peace + love + cupcakes

Earlier today I had posted the following quote:  

Sometimes, the people who are thousands of miles away from you, can make you feel better than the people right beside you. 

This sentiment rings true for me so much today.  Earlier in the week Julie (who has lost over 300+ pounds on WW and is at goal) asked me for my address. She promised that she wouldn’t have pizza delivered to my house or stalk me so I gave her my address.   I’ve “known” Julie for over a year.  I first found her on Twitter and we became email buddies sharing struggles (mostly mine) and she’s been very supportive.   She told me that she wanted to send me something since I am very close to hitting a 100 pound loss and that she was very proud of me.  Just her telling me that was enough.  But boy she sure surprised me today!

If you follow Weight Watchers or have seen Jennifer Hudson singing in the commercials, you know that their motto is Believe.  

I am you

You are me

If you want it you got it

You got to believe

Believe in yourself…

Julie sent me this priceless bracelet to remind me to always believe.  

I can do it.   

I can lose weight.  

I can be healthy & fit.  

I will wear this proudly knowing the meaning behind it.  

Julie thank you so much for believing in me.  I am so lucky to be able to call you my friend. 

Let’s get today’s weigh in out of the way.  I stayed the same as last week.  I am so frustrated.  

I didn’t weigh in at all during the week because I am trying to not obsesses over the number on the scale but it’s really discouraging when you think you had a great week and then nothing changes.  Give me a freaking gram for crying out loud.  I won’t be reaching my Bay 2 Breakers goal and that pisses me off.  Ahhhh!  Ok I am over my tantrum.   

I ended up using 21 of my Weekly Points and earning 41 Activity points.  I ate more this week but I tried to make good choices.   The Weekly Points allowance is something that still puzzles me.  Am I supposed to use them? Am I not?  Are they there for special occasions?  Talking to some people on Twitter some use them, some stay away from them and others feel like if they use a percentage of them they seem to lose.  No clear answer — that’s one of the things that frustrate me with WW.  My goal for this week will be to not use them and see how I do.  This is a new week and a new opportunity to improve.  

I completed Day 18 of the Boot Camp Challenge this morning and here are my results as to how I’ve improved:

Initial assessment:

Push-ups (modified): 25

Sit-ups (modified): 31

Body weight squats: 30

Today’s results:

Push-ups (modified): 57

Sit-ups (modified): 66

Body weight squats: 59

Holla!    I even impressed myself.  After 18+ days of following this program, I have gotten stronger.  My exercise for this week is to walk on the treadmill in prep for my race on Sunday.  But next Monday I will start this program again upping the intensity and also using heavier weights.  Even if it’s only 10, I want to be able to do a proper push up and sit up so I have to continue working on it.

I took a break last week from drinking meta-d and I can say that I am going back to drinking it every morning.  I definitely felt like I had more energy the week I drank it and wasn’t as hungry.  One of the things that I am also thinking about is trying to eat clean.  Looking at my food tracker I realized that I do eat a lot of processed food.  I’ve been thinking of trying the Tone It Up Nutritional plan since I like a lot of the recipes that they have on their site but it’s $150 and I just can’t spend the money right now.  Cassey from Blogilates has her own 90 day meal plan which is free.  She designed the meal plan off of Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet.  I am going to be reading more about it and won’t make the decision this week but it’s something to consider.  Anyone follow any of these clean eating plans?  

This week was a good week for me.   I tracked all my food and activity on WW.  When I weighed in this morning, the scale showed a loss of 1.6 pounds.  I wanted it to be more but I am content with the number.  I am now 7.2 pounds from a 100 pound loss which I want to reach by May 20.  Not sure if that’s going to happen now but I will keep trying.  

My goal was to earn 40 activity points this week and I earned 52. Yeah!  I also tried to hit my daily points goal but on a couple of days that was an issue.  I just wasn’t hungry.   I did use 6 of my weekly points. To me this looks like a successful week.   

For the next two weeks, my goal is to go back to the gym & exercise on the treadmill. I need to get ready for Bay 2 Breakers and will continue to do the Boot Camp Challenge app. I was feeling really positive this week and felt like I was back on track.   

I also drank meta-d every day and I don’t know if it’s working for me or if it’s all in my head but I did feel more energetic all week and I wasn’t very hungry during the week like I had previously been.  

My goals for April were:

1. Lose 8 pounds: actual pounds lost were 2.2
2. Workout at least 1000 minutes: actual minutes were 485 
3. Walk at least 50 miles: actual miles were 6.2 miles
4. Workout at least 21 days: actual days were 12

One of the things I need to stop doing is weighing myself daily.  It does nothing for my mental health. I’m becoming a bit obsessed with the number on the scale and it’s not healthy way to be.  I came to this realization on Friday after seeing the scale jump up & down every day.  When I weighed myself this morning, I didn’t know what to expect.  Seeing a .7 pound gain pissed me off.  Granted it isn’t much but gaining a pound last week just keeps me further of reaching my goal of 100 pound loss by May 20th which is Bay 2 Breakers.

I worked out three days last week and since I was counting Points I stayed within them.  Only one day (Friday) did I go over them and it wasn’t due to a binge.  I had (huge ass) Blue Moon beer which I have not had beer in a really long time. Looking at my Points tracker I realize that on three days I didn’t reach my daily points total.  Could I not be eating enough?

Tracking has become more of a nuisance than becoming a tool to help me lose weight.  Going back and forth between counting calories and points it’s not helping me.   When I am supposed to be counting points I can’t help but think of the calories and vice versa.  I need to pick one method and stick to it.   Weight Watchers has helped me lose 90+ pounds so I am going to continue with it.  Counting calories helped with overeating but I think (at least I hope) that I am getting a handle on it.

Weekly goals -

• Re-read WW material and treat it as if I was a new user.  It has worked for me when I follow it properly.  Seems pretty silly for me to stop doing something that’s working for me. 
• Drink 120oz of water daily.  Last week I drank 120oz 5 out of the 7 days so to me that’s a win especially since prior to this week I would be lucky to drink 40 oz.  
• Work out 5 days this week.  
• Try out a new recipe.  
• Do not weigh myself until next Monday. 

My meatza brings all the boys to the yard

And they’re like, it’s better than yours

Damn right, it’s better than your’s

I could teach you but I have to charge

I’ve had this song stuck in my head all day long.  I made a veggie meatza for dinner tonight and it was so good.  I first tried a Greek meatza at the Fitbloggin’ meetup this past weekend.  Here’s is the Paleo recipe for it:

For the base I used 2 containers of Jenni-O Extra Lean Ground Turkey Breast.

After it’s all mixed, I put in in a pan and spread it as thinly as I could.  Because I used more meat than the recipe called for, I left it in the over for a few more minutes to compensate for the thickness of it.  

Here’s what it looks like out of the oven.  They recommend that you switch pans or remove any excess fat but since I used extra lean meat, there wasn’t any grease on the pan.  

Added all the toppings:  2 cups of baby spinach, half of a yellow bell pepper, 1 cup of pasta sauce, 1/4 cup of crumbled feta & 1/4 cup of red onion.  

After it’s broiled for 10 minutes (again I left mine longer due to the thickness), it was done.  So yummy!  

Nutritional info:

I cut it up so that it made 9 servings.  Each serving has 190 calories ( 153 calories for the base & 37 calories for the toppings) and 5PP+ (4PP+ for the base & 1PP+ for the toppings).  It took about 30 minutes from start to finish.  The possibilities for toppings are endless so I can see myself making this recipe quite often.  

I had four things on my to do list today:

1. Lunch with friend
2. Go to Apple store and get new iPhone case
3. Go to the grocery store
4. Work out

Which one do you think that I didn’t get done? Blah… working out. Not because I didn’t have the motivation but yesterday I ate a bad meal. And by bad, I mean junk food. I was under my goal for points so I didn’t over eat. I just ate a lot of crap food for dinner. I’ve been bloated and my stomach feels like there are two hamsters in it fighting a duel to the death. I feel horrible but I’ve learned a lesson this week. You are what you eat. If you eat crap, you’ll feel like crap.


I made a healthy meal for dinner. It was a taco salad inspired by Marlena’s video.

These ingredients made for two servings.  Each serving is 557 calories or 10PP+.  For the dressing, I mixed some medium salsa and some Bolthouse blue cheese dressing at 80 calories/ 2PP+ per serving.  I had it for dinner and it was very satisfying.

I don’t think I shared that I made some spinach chips last week.   I saw the recipe on Pinterest & tried it out.   The baked spinach came out very wafer like and it was a nice treat.  I think I definitely prefer kale chips over spinach though.