Fell off

Well, I fell off the wagon and gained two pounds back. But I'm back now and my resolve is renewed. I was feeling very frustrated and defeated last night and indulged myself by complaining to DH. He was so supportive and helpful. It was sweet. You see, my mother is morbidly obese, can't even walk anymore, and she's only 51. So of course I've got that in the back of my head constantly. Now I have my sister's wedding mid-September, and I just know I'm going to be the biggest one there, and there will be comments behind my back. Something along the lines of, "She's going to end up just like her mother..." or something like that. I just seem to have a harder time than others losing weight. Most people just 'cut back' a little on the food and start exercising and boom-- weight loss. I think my thyroid problem is part of the problem, and I don't sleep well, which is linked to obesity. It causes the brain to secrete more of a hormone that causes us to feel hungry and store fat. I don't remember the exact name of the hormone.
So I'm back on the strict CRON-o-meter monitoring and I've decided to shake up my workouts again. The treadmill walking is drowning me in monotony. Seriously, if I have to get on there and just walk at my same old pace (which is pretty fast, 4 mph), and listen to my same old workout playlist, I'm going to scream. I just can't do it 6 days a week anymore. It's killing me!!! So, that being said, I'm trying some weight training 3 days a week. I've found some routines online, and I'll lift the most weight I can lift for one set, and we'll see if that helps. I need to be challenged. Luckily, DH has all the equipment I need. We have a bench, some barbells, and lots of dumbbells. Should be enough to train with.
We're still enjoying our CSA produce. I'm loving figuring out things to make out of what we get. We also had a little surprise with last week's haul. A yellow watermelon! I've never seen that before. It looked the same on the outside, but inside was a bright canary yellow. It was so shocking to cut it open and see the two halves fall open and then you have this gorgeous yellow color. The kids were skeptical, but loved it. My older one even said it was better than the red kind.
Well, that's all for my confession and whine-fest. Hope all are doing better than me recently:)

Down another pound!

Yay! I'm down another pound! I'm not sure of my total, but I think it's around 7 pounds lost since we got back from Florida (where I gained a few). I'm still just eating dinner and a few snacks. I've struggled with the late night snacking a few nights this week, but I'm moving on. It's a learning curve, right? I'm down to just a handful of times a month of midnight snacking, so I'm definitely catching on.
I've been doing my walking. Which, I must say, is really boring to me right now. I've tried downloading some new music but that didn't work to rejuvenate me. But at least I'm doing it. Even if it is mindless. I'm walking fast enough, but maybe I'll try adding some incline intervals soon.
I've been cooking a lot of casseroles lately, and making two at once so I have one to freeze for later. I've done a few mexican ones (burrito casserole, enchiladas) and some unrolled cabbage rolls that are so easy, way easier than rolling and cooking the individual rolls.
I've made a new workout top. It came out 'okay'. Not the greatest thing I've ever made, but good enough to sweat in and wreck. And it's a nice wicking material so my sweat will be 'wicked away'.
Farm pickup is today. I can't wait. We're really seeing the bounty of the harvest paying off. I counted 11 items in today's pickup. They send a newsletter out each Monday morning telling us what's in the pickup and what's coming up soon. I've been making so many fresh veggie salads and side dishes. I made a carrot and beet salad with a lime vinegarette (sp?), and a maize pudding, and some baked eggplant sandwiches. The sandwiches were delicious. They had eggplant 'bread' and provolone for the middle, breaded and baked. Mmmmmm. The pudding is cooking right now. We'll see how that comes out. It's crazy that I have my oven on when it's supposed to be the hottest day of summer here in NY. It's supposed to get to 90. Oh well, we can always hang out downstairs where it's cooler.
Here's to summer and good eatin'!!!

No more running....waaaah!

I went to the doctor for my yearly physical. He doesn't want me running anymore due to arthritis in my shoulders. He doesn't recommend running for women anyway, due to the stress on the hip joints, and I already seem to be getting some joint problems. SO...back to "rapid walking". BORING. But I'm doing it and I'm getting faster. I'm walking a 15 minute mile. Ok enough about that.
I'm down another half pound. I've been skipping food altogether during the day still. Just lots of water with lemon or lime or cucumbers in it. I really think that cutting out the aspartame did something to my hunger switch. Ever since I stopped taking that stuff in, I haven't struggled with hunger as much at all.
We are taking over the whole house now. We have an apartment downstairs and the tenant just left. It's so great for the kids to have a place to get all carazay!! It's turned into a whole project though. We are painting and taking baseboard heaters out, and getting molding and tables and fixing wall units and moving toys, oh my!! I now have a 'gym'. It's got my treadmill and the weight bench and some dumbells and barbells. I painted it orange. I love the color. I wasn't sure once I started to actually put it on the wall. I was like, "oh crap. Did I just make a huge mistake? What am I thinking going orange?!" But it all worked out once it was dry. It's so sunny and energizing.
I'm getting my own sewing/crafty area too. I've got a big table and my sewing machine's down there. I have little cubbies for my fabrics too. It looks so organized and nice now. Much better than having all these ugly brown boxes piled in the corner. I just made my first pair of workout pants. I can save lots of money making my own cool stuff out of high tech fabrics. Have you seen what stuff goes for in the stores?? I'm going to make another pair of pants and some tops too.
I'm having all this eagerness and anticipation for school. I can't wait. The school's online bookstore is closed right now, and I check every single morning in the hopes of getting my textbooks used instead of new so I can save me some money. But alas, as of this morning they are still closed. How nerdy is that? I am checking on textbooks like I'm waiting to buy tickets to System of a Down or something. By the way, they happen to be one of my most favoritest bands in the whole wide world:) Although Lady Gaga and Britney Spears are my go-to girls for the treadmill. Gotta have a good pop beat. And now I'm all stylin' with my new homemade workout gear!
Our garden is doing so-so. The tomatoes are as tall as DH. Couple of flowers but no fruit yet. The summer squash is blooming too. But everything else is dead or dying. Oh, the peppers are doing ok too. But the cucumbers and melons are gone.
The farm has me rediscovering my Moosewood cookbook. I made a zucchini and avocado salad, and am going to try a curried avocado soup tomorrow with a caribbean chilled striped bass. Mmmmm. I'm digging this whole cooking seasonally thing. We got some striped bass from a guy at DH's work who caught a ton and was looking to get rid of some. So I found a recipe for a fried fish that's chilled in a marinade. It looks great. That with a nice cool avocado soup will be nice when it's in the 80's here.
Well, I hope all are well and getting some support or inspiration from these words.