Cara's Weightloss Journal

This weekend was great! I thought my world as I knew it had come to an end Friday night when my daughter moved out. But when as I made my way through Saturday, things seemed look up a bit. We had lunch with the in-laws and with my daughter and her boyfriend. It was very nice. Just a simple lunch. But we all met at the restaurant, which was kind of cool. It was weird, though, when she made a comment about heading back home to do something and it hit me that she didn’t me our home, she meant her home. I was okay with it, though. She seemed a little bigger to me at that point. But just a little. :)

Then yesterday we spent all day together. I felt like we hadn’t seen each other in so long. I know, I’m weird. She lives a whole 5 minutes away, but it feels like she’s so far away. We went to go see Star Trek in IMAX at 4:40. Who knew they’d be sold out 4 days after the opening day. It must have been because it was in IMAX. The next showing was 3 hours later so we bought the tickets and walked across to the mall and hung out at Barnes & Noble in the coffee shop.

Okay, so here’s the bad part. I had a cupcake. I couldn’t help it. It was one little itty bitty cupcake. I had a fat free, decaf, latte with sugar free syrup. I could have had a full fat, full caf latte with regular syrup, you know. So the cupcake was a small splurge. I thoroughly enjoyed it (even though it tasted a week old and the icing was so stiff my fork actually clunked when I tapped it on top). We shared a Dwell magazine (architect magazine) which was awesome. Stayed there for about an hour and a half then headed back to the theater. The lady who sold us the tickets said we should get there at least an hour early because the line will be long to get into the theater.

So we waited in line for an hour and a half to try and get good seats at the movie. This is a pic of us sitting on the floor waiting (and waiting). So of course we got GREAT seats. Dead center of the theater!

The movie was AWESOME of course, but the best part was the company. It was so cool hanging out with her all day. I really needed that!

After we got home, she came inside for a few minutes to talk about the movie with dad and then she was off for home–her home. The cutest part was that she texted me to let me know she got home safe. Was so cool.

As for my weight loss journey… I overdid it just a smidge over the weekend but I didn’t gain anything (more). I went for my 2 hour bike ride yesterday morning. That was a blast. I called my mom as I was heading out of the driveway and we talked the whole 2 hours. What a great way to spend the beginning of my mother’s day.

I started thinking about something Kathi said about watching every bite I eat and thought it’d be a good idea to start measuring things again. So yesterday morning I poured the oatmeal into my bowl. The same amount I usually put in there. Then I measured out the oatmeal after I’d put it in my bowl. I thought I had a cup full in there but it ends up it was a cup and a half. So instead of 5 points it was 9 points. Ugh! I had no idea! So now I’m going to start measuring things again.

Okay, so the funniest part! When I poured the oatmeal into the bowl, I picked up the bowl and looked on the side for the nutritional information so I could check the points. I actually looked on the side of the bowl instead of the side of the oatmeal carton! =D I laughed at myself out loud on that one. LOL!

I’ll keep measuring things this week and see how far I’ve been off on my serving sizes. Hopefully this will help some.

Oh, did I tell you I want to start training for a marathon?

I decided to try something a little different with this blog post. I’ve been wanting to do a podcast blog for a while but I feel awkward talking to my computer and I’m afraid I might be all that interesting anyways. But I thought this was as good a time as any to give it a try.

So in honor of Mother’s Day and my wonderful mother, I decided to send a Mother’s Day video to my mom. The quality isn’t that great and I think the sound is off from the video a bit, but here goes…

Well, I started the week off right. I went running this morning.

I usually have the hardest time getting out of bed on Mondays to exercise, but I have extra motivation this week because of the 5K on Saturday. I want to run every day this week so I won’t get my butt whipped on Saturday. I don’t expect to win the race or even finish in the top whatever, but I don’t want to be the one that they have to go behind and pick up the cones after. Or worse yet, they pick up the cones before I’m even finished. Ugh.

Actually, my first statement is a bit misleading. I did TRY to run this morning but for some reason I couldn’t run the whole hour. I only ended up running a total of about a half hour. I did my usual 5-minute warm up and then I started out running (very slow). After 15 minutes of running, I started getting shaky. Like I was completely out of fuel. I had eaten a protein bar about 15 minutes before I started and I had a bottle of water in my hand that I sipped on every few minutes. So I know my body had fuel. But I just couldn’t keep running. I had to walk. So I did. I tried another couple of times to run, but could only run for about 5 minutes each time before I’d have to stop and walk.

Who knows what that was all about.

But at least I kept at it for an hour solid.

I’ll try again tomorrow morning and hopefully will be back to my old self.

I ate real well over the weekend. I usually have a free-for-all indulgence at least once after weigh in and maybe again (but smaller) on Sunday. This time I only indulged once. On Saturday we went to Moe’s Southwest Grill. This used to be my absolute favorite place to get a burrito before I started Weight Watchers. I haven’t been since before May ’07. I decided that would be a fun treat. I had the burrito and a small basket of chips with queso. The burrito as it turns out was 18 points! I had it with sour cream AND guacamole so I figured I was in for a big amount of points. But what really shocked me was the chips. This can’t possibly be right. According to their online nutritional calculator, a side of tortilla chips is 18 points. JUST FOR THE CHIPS. Holy cow!! What the heck do they pack in those chips??!!! That seriously can’t be right. The side of queso was only 4 points. I can see where the chips could be maybe 8 or 10 points, but 18??!!

Man!

I was good the rest of the day. Same thing on Sunday. I stayed within my 22 points on Sunday. For the game, I only had a small bowl of tortilla chips (Tostitos) and some salsa. Only 3 points. And they totally satisfied my game day snacking needs. I drank 2 bottles of water during the game, too.

Oh my gosh, the game was amazing!!

Probably one of the best Super Bowls—EVER! That 100 intercept/touchdown by James Harrison was spectacular! Man, we needed that! Then come to find out the guys has been cut from the Steelers team 4 times. Ouch! I think we know why because after his amazing TD he was caught fighting a couple of more times—once resulted in a penalty. But what a run!

And then that beautiful play, or rather series of plays, between Rothlesberger and Holmes—8 plays, 78 yards. How amazing was that.

One of the most spectacular plays of the game, though, I have to concede to the Cards. Was towards the middle of the 4th quarter when Fitzgerald scored their last touch down of the game. This play was beautifully choreographed. Both of the Steelers safeties were pulled to the outside when Warner passes this dead on pass to Larry Fitzgerald, like the skies had just opened up and God himself handed Fitzgerald the ball. He scoops the ball under his arm and head for the goal. Piece of cake considering nearly ALL of the Steelers defense had just been duped into moving away from the receiver. What a play!

The story behind it was even more meaningful considering Fitzgerald lost his mom before he could tell her he was sorry for arguing with her and not speaking to her for months before her sudden death. He was so proud that she’d be looking down from Heaven watching him in the game. And he sure made his mom proud with that play. It was beautiful!

Well, I could go on and on with that game. There were so many great plays and don’t even get me started with that debacle during the first drive of the game when Rothlesberger made a touch down and then it was called back. The call was fair, but man that would have been awesome if the quarterback could have scored the first touch down.

Okay, okay, I’ll stop now.

Go Steelers!

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I borrowed this idea from Confessions of a CF Husband. I really liked the idea. Actually, he said it was okay to do it on my own blog. So I have permission. :)

Here are 7 things you may not know about me:

1. I love hot air balloons. I’ve always been fascinated by them. I love the way they go so slow up into the air and you can only take on just a few passengers. A very intimate experience. And all the different colors and shapes that the balloons come in are just amazing. You know where my fascination started with hot air balloons? The Wizard of Oz. Yup, that’s right, I’m a huge Oz fan. I love all things Oz. But when I first saw the Wizard take off on that hot air balloon and float off back home, I was hooked. And, no, I’ve never ridden in one. One day I will though. I will.
2. I haven’t taken one sip of a carbonated drink since December 1999. Yup, that’s right! I decided as a new years resolution (New Years 2000) I’d give up sodas. I’d heard all kinds of scientists and studies say that carbonation weakens your hair, bones and nails. Well, I have extremely thinning hair and my nails are as flexible as paper. So you might be wondering if my hair and nails got thicker and stronger? No. Darnedest thing… they were wrong. But I still won’t drink the stuff. Now, it’s mind over matter. I gave it up, now I don’t want it any more. No other reason than it’s one small thing that I have complete control over in my life.
3. I’ve never been to Craig’s List or Facebook. No, not just that I’ve never surfed around their websites—no—I’ve never even typed in the address in my browser. I’m a huge social networker on the net. I Twitter. I blog. I subscribe to a thousand RSS feeds. I belong to about 25 different social networking sites. But I’ve never even visited Craig’s List once. Facebook either. I didn’t even go to the websites so I could hyperlink this blog. I don’t have anything against them or anything like that. I’ve just never had the need to go to those sites. Someday, I’m sure I’ll have cause to. Until then…
4. I’ve never been to the town I was born in. Okay, other than to be born there. We lived there for only the first 6 months of my life and then moved to WV which is where I grew up. My sister was born there, too (she’s 11 months older than me—poor mom!) but she went there once with dad. I do want to go there and see the town I was born in, but until then, it’ll just be another town on a map.
5. I was in a Christian band as a teenager. We were called the “Sonshine Singers”. We were a band of 9. There was a keyboardist, base guitarist, lead guitarist, drummer and then 5 singers who sang harmony and melody. I sang harmony. Was only in the band for about a year, but boy what an experience. We travelled all over WV singing at different churches. We never charged admission, but we always took up an offering so we’d have enough gas money to get back home. What a blast!
6. I LOVE boxing! For real! I’m not weird. But I love watching a good boxing match. I don’t like the bloody ones or the ones where the boxers are in cages. I like a respectable fight between two substantial fighters—don’t much care for watching featherweights fight, just doesn’t seem right.
7. My only child was born 10 pounds 1 1/2 ounces! Not many people can say they birthed a 10 pound baby. I can! And I had her all natural—no drugs whatsoever! She was 2 weeks late. She was sunny side up (her face was facing to the front of me rather than to my back). I had to do exercises in the hospital bed between contractions to get her to turn around before she could come out. When she came out, she ripped my pelvis bone apart in the front where the cartilege comes together and she split the bottom of my tailbone in half. But hey, she was all natural, right? Ugh!

So there, now you know 7 things about me that you didn’t know 10 minutes ago (because I guarantee nobody knew all of those things about me), which is more than you can say about some blogs. Feel free to post your own 7 Things list on your own blog… I give you permission to steal from my genius… (ur rather, Nathan’s genius) :)

P.S. If you haven’t visited Confessions of a CF Husband, you really should. Be sure to read at the top right where it says “Start Here“. What an amazing journey they’ve been on. Will make you thankful for the simple things in life, that’s for sure. It did me.