Inspired?

Wow, somehow the last few weeks flew by and I apparently forgot to update my blog!  The good news is that the last few weeks have been really good, and I'm feeling great. In the last few weeks I've had a lot of good times with friends, enjoyed some great meals, made some lasting memories, and most recently, tonight I went to a fantastic concert at Tupelo Music Hall with Kristi and her best friend Erin.

Tupelo Music Hall is a small and intimate music venue in Londonderry, NH that always has fantastic performances scheduled.  Our favorite repeat show is Chad Perrone.  Kristi has been a fan of his for over a decade and as soon as she introduced me to his music, I was hooked.  Skip forward a year and 3 months or so... Kristi proposed to me at Tupelo Music Hall during a Chad Perrone show in October 2010.  She asked him to play our song, and when he did, she proposed. It was amazing. It was perfect. I couldn't have asked for more.

Anyway, I'm not writing this blog to take you back in time, but instead forward into the future.  Sometimes, though, it's important to remember how you got to today, don't you think?  Anyway, tonight at Chad's show, he was joined by the fabulously talented Lisa Piccirillo.  It just so happens that a few months back I messaged Lisa on Facebook in hopes of her telling me if she was playing with Chad again like she did a couple of years ago at his Tupelo show.  Turns out that at the time she wasn't, but after my asking, she contacted Chad...and well, the rest is history.  Tonight's show was, I think, the best yet.  It was moving, beautiful, inspired, and full of singer-songwriter genius.

The real reason I brought up the concert, and performers, though was for 2 pretty cool reasons.

1. A few months ago Kristi, my amazing fiancee, got a tattoo that was inspired by one of Chad's songs.  He wasn't aware of this tattoo, until tonight.  Kristi showed him after the show when we were all chatting.  He was shocked and pretty moved by the fact that someone got themselves inked due to inspiration from his song writing. He took a picture of the tattoo and gave Kristi a giant hug.  Pretty awesome.

2. Both after her set, and after the show, we spend some time chatting with Lisa.  Lisa and I are Facebook friends and have been since the first time we saw her perform, a couple years ago. Since I started Weight Watchers, she has continually shown me support and cheered me on.  That in itself is pretty cool since she's an uber talented musician and, we barely know each other.  Anyway, it gets better.   Tonight Lisa told me I inspired her with my weight loss, and Weight Watchers, journey.  That's amazing. Simply amazing.  I've never been told I inspired anyone for anything. Ever. Until tonight. Wow.  I cannot imagine truly inspiring someone, but if I have, then well...you're welcome, and I thank you for telling me that I do.

So yah, tonight was pretty amazing all around.  I promised myself that I would update my blog tonight, because we're going away for 7 nights starting tomorrow and I won't have internet access for the majority of the week unless we go use the wireless in the one building where it is available, but I probably won't do that.  We're going to The Berkshires where we have a 2 bedroom condo for the week.  Cannot wait for tomorrow, and since it's 1:30am, I think it's time for bed.  But first, a quick re-cap of the last few weeks regarding my weight loss...

The last few weeks I've had really solid weight loss, after a very slight gain the week I did the 5 mile Walk MS walk with a group of friends. (BTW - I still get tired just thinking about it...but then I remember that I did it!)  Last week I went to a different meeting because I had plans to help Heidi with her Field Day at the farm she works at, which was extremely fun.  I didn't stay for the meeting, but when I weighed in, I lost a really good amount of weight, and was only 0.4lbs away from my 5% goal.  I went into the meeting today unsure if I would hit it but actually hoping for 2.4 so I would reach 20 lbs.  Well, I did it. And more!  Today I lost 3.4lbs I reached my 5% goal of 18lbs. I also reached losing 20lbs.  I've lost 21 lbs in 9 weeks. That's pretty awesome I think.  This week of vacation may be a little tough, but I'm looking forward to my weigh-in on Saturday at a meeting location that I found close to our resort. My goal for vacation is extremely realistic.  My goal is to maintain what I've lost.  Really, I'd love to lose at least 2 lbs, but I know I'll be on a different schedule, a different meal plan, and with many more temptations, so I think if I maintain, I'll be satisfied.

Twenty-one pounds lost in 9 weeks.  Feeling great! Next goal is 25 pounds, since that's an actual WW goal.  After that, it's my 10% goal which is 36lbs.  I have 4lbs to go to reach 25lbs, and 15lbs to go to reach 10%.  I can do this. I will do this.

Thank you for your support.  I promise to update when I get home from vacation. Have a great week everyone!!

What a week...where did it go?? Oh yes....

Hey friends, family, strangers, and anyone else reading this. Sorry I haven't posted all week. No idea where the week went, I feel like it flew by!  It's been a great week, full of successes, fun planning, healthy choices and other positive things! :)

Saturday was Passover at my BFF's parents' house, and it was a blast.  I took a bunch of photos, but they're all on my camera and unfortunately that hasn't been hooked up to my computer yet.  Kristi went to Boston PAX EAST before Passover and came home with a "Mustache Monocle" which was pretty awesome. If you click on that link, it's at the top of the page and she got the solo one on the top right in the picture.  It has become a little game to "photo bomb" people while wearing the mustache. Good times.  We even got an innocent bystander at CVS on our way home from Easter on Sunday. Speaking of Easter, we went to Newburyport, MA to visit some of my family and had a good time all around. Good to see everyone, and once again, Kristi's mustache was a big hit.  Every year there is an awesome bunny cake, and this year was no exception.  Please see below for the original bunny, and then the bunny with a 'stache.

Like I said, good times.  The food was also delicious! We had fruit salad, the salad I bought, 2 types of quiche, spiral ham, mini home fries and a make your own bloody mary station, which I did not take part in.  See below for most of the food...so good.  Tough to gauge points since I couldn't measure, and I didn't know the ingredients, but once I got past Passover and Easter, I just decided to not use my weekly points anymore this week, just in case I was off in calculation.  I did enjoy about 1/2 of the bunny's left ear as a treat, but stayed away from Easter chocolate all weekend, and week!

Once the weekend passed and Monday hit, I decided to go get my 10lb loss reward...a manicure! I met up with my friend Julie Ann and we got fancy shiny manicures to celebrate.  Check out those fancy hot pink nails, and my awesome watch, and engagement ring from my fiancee. Polished nails make my ring even more sparkly! Love it! (Sorry, I'm such a girl sometimes!)

So Tuesday-Thursday sort of flew by in a daze, not really sure where the days went!  I did make great meal choices all week, and want to show one of them off.  I made bell pepper, fresh pineapple, and chicken kabobs, with a mandarin orange vinaigrette glaze.  So good!!  Add a salad, and you have a very summery, fresh, healthy meal.  I made 10 kabobs, using a total of 12oz of chicken, at 1pt per oz, and the glaze was a total of 6 points.  Very healthy, and low in points indeed!

As I said, I'm not sure really what I did Tuesday-Thursday, other than housework like laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc. Actually, Thursday was a good day.  We decided to sign up for The Color Run 5k. Heidi signed up first, creating team "Spell It With Your Peas" (from Easy A...watch it...it's comedic genius, just like the entire movie).  Kristi and I also signed up, along with Heidi's boyfriend Frank.  We're super excited and if you're reading this and think it looks fun (click the link above), you should sign up too.  It's not too expensive, especially if you join a team, and it's going to be a blast!!  There's a little party after, and we're thinking of ending the day at the beach, likely Salisbury since it is so close.   I've written out a training program to help me be able to do the 5k, as I would really like to be able to jog some, if not most, of it.  I am realistic though, so I changed up the C25K program a bit, and lengthened it, so that it suits my needs better.  I hope it works, and if not, I'll make changes as needed.  

Nothing super special happened today but it was a great day! We got tickets in the mail for the Chad Perrone show on 5/12/12, with Lisa opening, who is also awesome.  If you like supporting local music, check out Chad Perrone and if you like what you hear, buy tickets to his Tupelo Music Hall show in Londonderry, NH! We also started booking our week-long trip to The Berkshires for next month, which we're psyched about.  A 7 night already paid for getaway in a 2 bedroom condo and we can bring the dog!  It'll be so fun!  Did I mention we can have guests, and we have a spare room? :) Other fun thing today that happened? Heidi bought tickets to Summerland Tour 2012, which includes Sugar Ray, Smashmouth, Eve 6, Lit, Gin Blossoms, and Everclear.  How could we pass that up? She got pretty awesome floor seats for Mohegan Sun casino, on July 29th. Heidi, Frank, Kristi, and I will be going. It's the day after The Color Run, which basically means that's going to be one helluva great weekend!!  

My NSV (non-scale victory) of today was 2 fold.  I ate some things I don't normally like, because I'm trying incorporate new things into my diet.  Breakfast today was 1/2 cup of egg beaters (1pt) that I made into scrambled eggs, which typically I don't like.  I added some turkey sausage crumbles and a little Mexican cheese.  I have one word for you: Delicious! 

The picture doesn't really make it look great, but I assure you, it was!

My other NSV was completing a 2.2 mile brisk walk in about 45min around the neighborhood with Samson (our dog).  It was perfect weather, the sun was shining, there was a cool breeze coming in off the lake and harbor, and Samson was a very polite walking companion.  I plotted my route ahead of time so I knew the distance and the mile marker to turn around to come home.  I loaded up a new iPod playlist, and just kept putting one foot in front of the other until I was back home.  From the 1/2 mile mark to the mile mark, my legs got tired and sore.  It's like the all of a sudden realized that I was exercising and not just walking out to get the mail.  Once I got through that though I felt great and didn't get worn out again until I got home and sat down for a minute before making a great after-workout meal.  I thawed some already cooked wild and brown rice, added a few ounces of chicken, and some steamed/seasoned asparagus. Great walk, great meal after.  Go me!  

This is a good NSV because last time I walked, about a week ago, I only went one mile and felt terrible during almost the whole thing!  I am doing a 5 mile walk for "Walk MS" this Sunday in Manchester, NH and am excited to do it per the request of a great friend for her birthday, but I'm also really nervous because well, it's not like I walk that far...ever.  I'm hoping with the support of a lot of friends who are doing it, along with the fun I'm sure it'll be, I'll get through it. If you read this, and want to support the cause, please feel free to donate.  It's a great cause, and every penny helps!  Please click here to donate if you can.  

Whew..what a week.  So many things to smile about, look forward to, and look fondly back on.  Tonight Heidi and I spent awhile in the hot tub just chatting about our weight loss journey(s)...we've each been on several individual weight gain, and loss, journeys to get to this point, and we're trying to think of how to keep ourselves motivated once we get close, or meet our goal weight.  For me, this is so far off that I'm not really thinking about it, but once in awhile it does occur to me how long this process could take, and that it's going to stay hard to stay on track the whole time.  But I know I CAN DO IT.  And if I can do it, so can she, and so can you.

Thanks for reading.  Hope you have a great day with plenty of things to make YOU smile.  Tomorrow is my weigh-in, and I am pretty confident that I will have a good result.  Here's hoping!