Quick Update

Things are still moving forward.  Haven't gotten any walks in due to the heat; but I'm still moving forward.

Trying to figure out next week's breakfasts.  I'm thinking either frozen waffles or cereal.  

I did go a little over in calories today, but not by much and I didn't use all the calories yesterday.  For the record, unlike WW, nothing carries over to the next day or gets added to the week - use them or lose them.  Honestly though, I think it all works out in the end regardless.

Shapa has me in the Teal, which is a step down from Blue - but it's still a good place to be!

Something I've Come To Realize

 This past week on Lose-It, I've discovered my main focus is on correct portions.  Guess what?  That's what the original Weight Watchers points plan was - portion control.  It seems odd they chose to move away from that.

I get it - not all calories and foods are created equal.  I understand what WW has tried to do with all the plan changes - steer you towards the healthy foods; well sort of - I don't consider fat free and sugar free foods healthy at all.

I'm a person that overeats.  So portion control is good for me.  I know what foods are healthy and what aren't.  Though WW claims you can do the plan and still eat all your favorite foods, you really can't - their zero food list and points don't allow it; but on that original plan, you could.

Anyway, my official weight loss since the start using Lose-It is:  3.2 lbs

YAY ME!!   

Also, my Shapa scale has me in the BLUE, which is the best you can get!

Now I do realize it was the first week (well actually 10 days) and I shouldn't expect a loss like that every week, but I'm off to a good start and am so very happy for it!

Sunday

 Sundays are sort of my lazy day, to an extent.

Years ago, Sundays were my family day.  I'd go to my parents house, Mom always made a big Sunday dinner.  She did that for as long as she could.  Eventually my parents went to live with my one sister and Sunday dinners became only birthdays and holidays.  Both my parents passed last year; but even prior to that, Sunday dinner hadn't happened in a long time.

So Sundays became my lazy day.

I've started the day with 1 slice of 647 bread, 1 egg and a banana.  Shapa has had me in Teal for the past two days, which means I'm losing weight.  Official weigh-in tomorrow.

I'm thinking of making my breakfasts for this work week.  Maybe 3 baked oats and 2 french toast bakes from Dish With Dee. The recipe calls for a Laughing Cow cheese wedge, but I have never used that in it; you could also leave out the pudding mix if you don't have it on hand. Also, you can use any type of fruit you have on hand.  I'll probably end up using up what's left of my blueberries.

I'm also making chicken, potatoes and bows for today and I'll have it for lunch a day or two:

Pretty easy to make and makes a lot.  Sometimes I'll use pot pie squares or even egg noodles but I like the bows best.

I can also use the fish sticks and fries for lunch as well.  So I think I'm pretty set for breakfast and lunch this week.  Dinners will be on a day to day basis.

Still doing Kickstart and getting my commitments in and definitely loving the Lose-It app.  So happy to be away from points!

Later......

Hubby stopped at a take out seafood place on his way home from dog sitting and picked us up crabcakes.  They were very good.  I paired them with some crinkle cut fries!  That made a nice dinner.

I just realized that Lose It is giving me more calories on the weekends, which is great.  I kind of do remember that being a question when setting the app up.  Somedays, I'm not even hitting the regular goal.  We'll see how I did on the first week with Lose-it tomorrow!

Saturday!

 I like Saturdays because I'm off work....I hate Saturdays because I normally overeat!

CC is in Niagra Falls with her hubby, son and his partner this weekend so I'm kind of on my own.  We would normally be at yard sales and eating out.  I could yard sale myself but it's so hot & humid out and well, yard sales are just more fun with her!  However, I will have a little more control over my eating since I won't be eating out today! Not blaming CC, I'm totally responsible for what goes in my mouth!

Hubby is still dog sitting as well.

This morning I opted for a Big A** Waffle from the Mudhustler website.  I've made this before but haven't in quite a long time.  It was okay, I mean they are good, it just wasn't quite what I wanted though!

It does make a good waffle though.  The above picture is an older photo, I didn't have the banana on top this morning (and forgot to take a picture). And it is filling, banana or not!

I haven't decided on lunch or dinner yet.  It's Saturday and I kind of don't want to cook!

Later.....

I've decided on Gorton's Haddock Fish Sticks, Crinkle Cut Fries and Watermelon for lunch. Some comfort food seemed to be in order: 4 sticks, 20 fries and 1/2 cup watermelon comes to 459 calories; and though that may be higher in the carb department.....I'm only looking at calories at this point.  My breakfast was only 281 calories and I still have 801 to use for dinner and snacks.  I'm thinking that dinner will be bbq chicken tenders with 1/2 cup baked beans.

A Quickie!

 So rather than baked oatmeal this morning, I had one scrambled egg on one slice of 647 bread with 2 slice of Oscar Mayer fully cooked bacon.  For lunch I had leftovers from last nights dinner (beef, carrots and potatoes) and for dinner I'm having a pork chop and corn on cob.  That still left me with plenty of calories left to have a piece of birthday cake at work for a co-worker.  I actually put the cake in the tracker first and worked the rest of the day around it.  It worked out well and I still have calories left.

I also got a 1 mile walk in before the heat became to unbearable!  YAY ME!

All my Kickstart commitments are complete, other than reading a chapter of a book...and I'll be doing that very soon!

Still Moving Forward

 Today I have off work due to the holiday!  So I'm just relaxing at the house (hubby is dog sitting).

Since I am home, I opted to change things around and have this for breakfast:

It was a very filling breakfast ( 2 eggs, 2 slice Oscar Mayer fully cooked bacon; 3 cherry tomatoes, 4 strawberry slices and 2 slices of light Italian bread)!  4 pts on Weight Watchers; 312 calories on Lose It!

You're going to stop seeing point values on here soon...I'm really enjoying the Lose It app and getting away from points.

Right now, I'm only looking at calories - not anything else.  As I need to switch things up on my weight loss journey; I'll look at other things.

I'm thinking a protein smoothie for lunch and I have a beef roast with carrots and potatoes in the slow cooker for dinner.  I'm still under in calories, but that leaves room for some healthy snacks.

Lose It says I will reach my goal weight by October 1st.  The goal I set isn't where I want to be; but I can be satisfied there while moving towards the next goal.  I will not be going to where Weight Watchers wants me.  I could never maintain that, but did have an area I could maintain.  I realize Weight Watchers needed to set areas for Lifetimers to achieve; it was just never doable in the long term for me.

But any weight loss is putting me in the right direction.

Tomorrow I'm thinking baked oatmeal again for breakfast, leftovers from dinner for lunch and dinner is undecided.  It may be another pork chop with corn on cob or hubby and I may go out.  

Shapa has me in the green, so I'm pushing towards teal or even better blue!

This & That

So the carnival last night didn't go quite as planned..... I had a hamburger, fries and popcorn!  I did have the points for it, but it wasn't the best choice.  We didn't really stay long; the band was great...but there was a group of people standing (blocking some people's view - not ours fortunately) that were acting out the songs.  Not just dancing, but acting out the songs.  It was extremely annoying and I'm pretty sure they were friends of the band.

 I have baked oatmeal in the oven right now to have at work later for breakfast.  I'm still deciding on lunch.

I definitely know when my WW membership runs out in September; that I won't be renewing.  There really isn't a point (for lack of a better word) since I don't have access to meetings anymore.  A co-worker is seeing a nutritionist and they have her using the Lose-It app.

I've used Lose-It many times over the years; it's my favorite of the calorie counting apps.  There is a free version.  I normally sign up for that and at some point they'll offer me their premium version at a discount - the last time it was $9.99 for the year.  The app was still on my phone and when I opened it, I found that my premium membership was still good for a few more months (and as long as I didn't cancel, it would continue yearly at $9.99); last night when I opened the app a pop-up was offering me premium for a lifetime at 74% off.  So I got that at $50 for lifetime.  I'm not sure what the actual prices are for it - but always hold out and see what offer they are willing to give you!

So I'm going to give Lose-It a whirl - maybe not right away; but that's what I'm going to migrate too.

A Quick One

 Today's breakfast will be baked blueberry oatmeal again; this time with a banana.  Lunch yesterday, though good, didn't keep me full and I finished off the chips when I got home.  I've opted for rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes for lunch today.  We're suppose to be going to the carnival tonight (weather pending) to hear a band.  If we get there, I'll have a grilled chicken sandwich (no bread) and some chicken corn soup. If not, I'll do something with the rotisserie chicken!

I'll also take something for a snack, to avoid those hunger signals if lunch isn't enough!

I hate trying to lose weight as the focus is always on food.

Rotisserie Chicken

 May seem like a weird topic, but rotisserie chicken became a huge discussion on one of the FB groups.

A person posted they had called Weight Watchers wondering how to count skinned rotisserie chicken they were going to buy at Costco.  The answer?  Throw that away, Weight Watchers doesn't want you eating that - make your own. (not exact words, but very close)

I really find it hard to believe that a WW rep responded that way; and even with the wrong information!

However.....you couldn't tell this person that because "I'm paying for WW and they are the experts and this is what I was told by an expert."

Yeah, you read that right.  I was able to go right to the WW website and find a snippet about rotiesserie chicken.  With the exception of the wing, any part of the chicken, as long as you remove the skin, is zero points.  Now I realize the person was asking about skinned chicken, which would have points; but the person didn't want to hear about it in any way.  We were all doing it wrong; and she was trying to pass on the expert information.

All she had to do was call again, ask the same question and she'd find out she'd get an entirely different answer.  So they really aren't trained well, nor are they experts.

The snippet from the website didn't matter, others called or chatted online and got different information - but that didn't matter.  Only her so called expert was correct.

After awhile I was thinking we were dealing with a spammer; mostly because she started with Costco, then Sam's, then chicken breasts that weren't even rotisserie.  The influencer had to shut the conversation down.

For one; I buy a rotisserie chicken weekly and eat off of it all week.  Sometimes with rice or make soup or make pot pie or just pull it off and eat it as a snack.  Rotisserie chicken from the store is not the reason I'm fat - potato chips are!

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Meal Prep - I can't do a whole week of meal prep; but yesterday, I did prepare for today!

Breakfast was baked oatmeal.  I use a very basic recipe for this and it makes one serving:  1/3 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 pack sweetener and 1 tsp baking powder.  I then throw in any fruit I want, in this case it was blueberries.  Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.  I'll eat this with a side of strawberries all for 0 pts.

For lunch I chose a throw together:

This one comes to 7 pts. due to the crackers, babybel cheese and green olives; but that's okay! It will still be yummy!

I'll probably have the same thing for breakfast and lunch on Tuesday with the exception of the shrimp - I'll replace that with that rotiesserie chicken that caused so much conversation, lol!

Dinner this evening will be steak and corn on the cob.  Tuesday probably pork chop and corn on the cob!

And I want to get my walks started again and some other type of exercise!

A Great Weekend

 I had the best time last weekend at The Living Dead Weekend in Monroeville, PA!  It was an extremely busy weekend though.

Friday I did the 3 hour drive to Monroeville arriving way before I needed to.  Standing in line I was able to get this:

That's Greg Nicotero and Tom Savini!  I just love Greg Nicotero!  He is so very nice.  You can read about last year's event here:  2024 Continues.  After everything opened and Greg finally showed up at his table I took my stuffed Greg Nicotero from The Cuddle Cult to have him sign:

He told me a story of how he gave one of these in a Christmas gift exchange at work and that the guy who got it, put it on his Christmas tree!  I also bought a large coin he designed with his 13 favorite horror movies on it (I've yet to identify all of them).  We did a selfie - for some reason he has to do the selfies - anyway he took my phone and then told me he couldn't get it to open; I rattled off the code to him and he said "You do realize you just gave me your phone code."  I told him all that that would get him is about 600 photos of Duran Duran.  He shook his head and said "You and my wife....."   LOL!!  Totally made my weekend!  Though I did get more photos of him from a distance; I didn't get the opportunity to talk to him again.  It was very crowded and he had people around all the time, even at the VIP event on Saturday evening.  And though being a fangirl, I didn't want to come across as stalkish either.

Friday evening I saw the original b/w version of Night of the Living Dead on the big screen finally!  Some of the cast was there to watch it with us.  It was great!  It was in line waiting to get into the theater that I met Dave.  Dave is a school teacher from New York; he's married with a 6 year old son.  He was also at the event by himself.  We would run into each other several times during the weekend - the Dawn of the Dead mall tour, various discussion panels and the Day of the Dead brunch.  The majority of the people at the event were very nice.

I also met Alice B. Sullivan, an author of apocalyptic novels.  I had downloaded one of her books but never read it due to the dog on the cover.  She assured me the dog doesn't die in her books - LOL!!  I bought some books from her - go check her out!

From the hotel to the event - everything was great!  I think they are planning another one in October.  Walmart has bought the mall and it is expected that it will probably be torn down and replaced with a Walmart; because that's the crap that Walmart does!  So they are trying to get another one in.  Will I go?  Not sure, it takes a lot of money for that!  But we will see.

The worst part of the weekend was the drive home in all the rain and fog; but it was worth it.

Update

 Last week...I was sick all week with a virus going around.  I didn't even work.  Fortunately, I'm feeling better, not perfect but better and my Living Dead Weekend is this weekend.  I, of course, never made it to the 10 lb loss I wanted by now...I did lose about 5 being sick but as I've started to eat...they've come back on.