Oh Boy...It's Been A Rollercoaster

Hello and Happy Easter Sunday!

 

We celebrated our Easter with a family brunch yesterday at Chuck A Rama.  I love that place and the breakfast offerings were good.  I had wished I didn’t eat as much so I could enjoy lunch when it came out.  Maybe another time.

 

Upon our return from New Mexico, I checked in on the scale to an unpleasant large gain of 2.4 pounds.  My heath score also took a BIG dive.

 

I have not been as on plan as I had originally planned.  My health score came back up…

 

…and back down.

 

I also celebrated 100 days of tracking!

 

My April Apple Watch Fitness goal is to walk at least 5 minutes three times this month.  I love this goal but it feels as if it is screaming at me…MOVE YOUR BODY! 

 

I had CPM class on Thursday and Friday where I wore my tennis shoes, packed my dress shoes, turned on the watch and walked every chance I had.  The goal has been met but I do plan to continue moving my body this month.

 

We are in a bit of limbo headed back to New Mexico this week for my father-in-law’s 90^th birthday.  We had planned this trip before we got ill.  Upon our return, it is time to really get back to the healthy habits that have made me successful.  Our next cruise vacation is in 130 days.  I had better get moving!

Family

I had to look back at the blog to determine when I was here last.  Oh my, how embarrassing!

Life has been…hectic.  We found out on St. Patty’s Day my father-in-law had gone to the hospital where he still remains today.  We decided on Sunday to hit the road in the RV and head east to New Mexico to support my in-laws.  We are hoping he will be moved to a skilled nursing home today.  

We celebrated St. Patty’s Day at the lodge followed by a busy week last week with lots of lodge events.

We split our dive up into three days, not originally planned but it is about a 16-ish hour drive from Idaho to New Mexico where we traveled through Utah and Colorado.  We stayed at the Provo, UT Elks Lodge, which was not open so sadly, I missed getting my Elks lodge pin.

My anniversary flowers made the 1,000 mile trek with us.  We celebrated 18 years on the 21st.

The next stop was Farmington, NM Elks Lodge.  We had three hours more to go and didn’t feel like pushing through.  The following morning we agreed this was a good decision.  The Lodge members were wonderful and I invited them on our Elks Group Cruise in September of 2027.

We drove into town for half priced burgers at an Irish Pub which also served sushi (odd choice).  When in NM, your burgers come with green chili.

The final trek brought us to Albuquerque.  We stopped for breakfast burritos in Cuba, NM and spent the night at a local RV park near my in-laws.

We were at the hospital all day yesterday and planned to be there again today.  We are hopeful the move will come soon and he can get some rehab.  It has been an interesting experience finding a place to park this RV around the hospital which is mostly parking garages.  Thankfully we didn’t get towed yesterday!

I’ll check back soon-ish!

I Think I’m A Bit Depressed

A few weeks ago, one of our troopers received an award.  Since he started his career as a dispatcher, the command staff were on the hunt for photos.  A prior co-worker found a photo taken at a work BBQ/picnic, many, many, moons ago.  I was lucky enough to be in the photo with Jeff.

 

I’ve been reflecting on this photo ever since and my thoughts are “why didn’t I work to protect my progress?”  I really took it for granted.

 

My Goal Anniversary is this month and in April is my Lifetime Anniversary. 

 

Prior to the last few weeks, I was feeling really energized and motived to finally kick some of these extra pounds.  I really want to get back into the 220s.  Sadly, while small, I’ve gained over the last three weeks.  This week will be a large gain as I’ve been very sociable.

 

I also think I’m a bit depressed this week.

 

I was chatting with a member via text.  While I’m not where I was when I reached goal, I have kept off 77 pounds and for that, I am proud of my accomplishments. 

 

I spend a lot of time feeling down about my weight loss journey and those types of thoughts are not self-serving.

Weekly WI: Lots Of Fun Stuff

Life has been rippin’ and roarin’ at a fast pace!  Thankfully I have been able to balance my social outings with healthy eating which has kept the weight gain on the low side.  Despite having a gain the last two weeks (0.6 two weeks ago and 1.0 pounds last week), I am feeling good and my body feels different.  Smaller maybe?  Hard to say, I did just buy bigger jeans…and some shapewear…

We signed paperwork on a second mortgage so we could get out from under US Bank on our RV loan.  In turn, we also got a lower interest rate with better terms and a smaller payment.  All this means with our extra payments, we hope to have the RV paid off in seven years…or sooner if we can just snag one jackpot hit at the casino!

Phoenix and I attended a silent disco at Good Apple Taphouse.  These events are always hit-miss depending on the crowd and the DJ.  We had a great time.

I successfully coordinated an Elks event called Warm Welcome to the Nampa Public Library.  It was a reading hour combined with passing out warm clothing which was purchased as part of our Spotlight Grant.  We supplied so many needed clothing items to our community members.  The event was a success and we are looking forward to growing our partnership with the local library.

I had a mini girls weekend staycation where Phe and I spent the night at Wanda’s house as her husband was out of town.  We visited two wineries and built terrariums at a local shop called Wood & Root.  We also tried a new brewery in town.

The only other excitement is booking travel and waiting or warmer temps to arrive, which we have had a mild winter.  I’ll recap all our upcoming travel soon.  When I don’t have much to do…I obsess about travel!

Weekly WI: Employee Check-In

I was nervous for my employee weigh-in.  I really want to show my WW manager that I am making process.  With a 2.4 pound gain last week, I had a 2.2 pound loss this week.  Things looked promising for getting on the “official” scale for my monthly employee check-in.  I just wanted to be down one pound.  I was down 2.2 pounds!  WhoooHoooo!

 

This week has waaaaaay more social on the calendar than last week so of course, it has me feeling less confident.  But, it doesn’t mean I need to be out of control.  I am working on balance this week.  I really want to kick 5 pounds and finally be under 220 again.  I’m working on it…

 

The Walk Fit app on Facebook as been catching my attention, which means I signed up for a year membership.  There are some great indoor quick walking workouts that I plan to use for consistency.  I went to the YMCA yesterday but the line for E-Gym was huge.  I ended up spending some time on the elliptical, which I’ve not done in a while. 

 

We had a low-key Valentine’s Day.

 

And I attended two Mardi Gras parties.  On Tuesday, I attended a party with my guy Jim at the Veterans Home.  They had a jazz singer/band and we had so much fun!

 

Last night, I volunteered to help at an Elks event with the Canyon County Association of Realtors.  The theme was Mardi Gras and they looked like they had so much fun!

 

I have made some good meals at home, probably the bulk of my 2.2 pounds lost, and this easy Swedish meatball recipe I found using the Trader Joes chicken meatballs was delicious.

 

Wednesday night I ended up with some tickets to the Lion King Musical at the Morrison Center in Boise.  OMG it was amazing.  Before the show, if you order a pizza at Lost Grove Brewing you get a free drink at the show.  The pizza is amazing.

 

That’s all I got for today!

Weekly WI: You’re A Problem

I need less commitments in my life.

You know those memes on social media about, “we need to…” and then the Vince Vaughan character says, “Let’s not point fingers here. You’re a problem.  You’re a real problem.”

I Googled it and the clip is from Couples Retreat.  What did we do before Google?  Did we actually know anything or just give up trying to recall?  Anyway…I digress…

What I need to do is sign up for less commitments.  I’m the “real problem.”  It has been busy.  I feel like that is my excuse every time I sign on here to catch up in the blogging world.  What a whirlwind of a week it has been.

Last Monday and Tuesday was my CPM training in downtown Boise.  Wednesday was my “day off,” which included shopping for warm clothing for our upcoming Spotlight Grant partnership with the Nampa Library.  I went from that to wine tasting with Wanda and her retired group of friends to dinner where Kenyon joined us at Indian Creek Steakhouse.  Oh man they have delicious burgers.

Thursday morning I was up early for a flight to Coeur d’ Alene for a all-team supervisory meeting/retreat.  The day had a packed agenda leaving us little time to get checked into the hotel and to Triple Play for bowling and pizza.  My gal pal Dawny picked me up for a quick visit with a stop at the CdA Elks Lodge and a few essentials for Dawny at Costco.  

Friday morning was another packed agenda before our ride to the airport and our flight home to Boise.  Saturday - Monday I rolled into my work week followed by Monday night and Tuesday morning’s Weight Watchers workshops and Tuesday's lodge meeting.

As I type this, I am waiting at the dealership for a recall on the Ram van back-up camera followed by a stop at the lodge to sort out final reporting for our Gratitude grant application, teletheraphy, and finally volunteering at the Elks Bingo supper.  My day ends with a stop at ISP to deliver employee evaluations.

Did I pain a clear picture as to why I am the problem.  I have trouble saying no to commitments and between it all, it leaves zero time for ME time including prioritizing diet and exercise.  

I gained 2.2 pounds back of the 3.4 I lost the week prior.  

My Weight Health Score dropped all week.  I can clearly see my focus has been in all the wrong places last week.  Now I’ve got that song “Looking for love in all the wrong places…” in my head!

This All In Mode makes it way too easy to eat over your points.  This week my goal is to get up the new AI Body Scanner and get reacquainted with activity.  Over all, food isn’t too crazy this week but as last week showed, I’m eating over my daily points target too easily.

The Weight Health Score Goes Up And Down

If you are a current Weight Watchers Member, I hope when you read this that you have received the new app update.  This was another week for learning All In Mode.

I’m learning that your score goes up when all aspects of the tracking are met: food, water, activity, sleep, AND you stay in your daily points budget.  The All In Mode does not have a Weekly Points Budget. 

While I had no planned social events last week…those plans didn’t actually pan out.  It was more social than I had expected and it had me worried to get on the scale this week.  After all, I had gained 2 pounds last week and had more days outside my daily points budget.  Much to my pleasant surprise, I lost 3.4 pounds.  WhoooHooo!

This week has been a little tricky with two days of my CPM training for work, which included lunches out with training cohorts, and dinner last night with a friend.  Plus, we head to Coeur d’ Alene tomorrow for an overnight supervisory retreat.  I am sneaking in a little fun today with wine tasting and dinner with friends. 

I’ve been keeping my activity consistent and really focusing on tracking, even though I know I am going over most days.  I plan to keep chugging forward and get right back on track upon my return.

If you have the app update, what is your favorite feature?