WEIGHT WATCHERS WEDNESDAY

This week I lost gained!!!

.2 lbs

I told you that I was going to hold myself accountable. So there it is. A gain. I have no idea why. I think it could of been that I was really stressed last week and was not eating all of my allotted daily points. Which is a weight watchers no no. And to be honest I am sure the Mexican on Saturday night did not help matters. But outside of Saturday night I counted points and ate well.

So 7.8 lbs to go until pre-pregnancy weight!

21.8 lbs to go to reach my goal weight!

So boo. And we are half way through this week and I haven't been doing so well with my mom being in town keeping Elle and I have a craw fish party to go to this weekend which alcoholic beverages will be consumed. But I am still trying and I know the weight is going to come off. I hope to start an exercises routine once I am through with work since we are getting into more a daily routine with Elle.

I do not have any new weight watcher recipes to share with you this week. But should have one coming to ya next week!

In other news Kenny and I went on a date last night. We went to dinner and then to see The Lincoln Lawyer. It was fantastic. Kept us on the edge of our seats with all the twists and turns and Mathew McConaughey is pretty cute.

And then I saw the preview for this! And I am sooooooooooooo excited for this movie to come out. The book was one of the best books I have read in YEARS!!

CH-CH-CHANGES

Yep there is that word again. I know I have been saying it a lot. But like I have mentioned in the past few weeks our little family is going through a ton of change. The latest one being...

I am quitting my job.

I know. I can't believe it either. I have worked for the investment firm here in Memphis for five years and it is definitely scary to let the job go. But Kenny and I have talked it over a whole bunch and this is the best decision for our family and I am thrilled that I will get to stay home with Elting.

It makes me a smidge anxious for several reasons. One being that I will lose adult time. I won't be interacting with grown ups as much. And two, I will be responsible for shaping our little girl into the person she will become day in and day out. That is a huge endeavor but one that I can't wait to take on.

WEEKEND

It was a low key weekend with not a whole lot to report. I spent most of my days curled up hanging out in the house with Elle because the weather was gross. Kenny and I did manage to make it out on Saturday night for a little Mexican food and then home to watch Due Date which I thought was just alright. Not as funny as I expected.

Sunday morning I tried to watch It's Kind of A Funny Story and just turned it off. Not my cup of tea. Then we watched basketball all day. Can you believe all these upsets? My bracket is through. Now despite living in Memphis I am going to root for Kentucky because I always root for the SEC. Although I sometimes catch myself rooting for the underdog in games. Woops.

Anyway here is a picture of Elle because I haven't posted one in a while. She changed so much this week while I was at work.She started smiling and following you with her eyes when you move around the room. And the girl loves her some ceiling fan. It is what she is gazing at in this picture.

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL

So I had been hearing about the book "Heaven Is For Real" around the blogsophere and I wanted a new book for my Kindle so I thought why not. I thouroughly enjoyed this book.

First off, it is an extremely short read. Only about 100 pages. It is written by the a pastor who is the little boy's father and has a very personal and conversational tone. Here is Amazon.com's description of the book.

A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven.

Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.

Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.

Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

This book made me think. It was so interesting to hear about heaven through the eyes of a 4 year old. I don't really want to go into great detail about what I took away from the book but I would definitely recommend it.

IT CHANGES THINGS

I am going through a change. I am not the same person I was. It is kind of a strange feeling to be able to take a step back and realize that I am changing while I am in the midst of becoming a new me. And to be honest I already miss the old me. The only reason possibly being is that I don't know who the new me is going to be yet.

Does this make any sense? I have had several conversations with friends and with Kenny telling them I don't feel like myself anymore. I am not sure if this feeling is only because I am a mommy now. Or if it is all the transition going on in my life right now. I have never loved change.

So right now I am going through each day with a knot in my stomach and my head in this perpetual cloud. A knot full of the unknown and unending love. Is it that I am terrified to love something more than I have ever loved anything else in my entire life. My entire life. And so unconditionally.

Somehow one little girl made me realize how precious each second of life is and at the same time turned our world completely upside down. That sounds so trite.

Hoping my head stops spinning soon and I start to find myself again. But until then I am just holding on and thanking God for each day I have with her.

WEIGHT WATCHERS WEDNESDAY

This week I lost:

1.8 lbs

That is right around my goal for each week of 2 lbs.

So 7.6 lbs to go until pre-pregnancy weight!

21.6 lbs to go to reach my goal weight!

About a week ago I made another one of Gina's Recipes from Skinny Taste. It was a recipe for tuna casserole. Which you either love it or you hate it. I love it. So I double the recipe and froze two containers of it and we had one last night. It was really good and only 8 points in the new program.

Isn't it so funny how weight loss works. For me, I am either really motivated and see a lot of results or I am lying to myself and telling myself that I am "watching" what I eat. (uh my entire pregnancy) and don't see any results. What is it that makes you really motivated one time and not the next. I am not sure but thankful that I have been motivated and the weight is coming off slowly but surely.

Skinny Tuna Noodle Casserole
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 6 • Size: 1/6th • Old Points: 6 pts • Points+: 8 pts
Calories: 318 • Fat: 7 g • Protein: 27.3 g • Carb: 34.3 g • Fiber: 3.6 g

• 6 oz no yolk noodles (you can use Ronzoni Healthy Harvest, or brown rice pasta for gluten free)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 medium onion, minced fine
• 3 tbsp flour (gluten free use rice flour)
• 1 3/4 cups fat free chicken broth
• 1 cup 1% milk
• 1 oz sherry (optional)
• 10 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms
• 1 cup frozen petite peas (thawed)
• 2 (5 oz) cans tuna in water, drained (I used albacore)
• 4 oz 50% reduced fat sharp cheddar (I used Cabot)
• butter flavored cooking spray
• 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp whole wheat seasoned breadcrumbs

Cook noodles in salted water until al dente, or slightly undercooked by 2 minutes. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a large deep skillet. Add onions and cook on medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and a pinch of salt and stir well, cooking an additional 2-3 minutes on medium-low heat

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly spray 9 x 12 casserole with butter flavored cooking spray.

Slowly whisk in the chicken broth until well combined, increasing heat to medium and whisking well for 30 seconds, then add the milk and bring to a boil. When boiling,add sherry, mushrooms and petite peas, adjust salt and pepper to taste and simmer on medium, mixing occasionally until it thickens (about 6-7 minutes).Add drained tuna, stirring another minute.

Remove from heat and add 1 cup reduced fat sharp cheddar and mix well until it melts. Addthe noodles to the sauce and mix well until evenly coated. Pourinto casserole and top with parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs. Spray a little more cooking spray and top and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes. Placeunder the broiler a few minutes to get the crumbs crisp (careful not to burn).

GLORY GLORY HALLELUJAH

(not my child by the way. ha!)

I hope I am not speaking to soon...buuuuuuuut

The last two nights Elle has slept through the night. "Sleeping through the night" for now means much longer increments of sleep. She must of known I had to go back to work. The last two nights she has slept from when we put her down at 8:00 pm until 1-2 am. Then she asks for a bottle and then goes back down until 5-6 am. Then sleeps until 7 or so which is when I think she will start waking up. Once it is daylight in her nursery then she wants out of her swaddle and out of her crib.

We will see how this goes. But I am praying that we have turned a corner. I was telling my friend yesterday that when you are this tired on a daily basis it is like that feeling you get when you think you are starting to come down with something. You always feel like you are on the brink of getting sick. So to not be so exhausted would be kind of nice.

Fingers crossed!

I'M BACK

At work.

It feels strange. Really strange. Elle came so unexpectedly so last time I was here I was VERY pregnant and planning to be that way for a while longer. The last day I was here my coworkers threw me a shower. The last day I was here I huffed and puffed up the hill to my building from where I park. The last day I was here there was snow on the ground.

Sitting at my desk right now where someone else has been sitting the last two months feels like I am coming out of a fog and back into the real world. A world where no one cares about how much formula she is drinking, or whether she slept through the night, or whether she is holding her head up better today. No one cares. I don't expect them to care. But I still care.

I am not the same person I was the last time I was here.

Being at home the last two months was like being in a vacuum. A baby vacuum. Or maybe a cocoon of sorts. I want back in the cocoon.

This is what I left this morning. Kenny will probably kill me for posting this. But this is my life this morning. Scruffy beards, sleepy daddy and sleep baby.

WEIGHT WATCHERS WEDNESDAY

So its Wednesday and this week I lost...

3.8 lbs

The loss seems a little high because last week when I weighed I had actually gained 4 oz. Which I think was just an odd weigh in for me. My weekly goal is 2 lbs a week and that is reasonable if I can control what I eat over the weekend.

9.4 lbs to go until pre-pregnancy weight!

23.4 lbs to go to reach my goal weight!

Last night I made baked ziti with spinach from Gina's at Skinnytaste.com. I love her website so much because all over her recipes include points counts and most of her recipes are really easy.

Low Fat Baked Ziti with Spinach
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 1/8th • Points: 6 pts • Points+: 9 pts
Calories: 331.9 • Fat: 7.1 g • Protein: 17.5 g • Carb: 54.7 g • Fiber: 7.8 g

• 1 lb high fiber ziti such as Ronzoni Smart Taste
• 28 oz crushed tomatoes (I prefer Tuttorosso)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic,minced
• 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• salt and fresh pepper to taste
• 8 oz fat-free ricotta
• 1/4 cup Parmesan
• 2 cups (8 oz) part skim mozzarella
• Spray olive oil (I used my Misto)

Preheat oven to 375°.Spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with oil spray.

In a large pot of salted water, cook pasta according to instructions until al dente.Drain and return to pot.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, add olive oil and sauté garlic. Add chopped spinach, salt pepper and chopped tomatoes. Season with basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

Add sauce to the pasta and combine the ziti. Add half of the mozzarella, Parmesan cheese and ricotta. Mix well then transfer to the baking pan.

Pour the pasta mixture into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Top with the remaining mozzarella.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until mozzarella is melted and the edges are lightly browned.

This can be made up to a day in advance and stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking.

As far as exercise goes. I need to exercise. Right now it is just so hard because I am trying so hard to get Elle on a schedule and still not getting to much sleep at night. So once things kind of get settle routine wise I want to use my Couch to 5k app on my phone and at least start to do a little running. I know I will be more toned and the weight will come off easier also.

WEEKEND UPDATE

Kenny and I had a great weekend! On Friday night we just hung out and relaxed.

Saturday morning we stayed in our pajamas. Kenny did some work and we watched a movie. Elting was being a bit fussy so Kenny had to resort to working with one hand. This was my view. Saturday afternoon we needed to run some errands and then were going to an early dinner. I was getting ready when Kenny called me in saying that Elle had a surprise for me. Surprise! It was a little push present from Kenny and Elle! I love it!!Kenny wanted me to be able to wear it on our date. We all loaded up in the car because we were shopping for a new television for our family room. So this is Kenny's "new daddy" present ha!Although, I am enjoying it a lot also. After we ran our errands we went for sushi for dinner. It was so good. I am still so happy to be able to eat raw fish again. After dinner Kenny was anxious to get home and set up his new toy. Can you blame him? He is a boy after all.


Sunday night we met some friends for dinner at Old Venice. Their little girl was so excited to meet Elle because they are having another baby in August. So she is loving everything baby right now. When we got home we watched that show Coming Home on Lifetime. Have yall watched it? It makes want to ugly cry.

Today starts my last week of maternity leave and I am sick to my stomach about it. And that is all I can really say. Uggh.

SHOULD I TURN TO DRUGS??

No not real drugs. Don't get worried. Should I turn to caffeine?

You see I rarely, rarely, rarely drink caffeine. I stopped drinking it in college. I used to get the worst caffeine headaches so I stopped drinking it cold turkey and had the most intense withdrawal headache for 7 days. It was brutal. I went to sleep with a headache and woke up with a headache. Ever since then I rely on my own body's energy to get me through the mornings/days. In fact I don't even drink a whole lot of sodas either. When I do drink a coffee it hurts my tummy so bad and makes me feel jacked up and shaky, it's just not worth it.

but yall...

I'M TIRED! LIKE REALLY REALLY EXHAUSTED!

I am the kind of tired where you lay down and can't even go to sleep. When I was talking to Kenny about it he suggested I pick up the black stuff. I would limit myself to one cup a day. But I hate to get hooked again. But the thought of not feeling so bleary eyed sounds pretty appealing. And I wouldn't feel like a walking zombie.

This afternoon Kenny called and I was napping. When I picked up the phone I talked straight up jibberish to him because I was so out of it. He told me to call him back when I knew where I was again. This is getting serious.

Maybe instead of coffee I will just pray really hard that a certain little girl starts sleeping through the night.

WEIGHT WATCHERS WEDNESDAY

So about 7 months into my pregnancy I was over being able to eat anything I wanted. I was over food. I was over gaining weight for sure. If you follow my blog then you know that I stopped looking at the number on the scale at my doctors appointments because every time I saw the number I would boo hoo in the exam room. Problem was when I went into labor I had no idea how much weight I had gained total.

I had my 6 week checkup last week and since I had weighed in with them two days before I went into labor I got the total number of pounds.

41lbs.

Phew. Honestly it was less than I thought. But still more than the 25-35 which is the normal range to gain. I have a feeling it would of been closer to 60lbs if I had gone full term. So one small perk of Elle coming early I suppose. At the checkup I had already lost 30lbs. Yay! So let's do some math.

41 lbs of pregnancy gain
30.6 lbs lost by 6 week checkup
__________________________________
= 11.4 lbs of baby weight to lose to get back to pre-pregnancy weight
+15 lbs because I want to lose another 15 lbs
= 26.4 lbs to goal weight

Why am I telling you all this? No, not to embarrass myself. Because I am going to start updating my weight every Wednesday to hold myself accountable. I have already started back on the new Weight Watchers Plus program and I love it! Being able to eat fruit and not use any of your daily points really makes a difference. I thought along the way I would post recipes that were really good and that sort of thing. Plus I will share where the struggles of staying on track are to.

For instance, right now I am really struggling with weekend eating. I can count points and manage perfectly during the weekdays but on the weekends I always get off track. Kenny and I go out to eat to a restaurant that I can't look up the points for and I know it affects my weight loss.

So here we go! 26lbs! I hope I can do it!

DO YOU HAVE THE FEVER?

That's right! Do you have Bieber fever?

I have never been ashamed of my absolute love for pop music. Pop music and Broadway show tunes are my two favorite genres of music. And Kenny just asked me what I was blogging about and when I told him Bieber he begged me not to blog about him out of embarrassment to HIM!!

Anywho! I enjoy a Justin Bieber song every now and then. His hair swoop does get on my nerves but I can see the appeal to those little tweens. And when the previews started running for his documentary with all the home videos, and back stage looks I was intrigued. It was like a really amped up E! True Hollywood Story and in 3D no less.

Well today, along with my sister I went to see the movie.(and wouldn't you know my sister threw a hissy fit when I told her I was going to blog about the movie. She said that I NEEEEVER talk about her on my blog which is not true; and now I was going to out her for going to see Bieber with me) Yeppers! I paid $10.50, put those glasses on my head and enjoyed every last second of it. And if I am being honest...really really enjoyed it.

I don't care if you DETEST pop music. He plays the drums, piano, guitar, has a great voice and dances to boot. He is an entertainer and the movie was just that. Great entertainment. My sister enjoyed it also. Not only was it about him, it was about the crazy obsessed fans and how social media really sky rocketed his career.

It's true, I might have walked out with a small case of Bieber fever. Ha!

WEEKEND UPDATE

We managed to stay pretty busy this weekend. Friday night instead of a girls night that we had talked about we ended up having the husbands and the kids come along t0! So we had a big group meet up at the Happy Mexican. I had never been there before (we were at the East Memphis one) and it was interesting to say the least. But let me tell you, their margaritas are STRONG! All of the girls each got a jumbo and we decided we were having a good time. We felt no need to order another one. But it was so fun to spend time with our friends and relax a little bit.

On Saturday Kenny and I got up and showered in the morning because getting passport applications submitted was on our agenda. I had already gotten completely dressed and ready and Kenny was getting dressed. I called the post office just to make sure the photo machine was working and they tell me that you have to have an appointment! What! That is ridiculous. I already the forms all filled out. Ugg! So now we have appointments in two weeks. So annoying.

Saturday night my sister was nice and watched Elle while Kenny and I had a date night. I was craving this Pear and Gorgonzola salad at Boscos so we went there for dinner and then went to see The Adjustment Bureau.
Kenny and I both thought The Adjustment was a great movie. Very suspenseful but romantic to. I was so glad we chose to see it. I have a list of a few other movies that I want to see. Battle L.A. comes out this coming weekend and I dying to see that because I love end of the world movies.

Sundays have become our totally lazy days. Elle is not old enough to go to church yet so we spend our Sundays at home watching movies, catching up on TiVo, Kenny does some work, I cook. It is so nice.

Elle after her bath.

HOORAY FOR SLEEP

or lack there of.

Did you think this post was going to be about our precious little angel sleeping through the night. Think again. She is NOT sleeping through the night nor do I think that it will be happening anytime soon. Girl loooooves to eat. And she is not going to miss a feeding for some measly old minutes of sleep.

Granted, we are extremely lucky. She wakes up, fusses a little bit so we can hear her in the monitor, gets her bottle and is back to bed in half an hour. Problem is when I get back to bed it takes me at least a half hour to get back to sleep. And with her eating every three hours on the dot...you do the math.

The good news is I think I am starting to adjust to this decreased amount of sleep. The first few weeks I would pass out after she had her morning bottle until late morning. I was beat. But these past few days we have had errands to run and doctors appointments to get to and I feel pretty okay. Still tired but okay. And I told Kenny at least I am sleeping when I can. While I was pregnant I was having some insomnia.

Dad is getting his sleep in when he can to.

And just to brag..from all of our late night feedings our little 5lb baby is now 8lbs 9oz. She would of been a chunker if she had been full term!