Sunday, April 3rd

Good Morning Warrior Sleevers !

     The wind is blowing snow (Diane... blooming bushes !!!?) and I'm hoping we don't lose our hard earned buds.

     130 even again today.  I enjoyed my piece of lasagna, but found myself working around the WW pasta, to get more meat/cheese. I planned to stop at a local ice cream store for frozen yogurt on the way home, which I did. 17 grams of sugar for 1/2 cup. Just couldn't do it. I can't find a frozen Greek yogurt with the macros I want. Suggestions ?  I can't keep boxes of frozen sugar free treats because they have triggered me in the past. Frozen sugar free popsicles made me throw up EVERY time post surgery.... just don't like them.  I've made my own treat for tonight: Plain Greek yogurt, 1 T. raw cacao powder, 1 scoop Unjury chocolate splendor, and 1 T. Vita fiber. I'll throw that in the freezer an hour before I eat it.

     Swimming, cleaning and getting ready for the week on tap here. Things were pretty quiet yesterday. Want to hear about the sneakers, Violet ride, puppies, etc. from all of you !!!

123 on the dot this morning. I like that number!

Diane, have you tried making your own frozen yogurt? I have an ice-cream maker and Egg Face has lots of recipes on her sight. I usually just make "ice-cream" from a protein shake.

Son #2 left for his choir trip in FL at 8:00 am yesterday and after several cancelled flights, they finally arrived at their hotel around 4:30 this morning, got about 2 hours of sleep and are off and running for the day! Good thing they are young!

We had such a strange weather day here yesterday. The would be blowing horizontal snow for 15 minutes, then the sun would shine brightly, then the snow and blowing would return, pretty much off and on all day!

Not sure what is on tap for today except for church this morning!

Paula

Morning all!

very very tired and catching yet another cold.  Dang!!!!!

calories 870.  Walking 35 minutes.   

Hope that everyone is having a good weekend, and that the fur babies are doing ok.

travelling home today after buying stock in Kleenex.

Lorna.  Thinking of you.

Good morning everyone, 

It is still spring in the Pacific Northwest!  Diane O, my sympathies for your late snow.  I hope your plants do aok! I am going to plant peas (edible and flowers) this morning.  I ran into 2 other Iowa natives in line at the plant nursery yesterday, demonstrating that in our heart of hearts, we are still farm girls.  

I have new sneakers, they are good-grief-outlet-store-pink!   I went ahead and purchased the atrocities to show my husband that I truly can shop somewhere besides my "high end" stores.  I do have some sort of shopping addiction thing going.....my mind started chiming in that I now need running clothes, as if none of my current active clothes will do.  My mind can be such a liar.  

Diane O, what is the purpose of the frozen yogurt?  Something to have routinely or just something for occasional fun?  I will ask my in-house frozen yogurt expert if she has any ideas about macros at the yogurt shops.  I would like nothing more than for her to research the nutrition data on frozen yogurt!  We have an ice cream maker, too, tho I haven't tried Eggface's recipes.  I can't tolerate frozen treats in the house, either.  I do leave my husband's alone.

123.1 today. (Paula, you on-the-dot showoff!)  I yoga'd twice yesterday, and got in a walk whi*****luded some running intervals.  I got big plans for today, as I always do for Sundays.  We will see what I actually accomplish.  

Enjoy the day, spring or snow!

Shel

Not to add to your shopping addiction, but have you shopped Fabletics.com? Super cute workout stuff!

No I haven't!  Have you ordered from there?  Happy with the quality?

I have and I do like their quality. The one catch is you have to sign up as a VIP member and they pick outfits for you every month. If you don't decline - your credit card gets charged about $50 (you can use as store credit). You just have to remember to decline during the first 5 days of the month. I have actually ordered several things. If you want to become a member, let me know. I think I get a $10 bonus for referral.

I will keep it in mind.  If I decide to move ahead I'll let you know! The prices do look better than I usually pay.  But, I don't think I or my daughter need anything right now.   Thanks for the tip!

Diane O.--Brr.  We are having 80 here today!  Thank goodness I'm lactose intolerant now, and I never really was a huge ice cream fan.  My parents did, and still do, eat a bowlful every night.  Once or twice a year I'll buy a package of smart ones.  I guess it's just small enough that it doesn't cause me the unpleasantness associated with lactose.  While they are far from healthy, when I do get that craving it's best to just satisfy it--and these are under 150 calories to do so.  But I'd take candy/cookie/brownie over ice cream any day, so I'm no help.  What about blending a frozen banana with yogurt?

Shel-I appreciated your reply to my Friday post.  I think there has to be some happy medium.  I just haven't found it yet.  You are right that I had VSG young enough that I had not experienced the full extent of health problems.  In fact, I was pretty much healthy as a horse.  I even have an old blog post defending VSG for cosmetic and mental health (as in...to get the full enjoyment out of life) reasons.  I had a good cholesterol level, blood pressure was low (and now it's really low--they think I'm a distance runner!  ha!).  No diabetes or "pre diabetes."  Just general windedness.  Now I did have fear of seats and seatbelts.  And I had trouble making friends or going out with other 22-somethings because let's be real, in your early 20s so much is superficial.  But therein lies the catch 22:  I had surgery so that I would be able to sit comfortably in a seat at the Thunder game, to have friends to gather with for a farewell or a pre-bar-results dinner.  But those very things may be what causes me to regain.  I've been making pretty good choices.  While my friends can down several beers, it's far too filling for me, so I usually stick to one .  But I do think somethings gotta give.  I can much more easily give up lunch at work and instead have a protein-dense, low carb/low calorie meal, in return for freeing up some calories and carbs to enjoy dinners out on occasion.

No scale today.  Been a fun last couple of days.  On Friday I had lunch with someone with the foundation for my undergraduate University.  I'm sure she wants money, but it's nice to hear what's going on at my school, and I got some ideas to get hooked into the Alumni association better.  We had Cheesecake Factory.  I ordered a sausage and ricotta flatbread off the "skinnylicious" menu because at least the portion wasn't gigantic.  I ate about 2/3 of it.  Then for dinner Friday I had some friends over for our movie night showing of the original "True Grit."  So of course I had to make grits.  We had grilled pork chops, cheese grits, collard greens.  And pineapple upside down cake for dessert.  I mostly had 1/2 pork chop and collards, couple bites of grits, and only 2 bites of cake.  Sent grits and cake home with others.  DH was fishing all yesterday.  I actually never got hungry for lunch, and I didn't love the idea of eating alone, so I didn't!  I was very proud that I didn't eat when I wasn't hungry.  Then for dinner my husband's former boss came over and we ordered pizza.  I had one piece.  

Today is a crawfish boil at a friend's that I am very excited about.  it's going to be 80 degrees!  I baked some key lime dessert bars to take there and leave.  As I type this, my weekend sounds like a lot of food follies.  But I really have been diligent about not snacking, and eating smaller portions.  I'm sure the scale with creep up a bit tomorrow, if for no other reason the salt.  One thing I did do yesterday was when I stopped by the liquor store I only bought a couple bottles of wine, and they were good, more expensive bottles.  I decided I cannot drink wine during weekdays, at least if I want to lose weight.  So it'll be a one bottle a week type of deal split with husband or friend.  And if I'm only getting a couple glasses, I want them to be worth it.  Same with my chocolate fix.  I bought my little package of dove promises to have one with a cup of coffee late afternoon or evening.  These are not a trigger for me--I never disrupt them otherwise.  And the coffee helps me make it into more of an event.  I guess all that's to say that I want to be more purposeful about my calories.  If I really want it, I can have it.  But the last thing I want to do is go throwing calories around like they're plentiful.  

Totally agree with your decision to have VSG when you did, even if it was socially motivated.  Who cares if you weren't plagued with obesity issues --- it was just a matter of time even it those concerns weren't on the top of your 20 year old worry list.  So glad you entirely side stepped those issues.

You are So Close to the happy medium.  I have full confidence that you will find a rhythm of when you indulge, when you pull back, and when it is worth it to not worry at all.  

You obviously have a knack for figuring it out. Even tho the few extra pounds weigh heavily on your mind, they seem relatively minor considering how often you eat/drink out, esp considering how far out from you are.