Long weekend recap...and my 100th post!

I've been slightly MIA since last week. Not because I fell off the wagon or anything (although I did have a weekend FULL of good food and lots of wine!) but only because I have been on vacation and have been enjoying the time with my hubby and getting out to enjoy the outdoors.

But today it is back to reality, back to work and back to my meal plan. Actually Monday and Tuesday were on plan (with the exception of a small teeny tiny love affair with a brownie on Monday night) I feel good about getting back on track and last night Scott and I went for a 35 min power walk. It's not much but I NEED to get back in the habit of exercising regularly. Last night I realised how much I actually miss it. It felt so good after I was done and I could feel that all too familiar burn in my legs and butt which only reminds me of how long it's been since I have gotten out to get any exercise. I plan on getting in 2 more 45 min power walks before the week is over and next week I am hoping to get in 4 good 45 min walks to gear myself up for the C25K program. I may just start it next week though. For those of you who have completed the program....did you jump right in or did you try to get your exercise groove back before diving in head first?

I'm also contemplating buying a mini trampoline. A friend of mine swears by hers. Especially during the winter she just puts it in front of her TV and watches TV for an hour or so and she says she gets a great workout. Anyone have one??? I think it would be great for the winter when walking outside isn't always an option. And I've heard those thing are great for your legs and butt. I'm going to go check them out this weekend I think. I'd LOVE to get some feedback form you guys though!

So we had our housewarming party on Saturday and we had so much fun! We had about 45 people show up which was great and we got tonnes of great presents!! We had a sweet bonfire and a washer tournament (for any of you that are form the country!)

Here are a couple of pictures from the night. Surprisingly I was looking through the pictures for pictures of our house and there are NONE!! I wanted to show off all the renos that we have done and all the great colors we chose for the house but I will have to post them this weekend. I have some great before and afters! This one on the right is of me and a few of my friends. Not the most flattering pic as I'm kind of straddling the camping chair!! The one on the left is CLASSIC Carolyn. It's too funny. This picture sums me up perfectly. Smile on my face, glass of wine in my hand (almost empty, as it usually is), holding on to one of my best friends. This is when I am happiest! (also you could insert my husband where my friend is!! haha) It was a great night and we all had a great time but what a mess! I spent 2 hours the next morning cleaning up after my messy friends! People keep posting up new pics on Facebook so I may have some more shortly.

Can't wait to check up on all of your blogs! I've got a ton of reading to do! Take care!

Long Weekend here we come!!

It's been a pretty good week I must say. I haven't been perfect, but let's face it, I rarely am.
I have the nagging urge though for the past week or 2 to go back on WW and get back to the structure and the counting points. Basically what I have been doing for the past month or so is to follow SFL (Simply for Life) on the weekdays and then basically eating my face off on the weekends. Last weekend wasn't too bad. I did ok during the days but then Saturday night rolled around.......... and I had cheesecake..........and I had swedish berries (those things are addictive!) Then Sunday rolled around and after spending the whole day working on the house, painting and cleaning, Pizza shack sounded pretty damn good. So Garlic fingers and Caesar salad were on the menu. Although I haven't gained any weight, I still feel like this is certainly an unhealthy way to eat. I end up gaining a couple pounds on the weekend and then I eat super healthy during the week and by Friday I am back down to comfort zone. I just seemed to have slipped into this pattern with all the summer activities. BBQs, weddings, showers, get togethers and parties, camping. It just never ends.....except it has to. I need some sort of structure and I could certainly stand to lose these last 10 or 15 lbs. The worst part is, I have 3 weddings to go to in September, one in October and one in November. Everyone and their dog seems to be taking the plunge this summer and fall! BUT that is no excuse. That is what flex points are for right????

I also want to start the C25k program. I have been contemplating it for so long and I'm ready. I've downloaded the program onto my Mp3 player and I'll going to rock this program. Anyone who has done it and completed it...have any advice? I'm going to be doing it outside instead of on the treadmill as I want to get out and enjoy the great new neighborhood I live in!! (the fact that I don't actually OWN a treadmill MAY have a contributing factor in this decision as well)

I am actually excited to be going back to WW. 'm not in any big rush to lose the weight this time so I think I will be able to relax and try out some great new recipes. I did try Roni's Spaghetti Squash Lasagna and WOW! It is fantastic!! I am anxious to try this one out again...and again!! Mmmm and SO little points!!

BB8 tonight....I definitely love Eric and Jessica together buy the guy needs to get some game!! I would like to see Jameka go home tonight...I kinda like Jenn. What about you guys?

Monday again? Already?

Where do the weekends go? It seems like 5 minutes ago it was Friday afternoon and I was heading home from work all excited for a great weekend! Well at least I did have my great weekend! We had a great anniversary, went out to a beautiful dinner and we actually ended up going to St. Martins, a little town on the water about 30 minutes from our house. It has these massive caves that you can walk through when the tide is out. It's absolutely beautiful!! Luckily we got there when the tide was out and we had a great time walking through the caves and on the beach.

We also got tonnes of work done on the house! I would even say that by the end of the day tomorrow, we'll have all the painting DONE! That is so exciting, we've been living and breathing painting for the past month and I am seriously done with it for at least a few good years!! We are having a big housewarming party this Saturday so I am seriously looking forward to sitting around with all my friends, enjoying my new house and a bottle of wine...or two. ;)

This weekend food wise was not my worst but it certainly was not my best. Cheesecake and ice cream and garlic fingers were all involved. I don't feel awful this morning but I definitely don't feel as great as I did on Friday! But I'm still sticking with my plan of enjoying myself on the weekends and being super strict through the week. Today I am back on track but I'm seriously not delusional enough (yet) to believe that I will stay on track through my housewarming party weekend. I know I'm going to have too many glasses of wine and too many finger foods but like I said, you gotta live a little, especially during the summer. You can't avoid life forever. It gets in the way. Simple as that. Right now, I'm happy with my weight and as long as I stay in my comfort zone than I am happy. I would love to lose another 10 or 15 lbs but I know that will come eventually and I will get down to business in September. Right now I'm enjoying my summer before it's gone!

That being said...Some evil person in my office brought in those huge gingerbread cookies with the red jam in the middle...Do you guys know what I'm talking about??? They are just sitting right outside my office and I can practically taste them from here! It's only 9:00 in the morning but I swear I could eat the whole package right now. But I won't. I need to be strong here!!! They are so darn good though....I need to stay away from those things!!!! I can't give in. Nope. No way.

BB8 last night was great! Very entertaining but I seriously wish Eric and Jess would just go for it! They keep tiptoeing around it...just hook up would ya?!?! I think Danielle made the best choice for her for her nominations. Did anyone else find it weird that there were no pics of her bf in her HOH room this time around....and there was a letter from Nick and not her bf. Maybe he hit the road after he saw Danielle kissing Nick in bed. Hmm. What do you guys think?

I think I may have found it...

I have been having a great few days on my meal plan and I must say, I am feeling fantastic!! Monday and Tuesday I did not waiver and didn't even consider it for a moment. My clothes are starting to feel loose again and I finally feel like I'm back in the zone. I found my motivation!! Yesterday I went to Homesense & Walmart looking for some pictures for the house (found a BEAUTIFUL painting for our dining room!!) and I was waiting to pay for it and I saw those darn Cadbury thins...the Toffee ones were just staring me in the face, I think I even reached out for one at one point but pulled my hand back!! I just remember thinking, "I know I shouldn't, but what is one little 100 calorie chocolate bar going to do really???" Then I got to thinking about how Ms. Kelly found her motivation and how great she felt and I was thinking that I WANT to feel that great so I walked out of the store sans chocolate bar...so Thanks Kelly!! and everyone else who motivates me to make the right decisions!!! You are all lifesavers!

I've decided that this weekend, Saturday is going to by my cheat day since Scott and I have a whole day planned for our 3 year wedding anniversary. We are starting the day off by going to a beautiful beach that is about 45 minutes away. We are just going to laze around, soak up some sun, maybe play a little frisbee and have a picnic there. Then we are heading to a really sweet small town that's right on the water about 30 minutes away from the beach. It's one of those small towns that you would see in the movies and it attracts tonnes of tourists during the summer months since all of the old fashion ma and pa shops are open and you can find some really neat things there. Since it's right on the ocean, you can go on amazing whale watching tours and we've been considering hitting up one of those as well. I am packing our lunch so I should be able to make something relatively healthy. Then we are coming back home in the late afternoon and going out to a really fancy restaurant in town. I even have a new dress to wear. After that (and this part really attests to the type of people Scott and I are) we are going home, throwing on some comfy clothes and then we are heading about 40 mins out of town to go to a drive-in movie theatre! It's going to be a great day (as long as the weather cooperates!) So needless to say, I won't exactly be following my meal plan on Saturday but Sunday I'm going to jump back on the wagon and stick to it. Next weekend is our housewarming party so I want to look and feel good for that.

I've been so busy working on the house that I fell asleep before BB8 even started last night!! I was laying on the couch waiting for it to come on and I was out by 9:00! Scott tried to wake me up when is started but I was out. He did fill me in this morning though about what happened. Why does America HATE Eric so much? They keep giving him the most ridiculous tasks...like give Jessica the silent treatment?? C'mon America...give him a break! I feel bad for the guy because he would probably be playing the game a lot differently if he wasn't America's choice. I can only hope that ED goes home on Thursday but Scott told me that Jessica is starting to wonder if Dustin and ED are in some sort of alliance together...What is THAT??? Since I only got the cliff notes from Scott, I need you ladies to fill me in!!

Monday Monday

Well here we are again. Monday. Monday Monday Monday.

What did we do this weekend? Paint. That's it. Just painted all weekend. I'm so sick of painting, I'm keeping our house the same color for the next 10 years! On the bright side, our kitchen is completely done now and so is our living room and dining room so we should be able to start unpacking some very soon! I will post some before and after pics of the kitchen sometime this week for those of you who are wondering what it looks like after all of our hard work!

We did get to a bonfire on Friday but I was pretty good and didn't completely pig out although I did help myself to 2 Smore's. YUM! They were good too! Our neighbors invited us over and there were a few other people from the neighborhood there so it was a nice welcome and they all seem to be great people. So we are pretty relieved about that!

I attended every dieter's worst nightmare on Saturday night....a bridal shower. The amount of food was incredible. I couldn't even get over it! There was a huge buffet with tonnes of desserts and cakes and breads and I could go on and on. Needless to say, Saturday was my cheat day!
Sunday I did pretty good for staying on track but after supper Scott and I took a drive and ended up at ...where else? DAIRY QUEEN! Although for once I made a good decision. Well it wasn't really "GOOD" per say BUT instead of ordering my usual medium blizzard with chocolate chip cookie dough AND smarties....I had a medium soft serve cone. It's about a 1/3 of the points so even though I did splurge a little, it could have been way worse! Considering I worked on the house for 7 hours on Sunday, I think I deserved a little treat.

That's my weekend report. I've also made some decisions about my meal plan but I'll share more on that later. Long story short, I'm going to ride out my current meal plan until Sept 10 because it seems to keep me in my safe range weight-wise. If I am good all week and splurge a little on the weekend, it usually balances out and I can stay within the same 5 lbs range. On September 10 I will be returning to WW full force which means I'll be journalling my menus everyday again. I can't believe it but I actually miss counting my points and I miss the freedom that WW has. I can't wait to go back!

BB8 last night was GREAT! I'm so glad to see Dick up there on the block!! I would love to see him go home! Even though he makes for good TV, I can't stand the man. The way I figure it, if he wins the POV, he'll give it to Danielle and if Danielle wins it, she'll use it on herself so hopefully the man is going home. What did you guys think?

How was everyones weekend?

Where oh where could it be???

Still searching everywhere for that damn motivation......

I haven't been eating anything bad, I just haven't been sticking to my meal plan and I haven't been counting points in any way. The worst part is, I don't FEEL like I've gained any weight at all. My clothes are all still fitting fine and I feel good. That is possibly the worst part (I know I'm completely contradicting myself here!) But I know that if I felt awful and my clothes were tight and I felt like I was putting on a few pounds, then I would get my butt in gear and I would do something about it. Instead, I feel pretty good, I don't feel fantastic but I feel good and I feel content. It's a risky business lemme tell ya. I know I'm at the high range of my comfort zone but I just have no motivation. But I've decided that on Sunday I'm going to spend a few hours pre planning my meals and making my menu so that on Monday I have no excuses and I can get back on track. Next week I'm going to drop a pound or two. I'm going to do it. I just need to find my motivation before Monday, I miss it and it's been missing for a while. My plan is to eat relatively healthy all weekend and hopefully when I weigh in on Monday morning, I won't be devastated. We don't have anything major planned this weekend, no glamorous parties or big events planned so I'm going to stay away form the wine this weekend and I'm going to make some healthy choices. NO Pizza Shack this weekend. We have gone there for the past 2 weekends since it is literally 1 minute down the road from us and I can definitely see a habit forming! I always order the Caesar Salad (which we all know is a nightmare!!) and I swear I convinced myself while eating it that it is totally a healthy option. It is a SALAD isn't it? With lots of green lettuce??? (we won't mention the bacon bits and croutons AND dressing that probably has enough calories to put a small animal in a coma)

Sigh....

BB8 is on tonight! I really hope that Eric doesn't go home only because I want to see the look on ED's face when he finds out that he doesn't rule the whole house. He acts like a 12 year old and he's always picking fights with everyone. Don't get me wrong, it makes for good TV but the man has the intelligence and attitude of a 12 year old! Jenn is right. As much as I don't like Jenn, ED won't leave the poor girl alone and I must admit that it says a lot about her character that she taken a swing at him. I can't believe she entered into an alliance with the man after what he's put her through but I guess she needs to do what she needs to do to stay in the game. We'll see tonight....

It's ALMOST Friday everyone! YAY!

Holding on for dear life....

This has been my relationship with the weight loss wagon over the past week. I just can't seem to get that motivation going. Over the long weekend, I ate my face off and on Tuesday morning, I don't think I've ever felt so horrible. We just had so much going on over the weekend. We were so busy painting and working on the house, it was just easier to BBQ some hot dogs or order from the pizza shack then to actually plan out and cook a good meal. Our kitchen still isn't entirely finished...should be done tonight though! That makes it even more difficult since all of our pots and pans are still packed up. We also had a housewarming party to go to with tonnes of food and of course there was no shortage of wine either....BUT that is no excuse right?? I need to smarten up and be strong!

I keep making excuses and saying that at the end of the summer, I'll get back to my serious old weight loss mode but if I don't smarten up, I'm going to have more than 15 lbs to lose by the end of the summer! I get so frustrated with myself but I just can't help it. I've created this awful habit that has led me to believe that I can eat whatever I want from Friday night to Sunday night as long as I am good all week. It's so hard to break! It's like as soon as Friday comes, I start craving junk food...chocolate and those damn swedish berries...they get me everytime!

On the exercise front...I have completely let go of the wagon. Grrr. I haven't worked out in 3 weeks! To my defense though I have been painting almost every single night and have been working around the house non stop. Basically, Scott and I come home from work, eat supper and then paint and work on the house for about 3 hours before we crash. So it's not like I have been sitting on the couch every night but still, I miss my walks and I am REALLY looking forward to starting the C25K program! It's just hard to find the time. We are having our hosuewarming party in 2.5 weeks and there is so much left to do to get ready for it. I would like to have everything painted by then and the stress of possibly not having it done is causing me to lose sleep at night! So I know once we get that over with, I'll have a little more time to myself and I'll be able to really commit to the program.

Well I think I thrown enough negative energy out there today...I just really need some motivation this week....any suggestions?

It's Friday!!

Well it's finally here! Not only Friday but Friday of a long weekend! Finally. This week has felt like years! Most likely because I'm anxious to be home for the weekend and get some serious work done on the house! I will take some "after" pictures hopefully this weekend and post them up. Since you've all heard me go on and on about the renovations, I may as well post some pictures :)
Last night we had company for supper. I was a part of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program when I was young and my "Big" and I still keep in touch although she lives about 12 hours away from me. She was in town this week so she stayed a couple of nights with her 2 girls and we spent hours catching up (and getting little sleep!) I did ok for supper, we had BBQ'd chicken, salad and corn on the cob. We cooked the Corn right on the BBQ which was nice, it came out really juicy and tender so I will definitely be trying that again. Scott also picked up a huge loaf of Italian bread and I did have 2 generous slices of that (which I shouldn't have) Other than that I have done well sticking to the plan. I did WI this morning and I stayed the same as my mid week WI. Still within my comfort range but I am going to try to be good this weekend. It's hard especially on long weekends because you get that extra day of "oh well, it's the weekend, this ice cream won't hurt me!"
We are going to a housewarming party on Saturday night so I will try to save myself up for that. I plan on having a few drinks and relaxing but as most of you know, that can be severely dangerous to your meal plan. They are also having a big bonfire and of course there are always S'more ingredients hanging around....*sigh*
BUT at least I know I have done great all week, haven't strayed form my plan and honestly I feel great! I feel like I am back to my 'target' weight and my clothes are fitting just the way I want them too so I'm happy to be back here!
I MISSED BB8 last night because of my company. Since I haven't seen her in about a year I thought it would be rude to just plop down on the couch for an hour and ignore her and her kids! But I STILL can't believe I missed it. Of course as soon as I got to work this morning, I read the episode guide to see what happened. I can't believe Nick left!!!!!! and Danielle VOTED FOR HIM TO LEAVE! What????? Did I miss something? So we have to wait until Sunday to find out who won HOH it looks like? Crazy! If I missed anything important fill me in girls!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Mid week WI

I jumped on the scale this morning not really sure what I was expecting. I haven't felt like I have gained any weight. I have been staying super active around the house, painting, unpacking and I have barely had time to laze around. Even though I haven't been working out, I have been staying active for sure.

As for the food front, I have been doing my best, considering I don't have access to my kitchen at the moment. I did have a slip up Monday night with Wendy's. Scott had a ball game an hour after work so we really didn't have time to go home and eat so instead of me doing the smart thing and packing a supper for myself, we ended up at Wendy's. I got a Jr. Hamburger Deluxe and a baked potato...could have been worse but I'm still kicking my butt on that one. Other than that, this week has been going well. I was pleasantly surprised when the scale showed me 1.5 lbs down from last Friday. I'm finally back in my comfort zone. This is the biggest loss I have had in a long while! I'm still 2 lbs away from the lowest I have been (back in May) but at least I am back down around where I want to be. I will still do my official WI on Friday and hopefully I will be happy with the results! I still would like to lose another 15 lbs but really I am in no rush. Scott and I are talking about heading down South at the end of April next year. Either Dominican (We've been there once on our Honeymoon), Mexico or Cuba. There is a big group of us going down...any suggestions on where we should go? I DEFINITELY want to be in bikini shape by then and in order to be there I would need to lose about another 10-15 lbs or so. I have never owned a bikini in my life and this is my big chance!

I have heard so many success stories about the C25K program so I decided to try it out!! I will be starting next Tuesday. I have done a similar program before but ended up stopping because I had a tightness in my knee that only came up while running so I cooled it off for a while. Now I am going to give it another shot. If the tightness in my knee persists, I may try a brace or get some suggestions from my Doc. Anyone else have this problem? It may just have been the program I was on, may be have been too much too soon. Also I was running on a treadmill, this time I will be braving the great outdoors! I've heard that it is much harder to run outside so I'll be putting that theory to the test!

How is everyone else doing today and this week??