Wednesday Weigh In and WINNER

Scene: Weight Watchers Meeting Room, 5:30 PM. Enter Jane.

Jane: Hi Leader Becky! I was so sad when you weren't here last week, so I thought I would eat like a fatass this week, gain back some and celebrate hitting 50 pounds again next week!

Leader Becky: ha ha ha, Jane! I am so proud of you....ramble ramble....

Jane gets on scale. Leader Becky still rambling

Leader Becky:  Listen to me! I am just talking about everything and look! You lost a pound!

Jane: What!? HA HA HA HA HA. So, let's see. This means....you can eat whatever the hell you want and STILL lose weight!!!

Leader Becky:  More rambling, ha ha ha ha, good job! I don't even remember what you looked like 50 pounds ago! Wow!

And....scene.

Loss: -1.0
Total Loss: -51.2
Feeling: Excitement, hottness, and a little bit of dread about next week! This can't keep going!!!

The winner of my book giveaway is Anna! Here is her comment:

Anna said...
-0.8 Hanay. :) So proud of your continued progress. <3 Anna

Anna, I will bring the books over to your new house as soon as I finish reading them. Hee hee.

A GIVEAWAY!!!!!!! Books!!!!!

I am super excited to host my first giveaway!!!!

I thought it would be a fun way to 1. get rid of donate some great books to someone that wants to read them 2. create a little mystery about my next weigh-in and 3. demonstrate how going "off-plan" can affect your weight. :)

So, I have two books for the winner of this giveaway. The first one is Vince Flynn's latest "American Assassin". This is a Todd book and he recommends it highly. "4 stars. 5 if you have read the rest of the series." He describes it as CIA super secret commando Jack Bauer-esque. The second one is a Jane book - the latest by Jennifer Weiner. Her stories are about women, relationships, friendships, and love! This one is about donating your eggs, friendships and family dynamics. Click the books to read their descriptions at Amazon.

So, what do you have to do to win these awesome books!???

You have to be the closest guesser to what my weight gain (or loss) will be on Wednesday!!!

Here are the rules:

1. You must comment on this blog, listing what you think my weight gain/loss will be on Wednesday night. (For example, you could write "I think you will be +4.6" or "I think you'll be -0.4". If you are anonymous, don't forget to write your name.)

2. You have to have your comment in by Wednesday at 5:00 PM EST.

3. Whoever is closest without going over wins the books!  (In the event of a tie, we'll have to have a run-off. I'll think of something interesting. Or, I'll just give the books to the person I like more. That's fair, right?)

Here is what I have eaten this week along with the points breakdown for ww. Each day I am alotted 29 points. I am also alotted 49 "extra" points to use however I want.

Thursday - yogurt/granola/banana, coffee, turkey wrap, hummus/carrots/pretzels, goldfish, a lot of food at a tastefully simply party. I gave myself 40 points for the whole day. (11 points over)

Friday - yogurt/granola/banana, coffee, cheetos, turkey wrap, hummus/carrots/pretzels, snacky stuff, pizza and beer for dinner. I gave myself 45 points for Friday. (16 points over)

Saturday - yogurt/granola, coffee, turkey wrap, carrots, cookies, pretzels, taco bell crunch wrap supreme (no meat), some taco bell chips, dr. pepper, beer. 47 points. (18 points over)

Sunday - usual breakfast, frozen pizza for lunch, salad for dinner, some bites of pita, ice cream for dessert. 42 points (13 points over)

Monday - usual breakfast, hummus and pretzels/carrots, cheez-its, grilled chicken, corn on the cob, salad, strawberries, 1/2 a light beer, 1 ff fudge pop. 29 points

Activity points earned so far: 18

Total weekly extra points left: -12 (that means I used all 49 points PLUS 18 activity points.

I still have Tuesday and Wednesday to "fix" myself. I plan on not going over my 29 points the next 2 days, and I plan on earning back the 12 points I am over for the week. So I will hopefully end up even (points-wise).

Now you know EVERYTHING. Go forth, and guess!

Book recommendation

Patricia J. DeLois wrote a book called Bufflehead Sisters that I just finished reading. It was a great read! I found it lying on the table in the teacher's lounge (thanks, Katie!) and snatched it up. I have had Barbara Kingsolvers' The Lacuna on my nightstand for a year now, and I have been avoiding it. So every little easy read I can grab up I take advantage. This was a great grab. Once I started, I was dying to finish this book, and even though it was pretty predictable, I enjoyed it very much. The two main characters, Janet and Sophie, are BFF's and Sophie is like a car accident - I didn't want to know what she was going to do next, but I couldn't help looking. Check it out here.

Martha, I'll bring it to Paris for you.

Wednesday Weigh-In and ROOM

Weigh-in today: -2.2

Total loss to date: -33.4

Feeling: Good. I have been moving "with purpose" every day this year, I have "started" my 10K training (a whole 'nother story about sore calves coming soon....), and I have been eating a lot of POWER foods. The show goes on.

New topic! I just read this book, ROOM, by Emma Donoghue and it was great. Very emotional and scary and sad and happy and awful and good. Hated it and loved it. Loved the writing, loved the story, hated the fact that shit like this happens. When I was finished with it, I felt like sobbing. If you like that kind of read, GET IT. It's great. And awful. And fabulous.

it's a booky book world, people!

So, I've been reading a lot lately. I think that's a sign that I am feeling good, productive, and happy. At least that's what I tell myself.

I started with Pat Conroy's South of Broad. I love me some Pat Conroy. This one was very Conroy-esque with a lot of drama, family problems, and beautiful Charleston scenery. I actually thought it was typical of Conroy, with a new dramatic twist on every page. Very dramatic. I give it 3 out of 4 thumbs up.

Next, I read the latest John Irving book, Last Night in Twisted River. Johnny boy has been a favorite author of mine for a while (well except when i went to hear him speak he turned out to be a total asshat). This book was a good one, too. It started kind of slow for me, and there was a lot of technical jargon about log-rolling (whatever). There was also a random politcal rant towards the end that I agreed with 100% but found it odd that it was in there. Loved the storyline. Loved the characters. I give it 29 out of 30 cupcakes.

I just finished this next book by Wally Lamb. I loved his books I Know this Much is True, and She's Come Undone. This book, The Hour I First Believed, was great. It was about Columbine and how the tragedy affected the family of Mr. and Mrs. Quick. I really enjoyed this book. How it all tied together, the description of the Columbine disaster, and how people work through trauma were all elements I loved about it. I give it 7.9 out of 8.2 stars.

I am just starting this book by Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care. So far, it's good. It's about a family that has a daughter with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) which is a bone disease that causes a person's bones to be brittle and break easily. I will let you know what I think of it when I finish.

Anyone else read anything good lately?

A Mercy

I'm a big fan of Toni Morrison and even though I never made it through her last book, Love, I did make it through the latest book, A Mercy. Nothing will ever meet the caliber of Beloved or Song of Solomon, but this was good. It was short, so I could take my time with her sometimes difficult writing and not feel like it was never going to end. The story was interesting, and while you don't really get the purpose of the story until the end, it is a worthwhile read. There are some strange parts, as there always are in Morrison's books, some that I am sure have much deeper meaning than I will ever understand. I guess I need to read it again with some Cliff's notes in a few years.

one good, one not so much

I recently finished two books (recently being last night waaaaaayyyyy too late, but I had to know the ending....) and wanted to share!

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski was the first one. I got it because People Magazine called it the best book of the year. I haven't purchased a book in a while...we have been frequent library patrons. But I bought this one, because any magazine that shows Britney's hoo-hah MUST know what they are talking about when it comes to literature. At any rate, there are some good things about the book. But I was so disappointed by the ending that it sort of ruined it for me. It's a page-turner (once you get into it...) and you want to know what happens, but I wish it had ended differently. The dogs were the best part of the story, for me.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is the one I finished last night, long after I had gone to bed. I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed this book. I will be having circus dreams for a while, but it will be freakishly worth it. This was a good love story, coming of age, animal adventure that was hard to put down. I read it in 3 nights and liked every bit of it. It reminded me a little bit of The Notebook with the old person flashbacks and such. I tended to want to fast forward the old man parts (just like the movie) and get on with the romance. A great read.

"High born people make poor servants."

So, I just finished reading "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet. Different from anything I have ever read. I am not usually into historical fiction, but this one read like a good novel. I enjoyed the story very much, found his writing a little wordy (OK, a lot wordy....do we really need to know every single detail of everything? Come on, skipping some things is OK....and stop repeating things, really), and some of the scenes a little graphic. But I can totally see this being made into a movie trilogy. I had to run out and buy a new book today because I keep having dreams of myself in medieval times. Man, that life would suck, unless you were a noble. And even that ain't so great, depending on who wants to kill you at the time. At any rate, I recommend the book. A good, long, summer read. Thanks, Dad!