I've completely updated the look and feel of my site http://karilookingglass.bravepages.com. Please visit when you get a chance! I will no longer be updating this blog, but you can find my journal at my site. Thanks and keep on losing!

Well, weigh in went exactly as I had expected with the exception of the amount that I gained. I gained 4.2 pounds! OMG! I just about fainted when I saw the scale. I ate my head off all week long, but I didn't expect over 4 pounds. Maybe 2 pounds. I can't even blame it on TOM. Oh well.

I've been doing WW'ers for over 30 weeks now, and I know what is going on. I know what I have to do. At least I had a great week out of it. So this week I have to kick some WW'ers butt. Jamie and I are going to take a walk this morning and I also plan on doing my WATP 3 mile tape today as well. Since I had been having some luck with the Wendie plan, I am going to try that again this week.

As Steve and I were having breakfast at a Greek place Saturday morning, he told me, "You know you are going to have a gain on Tuesday. Every time we go out to eat at a restraunt, you have a gain. Are you sure you want to do this?" and I was like "Don't worry about it. Things will be fine." Boy was I wrong! Anyhow, Steve was right. Again. Ugh...

Take care all and keep on losing! Hopefully you had a better week than I did!

So Easter Sunday was quite the even here at our house. Jamie kicked off the morning by sticking a piece of Easter candy up his nose and getting it stuck. It never fails. I turned around to get a jump start on food prep, and he gets grand ideas. Anyhow, after I made a mad dash to the neighbors to get a tweezers, Steve managed to get Jamie to blow the candy out in a kleenix.

You know, you think your kid is so smart, and then they stick candy up their noses for no apparent reason. It's absolutely amazing. Jamie is fine, and I think it may have ended the nose picking habit that we have been rabid to stop for the past year. The only explanation we can come up with is that Jamie was picking his nose and candy just happened to be on his finger at the time.

Onward to weight loss issues. I hope I didn't gross anyone out. It kind of gave the entry a "aren't-you-glad-your-kids-are-all-grown-up?" kind of touch, which our family chuckled over. It turns out two people in the room had done something similar when they were young too. my husband stuck a french fry up his nose on a dare once. He never mentioned this incident to me, so I got a great big laugh out of it.

I had a really rough week food wise. I think I am going to be looking a gain tonight. I had a great week, so I don't feel all that bad about it. I just hope it isn't too large of a gain. Well, we will see.

Take care and keep on losing! I will post more tonight!

I’ll warn you right now, this is a LONG post.

Quite the week here so far in Looking Glass Land. Monday and Tuesday’s temperatures were in the 80’s with tons of sun. We took advantage of the beautiful days and spent most of both days outdoors. We got a lot of yard work done; we raked the back/side yard, bagged it all up and took about 20 bags to the dump.

I had a much better time of it with staying OP this week. For some reason, things seem to be clicking, and I am finding it rather easy to eat within my points. I had been eating high/low every other day, so the first day I ate 22, the next 27, the following 22 and so on. I do have to say, I am pretty hungry when I eat at my low end of my points range. (22-27) I have been relying heavily on fat free pringles for snacks at night since they are 1 point for 15 chips. Unfortunately, they are almost double the price of regular pringles, but what can you do?

I also didn’t do the Wendie plan this last week. I wanted to see what kind of result I would get doing the high/low thing with out a SUPER HIGH DAY in there. I ended up losing 1.6 at my weigh in which brings me to a grand total of 36 pounds down. My weekly average loss is just over 1 pound. Nothing to sneeze at, and I hope that by doing the slow loss, I will avoid any skin issues that might crop up down the road. (Like loss of elasticity and major skin sag.)

I have two new food finds this week. I may have mentioned in the past that I love cheese. I mean it. I REALLY love cheese. And butter, but butter isn’t my downfall. For some reason, I avoid butter very easily. Not that I am complaining, but I would love to be able to avoid cheese in the same way I am able to avoid butter. Cheese on the other hand, is quite the trial to me. (Well, what do you expect? I live in Wisconsin after all.)

Anyhow, I especially enjoy soft cheeses like camembert and brie. Oh, and I really like Gouda. I have, in the past, purchased a product that is called “Wee Brie” which is a processed brie/cheddar cheese, sold in the fancy cheese section usually by the deli at the more upscale supermarkets. It is so super yummy. I used to spread it on baguettes and eat it like that, but like most of you, I haven’t been eating much bread due to the points issues. The cheese is more mild due to the addition of cheddar, and there is no rind if you are anti cheese rind. The are pre-packaged in eight individually wrapped triangles together in one plastic/cardboard “wheel”. Each of the individual triangles is 2 points. ONLY 2 POINTS! I am so excited about this.

The other find that I tried this week was the ‘Potato Flyers” by the Pirates’ Booty people. There were a bit on the bland side, but I ate them with salsa and they were pretty good. I think they were 2 points for 2 cups, and the whole bag would be 8 points. Not too bad. The way they were shaped was perfect for scooping up the salsa and I really liked that too. I think with the addition of some sort of herb they would be great. All in all two great finds.

I went out with my neighbor Pam and her boyfriend Dave last Friday night to a birthday party for a friend of Dave’s at a bar in Wauwatosa. This was sort of a major win for me, since I realized several things that night. I realized that I have been hiding out since I had gained weight. Yes, having a small child does restrict your social calendar, but I just didn’t feel good about doing thing like going out especially without my husband. Steve was invited, but is pretty anti-social so he stayed home. I was so overly conscious of being heavy that I avoided activities like going out with the girls or friends.

Anyhow, Pam has been lavish with compliments on the weigh loss, which is a great ego boost for me and really does help me to stay OP. We; Pam, Dave and I, had a discussion about some study on how people react to a pretty face. Two women were positioned at the bottom of a flight of steps at a mall (or some such place.) Both had heavy bags/boxes to carry up the steps. One woman was pretty and other woman was not. Which of women do you think were helped up the steps with her bags time and time again? The pretty one of course.

That caused me to blurt out, “You know, that happens to fat people too.” I am very open about my weight loss and about doing weight watchers. Pam and I are very open about everything, and both of us have cutting senses of humor so if something tickles me, it usually tickles Pam too. I went on to describe the difference I have noticed since I have lost just 34 pounds in the way people especially men interact with me. (Not long after saying that, I was hit upon by some drunk bar fly, but he didn’t count since he could barley speak.) People are more courteous. I’m not ignored. We all thought that it is sad on how we all judge people by their looks or weight. But that is human nature and there is no getting around it. We just have to strive to be better people.

Well all, I’m sorry for this being so long. I didn’t mean for this to happen, but I haven’t updated in a few days and lots of things have happened. Take care and keep on losing!

(Written last night)

Steve and Jamie are playing "boy" games right now that consists of the game "Tickle Monster" and "Stuck" which both of them love to play. Jamie just squacked "I'm not CHEESE!" and then "Let's play ice cold snow!" So I am intrigued as to why Jamie had to announce that he was not a dairy product and just what the heck "Ice Cold Snow" is. I'm such an evesdropper, but the things Jamie comes up with are so funny sometimes.

Anyhow, I had weight watchers tonight, and I lost a whopping 2.8 pounds! I am pretty pumped and very excited to say the least. I was so good last week. I even did my "Walk Away the Pounds" two times last week. That plus the weight work outs realy made the difference I think.

I can't remember if I had mentioned it, but I am going to be having Easter Sunday Dinner at my house this year. It is my first "official" holiday and I am pretty excited. I love entertaining, and this is a smaller to do so it shouldn't be a big deal. My parents, Steve's parents, his sister, and my Grandparents are coming. Steve's sister and I are also planning an Easter Egg hunt for Jamie before the dinner. It should be interesting to say the least. I've been skulking about cooking sites getting low fat ideas for the menu and Jamie and I are going to do some Easter Crafts too. All in all, I think it is going to be great.

Well, I'm off for tonight. OP all the way to everyone

As you all know, I have this wedding in August to stand up in. I'm not in panic mode yet, but I am definately been checking out my arms lately. I had picked up the book Body Change - The 21 day fitness program for changing your body and changing your life by Montel Williams and Wini Linguvic on special at Barnes and Noble after seeing a segment on Montel's show. (No, I don't make a habit on watching Montel, but had caught a blurb about his book and then I found it on sale.) Anyhow, I had been looking for a basic work out book that I could do at home with pics in it to demonstrate the correct form etc, and this book has it all.

I am determined to have better looking upper arms than I do right now for the wedding. My arms are hideous and I have a hard time baring them to go swimming let alone wear a gown. So I started the upper body work out today. Not bad, I used a lighter weight since I really don't want to be mega sore and then lose ambition and not do the exercises at all. Baby steps here.

So that is it so far for today. I'm just hanging out, Jamie free since my parents called up and said that they would love to have him overnight to give Steve and I a break. I might go over and chat with my neighbor Pam later on. She is painting her basement and I wouldn't mind giving her a hand.

I have a new favorite food right now - grilled veggie sandwich. I "grilled" some veggies in my oven yesterday and they are to die for! Check out the directions at my cooking site My Dirty Dish.

Anyhow, take care and OP ALL THE WAY!

Weigh In went pretty well. I was expecting a big fat gain, but instead got a nice little 0.2 lb loss. I can't complain at all! I really have to start putting the brakes on Steve with his "Hey, why don't we get a fish fry/Pizza Hut/Chinese for dinner?" It is so hard to eat only one piece. I know my triggers and I have to be strong!

I did find some rather interesting food finds this week. Klement's makes a lite Braunschwieger which is out of this world! I mena nothing really compares to Klement's fresh liver sausage, but this lite braunschweiger is great! 8 points for the whole tube. I'll bet a lot of you are saying "Eeeewwww! Liver Sausage?!" My family is pretty German, so this was something we were offered for lunches. My Dad loves the Liver Sausage, I love the liver sausage, and my little brother's favorite was braunschweiger, which is more of a spread than a solid sausage. When you think about what is actually in Liver Sausage, it is pretty gross. There is nothing like a slice of liver sausage on a nice roll with slices of raw onion, a little salt and pepper and just a hint of mayo. I thought I would never have it again but I am jumping for joy over this lite braunschwieger. Now that I think about it, there probably isn't much of a difference between foi gras and liver sausage, besides the fancy french trappings, and the animal type (goose vs. pork)

I also hit a very cool health food cooperative called The Outpost Health Food Cooperative yesterday. Very cool place if you are interested in health food, organic food and things like that. I was there in search of the lid adapters for the mason jars to grow my own alfalfa sprouts. I have been eating sprouts like crazy and at over $2.00 a crack, I know I can make my own for a fraction of that. Also, I like the idea of growing my own sprouts. My Mom grew sprouts the same way when I was a kid, so I remember having them around, but I also remember hating sprouts with a passion. How things change. I have promised pictures of this sprout experiment to Simone, so stay tuned if you are interested. I should be able to "harvest my first crop" of sprouts in 3 to 5 days.

Well, more later. Take care all and keep on losing!