Easter dinner and I did good :-)

We had the whole family over for Easter dinner today and I kept to my commitment of taking just a little of everything and not overeating. I just checked out my calories, fat, etc. and I went over the calories by only 28 calories, but stayed within the fat grams allowed. I have to say that I am quite proud of myself. I am not feeling overly full like I usually do on these special meals. I ate just enough to feel full and to enjoy all the yummy food that had been prepared. Menu for the day: breakfast - two pancakes, strawberries, maple syrup, lunch - half a turkey, cheese and tomato sandwich, bowl of pea and ham soup, supper - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, carrots, beans, gravy, apple streusel. After supper, we all went for a half hour walk - it was quite cool outside, but I am glad we went - it's good for my exercise program and it was fun walking and talking with Colin along the way. :-) i found a great website yesterday - it's called Sparkpeople.com. There is so much on it that I won't cover it all, but it has a few things that I am using so far and I am hopeful they will help me be successful in my quest to lose weight and 'health up'. I use their food tracker - I load in what I have eaten for the day and the tracker tells me how many calories I have eaten and how many grams of fat as well. I can also track how much exercise I do in a day. I also entered the three goals of drinking 8 glasses of water a day, writing in my journal every day and getting 10 minutes of cardio a day. I can't wait to find out what else there is to do on this site.

A relaxing day and a good day

Well, it was another good day especially since I lost another pound. It was a good feeling seeing the scale go down another notch and I guess seeing a total of three pounds makes me think I can go on another day....or two....or more. :-) Yesterday at school, a student gave me a white chocolate bunny. I was tempted to take it and eat it (after all, how could I give a gift away :-) But in the end, I knew that I had to give it away and so I asked my team partner if she wanted it and she said 'yes'. I was pleased that I did that - and even though I didn't get any exercise yesterday (when I got home from school, I had enough time to make dinner and eat it with Mike before I had to go to my book club - by the time I got home from there, I was too tired to do any exercise), I still felt good about the day. The menu was: breakfast - bagel with light cream cheese, snack - pineapple, lunch - ham and cheese and tomato sandwich, snack - granola bar, supper - linguine with spaghetti sauce. Today, I got my exercise walking with Colin and Caleb to the park. And since Colin wasn't feeling so well, I ended up carrying him part way there and back. The menu today was: breakfast - bagel with light cream cheese, lunch - pancakes with maple syrup and strawberries, snack - crackers wth cheese, granola bar, supper - Kraft Dinner. I am going to check out how to make low fat chocolate pudding - it will have tons of milk and so that's healthy, right? :-)

Where does the time go?

I have missed two days now in recording what I have eaten during those days and my thoughts. But, here I am again - and I will not worry about trying to remember what I ate the past two days - I just know that I have been eating properly. I have not been drinking as much water as I would like. It seems that I am going to have to figure out a way to remember to get in my 2 litres of water every day - I just get so busy at school that I forget - hmmm - will have to think on that one. I did lose two pounds this past week and that's good news. Jessica, my friend from school who is trying to lose weight, too, lost four pounds and since we are in a competition, that's not so good (for me :-) I signed up for the yoga class on Monday night - my friend, Mary, told me today that she has been to the class in the past and loved it -I am really looking forward to it even more now. Today, I ate breakfast late and so didn't feel hungry at lunch time, so I didn't eat any. Breakfast was oatmeal, snacks were angel food cake, banana, raspberry yogurt. Supper was interesting - linguine with grilled vegetables. Eggplant was one of the vegs, but once I cooked it, I couldn't tell it was there. Mind you, I did cut the vegs quite small. The decision is to try the recipe again (it had the vegs with a sauce of lemon juice and balsamic vinegar), but this time, I will follow the exact amounts for the sauce and cook the vegs just before the pasta is ready. That way, the vegs won't be too well cooked. Mike and I went on a walk tonight and I could feel it in my legs. I actually like that feeling cuz it makes me feel as I'm getting a good workout. Let's hope I don't blow it this Easter weekend. :-)

Two for the price of one!

We got home so late last night from Nikki and Ron's that I didn't have time to enter a blog, so I will do yesterday and today in this one blog. Menu: breakfast - angel food cake, peaches, yogurt, lunch - half a sub, snack - hot chocolate, mini rice chips, supper - chicken casserole, potatoes, carrots, peas, french bread. AND then there was dessert: apple and plum cheesecake. I think there's a rule out there that there are no calories in desserts when you are eating at a friend's house. :-) Anyway, I made sure that since we didn't exercise on Friday night, we went for a good walk at Nikki and Ron's. It was even cold, really cold, outside and I still went. I am not a cold weather person at all, but I knew I had to get out and walk. It ended up being not too bad out once we got walking fast. And the time goes by fast when you are talking with a friend. :-) I bought a litre water bottle on the way up to Nikki and Ron's so that I could make sure that I drank at least one litre. I found out that I drink a lot if I have a water bottle beside me all the time. I ended up drinking one litre just while we were playing games. So, although there was a dessert eaten, I did drink one litre of water AND get in a good walk yesterday, so not too bad a day. :-)

Sunday: It was a nice lazy day today. It was General Conference and we decided to stay home and watch it on the computer (internet). Menu: breakfast - angel food cake, yogurt, peaches, lunch - egg and cheese toasted sandwich, supper - barbecued chicken, salads: garden, macaroni, and potato. I was happy about the amount I ate and I didn't eat seconds which I normally would have done in the past. I also drank my one litre of water during the day and another after supper. I am really pleased about that as I am trying really hard to get in my two litres of water each day. I think that this is the first day I have been able to get all two litres in, so I consider that a success. I made my own potato salad and so I'm sure that was a lot less fattening than bought salad. I did buy a macaroni salad, but I think that I will try and find one I can make myself. I did not make my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow, but I do know what I am going to make and most of it I do have to make tomorrow. Oatmeal for breakfast and barbecued chicken toasted sandwich for lunch. I have an apple and orange in my fridge at work and that makes me ready for the day. I will sign up for my yoga class tomorrow and will walk there and back for my exercise. Pretty good start to my week, I think. :-)

Learning more each day!

Last night, after I had written my blog, I decided that, since I hadn't had two snacks yesterday, I would eat one just before bed. I wasn't hungry, but I wasn't full, either. It's kind of a weird and different feeling to be in that place. Anyway, I now realize that I shouldn't have had that granola bar (nutritious, but not necessary to eat). I realize that I should not eat when I am not hungry and especially after dinner. It's best if I don't eat anything after 6pm (at least, that's what I've read), but I don't always get to eat by 6pm with Mike's shift. So, I think the best goal is to decide not to eat after dinner no matter what time we eat. The other thing I did tonight was eat more than I should have. The meal (supper) was at The Keg (a late birthday celebration). We always get the same thing when we go there - Prime Rib Classic - it's so yummy: prime rib (medium well), loaded baked potato and vegetables. Before the main meal, there is a salad and a sourdough bread ball. Mike had just finished up a midnight shift and didn't want to eat his share of the bread. Once we were finished the main meal, and were waiting for dessert, I decided to eat one more piece of the bread. I wasn't hungry, but I have a hard time leaving food behind. It's nothing to do with any childhood situation - it's just that I hate the thought of good food being thrown out. I need to get past that - I feel so full right now - and eating that piece of bread might not have made a huge difference in my fullness, but it would have made some difference. But, more to the point, I just need to remember that I need to 'eat to live' NOT 'live to eat'. A good thing that happened today is that I signed up for a ten week yoga course that will start on April 13th. I am really looking forward to going to that and learning how to do the moves properly with a professional watching me. We have the DVD that shows us how to do it, but I would like someone who knows what they are doing to be able to guide me. Then, I can share that info with Mike. I am hoping that when we learn how to do the yoga moves properly, it will lead to less stress in our lives.

Date night!

Today was a good day for eating, but not for exercising. I am going to have to rethink this exercising on Thursday since I have my date night with Colin on this day. He would love to go for a walk, but he couldn't walk fast enough to get my heart rate going or for me to break a sweat. So, perhaps a walk at lunch time is in order for Thursdays. Now that the weather is better, I could possibly walk outside from 11am - 11:30am and then eat lunch. Anyway, a yummy menu today: breakfast - angel food cake, yogurt, peaches, lunch - dagwood sandwich, snack - grapes, supper - three bean enchiladas. Those were delicious, I thought, although I might try a different sauce for them. I bought a can of enchilada sauce (never tried that before), but next time I might try a packet of it and see if I like that better. The sauce in the can was a bit spicy, but not too spicy for me, but I found that it wasn't that tasty. So, a recipe that is a keeper, but with a little tweaking, would be even better. Mike found a notice up at the grocery store for the yoga class and they have a site online, so I am going to check that out. Hopefully the class on Monday nights hasn't filled up - I hadn't thought of that, but there was a little note at the bottom of the notice that says that classes fill up quickly. Better get to it! :-)

A good walk today!

I was a little bit tired this morning, but managed to get through the day okay. I need to get this posting done so I can get to sleep asap. Menu: breakfast - angel food cake, yogurt, peaches, snack - Special K bar, lunch - dagwood sandwich, snack - mandarines, supper - linguine with fresh tomato based sauce. The meal tonight sounded really good - fresh tomatoes - but, two things made it not so good: first off, I didn't read the whole recipe and missed adding thyme and salt (although I rarely add salt to anything I cook) and, second, neither Mike or I are fussed on hot fresh tomatoes. But, you never know, so I decided to try the recipe. Now, I know we won't be having that one again. Mike woke up early today and so we got to take a walk before he had to go into work. There was a bit of a chill in the air, but once we got going, I actually warmed up. I love walking and made sure that we went at a good pace - I could sure feel it in my legs when we were done. Along the way, we saw a sign in one of the stores in town advertizing a yoga class which is starting April 13th (Monday). The cost is $99. for 10 weeks - a great deal! It didn't say how long each class is, but I am guessing that it will be 45 minutes to an hour. Since I have planned to do yoga twice a week, I don't feel like taking this class is going against my plan to have Monday to relax. And if the weather is nice, I can walk there (I hope to anyway - I can't remember where the class is being held). So, two types of exercising for the price of one. :-) Another little tidbit I learned today: my students were using Skittles to do some math work in class. I checked out the calorie and fat content. I figured that they would be high in calories and would have no fat. Boy, was I wrong: they ARE high in calories, but they also have some fat in them. Just reminded me to not assume that anything is low in fat or has none.