I decided to go back on phase 1 of the SBD for 2 weeks.  I sort of fell off track when Keith was here (MMMM Hospital Pizza), and I was doing so well before that it’s time to get back on track again.

Ali and I are doing a SBD Phase 1 challenge to keep each other motivated. I’m really going to try to blog about it every day, and blog about what I ate.

My challenge for today is that I’m going to a Pampered Chef party tonight and there is never food at those things that are healthy and SBD friendly.  I plan to eat a big dinner before I go so I can just take a nibble of whatever is being prepared.

This morning we had scrambled eggs for breakfast, and I think that I’m officially over eggs.  I’ve been eating eggs pretty much every morning for the last 8 weeks.  BLAH.  Maybe I can find a more creative way to eat them so they don’t bore me so much.   We shall see.

My goal for Phase 1, take 2, is to lose 10 more pounds.  Here goes nothing!

Although both of us are craving sweets like we never have before, the results have been great.

Anne - down 6 pounds

Jonathan — also down 6!

Woo hoo.

One (maybe two for Anne) weeks left in Phase 1!  Yee haw!

Check this list to see if they are BPA free

http://safemama.com/2007/11/22/bpa-free-bottle-and-sippy-cup-cheat-sheet/print/

The Soft Landing blog (look in my links) has more information as well.

If they are not BPA free, you can return them to Babies R Us for an equivalent product exchange that is indeed BPA free.  All of ours are going back tomorrow.

Why does it matter, you ask?  Well…the safemama.com website says it best:

• What is BPA? BPA or Bisphenol-a is a chemical used mostly in polycarbonate plastics (PC), which are used in: baby bottles, sippy cups, sports bottles, canned food / formula lining, and jar food lids. Greeeat. (feel my thick sarcasm?)
• How do I know if something is made with PC? Flip the item over and look for a recycling symbol on the bottom. It looks like a triangle of arrows with a number between 1 - 7 in the center. Polycarbonate plastic is usually marked with a 7. It might sometimes have a PC next to it indicating polycarbonate.
• 
• Why should I avoid BPA? Bisphenol-a is a known endocrine disruptor. Meaning it has estrogenic properties which, in recent animal tests has shown to cause a bevy of health problems such as;
  • precancerous tumors
  • uro-genital abnormalities in male babies,
  • a decline in semen quality in males,
  • early onset of puberty in females,

Research is showing that when plastic containers, mostly those used to hold liquids and foods, are leeching Bisphenol into the foods and liquids they are holding. Heating food and liquids with these plastics is shown to increase the leeching of this contaminate. Bottom line: It’s icky and if you don’t want to chance it on your precious kids, there are ways to avoid it.

Yes. My 1/2 Marathon career is over before I even started training when today I was diagnosed with a Meniscus injury in my left knee and also diagnosed with degenerative osteoarthritis of the left knee.

I was very afraid that this might be arthritis since my knee has been really hurting the last couple months. It runs in my family — my mom is about to have her 4th joint replaced and my brother who will be 40 in two weeks (ha ha), has had 2 hips replaced and is having issues with his shoulders now. I was just hoping that I just hurt myself and it wasn’t more serious.  Gee. Thanks Mom.

Turns out I did hurt myself and it is more serious. Crap.

So the prognosis….good, since it was caught early. I am strictly forbidden from running more than 15 minutes straight ever again. He would prefer me not to run at all, but rather to do elliptical training or take up biking. Actually he said that training for a long distance bike ride would be wonderful for my knee. So maybe I’ll look into doing a 75 mile race or something. I can continue spinning, which is good.

Sorry Sarah & Marcia. I suppose you’ll have to run 13.1 miles along the beach by yourselves. Sniff sniff. I was actually looking forward to it.

Yesterday was the Sunburst 5k that I’ve been training for since the triathalon.  I learned a very valuable lesson this year….that running a 5k on a treadmill is not hte same as running outside.  And although I’m not thrilled with my time, I finished very strong at the end after having to walk a little bit up the one hill in South Bend.

What should I do next? Another 5k and shoot to improve my time? Mini-Triathlon in August? 10k in October? Half-Marathon in the Spring (yeah right, keep dreaming…I’m not doing that to myself again).

On a related note (literally), Jonathan’s Mom and Sister are here visiting for the weekend and we’re having a great time! They ran in the race with me yesterday morning, and we’re all having a blast together. The girls are thrilled to have them around!!
 

I made this for myself for lunch and it was sooooooo yummy.

Ingrediants:

2 whole wheat tortillas (small)

Steamed Baby Carrots, halved

Leftover Hummus

Black Beans

Coat tortillas in hummus.  Sprinkle on black beans (try not to feed too many to baby).  Top with baby carrots.  Nuke for 20 seconds.  Basque in the delicious thing you created before you gobbled it down.

Nutrition:

Well…on the WW side….Tortillas are 1 point each, hummus is 2 points for the 2 tbsp I used (since it was my homemade recipe I could control the oil/tahini in it), carrots = free.  Black beans, less than 1 point total since I used about 10 on each thing.

4 points for the whole thing and soo filling.  Way better than a quesadilla.

Woo hoo!

The plateau is over!  I’m down 3.4 pounds this week.  Only 10 more until my 10% goal!

Goals this week: 2 pounds and 3x at the gym!

Went to Weight Watchers…..

Down……0 pounds.

I don’t get it.  I had the freaking flu from hell for most of last week and couldn’t keep one blessed thing down. The days I did eat, I ate well.

I just don’t get it.

On the other hand, I ran a 5k the other night at the gym with no problem.

I guess that’s progress.

I haven’t posted my WW numbers in a few weeks.  I missed my meeting last Thursday because of my trip to NY, so I went today at lunch. I’m pleased to report a loss of 1.8 pounds, which is great considering the fact that I ate like crap the entire time I was in NY.  (But who could blame me…that was some of the best pizza I’ve ever had)

My totals are thus…

7 weeks

-9 pounds

Kinda blah.  But still a negative, so that is good!

A positive is that I had a really good day at the gym on Monday — did an aerobics class and ran just about 1.2 miles in 10 minutes on the treadmill. (I was EXHAUSTED after mind you).

My goal for next week is 2.5 pounds — and to get in 2 gym days and one day of outside exercise (either raking leaves or doing a run outside…or both if I can!)  2.5 pounds means really sticking to my points, so I’ll need to be extra careful on our trip to Kevin & Jenny’s wedding in Cincinnati on Saturday.

To eat M&M’s or not to eat M&M’s.  That is the question.

You see, there has been a large box of M&M’s for sale on the conference table in my office. It has been taunting me all day.

After hours of rejecting their vile claims to my heart, I went and took a peek.  280 calories?  15 grams of fat?  No way was I eating this.

So I ate a Snickers instead.

I was saddened to find out they have the exact same nutritional value.

More points in a snickers bar than in my entire lunch.

Good thing I’m going to the gym tonight….

Yesterday was a rainy day.  While we were driving  home from preschool, she noticed that one of the cornfields was very muddy.

C:  Mommy, look at all that mud!!!!!!!!  It’s squishy!

Me:  Yep!

C:  Mommy, Jesus put the mud on the man’s eyes.

Me:  Yes He did Claire. What happened next?

C:  The Man’s eyes were opened and then he could see.

Can I just say …….WOW!    About 2 months ago, we started sending Claire to Children’s Liturgy of the Word, even though she’s too young, because she was begging to go with the other kids.  (Typical oldest child syndrome my mom says….Madeline will probably not ever want to go).  Anyway, during Mass they take the kids out after the opening prayer until after the petitions. They read the readings and do an activity.  She never says anything about it except that she got to play with the kids and sometimes she says she got to color.   Well obviously her little sponge-for-brain actually caught something the leader said.  I was just astounded!!!  Perhaps we do need to put her in Catechises of the Good Shepard sooner rather than later……

And now for the mismatched socks part….

So I went to Weight Watchers today.  Had sort of a blah week — gained 1 pound.  I sort of knew this was going to happen because I pigged out after the triathlon.  It’s ok though — going to the meeting has put me back on track.

Today we had a dress down day at work so I was wearing jeans.  Usually I weigh in on Thursdays and I’ve been very careful to wear a skirt to work every Thursday so I don’t skew my numbers.  Since I had jeans on today, I grabbed a pair of exercise shorts to change into when I got to WW.  I went, changed, and walked out to weigh in. The lady in front of me asked why I had changed and I gave her the long story that I just typed above. She laughed and said…looking down…you know, you have two different socks on.    I thought….No lady, I didn’t know that.  I accidentally put on one black sock with flowers and one blue sock with stripes.   I’m wearing boots…who cares if I have mismatched socks on?  Those little orphaned socks need to be worn too?   I composed myself and said “oops!  must have gotten dressed in the dark this morning”.

You’ll notice a temporary addition on the left side of our blog for the next couple weeks.  :)  This way I don’t have to go to cbssportsline.com to get the scores during work.

I solemnly swear that I am not not watching the NCAA tournament online at work.

That my friends, is my slogan for 2008. Thanks Elvis.

I’ve been whining for YEARS about my weight. After big successes after college, I stopped doing so well for a while, then got pregnant (twice) and gained and lost 60 pounds twice with my pregnancies. I’ve been in a “I want to lose weight but its too hard” funk for a long while now and I decided at teh beginning of 2008 that it was time to stop talking and do something.

It started with the Triathlon….a goal that I never thought I could accomplish. My goal when I started the training was “finish and don’t die”, but by the end of it I had accomplished more than I ever thought. I was shocked when I finished with a 450 in the pool (that’s 17 laps people), 9.5 ish miles on the bike and a 1.3 mile run! I really had come far!

I decided, especially after reading my friend Kelly’s blog, that I was going to use my forum here as sort of a sounding board of public accountability for my weight loss journey. My plan is to blog about this once or twice a week…keeping track of my workouts and my stats from Weight Watchers and documenting my successes and struggles.

Here goes nothing…

To reach my goal, I need to lose a total of 72.5 pounds in 2008. I would like to reach my goal by November 15th (Madeline’s 2nd birthday). So far I have lost 12.5 pounds with a combination of Weight Watchers and working out.

I started Weight Watchers about 4 weeks ago and have lost 8.5 pounds so far on the program. (I lost 4 before I started). I was bad and didn’t get to a meeting last Thursday. I had a commitment and didn’t get to the one I normally go to, and then didn’t weigh in at all last week. This is a consistent problem I have — if I feel like I’m not having the best week, I don’t go to the meeting because I don’t like to face the scale. However, I’ve learned over the years that I need that support to succeed, so I am DEFINITELY going this Thursday.

As for the workouts, I’ve checked the triathlon off my list. Next up is the 5k (May 31st). After the 5k, I’m thinking I would like to prepare for a 10k by the end of the summer. To prepare for this, I commit myself to 3 days a week at the gym — one spin class, and two days of other cardio - hopefully one with strength training.

Anyway, I’ll post again on Thursday after I weigh in and discuss my plan of action for the week!