Raise your hand....

....if you think my husband looks like Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band. You know, "I got my toes in the water, a$$ in the sand..."
During Beard Season (October 1 - Superbowl Sunday), Tom is rarely seen without one of three black toboggans on. He has three basic toboggans that he rotates, it's always one of the three. I'm not sure exactly why this is....maybe his ears get cold easily...maybe it's to keep his abnormally thick hair from getting too poufy (Beard Season is also I Don't Cut My Hair Season)...could be for a variety of reasons. So towards the beginning of Beard Season one night I looked at him and said, "Omigah you look like Zac Brown!" Red Beard + Black Toboggan = Zac Brown look alike. Am I right? I am.
Anyway, moving on...Bex and I were back at the gym this morning! I have to tell you, I was SO READY to get back in action. It was like I could feel my body pleading for exercise. Craving a good sweat! We had decided to bike 30 minutes, then run three miles. Slowly but surely we are woking in a bike workout a couple days a week. After taking about 10 days off after the Half Marathon, it felt soooooo good to get after it this morning! This being our first bike workout, it was a good trial run. We were on stationary bikes at the gym, and I understand that biking on a real bike will be different, but the real biking will have to wait until we actually own real bikes. :) In the meantime, we will ease ourselves into it.
In 30 minutes, we biked approximately 7 miles. Is this slow? It seems slow to me but at the time I felt like we were going at a pretty good pace. About 14 miles per hour. So after doing the 7 miles this morning, Bex and I decided we might have overestimated our athletic ability in planning to do an Olympic distance triathlon. We decided we'd be better off to start with a Sprint distance and work out way up. Kind of like training for a 10K, then training for a Half-Marathon. This, we can handle.

Weight Watchers Update: Well, I come to you today with my tail between my legs. No change. NO CHANGE!?!? Boooo hisssssss.....
The good news is that Ididn't gain any weight in which case I would have been really pissed. But I am wondering if the cause for my no-weight-loss could be the result of a variety of things:

1. This was the week after the half-marathon so I was taking a break from all things exercise.
2. I could be hitting a plateau, which I have read happens to a lot of people when trying to lose weight
3. Could have been the wine, pizza, and hot wings I ate over the weekend. Oh, or maybe the Rendezvous plate I had at Ched and Emily's on Monday night. Yeah, that might have been it.

In more WW good news, I have figured out I can eat Mexican without feeling guilty. Today around noon Tom called to see if I wanted to meet him at the Mexico Grill for lunch. I immediately said yes, then thought...."Oh good grief what am I going to eat? Taco Salad, no sour cream or guac?" How can one get Taco Salad with no sour cream or guac when the smells of fajitas, melted cheese, and soft gooey tortillas wafting through the air? No, Taco Salad was not going to work for me. So I ordered my usual favorite with a few changes:

Laura's Usual Favorite:

1. About 25 tortilla chips: 6 points
2. Topped with white cheese dip: 4 points
3. Whole, 6-inch, Chicken quesadilla: 12 points
4. Topped with more white cheese dip: 4 points
5. And 2 T. sour cream: 2 points
6. And lettuce/tomato: 0 points
7. Diet Coke: 0 points

Total for Laura's Usual Favorite: 28 points

One can see how this poses a problem since I only get 22 total points per day. Hm.

The Solution:

1. 10 Tortilla chips: 2 points
2. Topped with salsa: 0 points (buh-bye cheese dip. nice knowin ya. well hello Mr. Abdominal Muscle. haven't seen you in a while.)
3. 1/2 of the 6-inch Chicken quesadilla: 6 points
4. Topped with 1 T. sour cream: 1 point

Total for The Solution: 9 points

Amazing, right? Here are a few tricks I used to cut my usual favorite down to 1/3 of what it really should be!

• Count out the tortilla chips and put them on your plate. Eat them slowly so that by the time you're finished there is little to no time before your meal is on the table.
• If you can, ignore the cheese dip altogether. I know, I know, easier said than done. But (not to sounds like Barack Obama here) if it was easy you would have done it by now.
• This particular dish comes with the white cheese poured all over the top of the quesadilla. Order it without or at least on the side so you can just get a little taste to satisfy your craving.
• This quesadilla is packed full....PACKED FULL I TELL YOU...with yummy seasoned chicken and veggies. It is huge, as are most quesadilla dishes at Mexican restaurants. Cut it in half and ignore the other half. Again, hard I know, but unless the restaurant makes half-portions, it's just somthing you have to do. OR you can take the other half home (6pts), add a big fresh salad with lite dressing (1pt) for a yummy & economical 7-point dinner.
• Slow down when you eat. A good trick is to put your fork down between each bite and take a sip of water. The water makes you feel fuller faster, and slowing it down will give your brian time to tell your stomach that it's full! During this particular lunch, Tom ate his full plate (twice as much as what I ate) in the same amount of time, because he was just shoveling it in (sorry, Hunny but it's the truth). Lucky for him, he is not on Weight Watchers.

On the way back to work after lunch, I noticed I was pleasantly full but not so full I was miserable. I am guilty of getting so full it feels as if the button on my pants is going to pop off and put somebody's eye out. Not after this lovely Mexican lunch! And mid-afternoon I never felt sluggish and chubby, like all that food was just sitting like a big blob in the pit of my stomoch. Nope, never felt that way! I was proud of myself, and my discipline. Now I look forward to going home and cooking a healthful meal for dinner and I don't feel one single bit guilty!

This weekend I am going on a Sister Shopping Extravaganza in Nashville with Myra and Sara Whit. Staying on task will prove to require some planning and discipline but I think I can do it and still have a good time!