The Joys of Costco!

Oh Costco, how I love thee.

I bought low fat bean burritos, 12 cans of black beans, Larabars, Naked Juice, Grapes... etc.

Today went well. All day I ate well under my points, but then Justin & I decided to splurge on a little gelato. We did so fantastic all week. I decided I'll eat the gelato & work out because of it. I have a wedding tomorrow which means I will be working my tush off... all those gelato calories will be melting right off. Nobody understands how hard us photographers work. We stand all day long, run around, do squats, hold very VERY heavy camera equipment all day long, our necks are killer by noon. We also don't get to eat all day. I am lucky if I get an energy bar on the day of a wedding. When I wake up the next morning I am so sore I can barely walk. It's a major workout. Only fellow photographers could possibly understand. One time my husband helped me at a fundraiser event & said to me, "I don't understand how you can do this all day. It's a lot of work". I guess you can say it's a labor of love.


Today I ate:

Grits & raisans
Coffee w/ splenda

garden burger & a cup of chili

low fat bean burrito & a couple baked chips w/ salsa.

gelato baby! yum :-) Ok, so I went over on my points for gelato. I'll make sure I'm strict all weekend.

The Unknown.

Today I did something that I've NEVER done before. I bought work out clothes. :-)

I'm not saying that I've never worked out. Of course I work out. I've never bought official work out clothes. I usually just put on my sexy pajama pants from 8th grade with kitty cats all over them. All of my pajamas are from 8th grade about about 4 sizes too big. I can pull all of them clear above my head. It's a hot look.

The point is, I want to start walking in the morning. I live in one of the most beautiful little towns... (excuse me, village. Oak Park is a village. Did you know that?) It is perfect for taking walks. We have lots of beautiful old houses (Frank Lloyd Wright's home & studio are in Oak Park). Eventually my goal is to jog, but I'll start slowly with walking.

So today at Old Navy I noticed that all of their work out clothing is on sale. I realized that instead of buying a cute sweater, I should probably invest my money into something that will have a positive outcome. So I bought a pair of yoga pants, walking pants, a cute zip up jacket & a orange/gray striped long sleeve shirt.

Another thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is how much I miss yoga. I haven't done yoga in SO long. I took some classes at Columbia & then I practiced it on my own afterwards. I still do it every now & then, but not on a regular basis. Oak Park has a zillion yoga studios. There's one right next door to my favorite coffee shop. I think this autumn I might swing in for a class and see if I like it.

If nothing else, it will be nice to meditate with a group again. I miss what it feels like to be in a room of many "OM's". The way you can feel the vibrations straight to your core. I love meditating and have been doing it for some time now. I had an amazing connection with one of my teachers at Columbia and after class was over we remained fantastic friends. She's an older woman with beautiful curly gray hair & a lifetime of amazing stories to tell. She invited me over for tea one afternoon, taught me to meditate & I haven't looked back. It is honestly the most amazing experience & I encourage everyone to try to meditate. It teaches you how to clear your mind & live in the now. Something we all need to learn to do more often.

What I ate today:

Fiber One cereal w/ light soy milk

Coffee, basically all day w/ splenda.

Lean Cuisine (only 4 points)
Sugar free rice pudding cup

Ate a couple almonds as a snack

Dinner at Panera: Half Asian Chicken Salad & Black Bean Soup ( ONLY 10 WW POINTS!- for reals.)

I think I ate under my points for today. That's crazy.

One more for today!

I wanted to write a list of the food I ate today. Justin & I both attribute our weight loss to a giant list of things & one of those things is writing down what you eat every single day. It's easy to ignore the times you've cheated, if you don't have to confess them, even to yourself. So here's my list of food for today.

-Fiber One Cereal w/ light soy milk
-2 cups of coffee w/ Splenda coffee flavors & light soy milk

-Stuffed Cabbage Lean Cuisine
-1 tsp of "Better than peanut butter": THE BEST PEANUT BUTTER EVER! low in calories, fat & sodium! It's a miracle.

-1 buttered popcorn rice cake as a snack.

-1 turkey sandwhich w/ fat free cheddar, light mayo, mustard on whole wheat bread.
- Justin & I split a plate of fresh home grown tomato & green pepper slices.
-1 serving of the Trader Joes marinated fava beans (YUM!!!)
-1 sugar free rice pudding cup

Now, I'm finishing off the evening with a glass of red wine. Ravenswood Cab.

Not bad.

Photographs.

Every week Robin takes a test photo of me at the wedding. I have a small collection of them now. I'll have to dig through and find the photos from when I weighed a lot more. Here are two recent ones. I still have a hard time realizing that that's me in those photos. My silhouette is a lot more slender than it used to be. Having these photos makes me want to keep going.

I've never been the person who hates having their photo taken. I know what I look like. I know that every single day everyone sees what I look like. I think that people who hate having photos taken of themselves are just denying the flaws they see in themselves, that they refuse to work on.




Me at the Palmer House, getting ready to shoot a ceremony.



Me (center) at the River East Art Center, pretending to be the Bride & Groom. Chrissy is pretending to be the drunk guests holding sparklers above their heads. It makes for a pretty shot. But it sure it rather dangerous.

That's it.

I've made hardly any progress in the last year. I'm sure it has to do with the stress of moving out & paying bills. It also has to do with the fact that I work from home & it takes a lot of effort for me to get up & get things done. It's not like I eat terrible. I still eat good. I cheat a lot more often & haven't been counting points lately. Lets just say I've figured out how to maintain my current weight. Which I guess is good, but I'm not happy with my current weight.


I now weigh 197. Before I started this weight loss shenanigans, I weighed 275.

My goal would be to weight 150. I think I can obtain that.

All I need to do is start blogging again, keep track of my points & stop going out to eat! It's not that hard. I did it before. I know I can do it.