Health Check-In: 09.01.19

Slowly but surely!!  Actually, not that slowly.  Here's where I'm at:  


Friday, 8/2/19   Start Date

Sunday, 8/4/19     -2.3        (TOTAL -2.3)

Sunday, 8/11/19   -4.7        (TOTAL -7)

Sunday, 8/18/19   -2.9        (TOTAL -9.9)

Sunday, 8/25/19   -1.3        (TOTAL -11.2)

Sunday, 9/1/19     -1.0        (TOTAL -12.2)


THOUGHTS:

While I wish I would have lost more than one pound this week, I'm trying to focus on the big picture.  Not every week will be a 2 lb+ loss.  It will all even out in the end and as long as I'm not gaining, I'm happy! 

Health Check In

Here's an overview of where I started and where I am now:


Friday, 8/2/19   Start Date

Sunday, 8/4/19     -2.3        (TOTAL -2.3)

Sunday, 8/11/19   -4.7        (TOTAL -7)

Sunday, 8/18/19   -2.9        (TOTAL -9.9)

Sunday, 8/25/19   -1.3        (TOTAL -11.2)



THOUGHTS:

I weigh every day (which I intend to keep doing), but I plan to only blog about it every Sunday and review my week.

It's been relatively easy.  I've stuck with the fasting, with the exception of usually one weekend day.  I'll be a little more 'relaxed' with my fasting times on the weekend, and be strict Monday - Friday.  

Misc. things I have eaten in the past 23 days (and still lost 11.2 pounds!):

-a large piece of white cake from Costco 
-one beer
-2 mixed drinks
-3 fried flautas (YUM)
-an ice cream cone from dairy queen
-MULTIPLE avocados

I'm sure I'm forgetting some treats, but I like to remember these just because with WW you can still lose weight and have treats.  It's all about the planning!

Like I said above, it's been pretty easy.  I eat a LOT of yogurt and a LOT of eggs.  I eat loads of vegetables with lunch (kind of to get them out of the way).  I also eat lots of avocados.  They are point-y, but I don't care.  I LOVE them.  Tonight I peeled two more, added some salsa and some garlic salt and now have a nice guacamole to eat on for the next few days.   I would say all week, but it won't last that long ha ha.  I have no guilt.

There was probably 4 or 5 days that I didn't get my gallon of water in and I could really tell a difference in how I felt.  I feel better with a gallon of water for sure.

So I'm very pleased with my progress so far.  :)

Fruit Smoothie

I made this super easy smoothie today.  I wanted to get some fruit in but also needed protein.

It's a whopping 2 ingredients:

(from Costco)

The fruit is frozen, but (long story) it was thawed in the fridge when I used it today.  So I threw some ice in the blender, added 1 cup of the fruit mix, and one vanilla Oikos Triple Zero Greek Yogurt.  I blended until completely smooth.  It was delicious!

Only 3 points.

On Health

I'm back on the WW bandwagon.

Again.  Ha ha.  I have stopped and started so many times.  But for some reason it feels different this time.  AND I've said that before too.

But I think what is making it a bit different this time is that I'm pairing WW with intermittent fasting.  So basically, I only eat between 8:30 - 4:30 every day and then fast for the 16 hours after that.

So because I don't eat after 4:30, lunch is my (our) 'big' meal of the day.  When I get our box from Home Chef, I make it all up and we have those meals for lunch.

I thought the fasting would be super difficult, but it hasn't been.  The first couple of days I was pretty hungry after 4:30 but I just drank a bunch of water and that helped.  I've been drinking a gallon of water each day.  I feel way less bloated and just feel better all around.  

Here's what a typical day of eating looks like for me:

8:30: scrambled eggs, beans, cheese, red chile (all in one bowl)  I get this at work in the cafeteria.  Only in New Mexico do they have beans and red chile on the cafeteria hotline every morning for breakfast ha ha.  It's delicious and SUPER filling. 

1:00:  a Home Chef meal, which is usually chicken and vegetables or pork and vegetables (usually with cheese or some kind of other delicious sauce).  If I don't have a Home Chef meal, my lunch usually consists of a chicken salad cup (from Costco), 2 hard boiled eggs, a yogurt and a piece of fruit and/or a string cheese.

4:00:  Premier Protein shake with 2 tspb of powdered peanut butter.  I LOVE this shake.  It's loaded with protein and usually keeps me satisfied until bedtime.  The Premier Protein can be found at Costco and the PB2 can be found at Target or Amazon (cheaper on Amazon).  If I have points left around 4:00 then I may have another yogurt or something if I'm still hungry.  I usually have points left.

I don't snack in between meals.  I think the gallon of water per day is why.  I'm either constantly drinking water or I'm in the bathroom ha ha.

It's working.  I've lost 10 pounds since August 2nd.  

My plan is to log my progress here once a week to keep myself accountable.  I may post meal plans/favorite WW point friendly foods/etc. also.  I got this!

July Reads (7)

One star = did not like it at all

Two stars = eh, it was okay

Three stars =  liked it

Four stars = really, really liked it

Five stars = absolutely loved it

1-Star (0)

2-Star (1)

**How We Eat With Our Eyes and Think With Our Stomachs (Non-fiction, M. Muhl)

I can’t remember where I heard about this book and who recommended it to me, but it was not good.  It was basically just little pages (it’s a little book) full of scientific facts and studies….and then it just abruptly ends.  ??  So weird.

3-Star (1)

***The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (Fiction, K. Richardson)

This was a ‘like’ not ‘love’ book for me.  I learned a lot, but the book dragged on in places.

4-Star (3)

****The Wide Window (Fiction, A Series of Unfortunate Events #3, L. Snickett)

These books are so bad, as in NOTHING good happens!  Yet they are amazing.  Funny.  Quirky.  Original.  Dark.  And these three orphans really look for the good in everything, even though their entire life is one big unfortunate event.

****Body of Evidence (Fiction, K. Scarpetta #2, P. Cornwall)

A solid 2^nd book in the series.  Onto the 3^rd!

****The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (Non-Fiction, M. Magnusson)

This is a charming book written by an elderly woman basically about cleaning out your stuff so that your kids don’t have to deal with it after you die.

5-Star (2)

*****The Bookish Life of Nina Hill (Fiction, A. Waxman)

The main character, Nina, and her quirky-anxiety ridden-socially awkward book-loving-cat loving-trivia loving-bullet journaling-planning self far make up for the few cheesy parts that are sprinkled throughout.  I LOVED this book.

*****A Night Divided (Fiction, J. Nielson)

Probably one of the best YA books I’ve ever read.  It grabs you from the first pages and doesn’t stop.  Gerta, a young girl, and her family live in Berlin.  When the wall goes up, they get separated.  Her father and one of her brothers are on the West side, and she, her mother, and another brother are on the East side.  This super suspenseful book follows their journey to reunite.  SO GOOD. 

Total Books Read: 7 (5 fiction, 2 non-fiction)

DNF (Did Not Finish) : 2

The Secrets of Ink and Paper – too fluffy, and then about halfway through I started reading more reviews on it and apparently it’s labeled as Christian Fiction.  ?  Strange.  I would have DNF’d anyways though.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry – I just could NOT get into this one.  And I’m a Fredrik Backman fan!

June Reads (13)

One star = did not like it at all

Two stars = eh, it was okay

Three stars =  liked it

Four stars = really, really liked it

Five stars = absolutely loved it

1-Star (0)

2-Star (0)

3-Star (6)

***A Gentleman in Moscow (Fiction, A. Towles)

This was a great book, but it was way too long.  It was such a good story, and I wanted to be friends with the kind Gentleman, Count Roskov.  But it was REALLY long in the middle and way too wordy for my taste.

***The Library Book (Non-Fiction, S. Orlean)

This one surprised me, only because I thought I would enjoy it so much more.  The general library info was great (did you know that Public libraries outnumber McDonalds in the United States???), but the history/fire/L.A. part bored me to death.  L  Although it DID make me want to use my local library more.  And my library is awesome and not that far from home.

***Farmer Boy (Fiction, L. Ingalls)

I liked this one, but not nearly as well as the ones about Laura and her family.  I just wasn’t as interested in Almanzo and his family.

***Idaho (Fiction, E. Roskovich)

This book felt disjointed and all over the place, but the writing was decent and the story was somewhat interesting.

***Pachinko (Fiction, M. Lee)

Strong start, but about halfway through I started losing interest and there were too many characters that I didn’t like.   

***The Smell of Other People’s Houses (Fiction, B. Hitchcock)

A good book about the lives of a group of teens living in remote Alaska. 

4-Star (4)

****Maisie Dobbs #1 (Fiction, J. Winspear)

There is something so exciting about starting the first book of a new series and LIKING it and then discovering that there are 14 additional books in the series that have already been published.  I loved this little gem of a mystery, and hope that it only gets better.  We meet Maisie Dobbs, a former housemaid turned WWI nurse, turned private investigator.  She is smart as a whip and tries to not only solve mysteries but help people in the process.  We learn a lot about her background in this book, so there’s a bit of jumping back and forth in time.  But somehow it works!  UPDATE:  I DNF’d the 2^nd book because it got weird and then I researched some of the other books in the series and it seems to be a pattern so I won’t be reading any further books from this series.  

****Victoria the Queen (Non-Fiction, V. Baird)

I listened to the audio version of this book.  It was phenomenal.  I really didn’t know anything about Queen Victoria and now I feel somewhat well-versed!  Honestly though I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed this book as much if I had read it as opposed to listening to it.  The narrator was great.

****Sky Without Stars (Fiction, J. Brody)

3.75 ONLY because I think it’s about 100 pages too long (it’s a 600 page book).  And it’s not an ‘easy’ read, especially for YA.  But I really, really enjoyed it.  Who wouldn’t love a futuristic retelling of Les Miserables told from the perspectives of Chantine (Eponine), Alouette (Cosette), and Marcellus (Marius)?  I’ll definitely read the next book in the series when it comes out.

****Sorry I’m Late I Didn’t Want to Come (Non-Fiction, J. Pan)

Laugh out loud book about an introvert who decides to do extrovert things for one year including improv, solo traveling, talking to strangers, and stand-up comedy…basically the stuff of my nightmares.  I loved it!

5-Star (3)

*****Ask Again Yes (Fiction, M. Keane)

I don’t even know where to begin with this book.  It is emotionally exhausting, especially the last 100 pages.  It’s the story of the ‘friendship’ of two next door neighbors and their children (2 of them in particular).  The time period of this book starts in the late 70s, when I was born.  When the kids talked about social studies class, their lunch boxes (which were lined up on the shelves by the school cafeteria, JUST like ours used to be), Snapple, Duck Hunt video games, scavenger hunts, and the top 100 countdown on the radio, I got pretty nostalgic.  At one point in the book one of the characters wants to make a dramatic exit/escape, but he has to let his car warm up first.  Because that’s just what we DID back then in the 80s when it was cold.

But then of course, tragedy strikes and it affects EVERYONE.  Relationships are ruined, lives are changed forever.  Bad things happen.  Good things happen.  I found myself rooting for almost everyone.  This is a great book about mental illness, alcoholism, human nature, relationships, love, loss, tragedy, and most importantly, forgiveness.

*****The Book Hog (Fiction, G. Pizzoli)

A charming children’s book about a pig who LOVES books but doesn’t know how to read.  (don’t worry, it has a happy ending)

*****Little House on the Prairie (Fiction, L. Ingalls Wilder)

Obviously this is a re-read for me, and it’s just as wonderful as I remember.  There is something so calming about reading these books.

Total Books Read: 13 (10 fiction, 3 non-fiction)

DNF (Did Not Finish) :

Red Rising (it got weird)

Birds of a Feather (it got weird)

Washington D.C.

Our first out-of-state trip of the year is in the books.

In May, hubby had a conference in Washington D.C. and I tagged along so we could hang out at night.  Then we tacked on 4 additional days to hang around and see all the things.

Monday:  Hubby had his conference and we just hung out afterwards.  We stayed at a hotel downtown (paid for by hubby’s conference).  One of the perks is that it was right across the street from Carnegie Library and a NICE park (good for the dog.)

And what hotel in Washington D.C. is complete without political cartoons on the wall?

Tuesday:  Hubby had his conference.  We had one ‘obligation’ thing to go to and that was having drinks at the FTC.  It was nice, they had snacks and drinks and we mingled on the balcony of the building, which overlooked the Capitol building.  Afterwards, we had an underwhelming dinner at a nice restaurant (Capital Grille).

This was our view sitting at the restaurant afterwards...there were still a few people mingling on the FTC balcony:

Wednesday:  Hubby had his conference until noon, then we left our luggage at the hotel and caught a Lyft (more on that later) to the National Archives Museum.  We got to see the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.  Very cool.  They’re in this huge room with dim lighting with security guards everywhere.  No phones.  If someone even takes out their phone (not to take a picture, but for something else), the guards will escort you out. 

We did lots of walking after that and then picked up our luggage and headed to our Air BnB.  After we got settled, we ate at a FANTASTIC Italian restaurant called the Red Hen.  I am STILL thinking about the bread cooked in the brick oven.  YUM.

Thursday:  Holocaust Museum.  First off, there’s a couple of things to know about the Holocaust Museum.  During tourist season (spring/summer basically), you MUST have a ticket.  The museum was free (all museums are free in D.C.), but you still had to get a ticket to prevent overcrowding.  When I went to get tickets online, they were sold out until the end of June (we went in the end of May).  So I did some digging and poking around on their website and discovered that if you are a firefighter or a veteran, you don’t need tickets.  All we had to do is go to the front desk and show my husband’s veteran card and they printed off tickets for us to the permanent exhibit.  If you don’t have a ticket, you can see the temporary exhibits, but not the ‘main’ stuff.

The Holocaust Museum is heartbreaking, disgusting, and unforgettable.  I recommend that everyone go at least once.  And probably only once.  I won’t be going back.  But I am SO glad that I went.

We spent the morning there, and then started walking the National mall.  This is where all of the monuments are.  However, the monuments are MUCH farther apart then you would think.  We ended up walking all of it, but it was tiring.  We stopped a lot (for the dog too) and drank a lot of water.  We’re not used to the humidity!

We started at the furthest monument, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.  It’s off the beaten path from the other monuments, across from a large water basin.  On our walk there, we noticed dark clouds rolling in.  But we didn’t really think anything of it, because they seemed to be moving away from  us.  We got to the Memorial (which is a circular dome with a pointed peak on the front and a giant statue of Thomas Jefferson in the middle).  See:

We were inside when all of the sudden everyone’s phones started making that annoying blaring sound whenever there’s a weather alert (including my phone).  I checked, and there was a tornado warning.  As soon as I checked my phone, it started DOWNPOURING and it was pretty much raining sideways.  The wind was insane.  We all crowded into the tiny gift shop that was off to the side of the memorial.  The ceiling tiles were being sucked up (and then would slam back down…it was a dropped ceiling).  And in about 10 minutes, it was over.  Once the rain stopped (about 5 minutes after that), we went back outside and saw all of the downed trees and debris everywhere.  I checked the local news later on that night and there was a tornado that had touched down.  Yikes!

But, we didn’t let that stop us.  We continued walking the mall and headed to the war memorials.  World War 1, World War 2, Korea and Vietnam.

We then walked along the reflecting pool and headed to the Lincoln Memorial, which is the largest Memorial.  It’s the one with the GIANT statue of him sitting down.  And when you’re on the steps you get a great straight shot view of the Washington monument and reflecting pool.  It was also the most busy.

We snapped a few pics of the White House from afar (see first pic...that's as close as we got), but it is a bit off the beaten path.

Friday:  The Supreme Court.  We had done/saw everything that I wanted to see, so hubby wanted to visit the Supreme Court.  We did a self-tour of the building, and then stood in line to get into one of the lectures inside the courtroom.  The judges weren’t there or anything, but we got to sit inside the courtroom and listen to a lecture about the history of the Supreme Court, the justices, the building, etc.  It was really interesting!

After that we headed to the Library of Congress.  It was AMAZING.  So incredibly beautiful.  It houses 38,000,000 books.  That’s INSANE!  We got to see the reading rooms, Thomas Jefferson’s library, and the Gutenberg Bible.  We took a guided tour.

The Capitol is right across the street from the Library of Congress:

Saturday:  One more trip downtown, and then back to visit with our Air BnB hosts (who were JWs!) and then packing up.

Sunday:  Traveling home.  D.C. to Chicago to Albuquerque.  It was a long day.  But we made it home around 9:00 p.m. AND we had the next day off (Memorial Day) so that was really nice.

A few random bits/travel tips:

*Take advantage of the free guided tours if they’re offered and if they’re small.  At the Library of Congress, our tour group was maybe 10 people.  We got to see all of the highlights and ask questions with the super knowledgeable guide (a former retired professor).  We also took a guided tour at the Holocaust Museum for one of their newer exhibits.  It just adds a lot to the experience and it’s FREE!

*Lyft.  We didn’t take the metro once.  Our Air BnB was about 2 miles from everything, so we took a Lyft.  Hubby pulled up the app and punched in where we were and where we wanted to go and within 5 minutes (usually), our driver showed up.  It was super time effective.  Sure, the Metro would have been cheaper, but it also would have taken WAY longer.  I plugged in some of our routes on the D.C. transit site, and to get from our BnB to the National Mall would have taken 45 minutes.  WHAT???  Taking a Lyft was about 10 minutes at the most.  And they are inexpensive.  I added up all of our Lyft rides (which were a LOT…we used them 2-3 times a day) and our grand total spent for 8 days (hubby got to D.C. one day before I did) was $115.  Not bad for transportation.  That included our trips to the airport both times (the airport is in Arlington, VA) .  We avoided the hassle of the metro (with a dog) and saved LOADS of time.  It was just so convenient.  I’m a fan!

*The drivers in D.C. are WORSE than the drivers in Albuquerque.  I never thought I would find a place where they’re worse, but yup.  They’re pretty bad.

*Air BnB.  Stay in one if you can.  It’s WAY cheaper than a hotel and so versatile.  The one we picked out was basically a 1 bedroom apartment with a full kitchen and a washer/dryer.  I did all of our laundry at night so when I came home I had only one small load to do.  It was great!  And it was nice having a kitchen.  We made breakfast each morning, so we saved some money on eating out.  We would sleep in, have a late breakfast and then skip lunch and then go out for dinner.  It worked out great.  And it was much cheaper than the hotels downtown.  Everything in D.C. is expensive.  So to find an Air BnB with a full kitchen and laundry was great.  And it’s completely private.  We didn’t talk to our hosts until like the 2^nd to the last day.  We also spent a lot of time there.  We slept in every single morning and watched late night TV.  It was clean and comfortable and homey and in a beautiful neighborhood.  Worth it!

*Other ways to save money:  split meals.  We did this.  Not every time, but we tried.  Or we ordered off of the appetizer menu.  And we STILL had leftovers.  Bring your own water bottle and fill it up before you leave the house.  I brought one and the 3 of us shared it and I filled it up at one of the many water fountains along the Mall.  I used a collapsible water bowl for Watson that clipped onto my purse which worked great.  We all stayed hydrated!  Bring snacks.  I always pack a gallon-size ziplock bag full of individual bags of trail mix, yogurt covered raisins, granola bars, etc.  This saves a boatload of money at the airport and also when you’re out and about doing lots of walking.  It prevents getting hangry too!  :)

We had a great time.  Although we both decided that as much as we loved visiting, you could not pay us enough money to live there.  As my Dad would say "there's fifty-million-hundred-thousand people here!".  :)