Good Things are a stirring!

It took me a few weeks to get my motivation up enough, but I have started working the Weight Watchers system.  I joined last Saturday, and really struggled with wanting to eat everything I brought to work at one time.  If its 10:00 in the morning, and I don't go home til after 4:00...that is a dangerous thing.  Add in the fact that there has been cake sitting 5 feet behind my head every single day this week.  Most would say this was the wrong week to start a diet.  My mouth was telling me it was the wrong week to start a diet.  However, I managed to distract myself from the cake, but I did do a lot of staring as other people ate their slice of cake, and I may have taken some smells, lol.  I also drank a lot of water when I started getting the urge to eat, if the water didn't work I knew it was probably time for the next snack.  This was really, really effective in spreading out my snacks throughout the day.

I also found that pre-tracking my points the day before made life a lot easier.  Because I knew I really wasn't going to have any points left over between the meals I planned, saying no to the cake was a lot easier.  I didn't get to the gym to exercise like I thought I would, so I was really worried that my 1st weigh-in would be a bit disappointing.  However, I did really well!  I lost 4.6 pounds in one week.  And I wasn't starving myself, we even went out to eat a couple of nights, and I had Starbucks the night before. 

At the meeting, I goofed and raised my hand when he asked if he anyway had any milestones, because he said "1,2, 3,4,5 lbs.." So I thought that applied to me, but really it was if you had reached your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th 5lbs loss. Regardless, I got celebrated since it was my 1st weigh-in since starting.  It was really nice.  The meeting leader was awesome, and he did a drawing for a cookbook,, and I won!  I left feeling really good. 

Of course, that ended when I met up with friends for our annual Chrismukkah party, and knew I really had no good options to stay under my points.  We always go to Wildfire, which is my favorite place, but they have no nutritional information posted, so I totally had to guess.  I hate guessing because of the "what-ifs".  What if I pigged out way more, or am depriving myself because I over-guessed?  Weight Watchers gives you an extra 49 points to use however you want each week in addition to your daily total, so its really ok to go nuts one day as long as you are responsible the rest of the week.  I just really hate using those extra points because I feel like I will lose more weight by not using them.  And I got a long way to go, so I need any help I can get. 

Back to the party, I was anxious about the points I was using, but ended up saying what the hell, and ordered dessert which was super-delicious.  We all had an amazing, loud, and obnoxious-to-the-waitstaff kind of time.  This is the 5th year we've done it, and I hope many more to come!

In other news, a very promising job opportunity has come around.  I've had an open interview, which led to a job shadow/mini interview with the executive director/physical-drug-test-tb-test-background-check-credit-check-reference-check.  I have to go for my next TB test tomorrow, as I have to do a 2 step.  I still haven't gotten any updates on a start date, which I will admit, make the anxiety goblins in my head go crazy.  But, I am reminding myself that until they say "You are hired and you start on this date", the job isn't mine.  So if it for some reason falls through, I haven't truly lost anything....so I just have to keep it moving.  But I will admit, I am excited for the possibility this is presenting.  It feels amazingly good to know someone is actually considering me.

I also started my Nutrition class, and it was so weird to see the syllabus.  I am used to the amount of work that we have allotted for a month's time in this class, needing to be done in a week or two. It just seems really strange to have so much time to complete so little work.  I think it should definitely be interesting, and will surely help as I travel my weight loss journey.  Speaking of, I finally broke down and started taking my vitamins.  I could never get into it before.  But, I was unfortunately diagnosed with hypertension officially, and my doctor put me on a diuretic for it.  So needing to remember to take that inspired me to start remembering my vitamins.  Plus, we are looking at the possibility of starting to try to have kids in the next year or so, so I needed to start on pre-natal vitamins just to get in the habit.  I also started taking Calcium supplements for my bones (younger you start the better!) and Biotin because Pinterest said it would make my hair pretty and my nails strong! lol I have an app that is helping me to remember to take everything, and its working out pretty well!

Well, I think I have distracted myself long enough where my hubby will let me make dinner now!  We are making Fiesta Chicken Enchiladas, that I found on Pinterest, and its only 6 weight watcher points, so I am excited!! And hungry!! :)

Happy Birthday 2013!!

2012 has been a great year! It may have had its low points, but overall, it was a good one. In 2012:

I graduated Nursing school with an Associate Degree in Applied Science in Nursing.
I passed my NCLEX on the 1st try with only 75 questions.
Officially became a Registered Nurse.
Bro-in-law got married (As long as he is happy, I can accept that his wife hates me)
Mikey got promoted with a nice raise!
We moved out of Mom and Dad-in-laws and into our lovely new place!
We got to make 2 trips down to TN to see my family!
My mom got promoted at her work!
Many good times with friends and family!
And had the best year I could have had with my loving husband.

I wouldn't change much other than the amount of time I spent worrying about things that were completely out of my hands.

We had a really great holiday break! It was so nice to have a laid back, relaxing time. My Christmas goodies were a hit, too! We got many nice gifts, and had lots of good food! I got to see my friend Krista and her boys, and it just warmed my heart so much to see them call her "Mama." This friend of mine, the one that I have known since I was 8 or 9, grew up with, was irresponsible teens and young adults with, stood up with me on my wedding day, is now "Mama" to these adorable little boys. It was just the best thing. And to see her be so happy, I just can't tell you how much that makes me happy thinking about it.

We had a great night last night, as well. Mom and Dad-in-law came over for dinner. Mike picked up our order from Wildfire, and it was delicious!!! We then started teaching them how to use their new iPhones. It was so cute, honestly! Then we went to see Argo, which was a really amazing film! I highly recommend it. And we came home and watched Sherlock Holmes until Midnight. I fell asleep towards the end, but I am really glad we could have them over. It was a perfect end to 2012!

So, moving forward with 2013, there are some things I need to achieve:

- Find a job as an RN so I can start to FEEL like an RN.
- Lose weight (I have to stop starting and stopping and just DO it!)u
- Stop being late.
- and prepare myself for trying to start a family.

Those are my 4 goals for 2013. And they are all realistic goals. But today is a holiday, so it will start tomorrow! :)

Happy New Year!!