My First Patio Visitor

I've gotten to know my new neighbor, Trini, quite well over such a short time. I asked her if she would be home one evening where we could break in one of our new patios with some beer and girl talk to get to know one another better. Trini works a lot of house just like I do but  she did have a free evening on Tuesday night.

We sat in my new adorandac chairs and enjoyed a few of the Samuel Adams Fall Variety pack of beers. It was wonderful to get to know her better and continue to build a friendship. She is very happy with her new neighbor just as I am.

Side note: I had asked Kenyon earlier in the evening of Trini could come over and play. I was joking like you would of you were a kid asking Mom for permission. We had a good laugh at how it doesn't sound the same as an adult.

Weekly WI: You Always Fear It Will Be Worse

I had my weekly WI today and am happy with the results. 

I didn't makeit to my meeting last week so that makes my 1.4 pound gain over two weeks instead of just one week. I was really nervous going into today. I have done nothing to help my weight loss status last week nor over our weekend trip in Salt Lake City.  I managed to burn a lot of calories moving/unpacking but I was also taking in a lot of calories. I went into today hoping for no more than a 2 pound gain and hoping for the best. We always fear the worst so when I saw the gain was just 1.4 pounds, I am super stoked. It means I have to get back on track ASAP to avoid any future gains.

Here was my weekly totals for my Apple Watch last week:

I recommitted to WW about ten weeks ago and have lost 5 pounds. Sure I had high hopes I'd have lost more than that, but 5 pounds less is still less and that is still in the right track.

It was wonderful to see my Tuesday morning WW peeps and also my WW leader Donna. I am able to attend that meeting again next week and I am looking forward to it. We are still working on unpacking boxes and organizing the new house. I have moved my Curves membership back to Boise and will try to swing in sometime this week. I am off workthrough Thursday. Come Friday, it is back to reality!

Weekend Trip to Salt Lake City

Before we were due to close on our house, we made arrangements for a weekend trip to Salt Lake City to see Newsies the Musical. We knew with our luck we might end up closing on hour house the same weekend of our trip but we bought the tickets and hoped for the best. As it turned out, we were able to piggy back onto our already existing time off request which gave us several days off for both moving and fun.

Friday morning we cashed in a gift card Kenyon's boss had given him for some donuts at Guru Donuts. They were really yummy and with a sufficient sugar rush, we headed eastward towards SLC.

Kenyon heard that Tesla would be showing off some of their electric cars in Park City so we drove there first. There was a reception going on with free booze and food as they showed a video and talked about their cars. I felt a bit out of place among the older and “expensive” looking crowd. Looking around the room I would guess that some of those people would make our yearly income look ridiculously small. Needless to say, I still had a glass of wine. When in Rome...We found out that you can test drive the Tesla cars at their showroom in SLC so we headed to our room at the Anniversary Inn and figured we would stop into the showroom on Saturday. 

We decided to redeem a certificate we bought at the Anniversary Inn in Boise for a night stay in SLC and added on another night stay. We booked the room called "Room With a View" and ended up with a room on the highest floor of the building. You had to go up/down six flights of stairs total to get to our room. It was a nice room with a pretty good view.

I had a bit of trouble getting the reservation booked at the price I had thought I would pay and the manager was quite rude to me. So, I didn't have high hopes for our stay. The first day we ordered bacon for an extra fee at breakfast time and no bacon came. I called the front desk where she told me it would be right up and still no bacon came. We enjoyed our stay but we won't be back.

Saturday we visited the Tesla showroom only to find out they were not doing test drives since all the cars were still in Park City from the night before. We were both very sad. But, we did get to sit in one of the Tesla cars in the showroom. Wow! It was impressive.

After Tesla we drove to IKEA in search of some new house items. We had some good luck and some bad luck finding what we were looking for. I noticed the sign for the Swedish meatball meal which was being served in the cafeteria so we indulged. I had the chicken meatballs and Kenyon had the beef ones. They were both really delicious.

On both Friday and Saturday night we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Our restaurant in Boise closed down several year ago. We missed it so much we ate there both nights. You can't have too much fresh bread and spumoni ice cream in your life.

Sunday was Newsies. We parked at a local mall area and had a bite to eat at the Cheesecake Factory before going to the show. The theater was pretty tight quarters and they had us packed in there. It was a great show. I hope it comes to Boise next season.

We headed for home after the show. It is a fairly quick drive to/from SLC but I'm not a big fan of road trips so I was happy to be home.

It's Easy Being Fat

I have been thinking lately about how easy it is being fat. 

For instance, I had gotten back on track several weeks ago and have been having success with Smart Points. The reason Smart Points have been working so well is mostly because I've been tracking, meal planning and watching my food intake.  Since our move, I've been really off track.

I don't need an excuse to eat out. Yet with our kitchen in an unorganized mess, eating out seems just seems easier.  Eating out also means consuming higher point foods and thus depleting my daily points budget quicker.  So not tracking just seems easier.  

 

The one area in at least excelling in is moving my body. Moving/unpacking sort of forces that!

It feels easier to be fat because you don't really have to put effort into it. However since I re-fatted (is that a word??) I've gotten daily reminders as to why putting in effort is a good thing.  It's why I need to keep trying for success and stay focused on the hard parts so I don't give into the easier parts.

I'm going to my Tuesday morning WW meeting this week. I'm really nervous as I've not seen those meeting members in a while. I'm a bit embarrassed about my excessive gain.  After being really far off track last week and our return from a quick weekend trip to Salt Lake City, I need the extra motivation my meeting provides. 

Time to face the scale.

Update On The Last Few Days

I'm pretty sure this salad is the only healthy food I've eaten in days.

We are very much in the easy and convenient train for breakfasts and the sit down dinner restaurants. I've not quite got the kitchen ready to go.

We have been on the go since Saturday. I'm exhausted. Between a Uhaul truck, Kenyon, myself, and my parents, we got the small storage shed unloaded. This way we saved money on the hourly fee of the moving company we hired for the large shed. After moving boxes up the stairs we were over saving money and paid the extra money to have the movers get the rest of the boxes upstairs. That was a huge relief!!

We were all moved out of Mom and Dad's house and sleeping on the floor Sunday night. It was nice to finally be in our own place.

I've been burning lots of calories and we are both very sore. We are working to get  stuff put away and organized. Lots to do!

Trying Out The Mobile App

I'm testing the mobile app. If it works, maybe this will make blogging easier on my phone.

Testing...123...Testing...123...

 

 

Christina & Company

I cannot express enough how wonderful our realtor team has been to both Kenyon and I throughout this whole home building/buying process as well as the sell of our Excalibur house. We fell in love with Christina when we met her upon purchasing our Excalibur home and I’m so glad we have remained in close contact.  She and her team are top notch when it comes to communication!

If you are reading this blog as a local resident of the Treasure Valley and ever need somebody who will be in your corner 100%, please contact Christina & Company.  The amount of knowledge and professionalism each member of the team brings to the table is top notch.  They were in constant communication with us and CBH Homes and always available to trouble shoot any problems that came up.  They even calmed my nerves a time or two.

We are so grateful for their help during these last four months.

I would like to say thank you to:

Christina Ward, Tracie McDonald, and Kelli Day at Christina & Company as well as Lane Ward and everybody else that worked behind the scenes for us

Dawn Crochet at CBH Homes as well as everybody at the Boise Office

Melinda Kim and Amanda Osburn at Guild Mortgage

Melissa Mireles at NextTitle

It takes a village to build a home…ha!  But seriously, thank you.  We appreciate all you did for Kenyon and I in helping us to get into our new home.

Final Upate On New Build: The Final Days Of Closing & Offical Homeowners Again.

It has been a hectic week with lots of hours at work and little hours at sleep.  But…I MADE IT!!!!  We are finally homeowners again and it feels wonder.  Thank goodness.  Now that I am off work for several days we can get moved in and settled.  I am super excited for the settled part.  Ha!

Here is a recap of the last few days.

Wednesday was our final walk through with CBH Homes and the day we met with our superintendant of our home build process.  We sort of got on this guy’s nerves early on with all the issues that came up.  But I don’t think he keeps a grudge so that is nice.  This is my only experience with a home build where I have been really involved.  My sister Katie built a CBH home many years ago but we didn’t look it over as closely as we did this time.  I guess you can say I am older and wiser?  Bottom line is that at the end of the day we have a beautiful looking home.  Are there still issues?  Yes.  Will there be stuff that comes up down the road?  Yes.  I feel after our meeting with the super that he might not be as keen on attention to detail as we are.  I’m sure that he is a part of so many house builds that he really doesn’t see little issues as big issues.  As a home buyer though, you see those little things as big things.  I felt that despite having the 3^rd party inspection was a good idea, the super didn’t really care about the items brought up.  As a customer, that makes me sad.  I understand that CBH Homes has minimum standards and from our experience, that is about as far as they reach…just the minimum.  Needless to say, I suspect in a few weeks we won’t notice the little things anymore.  So it will all turn out okay.  We want to be in this home for years to come and I know we will be happy.  And hey, as long as I got Kenyon with me… I’m happy!

Thursday was our signing with the title company and the day we handed over the cashier’s check.  Having the money we made from the sale of our Excalibur house was the most money I’ve ever had in my savings account.  While I am sad to part with it, I am happy for our brand new home.  The title company selected through CBH Homes was NextTitle and we really liked them.  Normally we use Title One.  It is nice to have some options though and we were happy with this experience.  I learned that you have to sign your name as written, including the middle initial if it is also printed on the documents.  I don’t sign my name with my middle initial currently (Kenyon does) so it was fun learning how to sign and not screw it up.  It rarely looked the same.  Whoops!  But we got it done.  Our buyer’s agent then came with us to the new house to take some photos with the SOLD sign.  If you are reading this and on my Christmas card list…you are getting a preview.

 

Friday afternoon we waited what felt like forever for the call we could pick up the keys.  We ended up getting the okay with one minute to spare before the title company closed for the weekend.  Whew!  It feels so good to have the keys in our hands and to finally be done with this whole build process.  I think that is the biggest thing.  It is exhausting and I am so glad this home build process has come to an end and Kenyon and I can get back to normal life. 

Just as we were leaving the house we got a text from our buyer’s agent saying there was something outside our door.  She left us a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a Starbucks gift card.  How sweet.  Nothing says new home like flowers!

We won’t have internet access at the house for a while due to a glitch with Cable One.  So, I’m not sure when I’ll pop in over the next couple of weeks.  I’m sure I can make due of Starbucks WiFi pretty easily thought.  So you just never know when you will see me next.

Ciao.

 

 

Mid-Week Check-In

I’m doing my best to keep up with my busy week between work (the last of the graveyard shift) and house closing stuff.

My activity for the week is walking on the treadmill at work.  There isn’t time to get to Curves and there really isn’t time for anything else.  So when I am able to, I have been walking for at least 30 minutes on the treadmill each day expect for Sunday, which I took off of formal activity.  Despite the days that I’ve not been doing an actual workout, I am still getting in the activity burn needed to meet the goal of my Apple Watch.  So that makes me feel good.

 

My eating has only been so-so since I didn’t put together any sort of meal plan at the start of my week.  Nothing really sounded good and I was feeling pretty stressed over the amount of hours at work vs. the amount of hours awake (take a guess as to which one was more?).  I am trying to stay mindful of my food and made good choices.  However I have been partaking in some high SPV foods.  I know I need to reel this in if I am going to continue to lose thus making my pants feel less tight.

I have not been engaging in sweets so that is a major positive for me.

I’m nervous because I gained 0.8 pounds at my weigh-in this week.  And since I’m taking the next two weeks off work…it can be really easy to get off track!  Luckily I will be burning some calories with moving/unpacking and I plan to move my Curves membership back to Boise.  I will also plan some healthy meals at home so we aren’t eating out a lot.  Kenyon has the desire to get healthy so together we can be accountable for each other.

But you all know I am my own worst enemy! 

Being successful just feels good.  So if I stay focused on that, I know it will drive me to make the best choice possible.

Do Taste Buds Have A Memory?

Do you ever wonder if your taste buds have a good memory? 

I’ve been a part of the Weight Watcher circuit for almost nine years now.  When a WW member eats a food they haven’t eaten in a while, they usually claim “it wasn’t as good as it once was.”  Sure, I can think of a time or two that it has happened to me.  But could it be because the memory of how good that food tasted was buried further down than a different type of food? 

Case in point: I stopped at Jack In The Box on my way home from our Saturday night on the town and ordered a jumbo jack and curly fries.  I took one bite of the burger and moaned with delight.  My taste buds remembered this memory very vividly and it was as if they came alive with excitement.  It was an amazing tasting burger and I couldn't stop moaning as I ate it.

Now, I do have some explanations as to why I had this reaction.

1)    I don’t eat burgers very often.  So really it doesn’t take much to excite my taste buds.

2)    I had consumed alcohol earlier in the night and might have been feeling a slight buzz.

3)    After being downtown and smelling the scents of the hot dog trucks and Pita Pit, all those good memories of my years hanging out downtown in college flooded my brain making me happy. 

4)    I just was an amazing tasting burger.

Regardless of the reasons I felt at that moment this was an exceptionally delicious burger, the excitement wore off after a few bites.  While the burger was amazing the curly fries weren’t.  So after I felt satisfied, I stopped eating and threw the rest away. 

 

 

I would love to say that I hated my jumbo jack and I’ll never have one again.  I looked up the points after I ate it and the burger is 19 SPV.  That alone tells me that my splurges need to be kept to a minimum and maybe only after consuming alcohol and spending a night downtown.  Needless to say it was tasty and at least I’m not craving another one anytime soon.

Virtual Race: Friends Forever 5K

Several months ago I signed up for some monthly virtual races.  The best part of the virtual race is that you get a metal with the cost of registering.  Since it is a virtual race you don’t have to wake up early, stand in line for the porta-poty, and get into the back of a large crowd waiting for the announcer to pull the trigger.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love the atmosphere on race day and all the energy and excitement it brings.  In my area though you don’t get many metals unless you run/walk a 10K and in most cases it is at least a half-marathon or marathon.  So when I found out you get some sweet metals for doing a virtual run (i.e. you are paying for the metals) and they cost less than a local race…sign me up.  Several times in fact!

While I have signed up for several virtual races and earned some sweet looking metals, sadly I have not done well in actually completing the distance in true form of a run/walk.  Life got really busy in February and has been since then so I’ve sometimes been counting various walks and/or a day of walking around shopping as part of my distance goal for the month.  Once things settle back down and we are back in our own house space, I plan to catch you up on all the races/metals and made due on them the proper way.  I need to ramp up my walking before the FitOne 10K in September.  So, walking mileage is on the horizon.

For the month of August the virtual run I signed up for was the Friends Forever 5K.  National Friendship Day was celebrated on August 7^th.  When you sign up you get two metals and two race numbers…one for you and one to give to a friend.  I knew Dawny would love this month’s metal which is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that says Friends Forever 5K between the two metals.  I had intended to call Dawny and we could do our 5K together, virtually, on the 7^th.  But I never got around to getting her half of the metal and number into the mail on time.

 

I decided to complete my 5K while I was at work last week.  I got onto the treadmill and set it for 2.2 miles per hour.  I walked 30 minutes four different times throughout my 10-hour shift.  Technically, I completed more than a 5K.  But, the goal was to complete a virtual 5K and since I’ve not really had time to string a full 3.1 miles together…I am counting this as my Friends Forever 5K.

Now that Dawny has gotten her metal in the mail, I can share this with you all.  I wanted to surprise her first.  Dawny is a walkin’ fool so I know she will have no trouble completing her virtual 5K sometime in the month of August.

Week Six Complete: Smart Points and Tracking

I just finished my sixth week actually tracking my food and doing the Smart Points program.  It has been going pretty well and the scale has been going down so that is a huge plus!  I know I am feeling a bit bored with my meal plan and/or just feeling like I need to spice it up.  I know getting moved into our own place will help.  In the meantime, I am doing my best to make the most of my meals and keep my daily points in check.

I’ve still been eating out quite a bit.  Up until my night out on Saturday, I had not yet got over my WSPA.  As of Saturday I had 38 DSPA and 18 WSPA left.  I didn’t actually track the points of the food and alcohol consumed that night as I started my new week on Sunday and just started counting again for my new week.

I have been struggling with my food towards the end of my week.  I tend to get lazy counting points and often consume more food and/or higher point foods as it has been my days off.  That can possibly wreck a good week because my WI is on Mondays.  Needless to say, I have still had consistent losses and my average is at least one pound a week.

My activity last week was strong.  I didn’t have time to get to Curves so I made sure to make the most of the treadmill at work.  This week is a busy week as well so I am not sure what it will mean for activity.  It is hard to have many successful weeks and then know you have a week that will be a struggle.  Regardless, you gotta keep moving forward.

 

I have liked several WW meetings I have attended and so I’m not sure where I will land.  Once I am off the graveyard shift I will have some Tuesday mornings where I can attend the meeting with my favorite leader Donna.  The meeting has moved so I’ll have to travel across town but that has never stopped me from getting to a meeting.  So I hope to be able to visit often over those six weeks.  Either way I have plenty of meetings to fall back on.  It feels nice to have a connection to the meetings again.

I continue to focus on how good I will feel once I get the weight off and my pants start to feel better.  I want to stay focused so I can keep the scale going down.  Dawny visits in five weeks for our 10K so hopefully I’ll feel good when race day rolls around.  I need to start increasing my mileage as well.  Those five weeks are sure to fly by.

Saturday Night In Downtown Boise

I had a really great time last night hanging out with Phoenix and her friends downtown.  It is good to let loose and relieve some stress and friends are the perfect way to do it.  I can’t wait until I am back on day shift and back in town where I can see my friends more often.  I’ve missed them!

My friend Julie is in the hospital so I stopped by for a quick visit before meeting Phoenix.  She is doing well and hopefully won’t have to stay long.  She was on the sixth floor and for some reason when I visit a hospital I feel I should take the stairs.  It was quite the burst of activity and really makes you “feel the burn.”

I headed to Phoenix’s apartment to pick her up and met her there about the same time.  She accidently locked her keys in her car with her apartment key on it.  So our evening was off to an interesting start.  Her brother was able to get her spare key so we went to Carinos for dinner while we waited.

 

Once we had gotten into her apartment and she changed for our night out, we headed to Bodovino Wine for some wine tasting while we waited for the rest of the group to join us.

 

Bodovino Wine is pretty expensive so adding money to your card to tastes wines doesn’t last very long.  We were there during happy hour and none of the wines or beer on tap sounded good so I ordered a $2 mimosa instead.  I had not met Phoenix’s friend Sonja yet and along with her was her roommates Katie and Ralph.  They were such a fun group of people.  I am so glad they came into town and met up with us.  From Bodovino Wine we went to 10 Barrel Brewing on the hopes of getting some pumpkin beer.  I saw on their FB page they had pumpkin beer infused with rum and I wanted to try it.  I guess it isn’t available yet so that was a no-go.  I do love one of their porters so we all had a beer and shared some of the yummy pretzels we had last time I visited 10 Barrel.

 

Phoenix and Sonja had this friend Sam who they have not seen in several years.  He joined us at 10 Barrel and hung out with us the rest of the night.  We had thought we might go dancing at Hannah’s but the line was around the block so we went to the Cactus.  Oh my, that took me back to my collage days!  We met a guy at the bar whom referred to our group as “the next decade.”  It was a pretty young group and quite grungy to boot.  I even spotted a man bun!

Yeah, that is a fad that needs to go away!

We called it quits about 1:30am and by the time I made it home it was almost 2:30pm.  It was a lot of fun to spend a Saturday night downtown!

While it was an indulgent night and I didn’t count points per se, the plan from the beginning was to NOT engage in sweets/treats.  I am happy to report I didn’t.  I had the margarita at Carinos and the mimosa and wine but other than that, no sweet treats were consumed.  I am hoping my indulgent evening doesn’t completely wreck my WI tomorrow.  Regardless, I had an enjoyable time.