Leaving on a jet plane...

Ah, good ol' John Denver. =)

So even though I *just* got back from a 2 week family vacation, I'm leaving again! But this time it's for a little romantic getaway with my husband. We haven't been away to a warm place for more than the weekend since our honeymoon 6.5 years ago, so we are quite excited!

And get this... I'm leaving my scale at home!!! LOL I know that sounds completely insane and ridiculous (that I'd even CONSIDER taking my scale) but I've gotten used to having to weigh every day while on HCG and maintenance. Now that I'm done with both, I'm not tied to the scale anymore. =)

I can't wait to lay in the sun, SLEEP, read a book, SLEEP, go out to dinner, SLEEP, swim, SLEEP, etc... Can you tell Josh and I are completely and utterly exhausted!? He has been putting in mammoth hours at work and my kiddos have been getting up early, waking up at night and just generally being rascals all around.

Josh's sister (ironically, her name is Ruthanne, too!!!) is coming to babysit. She is great with kids, but I'm worried mine are going to run her into the ground. I hope they are on better behavior than they are with me. ;-) I plan to hit up the dollar store for some fun things for them to do each day.

Now I've got to pack all over again, but this time I'm packing "little" clothes and bathing suits... fun stuff. :-D There is a lazy river at our resort and I fully intend to meander down it with a book. Oh my, I can't wait!!!

Ok, I'm off to pack, hit up the library, dollar store and hit the hay early as our flight leaves before the crack of dawn!

See you on Monday... with a weigh in!

P.S. YAY for the return of my turtle!!!

There's No Place Like Home

Well, we had a wonderful vacation, but I must say I'm so glad to be HOME. In my own BED. It's hard living out of a suitcase for 2 weeks, with 3 small children.

This morning I weighed in at:

To me, this is absolute proof that the diet works. I ate whatever I wanted while away. During our beach portion of the vacation, I really went overboard with the sweets and junk food. One night we made peanut butter popcorn from a different recipe than the one I tried. Good gravy it was DELICIOUS and I probably ate a good 2 cups of it. There was also Smirnoff and Mike's; I'm a lightweight so I didn't drink too much but those calories add up! Brownies, homemade Reese's PB bars, coffee cake, donuts, crepes, crackers and cheese, honey roasted peanuts, etc...

I ate beyond what I should have. I ate for fun, for the taste and not for nutrition. And yet, I'm not even up 2 pounds from my lowest weight!? There were times my weight was up as high as 145.4, but it was due in large part to water retention and constipation. Two things I'm still working on remedying.

Overall I feel good. Well, once all the junk food got out of my system. ;-) I'm happy with where I'm at and feel healthy. I do still have ten or so pounds to lose, but I don't feel an urgency to get them off right now. I'll probably do one last round of HCG in September sometime and then be well and truly done.

I bought a pair of size 9/10 jeans over the weekend and they fit well; they still slide down a bit, but not off my bum. They don't create muffin top, which is good.

I'm happy to be back, but I think blogging will be slowing down. Real life is taking over... my daughter starts school soon and I'm hoping to hit the gym to tone up. I've lost fat for sure, but I am NOT in shape. So I need to work on that aspect now.

I hope you've all been well and I'll be around! =)

I'm ALIVE!

Boy, finding consistent internet service has been hard, and it's not gonna get any better. But I'm at my sweet mom's house today and she is graciously letting me use her laptop and internet.

I'm alive... barely. Dude, single parenting is HARD. I have a new found respect and awe for all the single parents out there. God bless them.

My weight has been up and down; yesterday I weighed in at 145. It's ok, you can pick your jaws up off the floor. ;-) I had some bathroom time and drank some water and all is well again. Twice last week I was at 145, but then when I weighed an hour later it was down to 143.4. I'm not really sure how that happens. I get up, use the restroom, and weigh. Then I go back to bed for an hour or so, get up, use the restroom, weigh and voila! Down a pound and some change. Yesterday I didn't bother to weigh again after my first reading.

Anyhoo, I'm doing pretty well. I have eaten a LOT of junk. I'm talking Twix, Tootsie Rolls, McFlurry's, ice cream cones, chips, onion rings, french fries, etc... So in light of that, the fact that I haven't had to fast is nothing short of a miracle.

I love being on vacation and seeing my dear family and friends, but I am ready to go home and get in a routine. My daughter starts school this year--full day kindergarten--and I want to get ready for that. We still have some school shopping to do. I'm just ready to be in my own house with my own stuff and my own bed. My kids are freaking out a bit too. Owen, usually so mild mannered and sweet has become a little devil. He throws huge tantrums, using his oversized noggin as a weapon, and let me tell you. When he throws that thing around and knocks me in the nose... it ain't pretty.

I've really, really enjoyed being free to eat what I please, and part of me is happy just staying at this weight. I think I'll probably go one more round of HCG once we get settled in September; I'd like to lose 10 more pounds to get back to where I was the majority of my adult life before kids. But I'm not going to stress it. If September rolls around and I don't want to do it, then I just am not gonna do it.

It was really nice/interesting to hear from people that they can tell I've lost weight. I feel better. When I look at pictures of me from before I look puffy. Doughy. Michelin Man meets Pillsbury Dough Boy. Not pretty.

I hope you all are doing well. I'm going to go check up on my peeps now; all the bloggers who I normally follow on a regular basis but haven't because of lack of internet.

I'll try to check in, but it'll probably be spotty. Plus, those darn kids keep me pretty buys. :-D

Surprise!

I had an unexpected moment to get on real quick. =)

I was down .8 this morning, so that was a nice surprise. I guess some of the weight gain must've been from the sodium I consumed.

Not much else going on; I'm trying to make conscious, good decisions with the food I eat, instead of snacking mindlessly. It's a little harder here because we don't have a lot of fridge space, so there are lots of carbs sitting around; crackers, chips and other stuff that doesn't need to be kept cold.

Yesterday I had a funny experience; someone took my scale! I had it stashed away in a little cupboard in the community bathroom, and used it when I weighed myself early in the morning. When I went back later to take a shower I was going to weigh again (I usually weigh a little less after I've been up for a bit) and it was gone! Someone must've just borrowed it, because it was back later in the day.

My ticker wasn't showing up, so I had to make a new one; I'm hoping that pretty soon it will be fixed, cuz I miss my little turtle. For now I'm dreaming of sunny skies, blue water and white sand beaches. :-D

Well, that's all the time I've got and the internet connection here isn't so great.

Happy Tuesday!

Whew!

We are busy, busy, busy, busy. I prob won't be checking in that often.

Today my weight was up to 144.2; yeah, those chicken strips, fries, Twix, etc... are catching up to me. ;-) We ARE on vacation, but I need to reign it in a bit. I do great when I'm on Atkins, so that's what I'll shoot for.

I'm not sure where my weight ticker went and I don't have the time right now to track it down. :-D I'll put it back up soon.

I'll be back when I can!

CHEEEEESE!

Top o' the morning to ya!

I can't tell you how glad I am it is FRIDAY!!! I celebrated the fact by enjoying my all time favorite creamer, Coffee Mate Vanilla Caramel, in my happy mug today:

There I am in all my bedhead, first-thing-in-the-morning glory. ;-) That cup of joe cost me 5 of my allotted 20 carbs a day, but it was worth it.

Yesterday I went WAY over my carbs. Two words. Strawberry Shortcake. I made some homemade shortcake biscuits with Bisquick, and according to the package 1/3 cup has something like 27 carbs. It took 2.5 cups to make 5 biscuits, so that is definitely more than 1/3 cup each. It was so delicious; we topped them with fresh strawberries and real whipped cream. YUM.

I still lost 0.2 today, and I think it's because I kept my eating in check the rest of the day. I knew I was going to be making the strawberry shortcake, so I didn't splurge on my calories the rest of the day. I had 2 deviled eggs (WHY do boiled eggs smell SO BAD!?!?) and a huge taco salad with hamburger, romaine, cheese, tomatoes, sweet onion and sour cream. And my strawberry shortcake. I've noticed that I really don't get super hungry on Atkins. I think all the protein fills me up and helps keep me full.

Now if only these cravings for chocolate would go away! I feel like I'm pregnant with the intensity of these cravings. It's insane! Luckily, since I threw that muffin away we don't have any chocolate in the house, so I haven't acted on it. But you can bet your bottom dollar that once we are on vacation I'll be making frequent trips to my fave local coffee shop for my newest favorite drink: a zebra americano with cream. Milk and white chocolate, coffee and cream. What's not to love!?

It's not even 10:00 in the morning and I've already baked a huge batch of french toast for us to take on vacation AND a huge batch of banana bread. But, I still have plenty of getting-ready to do, so I'm off. Have a lovely weekend, and I'll see you on Monday!

Muffin Top

Good Morning!

How is everyone this fine Thursday? I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, lists of stuff to do and bring trailing behind me. ;-) We leave on Saturday morning, and there is a LOT of stuff to pack and prepare.

Yesterday I found a chocolate Costco muffin stashed in my freezer. It had been in there from my binge days. I wanted to eat it bad. In fact, I did start eating it. I ate the top (aren't the tops of muffins the best parts!?) and then threw the rest in the trash. If I hadn't put it in the trash, I know I would have eaten the whole thing. And it wouldn't have been pretty. As it was I got an almost immediate headache that never went away until I got a good night's rest. I felt ill, which worked in my favor as I was able to fast the rest of the day.

I maintained at 142.8 this morning, and I'm thankful for that. It's interesting to see how something can seem so delectable but then when I actually eat it... it's nothing to write home about. I need to remember that.

Other than that I did pretty good. I had egg white with sweet onions for breakfast... sort of like an omelet. Then I had some pepperoni and cheese for lunch. Then the muffin top while I read and my kids were having their rest times. What is it with me and reading and snacking!? I get bored and want to munch on something. I need to learn to work through that, instead of reaching for food.

I'm in a bit of a pickle because we don't have a lot of staples in the house, because we're leaving for vacation and I don't want them to spoil. I also plan to buy the bulk of the food once we get there so we don't have to transport it. This means most of the things I usually eat... we are out of. No turkey sausage, no pepperoni, no tuna, no lunch meat, no nuts, etc... I think that's one reason why I ate the muffin; I was feeling hungry (and bored, I'll admit it) and there wasn't anything Atkins friendly for me to eat. So I ate the muffin top.

Not much else to report today; I hope you're doing well and have a fun weekend ahead of you. I'll check in tomorrow, and then it will probably be Monday before I have a chance to check in again.