Aimee's Adventures

Help Me Help a Good Cause

2010-08-21T02:53:00.002-04:00

I am fighting heart disease and stroke by participating in the American Heart Association’s Start! Heart Walk. Please support this cause by making a donation that will help provide research and education to stop our No. 1 and No. 3 killers. Thank you in advance for your support!

New Blog

2010-01-16T18:38:00.001-05:00

I have started a new blog. It might help shed some light on where I've been, what I've been up to, etc. Stop by and take a read if you'd like. :) Thanks!

Lighter With Low Carb

Still Here

2009-05-25T18:27:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know I'm still here. The new position I got at work is going well, but it keeps me busy with more responsibility. I enjoy it though. The only thing I'm really posting on these days is Facebook, so if you want to follow me, come join me there. You can get all of the details from my last blog. :)

I might try to come and post my weekly weigh ins here at my blog, but we'll see how it goes. I've been back on WW for a week and lost 4.8 pounds this week.

Facebook Users

2009-03-15T17:01:00.003-04:00

Do you have a Facebook page? Then come and join the Aimee's Adventures Group. If you don't have a Facebook page, you can get one for free by signing up.

You can also keep up with me by becoming my friend on Facebook (just click below). Honestly, it's about the only thing I can keep up with these days (because I can stay connected with my cell phone).

For those of you who are wondering what Facebook is...

Facebook is a free social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

Facebook is awesome! I'm now able to keep up with my friends from high school, family members, and you guys here on my website that I normally wouldn't be able to stay in contact with. Check it out and don't forget to request to be my friend if you want to keep up with what I'm doing. :)

Morphing Presidents

2009-01-20T23:57:00.000-05:00

I thought this was neat...

Be My Friend On Facebook

2009-01-18T18:14:00.001-05:00

Keep up to date with me on Facebook.

Truvia Natural Sweetener

2008-10-23T11:57:00.004-04:00

I've been reading about a new natural sweetener called Truvia (also known as Rebiana) that's supposed to be available in stores sometime this fall (you can buy it online and it's supposed to be available in certain stores in NY already). It sounds like it has promise, especially for those of you who do not like the taste of Splenda and are concerned with how Splenda is made along with any after taste. I personally do not have a problem with Splenda, but I find this new Truvia sweetener quite intriguing. I ordered a box this morning, so I haven't tasted it yet, but I will come back and give you an update as soon as I have.

The reviews I've read from people who have tasted it are promising. There's supposedly no after taste like Splenda and no bitter taste like Stevia (even though Truvia does come from the leaves of the Stevia plant, a shrub native to South America). The following is from WebMD....

"Truvia is the first stevia product that isn't labeled a "dietary supplement," the classification that the FDA has, up until now, required of all stevia products because of safety concerns from some, but not all, studies done mainly on animals.

In Cargill and Coca-Cola funded studies, Truvia showed no sign of health problems. For instance, it didn't affect blood pressure in healthy people or blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes. Further tests in rats show no effects on reproduction, fertility, or other health problems. Those studies recently appeared in Food and Chemical Toxicology.

Truvia is being sold as a tabletop sweetener and will be an ingredient in certain Coca-Cola drinks. It's not yet ready for use in baking.

Pepsi is also working on its own stevia sweetener. No head-to-head trials have been done on stevia vs. other no-calorie sweeteners, such as NutraSweet, Splenda, and Sweet'N Low."

The following is from Reuters. You can read the whole story here.

"A box of 40 green and white packets of Truvia will have a suggested retail price of $3.99, which Snyder said is a little more expensive than older, artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin, aspartame and sucralose, which are sold under the respective brand names of Sweet'N Low, NutraSweet and Equal, and Splenda, which is made by Tate & Lyle Plc."

We all know how I enjoy YouTube videos, so I'll leave you with a few videos to watch about Truvia. I can't wait to try it. :)

Don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter. Sometimes I post a couple of lines each day if you want to know what I'm doing. ;)

I've Been Reading

2008-10-17T11:41:00.001-04:00

Cool Website

2008-10-06T13:51:00.003-04:00

I came across a "How To" video website today called HowCast.com. It's founded by former YouTube and Google employees. The site features 7,500 instructional mini-films with entertaining answers to nagging questions. Some of you may already know about it, but it's new to me, so I'm sharing anyway. :) I was just messing around and came across this video...

Don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter. Sometimes I post a couple of lines each day if you want to know what I'm doing. ;)

Such A Pretty Fat

2008-09-27T23:55:00.002-04:00

I ordered this book earlier this week and thought I'd see what else the author had written. In the process, I came across this video on YouTube. I can't wait to get started on the book; it sounds like it's pretty funny. :)

Weigh In Day

2008-09-23T23:59:00.000-04:00

This was my first week back to Weight Watchers meetings and I was down 4 pounds this morning. I wanted to stop in and share that with you. I'd love to stay and chat some more, but I want to watch tonight's episode of The Biggest Loser before I go to bed. LOL!

Don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter. Sometimes I post a couple of lines each day if you want to know what I'm doing. ;)

The Biggest Loser

2008-09-18T12:35:00.003-04:00

Have you guys been watching The Biggest Loser? Here's a short video of Jillian talking to her group about how to lose a pound and what crash dieting does to your metabolism...

Also, just a reminder... my updates are being posted on Twitter now. You can either scroll down this page you're currently on, look over to the right side of this page, or follow me on Twitter. :)

Follow Me On Twitter

2008-08-29T03:07:00.003-04:00

Since I don't have enough time these days to sit down and update my blog, I'm going to try and post short updates from my cell phone through Twitter.com. They probably won't be too interesting, but at least you'll know I'm alive and well. I can text from just about anywhere. :)

The new YMCA finally opened this week on the campus where I work, so I'm hoping to be able to work out at least 3 times a week before start work. I'd rather work out after work, but it's not an option since they close at 10 pm. Tomorrow will be my first day. I'm so out of shape compared to where I was just a couple of years ago. My plan is to walk on the treadmill at least 2 miles, and then get some strength training in. I'll go from there. A few people I work with joined the YMCA as well, so hopefully I'll have someone to work out with most of the time (I'll be more apt to go if I know someone is there waiting for me).

Ok, well once I figure this Twitter thing out, I'll start posting little messages from my phone so you know what I'm up to. Take care!

follow me on Twitter

Back On Track

2008-07-14T13:34:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know I'm officially back on track as of today. I'm doing Weight Watchers on my own at home. I don't have time to attend meetings right now with all of the time I spend working.

I also got moved into my new place last month, so things are finally calming down a bit for me now and I feel like I can get into a bit of a routine. The only thing I have to do now is finish my medical terminology class.

Well, I'm off to get ready for work. I'll try and drop in and blog more faithfully. I'm a very busy person these days, so no promises, but I will try. :)

Just Wanted To Let You Know

2008-04-18T21:57:00.005-04:00

I've been without an Internet connection since April 3rd or 4th. I have my new Internet set up now, but still can't send outgoing email. I've spent the past two mornings on the phone with tech support, so hopefully they'll get it figured out soon.

I'm still working up in the OR at work and loving the quiet. :) My body has gotten use to using some muscles I haven't used in a while too. LOL! Lots of reaching and bending. If I was skinny I'd probably have ripped abs. :) Well, maybe under all of this fat I've got something going on. LOL!

I'm still watching what I eat. I'm down 7 pounds so far. Everyone who started with me at work is still going strong. One woman who is in her 60's swore up and down that she usually gains 3 pounds the first week she tries to lose weight. She didn't lose anything the first couple of days and I noticed all she was eating was fruit and sweets. I told her I was going to have to kick her butt if she didn't add in some protein each day (don't worry, we talk to each other like this all the time, so she dishes it right back at me). She added the protein and now she's also lost 7 pounds. This is a woman who weighs about 100 pounds less than me. She's kicking butt all by herself. LOL!

I have the weekend off. I've been going non-stop for the past month now and I just feel like I need a break. I've decided tomorrow is going to be a fun day no matter what. I've got the day all planned out. I'm going to Cincinnati to a park that's celebrating earth day, then I'm going to hit some golf balls, then I'm going to go for a walk with Riley. Then at the end of the evening maybe I'll rent a movie and just chill out. Sunday is set aside to work on cookbook orders and get caught up on my email. It's suppose to rain anyway so no big deal.

Well, I'd better get off of here. I'm actually at work typing this. LOL! I got done early tonight and thought I'd get a couple of my tests done on the computer (we have to take tests here). Talk to you all later. :)

Quick Update

2008-03-29T09:23:00.004-04:00

Ok, here's a quick update....

Rick is moving out this weekend and I got the job in the O.R.

Two things down and a few more to go. Woo hoo! LOL!

Oh, and I'm getting back on Weight Watchers on Tuesday (I won't be attending meetings).

I'm Still Here

2008-03-17T00:06:00.002-04:00

Hey guys (and gals)! I just thought I'd check in and let you know that I'm still around. I've been leading a very busy life these days. Here's a quick run down of what's going on in my life right now...

1) I'm still working on getting back orders caught up with my cookbooks now that the books are in. I have books everywhere right now and not enough hours in the day to get it all done quickly, but I'm doing what I can.

2) I'm still working my 2nd full time job at the hospital. In fact, I'm hoping to start training to work in the O.R. tomorrow and take over for the lady that's leaving at the end of the month. I don't know if it's going to happen yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I'd really like to work in the O.R. (I'll give you an update on that if it happens).

3) Rick is moving out during the first two weeks of April. I told him back in January that I'd like to move on. After a little over 3 years together, I made the decision that I want to make some changes in my life and he doesn't really fit into those changes. We've been more like roommates for the past 2 years anyway. For one, I want to get healthy and I can't hang with him because he's extremely unhealthy. We aren't really compatible anyway. Sure, we laugh and have a good time quite a bit, but when it comes to the big picture, we see things differently. On his days off he wants to lay around and watch tv while I want to go out and do stuff; but the biggest deal breaker is I want kids and he doesn't. I just don't see any reason in wasting anymore time. I'm not getting any younger and I certainly don't have the power to make time stand still. Also, another thing is I'd like to live on my own for awhile. I've never really lived out on my own (I was with my ex husband for 10 years and then I met Rick)... I want to see what it's like to have my own space. I figure I'll give it a year and see where things go. The way my life has been changing so rapidly, just about anything can happen in a year. LOL! I'm waiting to hear from the management here at my apartment complex to move from my 2 bedroom apartment into a 1 bedroom apartment. They aren't positive, but they said they could have one available maybe around mid May. I thought about just staying here for another year, but I can save some money by downsizing, and I'd like a fresh start in a new place.

4) I have a really good friend at work who wants to lose weight. We've already decided that we're going to get back on track April 1st (I haven't been doing so well, but luckily I haven't gained any weight back due to all of the walking I do at work each night). They're building a really nice YMCA on the hospital campus that opens in August and we've already decided to join along with a few other co-workers. I think it will be fun to meet up before work or on our days off and work out together. We aren't going to wait until the YMCA opens to start working out though. We've already made plans to start walking on our days off and our goal is to do a couple of 10k's by this summer. I can't wait. I really miss participating in 10k's like I use to before I gained my weight back.

5) I'm taking a medical terminology class at the hospital. It will take me awhile to get through it because I don't have a lot of extra time to dedicate to it (it's a self paced class on the hospital computers) but I'll get it done eventually. Once I finish it, it should open some doors for a better job at the hospital if I choose to do so.

As you can see, I'm making a lot of changes right now, but I feel like they're changes for the better. I feel like I'm finally taking control over my life and I feel really positive and excited about everything. I just hope everything works out the way I have it all played out in my head. LOL! We all know things don't always go as planned, but I have to at least give it a try. :)

Well I'm heading for bed so I can get up early to work on getting out some cookbook orders tomorrow before I head to the hospital. I'm hoping once I'm back on track come April 1st that I'll be able to dedicate a little more time to this blog. I have some products I need to review (one of them is a CD for exercising). Talk to you soon!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-06T14:50:00.000-05:00

I was told I need to get over here and blog before people forget about me, so here I am. :) I think about blogging everyday, but I'm not able to do it from work (which is where I usually am). Even when I have a day off (like today), I still have to work here at the computer, so there really is no such thing as a day off for me anymore. It's all good though. I'm slowly adjusting to my job at the hospital. Not that the job itself has really changed, but I think I have. I had a bit of a melt down at work one night a couple of weeks ago and was ready to just walk out. Honestly, the only thing keeping me there is the insurance and the hopes of moving on to bigger and better things in the near future.

Anyway, since my melt down (or as most would call it, my "boo hoo sob session") I don't stress out over anything at work anymore. It's just not worth it to me. I think my problem before was that I just cared too much about it, I felt like it was my responsibility to make sure EVERYTHING in the hospital got done, and I let people's attitudes wear off on me. I'll be honest, I've never worked at a place with so many attitudes and lack of caring before. A lot of the people just sit around and bitch about having to work (well duh, aren't we there to actually work?) and the gossiping is unlike anything I've experienced before.

After my little melt down, I just made the conscious decision to be as happy as I can be, try to avoid the negative people, and just go to work, do my job and come home (which is all I ever really wanted to begin with, but I allowed myself to get wrapped up in all of it). I've also given myself permission to slow down. I was going at warp speed trying to get as much cleaned as possible to try and keep up with the demand, I was skipping breaks because I felt like I didn't have time to take them, and I was getting burned out. Now, I just go at a steady pace. I still don't always get to take both of my 15 minute breaks each night, but I'm working on it. I'm just one person, and I do the best that I can do. My new view on everything has really helped me get through it.

Now onto what you'd probably rather hear about... my weight loss. The good news is, I did end 2007 lighter than I started it (30 pounds to be exact). Even through all of my changes and stress during the last 3-4 months of the year, I managed to not gain everything back (though I did lose and gain the same 8 pounds over and over). Looking at my weigh in sheet (I weighed daily except for the few weeks when my scale was broken), I pretty much floated between the same 5 numbers (only hitting the higher end of those 5 numbers towards the end of the year when I was eating all sorts of junk and not really tracking my food intake).

I started my weight loss journey over on January 1st (like most people) and I'm doing really well so far. I decided not to make any new year's resolutions this year. I never stick to them anyway, so why set myself up for disappointment? I'd rather just focus on doing my best. It's all I have. I really feel like this is going to be another year of changes for me. I seem to have so much going on, and nothing is really stable in my life anymore. My goal is to just try and adjust to whatever comes along. I'm not a person who accepts change easily, so it's all a learning process just like weight loss.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. I need to get some laundry done and get cookbook orders filled, then head to the grocery store later so I have food for the week. I can't promise when I'll have a chance to come back and blog again, but I'll try my best to make it sometime soon.

PS, for anyone who started a gym membership recently, or those of you who already had one... this article is pretty interesting... 10 Things Your Gym Won't Tell You.

TTYL and Happy New Year, New You!!!

It's Been Awhile

2007-11-24T20:16:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! It's been awhile since my last post, but I can honestly say I've been busy. I wanted to stop in and get you up to date on my life these days.

I feel like all I do is work these days. My new job isn't enjoyable, but the health insurance keeps me going everyday (thankfully I had it when I landed in the ER the week after my birthday because the bill was over $1700 - I only had to pay $75). I've wanted to quit this job a few times already. It's not that the job is really hard (it's physical, but just about anyone could do it); the problem seems to be the lack of training and communication in the place, so naturally that just adds more stress. We're moving to a new hospital on December 9th, and I can understand that everyone is stressed with things to do to make that move, but I just really expected more. Most of what I know about my job has come from a small amount of training and from me asking LOTS of questions and not being afraid to speak up when I don't know how to do something. Luckily, the people who I work with in my department are nice and answer any questions I have (heck, most of them haven't been there much longer than I have).

I feel like I need a more mentally stimulating job. Some nights I just feel like a robot going from room to room cleaning. I have to do this for 6 months before I can try to move to a different position in the hospital. I'm just trying to get through it and put my time in so I can do just that. I've been looking into taking a medical terminology class lately. If I can find a class online and get through it, it should open some doors for me. I feel like I have skills that aren't being put to good use anymore. I'm not really saying I feel like I'm too good to scrub a toilet or anything, I just feel like I can achieve much higher things.

I got to talking to a woman last night while I was cleaning some windows and she was waiting on her ride. I asked her what she does in the hospital. She said she works as a processor in the lab, so I asked her if she had to go to school for that and she said no. Then I asked her if they were hiring (LOL). She said they are, but since she was hired 3 years ago, now you have to also be a Phlebotomist to do what she does (this way if they need extra help, you're trained to go do it). Maybe I'll take a look into that. All I know is... I can't keep doing what I'm doing. Not only is it killing my back and my ankles, but I feel like the job is giving me an attitude most days. I'm just hoping once we move to the new hospital, things will improve some. I'm tired all of the time (between working the new full time job and trying to keep up my business), and now I'm thinking about adding school on top of it all. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to try. Hopefully the stress won't kill me. Although... they say what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger... I ought to be a really strong person when this is all over. LOL!

Well, that's pretty much what I've been up to. I can't guarantee when I'll have time to get back here and post another blog, but I'll try to get back here soon. I miss all of you and think of you often!

Happy Birthday To Me!

2007-11-03T09:38:00.001-04:00

Well, it's finally here... yet another birthday. LOL! My gift to myself was stepping on the scale this morning and seeing a loss. All the walking at the hospital is paying off (it's official, I walk at least 5.5 miles every night - my feet and back are proof of it). If it weren't for Advil and Tiger Balm, I wouldn't be able to walk into that place everyday, or even get out of bed for that matter.

They brought in a birthday cake last night for me and another guy I work with (his birthday is today too). I stayed at the meeting long enough for everyone to sing Happy Birthday, then I politely excused myself and got to work while the rest of them ate cake. It didn't bother me. I've never been a big fan of cake anyway. I'd rather have ice cream. LOL!

I'm not sure what the plans are for today yet. I do know that I'll be at the new hospital sometime between 5-9 tonight taking a tour with my family (it's employee family night - a once in a lifetime chance for our families to see parts of the new hospital that they'll never get to see once it opens in December). It ought to be fun. :)

2007-10-30T12:05:00.000-04:00

Let Me Fall - Josh Groban

Let me fall
Let me climb
There's a moment when fear
And dreams must collide

Someone I am
Is waiting for courage
The one I want
The one I will become
Will catch me

So let me fall
If I must fall
I won't heed your warnings
I won't hear them

Let me fall
If I fall
Though the phoenix may
Or may not rise

I will dance so freely
Holding on to no one
You can hold me only
If you too will fall
Away from all these
Useless fears and chains

Someone I am
Is waiting for my courage
The one I want
The one I will become
Will catch me

So let me fall
If I must fall
I won't heed your warnings
I won't hear

Let me fall
If I fall
There's no reason
To miss this one chance
This perfect moment
Just let me fall

This is the song I've had stuck in my head since I woke up this morning. It's actually my favorite Josh Groban song. If you've never heard it, here you go...

Oh, update on the miles walked at work... last night was a really slow night (which means less walking) and my pedometer said I walked 5.5 miles. I'm going to wear it again tonight and see if it's about the same or not.

I'm Still Around

2007-10-28T17:21:00.000-04:00

Can you believe October is almost over already? The time just seems to fly by these days. I'm sure many of you feel the same.

I know I've been quiet, but I'm trying to getting everything I need to get done on my two days off from my new job. Yesterday I ran errands and got things done outside the house, and so far today I've been to Sam's Club (to stock up on shipping supplies), Walmart (to get groceries for the week), then I came home, updated the progress chart for the members on my support board, washed the bedding, did 3 loads of regular laundry, cooked 3 dishes (which will hopefully last the entire week), washed the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen, and now I'm getting ready to type up the invoices and fill this weeks cookbook orders. There are soooo many other things I need to get done, but I don't see it happening today. Maybe next weekend. I just seem to get further and further behind on everything. My to-do list just keeps on growing. I'm trying not to stress too much though. It will probably get worse before it gets better, so I'm just taking things one day at a time. :)

Eating wise, I have my good days and my not so good days, but I'm still hanging in there. I have to eat dinner at work just 2 hours after I get there. I'm not use to eating at 5 PM and don't eat a lot since I'm not hungry; so by the time I get back home at midnight, I'm usually hungry. I really need to stop eating so late though. I do nothing but walk for 8 hours at work (I'm going to try and take my pedometer one day this week so I can see just how far it is that I really walk). One person was trying to tell me that someone else wore a pedometer once and they figured up that they walked 14 miles per day, but I find that hard to believe. If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably more like 4-5 miles total. If I can get a handle on my late night eating, no doubt I'd lose more weight. Maybe I'll make up some sugar free Jello and see if that gets me through. If not, I'll have to think of something else.

I was going to write about a really good juice I've been drinking lately, but I think I'll save that for next time (more than likely next weekend unless I find the time to write it up sometime this week). I've still got a lot to get done tonight and I want to be sure that I compile all of the facts before I start telling you about it. It's good stuff, so be sure to stop back here and read about it soon. :) TTYL!

I'll Be Back

2007-10-11T22:23:00.000-04:00

Sorry guys, I haven't forgotten about you. I'm just trying to adjust to this new job and get through all of the orientation and masses of information they're throwing at me. I start my regular schedule next week (this week I went in at all sorts of different hours), so I should find some sort of whatever I can call "normal" sometime soon. I'm really behind on so many things right now. Working 2 full time jobs is a little harder than I even imagined it to be, but I'll get through. I have to.... the health insurance makes it worth it. LOL! I'm sure things will get easier as time goes on. The sad thing is, the new hospital opens on December 9th, and everything might get scrambled up again (plus I have to go through 2 orientations AGAIN... one for the new hospital and one for my department). I go out to the new hospital tomorrow during my shift for a tour of the O.R. (where I think I'd like to work), but chances are I won't get to work there since I'm on the bottom of the totem pole. I'll end up with one of the crappy jobs nobody else wants. I'll deal with it. I only have to be there 6 months before I can transfer into another department, so if it's bad and I can stick it out, that's what I'll do. :) TTYL!

A Couple of Links

2007-09-30T22:33:00.000-04:00

Want to see how a registered Dietitian eats? Visit Cristin Dillon's blog called Eat Like Me. She posts what she eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner (along with photos of her meals) everyday. I thought the blog was not only informative, but entertaining.

Also, do you like to jump rope? I use to, but don't have a jump rope anymore. I don't have room to do it either (unless I went outside to do it, but that's not happening) LOL! I was reading another blog tonight and came across something called the JumpSnap. It sounds interesting. Not sure if I'll get it or not (it's probably one of things I'd use for a couple of weeks and then it would end up in a drawer), but I might see if it's available cheaper on Ebay if I decide to look into it. Jumping rope is a good full body workout though. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone reading this loves to jump rope. :) Here's a video review I found...

Apple Talk

2007-09-29T13:57:00.000-04:00

It's apple season again. Are you confused by all of the different varieties to choose from? Are you wanting to try something new but you aren't sure which kind to try? Here are some helpful links that I've come across to help you make a decision...

All About Apples
Apple Journal - Variety Descriptions
Recommended uses for some of the most common known apple varieties
Which varieties to pick and why
Apple Facts

Not only do apples taste good, but they're also good for you. Did you know apples can help lower blood cholesterol, improve bowel function, reduce risk of stroke, prostate cancer, type II diabetes and asthma? To get the full nutritional benefits associated with eating apples you should eat at least one fresh apple every day.

Apples are a delicious source of dietary fiber, and dietary fiber helps aid digestion and promotes weight loss. A medium apple contains about five grams of fiber, more than most cereals. Also, apples contain almost zero fat and cholesterol, so they are a delicious snack and dessert food that’s good for you.

Have you ever tried a honeycrisp apple? If you haven't, you really need to. It is sooo good! They seem to be a bit hard to find though (at least around here they are). From what I've heard, they aren't available for too long. They cost a bit more than other apples, but the taste and the crispness to them is worth it.

Here are some recipes I've made using apples (pictures are included with each recipe):

Baked Apples with Vanilla Sauce
Apple Dumplings
Apple Pie Sundae
Blushing Apple Tapioca
Caramel Apple Pork Chops
Pork with Apples and Sauerkraut
Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake
Flaky Apple Turnovers
Caramel Apple Salad
Best Ever Baked Apples
Caramel Apple Cake
Can't Be Easier Apple Salad

Let's Laugh Off Some Calories!

2007-09-21T17:51:00.001-04:00

Jeff Dunham has a new DVD out this week called Spark of Insanity. I love this guy! He's hillarious! We went to see him live last year in Newport, KY. He does several characters, but the old guy named Walter is my favorite. His new DVD is being aired on Comedy Central this Sunday night, if you want to watch the whole thing for free. I guarantee you'll laugh. :) Here's a clip...

I've Got Good News

2007-09-20T16:57:00.000-04:00

As some of you may (or may not) know, I decided to start looking for a job a couple of weeks ago. At first I was just going to look for a part time job to help supplement my current income, but the more I got to thinking about it, the more I decided I really should get something full time that offers benefits. Being self employed, I haven't had health insurance for quite some time due to the cost. I'm not getting any younger and you just never know when something might happen. I had bronchitis for the first time in my life this past February. I kept putting it off hoping it would go away on it's own until one morning I woke up and was coughing so bad I couldn't catch a breath. That trip for some generic meds wasn't too bad, but it was still over $100. Then I made a trip to the doctor to have a yearly test done back in May and that bill arrived not too long ago.... $600. I probably wasn't even there 30 minutes! The lab tests are a killer! It kind of put things into perspective for me. Not only that, but with being self employed, the money I make varies and there are some months where it just gets down right scary between bills and the cost of keeping the site up and running. I've dwindled my savings down to nearly nothing over the summer to stay afloat, and I don't like the feeling of not knowing if I'll be able to pay my bills, so I decided it was time for a change. I started to look for something that was not only stable with a weekly paycheck, but something I could also get some benefits with.

I submitted my resume online at Monster on September 3rd. I've gotten probably 6-7 call backs from that so far, but they were all for sales jobs. I'm not someone who can call people and shove stuff down their throat all day, especially if I don't believe in it, so I turned them down. I also applied at the hospital the day after I posted my resume on Monster.com. I never really imagined myself working in a hospital, but I figure it's a job I could feel like I was helping people. That's important to me. I got called for an interview the following day, went to that interview last Tuesday, then got called back for a 2nd interview a week later. The good news is.... I went for my 2nd interview today at the hospital and 2 hours later, they called and said I got the job I applied for. I was really nervous at my first interview since I haven't been to an interview in over 10 years (not only that, but working at home by yourself for several years kind of messes up your social skills a little bit), but I just decided to be myself and tell the truth to whatever they asked me. Anyway, I'll be working Monday thru Friday, 3-11:30 PM. The coolest thing is, this hospital just built a brand new hospital that will be opening in December, so I'll get to work there.

Next Wednesday I go to fill out all of my paperwork, prove I'm not from Mars, and get a physical (along with shots I'll need for working in a hospital). I've never worked in a hospital before, but I think it will be fun. I've been watching the Discovery Health Channel lately to desensitize myself to certain things. I'm sure it's nothing like the real thing, but I'm sure in no time I'll be desensitized to just about everything once I have to deal with it once or twice. LOL! I have no doubt I can do this though. It's a step in the door to higher things.

I've been considering going back to college too. I've realized through all of this that the piece of paper really does matter when you're trying to get a better job. I'm not sure what I'm going to pursue just yet, but I figure I'll keep my eyes and ears open at the hospital and see what kinds of things look interesting, then I'll make my decision. Maybe I'll look into it for the Winter or Spring quarter. I spoke to the Human Resources woman today and she gave me a few things to think about. :)

Well, thanks for letting me share my good news with you guys!

The Diet Fork

2007-09-18T11:00:00.001-04:00

I came across this page last night (don't ask me how I found it, but somehow I was looking at it before I knew it). Apparently someone is trying to sell a "Diet Fork". It's supposed to slow you down when you eat, keeping you from being able to "scoop" your food. Who are they kidding? LOL!

This thing kind of looks to me like a spork, you know, like you'd get at taco bell or in a school lunch. They don't show you what the actual product looks like on the website (probably because everyone knows what a plastic spork looks like already). I don't know about you guys, but a spork has never slowed me down. LOL! If you really want to slow me down, give me some chopsticks, or better yet, a toothpick. :) Take a look at the Diet Fork website if you're looking for some entertainment. The website says "Making Dieting Fun". Ummmmm..... hold on.... I can't type when I'm laughing so hard. LOL!

You know, the sad thing is, there are probably people out there who think this will really help them to lose weight. If you're eating junk, a special fork isn't going to hold you back. You've got to not only change the way you eat, but what you eat. Oh, and lets not forget about exercise.

Here, I've got a product for you... no seriously, hear me out on this one. I just thought of it... The New Diet Spoon! You can burn more calories than what you eat when you use it because you've got to scoop really fast. Works amazing with soup and soft ice cream! Man, I've got to get a patent on this right away. (5 minutes later)... Ah darn, apparently I'm not the first to think of this crazy idea. I just found one on Ebay. Oh well, I don't think I was going to be a millionaire from this idea anyway (much like the diet fork inventor).

On a more serious note... one invention for dieters that I've seen before and think is a pretty good idea is the diet plate. There are a few different designs on the market from what I've seen, ranging from a bulky one called the EZ Weight Plate that looks like plastic measuring cups molded into a plate, to a fancier, more artistic looking one called The Diet Plate. This plate is available in portion sizes for men, women and children. I think these products would be useful especially for people who don't like to get the measuring cups out and measure their food. They're a bit costly, but if you've got the dough and you don't like to measure your food, then I say go for it. For me, I'll just continue weighing and measuring my food the old fashioned way for now. Who knows, maybe if I had been able to pull off that diet spoon idea, I could afford to buy myself a fancy diet plate. :)

8 Random Things About Me

2007-09-14T16:03:00.000-04:00

I'm taking a break from work and thought I'd stop in and update my blog. It's so nice to know some of you miss me when I'm too busy to post. :)

I've done so much lately. We had a yard sale last weekend (that was a lot of work, but the money was worth it). I also went on a job interview on Tuesday (keep your fingers crossed because I really want this job). It's the first interview I've been on in over 10 years and I was really nervous. I just tried to be myself, but I think I might have been too serious. LOL! I've pretty much spent the rest of my time this week working on transferring my cookbooks over to a different company. I'm making the transfer because the new company will take the orders for me and ship the books out. With getting a full time job, I just won't be able to keep up with everything, so it's the decision I've made. The books will be nicer, but they'll also cost more. I'm going to try and offer a little something for everyone though. Hopefully people will still think they're worth it. Once I'm finished with the transfer, then I'll continue working on the 3rd cookbook and the community cookbook I've been working on all year. I'm thinking about adding some cookbooklets too for those who don't want to purchase an entire cookbook (I'm still thinking that idea over).

Krissie listed "8 Random Things About Me" on her blog a few days ago, so I thought I'd play along. I'm not sure how interesting this will be to you, but here we go...

1. My middle name is Denise (if I had been a boy, my name would have been Bradly Jason)
2. I have 2 older brothers named Eric and David.
3. I use to play the piano, flute and trumpet and I majored in music education for awhile in college. (I wanted to be a band director and teach kids how to play instruments).
4. I'm going to be turning 34 years old on November 3rd. (yep, I said it. Age is just a number to me. You're only as old as you act in my opinion).
5. I hate veggies, but I disguise them in casseroles and soups to eat them (I do love corn).
6. I drive a 2005 Scion XB which I've already replaced the windshield once and now it's cracked again (thanks to the rocks that get bounced up off of the highway).
7. I enjoy playing golf (most of the time) and didn't start playing until 2 years ago.
8. I love helping others. It's always so nice to get an email from someone that visited my website who says I've made a difference in their life. There's just no greater feeling.

Ok, it's your turn. Play along and list 8 Random things about yourself.

Facts About Trans Fats

2007-09-11T16:28:00.001-04:00

Some people are confused as to what trans fats are. I thought I'd post some info and links about them to clear up a few of the questions most of us have on the subject...

Wondering how trans fat ended up with its own special place on food labels? Most of us grew up eating foods containing trans fat without knowing it was there. Before trans fat was added to labels in 2006, you could only recognize it under its alias, “partially hydrogenated oil,” on the list of ingredients.

Trans fat became popular with consumers and food manufacturers because it acted as a preservative, giving foods a longer shelf life. It also gave foods a more tempting taste and texture.

But there’s a downside to trans fat. We now know that trans fat is harmful to our health. But this knowledge is relatively new. Before 1990, some researchers suspected that partially hydrogenated oils were “bad fats,” but it wasn’t until the 1990s that research began to prove it.

What are trans fats?

Trans fats (or trans fatty acids) are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid. Another name for trans fats is “partially hydrogenated oils." Look for them on the ingredient list on food packages.

What foods contain trans fats?

Trans fats can be found in many foods – but especially in fried foods like French fries and doughnuts, and baked goods including pastries, pie crusts, biscuits, pizza dough, cookies, crackers, and stick margarines and shortenings. You can determine the amount of trans fats in a particular packaged food by looking at the Nutrition Facts label. You can also spot trans fats by reading ingredient lists and looking for the ingredients referred to as “partially hydrogenated oils.”

How much trans fat can I eat a day?

The American Heart Association recommends limiting the amount of trans fats you eat to less than 1 percent of your total daily calories. That means if you need 2,000 calories a day, no more than 20 of those calories should come from trans fats. That’s less than 2 grams of trans fats a day. Given the amount of naturally occurring trans fats you probably eat every day, this leaves virtually no room at all for industrially manufactured trans fats. Find out your personal daily fat limits on My Fats Translator.

How can I stay within my daily limit for trans fats?

Read the Nutrition Facts label on foods you buy at the store and, when eating out, ask what kind of oil foods are cooked in. Replace the trans fats in your diet with monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats. For practical tips, learn how to Live Fat-Sensibly.

This info and more can be found at The American Heart Association website.

A Link To Tell You About

2007-09-02T22:48:00.001-04:00

I don't have much to talk about tonight. I trikked 3 miles this morning. That's about the only thing exciting I did today. LOL! I wasn't going to blog tonight, but I figured I'd tell you about this activity calorie calculator I came across on the web tonight. I thought it looked interesting. :)

Other than that, I'll leave you with some motivation....

Instead of giving myself reasons why I can't, I give myself reasons why I can.
Identify what you want and go for it.
When you expect success, your mind focuses on success.
Nothing tastes as good as being healthy and full of energy feels.
The secret of success is having the courage to begin in the first place.
Never, never, never, never give up

A Cool Recipe Video Site

2007-09-01T19:52:00.000-04:00

First, I just want to let everyone know that Ben (Fat Single Dad) is back blogging again. Yay!!! :) The new name of his blog is Diary of a Fat Man. He's decided to talk about other things than just about weight loss. I think talking about whatever is on our minds is the best thing. We want to lose weight, but talking about the non weight loss issues in our lives can also help us move along in our weight loss. I know if I talked about weight loss 24/7, I'd go bonkers. LOL! Anyway, be sure to stop by his blog and give him a cyber hug and welcome him back to the world of blogging. :)

If you like to watch videos of people cooking, check out ifood.tv. It's like YouTube, but for foodies. :) I like to watch Average Betty's videos (she funny and entertaining). Here's one of her videos...

When you get to the ifood.tv website; if you click on "Recipes" and then "healthy", a list of things will come up to choose from. Such as: low calorie, low fat, low carb, low sodium, and high protein recipes. Have fun! :)

The Rage Over Fage

2007-08-28T20:20:00.000-04:00

Ok, so for awhile now I've been hearing bits and pieces about this Greek yogurt called "Fage". I like yogurt, but I can't say I LOVE yogurt by any means. My curiosity got the best of me though, so I decided I had to try it. I called around to a few different stores in my area (none of the regular grocery stores carried it, nor did my Trader Joe's). I did end up finding it at a higher end grocery store, so I set out to pick some up. Let me say, I've never in my life paid $1.59 for a 5 oz. container of yogurt, but I went ahead and did it just so I could try it and write this review. I picked up a container of the 0% and a container of the 2% to compare.

I've read mixed reviews on various blogs about Fage yogurt lately. Jennette a.k.a. PastaQueen over at Half Of Me wrote a review and basically said it tasted like diaper rash cream. Of course as soon as I took the lid off of my container of Fage Total 0%, stirred it around and took a bite, that was the thought that popped into my head. LOL! It doesn't actually taste like diaper rash cream to me (not that I've ever eaten diaper rash cream and if I had, I wouldn't admit it), but the consistency is kinda like it since it's thicker than other fat free yogurts. It's also creamier than other yogurts.

I do have to agree with Jennette on one thing though, Fage isn't sweet. In fact, it kinda reminded me of sour cream or a really mild tart tasting cheese. The normal thing that I do with plain or vanilla yogurt usually is to add Splenda and some PB2 powder, so I did that. It helped a lot. I opened up the 2% container of yogurt and it pretty much looked like it had the same consistency as the 0% yogurt. It might have been a little creamier, but honestly I really couldn't tell much of a difference. Fage sells a yogurt with honey, so I decided to add some cinnamon and honey to this container of yogurt. I'm not a honey fan, but I figured Rick would eat it (he's my guinea pig) LOL! I mixed it up and tasted it.... pretty good. I didn't eat both though, he at the 2% with honey and I ate the 0% with PB2.

Bottom line... yes, this yogurt is thicker and creamier than other yogurts, but the cost is a killer in my opinion. It's all natural, so that's good too. I'm also sure it's much tastier used as a sour cream substitute or as a base for a dip, but unless they brought the cost down below $1, I probably wouldn't buy it again. Now if you love plain yogurt with a tart taste, you want something that's natural and you have money to burn, I say go for it. :) I've seen a Greek yogurt at Trader Joe's, so maybe the next time I'm there, I'll see what that's all about and compare. I'm sure it's cheaper anyway. Hey, maybe if I ever start loving yogurt, I'll just make my own. :)

Sorry Guys

2007-08-26T11:29:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry that I haven't posted lately. I've just been really busy (trying to find a full time job to go along with my current full time job). I'll be back to post soon. Don't forget about me.

Catching Up

2007-08-16T13:17:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've been absent for most of this week. I've been super busy. Let me get you caught up real quick....

I'm doing pretty good on my fat march challenge. I've covered 29 miles in 10 days. I still haven't gotten out on my Trikke yet, but Saturday is supposed to be much cooler, so maybe I can go out then and see if I can still do it. :)

I weighed in yesterday morning and I was up another .4 pounds for the week. I was hoping for a loss, but I guess I can't complain since I started adding more carbs into my eating plan (I'm still not eating bread, potatoes or dessert). But I have added brown rice and beans, along with more veggies and fruit. I think by cutting stuff out for 2 months (especially empty calorie, energy sucking desserts), it's helped me to be more aware of portions and when to know if I'm hungry or not. I no longer over eat any one certain food group. When I eat something, it's just 1 serving and no more (which is plenty for me). I'm still loving Core! I've never felt better or more energized! I was abusing desserts something terrible a few months ago (because I had the points). Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the Flex plan, but when you're like me and abuse the crap out of how the points get spent each day, it's not really a healthy way of eating. With Core, I don't have to worry about points. I do use some of my flex points each week, but it's not on desserts. It's on things like bacon bits and lite laughing cow cheese for my omelet in the morning.

I tried a couple of new recipes today. Here they are:

Mexicale Casserole

1 Pound Extra Lean Ground Beef
1 Cup Onion, chopped
1/2 Cup Green Pepper, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Chili Powder
2 teaspoons Cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 (15 oz.) Can Dark Kidney Beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 Cups Cooked Brown Rice
1 Cup Fat Free Cheddar Cheese, shredded (divided)
1/2 Cup Skim Milk
1/2 Cup Egg Substitute

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet, add the beef, onion, green pepper, and garlic. Cook over medium high heat until the meat is brown and the vegetables are tender. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Continue cooking for about a minute. Remove from heat and stir in the beans, rice, 3/4 cup of cheese, milk and egg substitute. Spray a 9x9 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the beef mixture into the dish. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes or until liquid is no longer runny. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup cheese on top as soon as you pull it out of the oven. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Serve with salsa and fat free sour cream if desired.

Serves: 6
Per Serving: 381 Calories; 16g Fat (38.4% calories from fat); 29g Protein; 30g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 55mg Cholesterol; 540mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 1/2 Fat. WWP: 8 (www.AimeesAdventures.com)

Fried Banana (thanks to Linda for this one)

1 Medium Banana
2 teaspoons Healthy Oil (I used Canola)
Cinnamon (optional)
1 Packet Splenda (optional)

In a small skillet, heat the oil over medium heat (just slightly under medium). Cut the banana in half each way so that you end up with 4 pieces (or you can slice into rounds). Pick up the skillet and swirl the oil to evenly coat the pan. Add the banana. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon if desired. Cook on each side until browned (how brown you like it is up to you). Sprinkle with Splenda if desired. You can top with a little fat free cool whip if you like, but be sure to count the points.

Serves: 1
Per Serving: 193 Calories; 10g Fat (42.2% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 29g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 1mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Fruit; 2 Fat.
WWP: 4 (www.AimeesAdventures.com)

The Things I Love

2007-08-11T17:49:00.001-04:00

I was going to blog today about the dinner theatre we went to with my parents last night, but I figured you probably don't really want to hear about that anyway. :) Basically we ate (I did really good) and then we watched them perform The Wizard of Oz. It was good, the kids (who were the munchkins) were cute, and the dog (who kept trying to bite any of the characters who moved too fast and then he was stealing treats) was hillarious! Nuff said! :)

Oh and I've now covered 23 miles of my 200 mile fat march challenge. 12 of those miles were today at the gym (2 miles on the treadmill and 10 miles on the stationary bike). I didn't really plan on riding the bike that long, but they had a good movie playing and I wanted to see how it ended. LOL!

I was reading Krissie's blog a few minutes ago and saw that I've been tagged to list what I love about 10 certain things. The original tag going around was to list 10 things people hate, but I agree with Krissie and I'd rather list the things I love. So here it goes....

Food: I love most anything Mexican! I also love ice cream, but Ben and Jerry's Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream is awesome!

Fruit: I'm not a huge fan of fruit, but when I do eat it, I like apples, grapes, strawberries and watermelon. I actually didn't like strawberries until just a couple of years ago, but now, give me some cut up with some Splenda and a little bit of fat free cool whip and I'm doing the happy dance. LOL!

Veggies: Honestly, I'm even less of a fan of veggies than I am of fruit. But... I do eat them (I chop them small and disguise them in soups and sauces). Corn is my absolute favorite (although some people can argue that corn is a fruit because it comes from the reproductive part of the plant, or a grain when it's dried, but I still say it's a vegetable)! I LOVE the stuff! On the cob, creamed, from a can, made into cornmeal, or popped. LOL! I'm also learning to like broccoli, though I still need it chopped up small and it has to be in something (cheese sauce helps). I can't eat it by itself just yet. :)

Celebrity/People: I like Ellen Degeneres. She seems like she'd be a really fun person to hang out with. Her humor seems to just come natural and I think that's cool. :) Drew Barrymore seems to have a good personality too. I also think Adam Sandler would be fun to hang out with.

Event/Situation/Incident: Amusement parks are always fun. I like traveling (although I don't get to go often) because you get to see new things and meet new people.

TV Shows/Movies: Hmmm, I could be on this question for quite some time listing all of my favorite shows and movies, but I'll narrow it down to just one each... For TV shows I guess I'd have to say Desperate Housewives. You just never know what they're going to do each week. :) And for movies, it's What Dreams May Come. Here's a little clip of the movie in case you've never heard of it:

Music: This is another tough one. I'll just go with a general choice and say I like 80's music the most. :) I'm listening to flashbackradio.com right now.

Household Chores: I can honestly say I don't like doing any chore, but I don't mind vacuuming. :)

Around the World: I love to listen to the different languages and accents. :)

About Myself: I love that I can look at things with more than 1 perspective and then make a decision without jumping right in. I love that I work hard, I'm good at what I do and I love what I do (even thought it doesn't pay very well). I love that I don't take myself seriously too often and that I can make others laugh when they need it the most.

I am now tagging: Anyone who would like to share a bit about what they love.

11 Miles Down, 189 To Go

2007-08-09T17:15:00.000-04:00

I've gone to the gym two days in a row now (thanks to Linda convincing me to go). I have to admit, I don't want to go, and I procrastinate for a few hours before I decide I really should go. LOL! But once I'm there, it's not so bad and after I'm done, I'm glad I went. Yesterday I went and just walked 2 miles on the treadmill. Today I went with the intention of walking 3 miles on the treadmill (because I wanted to catch up with Linda who has already covered 8 miles and I was still at 5 miles). LOL!

Anyway, I got there, hopped on the treadmill and began. I covered 1 mile with no problem, but when that 2nd mile rolled around, I thought I was going to die from boredom! If they hadn't been showing a movie at the same time, I might have been tempted to hop off. You have to understand, I'm not the type of person who really does traditional type exercises. I like to get outside and either hike, bike or Trikke. It's just too hot out to do that right now. If I have to exercise inside, it usually either involves Leslie Sansone's Walk Away The Pounds videos, or my Playstation 2 with DDR or Kinetics.

So here I am, walking on the treadmill, glancing down at the distance button every 5 sections wishing it would hurry up. At one point I even increased the speed, but soon realized my feet couldn't keep up unless I wanted to jog (which I didn't and can't anyway). I kept going and trying to stay interested in the movie (it was an ok movie, nothing spectacular, but I didn't see it from the beginning either, so maybe I missed some really good parts. It was called Scoop). When I had almost completed 2 miles on the treadmill, the other two people working out in the room left, so it was just me. I thought, hmmm, maybe for the last mile I could try out the elliptical machine since nobody was in the room. As soon as the treadmill hit the 2 mile mark, I hopped off of it and found my way to the back of the room where the elliptical machines were (remember, the room is dark). I found the one I wanted (bumped my knee trying to get on it), and I lasted for about a minute. LOL! I felt like my legs were going to give out from under me and I didn't need anyone coming in and finding me on the floor. LOL! I thought, darn, well I don't want to get back on the treadmill! Then I figured, what the heck, I'll get on the bike, ride my last mile and then go home.

After I figured out how to adjust the seat so my feet would reach the pedals (must have been a guy on it before me), I started off on my mile. I was surprised at how fast a mile went by on a bike (hey, it's been awhile since I've done this, so stop laughing). :) When the first mile was up, I thought, maybe I can do another mile. Then I did another. Before I knew it, I had done 4 miles. I was like, hey, I'm liking this. LOL! I was tired though and my legs felt like rubber, so I decided 4 miles was enough for the day (6 miles total with the walking). New people had come into the room when I was still on my first mile, so when I was ready to leave, I stood there for a minute and had some water to drink because I was afraid if I walked across the room, I'd either fall over, or I'd walk like I was drunk. LOL! I just walked slowly and made my way out. :) I'm hoping to have time to go back tomorrow, but I have plans later in the afternoon, so if I can't get there early, I'll have to skip tomorrow.

The Cheating Checklist

2007-08-08T23:44:00.000-04:00

What’s the biggest cause of diet failure? Cheating on your diet, of course. Everyone does it at one point or another along the way. You most likely can’t avoid it completely. It’s hard to be perfect. What you can do is lessen the number of times you cheat. Keep it to a minimum. The more you can stay on your diet, the more weight you’ll lose.

An effective way to stall a cheat in its tracks is to stop and think. This is possibly the most powerful technique you’ll ever find. It just takes some questioning, some considering, before you go ahead and plunge into those cookies and chips. Challenge yourself. See how flexible you can be. You don’t need to do what you’ve always done. You can use your powers of thinking before you go ahead and cheat, thus avoiding any self-recriminations and a possible reversal of your weight-loss progress.

Here is a checklist of questions that will steer you to the right kind of thinking. Use this list the next time you feel like cheating on your diet, before you actually do it. You can still cheat if you want to―that’s always up to you. But once you answer these questions, even if you go ahead and cheat, it will be more of a real choice rather than just an automatic reflex.

Am I still committed to losing weight?

What will the benefits to my life be when I reach my weight loss goal?

Do I believe in my ability to stick to my diet?

If not, why not?

What are the strengths I possess that can help me stick to my diet right now?

Am I feeling very stressed out?

If so, can I handle the stress in some other way?

Am I tired?

If so, can I take some time out to rest?

Am I feeling overwhelmed?

If so, can I put off taking care of a few things until I feel more capable?

If I break my diet at this moment, will I feel better or worse?

If I cheat on my diet now, will I be able to get back on it?

Am I afraid to lose weight?

If so, what am I afraid of?

What do I truly need right now?

Will eating off my diet plan give me what I need right now?

If not, how can I get what I need?

What would the people close to me think of me if I cheat now?

What will I think of myself if I cheat now?

If you have a problem with food and weight, you’ve probably trained yourself to turn to food at certain times. By now, it is probably a totally automatic response. Use this checklist to retrain yourself. It will help you let go of your bad food habits. Make sure this list is always handy. Make your dream of losing the weight once and for all come true.

©2007 Maria's Last Diet. Maria’s Last Diet is an online weight loss support website for women. At Maria’s Last Diet, you’ll find the tools to fix the thoughts, feelings, and automatic habits that fight against you when you diet. Because it’s never just about the food. Visit www.mariaslastdiet.com for more diet tips and weight loss motivation.

3 Miles Into My Walking

2007-08-07T20:24:00.000-04:00

Well, so far so good on the walking (for me). Last night around 10:00, I took my dog Riley for a walk around our apartment complex. We walked just over a mile total, which is 4 times around. It was hot, but not bad. The last time around, Riley must have had enough, because when he saw our door, he started pulling in that direction. I think he was afraid I was going to make him go around again. LOL!

This morning we got up and I decided that I'd take us for another walk, but this time we'd go into the neighborhood behind our apartment complex. The plan was to just walk a mile and get back before it got REALLY hot out (it was already hot, but not sizzling). Well, dumb me forgot the name of the street I was supposed to turn down, so we ended up walking almost 2 miles. I know, 2 miles isn't really that far, but when the heat index is around 90 degrees, it's humid, and the last mile is mostly up hill, it's freakin' hot! I don't know how I missed the street, but I'm guessing it's because I remembered when I walked it once last year, that it was a 1 way street that had trees down the middle. I kept going looking for that street, thinking maybe it was the next street. Turns out, if I had made the turn I was supposed to make, I would have eventually come across that street, but since I didn't make that first turn, I ended up walking parallel to where I should have been and it didn't really know it. Since I kept going, I ended up on a busy street (thankfully there were sidewalks in all but one place). Poor Riley was hot and tired. At one point he just laid down in the grass and wouldn't budge. I had to pick him up and carry him until we got back to our complex (at that point I put him down and told him he didn't have a choice, that he was just going to have to walk the rest of the way because I was burning up). We were both soooo glad to walk back in the front door where the cool air greeted us. I took him directly to his water bowl and made sure he got a drink, then I headed out to the kitchen and had a couple of glasses of water myself. :) Here's an image of the path that we walked...

Fat March

2007-08-06T15:59:00.000-04:00

The TV Show called Fat March starts tonight on ABC. Will you be watching? I've got my DVR all set up to record it. :) These people are going to walk over 500 miles in just 10 weeks in an attempt to lose weight and earn money and other prizes. That's a lot of walking!

I'm starting a new challenge kinda of based on the Fat March. I'm not looking to walk 500 miles in 10 weeks, but I want to set up my own challenge and change it up a bit. I want to strive for 100 miles in 10 weeks, but these miles can be not only walking, but anything like: jogging, bike riding, roller blading, golfing (walking the course, not riding in a cart), etc. Whatever you can do and still log your miles (other than driving or using motorized means of transportation), then it's allowed. I'll probably be doing a combination of walking and Trikking, and as Krissie mentioned in the comments, "Walk Away The Pounds" videos (since they're marked by the mile, they'll be easy to count).

Would any of you like to join me? You can decide what you want to do, and how many miles you'd like to set for your goal. Like I said, my goal is 200 miles in 10 weeks. That's basically 4 miles per day, 5 days per week (I think we all need a few days rest each week, but you're more than welcome to do more). I'm just trying to stay realistic. I know that if I'm barely exercising now, then I'm not going to be able to go out and walk 10 miles per day. 4 miles will be a challenge enough for me, especially in the beginning. I might end up doing 2 miles, twice in a day. Hey, it all adds up right? :)

If you'd like to join in, come over to my message board and sign up (it's free). Then click on the "Challenges" link and post your info.

If it's too hot outside to exercise, try exercising at night. If you can't exercise at night, exercise early in the morning. If those don't work, go to your local mall and walk around there in the air conditioning. Hit the treadmill, etc. There are always ways to do something if you really want to do it.

Here are a few neat links that might be of some help:
This first one is called Walk Score. It tells you how walkable your area is. You can pick a destination and it will tell you how the path rates. Like lets say you want to walk from your house to the bank, or to the grocery store, etc. It lets you know how do-able it is. I checked some of the stuff around where I live, and it pretty much suggested that I should drive instead of walk. LOL!

This next one is my favorite. It's called Map My Run. No, you don't have to run, you can just walk. LOL! You can actually mark out your walk and find out the distance. I tested it out by starting at my house, then making dots up and down some of the streets and then back to my house. Now you don't have to get into the car and drive the path to find out how far it is. :)

Vietnam Memorial Wall

2007-08-04T10:11:00.000-04:00

Rick and I stopped off to see the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall this morning (it's being displayed at a park here in Franklin for the weekend). The wall is an 80% size replica standing over 8’ tall, and over 370 feet long. I've never been to see the full sized wall in Washington D.C., so I thought it would be nice to stop and see the traveling wall. If you'd like to see how the wall is constructed, here is a video I found.

A couple of facts about the full sized wall in Washington D.C.:

Each of the walls is 246.75 feet long, composed of 70 separate inscribed granite panels, plus 4 at the end without names; the panels themselves are 40 inches in width; the largest panels have 137 lines of names, while the shortest have one; there are five names on each line, although with new additions of names, some lines now have six; the walls are supported by 140 concrete pilings driven approximately 35 feet (some are at 20 feet) to bedrock; at the vertex the walls are 10.1 feet in height.

With the addition of three names added in 2007 the total is now 58,256 names listed on the Memorial. Approximately 1200 of these are listed as missing (MIA's, POW's, and others).

Here are some pictures I took:

Click on the image to read what the sign says.

The Past And The Future

2007-08-02T23:40:00.000-04:00

I got to chat with my best friend Wendy tonight (we've known each other since we were 4 years old). We both live rather busy lives and don't get to talk very often, so I was really happy to get to talk to her and catch up with what's going on in her life. She's probably the only person who knows just about everything there is to know about me. It was nice to have a good laugh. :) I get to see her like once every two years or so (usually when she comes up here to from Texas to visit her family), so we act like fools and have a good old time remembering some of the stuff we did as kids. LOL! There's a chance that maybe she'll be able to come up next Spring, so I'm excited about that. I'm also hoping to be much skinnier if not at goal the next time she comes to visit. :) The last time she was up here, I had to go out of town so I missed her. :(

It's funny how when we're younger we see our adult lives being so much different than they are when it really happens (at least this is how it has been for me). Like for instance, when we were younger, Wendy and I had it all planned out that we would live next door to each other and we'd both have kids who were friends with each other. I'd be a music teacher and she'd be a chef (although I did take music in college for awhile and she has gone to culinary school). She was a much better cook than me and actually taught me how to make a cake from scratch when we were in high school. I can't really say that's what got me cooking though. LOL! Now here we are some 15-16 years later, we don't live next door to each other, don't have kids, she's a budget analyst (always working her way up the ladder... you go girl!) and well... you already know what I do. LOL! If anyone would have ever told me back then that this is how it would be now, I would have been like "shut up, nuh uh" LOL!

Anyway, that's just something that I got to thinking about tonight. And although what I had planned out in my head many years ago didn't actually happen, I can honestly say I'm happy with what I do now. I'm not teaching kids how to play instruments, but I'm motivating people to lose weight and better their lives (hopefully that's what you get from my website anyway). LOL!

I may not be able to predict the future, but I have hopes and dreams for the years to come. Even if those hopes and dreams don't turn out exactly the way I've envisioned them, I'm excited to follow the journey and see what happens.

I'm curious... what did you see yourself doing as an adult when you were younger, and how does that compare to what your life is like now? Did it turn out the way you thought it would?

Down 34.6 Pounds

2007-08-01T11:39:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it's August already. Where does the time go? I think I'm still back in like March or April. Thank goodness for the calendar in front of me, or I'd be all messed up. LOL!

I weighed in this morning and was down 1.2 pounds. I was just shy of making the 35 pound mark, but I'll make it next week for sure if all goes as planned. :)

Krissie was brave enough to take a picture of her weight on the scale yesterday, so this morning I thought I'd do the same. I tried taking several pictures, but not only couldn't I get a good picture to turn out (my scale is glass with shiny metal around the read out, so the flash kept making a big blob of light on the number), but the camera added over a pound to my weight. So... I decided to make my own animated scale to show my weight each week (hey, I wasn't going to show you my ugly feet anyway) LOL! By doing it this way, I also got to start from the beginning of my weight loss. :) The weights are my official WW weekly weigh in weights. If I used my home weights, it would say I weighed 245.9 instead of 247.8 (that's the difference between my scale and the WW scale). Maybe I should just start weighing at home instead and save my $40 per month? Just kidding, been there and done that. It didn't work out very well for me. I need to go to the meetings and be accountable. Ok, here's the animated scale I made. Talk to you tomorrow. :)

See You Tomorrow

2007-07-31T21:48:00.000-04:00

Sorry guys, I have to go to bed early tonight (have weigh in tomorrow morning) and I still have some stuff I need to get done before I head for bed. I'm going to leave you with a video of this girl I found yesterday who hit her WW goal. I thought she was rather entertaining (we all know we'll act like this when we hit our goals) LOL! See you tomorrow (hopefully with some good news after my weigh in).

A Few Things To Talk About

2007-07-30T23:18:00.000-04:00

Ok, I have a few things for you tonight...

First, if you're one of my many visitors from the UK, be sure to check out Groovybabe's Weight Loss Forum that she started. It's a good place to connect with some people from your area and perhaps find a weight loss or exercise buddy. :)

Next, Peggy sent me an email telling me about a neat website. It's called Healthy Dining Finder. You can search for restaurants according to city, price range, or if they have take out and delivery. If you'd like to see a list of restaurants in alphabetical order, click here. I haven't had time to play around with all of the website, but from what I can tell so far, it looks pretty useful. :)

Ok, the last thing is sort of a public service announcement on a great way to identify someone having a stroke (also sent to me by Peggy). Please take the time to read this, you could save someone's life...

During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00pm , Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S * Ask the individual to SMILE.

T * Ask the person to TALK to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE(Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today)

R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out their tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke. If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

Remember the “3″ steps, STR … Smile, Talk, Raise… Smile, Talk, Raise… Smile, Talk, Raise.

Down Another Pound

2007-07-29T22:20:00.001-04:00

I missed my Wednesday meeting this past week because I wasn't feeling well. I decided to go and weigh in on Friday instead. I was down 1 pound. My weight loss seems to be slowing down (which I expected it would after the past 6 weeks or so of bigger losses). I know with weight loss, there will be weeks where I'll have a great week, then I could have a week where I stay the same or even gain. It's all part of the journey (for me anyway).

I was reading Krissie's Blog today and she mentioned the Facebook website. I honestly forgot I even had a Facebook account until I went there to check it out. LOL! I must have signed up for it awhile back and forgot about it. Duh! Either that or I discovered it the same time I discovered MySpace and I ditched it for MySpace because I knew more people there. :) Anyway, I figured while I was there, I should go ahead and update it. :) I found Krissie and added her as a friend. Turns out, we have the exact same birthday (November 3rd) except I'm 4 years older. It must explain why she's so cool. LOL!

I decided to take the day off today and just pretty much do nothing (I don't get many of those days). Well, I did post some stuff on Ebay, but that didn't take long and I don't really consider that work. :) Rick and I went to Traders World (flea market) early this morning and walked around, then we stopped off and picked up some videos at Blockbuster. We got: The Last Mimzy (it was good), Premonition (it was ok but a bit odd), The Number 23 (we stopped watching it after about 30 minutes because it was boring, either that or I just wasn't in the mood to watch it), and Zodiac (we haven't watched this one yet). The first two movies were my pick and the 2nd two were Rick's picks. LOL!

I was looking for a certain time zone today and came across ZebraMap.com. I thought it was kind of neat, so I'm passing it on in case anyone is interested. :)

Ok, I'm off to bed. Oh, I finally finished the last Harry Potter book last night. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't finished it yet, but I liked it. It wasn't my favorite HP book in the series, but it's good.

Hello From Dayton

2007-07-24T13:16:00.000-04:00

I've been staying in Dayton since Sunday afternoon to house/cat sit (5 cats and a kitten) for my parents while they're in TN visiting my brother and his family. I came downstairs to let my dog Riley out this morning and the first thing I did was set the alarm off (he really had to go and I wasn't awake enough yet to remember my parents had an alarm installed since the last time I stayed here). I was awake when that alarm went off though (so was the rest of the neighborhood probably) LOL! Within a minute, Brinks was on the phone wanting the secret word (in case someone had broken in). Luckily I was smart enough to ask my parents what that word was before they left or I would have probably had police knocking on the door next. Great way to get the day started. :)

So after I cleaned all of the litter boxes, fed the one cat and guarded him so the others couldn't eat his food (he has to eat every few hours or he gets sick), filled the food and water bowls, took care of the new kitten, checked on the 3 legged cat that roams the neighborhood (my parents feed him), and watered the plants outside, my mom called. She and my dad had taken my 7 year old nephew back to their hotel for breakfast (he thinks that's fun). I talked to my nephew for awhile (he wanted to hear Riley bark and the cats meow, which Riley just licked the phone and one of the cats hissed). He said my parents were taking him to Target to get a toy and then to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch (fun).

After breakfast, I took Riley to PetSmart to walk around and get some food (he loves going there). On the way home, we stopped off at the park and took a walk. It's only 1:30 and I'm tired already. LOL! The cats and Riley seem to be napping right now, so maybe I'll go and grab my Harry Potter book and try to get some more reading done. :) Normally I'd be working on the website and answering emails, but all of that is on my desktop computer at home. I just brought my laptop with me so I could get online and check my message board and blog. TTYL!

Up Early On A Saturday

2007-07-21T08:56:00.000-04:00

I got up at 8:00 this morning, drove down to Super Walmart and got a copy of the new Harry Potter book. Woohoo!!! So, you guys won't be hearing from me for a couple of days. Just kidding. LOL! Well, maybe. I'll be gone tomorrow through Friday evening to house/cat sit in Dayton, but I'll try to get on the internet when I can.

Rick and I went and saw a movie last night. We saw "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". It's with Adam Sandler and Kevin James (the guy from the King of Queens show). I wasn't sure what to expect since it's about 2 guys pretending to be gay and married, but it was really funny! Here's a clip if you haven't seen it yet...

Well, I'm going to get a move on it. I want to get laundry done this morning, and then Rick and I are golfing this afternoon at 3:00, so I won't get back home until around 8:30 or so (it takes an hour of driving each way to get there and back).

Hope you all have a great weekend!

What I'm Doing

2007-07-19T12:13:00.000-04:00

I was asked earlier today about what I was doing to lose weight since my weight loss has accelerated over the past couple of weeks. I figured instead of just answering in the comments, I'd make it an actual post since I'm sure more than 1 person is curious. :)

Well, for starters, I don't take any enhancers (I don't believe in popping pills and such just to lose weight, not to mention, I hate taking any pills, even aspirin. A multi vitamin is hard enough for me to get down). The only thing I've done differently is I've stopped eating all the junk and unhealthy stuff I was eating before. I switched from Flex to Core, then I modified the Core program just a little bit. I cut out all of the stuff I can't handle when it comes to portions... bread, potatoes, sweets (I still eat Jello because I'm not a huge fan, therefore I won't eat more than 1 serving), no more chips, etc. I've also stopped going out to eat. Every meal is prepared by me now, and I make sure I eat 3 meals a day (before I would skip breakfast most of the time). I don't use any of the 35 extra flex points I get unless it's just 1 or 2 here or there (like for my laughing cow cheese on my egg beaters omelet for breakfast). I refuse to use my flex points on junk, even though I know we can use them any way we'd like. It just defeats the purpose of eating healthier to me.

When I was on Flex, counting points gave me an excuse to eat unhealthy food "Just because I had the points". I was spending a minimum of half my points each day on junk food. I was also cheating and going over my daily points target at least once a week. I just wasn't very serious about losing weight.

One day, I found fitday.com and inserted a few of my daily food journals into it just to see how my food broke down. Imagine my surprise when the pie chart showed me that the majority of my day was carbs (and I had very little protein). I knew exactly where all of those carbs were coming from too. Bread, pizza, sweets, especially ice cream, etc. It was a real eye opener for me. No wonder I was tired ALL the time! I just never made the connection until that moment. Something just kind of switched in me and I decided I was tired of screwing around. I was ready to get serious and get this weight off.

I sat down that night and read up on Core. I honestly never wanted to do Core because it just looked "too healthy" for me. LOL! I know, kinda dumb thinking there huh? I went out to my kitchen, threw away any and all junk food. Made myself a list and hit the grocery store (yep, I was grocery shopping at midnight because I was determined to start that very next day. I was afraid if I didn't start then, I might talk myself out of it). I did start that next day, and I've been going strong ever since. I haven't cheated once. :)

Since I cut out all of the junk, I'm now eating more protein. I make sure I have some kind of protein at each meal. And, since I'm not snacking on junk such as bars, ice cream cones from McDonald's, etc., I now have room for things like apples, yogurt, and healthier things (many of you know I'm not a fan of fruits and veggies, but I'm really trying to add more when I can). Here's an example of one of my menus from my journal last week:

Breakfast
(I pretty much eat the same thing for breakfast each day)
Egg beaters with onions and peppers made into an omelet with laughing cow cheese in the middle. I'll either add a tablespoon of bacon bits to my omelet, or I'll have a serving of canadian bacon on the side.

Snack
1 piece of Light String Cheese (I only do this like once or twice a week) It just depends on what time I ate breakfast. It holds me over until lunch.

Lunch
1 grilled chicken breast cut up over a huge salad with a sprinkle of cheese, sometimes bacon bits, black pepper, chives, and light ranch dressing.

Snack
Apple sliced and dipped in fat free vanilla yogurt

Dinner
Chicken Broccoli Roll (see recipe below)
Green beans (I'm loving green beans right now)
Salad on the side

Snack
Sugar Free Jello

Since I've added more protein and better foods into my diet, I'm not nearly as hungry as I was before when I was junking myself up. I'm satisfied at each meal, I'm not constantly looking for something else to snack on, I have A LOT more energy, and as you've noticed I'm losing weight better than before. I don't expect the pounds to drip off of me like this forever. I know there will eventually be a slow down. I also won't go without bread and potatoes for the rest of my life, but for now, I'm learning to get my portion sizes in control and those things I'm not ready for yet. Eventually I will slowly start adding 1 slice of whole wheat bread into my daily food. Then eventually I'll slowly add a serving of potatoes once a week and go from there. I just know that I can't go hog wild when I do, or I'll start gaining again. Right now, I am in control and it's going to stay that way if I can help it. It's up to me.

Chicken Broccoli Roll

4 (4 oz.) Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breasts
1/2 cup Cooked Finely Chopped Broccoli

4 Wedges Light Laughing Cow Cheese
Black Pepper
Other Seasoning of Your Choice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9X13 baking dish with nonstick spray. For each chicken broccoli roll do the following: Place one chicken breast between plastic wrap and pound it out until it's thin, but don't rip holes in it. Mix 1 laughing cow cheese wedge with 1/8 cup broccoli and place it onto the chicken on the side closest to you. Sprinkle with black pepper. Bring in the sides of the chicken, then roll the chicken up starting with the side closest to you. Place into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the top of each roll with any seasonings you like. I used thyme, rosemary, paprika, black pepper and a tiny bit of garlic powder. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the chicken is done.

Note: The picture is from the first time I made it. I didn't mix the broccoli and the cheese. Since then I've mixed them and it's better. I just need to take another picture. :)

Serves: 4
Per Serving: 172 Calories; 5g Fat (27.4% calories from fat); 28g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 79mg Cholesterol; 323mg Sodium. Exchanges: 3 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable. WWP: 4 (www.AimeesAdventures.com)

Now Down 32.4 Pounds

2007-07-18T22:39:00.000-04:00

Woohoo! I lost another 3.8 pounds this week. Pretty exciting stuff. :) Rick is down almost 40 pounds now. We're on a roll and I'm not talking about the kind you eat either. :)

I started a challenge for myself a couple of weeks ago. This evening, I decided to invite others to join me over at my message board. It's a Christmas challenge. Anyone can join in and you can challenge yourself to anything you'd like. The challenge will end on Christmas day. My own personal challenge is to hit "One"derland. I'd have to lose 51 pounds between now and then, but if I really work at it, I can make it. Even if I don't make it exactly, I'll have at least tried. What a great gift to give myself this Christmas... the gift of good health and weight loss. Who will join me? This is the weight ticker I made to track my progress. Every time I lose weight, the ball moves closer to the hole.

By the way, if you haven't checked out ExtraPounds.com, you really should. It's free and there are all kinds of cool things to help you track and lose weight.

I went golfing with Rick and two of his friends from work yesterday (they needed a 4th person, so I went). It was pretty fun, but we got rained on half of the time. I didn't do too bad on some holes, then there were a few holes when I wished I'd just stayed in the golf cart. LOL! There was this one par 3 hole where we had to hit over water (the picture below is the hole I'm talking about). I usually choke when there's any kind of water. Doesn't matter how big or how small either. I've hit my ball into a tiny creek before. Heck, my ball has landed in puddles as a matter of fact. LOL! Anyway, this hole not only had water, but a freakin' water fountain to hit over too. The pin position was directly behind the water fountain. I could have tried to hit to the left or right, but I decided what the heck, I should go for it. LOL! I put my good pink ball away (the picture to the left are the balls I use. Aren't they pretty?) and I got what I call a "water ball" out. This would be a ball that if it lands in the water, no big deal. LOL! I don't hit my irons very far usually, so I had the bright idea to use my 3 wood (it's a bigger club that hits further for those of you who don't golf). I hit that sucker and watched my ball fly through the air. Here are the thoughts that were going through my head as soon as I hit it.... "oh I hope that makes it over the water..... cool, I think I'm going to clear the water.... crap slow down.... oh no". LOL! That ball not only got over the fountain and the rest of the water, but it also hit the green and kept going. Dang it! So I go over to see where it ended up (I could tell exactly when I was on the tee box). It was on a hill. Hills and I have a love/hate relationship. If I hit the ball well from the hill, I love it. If I don't hit the ball well, I hate it. LOL! Lucky for both me and the hill, I hit it good and put it right up near the flag. I made my putt and that was the only par 3 I actually made par on yesterday. LOL! I just had to share that story. Aren't you glad you stuck around long enough to get through it? :) Ok, I'm off to bed. TTYL!

It's Friday The 13th

2007-07-13T10:19:00.000-04:00

I just looked at my calendar and noticed today is Friday the 13th. I'm not a superstitious person, so it's not really a big deal to me, I just thought it was kinda cool. Hopefully for those of you who are superstitious, my black cat doesn't bother you too much. LOL!!!!

I'm writing my blog early today because I won't be getting home until late tonight, and I know I'll be too tired to write anything. Rick and I are going to play golf (I haven't played in awhile, so hopefully I won't suck too bad. LOL). After golf, we're going to my parents house for dinner and to play cards. I actually have to leave here in about 40 minutes and I still need to hop into the shower, so I'll leave you with a new recipe I tried this week. :) Have a great weekend!

Southwest Grilled Chicken

1.5 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Chili Powder
1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Pound Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast

Combine oil, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano and salt in a small bowl; brush over both sides of the chicken to coat. Grill chicken over medium-hot heat for 8-10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink, turing once. Place chicken onto a plate, cover with foil and let sit for 5 minutes. Note: This chicken is great on salad.

Serves: 4
Per Serving: 176 Calories; 7g Fat (35.5% calories from fat); 26g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 66mg Cholesterol; 348mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 3 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 1 Fat. WWP: 4 (www.AimeesAdventures.com)

28.6 Pounds Down

2007-07-11T23:07:00.000-04:00

Well I weighed in this morning. I lost another 4 pounds. :) Yippee!!!! I got my 25 pound award and my 10% award. Next week, if all goes well, I should get my 30 pound star.

After my WW meeting, Rick and I had lunch with my parents and then we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie. It was good, but I feel like it was a bit rushed. I know, they can't go over every detail that the book does or it would be a really long movie, but the books are just so much better. I'm not saying I didn't like the movie, because I did. I just wish it had more detail in it. If you haven't seen the trailer (I'm sure everyone has, but just in case), here's a preview:

We saw a preview for a new movie that is coming out called "The Golden Compass" (It comes out in December). It's based on a Trilogy written by Philip Pullman called "His Dark Materials". Technically it's a children's book (older children), but adults should love it too because it's sort of like Harry Potter, but different (hard to explain). I read all of it 3 years ago. It's good. I hope they make all 3 books into movies and not just the first one (the other two are called "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass")
If you'd like to check out their website, click here. Also, here's a preview of the movie:

New Recipe To Share

2007-07-10T22:46:00.000-04:00

Sorry, I don't have anything for you tonight except for a new recipe I tried for dinner. I have weigh in tomorrow morning, so I'll come and tell you how that went tomorrow night. :) Here's the recipe...

Pecan Mustard Topped Tilapia

3 Tablespoons Light Mayonnaise (I used Kraft)
1.5 Tablespoons Brown Mustard (French's Bold 'N Spicy)
4 (3 oz.) Tilapia Fish Fillets
4 teaspoons Finely Chopped Pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking sheet that has sides with butter flavored non-stick cooking spray. Pat the fish dry with paper towels and place onto the baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine the mayo and mustard. Spread the mixture evenly on top of each fish fillet (approx. 1 tablespoon each if you have 4 fillets). Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of pecans on top of each fillet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Don't worry about the topping getting a little brown. Serve immediately.

Per Piece: 134 Calories; 7g Fat (43.2% calories from fat); 18g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 41mg Cholesterol; 282mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fat. WWP: 3 (www.AimeesAdventures.com)

Ok, I'm Back In Action

2007-07-09T20:54:00.000-04:00

I should be done with the delays on my blog (even though I still have a lot of work to do) but I've finally finished the new message board for my website and so far it's running rather well. If you'd like to check it out, you can do so here (only registered users can post, but registration is free if you want to join in)... Aimee's New Message Board

My current adventure is to build a new shopping cart for my cookbooks. Then somewhere between now and next week I have to get my taxes together (dang if I didn't just pay stupid taxes last month, but that was federal and state. Now city and sales tax are due). Blah I hate taxes!

Anyway, other than working on the site, I haven't really been up to much. I did go and see the new Transformers movie on the 4th. It was good. I also saw Spiderman 3 yesterday. It wasn't bad. The movie I'm waiting for is Harry Potter. I'm going Wednesday right after my Weight Watchers class to see it. I'm going to see it on IMAX. I also can't wait for the final book, which comes out next week. :) I'll read it while I'm cat and house sitting the following week.

Speaking of cats, my parents have adopted a new kitten. They already have 5 cats and swore they weren't taking any more in (they're suckers for strays). Saturday morning, my mom was getting ready to leave for work and found this little baby kitten behind the tire of her car, meowing. It couldn't even stand up. I guess while she was looking at it, it had like a little convulsion and went limp. She tried to feed it, but she had to go to work, so she handed it over to my dad and went on to work. They really didn't think it would make it through the day. My dad found a little box to put it into and he kept trying to get it do drink, but it wouldn't. He called me and asked what he should try feeding it, so I told him to maybe try some kitten milk from the pet store. He went and got some of that, and the kitten drank it. It started perking up as the day went on. I went over that evening to take Riley's puppy cage over so that my parents could bring the kitten into the garage for the night. While I was there, my mom thought we should weigh it, so I went and got the food scale and a cereal bowl (that's how small it was). The little kitty only weighs 1 pound plus 1/2 ounce. We kept trying to figure out if it was a boy or a girl. I thought for sure it was a boy, but they took it to the vet this morning, and turns out it's a girl (hey, what do I know?). She got a clean bill of health, so they'll be keeping her and they've decided to call her Maggie. :)

24.6 Pounds Down

2007-07-03T12:50:00.001-04:00

Sorry I've been MIA since last Wednesday. I've been working hard on getting a new message board together for my site and doing my regular daily stuff along with it. I'm hoping to finish the message board in the next day or so, and then I'll be done with it. :)

I usually go to my Weight Watchers meeting on Wednesday mornings, but since tomorrow is a holiday, I decided to go and weigh in this morning. When I decided to get more serious about this, I made myself a commitment to not missing any meetings. It's not so much about the actual meeting for me, it's about going and being accountable for what I did that week. It just keeps me on track. Skipping a week in the past would have been like a free pass to eat whatever I wanted for a week, then I'd hurry up and try to lose before I had to get back to my meeting. I'm not doing that anymore. It's not healthy and I'm only cheating myself. There wasn't an actual meeting today anyway, just open weigh in for 3 hours. I lost another 2.6 pounds this week. I've never felt more motivated. The only difference I've been able to see physically is... one of my rolls of fat in my stomach area is getting smaller. LOL! I'll probably wait a couple of weeks before I take my measurements again though. I can be patient.

Ok, I'd better get back to work. I just wanted to stop in and let you guys know I'm still around. As soon as the message board is up, I'll get back to posting more on a regular basis. I hope everyone has a great Independence Day tomorrow (for those of you celebrating). TTYL!

22 Pounds Down

2007-06-27T23:42:00.000-04:00

I weighed in this morning and lost another 3.8 pounds this week. Woohoo!!!! That makes 22 pounds even which means I also got my 20 pound star. Class is canceled next week due to the holiday, but I think I may go weigh in on Tuesday morning instead. I don't want to skip a week. Me skipping a week can be very dangerous. Oh yes, dangerous indeed! LOL!

Today I went back to the gym for the first time in about a year (even when I went a year ago, I only went a couple of times and then quit going). I've decided to blow the dust off of my membership card and get back in there. The money is just going to waste if I don't use it.

I tried out a different location that they built about 10-15 minutes from where I live (they have 3-4 locations and I can choose to go to any of them). This new place was cool! It's co-ed unlike the location I normally go to, but they did have a section just for women. The coolest part about this place was that they have a room called the movie room. It's painted black, has black lights in the ceiling (anything white glows), it has black light paint splattered on the walls, and they have a screen where they show movies with surround sound. It's not a huge room, but big enough for 3 rows of bikes, treadmills and elliptical machines. I didn't count, but I'd guess there were around 25 machines in the room. It was dark in there. The only light was from the black lights, people's white clothes glowing and the movie playing. I got in there just in time to see the movie start (can't remember the name of it, but they had English accents and there was a dragon in it. LOL!). I walked for 20 minutes on the treadmill but honestly I almost walked longer just to see if the dragon in the movie came back. LOL!

After I finished my warm up on the treadmill, I went to the woman's weight room (did you really think I was going to go work out with the men?) LOL! I figured out how all of the machines worked (the trainer helped when I couldn't figure something out). Some of the machines I'd never seen before, or they looked different than what I was use to and I didn't know how to adjust some of the seats. Today was more of a "go to get things set up". The trainer weighed me, took my measurements and body fat (eeeek!). In 6 weeks I'll get weighed and measured again. It felt pretty good to get back in the gym. The good news is they're open 24 hours during the week, so if I want to go work out later in the evening I can. My other gym use to close at 9 PM. Heck, I could go right now...... but I'm not going to since I was already there today. LOL!!! I think instead I'm going to head for bed. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night and I got up really early this morning. TTYL!

Inspired

2007-06-26T17:00:00.001-04:00

I was browsing the web this afternoon and came across a video and website for a documentary film that's being made called Inspired: The Movie. Here's the video...

I personally am very interested in seeing this film. I felt like I could relate with a lot of these people since I know what it feels like to not only be obese, but I've also had a taste of what it's like to lose a lot of weight as well. I really liked the first woman who spoke in the video where she said "so if you can make it through one day, why not make it through the 2nd day and the 3rd day? Each day that you're successful you empower yourself to keep going on." I also went to the website to read more about it. I felt inspired just with the info I've seen and read about today. I haven't even seen the film yet. LOL! Check it out if you have time. I'd love to hear any input you have on the film.

I'll leave you with one last video I came across during my search this afternoon. I thought it was good too. :)

The Scale Isn't Everything

2007-06-25T21:11:00.000-04:00

Do you base your weight loss success entirely on what the scale says? Do you get depressed when you know you had a really good week, yet the scale said you didn't lose anything or you even gained? Do you ever wonder just how many inches you've lost off of your body?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should be measuring yourself. Actually, anyone at all losing weight should be measuring themselves. Our bodies continuously change as we lose weight. If you're working out a lot and you have a gain, it's not because you did something you shouldn't have; it's because muscle weighs more than fat. Even though you may have experience a gain, your body is getting smaller and tighter. How can we truly gage our success? Again, by measuring! If you don't already have one, buy a tape measure. Not the metal kind you get in the hardware section, but the fabric or plastic kind you find in the craft department where the quilting and sewing stuff is. If you buy a plastic tape measurer (this is what I use), over time it may stretch a little bit, so be sure to check it every now and then to make sure it's still accurate.

When you take your measurements, write them down. I suggest measuring yourself once a month, or in some cases, when you feel like you should have lost and you didn't (remember, it's not going to change overnight). Not sure how to go about taking your measurements? Here are some tips to guide you...

1. Bust: Don't squish yourself -- measure all the way around your bust and back right at your nipple line, and make sure the tape measure is not lower.

2. Chest: Measure under your breasts but as high up as you can go, keeping the tape measure parallel to this line when you reach it around your back.

3. Waist: Measure wherever it is the smallest (if you have "no waist" go around yourself right at the navel line).

4. Hips: Measure at the very biggest part -- even if that is so low that you are almost on the top of your thighs.

5. Midway: Measure midway between the very biggest part of your hips and your waist.

6. Thighs: Measure wherever they are the biggest.

7. Knees: Measure right above the knee.

8. Calves: Measure wherever they are the biggest.

9. Upper arm: Measure wherever they are biggest above your elbows.

10. Forearms: Measure wherever they are biggest below your elbows.

I've created a chart in Microsoft Word that I use to write my measurements down on. If you would like a copy of it to print out and use for yourself, click here to download it (the Word file is zipped, so you'll need to unzip it). If you don't have a program to unzip files, you can download a free 45 day evaluation of Winzip.

A Day of Cleaning

2007-06-24T23:27:00.001-04:00

Well, today I was supposed to blog about how to take your body measurements, but I'm too tired to type it all out. I've been cleaning out closets, doing regular cleaning, and getting laundry done all day. I'm tired, but the place looks better. :) Just so I don't leave you with nothing, here's the newest recipe I made (I've made it twice in the past 3 days)....

Italian Ground Chicken

1 Lb. Tyson Ground Chicken
1 Cup Frozen Pepper/Onion Blend
1 packet Splenda
1 (8 oz.) Can Tomato Sauce
Seasonings to taste: Garlic Powder, Basil, Oregano, Pepper, salt and cayenne pepper (you can use any seasonings you want)

In a large skillet, cook the ground chicken and pepper/onion blend until the chicken is no longer pink, breaking up any large chunks of chicken. Add the Splenda, tomato sauce and seasonings. Continue cooking until any liquid is cooked out and the sauce has thickened just a little bit. I only added 1 packet of Splenda, but if you think it needs more, add another 1/2 to 1 packet. This is good on a bun, over a potato, rice, on a salad, or anything else you can think of.

Serves: 7 (a little over 1/3 cup each)
Per Serving: 156 Calories; 6g Fat (35.3% calories from fat); 20g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 61mg Cholesterol; 257mg Sodium. Exchanges: 3 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable. WWP: 3 (www.AimeesAdventures.com)

Exercise Can Be Fun (part 3)

2007-06-23T17:37:00.000-04:00

Ok, today wraps up how exercise can be fun. The reason I've been writing about this subject over the past few days, is because I want you to know that you can exercise in many different ways and still have fun. You don't have to pound the pavement, walk on the boring treadmill, or even hit the gym to get your cardio in. All of these things can be done either in or around your home. Exercise should be fun. If it isn't fun, chances are, you aren't going to do it. Find something you like and get moving. :)

I'm going to talk about a couple of different things today. There are still many other things I could blog about (heck, I could make this a week long event LOL) but, I don't want to bore you. :) A few of the things that you could consider as fun exercise are: The Nintendo Wii (I don't have one, but I've heard it's fun and it gets you up off of the couch). You could play basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer, golf (they even have a virtual game for golf that looks like fun, again I haven't tried it. I prefer to actually golf outside - oh and in case you're thinking about the virtual golf you play from the couch like the Tiger Woods PGA golf, no, that isn't considered exercise. LOL). You could also swim (water aerobics are lots of fun), or you could find a fun class like yoga, pilates, kickboxing, Tai Chi, self defense, etc. As long as you're having fun, that's what matters. :) Ok, on to today...

The first thing I want to tell you about today is the EyeToy Kinetic. I have this and it's a great workout! It's a full body fitness program that has four fitness zones. They are: Combat - which helps you to increase strength, flexibility and reaction speed, Cardio - which will get you sweating through aggressive routines to improve your cardiovascular fitness, Toning - which targets specific body parts or complete body conditioning with a trainer, and Mind and Body - where you do Tai Chi type moves to help relax while working on your posture, balance and breathing.

Basically how it works, is you hook up your Eye Toy camera to your Playstation 2 or Playstation 3 and the camera puts you on the TV. It analyzes your every move to provide immediate feedback on your performance. What you do depends on which program you choose. For example: in the Combat and Cardio sections, you'll punch and kick balls that try to attack you. Check out the video below for an example. The actual game disc comes with a 12 week customizable training program and has over 20 exercises inspired by aerobics, martial arts, dance, yoga and more.

(Click here to see more videos of this guy working out with some of the various exercises)

I have another program for my Playstation 2 called Yourself! Fitness (it's also available for the XBox and PC). Basically, it's like having a certified personal trainer and nutritionist in your living room, only much much cheaper. The personal trainer's name is Maya and she helps you to choose health and fitness goals, and then works with you to achieve them. There are over 500 unique exercises featuring yoga, pilates, cardio fitness, strength training, felxibility, and weight loss routines. No two workouts are ever the same. You get to pick the scene and the music, as well as use fitness equipment you may already own (such as a balance ball, hand weights, or step).

When you first get started, Maya will ask you for basic information such as your age, height, gender and weight. She will determine your fitness level by using several simple evaluation tests, and combine it with your long term goals to figure out your workout plan. At the beginning of each workout, Maya asks you how you're feeling today. This tells her how much verbal encouragement you'll need during the workout and it helps her determine how hard the workout will be. If you're feeling great, the workout is going to push you a little harder (don't worry, she stops every now and then to ask you how you're doing and she'll adjust according to your answer). The funny thing about Maya is... like a real trainer, she asks you to set up a workout schedule (something you know you can commit to) and then gets on you if you skip it. LOL! Here's a video I found to help give you an idea of what it's all about...

(Click here to see an additional video of just the game)

For more fun ways to exercise, check out this website I found called Exergames. There are some really good ideas there, some of them are pretty expensive too, but neat to look at. :) Check out this video of a guy using the Nintendo Wii for exercise.

Exercise Can Be Fun (part 2)

2007-06-22T12:27:00.000-04:00

Today I'm going to talk about Dance Dance Revolution (more commonly referred to as DDR). This home version is based off of the popular arcade game (pictured to the left) and is a fun way to not only play a game, but to also exercise at the same time. It was my choice of exercise on days when it was too hot to go outside or raining (it was also great in the winter time to help keep up my endurance). DDR is played on either a Playstation or Xbox console and is a very simple game, yet a really great workout (you can burn a lot of calories, and if you play in workout mode, it will calculate your calories burned for you based on your weight).

How it works: There is a pad that you step on with four arrows: up, down, left, and right. There are four stationary arrows at the top of the TV screen. There will be arrows that scroll up from the bottom of the screen. When the scrolling arrows overlap the stationary arrows, you then hit the corresponding arrow on the pad. There are different levels of skills. Start out in the lessons section and learn how to do it (this will also help you memorize where the arrows are and which feet to use, so you don't have to look down at all while you play). The different levels can go anywhere from slower music with less arrows to step on to really fast music to so many arrows you wonder how anyone can keep up. LOL! Here's a video from when DDR was on The Today Show. It's a good example to show you how it works and the different levels....

The cost can vary depending on if you already have a Playstation 2, Playstation 3 or Xbox (I have a Playstation 2). A pad will cost you around $20 for a cheap one (I use a cheap one, but I've gone through about 3 pads), or you can pay a little over $100 for one that is metal and holds 500+ pounds which is a little better (I'll probably invest in a metal one down the line). I saw a new metal pad with a handle bar to hold onto that costs around $150, which looks pretty cool. It holds around 300 pounds. The games can vary anywhere from $25-$50 depending on how new it is. If you already have a Playstation 2 or Xbox, then it will be cheaper and all you'll need is a dance pad to step on and one of the DDR games (there are several). I own 4 DDR games, but will probably buy some of the newer ones when my knee is healed up and I can do it again. Here are a few of the games and pads that are available so you can see what they look like...

Bottom line, DDR is a lot of fun! If you're bored with the exercise that you're currently doing, looking for a way to burn a lot of calories while having fun, and you can afford it, this is something you've got to check out! One last thing... check this link I came across to a video I found from a teen that lost over 100 pounds and talks about DDR (if you have kids that sit on the couch playing video games and are over weight, show them this video). DDR is not just for teens and young kids. Any age can do it. I've had parents email me and tell me that they play this with their teens and have a blast, so give it a try. If you aren't sure if you'll like it or not, before investing the money, go find an arcade that has the game so you can try it (most mall arcades have this game since it's popluar). The arcade game might be a little harder to start off with but it will give you an idea.

Exercise Can Be Fun (part 1)

2007-06-21T13:05:00.000-04:00

Now that Summer is here, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite more non-traditional ways to exercise and still have fun. To keep this subject from being so lengthy, I'll probably break it down into a couple of days worth of blogs. Even though I can't do these right now due to a knee injury and my weight, I totally look forward to when I can do them again (hopefully by the end of this summer). I've written about these in the FAQ section of my website, but I still get at least 1 email per week asking me about them, so I figure people must be interested. LOL! Ok, here we go...

Today I'll talk about the Trikke I mentioned in yesterdays blog. I LOVE my Trikke! It's a FULL body workout! You'll use muscles you didn't even know you had and you'll no doubt feel it the next day. LOL! I have two Trikke's (I bought one for my ex-husband so that he could ride with me, but made him give it back to me when we got a divorce - in case I wanted to ride with a friend). My dad who is almost 67 years old also has one and use to ride with me. I'd be out riding my Trikke right now, but the weight limit is 250 pounds and I'm not quite there yet. Any more than 250 pounds and you risk bending the frame (which would pretty much make it useless). There are several different sizes ranging from the kids size T5 to the newest and biggest size T12. I have the T8 which at the time when I bought it was the best one they had. I think the T8 now has a choice of inflatable wheels or the polyurethane wheels. Mine has the polyurethane wheels. I'd love to get the new T12, but with a price tag of $500, I just can't afford it. I like what I already have anyway.

If you decide to buy one, don't run right over to the Trikke website and buy one. Look around for a cheaper price. I bought mine on Ebay for $99 plus like $20 S+H back in 2003. Trikke was pretty much unheard of here in Ohio and many states other than California back then (I got many stares and questions when I was out riding it). I just looked, and it seems the going rate for one on Ebay today is around $130 plus shipping (the auctions I looked at still have a day to go though, so I'm sure it will go up some more. If you buy on Ebay, make sure you check out the persons feedback score before you buy). I saw some "Buy It Now" auctions going for about the same as what the Trikke website is asking but they're including a free backpack and shipping. The Trikke website wants $370 for one. If you're going to pay that much, you might as well get it from the actual dealer. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy one that is "like" the Trikke. It will be worded like "Trikke 8 style". I don't know if they're making them any better, but I heard the knock offs were really cheap and would bend easily when I was shopping for my Trikke a few years ago. Also check Amazon.com since they sell them too (the exact one I have goes for $320 and includes shipping).

Check out What's Trikke? to learn more. If you decide to buy a Trikke, make sure you where a helmet! I've never fallen (knock on wood) but it's aways better to be safe than sorry. Here's a video I found on using Trikke for fitness just to give you an idea of how it moves and works your body...

Doing The Happy Dance

2007-06-20T18:05:00.000-04:00

I went to my meeting this morning and was down 3.8 pounds for the week. Woohoo! I'm hoping to hit the 20 pound mark next week. Right now I'm at 18.2, so I don't see why I can't make it or at least come close to it. It's a goal anyway. :) I think what I'm doing is working for me and I don't feel deprived in any way not having all of the junk I was eating before. The payoff of passing up on certain things is watching the scale go down each week. That alone makes it all worth it to me. I'm just tired of screwing around every week and I haven't been this motivated since when I lost weight the first time around. I'm hoping now that my knee feels better, that I can start walking a little bit again. It's been so hot here during the day, but maybe after the sun goes down I can start taking Riley for walks again. I know he'd like that. :) While we're speaking of weight loss and such... for anyone who use to read Ben's blog (he's taking a break from blogging for awhile), he lost 3.5 pounds this week and is now at 27.7 pounds gone. Just thought I'd give you a little update. :)

Many of you are spending more times outdoors now that the weather is nice. I was browsing the web this afternoon and found a product that I thought was worth passing on to you. It's called Road ID and it's an ID that you can wear on your wrist in case anything happens to you while you're out exercising.

I use to ride my bike and my Trikke, and I also hiked a lot, and this would have been a good thing to have in case something would have happened to me while I was out and about. You can even wear it swimming. It comes in 5 colors and you can pick up to 6 lines of text. They also have a shoe Id and pouch too that looks interesting. If you go to the site, check that out too. I just think it's a really good idea. You never know what could happen while you're out exercising, especially if you're alone.

Ok, well I'm off to make dinner. TTYL!

Feeling Good

2007-06-19T21:59:00.000-04:00

I've been pretty busy lately. Yesterday I wanted to get out of the house for awhile, so Rick and I went and saw the new Fantastic Four movie. It was good. I can't wait for the new Harry Potter movie to come out, and the final book. You probably won't hear from me for a couple of days when the book comes out, because I'll be locked away reading it from start to finish. LOL! I'm a super huge HP fan. :)

Well, tomorrow is weigh day. I feel really good about it. I've done really well with my new eating plan since June 10th (Core and watching my carbs). Eating less carbs has really done wonders for me. I feel so much more energetic, I don't think about food constantly, I don't feel like I need a nap in the middle of the day, and my knee hasn't hurt for several days. Just my knee not hurting has made passing up the cookie dough sundaes worth it. I haven't felt this good since before I gained all of my weight back. Don't get me wrong, I felt even better then, but lets just say I haven't felt this good in a long time. :) I'll stop in tomorrow and tell you how I did on the scale. I'd love to hit the 20 pound mark this week, but that may not happen until next week. Nothing wrong with a little hope though. LOL!

I tried a sorta new recipe tonight. Since you know I have been trying not to eat ice cream and such, I made a mock rootbeer float. I just took like 3/4 of a can of diet rootbeer, and added 1 tablespoon of sugar free french vanilla coffee mate to it. Man, that was tasty! 15 calories with 1 gram of fat and 1 carb. Can't beat it. :) I want to try it with diet cream soda too. I'll bet that will be really good too. Even still, if I do drink these, I'll be limiting myself to 1 per day (perhaps in the evening as a treat).

Well I'm off to get a few things done, then I'm heading for bed to get some extra ZZZZ's for my weigh in tomorrow morning. I hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Father's Day!

2007-06-17T01:29:00.001-04:00

I wasn't home much today or this evening and I have plans to be gone all day tomorrow. I just wanted to stop in and wish all of the Dad's out there a Happy Father's Day! Dad, if you're reading this, Happy Father's Day to you. I love you! Happy Father's Day also to my friend Ben who is a single dad to two young kids. I hope you have a great day!

New Weight Loss Drug - Alli

2007-06-15T15:05:00.000-04:00

I've been emailed a few times today already about the new weight loss drug called Alli (not really new, but a new name in lower dose form for the drug Xenical) that anyone can get without a prescription. I did some research for it on the web and I personally think it's a bad idea and do not promote any kind of diet pills. Supplements like vitamins or calcium, stuff like that are fine, but I think everyone should stay away from the fat burners and such when it comes to weight loss. If what you're doing isn't working so well for you, then maybe you need to tweak it a bit or even try something else. Of course that's just my opinion. If you'd like to read more on Alli to see what it's all about, check out what Jimmy Moore had to say about it back in February on his blog. I think he's right on about it. The side effects alone are more than enough to make anyone run (to the bathroom... several times a day). Even if it were some kind of miracle pill (we all know those don't exist), I wouldn't rush right out and buy it. Anyone here remember Fen-Phen? Here's another story that just came out in the last hour on FOXNews.com if you need even more info about Alli. Bottom line... Alli is not your friend. Find a better way, because you can achieve weight loss without diet pills. The only way to lose weight is through diet and exercise. Don't harm yourself in the process.

Girls Day Out

2007-06-14T23:20:00.000-04:00

I spent the day with my mom shopping (Rick was out playing golf in the hot sun). We haven't gone shopping together in at least 2 years. We use to go once a week after we left our Weight Watcher meeting. It was fun to just hang out again. Since we live in opposite directions now, we met close to where we were going to do some of our shopping. I left my car there and let her drive. First we went and walked through a health food store that we use to like to go to (we didn't end up seeing anything we wanted to buy). From there we went to Chick-Fil-A and had a grilled chicken salad (4 points without dressing in case you want to know). We stopped into a shoe store that my mom wanted to look at, then we drove to the Fairfield Commons Mall and walked the entire thing (I'm calling that my exercise). LOL! I haven't been there in a really long time. I use to live in Xenia when I was married, so that was the closest mall to me. Now I live closer to the Dayton Mall, so I just go there when I have to (I actually don't like going to the mall very often). I do like going into Bath and Body Works and Brookstone (to play with all the fun little gadgets they have). After we left the mall, we walked through Walmart and then parted ways so we could both get home and make dinner. Like I said.... fun day. :)

I bought a huge pack of chicken a few days ago, so I've been making chicken recipes. LOL! Tonight I made a sort of chicken cordon bleu recipe, but I left the breading off of the outside (I was feeling lazy). I took a couple of chicken breasts and smashed them out so that they were thin. Then I placed a piece of light string cheese down on 2 pieces of thin ham, sprinkled a tiny bit of real bacon bits next to the cheese, and rolled the ham up. I placed the ham on the flattened chicken breast, and rolled it all up, tucking the ends in. I sprinkled the tops with Italian seasoning and baked at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes. Even though I'm not really counting points right now, I figured it up to be about 7-8 points depending on what size chicken breast you use. It was very filling though. I didn't even have anything with it other than water. That was almost 6 hours ago and I'm just now starting to get hungry (but I'm going to bed soon so I'm not going to eat anything). Rick really liked it. He kept making comments while he was eating it like "this is really good, you should put this on your site" LOL! Since it was so simple and I was just throwing it together for dinner, I never really thought to make it a recipe. Maybe I will in case others don't want to put the breading on theirs either (and they want to add some bacon bits). :) Ok, I'm heading to bed. Have a great weekend!

Portion-Control Tools

2007-06-13T21:47:00.000-04:00

I was down 2.2 pounds at my meeting this morning. Woohoo! Still haven't wanted any junk or sweets of any kind. I'm hoping for an even bigger loss next week. We'll see. :)

Akus posted this over at the message board on my website. I think it's useful info that should be passed on. :) Thanks Akus!

Portion-Control Tools

These items will help you portion your food into 1/2-cup to 3/4-cup servings:

* Snack-size baggies hold about 1 cup fully packed, and about 3/4 cup loosely packed. This is a good size for portioning crackers, nuts, pretzels, baked chips, dried fruit, turkey jerky, and cereal.
* Foil cupcake liners hold about 1/3 cup -- perfect for portioning baked goods and snack items.
* Mini foil pie pans are perfect for portioning side dishes and entrees.
* Large muffin cups (those that have about 6 cups per pan) will hold about 3/4 cup. That's just the right size for baking individual portions of entrees like quiche, shepherd's pie, chili cornbread casserole, etc.
* A ladle holds about 1/2 cup of liquid, great for portioning things like stew, chili, pasta and pasta sauce, and steamed rice.

Practically Portioned Food Products

Here are some items that come in reasonable portions:

* Small cereal boxes (they usually come in a variety pack) hold about 3/4 cup of cereal.
* Snack or power bars are individually wrapped portions -- usually about 2 1/2 ounces. Look for higher-fiber, lower-sugar varieties.
* Pita bread (preferably the whole-grain variety) is a great way to portion your sandwiches. If you fill half of each pocket with raw vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers) you can't get into too much trouble with the fillers, such as chicken salad, roasted turkey, avocado and cheese, and lean ham.
* A small can of water-packed tuna (6 ounces) will keep your fish serving to about 3/4 cup (drained), totaling only 180 calories.
* A 14.5-ounce can of ready-to-heat-and-serve soup makes 2 servings (1 cup each). If you choose a soup that is broth- or tomato-based and has no more than 5 grams of fat per cup, you'll consume only about 250 calories -- even if you eat the entire can yourself.
* Individually wrapped light ice-cream bars keep your dessert serving to around 1/2 cup, depending on the brand.
* Individual portions of light entrees can be found in the frozen food section of your supermarket. You can even find higher-fiber vegetarian options these days. At Whole Foods Markets, for example, you'll find things like Bean & Cheese Taquitos (Whole Foods brand) and Tofu Lasagna (Amy's brand).
* Individual microwave popcorn bags (look for the "light" version) keep your popcorn serving moderate.
* 100% juice in individual bottles, boxes or pouches will keep your juice serving to 8 ounces.

I Am Not A Snack Machine...

2007-06-12T22:55:00.000-04:00

I am not a snack machine (this is my new mantra). Therefore I will not put cookies, candy, ice cream, cheese crackers, or any other snacky junk food into my mouth. I have been eating healthy for an entire 3 days now (I don't believe I've ever gone this long without snacking or even really thinking about sweets or other junk). I'm going into day #4 stronger than ever! I just feel so much better over all. Everyday it seems to get a little easier and I feel like I already have more energy. Even my portions have gotten smaller. I'm just not as hungry as I was when I was stuffing my face with mostly junky carbs.

Goodbye to all of my evil little friends who made me do midnight runs to Super Walmart only to get home, scarf you down and wish I had brought home one of your evil buddies. Goodbye to midnight snacking all together with your evil little ways of making me sit up for hours popping Tums. I bid you all a farewell!

With that said and out of my system... :)

I tried a new recipe tonight for orange chicken. I honestly didn't know if I'd like an orange flavor with my chicken since I've never tried it before, but it was good. I could taste the orange the most with my first bite, but after that, it wasn't so strong. Here's how I made it....

Diet Soda Orange Chicken
Using a fork, punch holes into 3-4 chicken breasts (depending on size). Place the chicken into a large zip-lock bag. Pour in 1/4 cup of lite soy sauce (reduced sodium) and 12 ounces of Diet Sunkist (or any other diet orange soda). Squeeze the bottom of the bag a bit to get the soy sauce and soda mixed up well. Try to get as much air out of the bag as you can and zip it up. Place the bag into the refrigerator for a few hours (I imagine the flavor would get a little stronger the longer you let it marinade). After marinading, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the chicken breasts into a 9x9 glass baking dish and pour some of the marinade over it so that it comes about half way up the side of the chicken breasts (discard any remaining marinade). Bake for 30-40 minutes (or until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle). This chicken is sooo moist! The points would be 1 per cooked ounce. Enjoy!

FitDay

2007-06-10T22:21:00.000-04:00

While I was reading about the Kimkins plan yesterday, I came across a link for the FitDay website. I'd heard of FitDay before, but never really checked it out because I really wasn't that interested in it. Last night I decided to sign up for an account (it's free) and input the food I eat just to see exactly how my day breaks down as far as calories, fat, fiber, carbs, protein, etc go. Wow! I was completely surprised to see just how many carbs and junk I was eating each day. I mean, I've always known I wasn't the healthiest eater since I'm not a big fruits and veggies lover, but this was a bit of an eye opener for me. I've just been eating whatever I wanted as long as I stayed within my points each day. That isn't working out so well for me. I know everyone loses weight at a different pace, but I know I should be losing faster (comparing to when I lost my weight before). I've decided to make a few changes to how I spend my points each day. I'm going to pretty much be switching to Core, but for awhile I want to limit my sweets and not use any flex points just to see how it goes. Get back to the basics a bit and cut down on my carbs. When I get bored or decide I've had enough, then I'll switch back to Flex. I just really want to try to eat healthier. No more excuses for it just because "I have the points and I can spend them how I want to". That's not working for me and it's just not a healthy way to eat. I did really good today. I ate healthy, drank lots of water (much more than I usually do), didn't eat any junk or sweets at all, and I just really feel better over all. I feel better about myself and I feel like I have more energy. I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing. Would any of you care to join me and eat a little healthier (I'm sure we all have something we can change about how we're eating). Even if you just cut out one thing that you normally eat that isn't healthy, that's a good start. TTYL!

The Kimkin's Plan

2007-06-09T20:27:00.000-04:00

I was wondering.... has anyone read the article in the June 12th issue of Woman's World magazine about the Kimkins plan? If so, I'm curious as to what your opinion is. The article peaked my interest, so I spent a few hours this afternoon looking up information about it. The Kimkins plan is supposed to be an alternative to Atkins. Most of it made sense to me like the part about cutting carbs can help stablalize blood sugar and slash hunger and cravings, but these people claim to be losing A LOT of weight! 220 pounds in 11 months for the person who came up with it; 100 pounds in 5 months for another woman; 55 pounds in 3 months for another. I also found a blog today where a guy says he's lost 13 pounds in just 4 days (though I have to admit his blog was fun to read. I might start reading it more often. LOL!). I did some reading on it today and to me it sounds like Atkins, but just lower fat and fewer calories (the article stated that people on Atkins could consume over 3,000 calories a day if they weren't careful). From what I can tell, here's what you get each day....

As much lean protein as you want, no fatty meat (from the Kimkins food list)
No more than 20 carbs
No more than 3 cups of veggies (also from a food list)
No low carb products like sugar free candy, energy bars, frozen meals, etc)

Though I'm not sure I could live a low carb lifestyle (like I said, I'm a carb junky), I did have fun reading about it on the web today. I even found some fun blogs, like this one called Eating Low where a woman named Amy has her own little cooking segment from her kitchen. I probably spent close to an hour just watching her videos. LOL! Kind of a cool idea (no, I won't be doing that) LOL! Ok, I'm out for awhile. Let me know if you've read this article or have any knowledge or comments on the Kimkins plan. TTYL!

The Good and The Bad

2007-06-07T12:48:00.000-04:00

The Good...
Getting to a meeting this morning wasn't easy, but I was determined. I showed up at the meeting I had planned on weighing at, but when I got there, I was the only car in the parking lot. I was like "what's going on?" I use to attend this meeting at one time, and it was still listed on the Weight Watchers website as a meeting place. I walked up to the door and it said they (they, meaning the church) had temporarily relocated to a school a couple miles down the street (there was no mention of the WW meeting). So... I hop back into my car, find the school, and there's no meeting. I was like dang it! I was already hungry at this point, but I wasn't going to go home and eat and just forget it. I went home, got on the WW website and looked up meetings. The closest one was 35 miles away at 10:45 (there were other meetings closer, but I wasn't going to wait until 6 PM). I printed up the driving directions and headed out the door. It was a bit of a drive, but I'm glad I went. I was down 1.4 pounds so I'm pretty happy. Especially after eating on vacation. Now that I've been back on track for a few days, I'm going to stay on track. I feel so much better when I know I'm eating better and doing a good job.

The Bad...
I won't even mention all of the crap Rick brought home from work with him this morning. He works in a grocery warehouse and they were selling cases of stuff really cheap. Here I am, getting ready to head out the door to get weighed in, and he's lugging all of these boxes into the house. He brought home half a case of lucky charms cereal (about 6 boxes), a case of nutter butters (3 boxes in a case), a case of combos (I don't even want to know how many are in there), a case of olive oil (like I need an entire case!), and I think there was a case of something else (I probably blocked it out of my memory on purpose). I was pretty upset about it. He asked me last night if I wanted anything (he had a 2 page list of stuff for me to look at) and I said no. Just goes to show he either doesn't listen, or he doesn't care. I suppose I can use the olive oil to shove everything up his butt!!! LOL!!! He was going to stay home this morning and not weigh in (he actually said "I'm just going to stay here and have some Lucky Charms."). I told him to get his butt in the car. :) He mumbled and grumbled about it half the way there, but I just tuned him out (must be how he does it when I'm talking about not bringing junk food home). LOL! I see why he didn't want to weigh in. He was up like 4 pounds. On the way home I told him "well at least you got your weight recorded. Now you can start fresh and be down next week when you weigh in." I think it fell on deaf ears again, but we'll see. I've let him derail me in the past, but it's not happening this time. He's not leaving me here tonight with Combos, Lucky Charms and Nutter Butters while he's at work. I know myself too well. I'll eat it. He's going to have to put it somewhere out of the house (I'm a very good food detective. I can find anything no matter how well it's hidden, and I'm the type of person who would look until I found it). If he doesn't get rid of it, I'll feel no shame in walking it all to the dumpster after he leaves. I'll just leave it outside the dumpster in case anyone sees it and decides they want it (I live in an apartment, so I'm sure someone can use it for their kids). Hey Ben, do your kids eat Lucky Charms???? :)

Today's Dr. Phil Show

2007-06-06T21:32:00.000-04:00

I don't normally watch Dr. Phil since he's on in the afternoon, but my mom called me this morning and told me to tape it, so I did (it's on in the mornings at her house). The topic was "How Weight Issues Consume A Persons Life". It originally aired back in Dec. '06.

The first woman they brought out was named Angelique who was 28 years old and weighed 500 pounds (she should weigh around 140 pounds). Her mom was raising her daughter because she couldn't take care of her and she can't work because she can't fit behind the steering wheel of a car to get there due to her weight. Dr. Phil asked her why she eats and she said "I eat because I love the taste, the textures, etc. I'm addicted to food." The more I watched, the more I felt like I could identify with her. Even though I don't weigh 500 pounds or consume the large quantities of food the she does, I related to her love for the food and the need to eat an entire box of something "because it's there and you feel like you really need it" and then feel bad about it afterwards.

Dr. Phil went on to show her that just by cutting a few things out of her daily diet, in 1 year how much weight she could lose. She said she eats 13 cheeseburgers per week. Dr. Phil broke it down like this...

3,500 calories = 1 Pound
13 Cheeseburgers per week = 8,350 calories
8,350 calories = 2.4 pounds per week
Total loss per year just by cutting out the cheeseburgers = approx. 125 pounds

Dr. Phil said we don't think about how this stuff adds up, or how it all comes together in the end. We just keep eating it. You don't even have to weigh 500 pounds to be dealing with this. How many people stop and grab a high calorie drink at Starbucks? Even if you only do it once a week, those add up. He went on to show Angelique how much sugar she consumes in 1 year (at this point they rolled out a grocery cart filled with 59 - 5 pound bags of sugar. That's a total of 295 pounds of sugar per year. He said she should be consuming only 15.64 pounds of sugar per year. She was also consuming 26 pounds of salt per year. She could lose 115 pounds a year if she just cut her sugar back to the 15.64 pounds and reduced her salt intake. Add that to what she could lose just by cutting out the cheeseburgers, and she could lose approx. 240 pounds.

After they talked to Angelique, the brought out another woman named DeeDee who had been on the show before. She weighed 750 pounds at the time and had to use oxygen tanks, 2 canes, 5 men, a special van with a lift, and a large wheelchair just to get there. Dr. Phil told her that her life expectancy had been shortened by 40 years due to her weight.

She was back this time and walked out on stage with just the 2 canes. She now weighs 498 pounds and has lost over 250 pounds in 7 months. She's no longer on oxygen and can ride in the front seat of the car instead of the back "like cargo" she said. She said it hasn't been the easiest thing she's ever done. "You don't just pop a pill, go to sleep and wake up beautiful. It's a lot of hard work and we're all gaining in every manner (except for weight)." She said the biggest change is that she's now able to breathe on her own. She said "If I can get to 200 pounds, there's going to be a party... with no food involved." LOL!

Just by the mom losing weight, her kids (who use to take care of her and called her a burden) have also lost weight. Her son has lost 71 pounds, and her daughter has lost 55 pounds. They're both proud of her their mom now and they say she's no longer a burden since she can take care of herself.

The 3rd and last woman Dr. Phil brought out was a woman named Jennifer who lost 162 pounds in 3 years. She had a lot of loose skin. Her husband said he had never even seen her naked. She decided to get surgery because she felt worse than before she lost the weight. She wanted to wear things that skinny people wear (like a bathing suit) but she couldn't because of her loose skin. She had to have 2 surgeries, but after the surgery, she looked amazing. She said she feels like she's been reborn. The Doctors removed 13 inches of skin from her stomach, 12 inches from her back, 6 inches from her thighs and 8 inches from her arms. Total amount of skim removed along with some liposuction was 15 pounds. That's a lot!

I think today's show was good. It just shows that no matter how much weight we have to lose, it can be done with hard work and determination. I know the last thing I want is to be stuck inside due to my weight. I think I'll work on it now before it gets out of hand more than it already has.

I'm actually taping another show right now called "You On A Diet" (also a rerun that aired back in Dec). I'm guessing they'll be talking about the book (which I own, but haven't actually read). If the show is any good, I'll recap what they talked about in another blog.

Oh, and in case you're wondering how my weigh in went today... I didn't go. I was up all night sneezing myself to death and didn't feel well, so I looked up the meetings and will be weighing in tomorrow morning (you probably thought I was avoiding it didn't you? LOL!). I said I would face the scale and I will. I almost always do what I say I'm going to do (unless I forget or get too busy) but that won't be the case here.

I'm Back

2007-06-05T01:06:00.000-04:00

I'm finally catching up with everything since getting back from Michigan. I came back to over 400 emails, so you can imagine that took some time to get through. LOL!

As you know (or don't know), Rick and I went to Michigan to golf last week. We played at The Grande Golf Club. It was REALLY hot! I didn't do too bad on the front 9 (not that I did great or anything. Actually Rick did great. Some of the best golf I've seen him play). Even though I was drinking plenty of water, I just got too overheated to continue playing. I felt really sick. So for the back 9 holes, I pretty much just watched Rick play and I took pictures. I did play a couple of par 3 holes on the back, but that was it. I wanted Rick to take my picture while I was playing, but he doesn't seem to know how to point and shoot a camera, so the few pictures he did take were either of my neck down or pictures of the ground. LOL! I put a video together of some of the pictures I took at the course (I left Rick out of these since I'm not posting any of me. This is just to show you what the course looked like). I promise this one isn't as long as the last video I posted. This one is only about 2 minutes long. :) Just click the picture to go to the video.

There really wasn't much to do or see in the town we stayed in. We pretty much just hung out the first day we were there, we went and looked at the golf course we were going to be playing the next day (they actually let us take a cart out and ride around the course. I wish I had my camera that evening because I would have had some really good pictures. We also saw a bunch of wild turkeys out on the course. Not something we see around here). We went swimming and sat in the hot tub after dinner. Then the next day we golfed and went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We slept in the next morning and then headed home. On the way home we stopped off at a Russel Stover store (we don't have those around here, thankfully). I got my dad a 3 pound box of chocolates and my mom some hard candy. Rick and I had some fudge. I didn't do too bad while I was gone as far as points go, but I didn't do great either. We ate at a buffet the first night, then we had pizza the next day. I'm still struggling to get back on track. I did good yesterday and then I was doing good today until I ate too many of those stupid 100 calorie packs from Hershey. Boo hiss!!!!!! Weigh in will be here in just 1 more day. I have no idea what the scale will say, but I've already decided to just go face whatever the verdict is. Well I'm off to bed. Goodnight!

Hello From Michigan

2007-05-30T09:41:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here at a hotel in Jackson, Michigan. Just thought I'd stop in and say hello! Rick and I are golfing this afternoon. We went and looked at the golf course yesterday (the manager was nice enough to let us take a cart and drive around the entire course). It looks really hard! I know I'm going to struggle (not to mention it's supposed to be really hot outside today). I'll just try my best. Hopefully I'll be able to finish all 18 holes. There are a lot of hills, lots of water and swamp areas to hit over (which I probably won't be able to do) and even the greens are hilly. The course is beautiful though. I'll take my camera along and take some pictures while I'm there. When I get back home I'll share them with you. I'd also like to check out one of the parks while we're here, but who knows. It's vacation, I'm just going with the flow. :) Well I'm outta here! See you when I get home. :) Don't forget about me. LOL!

This and That

2007-05-26T21:42:00.001-04:00

The blog is going to be on the back burner for this week. Rick is on vacation and I haven't been online much (it's kinda like my vacation too). We went golfing with Ben this afternoon and had a lot of fun (my forearms got burned and itch like crazy, but I stopped by Walmart on the way home and picked up some stuff for that. I also finally found a brace that fits my knee, so hopefully that will help with the pain some). We have plans for tomorrow and Monday to visit family, then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we'll be in Michigan (we're just staying in Michigan two nights. The rest of the time we'll be home, but doing stuff around here locally. I'm also hoping to get some cleaning done when we get back from Michigan). Rick goes back to work on June 4th, so I should have more time to come and blog then. I will try to blog between now and then if I can, but worse case scenario will be the 4th. I'm going to take my laptop to Michigan with me, so if the lodge we're staying at has Wifi, then I'll try and blog Tuesday night. TTYL!

Bummer!

2007-05-23T22:36:00.001-04:00

Well, the scale didn't go quite the way I had seen it going when I weighed in this morning. Not that it surprises me in any way, since that just seems to be how it is. LOL! Almost all week I was down 3 pounds. I even thought at one point "hey I could maybe even lose 4-5 pounds by Wednesday". I stepped on the scale this morning, and it screamed "get off!". LOL! Ok, not really, but I'm sure if it could speak it might have. :) I was only down 1 pound! I know I shouldn't say "only" because 1 pound is still 1 pound, but after gaining last week and then being down 3 pounds all the way until today just sucked! I'll still happily take my pound, but I want the other 2 pounds too. I feel a bit cheated! Like I worked hard all week and got my paycheck to discover they took all of it but a dollar. You know what I mean? LOL! I know why I was up. Part of it was because I had Taco Bell for dinner last night. I still stayed within my points, I just think the sodium helped do me in. The other part is... I'm about to get a little graphic here, so you might want to skip to the next paragraph if you can't take it.... ha, I see how you are... you're still reading 'cause you really want to know! LOL! Ok, the other part of it is that I hadn't been to the bathroom (I don't think I need to give anymore details than that). I went to class, weighed in, and then sat there and drank 34 ounces of water. That water must have helped because as soon as I got home.... well, let's just say the other 2 pounds probably got flushed this morning. LOL! I'll bet tomorrow morning if I weigh myself I'll be down. Want to bet? Huh? Double or nothing? LOL! Well, I'll come back tomorrow and let you know if I'm right. :)

Other than my weigh in today, I just did some laundry, filled orders, made grilled chicken and oven roasted corn for dinner (yummy), and watched American Idol (I'm glad Jordin won. Don't get me wrong, I thought Blake was awesome with his beat boxing and my favorite song that he did was "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane, but Jordin is the better singer and deserved to win). I like the song Kelly Clarkson sang tonight too. I might have to get her album when it comes out. And of course, Chris Daughtry rocked last night, can't forget about him.

I don't sit and do nothing but watch TV, but I'm excited about a couple of shows coming up for the summer. I Tivo the shows and watch them when I go to bed. Two of them are "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Hell's Kitchen". Woohoo!!!

Ok, I'm outta here. Got some more stuff to do before I head for bed. Thanks for listening to me whine about my weight loss. LOL! TTYL!

My Golf Video

2007-05-22T22:53:00.000-04:00

Sorry guys, I'm heading to bed early tonight, so again instead of leaving you with nothing, I'll share a video I made this past week. Rick and his buddies go golfing and I tag along to take pictures sometimes. Then I make them all a DVD. These pictures were taken last September at a golf course called "Cook's Creek" here in Ohio. I just finally got around to getting the video finished last week. The video is about 12 minutes long. I realize you don't know the people in the video, but the music might make you want to jump up and do an Irish dance during the 2nd half (opportunity for activity points people!). LOL! So that you have a little bit of who's who... in the picture below from left to right is: Vic, Ed, Jerry and Rick. Rick works 3rd shift with Vic and Vic knows Ed and Jerry from either a previous job he had or from church (I can't remember). They all play pretty well, but Vic has the best swing, and Jerry can really hit the crap out of the ball for his age. LOL! Ed and Rick can hold their own, but Vic usually wins. When you watch the video, you'll notice Rick has a baseball like swing (he played baseball from the time he was a little kid until probably 7-8 years ago). It's kinda funny to look at. :) Ok, just click the picture to go to the video (you'll be leaving my blog and going to another page to see it). Let me know what you think. Thanks! TTYL!

Going Bonkers

2007-05-21T22:47:00.000-04:00

This is going to be pretty short tonight. I had planned on working all day, but my dad called around noon and asked me to come help clean out the shed to see what we can sell at a garage sale we're going to have soon, and to also get rid of any junk that has made its way out there over the last couple of years. So that's where I spent my afternoon. My knee was really killing me (even after taking 2 ibuprofens for it earlier), so when I got home I sat with some ice on it. It doesn't hurt as bad now, but then again I haven't been up walking around on it much either. I made dinner (left over pork and mashed potatoes) and then I got to working on this weeks orders. I've gotten the invoices typed up, but I still have to sign books, fill the orders and then get the shipping labels typed up and put on. I'll be up for another 3-4 hours, so I'm going to go get busy. I just didn't want to skip my blog for today (even though I'm not really telling you anything significant in any way, I just feel better when I know I've written in my blog). I did great on points today. I didn't get to take my walk, but I figure working some this afternoon helps to make up for it. I think a walk would have been easier (not to mention faster. LOL!). Just so you don't feel cheated, I'll leave you with a picture of Riley I took a few days ago (he needs a bath and a haircut really bad). LOL! I know, you're thinking... "what a treat! I logged in here to hear her whine about stuff and look at her dog." Sorry, it's all I've got for now and I've been talking about Riley lately, so I figure maybe you'd like to see what he looks like (if you didn't already). :) TTYL!

Fore!

2007-05-20T20:57:00.000-04:00

Rick and I went golfing with Ben today. It just wasn't a good day for me. LOL! I knew it wasn't going to be a great day when we got to the golf course and I discovered Rick hadn't brought my 3 Wood. I asked him before we left home "did you get my 3 Wood out of your car?" and he said "yes". Hmmm. He never listens to me. I've been trying to tell him that for some time now. Today drove home my point. LOL! I guess next time I'll double check instead of asking. Lesson learned. I wasn't too happy about it though because it's the main club I use to not only tee off, but also for a lot of my fairway shots. Luckily I had my Perfect Club in my bag, but I honestly don't like it. It's heavier than my 3 Wood and I don't hit it the same. Before today I had only hit it a couple of times (enough to know I didn't like it). I didn't have much choice but to use it today. LOL! Still not a perfect club for me. I hit it "decent" a few times, but mostly I just sucked. I wasn't getting as much distance as I do with my 3 Wood and I wasn't as accurate with it. I also had a lot of wormburners right off of the tee. It just wasn't pretty. I thought Ben was going to be the under dog today since he hasn't golfed in a few years, but I've gotta tell ya.... he was making some good shots. I was quite surprised (Good job Ben!). :)

My knee started to hurt around the 12th hole. I was able to forget about the pain though during one hole when a Bumble Bee wouldn't stop coming at me. I don't know what made me so special (I wasn't wearing a flowered shirt or anything). I just couldn't get away from it. I even jumped out of the cart while it was still moving at one point trying to get away, but that stupid thing just followed me. So here's a vision for you.... I'm running around in the middle of the fairway, trying to get away from this stupid bee... Rick is swatting at it with a club... and Ben is laughing his ass off in the cart. LOL!!!!!!! The adrenaline from all of it just made my knee pain disappear. LOL! It was back soon after though. :) Ben was nice enough to by a traveling pharmacy on the course and gave me something for the pain, so that helped (thanks Ben!).

I was getting kinda tired by about the 15th hole. I was having fun even though I was having to hit the ball a million times. LOL! That's what the day is all about anyway....hanging with friends and having fun. :) It started to rain a little bit on the 17th hole and a little harder on the 18th hole, but overall we had nice weather today. Not too hot and not too sunny with a nice breeze going. :) TTYL!

Lets Hit The Bars

2007-05-19T12:03:00.000-04:00

I'm not doing a good job at keeping this daily blog up lately am I? I had planned on writing this yesterday, but I got to doing other things and then we went to my parents for dinner and cards. I was just too tired to get on the computer when I got back home. I was actually going to write this before we left for my parents, but I called my mom to double check if we'd be taking a walk after dinner or not. She said probably not, so I got Riley into the car and off we went to the park for our walk. That's a total of 3 miles, 3 days in a row now. I know, it doesn't seem like much, but it's about all I can do right now. It's a far cry from the 6-10 miles I was able to walk in 1 day just a couple of years ago. :( It's ok though, I'll get there again eventually. I just have to start out somewhere. I remember when I first started out walking back in 2001. I was actually in a little worse shape than I am now, so I know it does get better over time. I just have to keep at it. Just two more walks between now and Tuesday evening, and I'll have made my goal for the week of walking 5 times. :)

Ok, I'm supposed to talk about a few new bars I tried this week (by bars, I don't mean the type you go to drink at, these are the kind you eat). LOL! I'm even going to tell you about the flavors I didn't really like. :)

Ok, the first 4 bars are all made by Kellogg's and they're called Special K cereal bars. I'm sure most of you have either heard of them or even tried them by now. I had only had 1 flavor before and it's been quite some time. Each bar is 90 calories and 2 points. The texture is almost like a rice crispy treat, but not as gooey.

My least favorite two were the "peaches and berries" and the "chocolatey drizzle". How can I not like something called "chocolatey drizzle" you ask? Well because the "chocolatey" part just wasn't very "chocolatey" to me. It tasted like a fake chocolate. In fact, the first bite I took I actually said "eeeww". It was that bad. LOL! Rick tried it and said it was ok but not that good. His exact words were "when they say drizzle, that's all they mean". LOL! I should probably also tell you that Rick likes just about anything. LOL! The "peaches and berries" bar was a little better, but I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I thought the combination of peaches and berries was a little weird for a cereal bar. It was sweet, but just not a favorite. Rick ate one and he said he liked it, so maybe it's just me, or again, he likes a lot of different things. :)

The next two bars were "strawberry" and "vanilla crisp". These two were my favorites. They were both sweet and tasted like what I thought they would. The strawberry was probably a little sweeter than the vanilla. Honestly, I doubt I'd really eat any of these bars for breakfast (even though they're called cereal bars). They aren't really filling and they're too sweet. The fiber content is either 1 gram or less than 1 gram for each of them too, so they aren't going to fill you up by any means. I would recommend them though as a snack or even a dessert. For 2 points, they're pretty good if you're craving something sweet though. :)

These next two bars were my absolute favorites out of the 6 bars I tried. They're also made by Kellogg's. They're called "crunchy nut sweet & salty granola bars". One is "chocolatey peanut" and the other is called "chocolatey almond". They're 3 points each, but I thought they were much denser than the cereal bars. They're kind of like the cereal bars, but the tops have nuts on top and the bottoms have been dipped in chocolate. This time "chocolatey" actually tastes like chocolate unlike the other bar. The "chocolatey peanut" bar is both sweet and salty just like it says. It only has 1 gram of fiber, but it also has 5 grams of protein (where the cereal bars above only have 1 gram of protein). The "chocolatey almond" bar is also both sweet and salty, but it has 2 grams of fiber. It also has 5 grams of protein. I would be more likely to spend an extra point on these bars over the cereal bars. I just felt like they were more filling and the taste was far superior. If I had to choose between the peanut or the almond bar, I'd probably choose the almond. I just prefer almonds over peanuts, so that's just me. Not only that, but peanuts are a little softer than almonds, so I like the harder crunch. :)

Well, I could probably sit here and talk about a few more bars that I've tried and liked, but I'll save that for another blog. I've got some cleaning to do today as well as laundry, so I'm off to take care of that. TTYL!

Renewed Motivation

2007-05-17T22:10:00.001-04:00

Sorry I didn't post last night. I wanted to tell you about a couple of new products that I tried (new to me anyway), but I had trouble getting my camera to cough up the pics. Finally I said to heck with it. So now I just have more to talk about tonight. I did finally get the pics off the camera tonight. Stubborn little devil! LOL!

I weighed in yesterday and I had my first gain. I won't lie about it. I had a terrible day Saturday and I just ate everything and anything I could get my chubby little fingers around. LOL! Anyway, I considered taking a pass at my Weight Watchers meeting (going to the meeting but not getting on the scale). I was planning on doing it until the night before when I really gave it some thought. Who am I really cheating when I cheat and decide not to weigh in? I'm not really cheating anyone but myself. Looking back at my long list of weekly weigh ins from 2001 to 2004, I noticed a pattern. Even though I did have a few gains along the way, I never missed a meeting (except for the 3 times that WW was closed due to a holiday). I also never took a pass. I faced the scale no matter what the damage for the week was. That's what I decided to do this week. I went to my meeting, grumbled something along the lines of knowing I was up this week to the weigher and stepped on the scale. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it wasn't good either. I was up 2.2 pounds. You know what? It's ok. I actually think some good has come from seeing this gain. It's renewed my motivation really.

I had a chat with myself Wednesday. I said "Aimee, you've got to get a grip. You still have a long way to go, and if you keep doing this, you're either not going to make it, or it's going to take you forever to get there. Get a grip on the sweets, they aren't good for you and they aren't really doing anything for you. If you're going to eat them, they you're going to have to earn them. You also need to get off of your fat butt and start moving. Doesn't matter what kind of pain you're in. It won't get better until you get some of this weight off anyway, so you're just going to have to work through it." With that being said, I put the leash on Riley (my dog), drove to the park and walked the mile around the path. My knee was killing me, but I worked through it. I came home and had a 1 point pudding with fat free whipped topping as my reward and sweet for the day. I felt really good about my day and about myself and I know Riley enjoyed the walk too. I've walked him so little since I got him a year and a half ago that he doesn't even know how to walk properly on a leash. He pulls ahead and weaves back and forth in front of me. That's my fault. If I'd taken him for more walks and taught him how to walk properly when I got him, then I wouldn't have to be training him now.

Today I went grocery shopping. I came home, unloaded the groceries, loaded Riley into the car and we hit the park again. It was a little easier today even though my knee was still killing me. He also walked a little better and he didn't try to chase everyone who walked by him. I just took him for another walk about 30 minutes ago. We didn't walk a mile this last time, but we still went for a walk. We'll both get there. I told Riley on our walk today "you're going to be walking by my side in a nice manner by the end of summer and I'm going to be walking further than a mile, so we're just going to have to work together). LOL! Yes, I know... I talk to my dog like he understands everything I say. :) By the way, I weighed myself this morning and I was down 2 pounds. Yay me! LOL!

Ok, well before this gets too long let me tell you about a couple of products I had this week....

The first two are dinners made by Hormel called "Compleats". They can be found in the grocery aisle where the unrefrigerated dinners and microwaveable stuff is. I bought them at Super Walmart and each costs around $2.

This first one is Roast Beef and Gravy. Only 4 points for the whole thing.

The second one is Beef Pot Roast w/ potatoes & carrots in gravy. Only 5 points.

They make other flavors too, but they're a little higher in points. I've had the chicken breast with mashed potatoes once before. I want to say it was 5 or 6 points. I've also had the turkey with dressing awhile ago, but I can't remember how many points it was. It might be 5 or 6 points as well. I think if you work outside the home, these would be good for work. They only take 90 seconds to heat up. I should remind everyone though to watch the sodium if that's a problem for you. Prepackaged foods like this tend to be pretty high in sodium.

The last product I'm going to share tonight is Green Giant Just for One individual frozen veggie trays. I just happened to spot these when I was picking up some chopped broccoli the other day. The two flavors I saw were corn in butter for 2 points per tray and broccoli in cheese sauce for 1 point per tray. You get 4 individual trays per package and each tray takes about 2 minutes to heat. The reason I picked up a couple is because most of you know I'm not a big veggie eater, so I thought these would be easy for me to pop into the microwave and it was already portioned out for me. I bought them at Super Walmart and each package costs a little under $3. Sure, you could buy a big bag a veggies for that, but like most things that are portioned out, you're paying for convenience. :) Here's what the broccoli and cheese package looks like...

Well that's it for tonight. If I get time tomorrow I'll tell you about the snack bars I bought today. I might just have to open each box up and cut a small piece off of each one so I can share what they all taste like (hey, I just got them today. I've only tried one so far... remember.... renewed motivation). LOL! TTYL!

The Dreaded Visit

2007-05-15T16:06:00.000-04:00

I had an appointment yesterday to see the doctor. Something I've been putting off for quite some time now since I don't have any health insurance and because it's not something I enjoy going through. I'd been having some pain and a few other worries, so I figured it was time to get my butt in there. The exam went ok, though it was a bit rushed and extremely uncomfortable. The Dr. said I should get my results back in about a week (unless they find something wrong, then they'll call me before that). Hopefully I won't get a call this week. He gave me a prescription to help with the pain part (I have PCOS) so hopefully I won't have to deal with that as much. Oh and get this... he told me that the other problem I've been experiencing (sorry not sharing details) is probably hormonal. LOL! Great, I've come to a point in my life where I'm hormonal now. I'm a 33 year old hormonal woman. Lovely! LOL!!!!! I can't complain though. I'll take hormonal over a a dreaded phone call any day. I've been down that road once before when I was around 21 years old. I don't want to go through all of that again or worse.

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday, I just didn't feel like blogging. I had some stuff on my mind, so I went and hung out with an old friend I went to High School with for a few hours. We just hung out and watched TV and talked about various things. We don't get to talk much, but we try to hang out once or twice a month when we can. It's nice to get out of the house and just hang sometimes. :)

Since I played around yesterday and didn't work, I have a lot to catch up on this evening. If any of you like Linkin Park, I got their new CD today and it's awesome! If you get it this week, you can get it much cheaper than the regular price at most places. I got the one that comes with the DVD in it. It was only $3 more than the regular price of just the CD. Can't beat that. :) Here's one of my more favorite songs from the CD...

Linkin Park - What I've Done

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-13T23:51:00.000-04:00

I don't really have anything to write about tonight, but I wanted to stop in and say Happy Mother's Day to everyone. I found this neat little widget on another blog and filled one out for myself, so I'll leave you with this (don't want to leave you with nothing) LOL! TTYL!

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It's A Blah Day

2007-05-12T13:24:00.000-04:00

I didn't get to bed until 4:00 this morning because I stayed up working, and then built the new blog (not complaining, just sharing). I got up at 9:00, finished up getting the shipping labels on this weeks orders, then went and dropped them off at the post office. From there I stopped by the bank and then went to Walmart (they're next door to each other, so I figured if I was going to be so close to Walmart, how could I not stop in? LOL!). While I was there I stalked the ice cream aisle. I thought maybe I'd buy some ice cream, but I came across the Popsicles and other treats that were colorful and fun, so I decided to blow off the ice cream (like I need it anyway).

I did find these frozen limeade push up type pops made by Minute Maid. They come in Limonada and Cherry flavor. They're both 1 point each. I wouldn't normally spend 1 point on a popsicle, but I thought the flavors sounded really good and at least they aren't on a stick where it will drip down your arm if you want to eat it outside. LOL! I've tried the cherry so far and I really like it. :) Here's what they look like...

I just don't feel like doing much today. Rick is out playing golf (he left at 5:30 this morning. He's playing in a scramble an hour and a half north of here to benefit fire fighters). I'd have gone, but I'm not good enough to play in a scramble yet and I'm not a morning person either. LOL! So, I'm just sitting here really doing nothing much of anything. I'm so use to keeping myself busy, but like I said... it's a blah day. I went to my message board as well as the Weight Watcher message board and looked around for a few minutes. I scanned through my email but don't really feel like answering those right now. Then I went to Dalco's website and ordered some generic ink for my printer since I'm almost out. I watered my flowers on the back porch, then sat there for a minute while Riley sniffed the grass, but it was too hot in the sun, so I came back in. I ate lunch (a salad and leftover homemade pizza for 10 points). Now I'm sitting here listening to music. I'm just sitting here listening to random songs that I like (I found videos on You-Tube so you can watch instead of just listening if you're interested)....

I love this song! It sounds better on the CD though.

Well, I guess I'll go find nothing else to do for awhile. LOL! TTYL!

I Now Have 2 Blogs

2007-05-11T23:48:00.000-04:00

In case you're wondering what happened to my posts from the last 3 days on The Beck Diet Solution, I've decided to move them to their own blog. I realize not everyone probably wants to read about it everyday, so I'll post about my daily stuff here like I use to, and then I'll also be posting about The Beck Diet Solution on my new blog everyday (well, at least until the 6 weeks are up in the book).

You can get to the new blog by clicking on the image in dark pink over to the right of the page - under the t-shirt (I'm telling you this now because you won't always remember this post to come back and click the links I'm giving you). I apologize to those of you who left comments on my blog over the past 3 days, but when I moved the information to the new page, I lost all of the comments that were left.

I think I'd like to be conceited and just keep this blog about me. LOL! No seriously, you know I'd never just write about myself. Hehe! I'm going to go back to posting about general stuff, things I did each day, new food finds, etc. I'll keep the long boring posts for the people who are really interested. LOL! Actually, I hope some of you are interested because The Beck Diet Solution is a good book, but if you really don't want to read it, I won't make you. LOL! Ok, I'm off to bed. Have a great weekend!

Lunch Time

2007-05-08T16:39:00.000-04:00

I was at Super Walmart the other day and came across the new Hillshire Farm Entree Salad kits. They were $2.50 each (honestly I don't know if that was regular price or if they were on sale. I can't remember). I'd seen the commercial a few times before on TV, but hadn't seen them in the store yet (I probably just wasn't really looking). Here's one of the commercials if you haven't seen it. It's kinda funny (just push the play button in the middle of the picture)...

Anyway, I decided to have this for lunch today. The kind I had was the chicken and bacon club entree. It's 7 points if you eat the dressing, and 6 points if you don't. I know, you're thinking 7 points for a salad? But seriously it was good and I was full afterwards. It's a meal. In the kit you get: oven roasted chicken breast that is cubed, bacon bits, finely shredded cheddar cheese, garlic and butter croutons, and a packet of light ranch dressing. All you have to do is add the lettuce. The kit can be found in the refrigerated section and this is what it looks like...

I got a huge bowl out of the cupboard and put 3-4 huge hand fulls of lettuce into the bowl. Next I got my kitchen scissors out and cut the lettuce up into smaller pieces (I hate big pieces of lettuce). The bowl was actually pretty full of lettuce, but once I cut it all up, it looked smaller. LOL! Next I opened the kit and poured on the ranch dressing (I LOVE ranch dressing!). I added the cheese next, then the chicken, followed by bacon bits and topped it off with the croutons. I don't normally eat croutons in my salad, but what the heck! :) Those croutons were really really good and they give you quite a few of them! Very buttery and garlicy (is that a word?) LOL! I couldn't buy a box of them, I wouldn't be able to stay out of them. Here's what it looked like before I stirred it all up and made it look like a complete mess (just the way I like to eat stuff)....

Also at Walmart... I've been drinking the Sam's Choice Clear American Naturally Flavored Sparkling Water. It's 50 cents a bottle and each bottle is 1 Liter. If you look at the nutritional info, it has zeros all the way down the bottle. They've got some really good flavors too. There's Key Lime (my favorite), White Grape, Tropical Fruit, Wild Cherry, Raspberry, Mandarin Orange, Peach, Black Cherry and maybe another flavor but that's all I remember off of the top of my head. They help me get my water in each day (although technically I can only count half of it since the other half is supposed to be pure water). I figure every little bit helps though.

That's it for now. I'm still working on The Beck Diet Solution book. It's a little after 5PM now, so if I can get dinner made and finish up the last couple of hours of work that I need to do, I'll continue on with it and maybe come back and post about it tonight (no promises, but I'll try).

An Afternoon Spent Golfing

2007-05-07T23:59:00.000-04:00

I hit my first "longer" golf course of the season today (not a total par 3 course like I went to last Friday). It was such a beautiful day for golf too, although my forearms got sunburned pretty bad. I have an official "golfer's tan". LOL! You know, where you can tell which hand the golfer wears the glove on according to the tan line above their wrist. :) Unfortunately for me, I have two of those because I wear a glove on both hands (I'm like Tommy Two Gloves from the Big Break on tv. LOL). Ah well. I'll try to add in some links to golf terms for those of you who don't golf and have no idea what I'm talking about (in case you want to know). :)

I did really really good today. I hit all of the balls straight, got out of the sand trap the two times I was in there, hit the middle of the green from the tee on a par 3 hole and made some awesome putts. I hit a few wormburners too. LOL! I'm still not hitting the ball very far, but I'm hitting it straight, and I'll take straight over far any day. I didn't have a perfect game by any means, but I did much better than I ever remember playing. I mostly made a bogey and a double bogey on most holes, and I had a couple of holes where I did a little worse. I had a 50 on the first 9 and a 51 on the back 9. I think I would have needed a 71 to make par. It's the closest to scoring 100 I've ever been. Normally my score looks more like 110-120. LOL! Even Rick kept saying "you're doing really good today" and he never says that. Usually I have to ask how I did and he's honest. LOL! I did hit a couple of really really REALLY bad shots though. On one hole I was teeing off and I topped the ball. I hit the wooden stake (more like a shortened telephone pole) right in front of my tee box and the ball came flying back at me. LOL! It was actually really funny once I got out of the way and got over the shock of it. Rick gives us a mulligan once per 9 holes. When the ball came flying back at me I said "I'll use my mulligan now". Hehehe! On another hole I had to hit across water (you have to understand... it doesn't matter if it's a lake, a creek or a puddle, my ball always goes in the water no matter what). Well, I laid up to the water because I knew I couldn't hit over it from the distance I was at. I hit the ball and guess what? I didn't get that ball up in the air either. LOL! That little pink ball (one of my good expensive balls I might add) skipped across the entire length of the water and then disappeared at the edge. If only it had skipped just 1 more time... but it didn't. :( Normally In that situation I'd exchange my good ball for a "water" ball (that would be a ball I know I'll never see again and I didn't pay much for). But I was feeling confident today since I had been playing so well. Should have known better.

Here's a picture of the par 3 hole where I got it in the middle of the green. See the little white flag down over the left edge of the water? That's about where I was aiming for.

And here's a picture of one of the areas where I ended up in a sand trap

I was starting to get really tired by the 15th hole and thought about just sitting the rest of the game out because I was in a lot of pain. My knee has been hurting off and on lately. It just depends on how much walking on it I do. I did a lot of walking out on that course today and my knee let me know so. After we finished up and I drove home, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get out of the car and walk inside or not. I sat in bed for awhile and propped it up on a pillow with an ice pack, but it still hurts. I can't wait to see what tomorrow is like. Hopefully I'll be able to get out of bed. If you don't hear from me.... I'm stuck in bed. LOL!!!!

Sorry, I know I said I was going to start talking about The Beck Diet Solution tonight, but I've only gotten 20 pages read so far (one of the things I did while I had my leg propped up earlier). Once I got online tonight, I spent a lot of time answering emails and making my way through the messages at my message board. When I do write about what I've read in the book, I want to make sure I have time to really go through it and post the good stuff. Maybe I can get an early start on my blog tomorrow afternoon and get some reading and writing done before I get too tired. It's almost 2:30 AM now, so I'm heading for bed. TTYL!

Busy As A Bee

2007-05-06T23:59:00.000-04:00

Well I got a lot done today. I got up, answered quite a few emails (I'm still behind on email), and worked on the progress chart for my message board since Sunday starts a new week. After that, I set up a spot outside to take pictures of all of the golf clubs Rick wants to sell on Ebay next weekend (take a guess at who will actually be doing that part too) LOL! That took a little while to do because he has so many clubs. It seems all he does is buy new ones. He thinks a new club is going to improve his game. I keep telling him to take the money he would normally spend on clubs and go get some lessons from a PGA teacher. But, hey, don't listen to me, what do I know? LOL!

After I got his pictures done, I hopped back on the computer for another 4 hours and worked on trying to get the shops finished up for my t-shirts so I can add them to my site finally. It seems like I've been working on these forever. I only have 2 left, so I should be able to finish it up the next time I can work on it. Keeping my fingers crossed anyway. :)

We went to my parent's house for dinner and cards tonight. We usually go on Friday nights, but Rick played golf that day and hadn't been to bed yet (he works 3rd shift). We'll be going on Sunday next week too because Rick has to get up for a golf scramble really early on Saturday morning and he wants to get some rest.

Ok, I'm going to go add a picture to the "Circle of Friends" at my message board and update a couple of charts, then I'm going to head to bed and start reading The Beck Diet Solution. Hopefully I'll be able to start writing about it tomorrow night. I started reading the intro to the book yesterday, but got distracted, so I'm going to start over again. TTYL!

What's For Dinner?

2007-05-05T20:32:00.000-04:00

I don't normally photograph my dinner plate (I usually just take pictures of new recipes I've made), but I wanted to share my dinner with you tonight (ok, honestly I've seen other people do it in their blog and I thought it was neat). LOL!

My dinner was super easy, but tasted really good. I just took a small package of chicken breasts and cut them in half, peeled and cut up a couple of potatoes, sprinkled about 3/4 of a packet of hickory bbq flavored chicken wing seasoning over both sides of the chicken and some over the potatoes and then baked it. Nothing special, but oh so good. We had canned green beans sprayed with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray and seasoned with some pepper along with it (we also had a salad, but I didn't take a picture of that since we all know what a bowl of lettuce with nothing special on it looks like). Here's a picture of my plate...

I didn't end up going to bed until around 4:00 this morning. I was getting ready to head to bed about an hour before that, but Ben IM'd me. I was quite surprised to see that he was still awake, but I was glad that I got to talk to him because I hadn't talked to him all day. When I did finally get to sleep, I had all sorts of strange dreams. All I remember from one of my dreams is some kind of natural disaster was going on and I was trying to lead people to safety. I remember waking up around 8:00 feeling like I had just watched a movie. LOL! I went back to sleep for another couple of hours and then Rick's phone woke me up. I was in the middle of another dream. I don't remember what it was about now, but I do remember telling Rick "man I was in the middle of a good dream and now I won't know how it ends". LOL!!!! I decided that was enough dreaming for 1 day and decided to get up. :)

After I showered and dressed, I went to the post office and dropped my orders off, went to the bank, and then drove to Rick's bank so he could deposit a check. We grabbed something to eat on the way home. After we ate, I asked Rick what he wanted to do for the day. He suggested we could go see a movie or we could go hit some golf balls. I figured I do enough sitting during the week, so we went and hit golf balls. The timing worked out pretty good because it started to rain about 5 minutes before we were done (yep, I hit golf balls in the rain. A little water won't kill me, but some lightning might. LOL!) We stopped of at our Super Walmart on the way home to fill up our water jugs and picked up a few things. That was pretty much my day. So what did you have for dinner? Care to share??? :) TTYL!

A NIce Day For A Walk

2007-05-04T23:59:00.000-04:00

Sorry about not blogging the past couple of days. I've been really busy. It's actually 2 AM now and I should be heading to bed, but I didn't want to skip my blog again tonight.

I did manage to have a little bit of fun yesterday for a couple of hours. I went golfing for the first time this year. I know, I've been saying I was going golfing at least once a week for the past month now. LOL! Well, I finally went. I didn't do too bad considering it was my first time out for the year. I only went to a par 3 course (it had like 2 par 4's on it). I had a bogey on most of the holes and a double bogey on 1 hole, but I did have a handful of pars, so I was happy. :) The best thing was that I kept hitting the ball straight. When I first started playing golf (summer before last) I hit the ball straight then too, but last year I started doing something funky and everything started going left. Hopefully I'll be able to keep hitting the ball straight for the rest of this year. LOL!

This morning I got up at 7:00 and drove to Dayton to get my oil changed and my tires rotated at Toyota. From there I went to my dentist appointment (no cavities, woohoo!). After that I stopped over at my parents house and had lunch with them. It was a really nice day, so I asked my mom if she wanted to go for a walk. She agreed, so we stuck the leash on my dog Riley and brought him along. The place we went to walk has a track that's 1.3 miles around. We walked around once plus started around a 2nd time, but my knee was hurting so we cut up the middle and headed home. It's the furthest I've walked at once since I gained all of my weight back. Normally the most I can do is about 1/2 a mile. I did have to stop and sit for a minute along the way (they have benches every so often along the way), but I kept going. We must have worn poor little Riley out on the walk. LOL! My mom drove, so I sat in the back seat with Riley and held him up so he could feel the wind (he loves going for rides, but when he's in my car, he's in a carrier, so he doesn't get a lot of wind). Eventually he sat next to me on the seat. Next thing I knew he was laying down with his legs in the air going to sleep. It was extremely funny!

When we got back to my parent's house, my mom made us a crystal light smoothie in her magic bullet (1 cup ice, 1 cup water, 1 single serving packet of crystal light, and she added a packet of Splenda and a tablespoon of vanilla yogurt). It was good. :) She also picked up a copy of "The Beck Diet Solution" for me. She was going to just let me borrow her copy, but she's only on day #3 out of 40 and I didn't want to wait that long. LOL! I might take it day by day and post about it here on my blog.

Once I got home from my parents, I worked on getting orders out for the week, ate dinner and worked some more. I actually just finished working about 30 minutes ago, so I'm pretty tired. I was a little under points today, but that's fine because I used some of my flex points a few nights ago and I don't really want to use flex points. I figure it all evens out somewhere. LOL! Ok, I'm off to bed. TTYL! Hope you have a great weekend!

Another Long Day

2007-05-02T23:41:00.000-04:00

Sorry everyone. It's been a really long day. I'm heading to bed to watch American Idol and then get some much needed ZZZZ's (hopefully I will). I'll talk to you tomorrow. :)

By the way, I lost .6 at my weigh in this morning. It's not what I was hoping for, but I'm not complaining. Any loss is a good loss.

Crazy Driver

2007-05-01T22:09:00.000-04:00

I was on my way home from Procter & Gamble this afternoon when this blue truck came flying up behind me on the highway. I saw him coming in my rear view mirror, but he was going too fast for me to make a lane change because I figured he was going to go around me anyway. I was right. He got right up on my butt, went around me, then no sooner had he barely cleared my car, he cut in front of me (I may not be psychic, but I knew he was going to do this). I could have gotten mad about it (which I'm sure is why he did it), but instead, I decided to clap for him (hey I thought perhaps he was trying to be entertaining). He must not like applause because he flipped me the bird. I could have flipped him the bird back, but instead I just laughed at him. From there I kept my distance and just watched him go from lane to lane doing the same thing he did to me to everyone else in all 3 lanes. Luckily he got off the highway at the next exit. What an idiot! Now I know clapping and laughing at him wasn't the smartest thing, but I know he was looking for a rise and I wasn't going to give it to him. Other people were honking at him and flipping him off, so I'm sure he got enough rise out of them.

The testing at Procter & Gamble was the same today as it was yesterday. Same questions wanting to know if the two shower gels I tried made me feel sexy or not. LOL! I didn't like the two gels I tried today at all. They didn't smell good. One of them was Suave Professionals and I can't remember what the other one was, but it was some kind of cucumber scent. The cucumber one was better than the suave, but neither of them equaled up to the Olay Ribbons shower gel I tried yesterday. I got to talking to another woman today about the survey's. She said she had just finished doing another study for some kind of face cream. It was a 10 week study and she made $800 putting a cream on half of her face and going in twice a week to have them shine a blue light on her face for 7 minutes. I was like "you've got to be kidding". I asked her if she noticed any difference from the cream or anything and she said none at all. I can't believe companies will pay people to put cream on their face and shower gel on their arms. Amazing. Hey, I figure if they want to give me their money, I can always use more money. LOL! I'm going to call tomorrow or Thursday and see what other studies they have coming up. As long as they don't sound too crazy I'll sign up. :)

Well, tomorrow is weigh day so I'm heading for bed. My scale said I was down 3 pounds this morning, so we'll see what the scale says tomorrow. Wish me luck. :) TTYL!

Survey Says....

2007-04-30T18:27:00.000-04:00

I went down to Procter & Gamble this afternoon to participate in the body wash survey. It was kinda fun, not to mention super easy. And the best part... I didn't meet any crazy people like the lady I met last week at the Reed Hartman Research Center. LOL!

I got down there at 2:30 (my appointment was at 3:00). We were finished by 3:35. I was the only one there for about 10 minutes when I first got there, then another woman came and we got into a discussion about playing golf (no idea how that one started). LOL! At 3:00 they led all of us (about 10-12) back to this room with a long table with chairs around it (kinda like a board meeting room). We read a short paragraph stating what we were going to be testing and then we signed it and got our panel number. It was nothing like the consent form I had to read and sign last week. No mention of rash, bleeding or perhaps needing medical attention. After everyone had read and signed on the dotted line, a woman explained that we were actually participating in 2 studies today. First we went into room #1 and sat in front of a small computer. We were shown deodorant containers in different colors with 3-4 different scents. All we had to do was answer the questions (basically which we'd be more apt to buy). Next we were taken into room #2 where we washed each arm with a different body wash. I can't remember exactly what they both were, but I'm pretty sure the one I tested on my right arm said it was Olay Creme Ribbons or something like that. The other one was some kind of Dove product. We had to answer about 60 questions on the computer next to us after each of the two products were tested. Basically the questions wanted to know if the body wash made us feel sexy, outgoing, if we felt like the body wash made other women jealous of us, and other ridiculous questions. LOL! Let me just say, if I tested a body wash that made me feel sexy, I'd be smuggling it out of the place. :) And if I met a woman who was jealous of me because of my body wash, I'd have to tell her to get a life. LOL! I do have to admit though, the Olay body wash did make me feel a little sexier than the Dove body wash.

I did like the smell of it. In fact, I can still smell it. It's very nice. :) I can't really smell the Dove anymore. I stopped off at Super Walmart on my way home to get a few things and thought I'd check to see if they carry the Olay Ribbons body wash. They do. I almost bought some, but I decided not to. I don't want to spend $6 on body wash just yet. I still have some Suave body wash to use up first that I only paid $1 for when it was on sale. When I'm out of the Suave, I might buy some though. It's cheaper than Bath and Body Works and I think the smell lasts a lot longer.

Tomorrow I go back down to Procter & Gamble to test 2 more body washes and then I'll be done. This ought to be fun. I wonder if they'll ask the same questions tomorrow (probably. Well, maybe I'll feel more sexy tomorrow). I have to say, this is the first time I've ever participated in anything like this, but I might see what other studies they have to participate in. I know they have them all of the time. Procter & Gamble does limit you to only participating in a study every 45 days, so that's good. That keeps all of the study junkies under control a little bit. LOL! I can't complain, they're paying me $40 to wash my arms in shower gel (something I do everyday in the shower anyway). And even though I had to drive 30 minutes each way in some really heavy traffic, it was worth it.

I've done well on my points today. I had a sandwich before I left because I wasn't sure how long I'd be gone and I didn't want to get hungry enough where'd I'd pull through a fast food place while I was out. I picked up some frozen chicken patties at Walmart that were 4 points each, then I picked up a package of those square whole wheat bagels made by Thomas that are 2 points each. So, we had a 6 point chicken sandwich and some fat free Pringles for dinner. They finally got the Weight Watchers ice cream cups at my Walmart, so I picked up the mint chocolate chip, turtle, and the chocolate one (can't remember the name). I've tried the mint one so far and thought it was really good. I don't like the price, but I like the fact that they're portioned out for me, so I don't have to worry about if I'm packing the measuring cup too tight or if I'm eating more than I should be. I also noticed that my Walmart finally got in more of the Smart Ones desserts. I picked up a box of the key lime cheesecake. I haven't tired it yet, but I have enough points left to try one later tonight. :) TTYL!

Late addition to today's blog:
Adventures in Babywearing is holding a contest to get bloggers to show a picture of themselves without any makeup on (and without photoshopping themselves). Not that I usually wear a lot of makeup (I do always put some on if I know I'm going to be taking a picture), but even then I always cover up any blemishes on the computer before I release it to the world. You didn't know you were going to get an extra treat did you? LOL! I originally took a picture of myself when I got out of the shower earlier today, but dingbat me erased them off of the camera. So here I am now at the end of the day bearing it all before I head for bed. Look, I didn't even try to hide my multiple chins like I normally do. Man, what was I thinking? I must be tired. LOL! Anyway, this is the real me. Feel free to print it out and use it as a way to scare yourself away from the refrigerator. LOL! Just kidding!

A Much Needed Cleaning Day

2007-04-29T19:28:00.000-04:00

I've been getting a lot of stuff done today. Stuff that I would normally get done throughout the week, but didn't get to this week. I've put things away, gotten all of the laundry finished, dusted, ran the vacuum, cleaned both bathrooms, cleaned out a few drawers that I've been wanting to clean, gone through some papers I've been putting off, etc. The only think I have left to do is finish up the kitchen and then go through a stack of papers I have sitting here at my desk. I love when everything is put away and the place feels clean. :) If I get time next weekend, I'd like to clean out the closet here in my office and my bedroom closet. I just cleaned both of them out a few months ago, but now everything is out of whack again. I prefer to be able to just open the door, go in, get what I need and come back out. Not go in, stand there for 5 minutes looking around and moving things because I can't find what I need, and then come out mad. LOL! I've done pretty good on points today. I haven't really had much time to think about food (don't worry, I did eat).

Tomorrow I drive back down to Cincinnati to be a guinea pig for Procter & Gamble. They're going to test shower gel on my forearms and then I go back down on Tuesday for them to look at it and make sure I still have skin left. LOL! I'll let you know how that goes. :) Well, I'd better go finish up the kitchen before I don't feel like doing it. TTYL!

Let's Chat

2007-04-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

Well I didn't get much done today. I was supposed to finish up the t-shirts for my website, but I ended up looking around for a chat room for my message board instead. LOL! I finally found one and figured out how to get it posted so that everyone could see it. Around 5 of us ended up chatting for about an hour. It was fun. I'd like to schedule a chat once a week for everyone on my message board to get together. I'm also hoping people will go there everyday and just chat with each other. I'd like to see people become friends and even talk to each other when they aren't at my board. Maybe even meet up with each other if they live close to each other. That would be so cool! It's too bad we all don't live near each other. We could get together once a month and have lunch and just chat about stuff. :) Ah well. Maybe one day we could all have a get together.

OK, I'm off to bed. I probably won't be online much tomorrow until the evening. I want to finish the laundry and get some cleaning done around here. I think I'm going to have to have a serious talk with the maid. She isn't doing a very good job lately (I'm the maid). LOL!!!! TTYL!

The Interview

2007-04-27T15:48:00.001-04:00

Krissie sent me some interview questions. Some of these are going to be a little rough for me to answer, but I asked for it. :) Thanks Krissie for taking the time out of your busy schedule to ask me these. :)

1. Of all the many eating lifestyles out there, why have you chosen Weight Watchers?
Well, honestly, because it seems like the most sensible plan and I know it works. I spent a lot of time researching diets online and also trying many diets before I found Weight Watchers. I've been to Diet Workshop, I've done the low carb thing, Slimfast, Optifast, and probably something else with the word "fast" in it. LOL! We're all looking for a fast way to lose the weight, so of course anything with the word "fast" in it is going to appeal to us. :) So many programs out there have you doing crazy things like drinking shakes, not eating carbs, eating prepackaged meals, etc. That might be fine and dandy for getting the weight off, but once the weight is off, then what? You can't do that for the rest of your life. I feel like Weight Watchers offers a safe, balanced way of losing weight, and it's something I feel like I could follow for the rest of my life.

2. At one point in your life, you had lost an astounding amount of weight. How do you keep from being discouraged that you had to start over? (This is a selfish question. I had to start over, and really struggle with not beating myself up about it.)
Ah, this is definitely one of the harder questions. Honestly, I still beat myself up for gaining all of my weight back. I'm not sure there is a day that goes by that I don't at least think about it. I wallowed in self pity and disgust for 2 years. I tried to move on many times, I failed, I picked myself up and tried again. All we can do is really try. I've told myself to stop thinking about what was, and think more about what is and what can be. Telling myself this doesn't mean I don't still think about the past, but it does help me to bring focus into "today". It reminds me that I can't change the past, but I can work on today and change my future. I'm sure we all have regrets that we'd like to go back and change, but until we discover some kind of time machine, we're just going to have to learn from the past and grow from it. I think once I stopped wallowing in the self pity so much, I just decided it was time to move on. Even though I really wanted to lose weight over the past 2 years, I just think I wasn't really ready to do it. My mind and heart just weren't in the game. I still struggle almost everyday, but I think I'm more into it now. I've found a lot of great supportive people to talk to at my message board, I've got my friend Ben to talk to, and I've got this blog where I've met people like you. Keeping this daily blog is kind of like therapy for me. It helps me get some stuff out of my head. :) I also meet a lot of nice people through my website. Helping others has helped me as well. I just think surrounding myself with like minded people has really helped me to stay focused. I also enjoy cooking again and now that I've been able to stick to it for over a month (I use to quit within a couple of weeks) and I've started seeing the results, I'm more motivated. I know I can do this, I've done it before and I know I can do it again. I have to forgive myself for gaining the weight back and move on. I have a couple of quotes that I keep taped here by my computer (since it's where I spend most of my day). They are:

"Remember... it's not what you are giving up, it's what you are gaining"

"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got and you'll always be what you've always been"

3.You mentioned in one blog that you brushed your teeth to keep from eating. What other top secret tactics do you have up your sleeve for dealing with cravings or munchies?
Hmmm, well, I chew gum sometimes when I want something sweet, and the chewing motion helps (I'm not a real big gum chewer though). I don't eat hard candy very often (I choked on a piece when I was 11, so I have some mental problems in that area. LOL), but I'm sure if others feel safe eating hard candy, it could help get rid of a few cravings. :) I've found having a cup of low calorie hot chocolate or some chicken broth really helps. The warmth from it makes you sip so it lasts longer and I just think it helps keep a person satisfied. Sometimes if I think I need something sweet, I'll have some crystal light. It's sweet and helps get some more water in. If I'm having a craving for something sweet and I know I'm hungry, I'll have a 1 point pudding or if I need something salty, I'll have some popcorn. I don't crave salty too much, my craving is usually for sweets. :) I really do find brushing my teeth a lot of times is the best way to go. How many of us are willing to eat when we've just brushed our teeth? The minty toothpaste sometimes gets rid of a craving too. LOL!

4. You posted once about emtotional eating. I read somewhere else that we fill our appetites with food and we fill our cravings with self-love. How do you reward yourself? Do you have any pampering habits?
Honestly, I've never really been one for pampering myself. I'm probably too hard on myself and I should reward myself more often, but I just don't. I'm very happy when I do well and the feeling I get from that accomplishment is usually enough of a reward for me. :) I am saving $5 for every pound I lose this time around. I suppose in a way, that's kind of like a reward that is being built up for the ultimate prize for when I hit my goal. :) When I hit my goal, I've figured up that I'll have saved around $712. It's not a million dollars or anything, but that's a pretty good prize if you ask me. :) I'll be able to buy new clothes or go get a make over, whatever I want.

5. I am so impressed that you work from home and make your living inspiring others. How did you take that leap?
Honestly, it all started out with me building my website as a way to help myself stay accountable, and I thought maybe I could share my adventures (that's why I called it Aimee's Adventures) with others to help them with their adventures. I just started posting any recipes I tried and taking pictures of the recipe when I made it (at the time, I was the only person with a personal site for Weight Watchers doing this, so it was pretty unique). I also posted anything else that I came across that I thought would help others, like tips, articles, other websites, etc. About a year and a half into it, someone at my Weight Watchers meeting told me that I should put a cookbook together because I was always sharing my recipes with them. I really didn't want to do it because it seemed like a lot of work (which is it) but my husband (ex now) was disabled and not working (he had dilated cardiomyopathy), so I decided to do it. At first it was more like a hobby, but then it picked up and I was making enough to pay the bills, so I figured I'd better make it an official business (I didn't want to go to jail for not paying taxes). LOL! I'm not rich from it, but I make enough to pay my bills each month (though there are some months where I'm afraid I won't make enough and think about finding a part time job to go with it). Some people have told me I shouldn't put the recipes up for free on my website, but I know I like free stuff, and I figure if people like the recipes enough, they'll purchase the cookbooks. :) Right now I'm working on the 3rd cookbook (making new recipes) and I'm putting together another cookbook of "Community Favorites". Even though I put a lot of work into maintaining the site and working on recipes, I enjoy doing it. And when I get an email from someone who tells me how much I've helped them, then that makes it all worth it.

6. Sometimes I am guilty of focusing too much on the scale and not enough on how my life and my abilities are changing. Other than the number on the scale, what are the benefits of weight loss that you look most forward to?
I mosty look forward to being able to do physical activities like I use to. When I lost weight the first time, I remember having so much energy. I loved hiking, I participated in 10k's almost every weekend, I would ride my Trikke for miles, and much more. I can't do any of that now. Where I use to be able to walk 6 miles, I can barely walk 1 mile now. I get out of breath from simple things like tying my shoes to simply walking across the room. I can't wait to not be like that anymore. I look forward to my knees, ankles and back not hurting anymore from all of the extra weight baring down on them. I also look forward to being able to see my feet without bending way over. :) I have quite a few clothes that are smaller in size that are put away. I'm looking forward to getting back into those and then having them be too big for me too. :) Another thing I'm looking forward to is being able to go somewhere and not having to wonder if I'll fit through something or if I'll get stuck in the seat when I sit down. I guess just over all "fitting in" in all aspects of the word and feeling healthier are what I look forward to the most.

Skipping Out Again

2007-04-26T23:40:00.000-04:00

Sorry guys, I have to skip the blog again tonight. I just have too much to do yet before I go to bed and I'm already really tired. I'll post something tomorrow for sure.

Got My 10 Pound Ribbon

2007-04-25T22:29:00.000-04:00

Well, the first 10 pounds are off (10.4 to be exact). I'm on my way. Now I just need to do this like 14 more times. No big deal. LOL! I can't say I did anything real exciting today. I went to my Weight Watchers meeting this morning (lost 2.8), came home, got some work done, took a nap because I only had 2 hours of sleep last night (I did go to bed early, just couldn't sleep) so my brain was mush and I couldn't function. I was much better after the nap. I ate lunch, worked some more, ate dinner, worked some more. I'm seeing a pattern here. LOL! I went to McDonald's for dinner. I'd been hearing a lot of good things about their new Southwest salad with grilled chicken, so I decided to check it out. Man, that is a good salad! Much better than the salad I was getting at Burger King. I skipped the salad dressing and brought it home to put my own light ranch dressing on it. I also got one of the fruit and walnut salads that come with apple slices, grapes, vanilla yogurt and candied walnuts. That was really good too! Between the 2 things and the ranch dressing, I spent 11 points on dinner, but it was filling. Well, back to work. :) TTYL!

Goodnight, Sleep Tight :)

2007-04-24T23:59:00.000-04:00

Sorry guys, I'm skipping the blog tonight. Every night I say I'm going to bed early, and tonight I really am. I have weigh in tomorrow morning and I really want to get my 10 pound ribbon. According to my scale this morning, it said I was down 4.5 pounds for the week, but I don't expect the scale tomorrow to say that. I'm ok with it. I just need to lose 2.4 pounds to get my ribbon tomorrow, so anything past that is just icing on the cake. :) Goodnight! TTYL!