Come on Over!

Moved the blog to my own domain. Thanks to Kevin for geeking out and taking care of this!

You can view the new blog at:

www.growingintorebecca.com

I am still around, just not blogging much.....

This week has been a long one. I am working 12 days in a row. Today is half way through. I am looking forward to next weekend already. But, trying to live in the moment and enjoy something each day. I am posting a lot of photos today because I have been eating a lot of good food this week. The first is the V8 Roasted Red Pepper soup. I loved this soup! It tasted like something that I would make myself. It wasn't thin like I had expected, but I really loved it. Why make it yourself when you can just open the carton and enjoy the home made taste immediately?

Ah, Lean Cuisine...how I love thee. I saw through Hungrygirl that LC was coming out with some new recipes. I was on the lookout for these and this is the first one that I found. It is the pest chicken with bow tie pasta. I had this the other night at work and it was almost like an escape to an Italian restaurant. The only thing that was a little bit off was that the chicken was a little tough. I don't think that it was due the meal, rather I think that it is the microwave at work. I think that LC has to be my favorite frozen meal company. My favorite meal ever is the butternut squash with vegetables. That is hands down a "bistro like" meal. I love frozen meals that fool me into thinking it is something that I could/would have made and that I didn't just nuke it.

I made steak fajitas on Thursday with some of the sweet peppers that we bought at Costco. Instead of using fajita seasoning I used some Chicago steak and Bar B Q 3000 (both from Penzy's spices). The sweet peppers gave it a whole new flavor instead of using green peppers. I turned this pan full of steak and veggies into several meals. I wrapped a few up in roll out flat breads and then today I made a salad from the greens I got at Whole Foods. I loved this salad and wish that I could have it again tomorrow. Too bad I am out of the fajita topping.

Like I said we went to Whole Foods today. Can you tell that the energy bars were on sale? Whole Foods is like my playground. I love to just look at everything, try their samples, and go home with something new each time. This will be about a month's worth of snacks.

That is the week in a nutshell. Not too much is going on besides work and making sure I fit in some type of work out each day. Tomorrow is weigh in day and I am hoping for a little bit more than last week. But, in all honestly I would take last weeks loss over a gain.

I love BLT's!

I love Biggest Loser Tuesdays! When I get home from work I just can hardly wait to get on the couch and fire up the DVR. I find it inspirational, just to see the transformations in the people. I know that it is not really realistic, but I still like to see it anyways. I mean who works out for 6-8 hours a day. Well besides those people on the Biggest Loser.

Yesterday I went to WW and I was down 0.6lb for the week. Not the best weigh in but certainly not the last. I just have to remember that it is important one day at a time. I can only live one day at a time, therefore I will have to take it a day at a time. I felt really good about my total loss thus far when I went to Gap. I tried on quite a few clothes, and they fit! It is so weird to me to go into a "regular" store and try on clothes off the rack. I ended up buying a pair of jeans (size 14) and a gray cardigan. That is the first time I have ever bought anything other than an accessory in that store. I then followed it up by going to Banana Republic and tried on a few outfits there too. I did not buy anything, but just to know that it fit, and that some of it was too big was amazing to me!

The first photo today is from breakfast. I had a carb check bagel with cream cheese and SF jam. I also made a smoothie with strawberries, amaretto cheesecake yogurt, flax, ice, and milk. But, the extra special treat is the coconut coffee that I made in the french press. The coffee had a great flavor and I really savored the overall experience of a leisure breakfast. I was really full after this meal. I ended up eating a sandwich on the way to work. I try not to eat while doing anything else, but I knew I would get too hungry if I waited for snack time at work without eating something for "lunch."

For my snack I had this Luna bar. YUM! I have to say that it was delicious. It was everything that I had hoped it would be. I told my friend that it kind of tasted like a crunchy Andes mint. This is one that I will be buying again. I really like trying new bars all of the time. It is a way to feel like I am having a treat while still filling an important role in my overall daily points.

Friday!

Yeah it is Friday. That means I only have to work today and tomorrow. Yeah, almost the end of the week! Things have been good for the most part here. Work has been stressful and yesterday I felt like I could not get full. I would eat something and then feel instantly hungry right away. This should not have been. I ate protein, carbs, and veggies. It just did not happen. Then last night we had a potluck dinner at work. I had a bowl of chili with a piece of corn bread topped with a few Frito's. Not the best dinner ever, but guess what I then ate a few bites of mocha gelato. It was crazy because I did not binge and go out of control, but I had the same feelings. It has been so long since I have ate a meal that large that it felt weird to have my stomach feel so stretched out. But, then about an hour later I felt empty again. I forced myself to take a hot shower and then go to bed when I got home. No snack or popcorn. I hope that it all works out in the end. I have been really busy at work, so it is like a workout in and of itself.

I am going to blue planet grill again today with some old coworkers. It should be fun. I may get the same thing, but I might change my mind. They wanted to go to California Taco. I decided that I was not going to go there. I know that I would want to get nachos and then I would feel awful after eating them. So that was a no go.

That is pretty much the end of the week wrap up in a nutshell. I just wish that it were Saturday so that I would be on my last day. Oh well, no such luck.

Another week bites the dust

First day back at work for the week. Tonight wasn't that bad of a night at work It was nice, the last several nights have not been as kind. This week will be super busy and I don't really want to think of how busy it will be, but I can only take it one night at a time. So the picture above is of what I have been eating for breakfast this last week. It is a carb check bagel with WW cream cheese and SF blackberry jam. The drink on the right is green tea. The drink on the left is a pineapple smoothie made with yogurt, pineapple, flax seeds, and water. The whole breakfast is like 5-6 points. It is really filling. Too bad I am out of bagels, so tomorrow I will be back to oatmeal.

Yesterday was my weigh in day and I was so happy. I was down 2.6 pounds. It was nice to see the scale move again as I had stayed the exact same last week. I am getting so close to my goal for before our anniversary trip to Kansas City.

Time for some honesty. Lately I have been really worried about gaining the weight back. There was this lady at WW yesterday that said she had lost 100lb and then gained it and then some back. The thought of it really scares me. I know that this is a complete lifestyle change, and I am in it. But, the thought of going back to where I was petrifies me. I have heard that it is easier to lose weight than it is to maintain it. I am thinking about this now because I know that I will be at goal weight sometime, maybe even this year and then what. It all boils down to taking it one day at a time, or one meal at a time. Whatever it takes. It is a lifestyle change, one that I have complete determination and support for.

Trust me, it is not will power!

Yeah it is Thursday! Does not mean only one more day of work for me. It just means I get to come home to lots of good shows on the DVR. I can not wait to watch the Office. It is another cold, freezing cold day here. At least the sun is out. That helps.

I have talked to quite a few people lately that say, "I do not know how you did it, you must have the best will power ever." Here is the most honest thing that I am ever going to say. It is not will power! If you open up a box of cereal or a bag of peanut butter cups and I do not have a eating plan for the day I will eat the items above without thought. But, if I have a plan I can allow myself some of the food if I feel it will fit into my plan. More than likely I will turn it down because I have everything planned that I will eat for the entire day. By having this relationship with food allows me to truly be free. I know that for most people this will not work. They may feel like this is too constraining. For me though this allows me to spend my time without thinking about food. I do not have to spend hours thinking about when I will eat next, what I will eat next. Now I know around what time I will eat and what I will eat. This allows me to say if I am full then that is all right, I do not have to finish everything on my plate. On the other hand if I am hungry then I can eat my snack if I am truly hungry. More likely I will wait until my normal snack time, because I know that the food will be there waiting for me.

Here is another honest thing, I am not perfect. More often than not this works for me, but there are days where I eat more or less. My mantra is that no one is perfect. I will take each day at a time and if the day is very difficult I will take it one hour at a time. The truth is you can not live more than one hour at a time anyways, so why rush it?

Food for the day: carb check bagel, cream cheese, and SF jam
Lunch: chicken stir fry pictured above. Instead of rice I used quinoa as the grain. (Same veggie blend from Whole Foods as last time) It was actually really good. I think that it is more of a texture thing rather than a taste thing.
Snack: new clif bar and cheese
Dinner: more stir fry, yogurt, and a cookie
Snack: orange

I am off to work. This is my mid-week hump. Wishing that it was the last day for me, oh well. Hopefully it will not be as cold when I leave work tonight. I can hope!

More food I love!

Let's be honest shall we? I love food. I love trying new flavors and textures. So, here are two new things that I ate today. The popcorn is amazing! It is caramel apple and it tastes so rich like an apple just dripping with chewy caramel. They are full sized bags and if I figured it out correctly, if you eat the whole bag it is 5 points. I hate figuring out caloric findings on popcorn. They set it up like if you would make 2Tb and the nutritional information is different pre and post popped. It is very confusing, but either way it is very delicious!

The other fun thing I ate today was this nectar bar. The flavor is lemon, vanilla, and cashew. This nectar bar is my favorite one that I have tried thus far. It had such a good texture and the flavors just exploded. I would pick this bar over just about any dessert on about any day. I love this Clif bars. One thing that I like so much about these bars is that they are made with less than five ingredients. So often, bars have millions of ingredients, lots of which I don't even know what they are. Good work Cliff bar makers!

The day was a long one and work was even longer. Very busy tonight and I am exhausted. I did not cook anything today. I ate leftover chicken fajitas and a frozen pizza for meals today. I think I am going to make stir fry tomorrow. It is so cold here. When I left work my dashboard said that it was -9 degrees out. I think that when it is this cold everyone should be able to stay home under a blanket. That is a deal I think everyone can agree on!

Before and After

Those of you who are reading my blog may be wondering what 100lb lost really looks like. Well look no further. The three photos above all are of me. The top picture is of me on the night of my bachelorette party. The second is from our wedding rehearsal dinner. The third is a candid photo from last night. The top two photos are from just under three years ago. We got married the last weekend in February.

So that is what 100lb weight loss looks like on me. I am 5'9 and am 26 years old now. I have a ways to go, but I am well on my way.

Now you know why I was so anxious to get my hair cut off. I was so ready for a change and I am glad that I did it.

This morning I got up and had a bowl of oatmeal and a large glass of water. For lunch it will be leftover chicken fajitas and an orange. Afternoon snack is going to be a Kashi bar and a cheese stick. Finally, for dinner it will be the leftover pork chops, veggies, and Bulgar wheat.

To work out today I did the yoga DVD, but I tried the level two. It was a good session which mainly focused on the core. I am a bit sore, but am glad that I tried the next level to see what it was all about.

The next big goal is in 7 lb. Who knows how long that it will take to get there. My goal is to be there by the end of February. We are going to do something for our anniversary and being at my next mini goal weight would be great.

Rewards

As previously posted Mondays are my weigh in days. No big news today. I stayed the exact same. I did not gain or lose even one ounce. I was hoping that there would be some progress, but alas there was none. I have to say that I would much rather have a no loss week than a gain week. Back at it for another week.

Food run down...breakfast was after weigh in and was a turkey sandwich on an English muffin. I also had a cheese stick and a apple. I went to a movie this afternoon and had a popcorn there, no butter. For dinner we made chicken fajitas and had a mint skinny cow ice cream for dessert.

As I posted last week about hitting my goal of 100 lb loss I rewarded myself today. I got my hair cut and colored. I also bought some nice shampoo, conditioner, and hair styling product for myself. I have not rewarded myself like that for a very long time. I thought about what I wanted to do for a reward and I was certain that I did not want for it to revolve around food. I had also been tossing back and for the idea about how short to cut my hair. I have been thinking about cutting it very short for a long time. When I was sitting there in the chair while my hair color was developing I thought about the length and how much I wanted a change. Then I just decided to do it. I have heard that when a woman is ready for a change she is ready for a hair cut. And it was so. I really have to say that I like the way it turned out. It will be so much easier to take care of and also for at work.

The other reward for the day was doing the Biggest Loser boot camp DVD. I did the beginner, but it really does get your heart pumping. It mixes cardio along with resistance training for a great overall work out. Kevin was nice enough to prep dinner and get it going while I was working out with Bob in the living room. It was a bit weird him making dinner while I was working out, but both things turned out splendidly well.

Goal for the week is to work out at least five days for 30 minutes. I will probably just rotate the two Biggest Loser DVD's for awhile. I could be going to the gym, but it is freezing outside. We will see how it goes.

Bump on a log

Today I was really not feeling well so I laid on the couch and watched some built up DVR shows that had been calling my name. Kevin went down to Lincoln for his last birthday celebration with his mom among others. I felt bad for not going, but I feel like I got caught up on some much needed relaxation. Because I did not have to leave early I was able to enjoy a nice oatmeal breakfast. It is nice when I can enjoy the oats with a cup of hot tea. This morning I think it was orange spice. I have been drinking a lot of hot tea lately trying to flush out the system due to this cold. I also had some coconut chai and some sweet pomegranate. I have been keeping the tea kettle busy that is for sure.

For lunch I had some vegetable soup with some added veggies, an English muffin with peanut butter and jam, and finally a yogurt. I wasn't able to finish it all. I think that the cold has all of my systems off. Either way it was a good lunch. Not pizza at Old Chicago that Kevin had, but it was good enough.

We went grocery shopping when Kevin got back from Lincoln and I was able to get a lot of great items. On our way home I had a blueberry tangerine water which I have to say was the best thing that I have had in a long time. I also had the Odwalla bar pictured above. This bar far exceeds the super protein bar of the other day. The bar has a point value of 4, but I enjoyed each and every one of those. We talked that it was like a fruity oatmeal cookie. The berries were bursting with flavor. This is a bar that I would eat again for sure.

We made dinner tonight. It was good to get back on the cooking routine. I love when we are home together to make dinner. We had some cranberries in the fridge and I just so happened to find the perfect recipe. This one was from Good Housekeeping. We made cranberry balsamic pork chops with bulgar wheat. It was so easy to make this recipe, from pantry to table in less than 30 minutes. You just cook the bulgar wheat while you are browning the pork chops. Then when the chops are done you take them out of the pan and make the sauce. After dinner we finished the rest of Kevin's birthday cake.

All in all it was a great day! It was too bad that I was sick and could not enjoy the last of the birthday festivities. Tomorrow is WW weigh in. We shall see what the past week was like. I think that it has pretty much stayed the same, but their scale is the end all be all.

Bob will kick your butt!

Yeah! You can see that I now own the other Biggest Loser workout DVD. Yes, I am a member of a gym. I just hate when it is cold outside. Having a DVD at home means that I have no excuse to do even a 20 minute little workout. I have not tried this one as Kevin just purchased it for me when I was at work. I have done the yoga video twice and I have to say that I really like it. Anything that makes your body feel stronger is worthwhile.

Yesterday, after I took Kevin out for lunch for his birthday I went to Whole Foods to buy some more Clif nectar bars. I love going there. I can just spend hours looking at all of the different products. I was hungry after eating lunch and knew it would be a long time till dinner so I ate this Odawalla protein bar. I have to say it was only ok. It was a point value of 4. It was good because of the protein, but it left a lot to be desired. I think that it would have made a big difference if there were some cranberry or raisin chunks in it. Not my favorite. Oh well it is one snack, moving on.

Today for breakfast I had an English muffin with a Tb of peanut butter and some SF jam. I also enjoyed some apple spice tea.

For lunch we went to Mimi's with Kevin's dad. It was a nightmare trying to find something healthyish to have. Luckily I had done my research in advance and already knew what I was going to get. I had the cup of french onion soup, with a request for less cheese topping. I also had the Asian chopped chicken salad with dressing on the side. This came with a muffin which I did not eat because I looked it up and for a points value of 11 I just don't think that it is worth it.

Snack was a laughing cow Swiss cheese and half a kashi bar.

Dinner, ah dinner. I wish that I could say that I made something that was delicious. I did not. I had a frozen dinner that was garlic stir fry chicken, veggie mix, and a yogurt. Nothing fantastic, but it got the job done.

My biggest let down of the day? I was going to reward myself for drinking lots of tea and water with buying a cherry coke zero at work. I pushed the button and what drops down? A coke zero. Yuck! I really dislike those! I had set my hopes high. I guess they replaced the cherry coke zero with just coke zero.

edit-Kevin tells me that I wrote about this said 11pt muffin in an earlier post. Guess what 11 points is way too much for a stupid pumpkin spice muffin no matter what month it is!

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Today is Kevin's birthday. When I got home from work last night at midnight we did a mini celebration for his special day. We had a piece of the dark chocolate cake that I made yesterday. I have to admit is was amazing! I tried to get him to guess the secret ingredient. When I told him that it was sauerkraut. He could not believe that it had that sneaky veggie. I also let him open his presents. He was very excited to get his hard drives.

Food of the day....for breakfast I had a English muffin with peanut butter and SF jam. I also enjoyed a cup of winter blossom tea and a tangerine. It was all very good.

For lunch we are going out to Chinese for Kevin's birthday. Out of all of the choices he picked Chinese. It will be hard to find something healthy, but I will try my best. Probably some soup and some veggies.

For dinner I am going to have a Kashi meal, which I love! I am also going to have green beans and some yogurt.

As far as the Kashi chewy bar that I had yesterday...It was not my favorite. It was kind of gritty. I think that I am going to go to Whole Foods today to get some more nectar bars and some other staples.

I am not going on a walk or doing yoga today. I am allowing myself to have a day off. I think this cold is getting me down.

I'll be honest, today I am just plain tired!

The title pretty much sums up everything for me today. I am exhausted. Yesterday my throat and ear started hurting and today I think that it is trying to take over my body. I wish that I could just lay on the couch with a blanket over me. I mean essentially that is what my body is telling me that it needs and sadly I can not give into the need.

Last night when I got home Kevin had a little gift for me. He had the new Biggest Loser Yoga DVD with a bow and sticker on the package. That was so sweet of him to get it for me. I forced myself to do it today. I did the five minute warm up and then the 20 minute beginner. I will be on the beginner for awhile:) My arms and legs were shaking. As Bob says they were "cooking" Thanks, Bob!

I also made Kevin's birthday cake. Not that he would really mind, but it is a WW Dark chocolate cake that I found a recipe for. It was super easy. Well all except for the part where you have to puree the sauerkraut. I wonder how it will taste. I am going to serve it with some Cool Whip. I will post on it tomorrow or the next as his birthday is tomorrow.

Food for the day....I did not cook anything today. Oh well, I feel icky and that was that. For breakfast I had the usual oatmeal. And, as usual it was good! For lunch I had a cup of leftover turkey chili from the freezer and a peanut butter and jelly on an English muffin. I have not had peanut butter in a long time and it just sounded so good to me. I did however just measure out a Tb instead of eating it straight from the jar. Tonight I am going to just give in and have a frozen meal and some veggies. Today I have labeled as a wash.

The Clif nectar bar yesterday, the chocolate and raspberry, was great. I really do like those a lot. This afternoon I am going to have 1/2 of a kashi chewy bar I think peanut butter and chocolate. I am not having the whole bar because it is 6pts. I cut it in half for a more reasonable 3pts.

So that it is in a nutshell. I am hoping that I feel better tomorrow. This is going to be a long night at work.

Day two!

I am trying to figure out this two photo post thing. It may take me awhile to get it all under control. I posted yesterday about my Clif bar that I was going to enjoy and enjoy it I did. Although, I flavored it incorrectly. It was actually a cherry pomegranate bar as you may be able to see in the photo. Today I am having a chocolate raspberry. These are very delicious, especially for the 3 pts. For breakfast I did the good old standby of oatmeal, flax, milk, etc and followed it up with an apple.

For lunch as you can see I had a grilled chicken breast and some seasoned brussel sprouts. I love brussel sprouts. I just drizzle them with olive oil and some sea salt and crushed pepper. Cook them for 5 minutes in a hot pan and then stir. Give them about another 5 minutes and there you have it. I topped them with some Parmesan cheese that we had left over.

Dinner will be some of the leftover spa meatloaf and smashed potatoes. I will also enjoy some more brussel sprouts.

It is colder here today than yesterday, but I am proud of myself. Molly and I again went for a walk. It was a little colder than I would have liked as I couldn't feel my legs by the time we got back. But, I was happy that we did it none the less.

Tomorrow I will be baking a low fat chocolate cake for Kevin's birthday. we shall see how it turns out. It is a WW recipe that I fount.

Ok, off to work! Have a good afternoon! Oh day one back at work wasn't as bad as I thought. It was a lot harder to get up today though.

First day back!

Today will be the first day back at work in 17 glorious days! I can't say that I am really looking forward to going back, but it is something that just has to be done. I can say though that I have really enjoyed the time off. I don't feel like I wasted it and I do feel quite rejuvenated. So I suppose that means it is time to get back at it! I work 2nd shift or 3-11:30 so getting back in the swing of things might be a challenge. I started my day off with a bowl of oatmeal as I was out of bagels. My oat mix comes from Whole Foods and is old fashioned oats, steel cut, and oat bran. When it was done I added of Tb of flaxseed, a splash of milk, splenda, cinnamon, and some SF blueberry jam on top. I also treated myself to a lovely latte. This picture does not really do it justice as Kevin has been the picture taker thus far as it is his fancy camera. None the less you get the idea.

The rest of the day is going to a be a double leftover day. For lunch I am having the sweet and sour chicken stir fry and dinner will be the hamburger stroganoff from last night. Our goal is to have one fresh cooked meal and one leftover meal per day. I think this will work since we have opposite schedules and don't get to eat together.

It is a chilly but beautiful day here. I threw all the front blinds open to soak up the sunshine. It was even nice enough outside to take Molly (our Boston terrier) for a 1/2 hour walk. All in all this is a great start to my week. Let's hope that work goes well for me!

Oh and for my afternoon snack I am going to try a Cliff bar that is pomegranate and dark chocolate. It is a 3pt bar, but really it sounds delicious. I will report back later:)

Success on the Scale!

Today was a Monday. My normal day off from work and my WW weigh in day. I was very happy to see the number on the scale drop 2.2 lbs. Yeah me! So today is officially the day that I have met my goal of losing 100 lb! It feels weird to type that as there was not any confetti exploding when I got on the scale or anything. I guess that only happens on the Biggest Loser. Also, I feel like it isn't "true" because the scale at home and the scale at WW are different. But, I started the journey on my home scale. Thus, it tells me that I have lost 100 pounds. That is crazy to me! I have lost the equivalent of a small person or a child.

So, now what? My next goal is not too far off. It is in like 6lbs. I am waiting to see the scale have a 1 in front of it. So there. I have outed one of my biggest fears. Just saying the weight that I started at. Yes, I suppose anyone could be reading this including people from work etc. but the truth is that I am loving the person that I am becoming. The person that I started as is not the person that I am today. When I began this process I started at roughly 305 pounds. So with this weight loss I have effectively lost 33% of my starting weight. My next big goal is to see a "1" at the beginning of my weight. Honestly, I think that if I stayed at 199 for the remainder of my life I would be happy. I don't want that to be my stopping point I just can't wait to see that number. When that happens I think that a celebration will be in order!

Today's meal rundown~ breakfast was a carb check bagel, WW cream cheese, SF jam, and apple
Lunch~leftover chicken stir fry from yesterday
Snack~ yogurt and Kashi Go lean crunchy bar ( very yummy by the way for a 3 pt value!)
Dinner~ Whole wheat pasta topped with hamburger stroganoff a recipe from Cooking Light and a veggie mix.

Overall, it was a splendid last day of vacation! I can't believe that I have to go back to work tomorrow. That will be a big change, but I am looking forward to be back on a routine. Well somewhat:) It was also nice to meet Kevin at the gym for some treadmill time after he got off of work.

Lazy Sunday

Today was a perfect Sunday in my opinion. Since it rained/iced yesterday we just stayed up late and watched movies all night. Thus, it led us to sleep in really late today. I think I woke up the first time at 9 then rolled over and fell back asleep. I finally pulled myself out of bed just shy of 11. It was a glorious sleep in morning. I then ate a Carb check bagel with WW cream cheese and my new SF blueberry Smucker's jam. It was fantastic. I also had a clementine and made a latte with my new espresso maker that I got for Christmas. I loved using the Breville espresso machine. It worked a lot better than I thought it would for an at home machine.

For lunch I enjoyed leftover meatloaf and smashed potatoes. It was just as good if no better than it was last night. I have to say that I will be making that meatloaf several times more this year! For an afternoon snack I had a bowl of airpopped popcorn. One of my all time favorite snacks.

The meal that I cooked today was from the Diet 2009 magazine. The sweet and sour chicken was another success. I used the base recipe from the magazine but I bought a prepacked pound of mixed vegetables from Whole Foods when we went on our grocery shopping date on Friday. It had broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peppers, snow peas, and onions. I added a little bit more onion, celery, and sweet peppers. I then also used 2Tb of sesame oil to saute the chicken in. The sauce that you make turned out pretty good. I wouldn't have called this dish sweet and sour at all, but more just like a brown sauce stir-fry. I plated the stir fry with 1/2 c of brown rice and some toasted sesame seeds. Kevin said that the meal turned out all right, but he preferred the meat loaf. He just doesn't like big chunks of veggies. Oh well, I thought that it was pretty good and went from stove top to table in less than 30 minutes. Thanks Whole Foods for the tasty veggie blend!

Tomorrow is the WW weigh in day. According to our scale this will not be a losing week. Our scale is a bit different than the one at WW. We shall see.

I'll give you a resolution!

I keep joking with my husband that since it is a new year we can finally begin the fine in 09' program. We get a good laugh out of it. So, did I make a resolution like my other fellow Americans? Yes, I did. My husband and I make a list of goals that we have for the year and then review them throughout the year and then again at year end. We achieved quite a few for 2008 including me finding a new job and booking our next international vacation. The goals for this new year are very much of the same type. A very personal goal is to get down to the weight that my doctor has set as an acceptable number for me. I am 29 pounds away from that number. While that seems like a lot, because of course it is, I am very happy with the results that I have had lately. I am 1 pound away from a very important milestone for myself. In one pound I will have lost a total of 100 pounds. Kevin and I were talking yesterday about weight loss, about how far I have come, and how far I have yet to go. But, the one thing that really stood out for me is the distance that I have come in this journey. I would have never thought that I was a person who could come this far. The only thing I can think about is just putting one foot in front of the other. There is no magic pill that will cure obesity, overeating, or lack of motivation. If there was I would have signed up long ago. The truth is that if I would have been able to fix this problem in one pill I would not have the same respect for myself that I do now.

As far as the weigh in goes (cause I have not updated that in a long time) I am down 16lb from going back to WW in November. Yeah!

The other thing that I wanted to write about is the idea of eating more healthfully. I can stay within my points with a normal amount of effort. This is made much easier if I eat things that are prepared, ie frozen meals and the like. This is made much harder when I have to actually cook a meal from tip to tail and add up all of those delicious points. So a personal mini goal will be for me to cook more often and then freeze portions for leftovers instead of so heavily relying on prepacked items. Keep in mind that at no point will I stop to eat these time saving items. Plus, let's be honest often times these items taste really down right good:)

I will try to upload some photos from tonight's meal. We had meatloaf, smashed potatoes, veggies, and a chocolate zucchini muffin. We made then all and I must add that this meal will be one that I will do over and over. The meatloaf is not for someone looking to have a quick meal though. It takes nearly an hour to simmer the brown lentils and prep all the veggies that go into it. I found the recipe in the 09 Jan issue of Shape. Good work Shape!