Lions and Tigers and Black Bean Brownies! Oh My!!!

Well, I've done the amazing. At least it will be to those of you who REALLY know me and know my deep loathing of taking time to cook. At home. In the actual kitchen. With the oven. Okay, well you get the point.

I bit the big one today and, drum roll please, cooked. In fact, I baked. I baked Black Bean Brownies today, which, I might add, are not the least bit yucky. Part of my sudden desire to get into the kitchen was motivated by chocolate (I wanted some. . .badly, but didn't want to blow a ton of points). The other part was due to budgetary reasons. My student loans are going to start kicking in real soon if I don't start that Ph.D of mine. That means, I really need to curb back the eating out and the scale of prepackaged "food" items I purchase. I actually found a website that proves it's even cheaper to cook at home versus going to the (YUCK) fast food joints and ordering off the dollar menu.

The verdict? The Black bean brownies are not too shabby. The texture is fudgie, which is how I like brownies anyway. I should have used a small pan and I used an 8x11, which made my brownies thinner than what I would like. So. . . next time I'll try a smaller pan. Now, will they fool someone into thinking they've got a regular, full fat brownie? No. Are they a good substitute? Yup and they've got lots of fiber! For my first Black bean brownie experiement, I went for the version where only a brownie mix and a can of black beans is blended together. Next time, I may get brave and make it "from scratch."

Look at me now!

Take a good look at that photo. The person on the left is dear David. The person on the far right is me. This picture was taken in May of 2006. It is me at my heaviest. This next picture was taken in April or May 0f 2006 also.



Now, look at the picture below this paragraph. Please ignore the bad hair, but look at my face. That is my face after a 35 lb. weight loss. I'm not at my goal, but I'm getting close. I am amazed and proud.

35 lbs gone!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I've hit my 35 lbs. lost this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just to give you an idea of how much weight that is:
4 sticks of butter are equal to 1 lbs. --so, unless I've done my math wrong (and that is entirely possible), I've dropped about 140 sticks of butter off my self. I started my weight loss journey July of 2006, so it's taken me about a year and a half to get this far.

30 lbs and sticking. . . .

Well--

I'm officially stuck at that 31 lbs mark. So. . . .I'm doing some reading on some other blogs so for some ideas to change things up. Or to at least feel like I'm not alone at being stuck. Or least feel like maybe someone out there knows how trying to get to the size of normal human being feels. Heaven knows that David doesn't. His sister doesn't. My dad doesn't. And now, I'll get off my ass and quit ranting. Any hoo--here are some blogs that are entertaining and useful. Some were mentioned in Women's Health, some are just random blogs that I read on occasion.

Back In Skinny Jeans
A very entertaining blog that deals with a gals quest to get back in her awesome skinny jeans. I have to same quest--although I don't own the piece of clothing that I quest to get into (e-mail me if you want to know!)
Cranky Fitness
A frank look at fitness. It's good stuff without the over the top perkiness. Lets face it, not all of us love working out. Most of us hate it. I say I like it because I think it will make me like it more.
Sister Skinny
I don't really have a commentary for this one. I just like it.
Lose the Buddha
It's fun, it's entertaining. It's fresh.
Candee's Weight Loss Journey
She's Candee and she's been at this for awhile. She shows me that persistence and life style change pay off.
Losing It! An Urban Mom's Weight Loss Blog
I had to put someone in here who's doing Weight Watchers, like me.

A random somebody noticed!!!!

So--I'm in the Barnes and Noble cafe tonight and the barista pulls me aside after I order. I'm thinking--oh no--I'm gonna get yelled at for not returning my magazines to the rack or something. But, she looks at me, smiles, and says, "you lost a LOT of (emphasis on the LOT) of weight didn't you." I'm not sure at this point, weather I'm supposed to be annoyed or proud. I'm proud because she is the FIRST random person to make any sort of comment about my weightloss. I'm not sure if people are afraid to say something of if people just haven't noticed. For those of you who have NOT noticed, I have lost 25 lbs at this point. Anyhoo. . . . .she wanted to know what I did and how I was doing it (weight watchers for those of you who wonder). I shared when I go to meetings and she told me she was going to join. She said I'm doing a really good job and it made her want to do something about her weight. I'm proud to know that someone felt motivated by what I've accomplished. I hope that I can continue to make myself just as proud and not need the comments from someone else to feel proud!!!!

Weight Watchers Update and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

WEIGHT WATCHERS
So I haven't posted in sometime about my Weight Watchers journey. There has just been so much going on. School. Work. And lately, the Hedgehog obsession! But--things are going great with WW. I'm down almost 20lbs. It feels surreal. My knees no longer bother me. I can see my clavicles. Old clothes fit again. I'm just about half way to my goal and it has been surprisingly easy. I currently subscribe to Pointing My Way to a New Life, by far the best WW forum I have found. It's very positive and very supportive and has been a big part of my success so far. Anyway--if you'd like to see where I started, how I'm doing, and where I'm heading, here is my Weigh In Journal that I fill in every week.

SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
Another personal update that I'd like to fill everyone in on is my reading of , written by Steven Covey. This is a fantastic book and I would recommend EVERYONE take a small peek at it. I originally picked it up because I wanted to improve my supervisory techniques for my job, but this book is really about improving one's self as whole. I've just finished up habit number 1, "be proactive," and I am beginning to read about habit number 2, begin with the end in mind." I have been working VERY hard at being proactive but it is a skill that I need to continue to work on. I am the classic reactive person and this is NOT who I want to be.

What a week.

It has been quite the week already and it's only Wednesday!!!! Monday I spent 90% of the day at the doctor trying to get some new answers with my knee issue. I'm hoping that I as I continue to loose weight my knee issues will decrease. Looks like some sort of knee surgery is going to be in my future.

Then on the work end of things--all of my client's teams are short therapists! There must be something in the water!!! My line therapists are dropping from teams like flies. I'm not sure what's going on. The only thing I know right now is that I have several sets of VERY stressed out parents because they are worried about getting their state required amount of hours in each week and not having staff to fill those hours. Of course, because they are stressed, I am feeling tons of stress too.

That brings me to the other icky thing this week. I went over my points BIG TIME on Wednesday. I pretty much blew them all on breakfast at a conference I was attending. On a postive note, I made very healthy choices the rest of the day, but I still ended up way over. UGH. I guess every day can not be fantastic! Overall, I am really happy with how things are going with WW. I pretty much have lost or maintained everyweek, which has really kept me motivated. I know that I won't loose every week and I'm sure I'll plateau at some point, but for now it's going great.

The next few weeks are going to be VERY busy as I try and fill kiddo schedules. I have a feeling I am going to be working a lot of overtime (without compensation since I am salaried). That's the way it goes though. Some weeks I'm way under so I guess it's time to balance things out a bit!!!

I took the plunge

Did I get married? Nope. Sky dive? Nope. Hang glide? Nope not that either. I did something 9 weeks ago that was just as scary and brave for me though. I joined Weight Watchers. So that might not sound like a scary thing, but for me it really was. It might sound vain because I'm not satisfied with my weight or happy with my appearance--but this was something that I needed to do both for myself and for my loved ones. So. . . one might think, "Why not just regualar diet and exercise?" Well--for me WW is giving me a huge support network and accountability in a SUPPORTIVE, non-critical fashion. For me--the support is the most important thing. I thought that I WAS doing everything right. I exercised. I was pretty good about my diet. But now. . . I exercise and I am FABULOUS about my diet!

I was shy at first. I thought that only morbidly obese people belonged to ww. I was afraid that if I told people they would be like. . oh so you think your fat? I don't think I'm FAT but I do think that I'm not at the weight that I should be at for my frame size and I need a little extra help getting there. Also--my knee has REALLY been bothering me. So much that I am on a prescription anti-inflammatory drug to help keep the swelling at bay. I still have pian some days though. This was the big one for me. I NEVER had as much swelling and knee issues until I got to the weight that I was 9 weeks ago. For me, this was my body's way of telling me, "whoa there Nellie! Time to start thinking about being a little healthier here." So. . that was what did it for me. So. . . here I am today, a little bit thinner and working toward my goal.

I must say that I love being apart of WW. Not only am I already having more energy and decreased knee swelling, I feel like I really can meet my goal. Besided attending my weekly meetings--I get support from two other places, both are online communities. The first is Pointing My Way To A New Life. I love this place. I get lots of great info and lots of great support!!! I also belong to a MYSPACE WW group that I find very helpful too. Both are just extra support. Some people probably don't need quite THAT much support, but for me it is the key thing to my success so far.