A teaser...

I have been awful about writing, though I did change the look of my blog over the weekend. This will have to tide you over until I can sit and really write about all the changes and good things that have been going on.

Thank you for still reading. <3

Checking in Friday evening

I love my tracker and that it shows that you guys were looking for a weigh in post!

Here's this week's scoop:

My weigh in this week hit a big milestone - I am no longer obese!  I have been obese for the better part of my adult life.  I had to get below 180 to qualify as "overweight."  Funny how that can make someone so happy, right?  Yee-haw!  I'm overweight!!!  Yeah, well - YEE HAW!  I'm overweight!  I know that being overweight still leads to increased risk of health problems, and I am dedicated to being the healthiest person I can be.  I know I am on the right track.  My handsome hubby asked me this morning if I expected when I started on January 1 to have seen the progress I see here - 60% of the way to my goal.  My answer was honest - "I wasn't really worried about it."  I think that's the difference this time compared to times in the past.  I am not obsessed with the number.  I do track it.  I weigh in each week, and sometimes in between my weigh in day.  I am not overly obsessed about making it to the number.  I'm still a little in disbelief about being under 180 lbs right now.  I don't feel excessively jubilant - but I do appreciate glances in the mirror when I can tell that my figure has changed dramatically.

Last week at bowling, one of my male neighbors asked if I had been losing weight.  It was really cute because he kind of apologized to my husband for noticing, which I thought was super awesome, because my husband responded with, "Yeah!  I tell her all the time how awesome she's doing."  Talk about making a girl feel special.  <3  I consider that an NSV.  Another NSV was trying on my string bean husband's jeans this morning, and proceeding to fasten them completely and comfortably.  I could have worn them to town (and might in the coming days).

After my weigh in last week, with Nicole having gotten up in the middle of the night so excited for me, I received even more support from her than I expected.  I hung out with her and her mom for her mom's birthday one evening last week and received a gift.  I got the 10% keychain!  Nicole had ordered it for me in anticipation of me reaching my goal!  How fantastic is that?  What an awesome gift.  I can't wait to have earned little charms for it.  Even though I don't attend the meetings, I have earned it, and even if I have to order the charms myself, I'll be getting them!

As a reward for my 10% goal, I got myself 2 magazine subscriptions.  I love looking at magazines, and even more now that cute clothes are more of a reality.  I ordered Self and Glamour.  I am really excited about it, and it's a nice little escape for me in this very testosterone filled house.  I need all the girly I can get!

My goals the past few weeks have not been weight loss oriented.  I have been more focused on quality time with my family.  We went twice last week to the beach to walk around and look for sea glass.  I get so centered being in nature.  It doesn't have to be the beach - I'm just as happy on a hike.  It's nice to see my boys so excited to be participating and happy.  We played charades one night before bed.  It was awesome to see how one son totally got the idea and the other had a harder time not talking.  (and for those that know my kids, it was actually C that had the harder time being quiet than L for a change!)

My week this week has been busy, but I have been receiving a lot of nice feedback at work on the job I've been doing, and I am so thankful for that.  We have had a lot going on, and it is nice to hear good things.  Church is awesome, and this week, I will be at the church 5 of 7 days for services and/or rehearsals.  What a gift to be able to share the gift and heart that God has given me for His service.  Palm Sunday is this weekend, and we'll be presenting some beautiful songs.  Communion on Wednesday evening will set the stage for the juxtaposed reverence and celebration of Easter Sunday.  Here's a teaser that one of the very talented members of the worship team made.  There are snippets of me in the video, but that's not what it's about - it's about the sacrifice, the gift, the GRACE and MERCY that God provided in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  If you're in the Cape Cod area and need a place to worship and celebrate on Easter Sunday, join us!

**crickets chirping** Uh, is this thing on?

Usually when I am not blogging, that means some sort of meltdown is nearing, taking place, or I have completely given in to hermit mode.  That is NOT the case, and I'll try to fill you guys in on the last couple of weeks.

Now that I'm looking back, it's been 3 weeks since I blogged for a weigh in.  I was at 184, had just been to the ER for stroke-like symptoms, and all that jazz.

My weigh in yesterday brought me to 181.0.  That means I have lost more than 10% of my body weight since January 1.  Folks, that is just amazing.  Simply amazing.  And I have to tell you that my Weight Watch Us group on base has been instrumental in that accomplishment - even more than that, our leader, Nicole, and my bestie, was up at 3 am on my weigh in day so excited because she just KNEW I was going to make it.  She even blogged about my accomplishment on her blog.  How awesome is that?  It is more than encouraging to have one person in your life that is a genuine FAN - Someone who loves you, supports you, defends you, kicks your butt, and does it with no expectation of reciprocation.  I am fortunate to have more than one of those people in my life, but I am so thankful that Coley and I are here together traveling different journeys, but supporting one another all the same.  It's a gift.  

Now in that initial "when can I make my goal" planning stage of this journey, I was really hoping to be at my goal by my birthday.  Well, that's just a few weeks from now, and completely unreasonable.  That's okay.  I know that whatever weight I am at that point, if I continue losing, will be the lowest weight I've been since I got married.  The most recently I've been under 180 since 2000 was for a brief few weeks in 2009, right before I dropped my basket (forgive the Ya Ya reference, but that's the closest it comes to explaining things).  

I am feeling pretty well, considering I have had a migraine for 3 weeks.  Yeah...that's right.  Those stroke-like symptoms were determined to be late-onset migraine headache symptoms.  That headache has been around since Feb 23, and is just now dwindling since starting a prednisone taper and neurontin (in addition to all the other junk I take every day).  I visited with a neurologist, and we have a treatment plan in place to prevent and treat any future headaches there might be.

It is important to me - so unbelievably important - that I am more than my illness(es).  I know so many people dealing with "stuff" heavier than mine.  My beautiful friend, Angela, is fighting a battle that is unthinkable after dealing with more "stuff" than any family deserves.  Her BFF just watched her daughter receive her forever heart and slip from this world to the next this past week after a valiant fight in a little body that just couldn't hold all of what Morgan had to offer the world.  With those people, who am I to complain about some aches and pains?  God has blessed me in so many ways to dwell on my health issues.  My responsibility on my journey right now, I believe, is to make the most of what I have where I am right now. 

I have a lot going on in the coming weeks at church and at work.  We are preparing for Easter at church, which is very exciting.  I was asked to sing at our Communion service and on Easter Sunday, which is an honor.  I had a great time going out to shop for an Easter dress.  It wasn't ALL fun - I was pretty bummed that the tailored dresses I liked I needed in a 14 for my chest and shoulders, but would have needed to be taken in for the waist to fit properly.  It's a good thing, but I'm such a dress girl (and so cheap) that it was frustrating for me.  I did find something I love, and I am super excited to have found it.  This is going to mean lots of evening rehearsals right after work, so if you don't hear from me much in the next couple weeks, please bear with me.  

I'm going to wrap this one up.  Please continue to follow Nicole and support her on her journey over at Cupcakes to Cardio.  I do respect that her journey is different than mine, and that she wanted to write on her own, but she thinks all "my" readers aren't interested in her story.  Prove her wrong.  ;)

Please share our blogs if you know someone who might benefit from them.  Please click to follow me.  Please let me know if there is something you would like to know more about - in my journey, in my life, anything.  I would be happy to write any of it out.  

And next time, don't let me get by with 3 weeks and no blogging!  

NSV alert - I tucked in my shirt today! HUGE, huge progress!

Including veggies is easy!

Why is it that we have such a hard time including vegetables in our daily diet when it is so easy to bulk our meals up with them!?

Some of my favorite ways lately are:

1) A large salad or pile of fresh or steamed veggies to fill at least half the plate. We were having spaghetti this particular evening and I knew i didn't want to use too many points on the pasta. It was very filling to crunch on some broccoli and cauliflower - and good for me, too!

2) Lettuce leaves in place of bread is a fantastic way to incorporate green leafy veggies and save some points. For lunch a few days ago I had some leftover turkey burger patties and I wanted an alternative to bread. I put a little spicy mustard and the turkey in green leaf lettuce and rolled it up. It was so tasty!

3) The easiest incorporating plan for veggies is also my favorite. I heat them through in the pan and then add an egg white. Essentially I have a little scrambled egg with my veggies. I love zucchini, spinach, mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes... Just so many yummy choices! It is a super fast breakfast (or dinner) packed with easy, nutritious yumminess!  (Oh, and those aren't pancakes - it's deli thin sandwich slices with 1 tsp of syrup on top.  YUM!)

My challenge for you is to incorporate veggies in a meal this week intentionally that you wouldn't have before, and then tell me what you did!

Updating

Hi Friends!  

Just a quick update...

I am still loving WW.  I am still losing weight.  As a matter of fact I have lost 20.8 pounds in just 10 weeks!  I am very happy with my progress and I hope to continue it.  I just finished a 5k with some friends in under 45 minutes.  I know that time is crazy high, but I ran some, I walked some, and I finished.  I am proud of that.

Since I started WW, I have been blogging in two places.  Over here with the lovely Ber and then over at my own blog.  Lately, I have been having trouble keeping up with one blog let alone both blogs.  The boys are moving more, I am trying to move more, and life seems to be in full swing again over at the Davis household.

I am going to keep blogging.  I really enjoy it and it is a nice release after a long day of babies and hubby.   However, I have decided that it will be best for me to work on the blog over at Cupcakes To Cardio.  Amber and I started this journey together and we'll continue to grow and work together, I am sure of that.  Time is precious and we all are trying to figure out how to divide it up so that we are happy, healthy, and stress free (well, stress less).  

Thank you all for your support and kind words.  If you want to continue to read about my journey, please feel free to follow me.   Ber will be making guest posts for sure!

Much love ~ Coley Loree 

Lunch break check in ~ Weigh in day ~

I realize now that I didn't update here with my health stuff.  Long story short, I ended up in the ER on Thursday last week with symptoms potentially indicating some pretty bad stuff.  I left the ER early Friday morning with a diagnosis of a migraine, and I'll be exploring other options with my physician after she has an opportunity to review the reports from the CT and MRI I had while in the ER.

This morning was weigh in day.  I had a few bags of fluid in the ER the other night, and my sneak peeks at the scale didn't look very promising.  I was up a few pounds for most of the past few days, which was discouraging. In my brain, I knew that this was beyond my control, but in that hopeful part that just wants to succeed, I was pretty bummed.  Regardless, I knew that if I at least stayed the same this week, I'd be okay with myself, and I'd just have to suck it up if I was a little higher than last week.

I called the hubby in to witness my weigh in, and he covered the display so I couldn't see it.  He asked what I was last week, and I almost panicked, but then he showed me.  I was 184 even.  As of today, I have lost 18 pounds since January 1.  This is the last weigh in for Feb, and while it would've been nice to be at an even 20, I'm not complaining!  I have less than 20 pounds to go to reach my goal weight of 165.

I mentioned the loss that my doctor told me about - those 35 lbs.  I went back in this blog to when Coley and I first started writing together and exploring a healthier lifestyle.  October 22, 2010, I posted some "NOW" pictures.  Not before pictures, but where I was at that time.  I also got the hubby to take some pictures this morning so you can see my current "NOW" pictures.  I'm wearing some slacks I bought during my weight loss journey in AL.  I had ordered them online and never got to wear them because they were too snug.  I'm 5 lbs heavier than my lowest weight there, but they fit like a dream!

and how fabulous is my fringe necklace from Charming Charlie?!  Love it!

Cauliflower pizza crust - As seen on Pinterest

For lunch today, we didn't really have any plans, so from my perch on the bed folding laundry, I yelled to my handsome hubby to look up the cauliflower pizza crust recipe.  Thinking he would balk at the idea, I was pretty surprised when he went for it without complaint.  The recipe he came up with was this one, and it basically follows the rest I've seen.  

Now, before you get too excited that I'm following a recipe, let me just laugh in your general direction.  *bah hahahahahaaaaa*  First of all, we didn't have enough mozzarella to put in 2 crusts and top the pizzas, so that required a modification.  Secondly, I knew with my older son that if the crust tasted overly cheesy he wouldn't eat it.  For the crust for hubby and me, we did 1/2 cup of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of pepper jack.  We like things spicy.  For the crust for the boys, we did 1/2 cup of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of parmesan.  I have to tell you, both were successful, but I wish I'd done the parmesan for both.  Our crust needed to cook just a little longer, I think, from the oils in the jack compared to the parmesan.  

In a nutshell, here's how it goes:

Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Yield: 1 pizza crust (we obviously doubled it for our lunchtime trial)

2 cups grated cauliflower (not the stalks, just the "flower" part)

1 large egg

1 cup of cheese (obviously you can use whatever you like, but my recommendation would be 1/2 and 1/2 mozzarella and parmesan)

1/2 tsp dried minced garlic

1 tsp dried oregano

Cooking spray, for the pan

Preheat oven to 450º.

With a cheese grater, using the standard large holes, grate the flowery parts of the cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl.  You will start with 2 cups, but it will shrink to about 1 1/2 cups after cooking.  Place in the microwave for about 8 minutes.  You do not need to add liquid or anything to it.

Remove the cauliflower and combine with the other ingredients.  We added the egg and cheese directly into the bowl and the heat from the cauliflower did not cook or otherwise funkify the egg, thankfully (and yes, funkify is a technical culinary term).  

Pat into a 9-12" circle on a sprayed cookie sheet or pizza pan.

Bake at 450º for 15 minutes, or until crust is crispy.  The edges did tend to get a little brown, but that did not make them taste funny.  I didn't get a picture of the crusts before I started topping them.  Sorry!  

Set the oven from bake to broil.

Top however you like and broil the pizza for 4 minutes, until cheese is melted.  

The boys' pizza had pizza sauce, turkey bacon, and cheese.  

Our pizza had pizza sauce, spinach, kalamata olives, mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, and cheese.

Completed vegetable pizza!

Gooey cheese!

2 thumbs up x2!  Pardon my shirtless boys...

Using the WW Recipe Builder, it says half the veggie pizza is 10P+.  In the future, I will be using reduced fat cheese, but I didn't have that in the house today, and I'm sure that would reduce the points considerably.  Honestly, compared with the homemade pizzas we made a few days ago with the Trader Joe's pizza dough, I preferred this cauliflower version.  As an additional spin, my sister said she has made just the crust as a sort of faux garlic breadstick, and they really enjoyed it.