Manic Monday!

Connecticut is digging out from Irene. I didn't realize how much damage there was to the trees and things until I went out this morning. We have a bunch of trees down around my condo, branches are EVERYWHERE. Being a homecare nurse I was driving down some streets in the Himalayas (not literally) and found there were a lot of down power lines and huge branches I had to avoid. 500,000 (47%) of the state is still without power. We actually lost power once around 3am last night. I heard everything click off and the power was gone...it came back around 5, thank goodness! I would not have been able to get my car out of the garage if not for the power coming back!! I believe CL&P probably shut off the grid in Windsor to restore power to some people in the area.

I can't believe it's already Monday!! I swear time is flying. Weigh-in is fast approaching and I'm cautiously optomistic. I need to lose at least 1.6 pound to achieve my Labor Day goal (FINGERS CROSSED). I've been doing a lot of exercise lately. Unfortuantely no yoga DVD yet, I have not purchased a DVD player yet. I think it'll be my reward if I achieve my labor day goal!!!

Tonight I'm making my BBQ Pulled Pork Wraps for dinner! I have been craving one all week so I figure why not? It's a healthy JC friendly meal and satisfies my craving for barbeque at the same time. Note: I'm also planning on making these on labor day. Possibly going to my mother's house and I was thinking this would be a great addition/alternative to the normal hamburger/hotdog fare!! And extremely easy to prep. Just cut all the veg in advance, you just toss the cheese on (heat if you wish), you can have the pulled pork heating on the stove OR even put it in a crock pot and let people add their own meat. I, of course, would measure mine out! :D Easy peasy!

Working on some new fall recipes to share that are JC and diet friendly. Starting September 1st I am going to post a recipe a day that is healthy and delicious!!!! GET EXCITED! Tell all your friends!!! :D It's going to be awesome.

Happy Monday!

Update!

Hi all,

Thank you very much for your concerned messages and texts. Currently 500,000 in the state of CT are without power and there's a lot of trees and power lines down. It's absolutely flooded out there! I, however, have power--thankfully! I called my parents earlier and they had a smaller tree fall right into my dad's garden (his pride and joy) and a bigger tree fell at the neighbor across the street but missed the house.

Other than being extremely waterlogged, everything is fine! Sleeping last night was a nightmare...the rain, there was thunder and lightning, TORNADO warnings, and I was here all alone! My boarder decided to sleep over a friend's house. In any event, things were fine. I got up early and took a shower and made myself a Weight Watchers English Muffin Breakfast Sandwich with Canadian Bacon. I like the creaminess of the egg and the meat way better than the JC Sunshine Sandwich. So much better! Now I'm just watching the weather and hoping that everything continues to go smoothly! A couple of my friends have reported that in the last half hour, they lost power. So I suppose it can happen at any time!

Hope everyone is having a safe, healthy day!

Wednesday Weigh-In!

I've come to the conclusion that I really don't understand my body's signals very well and I don't know how to fix it. Yesterday I was feeling bloated and like I was retaining water, I'm still bleeding, and I wanted to curl up and kill a bag of salt and vinegar chips. But I didn't, instead I talked to some close friends, watched A League of Their Own on AMC, and then went to bed. I talked myself down from the ledge (not literally) telling myself that sometimes people gain and that doesn't mean I'm a failure.

Well, I got to my JC appointment and my regular JCC was on vacation. I already knew this and I had prepared. The girl I had was AWESOME! I wish she was working on a day that I could see her because she was supportive and approachable,she told me I was doing a great job doing MOMOs... I felt comfortable with her! Anyway, I weighed in and lost...2.8!!! Bringing me to 290.8 and that means a PHOTO UPDATE! I did it in my weigh in clothes, the clothes I ALWAYS wear to weigh in...but I can see a change, I really can! It's very exciting!

So far, I haven't gotten any calls. I desperately need to go grocery shopping and so after I finish my breakfast scramble smothered in hot sauce (My WI breakfast treat) I am going to the store. One thing that I have been buying are the Weight Watchers English Muffin Breakfast Sandwich with Canadian Bacon. Basically its a cheaper, more delicious Sunshine Sandiwch...you get two in a pack for 3 dollars at target as opposed to OVER 3 dollars for one at JC. Also need another big pack of lettuce, mushrooms, green peppers, cucumber, broccoli crowns, banana, yogurt and SELTZER!

Hope that everyone is having a great day!

The week ahead!

After the success of doing TWO meals on my own yesterday, I am motivated to do a few more MOMO's this week. However, this week is crazy. We hired a new nurse at work two months ago...she's already been on vacation THREE times! Can you imagine? I have taken a total of ONE DAY OFF in the last 9 months for vacations...and she's already had almost 3 weeks. How the hell is that fair? I get a huge guilt trip even taking that day off to go to my family reunion! And yet other people in the office can jet away without a single word said about it. /Endrant.

Anyway, what this means is I have double the work to do. I am working late every night and I've been asked to possibly pick up a few visits on my day off Wednesday. I've already told my boss I'm not interested in working all day and I have my JC appointment at 9:15am so it either has to be before or a little bit after. I'm not playing this 'you agreed to work so now you have to work all day' game. I'm already going on 7 days now that I've worked or been on call, I'm not doing another 7 more without a break!!!  Food is going to be hard, I am not going to have time to stop to have lunch on two of the days and won't be home until late in the evening on all but one of the days!

My goal this week is planning my meals ahead and packing snacks. I'm planning on bringing my JC snack with my in the car and possibly eating that in the car between patients. At least then I won't be ravenous by the time I get home from work. I love to eat my JC snack as a dessert but because of my schedule, I am going to have to be flexible! I hate being flexible... :(

In other news, I just bought a new indoor grill! My old George Foreman (which was used BEFORE I got it at a tag sale) has bit the dust. The nonstick coating on the plates (which aren't removable) is completely shot and everything just sticks. Its impossible to clean. So I invested in a new indoor grill, it's not a Foreman but it got awesome reviews online. I live in a condo and I don't have a patio or a porch; we are allowed to have grills but I don't want to leave it in the common area (which many people do) and I don't have the space to store it in my garage. Not to mention I don't know how to grill (see my 30 Before 30 List)! All in all I think I'm going to stick to grilling my veggies indoors and leaving the outdoor grilling for when I have a pro around who won't let me catch the entire association on fire.

Hoping that I can get some more blog posts out this week but if you don't hear from me, it's just because I'm swamped! BUT look out for a VERY special joint blog post tomorrow...

Have a GREAT week on plan! Here's hoping for nicer weather than today!

FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

Oh boy am I glad it's Friday. It's been a tough week in some ways. I've had a bit of a lighter work schedule but I've had a lot of stuff going on outside of work. Our CEO passed away suddenly on Tuesday and there has been a real black cloud over the halls of my workplace. Services were going on all week and although I didn't know the man well, his wife is one of the homecare nurses and I feel awful for her. It really makes me sad when young people die (I work with patients, the oldest of which is 103, so I consider 58 young). The worse part is that it was very sudden. We were told he was going to have some surgery but was working from home...a week after that an e-mail went around that said he had colon cancer but they were looking into treatment options. Two weeks later he passed away very unexpectedly.

Colon cancer is something that I've seen a lot more of these days. And it always affects me when someone I know dies. Today I'm using my blog to plug routine screenings. Early detection of cancer saves lives! Have your mammograms, colonoscopies, prostate exams, etc...early detection is the best chance for survival and success!

Okay now that I've depressed the hell out of you, I am very glad to share that my family is coming to spend the weekend with me. I have a brother and a sister (both younger) who are both going to college for Engineering (at different schools). My sister is 22 months younger than me, she's on a 7 year program to get her Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. in Engineering at her college! For the next year, starting in September, she's going to be studying in Italy. So I'm glad to have time to spend with her!! She's coming home this weekend with her boyfriend! My dad's birthday is tomorrow, on the 6th, and my brother's birthday is the 10th. My dad has generously offered to help me put up my blinds and get things settled in the house and then we're all going to go out to lunch!

Since I got off from work a bit early, I've been doing the housewife workout for several hours and woof! I am beat! I deep cleaned my condo from top to bottom and boy was I sweating! I moved all my furniture to vaccum underneath, I organized closets, finally unloaded the dishwasher and reloaded it, started laundry, dusted, washed the bathtub and shower, and a bunch of other nitpicky little tasks. It feels really good now that it's done though!

Going out to lunch tomorrow is going to be good. I am looking around at restaurants, I am armed with my dining out guide and I know I can make good choices! I also have decided to have a JC lunch for dinner so I don't go way over calories. I know that there will be some splurging when I go out so skipping my JC snack and having a JC lunch for dinner will balance things out.

Also I'm looking forward to possibly crossing one of the things off my 30 before 30 list!!! My family and I are thinking of hiking up Talcott Mountain. It IS supposed to be nasty this weekend so I'm not sure if it'll actaully happen (it's dangerous to hike up a wet trail) but I'm hopeful! It would be great to cross that off!

Looking forward to a great weekend. Happy Friday everyone!