30lbs to lose... Started AGAIN yesterday (Darn Lockdown Snacking)

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:✅
Tracked: ✅
Under: ✅

Have a great start to the last week( or few days) of 2020 everyone!

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.

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.

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.

Happy New Year ladies, and let’s make it a much better one !

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?

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!

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!

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...

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.

I'm 48 and have 25-30pds to loose as well. I got a Fitbit for Christmas. Great when I'm at work. Elevator is broken and its 8 flight of stairs up and down all day. But on my days off I'm a slugs. Any movement is good movement. You homeschool. Can you fit 15-20 mins of dancing with your kids in there? I'm a night time snackers as well. And a very bad water drinker. When I'm asked what I got for Christmas I say I got fat. But the weight gain was happening once Covid started really if I'm honest. Hang in there. We WILL loose the Covid porage belly!!!

Catherine, I’m with you, homemade soups are the BEST! I love butternut squash as well. I’ve used it in vegan chili with good results. Once I even subbed it for potatoes in a healthy version of Shepherds Pie I made for my husband. I love eggplant as well. I love it shredded with pasta sauce.
I’m glad you’ll have the opportunity to get together with one of your friends again. So good for mental health these days!

Speaking of mental health, Gabi did your little trip away with friends do wonders for yours? I’m imagining it did! I look forward to the day when we can all take trips easily!

Katrina, I didn’t do well with increasing veggies today! At least my soup had plenty!
Tomorrow is another day.

My big goal this year is to listen to my body better. So today I only walked. It was tough. I purposely didn’t wear a sports bra so I couldn’t change my mind once I got outside. My hams have been a little tight this week. I think I haven’t stretched them long enough on the cold days as I’ve been eager to get back inside.

My day:
Exercise: ✅
Tracked: ✅
Under: ✅ (barely)

Other than the tomato zuchinni soup i discovered this year, i have never really made or eaten many soups. Want to try a squash soup that i made once years ago, but haven't recently. My ex did make a lasagna with eggplant instead of noodles once and it wasn't a very tasty eggplant. Has sort of made me not like eggplant. Have had extra veggies this weekend, but also continued to overeat. Letting it go and resolved to try and focus on portions. This week I have tons of leftovers, just have to work on portion control. Should start paying mind to steps goals too i think. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

I need to correct myself. When I said I like eggplant roasted with pasta sauce, I meant spaghetti squash instead of eggplant. Then you can just shred it after you’ve roasted it with a little salt and olive oil. I do love eggplant too. Roasted mainly and I LOVE it in lasagna. Makes me wonder Katrina, if you’d like it if you had it properly roasted.

Gabi, I’m so glad you had a good time with your family and friends! It sounds like fun!
The good news is since you were only gone 4 days, those 4 pounds have to be mostly water weight unless you managed to eat an additional 3500 calories each day you were gone! But good for you for being mindful and checking. I’m sure it helped you get back on track! I hope your first day back at work was easy and uneventful.

So I’ve decided to change my little checkmate mark tally to include my veggies goal since I got off track while family was here and have had a hard time getting back on the veggie train!

Exercise: ✅
Tracked: ✅
Under: ✅
2+ Veggies✅

Regarding eggplant, i think if it was roasted a bit prior to using for lasagna maybe that would've helped with the flavor. He also didn't peel it so... it was kinda bitter that way.

Gabi I'm glad you enjoyed your break. Don't worry about the water weight it'll come off. But time for us both to get back at the goals. The refresher and time off was lovely.

Barb i haven't tried spaghetti squash yet as a "pasta" but I should. I have a butternut squash i need to cook too. Have never cooked one before.