Monday, September 28

I had my TOPS meeting tonight, it was a .6 gain. Small but still a gain. I need more exercise. I need more rest too. So this is all for tonight.

Tuesday, September 22

I lost 3.4 pounds this past week. I haven't been getting enough rest. I have to change that. I felt I was in control of my snacking before or after meals but I did snack a bit more on Sunday and Monday then I should have. I ate chips with dip during the Packer game and in the evening I ate spoonfuls of natural peanut butter in the evening after dinner. Today was the funeral of my great aunt. She was 82. After the service, we met for lunch. When the bread basket came, I lost it. I ate 3 pieces with butter. I even drank 4 glasses of water during the meal. I will remain focused on portion control and making better food choices.

Wednesday, September 16

Since my last post, the Packers beat the Bears, I went to the gym, I rode the bike 30 minutes and the elliptical for 7 minutes. I lost 6.4lbs this week. I want my lease to be renewed. I stayed up too late. I just make it to work on time. I read blogs to be inspired. I miss reading those that have not posted in awhile. I watched Biggest Loser. I had oatmeal and banana for breakfast. I had Lean Cuisine and Fiber One bar for lunch. I had Fiber One poptart as a snack. I worked. I got behind. I worked to get caught up. I look forward to this weekend. I will write more after I get more sleep.

Sunday, September 13

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!


It has been a good week overall. I have limited the snacking inbetween meals. I still must get back to exercising after work. Getting back to work after the holiday was a little rough. I was so busy that it makes the day fly by. I ate a Fiber One bar and oatmeal for breakfast and a Fiber One poptart with a can of soup for lunch. After work, I wasn't prepared to workout so I came home but I didn't snack before dinner YAY! I went on the computer and played a game that keep me busy. For dinner I had chicken and vegetables. I got back to the computer game so I avoided snacking after dinner YAY! I was feeling somewhat (insert emotion) that made me question what I have to offer in a relationship, like what makes me a person to get to know. I went to bed without answering myself. On Thursday, I was leaving work early because Scott had a show in Madison (about 1 hour away) starting at 4pm. The day started bad since I could not decide on what to wear or what to bring to change into for the show. I got to work 1 minute late. After I sent my request to leave early, I heard that a co-worker called in and would not be in all day. I then grabbed her leftover work and noticed she had orders/faxes from Tuesday. So before 9am, I was buried and I was leaving at 2pm. YIKES! I only ate oatmeal for breakfast. I wasn't making alot of progress with the extra work because the phone was constantly ringing and interrupting the order entry part of my job. I had the Fiber One bar and poptart plus a cold chicken burrito for lunch. The next 2 hours were crazy. I had to leave e-mails unaswered and phone call requests for tomorrow. I was so focused on work that I forgot I wanted to put gas in the car during my lunch break. I was to meet Scott and had little time but it all worked out since he needed to get gas in his car for the drive to Madison. We had a nice talk on the way. We arrived to the location which was an event to celebrate college back in session. The place was giving away free vitamin water and then free sandwiches along with free Monster and Bud Light samples. The place also had people dressed in coffee cup costumes. They twirled and danced which made for great video. Hopefully soon Scott will get video up on YouTube. I ate 2 of the sandwiches and a diet pepsi. After a short stop-over at the keyboardist's grandparents home that was up for sale, Scott and I headed back home. On our ride, I was thinking more about what I bring to our relationship. I don't play music, I don't read about music, I didn't go to the same concerts. I don't know the names of the guitarists or people from the bands of the 70s and 80s. I do listen and look interested in the conversations but lack the knowledge in order to participate. Scott asked if I had friendships from school still to this day or if I ate lunch with and hung around with people at school and he asked what I did after school. I was an introvert at school because of my weight. I was teased and talked about but I would ignore it was happening and keep my feelings and thoughts inside. I never wanted to cause a scene. I did my work and very little extra curricular stuff. I would come home and do my homework and watch TV. I would not call friends or hang-out at the mall. I stayed safe at home. This is not to say that I enjoyed my life. I just never did much to change the direction. After I arrived home, I went right to bed. I awoke on Friday and got to work on time. I ate oatmeal and a Fiber One bar for breaksfast and dove into my work. I have switchboard relief on Fridays. My department was down 1 person again today. I could not get answers back to people in my e-mails or my voice messages that I hoped I would. I am glad business seems busy for us but it is really picking-up or are we short-handed? I ate the Fiber One poptart plus a cold chicken burrito for lunch. I worked non-stop but couldn't reply to everyone. I left work knowing that Monday will be rough but ITS THE WEEKEND!! I had a gyro for dinner (kinda a routine) for Fridays. I came back home and played games on the computer which stopped me from snacking. I was up to midnight when I finally went to bed. My cousin called me at 8:30AM to talk about her mother who is recently diagnosed with a relapse of her cancer. Its in stage 4 and in many places within her body. She mentioned her daughters have volleyballs games so I decided to watch her 11 year old play at 10:30. They lost all 3 games but she served very well overhand which is new to her this year. I ate some popcorn and had a diet pepsi for breakfast. I came back home and played computer games to keep myself busy. I was still a bit tired from my late night and early rise. I ate some chocolate chip ice cream as a early afternoon snack. Scott texted me that he would be at tonights show about 8:15 for sound check and that he was spending time with his friend Kyle. I went out to eat with my brother and got home about 7:45. I had broccoli soup, a piece of bread w/ butter and meatloaf with mixed vegetables. I brought the dessert home. I then changed clothes and headed to his show. I arrived just as they were playing the 1st song. I sat at the bar and during the break Scott came over with the camera and said I could only take video since he left the memory card at home. I took about 90 minutes of video throughout the evening. Scott bought a single rose for me and I kissed his cheek (he has a slight cold) and thanked him. It is almost our 1 year dating anniversary. While talking Scott made a comment about renewing our lease (dating). I said is the rent going up? I mentioned I would like to renew the lease and hope he thinks the same. I helped with the packing up the gear and taking it out to the vehicles. He walked me to my car, we hugged and kissed on the cheek and went home. I went right to bed. I awoke on Sunday about 9:30 and still tired but I still got up, fed the cats, grabbed the desset from last night and watched TV (football pre-game on ESPN and then on FOX). At one point I got dressed and started to watch Favre's new team, the Vikings play Cleveland Browns. Before halftime, my brother asked me to go with him and his dog down to the lakefront. I got on my walking shoes and we got going. There was a kite festival so the place was buzzing with people but there is lots of room at the park. I took my digital camera and snapped lots of pictures. I think I walked about 1 mile. The dog probably 3 times that!! We stopped for a bite to eat and I had a chicken sandwich and diet coke. It has been a great late summer weekend. I hope we have 2 more great late summer/early fall upcoming weekends. Well got to run to the grocery store before the Sunday night football game between the PACK and BEARS at 7:30 tonight.

Making better choices,
Lisa

Tuesday, September 8

I enjoy reading the blogs and this is giving me encouragement and motivation. I am not a writer so I have not posted lately. I will give a update now. The work week went well except our receptionist was off and I had a 2-hour stint on the board all week. This takes me away from my own desk and then I play catch-up. During the week, I ate oatmeal for breakfast and a Lean Cuisine for lunch. I had sensible dinners and limited the after dinner snacking. I met a friend after work on Thursday to go walking. Stacy knows I am trying to lose weight and that I needed to do this. I don't know how far we walked but it was not too long before my body began to ache. I told her that I have to get into a routine of walking or going to Cardinal Fitness again. She said as long as the weather was not rainy or too cold, she and I would make this walking happen at least once a week. I was happy I did the walk! Then late on Thursday, Scott finally sold tickets we had for the American Idol concert in Madison. We were excited to go when they went on sale but the hoopla was over now. Since he found a friend willing to buy them, we were able to make other plans for the Labor Day weekend. So at 11pm, I was online making hotel reservations for the trip to Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. I was so tired but this had to get done because I would have no time during work to do it. I had taken a 1/2 day off on Friday and I had a few hours to kill before meeting up with Scott on Friday afternoon so I stopped for lunch and relaxed while most of the others were rushing to eat and get back to work. I then picked up a few items for the weekend. We were hoping to leave at 5am Saturday morning so we both went to bed around 9:45. We got on the road around 5:40 and the drive up there seemed to go by real quick. We stopped twice to stretch and get some food. We ate breakfast sandwiches for around 450 calories. We arrived around 11:30 and went directly to the MOA. We both were there before but it had been years ago. I changed into my walking shoes and we made 4 round trips (once around on each floor) looking mostly at sports jerseys. Scott wanted a Favre #4 Vikings jersey. He didn't get one on Saturday. However, he bought more than I did. How can that be right? Aren't women normally the impulse shoppers? We ate chinese food and I know it was high in calories but I knew we had did alot of walking to sorta offset it. We left MOA around 5:30 and went to our hotel and enjoyed the entertainment in the "backyard". They had a 60s/70s band out in the pool area and a bar and a grill area. We had a $20 credit so we ordered drinks and a burger each (YUM YUM). We then moved closer to the band and listened to their 3rd set which ended about 10pm. After kicking off our shoes, Scott got out 1 of his purchases. It was a puddy-like material in a plastic container that when you press in your thumb or fingers you can make fart-like sounds. No he and I are not teen-agers but this prank-like "toy" was rather silly/fun. Seeing him smile and listening to him laugh made it a special memory that we both can remember of our trip. We went back to MOA on Sunday and he bought a Favre jersey and we took pictures of each other pointing to the jersey to post the pic to a friend. We then went to Underwater Adventure and took lots of pictures of shark, stingray, seahorses and other fish . This is where you can walk through a tube and the fish are above your head. I was a bit silly and he took pictures of me making faces into the camera. We started to head out of Bloomington around 5pm and drove into Minneapolis while taking pictures of the scenery of the drive and then into St. Paul. We saw the Dome where Favre will play against his former team on October 5th. We drove back through Wisconsin to his parents cottage to spend Labor Day on a lake. We arrived about 11:30pm and were a bit un-tired so he hooked up his camera to the TV to view the photos he took. About 1am, we went to sleep. On Monday morning the lake was packed so going out to fish would have to wait until later in the evening. It was an enjoyable do-nothing day. I was sad this vacation was nearly over. His brother and his wife came over and we grilled brats, hamburgers and steak and had a shrimp salad and another ramen noodle salad. I ate 2 burgers, some of both salads and then a small homemade strawberry shortcake. It got too late to go fishing so instead we talked and watched the sun setting over the lake. Scott and I left his parents cottage and returned home. We had a deep conversation that lasted into the wee hours of Tuesday morning. We talked about our weight and our inability to lose it before now, we talked about our feelings towards one another and I felt more secure in our friendship. I want more but do understand that it will come in time. Good things come to those who wait.. right? I spent the mid-day of Tuesday at home cathing up on mail and unpacking. I ate a Fiber One bar and a Fiber One pop-tart for breakfast into lunch. I got busy with a computer game that kept me from noticing I wanted to get something more to eat. I was proud of myself that I did not give into the habit of eating before dinner. I am also proud of myself that I did not give into the habit of eating after dinner. I want this proud feeling to continue and grow into more confidence.

Tuesday, September 1

I feel different. I feel like reading these blogs is sinking in. I know there are readers out there that truely want me to succeed. They want me to learn from their struggles. They want to let me know they were just like me. Struggling with losing weight.


Yesterday I went to my TOPS meeting and was down 4.2 pounds. I was happy but I have to be consistant with my eating. I have to be honest about what I eat. I have to realize that all foods have calories weather eaten in public or at home where no one else knows what I eat. My cats can't tattle on me!!

I bought salad ingredients recently and on Saturday I cut up the green pepper, cucumber, red onion and added peas. I made 2 large containers of it all!! I made a bowl afterwards and used a small bit of low-fat dressing and it was delicious!! Later on I met up with Scott to watch his band play. I was having a great time and became a bit tipsy, Scott was the designated driver, because I ate just a banana and yogurt for breakfast and then the salad for dinner. I would like to dance more but don't feel I look good doing it because of my weight. I enjoyed moving the upper half of me to the beat of their music while sitting. One day soon I will get up on the dance floor and want to have people look at me.