WEIGH IN

Just a quick post while I am waiting for my breakfast to warm up. I am also defrosting chicken to marinate for a Chinese Chicken Salad dinner tonight. Multi-tasking has been getting a bad rap lately, but what would we women do without that ability?  It may not all be perfect, but we get a lot done.

I updated my ticker because I am now down 7 pounds.  Pretty good considering my exercise is still spotty and I had 3 vodka tonics with dinner Friday night.  It was a good time but it occurred to me afterwards that I should have ordered scotch and water and avoided the extra calories!

I have one more week until Maggie comes to visit and then a couple of events that will make staying on plan a challenge, but that is ok.  Not stressing about it. 

PRETTY MUCH PLAIN VANILLA - YUM

A couple of years ago  frozen yogurt places started popping up all over the place.  At the time I just didn't "bite."  I'm not sure why.  Way back in the '80's before Tom and I were married we frequently went out after dinner for fro yo.  Then it just went away for a long time.

This last week though,  I wanted a little something and I was tired of the Atkins bars stashed in the drawer of my desk.  I went into the yogurt place near work - Yogurtland - and found they had a no sugar added option in French Vanilla (my favorite flavor) and so I eyeballed a fist size and added some chopped almonds.  It was 6 ounces total and it was good.

 When I got back to work I went on their website and was delighted to see that 4 oz was just 80 calories - so I think the yogurt was probably 5 oz and the nuts 1 oz.  That adds up to less than one of my Atkins bars! 

However,  there was only one no-sugar added flavor available and  they change the flavors frequently; so I can't count on there being a friendly flavor everytime, so I will have to be willing to walk away!

Could you?  Do you FroYo?

SOME EMOTIONAL EATING

If ever there was a time for some emotional eating it was this weekend.  I took to the bottle instead.  Just kidding -  I only had 2 drinks and I used diet tonic.  Plus lots of lime so it was almost a serving of fruit.

I had to put my sweet old dog to sleep on Saturday morning, so it was a tearful weekend and I treated myself with a couple of cocktails and a 6 oz New York Steak.  I had popcorn and mango for lunch.  It was a strange day.

On Sunday my husband wanted to get out of the house - he was missing her tippy taps across the floor -  I had a hamburger for lunch at a local spot with a nice patio.  I don't happen to like cheese on my burger, just mustard and tomato and the bun was "whole wheat." I am sure it wasn't the healthiest choice in the world, but it tasted like a treat and now I have had my red meat for the month.

I still haven't bought a new scale and the digital one suggests I am down another pound.  Not too much damage done.  Except to our hearts.

CAN THIS SCALE BE TRUSTED?

I mentioned that I am using a scale I won at a party and now I am pretty sure it is not to be trusted. Much as I would like to believe that my weight went up 5 pounds and then down 10 in the same week - I don't think that is really what happened! 

The scale is one of those electronic kinds with sensors to measure various stuff and keep track of multiple users.  I am the only user and I never programed it to do anything but weigh me.  Maybe it is trying to burst out of the confines of my simple needs and give me information of a different sort than my weekly weight?

Rather than go through the ups and downs of another week lik this one, I may just head over to CVS and buy an old fashioned scale without a battery and or a brain.

LONG TIME GONE

I have not been here for a long time.  This weekend when the temperatures soared into the 90's I really felt the results of that long time away from paying attention to myself.  Aside from running to the internet to order some larger Spring clothes, I did make a more conscious effort to do more of what I started doing in the past few weeks.

One is that I pulled out the scale I "won" at the work gift exchange last year and weighed myself.  It is a different scale than the one at the gym, but I used that as the measurement I put on SparkPeople.  Next, I started tracking my meals again.  I had managed to get off sugar a few weeks ago and so far I have seen the benefit to the tune of 5 pounds gone.

I am so busy at the new job that I am finding it easy to stick to the portioned meals I am bringing and sometimes don't eat my snack until I am driving home which saves me from a ravenous arrival home.  As long as I don't taste test too much, I am usually good with dinner and I normally don't have a problem with wanting after dinner snacks.  So far I am running at an average of 1450 calories per day.

Activity is an issue.  The job is a bit of up and down, but not especially physical.  I haven't been able to get out to walk at lunch as I had hoped, I need to work on that.  The catch is I am tired when I get home so I don't get exercise in the evenings, either.  Plus there is the whole "second shift" thing with dinner, dishes, housework.  I will work it out.  Things will settle in with the new job and it won't take so much out of me.

So, I'm back. Plan to stay.

POPCORN, MOVIES & ANTIOXIDANTS

Ally and I went to see The Hunger Games on Saturday.  We each polished off a big popcorn (no butter) and called it lunch.  Today I saw this:

Researchers at the University of Scranton (Pa.) ran a lab analysis on the content in several types and brands of popcorn and found that the crunchy hull is rich in polyphenols — antioxidants that prevent damage to cells. Polyphenols also may have disease-fighting properties.

"The hull is where the most nutritional goodies (polyphenols) are — not the white fluffy part," says chemistry professor Joe Vinson, senior author of the study, which was partially funded by a popcorn company.

Fruits and vegetables also contain polyphenols, along with vitamins and minerals not found in popcorn, he says. "I don't want people to think they can just eat popcorn to get all the polyphenols they need. I don't want them to think of popcorn as an alternative to fruits and vegetables."

Oh, and we liked the movie.  They did a good job preserving the story as written in the book.

THE BEST THING ON PINTEREST

This is what has me pondering these days.  I have been driven by nothing but eating for a couple of weeks.  My clothes are too tight, I feel like crap, I am spending money I don't have, I am procrastinating and letting people down..  So being fat and getting fatter is hard.  Time to choose my hard.