Back to School

My little 4 yr. old started all-day 4K last Thursday. It was an exciting time for everyone in the family as Elizabeth now has someone else in her school, Caryn started a new school, Alex is now the "Big Boy" of daycare, and Ben, well, he's just new. Benjamin started daycare the week before with the whole clan to get into the routine. Thursday was a tramatic day for our little Caryn. She loves daycare, but was not quite sure of school even though our neighbor is in her class. The two of them have been playing together since the day they were born, just one week apart from each other.

Change is hard. What isn't hard? My brave 4 yr. old let go of Mommy's hand on Thursday and my hand on Friday even though it was hard. What was the most exciting part of Thursday and Friday for little Ms. Caryn? Thursday morning, she woke up extra early just to make her lunch! Friday too! Hot lunch was not offered these first two days so the kids had to bring their own. I tried hard to make healthy lunches for the kids without making them too messy and allowing for finger foods. Elizabeth, got a new thermos this school year and decided the first day that she wanted Mac & Cheese since her Mommy used to bring it "all the time." She also packed string cheese, a Danimal-yogurt smoothie, crackers and a Pixie stick. Yes a Pixie stick! Caryn packed string cheese, a Danimal, crackers and a Pixie stick too. In fact, that's the reason she woke up early, to make sure Daddy didn't forget the candy. Caryn is quite particular and she wanted two sandwiches. One peanut butter and one butter. That was the beginning of the school year. Next week, we will start picking two hot lunches a week for each. We limit hot lunch to two a week since it's $2.25 and I know they don't eat everything offered to them.

Have a happy Labor Day! Off to rest!

100 Calories

I went to the store the other day and noticed that Orville Redenbacher's now has a 100 calorie 94% FF bag. Just out of curiosity, I glanced at the regular sized 94% FF bag. Taking WW into consideration, the point value for both are the same. The regular sized bag is only 20 more calories. What an advertising gimic! On Diet Detective, there's an interesting article about 100 calorie snacks actually causing people to gain weight. I will admit that I have been sucked into the 100 calorie craze and have bought them on ocassion. It seems to me that portion control would be a good thing. Unfortunately, I have little will power and the one bag turns quickly into two, and then three, and then...well, you get the picture. The only one's I have tried are the Reese's 100 calories snack mixes. I tell myself that it's "only 100 calories" and turn out eating more than I would of the regular sized or high fat stuff.

Do you buy 100 calorie snacks? If so, what's you favorite.

Walkability

In this article, "Obesity Linked to Newer, Less Walkable Neighborhoods," another excuse is given for being overweight. Unfortunately, I live in an old neighborhood, built well before 1950 and we have everything we need within walking distance. I brought this topic up in a current events group at the nursing home, which I work at. I asked the residents what was important to them when buying a home? The answers they gave were important to them mostly because they grew up in a time when families were lucky to have a car. Now, we live in a society where most families have a car for each driving member of the family. What used to be important, such as living near your place of employment, church, store, schools, etc., seems to be much less important than living in bigger, newer houses.

I love my old house. I love my old neighborhood with many sidewalks buckling from tree roots and where each house is unique with different colors, designs and tastes displayed on each block. When we bought our house, we had a few items that were on our wish list. We didn't want to live on a corner lot: too much shoveling. We wanted two bathrooms: hers and hers?? We wanted at least three bedrooms: who knew we'd need more...we do have 5, but only use 3 as bedrooms right now. We wanted a nice yard: our backyard is a lot and a half. We wanted a workable kitchen: finally after 8 years. We wanted to pay under $100,000: got a bargain from the family of the man that lived there.

I suppose we did discuss needing to live near shopping, church, work, etc., but that was definitely not high on our list. Now, that we live in our neighborhood, I am grateful for the "walkability" as I am able to take walks to church, the library, the post office, the gas station/convenience store, and through the fair park. Glad we have sidewalks, and also glad I'm not on that corner lot ;)

Do you have sidewalks and is "walkability" important to you?

One Minute Motivation

Today, I attended an "Art of Customer Care" training for WW. The biggest part of the training dealt with how to react to customers at the scale. Weight Watchers has an awesome booklet entitled One Minute Motivation that really hits on some difficult situations. There are four questions that are highlighted in the training and the biggest one being "Will you?" That's a challenging question. I know what I would like to happen and what needs to happen to get me to the point. I can do it, but WILL I? During the acting scenarios, that question was most difficult for me to answer. I do not like confrontation and to be challenged with the question in a meeting room would definitely be a thought provoking moment.

My biggest problem continues to be tracking my evening meal and evening snacks. I would like to be able to get down to 180, so I am comfortably below my goal weight. I know that I need to track honestly during these tired, mindless times of the day. I also know that I'm not exercising as much as I did when I was actively losing. I have pledged to exercise at least 4 times a week on top of my 10,000 step average. It's not nearly as much as I once did, but I know it is important to at least keep up to the status quo. Can I make it? I know I can. Will I? It depends on how important it is to me and lately, I've just been happy hanging around the 190 mark.

So what would you like to happen and will you make it happen?

I Don't Want to Go

"Daddy, I don't want to go..." "You said, I never had to go again!" "NO!"

Those were the mantras I heard yesterday as I dragged my 4 children to daycare. Yes, I said FOUR children to daycare. I am paying to work for the next 5 days ;) My wife thought it would be a good idea to have everyone go to daycare a few days before school to get back into an early morning, school-like routine. Yesterday, was the first attempt and it was not easy. My 7 yr. old was the ring leader. She decided that she was not wanting to go and it got contagious. My 4 yr. old hadn't been at daycare all summer and she also decided she didn't want to go either. And my 2 yr. old, who normally runs from the car to the playground never looking back to say goodbye, also boycotted daycare. Well, I managed to convince all of them to go without having to making too many outrageous deals.

After the day was over, my 7 yr. old was in such a great mood. She had the best time. Also, lost another tooth too!

Sometimes, we hate doing things that could be for our own benefit, like eating veggies, getting our exercise, making the better food choices, etc., but at the end of the day, when we have made the best choices we could, we are much like my 7 yr. old celebrating a great day.

Today, I'm looking forward to the morning routine that will start in a few minutes as I know, it will be much smoother. Make the better choices today and know that you are doing something to make yourself healthier and happier in the long run.

Portion Control

I hate going to the bathroom at work. Why? Portion control.

There are new soap dispensers that have been installed at my work. Each time, I go to the bathroom, which is often since I drink so much water, I am alloted one squirt of soap foam. I actually cheat and stick my hands under again to get another squirt. Then, I put my hands under the sink and get my alloted "20 seconds" of water. I usually again stick my hands under to get more water. After soaking my hands I reach towards the paper towel and get exactly 12 inches of thin paper towel. Before the paper towel comes out, I automatically reach for more.

After doing this for the past month, this week I decided to follow the guidelines. One squirt of soap, one 20 second washing, and one square foot of paper towel. You know what? My hands were clean and dry afterwards.

Portion control is one of the toughest obstacles I face. I'm definitely a "Bigger is Better" type of person. Deals for me are what drives me: 3 for $1.00 or bulk packages are what I look for. This week, I feasted on Chicken Strips at work. I really only wanted one, but they were 3 for $1.00 and the cafeteria worker would not let me just get one. Of course I ate them since I paid for them. This is definitely my biggest problem area right now and something that I will be focusing more on.

I am glad that my work put in new faucets, soap dispensers and power paper towel dispensers as it got me to think again about portion control.

"I'm Hungry"

My 4 year old, Caryn, told me on Sunday that she was hungry. It was breakfast time and I asked her what I always do, "What are you hungry for?" She responded, "A LOLLIPOP!" Well, being the good parent that I am ;), I told her that lollipops are treats, not a good breakfast food. She settled on a peanut butter sandwich. Caryn has quite the sweet tooth, but that peanut butter sandwich must have satisified her because she still has not asked for that lollipop again.

Protein always seems to do the trick for me and it seems it worked for my little sweet tooth as well.

Hope you're enjoying the Olympics. Can't quite understand why "women", mainly my wife, love the Olympics so much and can watch it from morning till night and even wake up early to watch it, but if I sit and watch 3 football games in a row, I don't hear the end of it.

Coming Naturally

I've noticed over the last few weeks that I no longer depend so greatly on the support I SO needed during my weight loss mode. Now, that I am trying to maintain my loss, I've noticed that I don't blog as much, visit the WW message boards as much, or eat foods without thinking. I'm exercising regularly, grabbing my lunches without much thought and really "living the lifestyle."

I love blogging, but I feel that it's not needed for me as much as it was at one time. I'll still be checking in and posting from time to time, but I don't think I need to make a point of doing it daily anymore like I once did. I really gain more from checking in on everyone else's blogs and will continue to do so. As I am now "living the lifestyle," I'll probably drift into different topics as well.




Picture of the Week: "Living the Lifestyle at the Fair: Toothless!"

Can You Say: "DEEP FRIED!"

About the only things not deep fried at the Wisconsin State Fair are the Cream Puffs and those have plenty of creamy goodness in them already. This year's new deep fried feature was Macaroni and Cheese on a stick. Since I really have never tried mac & cheese, it didn't appeal to me, but my sister-in-law, wife and kids seemed to enjoy it. My wife would like to get back to the fair yet to try a deep fried pickle. Not quite sure about that one either.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that I live within walking distance to this treat heaven. The fair is only about 5 blocks away from our house and we actually have people that pay $5 to park on lawns on our block, so we must live pretty close. I've been there twice so far and the fair runs through Sunday, so I may be going back again. Today, was "Grazin' Day." Yes, it 'twas a bad day. I am a sucker for a bargain and since there were so many great deals today, I couldn't pass them all up. Went to have a pulled pork sandwich with chips, a quarter glass of "Mocha Milk", a Maple Syrup Sundae and a few bites of a Cinnamon Roll and Quality Nuts. Unfortunately, today I went with a group from my nursing home so I didn't even have the advantage of walking to and from the park.

Best sign I saw at the fair: I Don't Skinny Dip, I Chunky Dunk! Made me giggle and I did take a picture of it unfortunately, it was on the "work" camera though.


Been doing fine here and probably the best news for me is that I am subbing WW meetings the next two evenings so there is no way I will be heading to the fair for supper.

Have a great week ;)