Thank you all SO much for the comments on yesterday's post! I know Mark will feel very special to get lots of cards. He's having a biopsy tomorrow, and when we get the results from that, we should know more about his prognosis, and his options as far as making him comfortable. (If you haven't read yesterday's post about Mark, please do!)
We got a TON of snow yesterday. It snowed hard all day long. I shoveled the driveway a few times, and I'm pretty sore from it today! My wine club meeting was last night, at Jessica's house, and I was worried about driving there. I'm a pretty nervous driver in bad weather, and I even had my mom drive me to the post office to rent the P.O. Box yesterday (my Jeep doesn't handle the snow very well at all). I was so relieved when Stephanie sent me a text asking me if I wanted her to pick me up, because my house is on the way from her house to Jessica's.
I took out the cute suede coat that I'd bought at a garage sale a couple of years ago, and bundled up in that before heading out into the snow for Winers. I love the hood of this coat, because it has a TON of faux fur.
Stephanie picked me up right as Jerry got home from work, and she surprised me with a bottle of my favorite wine--Kendall Jackson Merlot! She said it was for pacing her during the Monroe Half-Marathon. Completely unnecessary, but I'm excited to drink it :) She also gave me a jar of her county-fair-award-winning strawberry jam--yum!
Christmas Winers is always fun, because we do a white elephant gift exchange. It was fun to see everyone, because I haven't been going to Winers every month. I'm glad Steph drove me, because otherwise I may have backed out due to the snow-covered roads!
Traditional group photo
Jessica, Steph, me, and Renee... a few of my favorite friends/running buddies!
I had a small taste of each wine, totaling about 6 oz., for 5 PointsPlus. I didn't eat any Simply Filling food while I was there, but I spent some weekly PointsPlus on a few treats. I had a rum ball, a small shortbread cookie, a couple of bites of ginger-walnut bark, and a couple of bites of eggnog cake. The shortbread cookie was fantastic!
I stayed on track with Simply Filling, and it wasn't as hard as I thought. I ate the things I wanted, knowing I'd have to count them against my weekly PointsPlus, but I just had a small amount and felt good about it. My food log from yesterday:
Breakfast: Peppermint Patty protein shake
Lunch: Quinoa with spinach, feta, garlic, and chicken; marinated cucumbers
Snack: light English muffin with peanut butter (5 PP)
Dinner: Keema with brown rice
Snack (at Winers): 6 oz. wine (the wine photo was from the day before, but I forgot to take pics at Winers); rum ball, cookie, couple bites of eggnog cake, couple bites of ginger-walnut bark
After Stephanie dropped me off at home, I saw that Jerry left a message for me in the snow:
He had taken green food coloring and water, put it in a spray bottle, and sprayed "I LOVE YOU". I love it when he does stuff like that! :)
Today was my family's Christmas party at my parents' house. This is probably the hardest day of the year for me to eat well and stay on track. Everybody brings really yummy food, and rather than sitting down for a meal, everyone just snacks the whole time. There was buffalo dip, buffalo mac & cheese, a baked potato bar, soups, chips and dip, and all sorts of things to eat. I ate some (Simply Filling friendly) leftover keema and brown rice just before everyone got there, so that I wouldn't be tempted to go way off plan. I did have a piece of German Chocolate Upside Down Cake that my mom made. It was SO good.
It was a small piece, so I counted it as 5 PointsPlus. Throughout the rest of the day, I ended up eating another piece and a half, so I counted 13 PP. I stayed away from everything else, except for a couple of chocolate covered cookies (very tiny, I guessed 2 PP each). For dinner, I had brought over lentil chili (which is Simply Filling), so the only PointsPlus I spent today were on the cake and cookies. I am really happy with how I did, considering the circumstances!
It was nice to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins today, because it seems like we only see each other once or twice a year these days. We did a white elephant gift exchange, which was fun. Once everyone left the party, we did our private gift exchange with my parents; my sister, Jeanie; her husband, Shawn; my brother, Brian; his fiancé, Becky (yes, they just got engaged!); my little brother, Nathan; and of course, Jerry, Noah, Eli, and me.
I got a couple of running shirts (including Under Armour Cold Gear, which I can certainly use right now!), a gift card, some Bath & Body Works stuff, and some smelly-good stuff for my house.
A little while later, Noah called me into the kitchen and handed me something wrapped in tissue paper. When I opened it, it was $5 (some of his Christmas money from my sister). He said it was because he got a lot more gifts than I did. Of course I gave it back to him, and I told him that I got a lot of stuff, it was just wrapped up together instead of individually. He is such a sweet boy!
After we opened gifts, we watched Spaceballs (an old family favorite movie) for a little while, but I was feeling super tired, so we left halfway through. I was dying to get into my pajamas! I hadn't planned to write today, but I just had so much to write about. Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday, so if you have a picture of a health/fitness accomplishment that you want to share, you can e-mail it to me at SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, subject "Motivational Monday", along with a brief description, and I may include it on tomorrow's post!
I'm super tired, and not going to proofread this... g'night!