Black Clouds Have Come

I join millions of others in the unemployment line..

Smoking

I have decided to give a go at quitting smoking...again! I am starting to feel like I am on a health craze or something or maybe because a birthday freak out is coming. I always get antsy around my birthday, I don't like getting older.

I haven't gone to the gym for quite sometime and it looks as though it will be another couple of weeks. I finally got to the doctor after 2 weeks of knee pain to find out I have a problem with my meniscus and what is called a Baker Cyst. So the doc prescribed an anti inflammatory and I need to go back to see him in 2 weeks. Hopefully it will be better. Until then, I guess I am stuck with upper body workouts and making sure I stay focused with Weight Watcher's.

Oh, back to the smoking thing. I think what triggered it is that I think back to the struggle I have at the gym. It is hard to be a smoker and the try to do cardio. Sometimes I feel like I am going to die, my face is beat red and I get some looks. Scariest part, next year (2010) I will have been smoking for 20 years..hmmm.

Yummy!

At Saturdays meeting our regular meeting leader was not there but her replacement was just as good and quirky as she is, so it kept the meeting interesting. It is a possibility that I may switch my times because going at 10 in the morning is just to late for me. So I gained some insight on a new leader.

During out meeting she was talking about this nice 2 point snack she makes with her kids. It sounded so amazing that the whole room was quiet and intrigued. When she was done explaining how it was made you wanted to leave and go home and make it right away. That is just about what I did!!

As most of you know, I love to share tips and ideas, that is what I am going to do right now with the awesome little snack.

I don't know what it is called, besides YUMMY..

1 box of cake mix, any kind, what ever you like. I used Devils Food cake
12 oz of diet soda, any flavor. I used Waist Watcher Vanilla Cream ( I know it sounds weird)
Pour the cake mix in a bowl and SLOWLY add the 12 oz of diet soda and mix together.
Tip: Don't knock it till you try it!
Get out your regular size muffin pans, the pan that makes 12 muffins, you will need 2 pans.
Divide the cake mix into the muffin pans. I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to divide the mix 24 ways.
Bake in the oven according to the box, less 5 minutes.
When finished take out and let cool. Individually wrap them and place in freezer.

When you are ready for your snack, take a Weight Watcher's Chocolate Mousse Bar (1 point) and unwrap and place in a bowl. Pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds(just long enough to get the stick out) Add a couple of TBS of Fat Free Cool whip and mix together. Now take one of the little cakes you made, unwrap it and cut it into pieces. Mix the cake with the ice cream add a little dollop of Cool Whip for the top and there you have a nice little 2 point treat.

Tip: If you don't want to make the cake you can but the Weight Watcher's 1 point snack cakes. I suggest making the cake. I find the Weight Watcher's snack cakes to be dry, these homemade ones are far from dry.

You can also add a few berries to this. As we all know it takes a lot of strawberries to equal a point. Just grab a few, slice them up and now you have a sundae!

What A Shock

So yesterday was weigh in day and I couldn't wait to get there. See, I have a scale at home but since rejoining Weight Watcher's I ask my husband to put it away so I would not be able to get on it and check my progress during the week. That always had led to sabotage for me in the past and this time I planned not to do that. So with no available scale at home, I have been relying on the way I feel and I had felt great all week.

Yesterday I wake up, thanks to Emmit the cat, at 4:30 in the morning. Ugh, My meeting is not till 10 am, what am I going to do? I managed to keep myself busy for a little while and before I knew it, it was time to hop in the shower and get ready to leave. On my way to my meeting I started to doubt how much weight I had lost. With my knee not being 100% I had not time in the gym. How annoying, my gym membership card just sitting there on the tv stand taunting me. Is it possible that I will lose a good number with out exercise? When I got to the meeting I decided that I didn't care what I lost, as long as I didn't gain for a 3rd week in a row. As far as I was concerned I had no reason to gain, I followed the program to the T!

Waiting in line, isn't that the hardest thing to do? Finally it is my turn, I kick off my shoes, hop on the scale, close my eyes and prayed for the best. Finally I hear her say"Got it" and I get off the scale and I get a very mellow and matter of fact "Wow, you did great." Yea, I thought and I asked "Well, how much is great?" The chick weighing me in says "8.2, you lost 8.2 this week." HOLY COW... 8.2 and that is the best you can give me for excitement, I thought to myself. That is a huge amount of weight to lose but I needed it, after gain of 2 and then anther 2.2 I was feeling a little down. So I did what I set out to accomplish, lose the 4.2 I gained back and with an added bonus of another 4 lbs gone!

SWEET