Weight Loss Wednesday: Sick, but still moving.

Remember that house from last week?  You know the one that has about ten years of animal fur and dander build-up?  Well cleaning it has made me sick.  Some say it's the chemicals from the cleaners and others say it's the fur/dust/dander.  Who cares what made it happen the point is I'm sick and I have to keep on working.  So there I am in Home Depot, runny nose, swollen tongue, sore throat, and my left eye is watering uncontrollably and sending tears down my left cheek, trying to do a special order.  The poor man who took my order leaned as far away from me as possible as I blew my nose and croaked out measurements in my new and hopefully temporary man voice.   You would think that being ill and working, (kill me now) that I wouldn't have much of an appetite.  Well Sis #1 is in town to help and is trying to make up for a year without oyster po-boys.  It's been a while since I've seen anything that wasn't fried.  So here we go...

Exercise	Still working my butt off trying to get this house in shape before Sept. 6th.  Lots of up and down stairs and carrying 48 lb. boxes of flooring.
Water	Averaging 4 glasses a day.
Food	A week of po-boys.
Confession	A week of po-boys.
Congratulations	I opted for a shrimp remoulade salad once, (not exactly the best option, but it did have veggies
Starting Weight	151lbs
Last Week	139.5
Current Weight	139 lbs
Weight loss	12 lbs
Dream weight	115

I'm not unhappy with my .5 lbs.  I think the only reason I've lost weight is because my appetite isn't in high gear seeing how I'm miserable and sick.  Frankly my diet has consisted of allergy pills, bits of po-boys, multi-vitamins, and orange juice.  When Sis #1 heads back home this week : ( I just may lose more weight because the po-boy diet will have to end.

Weight Loss Wednesday: Who needs exercise when all you need to do is move into a dirty house?

Mama has purchased a house.  It is a dirty, funky, smelly house.  It is full of fur.  I don't think it had been cleaned in the entire ten year period that the previous owners occupied it.  It was a bargain, (no one else wanted it because it was so dirty, funky and smelly), and so between shoveling sand, working on the closing, packing boxes, and cleaning the new house, (three people, one bathroom, in six hours, and I am not lying, six hours to clean one bathroom with three people working), I can barely move.  I forgot to mention moving 1,700 pounds of laminate flooring.  Yes, 1,700 pounds.  I know this because the flooring company printed the total weight of the shipment on the invoice.  I think I heard the truck groan when they put the pallet on the poor old girl.  I am swollen; I am sick, (ten year long fur/dust buildup = allergies), and I can no longer feel my right index finger.  So how much weight have I lost as a result of all this marathon labor?  Let's see...

Exercise	Who needs exercise when they are working like a man 10 hours a day.
Water	Averaging 3 glasses a day.
Food	I'm so tired I have no idea what I'm doing with food.  I recall Sis #2's friend's husband feeding us a salad with dried cherries, and somewhere in there there was some pizza, (the traditional food of moving).
Confession	Pizza, but who can turn down pizza after 10 hours of manual labor?
Congratulations	Well, there was the salad.
Starting Weight	151lbs
Current Weight	139.5 lbs
Weight loss	11.5 lbs
Dream weight	115

Yup, .5 lbs in a week.  I have hauled dirt, flooring, packed boxes, cleaned walls, hauled buckets, all week and all I lost was HALF A FREAKING POUND!  I would cry, but I just don't have time.  Sis #1 is coming in this evening so now I have to marathon clean my house with the help of J and Sis #2 and here I am hiding in the bathroom to put out this post on time, (yay that makes two Wednesdays in a row now).

Weight Loss Wednesday: Yay a pound!

   

Remember that dirt pile, you know the one I've been schlepping at for the past six months?  Well one of the neighbors finally complained, (bless their hearts they really have been patient to have waited this long), and we, knowing this has really gone on too long, promised to put our noses to the grind stone and move the rest of it into the back yard.  So on the hottest day of the year we moved dirt.  All day we moved dirt.  I cannot stress enough how much moving or how much heat/humidity (heat index 114F 69% humidity), we did that day, but I lost two pounds in one day.  So without further ado...

Exercise	Shoveling dirt and hauling wheelbarrows full of dirt is quite adequate.
Water	Averaging 3 glasses a day.
Food	Cutting back on the carbs and aiming for more veggies, (yuck).
Confession	July 31st, I just had to have angel food cake for Harry Potter's birthday.
Congratulations	I opted for salad instead of a hot pocket.  Hey, any small victory will do.
Starting Weight	151lbs
Current Weight	140 lbs
Weight loss	11 lbs
Dream weight	115

Weight Loss Wednesday: Maintaining

I'm a fruit eating turtle.

Well I haven't been losing, but I haven't been gaining either.  It's been six months and I've only lost nine of the twenty pound goal.  I'm not unhappy at all with my progress.  I figure the slow and steady has gotten me into some slightly better habits and because of that I am not yo-yo dieting.  Sis #2 is on this 17 day diet thing and has already lost 10 lbs.  I've taken to some of her recipes, but I'm not getting on that treadmill.  I don't want to spend the rest of my life eating menu plans in 17 day increments.  I've made some changes, seen some results, and when I discipline myself into drinking more water and increasing the veggies I think I will make some more progress.  I remind myself that I'm the turtle, slow and steady.  

Exercise	Very little.  A few lunges and push ups here and there.
Water	Averaging 3 glasses a day.
Food	Cutting back on the carbs and aiming for more veggies, (yuck).
Confession	I caved and ate some grocery store eclairs and man were they bad.
Congratulations	Although I ate the eclairs I ended up finding them too sweet, perhaps my sweet tooth is not so sweet.
Starting Weight	151lbs
Current Weight	142 lbs
Weight loss	9 lbs
Dream weight	115

Weight Loss Wednesday: Oh Phoo!

Sis#2 has been fostering these two kittens since they were 2 weeks old.  I haven't got any pics so I figure who could resist kitten cuteness?

Well I haven't been here in a while.  For the past few weeks I've just been so tangled up I just didn't have room in my head to remember to do everything or even want to.  J is having a hard time right now, I'm helping mom to buy a house, I've had a birthday party, got really sick and have been to Houston for five days over the past two weeks.  So basically it's been Waffle House, fast food, birthday cake and then when I got sick, (like high fever, aches and chills sick), I threw it all up.  I said all of this to say, I've been at 141-142lbs for the past couple of weeks.  Ta dah!

Exercise:  We all know I'm aiming to do the Run With the Bulls this weekend, and yet I've done nothing to prepare.  Well that is if you don't count the one day running up steps for water slides at Schlitterbahn, and the day we rented an inflatable water slide for Sis #3 & my forty-something birthday party, (yeah, we realized the day after we may be just a tad bit old for this kind of stuff).

Water: I'm trying to catch up, (I'm still dehydrated from being sick), and am doing about four glasses a day because any more than that and I feel nauseous again.

Food:  Mostly hot & sour soup this week.

Confession:  I had waaayyy too much cake.

Congratulations:  I got sick.  (It's was saved me from a horrible scale reading)

Weight loss: None really. Oh Pooh!

Current Weight: 141.5

Dream Weight:

Weight Loss Wednesday: Not too unhappy!

Yeah, that's me soaking wet, but happy in Hogsmeade!

Okay last week I was super busy packing for our trip to, (insert major happy-happy joy-joy here), THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER, in Orlando!!!!  It was a last minute decision and I had to wait until we got to the hotel before I could post.  In case you didn't know, I'm wild about Harry!  I had butter beer, fish and chips, pumpkin juice, etc., so my diet wasn't exactly top of my list this past week but I didn't do too bad.  Lots of walking involved so burned a good bit of calories.

Exercise:  Well I thought I did pretty good with this seeing how we walked our buns off.

Water:  Excellent!  There were a few days where I had a full 8 glasses of water.

Food:  Not so good.  Lots of junk food, burgers, fried stuff, sugar, sugar sugar.

Confession:  I ate an entire bag of bread sticks. : (

Congratulations:  I made myself eat a salad at the buffet instead of all that fattening stuff.

Weight loss:  -1

Total weight loss: -3 (Really I'm not too unhappy with this.)

Weight Loss Wednesday: Late, but I can't say why... yet.

Okay I'm not gonna be long on this one, because well, I can't tell yet, but next week I'll fess up.  This week I took Birdie's suggestion and joined Spark People and wow did that open my eyes!  Apparently I am scarfing down tons of calories and carbs like they are going out of style.  So to keep this short and sweet...

Exercise:  I did sprints as I hauled dirt.  I can't believe it but that darn pile is actually getting smaller.

Water:  Up to 4 8oz glasses a day, (yay me).

Food:  Not where I want to be, but I did okay considering...

Confession:  I ate J's Whoppers candy.

Congratulations:  I've done really well with my water.

Weight loss: -2 pounds!

Total weight loss: -2 pounds 

Weight Loss Wednesday on Thursday: Sorry 'bout that.

Well I've been up at Mom's place helping her clean up a storm for a visit from niece #1.  I had no internet while I was up there and was too busy and tired to hit a coffee shop to get the net so here I am a day late.  I did better this week, but not stellar by any means of imagination.  I purchased a top and immediately noticed the difference that a lousy three pounds made, (when you are 4' 9" tall even a couple of pounds make a difference).  I'm getting back on the wagon but I'm going to try a suggestion made by Sis #3's sister-in-law and purchase some of those "lean" frozen dinners.  I am convinced that once I shed five or ten pounds I'll be totally motivated.  My goal was twenty by June and darn it I'm gonna do it if it kills me, (Yeah that's me, the drama queen; it's sort of like a cake or death thing.).  So here's the break down:

Exercise:  Still hauling eight loads of dirt a day.  (Jeez it seems like one dump truck load would be gone by now doesn't it?)

Water:  Did a min. of one glass a day and a few days of two glasses a day.  Not ready to go up to three, but I'm thinking if I can make two glasses a day my new religion for a couple of weeks I'll step it up.

Food:  Doing a lot of late night eating and have decided to do a food diary so that I can see exactly what I'm shoveling in my face.

Confession:  Ate a piece of homemade cheese cake with a wonderful Grand Marnier sauce with satsuma slices, and then ate the other half of niece #1's as well.  But the true confession is that despite knowing it was wrong, I'd do it again.

Congratulations: I stopped myself from having a third snack Tuesday evening.

Weight loss: None, but there was no more weight gain.

Total weight loss: 0

Weight Loss Wednesday: I didn't even want to step on the scale.

I didn't do a thing towards being healthy or fixing my horrible eating habits this past week.  It rained all day for about two and a half days, and then I hit an Easter egg hunt where they had my most favorite of favorite Elmer's Heavenly Hash which is a seasonal thing so I scarfed those chocolate, marshmallow, almond bits of heaven down and then brought some home.  Then there were the fried oysters, fast food, an absinthe, half a beer, (oh alright, three and a half because I also ran into C and we sat in the alley and talked for hours), and a midnight diner run which included homemade onion rings and cheese dip.  I said all this to say that I didn't even want to step on the scale this morning.  So here it is...

Exercise:  none

Water:  I had maybe two days of doing what I was supposed to do.

Food:  Oh I had a lot of food and not one iota of restraint.

Confession:  Well I fessed up already and I'm quite disgusted with myself after this weigh in session so I'm not gonna repeat it if that's okay with y'all.

Congratulations:  Well I did nothing good except have a good time but I don't think it counts in this category.

Weight loss:  none

Total weight loss: None. I gained all three pounds back this week.

Oh fud (I can't curse, but ya know what I mean), I could just sit and eat lemon cake all day I'm so disgusted.  It took months to lose a stupid three pounds and a week to gain it all back.  Yeah I know get back on the horse and all that, but sometimes people just get sick and tired of getting back up on that tired, mangy, old horse.  (Just give me a while to get over my pout and I'll hitch up my belt and get back on the dam [see not cursing] horse).

Weight Loss Wednesday: I need to quit making excuses.

This week I was involved in many projects and so when it was time to pull out my stuff for the garage sale, I said to myself, "I'll do my fifteen minutes this evening."  That evening I was too tired.  When it came to the day of the garage sale I said to myself, "I'm not going to have time to do that this morning."  That evening I was wiped out from the sale and the festival.  The day after I told myself I was giving myself a day off.  I'm sure you see the trend.  I've gotta stop this trend.  So how did I do this week?  Not good.

Exercise:  twice

Water:  Stuck with once a day, but didn't do it twice.  I notice the difference when I don't have that second water.

Food:   Didn't do the fish this week, but we had low fat no meat nachos a couple of nights in a row.  I divided my restaurant meals in half.  Didn't divide the festival food in half though.

Confession:  I had fried oysters and ice cream yesterday.

Congratulations:  I thought I was pretty clever with my nachos.

Weight loss:  More like a weight gain of a pound.

Total weight loss:  -2  : (

We're supposed to get a soaking today, six inches of rain or more, cross your fingers that I don't get stuck in street flooding today.  That is such a pain in the rear, or let's hope that if I get stuck that it's near a bar or restaurant.

Weight Loss Wednesday: Naughty and nice.

I saw this on pinterest and wow, so true!

This week has been one of those on the go kinda weeks.  So much running about, so little time.  For some insane reason I decided that cleaning out the shed was the thing to do this week.  It was bad y'all; you couldn't walk in it at all.  So I worked like a man sorting things, moving things, and cleaning things.  Bless Sis#3's heart, she called and said she was having a garage sale this weekend and did I want in.  Wow talk about timing!  So between the shed and a couple of orbital workouts, I feel like I got some pretty good exercise in this week.  It was the eating that got me.  Here's the run down:

Exercise:  Orbital machine @ 15 min. two days.  Worked like a man three days.

Water:  Doing good with my two glasses a day.

Food:  Not so good this week.  Didn't eat my grilled fish.

Confession:  I purchased an angel food cake and ate the whole thing sans two pieces.

Congratulations:  I didn't buy the carrot cake with cream cheese icing and opted for strawberries and angel food cake instead.

Weight loss:  0

Total weight loss: -3


PS:  The little niece is out of the hospital.  All I can say it that we were beginning to worry for a couple of days there.  The kid was on oxygen and yet her pulse oxygen was 88; It took them a week to get her pulse oxygen up to 94.  Seven days in the hospital with an eighteen month old kid will wear you out.  Sis #3 lost sleep and weight, perhaps she ought to be doing a Weight Loss Wednesday post for this last week. 

Weight Loss Wednesday on Thursday and I've gotta good excuse...

Okay sorry I missed yesterday, but I had to get up at o'dark-thirty to get my mom to her PET scan appt. and our littlest niece (age 1.5) is in the hospital with some sort of bug that has her breathing gone horribly wrong, (breathing treatments every 2 hours and on oxygen to boot).  Anywho, I've been running about doing sis-in-law, (really, hate that term because we grew up together and she's really more like sis, hey, I'll call her sis #3 from here on out,) chores and because Granny, (sis#3's mother-in-law, yeah we grew up with her too so it's just Granny) could use a break with second youngest niece, I'm gonna be doing that tomorrow.   So anyways things are a bit busy.  A quick run down:

Exercise:   Yup!  Three fifteen min. sessions on the orbital, hauling dirt, and assisted in the building of a patio cover.

Water:  Yup!  It has gotten to the point where I actually want that glass of water in the morning or I feel dehydrated.

Food:  Had my grilled fish on Friday, (easy 'cause it's lent and all).

Confession:  I've been scarfing down chocolate kisses left over from Valentine's day.

Congratulations:  I think overall I did well this week.

Weight loss:  Lost 1 pound!

Total weight loss:  3 pounds!

Weight Loss Wednesday: Amped it up a bit.

Okay so losing two pounds in two months is not what I had in mind when I started this thing.  So with the holiday season out of the way, I decided it was time to concentrate a bit more on myself.  I've decided to amp up the workouts to fifteen minutes, do two glasses of water a day, do one veggie a day, (yes I'm that bad), and add one baked fish dinner a week to my diet.

Exercise:  I amped it up to fifteen minute sessions this week.  

Water:  Some days I did one glass, once I did no water, and some days I did two glasses.

Food:  Got lazy on this and didn't do anything weight conscious.

Confession:  I fell off of my 4.5 inch heels and busted my knees so there were only two workouts this week.  Knees are still a bit swollen, but much better today.

Congratulations:  Me and my bo-bo knees got on the orbital machine and worked out 15 min. yesterday.

Weight loss:  none @ -2 and holding

Weight Loss Wednesday: Lent is coming up!

HA!  I love this; want!  Thank you zazzle.com!

I've been thinking that my weight loss plan isn't exactly moving along.  I'm at a negative two and holding; not exactly stellar progress for the amount of time I've put in on this project.  Then I realize, I live in the Greater New Orleans Area.  While the rest of the US has put away the decorations and the feasts from the holiday season, good ole New Orleans has another holiday to go.  I've had king cakes and out of town visitors to feed, and for every parade there is a party with more king cake, muffalettas, and the obligatory crockpot full of jambalaya which BTW is being replaced with Crawfish Monica (or so I'm seeing).  To make things worse, I've got a cousin who's husband has a cousin who's wife has a shop that sells the most fablous pralines ever and every year we are invited over there to catch parades.  God bless her, I swear J has made the best pralines, (and cupcakes too), that I have ever tasted, and so I can't resist, (okay won't resist because that would be plain old stupid.)  Tomorrow night will be another set of parades, (it's gonna rain tonight so we're skipping that), and Popeye's chicken picnic on the neutral ground while waiting on the  parade.  What's a girl to do?  Hold out 'till Lent.

Exercise:  Still moving dirt, lol.  Eight wheelbarrows full a day and yet the dirt pile is still as high as my car.

Water:  Been a good girl.

Food:  When going out I'm still cutting my portions in half, but not doing so well on the home front.

Confession:  I've been hitting the Sugar Smacks cereal at night.

Congratulations:  One skirt and pair of pants felt a little loose.

Weight loss:  -2 and holding...

Weight Loss Wednesday: Stress & Joy

I have not been good this week.  I've been bad and today, (Tuesday), I've been horrible.  In honor of me being horrible I've decided to add another component, the confessional.  Here's the rundown:

Exercise:  1 ten minute workout and two days of hauling dirt.

Water:  I actually did a bit better with this one.  I stuck to one or more glasses of water a day.

Food:  This week we celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary, little sis's birthday, and J's second birthday dinner.  I divided these dinners in half, but lets face it, this is New Orleans and if it isn't fried, it's got butter or sauce or it's fried with butter and has a sauce.  Tournedos au Poivre, pan seared red fish with browned butter and garlic,  roast beef po-boys and the damage is done.


Confession:  I cleaned out the pantry today.  I ate a bag of marshmallows, a pack of graham crackers, and then had yummy greasy pizza.  Bad Jude!  Bad!


Weight loss: gained 1/2 pound.

Weight Loss Wednesday: Yogurt Blech.

So I didn't force myself to drink water until Saturday.  I live dehydrated; it's something left over from my teaching days.  I also forced myself to do my little ten minute workout.  As for food changes, well they weren't too positive.  I tried yogurt which didn't do too well because it was yucky.  Apparently it was yucky because it was past it's due date.  I'm gonna stick with cereal and oatmeal thank you.

Exercise:     one 10min. aerobic exercise
                    shoveled many loads of dirt
                    unloaded several bags of top soil

Water:  Still not drinking a glass a day.

Food:  J was off for the week so it wasn't that great.  I did divide my Mexican dinner in half, and then  purchased a dozen Gambino's petit fours.  Oh New Orleans bakeries how I love thee.

Weight Loss:  One pound.  (probably from the combo of bad yogurt and stomach flu but I'll take what I
 can get)

Pet of the Week:  Zoey!

Zoey wouldn't keep her eyes open.  She's very timid; we think she was abused pretty badly by her previous owners.  It's been four years since we adopted her, but she still cringes when you get too close.

Weight Loss Wednesday: Excuses & Kitty Pic

     Well my first documented week has been a dud.  In my defense I've had a couple of bombs dropped, a family friend died, I've gotten the stomach flu and because it was J's birthday this past week, I've had a nice sized Randazzo's King Cake calling my name all week.

   Okay so here's what I've done to help myself along in my goal:

1.  I choose to do a 10 min. workout once this week.
2.  I forced myself to drink a glass of water for four of the past six days.
3.  I divided my steak and baked potato dinner in half instead of scarfing down the whole thing.
4.  I only ate eight raw oysters on .25 cent oyster night instead of the full dozen.  (I'm not sure that raw
     oysters have a whole lot of calories, but in my defense they weren't fried, or charbroiled)

Weight lost:   None, (Okay really?!  I mean I had the stomach flu for pity's sake!  Grrrr.), on the other hand I didn't gain any weight either.

  Sigh.  Baby steps.

Squeaky Mimi- Ain't she one good lookin' girl?

Weight Loss Wednesday on Thursday

I know, I know, everyone and his brother have done the New Year's resolution thing, but FYI this is not a New Year's thing.  Actually I started at the beginning of December so HA, end of year resolution!

Anyways I'm just sick and tired of being fat, feeling lazy and slow.  Some people like being large, and I like that; it's really awesome actually.  It's just I don't feel 100% at this weight.  So I decided to do something about it.  In baby steps.

This is my chunka munka self.
I'm still feeling a bit shy about putting my face up, but maybe one day I'll get brave.

So here's the basic plan:

1.  Drink more water.
2.  Exercise.
3.  Change some eating habits.

I've decided to add this to my blog to keep me honest.  I'm going to try and consistently put my epic struggle on here every Wednesday, (oh Gawd that means I have to be responsible and make a commitment).  Yeah it's an epic struggle, me drinking water and forcing myself to exercise are near miracles.  Believe it or not the eating habit thing isn't such an epic struggle.  I hope to have lost twenty pounds by June.  Is that reasonable?  Hope so.

Okay hitting, "publish post" with much trepidation...