Weight Watchers Tuesday

Weigh day!   I didn't mind going to Weight Watchers today.  I knew I had lost but wasn't sure how much.  Ended up I lost 3.6lbs!  This put me at my 5% goal of 10lbs.  Wow!!    I lost what I had gained from Spring Break and then some. 

This past week I tracked pretty faithfully.  I believe for me this is very key to my success.  Sometimes I think I've had way too many points but then I track everything and find out I haven't done near as bad as I thought.  What I have been doing is dividing my 49 extra points up into an extra 7 per day.  This gives me 36 points plus.  I almost always use ALL of these points and then some.  I really try to stay below 40.  I don't keep track very well of my activity points. I know I have activity points most days so I figure that 3 or 4 extra points are not hurting me.  To date this is working for me.   

I had lunch with my best friend and her daughter.  We ate at Chen's Chinese restaurant.  I only had a 2 point bar for breakfast and knew I could find something there to eat.  I choose the Pepper Steak with an egg roll and fried rice.  I didn't eat all the fried rice or pepper steak but I did eat the whole egg roll.  I think it ended up being around 20 points.  It was very good and I have left overs if I decide I want to use my points on the rest of that fried rice - tomorrow, of course.  

I decided to give myself a challenge this week of no carbonated drinks.  No diet or anything.  I really wanted my Diet Cherry Coke from Sonic this afternoon but I came home and had Lemon Water.   This will be hard at first.     

Dad's Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated dad's birthday. It was actually on the 22nd. but that was a Monday. So everyone came out to our house. Alan grilled burgers and hot dogs and had them ready by time I got home from church. (today was a worship playing week for me) I am always starving by time I get home. I am always wiped out too. Anyway, we had a great day. Food was wonderful and we had a lot of time to talk about just "stuff". Kaycee played with the boys and kept them pretty entertained. FOOD!! It's so hard to watch what you eat. I didn't do real bad but I had more than I should have. Mom had bought a Carrot Cake for Dad and I had two slices throughout the day. Small slices but I should have only had one. I had a burger but on one of those small thin buns. It sure was good. Then I had a few chips and some of mom's baked beans. Not too bad. The bad thing was I didn't really track it. I have a hard time knowing how to track all that doctored up stuff (like the beans) So I have no idea really of how I did! I usually don't weigh on my scales but I did this am and I am down from last weeks gain. I think I may have lost what I gained and then some, that would be great! Guess I'll know tomorrow. I am excited about my goal. I really want to do this. Annie - on her blog site - talked about rewards and Danica was talking about Anchors. Annie is doing a bracelet charm for every 10lbs and the Anchor is something to give you a visual of what you want to suceed in. Hmmm.. I'll have to think about those things. Today we are going to Las Vegas NM to watch Kaycee play softball. Alan is picking me up soon. Hopefully we'll have a nice drive up - just the two of us. Need to think about Lunch today and pick carefully! I am getting right back on track!!!! Dove chocolate is wonderful!!!

Encouragement from others

I have been reading the book "9 things you simply must do" and one of the 9 things that sucessful people do is "PLAY THE MOVIE" meaning you imagine what will happen if you make this decision or that decision. So I have been trying to play the movie each time I face a choice. (which is fairly often) He also says in the book, "to borrow trouble from tomorrow in situations that I can actually do something about. Taking active steps to make sure that you are ready when particular "scenes" arrive. In my movie, "Pam goes to Weight Watchers AGAIN to get support to lose weight", there is a critical scene coming up in which I get so discouraged that I don't want to do this anymore. I feel so hungry and want to eat everything in sight. I want more of the things that I can have but I want LOTS more of it. So I end up with rebellious attitude and decide that this is impossible for me to do and then give up. I know this scene will happen, it's happened so many times before. I have tried so many different diets and programs. So in order to take active steps to combat this one thing I know I need is more encouragement and motivation from somewhere. I know that going to my Tuesday WW meetings help a lot - for that day. So I need something everyday. I also know that keeping my spiritual life going is extremely important. So I turned to some bloggs I recently found. So far there are several that are becoming very important to me. It seems to give me the same encouragement that I get when I go to a meeting. Of course I will continue to go to the meetings.
Today I was encouraged by a girl named Pam (how ironic) that said she had made a goal to lose 40 pounds by her birthday and she did it. This got me thinking that I need a goal. My birthday is in November - plenty of time - now I just need to figure out what that goal will be. I have 8 months until my birthday. I would like to lose an average of 4 pounds per month, so that would be 32 pounds by my birthday (nov. 24, which happens to be thanksgiving) my weight as of last Tuesday, March 22, 2011, was 188.8. So my goal will be 156.8 by Thanksgiving!!! Oh my gosh, how amazing would that be! I can not hardly imagine. So my short term goal is my 5%, which will be 186 (almost there) and then 10% (176)
Another girl that I have started reading is Danica. It has been tremendously helpful to see some of her post of what she has to eat each day. I need variety and I can find some there.

Most of these women are just like me and they struggle with a lot of the same issues. They have been sucessful and I want to join them.

SPRING BREAK 2011

GETTING THERE

This is the first "real" spring break for Kaycee. Since this is her first "real" school year. Alan had 3 free nights at a hotel and 3 or 4 days of a free rental car. So we decided to take the kids to Phoenix for Baseball Spring Training. We left Monday around 10am. Didn't make it very far before we had to make a bathroom stop. Stopped at Dancing Eagle Casino Travel Center in Casa Blanca NM - which is less than 70 miles from home!! We got a soda and a snack - on a trip gotta have snacks! My friend's 18 year old son is housesitting and taking care of all the animals at home.

We rented a white 2011 Chevy Impala.
It's pretty roomy - bigger than our HHR. Which is not very comfortable to travel in.
Kaycee slept most of the way to Flagstaff. I tried to read. As long as we were on a straight roadway I am able to read a little, otherwise, I get really sick! I read some of Benjamin Franklins autobiography to Alan! whoo hooo - exciting. Actually, it's pretty interesting.


Made it to Flagstaff without another stop! Time for lunch and bathroom break. We decided to eat at Wendys. Some of us wanted to eat at bun huggers but Ty just couldn't get past the name. So we had Wendys, I am trying to stick to my Weight Watchers diet while we are gone. So I had a Chili and Salad. So far so good! Don't know how long I can keep to it. It will be very hard.

WHERE WE STAYED

We are staying at the Staybridge suites in Glendale, Az. We have a wheelchair accessable room. Which is not ideal but it's nice and clean. The couch makes into a bed but it is not a queen like it advertised. So the kids have been trying to make the most of the sleeping arrangements.

WHAT WE DID

SPRING TRAINING AT CAMELBACK RANCH.

We watched the Dodgers for awhile then went and stood in line to try and get some autographs.
We must have stood in line for close to 2 hours. Kaycee got a few autographs and then was able to get Tommy Lasorda's autograph.

WE WERE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING CHEAP TO DO SO WE WALKED OVER TO THE CABELAS STORE. THEY HAD A WILDLIFE WALK THRU AND SOME AQUARIUM TANKS WITH TROUT AND OTHER "LAKE" FISH. KAYCEE RAN AROUND HIDING IN TENTS AND BEHIND SOME SLEEPING BAGS THAT WERE HANGING UP. ACTING LIKE A FOUR YEAR OLD - BUT HAVING FUN!

TY BOUGHT A NEW BAT WHILE WE WERE HERE. THEY WANTED TO TRY IT OUT. WE WENT ON A WILD GOOSE CHASE AT FIRST AND THE BATTING CAGE WAS NO LONGER THERE. SO WE TRIED AGAIN AND FOUND ONE AT SOME WAREHOUSES, CALLED HEAVY HITTERS BATTING CAGE. THEY WERE JUST GETTING THEIR STORE GOING AND WERE BARELY OPEN. ALAN AND TY HIT FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES AND KAYCEE GOT TO HIT A FEW SOFTBALLS. THE SOFTBALL CAGE DIDN'T SEEM TO BE SET QUITE RIGHT, SO THEY DIDN'T CHARGE US FOR HERS.

Kaycee and I went to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium on Wednesday

We were not too impressed with the landscaping but we enjoyed it. They had a lot of birds and then mostly small animals. The aquarium was nice but not as nice as Albuquerque's. We spent about 3 hours there. The temperature was not too hot. Started getting a little warm towards noon but then we went to the aquarium part. Something we don't have at Albuquerque was the giraffe feeding. We didn't have any quarters to get food but was able to watch others feed them and then picked up some pieces of food from the ground and kc got to feed them a little. She enjoyed watching the other little kids as much as the animals themselves. It's so hard to believe she is 15 and not a 6 year old anymore. I felt kind of old out there watching other moms who had all young kids. I don't know it was weird watching them (the younger moms) but feeling like I was still that age. But then I see a picture of me and I know I ain't that young anymore!!

Alan and Ty went to the ball park again to watch some more spring training. I had told Alan to buy himself a Tshirt. So he did. I think they enjoyed this time better than the previous day.

We went to one of the malls near where we were staying. Westgate Mall, I believe. Alan and the kids had gone here last night to go to Dicks Sporting Goods for Ty's bat. Kaycee saw a HUGE Forever 21 and wanted to go back. So we spent a couple of hours looking around. Kaycee got a pair of VAN shoes and Ty bought some JEANS. We had split up - Ty and Alan, Kaycee and I and then met up at the bathrooms unexpectantly. After we left, Ty realized he didn't have his IPHONE!!! He ran back to the chair he had been sitting in and was very relieved that the phone was still there! It had fell out of his pocket! He was quite panicky!!!

We went to see Unknown with Liam Neeson. This was a really nice Theater. I think it had 20+ screens. Anyway the movie was good. An edge of your seat kind of movie. I think Kaycee would have rather seen Beastly or something else but she was a good sport.

WHERE WE ATE

We certainly didn't stick to the Weight Watchers diet while we were gone. I tried but I just couldn't do it! When we went to In N Out Burger, I just lost it!! Oh well, back on track as soon as I get home. We also had a meal at the Salt River Casino. It was an all you can eat Buffet. I was very pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Mostly they had America Indian type food, Fry Bread, Tacos, Fajitas and great desserts. I may have just been really hungry!! Anyway we had In N Out Burger twice and then Chili dogs at the hotel - cause they were free. Pretty good too. Cracker Barrel is always good but I think I had my fill of Chicken tenderloin and greenbeans. Alan had Hamburger steak and hashbrown casserole. Ty had fried Pork Chops and Kaycee had chicken and dumplings with apples and fried okra. On the way home we stopped at KFC in Gallup and it was very lacking!!

Got home around 5:00 pm on Thursday. Ty had to be at church to play for WAKE. Kaycee ended up going over to Chloes to spend the night and go to a softball tournament on Friday... guess things are back to normal!!

THURSDAY NIGHT - WORSHIP PRACTICE - EVERY OTHER WEEK

FOR THE LAST 3 YEARS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING PIANO FOR ONE OF THE WORSHIP GROUPS AT OUR CHURCH - VALLEY VEIW CHRISTIAN CHURCH

This is the book that has changed my life and helped me understand who I am. It has helped me understand "The Gospel". It has through the Bible freed me to be who God created me to be. I will forever be thankful to John & Stasi Eldredge, Brent Curtis and Craig McConnell. I have discovered through them and the Bible that the Heart is central. It all comes down to the heart. Once you have given your life to God, through Jesus' sacrifice, you are given a NEW heart. One that God can dwell in. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we are made clean. I believe that so many in the church has this wrong. They believe that the heart is desparately wicked (Jeremiah) and yes it is - before you come to Christ. After salvation, your heart is made new. God cannot dwell where there is evil. The Bible tells us that God makes His home in us. Where? in the heart. How can He make His home our heart if it is not pure and clean. Once you see that your heart is good - your outlook on life, relationships -EVERYTHING - changes! More on this later....

I belong to a Bible study fellowship group. There are 8 of us at this time. January is Laura's birthday month. Lisa made one of Laura's favorite cakes. Orange Marmalade Cake from the Father Tim's books. It was quite yummy. Since then Lisa made a Valentine Dinner for the Whole church and Laura decided there is another cake/ice cream that she likes as well if not better. Leslie had the "party" at her house and made us her wonderful Sausage/spinach soup and someone brought home made bread. Laura brought us all a gift. She says she is starting a Favorite things (like Oprah) and so she brought us all a pair of her favorite socks!

I want to journal about things going on in our life. I really don't care if anyone ever reads these blogs. I don't know that anyone would be interested in what I have to say. I have a terrible memory and it would help me if I wrote it down and could come back to this blog and have the "memory" here in color, with pictures!!
I had forgotten about this blog and was suprised at what I had written before. I didn't remember the things I had written about. duh!

Weight watchers...I started going again about 3 weeks ago. As of this past Tuesday March 1, I have lost 7 pounds. This is a good start for me. I lost 20 something last time. I was down to 176!! The lowest I had been in YEARS. I wish I had stuck with it but I got to a point that I just didn't want to do it any longer. I wanted more food to eat. I don't know anyone else that has had this problem. I was very rebelious and acted like a kid having a temper tantrum. I wanted my way and wanted what I wanted to eat. I didn't want the restrictions. It concerns me that this may happen again after several months. I need motivation. I am reading a book called "9 things you simply MUST DO" by Dr. Henry Cloud. He talks about playing the movie - this means never to see any individual action as a singular thing in and of itself.