I am a Lean Cuisine Commercial (subtitle: Stouffer's owes me)

My original post idea was to point out how I'm just like, on the Lean Cuisine commercials, the "other" women. The ones eating 32 jellybeans or half a tomato with a can of creamed corn for dinner.

Because, with me on Weight Watchers, our cooking has become practically non existent. And our dinners are things like:

Me: 1/2 cup of leftover tortellini from last Tuesday night. Hummus and pita. Hostess light cupcake.
Mike: 2 pieces of pizza from last Thursday night. Refried beans.

Last night was a step up: orange chicken from Trader Joe's on a big pile of spinch. (No not a wrap - just the chicken sitting there on the spinach.) All-Bran crackers.

It's not unhealthy I guess, and it's doing the trick, diet wise. But I wouldn't say we're into "healthy cooking" since we've started dieting. Unless you count Trader Joe's heat and eats as cooking. (Which incidentally I do. Because, hello, they are sooooo good. Every time we try a new one and it's better than the last, we are so eternally grateful for that place. How could I have ever thought I did NOT have time for an extra stop for TJ's in addition to Schnuck's? Given most of the meals we buy there take under 7 minutes to cook, over the course of a week it is sooo worth the extra maybe 40 minutes to drive there, shop - in small friendly little carts, with Matthew pushing his baby one along side - pay the always nice hippiesh check out people and come home with our cute mini-brown bags of frozen deliciousness.)

So I was going to compare myself to the "I at 3 bowls of cereal with no milk" girls on the Lean Cuisine commercials when I realized I am actually the ying AND the yang of the commercials. I eat Lean Cuisines EVERY DAY. Every day. (Buy stock in Stouffer's today people, I won't let you down). Every couple weeks of course I realize I simply canNOT eat one again - and then Bread Co. gets to see my smiling face. But in general, it's a bonanza of Four-Cheese Mannicotti, Southwestern Chicken Panera, Chicken with Veggies (only 4 points for weigh in day, whoo whoo!) and, my new fav, Butternut Squash Ravioli.

I know I'm probably getting pickled slowly from the inside out. All that salt and those preservatives can't be something you should eat, like, for 30 years, five times a week. But let's hope 10 years in your 20's and early 30's won't kill you. Because I've been scarfing these babies down since day one at work out of college - and even IN college when I wanted to lose weight. They are fast, easy, and HOT (hate cold smushed turkey sandwich in the middle of winter for lunch when you work so hard all morning and are starving and then blech, smushed sandwich). And they put the WW Points ON the box, pretty much giving me no excuse not to eat healthy all week long.

Course, I avoid them like the plague on the weekends. Such as this last one ... it was a Red Robin - biscuits and gravy - kettle corn - delight of a weekend.

No worries, LC stock holders. It'll go back up, starting today.

D Day

Today was Draft day for fantasty football. I looked forward to this as though I was getting dressed up and going out somewhere. Like a ball. Driving home I had butterflies.

This is our four year tradition now. It's the official end of summer and introduction to what's become one of the best times of the year - four months of friends, football (food) and fun.

I can't say I feel that butterfly effect about my team, post draft. Think these little boys are gonna have to grow on me this year. Which they will the minute Team Mandelbobby starts WINNING!!

Today was also Driver's license day. As in, AS OF THIS MORNING (at least for a few hours) I WEIGH WHAT IT SAYS I WEIGH. For the first time since college or maybe high school. Don't know when I, er, departed from the truth on that document. It's been so long, it's laughable. And it's not exactly a fancy hollywood starlet type number we're talking.

But to weigh it is just, well, a real accomplishment. Hopefully I'm making some cranky old lady at the DMV proud.

New High/Low

I am pretty sure Weight Watchers understands that their participants don't all stick to the "35 extra points a week" rule. I haven't for a while yet continue losing.

But I wonder what part of "the program" THIS fits into:

And God help me, I have two more days left before that bastard counter zeros out.

Activity is fun!

For the last two days, I actually exercised. All these months of dieting, this is what's been missing. Now I'm playing sand volleyball on Mondays. And we swam again last night. Twenty minutes and ten laps. I nearly felt ill at the end (which I realize is super duper sad).

But I also felt like, ah, movement! This is what I'm supposed to be doing! Stretching and exercising and using my muscles!

In the past I've always lost weight via exercise. Hardly through dieting at all. This is only the second time, and definitely the most successful, I've done it through diet alone. But now I'm hoping I can kick it into gear and get going at least three times a week. Especially now, when I'm getting more stressed at work, I think it's healthy.

Of course so is the big ol' bowl of ice cream I just ate. But that's neither here nor there.

I am a Blogging Texan!

Well, it's Day 2 in San Antonio and once again, I don't have any responsibilities tonight. (Thankfully, because Texas air or water or W supporters have made me sick to my stomach all this week...or maybe just a flu bug, since I also covered Orlando Gardens with cranberry vodka for about 10 minutes Saturday night.)

Anyway. I thought I could catch up on #17 on my wandering To Do list ... and get my blog going. Last night, I set-up a template, basic web links and even posted a photo. But I couldn't post a photo to the template itself ... and after more than an hour of tinkering last night past 11 p.m. I gave up.

Try, try again is not usually my M.O. But I know millions of blogs are out there and they're not all built by rocket scientists or web nerds. They're built by nerds of all types ... so why not me? Ha ha ha.

Tonight, I got back on, rearranged my links and after actually taking the radical step of READING the HELP topic on posting photos ... I am now proudly smiling from my home page.

Not quite sure this is necessary but seemed fun. If I'm gonna blog it up, let's take it all the way, right? It's already a weird thing, putting your thoughts out there. You're kinda assuming they're important or clever enough to share. Or that you're too much of an individual to care. But then again, if you don't care, why post? You can type all you want in a Word doc diary and no one ever has to see it.

So, you want someone to see your blog, and so, they might as well see YOU.

In my case, I wanted to show myself with my little boy, who is arguably the center of my world and many of my thoughts and plans right now.

Though 30 pounds from now, when I am super hot, I will boot him right outta there and take a new photo once I don't need such a cute prop.