Is it HOT enough for you?!?!

My goodness, but it is HOT out! And, to add insult to injury, it's very humid too. This has been going on all week, and I think we have several more days of it in store. The good news is that my squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, and other vine-y type plants are doing good with this weather. My other plants look a little wilted. I didn't get to water for the past 2 nights, so maybe I'll do it this evening after it cools off. Or, if I can stand it, I might carry jugs of water to them and just water around the bases during the day. That's a lot of carrying, but it counts as exercise, so I just might give it a try. While I dislike the carrying, it beats watering everywhere and giving the weed water too.

I've gotten the scale to nudge down a little bit more, to where it actually shows pounds lost on the sidebar. Yippee! I hope to see some improvement after this weekend too. I have a TON of things to do outside in the garden & yard. The other day while doing some chores, I spotted something floral that was near the back toward the woods. It looked like a big burst of cream color, so I investigated. It's some type of bush with these cream color clumps of blossoms that are 4 or 5 inches across. The flowers smelled wonderful! I noticed yesterday the blossoms have passed by, but I am definitely considering relocating it closer to the house.

Then, there is the forsythia that needs to be trimmed. This has been on my list for weeks. There are two of them that have not been trimmed in....maybe forever. I attacked one of them back at the beginning of the month, and left a lot of bare branches with just some foliage at the top. The first benefit after doing that was I can actually mow around the thing with our riding mower. Before, I had to use the push mower and go all around it and push the mower in underneath it as far as possible, over & over to keep things looking semi-neat. Now, I just noticed yesterday that the bare branches are all sprouting leaves, which of course I knew they would. As soon as I can hack away at that 2nd bush, I'll do it. It's bigger and wilder than the 1st, but it will look so darn much better!

Then, there is the lawn that needs its weekly mowing. That takes a good solid 3 hours, even if I don't trim anywhere with the push mower.

I guess I'd better quit goofing off inside where the A/C is and get out there and SWEAT!!

Avoiding temptation

I've gotten back on track again, and I'm happy to say that having a scale I can weigh-in on at work really helps out. I'm trying not to overdo it but I weighed 2 days ago and found I'd gained about 2 pounds with my weekend binge. I started looking back over what I was eating when I lost a few pounds, and recycled the menu. Yesterday I was back down a bit, and then I weighed first thing after I got to work this morning, and it had nudged down a little more.

That made it MUCH easier to resist the 2 temptations I ran into today - cake and ice cream! And it wasn't like I had to avoid 1 event either. I saw the cake in the break room at work, leftover from some celebration. Man it looked good. I was in there getting ice water, so I just turned my back on the cake and remembered how nice it felt to see the scale go down. Fifteen minutes later, they announced an ice cream social taking place in the parking lot. OMG! What are they trying to do to me?!?!

It was easier to resist both than I thought, so I'm proud of myself!

Yo yo yo!

Up and down! Up and down! I went on a downward spiral over the weekend, and I'm trying hard to recover now. Nachos supreme and a brownie sundae on Saturday, I don't even remember what on Sunday, and no counting calories yesterday or today. When I don't count I KNOW that I overeat.

I went shopping tonight and picked up more fruit, some 140-calorie granola bars and a few other things, so I should be able to put together enough food tomorrow to take for the day to keep me satisfied at work.

Believe and you can achieve! I CAN DO THIS!!!

Yippee!

If I didn't mess it up when I got home from work today, I'm headed down again in the weight department.

After my last entry, I got brave one day and weighed on the same scale as I'd used for my weigh-in at work. It was down several pounds!!!! I've been doing exercise nearly every day, and sometimes for a few hours a day when it's gardening & lawn maintenance activities which I really enjoy. I'm sure some of it is not all that strenuous, but it must be doing me some good. The past few nights (but not tonight), I raked rocks out of the area of our garden where we'll be planting more tomato plants. THAT is work! I was really working up a sweat.

The reason I hope I didn't mess it up tonight is that I was starving on the way home from work. I convinced myself not to stop for Chinese food for hubby & me, mostly because I didn't want to spend the money. I considered a grocery store stop for grapes, which are 99c a pound this week, but decided against it because so many other tempting things lurk in the store when you're hungry. So what did I do? Came home and ate many, many saltine crackers with peanut butter & jelly. Yum, but ugh! I'll just have to do better this weekend, and it should be easy enough to do since I have so much to keep me busy!

1185 calories, and not even hungry!

I tallied my calories for the day, and I've had just 1185. That's quite low for me, but I'm not even hungry. Bedtime is within the next 1/2 hour, I hope.

Not to bore anyone with details, but in case it helps, this is what I've eaten today in about 5-6 small meals.
Breakfast:.1 cup cheerios with 1/2 cup skim milk (150)
...............1/2 pbj sandwich on 45-calorie bread (170)
Snack:.....1 banana (105)
...............1/2 granola bar (70)
Lunch:.....English muffin (130)
...............2 slices 2% cheese wrap (100)
...............1 cup broccoli (31)
...............10 cherry tomatoes (60)
...............1/2 granola bar (70)
Snack:.....1 banana (105)
Dinner:....hamburger patty (170)
...............1 cup cauliflower (24)

Some of the calorie counts came right from the packages, others came from either http://www.nutritiondata.com or http://www.wellness360.com. So, even if I'm off a little here or there, I'm still well within the range that our wellness coordinator at work told me was a good calorie range for losing weight.

I haven't officially weighed since I started counting calories last week, but I know I've been doing good on my calorie counts, and I've been very active. I hope it all shows!

Fantastic day!

Today was just a gorgeous day, with plenty of sunshine and a nice breeze. Upper 70's, just like I like it. I got a LOT done outside, enjoying the day. It was also a great day in a nutritious way. I stayed under 1300 calories, and ate a lot of fruits and veges. Dinner was the best I've cooked in awhile too, at least in my opinion. Chicken breast cooked in a lemon pepper marinade, with onions on top. Corn on the cob (just 1/2 ear), and sugar snap peas. Nutritious, low-cal, and delicious!!

Tomorrow is supposed to be a little warmer, but nice also. I hope to get some gardening done. Enjoy your weekend!

National President's Challenge

A busy few weeks have passed. I signed up today for a weight loss challenge at work. In the next 12 weeks, I pledged to lose 15 pounds. If nothing else has kept me motivated, maybe the chance of splitting the prize money will do it. It cost me $10 to join, so if I make my goal, I should at least get that money back.

I also signed up for the National President's Challenge. It's a challenge to get people up and MOVING! All you have to do is be active 5 days a week for 6 out of 7 weeks, and log your activity at http://www.presidentschallenge.org.
It's been an active week for me, with lots of outdoor gardening, walking, lawn mowing, etc. It all counts, so join in!

I haven't been as committed to watching my calories & drinking water lately. Sometimes life just gets in the way. The problem is that I've been using that excuse now FOREVER. I need to figure out how to have life and healthy eating happen at the same time. But, now that I've committed, with a definite goal in mind, and that goal is written down with a fitness coach....NOW is the time!