Mid-Week Day Off

I had a day off right smack in my workweek making today feel like Monday (which it really is Monday) and yet it is actually my Thursday.  Nothing like messing you up with knowing what day it is when you are already confused working night shift.  But…it was a nice mid-week day off!

I took Sunday off for my annual Academy Awards Party that I started several years ago.  The first year we went all out with a red carpet and fancy clothes.  After that I have become slightly lower key.  I had a nice small group and we had tons of food.  I decided to order out Mexican from Enrique’s in Kuna and this was a fantastic idea.  I loved not having to deal with the time/mess/expense of making food.  If you are spending the money regardless, you might as well make it easy.

 

We also had margaritas and Mexican beer.  I had a great time relaxing with my friends and chatting between commercials.  Obviously most of you know about the ending with the Best Picture announcement.  Wow!  Talk about that being awkward.  I’m not sure when my next party will be but hopefully once warmer weather appears so we can use the covered patio.

I met with my Trainer Tyson today for a leg workout.  I’ve been struggling with my workout motivation lately.  When I have my set appointment with him, I have a reason to get myself going and stay accountable.  But on days I don’t meet with him it is hard to drum up some motivation.  I’ve also been struggling with feeling tired and not wanting to wake up early enough to workout either.  I’ll blame Kenyon.  Since we are slightly off shifts from my swing hours and his grave hours, I don’t see him as much and thus want to stay snuggled up next to him in bed.  Darn those husbands! 

I’ve got my WW meeting tomorrow morning and then a busy day before I come into work at 4pm.  I am hoping for a loss but I stopped on the scale on Sunday morning and I only saw a one pound gain.  I’m going to stay positive regardless of the scale outcome and I look forward to a new week ahead.  I’ll report back on my weekly WI.

My New Job As A CTO

I started my career as a CTO (Communications Training Officer) last week with my first trainee Patty.  So far it has been going really well and she is an exceptional employee that will fit in well with all of us.

Our dispatch training is split into four phases.   I am training in Phase Three, which is an easier phase to train due to the trainee being more advanced on their dispatching skills.  Also during Phase Three, Patty is required to be working the console as much as she can on her own with any help needed from her trainer (me).  I like to sit back and let her come to her own conclusion or use her own resources before jumping in.  None of our trainees has had much emergency radio traffic, i.e. pursuit, man with a gun, rolling domestic, etc, so my job is also to talk about more high risk situations so we can rationalize through them together in hopes that when a large event occurs, she will be better prepared.

My job as a trainer in Phase Three is also to help Patty build more on her technical skills and teach her some of the advanced items that will make dispatching seem easier now that she has been doing the job for a few weeks now.  Again, it is going really well so I am super glad my first trainee is succeeding.  It feels good.

 

 

What 17 Pounds Feels Like

Not only can I notice my 17 pound loss but it must be showing for others because I am starting to get compliments again.  Twice now when I am at work and wearing something other than my usual sweater and fleece vest, I’ve gotten a “you look good” compliment.  It is really nice getting compliments again.  And also a reminder not to hide under my vests as much I do although I tend to wear one daily because it makes wearing my badge around my neck more comfortably. 

So what does kind of difference does a 17 pound loss make?

My clothes fit better:  I have started to feel differently in my clothes and I’m seeing my size XL tops and size 20 jeans are looking better.  I’m not to where I feel I need to step down a size but I am happy with my results. 

 

 

I can cross my legs again: When I went down the scale one of the many positives was that I could cross my legs again.  I love it despite how bad it is for you.  So, when I started to go back up the scale I noticed I couldn’t cross them as comfortably.  Crossing my legs makes me happy.

My training session at the gym feel less like death:  I’ve still got a long way to go but I’m improving with each visit and each pound less of me.  What was hard when I first started feels less of a struggle now.

 

 

I’m happier over all: I like to think that when I got to my goal weight the outside finally matched the inside.  I had many comments that I was different but I felt I’ve always been just me.  I know now from going back up the scale and all the negative feelings that go with it, you really do feel happier when you are losing weight.  So, needless to say, I’ve been told a lot recently that I look happier.  And I also feel happier.

 

 

National Margarita Day, Mexican Food & Movie Night

Kenyon and I celebrated National Margarita Day with my parents and brother last night. We both had a craving for Mexican food so I extended the invite to my parents. It was great to see them and I love Jalapeños in Nampa.

It's interesting that I had a WW email when I woke up talking about feeding your Mexican, Italian, or Greek food cravings. That was pretty appropriate since we had plans for Mexican food. The tips/tricks were pretty much what I already do and the main craving was for tortilla chips. My go-to is the ala carte chicken tostada. I told them to hold the cheese on my tostada (to off set the points for my margarita) and added whole beans instead of refried. Then I ate it salad style ditching the tostada portion instead so I could scoop it up with chips.  It was delicious! I was pretty content after eating but once I sat and visited finishing my margarita, I was feeling a bit over-full. Kenyon and I went to see Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them so I was a bit sleepy from my margarita.

I think my Mexican dinner might have thrown me into a sugar craving, although lately I've been satisfying my sugar cravings with fruit lately, so we ventured to Cheesecake Factory after our movie. Once we got there though I was torn because now regular food sounded good too. I ordered the chicken lettuce wrap tacos (served with three tacos and I took one home) and enjoyed half of the yummy brown bread.  It totally hit the spot that I passed on dessert. I had mentioned trying the Halo Top ice cream so after Cheesecake Factory, I was on the hunt for some but we were 0 for 2 in trying to find some. We got a Ben & Jerry's red velvet cake ice cream pint to share.  I had about 5 spoons worth and then realized while it was yummy, it was just okay and not great so I let Kenyon finish it.

We went to bed super early (1am...is early when you work the night shift) so I didn't have anything else to eat.  Despite having a 17 point margarita (that is what the WW email said for the points value of a margarita), it wasn't a crazy high point day since we went to bed early. I feel really good today and I'm about to head to my personal training session at the gym.

Instead of a double feature movie night last night, I think we will go see Moana at the cheap seats and I just found out my sister is going on a family date night as well to see Moana with the girls. I'm going to to propose that Kenyon and I eat at home with the backed spaghetti squash dish we planned last week but didn't get around to cooking and then have movie popcorn if we desire. I'll wait and see what transpires later today. I am saving some weekly points for Sunday for my annual Academy Awards party. I am ordering out small party/catering Mexican food from a local restaurant in Kuna.  That is what got the Mexican craving swirling in my brain early in the week.

I'm putting together a blog post about this awesome feeling of getting smaller again.  My clothes fit so much better and I just feel better. So many positives!

Weekly WI: 15 Pound Star & Twice The Leader

I got home from work and went to bed at 3am this morning.  When the alarm went off at 8:30am to wake up for my WW meeting, I was sort of regretting the decision to get up so early.  But, I am really glad I did.  Not only did I get to see my favorite leader Donna and my favorite Tuesday morning WW peeps, but I got a double dose of WW leaders when my Monday night leader Gretchen was subbing for the receptionist.  I told them they didn’t have to fight over me that we could all share.

It was a really great energizing meeting with the topic of “What Is Your Why.”  I love talking about what keeps people motived to lose weight and get healthy.  There was some wonderful shares.  One woman shared though that she struggles with not fitting into her current wardrobe and actually covered her mirror with a piece of paper to avoid having to look at it.  Oh my, that broke my heart.  I hope all of our positive shares will help her feel better about her body. 

When I got on the scale at home this morning I saw that I was showing a nice loss.  I sent a text to my trainer to inform him that the scale did lie to us yesterday like I told him it did.  Maybe he will believe me now!  My official WI at my meeting was a loss of 3.4 pounds.  This brings my total to loss since July 2016 to 17.4 pounds.  Since December when I started back at my WW meetings on a weekly basis, my total loss is 11.8 pounds.  I’m on my way to finally kick this excess weight to the curb once again!

 

I'm almost to the weight I was a year ago.

I earned my 15 pound star this week.  Yippie!

 

And lastly, I fed my pizza craving at Flying Pie’s lunch buffet.  I made two trips through the salad bar and had three slices of pizza as I just didn’t feel satisfied after my second slice.  I savored it and fulfilled the craving.  Then, I walked the mall and realized pizza might not have been the best decision because I felt tired and “heavy.”  Good news is that I’m not craving pizza anymore!

Ready For The Weekend

It is alllllmost my Friday.  I am ready for my days off!  However, today at work we got the approval to wear jeans due to the President’s Day holiday, I had an excellent workout with my trainer, and I was having a good hair day.  So, really today has been a good day.

My training session with Tyson was a high intensity one.  My knee is feeling better so he is pushing me more.  And, I am taking it!  I don’t complain and I try really hard to keep my stamina up even when I tire.  He is also very encouraging.  I did my WI on my home scale and while I had a slight gain yesterday (less than a pound), today I had a slight loss (less than a pound).  Tyson was a bit irritated by another of his clients that gained weight and some of that spilled over into our conversation about my lack of loss.  I explained to him that he need not be worried if I am not worried.  I might not have a loss each week.  That doesn’t mean I didn’t do my best.  He joked that I might need to start coming again three days a week since that is when I was losing.

I’ve been craving eating out big time the last few days…both pizza and Mexican.  Kenyon and I are planning to go out to Mexican on Wednesday evening.  I’m still on the fence on using some of my weekly points on pizza.  Since I didn’t have much of a loss this last week, I know I need to stay on the straight and narrow to ensure I’ll have a loss next week.  I also don’t want to white knuckle my cravings too much so that when I do indulge I go overboard.

I’ve started training our new employee Patty at work.  She is in Phase 3 and I am still trying to figure out exactly what we should be doing.  We get along really well and she is doing great.  So, I’m super happy my first training experience is going smoothly.  I’ll be with her for the next three and a half weeks.

I’m looking forward to my Tuesday AM WW meeting tomorrow, despite meaning I’ll get less sleep before working OT later in the day.  But, it will be worth it to see Donna and my other WW peeps.  I’ll report back on my official WI later this week.

The Unwich

I really like Jimmy John’s wheat bread that is available with all their sandwich selections.  It is thick slices and filled with lots of seeds…my favorite.  When I order my sandwich (The #1 Pepe) I leave off the mayo and tomato and add cucumber and sometimes Dijon mustard.  I then ask for a mayo pack so I can add my own mayo when I am ready to eat and also saves points because I control how much mayo goes on my sandwich.  Lastly, when I am ready to eat I take two halves and put them together for one giant and eat half the amount of bread.  Together all of that is 12 points.

I decided to try the Jimmy John’s Unwich, which your favorite sandwich wrapped in lettuce instead of is served on bread. 

 

I ordered my #1 Pepe with no tomato and mayo and added just the cucumbers.  I made sure to get my mayo packet on the side.  I’ve noticed since I don’t have mayo or real butter that often that when I do, it feels like a real indulgence.  Looking up the nutritional information, my Unwich is 5 points and then my mayo packet is 3 points.  But, I only used about half my mayo packet this time around so I counted the total Unwich as 7 points.  I ate my Unwich with carrots, celery, and dip and also had some grapes.

 

I have to say, I did miss the bread.  I generally like lettuce wrap burgers and chicken sandwiches but in those cases, the meat is very flavorful.  Lunch meat doesn’t pack much flavor.  The parts where I could taste the mayo was quite delicious.  I also didn’t feel like my Unwich held me over as long as a sandwich with the bread would have.  Since this was low in points, I would order an Unwich again.  It was still a really tasty sandwich and I saved points in the process.

Paint & Sip

On Thursday evening I went to my first ever Paint & Sip class.  If you aren’t familiar with this concept, you sign up to paint a picture (you chose ahead of time what you want to paint based on the class offering day/time and a sample of what your painting will look like).  Then, when the day of the class arrives, you meet up with anybody else that signed up for the class and paint your photo.  You also drink alcohol (if you so desire).  Painting & Sipping wine…brilliant concept!

My friends Kelsey and Danielle have both been before but not me.  Kelsey suggested a Paint & Sip so the two of them, along with Phoenix, Kenyon, and I also signed up.  Phoenix ended up coming down with a pretty bad cold so she stayed home.  Kelsey was also sick but she powered through.  We hope to attend another Paint & Sip even soon.

 

Danielle picked me up since I was meeting Kenyon there and riding home with him.  That way I had my DD lined up.  In hindsight, this was a bad idea because it meant I drank more than I should have.  Danielle and I went to a bar called The Local before Paint & Sip and started our party early with some chicken nachos (so yummy), a glass of wine for Danielle, and a wine flight for me.  I love anything that comes in tiny glasses.

 

Once you get to Paint & Sip you have to purchase alcohol through them or pay a $15 corking fee to bring your own wine.  By the time you order two glasses at $7-$9 each, you might as well have gotten a whole bottle for $17.  Danielle and I went in on a bottle together (Kenyon and Kelsey don’t drink) thinking we would take the leftovers with us.  Yeah right, that didn’t happen.

 

Also in hindsight, drinking BEFORE you paint might not also be the best idea.  But, I still managed to put together a pretty good piece of art.

 

And above all, we had tons of fun.  I can’t wait to do it again.

We Have Voles

I’m back at work for the next five days and I’m not really ready.  I was enjoying my weekend off way too much.  I had to come into work early for a few hours so then I got to come in late for my shift by a few hours.  Maybe this will make the night go quick.  On Sunday I start training my first trainee, Patty, in her Phase Three training.  I am excited and yet also very nervous.  But, she is doing well so I think it will go fine.  Ready or not, it is time to jump into the deep end of the start of my training career in dispatch.

I’ll share all our Paint & Sip fun with you soon.  It was a blast and I can’t wait to go again.  Sadly, I drank way too much wine and then Kenyon and I stopped for food at a local diner on our way home.  Oh my gosh I felt so sick the remainder of the night.  I am happy to report that I am back on track today and indulgences don’t sound the slightest bit appealing.  At my work training meeting, I passed up on DQ Dilly Bars.  Nope.  I indulged too much last night so my body needs a break.  It feels so good to be back on track.

I will start attending my Tuesday AM WW meeting this coming week so I am looking forward to that.  Tuesday will also be my Friday again so that is even better.

We found out from the pest control guy that the rodent in our yard is Voles.  Ugh.  They have dug tunnels all over and tore up our yard.  Plus, they eat the roots of the grass so who knows what our grass will like from here on out.  I guess they can move under the snow undetected so it isn’t until spring that you start to see them.  And, they can be hard to get rid of because if you do successfully kill them now, a new group can come and take up residency in the vacant holes/tunnels.  Great.  But, our pest control guy laid bait and we found a nest and babies so we are hopeful it was semi-contained to that area.  We will know in about two weeks if it was successful or not.  I don’t understand why our yard was so appealing to them.  We have a hard enough time keeping our yard looking nice on normal circumstances.  I hope this won’t be costly down the road as right now the cost of the Vole removal is part of our annual pest control service.

Wednesday This 'n That

Good Morning. 

It is currently just after 5am and I'm wide awake.  I was exhausted after not sleeping well on Wednesday morning when I got home from work so we took a nap from about 8pm to 10pm.  Oh the joys of graveyard shift and days off.

Part of my reason for not being able to sleep is that we have rodents/varmints in our side yard and I've been a bit worried about any damage they have been doing under there.  My neighbor spotted them coming in/out of a hole in our side yard that we assumed was our foundation sinking similar to another neighbor's house.  Nope.  I spotted something sticking it's head out of the hole yesterday afternoon when I got the mail.  I said a few choice words and then told that little bastard that he is going to die!  The pest control guy comes on Friday.  Kenyon turned on the patio light late last night and spotted a bunny sitting outside by the fence.  I'd like to hope that was our rodent issue but it isn't going to be that simple.  We will know more on Friday.

We had an afternoon meeting with our travel agent to finalize our Europe travel in fall of 2018.  We put down our deposit on our Rhine River Cruise through Viking River Cruise and are super excited.  We now have to decide on what we will do before/after our cruise since we are getting some killer airfare to Europe.  I'll fill you all in soon.  I wasn't sure if I would like the travel agent but she has been wonderful.

 We were a block from 10 Barrel Brewing and since we had a $25 gift card to use that Kenyon's boss gave him for Christmas, we planned dinner there.  We shared a combo pizza with alfredo sauce instead of red sauce.  It was delicious.  We also shared a Caesar salad.  

I didn't partake in any beer since I've got plans to drink later today at a Paint and Sip event with my girlfriends.  Kenyon is going to tag along too.  I'm looking forward to showing you all my master piece.

We swung by the mall on our way home to use a coupon at JC Penney and also look at curtain rods.  We got some new drapes for our master bedroom.  I can't wait to show you once we get them up.  I am hoping we will do that later this evening since we are up all night.

New Lipsense Colors

When I had my Lipsense party in January, I barely squeaked by in earning my hostess rewards.  You have to sell $300 worth of product to get one free color and also 30% off your order.  Then, if two people book a party, you get a free gloss.  I have very generous friends so I met my goal of $300 and thus earned my free color.  One person booked a party but I needed another so I didn’t earn a free gloss.  I also earned the 30% off my order so I made use of the discount (you never really get Lipsense discounted) and bought some other colors and a few extra glosses to have on hand.  My Jamberry consultant isn’t wearing the product anymore so she gave me one of her Lipsense colors as well as a silver gloss.  I made my first Lipsence purchase on November 30^th and it has spiraled from there.

 

Right now Jamberry and Lipsense are my two favorite things!
 

The color given to me was Praline Rose.  I wore it with some silver gloss one day and then layered it with Fire & Ice the next day.

 

The colors I got/ordered after my party were B Ruby, Napa, and Pink Champagne.  I wanted a neutral color I could layer with my darker colors and thus settled on Pink Champagne although it looks a lot like Praline Rose so now I’m not sure if I should keep it or trade it in.  It turns out I had a coworker that was eyeing the Praline Rose and so I paid it forward and gave it to her.

Here is B Ruby.  I really like it and it is the slight red I was looking for when I ordered Fire & Ice.  I’m glad I went for a red lip color.

 

 

Here is Napa.  It is a shade or two lighter than Sheer Berry (my favorite) and I really like this color as well.  I also added some Silver Gloss.

Here is Pink Champagne.  I chose this color so I had a neutral option for layering colors and toning down colors that were too bold or dark (like Sheer Berry).  I don't like it just as because if I'm going to wear lipstick, I want it to be noticeable.  But, I am happy I have it for layering.  I put on Silver Gloss too. 

I just got talked into ordering to help out a gal who had a party and will soon have Violette coming.  It has a slight purple tone to it and should go nicely with my current lipstick palate.

 

Weekly WI: Hello 230s

I'M IN THE 230s!!!!

When I got on the WW scale she congratulated me on a 2.2 pound loss.  I was thinking my last WI was 242 so I was pretty sure I'd made it into the 230s (FINALLY).  Well my last WI was 241.2 so I was definitely in the 230s. 
 

 

I didn’t earn my 15 pound star (just yet) but it will come.  Starting next Tuesday I will be able to return to my Tuesday morning WW group and my favorite leader Donna so I'm hopeful my 15 pound star will be celebrated with the peeps that have been through both the ups and down of my journey.  Heck...maybe I can get a 20 pound star since I get to be with them for the next four weeks.  Yeeeehaaaaw!  Here we go!

I looked back at my weight record and the last time I was in the 230s was February of 2016.  I won’t say I've been working all year to get back there, but it has been since July that I was really working at it and then in December when I gave myself a nice pep talk and a boot of motivation.

I also had a pretty intense training session today where I moved a treadmill belt all by myself without turning on the machine.  Yep, by getting it started with my feet and holding onto the sides, I moved the belt and did a slow walk for three minutes at a time for two rounds.  That made me feel pretty good and pretty bad ass.  I also had the return of the dreaded burpies...dun...dun..dun… My knee was feeling okay so I had to do some burpies.  I’m pretty sure the burpie move is what screwed up my knee to begin with so I had to really focus on keeping my right knee straight and not turning out my leg/feet so I could protect my knee.  I feel good so we will see how tomorrow goes.

I did really great staying on top of boredom/uncontrolled eating so I’m going to focus on that again for this week’s days off.

 

An Update On My Training Sessions

I learned last Tuesday that I had finished my last training session of my 12-session pass I bought in December.  I can’t believe it has been six weeks since I started training with Tyson.  It hasn’t all been sunshine and roses, but it is going well.  I thought a lot about weather I’d buy another 12-session pass or not and I eventually decided I would.  The biggest reason for keeping with it is that in the last six weeks since I signed up with the gym and started my training sessions, I’ve not been to the gym on my own.  I’ve only been when training.  So even if I am paying $20 per session, I’m making it to the gym at least twice a week.  I handed over some cash (it felt sort of like a drug deal) and away we go.

Over the last six weeks I have lost 6.2 pounds and we re-did my measurements and I’ve lost at least an inch on every part of my body.  That made me feel really good.  I’ve actually lost four inches on my left thigh but we think it is because we have been babying my right leg/knee so many that is why there was such a large difference.  Either that or Tyson measured wrong the first time.  He was super impressed with my success these last six weeks. 

We also discussed how moves with the TRX strap that were hard six weeks ago seems easier now.  So I’m getting the hang of it for sure.  As we move forward, my plans it to get on a better routine of going twice a week on both Mondays and Thursdays and then getting in other activity on my own on the remainder of the days.  My right knee is still not 100% but on some days seems to be getting better.  Our plan is to continue to rehab the knee until it is fully healed.  I hope it is soon.

I’m super anxious, in a positive way, for my WI on Monday.  I am hoping to show a nice size loss at my WW meeting after two weeks since I’ve officially done my WI.  I know I worked really hard this week and I would really like my efforts to show on the scale.

 

Her Hopes And Dreams: Book Four Of Ardent Springs Series

I never wrote my book review on the fourth book in the Ardent Springs series by one of my favorite authors, Terri Osburn.

 

 

Side note: I am now FB friends with Terri Osburn and when she replies to my comments, I get giddy as a school girl.  Sooooo cool.

Okay, now back to the fourth book “Her Hopes and Dreams.”

First off, if you haven’t read any of Terri Osburn’s novels, you have to read the Anchor Island series.  The Ardent Springs series is a very close second.  Make sure you read her other three Ardent Springs books before you read “Her Hopes and Dreams.”

 

 

 

Since the series introduces to a new character somewhere in the previous book, we met Carrie Farmer in “My One and Only.”  Carries lives on the property of Noah Winchester and like most romance novels, they start out not liking each other.  I am a sucker for those books that start with conflict and then quickly grow into interested and then the story continues to sizzle with passion.  What I love most about Terri Osburn is her ability to write so vividly about her main characters and create such a connection that you can feel it through the pages of the book.  I was never a huge fan of Carrie but in this book, we really got to learn more about her and how she developed into the type of woman she became.  Noah, always the protector, is definitely a man I would like to meet in-between the bed sheets (shhhh…don’t tell my husband).

In this book we also get a tiny glimpse at Abby Williams, the main character in the next book “The Last in Love” which is due out in May of 2017.  I say this every time, they just can’t write as fast as I can read!  I’m super excited for the next installment of Ardent Springs.