Super Supper

I made this last night, just throwing stuff in... and man, were they TASTY! VE is the line of Epicure Selection spices - and I credit them for the extra burst of flavour! Totally core, or less than 3 pts for a good sized burger!

1 lb ex. lean ground beef
1 lb ex. lean ground turkey
1/3 cup quick rolled oats, crumbled
1/4 cup egg whites
1 tsp wortishire (sp) sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tsp olive oil
SPICES (measures are approximate!)
VE Chili garlic sea salt (1/4 tsp)
VE Herb and garlic sea salt (1/4 tsp)
VE French Onion dip (1 tsp)
VE Sundried tomato dip (1 tsp)
garlic powder (1 tsp)
Lemon Juice (1/2 tbsp)
1 tsp garlic salt
1 pkg of onion soup mix
Combine all together well, and form into approximately 8 med-large patties.

Deadly on the grill!!! Let me tell you, my family went crazy. (Even my fuss-puss kids!) Kenny thought there was bacon in them! They were fairly juicy (for extra lean burgers) and very, very yummy.

Serve with a slice of Fat Free swiss, and sauteed mushrooms & onions... well, I didn't miss the bun, that's for sure!

What's the deal with weekends?

Ok, so I know I'm not the first person in the weight loss world to take issues with weekends. I go in with the best intentions, and then BAM! Out of nowhere, I start rationalizing things. Ok, I spent an hour cleaning house, that's almost as good as going to the gym, right? I'll have a good lunch when I get home, but right now licorice and some baked cheetos will have to do. A little splurge on supper won't hurt, I'm on maintenance...

And by the end of the night, I'm feeling like a stuffed pork chop, all lazy and BLECH. I woke up so grouchy this morning... but why? Oh right. I treated my body like crap yesterday. Core food what? I don't think I had more than3 items that would be considered core yesterday. So today, this is what's up:

• I've already done 20 minutes of hard strength training & 20 mins of 15% @4.1 on the treadmill
• I am having a yummy breakfast of turkey bacon, eggs, possibly some ww WW toast, fruit salad and timmy's coffee (thanks for the coffee hon!)
• I am letting Emma-Leigh pick from my list of approved of clean eating meals. (Um yeah, that's always a fun conversation. No Emma, mcnuggets aren't on the list. No Emma, bologna is not on the list.)
• I'm hoping to wash my car (if it doesn't start to rain here)

I feel better already... and can't wait for my yummy yummy breakfast!

My story continues

So fast forward 15 months. I have lost 91 pounds, and have kept it off since reaching my 88 pound goal in November. I achieved lifetime membership, and have unwravelled a whole new world of challenges... maintenance.

I understood losing. Sacrifice and extra exercise, constant moderation and monitoring. Maintenance (even with all the warnings) seemed like a destination. Ease up on some of the vigilance... splurge on the odd thing here and there. The trouble with that is, it opens up tiny little wholes for my bad habits to creep in. So I am working on losing another 9 pounds, taking my sweet arse time with it, and trying to tone up some excess skin along the way. It's slow going. I've been playing with the same 5-6 pounds since Christmas, but I am committed to reaching 149.9 by September. That's less than 1.5 pounds a month. If it doesn't pick up soon, I may just go back to weight loss mode to get there. But I'll play it by ear for now.

When I look back at what I've lost over the last 14 months, it's actually much more about what I've gained:
* A lot more self confidence (must keep that in check now, some days!!!)
* Energy. I have much more to spare. I just can't sit in front of the TV like I used to!
* Better eating habits. In general!
* Smaller portion sizes (AKA reasonable portions!)
* The love of clean eating. I'm not perfect at it, but I'm working on it!
* A much better legacy to leave for my daughter.... there will be many posts on the struggles I face with this.

Ok, time for bed. I am struggling with getting enough sleep lately, so I'd best start the night time routine a little earlier from now on.

An Introduction to me...

So what do I have talk about? What is my motivation behind spilling my guts online? Well, like most North Americans.... I have had a weight problem. For most of my life, I have walked past mirrors and didn't like the reflection. But worse - I was lacking the energy to get up and walk past a mirror in the first place! My daughter would ask me to go outside and shoot some hoops, but the thought of being out of breath, the sore knees and ankles that were plaguing me, and the idea of how I might look silly overwhelmed me to the point of missing out on some really special times with her. Since getting married, the scale had slowly crept up to 249.6 pounds. Who was this person that lost so much control of herself?

I was not happy. I struggled with emotional issues from many attempts at quitting smoking, being on and off the pill, learning to live with my new husband, and blended family issues were abundant. I was flying into rages over nothing, and was truly unable to find joy in even the most wonderful moments of my life. Our wedding was lovely, but the honeymoon even ended in vicious arguements - mostly due to my emotional rollercoaster and my new husband's disgust for my smoking habit...

Things HAD to change. I quit the pill for good. After several poor attempts, I also quit smoking for good. I went through some personal counselling, and we even tried some marriage counselling. The latter was not not my husband's idea of a good time and so we ended up not returning. Things still seemed so tense - I was always so unhappy. Fighting to get control in my new life seemed so useless. There were kid issues that seemed destined to destroy us, because I wanted some control... I soon realized what really needed my control. The scale wasn't telling me I was in trouble - I refused to step on it. My knees and ankles were now in chronic pain, and I was walking around like I was 90. But when I had to buy a pair of 24 jeans, I couldn't fool myself any longer. A couple of really awful Christmas pictures from 2006 sealed the deal: I was seriously overweight.

On Janulary 3rd, 2007 I joined Weight Watchers. I thought to myself, "Hey. I can lose 30 - 40 pounds, right?" Well, I had obviously done a great job of fooling myself, because when I saw my little book pop with the numbers 249.6, I felt like I needed to get my big ol' behind right out of there. 87 pounds??? They wanted me to lose 87 POUNDS?

A brief discussion with my husband went something like this:
Me "Kenny, I can't do this. That's just too big of a goal for me."
Him "You can do it. I'll help."
Me "But it will cost alot of money, and take an awful long time."
Him "You can do it. I'll help."

So I began my Weight Watchers journey.