Parties and food and beers! Oh My!

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This weekend we celebrated America's Independence Day the best way we know how.  At a party!  My cousin and his wife host a party every July 4th with a raffle, food and a lot of family and friends.  The party is to raise money for a local animal rescue group where we volunteer.  In fact our yellow lab mix, Tucker, is a foster failure from Placing Paws (originally we were scheduled to foster Tucker (pictured at left) but we fell in love with him and decided to adopt him instead). 

I know that it's hard to stay on plan when going to parties so I feel really fortunate that at this party there was plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables so I could load up my plate with those things and only take small amounts of other things that I knew would be higher in points values.  I also took a shrimp pasta salad that was 2 PP for 1/2 cup serving so I knew I could eat that without blowing all of my points.

The hardest challenge I had was avoiding the desserts.  I really, really, really wanted them but I had done some tracking after dinner so I knew I didn't have any points left for desserts.  The other concern I had was that I knew they were very likely full fat/sugar desserts so the points plus values of them would be really high.  I was so proud of myself for walking right by them all and even refusing to take any home with us, which I normally would have done.

I was totally rewarded with a 1.8 pound loss this week.  I was relieved because the rest of the weekend went pretty well although one day I went over my daily points target by nearly 10 points.  It wasn't the end of the world by any means, just a little too much splurging! 

How did you celebrate the weekend?  Did you indulge in anything?

PS - Have you tried the new Toasted Coconut Dream bars from Weight Watchers?  They are, as my cousin Kristyn says, nummy nummy.

Road Trippin...

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This week was a big challenge for me.  It was my first long road trip without Dan since I started WW.  I was heading home to Wisconsin with Briscoe for the weekend.  The reason for the trip was to participate in a day of making meat.  My family deer hunts every fall and we mix and smoke our own meat.  Generally, what we make is pretty healthy because venison is super lean meat even when combined with ground pork, though everything in moderation, right?

Anyway... I digress... Historically, road trips have been full of junk food or fast food and as many sugary sodas that you could stand.  When Dan and I travel together it seems easier to stay on plan but since I was by myself I was really worried I'd fall into my old ways.  To combat this I portioned out Nilla Wafers (3 PointsPlus/8 crackers) and Special K Sour Cream 'n Onion crisps (3 PointsPlus/30 grams) into plastic containers before I left.  I also packed my food scale and some slimwich buns because I knew there would be some kind of burger lunch.

The drive up went really well.  I found a Subway where we stopped for lunch (for me) and potty break (for Briscoe and me).  We stopped again in Onalaska at the Woodman's because I wanted to look for the new WW deli salads (really good but be warned there are 2 servings per container).  Then we drove up through Winona, MN (beer stop - shocking I know!) and then, finally, to Mom and Dad's house.

Mom had dinner ready when I got there and that was pretty healthy.  Then I took Briscoe on a walk so he'd be good and tired.  That's when we hit the first snafu of the weekend.  My parents live in the country and on our way back we met a skunk.  I immediately pulled Briscoe (who normally walks on a retractable leash) back to me and turned around to go the other direction.  Luckily I had my cell phone and a signal (which in the country is a god send) so I called Mom to ask someone to come and pick us up.

Saturday morning started with an early walk with the dog but luckily no skunks and a quick shower.  Then we got to work - talk about a long day!!  Lunch was 1/2 pound (pre-cooked weight) venison burgers (mixed with some pork and spices) that were really good.  However, they were HUGE!  Dinner was the same (good thing I packed two slimwich buns!!)

When we met up with the skunk on Friday night I must have twisted my knee or something because when I was walking on Saturday it was sore and throughout the day it continued to get worse.  I decided not to walk on Sunday to give it, and me, a break.  After packing up the meat that we'd made the day before and packing up the car to come back we were off.  That is where I hit the other snafu of the weekend.  I was tired and it is a L-O-N-G drive back.  Briscoe was apparently as tired as I was because he slept (and snored) almost the entire drive home. By the time I made it home I was so tired I didn't even care to track points and I was asleep by 6:30 pm.

So, the big question - did my weight gain continue or did I lose?

I lost 4.6 pounds.  YIPPEE!!!