A Quick Note...

Because I'm a tech-loving girl, all of my email notifications for comments naturally come straight to my phone. Anyone who has been around me when one of these notifications have come through since my last post probably things I'm a certifiable emotional wreck by now. The love, support and kind words from all of you has bee nothing short of amazing. This community of bloggers is truly without comparison...

Sunday night/Monday morning, I will be posting a follow up to that post (go here if you haven't read it), but I just wanted to let everyone know that I am hanging in there... continuing to "feel" my emotions... and mostly how thankful I am for all of the wonderful support.


Happy news of the day... I got a new Hungry Girl cookbook... so when I get back from Cali I will have more new recipes to try. My big weekend plan is to get out and enjoy the weather... I swear if I don't get my feet in some sand and water tomorrow there are gonna be serious problems, lol.


Oh and I must start considering packing for my trip... 7 days in Cali... how many outfits could one girl possibly need??????

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

The Weekend Experience

After all of the struggles over the past few weeks, I am relieved to report that I had a very successful holiday weekend! I have to start with my BIG NSV because I am so excited about it!!!

For the first time in 13 years, I got to go on my very favorite carnival ride... The Ring of Fire.

Three or four summers ago, I remember looking at it longingly - knowing there was no way I could squeeze my wide hips in there with another person (and they require two riders). When I was in high school, it was a tight fit for me and my then BFF... so there was NO chance that I'd fit after packing on an extra 60 pounds from my high school weight.

When the carnival was here in the spring this year, I knew I was small enough to fit once again... but there was no freakin Ring of Fire. Driving to town Thursday night, I saw it sitting there in all its glory and was giddy with excitement. The next task was finding a victim to accompany me... enter my friend Melissa... who just happened to come stay the weekend. We got to the carnival and the darn thing was closed for some unknown reason! I was so bummed... I could have cried. We let the kids do their thing and toward the end of the evening it was reopened and I got to ride... FINALLY! Not only did I fit... I fit with room to spare!!!!! It was amazing!!!!

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Saturday was a busy day. My friend, Melissa, was here with her oldest son and three year old niece. We took the kids to one of the local parks/forts and had a blast walking all over. I couldn't find my pedometer (a sure sign that I've been away from my normal routine for way too long), but I think we probably walked about three miles all together. Plus, every time we came to a staircase, I went up and down them a couple times each while waiting on the kids. The kids were pretty worn out by the end of the day... burned some extra calories carrying the three year old around at various points. It was also pretty cool, we happened to run into an old friend and his kids there... I used to babysit them when they were little, but hadn't seen them in years. We packed along sack lunches for the day... mine was filled with a whole wheat bagel thin spread with laughing cow cheese, a pine nut mix with dried cranberries, and a 100 calorie pack of cookies... satisfying and a perfect amount for a busy, on-the-go afternoon. Plus, I was pleased with myself for not caving in to the temptation of fast food...

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Food was a better experience in general this weekend... despite the "crap food friends," lol. I ended up doing a lot of cooking... and for the most part there was no complaining. Food items included homemade chicken taquitos (about 225 calories for two of them) and a breakfast scramble with turkey kielbasa, onion, garlic and tomato. Seriously, I don't think they even realized they were eating healthy foods. Thank God for Hungry Girl recipes. :)

At my Mom's yesterday, we managed to have a pretty healthy 4th of July meal too. We had grilled kabobs, fruit salad with a yogurt dressing and corn bread. The corn bread was my splurge and it was soooooo yummy... it didn't even need butter.

They do the community fireworks right by her house, so we got to watch from her front yard... super nice to be able to avoid the crowds. The last two years I have been gone on the 4th, so it was lots of fun to watch The Boy One watching the fireworks. He used to be scared to death of them, but this year he was jumping up and down excited and hollering "BRAVO" at the top of his lungs between each burst.

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Monday has proven to be a most relaxing day. I finally finished planting my flowers for the back patio and the veggies are all in pots too. In the afternoon, I was in the car, on the way to the gym, and the weather was soooooo nice I couldn't stand the thought of being cooped up indoors. So... I went to one of the beaches in town and walked. It was a pretty short walk - about a mile - because I was sans-sunscreen... but I walked down on the rocky beach which is a way more intense workout for the legs than the boardwalk portion. It felt good to get out there. If the weatherman is right, we are headed for a stretch of awesome weather... which makes me itch for all the different beaches and trails... I can't wait! I'll just have to dash into the gym for some weight training. I just installed RunKeeper on my NEW phone, so that will be fun to use too!

Drazil says I must report on my trip to Victoria Secret... among other things... so I shall try to oblige her in my next post. Also, I know I have some awards that I've been terribly remiss in responding too... thank you so much for them... they mean more than you know...

Keeping my fingers crossed for a happy scale day...

Okay So I'm Not Alone :)

The last thing I did before I went to bed Saturday was write my last post... well that and shed a few more tears before I finally crawled into bed. When I woke up this morning, I was so touched by all of the encouraging comments... so I want to take a minute to respond to each of them.

Chris- I really appreciate that you know what military life is like & can relate. Communication is really a big obstacle for us - its one of his biggest deficits... but I do the best I can with it. And without God & my Bible, I don't think I could do any of it...

Girl Bandit- Thanks for thinking I'm strong. I don't feel so strong, but maybe if I hear it enough I'll start to believe it.

Sandy Lee- It totally helps to know you're all out there... more than you realize. :)

Jen- I agree - its so much harder to have close friends as adults. I've tried talking to her, she thinks she's balancing things well so I don't know what is left for me to do but accept what little time she has to share & try to heal the hurt. Thanks for being there. :)

Drazil- Send that # on Mama Pimp... but I promise not to wake you up in the middle of the night (I think, lol). Don't worry I won't eat my hand off... I need it to shovel the food in, lol. Love you

Jamie- He was diagnosed with PDD-NOS when he was five. We are in the process of having him re-evaluated at Children's right now. I try really hard to use that type of approach with him, but its VERY difficult to get him to express his feelings. Its extremely frustrating; at the same time I know there are parents out there that have children with much greater disabilities, so I try to be thankful.

Seth- Thanks for your prayers. :)

You don't know how thankful I am for all of you. I truly don't feel so alone when I see all of your wonderful comments. It especially means a lot when they come on a weekend... I know how busy weekends are for people.

Oh, at 3:30am I got awakened by a phone call from The Husband. I'm so glad he called, but sadly I was so tired that I barely remember the conversation. I do remember that he has arrived safely at his new little part of the sandbox and has to sleep in a tent with ten guys. Can you imagine the "gas" in that tent???? LOL

After the rough end to Saturday, I decided to just chill for our Sunday. No running around, no work, nothing. I even had the guy I turn my work papers in to come pick them up from me (he was really nice and actually offered to do it when I explained what's been going on). The boy one woke up cheerful & apologetic for making me cry (I guess he heard me after I left his room).

Food was okay for me today (I still need to update my food page badly, but its all written elsewhere so its not lost), except I had way too much sugar. Can we say cookies & Mug root beer? But I'm still in my calorie range despite them.

I'll leave you with a few pictures from yesterday's outing. We went to Port Townsend, which is a 30 minute ferry ride away. Its a great little town with all sorts of unique little shops, including one of my favorite bead stores & a fabulous underground restaurant. The nice part is we walk on the ferry & then all around the main street of the town... so its built in exercise and The Boy One loves it there. Living so far from the city, its nice to have a little outing close to home & that doesn't cost us a fortune to enjoy.

One of my favorite things on earth is a view of nothing but ocean & sky... this comes pretty close.

There were a ton of sailboats on the water as we approached the ferry landing on the other side of the water.

The Boy One and I waiting for the return ferry. This was about two seconds before he gave me a huge sloppy joe (aka licked the side of my face).

Our trip home was slowed somewhat when we had to wait for this big cruise liner to pass in front of us. Pretty sure we somehow ended up on the wrong boat and that's the one we were supposed to be on, lol.

Seriously this got me to thinking a cruise might be fun. Have you been on a cruise? Would you do it again?

Good day, Tough Night

Saturday was a good day... The weather was fantastic. I worked. I took The Boy One across the water for an afternoon of exploring, shopping and good food. Then it all fell apart...

Around 10:00pm, I went in to suggest that The Boy One turn his game off and settle down for sleep... he'd had his pill around 8:00, so I figured he'd probably be getting sleepy. He turned the game off and practically threw it at me... telling me to "keep it for a month" because he'd been a "bad boy." This had me totally dumbfounded because his behavior was EXCELLENT on our whole outing. Other than some extra bouncing around when he got excited, there were no behavior issues & I don't even consider that a behavior issue... just an excited twelve year old jumping around like a nine year old. When I told him that he was a GREAT boy all day & asked why he thought he had been bad, he got violently upset. Not as bad as some times in the past... but kicking me and thrashing about. He fell asleep in this tense, angry mood... which is typically not him at all. All I can do is cry...

And I'm alone...

Drazil wrote about how she would be ALONE if she lost her husband and Jenny. I am very much like her in this... pretty much I have The Husband and my BFF. Yes I have other friends... but no one else nearly that close, no one that I could call without looking at the clock first. In all seriousness, there have been periods where I think I literally would have died without them. And now... The Husband has deployed... The BFF is so wrapped up with her new boyfriend that she isn't really "there" like she used to be. So in essence...

I AM ALONE!

Granted its not a permanent alone... The Husband will come home in six months... the BFF might figure out how to have a man she actually wants to spend time with and a BFF too... but for now when I'm in a ball of tears there is no one. So here I am, writing, and glad that all of you care enough to read my ramblings... it helps me feel a little less alone.

And to keep from being a total downer here...

Despite all of the emotional drama right now, I have NO desire to put food or beverage in my mouth. No emotional eating here.

I walked A LOT today... including up and down LOTS of stairs.

And, I have some really awesome pictures from our outing that I'll get posted soon . :)

Good luck to everyone doing Race for the Cure!

This n That

This is going to be one of those posts with a little bit of everything in it... which pretty much reflects where I'm at right now. My mind is going a thousand different directions, its like I've developed adult onset ADD or something, lol.

First things first, thank you for all of the heartfelt comments on my last post. Deployment is nothing new for us, but its sure nice to have supportive friends out there. He finally called tonight to let me know he got to his final destination. And if there's any concern over him being well fed, rest easy... he had lobster for dinner last night (but was bummed that they ran out of steak before he got there).

Next, I finally picked something for my special thing with the "play" money from my first paycheck...


Peridot earrings set in 14K white gold. They were an awesome deal at a local jewelry store that is going out of business & definitely something I wouldn't normally go out and buy for myself.

My only other burst of retail therapy for the day was the purchase of these little 2oz containers...

They are going to be so perfect for pre-portioning things like peanut butter, almond butter, dressings, hummus, slivered almonds, etc. I found them at the restaurant supply store. I can't remember who suggested looking for something like that there, but if you remember making the suggestion you have my thanks! :)

A brief synopsis of the conversation I had with my Mom yesterday. It was her bday, so I went to take her to dinner. In the car I mentioned my travel plans for the coming months. She thinks its TERRIBLE that I'm going to go to Chicago to meet a bunch of people from the "evil Internet." Seriously, you'd think I'd said I was going to be the star attraction at a strip club by the way she reacted.

The Deployment Challenge is under construction... I'm planning to kick it off on Tuesday... so I'm taking my time with the decisions for now. So far, I know that it will involve marathons on the bike, 5 & 10Ks on the treadmill (and maybe outside), and some insanity on the StairMaster for sure. I'm working on the strength training & core parts now. Also, the food part is under construction. Some aspects will carry throughout the whole period and others will change month to month just because six months is a long time and I need variety. I also have to consider rewards because I think its pretty clear by now that I'm motivated by prizes, lol.

As I'm preparing my meal plans & grocery list, I find myself wondering... are there any great, new products out there that I should try? If you've found something particularly yummy lately, please let me know.

My other big plan for the weekend is to find some new furniture for the house. What are your plans for the long weekend?

Weekend Rollercoaster

This weekend seems to have had it all...



Quiet relaxation.


Hysterical laughter.



Tears of sadness.



Tense arguments filled with hurtful words.


Goofy chats.



Productive discussions.





Saturday was mostly about fun... we went to some yard sales & had friends over for dinner. We found new chair cushions for the patio furniture & I got a new plant for the backyard; so looking forward to sitting out there and enjoying the view this summer. I skipped out on working, thank goodness for the ultra flexible schedule right now.



Sunday was a day of productivity. I actually convinced The Husband to do some last minute things that I needed (or thought I needed) his help with... pictures hung, desk moved from the garage to the office, large bags of potting soil hauled to the backyard, etc. We went to the furniture store on base to look at living room stuff... just so I have an idea of what he likes when I go shopping for it (which had better be soon considering we've been using "lovely" folding chairs for living room furniture since the beginning of the month, lol). They are supposed to be having a big sale over Memorial Day... so hopefully I can find something good. I even managed to work for a couple hours in the evening... aren't ya proud of me? lol



Food and exercise still seem to elude me... but I'm okay with it being that way til he leaves. My body did a workout of sorts today... between moving furniture & working on the yard... so I guess that counts for something, right? I love Chris' idea of a "Deployment Challenge" and have been brainstorming on it all day.



My two favorite things about the weekend...




This dress... a size 12!!!!!

I picked it up at Ross a couple of months ago... it was a little clingy (aka tight)... but now it fits perfect. Also, I'm discovering a really odd reality... I'm beginning to like pictures of myself... this is totally foreign to me. I have always HATED to have my picture taken.

My second favorite thing about the weekend... I got The Husband an early Father's Day gift. Not just a gift... but a one of a kind, artist's original drawing of the aircraft he has spent his whole Navy career working on. Better still, this drawing depicts an aircraft of the actual squadron he is attached to right now (and has spent well over half of his career with). The artist was at the festival we went to at the end of last month, and had the drawing displayed there, but we couldn't afford it then. Not that we could really afford it now with all of the other expenses leading to deployment, but I called the artist when I got my paycheck on Wednesday and made arrangements to purchase it anyway. Its just one of those things that I felt like he was meant to have... I don't know how to explain it. He complained a little about me spending the money on it, but I could tell he was really pleased because I kept catching him staring at it. Needless to say, its one of the pictures he hung up today.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

The Weekend Wrap

Before I get on to the weekend, I want to respond to the comments on my last post...

Chris - Thanks for your amusing antidotes... they made me smile. And you're absolutely right, much of my "anger" comes from the fear of knowing what she is doing to herself.

Drazil - You're so sweet for wanting to come rescue me! Its hard to know what to do... but I find myself biting my tongue a lot. She is here til Wednesday.

Josie - Thanks for your encouragement, especially when I know you haven't been feeling well. :)

K - I'm so sorry for your loss. I really do try to be as compassionate as I can. It just gets very frustrating at times because not only will she do little to nothing to help herself, but she does things that prevent me from doing what is best for me & my family (as far as living a healthy lifestyle). This post will give you a little bit of insight into my relationship with my Mom.

Okay... on to the weekend...

Saturday was a lovely day. I made these yummy chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.

Then it was off to the gym. The first hour there I spent upstairs where I did 40 sets on the circuit machines, 30 core sets & 50 free weight sets. Free weights are killer because my shoulder is so freakin sore... but I've got to get it done. Then I spent about 40 minutes on cardio, split between the bike & elliptical. My energy level was way low, which was really a bit frustrating considering how much of the challenge I still have to go.

We had company over dinner... DiAnne (the peanut butter cookie baker) and Erika (the BFF, who has been better lately). It turned out to be a great time... lots of food (which I tried not to overindulge in... but I ate too many cookies for sure) & many fun games of Dutch Blitz. My Mom was even pleased because we had potatoes and something with beef in it, lol.

Sunday started with blueberry oat pancakes. I don't know what my obsession is with pancakes lately, but I could eat a variation for breakfast every day I think. Sorry I was so busy eating I forgot to take a picture, oops.

Next stop was naturally the gym. There was an "incident" at home this morning which left me with awful chest pain... so I took it really easy. I just did 22 miles on the bike & 22 sets on the circuit machines. The good news is that I'm now close to having those two parts of the challenge completed.

This wasn't a typical Sunday because I didn't get much of my prep cooking done for the week. However, I managed to get a couple batches of Lemon-Poppy seed muffins baked & some brown rice cooked. For dinner I made these boneless wings and a simple salad with Asian dressing.

It was really yummy. And, would you believe my Mom actually liked it so much she asked for the recipe??? I'm still recovering from the shock!

Speaking of recipes, should I start posting them on here?

Overall, it was a great weekend. Hope the weekend was great for you too!

Look What I Found & What I did (Again!)

This is a picture of me at The Husband's reenlistment ceremony in January 2004.

I'm guessing this is somewhere close to my highest weight - probably mid-230s or so. Is it weird that even though I've never felt overly bothered by my weight on an emotional level, looking at the picture makes me want to cry? I almost don't recognize the person in the picture... its like I never saw myself as a fat person though I clearly was (still am). How's that for denial???? Seriously, look at my face - all that extra chin & the chubby, chubby cheeks? How did I manage to miss that?

Finding this picture couldn't have come at a better time. I've been struggling to see a difference lately, even when I look at my progress pics they seem somehow minimal to me. But this pic is soooo eye opening for me. I think sometimes I get so caught up in how far I still have to go that I lose sight of just how far I've come. Does that happen to you?

Ok so I borrowed the picture from before because I didn't have my camera with me today, but YES, I burned over 1,000 calories in about 90 minutes at the gym. I started out on the StairMaster & did 111 floors!!! That's the most I've done probably since last year's Around the World Challenge. My legs felt like they could keep right on climbing, but my heart rate had different ideas on the subject, so finally I stopped. I also put in a solid hour on one of the wuss bikes.

I spent the afternoon in "commihell" aka the Commissary on base. The place becomes its own kind of hell when its busy, especially the Sunday of a payday weekend. You would swear its the last day the place is ever going to be open & people have to get their food that very day or risk starvation! Granted they are closed on Mondays, but geesh its nuts the way people swoop in there and inhale things from the shelves. Why did I choose to torture myself by going there today you ask? Around the World is starting & I was committed (I may need to be commited after shopping, lol) to getting the cupboards stocked in advance. A closterphobic person would have needed some seriously therapy to recover from the experience today, it was insanely busy & well picked over by the time we got there. But, thankfully (for me) the shoppers that came before me must not have been interested in healthful eating. With the exception of a couple items, all of the things on my healthy list were there waiting for me.

Where did the time go? I can't believe its already the start of Around the World!!! While I'm not as prepared as I was hoping to be, I feel like I've made enough progress that if I work hard the next few days getting stuff prepared I will be okay. If I don't wake up unable to move after the 111 floors on the StairMaster, I will share all of the challenge specifics again in the morning. Plus, I have news from my Saturday shopping trip to share too. :-)

What is on your agenda for the upcoming week?

Wishing you all a fantastic week! :-)

Livin on a Prayer & Other Revelations

First of all, thank you so much for all of the encouraging comments after my last post. You ladies are the best! :) I'm sorry its taken me so long to get back here & write again... my night of thought actually lasted far into Friday & then the weekend was busy, busy with family & friends.

After much thought & self-reflection, I have to say I've been approaching things with a "Livin on a Prayer" mentality on an increasingly frequent basis. What do I mean by this? Simply, I've fallen into a habit of doing what works in the moment as far as my meals & exercise (or lack there of)... and then when scale day rolls around I say a silent prayer as I step on to the scale that somehow, by some miracle, the number will be kind to me. Yes, I have gotten lucky the last two weeks & not seen an increase on the scale... but I think luck has run out. It doesn't take much thought to figure out that when I plan meals & do meal prep early in the week, I'm much less likely to fall into this pattern of doing without regard to the big picture. Next step in the self-revelation... what do I do about it???

Revelation #1: A few days ago, I asked if living a healthy lifestyle ever felt like a full time job to anyone else. The overwhelming response is YES it does & then some. So... I believe its time to approach this healthy lifestyle as I would a job where I was being paid (and there is definitely a reward for the hard work of this "job"), rather than attempting to squeeze it into my normal time frame for meal planning/prep & fitness. This means planning my days with specific times on the agenda for the gym, meal planning & prep, meal & exercise tracking, and blogging. I'm not quite sure how that's going to look yet, but I plan to figure it out for the upcoming week before I go to bed tonight... then I can hit the ground running in the morning.

Revelation #2: I need to get serious about tracking my meals! On the days I plan my meals, I do a decent job of sticking to it... the other days I pretty much shrug off writing down what I'm eating. Somehow, I've gotten out of the habit of entering my food on myfooddiary... and I can tell that its hurting me.

And an FYI for you: March is the month my Dad passed away... 22 years ago. I know its been a LONG time and so many people tell me just to be over it already. But, I'm sorry, its not something you ever get over... especially when you lose a parent in childhood. I'm the type of person who so strongly associates dates, times & places with the joys & heartbreaks of my life that just waking up knowing its such and such day can take me right back to the emotion of the situation (no matter how much time has passed). This year, I think things are worse for me than they've been the last few years due to some other losses over the past year. I mention this not so much because I'm an emotional eater, but because when I'm sad its hard to motivate myself to do much of anything, so things like getting meals planned & going to the gym are way more difficult... and I think we all know what happens to me if I don't have meals planned...

Highlight of the weekend: Saturday was gorgeous here on the island. With rain looming in the forecast, I decided to drag the husband and my son out for a walk with me. After packing each of us a bag with healthy snacks (more of a mini lunch I suppose), we piled in the car & headed out with no specific destination. We ended up at one of the nearby state parks- we are super luck to have 3-4 within a few minutes drive. This one sits right on the water & has trails all over. My plan was to walk the trail that goes along the bluff overlooking the water & then go to the part where you can get down to the beach; but apparently my son's sense of direction had other plans for us. We let him choose a trail & ended up on two miles of trails that went up & down steep hills, some parts with big ruts & tree roots to climb over. Normally, I don't really count these outings as exercise, just part of an active outing for the family... but let me tell ya right now this one I counted! It was very challenging & my heart rate was definitely up there for most of it. By the time we got back to the car, we had walked just shy of 2.5 miles and I was comfortably exhausted!

One of the "easy" trails & The view from our picnic table

Well... I guess I'd better get back to work on planning my week if I want to see dreamland any time soon. Hope everyone had a good weekend & best wishes for a Happy Monday!

The Bon Jovi Weekend

This weekend will always be referred to as "The Bon Jovi Weekend."

My partner in crime for the weekend: none other than my best friend, Erika. We started the weekend at my favorite nail salon... my nails (fingers & toes) are now a beautiful shade of blue & adorned with flowers. Arriving in Seattle an hour before we could check into the hotel, we went straight to The Cheesecake Factory. My menu there... one strawberry margarita (I thought I was doing pretty good to limit myself to one lol), WAY too much bread, and the combination of Steak Diane & Herb Crusted Salmon with mashed potatoes. It was soooo yummy, I could have easily eaten every bite; but somehow I managed to leave half the mashed potatoes on the plate. I skipped ordering dessert & managed to have just a couple bites from my friends... such restraint I tell ya. :-)

Shopping wasn't supposed to happen til Saturday... but with a little extra time to spare we found ourselves in Old Navy. A year ago the only thing I could possibly buy at Old Navy was an occasional XXL tshirt (if it was generously cut). Friday, I was able to purchase a tank top & t-shirt, that fit comfortably, in a size Large!!!! Yay for the smaller size & double yay because they were both on sale.

After checking into the hotel, we walked to the concert. I think it was roughly about a half mile each way... so not the longest walk, but better than nothing. The concert was fantastic - lots of new & old music. The band was awesome, the lighting and video monitors were over the top. I would've gladly gone again last night... but geesh those ticket scalpers make a killing for big shows. When the concert was over, we considered going to a bar or something but ended up just going back to the hotel. We stopped off at a grocery store on the way for some food... I bypassed all of the temptations and got a cup of fresh cut fruit - strawberries, blueberries, pineapple & mango. Very yummy & totally satisfying.

We awoke to a gloriously sunny Saturday morning in Seattle... how rare is that for this time of year? No complaints though... lol. By the time we got ready & checked out of the hotel, it was pretty much lunch time... so off to find The Hard Rock Cafe we went. We found a parking lot near the Pike Place Market and figured we'd just walk from there. Not being totally certain where the restaurant was (its only been open since Feb. 10th), I plugged the address into the navigation on my phone... so of course it gave us driving directions... which actually turned out to be a good thing. Thanks to the driving directions, we got in a 1.25 mi walk to the restaurant, as opposed to the couple blocks it would have been if we'd known exactly where it was.

No more referring to myself as a "Hard Rock virgin." We found the restaurant, were seated immediately (no small feat there & within minutes after our arrival there was an hour wait), and I dove right in. Something called a Local Berry Margarita. Normally I prefer my margaritas blended, this one was on the rocks, but super yummy. My meal was an open-faced sirloin sandwich with mac & cheese. The sandwich was piled with sirloin, mushrooms, onions & Swiss cheese. I did pull off the cheese, left one piece of the steak & most of the bread behind... however I inhaled the mac & cheese. Seriously, the BEST mac & cheese I have ever tasted. It was an awesome experience... we even got a visit from the head chef.

After lunch, we walked around the market, which was nice, but really really crowded. I avoided all of the tasty treats they tempt you with there. I did find some tart, dried cherries that don't have sugar added... thinking they will be perfect for one of the trail mix type things I create for snacks. The walk from the market back to the car was probably a half mile or so.

On the way home, we stopped at the mall & I ventured into Lane Bryant. Odd how long it had been since my last visit (I used to give them weekly donations of my husband's paycheck lol). The objective of this little visit... BRAS. I have been in bra hell for months... trying to find ones that fit... and I think perhaps I finally have achieved success. Its amazing how a properly fitting bra can slim your midsection... who would've thought?!?

Last food confession of the weekend, we were sucked into Cold Stone Creamery on our way out of the mall. Love it size cake batter with chocolate chips, almonds & graham cracker crust in a waffle bowl. The almonds are healthy, right?

Self reflection of the weekend: We didn't walk nearly as much as I had hoped, but we did get in a few miles worth of walking all together & some of it included steep hills... so not a total loss. Food wise, I feel like I did fairly well in comparison to what I could have done & what I have done in the past. I left food uneaten at each meal, skipped ordering dessert, and limited myself to one drink at each meal. Also, because we were "on the go" so much, I didn't snack between meals. All in all, I think it was a step in the right direction. Other than the bread at The Cheesecake Factory, I was able to enjoy myself without going totally overboard.

Tomorrow I will have to tell you about "cereal pa" and figure out my plan for the week... for now, its been a LONG (but fantastic) weekend and I need SLEEP!

Let The Weekend Begin!

My friend will be here in just a few minutes & then its off to Seattle... for Bon Jovi; their world tour kicks off here tonight! I'm super excited. I already know where we'll be eating tonight & tomorrow... and its not gonna be a pretty picture but I'm ok with that - Cheesecake Factory & Hard Rock Cafe... too much good stuff. lol

In anticipation of the weekend, I have been careful with my eating all week (except perhaps last nights salad lol). Rarely do I peek at the scale between weigh ins... but I did this morning because I wanted to see how things were prior to the "big concert weekend." -2 pounds!!!! So even if the weekend comes with a cost, at least I KNOW that what I've been doing this week was working... and after tomorrow its right back to the routine. And maybe, just maybe, it won't be SOOOOO bad... I mean we will be walking A LOT. :-)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!