Let’s start with the update first. We are CLOSING on our home next Thursday morning! YAY!! It will be then that I can officially say that I am a short sale success story!

I have been organizing, cleaning and packing. We have accumulated so much stuff since we moved in to this place over two years ago! No really. It’s amazing how much you can accumulate in 2 years! Needless to say, Goodwill has been getting much of the stuff that we no longer need. I would rather give it to charity than hang on to it and have a garage sale in the spring. Too much work. And I have never been one to feel that my things have a price tag on them. We have been blessed with so much. I want to pay it forward any way I can.

So, if you haven’t seen me around much, it’s because I am packing. And organizing. And cleaning. In a couple of weeks things will get back to a better-than-normal state, and I can’t wait!

We have also been looking at truck accessories for my younger brother. He just got a new truck. I love helping him out when I can! So all of this running around has me a bit tired but also a lot pumped!

Here are my fabulous food finds:

1) Black beans — best. food. ever. I put black beans and salsa on anything that I can! It’s such an easy and tasty way to make a meal “southwest-ish”.

2) Chuck and Dave’s Salsa — they sell this stuff in bulk at Sam’s Club and Costco. I recommend it! It’s fresh tasting salsa with fresh ingredients. You can also get it at the local grocery store (it comes in smaller containers but might cost you more in the long run).

3) Sweet Potatoes — Buh bye starchy white potatoes… Hellloooo sweet potatoes! Last night I made oven baked sweet potato chips. I sliced them up to a medium thickness (circular shaped), sprayed Pam olive oil on them and smattered them with a bit of sea salt. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes and wahlah! Delicious and healthy potato chips!

4) Snickers Marathon Bars — I use these bars as meal replacement. They have 10g of fiber and 20g of protein. It’s guaranteed to make you feel full for at least 4 hours! 1 bar is 6 WW points. Oh and I eat one in the morning usually before I workout! The extra protein has seemed to help with muscle soreness.

Well, that’s about it for now! I’m off to go and read your blogs and comment on them! I’ve missed you guys!

I was really upset this morning.  So upset in fact that the first thing I did was blog about it and the second thing I did was take it out on the elliptical at the gym (thank God they have one-day vouchers — pay by the day instead of by the month!  It was a Happy Valentine’s Day gift from my hubby!  I forgot to mention it last week.).

Once I got there, I burned it up.  I mean, sweating buckets… this stuff doesn’t phase me… burning. it. up.  Can I get a high five?!

And then when I was finished, I felt like I made the scale my bitch. (uh… forgive my French… err American rather)

Now I feel relaxed.  It was only until I was done with my workout that I remembered I was supposed to skip weighing in this week so that I could celebrate the little strides I made toward better health and not necessarily the number on the scale.  Oops.

I actually haven’t put my post-its on the scale yet.  They are all written out and purty… but kept high up on my desk away from the kids.  And, I guess old habits die hard.  I woke up and said… oh hey… let me weigh in first since it’s Monday.

While I was burning it up at the gym, I realized two things….

1)  My first instinct wasn’t to raid the fridge but to blog/talk about it.

2)  Instead of taking it out on myself by doing a meltdown gorge, I took it out on the elliptical, in a healthy way!

Changes this week:

1)  I’m going to make sure that I get 100-120 oz. of water in a day (I had been slacking on my water monitoring prior to that).

2)  I’m going to watch my sodium intake like a hawk!

3)  I’m going to start training for the Iceman Cometh bike race in the fall.  A nice challenge to look forward to!  Maybe it will help me keep my eye on the ultimate prize!  Registration is March 1st, so i’ll keep y’all updated on that!  But I *will* be training for this!

Thank you to everyone who responded to my post this morning!  I appreciate the support more than you guys will every know!!  (((HUGS TO ALL!))))

So that’s what I got.  I am cheery, I am even more determined to get to where I need to be and from where I am sitting right now the scale can suck it.  I am in control.

Okay so i’m grasping at straws here.

I stepped on the almighty scale this morning and found that i’m up another pound.  WHAT!?

I would be totally lying (or made of stone) if I said this didn’t upset me.  Last week, I tracked every morsel that went in my mouth (even bites of this or nibbles of that).

Yesterday, I stepped on the scale and it read, 305.  This morning, I step on the scale and it read 308.4.  So i’m up 3 pounds from yesterday and a total of four pounds from 3 weeks ago.

February has not been my month y’all.

The *only* thing I can chalk this up to is needing to drink more water?

I have been quite stressed because of the move.  The house stuff is up in the air… *again*.  In fact, we were supposed to close today… but then fate intervened and now we will close sometime within 10 days…. if ever.   So maybe the gain is due to stress?

I need to go to the gym and take this out on the treadmill / elliptical.  I’ll be back later on in the morning to write something more cheery.

But right now… I really need to workout my frustration in the gym…otherwise, i’ll raid the fridge.  And i’ll take my frustration out on food like it stole something.