It's been a while!

Wow, it's tough working 2 jobs. Lately, I have actually been spending more time interacting with real people rather than my friends and family over the internet. That's a big switch for me. I spent a lot of time at the NY State fair the past week and a half. I worked there a total of 30 hours and also spent some time enjoying it also. That means I ate meals there a few times too. One of my favorite things to eat there is from the fried veggie stand. I like the fried zucchini and mushrooms the best but I usually get the combo basket which also comes with onion, cauliflower and broccoli. Fried veggies are 5 points a cup. So it's best to eat these in moderation. I also like the chicken pitas that you can get from the greak food stands. I get it with only a little of the sauce. It tastes like ranch to me but its made of yogurt. I also like the mexican food place in the international building. I got a chicken taco salad from there too. It doesn't come with dressing, but with sour cream instead. The only bad part of that is the taco shell...I just try to not eat all of the taco shell. :)

This past week was also my anniversary so we ate out and I got steak and lobster and a dry baked potato with sour cream on the side. So I have been doing my best to make the best choices I could while eating away from home. It has also been difficult to walk while working the 2 jobs. I used to walk over an hour and a half a day but with being so busy lately its more like 30 mins a day. But when I worked at the fair I was on my feet the whole time and running around stand to and from the grill...so I was moving a lot to make up for the not walking. I also started my fall class last week. So, that is 2 days that I do not get to walk on my lunch break.

Now that my life has calmed down a little this week and I am only working 1 job everyday and my class is 2 days a week during my lunch hour I need to get back to where I was before I started working the fair! I need to work hard on eating more meals at home and walking more each day. I miss water aerobics too. The class doesn't meet during August and September. I signed up for the next session but it doesn't start until the last week of September. Not walking to and from work and during lunch during the fair has made me feel a bit lazy and not wanting to walk.

So today is the start of my new week. I weighed in this morning and lost another pound. Last week while working and eating at the fair I lost 2. I am now up to 57 pounds total! :) So I did OK for not being on my normal schedule! But I feel I can still do better! I walked to work this morning and I am going to walk at lunch. I can't walk home because I have to be somewhere right after work but I plan to walk this weekend...hopefully both days!

My goals starting this week are:

1) Get back to my old walking schedule I was doing before the fair!
2) Eat at home more this week...get back to cooking more and not eating out soo much.
3) Concentrate on my daily points and try not to go over as much. I know that I have the extra 35 points a week just for that reason but I feel I am using them too much.
4) Work on blogging more. Every other day, if possible!

So, I start my new WW week with determination and am looking forward to a great week! I am going home to TX for Christmas again this year. I would love to be able to say that I've lost 70 or 75 lbs when people ask me how much I've lost!? :) That is my BIGGEST goal! I want to lose another 13 - 18 pounds by Christmas! That gives me 14 weeks to do it! My current average weight loss per week is 1 to 1 1/2 lbs. So I think it's doable. And if I stick to my goals I've set for myself going forward then I will have no problem!! I CAN DO THIS!!

I know I need to lose more than 75 lbs but I like to set short term goals for myself...long term goals sometimes seem unattainable. I am going to take this journey 1 week at a time!!

Learn from my mistake

Last night we were tired and didn't feel like making our lunches so we decided to just pick up food for lunch instead of bringing our lunches.

Well, today was a very busy day at work. I had a meeting first thing in the morning where they served breakfast, and I had decided last night that I would just eat something there instead of bringing something from home. So, I didn't do too bad with my choices. I choose a bagel w/ cream cheese and fruit. Good choices right? Especially since they also had muffins, scrambled eggs, and bacon! I probably could have eaten half the bagel because it was huge but of course I didn't because it tasted soo good!! I usually have weight watchers plan bagels. The WW bagels taste good, especially with the laughing cow light garlic and herb cream cheese on top. But I didn't have that today because I was lazy last night. Today I ate 8 1/2 points (normally I eat 4 or 5 points) for breakfast.

For lunch, I decided I wanted to stop at Subway after I ran my errand at lunch to pick up a sub and baked chips. Well, I ended up not going to lunch until after 1 pm and my errand took longer than expected so I ran out of time and couldn't stop at Subway. So, at 3 pm I was starving and had to have something delivered! I didn't go completely overboard...I ordered from Jimmy John's which is a sandwich place on campus that delivers super fast. I could have probably made a better choice when choosing my type of sandwich but of course I wanted to order my favorite sandwich. I ordered the beach club on french bread. It comes with mayo normally and did exchange that for mustard, so that's a big points savings. The sandwich has turkey, provolone cheese, sprouts, cucumbers, lettuce, and avocado spread. I could have gotten whole wheat bread and no cheese. That would have saved a few points but as I got it, it was 10 points. And then of course I ordered a bag of my favorite chips, jalapeno chips, 5 points for the bag. So, I normally eat 7 points for lunch when I bring my lunch, today I ate 15 lbs for lunch! Eeeeek!

So now for dinner I need to eat lighter. Luckily, I ate lunch later so I shouldn't be that hungry tonight. We are going to have these turkey sausages that are filled with cheese (3 points) on whole wheat sandwich thins hot dog rolls (1 point). :)

So, this is what happens when you don't bring your lunch or plan your day. Especially if you run out of time and don't eat lunch on time and start to get over hungry. You make choices based on taste and speed not calories or point values. I didn't over do it too bad but it just shows that you can eat soo much better when you bring your own healthy food from home and plan!

My legs are feeling better!

Well I walked to and from work yesterday (in the rain) and my legs were ok. On the way to work my legs felt fine. On the way home, about half way, my legs started getting sore. It was just sore and not the pain like I had last week...so that's ok. I didn't walk at lunch because the weather was very dark and dismal all day. On my walk to work this morning my legs felt fine and also during my walk at lunch. So, my legs seem like they are back to normal. Maybe I just over did it a little last weekend?! Who knows.

The dreery weather yesterday really put me in a yucky mood. I didn't feel like walking or wanting to do anything. What am I going to do when its winter and snowing every other day! I'm going to need some motivation! Any ideas of things I can do to motivate myself? I hope that going to see my family at Christmas time will help me keep working hard and be my motivation.

I thank God for my great support system at home! Helps me keep going for sure! I wish I had more friends here in NY that I could do weight loss activities with though. It's tough moving to a new place and not knowing anyone but family. Even after 5 years in Syracuse I still don't have many friends. Thank goodness for the internet...helps me keep in contact with people in TX. :) I share weight loss pictures on facebook...it helps me see the change in myself easier also. It's like looking at myself through another set of eyes. It's very gratifying to see the results! :)

Update...

I re-weighed myself this morning like I mentioned I was probably going to do. I did give my legs a rest...I have not walked since Friday morning. I think that the swelling and water retention around my muscles went down! When I weighed myself this morning I weighed 3 1/2 lbs less than I did on Friday morning!! So, instead of gaining 2 lbs like I originally thought, I actually lost 1 1/2 lbs!! :) So my average weight loss remains the same...1 1/2 lbs per week!

This picture was taken this afternoon! I bought these jeans this week at Old Navy. I can actually fit into jeans bought at a "normal sized person" clothing store!! I am still in a plus size but I am still very excited! I bought my UT shirt I am wearing during my last trip to TX to visit my family. I bought the largest size it came in because I really liked the shirt (It says "Keep Austin Weird" on the back) but could not fit into it! I tried on the shirt today and can FINALLY fit into it!! YAY for small triumphs! :)

My next goal is to become comfortable enough with myself to actually say how much I weigh...I am not quite there! :-/ Soon I hope!

Weigh in day...not so good!

Well this morning I weighed in and the scale said I gained 2 lbs which just can't be. There is nothing I did differently this week than any other week. The only thing I can think of is that my legs have been sore all week and my muscles are probably swollen. My feet were also a bit swollen this morning when I woke up. So I am thinking that I'm retaining water right now,,,and we know water weight weighs more than anything. So I am going to just hope that that is all it is!

Now back to these sore muscles...I didn't walk home last night from work but I did walk a lot around the outlet mall and my legs didn't hurt during the slow walking. This pain I am having is in both legs on the outside of my calves. I've had this pain before when I first started walking at the beginning of my weight loss journey. I never went to the doctor because the pain gradually went away and I figured it was hurting because I hadn't walked that in a long time. Someone mentioned to me that maybe it was because I haven't been drinking enough water before I walk. Which might be the case in the morning but I drink a lot of water during the day and they still hurt during my lunch time walk and on the way home. I am going to rest my legs the rest of today and the weekend and see if that helps the inflammation go down.

I have plantar factious and someone else mentioned to me that the pain in my legs could be caused by that. Plantar factious runs in my family and is pretty painful! . It is pain in the arch of my foot where the tendon tightens from the ball of my foot to my heal. I bought better shoes and that has helped most days, along with taking Omega 3, a twice daily pain med, and water pill. But some days the pain still brakes through and maybe that's all this leg pain is...the pain moving up my muscles?!

If anyone knows anything about this pain, please comment. :)

Sore

WHAT A WEEK! It's been go go go since 4:30 on Friday! ha ha I was off on Monday this week. I challenged myself to exercise more when I was off I did it this weekend! YAY! We went to Seabreeze Saturday, which is a water/amusement park, and we spent about 6 hours there. Lots of walking, stairs and swimming! :) Sunday I took off from exercise because it rained most of the day. Monday I walked for about 2 hours. :) So I met my goal I made for myself. Now this week my legs have been sore nearly everyday when I walk. I had these sore pains when I first started walking 52 lbs ago. I figured it was because I never exercised and my muscles were getting used to being used again. ha ha Now I am not sure why I am soo sore...maybe because I didn't really give my body a break this weekend like I normally have? I plan on walking at lunch today and not walking home...so maybe that will give my legs a little break?

I'm coming up on my busy time again. Summer is pretty laid back for me. I only work 1 job and take 1 or 2 classes in the evenings. I work at Syracuse University full time and I am also a part time student at SU. During the regular school year I work 2 jobs (1 full time and 1 part time), I sing in a choir, and I take 1 class each semester. So, as you can see I am pretty busy during the school year. It is going to be a challenge to still make time for myself to exercise. As long as it is nice outside I will continue to walk to work. Once winter gets here I will walk if it's just cold with no snow or ice...but once the snow hits the ground I will have to start finding alternate forms of exercise. We have the Dome here which is our athletic complex and is enclosed year round. So, I could walk in there at lunch each day. But one thing I like about walking outside at lunch is the variety...I can walk different places and not have to always look at the same scenery. I can change it up each day. :) I can't do that with the dome...it's one big circle...but it would be warm and snow free. Right? ha ha

I've been thinking about joining a gym of some sort. SU does have a gym that employees can use but it is soo crowded during the school year. It is convenient during my lunch hour and I might use it a few times for a bit of variety but I don't like an audience while I sweat to death working out. I looked into the YMCA because of all of its classes it offers but it is soo expensive. I am not sure I really want to spend that much money or would get my money's worth with my busy schedule during the school year. Then I also looked into Planet fitness. It is cheaper, but does not have a pool. My favorite exercise is water aerobics. I could just rejoin the class I've been taking at the community center, but that is another $30.00 every 2 months. The gym is open 24/7 and you can tan there too because it's included in one of the memberships. But I have a treadmill and stationary bike at home that I could use and that is pretty much what I would use at the gym besides weights. So I think I am going to continue walking like I am for now since it is still nice out in Syracuse for another 2 to 4 months at least. Then once I can't walk anymore I will look into doing something else.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at my part time job again...I've lost a lot of weight since a lot of them have seen me last. I am also looking forward to traveling home to Texas at Christmas and seeing my family. I hope they don't recognize me! I want to try to lose another 20 lbs by then. :) I have been losing weight at a good rate so far... 1 1/2 lbs average per week! As long as I continue to follow weight watchers and keep up my physical activity I should be able to accomplish that just fine! I am going shopping tonight at the outlet mall about 45 minutes from Syracuse. I am only going to buy a few things since my body continues to shrink and I already can only fit into half the clothes I got for my birthday in April. I know this a good thing to be shrinking but it gets annoying when I can't find anything to wear in the mornings...I know I know, tell me to stop complaining! I get to go clothes shopping now, right?!

Weigh in day!

Weighed in this morning and lost another 1 1/2 lbs. I am happy about that because I didn't seem to exercise quite as much this week as I usually do. There were a few evenings this week that I didn't walk home because of weather (either too HOT or raining). Plus, last weekend I went to a graduation party and ate what they served. I did pay attention to my intake and did not over do it...so that helped! If I wasn't counting points I probably would have eaten a lot more deviled eggs and chips and dip. :) I also ate out Wednesday night at Chili's with my family (we didn't feel like cooking). I chose from the healthier options on the menu (the entrees marked with their special symbol has less than 750 calories). But I did allow myself to have some chips and salsa and queso dip. Just didn't over do it! Anything in moderation is ok! So, it just shows that you can still live life and go out and do normal stuff and still lose weight. :)

My goal this weekend is to try to walk at least 2 out of my 3 days off! I find that I get caught up in the weekend and don't walk at all...but then when my next work day rolls around and it's time to walk to work again I am dragging and feel like I haven't ever walked. ha ha I do have some yard work to do this weekend also...so if I do that I may not have to walk. Gardening is great exercise! Speaking of exercise, I am off to my lunch time walk, it's a beautiful day out! Have a great day all!