Que Sara Sera: My internets!

Aaaah, it's nice to have a computer again. Ours stopped working midway through the day on Thursday, then Will got it up and running again last night. I shouldn't really complain, since I did have access to the internet through Will's iPad and our iPhones, but I really like my big screen and keyboard.

I've still been taking all my pictures and eating well and I was HOPING that this would be the week I get my new gym clothes since I was only 0.6 pounds away as of yesterday, but today I was actually up 0.4 pounds from that weight (so much for Saturday always being my lowest weight) so they'll have to wait until next week at least :-(

I've been doing a good job of eating healthy, not bingeing and maintaining my weight, but I think I've reached the point where I really am going to have to cut back on calories to start losing again. I know I SAID that before, but I am finally convinced of it. I know how to eat a normal healthy clean diet right now and that's what I've been doing, but calories are still calories. When I look back on how I lost the next two "decades" of weight the last time through, it was by doing Weight Watchers "Fast Track", which is a pretty restrictive approach where you basically eat 1000 (well-balanced) calories a day and don't use any flex points. The last time I went from the weight I am now to 10 pounds below it was over the course of January 2005 in preparation for my trip to St. Martin and the 10 pounds AFTER that was in January 2006 in preparation for my SECOND trip to St. Martin. As I type this I am realizing that maybe the takeaway point here is that I should schedule a trip to St. Martin next month :-)

Fast Track is kinda boring, but it works. Maybe I should challenge myself to 30 days on the program, just bite the bullet and get 10 pounds off, then rest there a bit as I go back to eating how I am now. The only problem is that I'm not all that nice when I'm doing Fast Track, and I have kids to deal with now who need me to be nice. Still pondering.

As soon as Charlotte wakes up from her nap we'll be heading up to "The Farm" to celebrate Easter. "The Farm" does not have internet OR cell service, so I will be in a technological black hole. So here is all the food I've eaten up until now with a couple shots of what we've been up to.

Thursday April 5th

Shredded wheat squares, dried cherries, xylitol, cinnamon, milk

Later, an egg

I was hungry in the morning so I finished up the leftover Mulligatawny soup

Weirdo quickly thrown-together salad of greens, olives, leftover Sole, blue cheese. It worked, just barely.

Charlotte's leftover Amys Organic Fat Free Vegetable soup with tofu shirataki noodles

Mango yogurt strawberry jalapeno smoothie...shared with Charlotte and she LOVED it despite the slight spice

Brown rice pasta, chopped chicken sausage with diced tomatoes and peas, chopped fresh herbs and grated 50% light Beemster on top

After dinner Emily requested that we go on a "picture-taking walk". Of course I had to agree! If I can get her taking pictures for me then I won't be the only one in the family tasked with documenting this crazy ride :-) Here are some of her shots.

Our phlox

Our neighbor's lawn ornaments that Charlotte is ALWAYS grabbing

Me holding Remy still so Emily could get a picture of his face

Love this one

Charlotte's boo boo :-(

From under a Japanese Maple in someone's front yard...that's probably why I didn't look so happy here

Sunset

Grape Hyacinths in our neighbor's yard

Our peach daffodils

I wanted to finish out the day without my dessert mix, but I had the correct chocolate chips for the first time in so very long, so I HAD to do it.

Friday April 6th

Mango coconut walnut cinnamon oats

A fried egg on the go

After morning Zumba I took the girls to a playground of their choosing today...we never did make it to the museum. Oh well, playgrounds are good too.

I really wanted to be an active and involved parent on the playground, so I made sure I was up and running around with them instead of plugged into my phone on a bench. It was exhausting.

Charlotte refusing to look at the camera

There's her face! If only there weren't a huge shadow over it

Juice break

Greens, tomatoes, pine nuts, olives

A brie

After an extremely badly behaved Costco run (lots of privileges were taken away for biting, spitting, and poking each other with toothpicks) we came home for a snack.

My goofy girl

Charlotte sang Happy Birthday to the hummus over and over

Cottage cheese + juice-sweetened jelly

2 mini blueberry muffins (recipe from Skinnytaste)

2 more mini muffins

Emily has been asking to make "blueberry bread" for weeks and I was afraid to because of my history of completely blowing it around baked goods. Luckily I was able to stop myself after 4.

I still wanted more though, so I tried to eat fruit instead

Dinner was delicious.

Whole wheat mushroom broccoli yellow pepper onion sausage 50% Beemster pizza with roasted brussels sprouts

1/2 Mandolin Abbey Ale...very sweet

I used up the rest of our champagne mangoes to make some "ice cream".

Nonfat plain greek yogurt, mangoes (some pureed, some just chopped) and 2 Tbsp xylitol throwin in the ice cream maker

Since it was a full moon last night, we did a "moon walk" like last month, except that Emily wanted to make it a moon jog. Oy. After Zumba and playgrounding I DID jog, but I sure didn't like it.

Also? The moon that rose Thursday night at 7:20ish? Did not make an appearance until the VERY END of our jog. But it was SO big and yellow and bright!

Sorry...didn't bring my tripod on the jog

Then I spent a freakin' hour and a half at Wal-Mart getting last-minute Easter things. Miserable.

Saturday, April 7th

We got up and slammed breakfast, then got out of the house at 8:06AM...I think it was a new earliness record!

Shredded wheat squares, banana, walnuts, xylitol, cinnamon, milk, coffee

We went to the gym, and Will was less than impressed with the new location. They didn't have foam rollers or kettlebells or any of his favorite toys there. We had a decent workout though, then he headed out for his 10AM massage. Lucky.

My snack egg

I got these flowers at Costco yesterday and I've been carrying them from room to room with me ever since. They smell really good, and I love the delicate color.

I had a mid-morning snack of leftover roasted brussels sprouts.

Then I was still hungry, and in the type of mood where I'm feeling sick and tired of being hungry all the time (even though I really am NOT, I just think I am), I had 3 dates dipped in peanut butter. I almost just threw in the towel at this point and started eating lots of things and not taking pictures, but I resisted that urge and I'm very glad I did!