My Journal to Me - Comments welcome!

[toystoryduo]

Welcome Back, Anna!

I'm so glad you're back and that you and your family are safe. The company that my DH sub contracts for is based in California and all employees have been told not to come to work. The execs are working from home. It is such a scary situation. I am so glad to hear that you are okay!

You have made some positive changes over the summer and your goals look great! You CAN accomplish each and every one of them and we'll be cheering you on every step of the way!

So glad you're back WISH sis!

Have a great Thursday!

 

[CACruisin']

Thanks Tracey & Tracy for the encouragement.

Yesterday was so-so.
1. water - drank 118 oz

2. track food on fitday - tracked, but not pretty.
b- 6 oz LF yogurt, 4 oz O
l - 2 tostadas: LF beans, taco meat, cheese sprinkle, lettuce, salsa + 1 extra tortilla
s - three sugar cookies
d- turkey sausage, potato salad, asparagus
s - big scoop Ben & Jerry ice cream

The fact that I knew I'd have to record what I was eating did keep me from mindless snacking stuff I would have had otherwise (chips & salsa, chex mix, almonds), but didn't keep me away from the sweets . I also realized I need to eat many, many more fruits & veggies.

3. Get out and do SOMETHING for exercise EACH and EVERY DAY - Spent the day putting things away, doing laundry and sweeping ash off the drive, but didn't do any real exercise.

I stepped on the scale this morning - 172.0 More than I thought. I have now gained back more than half the weight I lost last year - not good! I realize that I have quite bit of work in front of me, but I am determined to do it, one step at a time.

Anna

 

[toystoryduo]

I like what you said Anna about taking it one step at a time. You have some great goals in place.... you CAN do this!

How are things out in California? We've been praying for everyone out there.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

 

[CACruisin']

Hi Tracy, the one step at a time actually comes from your journal title - I've always liked it!

Things are slowly returning to normal here. I've done a bunch of laundry and will head to the grocery store today. Everything is covered in ash. Lots of cleaning to be done still. Most people have now been allowed back into their neighborhoods. So sad that many, many people do not have a home to return to. Warning - rant ahead - I've heard on national news complaints about how the fires were handled and it makes me angry. The firefighters did an incredible job! The media doesn't understand that when the Santa Ana winds start to blow, there isn't a whole lot that can be done. The water tenders can't fly - it's too dangerous. The winds were unusual this time in that they kept blowing and even got stronger (instead of dying down like normal) during the night on Sunday. For the first two days of the fires, the firefighters said, "we can't control these fires, we can't fight these fires. We are just trying to get the people out of the way." And that is what they did. With over 500k people evacuated (more than a quarter of the county), everything was handled in an orderly fashion. It is remarkable how few lives were lost. Once the winds started to die down, the firefighters could go on the offensive. Yes, it would have been better to have more water drops at that point, but that is a lesson we can learn for next time. Sorry, off my soap box now...

Did a little better with my goals yesterday.
1. water - drank 108 oz

2. track food on fitday - tracked; better, but still needs work clearly.
b - scrambled egg w/ turkey sausage, cheddar; whole wheat toast w/ sour cherry spread; hawaiian king roll
l - 2 tostada w/ LF beans, cheddar, salsa + 1 extra tortilla, 1/4c potato salad, leftover asparagus
s- plum, 1 sugar cookie
d - 1.5 c LF split pea soup, 1 serving wheat thins, LF LC wedge, biscuit, cocktail

The snack craving was better today and I only had one cookie and resisted the ice cream all together. I had at least SOME fruits & veggies today, but still need more. I also need to cut back on the bread (sigh). The cocktail however was complete justified and required. The smoke and ash in the air makes the air quality unhealthy. We have been confined inside now since Sunday afternoon. We are all going a little bonkers at this point. The kids have watched the entire Season 2 of Gilmore Girls this week and the "30 minutes a day" rule for computer games has been complete abolished .

3. Get out and do SOMETHING for exercise EACH and EVERY DAY - I cleaned out and reorganized my closet. I have multiple bags for goodwill, but no real exercise - drats!

 

[traceycooper]

Hey Anna
i bet that sweeping burnt quiite a few calories!!
isnt it amazing how slow we lose & how quick we gain
Your on the right track Anna, you've done it before and i know you will do it again
Good news that some people are getting to go home now.

 

[toystoryduo]

Anna,

I think the firefighters did an outstanding job! They evacuated half a million people and very few lives were lost. It could have been so much worse. Is the air quality any better out your way today? I imagine that everyone is getting a bit frustrated being cooped up indoors. Hopefully, it is clearing up or will soon.

Keep up the good work with your goals.

Have a great week, my friend. So glad you're back!

 

[CACruisin']

Busy weekend compounded by internet "issues". I did well on Saturday, but really bad on Sunday. DD12 & DD13 stayed after church. The youth group was setting up a haunted house for the Festival that evening. DH and I decided to go out to lunch with DD4. We split big burger and fries - yum! For dinner we went to the Fall Festival at church. Games for the kids, haunted house, chilli cook off, and bake sale (funny story about the bake sale!) I sampled 10 of the 17 chilli's - some of them were really good. Everyone had a good time. I don't feel bad about Sunday, but unfortunately, the bad habits have rolled into Monday - cake & cookies for breakfast are not ok!!

Bake sale story: I made a layer cake for the bake sale. Sunday afternoon, I frosted and decorated the cake then very carefully covered it with foil so nothing touched the frosting. I carefully placed the cake on the passenger seat floor in front and head out to deliver it to church. Headed down the hill and decided not to run the yellow light ... big water bottle on the passenger seat ... water bottle rolls off passenger seat ... smack down on the cake! Cake is totally smashed, at this point however, I don't have time to bake anything else. Little damage control scraping the frosting off the foil and adding extra sprinkles ... pretty pathetic looking cake, but passable. Of course, DD4 is appalled that we are not planning on eating said cake so I ended up buying the darn thing and bringing it home anyway.

Saturday:
1. Water - 104 oz
2. track food on fitday - tracked it, I was out running errands in the afternoon and should have brought a snack for myself. I was hungry when I got home and started grazing.
b - 2 eggs, english muffin, slice of ham, 10 oz skim milk
l - 1c lentil soup, 1 serving wheat thins
s - pretzel, fruit snacks, 3 cookies
d- chicken breast, 1c whole wheat pasta, brocolli
3. Get out and do SOMETHING for exercise EACH and EVERY DAY - None. I am just not making it a priority. I am definitely having difficulty here -

Sunday:
1. Water - don't know, not enough!
2. track food on fitday - didn't do it, but here's the damage that I remember:
b - 1c cheerios, 12 oz skim milk
l - 1/2 bacon cheese guacamole burger on whole wheat, lotsa cheddar fries w/ ranch, 2 glasses 7 up
d - 10 small chilli samples, small corn muffin, 2 saltines, glass apple juice, 1/2 pumpkin bite, 1/2 slice cake, cookie
3. Get out and do SOMETHING for exercise EACH and EVERY DAY - still nothing

 

[traceycooper]

Bake sale story: I made a layer cake for the bake sale. Sunday afternoon, I frosted and decorated the cake then very carefully covered it with foil so nothing touched the frosting. I carefully placed the cake on the passenger seat floor in front and head out to deliver it to church. Headed down the hill and decided not to run the yellow light ... big water bottle on the passenger seat ... water bottle rolls off passenger seat ... smack down on the cake! Cake is totally smashed, at this point however, I don't have time to bake anything else. Little damage control scraping the frosting off the foil and adding extra sprinkles ... pretty pathetic looking cake, but passable. Of course, DD4 is appalled that we are not planning on eating said cake so I ended up buying the darn thing and bringing it home anyway.

Hope it tasted good after all that Anna

wow 10 of 17 chiili samples!!! I would be doing the bathroom run all night

It takes time to get back on track, hang in there, you'll get there in the end (lol ...from the woman who is just about to go & have a choc chip muffin for supper )

 

[kmp1191]

Hey Anna!!
Glad you're back....and on track!! You're water intake is amazing!!!! I've got to follow your lead!!!

As for the cake...too funny!!! I've had a few slide off the seat, but then I realized you can buckle them in too!!
Hope it was good!!

marie

 

[CACruisin']

Tracey - See, I know I like you becuase chocolate muffins are for dinner too!
Marie - I thought I was being so good putting the cake on the floor (I've had them slide off the seat too!) - oh well! It never occurred to me to buckle the cake in!

I've had computer issues for the past week that have made me hesitant to go into password protected areas. DH thinks he fixed it last night, so hopefully it is ok now.

Water intake has stayed good with close to 100 oz each day . STILL no exercise - I've GOT to do something here! I should have written my food intake int a journal, but I didn't. This is what I can remember:
Monday was disasterous involving only cookies and cake until dinner time, when I finally had a real meal.
Tuesday was better, mostly on track except for more cookies.
Wednesday was completely on track until 5pm when I opened the bag of halloween candy - had to have a snickers and a milky way. Then more candy after trick or treating .

Last week after the fires we were still confined to the house since the air quality was so bad. The kids and I baked - a lot! Then they went back to school, and I kept eating the goodies.

For Halloween candy, I am reinstituting a family tradition from when the kids were little. For 24 hours after halloween everyone can eat as much candy as they want. Then at the end of the day, all the remaining candy is put back in the bucket and left for the "Halloween Fairy". The halloween takes away the candy (and it magically appears at DH's office!) and leaves a treat in it's place - book, halloween toy, etc. We'd stopped doing this the past few years, but now that DD4 is old enough to understand the draw of candy, it is time to start doing this again. The older girls understand how it works and focus on eating their favorite candies. DD4 on the other hand was eating three tootsie pops simultaneously - sugar coma!?
Anna

 

[CACruisin']

Today we all buzzed on sugar ALL day. I didn't even try and keep track of what DD4 ate. Interestingly, by the evening everyone was tired of candy and didn't want to eat any more. And now the Halloween Fairy has done her business! A cute Halloween bear sits in the bucket where the candy was. There is a quart size bag of skittles packets, etc (aka candy I don't like and it won't melt!) hidden away that will be used for after swim meet treats, road trip treats, etc. The rest is in the trash outside!! DH doesn't need it at his office (or his wasteline), and there are no organizations currently accepting donations. I felt bad being so wasteful, but honestly I had to get it out of the house.

Our swim team is hosting a swim meet for the first time this weekend (rescheduled from last weekend because of the fires). I've spent the better part of the past few days and most of last night doing the program for the meet. I finished it about 1:30am, but since I was eating snickers for most of the time, I was still buzzed and didn't fall asleep until around 3am. DH got up at 4am (early flight) and I've been up since. Did a final proofread and took the program to the printer. Of course, someone wanted to "add something" at 7pm tonight - Nope! I was hoping for a sugar crash so I could get some sleep, but so far the sugar high is still in control!

Tomorrow will be normal "remember these things? They're called fruits & vegetables." Then we will have one crazy weekend, but all good stuff hopefully. The Santa Ana winds are supposed to kick back up, but not as bad as two weeks ago. It will be nice to have warm weather for the swim meet, but hopefully no more fires.

Completely off topic: When I took the trash out tonight I realized the plumeria tree outside my kitchen door has flowers on it again. What a treat on November 1st! I think it got confused with all the hot weather we've had the past couple of weeks.

I'll hopefully be online tomorrow, but doubt I'll be back until Monday after that.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Anna

 

[toystoryduo]

Hi Anna,

Sounds like you have been busy! Is the sugar high gone yet?

I think we will be getting rid of some candy too. Yesterday, my DD5 walks up to me with chocolate all over her shirt and tries to explain how it got there without her eating any candy. Hmmmm.... Wonder how that happened?

Hope the swim meet goes well and that you have a great weekend!

 

[traceycooper]

HI Anna
i didnt get much sleep last night either!!!
At least the candy has gone now!
Hope the fires stay at bay.
We had a big fire on the news today, 5 firefighters thought it was safe to go in & the roof collapsed killing them

 

[CACruisin']

Thanks for the well wishes on the swim meet Tracy. The worked and the meet went really well.
Tracey - how awful about the firefighters! We were so lucky with our big fires that so few people died or were hurt. The fires are pretty much out now and the morning fog has returned. Hopefully that means that fire season is just about over now.

Quick recap:
Friday -
1. didn't track, but ate well. I'm really glad I had put the candy in the trash the night before because there were more than a few occasions during the day when I would have dove into the candy otherwise.
2. Drank 100oz water
3. No formal exercise still .But I spent 3 hours at the pool helping with set up for the swim meet: moved carpet strips, loaded/unloaded drinks into coolers, moved said coolers, hung signs, etc.

Saturday -
I was up at 4:45a and we were at the pool right after 6am. Spent the day selling programs, working in the snack bar, etc. Kids swam really well and the meet went very smoothly. We got home about 3pm and had about an hour to relax before heading up to Downtown Disney for dinner with some DIS friends from our transatlantic cruise . We had set this up before the fires and the swim meet got postponed. Even though they were tired, the kids still wanted to go, so they slept in the car each way and we had a good visit at Storytellers Cafe. We made it home about 9pm. I think I was asleep by 9:10pm!
1. food - didn't eat much of anything at the meet - too busy. Ate way, way, way too much at Storytellers.
2. water - a few water bottles, and lots of water at the restaurant. I think I was pretty close to 100oz by the end of the day.
3. exercise - standing, walking from 6am to 2:30pm.

Sunday -
Up at 5am (sooooo glad we got an extra hour of sleep for DST!) and back at the pool at 6am. Same drill except I worked in the snack bar instead of sell programs from 7am - 8:20a. Then the kids and I left the pool and went to confirmation class. They have class twice a month and can only miss one class a semester. We are already missing the other November class. It wasn't a conflict until the swim meet got postponed. We were back at the pool about 10am. DD13 had to scratch one event, but otherwise it was ok to be gone. We made it home about 2pm. DD's and DH went to church at 5pm and then youth group. I stayed home with DD4 and ate cookies .
1. food: again didn't eat a lot at the meet, and did ok until the cookie incident.
2. water: 50 oz. I knew I wouldn't drink enough today. There just wasn't enough time to tinkle!
3. exercise: standing, etc from 6am - 1:30pm with a break from 8:30 -10 for class.

Monday -
Did household stuff that hadn't gotten done over the weekend.
1. food:
b - 1c GoLean Crunch, 12 oz skim milk
s - apple, 2 cookies (cookies are gone now, by the way!)
l - 1c LF split pea soup, 1 serving triscuits, 1 LF LC wedge
s - plum, granola nut bar
d - whole wheat pasta, marinara sauce w/ turkey sausage, 20 oz skim milk
2. water: 77 oz - I need to work my way back up to 100 oz.
3. exercise: Still hadn't done anything at the end of the day and feeling really disgusted with myself. So while DD4 was in the shower, I walked up and down the stairs. After 5 minutes my legs were burning and I was breathing hard, but at least I did SOMETHING! Boy, am I out of shape!

Scale: I was at 170.5 on Saturday morning, but back up to 172 Tuesday morning. The Saturday binge did me in, I know.

Well, that wasn't exactly a quick recap, but thanks for reading if you made it this far. I feel like I am really getting back on track, albeit slowly. I want to be back below 170 by next week!

Anna

 

[Amy&Dan]

Anna I am so EXCITED to see you! ! I have really missed you and was so worried about your family and the fires. So glad your home and all of you are safe.

Welcome back, as you'll see by my journal I haven't done a da*m thing since you left but I am still plugging along!

You can do this, you came back before you gained back all the weight and those pounds that crept back on will be history soon. Again, welcome back, glad the rest was good and love your do some form of exercise every day. Can I borrow that?

 

[traceycooper]

Hi Anna
i feel tired just reading about your weekend!!!
you & your kids must be really dedicated to the swimming!
Maybe i'll see them at the olympics one day
I KNOW you'll be under 170 next week

 

[toystoryduo]

Hi Anna,

Sounds like you had a busy weekend. I definitely think setting up and working at the swim meet counts as exercise.

You'll be back under 170 before you know it! You CAN do it!

Have a great week!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Hi Anna, hope this weekend is a nice relaxing one for you guys! I'll see you around here next week!

Amy

P.S. Next time you go to Moonlight Beach, will you think of me?! Oh, and I'll be at Disneyland on MLK weekend, any chance you guys will be there too?

 

[CACruisin']

Sorry for going MIA. DH has been working crazy hours and is out of town all of this week so I've been doing the parent thing "solo". I've been eating ok except I often skip breakfast (bad, I know). The scale has been down to 169 for the past couple of days, so that's good. I'm slipping on my water intake too - just so dang busy, I forget to drink. I have gotten some exercise though! I did yardwork for an hour on tuesday and again today for about 3 hours. I'm pooped and I'm sore, so I figure I must have gotten some kind of a workout. We are headed to Palm Springs tomorrow for a swim meet and then will go north from there to have Thanksgiving with my family. I'm really looking forward to having some relaxing time at my folks, and DH can definitely use the downtime too! I'm hoping to catch up on everyone's journals next week. Gotta run again!

Anna

Amy - we let our passes expire so no DL trip for us MLK weekend. What fun that you get two trips in year with WDW sandwiched in the middle!

 

[traceycooper]

Hi Anna
Have a wonderful thanksgiving with your family