Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Home Grown Veggies / WW Weigh-in

Y'all look at all these delicious veggies that I picked out of my parent's garden including the bell peppers in the basket.  If you have a craving for a great crunchy snack, cut up a bell pepper.  It is nothing for me to slice up a bell pepper, arrange in a bowl and recline in a chair watching a movie and eat away.  I can eat them plain or I will take 2 tbsp of ranch dressing and have a feast.  The only thing fattening about that dish is the salad dressing!

Today at ww weigh-in, I lost 4.6 lbs.  All you that is reading my blog and working with your weight lost goals, don't give up!  Set a realistic goal and stick with it.  For this week I commit to lose between 1-2 lbs, but if I lose more that is awesome too.  ~ TJ ~ 

Friday, July 20, 2012

Believe - It Works

I will be heading out for the weekend pretty soon, but wanted to drop a line to those that are losing or thinking about losing weight.  Whether you have begun or starting out, don't get discourage and step on the scale every so often or at least once a week.  Moms and I get up early-early and walk 2-miles per day.  Moms is looking good, so I asked her how much have you lost......, answer was "don't know, because I do not get on the scale might get discouraged."  Ok, yesterday I walked with this lady from my mom's church and asked her the same thing about her weight and how is ww working for her......, answer was "I can feel it in my clothes, but I don't weigh myself because I don't want to get discouraged."  Do you see a trend here?  Scale and discouraged......not good...., sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone in order to get where you need to be.  I have decided to drop in by my parent's house and sniff out the scale, put it in a noticeable place (kitchen area) and get my mom to hope on it.  I will be recording her weight each week.... I am tired of the excuses (there is another excuse that she uses that I will not mention).  Good luck to yall and I will be updating my blog Wednesday as how I did in class.

Isn't this a gorgeous picture......., thanks Kent!  I have this picture on my office wall and I swear that wolf is in 3D.  It seems like the head and the body is getting ready to step out at you.  I don't know where Kent got this picture, but it is made out of some type of wood.  Lovin' it!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Cherries and Bananas


Look what I picked up from Food Lion today.  Cherries and Bananas, what a great combination and guess what?  Both are only 0 points with ww.  These cherries are tender and juicy.  I am going to have to make another trip to Food Lion ~ or ~ maybe I need to hide the cherries in the back of the fridge from my son.  We cannot even keep bananas in the house.  Imagine what will happen with the cherries!





I decided to start on a new cross stitch.  This piece is called Legend.  I have no idea why it is called that.  Since I don't have the chart in front of me, I want to say the chart is dated back in 1976 or '72.  My plans are to write to the company to see if they are still in business and have any more charts.  Once I finish this piece, I am going to start on the other chart by the same person.  I am going to turn these pieces into pillows and sit them around in my living room.  ~ TJ ~

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Restarting Weight Watchers feels GREAT!

Today was a great day at my Weight Watchers meeting.  Joy Ward, our ww leader, is great.  If you live in the Raleigh-Durham area and is interested in an exciting, vibrant and cheerful leader, please feel free to look her up.  She does other ww sessions.  My goal now besides losing weight, reading the ww weekly, but is also to become a lifetime member of ww.  Joy explained to me how it works and my maintenance weight goal.  Very easy since I need to be that weight size due to my height.  Now to let you all know what I am down to........, 215.4!  This week I commit to lose between 1-2 lbs. 

I am loving the new me......, and it is a long time in coming.  I can remember when I first started exercising how I hated it and would be all out of breathe just from one lap around Pilot's track.  Now, that did not even include working out to kickboxing, zumba and cardio dance.  When I first started does classes I would be outta there in 10-15 minutes.  After pushing myself, I love exercising.  In fact, I cannot wait to hit the track this evening.  My confidence is coming back yall.  When I was walking into the building where I work, this man was coming out.  I know his face but not his name.  Anyway, he held the door and as I entered he said you are looking different, I like it and you are sharp.  Before I could really say thank you, he was gone.  Don't know if he was embarassed, but it was a GREAT compliment coming from someone that I don't know or have not carried on a conversation with. 

Another great thing about eating healthy is that my son is eating what I eat.  Maybe because he doesn't have a choice, but choice-change is good.  I had bought several ww smart ones.  When I went to grab one for breakfast, I noticed some were missing.  Now mind you, there is other foods in the freezer microwaveable that might not be good.  I do buy unhealthy food, because sometimes I just have to have that taste in my mouth but I am learning to control my food portions.  That's it sensible food portion control and something that I hope to teach to my son as well.  When I asked my son about it, he said yeah and they were good.  So that made me feel good as well.  I will be picking up more ww smart ones along with stopping by the NC Farmer's Market for some great veggies/fruits. 

For all you that is looking to lose weight, my motto is "just do it".  Regardless if you mess up on a day, just remember tomorrow is a new day. ~ TJ ~

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Yellow Sunflower / Dolls / Weight Watchers





The day I took this picture of this yellow sunflower dishcloth was the same day I mailed it to its new owner.  I decided that I would start back knitting and sell my products.  I knitted this cute sunflower on 100% cotton yarn.  This dishcloth always get rave reviews. 










Along with my other hobbies, I am a collector of dolls.  Well, I used to be anyway; I have slowed down a whole lot in purchasing dolls.

This doll is very interesting too me.  She was purchased from an estate sale, which I waited until the last minute to outbid all others.  This doll has been appraised to have been made in the early 1920s era. 













As you can see by the clothing, whomever made this doll was very detail.  I would love to know if this doll was made for a little girl, because she is in excellent condition.











and, here is just a few of my other babies.  All these dolls including the one above is kept in the bucket that you see in the background.  The bucket is really cute, minature size that I paid $1.00 for at the Farmer's Market.  I believe at that time I had purchased some peaches and asked the guy if he would be willing to sell that bucket.  I had all four dolls to the left in the bucket, but the doll above I kept on my work table.  Each afternoon I would find the doll above on the floor.  I figured either she jumped......., or my cat at the time put her there.  I will let you figure that one out.


Yesterday, I and a lady from my mom's church walked 2 miles since this was the first time we actually met and walked.  While walking around the Pilot's track there was a men's soccer game going on.  Each time we would get closer and pass the soccer field there would be a lot of whistling.  Did that feel good,...... yes, because it does a lot to a person's ego.  I can't say which one of us the whistling was for (probably both of us), but I will say this men are taking notice. 

The best thing about today is that I re-joined Weight Watchers.  I had people tell me that I didn't need to join, because I was losing weight on my own.  The reason I joined is because I really like weight watchers and the team leader was great.  Not only that, but after watching this woman in the first meeting (today) reached her weight goal and on top of that she is now officially a lifetime member of weight watchers that gave me the biggest incentive to get busy.  Becoming a lifetime member has it perks and I know that is where I want to be.  I am still losing, working out and will let y'all know how I do at my first weigh-in next week.  I am so looking forward to seeing the new me. ~ TJ ~

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Before/After and what I am eating today.....

First, I want to say thanks to all that is following my blog and have sent me offline emails regarding my weight goal.  Just from losing 15 lbs already, I feel really good and am looking forward to working out this afternoon.  I had prepared my duffel bag for gym this afternoon, but then I left it at home instead because I feel like walking 2-4 miles around the Pilot's track.  Then before I crawl into bed tonight, I will do my 30-minutes weight watchers workout cd.  I mentioned in one of my blogs that it took my son's comment to me that I am fat to WAKE ME UP.  Well, this morning on my way out, my son said to me "mom, I can tell you are losing weight."  That young man has not seen nothing yet!

Last week I had to run some errands, so I stopped by Wendy's to grab a bite.  While waiting in line there was this good looking picture of a salad called Berry Almond Chicken Salad.  After purchasing that salad, I went to BJ's and picked up all the ingredients and made the exact same salad at home and also this is what I am having for lunch today. 
Can I tell a difference between Wendy's Berry Almond Chicken Salad and Tywanna's Berry Almond Chicken Salad,..... and the answer is "no".  I will be having this for dinner as well.  I love salads, especially salads as tasteful as this one.

Now, I want to share before and after pictures:

                                    

Me at 238 lbs.



 












                         Me at 219.5 lbs.

Same person, different pictures.  Pictures do not lie y'all.  Next picture update will be at 15-20 lbs.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Weight Loss

Checking-in on my weight loss.  As of today, I have lost a total of 15 lbs.  I know there are people that are watching to see if I am going to do it this time......"yes, I am!"  In the past I have been like a yo-yo (up, down, up, down), but not anymore.  Do you know it is hard work to lose weight?  During my ordeal of losing, I pulled off my bookshelf "The Me I Knew I Could Be" by Crystal Phillilps.  I have had this book for so many years that I cannot remember when I first purchased it, so you can tell by that comment that I had every intentions of losing weight years ago.  This is a great book about a woman that went from 292 lbs to a size 6.  Also, this book contains wholesome recipes with the calories breakdown, two weeks of menu and an overview from week 1 to week 16, which you can follow. 

If you are interested in reading the book I am currently reading, here it is.....


Another comment I want to make, after losing 15 lbs I can feel it in my clothes especially my pants.  I have decided I am going to lose another 10 lbs, then I will slowly upgrade my closet (throw out the old in with the new).  Cool comment coming from someone like me that shopped for everyone else except for myself.  Yep, I am looking forward to shopping.  Have a great 4th of July!