Battling a Buffet

Yesterday, I went to the Iron Ridge Inn, which is a quaint little restaurant in a quaint little village. My family celebrated Thanksgiving along with my Father's 65th Birthday! This is the first time that I have tackled a buffet since starting WW almost two years ago. I really can't remember the last time I have gone to one. I know my wife and kids have gone to a pizza buffet, Stone Fire Pizza, but I was busy doing other things and I know I have gone with residents to a Golden Corral, but since I was more concerned with making sure the residents had food, I ate very little. So this was my first test at a buffet.

How did I do? Well, how do you think I did? I went in with a plan. Two plates!! That's all!! I will not fill more than two plates and on those two plates I will allow for some "white space" meaning I will not mound oodles and oodles of food up just so I can state that I only had two plates.

My first plate ended up being a salad which included a lot of lettuce and veggies. The only thing that I counted points for was the olives and the lo-cal dressing that I added. I do have to admit that there was no "white space" on this plate, but I was not feeling bad about that one.

My second plate was a scoop of mashed potatoes, in the past I would have mounded at least 2-3 scoops plus loads of gravy. This time, just a small scoop of plain potatoes. A scoop of corn and a good sized scoop of beef tips. All in all not a bad showing from plate number 2. I passed on the rolls, but did sweep a piece of chicken and peeled off the boasted breading to give to my "bottomless pit" 7 yr. old. I also stole a few pieces of French toast stick from my 2 yr. old.

I passed on dessert, which was pumpkin pie, pumpkin torte or apple pie, and instead went to the salad bar and had a cup full of fruit. I did add marshmallow fluff, but I figured the small amount I added was still WAY better than the pie. I also snuck in some chili since I didn't mention anything about cups in my planning, just plates ;)

Hoping I can do just as well on Thanksgiving at my MIL's. My plan will be to eat one helping and one dessert. I'll get someone to go off for a good long walk with me too. My FIL made it 4 miles with me last Sunday, so maybe we'll venture even longer on Thursday.

Wishing you all a happy healthy week. The whole gang will be home the rest of the week, so my computer time may be limited.

Redneck Weight Training

I've been trying to incorporate a little weight training into my routine by lifting my 2 yr. old over my head several times a day. I never had a set of weights that asked to be lifted over and over again. We usually got to about 10 to 15 before I'm beat. Then I do a "cool-down" with the baby, who is not much of a baby anymore!

Yesterday, we went grocery shopping and discovered another cool way to lift weights: Turkey! These have got to be the cheapest weights out there at 38 cents a pound! We lifted so many turkeys, just to lift them, I'm sure the other customers were thinking we were strange. Never spent 2 hours in the grocery store before, but we had fun. Oh, and yes we did buy a turkey ;)

Gaining Weight is SO MUCH Easier

I have a colleague who has been a lifetime member for well over 10 years and she has been having problems with binging. It is as easy as pie to lose 100 pounds, but how do you successfully keep it off for the rest of your life? A pie done her in this month. This person is close to giving up because she has gained 10 pounds in one month. Gaining 10 pounds is much more realistic than losing 10 pounds. You can only have so many calories in deficit, but when you eat many more than you should, the pounds easily come back. It is a life-long battle and one that I know I will continue to struggle with even though I'm not a huge "binger," instead I am a "snacker" and sometimes don't make the best snack choices.

Don't know where the time goes, I've been checking a few blogs everyday, but had no idea it had been almost a week since I checked in. The boys are doing fine here ;)

Changing up Exercise

My new job has it's benefits and drawbacks. Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks is not getting nearly enough steps in daily. I have not had a day over 10,000 this month. Even yesterday with a long afternoon walk with the stroller, I only got to 8,000. So, I've been finding different ways to exercise at home. The other day while Alex was napping, I flipped on the Biggest Loser from this week and saw their "step challenge." The contestants who were eliminated were invited back into the game. The first person to 1000 steps won. Needless to say, I grabbed the footstool from the kitchen and stepped right along with them. Can't tell you that I made it to 1000, but by the end of the show, I was feeling it and still today, I feel my calves more than normal.

Another cool exercise I've been doing with little Alex is the "On Demand" exercise. We switched from DirecTV to Time Warner in September and I have enjoyed this cool exercise feature. I usually try to do the family fit exercise with Alex and if we make it 10-15 minutes twice a day, that's a great workout. Alex, of course, has a strict routine and if we exercise, immediately afterwards we haul the Karaoke out for a few songs. Then it's snack time and bike riding time. This kid's definitely got a routine!

My Project

Can't believe that's it's Wednesday and I really haven't turned the computer on since Friday. I've had it on and off a bit, but never really had the time to sit and surf. I'm probably WAY out of touch with this one since it's been out since August, but this weekend was the first time I saw this American Express Commercial. I'm sure that I've seen it before, but it never struck me like it did over the weekend. On Sunday, I attended the WW Innovations where all the new products, meeting materials, etc. are rolled out. At the meeting, there are about 4 hours of awards presented (and I'm not exaggerating on the time), and the one that struck me the most was the final award given out. Any receptionist or leader that has had a 100 pound loser in his/her meeting receives a special charm to commemorate the event. It was a simple act and didn't even involve the leaders coming to the stage or their names being said, but the fact that these individuals had an impact on someone's life so strongly made me think about MY PROJECT.

All the blogs, sites, support systems, meetings, etc. that I have contact with throughout the week have a major impact on the way I conduct myself. Before I started this blog, I never would have thought twice about eating a whole bag of chips while watching the Biggest Loser, but now I feel accountable and if I do make a choice that is not the "better choice," I feel like MY PROJECT is not successful.

MY PROJECT has definitely changed in the last year from attempting to lose over 80 pounds, to successfully maintaining an 80 pound loss. MY PROJECT has changed from waking up every morning and working an 8 hour day at the office, to working a 24/7 day job at home. MY PROJECT is always evolving and will continue to and if it doesn't, I will lose interest. MY PROJECT is life and living healthy has become high on the list of priorities.

In Praise of: Sweet Potatoes

My eye is almost back to normal. Thanks for the concern! I am still wearing my glasses and actually getting used to them once again after wearing contacts for so long, I had gotten spoiled by not having to wear them.

Today, I thought I'd bring back one of my favorite blogging subjects, praising food. Haven't done an "In praise of" for a long time.

This time of the year, sweet potatoes are readily available. This is the first year that I have really tried them. I have to say that I love them. I went to Sam's this week and they had a 10 lb box for $8.88. I've eaten one a day all week, slicing them, adding a bit of oil and baking them for 30 minutes. They come out just a little soft and melt in your mouth delicious.

Do you have a favorite way to serve sweet potatoes without having the traditional Thanksgiving brown sugar with marshmallows mega-calorie feast?

Staying Healthy While Not Feeling Well

I got a gross looking eye infection over the weekend and even though it hasn't necessarily effected my eye sight, it really has. I've been more tired and can hardly keep my eyes open after about 4:00pm. This has made exercise difficult. Today, I am finally finally somewhat better after a few days of antibiotics and eye goop. It has made me realize that it is SO easy to not exercise. Even though I do believe my excuse was valid, it would have been just as easy to put it off once again today.

I did not. I understand the importance of exercise now, and woke up at 5:30 to exercise. I still feel worn out, but I know that I would have felt even worse without the exercise. Somehow, I managed to eat lots of garbage as well the last few days probably thanks to WW and doing inventory over the weekend. Since I helped with the inventory, I had first dibs at all the expired WW snacks. Bad idea!!!

Halloween Parties

I didn't even go to a Halloween party this year, but ended up eating like I did. Yesterday, my 4 yr. old was in charge of brownies and my 2nd grader was in charge of cookies. That means, Daddy was in charge of making both brownies and cookies. Thursday morning I had just made apple sauce and apple cookies, so we had tons of sweet goodness in our house. The Halloween candy is almost gone and the sweets didn't make it back home after the party, but I still had enough of a taste on Thursday.

I had a goal of losing a few pounds before the holidays, but it seems I've been content to remain at about 185-188. I'll be happy to maintain that weight for a long time.

Merry Christmas! Our town has it's decorations up already and two of the major FM radio stations started their Christmas music yesterday. Last year, they started on November 1, so they had to out-due themselves this year I guess.