look at my progress

My husband turned 40 over the weekend and we went downtown (Milwaukee) to celebrate sans kids. It was a great time. We walked through Juneau Park and in Veterans Park along the lakefront. We also walked along the Milwaukee River (where I had my picture taken with Fonzie) and then we went to John Hawk’s Pub and ate outside. Most people with weight loss blogs tend to take pictures of their food, but I never think to do that, so I’ll have to describe it instead! If you follow the link above for the pub, you can find the sandwiches on their menu. I had the grilled chicken breast with BBQ sauce and substituted raw veggies for the french fries. I calculated that my lunch came in at under 500 calories, but even so, I probably burned most of that off with all the walking we did beforehand!

There were plenty of other opportunities to be bad this past week too, but I was very good! My youngest daughter has recently discovered “the tubes” at McDonalds and asks to go there all the time. Although I don’t want to make a habit of going to McDonalds, I do admit that someone with an FFA (my own made-up acronym) — a Fast Food Addiction — can fairly easily find healthier options on the menu. But, the last couple of times we went to play on the equipment, I just ordered a Diet Coke and sat back and relaxed while my two older kids helped Sarah navigate the plastic jungle.

I mentioned that my husband and son both had birthdays this past week. We had cake on three separate occasions, as there were multiple parties and gatherings in their honor. My son is really into fishing right now so our resident cake decorator made them this cute cake with white chocolate fish (made from a candy mold) on top. He loved it. I had such a small sliver of the cake that I barely could taste it, however, I think my self-imposed restriction paid off because I lost weight last week! Here’s a photo of my entire family from one of the other gatherings, with the cake in the foreground of course! I’m smiling because I love my family, because I now love having my picture taken, and because again I chose to have such a small piece of cake!

We stopped at the Kenosha Wendy’s after the fair for a quick bite and I had a small chili and a mandarin oranges cup. I love their chili, and I LOVE supporting Wendy’s for their tie to adoption and how through the Dave Thomas Foundation they support adoptive famililes and kids in foster care. Wendy’s website has a really nice nutrition facts calculator that let’s you customize your meal and see real-time how many calories/fats/etc you’d total based on your choices. My chili and oranges dinner was only 270 calories!