A Day in the Life

6:30 a.m. Hit "snooze" on the alarm clock.

6:40 a.m. Crawl out of bed to get ready for the day. Make a lot of noise to prevent The Professor from enjoying the additional 45 minutes of Saturday sleep-in denied to me.

7:45 a.m. Jump into the car and point it West towards Brownwood. Turn the heat on high because it's a frigid 27 degrees outside.

9:24 a.m. Convince The Professor to pull into a truck stop for COFFEE.

10:12 a.m. Receive phone call from the spa in Brownwood with the disappointing news that they can't fit me in today.

10:20 a.m. Arrive in Brownwood and locate the art show, scope out the town and stop for a pee at Taco Bell.

11:00 a.m. Enjoy lunch with the delightful hosts of the art show. Devour an entire ham and turkey sandwich on fresh bread with homemade potato chips. Begin coughing and accept a throat lozenge from one of the hosts.

12:15 p.m. Drop The Professor off at the art show to begin the judging process. Punch into the GPS the address of the first antique store on the list provided by the art show host. Stop twice to reattach the GPS to the dashboard after its nose dive onto the floor.

12:25 p.m. Drive through a ginormous mud puddle and drench The Professor's car. Giggle about how little time it took for me to make such a mess after being left on my own for the day.

12:30 p.m. Freeze my fanny off in an open air, unheated antique store. Buy a plastic car for The Professor as a possible distraction to the mud all over his real car. Start coughing more frequently.

12:45 p.m. Go to the mall to warm up and pee again. Wonder how a shopping center with a one-floor JC Penney's and no shoe stores can be considered a mall.

1:38 p.m. Punch the address for the second antique store into the GPS and hope that it has walls and a heater.

1:50 p.m. Leave the blessedly heated antique store and punch in the address for a jewelry store mentioned in the little Brownwood visitor's brochure.

1:55 p.m. Discover that the jewelry store is now a furniture emporium. Attempt to locate a pie shop I found on-line last night. Curse loudly after finding it closed.

2:10 p.m. Decide to stay in the warm car and go for a drive. Make random turns on country roads, looking at cows and thinking that I could never be the Pioneer Woman, no matter how cute Marlboro Man might be.

3:15 p.m. Decide to hang with the locals at Wal-Mart. Buy cat litter and a bag of cherries for the drive home. Walk around in circles looking for cough syrup and Kleenex.

3:53 p.m. Receive phone call from The Professor that he's finished early and ready to be picked up. Hurriedly make my way to the express check out. Forget to buy cough syrup in the rush.

4:30 p.m. Point the car East and head for home. Begin realizing that my chest feels like it was kicked by a steer and that coughing is painful.

5:15 p.m. Stop for a quick dinner at the worst Mexican food cafe on Interstate 20. Buy a bottle of cough syrup at the truck stop before getting back on the freeway for the drive home.

8:03 p.m. Home! Run upstairs to pee (again), gaze with horror at the color of my throat and dig out the medicines leftover from the creeping crud earlier this month.

Pampered Plans

The Professor and I are taking a mini-road trip tomorrow. He's the juror for an art exhibition and has to be on hand to do the judging part of his job. I'm tagging along to keep the boy company during the drive there and back, but I'll have the afternoon to myself once we arrive.

A mini Dillypoo Day!

I Googled things to do in the little West Texas town of Brownwood. Apparently, there's not much unless I feel like looking at war museums, railcars or football memorials.

I don't think so.

But...

Brownwood has a day spa! I've left a message and my cell phone number. I'm hoping to score an appointment for a little pampering while The Professor is doing his thing.

Yeah, I'm a city girl.

The Crap Theory

Dillypoo has a theory that you crave what you eat. I call this the Crap Theory. It means that if your diet consists mainly of crap then you crave crap to eat.

It's a vicious cycle.

The Professor and I used to eat crappy fast food. A lot. I craved Taco Bell. He craved Wendy's. Their drive thru's near our house are side-by-side, and it was easy to swing through one and make a quick U-turn into the other to pick up dinner. The more frequently we ate fast food, the more we wanted it.

It was a contributing factor in my ballooning to 202 pounds.

The Crap Theory works on other foods, too. I can't keep chips in the house because I can't stop eating them once I start. And I don't mean stopping when only the crumbs are left. Eating one bag makes me want more chips - potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, cheesy chips.

I'm stupid for chips. Which is why I don't buy them.

Snickers bars and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are also problems.

The good thing about the Crap Theory is that its effects are reversible. If my theory that you crave what you eat is true, then if you stop eating crap, you'll stop craving crap.

So The Professor and I went cold turkey on the Taco Bell/Wendy's runs last year. I went about six months without an enchirito or taco supreme, but it only took a couple of weeks to kill the cravings.

I'm not sure how long The Professor went without a number one combo with cheese, but I'm pretty certain he doesn't indulge as often as he used to.

I think.

Nowadays (is that a word?) I try and surround myself with non-crap staples. Like fresh berries and yogurt:

Mmmmm! Sometimes I'll go to the grocery store during my lunch hour just to buy a bag of fruit.

I'm dreaming about bing cherries right now.

The Crap Theory was in play during the holidays. Remember that big tin of popcorn? I couldn't stop eating it once I started because I began craving that stale, salty, crappy popcorn once I pried off the lid.

I never should've opened the can!

But Dillypoo is back on top now, reversing the Crap Theory and filling my diet with healthy food choices again. I doubt I'll ever reach the point where I crave salad, but it sure is nice to know that I can satisfy my hunger for a burger with a veggie patty and a whole tomato and be both happy and full.



Weigh Day Update: I lost 1.2 pounds this week! Another 1.4 pounds and I'll be back at 40 pounds lost overall. Woo hoo!

A Foot With A View

I like to prop my feet up. A lot.

Guilty Pleasures

It's that time of year when Dillypoo likes to indulge herself with a host of guilty pleasures. Which is why you can usually find me curled up at home evenings and weekends watching tee vee in my jammies, trying to keep the snacking to a minimum.

This list is in no specific order. I just thought you should know. (No, I don't know why you should know. You just should.)

American Idol

Vitalicious chocolate muffins

bing cherries

Project Runway

Harry Potter audiobooks

Cole Haans shoes

Nick and Nora pajamas

HGTV's Worst Cooks in America

iPhone solitaire

People Magazine

sushi

Dove chocolates

Ministry of Magic

Excuses Excuses

Dillypoo has strayed from the journey over the past few weeks. I've taken a few guilty pleasures (an occasional chocolate muffin) and turned them into self indulgences (an entire pecan pie) - with unhappy consequences.

I have excuses, though. Probably none of them very good, but I like to divert blame whenever possible.

First it was the holidays. I didn't really have a plan to deal with all of the parties, snacks, booze and extra food that kept crossing my path. I thought I had a plan, but it turned out to be a pretty bad one. As a matter of fact, I can't even recall what the plan was. That's how bad it was.

My self restraint was pretty much non-existent by Christmas Eve. In addition to chips, dip and tamales, I ate at least six of those deviled eggs. I'm pretty sure they weren't made with fat free mayo.

Then it got cold.

I'm actually a big fan of winter. Give me a choice between a hot, humid day and a cold, cloudy one, and I'll take the one that needs a sweater and umbrella. I'm weird like that. But I was totally unprepared for the reality of how unpleasant it is to exercise when your breath is frozen in mid-air. Who knew?

Hitting the snooze alarm is so easy when the temperature is in the teens and the electric blanket is on high.

Then I got sick. I'd like to tell you I caught the crud by spending too much time working out in the cold air, but I'd be lying.

I spent a week sitting on the couch watching Bridezilla and Iron Chef America, feeding my cold since I had no fever to starve. A giant tin of popcorn was my constant companion that week. (Chicken soup is so overrated.)

The end result is that Dillypoo is no longer 40 pounds lighter than she was this time last year. I've gained 2.6 pounds since hitting that milestone back in November.

But I'm getting my mojo back, slowly but surely. Last Saturday I went for a four mile walk. I hadn't been to the park in almost a month and my legs were pretty sore afterwards, but it felt good to get out. I've also stopped hitting the snooze button and started hauling my fanny out of bed early to hit the treadmill. Next up is working my new Wii Fit into the routine.

It's time to refocus on the things that worked last year: eating healthy, exercising and blogging.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

It's All Mental

It's Tuesday which means it's Weigh Day. I have nothing to report this week. I neither lost nor gained.

Which is probably pretty good. Dillypoo has lost her focus. I haven't exercised in more than two weeks and I've been lax in tracking my meals and snacks.

And I've almost eaten my way to the bottom of this:

My recent attack of the creeping crud and last week's arctic blast knocked me off track. It's hard to get on a treadmill when you're hacking up a lung or shivering violently from the cold.

Those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them!

Well, that and I'm having trouble hurdling a mental block about my weight.

You see, I recently set a goal weight with my Club WW leader. 148 has been my goal since the very beginning. It was the goal weight I reached the last time I did Weight Watchers. Back then, 148 meant I felt and looked good and I wore a size 10.

But I reached that weight without exercise, so I was a flabby 148. And because I never established healthy habits (like exercising), I eventually gained the weight back - plus some.

Now I'm exercising and doing this journey correctly. Which is where the mental part comes into play. I'm still 15ish pounds away from goal but I'm already a size 10. Once I reach 148, I'll be another size smaller, and I've never been able to maintain a size 8. Ever.

You could say I'm freaking out about getting too skinny and being able to stay that way.

Mental, huh?

Like Yoda I Am

I was just scrolling through my blog and noticed a similarity between this photo of me:

...and this photo of Yoda:

I'm not really sure what to think.

Brrrrrr

The Professor and I live in an old house in a historic neighborhood. We're what folks sometimes call Urban Pioneers, a euphemism for fools who buy derelict homes under the romantic notion of saving an old city neighborhood while creating a cozy home with character. In reality, some fixer uppers should be knock-em downers.

I waiver back and forth on where our house falls in that spectrum.

Just kidding, darling! Are you ready to tackle the upstairs bathroom now?

Sometimes what puts the "pioneer" in Urban Pioneer is the weather, and the weather the past few days has been COLD:

When the temperatures outside fall below freezing for any considerable amount of time (as they have for the past three days), the temperatures fall inside, too. And they fall pretty far in a 100-year old house without central heat and air. Right now, the refrigerator is warmer than the kitchen and the dishwasher detergent is frozen.

This gives me a unique understanding of what life was like at the turn of the last century. Except I have an electric mattress pad and thermal underwear to keep me warm.

So just how do we heat our drafty old home? For starters, we close off the rooms downstairs and spend our time upstairs. Kind of like we do when it's too hot out, except instead of relying on window air conditioners, our comfort depends on an old gas furnace:

Heat rises and this puppy generates enough to keep us warm on most days. But when the temps fall into the teens, The Professor hauls the smelly kerosene heater out from the garage and up to the second floor:

Stinky heat is better than chattering teeth.

If it seems like we spend most of the year upstairs, it's because we do. Right now the living room is storage for paintings and supplies from The Professor's old art studio and the dining room is doubling as my gym. Except that it's been too cold to work out.

Wearing layers indoors is another warming tactic, just as it is when braving the elements outside. When you can see your breath - whether in the kitchen or on the front porch - then it's probably a good idea to dig out the long underwear:

It's not much of a fashion statement, but at least I'm warm.

And since starting this post, it looks like the thermostat outside has finally risen above freezing! At least for a few hours. I wonder if that's enough time to hook the washing machine back up and do some laundry? I'm running out of long johns.

Creeping Crud

Dillypoo is ailing. I welcomed 2010 with a sore throat that has blossomed into a full fledged case of the crud. And I'm none to pleased about it, either. So far, it's cost me a half day of vacation, my voice and my dignity. It seems my 40-something bladder can't hold it when I sneeze any more.

Happy new year.

On the up side, my boss found it prudent to provide me with a laptop computer to make me mobile and more productive when not chained to my office. Which is why I was able to keep the vacation request to only a half day today. I managed to work from home for a few hours. In my jammies.

I could get used to that, assuming I wasn't also trying to blast my nasal passages clear with leftover firecrackers.

The other half of today was spent figuring out how to use a laptop touch pad, setting up my email and generally playing with a fancy new toy. Is it wrong to use this thing for blogging if it's after hours? I'm all comfy camped out on the couch in front of the tee vee and my personal computer is on the other side of the room.

I did, however, manage to make it to my Club WW meeting tonight. I wanted to celebrate 52 weeks on the program by being there in person. And even though I've gained 1.2 pounds since my last weigh-in three weeks ago, I did a spin in my baggy sweats and croaked out some glee for being almost 40 pounds lighter than this time last year.

I'm sure everyone there was just tickled about my dedication to the journey and for spreading my germs.

What can I say. Dillypoo likes to share.

First Blogiversary

This was my view last year on January 2. The Professor and I had driven to Wichita Falls for the day, meandering our way there through small Texas towns. It was a relaxing day spent antiquing and exploring with my favorite guy. I think we stopped for lunch at Babe's and had fried chicken for lunch.

And maybe some pie.

During the long drive home, I began reflecting on how fat and uncomfortable I'd become. The past few years had not been kind to my waistline. A hysterectomy, the loss of a job I really enjoyed and the ensuing hunt for a new one meant I had soothed my stressed out soul with snacks.

A lot of snacks. I had packed on the pounds.

I didn't know how much I weighed but I knew I was rapidly ballooning into clothing sizes that were found only in the big girl's stores. I couldn't walk up stairs without panting, I got hot on cold days and I broke a sweat cleaning house. I was miserable, both inside and out.

It was during the drive home that I resolved to give Club WW another try. But I knew I needed something else to keep me focused. A creative outlet to channel the process into something productive and successful.

I decided to blog.

Those were the two best decisions I've ever made! I suppose you could call them resolutions for last year. If so, then here are my resolutions for this year:

• Reach my goal weight of 148 before summer.

• Continue my walking and jogging work out routine on the treadmill, increasing the time and distance spent jogging.

• Find a walk-a-thon to participate in this spring.

• Explore new exercise activities that increase my overall flexibility, strength and stamina.

• Continue blogging.

Happy First Blogiversary! Thank you for tagging along and providing me with the support and encouragement I needed.

Tasty Fish Dish

I recently joined Tasty Kitchen, the wonderful recipe site for non-professionals cooked up by The Pioneer Woman. I've decided that I'm going to start posting some of my recipes both here and there, along with the WW points that I've calculated for them.

This means that The Professor will be eating home cooked meals more frequently and I will have to start paying more attention to my photography skills. I'll push my little point-and-shoot-stoopid camera to it's limit to capture appetizing snaps of what I prepare.

That and a little Photoshop should help.

I blogged about my Balsamic Orange Glazed Salmon last February, but I'm repeating it with the step-by-step photography I shot last night. Here's the line up of ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup diced yellow bell pepper
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon diced shallot
2 small salmon steaks
juice from 2-3 blood red oranges (about 1/3 cup)
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick skillet and saute the peppers and shallot for a couple of minutes on medium high heat. I love the color of the two peppers!

Juice the oranges while the peppers are cooking. You'll understand why they're called "blood oranges" once you cut into one! But don't let the name and color put you off. They're very sweet and tasty.

Pour the orange juice and vinegar into the pan and cook for a few minutes more, until the juice begins to simmer.

Add the salmon steaks to the skillet.

Cover and cook for 8-10 minutes. Remove the cover and continue to cook until the liquid is mostly gone, creating a sticky glaze. Make sure the fish is done before serving. Remove the fish to dinner plates and top with the peppers and shallot glaze. I serve it with brown rice and a green vegetable.



I count each serving at 6 points (5 set points for the fish and 1 point for the olive oil).