Little Discouraged, but still Noom'ing Along

              Last week was not my best week.  I thought I had done everything right, but for the first time since starting Noom, I gained 2 lbs. I was so disappointed, but I have learned that this one week does not define me. I did not get depressed, I relaxed, and just told myself to try better. I also went onto my Noom app and into my group chat for support.  I got some as well.  The others also reminded me that it is a process and there will be setbacks and plateaus and to not give up. So that is what I did.  I did not comfort myself with food, I just moved on, and focused on making this week better. That is what I am doing.  I slept in a bit, woke up, already put away my laundry, put away the dishes, had my lemon water, made my coffee, and now sitting here blogging before looking at my college courses which started today. My brain needs coffee before going there LOL. It should just be simple stuff this first week. WOAH I made my coffee strong LOL

                On my Facebook feed I get BBC videos, and I discovered a brilliant new actress/show.  Miranda Hart. She is hilarious LOL I watched clips of her Miranda show at work, and yesterday I finally found the full episodes on Hulu. I am three episodes in and hooked LOL So that is what I will be distracting myself with while I get some steps in in a bit. By the end of the week I will sound so British I am sure LOL. People will hear me saying "naughty" and "such fun, such fun" I will have to check out other stuff she has done. She seems to be a very positive person on her social media platforms.  I like that.  I need to focus more on being positive.  I try, but it doesn’t always seem to come across.

                Autumn is slowly starting to appear in my home.  Yesterday I got a new deep red table cloth upon which I placed a Fall bouquet and these adorable chair covers. Two are scarecrows and two are turkeys LOL. Now I just need to find some placemats. Perhaps Staci and I will go looking for some this afternoon. I also got a bunch of Fall wax melts. The scent is farm apple and pumpkin. It combines my two favorite smells of Autumn. So now my home smells nice. It might be summer weather outside here in Florida, but inside my home it is Autumn.

                Okay time to get the school stuff done, figure out what’s for dinner tonight, and then steps while I laugh at Miranda LOL it is going to be a good day 😊

Happy Fall Y'all

 

              I have decided it is Fall LOL it is hot here in Florida, it seems like summer is never going to end.  I cannot wait anymore, so I am just going to pretend it is Autumn.  This morning I broke out my farm apple and pumpkin wax melts and my Welcome Fall essential oils for my diffuser LOL it smells like Fall in my home now LOL I LOVE IT!!!  This week I will start to pull out some Autumn decorations to really get the season going. It will be easier now that we organized the garage.

                Today is a bit different. I am doing something I never do LOL working an extra shift at work, well half of a shift.  The bonus pay is too much to not take advantage of.  Last week my washer broke, instead of throwing good money after old, I am upgrading my washer dryer set today and using the bonus money to pay for it. I have a new set arriving this afternoon.  I am so excited LOL good grief I am getting good at this homeowner adulting stuff LOL even my kids are getting into it.  While at Lowe’s yesterday they had a blast looking at refrigerators. The barbeque grills really did them in LOL they now want a pellet grill and smoker. So that is on the lists of new projects for the Fall.

                Last week was an awesome weight loss week, I somehow managed to drop into the 25 lbs. lost WOOOHOOO!!! That 30 is looking over the horizon LOL I am definitely starting to feel healthier and lighter.  I even had another nurse notice I was losing weight. She says she wishes now that she had joined with me back then LOL. Noom this week is giving me lessons on meditation and mindfulness. The mindfulness I can handle, but the meditation probably not. If I close my eyes, I will fall asleep LOL. I am hoping though that my support group will be more interested in Fall activities and ways to manage the holidays.

                School started for my daughter, one week down. Already the subjects this year are challenging. Seventh grade is serious stuff LOL it is taking all my son’s and my smarts to help her through lessons. Dividing decimals is not something my brain remembered LOL I just use a calculator like normal people. The online lessons aren’t as cute as they were in elementary school. Now it is all boring and grown up. I am going to miss the little cartoons that would illustrate lessons. New week college courses start for my son and me. I am hoping I can manage the college level Spanish lessons. I really would like to learn the language because patients at work hardly even speak English now.

                Okay need to keep this short since I have lots to do today in addition to working a partial shift. I am off to get some steps in then breakfast, get path to laundry room cleared for delivery drivers, and then a short nap LOL I’ve been up since 5am and since will be up until 1am at work, I will need time for a nap LOL.

Adulting is Hard, but I lost 20 lbs.

 

          Well, that was fun LOL I just got to delete 216 files off my computer.  I sent copies to my email for safekeeping in case I need them, but for most part they were school assignments from the paralegal program I just completed. Makes my files a bit less cluttered.  Last night I decluttered my garage LOL I have reached a whole new level of adulting, I got excited about shelves for my garage to store all my bins LOL my garage looks a lot better. I have been doing some serious adulting lately LOL I even bought a safe for all my important papers. Now I just need find them all from their current positions of being scattered all over my home. Being an adult is not nearly as fun as I thought as a kid.  Kids think we have freedom to do whatever we want. That is not true. We have more rules and constraints to deal with. Jobs, bills, taxes, and keeping small humans and pets alive. Part of me at times wishes I could go back in time and change stuff, but then I would lose out on what I have now.  If you think about it, even the smallest change could have huge repercussions. Time travel movies drive me bonkers because they do not make sense if think about it LOL

                I should have been typing in all caps at the beginning of this blog LOL I DID IT!!! I MANAGED TO LOSE 20 LBS!!!! It is an amazing feeling. I still do not see it though.  The only sign I see is my skin feels looser LOL which is not a good thing for a 50+ year old woman LOL I have been putting on lots of moisturizer to try and avoid wrinkles. Found some awesome stuff on Amazon that seems to help a lot. I told myself that I would start wearing smaller scrubs when I lost 20 lbs., but I still am not ready.  I am wanting it to be a dramatic change when I switch. Maybe another 10 lbs. LOL it is amazing to say that like it is no big deal. Losing 1-2 lbs. a week has become my new normal. By the end of the year, I should be at a major milestone and by Spring I should be at goal. Will be extra challenging though with holidays coming up LOL so many recipes I want to try out.  Noom needs to make a holiday cookbook.

                My daughter started 7^th grade yesterday. I am not ready for this. Is hard wrapping my head around it because I loathed that time in my life.  Girls in 7^th grade were horrible and I have some serious PTSD from that time.  Trying to see my daughter as that age is mindboggling. Seventh grade is when my life changed for the worst. Friends became enemies in their quest to be popular. I have a lot of emotional traumas from back then. I can deal with it now as an adult, but it took me a LONG time to be able to. Now I really do not care what people say about me LOL mainly because I have learned I am not the center of the universe and that they probably are not talking about me or laughing at me 100 % of the time. They have their own lives and are consumed by their own needs. They do not care enough about me to give me a second thought. I wish I had known that back then. I am not saying I have no value to be cared about, I am saying I am not the center of their world LOL.

                Okay time to get to my adulting for the day LOL I must figure out what is for dinner yet again. Hence the picture. It is so true.  I must figure out something my son will eat, my daughter will eat, and something that is healthy and low in calories that I can eat. Trying to get all three of those combined is a struggle LOL I will be thinking while I am getting my steps in 😊 Castle and Nathan Fillion will be distracting me.

Back to School with Noom

              I cannot believe it is the last day of summer vacation.  Summer just flew by.  I work next few days so no fun, and then Monday comes and it is back to school for my daughter.  We are starting 7^th grade this year. OH MY GOODNESS!!! How is my baby in seventh grade??? Back in my day that was called junior high LOL She is too young for this. I am so not ready for this.  I say we because I homeschool her. It works out so much better for us.  She can sleep in, do her lessons when she wants to, and if we feel like taking a day off, we just do LOL.  As long as lessons get done, then who cares LOL. 

                This school year P.E. will be a huge focus for us personally.  I plan on adding everything I am learning with Noom to her lessons LOL well kid version at least.  She is required to spend 150 minutes every week doing some sort of exercise.  Thirty-minute walks five times a week covers that.  Healthy nutritious lunches will have to be made, maybe I can even pack lunches LOL that way we know exactly what we are eating during the day and how many calories are being consumed. I carry a lunch bag to work, and it makes meals a bit more fun pulling out my treats. I should get her a lunch bag.

Today’s Noom lesson was about my two brains LOL old brain and new brain.  Old brain keeps you moving, breathing, eating, sleeping, it controls basic functions. New brain is language, attention, memory, decision making, all the sophisticated stuff. Both brains are needed to keep a person healthy. The old supports the new, so that the new can make better choices during the day, like saying no to chocolate and yes to walking a few more steps. I need to make good choices today so that I will not be disappointed tomorrow on the scale. I just need to lose that one pound this week to officially be at twenty pounds lost mark. Two pounds would be amazing LOL. Today I will make sure I get my steps in and watch my calories.  I am still working on my water intake.  I posted in my support group for help with that. The responses are just starting to come in. It is nice having a place to ask questions.

            So, since this is the last day of summer vacation for us, I should do something fun LOL no clue what.  It is too hot outside LOL that is drawback of living in Florida, the heat and humidity during the summer.  Bring on Autumn, I am ready for the weather to cool off. Okay it is Florida, so it won’t cool off for another couple months LOL at least let us get down to the 80’s for highs.  I have to pretend we have seasons here LOL I have been prepping for Fall for past couple of weeks. My son said he is okay with me decorating now if I want LOL so perhaps daughter and I will get out autumn décor and start on the inside. Too soon for the outside.  Yesterday we got a bunch of pumpkin spice everything at Target LOL

Never Say Diet

 

              The picture just makes me laugh, mostly because so much of it is truth.  There are days where I am just stunned at the behavior of people LOL so that takes care of 1,2,3,4, and 8 LOL.  I know better than to not write something down, I can hide Easter eggs from myself LOL an ant has a better memory than I do. So many times, I have walked into a room and just forgotten completely why I went in there, so that is 5 and 10. Number 6 is my favorite LOL I love naps, I take multiple everyday LOL some when I do not even want to. I often wonder if I have narcolepsy. Number 7 does not really apply to me, I do not drink, not because I think it is bad, I just have ZERO tolerance for any amount of alcohol. Number 9 is what I am all about these days LOL I want to be wrinkle free and well LOL more than three sizes smaller. I am working on that.

                Each day for the past two months I have woken up, drank my lemon water, had my coffee, and planned out how I would be healthier that day.  I am feeling lots better about myself.  I keep a log of how many steps I take daily, and yesterday I got over 16,000 in LOL so much for my cheat day. I had all sorts of intentions to just relax and take it easy since we were going out to a special restaurant but being healthy has become second nature now. That is a great thing.  I am more conscious and caring of what I put in my body.  If has even rubbed off on my daughter. She will now choose the healthier options. I am trying hard to never use the word “diet” instead we just say healthier.

 I do not ever want her to think of herself as overweight and in need of dieting. Looking back at the rare pictures of me when I was younger, I thought I was fat, but in reality, I was nowhere need fat. I looked normal and healthy.  I was not super skinny, but I also was not fat. People made me think I was though, and it killed my self-esteem.  I was her age when I developed my womanly figure, so the girls that had not gotten curves yet made me feel as if I was huge. My daughter is developing curves like I did. I do not want her thinking that is a bad thing. She will never be model slim, but she is proportioned correctly. She is my little amazon. She will be a stunning woman if she has confidence in herself.

 Oh, I mentioned the special restaurant, it was a robot restaurant LOL it had a little robot named Peanut that took us to our table, and a kitty cat robot that brought us menus and sang Happy Birthday to my daughter. The restaurant is called U&Me Hot Pot. My daughter, son, and I loved it. It is now my son’s favorite place LOL.  We sat at this table that had burners on it. We ordered a hot pot of broth that heated right in front of us. Along the sides of the tables was a conveyor belt that brought around all sorts of noodles, veggies, and dumplings that you could grab to add into your broth. There was a huge bar of meats and spices that you could select from as well. 

              We each got to customize our own hot pot. I discovered I like watercress in my broth. My son liked these beef meatballs that looked like marshmallows, and my daughter loved the boba tea and robots. Her face was enchanted while she listened to the kitty cat robot sing to her LOL Peanut was hilarious. If a person got in its way it would say “move out of my way or I will get angry” or “move, I have to work or I will get fired” LOL it was very entertaining.   

Awesome August and Noom

OKAY I know I wrote a blog all about how water is key, but I am still struggling with it. It is one of my biggest challenges.  Just this past week I had an epic fail at work.  I normally take a 16-ounce bottle of diet sweet tea to work to drink. I get my sweet tea with no calories so bonus. Anyway, I ended up bringing that bottle back home with only one sip taken out of it. I was so busy I never had time to drink.  That is so bad for me. I tattled on myself to my son, so now he is actively reminding me to drink water.  I knew older women tend to be dehydrated, I just did not realize I was becoming that older woman LOL I do not even feel thirsty.  That is the bad part, my body does not signal me that it wants me to drink. In the morning I do okay.  I wake up and have a 10-ounce glass of lemon water, then I have 2 cups of coffee. So, I figure I am three cups into the recommended eight. After than I fail miserably. Last night I did get me some Metamucil LOL no laughing. I did not get it for the laxative effect, I got it because it helps curb appetite by giving you fiber, it helps control blood sugar, the fiber in it helps lower cholesterol, and improves GI health. So, I will mix it in two cups of water, and voila I have another two cups down LOL coffee + lemon water + Metamucil = 5 cups of the 8 needed. I just need to get those other three in me daily. So hard.  I have been reading all sorts of tips on internet, and none of them really spoke to me.  I just have to do it. Thank goodness my son is now after me LOL

                Today is August 1^st, 2021.  A brand-new month. We had a great time celebrating my daughter’s birthday yesterday. I even managed to stay on track with my calories. At the restaurant I got my salad and immediately both kids each grabbed one of my two tortilla wedges it came with LOL less calories for me. My daughter liked the look of my salad more than what she ordered, so that encouraged me to eat less so that I could take it home for her to eat later. I was so happy I was able to be able to enjoy dinner out with my kids rather than worry about calories.  Sometimes you just have to put aside dieting to focus on fun times. Then you get back on track the next day LOL

 Noom is currently showing me #psychtricks to help me make proper choices and stay focused when faced with challenges like eating out. I got to say, if you have not figured it out by reading my posts yet, I love my Noom app LOL when I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by the temptation of not moving and just eating mindlessly, it helps a lot to just open the app and do a lesson or two.  I can also go into my support group area and read what others are posting, to remind myself that it is not just me. Others are having the same struggles I am. Sometimes just those few minutes I am in the app gives me a chance to curb my inner elephant LOL get into Noom and you will learn all about the elephant LOL

                So, with the new month my daughter and I are starting this new photo challenge I found on Pinterest.  It is an Instagram challenge. Each day you post a picture that goes with the theme of the day.  I found a whole year of themes and printed them out.  I am hoping it encourages us to be creative and get out more to find an interesting shot to snap.  Today is supposed to be “heatwave” fitting since it is so hot here lately. No hurricanes to cool us off. It has been a quiet season so far. If you are reading this and interested to see what we come up with, I am @leeandstacismom on Instagram. That is also my name on Pinterest LOL. I love finding out I have people checking out my pages LOL.