Just poking in...

to say I stll have my head up my rear. Buying peanut butter cups hasn't helped. :-P Any advice on beating the sugar craving would be greatly appreciated.

In more pertinent to other people news, I have found an interesting place to put the things I've bought that I need to learn to ration (or not buy). In trying to hide the peanut butter cups from my kids (they'd eat the whole stash--no self control and I don't know where they get it of course), I found that if I put them in the back of the veggie drawer, not only are they safe from my kids but I have to look at the choices I should be making in lieu of the peanut butter cups when I reach for them. This does not always work but sometimes it does and I'll take sometimes right now.

And finally, since Jen wanted to hear more about my weekly menus, here are some of the things I've had recently that were quite tasty:

Spiced Chicken with Chickpea and Cucumber Salad I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this one because I am all about easy and peeling skin off the thighs didn't appeal.

Lemon Thyme Chicken with Sauteed Vegetables

Chicken and Prosciutto Salad with Arugula and Asiago I used whatever salad greens I had on hand for this one and skipped the chicken because the leftover rotisserie chicken I was going to use was yucky. But it was tasty anyway.

Tonight's dinner is going to be Lemon Basil Pasta and lunch tomorrow is a Grilled Strawberry Basil Cheese Sandwich. Beyond that I'll be at my daughter's dance Nationals so food will be catch as catch can. I'll have to get back to planning well next week.

The return of the prodigal

I haven't been around for about a month now and as you can see from the newly updated progress list in the sidebar, there really hasn't been much to report. I have been playing with the same numbers give or take a couple of pounds for 10 weeks now. I'd love to say that this plateau is one that I don't understand because I am doing everything right but it's not. Frankly, I have buried my head up my rear again as far as making good choices and getting enough exercise is concerned and that would explain the plateau. The good news is that I haven't really gone up again but I need to re-focus and get back to the right spot mentally to start sliding down the scale again.

(Image from www.hapari.com) I ordered a really cute bathing suit that (sort of) fits but would look ten times better if I was ten or twenty pounds lighter and I'm thinking of tying it to the fridge door to remind myself of that fact daily. The rest of my family will think I've gone stark raving crazy but then I figure it might also just be a confirmation of what they already knew and were afraid to admit. I would, however, love to wear the suit *well* before the summer ends. I plan to wear it on the lumpy, bumpy body I currently have regardless so it's not like I'm spending money frivolously on stuff I won't wear any time soon like the size 8 shorts I bought last month or anything. (See how well that motivator worked? ::sigh::)

On other weight loss news, I had to have a cyst removed from my scalp and I now have an enormous divot in my hair where they had to cut and shave hair before slicing me open. Turns out my hair, long as it might be, does not weigh enough to influence the scale number at all. So I'll no longer fantasize about quickly being 5 pounds lighter if I got a pixie cut. Another dream dead. ;-(

And finally, I do still have people commenting on the weight loss up to this point so that's a nice feeling. I prefer tucking shirts in now to show off what I've lost and yet fashion seems to be heading back towards the oversize, blousy tops that were in the last time I was thin(ish) in high school and college. Blousy stuff over a newly thinner midsection highlights all that hard work not at all; drat the fashion industry anyway! Some day I am going to get the timing right on this.

This weekend is going to be a food challenge for me as I'm spending the majority of it trapped at another set of dance recitals and so won't be cooking much at all. I'm considering throwing a salad together to take with me since the options available down at the auditorium are not likely to be weight-loss friendly and I have a real Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde problem with food. Don't feed me and see how fast I can turn evil and nasty. So skipping meals entirely is not an option. (And yes, I know it's also not smart but we all know we do dumb things from time to time and some of us like me live in dumbo land a lot.)

If you had to pack for two meals a day (I can likely eat breakfast on the way) for two consecutive days and have no access to either a cooler or a microwave, what would you be taking with you?

Do you think the universe is trying to tell me something by having my weight be 166.6 this morning? The array of sixes makes me wonder just a tad. (More on the past few weeks later.)

Dinner this week

I notice that I haven't innundated you with my menus for the past few weeks. With this one half gone, I will only give you three days worth of our dinners in case you want to try any of them:

Spicy Basil Chicken is what's for dinner tonight. Not sure yet what I intend to serve it over but I may just use flatout wraps to scoop up the sauce since that would be much less caloric than rice or noodles, especially since I went to lunch with a friend and really can afford about a half serving of this (and it's very healthy) today. Oh, and because I think fish sauce is loathesome, I am leaving that out.

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken is what's on tap for tomorrow since Thursday is my crazy driving all evening day. And really, how can buffalo chicken fail to please everyone?

Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad is Friday's meal (as an actual salad) because it should be light enough not to bite me in the butt when I get up early Saturday morning for my first 10K race in a very long time.

Here's hoping it's all tasty and filling! Oh, and if anyone wants the recipe I used for matzo ball soup, just ask (it comes from Southern Living). It was delicious but labor intensive for sure.

And finally, if you want to see where I discover so many of these tasty foods, feel free to follow me on Pinterest. I have lots of boards but the most pertinent ones to the weight loss process are Recipes to Try, Tried and Tasty, and Exercise and Motivation. If you need an invite to play along on there, let me know your e-mail addy and I'll send one along.

Hope you're having a good week food and exercise-wise.

Whoops!

So my husband is competing in a neighborhood Biggest Loser contest with a couple of his buddies. They have $20 riding on the outcome. So he asked me to dig out the old Weight Watcher's booklet that helps you calculate how many points you get a day. He figured out his points and I decided to double check my points. Apparently my brain is shrinking because I remembered incorrectly and I actually get two fewer points a day than I thought I did. Argh! This is going to be hard.

Since I whined above, I will share two positives to balance it out. One, both of my belts are on the tightest notch possible so I see having to buy some new belts in my future. Two, my bra cup size went down and I did actually have to buy new bras. The girls are ever so much perkier in their new smaller size.

I didn't get an official weigh-in on the Saturday before Easter because we were out of town but since I had to go to the urgent care that day, I do have a late in the afternoon fully clothed weight to report (as opposed to the first thing in the morning naked weigh-in I usually do). I was 169.0 at the doctor's office. I figure since that's a slight gain from the previous week but in different circumstances, it probably means I actually stayed about the same. Win some, lose some I guess.

After the whine

After the other day's whine about being on a plateau, I discovered the very best way to take a leap off that plateau: play a two and a half hour long singles tennis match in 80+ degree weather. The first person to suggest that it's all lost water weight will be flogged. ;-)

Plateau

Just call me the plateau girl. My weight is not budging at all. Two weeks of bumbling around within the same pound. :-P I know people hit plateaus when they are consciously working on losing weight but it stinks to join the masses. Obviously this is my body's way of telling me that I need to change things up and shake it out of its complacency. And I don't mean by inhaling several handfuls of M&M's like I did last night. As an aside, how did I get to be this old (another year older as of yesterday) without fully understanding how evil my hormones really are? I'm sure my husband could have told me long ago but the light bulb went on for me last night when there was nothing, absolutely nothing in this world, that could have parted me from those M&M's. Damned hormonal chocolate cravings! Anyway, any suggestions on how to find the edge of this plateau so I can climb down? I'm debating going to my friend's trainer so I can do so light weight lifting to build more muscle (apparently the only way to permanently lower your metabolism is to make more muscle) but I'm not sure I have the time (or money) to do that for long. What other ways can I wake my body up and get back to the business at hand?