Celebration

Today I celebrate!  It is the end of Tigerlily’s walking challenge and I crossed the finish line–351.5 miles in the past 12 weeks or so.  It was really fun to be a part of this challenge.  TL worked hard to make each week’s post interesting.  Many, many days I would have skipped exercising, and then I would check in on her blog, and there would be a challenging or encouraging word from one of the walkers.  Even today, I would have talked myself out of exercising, but I knew I needed to get in 1/2 mile to complete the challenge.  So,  at 6:45 pm I went out to finish, and decided to try running again, and had such a great time that I went for 2 miles.  So I decided to celebrate with one of Hungry Girl’s Death by Chocolate cupcakes (2 points) with a little bit of chocolate fudge icing (1/2 point.)  I have been really good with my food choices and portion control this week, thanks to the encouragement and accountability of you all.  So, Here’s to you (picture me making a toast with a messy chocolate cupcake!)

Just a Quick Question. Really.

Hi everybody, I don’t have time to write anything much on the days I work, but I wanted to ask if any of you have any experience at Sparkpeople.  It’s free, and looks surprisingly like the w.w. website.  Any opinions?

I am loving Curves.  I got off work a little early yesterday, so was able to stop at Curves on my way home.  I actually sweat when I do the workout (and I’m not a sweater.)  So I feel like I’m actually doing something worthwhile for my body on a day when I wouldn’t get much exercise in!

Losing It

Just a quick post this morning.  I am thrilled to have lost 0.6 pounds.  Really, I mean it.  This is my first weigh-in since posting my weigh-in page last week.  And I worked to lose that 0.6 pound.  I didn’t suffer exactly, but I did work at it.  Like a new hobby.  Yah.  I considered my food choices carefully.  I looked at a meal plan and thought, how can I do that better–more nutrition, less points (calories.)  I exercised when I would rather have stayed in the air-conditioned house.  I challenged myself (yes, Vickie, I walked to Curves one day!)  I turned down two invitations that involved eating out.

But here’s the big thing I did.  I told myself I would do this if my weight was down today.  I quit Weight Watchers officially.  Really, I have rarely attended meetings for the past 6 months, and I don’t really like their online tools.  But I have had auto-payments taken out monthly.  And it was a big thing for me to quit.  Because, before, I think quitting signaled to me that I might be giving up.  But I feel like this week there was a real mental switch to being accountable to all of you, my bloggy friends.  I feel like I am on a roll.  Even if it is a very, very slow moving roll.  I am excited about this next step in the weight loss/maintenance hobby (see post, June 16) that I have taken up.  Thank you all, again, for your encouragement and accountability.

Inspiration

I am finally getting around to replying to Jill’s challenge to list what inspires me. It was good to think about these things.  The way I defined ‘inspire’ in my mind was something that actually caused me to change, whether in thought or in action.

As long as I can remember color has inspired me.  I am always drawn to things with lots of color, or certain color combinations.  It can be in nature, in clothing, in photos, or in my dye pot.  I really love color.  Most of my hobby creations are full of multiple colors.

Creation really inspires me.  I love to look at the big and the little things of creation.  I am lucky to live where I live.  Sometimes I go outside late at night, and look up at the stars through this circle of pine trees framing the sky.  Unbelievable.  Sometimes I look at a pansy, and think of how beautifully and delicately God painted it.

The media inspires me.  This is a weird one.  But because we live in a world where we are just saturated with information of various sources, the media has played a big part in some major life changes for me.  When I was in a discipleship course back in Texas (in 1983, yikes!) I was thinking about what God might want me to do with my life to be more involved with people (my life was all about dogs back then.)  And I read a couple of articles in Reader’s Digest about premature and severely ill babies, and I couldn’t stop crying.  That eventually led me to go back to college and become a nurse.  Then several years ago, when I was contemplating quitting nursing, again praying about what God wanted me to do, I saw a TV show about an 80 year old cop who was still working BECAUSE HE LOVED WHAT HE DID.  Wow!  I decided to take a new look at my job, and instead of thinking about retirement all the time, to think about enjoying what I do for as long as I could physically do it.  Lots of other things in the media inspire me.  When I see a double amputee walk across Oprah’s stage, it inspires me to get out and walk a little bit more, and to be thankful that I can.

Finally, God’s word inspires me.  The Bible has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember.   But recently it has inspired me in several different ways.  First, I started reading modern translations.  I especially like The Message and the New Living Translation.  When I started walking seriously, I started memorizing chapters of scripture (don’t be impressed, I haven’t done that much.)  But doing that allows you to really think about what it is saying to you, how it can be applied to your life.  A couple of years ago, I decided to make a series of quilts that would make people think of heaven (the bird quilt is one of the first.)  Since then, there are so many passages that give me a vision of a great quilt.  Example:  Psalm 8…when I gaze into the night sky and see the work of your fingers…oooh, it just makes me want to go work on illustrating that right now!

 

Well, girls, not so much about weight loss today.  Oh,  yeah, you all have really inspired me to keep on the straight and narrow.  To really be mindful of my food choices, and of getting out the door to exercise!  THANKS!

 

 

 

 

Try Something New

  Last night I got it in my head that I wanted something new and decadent and nutritious AND low calorie for breakfast.  So, I looked through a couple of my favorite cookbooks, and didn’t see anything that fit the bill, but something or other I saw made me come up with this idea:  Light english muffin, toasted (1 point), 1 cup blueberries, microwaved into a sauce (1 point), and 1/3 cup low-fat greek yogurt w/splenda (1 point.)  I was so excited about this new combo.  I had big plans of telling you all all about it, and emailing it to my ‘recipe girls,’ and becoming famous for debby’s new and exciting food combos.  Hah!  Not so much, at least not yet.  It was okay, but nothing to write home about, at least for me.  Maybe some of you will try it and it will be something you love.

But I guess the point is, for me trying new things is something that has been really important on the way down, and I think will continue to be important for maintenance.  There are so many food choices out there.  Many of my favorite foods now are things that I just would have refused to try in my former food life.  

Some of my favorite foods that I would never have put in my mouth previously:  Salmon salad (salmon, baby greens, pineapple, carrots, and Paul Newman’s Light Ginger Sesame Dressing.  Carrots and Hummus.  Carrots and Salsa.  Baked potatoes topped with cottage cheese and salsa.   Peach and Cottage cheese Cinnamon Kugel (with tofu noodles!!!)  Well the list could go on and on, but the idea is the same:  TRY SOMETHING NEW!

Mmmm Mmmm Good!

Hi all, I’ve only been at work 2 days, and I feel like I’m way behind on posting and commenting on my favorite bloggers.  Just wanted to make a quick post to tell you about a new recipe I adapted from one that Jill had recommended a few days ago.  I don’t know what the originals tasted like, but mine were fantastic!  Basically I just adapted the recipe to make it lower fat (fits in better with w.w. flex plan.)  I really like cooking and bakiing and developing new recipes, and I hope that I will be able to add more recipes to my blog, in a user-friendly format, in the future…as soon as I learn how to do that!

It is hot hot hot here today, but I feel so virtuous that I went this morning and worked out at Curves.  I know the sameness of it might get boring after a while, but I am one who likes repetitive activity, so I hope it will apply here as well.  Okay here is the recipe:

HAM AND CHEESE BREAKFAST MUFFINS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2/3 cup low-fat cottage cheese

2 whole eggs

4 egg whites

3 Tbsp water 

Using a whisk, mix these ingredients well.  Add and mix:

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup oatmeal

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 Tbsp splenda

Gently stir in:

1/4 cup finely diced lean ham

1/2 cup diced or shredded low fat cheddar

2 Tbsp finely sliced green onions

Spray muffin cups with non-stick spray, and divide batter between 8 muffin cups.  Bake 25 minutes.  Each muffin is 2 w.w. points.  Scrumptious!

I Got Nuttin’, Honey

This morning my bloggy friend, Jill sent out a plea for others to write something to inspire her.  I don’t really have anything inspirational to write myself.  I did want to report that thanks to many of you (I think) I am really on a roll.  After thinking about it for a couple of days, I decided I needed to be accountable, and post my weight once a week (see debby’s weigh in on side bar).  I really didn’t want to, because I have been struggling so much, and my weight seemed to just continue to go in the wrong direction.  But I have been super vigilant about my eating the past 3 days, and I am really psyched about joining Curves.  I felt so virtuous about going there yesterday morning before I headed over to my Sewing Day with quilter friends.  So thank you all for your motivation and inspiration and encouragement.  Its like a great w.w. meeting in my pajamas in my living room!

Do any of you journal?  I mean, the old fashioned way?  I am a long-time journaler, specifically about my spiritual life.  I did not want my journal to just become a gripe and complain journal.  I have really enjoyed it, and think it has been a great benefit to my life in general.  But since the discovery of my bloggy world, my spiritual journal has gotten a bit dusty.  This morning I wanted to write about something specific that I didn’t particularly want to share with the world (Yah, the four people who read this, like Jill said.)  So, I got out my journal, and wrote, and then re-read quite a bit of it from the past few months.  It is good to review and see what was concerning you a bit ago, and then realize that prayer had been answered, or you had figured out something, or solved a problem in your life.  Then their are other things that seem to be recurring problems or thought processes and I think that these things will probably dog me my whole life, but at least by being aware of them, I can continue to work on them, or reject them (if they are wrong or harmful thought processes.)

So I thought since I didn’t have anything particularly inspirational to say myself, I would share a quote from my most favorite author, Dallas Willard, that I had copied into my journal.

“Faith is a vision that our destiny is to be absorbed in a tremendously creative team effort, under unimaginably splendid leadership, on an inconceivably vast plane of activity with ever more comprehensive cycles of productivity and enjoyment, and that is what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, that lies before us in the prophetic vision.”

  

It was a perfect day…

…until I swallowed that fly.  Yuck.  That pesky little guy flew straight in, and there was nothin’ to do but swallow.  Some years these little flies are so thick that I am constantly fanning them away from my face during my walk.  So far this year they haven’t been bad.  But this guy just confirmed the decision I had made earlier in the day.  I decided to join Curves.  I had always thought Curves was just a weany workout.  But I have a feeling that this is going to be a long, hot summer, and I thought maybe this was the time to try something new.  There is actually a Curves right in my little town, and I can actually walk to it if I want to.  In fact, I have walked to it quite a few times.  My neighbor, who is also my doggie sitter, owns Curves, so I have walked up there to pay her or talk to her about ‘babysitting.’  It is about a 4 mile round-trip hike, so that will be a really good workout if I do both.  And actually circuit training (what they do at Curves) has some very good reviews (from my brother and my sister…)

I read an article on the Refuse to Regain website about how difficult it is to maintain weight loss, because there are biological things going on in your body fighting for you to get back to your old weight.  Most of this was not new information, but it is helpful to be reminded that it is not just because you are a weakling that it is hard to keep the weight off.  So wouldn’t you know this was one of those rare days where I was just ravenously hungry (that ‘low blood sugar panicky feeling’)  But I ended well, tried to make good food choices, and have not gone over my points allowance for the day.  Took that nice walk after dinner, even though I had already had a full workout at Curves.

I am dying to try some of the recipes I have seen on your blogs: the wonderful and funny Jill’s breakfast muffins, and Grumpy Chair’s La Raw bars.  I just have to go to the store to get a few ingredients.

Have a busy day tomorrow, that is why I am posting tonight.  Everybody keep up the good work.  I hope some of your weight loss karma rubs off on me soon!