These past couple weeks have been super super busy, which has made it really hard to stay on track. The weekend before last, I was in Philly from Saturday to Sunday to run the Broad Street Run with my sister, and then I went directly from her house to a staff retreat for my day job on Sunday night. I was at the staff retreat through Tuesday, and then back in the office Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, I took a vacation day from work and drove up to Woodstock, NY to see my family for Mother’s Day Weekend, and didn’t get back until after 10pm on Sunday night. Whew!

The staff retreat proved the hardest part of the past couple weeks for eating. We had it in an old farm house, and it was fully stocked with sour watermelons, M&Ms galore, chips, dorritos, skittles, party mix, cheesy poofs, sunchips, chocolate, pretzels… you name it. And that was just for snacks!

In addition, we had the meals catered and since we were in a pretty remote area, they were made by two sisters who cooked comfort food out of their home. Most of the food was heavy – think mac and cheese, spinach lasagna, cheesy pasta, pulled chicken, coleslaw, etc. I don’t do well having all that tempting food around me constantly, so I overdid it pretty badly with the snacks and the meals alike. I also won a crab eating contest and picked and ate 17 crabs on Monday night, so that didn’t help much either.

The weekend at my sister’s house in Woodstock was a lot better health wise, because now all five members of my immediate family are following Weight Watchers, even my dad! This is HUGE and something I never thought I would see. He is the one who initially inspired me to try Atkins because he had such success on the program without having to use moderation, so for him to adopt a program based around moderation has been so awesome. He and my mom have lost over 8lbs each in just a few weeks on the program!! I am so happy for them.

Anyway, since everyone was trying to be on track, the meals were pretty healthy throughout the weekend, though the wine and booze were flowing from dinner on both nights. Each of my sisters took on two meals, while I was in charge of Mother’s Day brunch since I’m the only female non-mother.  Though, my 4 (and a half!!) year old niece Claire did ask me, “Auntie Beth, Do you hope to one day be a mother?” Oh, kids.

The biggest saving grace during the past two weeks of busyness has been that I have been REALLY consistent with working out, and for that, I’m proud! I got in four solid workouts both weeks despite traveling quite a bit, and you can see what I’ve been up to workout wise here, but I’ve basically been running a couple times a week, doing strength training, and using the stairmill for cross training. I even got an 8 mile run in with my sister on Saturday in Woodstock!

I already tried to take control of the meals that I could. When I was home/not traveling, I stuck fully to my PointsPlus for the day and prepared healthy meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Even while gone, I tried my best to start the day with a healthy breakfast, and then made sure to get in a lots of fruit and veggies throughout the day. I also tried to keep hydrated and drank a good amount of water throughout those two weeks. In short, I did the best I could.

So, I honestly wasn’t sure WHAT to expect when I stepped up on the scale yesterday. When I did, and found out I was down 1 pound from two weeks ago, I was actually really pleased!

The last time I weighed in and lost a pound in one week, I was a little disappointed because I had tracked EVERYTHING I’d eaten and didn’t have that many obstacles that week to get in the way of losing weight. This time, I had a lot of things going on and didn’t track completely the whole time, so I am really proud of that pound.

That means, two pounds down in 3 weeks back on the program and I am feeling good!

In light of the fact that I haven’t been posting quite as much lately because I’ve been spread so thin with my day job, being a Leader for Weight Watchers, traveling every weekend, and life in general, I’d love to open the comments section up for referrals to other weight loss bloggers that you guys love.

Don’t worry – I’m not going anywhere – I just will only be posting when I can until things slow down, which hopefully will be soon because I miss it! And, I’ll be back tomorrow with a weigh in result post. I didn’t weigh in last week because I was out of town for a staff retreat, but will be weighing in at my meeting today so will be back with a full report, but it’s not looking good.

This week’s topic is Outsmarting the Grocery Store – and as you probably know – grocery shopping is one of my favorite things to do, so I LOVE the topic! Last night’s meeting was so awesome, even though we ended up talking about cheese the whole time – another one of my favorite things.

So… please leave a comment below and list one or a few of your favorite weight loss bloggers that isn’t me! Give a little background about what they write about/why you love them and we should all be able to find a few new great blogs to read!

Be back soon!

I could eat pizza for every meal of every day and die happy. Just had to get that out there.

Recently, I’ve been really into making personal pizzas where I can eat the whole thing for a filling meal with a reasonable amount of PointsPlus. I had some leftover chicken in the fridge and came up with this idea of BBQ Chicken Pita Pizza and it turned out AWESOME.

Enjoy!

BBQ Chicken Pita Pizza

• Prep time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 15 minutes
• PointsPlus Value: 8

Ingredients:

• 1 large Whole Wheat Pita
• 2 oz. diced chicken
• 2 tbsp BBQ sauce
• 1 oz. Mozzarella
• Red Onion
• Cilantro for Garnish

To start, preheat your oven to 425º.

While that’s heating up, add the BBQ sauce to the chicken and mix well to combine.

Spread the chicken over the pita as the base layer.

Next comes the cheese. I found this brand at Trader Joe’s:

And you get 3 mini balls for 2 pts+.

Slice those up and spread them out over the chicken.

And then sprinkle on red onions to taste. I love ‘em but you might want to use a few less if you’re not a huge fan.

Pop the pita in the oven for 15 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and melted, the crust is crispy, and the chicken is heated through.

Last addition – sprinkle the cilantro on top.

And then slice and eat!

Sooooooo good. I might make this again tonight!

What’s your favorite kind of pizza?

I looove white pizza. I am not that into red sauce on pizza, so that might be why I love this one so much too!

Racing in Philly holds a special place in my heart because it’s where I ran my first half marathon in September 2010. Since then, I’ve run several times in Philly since my sister lives there, but Sunday was my first race there since that half marathon – The Broad Street Run.

And the best part? I got to run the whole thing with my sister, Wendy.

People say we look alike, but I don’t see it!

It was also good practice for me since I’ll be running my fourth half marathon there Memorial Day weekend, and it had been ages since I’d traveled for a race, so it was good to think through everything I was going to need for race day.

Saturday night I laid my stuff out on my suitcase:

And then the 6:30am wakeup call on Sunday came far too fast. I got up and very quickly decked myself out in running gear.

Downstairs I made my standard pre-run fuel – an english muffin with PB + banana.

And then we were out the door at 7am. We headed to the Subway, and in all the years I’ve been going to Philly, not once had I ever taken it before. It was CROWDED.

This year was apparently the first year that they opened the race to 40,000 runners – the biggest 10 mile race in the country. And there’s no better way to say it than that it was a NIGHTMARE getting to the start of the race because public transportation was just not cut out to deal with the volume of runners.

We got to the platform at 7:10am, and had literally 8 to 10 full subway trains pass without stopping because they were packed. Finally, after over 50 minutes of waiting on the platform, a train with room pulled up and we were able to get on. We made it to the subway stop for the race 2 minutes after the race started (8:32) and headed to the start immediately.

Notice my bib number?

The first time I’ve ever had an even race number… so cool!

And then with literally no time to waste… we were off!

My goals for this race were simply to run it side by side with my sister, and that I did. It was a very different mentality than I usually have, where I’m trying to pass runners left and right and go as fast as I comfortably can. It was challenging in different ways because I went a bit slower than I was used to – but it was so awesome being right next to my sister and having someone to talk to and relate to over funny signs – my first time ever!

• Mile 1: 10:22
• Mile 2: 10:07
• Mile 3: 10:11
• Mile 4: 10:00

After Mile 4, I took a GU and we also stopped to use the portapotties. I stopped my Garmin so my Garmin time is our actual running time, rather than the chip time, but since we weren’t running for time, it didn’t really matter!

• Mile 5: 9:52
• Mile 6: 9:41
• Mile 7: 10:08
• Mile 8: 10:02

Until Mile 2, and then again after Mile 8, the course was SO crowded and narrow, so it was frustrating to be tripping over myself and others runners. It was kind of funny though because during the race a few times I’d stop paying attention and just go into my natural pace of running a bit faster, and Wendy would tell me to either go ahead without her or slow down if I wanted to stick with her, which is what I wanted.

But then, around mile 9.5, she saw a sign that gave her an extra pep in her step and started BOOKING it without telling me! All of a sudden I saw her out of the corner of my eye weaving in and out of people towards the finish line, and I had to fight really hard to keep up!

• Mile 9: 10:07
• Mile 10: 9:44

And then, hand in hand with our arms raised up the air, we crossed the finish line feeling awesome!

But after we did, the logistics of the race really started to fall apart again. As soon as we crossed the finish line, people were lined up waiting for water and we had to completely stop walking, which is the last thing you want to do after running 10 miles! We finally got some water (and some Philly pretzels)…

Before making it out of the zoo of runners and sitting in the grass to stretch a bit.

Then, we wanted to get back to the Subway, and we couldn’t figure out how to get there because we were turned around from where we started. Though we asked the cops, other runners, and volunteers, no one seemed to know where it was, despite the fact that they encouraged everyone to take public transport to and from the race.

When we finally got on the train, it was a breeze getting home, but I think the race organizers need to work with the city better for next year to get runners to/from the race, or else reduce the number of runners from 40,000, because it was not fun getting to the race or away from it.

That said and despite the logistics, I loved getting to run side by side with my sister for the first time ever in a race. It was awesome to approach a race with slightly different goals and to just ENJOY it, and that we did.

And the best running quote we saw during the race?

“Life goes fast. Running slows it down.”

Love!

Last week for the first time in I can’t even tell you how long, I tracked EVERY SINGLE BITE that passed through my lips. Even when I first started Weight Watchers in March 2009 (for the second to last time), I would allow myself one “cheat day” where I wouldn’t track and would just consider all my extra points gone but wouldn’t actually track it to see how bad the damage was.

So how much did I have? I ended up eating all of my daily points each day, plus 56 extra points, which included all 49 Weekly Points and then some of the Activity Points I earned. Tracking can be so eye opening because there were times when I felt like I really wasn’t eating that bad, but I was using way over my daily points. They go so quick! But, that’s what the weeklies are there for – to make the plan livable.

Activity wise, I got in 4 solid workouts, earning a total of 34 Activity Points:

• Wednesday: 45 minute walk
• Thursday: 30 min intervals on the stairmill + free weights
• Saturday: Run for Shelter 10k
• Sunday: Biking outside, 20 mins intervals on stairmill, NRLFW Stage 1, Workout A

Though I’ve been doing more strength training lately than I have in the past, it’s been incredibly random moves and routines. It’s been moves that I’ve learned through Jillian Michaels, things I know that are good for me like pushups and lunges, and also random ab work. I have really been wanting a bit more structure so that I know I am getting a solid, full body strength training routine in, so I decided to purchase the New Rules of Lifting for Women, which I’ve heard awesome things about. I just did the first workout on Sunday and am planning to do the second one tonight and will do a dedicated post soon. I did actually take measurements on Saturday for the first time ever, so I am excited to hopefully see and share some results with you, too!

So how’d I do on the scale?

Down 1.0 pounds!

While I am happy that the scale is down, I was hoping for a bit more since I made an effort to be really good and tracked all week for the first time ever. I know 1 lb is a solid weight loss and would tell a member he/she was silly for not being proud of that result, but when the tables are turned it’s hard not to wish for more. That said, I really am happy to be moving in the right direction and it feels awesome to be back in control!

One More Thing

I am excited to report that yesterday’s morning meeting was probably the best one yet. I feel like I am finally really starting to hit my stride as a Leader and am LOVING leading the meetings. I feel so comfortable in front of the group and really look to the members to teach me! I learn and hear new things at every single meeting, and as of yesterday, my meeting officially doubled in size from when I took it over!! I am so excited!

A lot of readers and people in my life reach out to me to share the exciting news that they are getting ready to run their first race and to ask if I have any advice to offer them. And though I haven’t always been a runner by any stretch of the imagination, Saturday marked my 20th race – The Run For Shelter 10k, so I have quite a few races under my belt and consider myself relatively experienced when it comes to running races.

The first bit of advice I always give hands down is to pace yourself. It’s the traditional rookie mistake because it is SO easy to get caught up in the energy of the race itself and the people around you and excitedly start out too fast. The trouble with this is you can lose steam while you still have quite a ways to go, so it backfires.

I guess I should take my own advice.

On Saturday morning, I participated in my 4th 10k, and my goal was just to enjoy it without any particular pace in mind. I signed up for the race sort of randomly because there was a deal online for $24 registration and everyone should know that I can’t resist a bargain. Normally, I allow myself enough time to prepare mentally for races and get excited about them, but this one just sort of snuck up on me since I signed up for it so last minute.

On Friday night, I was freaking out about regular race stuff that I don’t worry about too much – what to wear, what to eat, what time to leave, where to park – and realized I just needed to calm down, set some clothes out, and go to bed. So, I did.

The 6am wakeup call was made better by reminding myself I could take a nap in the afternoon, so I got up and got dressed almost immediately.

I made some pre-race fuel, which looks pretty disgusting but was actually delicious.

A toasted English Muffin topped with mashed banana with Chocolate PB2. After eating it, I made myself some coffee, and then was out the door and in my car by 6:50am.

The drive to the race was about 25 minutes, so I made it to registration by 7:15.

This race was on the small side, with just about 400 runners, so registration was a breeze. It was pretty chilly out that early in the day, so I was happy to be able to wait inside until go time, which was 8am.

Once we made our way outside, it was the least crowded I’ve ever seen a start line of a race.

People eventually moved up after some convincing, and before I knew it, we were off.

I guess I got really excited to not have to dodge people like I have in most races lately with so many runners, so I set off rather quickly. There was a pretty steep hill at the beginning (and consequently at the end since it was an out-and-back race), and I breezed over the hill and before I knew it, I was at the Mile 1 mark. I looked down at my phone, and saw that my pace was 8:02 for the first mile – way too fast for me.

I slowed down quite a bit, and I’m not sure whether realizing I went too fast for Mile 1 was affecting me more mentally or physically, but I felt like I ran out of steam right after that first mile. I decided to slow down a bit, and though the next couple miles were hard, I was able to get through them at a good pace.

• Mile 2: 9:03
• Mile 3: 9:17
• Mile 4: 8:57

The turnaround was at the 5k mark, and it was a bit downhill at that point which is the reason for the 8:57 mile. After mile 4 though, I started crashing pretty hard. For the first time ever in a race (not at a water stop), I stopped to walk. I kept powerwalking and picked a landmark when I would start running again, but it was a real battle through those last 2.2 miles. I ended up taking 3 walking breaks in total and feeling like crap during the last part of the race. When I hit the hill on the way back towards the finish, I walked up it, and vowed to run the rest of the way when I reached the top, no matter what.

I was able to keep up a pretty good pace for the last part of the race despite the walking breaks, and the last miles looked like this:

• Mile 5: 9:35
• Mile 6: 9:26
• Last .36: 3:16 (8:44pace)

Seeing the finish line never felt so good. As soon as I crossed it, I basically collapsed into the grass and sat there coughing, sweating, and feeling like ass. Not sure what I was going for with this post-race photo… Maybe “Thank God this is over?”

haha.

The one redeeming thing was that everyone who ran the race got a free cake pop at the end, and I love me some free stuff, so it made me.. ecstatic.

Seriously.

So while this was definitely NOT my best race, I managed to finish with a really respectable time of 57:24, or a 9:15 pace, which is especially great considering I took 3 walking breaks. I truly do appreciate how humbling running can be, no matter how long I’ve been doing it for or how much I don’t sweat a particular race. I appreciate how much my body does for me and the fact that I was able to complete 6.2 miles in under an hour. I am never going to master racing – there will always something new to learn (or relearn) about myself.

And this time, it’s stick to the basics – pace myself.

Since sometime towards September/October of 2011, I’ve been struggling with my weight, which I’ve mentioned on here quite a few times. As a Weight Watcher employee, you are required to submit your weight once a month, and I somehow managed to sneak by a couple months without doing so, and then it was the holidays, and then I got in unofficial trouble from Weight Watchers for not adhering to their guidelines. It was much less that I gained weight that was getting me in trouble, and much more that I was pretending I didn’t and not doing anything to fix the situation.

Well, since then, 5 pounds turned into 6 pounds turned into 10 pounds turned into…

16.8 pounds that I have to lose to get back to goal.

16.8 pounds. I’ll let you soak that in for a minute.

Now this is scary for quite a few reasons:

1.) It proves just how easy it is to justify weight (re)gain for me. I remember back when it was just a few pounds convincing myself that I could take care of it so easily that it wasn’t even worth focusing on. Well those few pounds have doubled and quadrupled, and now I find myself in place I never wanted to be again.

2.) I haven’t been THAT bad. Seriously. I’ve definitely been more lenient in the last several months than I was when I was losing weight, but I still packed my lunch and brought it to work almost every single day, ate a ton of fruits and veggies, drank my water, etc. I’d have a few splurge nights during the course of the week, but it wasn’t like I was eating out of control every day. That’s scary because I can’t even imagine where I’d be if I was paying no attention at all.

3.) I’ve been exercising quite a bit! Last week I worked out 5 times, this week I’m set to work out 4, and I just ran my third half marathon last month and PRed! This goes to show me what I already know about myself… the focus of weight loss for me has to be mainly on the food. I can’t make excuses for what I eat constantly because I am working out.

4.) I’m back to where I was when I restarted Weight Watchers in Dec 2010. Perhaps the most troubling part of it all.

I was supposed to be submitting my weight weekly since I got into unofficial trouble, but as I posted on my Attune Foods Blog, the pressure from wanting to lose the weight, combined with the pressure of having to do so for my job as a Leader was backfiring. Instead of facing the music, I tried to ignore it and pretend it wasn’t as bad as it was.

That was, until yesterday.

I had an official “Weight Conference” with my boss at Weight Watchers. Now let me emphasize… Weight Watchers has been EXTREMELY supportive in my efforts to get back to goal. My boss has asked me again and again what she can do to help and support me. It has been my own fault for not taking advantage of the resources at my fingertips and ignoring the problem.

After dreading this meeting with my boss, I walked out of it feeling refreshed, renewed, and refocused.

I am ready to do this. Again.

My new plan of attack:

1.) Weigh in on Tuesday morning EVERY SINGLE WEEK. I run a Tuesday morning meeting at the WW center, so this means I will have no excuse not to weigh in. Before, I was weighing in on Thursday or Friday (when I did), and I would artificially lower my weight by running beforehand, so I was always working to get back to my post-run weight and it just was not working. I’m hoping that weighing in earlier in the week will help me be a bit more focused during the weekend.

2.) Post my weigh in results on here, as well as weekly/monthly goals, as needed. I need the accountability,

3.) Track everything, even if it isn’t pretty. I started this on Tuesday, which included a night out for dinner/drinks and a 15 PointPlus cupcake. It was worth it, though, and I still have 32 extra PointsPlus (beyond my dailies) and whatever else I earn for activity this week.

4.) Step down from Leading meetings (temporarily) if I haven’t made any progress one month from now. If I haven’t lost a little weight, I know I need to take some time to focus on myself. This is a personal decision, not a WW decision. My WW boss is heavily discouraging me from doing this, but I know myself and my needs best.

5.) Forgive myself. Perhaps the biggest part of it all. Rather than being hard on myself, I need to just accept that I am where I am right now. It doesn’t define me or make me a bad person, it’s just what it is. A number on the scale. It happens.

In today’s Weight Loss Wednesday post over at the Attune Foods Blog, I discuss why, though the concept itself is quite simple, it’s so difficult for me to lose weight. Even though I have done it before and am in the process of doing it yet again, it’s never quite as simple to execute as it is in theory.

Click on the pre-weight loss photo above or the goal weight photo below for a peek at the main reasons standing in the way of me getting back to my goal weight.

These photos are solid visual reminders of where I do and don’t want to get back to.

Please join in the discussion over on the Attune Foods Blog!

This week is pretty hectic for me with a lot of obligations both before and after work, so I wanted to come up with a quick and easy recipe that could last a few days for lunches.  When I saw leftover cooked chicken in my fridge on Sunday afternoon, the idea of a healthified chicken salad dawned on me and I got right to work.

I love chicken salad with lots of mix-ins, but when you get it at a restaurant or premade at the grocery store, it’s usually LOADED with mayonnaise and that translates to it not being very good for you. The version I came up with uses Greek yogurt in addition to light mayo, so it’s just as creamy and delicious as store-bought, but has just a fraction of the fat and calories.

I love the addition of different fruits and veggies to the mix to bulk it up and give it some texture, so I used red grapes, celery, and cilantro, but feel free to experiment with different combos and let me know how they turn out!

Curried Chicken Salad

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Entire recipe yields 3 generous 1 cup servings, at 4pts+ each
• If you’re following the Simply Filling Technique, this recipe will work if you omit the mayo and replace it with more greek yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/3 cup diced white meat chicken, cooked and cooled (182 grams)
• 1 cup red grapes, sliced in half
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1/3 cup cilantro, rough chopped (optional)
• 2 tablespoons light mayo
• 1/3 cup nonfat greek yogurt
• 1 tsp curry powder
• salt to taste

Directions:

First, prepare the dressing. Combine the mayo, yogurt, and curry powder in a bowl.

Stir together until it’s uniform in consistency.

And then that’s done.

In a large bowl, combine the chicken, grapes, celery, and cilantro.

Add the dressing to the bowl, and stir until everything is well mixed and combined.

Add salt to taste at this point – I used about 1/2 tsp.

And that’s it! This chicken salad holds up very well in the fridge, and has 3 generous 1-cup servings at just 4 pts+ each. I had one serving in a toasted pita for lunch immediately when it was done.

And it was DELICIOUS. The textures from the grapes, celery, and chicken mean that each bite is slightly different, and the dressing is thick and creamy and coats everything well. This could be great on a sandwich, in a wrap, on top of greens, or just eaten straight with a fork.

Enjoy!

1.) Savings at the grocery store always make me giddy. This week’s bill went from:

to:

With the store savings and a coupon I had! Almost 40% off the bill – woohoo!

2.) On Saturday, I got a manicure/pedicure with a new-to-me color that I am LOVING. The place I go to has a great deal for $35 for both, and I love for my nails to look good! The color is OPI Pamplona Purple and it is a little lighter than it looks in the photo below.

3.) It rained for a lot of Saturday night/all day yesterday, so I got to use my new clear bubble umbrella for the first time this weekend, and it really is the best. It makes the rain way less dreadful, and keeps both me and my purse both dry! It’s kind of crazy how much I didn’t mind going out in the rain yesterday because of it.

4.) I got two awesome workouts on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I did a 5.25 mile run outside in about 50 minutes, and then I biked the same distance back home. On Sunday, I did 45 mins of hill walking on the treadmill (3.8 mph with incline up to 10.0) and then a full body strength training workout. I’ve started LOVING powerwalking on an incline as cross-training, and it burns almost as many calories as running does (~400 in the 45 mins)!

5.) One night out and one night in – my ideal weekend. Friday night I was exhausted so I came home, cleaned my whole apartment and then laid down on the couch and watched Submarine on Netflix. It was a quirky independent film that was quite entertaining and funny, and I’d recommend it if you’re looking for something new to watch. Saturday night I went out for dinner and drinks with some friends, and it was a blast. Perfect combo!

6.) And the most exciting highlight from the weekend – I got a NEW BIKE!!

I have a hybrid bike that I got just about two years ago, but I really wanted to get a road bike and have been thinking about it for quite some time. On Saturday I went to a vintage bike market to see what they had, and my eyes were immediately draw to this bike. I rode it around the parking lot and was surprised at how different it feels from my hybrid – leaning forward to grab the handle bars feels SO awkward at first! It’s definitely going to take some getting used to, but I am SO excited to own a bike I love so much!

And that’s all I got!

Share a highlight from your weekend!