Jeanie in Singapore received the Halloween squares I stitched for her as part of the Fair & Square exchange, so I can share a picture of them now. The design is by Prairie Schooler from their Boo to You chart.

I received my squares from Jeanie last week. She choose a couple of small motifs from San-Man Originals. She did a great job. I think the squares are adorable. Thanks, Jeanie!

I also have another little finish to share. It’s actually a partial finish of an ultimate larger piece. It’s from the Sea to Shining Sea silk thread pack series from Little House Needleworks. The whole piece is made up of five regional squares and a border pack. Since they are each packaged separately, I’m counting each thread pack as a finish. So, here’s the West Coast:

I have one last picture to share before I finish this up. I’m a week late posting it, but here is my monthly photo of my orts jar for the Totally Useless SAL:

I also want to add a note for those of you who are following my weight loss journey. I registered a new domain name for that blog. The new URL is http://www.melgetsfit.com. If you have the old URL bookmarked, it will still continue to work. Edit: Turns out I was wrong, the old URL apparently doesn’t work any longer. It will get you to the site, but the blog entries are no longer displayed. I just ask that if you link that blog elsewhere that you please use the new URL. Thanks!

Ok, that’s it for now. Until next time …

Ok, so I’m very excited! My order of Holey Donuts arrived today. I’ve been wanting to try these for a while after reading Heather rave about them several times on her blog. So, when I saw they were offering free shipping last week, I decided to give them a try.

I was very impressed with how they arrived. Each variety pack of six donuts were packed in individual boxes. Those boxes were then packed into a Styrofoam cooler with dry ice. Once unpacked (& photographed ;)), I kept a couple out to try and the rest went immediately into the freezer per the directions. When I want to have a donut in the future, the directions indicate to microwave them in 5-10 second intervals until they are thawed and just slightly warmed, but not hot. Of course, since the ones I received today were cool, but not frozen, I popped them into the microwave for about 10 seconds just to warm them. I then settled down with the donuts and a nice cuppa.

Holey crap! These things are good! It’s so hard to believe they are low-fat/low calorie. All of the varieties I ordered range from 145-158 calories and are 3 points each on Weight Watchers which I find pretty impressive given they are a traditional full-size donut and not some miniature version.

Here are pics & nutritional information of what I ordered. All of these are from their low-fat line of products:

Original Glazed
158 calories, 3g fat, 1g fiber

Classic Vanilla Frosted
148 calories, 3g fat, 1g fiber

From left to right: Caramel Crumb, Vanilla Crumb, Chocolate Crumb
148 calories (Chocolate are 149 calories), 3g fat, 1g fiber

From left to right: Vanilla Coconut, Cinnamon Strudel, Toasted Coconut
145 calories (Cinnamon are 148 calories), 3.5g fat (Cinnamon are 3g fat), 1g fiber

Ok, now I will admit these are a bit spendy. It worked out to roughly $2 per donut. They would have been even more if I had to pay for the shipping. Since they were delivered 2nd day air from Brooklyn, it normally would have been $22 for shipping. So, economically speaking, I will definitely only be able to order these during free shipping promotions. Even though they are expensive, I figured they weren’t any more expensive than getting a muffin at Starbucks and such. Besides, it will keep me out of Krispy Krack and satisfy my donut tooth. ;)

Until next time …

It’s Sunday, so that means I headed to my Weight Watchers meeting this morning. I was down 1.8 lbs (0.8 kg) this week. This brings my loss since rejoining to 9.6 lbs (4.4 kg) and my total loss overall to 67.4 lbs (30.6 kg) pounds. I should (hopefully) get my 10 pound start at my next meeting.

I’m still loving working on my M fairy. I realized looking at the chart last night just how big her wings are. If I’m going to finish her before I go back to work on Tuesday, I’m really going to have to push things into high gear and pretty much not do anything but stitch over the next day and a half. Oh darn, I guess that means the housework will just have to wait until some other time.

Here’s my progress as of last night:

Letters from Nora – Madeline Melissa
Designer: Nora Corbett
Fabric: 32-count Waterlily
Fibers: Crescent Colors, Treasure Braid
Stitched 2 over 2 except braid which is 1 over 2

Oh, and I had an awesome time at the Jen Lancaster book signing on Friday night. She encouraged everyone to come out in their totally 80’s finest. Here was my final look for the evening. ;)

What isn’t visible in that pic are the navy plaid shorts I wore. I was also wearing a pair of white Keds, without socks naturally. ;) If you want to see more pics, you can find them here.

Until next time …

I went to my Weight Watchers meeting this morning for my first weigh in since rejoining last week. I lost 7.8 pounds (3.5kg)!!!! Woo Effin’ Hoo!!! As you might be able to tell, that excites me very much. So, I’m now down 65.6 pounds from my highest weight several years ago.

I realize that weigh in results the first week of starting a diet plan are distorted due to weight weight, etc. That having been said, it was still a great boost to me mentally to see such a big chunk go the first week. It will definitely help keep the motivation high to keep going, too.

One of my big areas of weakness is partaking of the goodies my boss often brings in to the office. Our building is located right next to an Entenmann’s outlet. He is notorious for going over there a few times per week and picking up cookies, coffee cakes, etc. and bringing them in for everyone to eat. In an effort to help me not partake, I picked up one of the little WW Hungry plushies they are selling now to help remind me to stay out of the goodies!

If you aren’t familiar with Hungry, here’s a video of one of the commercials so you can see him in action. ;)

Yes, I know I still need to post the previously mentioned stitching photos. I promise to get to them later today. I just wanted to post my good news from my weight loss while I was still so excited.

Until later ….

Well, since I’m back on Weight Watchers, that naturally means being on the lookout again for healthier food choices, especially when it comes to snacking. Sadly, just grabbing a spoon and a jar of peanut butter just isn’t an option any longer.

I did stumble across a couple of new foods during my recent shopping soirée. I thought I would share them here in case others haven’t seen them or aren’t aware of them either.

The first item is from Sugar-Free Jell-O Pudding. I stumbled across their newest flavor — Boston Cream Pie. Now I also have a Banana Fudge Supreme in the photo. While it’s not necessarily new, it’s still new-ish and very tasty! As for the Boston Cream Pie flavor, they were just OK in my opinion. There are other flavors I like much better. For those on Weight Watchers, they are both only 1 point per snack cup. For calorie counters, both flavors are 60 calories per snack cup.

The next item is the new Fiber Plus bars from the folks at Kellogg’s. They come in two varieties — Chocolate Chip and Dark Chocolate Almond. I bought one of each to try. I definitely enjoyed the dark chocolate almond flavor more, but they’re both good. For those on Weight Watchers, they are both only 2 points per bar. For calorie counters, the Chocolate Chip flavor is 120 calories and the Dark Chocolate Almond flavor is 130 calories.

Ok, off to watch the finale of The Biggest Loser off my DVR. Until next time …

In an effort to help my weight loss efforts along, I have once again signed up for the Woman Challenge this year. This is an annual event put on the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. I participated in the event last year, and given the fact that the start date this year coincided with the day I rejoined Weight Watchers, it only seemed right that I should participate again this year. The challenge runs from May 10th (so there’s still time to join) until July 4th.

Since this challenge is a fun thing to do as a team, I have joined in with Team MizFit. (Note: If you aren’t already familiar with her website, you really should check it out!) I have set modest goals for myself for this first week of the challenge. Here is what I’m planning to accomplish:

• 1.5 hours of moderate intensity activity (walking, swimming, etc.)
• 30 minutes of vigorous intensity activity (aerobics, spinning, etc.)
• Two sessions of strength training

I actually got in one of my strength training sessions today. I spent about 20 minutes working out my arms and shoulders using dumbbells. This included things like bicep curls, triceps extensions, lateral raises, overhead raises, etc.) I’m sure my arms & shoulders won’t like me tomorrow.

Until next time ….

Ok, I swallowed my pride this morning and acknowledged the fact that I seem to simply be unable/incapable of losing weight on my own. I’m so sick and tired of huffing & puffing when I do the simplest of tasks — things like climbing the stairs up to my apartment. I can’t keep going on like this. Enough is enough! I.must.lose.weight! I.WILL.lose.weight!

So, for the umpteenth time, I took my ass to a Weight Watchers meeting and signed up again. The only times I’ve ever been successful losing weight have all been on WW which is why I keep going back, I suppose. I have tried doing the program on my own several times, but there is just something about paying that money to weigh in that seems to hold me more accountable than just weighing myself in on my home scales.

I must say that I was not happy with the number I saw on the scale. When the hell did I get so fat again? Since I was at my lowest weight five years ago, I’ve basically regained an average of 1.3 pounds per month. Ok, now granted 1.3 pounds doesn’t sound like much, but when you accumulate that monthly over five years, it adds up to 80 pounds. I just simply cannot keep going down this path. It’s time to get serious about this and stop pretending about where I am in regard to my weight and health!

On a side note, I noticed when I logged in to my dashboard to write this post that this is entry #950 on my blog. I guess it’s time to start thinking of ideas for some blog candy to celebrate when I reach post 1000. Based on my posting habits, that should happen sometime in the early fall. You can’t ever tell though, if I get into a flurry of posting a bit more, it could happen sooner.

Until next time …

Motivation … mine has been out the window the past couple of weeks since finding out I have a torn medial meniscus in my left knee. I’m so sick of all the damn injuries!! Accordingly, I’ve been on a major pity party, eating whatever the fuck I want, haven’t been drinking my water, and haven’t done any kind of exercise. I haven’t even ventured near the scale out of fear because I know it will be ugly just based on how my clothes are fitting and how bloated I feel from all the crap food.

For those of you who follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter, you already probably know that earlier this week the 18-month old son of one of my cousins back in Tennessee was killed in a very tragic accident. My cousin’s husband accidentally ran over their little boy killing him instantly.

He had taken their two young children (they also have a 5 year old little girl) out with him in the truck to feed the cattle on their farm. Unfortunately, he didn’t put the car seats in the truck for the kids. As he was driving, the passenger door came open and the little boy fell out of the truck. Even though he immediately slammed on the brakes when he realized what had happened, he wasn’t able to stop in time unfortunately.

Please, if you have children, grandchildren, any child in your care, always make sure to take the time to put them in the proper car restraints regardless of how quick/insignificant the trip may seem. The highway patrol said that if he had been in a car seat, this tragedy never would have happened. Instead, my cousin and her husband had to bury their toddler this morning. I can’t even imagine how on earth they are going to cope and deal with this situation. If you are so inclined and want to keep them in your thoughts, I know they could use it right now.

Now, back to how this all relates to motivation …. little Elam’s death was a reminder to me of just how fragile life really is for each of us. I have basically spent my entire adult life obese. Is this how I really want to spent the rest of my life? My “best” years (i.e. youth, strength, agility, etc.) are behind me. I’m now going into middle-age with my body reminding me of all the years I have abused it. All these nagging little injuries I keep having are all exacerbated by excess weight. At this point, I may have to give up my endurance athletic aspirations. I may never be able to do marathons or triathlons, but there is no reason why I can’t lose weight and be healthy. I just need to want it, because if I want it, I’ll do it.

“If you want to be different, do something different.”
~Shane, personal trainer, Made in L.A. Fitness

Speaking of Made in L.A. Fitness (a.k.a. MILA), I had an amazing time earlier this month at the boot camp weekend they hosted. I took my very first spin class and had an amazing time! My orthopedist gave me the go ahead to continue spinning even with the meniscus tear as long as I promised not to get out of the saddle or do any fast sprinting. So, in an effort to help rekindle some motivation, I’ll be heading over to MILA for a spin class Friday morning.

Happy Friday everyone!

Well, I still haven’t decided if I’m going to go out to the Surf City 5k in the morning. I did go over and pick up my bib and goodie bag today. Check it out …

And now for something completely different. Ok, so it’s not completely different as I did try and little bit of vlogging (video blogging) last year. I picked up a Flip portable video camera a couple of weeks ago, so I’ve decided to give it a try again. Here’s my first attempt. Please be kind and don’t laugh too much.

Before heading over to pick up my race packet, I hit my Saturday Weight Watchers meeting. I was down 0.7 this week. I was actually shocked that I had a loss at all. I’ve been chugging orange juice like it’s going out of style this week trying to shake my cold. I knew it was costing me a ton of points, but I was willing to take the hit on the scale to try and get well. So, I was pretty happy to have a loss.