Fit by 50 ~ Leenie's Journal

[Leenie]

I will turn 50 on December 14, 2008 so it's time to get into shape once again.

I was in shape once, way back 3 or 4 years ago. Then I let it all slip away. I have a million reasons why, but they all just sound like excuses so no need to go into that. What's done is done and nothing I can do will change the past, but I darn sure can change the future My current stats are correct.

I'm not sure what all I will post in here. It will probably be mostly ramblings with an occassional menu thrown in. I plan my menus for the week on Sunday and pretty much eat the same thing every day. Less variety works better for me. I haven't planned this week's menus yet though as Monday is a holiday for me so I'll do that tomorrow.

My weekend has been filled with remodeling our guest bathroom. I got the wild idea last week I wanted to get rid of the horrible wallpaper in that room. After doing lots of research and coming up with a plan, I started the tear off the horrid wallpaper day on Friday. Initially I thought I'd just paint over the stuff, but decided to do the job the right way or I'd never be satisfied with it.

It took Friday and Saturday to remove the wallpaper. Saturday evening was taping, primer and sanding. Today has been more primer, more sanding and painting trim. Tomorrow I'll tape off the trim then start the color painting.

I must have 100 paint colors on my desk. I've put together several combinations, none of which my husband liked at all. He wants blue in there. I don't want blue in there. He says mine are too dark, I say his are just another variation of WHITE. I finally came up with a combination we both liked. I'm going to do half and half, Sand WHITE and Smoked Turquoise. I'll go on record saying I still like the Stucco/Stonington Beige combo better Hubby is going to be out of town for a week starting next weekend. Maybe I'll do our bathroom in the colors I like better I've been taking pictures of the progress, so will post those when I'm done.

Yeah, I'll probably write more about non diet related stuff than diet

So I'm back! I haven't set any time related weight loss goals yet other than being at 150 on my 50th birthday. I'll set one here; let's say 20 pounds gone by Valentine's Day. Yep, I think that's doable.

[Leenie]

Today's weight is the same.

Today's menu was

Brunch: Bacon, egg & cheese on a Cleo oopsie roll. Totally scrumpcious

Dinner: Large salad w/ cheese and roasted chicken.

Not much to eat today. I was super busy on the bathroom project and just didn't stop to eat.

Monday and Tuesday menus will be

Early breakfast: cheese (usually 2 ounces)

Late breakfast: Protein Shake

Lunch: Green beans and chicken

Dinner: Large salad w/ chicken or fajita beef

Snack if needed: Protein Shake

I'm feeling totally amazing. This past summer we had some renovations to do on both of our rentals. I could only work about 4 hours before needing a nap. This weekend I've worked 8-10 hours straight and could have gone on longer.

So I read over at the Playground about this stuff called Estroven Energy. I went out and bought some and started taking it. The first 4 or 5 days I thought the stuff was going to work the opposite for me. I was so exhausted but maybe that was the initial switch back to Atkins. I don't know if it's my diet that is giving me the energy or this Estroven or a combination of both. At any rate, I'm not going to stop either because I feel just incredible. Thanks to the Playground for another good product recommendation.

The bathroom project is nearly complete. This morning we made a color change decision then headed to Home Depot. The color "Moonrock" did not come out right; more like a mint green than the blue/green we were going for. Next gallon still not correct. Next time they shoot a picture of the color and it's still not quite right. So we made the decision to make yet another color change. Good thing I had several options in mind and had nearly all of the Glidden colors memorized.

The two color combo we selected looks awesome. Actually, anything would look better than the horrid wallpaper that was on the wall. I'm so happy to be rid of that.

We have trim drying now to put in the bath this week. I still need to get out and buy the new hardware for the cabinets, new faucets and towel racks then we'll be done.

Although now that we've done the walls, the ceilings look horrid and the countertop in there looks really dated. Those will have to wait.

Now, only 2 wallpapered rooms left. Our master bathroom and the kitchen. I may tackle the master bath next week while my husband is out of town

Back to work tomorrow.

[Leenie]

I haven't weighed in yet today, it's too early.

Long time ago I always weighed first thing in the morning. Now I weigh about an hour to hour and a half after I wake up. I have arthritis so first thing in the morning after I wake up, I am one swolen up puppy.

Yesterday was a small victory. My pants are getting too long and a shirt I wore in December as a jacket because I couldn't button it up buttoned just fine yesterday.

I have a whole closet full of clothes from my before great shape days just waiting for me. Although, I'm not sure I plan to get as small as I was then because I just don't know if I can maintain that (or want to). At my smallest, I was wearing mostly size 6's.

It's funny, back when I was wearing those size 6's I thought I still had plenty of weight to lose. I hold up those now and they look darn tiny to me and can't believe I ever wore them.

On another subject; my hair. I'm TRYING to let my hair grow out. I've had short, short hair for ages so decided to give one last try for longish hair. I don't think I've ever had really long hair, not even as a kid. I'm not going for long long hair now, maybe just at my shoulders but it's a darn trying process getting there. I guess I'm at the stage now it's going to look bad no matter what I do with it. Pretty much all of my layers are grown out, EXCEPT on one side where I have a layer or two that is a couple inches shorter than the other side. Don't know how that happened! Anyway, I'm sticking it out (along with the diet!) and we'll see what happens!

[Leenie]

Long day today. Had to be up at 5 am to head up to Austin, got home at 8:00 pm. I packed some protein shakes and cheese for snacks in case I got hungry. Lunch was deli sandwiches, chips, salad, pasta salad, brownies & cookies. I had some meat and cheese roll ups and a large (excellent) salad. Totally avoided all of the crap. Had a protein shake in the afternoon which kept me nice and alert through the afternoon meetings while everyone else was nodding off after eating the brownies!

I'm so happy I was able to stay totally on plan all day long!

Planning ahead is just so critical for me. Friday is another long day so I'm prepared. Bring it on!

[PalmTreeGal]

Hi Leenie! Just wanted to say hi and let you know I'm reading.

[Leenie]

Hi Mandy! Thanks for stopping by, that was so sweet!

Up early again to get my husband to the airport for a week long conference in D. C. I usually go with him but this year have to stay behind and work. I'd love to be with him in the airport today though. This is his first flight since his hip replacement surgery last October. He'll set off the alarms at security He's allowing extra time for that though and will be something he just has to deal with at every flight. Small price to pay for being pain free! We had a good laugh at the holidays while shopping. He even sets off the door alarms at one of the large department stores!

Lots going on at work. I and another partner own a small mortgage company. We've done really well, despite the mortgage crisis and are gearing up for a really good 2008. Rates are way down so maybe we can get a lot of people refinanced from those nasty ARMS some lenders pushed. I'm so happy we never got into that kind of loan. Most of us in our office have been in the business nearly 30 years so we've been through all of the cycles.

I'll be back after weigh in.

[Leenie]

Down a pound today

Yesterday I repainted the bathroom. I said the two color combo we picked out looked awesome, but the more I looked at it the more I wasn't happy with it. I selected yet another color; this one I'll call sagey beigey. Now I think I'm happy with it. Talked to my husband on the phone and told him what I was doing. He was cracking up at me. He said he knew the minute he got on the plane I'd be repainting

DD came over and helped me install all of the new cabinet hardware and towel bars, etc. That was the first time she'd ever done anything like that. She says she's more and more like me everyday. She actually had fun with the power tools Then we headed to Target to pick out the new rugs, towels, shower curtain, etc. She's better than I am at color coordinating so I was happy to have her help plus it was nice having her company for the day.

I still need some art for the walls so will work on that today, as well as a few paint touch ups and return a couple of things to Target we didn't use.

Today's plan also includes doing the grocery shopping (I miss my husband here, he normally does all of the grocery shopping) and cooking for the week. I'm going to try Cleo's mozarella sticks, zuchinni fritters and make up some more Cleo buns.

I also plan to start working in the master bath. More horrid wallpaper that has to come down. And, I brought some work home I have to get to some time today so a busy day ahead!

[Leenie]

I feel like I've lost a little so we'll see what the scale says in a bit.

I made the zuchinni hash browns Sunday; didn't like them too much so won't make them again. I also tried Cleo's mozarella sticks with the pork rind crust. They were just ok so probably won't make them again either. I'd rather have plain cheese. I am going to try the pork rind crust again but this time to make some fried green beans.

Nothing much else to report. I'm still 100% on plan and feeling better every day.

[PalmTreeGal]

You weren't excited about the fried mozzarella? I bought stuff to try that. DH is looking forward to it. It's a lot of cheese to eat at once though; I'm trying to keep cheese down in case that's been the cause of slow loss on LC in the past.

Let us know what the scale says! And kick it if it's not friendly.

[Leenie]

Hi Mandy, no the cheese didn't thrill me. I think I put too much of the Mrs. Dash in it because that's all I could taste. It's probably a good thing. If they had turned out really well I'd make them more and eat too many. I can only eat a couple of ounces of cheese if I just slice it off, bread it and fry it up and I can eat 6 or 8 easy Let me know how you like them!

207 this morning yeah! I did kick the scale but it was an accident. After weigh in yesterday I forgot to push it back against the wall, so later when I'm heading for my shower I trip over the stupid thing

I have a Tanita scale that weighs in tenths of a pound. I happened to think yesterday though, I don't ever recall seeing any odd numbers in the tenths. It's always even. 208.8, 208.6, 208.4, etc. This morning was 207.4. I guess it weighs in tenths but only even numbers. Or perhaps I'm only even weight

Today marks the four week mark since starting and down 15 pounds. I'm going to make a goal of losing 8 pounds the next four weeks but that might be a tad bit aggressive. Time will tell!

[Leenie]

206 this morning

I was looking through my spare closet last night for smaller sized clothes and can't find them. I found all of the really small clothes, but none of the inbetween clothes. I guess I'll get up in the attic this weekend and see if I put them up there I can't imagine that I took them to Goodwill but if they are not in the attic I suppose I did. I'll hate to have to buy clothes that I won't be able to wear later this year.

When I lost the weight before I spent a lot of shopping time at the thrift and second hand stores. I've found that's a great place to pick up the inbetween items without spending a fortune. Maybe I'll hit a few of those this weekend if I can't find my other stuff.

Speaking of weight loss, my cousin has gastric bypass surgery last August and is just doing fantastic. She has had no post surgery complications at all and is down some 60 pounds now. I'll saw her right before the surgery and won't see her again until March so it will be dramatic. She is diabetic and the best news for her is she's down to only one dose of insulin rather than the 3 or 4 she had to use previously.

Time to get the day going!

[Leenie]

205 this morning. I sure wasn't expecting to drop another pound this week. Seems like I remember my weight loss before going like this. Lose 3 or 4 pounds in a week then nothing for a week or two. We'll see what happens this next week.

It's awesome to start February on the right diet track. The past two or three years I had good intentions in January but didn't make it through the month for whatever reason. I'm 100% confident I will reach my goal.

I just can't get over how much better I feel already. So much more energy. Although my joints (hands) still hurt, it's not near as bad and certainly tolerable. I think I've only had to take a couple pain killers for the arthritis this entire month. Before I was taking at least one a day and some days two. My rings are sliding around on my fingers where before my hands were so swolen I could barely get them on or off. I actually slept with my rings on last night....haven't been able to do that for a couple of years. My next visit to my rheumatologist is going to be a shocker for him!

The next phase of my "return" is to get back to the gym. That happens this month, yeah! This will be a bigger challenge as even though I'm feeling pretty tremendous, my joints are not going to allow the kind of workouts I was used to before. And, that is the kind of workouts I enjoy....heavy weights. So, I have to take it slow and light and easy which will mess with my head but I think I'm in a place I can handle that now.

I have everything I need right here in my home gym. Bill and I have been talking about joining the gym again so we'll probably discuss that this weekend.

Bill gets home from D.C. today Hopefully there won't be any weather related delays. He was funny last night. He was telling me he was going to meet up with his sister in D. C. today for lunch. I thought that was rather odd as his flight is at 2:00 today. So I asked him what time he was meeting her and he said noon. I'm like, that doesn't leave you any time to get to the airport. He said he thought his flight was at 5:00. So I set him straight Good thing we happened to have that discussion last night!

Speaking of weather, have I said I love living in San Antonio? Another gorgeous day here expected with temps in the mid 60's and nice and sunny. Forecast is 70's tomorrow then 80's by mid week. The only thing it takes a bit to get used to in the winters here are the large changes in temp. For example, this morning it was 30 degrees, then by afternoon we'll hit 65. That's pretty common for the winters here. I saw my kids up in Illinois got a bunch of snow overnight, something like 8-10 inches of snow. I sort of forget that it is still winter in other parts of the country.

That's it, it's Friday so enjoy the day!

[Leenie]

205.2 this morning. Decided I'd go ahead and keep track of the tenths.

I was pleased to see the scale didn't bounce up this morning since we ate out last night. I had a grilled chicken salad that was fabulous. Had some of DH's green beans. But I hate eating out because there is so much sodium in the restaurant food it usually makes me swell up. Must not have bothered me last night.

We're going out to dinner again tonight to celebrate my oldest step son's graduation from high school. We're hitting an Italian restaurant so I'll have grilled chicken caesar salad, hold the croutons and put the bread basket at the other end of the table Actually, it won't bother me. I'm so determined and focused right now.

I'm so happy to have Bill back home from his week long conference. It's good for me for him to be gone periodically as I appreciate even more all of the things he does around the house.

Today I'm going to tackle a few more house projects then not sure what else. I might squeeze in a nap.

Gotta run, my business partner just called and she's coming by the house to deliver some stuff to me. Guess I'll have to throw in some work this weekend too.

[Leenie]

Well, I don't know what happened but the bread did bother me. Thinking back I think it was because the salad I ordered was so unappealing. It didn't look good and it didn't taste good. So I picked around at that while noticing all of the yummy dishes the other 5 at the table had. Guess I felt a little sorry for myself at that moment. So I had 4 bites of the bread. Then dessert comes. I had 4 bites of cheesecake. I savored the first bite of the bread. It was delicious. After that, not even sure I tasted the bread or the cheesecake. I guess the only good news in the whole thing is that this happened at the end of the meal, rather than the beginning.

I really seem to have a problem going out to eat with others that are eating things I "can't" have. I do fine going out to eat with just my husband because he will eat whatever I eat since he's low carbing also. Maybe that was part of the problem tonight. He was digging into the bread early on.

Although, come to think of it it doesn't bother me to go out to eat with co-workers or clients and they eat whatever and I don't. If I'm honest with myself, that's because I get some sort of thrill out of being in control among my co-workers. I suppose when I'm out with my family I don't get that same kind of charge as I do with co-workers.

Or maybe it's because all of my co-workers know I'm on plan again and I wouldn't want them to see me "fail". With my family I'm sure I'm more relaxed and "myself".

Sounds like a split personality and in reality I really am. At work, I'm focused, driven, motivated, in charge, and in control. At home, I'm relaxed, spontaneous, easy-going, less dominate, less domineering :rofl. I guess I've spent most of my career working on balancing the two. Give it everything at work, come home and relax and have fun. Work hard, play hard. My food intake goes right along. The work week is super easy. The weekends have been terribly tough in the past.

I think this journal is really going to help me deal with my food addiction/obsession issues. Who knows, maybe I'll resolve a few other issues also.

[Leenie]

206.2 this morning and I'm a swolen up mess. My joints are just screaming this morning, I can barely type. Lesson learned.

My little splurge last night was not enough to throw me out of ketosis so that's a good thing. The other thing I didn't do was drink my fish oil supplement so that's part of the reason for the pain this morning also.

Heading to church soon, then some shopping, a little work around the house then a Super Bowl party tonight. All legal foods being served so no worries tonight.

[Leenie]

206.8 today. In pain again this morning. My finger joints are screaming. I remembered the fish oil yesterday so that's not it. Maybe it's the changing weather here. Yesterday was such a gorgeous day, nearly 80 degrees, beautiful sun. Last night was humid as is today. I didn't sleep well last night because it was too hot in the house. I guess tonight we'll have to turn on the a/c to get rid of some of the humidity. Crazy weather.

[Leenie]

206.6 today.

It's a much better day pain wise. Maybe it was the humidity in the house as we turned on the a/c last night so much more comfortable sleeping. Maybe yesterday was just a Monday thing

Another gorgeous 78 degree day here today. Although it is supposed to be a bit windy which creates a fire danger here because it's been so dry. We haven't had a decent rain in what seems like forever. The yards are bone dry.

Speaking of yard, the Mr. is itching to get out into the yard and do some work. He's already mentioned the garden store so I suspect another couple of weekends and he'll be coming home with new plants I'm going to give him a challenge this year as I want the front landscape area changed up a bit. We'll have a lot to do on our yard as well as our rental house across the street. I think there's a Crepe Myrtle there that has to be moved to a new location so one of the neighbors down the street is going to take that. I'd love to have it but our lot is very shady already and the Crepe Myrtles need more sun. Lots of fun work to be done.

[Leenie]

206.0

It is cold this morning so had to turn the heat back on. Heat, a/c, heat, a/c. That's pretty typical for South Texas.

I was reading a post by Carole with some helpful tips. The one about the newspaper has me puzzled. The tip suggests using wet newspaper around plants rather than plastic to keep the weeds from coming through. Apparently, weeds will not come through the newspaper like they do even the thickest plastic. So what's the reason for this? What's in newspaper that prevents the weeds from popping through? Won't the newspaper decompose faster than plastic? I'll have to try this myself and see if it works. It will be wonderful if it does work!

[Leenie]

205.2 Diet is going very well.

I've been crazy busy at work so no time to post or even read much here. I can't believe it's Thursday already; the week is just flying by. I haven't fit in any time for exercise yet so need to plan that in my day.

Seems like every evening when I get home from work I've been on the phone with one of the kids. DD finished up a temp assignment so was bummed out she wasn't going to get hired on permanently at the place she was temping at. I had to remind her she's a college student and this place she was working at was not her career choice so just brush it off and move on. The next day she got the news she got a $2,000 grant for school so she was very excited about that. My son up in Illinois called last night and said the storms the night before took off part of the roof on his house. He's owned his home for a year and this will be his first experience with insurance claims. I told him his first call should have been to his insurance agent, not his mother

[Leenie]

205.2

Happy Friday! I have a ton of stuff to get done at work this morning, then this afternoon I'm moving my office. We have some new hires coming in so I'm moving out of my big office so we can eventually put four people in there. Thanks to the Mr. for stopping by the other afternoon and helping get the office set up.

Thanks also to the Mr. for the awesome breakfast this morning. Every Friday he cooks breakfast for us. This morning is a ham and cheese omelet. He makes the best omelets!

I'm meeting DD today for lunch so think we'll head to Cracker Barrel and I'll get some of that good grilled chicken again. Not sure yet what we'll do for dinner but i won't let any derailments happen like last weekend.

TGIF!

[Leenie]

204.0

It's the weekend, yippee.

Gosh I have a lot to get done this weekend. First on the list is FAFSA, the federal financial aid forms that need to be completed. In order to do that I have to have a good idea of our income taxes for the year. I'm fairly well organized with taxes so hopefully it won't take too long to get it all together. I'm estimating 2 hours to complete it all.

I hope to get out and do a little bathroom decor shopping. I need one large piece of art for a big wall and three smaller pictures for the soffit area. Also need to do some caulking in the bathroom, paint touch up on the new trim installed and trim out the mirror.

Hopefully I'll sneak in a nap this afternoon. I just absolutely love taking naps on the weekends!

Have a great one!

[PalmTreeGal]

I love naps too!

[Leenie]

203.8

Had a terrific day yesterday and got all of DD's financial aid forms taken care of. Hopefully she'll get a little free financial help this year with college.

Hubby got all of the caulking done in the bathroom while I was out doing some shopping. I headed to one of the thrift stores to see if I could pick up some pants for work (since I seemed to have given away all of my inbetween clothes I had). I didn't find anything at the thrift store. Actually, I probably could have found something but I wasn't in the mood to go through racks and racks of clothes looking for my size.

Stopped at a couple other stores looking for pictures for the bathroom. I found a few accent pieces but not the big picture I'm looking for. It might just take awhile to find the right piece for that room.

Came home, tried to take a nap but I made the mistake of leaving the patio door in the bedroom open (it was such a gorgeous day!) so I could hear everything going on outside. We have club tennis courts behind our house so it was rather noisy over there. Then, someones car alarm kept going off. Then, youngest step son had a meltdown with his dad. The nap just wasn't meant to be yesterday! It was still nice to get off my feet and relax a bit though.

Last night DH and I went out to eat. He ate pasta! The creep I did fine though, had a wonderful grilled chicken breast, green beans and side salad. I was perfectly content with my meal. We ended up at Wal Mart later and I found a pair of jeans there that will do in the interim plus we scored on a clearance set of pewter colored bathroom accessories for our master bath we will start the remod on next weekend.

Not sure what the plan is for today but hopefully will spend a little time outside enjoying this fabulous weather. We will probably look at a house today since I contacted the realtor last night and told her we wanted to take a look. We've had our eye on this house for quite some time. It needs a TON of work done to it but it's now sat on the market for over 6 months so it might be the right time to buy. If we do buy that house, we'll keep ours as another rental then move into that one once the renovations are done. The house isn't much larger than the one we have now, but the lot size is MUCH larger and is just fabulous since it backs up to a green belt area loaded with deer and all kinds of other critters.

Mandy, congrats on getting through your test last week. I'm sure that was a relief to have that over with. How long until you hear back on the results?

[PalmTreeGal]

Leenie, they say they will notify you in 4 weeks, but my classmates have been getting their results in a bit over 2, and that was over the holidays. So here's hoping I'll hear in two weeks or less! I hope I am not being too cocky but I really feel like I did okay.

I like thrift stores a lot but I rarely have much luck with pants. More with skirts/shirts/dresses. Probably partly because I am short and need petite pants.