Some recent favorites

I woke up at 2:00 this morning, feeling wide awake--ridiculous. But I finally managed to fall back asleep until a decent hour to get out of bed, at 5:30. I don't like to get up even that early, because my kids sleep as lightly as I do, and they're always awake within minutes of my getting out of bed. But since I was up, I decided to get my run done on the treadmill before getting the kids ready for school.

I only had four miles on the schedule, so I hopped on the treadmill and watched another episode of Sons of Anarchy while I ran.

Since the episodes are about 45 minutes long, I just slowed to a walk to finish out the episode. When I was done, got the boys ready for school. The morning passed by really quickly that way! Next time I'm lying in bed feeling wide awake, I may just end up getting up and running.

I got ready to go out to lunch with Jessica, and headed to Kroger to meet her. From there, I drove to La Pita. It was a fun lunch! Last year at this time, we would go to La Pita just about every week while we were marathon training--I can't believe it's been a year already. Today, we were laughing about how terrible we are for each other, because we both love to eat--so after our long runs, we'd go to La Pita or Whole Foods for baked goods ;)  No wonder I gained so much weight then.

I got my usual at La Pita (I've actually never ordered anything else)--lunch portion chicken kabob, rice pilaf, hummus, garlic sauce, pita bread, and salad. I estimated what I ate to be 18 PointsPlus. Not bad at all for some really yummy food!

It's been a while since I've posted a "things I've been loving lately" list, so I figured I'd do that today. These are all things I've been mentioning lately, so they won't come as a surprise, I'm sure, but here goes...

1) Frozen grapes. I've been obsessed with grapes for a long time now, but I just recently started freezing them. I love that they take longer to eat, so I don't have to eat so much; also, I don't feel like I have to eat them all before they go bad (not that it's ever been a problem before...).

2) Cinnamon Roasted Almonds. These are from Wal-Mart, but I'm sure any brand will do. These are sweet and crunchy, and very satisfying for a snack. Usually 1/2 ounce is satisfying enough, which surprises me. Usually, I can eat nuts by the bucketful, but if I take my time with these, I'm happy with 1/2-1 ounce.

3) My ActiveLink. No surprise here! I've been earning so many activity PointsPlus with it, which is perfect, because I love to eat ;) 

4) The White Chocolate Macadamia Nut CLIF Bars. I've always liked CLIF bars, but never really LOVED them until trying this flavor. It's so good!

5) Sons of Anarchy. I'm only on the first season, but I'm glad that there are several seasons to keep me occupied on the treadmill for a while!

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6) David's Tea. I'm SO glad that Ellen introduced me to this tea, because it puts all other teas I've tried to shame. I've even unsubscribed from Teavana's e-mails, because the only tea I'll be ordering now is from David's. They have amazing dessert teas that taste exactly like what they are described as--I adore the Red Velvet Cake, and the Toasted Marshmallow. Oh, and the Movie Night. Let's just say all of them. I love all of them!

7) This nifty little gizmo by Nordic Ware that I use to cook my eggs. I eat eggs almost every single day for lunch--a whole egg, plus 3 T. egg whites, plus a slice of cheese and 2 Tbsp. of crumbled bacon. I used to make it omelet-style until I found this little cooker at Wal-Mart for a few bucks and picked it up on a whim. You use this to cook eggs in the microwave. I know that people make scrambled eggs in mugs all time, a la Hungry Girl, but cleaning the mug afterward was a bitch! The egg was always stuck on there really good.

You don't even have to spray this little thing with cooking spray. You just scramble the egg right inside it--then I add my bacon, and nuke it for 1 minute. I flip it over and put it back in for 15 seconds. It turns out to be a big, puffy egg pillow, the perfect size of an English muffin, if you make a sandwich out of it (I like to eat it by itself, topped with cheese, and with an English muffin on the side). It doesn't stick to the container, and clean-up is super easy. I can prep and cook my eggs faster than my English muffin gets done toasting!

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Moment of truth weigh-in

This morning was the moment of truth! ;)  I ate quite a bit more than normal all week, because I was earning so many activity PointsPlus. I've always eaten ALL of my available PP--my daily allowance, plus my weekly PP, plus my activity. But I usually manually count my activity PP based on calories burned during my runs.

Anyway, all of that said, I was pretty happy when I got on the scale this morning:

I was 131 last week, so I actually lost a pound this week! Of course, that could just be a normal fluctuation to my normal weight, but regardless, I think it's safe to say that eating the extra food didn't make me gain anything.

Just how much extra did I eat? Here is the breakdown of how many PP I ate per day (for reference, my daily target is 32):

Wed- 48
Thu- 37
Fri- 59
Sat- 52
Sun- 44
Mon- 54
Tue- 40

I had my 32 daily PP + my 49 weekly + the 61 activity PP I'd earned.

The horizontal gray line shows my daily goal line for activity--I went way over on most days.

I was so shocked to see how many activity PP I'd earned during the week! Normally, I would have counted this week at about 27 PP, because I was only counting my runs--not any typical daily stuff that I do. The ActiveLink counts ALL activity.

Anyway, I'm very happy with how this week turned out, so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully continue to maintain my weight while eating this much!

Quite a few people have asked me lately whether I recommend eating all available PP. I really can't speak for anyone but myself, because everybody is different. But when Weight Watchers developed the program, they counted those extra PP in there for a reason--and I think they should be included!

From the beginning, I've always eaten ALL of my available PP--my daily, weekly, and activity PP. And I consistently lost the weight when I was in losing mode, and now I've been maintaining really well since I've added the maintenance PP to my daily target.

Of course, we all want to be able to eat as much as possible and still lose weight/maintain our weight--but we won't know what that number is until we experiment with it. I think we should start out by eating ALL of the available PP, and if we're gaining from that, then think about cutting back a little.

If I tried to cut them out, and eat just my daily target, there is no way I would have lasted this long on program. I use those extra PP to fit my favorite treats into my diet, which keep me happy!

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I went to the Salvation Army today, because I was in desperate need of some long-sleeved shirts that weren't hoodies. I love hoodies, but I really wanted to get some pull-over tops for a change. I spent a long time in there--the place is HUGE and has so many rows of clothes, it's completely overwhelming. I wished they'd organize them by size instead of color, because that would have been much faster.

When I got home, I washed everything and then tried it on for Jerry to take some pics :)  I bought probably 15 tops, but here are a few of my favorites:

Hahaha, it looks like I used the exact same picture of me and just photoshopped the clothes in and out. Apparently, I always stand exactly the same for photos.

 Today is my friend Jessica's birthday, so I asked her if she'd want to go have lunch at La Pita tomorrow--she loves La Pita as much as I do. I'm SO looking forward to it!

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Lots of activity

I've gotten in a LOT of extra activity this week! Tuesdays are the last day of my Weight Watchers week, so tomorrow it will be interesting to look at the extra activity PointsPlus I earned this week, and how it affected my weight. Yesterday, I got in a ton of walking.

I ran intervals on the treadmill in the morning--I did four 1/2-mile repeats at a 6:58/mi pace. I despise doing intervals! I really wanted to skip them and just run a few miles instead, but that's what I did last week, so speed work was overdue.

I watched Sons of Anarchy while I ran, and then I actually walked 1/4 mile in between each repeat... usually I just hop off the treadmill and rest for 90 seconds or so. After my intervals were done, I wanted to finish out the episode of SoA, so I just walked for a while until it was over, getting in another two miles.

Then in the afternoon, the kids were at school and Jerry was sleeping, so I decided to go for a walk after lunch. I dressed really warm because it was freezing outside, and set out for a two-mile (ish) walk. I brought my iPod to listen to a podcast, and just strolled around the neighborhood and through my parents' neighborhood.

There is a spot on the nuclear power plant property where you can always see deer, and now the deer have become pretty tame from people feeding them all the time. There is a small gap in the gate where people toss food inside, and the deer are always there, eating.

I've seen as many as 14 deer there at once. Sometimes people just pull up and park there, and watch the deer eat. I don't really find them that interesting ;)

I continued the walk along Lake Erie, and the lake was gorgeous! The ice went out pretty far from the shore...

I stopped there for a couple of minutes to take a few pictures and then made my way home. I thought I'd probably been gone a half-hour or so, but I was gone for 45 minutes!

After the kids got home from school, and we ate dinner, they were asking if we could walk around the neighborhood again. I was tired, but of course I said yes--I love that they enjoy going for walks. We stopped by the liquor store again, and I decided that if they had Cadbury Cream Eggs, I was going to buy one. They didn't have any... bummer. I took this picture of Jerry and me on our way back home:

He was jealous that the kids and I all had character hats, so he wore one of Eli's.

By the time I went to bed, I'd actually earned 8 activity PP for the day! Normally, I would have given myself just two--for the intervals. I love wearing this ActiveLink! I'm constantly looking for ways to add more activity.

Today, I just had three miles on the schedule, so I did the treadmill. I wanted to watch another episode of Sons of Anarchy ;) I cranked out the three miles...

...and then I walked for a mile so that I could watch the rest of the SoA episode.

The kids were off school today for a teacher in-service day, so I made the kids read books for an hour. I sat with Eli and helped him (he desperately wants to be able to read by himself, but since he misreads a lot of the words in chapter books, he doesn't comprehend what he's reading). Then I read a book for a while, because the kids were asking how come they have to read if I never do--oops!

I like to read, but I have to be extremely interested in the book, otherwise I lose interest really quickly. Also, I'm a slow reader. So it's rare that I actually get through an entire book. But I'm going to make it a point to read while the kids are reading, at least.

This afternoon, I was feeling really snacky even though I wasn't hungry; so I decided to go for a walk. I've read that tip a billion times, and always think, "Yeah, yeah--just go for a walk when you feel like eating--whatever." But it works! I made a big mug of Buttered Rum tea and took that with me while I walked around the neighborhood (about a mile).

I have to say, all the extra activity has me feeling really exhausted at the end of each day. It's nice! And I haven't felt bored at all, because I'm always looking for ways to move. I'm sure it will grow old after a while, but for now I'll embrace it ;)

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Motivational Monday #5

Even though I made a big mistake on my Motivational Monday Facebook post this morning, I caught it quickly, and Motivational Monday was still a success. Reading about your successes never fails to motivate me!

Stephanie challenged herself to a mud run called "Zombie Escape", which involved a lot of obstacles. She was particularly worried about climbing over the wall, because she'd had a lot of doubt about her upper body strength. But she did it--twice!

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Brittney stepped out of her comfort zone and decided to run a small town 5K race--by herself. Not only did she finish, she was the second place female!

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Jennifer didn't let any obstacle stop her from training for and completing her goal to walk a half-marathon. Her race report was SO inspiring--definitely check it out, especially if you're just starting out and feeling like you can't do it.

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Erin checked a huge item off of her bucket list--completing a half-marathon! She ran/walked the Disney World Princess Half-Marathon, and here she is showing off her well-earned bling:

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After a 120 pound weight loss, Steph challenged herself to the extreme--doing the Goofy Challenge at Disney! If you're not familiar, it's a half-marathon on Saturday and a full marathon the very next day. 

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Despite the cold and the wind, Megan ran a 5K with a 9:52/mi pace!

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After a 56-pound weight loss, Carie finished her first half-marathon in 2:10:12! She ran it as part of a virtual event for breast cancer awareness. 

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Jessica was mid-way through half-marathon training when she learned that she had bone spurs on her knee, and she was forced to give up running. Rather than throwing a pity party, she biked 20 miles for the first time ever!

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Julie completed a distance PR--7 miles for the first time ever! She's also lost an amazing 60 pounds (I'm going to save her before/after pics for another post--they're great!)

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Jamie ran her first full marathon on Sunday! She completed the Phoenix Marathon despite the heat, at a torturous (to me, anyway) 77 degrees. 

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 After an injury kept her from running for a month, Elisha ran five miles--and she felt so good that she just jumped right into her pool afterward!

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Linda and her husband completed a 3-mile trail run, complete with rolling hills and forest debris!

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Lorenda was able to fit into her size 10 skirt for the first time in years!

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Joanna ran the Pancake Day 5K, taking more than 8 minutes off of last year's time! She's also down 42 pounds from counting calories and running. Her team was team "SuperFit" :)

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Here is a small snippet from Facebook of what everyone has been up to this week:

If you have something you'd like to share, feel free to check out the Facebook post here.

I also want to say a huge congratulations to Meredith, my Ragnar teammate. She completed her first marathon on Saturday--the Phoenix Marathon! (She tried talking me into it months ago, and I said no way--Arizona is HOT. She proceeded to assure me that it would be really nice out this time of year. Ha! It was in the high 70's. It would have been fun to be a spectator, though!)

And finally, I want to congratulate my sister, Jeanie--she reached Lifetime status at Weight Watchers! She did that after going on a week-long cruise, too. Very impressive!

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As I mentioned, I'm going to try to put together a special edition of Motivational Monday made up of before and after photos, so if you have before/after photos you'd like to share, feel free to e-mail them to me. My e-mail address is SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. And yes, that e-mail address is correct ;)  Sorry for screwing that up on Facebook earlier! Please send them with the subject "BA Photos". I'm not sure exactly when I'll do this post yet, so it may be a few weeks.

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Purple thong

Boy, was it cold this morning! Once again, I debated between the treadmill and outside for my run. Since the time/distance goes by so much faster outside, I opted to brave the cold.

"RealFeel" of 10 degrees? Bring it on! I've run in colder temps than that before.

I did a four-mile out-and-back run of my route that has now become my "usual" route. There's a man that walks that route the same time that I'm out running, and he's always going the opposite direction I am. I've started looking forward to seeing him and exchanging a "Good morning!" with him. He's older--maybe 60's? But he never lets the cold or the wind stop him from his walk. He's the only person I've ever come across while running on that road.

Oh, I forgot to share a funny story a few days ago! On Sunday, I cleaned out some of my dresser drawers. I got rid of old underwear that was either too big or had holes or whatever, as well as a couple of bras (fairly new, but too big--the last five pounds I lost most definitely came from my cup size). And a few tank tops. I just threw everything in the trash (I'm pretty sure nobody wants donated underwear).

The garbage truck came on Monday. Then on Tuesday, when I ran outside, I saw something purple on the ground at the end of the driveway. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was a purple thong that I had thrown away! That alone was embarrassing enough, but when I went to pick it up and throw it away (again), it was stuck to the ground, embedded in the ice. I tried so hard to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge.

It was there all day Tuesday, and I cringed every time I saw it. On Wednesday, the ice had melted enough to let me pull it out and throw it away.

All of this brings me to today, when I was out running. I saw another purple something, but this was over a mile from my house. When I got up next to it, I saw that it was a purple tank top that I'd thrown away. Further still, I saw a black and white tank of mine. All this stuff must have fallen out of the garbage truck. Next time I'm going to put it all in a bag before tossing it!

Anyway, today's run was another windy one. The only part where the wind worked in my favor was the last mile--and I somehow managed to run my fastest mile to date!

I ran the fourth mile in 7:36! My previous fastest mile was 7:54. The tail wind really helped me out today, though--without it, I don't know if I could have run it that fast ;)

On second thought, maybe it was the ugly hat I wore...

My mom invited us over to her house for a turkey dinner today. I'm not a huge fan of turkey dinner (except for sweet potato casserole--I could live off of that!), and I was really in the mood for leftover lentil chili. So I brought some lentil chili with me, and then shredded up a few ounces of turkey to throw into the chili. It was so good, and very filling!

This is kind of strange, but going to my parents' house is a binge-trigger for me. They always have lots of junk food (my dad eats tons of candy and cake and cookies... that's where I got my sweet tooth!). So just walking into their kitchen, my mind starts going over everything I can eat.

I managed to stay in control today, thankfully. I kept eyeballing the package of Oreos on the counter, so I finally put them in a drawer so they'd stop tempting me. My mom made carrot cake for dessert, and I passed on that. I know I could have just calculated the PP for it and eaten it, but doing that probably would have just fed my binge-trigger. It's like I have to be extra careful when I go over there.

While I was running today, I was listening to the Half Size Me podcast, and Heather was talking about getting control over binge eating. I started to think about all the little things I've learned in being binge-free, and I came up with a few things that are worth noting. I think I'll write a post about it, and maybe someone else can benefit from it as well!

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Morning with my boys

I wanted to sleep in so badly this morning, but I'm just used to being up early (6:00) and I was wide awake, so I just got up. Since Saturday is a rest day, I didn't have to run this morning, but I wanted to get in a little activity on my ActiveLink. I actually convinced my kids to go for a walk at 8:00 this morning, in the freezing cold!

We dressed warm, but I still wasn't expecting it to be quite as cold as it was. When I run, I start to get warmed up pretty quickly, but walking didn't really help. We planned to go all the way around out neighborhood (one mile), but we decided to take a shorter route because it was so cold.

I had plans of taking the kids to the movies, so we walked to the liquor store and I let them pick out candy to bring to the movies, then we walked home. It started snowing pretty hard on the way home, and we even tried catching snowflakes on our tongues (it's harder than I thought).

We stopped for a picture on the way home. When we got back to the house, both of the boys said they liked going for a walk, and wanted to go again after the movies. I told them I'd walk with them anytime! I was really surprised that they enjoyed it--they usually complain about stuff like that.

The movie theater was showing Wreck It Ralph for free, so we went to the 10:00 show. Kids are free, and adults are only $1--a great deal! But naturally, the boys wanted to spend their money on food there, so they got "kid's packs", which was a small box of popcorn, fruit snacks, and a drink. I brought a little baggie of almonds with me to have if I was hungry, and I was glad I brought it, because I was starving when the movie started.

During the movie, I volunteered to go get the kids a refill on their drink--with the intention of getting in some extra activity from all the stairs, because we were sitting at the very top row. The movie was just okay, in my opinion, but the kids loved it.

When we got home, we went over to my mom's house so I could help her upload some pictures. Then we came home and I made lentil chili for dinner. I haven't made this in a while, because I'd kind of forgotten about it, but it's SO good. And it's only 4 PointsPlus per cup! I had a cup and a half, and topped with fat free cheese and sour cream, and the whole bowl was only 8 PP.

I'm going to make that more often, because leftovers make a good lunch, too. Here is the recipe.

I've been eating more than usual this week, because my ActiveLink is giving me more activity points than I normally would have counted. So I'm going to try and eat ALL of them this week just to see what happens with my weight. I've been having a little extra peanut butter on my oatmeal, a little extra wine at night, and an extra snack in the afternoon, usually a Clif bar.

I don't think I'm going to get in all of my activity today for my ActiveLink challenge. It's really hard to be that active! I really have sat down much all day (just at the movies), but I'm only at 70% of my target right now. I don't know how people do it without doing some sort of aerobic activity for at least 30-40 minutes. I do like having that challenge, though, because I'm always looking for ways to get in a little movement (like going down the stairs for refills at the movies--normally, I don't do refills, because I don't want to leave my seat!)

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A true run for cookies

Early this week, someone tagged me in a photo on Instagram (for the life of me, I can't find it now--I tried!) It was a photo of a cookie sandwich (two cookies with buttercream frosting sandwiched in-between), and she said that she had saved up 20 PP all week to eat that cookie.

I love that people think of me when they eat well-earned cookies! ;)  Anyway, it looked SO good, and I decided right then and there that I was going to get a cookie sandwich after my long run this week. Yes, I could have just used my weekly PointsPlus to get it on any old day, but for some reason, indulgences like that taste so much better after I've worked hard for them.

I thought about that cookie all week, and that is the only reason I was looking forward to my long run today. It's actually kind of pathetic how much food motivates me, hahaha. Anyway, I had it in my mind to run 12 miles. I don't know why I've been picking 12 lately for a long run.

I debated whether I should do the treadmill again, so I could watch Sons of Anarchy; or if I should run outside. Running outside is always preferable--it's better practice for racing, I feel like it's harder so I get a better workout, and it's not nearly as boring. So, despite the fact that Jax was calling me to watch SoA, I decided to run outside. The temperature was great for running, there was no slush or snow or rain, or anything like that, so I had no other excuses.

As soon as I headed out, I realized, "Oh--it's pretty windy outside!" But I felt like I was running at a decent pace (my Garmin was under my sleeve, so I couldn't see my pace without some effort). A few miles in, I felt like I was running too fast--I was getting tired, so I figured I'd better slow down. But first, I checked out my pace to see how fast I was actually going.

9:10/mile. What the heck?! I hardly ever see miles in the 9's anymore. And I felt like I was running so hard. The wind was ridiculous, and even though I was putting in a lot of effort, I felt like I was running in place at times. I wanted to get my overall average pace below 9:00/mi, so I pushed harder. After a couple minutes, I looked down again--9:03.

Then it was a challenge to get my pace under 9:00. But it seemed like no matter how hard I ran, the pace wouldn't drop below 9:01. I was so tempted to turn around early and make it a shorter run today, but I kept thinking of that damn cookie sandwich!

After running out for five miles, I made a right turn and the wind was now coming sideways instead of right in my face. That helped a little. I ran one more mile and turned around to head home. It was a relief to have a tail wind for most of the run home! You can definitely see from my mile splits when I had a head wind and when I had a tail wind:

I'm just hoping that I have a nice, calm day when I run my half-marathon next month. I was so glad to be done:

See the little white spots on my headband? Those are ice crystals from where my sweat froze! I compared this run to last week's 12 miles on the treadmill, and saw that I finished four seconds faster today than on the treadmill, but my heart rate was much higher today. Usually, for a long run outside, my heart rate is about 145. Today it was 157, which shows how hard this run was today.

As soon as I went in the house, before I showered or anything, I wanted to see how many Activity PP I earned from my run. I plugged the ActiveLink in, and was shocked at what I saw:

I'd earned 19 PP and it wasn't even 10:00 in the morning! I think I actually did a happy dance when I saw that. Surely those 19 PP would cover my cookie sandwich, right?

First, I showered and then headed to Weight Watchers before going to Mrs. Fields. Hahaha, two opposite ends of the weight loss spectrum, no doubt. I was terrified to go into Weight Watchers--the last time I went in there was when I left really upset at being treated rudely by the receptionists.

I kept praying that there would be different receptionists there today--normally, I go on Thursdays, so I figured going on Friday, maybe I wouldn't have to deal with it. I walked in, and the ONLY two people in there were the two receptionists that I had an issue with a couple of weeks ago. From the moment I walked in, however, they were super nice and friendly. I don't know if they read my blog, or maybe they were just having bad days all the other times I saw them, but they were super nice today.

Also, when I weighed in, I didn't get any comment on my weight--which I was grateful for. Later, I looked at it and saw that my WW weight was down over 4 pounds from two weeks ago. Whoops! I forgot to rehydrate after my run today before weighing in, so I'll probably be up next time. Anyway, I got my weekly materials, and a new code for the e-tools, and was on my way. I'm going to plan on going to my meeting on Thursday, and hopefully I have the same (good) experience.

Next, I stopped at the mall and went straight to Mrs. Fields. I already knew what I wanted--a chocolate chip cookie sandwich--and went home after that. I was so tempted to start eating it in the car, but I wanted to sit down at home and really enjoy it, so I tried to have a little patience ;)

I also needed to calculate the PointsPlus in it before eating any of it. It was roughly the size of my palm, and I figured it probably wouldn't even add up to the 19 PP that I'd earned. I took the top off, and weighed just the cookie (63 grams). Then I weighed the other cookie with all the frosting on it (114 grams). Since there were two cookies, that meant there were 126 grams of cookie, and 51 grams of frosting.

The WW website lists a Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookie as being 48 grams in weight for 6 PP. Since my cookies were 126 grams, I was having 16 PP worth of cookie. Then I looked up butter cream frosting, and the 51 grams of that came to 7 PP. So 16+7=23 PP for the cookie sandwich.

I was surprised it was so high! I know cookies and frosting are pure junk food, but it honestly wasn't ginormous. Regardless, I'd earned every bite of that cookie, so I savored it. It was heavenly! And I didn't feel any guilt for spending that many PP on junk, because I worked really hard for it.

It was pretty rich, and after eating the whole thing, I felt a little nauseous. Not horribly, but I probably should have split it in half and ate half of it after dinner or something. I can't believe I used to eat two of those (at least) when I was obese. And I honestly didn't even enjoy them as much as I did this one. It's funny how that works!

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Getting in more daily movement

Yesterday was a rest day. I was curious how it was going to go with the ActiveLink, because the ActiveLink gave me a goal of earning 3 PointsPlus per day. When I run, I earn those PP very quickly. But yesterday was the first day that I had a rest day while doing the ActiveLink challenge.

Wearing the ActiveLink has certainly gotten me motivated to move more. I love to eat, so if moving more earns me more PP to spend, then I will do it ;)  I had some errands to run yesterday, which involved me getting in and out of the car a few times, crossing parking lots (I made sure to park far away, but I do that most of the time anyway), and just moving around in general. I was surprised to see by lunchtime, I hadn't even gotten to 25% of my goal for the day!

I did laundry after lunch, and to get in a lot of steps, I put away the laundry one article of clothing at a time--ridiculous, right? Jerry was making fun of me the whole time. I had the basket of clothes on the living room floor, and I would pick up one item and go put it away before getting another. I spent at least 15 minutes doing that, and I just barely reached the 25% mark.

My house is super clean right now--I've been looking for every excuse to move, so I've been cleaning counters and floors and everything a couple of times a day. I continued with that yesterday, and by dinnertime, I was just over 50%--which was my baseline (the minimum movement I'm supposed to do on a daily basis). It was exhausting!

I was very determined to get to 100%, however, so I created a little game with the kids--and they had a blast with it! We walked single file around the house in a big loop--through the living room, kitchen, and hallway. For each loop, we added something else that we had to do during that loop--first, we had to pet each cat as we walked by; then we had to touch each chair and pet each cat; then we had to give Jerry a kiss, touch each chair, and pet each cat; then march the loop instead of walking it while doing all those things; and so on. (It reminded me of that Father Abraham song, where you keep adding a body part to move for each verse).

It sounds completely ridiculous, but both kids said, "This is the most funnest thing we ever did before bed!" and they loved it. After doing that for a while, I was at 91%. I was totally ready to just sit down and watch The Middle with Jerry and the boys, but being so close to 100%, I walked in place for the first 10 minutes or so of the show, and finally... FINALLY... reached 100%!

I cannot believe how much activity it takes to earn just 3 PP in a day when I don't run. This morning, I ran four miles after the boys left for school, and by 8:40 AM, I'd already reached 100% of my goal (3 PP). I did the four miles on the treadmill this morning, because outside is full of slush--so hard to run in. Also, I needed to get my fix of Jax on Sons of Anarchy ;)

Anyway, I don't know how people reach their ActiveLink goal on rest days! Especially when their goals are higher than mine is, at 3 PP. By the end of the challenge, I'm supposed to be earning 5 PP per day. When it gets nice out, I'll probably go for a walk in the woods, but for now, I'll have to make up silly games with my kids, I guess!

Today's run got me to my goal of 100 miles in February. Having this month be a few days short of all the other months makes a big difference in my mileage--it was tough the last two weeks to reach that goal! Two weeks ago, I saw that I was only at 40 miles for the month--so as of today, I ran over 60 miles in 2 weeks. Now I'll go back to my regular schedule.

Yesterday, Jerry and I had to go to the courthouse to pay his "impeding traffic" ticket--TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS, can you believe that? While we were out, we went to McDonald's to get an ice cream cone. I was craving something a little more indulgent, but I didn't want to blow all of my weekly PP on the first day of my week. After looking up the PP values of the flurries, I saw that a snack-size Oreo McFlurry is only 9 PP. I was going to spend 5 PP on a cone, so I figured 4 more was worth it for the splurge.

I've actually never gotten a McFlurry in my life, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I guess I pictured it to be tiny like the Wendy's miniature Frosties, but I was really impressed when I got it. It's the perfect size! Not big enough to feel guilty for eating it, but big enough to feel like you're indulging. I think it's a 10 fluid-ounce cup, so that's a perfect-sized treat. I'll stick with my vanilla cones most of the the time, but I would definitely get the McFlurry again if I have some extra PP.

I will leave you with this photo that Jerry took of Phoebe--it's SO adorable! She fell asleep wedged between the couch cushion and the back of the couch...

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Weight fluctuations

Everyone has been talking for days about the big storm we were going to have last night. At school, the teachers even sent home extra homework because school was sure to be canceled from the nine inches of snow that we were predicted to get. I could hear it raining all night long, and then this morning, it was quiet. So I looked outside to see the mountains of snow we'd gotten...

Needless to say, the kids were disappointed that they did, in fact, have school today ;)

Yesterday, I was so tempted to run on the treadmill because I was dying to watch some more of Sons of Anarchy, but since the weather was supposed to get bad, I ran outside instead while I was still able to. I felt good, and went farther than I'd planned so that I could be a little closer to my 100 miles/month goal. I was happy I went a couple miles extra, so that Thursday will be a sure-thing to get in my 100th mile.

I was excited to check my ActiveLink and see how many activity PP I'd earned. At that point, I'd already earned 6 PP, and it was only 9:30 in the morning. So the rest of the day, I kept moving as much as possible--cleaning the house, doing laundry, taking extra trips while putting laundry away, etc. Last night, I plugged it in again and saw this:

That extra activity made a huge difference! For the whole day, I earned 12 PP (reaching 204% of my activity goal). Before ActiveLink, I would have counted that run as 6 PP and that would be it for the day. So I'm interested to see how all these extra PP are going to affect my weight. I'm going to eat them and see what happens.

Speaking of weight, today is Wednesday Weigh-in. I was happy to see 131 on the scale this morning...

That's up 0.5 from last week, but I'm not worried about that at all since 131 seems to be my body's "happy weight" that it keeps going back to. On Monday, the scale was up to 134.5(!)--no doubt from all the salty food I ate during the two days before. It was that olive tapenade, I'm sure of it. It's not unusual for my weight to fluctuate a couple of pounds like that after a salty meal.

This brings me to a question I got from a reader in an e-mail last night, and I thought it would be perfect to write about today. She asked, "I'd love to hear your thoughts on fluctuations in your weight now that you're maintaining.  Do you weight yourself daily?  How does that affect how/what you eat?  What weight 'counts' each week, etc."

My mindset over weighing in has changed quite a bit over the past couple of months of maintenance. I've always been a daily weigher, and that hasn't changed. I know weighing every day is not for everyone, but I like to see how certain foods affect my weight (like the tapenade, for example). I know that small fluctuations are normal, and I don't get bothered if I see the scale go up a pound overnight. 

Since reaching maintenance, I still weigh every day, but I only "count" the weight that I am on Wednesday mornings. (I picked Wednesday just because it was the day that I started losing weight back in 2009). Throughout the past couple of months, I've seen numbers as low as 129 and as high as 134.5, but if it's not on a Wednesday, then I don't pay much attention to it.

I don't let the number on the scale affect my eating habits at all (assuming that I'm staying on plan, and not binge eating!). Since I'm doing WW, I just follow the program and trust that my weight will stay pretty steady on a weekly basis. I tend to use my weekly PP in large chunks at a time, so my weight might go up by two pounds overnight, but then I don't have a lot of weekly PP left to do that every day, so my weight naturally goes back down a little.

But I don't look at the scale one day and see, for example, 134, and think, "Oh no! I'd better eat a little less today" or "I'd better cut back on sodium" or something. I just follow the program and trust that my weight will stay fairly steady on a weekly basis.

Here is a graph of my daily weight for the entire month of February... see how it fluctuates each day?

But my Wednesday Weigh-in numbers were much more consistent: 131, 132, 130.5, and 131. 

Maintenance has made me much more relaxed about what the scale says. When I was losing weight, I always used to focus on my Wednesday Weigh-in being lower than it was the previous week. Now, I just follow the program, and my weight is what it is on Wednesday, and I don't stress about it. If it's up a little, I know that's normal. 

Because this is the first time in my life that I'm not actually trying to lose weight, I feel a huge sense of relief. Until December 12, 2012 (the day I reached goal weight), I was always either actively trying to lose weight, or wishing I was losing, or angry with myself for not losing--it was stressful and unnecessary, and I wasted a lot of time thinking about that stuff. Now that I'm not trying to lose, I feel a sense of freedom from all those negative thoughts, and I'm much happier with myself.

It's all kind of hard to explain, but if you've struggled with your weight for your entire life like I have, then you probably understand. I just wish I had been able to reach this place of being happy with my weight before I actually hit goal! But I guess the struggle is what makes it so rewarding to be here now.

If there is one bit of wisdom I can share from all this, it's not to put too much focus on the scale--if you're doing everything right, and the scale isn't showing what you'd like, just trust the process and don't give up! I could easily see 134 and think, "I'm up 3 pounds! This is ridiculous. I might as well just eat ____" (sounds dumb, but that's how I used to think back in the day!) Instead, I just think, "Holy tapenade!" and keep on doing what I've been doing, and trust that my weight will go back to normal ;)

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