shrinkingfaster

Feeling the need today to let all of you that find yourself in the path of Gustav that you are being thought about as you pack up and leave, or stay and hunker down. Know that you are being prayed for and thought about with all the love I can muster. I pray that you and yours will remain safe and secure until the storm has passed. Let us know how you fare.

Blessings,

Greta

Well so much for being excited that I was finally off my plateau. It’s all back on this morning and then some! It seems that all this fat I am carrying around likes me! It doesn’t want to leave! When I was younger the pounds just melted off. I could loose 6, 8 even 10 pounds in a week, cheating all the way. And now I can’t even loose 1 without cheating. This getting old thing along with its associated body/metabolism changes is getting old!

On the positive side of things  really tell I’ve lost inches - not just because my pants are starting to fall of my hips, but also by looking in the mirror. My saddle bags are much smaller and if I didn’t have this huge stomach sticking and hamhocks for thighs I might not look too bad

Anyway, was planning on hitting the gym before Zak’s swimming lessons but he’s refusing to get out of bed, so guess we’ll go aftewards! Have also ordered a low impact Aerobics program that I can do at home so hopefully that will help me keep my nil to non-existant metabolism chugging along.

Ah, now he’s out of bed! Since we’re not going to gym before his swim lessons, I guess I’ll go eat! It’s breakfast time and I’m hungry.

Signing off until the next time.

The scale was down this morning! Yippee. I have no delusions at this point that its going to stay that way but maybe, just maybe I’m finally off this plateau and heading downward again. Tried eating more and not exercising but it didn’t work. In fact tried it several times. Been a very frustrating month and half. Have yoyo’d up and down three pounds. Am now just 3oz away from my lowest point since this journey began. Ya! Feeling motivated again. Last night was a great motivator. Feeling positive about this weightloss thing for the first time since the end of May!

Have  a great Sunday everyone. I’m off to register my son for swimming lessons. Finally found a pool with a fee that fits my non-existant budget and has openings for their class session which begins tomorrow! Double Yipee!

Well, just got off the bexerikel (aka exercise bike). It has a tension lever that goes from 0 to 9. Two and half months ago I started out at 0, worked up to 1, then 2 and have spent most of the rest of the time at 3. I have been slowly working my way up to 4 but its been tough. Been feeling really weak this month.

Anyway, I found my old Jenny Craig walking CD, figured out why my portable CD player only played the same song over and over again (helps if you take it off of repeat or hold - glad I didn’t throw it away thinking it was broken!) and hoped on the bike, hoping it would help me spend a little more time riding at 4 and a few minutes longer on the bike.

Weeeeelllll, I did a full half hour on number 4 and feeling winded but I can still stand and I never got to the O Crap I still have 10 or 15 minutes to go. Yippeee! That means I can now begin to work on level 5! I’m about to hit the red zone houston!!!! Not sure what the red zone means but its a place I never thought I would go!

Now, if I could just get the blankety blank scale to go down and figure out why my dog has intestinal problems (he likes to sit next to me while I ride and well the smell is….. never mind) I would be even happier!

Have a good Sunday everyone!

Zak and I were out and about today and decided to take lunch to a park, where he could play/swim and I could relax. We went to McDonalds as it is his favorite restaurant at the moment and got him a happy meal (he only eats the chicken and tosses the fries. But has to have the toy!). Anyway, trying to make a healthy choice I ordered the grilled chicken caesar salad with Newman’s Own Creamy Caesar Salad Dressing and a 16oz iced Mocha. As we were sitting at the park in the grass I was congratulating myself on such a healthy choice even though it was a pain to eat without a table. Zak and I had a great time at the park and when I got home, I got on McDonald’s site to  get the nutrition info to add to my food diary.

Well, come to find out, I could have had my favorite burger, an order of fries and a diet coke for less caleries than my chicken caesar salad with dressing and an iced mocha. Now go figure!

Feeling a tad pissed. My personal trainer says its all about caleries and to forget worry about grams of fat etc (may want to watch sodium content was his only other warning) so next time I am going to order the Big and Tasty Full meal deal and screw the salad! 

Hey folks,

Not much of a blogger, but felt the need to celebrate  my little man and number 1 weight loss fan today. Today is his Gotcha Day. It was 5 years ago today that a teeny, tiny 4 week old, 8 lb, baby of my dreams entered my life. He had reflux so bad that every (and I mean every) ounce of food came back up within minutes of it going down and his little legs were so thin they were the size of my two middle fingers put together. But grow he did and now he’s a lean mean (only occassionally) 5 year old who thinks he knows everything and has the world by the tail. I was first his foster mom and I worried every night that I would loose him to his extended family (birth parents were out of the question) and then when his adoption was final I started worrying I would loose him in a million other ways! When I first started the adoption process I had dreams of adopting an asian mixed baby and when I walked into the DSHS office that day to pick him up I had to catch my breath. He looked exactly like the baby in my dreams. I knew that we were destined to be together and that memory kept me going through the loooonnnnggggg sometimes terrifying process (15 months) of making his legally free so I could begin the adoption process. Last night I reminded him that today would be his gotcha day celebration and that the day he arrived in my life was the happiest day of my life, and being the consumate 5 year old that he is said “I know that!” Sssiiggghhh. I will survive 5 year old hood. I will survive 5 year old hood! “I know that” is now his favorite saying! This parenting thing is a lot of work!

  Am not sure what the day will hold foodwise. He can’t make up his mind, but there will be cake tonight and probably pasta for dinner (he is a pasta fiend). I have finally fallen off the plateau I’ve been on for the last month and half (I was down two pounds this morning) and am not feeling terribly inclined to climb back on it. I am poor as a church mouse these days so will be baking the cake and making the pasta sauce myself. All that tasting that goes along with cooking from scratch will be the hard part! Evey little calerie counts after all! But Zak loves to help with the cooking so I think I’ll let him be the taster.

I guess today is such a celebration because about 5 years ago I had just about given up on ever seeing this day. I had lost 5 babies, several at the point of birth, by that point and had almost lost hope. The last little girl I lost (only wanted a girl up to that point) was just a week before Zak was born (I was told one day that she was being put up for adoption and three days later told someone had claimed her and she was going home - aaarrrgggg) and when they called me the first time about this little boy they were having a hard time placing, I said no. Said no the second time too. The third time they called I said “what the heck” I would take him until they found the right family for him. Turns out I was the right family for him. 

Anyway, he’s now decided he wants waffles for breakfast so best be off to start his celebration. Thanks for listening to be reminisce!

I just worked up the nutritional information for Wheat Free Impossible Quiche (my father is gluten intolerant) with bacon, broccoli and onion. The recipe calls for butter which is what we use in our house (I can’t tolerate diet “butter” spreads - no gall bladder - gives me horible indigestion).  Thinking that folks might balk at butter, I also figured it out with margerine and the one made with margerine had more caleries, more fat, more carbs and less protien. Go figure. Here I thought margerine was a healthier alternative to butter but I guess not. Cool. Now I don’t have to feel so guilty about using butter

Have everyone, thanks for all your support and the great suggestions yesterday.  My attitude seems to be back in attendence today. Had a great workout - increased my time on the eliptical machine and increased the number times per rep for circuit training. And I feel great. My trainer reminded me that muscle weighs more than fat and that I’m probably loosing weight while at the same time gaining muscle. He reminded me again, that I probably won’t see much of a weight loss until I get my muscles developed. He said give it a few months and then I should really see the pounds start to melt off. Sounds logical but hard to wrap your mind around when all your summer clothes are a size smaller and you’re not inclinded to buy any new ones! I did however put on a pair of pants this morning that were too tight the first of May and are now quite baggy, so something’s moving and changing in this old bod of mine.

It’s good to be feeling positive again - even thought the scale was up a pound this morning ~).

Not so sure any more about these mini goals. Thought it was a great idea at the time. I set a mini goal of 15 lbs and that’s all I focused on. Wraping my brain around 130 lbs was just to much. Seems like a good idea in theory, but in practice, my heart just hasn’t been in it once I made my first mini goal of 15 pounds. It’s almost as if my brain is saying “been there done that, time for something new!”.

Fortunately I haven’t gained anything through all this but I certainly haven’t lost either. I am staying within my 1500 - 1600 caleries per day and I’m still working out 3 times a week (but without my trainer as I ran out $ to hire him) and I’ve found that hard as well. It was much easier to get to the gym when I had an appointment and someone was expecting me to show up! I look at the exercise bike at home and turn and walk off.

Anyone out there in blog land have any suggestions? I’m getting really frustrated and the more frustrated I get the more the salt -n- vinegar chips and the trail mix call me name!

Going out to dinner tonight with my family to celebrate my birthday. I choose Red Robin because all this dieting has given me a yen for real food - like a Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Wrap. Yum. Only thing I could think of to do on my birthday (that and take Zak to his friends b-day party). Anyway, Red Robin graciously has a link on its website where you can customize your meal and it gives you the nutritional info.  So, I looked up Whiskey River BBQ Chicken wrap meal with fries and AAARRRGGGG, it has 1590 caleries! WOW! That’s an entire days worth of caleries in one meal. And here I’ve been thinking I’ve been eating the low cal alternative to a burger all this time! Anyway, was able to customize my wrap and sub melon for fries and got it down to 765. It’s so huge that i’ll probably only eat half which brings it down to 300 something which will leave room for the chocolate fudge birthday cake my son picked out for me. And I’ll only be 51 caleries over my 1500 a day goal. Feeling good about the choices. Didn’t have pizza and cake at the birthday party this afternoon and can handle half a wrap. It’s turning out to be a better day than I thought.

Am always in a funk before my birthday as my expectations never match up to reality but todays been alright. It’s hard being a single mom on your birthday (well any time of the year) because no one is around to fuss over you. Usually it bugs me, but this year I bought my own B-day cake, made my own breakfast and decided I’d fuss over myself since no one else was going to. And its worked! The first day of being 46 has not been so bad. I love being in my 40’s. Every year things get better and better so here’s hoping this year continues that pattern. Loosing all this excess blubber will certainly help!