I'm Still Alive and Losing Weight

I know that I've been a bad, bad weight loss blogger. The good news is that I have lost a ton of weight since the beginning of the year, between 14-15 pounds to be exact. That was enough to get me back to what I was this past August which meant I got to dig out some smaller clothes to wear! 

An outfit that hasn't fit for a while that I wore this week.

So even though I haven't been posting as regularly, I've been keeping up on eating right and working out. Most of the time I go to the gym 2-3 times a week. I do the weights two times and go on the treadmill once. I got a "warm" day this week and took a walk outside which was a nice change of pace. I took some pictures of the machines that I use at the gym, so I hope to get a post up about that soon.

I thought I'd use this post to write about a few things since my last post from my daily life. I've gotten a few rewards for my weight loss recently. I got a Chuck Berry CD and a $25 iTunes gift card as part of my rewards system that I set up for myself. I spent my iTunes card on Young the Giant and the newer Fleet Foxes albums. The video below is for "Cough Syrup" by Young the Giant which is the song that got me to listen to the band and buy their album.

I'm about 1.8 pounds away from my next reward of a key chain photo album which I can use to show the doggies off to people. I also won a weekly raffle for the walking challenge at work. I think I'm supposed to get a $20 check, but I haven't seen it yet. I can't remember if I talked about my last Diet Bet, but I did complete my goal of losing 4% in a month and got $21 (I put $10 into the pot).

 

Way back at the end of January the hubs had to go to a conference for work in Orlando for a week. Some people were even taking their spouses with them, but I couldn't go. :( I can't take off of work for a week for one, and secondly I can't miss my grad school classes. The hubs was nice though and bought me a present. It is a Cheshire Cat pillow pet.

 

 

We've actually seen a few days of winter weather (aka snow) since I last wrote, but we haven't really had a blizzard or anything like that. I'm kinda thinking that we might get away with a mild winter for Northwest Indiana.

I've been spending more and more time doing things for grad school such as reading and writing assignments on Blackboard. Both of the classes I am taking have big group projects that we are starting to work on, so grad school will be taking up more and more time. I'm happy to have two monitors though, because it comes in handy for having Blackboard on one screen and Word on the other.

 

The bed in my office works great for stacking papers and books.

The dogs also like to help me with my homework...

Lilly barks at me until I put her in my lap which isn't always convenient.

Sebastion likes to take over the bed and make a mess of the pillows.

And this one, Benjamin, likes to...

tear the futon mattress apart while I'm in the other room.

Here are some random pictures of meals and snacks from the past two weeks that haven't been posted on here yet.

Weight Loss and Food for the Week

In my last post I hinted that I entered into Onederland again. Just barely, but I have. 199.2 was my latest weigh in. I've lost 11.6 pounds so far this month which is way more than I thought I would lose. I'm happy and not happy at the same time. I'm not happy I'm losing these same pounds again, but I'm happy with how I feel. My clothes either now fit or are loose (but I'm not getting rid of them until I'm for sure two sizes down this time- learned the hard way!).

I've also made sure to go to the gym at least two times a week to do my strength training fitness plan. Today I got through most of my exercises much quicker and the weight didn't even bother me. I guess that means I get to up my reps, sets, or weight soon. Also, I forgot my gym bag when I left this morning. That left me with the option to go home and get it (which means I probably would find an excuse to not go after I get home) or just work out in my dress clothes. I chose the second option and just sucked it up in my work clothes. I took off the sweater and that was that. I think that shows some dedication!

This week both of my classes meet in person (not online) for grad school. I had ethics on Monday in the little basement classroom that bugs my allergies. I always leave there with reddish eyes and messed up sinuses. The class was good though and started with a lecture/PowerPoint over ethical decision making models for ethical dilemmas as a counselor. Second we did a group activity where we had to figure out a solution to an ethical dilemma using the model. Third, we found our groups for the poster presentations that are due at the end of the semester. I like the people in my group, but we live all over Northwest Indiana and Illinois! I guess that means we'll have to drive up to campus to work on the project.



Back to the whole weight loss thing... Here are some pictures of what I'm eating this week.

Breakfast

Oatmeal and a Denver Omelet Egg Mug. Since I used egg whites it didn't "fluff" up. It also took too much time in the morning to prepare (it wasn't that much time, but I just don't want to get up any earlier than 5:15 to cook), but it did taste good and fill me up. I'm just going back to omelets in a pan on the stove for the rest of the week.

Snack

Snack

Lunch

This is brown rice noodles, spaghetti sauce, and baked chicken. The brown rice noodles are fine in my opinion, but whole wheat noodles might taste a little better.

Snack

Dinner

This is a BLT pizza from my Hungry Girl cookbook. I really like this recipe. I split it into six pieces to get me through the week.

Other stuff

Used up some leftover stuff to make a sandwich with a bagel thin, turkey bacon, lettuce, cheese, and light mayo.

My burnt muffins. :(

 

 

 

My Weekend and Hint of Onederland

It has been a really warm winter so far for us, and we have only had dustings of snow. At the end of last week we finally got about an inch or so where I am. Here is a picture of it actually snowing while I'm getting ready to drive to work.

On Friday I went to the gym after work. I made it to the gym a total of four times this week. I did my strength training plan with the machines three times and spent one time on the treadmill. Speaking of treadmill, I'm highly considering trying to fit as much as a C25K training in by the end of march so I can participate in a virtual 5K. The prizes are random and not by time, so that is right up my ally. Also, I can just run around my neighborhood and everyone will just think I'm working out and not doing a 5K which is fine by me considering how slow I'll probably be. ;)

Friday night I made singing game night for myself. I went online and played some Beatles Rock Band since I haven't done that forever. It is amazing how I can still play songs on hard and do good after not playing for so long. I guess I really know my Beatles.

I also played some Sing Party too. I'm trying really hard to get good at a couple of songs for when I play with my friends. I'm working on "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen and "Alone" by Heart. They are both kinda harder songs too.

Saturday morning I spent meal planning and grocery shopping. I had a big haul this week for groceries and other necessities.

Saturday afternoon I took my first quiz of my grad school career online. I was panicking because she gave us four hours to take this 25 question quiz. It ended up taking me only 36 minutes and I managed to miss one question. How do you miss a question on an open book test?

The rest of Saturday was spent going through my stash of gifts for people throughout the year and getting things organized. I'm pretty close to being finished with that. It is nice to not freak out when you need a gift for someone and just go down to the basement and find one waiting there.

Saturday night I found Sebastion under the fitted sheet and comforter on the futon. All I saw was part of his head sticking out. The dogs had a really lazy weekend!

Sunday I spent mostly cleaning, looking at stuff online, and cooking for the week. Here is the meal plan for this week:

 

 

I also randomly saw a limo sitting on our little side road.

Oh, and I forgot that I did some reading for my ethics class too. Lilly decided to help...

Anyways, back to the food. I made a recipe that I haven't made for a year- BLT pizza. I even found a refrigerated pizza crust that was made with whole wheat flour.

I also made some brown rice noodles and chicken for lunches. I'm going to top them with spaghetti sauce. I have never had brown rice noodles, so I hope that they taste good.

I made my usual pumpkin muffins, but failed to turn the oven down to the right temperature after making the pizza crust,so I burnt them! They don't taste nearly as good burnt. :(

Here's the pictures of the fridge all organized for the week:

Breakfast

Snacks

Dinner

Lunch

It is really slick and icy out here right now. My front steps are patches of ice that I almost fell on taking the dogs out.

I've also lost a good amount of weight this week too. I'll have that for tomorrow's weigh-in, but I will tell you that I've unofficially won my Diet Bet and I'm in Onederland!

Beginning of November Update

October was such a busy month for me at work and personally. When things finally slowed down, I crashed into being lazy. I actually watched more than just The Voice, surfed the Internet a lot, and slept in or got extra sleep whenever possible. I haven't lost sight of my goal of losing weight, and have started to get back into some of my good habits again. I'm using this post to catch everyone up on all of my news, so here it goes...

On the 3rd I got lunch and went antiquing with my retired teacher friend Chris. She asked me to stop by K-Mart and pick up a cute Cheshire Cat hat and she would pay me back for it. I decided to just give it to her as an early Christmas present. She was really happy with it and end up buying me a ring that I liked while we were antiquing.

I also now have my own dedicated, new-to-me computer set up in my office. Since I will hopefully being going to grad school this winter, my husband thought it would be a good idea for me to have a fully functional computer. He was going to buy me one as a birthday/Christmas present, but I didn't really have need of a fancy computer. He found one on sale that fits his computing needs, so I got his old one with a new keyboard and mouse. I can now blog whenever I want since I'm not sharing a computer anymore!

Speaking of grad school, I have a group interview with the other potential candidates and faculty in the department on the 19th. When I got the e-mail about it I was really excited and happy, so I think that I have made the right choice on this. I'm still quite nervous and a little bit scared about working and going to school for so long, but I guess I won't worry about that until I have been accepted.

I found a wonderful and easy recipe on Pinterest to help with the sweets cravings. Instead of brownie mix and pumpkin, cake mix and pumpkin. I guess if you use regular cake mix and a can of pumpkin (no eggs or oil), it is two Weight Watchers points per cupcake. A can of pumpkin with sugar free cake mix is also yummy! In fact, I've been eating too many of these, so I'm going to take a break for a few days before I make any more.

The weight loss has been good and bad this week. The good news is that I lost two pounds this week. The bad news is that I'm only down 20 pounds total (instead of the 35 that I was last spring). I got to use my other poundpuncher bracelet for 12-20 pounds lost. I'm hoping to lose around 8 pounds by my birthday by the end of the month. If I can keep up around 2 pounds down a week, I can be around 35 pounds down by the new year.

A bead for another ten pounds gone for my jar and future bracelet.

You can see the peace sign bead in the jar.

I've also found some fun, comfy, and warm clothes for around the house.

Pink and black zebra striped sockasins.

Beatles sweatpants!