Dr. Oz's Transformation Nation and WI

Ugh, Thursday are such a hassle!  Home from work for maybe 30  minutes.  Have to take the girl to dance (round 1).  That class lasts an hour.  Pick her up, take her home and then go to my WW meeting.  Rush home from that, throw something together quick for dinner.  Round 2 of dance is 7:45 - 9:15.  Sheesh!

So anyway, I was oddly pleasantly surprised with my .4 lb gain this week.  I was really expecting a lot more!  Between last weekend's birthday party, the family trip to the orchard (evil cider & donuts), dinner for Angel's actual birthday last night at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill.  Oh, and TOM arrived today.   Yeah, I didn't think it would be pretty, but .4 is OK by me!

Tonight at the meeting they talked about this new health challenge program put on by WW and the Dr. Oz Show.  OK, I am so not hip.  I've never watched his show, but I do have a vague idea of who he is.

Anyway, you try to either get within your recommended BMI or lose 10% before April 9 and then the public votes on your story & transformation and you can win $1 Mil and be on his show !!

Well, according to the quiz, I'm at 33.1% BMI, which is considered obese, so I guess I'll have to shoot for my 10%

You have to fill out an Official Weight Verification Form at the meeting, and then register on his website.  Then you have to take a quiz and complete 7 steps in order to qualify for the contest.   What's funny is that you can't complete the 7 steps until your final official weigh in in April! 

Heck, I figure it can't hurt!

FYI.... because it is that time of year.....

This is a 1 ounce serving of candy corn.  

3 P+.

Just so ya know!

A post for Miss Angela...

14 years ago today you came into the world. 

My sweet baby girl.

You were (and still are) beautiful.

You were (and still are) fearless.

You were (and still are) a goofball.

You're an incredible dancer and it makes me so proud to watch you!

Happy Birthday, Pnut!!

We love you so much!

It has been such an amazing trip, 

watching you grow from a sweet girl into a lovely young woman. 

 Now, boys - stay away!!!

FMM & holidaze !!!!

Happy Monday!

This was NOT a pretty weekend!  Saturday night I had an extra 4 girls over my house for Angel's 14th birthday party.  I'm glad there weren't any more, since I was able to stuff them all in my car and unleashed them at the mall for a couple hours.  They still were up way past 2am.  Last time I yelled at them was at 2:38 to put the phones away!  But there was pizza.  And candy corn.  And a chocolate chip cookie dough / devils food ice cream cake.  I did have a couple pieces of pizza, but only one small slice of the cake. 

Then yesterday, we went to the orchard with the family, but for some reason we didn't actually pick any apples!  They have a pair of  huge inflated jumpy pillow things (a total RIOT!!!  My sister & I almost wet ourselves laughing so hard!!), a giant straw pyramid, a petting zoo, a "haunted" maze, a corn maze, tractor-drawn wagon rides, basically all sorts of fun stuff to do.  Oh and the most killer things ever......cider & donuts.  My total downfall this time of year.  They're like crack.  I can't help myself!! 

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. Answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: What’s your favorite holiday?  And why? 

Woohoo!  My favorite holiday is Halloween!  There's just something about this time of year, when the leaves start to change and the air gets crisp, I can't explain.  I'm totally sad that my daughter is in junior high now and I don't have school parties or parades to go to.  I love to see the kids dress up.  Every year we go to a nearby town that has an entire street of big old Victorian houses that totally go over the top with Halloween.  It's quite awesome.  I also do a "yard haunt".  I have a large cemetery and life-sized figures and all sorts of fun stuff in my front yard, most of which I made myself.  It's not a scary place, tho.  It's pretty goofy, but that's what makes me happy!  I even have a blog for it.

However, I also enjoy Christmas.  I was involved in a Secret Santa gift exchange over the summer.  I don't do ~as much~ decorating then, but I still have some neat things I put out in the yard.  I love the lights and atmosphere.  I'm not as thrilled with the amount of snow we get in SE Michigan as much as I used to be.  And there is another nearby town where each business in the downtown strip gets covered in lights for the entire month of December. It's a huge, beautiful spectacle.  Oh, I have already started shopping.  I don't like to wait til the last minute.  And I look forward to going to craft shows with Mom & my sisters every year.  

Fire Up for Fall - weeks 1 & 2

I just got involved in this and I missed week 1, so I'm going to do both weeks together. 

This is going to be a Monday thing.  I need to post something positive and updates on how I'm doing to get Fired Up on my weight loss journey.   Then I'll link back to Rebecca's page and then get to read others' posts, too!

Week One Questions: Here we go!

1. What are your goals for the Fall Challenge? (List your 5 or more goals)

     a. to at least see a loss on the scale each week.  Something....anything!!

     b. to dust off the Wii and start doing yoga

     c. or to get out walking again before the weather turns crappy.

     d. don't buy any more cider or donuts!!!

     e. try a new recipe a week and post about it.
 

2. Why have you chosen those goals?  #a is simple.  I am tired to seeing the same numbers at my Weight Watchers meeting each week!  #b & c is to get my booty moving!  #d is my downfall.  #e is to help combat the kitchen boredom that I suffer from.

3. What have you done this week that's made you feel fabulous? Its not really related to my physical being, but the mental.  I worked my butt off to get my house clean for my daughter's birthday party this past weekend.  It looks so pretty!  I don't want anyone to touch anything.  Or open the laundry room.  :D

4. What do you think will be your biggest challenge in reaching your goals?  My willpower.  It's apple orchard time, so that means cider & donuts.  I only have them this time of the year, so i really have to try not to go crazy.

5. Fun Question! Where in the World do you live? What's amazing about it?  I live in Shelby Township, Michigan.  It is located about 20 miles due north of Detroit.  There aren't really any famous landmarks or anything here.  Oh wait - back in the day, in the park at the end of my street, the boxer Joe Louis had a thoroughbred horse ranch and a fancy restaurant.  It was also a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War where runaway slaves could stop on their way to Canada.  It was also a Nike Missile Site during the 40's and 50s. But overall, it's just a really nice place to live.

This is my positive image.  This was taken at my niece's graduation party in 2007.  OK, it's pretty horrible.  Looking at this helps me to remember why I joined Weight Watchers and my vow to never look like this ever again!

Week Two Questions...

1. What have you done this week to help you achieve your goals?  I confess to not really doing much.  My daughter's birthday party really threw a wrench in my staying on track.  The whole willpower thing, ya know.

2. What have you done to make yourself feel fabulous?  The whole family went to the apple orchard this weekend.  My sisters and I look forward to going on this huge inflated jumping pillow.  It is just so much fun!  I felt fabulous just by laughing so hard.

3. What is your talent? What are you good at? {Genuinely, EVERYONE has something big or small} Hmm.  I'm pretty creative.  I love Halloween and the vast majority of my cemetery (aka yard haunt) is made by my own hands. 

4. What's been the highlight of your week, toot your horn, what are you proud of !  Got my house clean!

5. Fun Question: What's your guilty pleasure TV?  I don't watch a whole lot of TV.  The only show I go out of my way to watch each week is CSI (Vegas).  However, I did have the TV on Saturday night and was flipping thru the channels and came across RuPaul's Drag U.  OMG.  I was riveted!  It was both fascinating & mildly appalling at the same time.  

This positive image goes along with the scary one above. This is me down 64 lbs.    

Surviving the girl's birthday - so far!

I'm taking advantage of the peace & quiet before "they" wake up!  This is "they"....

Rhyarna, Lauren, Angel, Lauren, Ashley

They look so sweet & innocent.  However, if you take one teen or pre-teen girl and multiply her, then noise and drama multiply exponentially.   Basically - OMG they are LOUD !!!!

There were 3 more invited, but obviously didn't show up.  One had previous plans and the other 2 had planned to come, but came down sick at the last minute.  Whew!  It totally worked out to everyone's benefit, since I was able to load them all into my car and unleash them at the mall for a couple hours.

I love the option on Domino's pizza website for future delivery.  I ordered the pizza before we left & said to have it delivered at 8:30.  We got home and the pizza was there 10 minutes later.

 MmMmMm.  Choc chip cookie dough ice cream & devil's food cake!

There was a makeup party.

 
LOL, Angel & Ashley made blackfaces & Rhyarna made a whiteface!  I see mustaches, too.

Anyway, they just hung out in her room goofing off & trying on past dance costumes & stuff.  Once midnight came and went, I was getting tired & bored.  We don't stay up that late.  And I watched more TV last night than I have in the past month combined!  I finally made them settle down at 2am and forced myself to stay up til 2:30 to make sure they actually were quieting down and yelled at them one last time to put the darn phones away.  It's almost 10am now and I'm starting to hear stirring from the cave.

I was sitting on the couch watching TV last night.  Skeeter was on the other end, Maggie was on the back & Chester was on the the loveseat, Jack was on the floor within reach.  Every so often, one would look at me with this pitiful expression.  I think they all wanted to go to bed, too! 

I haven't figured out who the huge slob is yet.  They used Angel's make up wipes to wash their faces & someone left their used ones on the counter instead of reaching over to the other side of the sink to drop them in the trash.  Probably the same person who keeps leaving the lid up in the bathroom.  And didn't clear her own plate.  Everyone else managed to get their plate from both dinner & cake into the trash.  I just spotted some more candy wrappers here by the desk, too.

I think I hear someone roaming around, so I'm signing off!  There will be a part 2 later.  Because after everyone leaves, we're heading out to the orchard with the family!

These were the colors she chose for her decorations.  

Just happened to match what she wore to dance.  And her braces.

9/22/11

+/- 0

Yup.  Stayed the same!  I guess I'll take that.  It wasn't a gain, so I can't whine about it.

I thought I did a pretty good job of tracking this week and adding oil to my oatmeal, but I'm thinking I haven't gotten rid of that sodium OD from Tuesday yet.  I totally haven't been getting outside to walk, which is killing me.  It's so nice and cool out and I'm stuck inside trying to get the house cleaned up & decorated and then it's getting dark so early, too!!  Angel's birthday party is Saturday / Sunday and then Sunday we're going to meet up with the family at the orchard and do some apple picking & stoof. 

Then I will get plenty of exercise getting my Halloween stuff put out.  Woohoo!

So I'm hoping to at least get out the Wii and hear that annoying little Wii critter say "oooof" when I step on the board!  I know its been over a month since any of us have used it.  Shame on us!

Tonight's meeting wasn't particularly educational.  We were supposed to be talking about time management but somehow, Carol got sidetracked with this little contest she came up with last week.  We get a bingo chip for showing up for the meeting and another for a loss.  This is supposed to go on until next week.  Then who ever has the most chips gets to choose a prize.  Usually its a cookbook or some of the WW snacks.  Anyway, tonight she was asking questions so we could earn more chips.  Totally irrelevant stuff like who drives the farthest to the meeting (I got it because it takes 15-20 minutes to get there. Thanks, traffic!), who has the most unusual name (2 ladies tied with Kennet & Vernella), who has the most unusual vehicle (a guy has a 1932 Roadster of some sort that currently he's renting to a museum in Denver).  Goofy.

So anyway, its getting late & I will have to do a marathon cleaning session when I get home from work tomorrow, since all I hope to do while Angel is at dance Saturday morning is pick up her cake from Baskin Robbins, go to the dollar store for decorations & then decorate.  

Holy Crap!!

This is a Learn From My Fail post.

Last night, the hubster announced he'd been craving a Whopper with cheese from Burger King for days.  So we went there after picking the girl up from dance class.  I ordered the Tendergrill garden salad (grilled chicken !! on a salad !!)  And I got it with honey mustard dressing.  So good, so far, right?  RIGHT??

Wrong.

After we ate, we went to buy Randy a pair of shoes, since he will wear them until they fall off his feet.  His current pair is seriously worn out & holey.  By the time we messed around in Payless (about 45 minutes because he couldn't make up his mind) I really had to use the bathroom.  Luckily the store was only about a mile from the house.  In that mile, it reached emergency proportions.  This happened twice more in the next 2 hours.

Today I was fine, or so I thought.  My new shoes (plain black flats with "Comfort Plus" padding) started out fine.  Then the heels started to rub & then my left pinky toe started to rub.  I covered them with bandaids & they were fine.  Then my feet / ankles started to swell. 

I looked up my salad on the BK website.  The salad ALONE had 930 grams of sodium !!!!  Where the hell was all that?????  And then the dressing???  Another 550 grams!!!!!  Sheesh.  No wonder my poor feet feel like stuft sausages! 

Needless to say, there will be a detour home to get different shoes before going grocery shopping after work. 

Lesson learned???  1. Just because it is a salad doesn't mean it's good for you.  2. This is why I avoid BK.

Pardon me, I need to go refill my water bottle.

Friend Makin' Monday - Creating Change

Man, this was a crazy weekend - I'm almost glad to be back at work so I can stay in one place!  Saturday started out nice & easy.  Randy went to a radio swap & I let Angel sleep in as long as possible.  So I messed around on the computer for a while, then went out to the garage with the intention of looking for some items I got last year for a project.  I ended up moving all of the Halloween totes to the front of the garage for easy access and getting out the sleeping bags and stuff to take to my sister's house.

So Angel had to be at dance at 12:30 and Randy was back home by then, so we dropped her off and went to have lunch together Then we went & browsed around the local Salvation Army (we are such romantic party animals!!).   After dance was the comp team meeting.  Oh yay - fundraisers! 

I admit I didn't make the best choice at lunch, but the mini steak filets smothered in mushroom gravy was SO good!  However I did order the lunch portion (2 filets instead of 4) and got steamed veggies with it.  And a side salad with light honey mustard.  So it wasn't a total bust.

Saturday afternoon the girl & I went to Laurie's, hoping we'd be too late to help paint the pasture fence, but we weren't late enough.  So I got about 2 hours of APs, doing a lot of bending & stretching with my roller.   Then we had some of the cheap, bake-your-own pizza and then 2 s'mores by the bonfire.  And because it was my niece's 16th birthday "party", there were NO adult beverages.  Just Coke Zero & water.

We were up bright & early Sunday and went back home to shower & change.  We've been planning to go to the Renaissance Festival since it opened.  We did stop at Tim Horton's on the way, and got to the RenFest around 11.  We did a ton of walking, looking at the shops & watching all the people in costumes.  Angel got some fried cheese sticks (I had a bite of one) and Randy got some BBQ turkey jerky and that was really all the food we had while there.  On the way home, we stopped at bd's Mongolian BBQ for dinner.  I love going there, since I load up with seafood & veggies and eat with chopsticks.  Yummy & fun!

Me!

OMG!  Did I really have my hand on it's butt???

LOL!!

I know I didn't drink enough water yesterday, I could feel it last evening and I had a light cramp in my calf this morning - which usually happens when I get dehydrated.  I'll make sure to get plenty drunk today!

Now....time for FMM !!!!  I'm copy/pasting this straight from Kenlie's post since she said it best!

So in the spirit of Lose For Good, instead of the usual post about ourselves this week, I’d like to ask you to give to someone who needs it.  Most of us don’t have to worry about our next meal, but there are plenty of people in this nation and around the world that worry about it everyday.  And while I don’t have an extra million dollars to spare, I do have canned food and other nonperishable item that I could donate to a local food bank or church or to someone in need.  (Finding a place to donate is as simple as doing a google search!) I haven’t always put myself before others.  In fact, I rarely do, but this is my chance to change that.  And I’m asking you to be a part of that change too.  It’s not about whether you count points or calories or none of the above.  And there’s no prize or reward for participating…This time, it’s just about people.

FMM: Creating Change

Here are the details…(I’m making this up as I go so feel free to make suggestions.)  To my wonderful friends and lovely FMM regulars, I’m asking that you write a quick post today about your plans to donate food to a local food bank or church or charitable organization in your area during the month of September. (You can even copy this paragraph for your own post if you want to.)  Maybe you plan to donate 10 cans of beans or 5 packs of spaghetti or one jar of peanut butter.  Or maybe you’ll make a cash donation or volunteer.  You don’t have to get fancy or expensive.  Just give as much as you can, and be proud of yourself for making a difference.   Then, like usual, post a link here about your plans to donate for change.  And if someone leaves a comment on your blog about their plans to donate food or money to the hungry, leave another comment here at www.alltheweigh.com letting me know.  And when you’ve gathered your donation, you can e-mail a photo of yourself and your goods so you can be featured on my blog.

**Don’t forget to come back and share your link, and have a happy Monday!**

I donate to the Vietnam Veterans regularly, usually clothes and household goods.  I've already had 2 pick ups this year and I always keep a basket available just to collect stuff to donate.  I also donated 2 large clothes baskets full of old towels & sheets to the Michigan Humane Society where we adopted one of our cats from.  It always feels so good to let items go that I know other people may need and (selfish thought) it's feels good to get all that extra stuff out of my tiny house!!  Oh, and because of my blood type, the Red Cross is always happy to see me!
However, I don't normally donate food.  So I will.  I'll both look thru my cabinets to find anything we won't use and I'll pick up some extra when I'm at the store the next time.  My church maintains a food pantry and this time of year, they start looking for items to put in Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets.

MichRenFest 2011

Today was the most perfect day to go to the Renaissance Festival.  It was like 70 degrees and sunny.  Which also meant, at least 43 million other people felt that same way.  It wasn't too bad when we got there at 11, but later on - it was insane.  However - that gave me many photo ops. 

Most of these need no words.

 Us.

 You can see my drinkin' horn better here. 

 

Angel got her caricature done.

 

 The Queen

 This guy's excuse for carrying a radio is that he worked there.

Randy on the other hand......

 Cellphone & cigarettes.  Totally staying in character!

 The wenches who followed the queen's entourage around. 

 This guy was fabulous & he told us so!

 My librarian looking sweater didn't really go with my dress, but it was a bit cool out. 

My ropers (boots) look pretty interesting, too.  But they're better than running shoes!

 Random mud dragon. 

It's good to get the whole family involved!

And of course we had to go see our favorite shows!

 Ded Bob

 Angel went to give Bob a "little green thank you note".

 The Zucchini Brothers

We were sad to hear this is the last year of the Zucchini Brothers because they're retiring.  Booo!

One of these days we're really going to dress up.  Randy wants a kilt.  O_o  Which would require Angel & I to wear the same tartan.  She was supposed to wear a dress with a corset top & flowy sleeves today, but she was a poo & didn't.

On the way home - they sky was beautiful!