I started back with WW (Weight Watchers) on Jan. 3. Tomorrow will be my fourth weigh-in. So far, I have lost 8.6 pounds and I am very happy about that.
Of course, I wish I hadn’t let myself go and have this much work to do again. But I do. I have almost 20 more pounds to lose to get back to where I was happy. And that is where I am heading. Back to feeling good about myself and back to feeling healthy again. And hopefully back to feeling happy.
Besides my weight, I am working on getting my endurance back and hopefully running at a pace that I am happy with. Currently, that is not the case. I have had some decent treadmill runs, but honestly, the majority have been shitty. Could I push myself a little more? Probably, but running is still really hard yet. Is it all my weight? Probably not. Even though my lungs weren’t really impacted when I had COVID last November, it is still semi hard to run and I get SUPER tired when I push really hard. I know it will come, but I wish it would come a little faster.
My husband and I signed up for a St. Patrick’s race on March 19. It’s the “Shamrock N Run” in Fargo and we decided to sign up for the 14K, which is 8.7 miles. Does it scare the hell out of me? You bet. But does it also excite me? Yes, yes it does. I want to get back to running some longer distances and hopefully this will give me the incentive to keep at it. Since Jan. 3, my longest distance has only been six miles and I still haven’t been able to run the whole thing. I have had to do some walking, which really isn’t that big of deal, but I kind of wish I could run the whole thing. I’ll get there. I know I will. I just sometimes don’t have a lot of patience.
On the food front, things have been going really, really well. I feel good with where I am at. We have been making some super delicious meals and we are still having our date nights. I have just switched up some things and again, I am super happy about where I am at with food.
Here’s a look at some yummy things we have had in the last couple of weeks:
These are coffee-cardamom date balls. So delicious. The recipe came from my new WW cookbook, which I received as a bonus for signing up when I did.
I have been making some suppers lately as Al does his treadmilling when he gets home from work. I will admit, it’s been kind of fun. Kind of. This is a stir fry I made, which by the way, was the first stir fry I have ever made it my life. It turned out pretty good. I was kind of impressed with myself.
For our appetizers on Saturday night date night, we have been turning to my favorite hummus, Tribe. We get the roasted red pepper one and have it with raw veggies. So yummy!
Al made a delicious mahi mahi with a mango avocado salsa on top and we had it with a sweet potato recipe I found on WW. It was sweet potatoes, crushed pineapple, Splenda and cinnamon. SO TASTY.
Super easy to make. Just combine all the ingredients and bake. I would have never thought to put pineapple with sweet potatoes but seriously, it was so good.
This was a vegetarian taco casserole that Al made from the WW cookbook. We had enough leftover for me to have it two days for lunch. I loved it!
This is a Greek pizza we made, which is a favorite of ours. We made it for the first time in 2007. We switched up a few things from the recipe, but damn, it is still SO GOOD.
Al brushed garlic infused olive oil on the crust and then topped with spinach (not shown), artichokes, kalamata olives, green pepper, fat free feta cheese, oregano and parmesan cheese.
So tasty!
This is what our kitchen looks like during a Saturday night date night meal. Yep, it is messier than messy, but it doesn’t matter. It literally took me like 10 minutes to clean up. And so worth it.
These are a couple of wines I found – one is very WW point friendly, while the other I expected to be, but it was not. The Cupcake LightHearted was very WW friendly. If one would happen to drink a whole bottle, it is only 15 WW points. The other one, the FitVine, which comes across as being so much better for you than regular wine, is the same amount of points per bottle – 22 – than regular wine. I did still drink it, but I think I will stick with the Cupcake LightHearted, which by the way comes in five different varieties.
I bought the WW 2-Ingredient Dough Bagel Kit and I made some this morning. They were decent. Maybe a little dry, but still better than I expected. I will definitely make them again.
Another food item that has been a staple for me the last three weeks and something I kind of forgot about is my turkey roll ups. I don’t have a picture, but I take six pieces of Oscar Meyer smoked turkey and make three “stacks” of two slices each. I then take a wedge of the light Laughing Cow cheese and divide it into thirds and spread each third on each stack of meat. I then put a pickle on it and roll it up. It’s so good.
Throughout the last few weeks, I have tried some new foods that I found out I love, re-discovered all the veggies I had quit eating and remembered some of my favorite foods I quit eating because I quit my healthy living journey. It feels good to be back.
As I continue on this journey, I know there will be some ups and some downs, but my goal is to just keep going, one day at a time. I am feeling good with how things have been going so far and I hope that continues.
If you are on this same journey, how is it going for you? Leave me a comment if you want to share. I would love to hear from you!
The Road to 50 