30lbs to lose... Started AGAIN yesterday (Darn Lockdown Snacking)
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Blink!
I'm so, so busy with work still - stopped briefly for Christmas Day - but it's full slog until the end of the month, weekends and public holidays included.
The bad news is that my oven broke today! I don't have the time or headspace to think about what to do until I get through my busy time at work (I will catch up properly then), but part of me knows this is a moment where I either let that derail my progress or where I shrug it off.
Best healthy recipes that can be made without an oven? I'm going to have to rethink my next grocery shop quickly in the net few days.
Off the top of my head, I'm thinking soup (can be made on the hob, but I have a soup maker anyway) and eggs (scrambled or poached). I suppose I could potentially make some sort of tomato-based pasta or stew if I balanced the ingredients/portion size very carefully.
Salads are tricky, because things like salad leaves are very short life.
Can't bake without an oven, but that's probably for the best!
Went completely off the rails food wise - as expected - but I logged it all, and I pranced around on Christmas Day wearing a cocktail dress that I never got to wear to a Christmas party. I looked good in it, even after I'd stuffed myself. Might have been on my own, but it cheered me up, so why not?
I won't catch any breaks until 1st January, so that's when I'm going to properly refocus. But I think concentrating on losing weight in the run up to Christmas has really helped me, as I'll have less damage to recover.
Katrina - couldn't read and run. I'm really sorry for your loss. My uncle passed away at a similar time last year, and like yours, he had been plagued with a number of health conditions for a while. It's sad and it's weird and it does make you take another look at yourself and think about your own health. My condolences.
As for New Year's... I'll reach midnight before you, and it's when I'll finally get a chance to stop and breathe, because midnight on the 31st is my big work deadline.
I will raise a glass to you wonderful ladies and toast our continued perseverance in difficult times, our renewed commitment to understanding and celebrating our own bodies and a future in which we can only become even better versions of ourselves. I feel like we've all made terrific progress, and it is in part due to lifting each other up. Here's to lifting each other up!3 -
Catherine, I love that you pranced around in a cocktail dress on Christmas Day! Good for you! It had to feel great knowing you look a good in it!
It stinks that your oven broke. I’m sure you’ll figure out creative ways of preparing your meals until it’s repaired or replaced. Do you have a crock pot? There are many healthy and easy recipes you can prepare in a crockpot. When I was teaching, my crock pot was a life saver. I’d allow a few extra minutes before leaving for work to throw ingredients in, and then when I got home, voila, I had a nice home cooked meal! I know instant pots are the rage these days, but I haven’t joined that club yet. I do have an air fryer though. It makes good chicken. I actually haven’t done a lot with my air fryer though.
Gabi, I LOVED The Queen’s Gambit! Interesting story. Have you watched anything else good lately?
Katrina, how’re things going with you? Going to have more fun outdoor adventures on New Years Day?
Before going out, I had to clear about 3-4 inches of snow off my car this morning, left from Christmas Eve.
If I’d waited until late this afternoon, I wouldn’t have needed to bother, it would’ve melted by then. Another quiet day. My husband didn’t get back in town until tonight. It was kind of nice ( okay, VERY nice)having a little time to myself after having both daughters and one of their boyfriends in town for a bit. My one daughter was here 2 weeks. It’s funny how they’re both adults but when they visit, I’m totally back in Mom mode, preparing all the meals and all their favorite snacks and treats! It’s not like they asked me to do this, I can’t seem to help myself. I made homemade granola and homemade vegan granola bars, homemade salsa, homemade vegan chili, lasagna, Buckeyes, peanut butter fudge( hubby’s favorite), homemade chocolate cupcakes, homemade waffles, homemade pancakes, blueberry muffins etc etc. Got rid of most of the treats so they aren’t calling out to me every time I walk in the kitchen. I guess I digressed, the point I was trying to make was, as much as I enjoy having my kids here, I also enjoy having some time to myself when they leave! It was nice to just make myself a salad and a beyond burger for lunch when I felt like eating. But give me two days and I’ll be missing them again!!
Tomorrow’s big chore is to organize the pantry again! It’s a huge mess! I only wrote this so I now feel committed to do it!
I stayed under on calories the past 2 days, but it’s been a struggle! I wanted to indulge more again! After not counting any calories on Christmas and then having to count and stay under again, it’s taking some focus!
I had planned to enjoy some extra treats on New Years Eve even though it’ll only be my husband and me, but I’m thinking I’d better limit the treats more than I did on Christmas.
Just because it’s no fun telling myself No the next day!
Exercise:✅
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Have a great start to the last week( or few days) of 2020 everyone!2 -
Well i remembered after getting home i need milk... we drove 4 hours home today in the snow and i decided i didnt think i needed to stop at the store on the way. Anyway, i have eggs so i guess I'll have some for breakfast. Didn't log all weekend and we'll see the damage tomorrow morning. I definitely overdid myself with mats moms cooking.
Not sure what to plan for meals this week. I had planned a pot roast last week, but with the extra stress I didn't get around to preparing it before it went bad. Feel more refreshed after a lazy family weekend and hoping this week will not be too awful retraining myself to not eat everything in large portions.
Barb i know what you mean about quiet time after company leaves, but you cant help but miss them soon after. I've been missing my mom after hearing of my coworker's daughter visiting etc.
Here's to lifting each other up! Love it.
Also made me smile thinking about you proudly prancing in your dress Catherine. You've worked hard to look that good!3 -
This is the very last week of 2020 and it feels weird- on one hand it seems like I wasted an entire year, but on the other, I’m ready to close it and step in the new one.
Catherine- that is a powerful statement to dress up for yourself on Christmas! I absolutely love it and wished I ditched my comfortable pants.
Also have a story: years ago my next door neighbor had 4 kids under 3 and one winter day we both took the trash out in the same time. She had a long silk cocktail dress, open back, etc, and when I said something about looking great and have fun at the party , her answer was “ ran out of clean clothes and no time for laundry “.
Stove-top personal favorites for me are stews with 3/4 vegetables to 1/4 meats. One serving it comes to about 200-250 calories, usually.
Barb- I’m not surprised you go into mom mode when the girls are home, I’m surprised how easy they let us. Mine in her apartment has a special spot even for twist ties, but at home can’t seem to remember where laundry goes.
My goodness how did you stay in calories with all those goodies in the house?
Katrina- the second I come home from the store I realize what I forgot, but unless is crucial, I like you, make do without. I have the closest store at 2 miles, but is the principle, and all the extra wasted time, if I’d go back. After 4h drive, of course you didn’t want to jump back in the car, just for milk.
I started 2020 determined to lose 20lb and then stayed glued on spot for 7 months and only the second half of the year budged me some (6 yay yay 😁).
For 2021 I only want 2 things: for all of us to stay healthy and to continue my slow descent. Actually I’ll change my second one, into not giving up, just get back at it, no matter what.
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Katrina, I feel your annoyance with forgetting the milk! That’s one thing that’s definitely changed with the pandemic- no more spontaneous trips to the grocery! If I’m out of something, I have to make do, or make something else.
Gabi, I know what you mean about 2020 being somewhat of a wasted year. I feel bad thinking that when people my Mom’s age may not have too many more years. A good friend of mine’s husband has ALS and is having difficulty breathing. I’m not sure what he decided about going on a ventilator. He had been resistant to the idea. Anyway, when I want to fast forward until we’ve all had the vaccine, I feel so guilty because that means he will most likely be gone( his dr gives him 3-4 more months).
Life just isn’t fair for so many people.
Gabi, the only way I was able to stay under is I had exercise calories to use. Otherwise, forget about it; I’d have been over every day. I also told myself I could completely go over on Christmas Day, get back on track the next day and then go over New Years Eve again. Hopefully not by as much as I did on Christmas Day! I’m going to try to give myself 2 days a month to go over by 3 or 4 hundred calories. We’ll see how that goes.
I like your goals for 2021! Never giving up is a great goal! We are always going to have days that don’t go according to plan; it’s what we do afterward that counts! Do we pick ourselves up, remind ourselves it was just one day ( or a week of vacation perhaps)and immediately get back on track or do we say “What the heck!” and begin a downward spiral?
That’s one of the reasons I’m planning to have at least 2 days a month where I go over and have to practice getting right back on track. I don’t have the best track record at that.
The snow mostly melted so I was able to jog this morning, instead of hopping on my spin bike again! Yesterday I was afraid I might hit ice and wipe out. Not worth it!
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Well, the damage is in from the last weekend. I seem to have gained weight to the tune of 178.6 lb for now. I did not log my food today and I'm sure I went over my calories a little bit.
I made some really cute candy cane sleighs with candy bars for my co-workers that I plan to give them tomorrow. I made it to the store and picked up milk and some things to make chicken curry. Wednesday is Matt's birthday and he plans on picking up some chicken cordon bleu to cook here at my place since I have to work on Thursday. We're supposed to get another large snowstorm starting tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. There are already people cancelling their appointments tomorrow and I definitely don't look forward to driving home in the snow. It's time for me to get some sleep so I hope you all have a good night.3 -
Katrina, I’d love to see a picture of those candy cane sleighs if you took one! Enjoy the chicken cordon bleu for Matt’s birthday tomorrow! Be careful driving in the snow!
We are really into watching Homeland right now. When the kids were still in school and I was working, I never had time to watch TV so we’re really behind on shows!
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It’s been REALLY hard to stay under as I just want to SNACK!!!!2 -
Oops the damage wasn't over i guess. Up to 180.5 but hoping better habits this week fix it. Made ranch pork chop and potatoes on a sheet pan last night and chicken fajitas in the crock pot. Set on some lunches for a while. The snow was not fun but i made it home (slowly). Got probably 5 inches or more. Finding it tough to stay under calories but the exercise calories are saving my bacon. Will snap a photo and email it of those sleighs. Taking them in today. Hope roads were cleared last night a little better.3
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I took couple days off work, so today is the start of my mini-vacation. We are going away until Sunday with another couple and frankly, I can’t wait. It’s going to be lazy town, with lots of food and card games, and I’m ready.
I’m going to check in every day, because I love our mini-group and the stories.
Katrina- hope the busy and frantic times will end with this year, and the next to be a little more calmer for you.
Barb- with the weather coming this way, I wish you pleasant bike rides and plenty of relaxing family time.
Catherine- 2 more days until you can sit down and relax. Take care and talk to us whatever the time-5h time difference is not bad.2 -
Happy New Year ladies, and let’s make it a much better one !1
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Happy New Year, Katrina, Gabi and Catherine! Here’s to great health in 2021!3
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Well, I made it to the end of 31 December - the last day was the roughest as I pulled an all-nighter, and I didn't get to eat or drink anything apart from one coffee until 5pm, when I finally managed a break for food. Honestly, it was insane. I've never been awake for so many hours non-stop. Every time I tried to grab some food before then, I had a client or colleague call me.
I am now on leave until Thursday - that's right, I have almost a week off!
Work laptop and work phone have been switched off, along with an out-of-office refusing to answer any messages until then.
Had a lie-in, then went for a walk to meet a friend - not sure how far I wandered, but I racked up about 12,000 steps in getting there and back - so not a bad way to start the New Year. Drawing some boundaries, and getting some fresh air. I also had a bubble bath afterwards to warm up.
Just chilling at the moment with my brain switched off - I'm sure I'll start reflecting on 2020 and planning for 2021 at some point tomorrow. For now, I'm just enjoying not being at work. This really has been the roughest season I've had in my career (Covid had a direct impact on the timing) and I'm really enjoying just getting to rest.
Here's to a happy and healthy 2021, ladies - we all accomplished so much in such a difficult year, imagine what we could achieve this year?1 -
Catherine- happy to hear you made it back and with a vengeance (12,000 steps). It’s obviously not recommended, but there are times when we just don’t have the option to slow down at work. Although what you describe is in a category of its own and I am glad is over for you.
Some days off and taking it easy is what we strongly recommend and support. Same goes for you Katrina, as well.
I’m still taking my own advice and slumming it in style 😉
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Katrina and Catherine, congratulations on the loss! Especially the week of Christmas and New Years! Amazing! That puts you with over 30 pounds lost, Catherine! Well done! And over 26 for you, Katrina! Awesome!
You both are doing SUCH an amazing job keeping it together during such a stressful season during a PANDEMIC!
Catherine, I’m so happy that you have some time off to relax and refresh your soul!
Gabi, I’m glad you got the chance to get away with friends for a few nights! How’s that going? Playing a bunch of games? Let us know some of your favorites! My adult kids really enjoyed the game “Coherent”. They knew more of the modern day sayings than my husband and I did but it was still fun.
I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the holiday weekend!2 -
@MommaGemz I hope you are doing well! I was telling my husband a couple of days ago how you started this group and have really helped us to stay motivated. I’m not sure what’s happened - I hope you haven’t been sick. But even if you are just sick and tired of this pandemic and decided to take a break for a while, that’s okay. Just COME BACK! We miss you and really want to hear from you!2
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Oh man the days off are so needed for my soul! One of our favorite clients has a couple pets we see and she always tells us she appreciates us and says thank you for our help etc. She unfortunately had a 2 year old cat with some crazy mass in the chest. We had been treating with prednisolone as palliative care and he was doing pretty well for over a month. This week he developed pleural effusion in his chest further compromising his lung capacity and making him feel like he was drowning. She's an astute owner and picked up on his more labored breathing and panicked behaviors. Unfortunately we had to euthanize him this week and it was super sad... had a couple other really sad euthanasias too and I'm just so appreciative of owners that recognize we are doing our best. Makes it just a touch less stressful. Anyway the week went ok but was super busy as always. I am definitely enjoying the break.
I may have severely overeaten yesterday. Since i wasn't up walking around all day, I also didn't burn much for calories... h
However, the scales are recovering somewhat and down to 178. i had a mini goal of 170 by Sunday that i set a couple months ago. Gonna have to re-commit and reset some goals.
Happy new year everyone! Here's to some well deserved time off!1 -
Katrina, I admire your ability to put personal feelings aside ( for the moment anyway) and do what is the kindest thing for the animals you take care of! I’d weigh 350 pounds if I did your job! I’d eat my feelings constantly, I’m sure! That said, you’ve lost weight this week and are trending down, so don’t pressure yourself! I still believe going considerably over a couple times a month keeps the metabolism from tanking too much! I’m SO GLAD you are getting to take a break from work! Well deserved!!1
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I totally agree; clients who say thank you are the best, Katrina. I had one moment in the middle of all the crazy when I explained to a client exactly what I'd done so far, and what needed to be done next before his problem could be solved, and he wrote back to thank me and to tell me I'd done everything I possibly could do to help and he was grateful. I mean, I knew I had done everything that could be done at that stage, but the fact he recognised that nearly made me cry. I think exhaustion just makes me slightly emotional!
Really sorry you had to put some animals to sleep who you knew and obviously cared about - I'm sure it made a difference to the owners to know it was someone like you there right at the end. Sometimes there's no other outcome than euthanasia, but the way it's handled can make all the difference.
I'm glad you're getting a break as well. We should probably set ourselves a goal to not let ourselves get this exhausted again.
My scales are going up and down at the moment - hopefully going to stick to a downward trend now I'm into January and able to take better care of myself. I've adjusted my calorie goal (again) but I'm eating back most of my exercise calories, so there's some leeway there. I just need to waddle a bit more to eat more of the fun stuff. Totally reasonable.
I think I'm going to focus more on trying to eat more vegetables. I found that I ate far too much over Christmas, but whenever I binged on veg-heavy things, the scales recovered a lot more quickly. I'm enjoying veg more at the moment (long may it last) so I think that's my new focus. One eye on the calorie total, the other on the amount of veg I eat.
I'm really enjoying sweet potato, butternut squash and carrots at the moment. Clearly, I'm feeling very orange! Better than feeling blue...3 -
Catherine, eating more veggies sounds like a very good goal! I need to increase my veggie intake this week. I was doing so well before Christmas and then have eaten less healthy veggies since the holidays. One thing I had been doing was have our salads ready early so we could eat them while we waited for the entree to finish cooking. That way we had pretty good size salads and hungrily ate them. I bought more greens etc today but then focused on eating soup from the freezer. I was looking at dates on foods I’d frozen and realized I needed to eat some soups and a couple of entrees before it’s too late. I hate throwing out food, especially food I’d worked hard to prepare! My soups take a while, chopping all the different veggies.
My day:
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Today I made butternut squash soup (with added carrot to bulk it out). First time I'd actually prepared a butternut squash from scratch - they're really quite unwieldy things! Totally worth it though, there's nothing like homemade soup.
I don't like throwing out my own food either for the same reason, but I'm more relaxed about food waste these days. I grew up having to finish my plate, but now that I'm old enough to make my own rules, the priorities for me are to eat only until I'm full and to actively enjoy what I'm eating.
It's all one ongoing food experiment, really... I think next week I'm going to try to pick up some eggplant, as I think I could make quite a nice aubergine and tomato-based stew/sauce out of that. The first time I tried cooking with aubergine was a disaster (I didn't realise how easily it soaks up oil!) but that was over a decade ago. I'm ready to give it another crack!
Just chilling at home, but I am meeting another friend next weekend for a wander. Haven't seen her in person for a while (but spoken to her on the phone semi-regularly during lockdown) so it will be nice to catch up. She's lost quite a bit of weight during lockdown too (although was considerably thinner to start with).
When I was walking the other day and caught my reflection in a mirror, I realised some of my exercise clothes are now a bit baggy and they hide the weight loss. As I'm doing this for me, and no one should look good when exercising (I'm sure it's the law), I don't think I'll go rushing to buy any new clothes anytime soon. I think I'm going to wait until I'm a lot closer to goal.1
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