Changes, changes, changes...

I've been taking it easy on the dieting. I haven't gained thank goodness! I still have 13.7 more to lose and it's a slow process for me but this is by far the best summer I've had in many years. I've actually been wearing shorts and skirts!

I have been going through some stressful things but I have not been turning to food. If anything, I've had no appetite at all. After 20 years my husband and I are walking our separate ways. It's really a good thing for us given our unique situation. We are still able to be great friends which will be wonderful for our daughter.

I've been looking for a job for months and I think I'm getting close! I have a third/final interview with a great company in downtown Kansas City this Friday. I am really hoping for a good outcome so that I can start this new chapter in my life.

Sorry no pictures to post! I have no new ones! I would love to have some pics taken with my daughter this Fall and / or for holiday cards.

Happy dieting everyone! (And maintaining!)

My Olivia is turning 8!

Olivia enjoyed a fun-filled day with a few of her closest friends in honor of her birthday which is coming on July 5th. They went to lunch at her favorite spot, The Dish, followed by two hours of action packed fun at Monkey Bizness!

I had a picture snapped of us together before we left for the birthday festivities.

Current Picture

Finally, a current progress picture! This was just taken today. Please ignore my metal mouth! I'm told I'm nearing the end of the journey to acquiring my straight pearly white teeth!!!

Current Stats

To Date:
-60.2 lbs on Jenny Craig Plan
17.6 More Pounds to Lose

I've gone from a size 22 jean to size 14 so far!

Slowly but surely...

P.S. NO, MY TEETH ARE NOT ROTTEN! I HAVE BRACES ON MY TEETH! UGH!

New progress pic coming soon...

I'm long over due for a current progress pic. I'll try to get one on here soon!

March 29th Weigh In

I just weighed in today at Jenny Craig and I lost 2.8 lbs.

I think i've lost 48.8 pounds.

I think I have 29.9 more go to.

Current BMI: 28.6

One more thing! I just got into a size 14 jeans today! I'm down a total of 8 number sizes since I started this journey. This is when I realize it's paying off!

March 15th Weigh In

I guess I've been spending too much time in MySpace and not enough time here. I'll have to bring up to to speed!

I had a nice weigh in Saturday with a 4.8 lb loss.

Total pounds lost: 46
Remaining: 31

February 23rd Weigh In

Wow! I'm reeling! I didn't post last week because it was horrible. Nasty bad weigh in last week. I gained so much. Thank goodness I got all caught up this week.

Drum roll...

I lost 6.2 pounds this week! Now I know this is great but when I look back TWO weeks at where I was, I really only lost .6 pounds. Does that tell you how bad I messed up last week? I would have been thrilled to break even so I'll take the .6 pounds any time!

Thanks for your ongoing encouragement and support! It means so much to me!


To Date:
-40.2 lbs on Jenny Craig Plan
37.6 More Pounds to Lose

February 9th Weigh In

I just returned from my weigh in today and was happy to see another decent weigh in. I lost 2.0 pounds this week! I have been at my half way point for a couple weeks now and we finally took my half way photo. I am currently 37.4 pounds away from my goal. It seems so much more attainable now!

New Smaller Size to Report!

Okay, I'm still a little surprised but while I was out shopping today at JCPenney's I thought I would try on some jeans in a smaller size just out of curiosity. I started the diet in size 22. A couple months ago I got into a size 18. Well today I was able to get on (buttoned and zipped!) a size 16! The cut was all wrong so they looked ridiculous on. I stood there and laughed at first then I started to feel pretty good. It helps me keep going as I see these little victories along the way.

Anyone else having problems w/ JC site?

I can't seem to do ANYTHING except VIEW the JC message boards. I'm unable to reply to messages, view profiles OR use the chat room. I'm so frustrated.

If you had troubles and are back up and running, can you please tell me how you got it all to work again?

Thanks!!!

Can you believe it?! THREE pounds!

I was hoping for a good weigh in this week and I got it! After last week's fiasco of a 2 pound gain I am so happy.

I guess I can update my stats now...

Not So Good

+2.0 pounds today

Look at this before photo!

This photo was taken 3 or 4 years ago of me and my two sisters, Kenna and Joni. I am the very overweight person in the middle. I get such a kick out of this now because I look so different now. Plus, Kenna was being her usual crazy self and she goosed me to get me to laugh and it worked.

FINALLY MADE IT OUT OF THE 200'S!

Today was a major milestone for me! When I met with my Jenny Craig counselor, Linda, today, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I lost 1.4 pounds this week and finally made it below the 200 mark! I wish I had my camera to take a picture of the numbers. It is hard to believe. Now that I can cross that goal off, I will now work to get into the 190's, then the 180's, etc. Setting smaller goals is really the key for me.

I'm going to try to do things a little differently now. I am only eating Jenny's breakfast and dinner entrees, plus a few of my favorite desserts to save money. I am really nervous about doing this but I am going to keep a positive mind and attitude. I have created my weekly menu, including things I'll fix for myself, plus I'll continue to meet with my counselor each and every week. This should help me succeed. If it doesn't work as well as I hope, I'll go back and pick up with the "Half Way Menu". I'm currently 2.3 pounds away from being at my official half way point.

Let's keep this adventure going!!!

Join the COMMIT TO BE FIT CLUB!

Check out a new site I put together to hopefully be a great inspirational and motivational place for ALL of us. It is YOUR site as much as it is mine. Bookmark it and visit it often. If you have something to add to the content or something that deserves its own link, please let me know as soon as possible.

I know we have a few Jenny Craig buddies already part of this network who have reached their goals, so let's work to post your very own success stories here with photos and all! After all, you are our inspiration too!

If you have any interesting ways to prepare some of the Jenny Craig entrees, as well as great homemade diet friendly recipes, lets get them on here!

Let's see how great we can make this site!

January 12th Weigh In

Hey! I'm pleased to report a 1.2 pound loss this week because I didn't have much activity at all. I have to get that going again! For the life of me I can't seem to get out of the 200's! I am not going to post my "official" CURRENT STATS on my blog link until I get back to where I was before the holiday gain, but right now:

Current Weight
200.6 (SOOOOO close!)

Total Inches Lost
26.5

Remaining Pounds to Lose
42.6

I really need to take this more seriously.

P.S. I went with the "glow in the dark" bands on my braces this week. I just couldn't make myself go with some of those colors Olivia hoped for. The "glow in the dark" ones are basically invisible which is nice for an adult.

I've Got The Jenny Craig Website Blues

Has anyone tried to access the Jenny Craig website lately? I have tried every which way to get into the site and it is one error message after another. I'm ready to knock this computer off the desk!

Someone please tell me that this isn't just happening to me!

Meet My Sister

My little sister Kenna is beginning Jenny Craig today! Check out her blog which is linked in the far right column. I'm including a picture taken a few years ago that will help you place a face with her name.

Kenna, you can do it! This really does work if you do what they tell you to do. It will be fun to track your progress on your blog. Keep us posted!

Zesty Grilled Chicken Salad

This is a clever way to use the Jenny Craig Chicken Sandwich!

(This is to die for!)

1. Place chicken in Ziploc bag. (Save sauce for something else and save bun for this meal.)

2. To chicken, add 4 T lemon juice, 2 T light soy sauce and 1 t chopped garlic.

3. Allow chicken to marinate in the refrigerator as little or as long as a day. (If you are immediately cooking it, just leave it out to thaw.)

4. There are 3 cooking options for the chicken---all are fantastic! Pick one! a) Brown in skillet sprayed with Pam type spray b) Cook on BBQ grill c) Spray cooking sheet with Pam type spray and brown in 350 degree oven. If I am cooking in a pan or in the oven, I like to drizzle the chicken with the marinade and let it cook down. It doesn't take long to cook since it is pre-cooked chicken.

5. Slice cooked chicken pretty thin to make it go far. Top your favorite salad ingredients with it. I prefer a ranch type dressing with this.

6. For the garlic toast, you can lightly coat the bun with some olive oil Pam type spray and sprinkle with chopped garlic before you broil it.

Banana Cream Pudding Dessert

This is a delicious way to use the Jenny Craig Toffee Bites!

This has always been a favorite snack for me. I love to add sliced bananas to light banana cream yogurt (or light vanilla yogurt) and then sprinkle with crushed Toffee Bites. It is something I look forward to a couple times a week. I may continue to do this when I'm on maintenance using a 100 calorie package of my favorite crisp cookie.

Smokey Chicken Fajitas

This utilizes the Jenny Craig Chicken Fajita dinner entree. These are already good but I wanted to tweak it to taste like the fajitas my family has been enjoying for years.

I dump the chicken and veggies in a skillet sprayed with Pam type spray. Add 2-3 T of lemon OR lime juice and maybe 1/2 - 1 single teaspoon of Liquid Smoke. I sprinkle about half the season packet to this and let it heat through. It really does make this extra good.

Easy Homestyle Chicken Salad

This is super easy and healthy. It is a homestyle chicken salad recipe that I created after sampling some at a deli in Portland. I loved it so much that I bought a container with the ingredients listed on the lid and I cracked the recipe. If I'm making it for friends and need to jazz it up even more I sometimes throw in a handful of cashews. I don't do the cashews while dieting though.

1 can Swanson's white chicken
Pam spray
poultry seasoning
salt
pepper

Drain chicken and spread on foil sprayed with Pam. Sprinkle with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper and stir together.
Bake or broil until lightly browned and still moist, NOT crunchy.

celery
sweet yellow onions
light mayo
light sour cream

While chicken is cooking, dice up some celery and sweet yellow onions (as much as you like). I usually use about 1/2 cup of each, give or take. It is whatever you like.
To this I add 1 tablespoon light mayo and 1 teaspoon light sour cream. Sometimes I add more of these but I always use more light mayo than sour cream.

Stir everything together when the chicken is done (even if it is still hot) and enjoy! If you need to add a little more salt and pepper you can but it probably doesn't need it. It is such a simple recipe but is really good. By re-cooking the chicken with seasonings it gives it a truly homemade flavor. I can eat this with just sweet grape tomatoes and be satisfied but sometimes I have a have a few snack crackers with it.

Holiday Photos Continued

I have so many pictures to share! You will see some pictures taken at Olivia's class party, during her "share" time at school (she got to bring one of her cat's to school and give a little presentation about herself), niece Ava's 1st birthday, silly family photos, December ice storm, Christmas morning, Olivia's holiday music program, etc.....

I hope you enjoy them!

Even More Holiday Photos

We try to have a gingerbread decorating party each year and this year we scaled it back a little and only let Olivia invite one friend over. We made larger houses and it was a lot of fun for them. She invited her best friend, Katy, over and they had hot chocolate first, followed by decorating the houses, then an ornament exchange. It was a lot of fun for the girls!

Every year before the holidays we gather the women and smaller children together for a Kraft Tangy Italian spaghetti dinner to remind us what we ate when we were growing up.  We had spaghetti, salad, fried potatoes, cornbread and garlic bread.  Carbs, carbs and more carbs!  We had a $5 gift exchange, gave the kids stockings full of goodies and let the kids decorate cookies.  Olivia made some chocolate dipped pretzel rods to serve and that week and I had a 2.8 pound gain!  It is the only gain I had during the holidays and it is a lot harder to get that 2.8 pounds off than it took to put it on!

Today's Weigh In

My weekly weight loss does not deserve a drum roll.  It is more like a "thud!"  I lost a scant .2 of a single pound.  I have lost a total of 1 pound this month.  It is all my fault.  I need to get to cracking again!

On the up side of things, we took new measurements and since I began this journey the last week of June (2007) I am down a total of 26.5 inches (bust, waist, abdomen and hips only).  

Like last week, I cannot bear to look at my stats and change them for the worse.  Once I catch back up (just 1.8 more to lose) I will gladly do that!

If there is but one thing I need to ask for support on this week, it is to get back into my walking (activity) routine!  That is all I need to do to step it up!

Thanks for your encouragement and support.

Meet My New Friend

After hearing how great this little doo-hickey is from my sister, her sister-in-law and a Target sales associate, I thought I would give it a try too.  I eat salads and veggies more than ever now and anything I can do to help make that easier is something to consider!  I have only had it for about 18 hours but I have already diced peppers, onions and strawberries.  It makes great fruit salsa.  

You too can have this awesome gadget for the low, low price of just $19.99 at your local Target store!  (Ask where the "As Seen on TV" section is!)