Amy's Journal: Comments Welcome!

[lovinaz]

If your clothes are fitting, then you must be at least maintaining! It's OK to splurge every once in a while, especially for such a good celebration. That's great that you got your walk in. You really should get to WW and weigh in. Especially if going to the meeting is motivating for you to stay on track. I bet you aren't doing as bad as you think.

 

[toystoryduo]

Hi Amy,

Hope you're having a good start to your week! I don't know if you can use this or not, but it was posted on the Budget Board and we plan to use it on our WDW vacation:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=15635659#post15635659

Have a great Tuesday!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Tracy: Walking is wonderful and also my preferred activity. At my weight, its the safest, most effective thing I can do I am thinking. I would like to add some strength training in but will do that after the New Year, I have enough to deal with already. Thanks for the link, I need to check it out!

Amy: The clothes do fit and I do want to return to WW. Unfortunately, DD was sick yesterday when I was all set to go. They do help me stay on track sometimes, other times its just another thing to do and cuts into my free time and ability to walk. Also, I am out of coupons and the budget is tight, I might have to wait until the first of the year to buy more.

So my computer died over the weekend. Well to back up, Sunday morning, I was all set to clean all day like mad woman (we are refinancing and the appraisal was set for Monday). Phone rings, its our airline saying BOTH our outgoing and retuning flights are cancelled. They give us some options and say we need to rebook that day to insure we get seats. This was really stressful to say the least. So now we are leaving one day earlier and coming back one day later because thats what we could get. I start emailing my TA to see if she can extend our reservations and the computer is acting up. By that night, it was totally dead. Dh spent some time trying to fix it. He finally did but not until last night. So he was handling all the details with my TA, very nerve wracking since he is so totally not detailed oriented plus so busy with work he seldom has time to check email. But it all got handled and now somehow we have two more nights at WDW. But only one more day, most of which will be shot since we arrive at around 2:00 a.m. that morning. And its costing me $400 more which is why I don't have money for WW coupons! I am also missing out on my brother's brief visit, I was only going to see him for a few hours before we left but now I can't even do that. So thats another bummer. Oh well.

Food has been hard to handle! Yesterday was my stepdad's 82nd birthday so I made a nice big, fattening dinner last night. Hey, he's 82, he likes his comfort food, by God he's earned it! Did fine all day until that. The day before I cannot remember except that I did great until I ate three pieces of pizza for dinner. Today should be fine. Dh has a gift certificate for a Chinese place that expires Friday so we are taking the kids there for lunch. Its a Mongolian BBQ where you pick your own meats and veggies and they cook it on the big grill thing. I am just going to stick with chicken and veggies, no rice, no noodles. But it'll be salty, so I am slamming the water.

I have managed to add 90 minutes of activity this week and thats it. I am really going to be pushing to make my goal but I think I still can. If I didn't have my goal I would seriously not be exercising, so its good I set one!

Thanks for reading. I am off to bake pumpkin bread for dd's bake sale at church tonight.

P.S. Amy: Benjamin got into the trash last night and consumed quite a bit of the foil bag that the briscuit was cooked in. He seems fine but I'll swear that dog has a death wish to this day with eating weird trash items! He also has weird foil/bbq sauce breath now!

 

[lovinaz]

I'm glad that the exercise challenge is keeping you motivated, that is what it is there for! I need to get back to the gym, I haven't been there since I've been back from my cruise (and believe me, I NEED to go!).

That really stinks that you had to make different plane reservations at such late notice. I don't blame you for stressing out! And I am with you - I have to handle all that kind of stuff because DH is just clueless when it comes to those types of things. He is one of those "you arrange it, I'll be there with a smile on" types... I don't even ask him anymore, I just pick where we go on vacation and he hasn't complained yet!

Buckley still has a pillow fetish. That dog just can't leave the pillows on the couch alone, no matter how many times his butt's been swatted. I was hoping that was a puppy thing, but I think it's a beagle thing!!!!

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!

 

[CACruisin']

So sorry you had to deal with last minute airline glitches, but glad the ressies got all sorted out. DH gets an extra Mickey Bar for being a "stand in" with the TA. You get a Mickey Bar and a "Grown up" drink for the stress of DH being a stand-in with the TA.

You needed the celebration with T's family. Don't worry about that. Your walking is great and you know what you need to do eating wise. As others have said, if the clothes fit, you have to be at least maintaining.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a relaxing weekend.

 

[CJK]

Don't you hate last minute changes? Things like that really throw me for a loop too so I certainly understand why you've been stressed!

As usual things are really busy for you aren't they? We have a place called Mongolian Grill where you choose the meat/sauces/oil/veggies, etc.. and they cook it on a gigantic grill. It's a fun meal and you can make it healthy.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

[toystoryduo]

Happy Thanksgiving WISH sis!

I want to thank you for your friendship and support.... Your friendship is a blessing to me!

I'm sorry to hear about the last minute changes in your itinerary for WDW, but you get two more days in the world so that's a bonus! I just entered single digits this morning so I am soing the single digit dance.

Have a wonderful day!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Thank you so much everyone! I hope everybody had a great holiday. Here is my brief recap of food since I last posted:

Wednesday: Did well, Mongolian bbq was great. DD got sick again that night, this cold/flu thing she has is on and off. We ended up not going to church but I did drop off ALL the pumpkin bread for the bake sale so I could not eat it! Skipped dinner while tending to dd so a pretty good day with plenty of water, no exercise though.

Thursday: Not too bad. Had Atkins shake for breakfast, skipped lunch and just had a bit of everything for dinner. I mean don't get me wrong, I ate plenty but all in all it was my most successful Thanksgiving diet wise. I boxed up almost all of the leftovers (save some white meat turkey for us) to get it out of the house! No cocktails and drank plenty of water. Stayed up cleaning the mess untl midnight, sometimes I hate holidays.

Friday: Pretty decent day. Did a 60 minute walk, then headed to my mom's to decorate her house (the woman has a Christmas shop amount of decorations God bless her). DH and I worked for 9 hours putting that stuff up and I deep cleaned the condo to boot. I was beat half to death! Ate a grilled chicken sandwich and fries for dinner, skipped lunch, Atkins for breakfast (I did that backwards, sorry). Drank a ton of water since my mom keeps her condo at 80 degrees. I think I might have made 42 by 42 via a sweat bath that day!

Saturday: HORRIBLE DAY!!! McDonalds for lunch, Mexican and two rum and diets for dinner. OMG what happened? Oh well, I did a ton of shopping and just forgot to eat right. No exercise either.

I may have a hard time making exercise challenge. But I am still going to try. I'll come close and I'm still really glad I signed up for it since its keeping me motivated. I'm at 600 minutes, need to do 300 minutes by Thursday. I might be able to do that. The suspense is killing me...

 

[lovinaz]

Great job eating so well on Thanksgiving? See, you were faced with all kinds of temptations and you survived! So it IS possible to behave... Don't worry about the eating on Sat, it's done and over with. Tomorrow starts a new week. I think you will be awfully close on your challenge, at least it kept you exercising so much!

You are doing really good, keep it up!

And check out my journal for some Buckley pix!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Thanks Amy, can't wait to see the Buckley pix!

All in all, as I reflect on this holiday weekend I am pretty happy overall. Yesterday was the only bonafide disaster. Today was much better and we decided to head up to the mountains to take a hike. Only about an hour but it was hard work. The air was thin up there, we were probably at around 8000 feet and that one hour felt much different than my walks down here! Food was okay today too so the weekend ended on a positive note. Can I just rant and say how dumb I think my son's science and math teachers are to assign homework over Thanksgiving weekend. Took us two hours tonight to get it done, I was just flabbergasted they would do that. Oh well, we did it because what else can we do? Rant over! Food today:
Breakfast: Slept through it!
Lunch: Hamburger, no mayo, no cheese. 10 Fries, diet coke
Dinner: Large green salad with two chicken tenders and lowfat ranch dressing, plus one fourth cup shredded cheese.
Snack: Two oreos, a few corn chips
Water: 60 oz, not nearly enough.
Exerise: 60 minute hike

Thanks for reading!

 

[toystoryduo]

Hi Amy,

Sounds like you did a great job this weekend! Way to go! Are you counting any of the minutes from cleaning and putting up Christmas decorations at your mom's for your exercise total? It sounds like you did a lot of physical work there.

So, are you ready for your trip to the World? I have such mixed emotions about it right now. Usually, by this time, I have our bags packed and my itinerary typed, laminated, and set in stone. For some reason, I can't seem to get my head in the game.

Hope you have a great week!

 

[lovinaz]

My DS had homework over the weekend too. However, he didn't mention that until I was tucking him in for bed... So he got to stay up another 1/2 hour finishing it. Clever trick, huh???

The hike sounds fun! The altitude really does make a difference, doesn't it?

You are doing awesome and that is great to hear that you did better this weekend than in Thanksgivings past.

You should post a photo of Benjamin, I'd like to see what Buckley has to look forward to!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Thanks Tracy, I am ready to go and yet also not ready! I have a ton to do in the next two weeks. I am thinking I will add some minutes for the cleaning I did. I also spent today cleaning and hauling boxes for a couple of hours. Think I'll add 30 minutes. Although it doesn't matter, I doubt I'll make challenge! But I did it more for the inspiration which it did do for me. Just too many sick kids and sick me plus track off time and Thanksgiving made it tough!

Amy: Whats with the homework? Its a holiday for crying out loud. I will post a pic of Benjamin. Maybe I can find one where he doens't look too much like Father Time!

Today was crazy. My house was a mess like you cannot believe. I got it cleaned up, wrapped presents to mail to Texas and California and put out some more decorations. The day got away from me. I did well on food until I got a call from my ds this afternoon. His friend said he was not allowed to be friends anymore because my son looks at bad websites. Long story short, when my son was at their house on Friday the boys were looking at the net and Matthew suggested the Hannah Montana site because he has a crush on the girl in that show. I guess this kid , said something to the dad about Matthew looking at girlie sights or whatever and freaked them out. I made dh call and explain Hannah Montana is not porn! This kid (not mine, the friend) drives me nuts and is very eccentric, I know he knew this wasn't porn but was just trying to get a rise out of everyone. And it worked like a charm. But it seems settled for now. Hannah Montana, porn star queen.

Well anyhoo, I got stressed, tired, grumpy and ate McDonalds again. Kids meal but I didn't need it thats for sure. I got a pork tenderloin out to thaw and crockpot tomorrow and bought more salad greens for dinner tomorrow. Not having a plan for dinner coupled with the stress and fatigue made for a disaster. I guess it could have been worse. I didn't work out per se but think I will add 30 minutes. If cleaning my mom's condo for several hours plus everything else I have done at home doens't count for something what does. I also didn't work out because I am so sore from that hike. It was really steep in parts and I am not used to working those muscles! I am walking tomorrow if it kills me. Which if it does, at least I wont' have to take down all those decorations come January at my mom's!

Thanks for reading!

 

[lovinaz]

I say shame on those other parents who obviously weren't monitoring their son's Internet activity! My DS has a computer in his room, but it isn't hooked up to the Internet. And he doesn't have the password on this one to get logged on either. Anything he looks up is for school and there is always someone watching him. I guess I am just too paranoid...

You must be getting so excited! I'll trade with you - you can go to cold, rainy Germany for me next week and I'll go to WDW for you! Ya, that's a fair trade!

Congrats on getting just a Happy Meal at McDonalds. You need to watch the documentary Super Size Me. You'd never eat fast food again!

 

[toystoryduo]

Hannah Montana, porn star queen.

Is this the reason her dad wrote Achey Breaky Heart? I'm sorry that you, your DH, and your DS had to go through that stress. It sounds like the friend might have been stirring up trouble. Hope everything is settled and cleared up by now.

I am walking tomorrow if it kills me. Which if it does, at least I wont' have to take down all those decorations come January at my mom's!

Amy, you are too funny!

I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday WISH sis! Enjoy your Saratoga Stroll!

 

[CACruisin']

Congrats on getting through Thanksgiving relatively unscathed. I definitely think putting all of your mom's Christmas decorations up should count toward exercise. It is hard work. I hear ya on the taking them down part though . I love Christmas, but at the same time, I sorta hate the hassle part of it at the same time. It was great to be a kid and only have to think about what was Santa going to bring and how early was "too early" to get up on Christmas morning.... When I was little, I never knew about all the other stuff like shopping, cleaning, cooking, wrapping, etc that moms and dads have to do.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Thanks Amy: I do let my kids log on but they have only a couple of sights they can check out, namely Disneychannel and some sports websites for my son. This kid is kinda strange but he is very sweet at times too. I did see Supersize Me. Didn't make much of an impact unfortunately, my addiction to food and the reasons behind it are so strong and so long in the making its a tough road. But I have cut it way down. I used to eat fast food as much as seven times a week. I know all the facts, kind of like an alcoholic who sees a fried liver on tv but can't stop. I guess thats how I used to weigh 250 pounds! I am trying but its a long, painful road. Sometimes I just plain miss the comfort and zone out feeling I get from overeating. I've been doing it since I was seven. Sad but true, can you believe how nutty I am with food?

Tracy: Thanks so much, that kid does enjoy stirring things up. As my son said: "too much drama to keep up with"! But they can have a lot of fun. Part of the problem is that this kid and my son are both sort of OCD. Too much alike I guess! Your departure day is coming, how excited are you! Where all are you guys going, eating, doing etc at WDW? Are you doing other stuff like Sea World too?

Anna: I did survive Thanksgiving pretty well. Gives me hope for Christmas. I know I won't lose this next month but if I can continue to maintain, I'm happy! How is sunny southern Cal you rat, its 20 freaking degrees here and snowing right now!

So today I cooked, and cooked and cooked. Christmas Eve dinner is in my freezer. Unfortunately, I sampled too much. I baked Spritz cookies and ate six of them. Now these are tiny little cookies, about the size of an animal cracker but pure butter. I can only imagine . Oh well, I bagged them and then wrapped them in tons of foil. It would take a lot of effort to get to them now! I did have a healthy dinner however. I also got 60 minutes on the treadmill. I need to do 155 minutes in the next two days. . Hey, you never know! Right now I am just proud that I have stuck with exercise for the most part through the beginning into the middle of the holiday season. I will sign up for December's challenge, again, knowing I may not make it but it motivates me!

I weighed today, I was down 2 pounds. Two pounds in just under two months. Wow, at this rate I might make my goal by the year 2010! But I am down 30 pounds from a year ago and I am going to concentrate on what I have done, not what I haven't. Of course I haven't gained this year so maybe I should concentrate on what I haven't done after all! I am really ready for a new year and to really hit this hard again. I know I can do it and I am not giving up or gaining this weight back.

Thanks for reading. I need to get to journals but I am so dead tired I may wait until tomorrow.

 

[traceycooper]

Way to go Amy, you sound very positive & motivated!
And so you should, losing 30lbs is awesome & no gains too!
Love the story about Hannah Montana, my DD loves that show, maybe i better ban it now
Hope you have a great week
Tracey

 

[toystoryduo]

Woohoo Amy! Lots to celebrate today:

* Christmas Eve dinner is DONE!

* You have lost 2 pounds!

* You are doing a great job on your exercise challenge!

* You have lost a total of 30 pounds! That is wonderful, my friend!

* You're going to WDW soon!

Sounds like it is time for a journal party to me!

You are doing a great job, Amy! Keep up the good work!

 

[lovinaz]

WOOHOO, congrats on the loss!!!! What an achievement to be 30lbs lighter than last year. And you know what, WHO CARES if it takes you until 2010 to get to your goal? You are changing your lifestyle into a more healthy one and there is no time constraint on it, it's for life. So be proud of what you have accomplished and brag about it every chance you get!!!

We all have our own battles with food, but you are doing so much better with it. Just think of how much better you will be a year from now!!

You kicked butt on your exercise challenge this month, keep it up!