at 9:30 p.m. on HGTV, which is Comcast channels 67 and 746 on my TV, you can watch 30 minutes of my chins on the program Color Splash. My husband and I had a backyard makeover in May, which was four months before joining Weight Watchers.
I think you will enjoy the great job that David Bromstad and his team did in turning a beige rectangle into an outdoor oasis reminiscent of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
Tune in and check it out. And if you are one of my buddies from Tuesday’s Weight Watchers meeting, let me know when I see you if you see less chins.
Talk to you soon.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Not pulled in the wrong direction
This evening, I went to a cocktail party to launch a new company. As a member of the Board of Directors of the new company, one of my jobs was to stop by a restaurant that was supplying pulled pork sandwiches, which were an integral part of the passed hors’ d’ouevre collection, and bring them to the launch.
Okay, who in their right mind lets a Weight Watchers member alone with two platters of pulled pork sandwiches? It could have been like the wolf guarding the chicken coop…but it wasn’t. I started to think about how the old me would have had to sample a few of the goodies as I made my way through the parking lot or would have inhaled them in my car before even getting to the parking lot.
The greatest compliment of the evening came when one of my fellow Board members, who knows that I am on the program and that I write this blog, said she should have followed me around all evening. It would have kept her from eating so many goodies.
Three hours of staring at crab cakes, wonton shrimp, chicken satay, little brownies, tiny cakes, and of course, pulled pork sandwiches, I made it through unscathed. It was a great practice run for Thanksgiving.
By the way, if you or anyone you know is a caregiver and needs the help and support of eldercare experts, visit www.icarevillage.com and see what this new company is all about. It’s a winner!
Talk to you soon.
Okay, who in their right mind lets a Weight Watchers member alone with two platters of pulled pork sandwiches? It could have been like the wolf guarding the chicken coop…but it wasn’t. I started to think about how the old me would have had to sample a few of the goodies as I made my way through the parking lot or would have inhaled them in my car before even getting to the parking lot.
The greatest compliment of the evening came when one of my fellow Board members, who knows that I am on the program and that I write this blog, said she should have followed me around all evening. It would have kept her from eating so many goodies.
Three hours of staring at crab cakes, wonton shrimp, chicken satay, little brownies, tiny cakes, and of course, pulled pork sandwiches, I made it through unscathed. It was a great practice run for Thanksgiving.
By the way, if you or anyone you know is a caregiver and needs the help and support of eldercare experts, visit www.icarevillage.com and see what this new company is all about. It’s a winner!
Talk to you soon.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
My birthday suit
My birthday is coming. As a matter of fact, it is one month from today that I will turn 58. This annual event doesn’t particularly excite me, but as the saying goes, it’s better than the alternative.
This year, I have to admit that I am just a little bit more excited than usual. By the time that day rolls around, I should be about 15 pounds lighter than I was on last year’s birthday. The combination of getting older and getting lighter is so much better than the path I was following of getting older and getting larger.
Somewhere in the back of my closet are a few items of clothing that fit 15 pounds ago, and I’m getting the urge to pull them out and see how they look. Of course, they could be vintage by now, and I will look like I stepped out of a 1980’s catalog, but who cares. I will wear them around the house and pretend that I am fashionable.
Thanks to my supportive husband who left a bottle of cold water, a bottle of Advil and a box of Band-Aids for me yesterday when I arrived home from my Weight Watchers walk. He always knows just what I need.
Talk to you soon.
This year, I have to admit that I am just a little bit more excited than usual. By the time that day rolls around, I should be about 15 pounds lighter than I was on last year’s birthday. The combination of getting older and getting lighter is so much better than the path I was following of getting older and getting larger.
Somewhere in the back of my closet are a few items of clothing that fit 15 pounds ago, and I’m getting the urge to pull them out and see how they look. Of course, they could be vintage by now, and I will look like I stepped out of a 1980’s catalog, but who cares. I will wear them around the house and pretend that I am fashionable.
Thanks to my supportive husband who left a bottle of cold water, a bottle of Advil and a box of Band-Aids for me yesterday when I arrived home from my Weight Watchers walk. He always knows just what I need.
Talk to you soon.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Butterball
Guess who got another star today? Oh come on, you know it’s got to be me or I wouldn’t have started my blog like this. Yes, another weigh-in day and 12.2 pounds less of me in week nine. Alex has lost 12.6 pounds in six weeks, so together we have lost the equivalent of a typical Thanksgiving turkey.
In today’s meeting, we prepared for Thanksgiving by learning ways to avoid sabotaging ourselves. I will be a guest at a friend’s home, and I know they are serving turkey and ham plus all the fixings. The host makes pies every year, and I have been known to eat a slice before eating the “main event.” But, it won’t be happening this year.
I am now at the point where I can stare down any food and win because I refuse to begin unraveling all my success by screwing around with a pie. It’s much more exciting to me to be able to talk myself out of a bad decision before making it than to live with the guilt that I know will haunt me if I disregard my nine weeks of healthier eating. Why go backwards when I can continue to see progress by doing it right?
When you are out lifting up that Butterball, remember that Alex and I used to weigh that much more.
Talk to you soon.
In today’s meeting, we prepared for Thanksgiving by learning ways to avoid sabotaging ourselves. I will be a guest at a friend’s home, and I know they are serving turkey and ham plus all the fixings. The host makes pies every year, and I have been known to eat a slice before eating the “main event.” But, it won’t be happening this year.
I am now at the point where I can stare down any food and win because I refuse to begin unraveling all my success by screwing around with a pie. It’s much more exciting to me to be able to talk myself out of a bad decision before making it than to live with the guilt that I know will haunt me if I disregard my nine weeks of healthier eating. Why go backwards when I can continue to see progress by doing it right?
When you are out lifting up that Butterball, remember that Alex and I used to weigh that much more.
Talk to you soon.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Beware of the grumpy driver
Sometimes it’s difficult to eat right. No surprise to most of us who are in Weight Watchers, but when I’m working on keeping myself on the program, I am especially sensitive to a blip in the path.
Today, I had a meeting at 1 p.m. and had to leave my house at noon to make it on time. I ate breakfast at 10 a.m. and lunch should have been about 2. But, I certainly wasn’t going to pull out a meal in the middle of the meeting, so I brought a banana, a protein bar and a can of diet soda, sat in my car just before the meeting began and ate it.
That plan would have been pretty good if the meeting hadn’t ended at 4, and I still had the one- hour drive ahead of me. I didn’t want to stop at a restaurant because I was tired, cheap and wanted to get home. My stomach was growling the whole drive, and I found myself getting quite grumpy as I approached my destination.
I ran in the house, kissed the dogs, and threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave. It was too close to dinner to eat a real lunch. What a mixed up mess of a day in the food department.
But now, the feeling of hunger has subsided, and I am about to make a real dinner for my husband and I. Things are getting back on track and my grumpiness has subsided. I have another meeting at the same time next month and I guarantee you that I won’t repeat the mistakes I made today. I will pack a sandwich and eat it before I drive home.
Talk to you soon.
Today, I had a meeting at 1 p.m. and had to leave my house at noon to make it on time. I ate breakfast at 10 a.m. and lunch should have been about 2. But, I certainly wasn’t going to pull out a meal in the middle of the meeting, so I brought a banana, a protein bar and a can of diet soda, sat in my car just before the meeting began and ate it.
That plan would have been pretty good if the meeting hadn’t ended at 4, and I still had the one- hour drive ahead of me. I didn’t want to stop at a restaurant because I was tired, cheap and wanted to get home. My stomach was growling the whole drive, and I found myself getting quite grumpy as I approached my destination.
I ran in the house, kissed the dogs, and threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave. It was too close to dinner to eat a real lunch. What a mixed up mess of a day in the food department.
But now, the feeling of hunger has subsided, and I am about to make a real dinner for my husband and I. Things are getting back on track and my grumpiness has subsided. I have another meeting at the same time next month and I guarantee you that I won’t repeat the mistakes I made today. I will pack a sandwich and eat it before I drive home.
Talk to you soon.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
IHOPped Home
Yesterday morning, I said goodbye to my son, daughter-in-law and grandson in Washington DC at our farewell breakfast before heading to the airport. We had planned to eat at the IHOP, about 10 minutes from the airport, but it turned out to be a plan that could not be executed.
I have no real experience with IHOP. I thought about the pancakes and my points, made a preliminary sketch of what I was going to eat and had a fall back position of not eating pancakes but choosing something from the lunch menu, as the flight was leaving at 2 p.m. What I didn’t figure on was the 25- minute wait to get seated that was going to cut it too close to departure time.
Our only other choice, next door, was Dunkin’ Donuts. Oh brother, was that torture. There is no good plan for a donut establishment, and I was starving. My husband and I had not eaten breakfast, fully prepared to eat a “big” IHOP meal, which would carry us until we got home. Now, there I was sitting amongst the donuts and, to make matters worse, the attached Baskin Robbins. Could it be more complicated?
I have to admit that the problem was not being tempted by either the donuts or the ice cream. I love both of them and would choose them in that game of picking food that you would take to a desert island. The problem was simply that I was really hungry and refused to eat junk food, even in this dire situation. So, I ordered a gigantic cup of coffee and focused on the family and on the food I would find at the airport.
It was sad to wave goodbye to the kids, but you never saw somebody move so quickly through an airport. I found yogurt and protein bars and inhaled them. I even bought one extra protein bar for the plane, in case of emergency. The “emergency” occurred within the first two hours of the flight, so I was glad I planned ahead.
Losing weight is really important to me. It was driven home yesterday when I was able to sit in the middle of a donut/ice cream factory and touch none of the goodies. Thanks Weight Watchers!
Talk to you soon.
I have no real experience with IHOP. I thought about the pancakes and my points, made a preliminary sketch of what I was going to eat and had a fall back position of not eating pancakes but choosing something from the lunch menu, as the flight was leaving at 2 p.m. What I didn’t figure on was the 25- minute wait to get seated that was going to cut it too close to departure time.
Our only other choice, next door, was Dunkin’ Donuts. Oh brother, was that torture. There is no good plan for a donut establishment, and I was starving. My husband and I had not eaten breakfast, fully prepared to eat a “big” IHOP meal, which would carry us until we got home. Now, there I was sitting amongst the donuts and, to make matters worse, the attached Baskin Robbins. Could it be more complicated?
I have to admit that the problem was not being tempted by either the donuts or the ice cream. I love both of them and would choose them in that game of picking food that you would take to a desert island. The problem was simply that I was really hungry and refused to eat junk food, even in this dire situation. So, I ordered a gigantic cup of coffee and focused on the family and on the food I would find at the airport.
It was sad to wave goodbye to the kids, but you never saw somebody move so quickly through an airport. I found yogurt and protein bars and inhaled them. I even bought one extra protein bar for the plane, in case of emergency. The “emergency” occurred within the first two hours of the flight, so I was glad I planned ahead.
Losing weight is really important to me. It was driven home yesterday when I was able to sit in the middle of a donut/ice cream factory and touch none of the goodies. Thanks Weight Watchers!
Talk to you soon.
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