A very Brutus Halloween!

I should preface this with saying that I probably do need help! I just can't resist dressing him up because he is too cute!

I should know better by now!

I jinxed myself in my last post by saying how happy I am to be in the green zone! I had absolutely no restriction yesterday! When will I learn? Also, I think I overindulged in the salt department (not to mention chocolate department) and my scale did not reward me with my end of month #'s! As of 3 days ago, I was down 7 lbs for the month but as of today, it was only 5:( Oh well. A loss is a loss and I at least lost 1+ lbs per week on average in October.

Something is also going on with my (.) I last got it on 9/20! I keep thinking its coming but nope...nothing. You know I will be getting it during my vacation, right? Either that or I am pregnant! Oh, yea, that WOULD be my luck. Lose 40 to gain 50 anyone? No, that is so not likely but its making me nuts just the same. While I am too old to get pregnant, my doctor told me in Aug. I am no where near menopause so what is going on I ask you!

I am at work right now and I'm thinking that I need to go home and pack as we are leaving tomorrow. I have a good idea of what I am bringing and its really only for 4days that I am packing for so I should be fine.

I went shopping the other day and bought an $8 tankini! Yes, you read right, $4 for bottom and $4 for the top. It was at Bealls and was 70% off plus I got another 20% off the total. That just never happens to me. I also bought two pairs of capris and many tank tops that were $2-$5 each. I needed some summery things for the Bahamas and I got them! Don't worry though, I still plan to do some shopping in Vegas while Steve is at the trade show.

I am bringing my laptop also so I will be able to keep up with my blogging. I know that helps to keep me accountable and I have all of you to thank for that. This has been such an integral part of my weightloss journey. It is so comforting to know that I can sign on anytime to get support and hopefully, to give support to others.

Which reminds me, if there is anyone reading this who I am not following, please, please, please, leave me a link to your blog!

Here I go again!

We are going to Vegas on Monday! We will be there until Friday. Steve is attending a car show for three days and i'll basically be on my own during the day. I'm hoping to hit the gym in the Wynn every morning, do a little shopping (great mall across the street from the Wynn!) and than spend a few hours by the pool waiting for Steve. This is the first time we will be staying at the Wynn so I am looking forward to exploring the hotel.

When we get back from Vegas on Friday night, that will leave me all day Saturday to get ready for our week in the Bahamas that starts on Sunday. What the hell were we thinking? We are staying on Emerald Bay at the Sandals Exhuma Resort. I should be looking forward to it but I am stressing over being away for almost 2 weeks! Don't get me wrong, I love to travel but not like this. I have to go shopping for some things to wear as all my summer type clothes are way to big! Again, I should be happy about it but I'm not! I am sure once we get there, I will relax (I hope) and have a great time being with my husband and thanking God that we are able to be together. While we are there, we will observe the 6 month anniversary of "the accident" and I know that is weighing on my mind a lot.

On the band front, I am down to 173! I am beyond happy that my fill on 9/16 is still keeping me in the green zone. I still am able to eat anything but in very small quanities. Thats fine by me. Eating out will be a challenge but I don't have much choice. I just have to keep up with my exercise and watch my protein and calories and I should do just fine.

Some pics!

These are some pics from my recent travels to Long Island and Disney:

Of course Brutus got a souvenir t-shirt:



This was taken at the Sugarland concert. Isnt the sky awesome in the background?



Steve and his BFF getting ready for Mickeys Not so Scary Halloween party:



A little Halloween display at Downtown Disney:



That is a Serpent made out of Lego's behind Steve and I:



Mickeys Not so Scary Halloween Party...very fun and I even got to go trick-or treating:



Steve during our Segway tour of Fort Wilderness:



Me wearing my dads skull-cap getting ready for the Segway tour:



Captain "Steve" Sparrow anyone?



My beautiful family:



The hubster and I:



Dinner with Allan, his wife Sue, Rapunzel (a fellow blogger) and her husband and brother, great fun, not to mention great food, thank you again Allan:

Sorry I've been MIA

We got back from New York a week ago Tuesday and than left for Disney on Monday. We just got home last night. What a week! I promise to post some pic's tomorrow but I just haven't had time to download them.

Our friends from New York came down to meet us and we spent 4 days staying at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort. Gorgeous. We spent most of our time at Epcot as they were hosting the Food and Wine Festival which I most certainly partook in! Great food, great friends. What more do you need, right?

It was the first time that Steve and I have spent any time there without the kids. It was weird at first but I really had a great time. We did so many things that the kids never wanted to do but we did. We had a few really great meals (flying fish) and some not really great meals (new Mexican restaurant in Mexico). We had real authentic pizza at the new Via Napoli Pizzeria in Italy....just like the kind they make in Italy!

This morning was back to reality, at least until Nov. when we leave for a two week trip to Vegas/Bahamas, gym at 6 a.m. and work! The scale was up 1.2 lbs but I honestly think the pizza I ate yesterday had something to do with that. In any event, I'm back and in the mood to see the scale go south!

I have missed all of you and look forward to catching up on your blogs. Love ya's!

Going to a Sugarland concert tonight!

So excited. I love Jennifer Nettles. Steve surprised me with the tickets BEFORE he realized it was Biketoberfest! my poor man...to make him happy I went with him and another couple to many of the hot spots yesterday. we had a great day even if Steve and Gary did not see any boobs! I had a little piece of funnel cake...good times for sure.

The scale was my friend this morning...174.8! I have not seen that number since my daughter was born almost 20 years ago! I honestly didn't Think I would see any losses because I didn't get my regular exercise in and its going to be another tough week for me as we will be at Disney for 3.5 days next week with our friends.

I have to say, the one thing that is really helping me is tracking my calories with myfitnesspal.com. I know many don't track but I have to. it really makes me think about what I am eating. in order to get in my protein, I don't have a lot of wiggle room for empty calories. the fact that I can track on my phone is a huge benefit.

we are at my father in laws and will be going for Italian food tonight before the show. I am in the mood for fish so I hope they have something good!

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Weigh-in and a really good sliming story

I was actually dreading weighing myself this morning after being away for 6 days. Some things never change, right? In the old days, I wouldn't have gotten on the scale for at least 3 or 4 days after a vacation so the fact that I weighed myself this morning, is a SV in itself! 176.4!!! This is really great because last week it was 176.2. I am very happy with this number, believe me!

The problem for me with vacations is that for one thing, I do not get in all my water. No matter how I try, it just doesn't happen. The second thing I didn't do at all this week was formally exercise. I had the best of intentions to go to the gym but it never happened. I did go for a very hilly walk with Steve and Jordan, does that count? The third problem I had was that while I was counting my calories and staying at or under 1200 calories a day, I was NOT getting the calories from protein! I had 2 scooped out mini-bagels and 3 almost full slices of pizza (on different days!) not to mention other, not so protein fortified items...did I mention the pretzel M&M's? Um, yeah, 150 calories for that pack (or two) I had. For a great cause though, the proceeds went to the senior class of Bellport H.S. Who says I don't have school spirit?

This morning I was back at the gym, I am drinking my water and I will get in at least 80g of protein.

Ok, now to the sliming story. We got home last night from the airport around 6 p.m. and I just didn't want to go out to dinner. I decided to make this dish that Steve loves. Chicken & spinach over penne. Its basically chopped chicken breast, sauteed with lots of chopped garlic in a little EVOO..when the chicken is cooked, I add about 2 cups of chicken stock & a package of frozen spinach & season with s & p and some hot pepper flakes....I than add about 1/2 lb penne (cooked) in the pan and thats it. Ok, I was really hungry and probably ate a little faster than normal, but come on...3 bites of chicken and maybe 3 or 4 little penne pasta pieces and I was stuck!

I get up, walk around, things are kind of calming down. The phone rings and its my sister. We talk for about 15 minutes and I can feel the slime building in the back of my throat. She is being very chatty and you'd never know I was just living in her house for 6 days the way she was going on and on. Thankfully, I was on my cell phone and I was standing by my front door because the reception sucks in other places of the house. Normally I would be sitting on my couch, on a rug! Front door is surrounded by tile...do you see where I am going with this story? So, ok, I am getting ready to tell her that I have to run...literally and all of a sudden, I get this little tickle in my throat which made me cough....OMG...the slime that spouted out of my mouth and all over the tile was unbelievable! I yelled to my sister that I have to go and dropped the phone.

Steve came running around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks! "Wow...it really is slimy!" he said. No shit! Does he think I make up these little cute nicknames myself? I have to ask him to please go get paper towels because I am literally standing there with slime dripping off my hands as I tried to cover my mouth.

Lesson learned...never put off sliming but if you can't, tile cleans up very nicely!

I'm leaving on a Jet plane....

I am sitting here on my sisters computer....she left for work after we said our goodbyes...no tears this time though so that is PROGRESS for both of us. She will be coming to Florida for a long weekend in the beginning of Dec. with my mom and niece. We will than be coming back to LI for Christmas.

Last night Steve and I took the whole family including my sisters mother and father-in-law out to dinner to celebrate my sister having received her Masters degree! It was so bittersweet as we all felt the missing presence of my brother-in-law who was her biggest supporter and whose working 2 and sometimes 3 jobs at a time allowed her to go to school full-time.

Our initial reason for coming to NY at this time was my daughter Mallory's friends wedding (I will post pics when I get home and upload to my computer). Now that Christina's wedding is out of the way, we will be turning up the volume on Mallory's wedding. We still have to get favors, flowers and when I come back in December, we will be sitting with the caterer to finalize the menu! I suspect that things will be really going fast from this point.

I am looking forward to getting home though, and getting back to my routine. I didn't go to the gym at all since getting here! I have an appt. tomorrow though and between that and getting back to my regular eating, I should be fine! While I haven't been able to over-eat, I have not been making the best choices when I do eat! I am actually looking forward to my protein smoothies and Greek yogurt breakfasts as I have not had any while here. That also means that I have not been getting in all my protein.

Plane leaves at 12:40 and we haven't packed yet so I really better get moving on that!

Huge shout out to Jen!!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Jen took pity on an old lady who couldn't get her before/during pics up to size and redesigned my whole Blog for me! You are the best Jen, you know how special that pic is of my Dad and I and I will always remember you for doing this!

I am back "home" again with my family on Long Island and I really don't realize how much I miss it here until I come back. It is so great being here and being able to spend time with my mom, girls, sis, niece and nephew. Life goes on and they are all really living proof of this. I am very sheltered in FL in that I can go about my day and yes, at least once or 100 x a day "it" hits me and I remember May 11th. The big difference is that I didn't see my brother-in-law or father every day. My sister and her children live it 24/7, their husband and dad who used to be here is never coming home again.

I cannot walk into their yard and not see my BIL everywhere, he put in a built-in pool a few years ago and meticulously made a stone retaining wall, stone by stone, that surrounds the pool and landscaped the whole thing. This was the year that they were going to finish it with the pavers around the pool and continuing on the patio. My sister continued this job only she had a Mickey head integrated into the pavers as a memorial to her husband who was a Mickey fan to the end. The day he died, he had an appointment to have a Mickey that matched the Mickey on his tattoo, painted on his Harley! I know Jimmy is looking down from Heaven and smiling. People really do live on in our hearts, no one can tell me different!



We have a couple of really busy days ahead of us so I will apologize now if I don't get on here much! I just could not have gone a minute longer without thanking Jen, the Blog-Designer Extraordinaire!

1000 word Thursday!

Thanks Amykins!

The room in my house that is MINE, where I go to chill, relax, play on my laptop, cry, watch TV, talk on the phone is my little "octogon" room right off my bedroom. It also happens to have a great view of the lake and sometimes I just sit on my Chaise and stair out the window at the view. I am running a little late today as we have to go to the airport so I will post pictures from last year when we were putting the room together. I have since gotten a new roll-top desk and chair and a new cabinet under the TV. I'll post updates next week but for now, here goes:

Mini Before and During Pic...literally!

I don't have a clue how to make this bigger....any help would be appreciated! I did this in Picasa.

The one on the left was taken 2 weeks before surgery and the one on the right yesterday. I was actually a little frightened when I came across the "before" as I didn't realize my hips were so big! Yikes!

I am getting a little nervous about this fill I got on Sept. 16th. It seems to be getting tighter and its a little like history repeating itself. When we went to NY in Aug. my band got tighter and I eventually had to have an unfill. I really hope getting stuck tonight and last night was just a coincidence as we are leaving for NY tomorrow!

Food for today:

b- S.E.I Max Chocolate Protein, banana and SF coconut shake....tasted like a Pina colada! Coffee with half & half
l-pure protein energy bar - I was running around and didn't have time for lunch
d- spinach fritatta with onion and zuchini. delish! What stayed down anyway.
s-Almonds, cup of tea w/half & half

Oh, and I have a confession, I have been under estimating my # of calories each day by about 70-80 calories as I have forgotten to add my cup of coffee and tea with half & half...mea culpa!

Total Calories: 954
Total Protein: 70g
Total calories from exercise: 406

New Jeans Pic!

Did I mention they are a size 12 AND they aren't even stretch fabric! Holy.My.God!Who would have ever thunk it? They are the perfect fit for me too and that is a miracle. I always have a huge gap in the waist unless I get a special comfort waistband like Lee makes. Well, I was in Walmart (of all places!), and just for giggles, I decided to try on a pair of Lee Riders and voila! Here they are! The best part? They were only $15.50 I went back today and bought a pair in black!



Nothing much going on today other than working a little this afternoon and getting my nails done. I went to a spin class this morning and burned 550 calories!!!

Food is very boring but here is what I am having today:

b- Starbucks skinny chocolate vivanno with shot of espresso
l- Luna Bar (eating on the run again)
d- leftover mini meatloaf with asparagus, brown rice & little gravy
s- ritz cracker with laughing cow wedge

Total Calories: 900
Total protein: 57g
Total exercise calories burned: 550

I may have some almonds later to increase my protein as I really thing I lose better with more protein. Almonds or a protein shake.

3 more days until NY!

I am taking the suitcase out again! Not really sure why I had Steve put it away after Chicago but I did. The girls are calling like crazy...can you bring me Chi Silk Infusion? Can you bring me Kellogs Rice Crispie Treat Cereal?

Yes, you heard me right! I am bringing up 4 boxes of cereal. They used to sell it on LI and now for some reason (maybe LI got healthy? Nah!) I am the smuggler, bringing up cereal from FL, Its usually no problem as we drive but this time we are flying. The Chi stuff costs $24 on LI and I get it in Publix (grocery store) for $18Steve rolls his eyes but he humors us all. His latest comment was..."don't they have wedding dresses and maid-of-honor dresses to get into? Do they really need to eat Rice Crispie Treat Cereal?" I told him its for Jordan, not Mallory. The bride will not be eating sugar!

We are getting a warm-up with the wedding as Mallory's best friend is getting married. We've known Christina since she was 4. She lived on our street with her grandma while her mom was in the Navy. I was very close to Rudi, her grandma, and she died about 6 years ago of breast cancer. She was only 55. I will cry for her on her grand-daughters wedding day but we'll know she's there in spirit.

I went to the gym this morning at 5:30 and did 1/2 hr on the eliptical and 45 minutes with my trainer. Than, I did something I never do....I can home and went back to bed! Holy my God! I was so tired as I was up from about 3 a.m. I couldn't sleep for nothing! Finally got out of bed at 4:30 and headed to the gym at 5:15. I woke up at 9:00. I felt like half the day was over!

Food for today:

b- chobani plain non-fat yogurt with kashi go lean crunch
l- Luna Bar - never had a chance to eat, running around all day with Steve
d- eggplant parm stacks - 1/2 inch thick slices of eggplant, roasted, than stack eggplant, marinara, mozzerella, do three times and bake again until cheese melts. I ate maybe 3/4 of mine and steve ate 2 plus my leftovers

Total Calories: 777
Total protein : 51g - not a good protein day :( I try for at least 60g but not today

My Mini-Meatloaf Dinner

I just had to share this with you....I was making meatloaf for dinner and at the last minute decided to make individual loaves in a cupcake pan. I have to say that they looked adorable but most of all they were delish! Usually, I chop an onion very fine and add that but this time, in addition to the onion, I shredded a zucchini and added that also. The meat was so moist! I weighed a loaf after it was cooked and it was a total of 4 oz. I had almost a full one and Steve had 2. I baked them at 375 for about 35 minutes. I have 6 leftover so I froze them and I will get 2 more meals out of them. Not bad!

Weigh Day and Baby Girl count-down!

Drumroll please......weight loss for this week is -2.6 lbs. Yay me!!!! I was so excited because this brings me to within a few lbs of what my husband weighs! So, what did my husband say when I told him this great news? You know, my husband who is my #1 cheerleader in my weight loss journey? "Well, I am not eating today or tomorrow, i have to lose a few lbs.!" WTF? He explained that he doesn't want me to feel like I hit my goal just because I weigh less then him so he will keep moving the bar! Really? I quickly said that might back-fire because my goal is much less than what he weighs and if he gets to be a 150 lb bag of bones (he is 6' tall), I will leave him for a "real man" who can throw me over his shoulder (without causing a hernia or slipped disc!) and carry me to the bedroom or other room to have his way with me!

When I left for work this morning, he had a William-Sonoma hand-made Croissant defrosting on the counter to be baked and eaten by him that has at least 8000 calories in it! I love my Man! He gets me!

Today officially starts my countdown to Thursday when we will be heading to the airport (Sorry Brutus, mommy & daddy aren't driving and you can't come) to go visit our girls and family on Long Island. We have a wedding on Saturday and will be there for 6 days. I am so excited!!!!

We are staying with my sister and you all know how I feel about that! It amazes me how much closer we have become (and believe me, we were always close) since the accident. She has had a lot of work done to her home since we were there in Aug and i can't wait to see it. Most notably, she had all around her pool and her patio done in pavers with a Mickey Mouse head design made out of pavers on the patio. Her husband Jimmy was a huge Mickey Mouse/Walt Disney fan and this is a memorial to him of sorts.

No gym for me this weekend :( Work and life got in the way but I will be there tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.!

Eating for today:

b: Skinny Starbucks Vivanno Chocolate Smoothie w/shot of Espresso
l: 1/2 cup of egg salad
s: S.E.I. Max Protein Chocolate-Coconut Shake
d: 3 oz. of MY meatloaf, 1/2 c. brown rice with chopped onion and zucchini

Total Calories: 882
Protein: 77g

Happy Saturday!

I have had a very crazy week! Thankfully, its all, or at least mostly, good.

I went to the doctor the other day to get the results of my CT scan of my ankle and basically he said "you need surgery, just not yet". Ok, great, I asked if I could have another cortisone shot and he said "how is the ankle feeling today" I told him its fine, he said no shot than! The problem with my ankle is the pain comes and goes. When it comes, it is excruciating to the point that I cannot put any weight on it. This can last for minutes or days or months. The reason for the pain is because the cartilage in the joint looks like shredded wheat! Pieces of it break off and get stuck and that is what causes the pain until it dislodges itself and goes off somewhere else.

He told me the cortisone will not do any good if there is no inflammation, he said to call him the minute I feel the pain and to come in for a shot. I explained the problem is it takes me weeks to get an appointment with him (he is 1 of only 3 doctors who specialized in the ankle joint in FL!) and his office is 90 miles from my house. He promised that if I speak to his nurse he will make sure she knows that I am to come in that day for a shot. Ok fine!

He further explained that the reason he wants to put off the surgery is because the cartilge is in the deepest recess of my ankle joint and it is very hard to get to and the recovery is long. I asked him if once the surgery was done and I healed, would I be able to walk and exercise and have no pain and he said yes. He did tell me though, that until I have the surgery, I am not to be jogging or running. Those two are the worst exercises for my problem. Everything else is fine. He thinks I can get through another year or so with cortisone before he has to go the surgery route. He really understands how important the exercise is to my weightloss and he told me he will do everything possible to keep me mobile so I can get to my weight goal! Ok, thats pretty good news, right?

Last night, after a very busy day at work (real estate is really hopping all of a sudden here in my neck of the woods!) Steve took me out to dinner at a new restaurant that we have been to a few times. It is very good! I was going to have an appetizer portion of crab cakes but than Steve talked me into Chicken Marsala and he went for the Meatloaf. What is it about men and Meatloaf? That is one thing I would never order out but he loves it out and in! Anyway, my Marsala came with a huge mound of garlic mashed taters and 2 thin chicken breast cutlets. I ate 2 -3 teaspoons of taters and about 3/4 of 1 chicken cutlet. Steve ate the other 1 1/4 chicken cutlet. I tasted his meatloaf and while he loved it, it was just ok. He didn't finish his taters so I brought all the left over mashed potato's home because guess what? I am making meatloaf for dinner!

Ah, and dessert. We usually never order dessert out but this place makes a s'mores chocolate bread pudding with a bourbon sauce. Oh, yes. We ordered one to take home. When we got home I scooped out maybe 1/4 cup, not even, and gave Steve the rest. It was more than enough and it was delish! A very nice treat. I have no idea of the calories for dinner but the rest of my day I had:

b: packet of original oatmeal with S.E.I Max protein Cookies & Cream, 1/2 c. skim milk
s: banana
l: Chobani plain non-fat yogurt with Kashi Go-lean Crunch

Calories: 633
Exercise: 360 calories burned

Based on what I saw on myfitnesspal, I would guess that dinner with dessert was less than 500 calories. All in all, I had a very good eating day and I'm sure I came in under my 1200 calorie threshold...not even taking into account my exercise.

My scale is continuing to go down but I am waiting to update my ticker. I don't want to jinx anything!