A New Plan of Action

I was brave and attended my WW meeting on Saturday, a mere 40 hours after our Thanksgiving feast. While I'm not proud of the results I saw on the scale, I have decided to change up my plan this week. I'm going to try the "core" plan as opposed to the points-counting "flex" plan. Wish me luck. With this plan, I can eat as much as I want until I'm satisfied but I can only eat foods from a designated list. The list seems similar to the Zone diet as it comprises of foods from all of the food groups but it is limited with regard to the ever-villainous carbs. I went shopping this morning and feel good about it so far. I do think I'll go back to the points system after this week but hopefully I'll see some results and I'll be able to kick myself back into action.

New Traditions

For the third year in a row, Mark and I celebrated Thanksgiving with dinner, wine, and games at Adam and Lindsay's place. This year, we were also joined by Lindsay's sister which made the day that much better. Adam and Lindsay do all of the dinner cooking while I, of course, am in charge of desserts and we all chip in on the wine (we sure do go through a lot of it!). We got to their place around 4:00, had a great dinner (just like my mom and Grandma used to make!) and played several rounds of Cranium, Guesstures, and Pictionary. Instead of coupling up, we picked teams from a hat and, I must add, my team won 3 out of 4 games. Chelsea and I were quite the dynamic pictionary duo. We didn't call it a night until after 3 a.m.! Just goes to show what a great time we had!

Update

Is it crazy to anyone else that Thanksgiving is next week already?!?! I just can't believe how fast time flies...

I only had to work four days last week due to the Veteran's Day holiday. I took advantage of the day off and got my hair cut. It's been in desperate need for months now, I haven't had a cut since March! I decided to go with bangs. They're still growing on me and I may just let them grow out but it was something different to try. Afterall, it is only hair.

My weigh-in went as expected this past weekend, considering I had missed the last two meetings. I gained 1.2 lbs. I told my leader that I am doing a heck of a job maintaining my weight. Too bad I have 20 lbs to lose! At least I went to the meeting. My leader gave me props for that decision. With the holidays upon us, going to the meetings will at least keep my mind focused and I won't gain as much as I would if I wasn't going to meetings. Plus, not going to Michigan for the holidays will help me from overindulging. I tend to REALLY overdo it with Jet's Pizza and Phoenix Coney Island!

My softball team has become kind of sad. With all of our busy lives, I don't think we've had the whole team together all season. Instead, we have subs filling in and, while it's still fun, we're having difficulty winning. This past Friday, the other team forfeited so we get the W.

November is pretty relaxed at Long Beach State. My Tuesday night class hasn't met all month, though we do have assignments to be working on. It has helped to have the extra evening to get stuff done.

Mark's dad turned 67 on Friday - Happy Birthday Nosh! The spent the day at the racetrack and we had dinner all together. It was a nice evening.

Life is good. It really is busy and time really is flying by but I'm happy and healthy and things have been good.

Pictures

I just added our pictures from Oktoberfest on Mark's birthday as well as more from Halloween. In the Oktoberfest pics, you'll see the yodeling contest Mark convinced his stone-cold sober wife to participate in and then I, in-turn, convinces Lindsay to come on stage with me. As you'll see, she was none too pleased. But, what a memory!

Pics are at: www.lajcisinlove.shutterfly.com
Password is: missymark0811 (all lower case)

Midterm!

I am so proud of myself! I got my midterm for my Wednesday night class back tonight and I got 14.5 out of 15 and my professor wrote "Melissa - You achieved one of the highest schores on the exam, congratulations! Impressive work!!" Hooray!

Oh What a Beautiful Morning...

I woke up Friday morning to the sound of rain beating our roof. Rain! I love rain every once in awhile and I hadn't seen it in months! It had stopped by the time I left for work but the sky was still very dark and gloomy (in the best way possible). When I exited the freeway, the clouds above my school had parted and the beautiful orangey, red of the sunrise gleamed through. It looked as though someone had taken a paintbrush and swiped the sky with a mix of these beautiful warm colors. At moments like these, when the sky looks especially beautiful, my thoughts turn to heaven and those I love. On this particular morning, October 31, I thought of both of my grandmothers. My mom's mom passed away on November 1st when I was 9 and my dad's mom passed away on October 27 when I was 18. Both ladies were very special to me. When I got out of my car at school, I looked to the sky and saw the most beautiful double rainbow I have ever seen. In that moment, I knew that my grandmas were looking down on me and I felt them smiling.

Proud to be an American!

I voted for president for the first time in my life! What an experience.

Happy Halloween!!!

Mark and I went out with Lindsay and Adam for the second year in a row and, again, people loved our costumes. Twosome costumes are fun but seeing a foursome walking around is always a crowd pleaser. We started the night at "Big Wangs Wings" with dinner and drinks and then headed to a couple of parties that Lindsay's friends were throwing. The night ended at about 4:30 on Saturday morning when Mark and I finally hit the hay!