Weighty Wednesday -- Working for the Weekend

Yes, I'm dating myself by mentioning that I know this Loverboy song. It was big when I was in college, with the lead singer wearing red hot leather pants.

On a side note, I saw them at a company function in the late 1990's . . . er, dude was fat and poured into his pants. Years later, I saw them again on TV and he fit in his pants, but he looked really, really old.

Back on topic--do you watch what you eat all week, but not bother on the weekend?

If you don't bother, then you aren't alone.

And you'll also notice that you'll do well with your weight loss one week, while you seem to gain most of it back the next week.

So, what's up?

Weekend rebound. 

As my WW leader, Julie, pointed out in our meeting this week (Yay! I made it after missing the previous two meetings!) that weekends and holidays make up roughly 1/3 of all our days in the year.

Think about it.

One-third of all the days in the year

So, if you watch what you eat during the week and blow off what you eat on the weekend, it makes perfect sense that you are sabotaging yourself, derailing your weight loss efforts, which in turn, would cause a weight rebound.

Here's a thought for this coming weekend:  Plan a little more for the weekend. 

If you plan to eat out, then go online and look at the menu to help you make better choices.

If you're going to the movies, do you really need to eat the theater popcorn/candy?

If you want to drink an alcoholic beverage, limit yourself to one, and drink a large glass of water before you imbibe.

Decide where you want to spend your points.

And the big question you need to ask yourself -- is it worth it? 

Something to think about.

Later, Peeps!

Swim Your Heart Out meet

Guess where we were over Valentine's weekend?

Yep, back at the Jenks pool!

It was a smallish meet due to the entry limits for each swimmer, which was only three events per day instead of the usual number of four.

My daughter's not taking huge chunks of time off some of her events, but instead it's the smaller increments that count, especially in the shorter distances.

If you are looking at the previous meets that I've posted, you'll notice that while she swam the event before (400 IM) she had no previous recorded time. It has to do with meter vs. yard pools. She swam the 400 IM in her home pool in meters, but the Jenks pool is in yards. 50 meters is a farther distance than 50 yards and can add up to 3 seconds per 50.

So my daughter swam these events, plus two relays.

Saturday:
100 Free -- 1:04.60 -- -1.07 missed qualifying by 0.52 second
200 Fly -- 2:44.62 -- nt - 4.50 second over 
50 Free -- 29.59 -- -1.66 (on an interesting note, she swam a 28.55 on her relay! but she was a middle leg and it won't 'officially' count) Qualified

Sunday:
200 Free -- 2:19.91 -- -0.98 -- Qualified by 5.03 seconds
100 Fly -- 1:14.68 -- -0.47 -- missed qualifying by 1.19 seconds
400 IM -- 5:29.76 -- nt (qualified for OK Age Groups by over 15 seconds) Qualified

We enjoyed Valentine's day dinner on Sunday night.

All dressed up with some place to go! Yes, I'm short, only 5'1" when I'm standing tall and have my big hair going on. And yes, those are 5" stilettos . . .

Being goofy.

Later Peeps!

Foodie Friday -- Crockpot Oatmeal

I found this recipe on Facebook, but I tweaked it numerous times to make it a thick-and-gooey oatmeal instead of runny oatmeal.

Super easy to throw the ingredients together the night before, set the temperature to “Low” on the crockpot, and go to bed. Breakfast is ready 8 hours later.

Sorry, no picture. Since we tend to like lots of cinnamon in our oatmeal, it didn't take an appetizing picture. 

Crockpot Oatmeal

4 Granny Smith apples, cored and peeled, chopped into large chunks

¾ cup light brown sugar

1 heaping Tbls cinnamon

1 tsp Kosher salt

2 cups oatmeal

3 cups water

Place chopped apples on the bottom of the crockpot. Sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon and salt on top. Add oatmeal and water. DO NOT STIR. Plug in crockpot and set timer to low.

Next morning, stir and adjust seasoning (more salt/cinnamon/sugar). If too runny, add ¼ cup instant cook oatmeal. 

Enjoy!

Tips & Tricks:

• ·         Stick with a tart apple. Granny Smiths are awesome for cooking. My chunks were ½ -3/4  –inch thick. The first time I made this I diced the apples. They were too small and simply melted into the oatmeal. We like the chunks.
• ·         We like cinnamon, so I added quite a bit. The original recipe only calls for 1 tsp. which isn’t nearly enough.
• ·         We used a mixture of dark brown sugar and light brown sugar (it was what was left in the bags). My hubby didn’t care for the slight molasses flavor that the dark brown sugar leaves. Your choice.
• ·         The first time I made this, I couldn’t figure out what was missing the next morning . . . until I added a couple of large pinches of Kosher salt.  Err on the side of less salt and adjust the seasoning the next morning when you taste it.
• ·         This time I used a mixture of steel-cut oats and regular quick oats. The steel-cut are supposed to be healthier, but I don’t think they cooked down as much as regular oatmeal would, as there were tiny bits of chewiness.
• ·         The original recipe called for 3-4 cups of water, but it was too runny. If you have some quick oats you can use them to thicken it up, or go slightly less with the water. It’s hard to tell how much the apples will juice.

Weighty Wednesday -- Shake It Up!

And I missed my WW meeting again . . .

It's the snow, people! When we get yucky weather, we are down to one car. Yesterday was the first time in a long time that the temperature was above freezing and we had sunshine in the afternoon. Not so in the AM, which was why I was without a car.

Okay, today's topic is all about shaking up your regular routine. As you know, I'm a fan of routine. I thrive on it, but this weather . . . again with the weather! . . . has made it impossible for me to do my daily 4.25 mile walk, either it's the frigid wind chills or the ice covering the path, or both. Regardless, I haven't been exercising like I should.

The last time I shook up my routine was when I started taking a yoga class--last May.

And I Loved it!

I pushed myself, but I didn't think I pushed too hard until I wound up with a torn rotator cuff. After bunches of tests and doctors, I opted out of surgery. I honestly didn't think the tear was bad enough to warrant the expense and hassle of surgery. I felt as if I was being railroaded into it, so I told them I changed my mind.

But the mistake I made was not requesting Physical Therapy (PT) to slowly work my shoulder.  I tended to baby this shoulder and that caused stress on the OTHER side of my body and I've had a sore trapezius muscle (top of shoulder from neck to arm joint) for months now. And when I sleep, I wake up with both shoulders aching.



Fast forward to a couple days ago.

I finally got our Wii Fit game to sync on our WiiU system. Actually, I was slightly ticked off when we got the WiiU because it wiped the memory of my game from the system and I really didn't want to "start over" on it.

So it had been over a year since I had done Wii Fit.



And cocky-a$$ me thought, "I got this!" Talk about getting slapped around by a stupid fitness game. Boy howdy, am I out of shape!

True, up until a few weeks ago, I had been walking regularly.

And that's great for my cardio.

But it didn't do diddly-squat for my overall fitness or upper body strength.

So I started off on the Wii Fit at the most basic of exercises--Yoga, Strength, Aerobic and Balance.

Yes, I hurt. Yes, I'm sore. And yes, my balance was crap.

But I changed my routine up because I had to due to the weather

And guess what?

My shoulders stopped aching as much. . .

The first day I had to cheat on the push-up/plank exercise (on my knees instead of my toes), but the second day I did the exercise correctly, even though it wasn't pretty. I did it.

Yeah, it was hard. And yeah, I could feel it in my rotator cuff, but it wasn't as bad as I expected.

New plan.

It's a beautiful sunny morning, so I'm going for my walk. And then I'm coming home to work on the Wii Fit for about 30 minutes.

Remember, it's good to shake up your routine. If you don't you'll end up like me--living in a fantasy of contentment that I'm physically fit, when I'm really allowing my muscles to atrophy through complacency.

Shake it Up!

Later, Peeps!

Monday Blahs

I am so sick and tired of gloom!

Yes, I know other parts of the country have it worse than we do, but I just can't take it any more!

Shoot, we still have snow on the ground from eight days ago. This is virtually unheard of here in Oklahoma. We get a slew of bad weather, and then it melts with temperatures in the 40's and sunshine.

Ugh, I haven't walked in over a week. Every time I drive down the main road to my house, I glance over at the trail I walk near the expressway--still ice coated. And no, I'm not walking when it's ice. That's just plain stupid.

Even my poor koi are hibernating beneath the thick ice on the pond. Half or more of the waterfall is ice on top while the water flows beneath.

The only bright side are the little birds that visit the top of the waterfall for a drink.

I snapped these pictures out the window near my desk on Saturday. These are from my cell phone, and the little blighters were very quick to hop around!

From my kitchen window

cropped close-up

I took numerous pictures, but they seemed to feature these same birds, though I did miss the robins that visited.

There were male and female bluebirds and cedar waxwings (yellow tip on the tail).

So, in all the gloominess, look a little closer and you might see a hint of the coming springtime!

Later, Peeps!

Foodie Friday -- Frosted Soft Sugar Cookies

I just cut this recipe off a new ten pound bag of C & H sugar. And since I had fresh grocery supplies, I decided to try this recipe out.

As you can tell by the pictures, I am a home cook, NOT a home cook who has the talent to Martha Stewart simple cookies into works of art. My food is for eating, not to admire.

Jus' sayin'

Frosted Soft Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups butter, softened
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In large bowl, combine sugar and butter and beat with electric mixer until creamy, about 5 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Add vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour, one cup at a time, and mix until all the flour mixture is incorporated.

Roll into 1-inch balls, and place on ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the bottoms turn light brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before removing to cool on a wire rack.

Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
1 tsp. water
food coloring

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add cream of tartar. Add powdered sugar once cup at a time, blending until fully incorporated. Add extract and water, mixing until combined. Whip frosting at high speed for 5 minute, until light and fluffy. Add food coloring.

Tips & Tricks :

• Make sure your butter is super soft. Microwave butter for 10 seconds to give it a little extra softness when beating. 
• DO take the time to beat the sugar and butter until fluffy. This helps to make the cookie less "grainy" with sugar.
• Since I wanted to honor Valentine's Day, I had to free-hand my hearts as my cookie cutter heart made the cookies to large. 
  

• I baked the cookies for about 11 minutes, which tanned the bottom of the cookie, but kept them soft. 
• The frosting was a little thicker than I would have liked. I probably should have added a touch more liquid. 
• I forgot to beat the frosting for the full 5 minutes--oops.
• Vanilla tends to tint the white icing, so if you don't want to color the icing, then you might want to use the almond extract. 

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- Status Quo

Because I'm weighty and, yes, it is Wednesday.

I missed my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday because my hubby took my car to work. We have two cars, but my car is the only one that can handle being driven on sleet and snow.

I'm sure I missed a great meeting!

This winter weather is playing havoc with my exercise schedule. This time of year our high outside temps are supposed to be in the high 40's, but as I type this the local temperature is 16 degrees--with enough wind to drop the 'feels like' temperature to -5 below zero.

Brrrr!

As I've mentioned before, I don't mind the cold, but I DO mind the wind. The one time I tried to walk in the cold wind, I nearly got frostbite on my fingers. And, yes, I do ski, but allow numerous hot cocoa breaks in between runs!

So I've tried to come up with new ways to exercise inside the house. I've used the Wii, but the last time I tried to get the board to work, it didn't. No, it wasn't the batteries. I changed them. It was something else. What that something is I don't know.

I've already mentioned the temptation of comfort food, along with the urge to bake cookies and cakes, and the overall need to eat and hibernate. I just don't want to gain weight if at all possible. It's just a matter of weeks before warmer weather moves back into the area.

So until I can kick start my regular outside walk, I'll just have to try my best to keep my diet in the moderate, healthy portions, try to drink lots of water, and try to keep my weight at status quo.

Stay strong! Hang in there!

Later, Peeps!