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!
