I have intentions to write a long, meaningful post but things keep popping up. Specifically, I have a job interview tomorrow to prepare for. I feel good about this one. We’ll see.

Here’s some blah blah to tide you over until I can really get to it:One of these bags contains homemade tortilla chips and one contains organic dog treats. Guess which one I reached into without looking and almost ate from?Tuesday night I had a dinner date. Fortunately, she didn’t want any of my Lobster Mac ‘n Cheese. (She’s so smart already!)Oh. My. God. This gave Praline Bacon a run for its money in the My Favorite Food category.

Hop on over to EastBurn to get it and order whatever’s on Nitro – I had a Clem’s Cream Ale. Nitro’s awesome!

After dinner, I walked home by way of a little dessert place. Super cute! I bought a carrot cake square, but was too full to eat it until morning. It made excellent fuel for painting.

The Hubster’s birthday is this weekend so I’ll try to take lots of pics and get something of substance up soon. In the meantime, I need to start conjuring up past workplace accomplishments for my interview tomorrow. Tell us about a time when you … Ugh, I hate those questions. I’m an office manager. My job didn’t have that many memorable moments.

There was the day that an employee told the managers to go to Hell as she stormed out the door. That was pretty memorable.

Marriage is hard. Anyone who tells you different is lying.

Mine works for a variety of reasons. The first of which is that we’re both the same kind of crazy. When the forecast says it’s going to be the first decent weekend of the summer, what do we decide to do? Drive three hours to paint the Love Pad.

No, wait, we threw the dog in the car, drove three hours and painted the Love Pad while it was 85 degrees outside.

Reason #2 our marriage works so well: we both love this stupid dog so much.

After we prepped and primed the living room, we walked 20 blocks to the river, and, though I totally hadn’t packed the right shoes, it was so worth it:

I’m not sure I can even express how much I love this guy or how big his heart is.

Not the guy on the bike. I don't know him. Nice enough guy, I bet.

On the way home, we picked up Mexican food at La Palapa and a six-pack of Bridgeport Kingpin Red Ale. Source

Some days just scream to be beer days, and this was one of them. We sat on the floor of the Love Pad, surrounded by paint fumes, ate Rockfish Tacos (mine) and a Carne Asada burrito (his), and drank beer. Life was good.

And we’d worn out the dog, which is not that easy.The next day I had two things on my mind: bagels and chalkboards.

We woke up early (after not sleeping so well – our neighborhood is funky awesome but LOUD) and hoofed it about ten blocks to Kettleman Bagel Company for bagels and coffee. (Yeah, that’s us at 7:30 am with empty travel mugs and barely brushed hair traipsing through the hood. Hi! Nice to meetcha!) I’d read in my Food Lover’s Guide To Portland that Kettleman had the best bagels in Portland, and, being a New Yorker, Chris does love a good bagel.

No pics (mental bagel, NOW), but I will tell you they do make great bagels with excellent texture – not too chewy. PS. Their Cinnamon Raisin bagel has 8 Points, as opposed to the standard 6 Points for store-bought. Oh well, I ate it at 8:15 am and counted the Points almost 12 hours later. *Shrug*

This is key: A marriage is held together by long walks and breakfasts together…sometimes a high-calorie starch.

(and by keeping hilarious but embarrassing and humiliating stories private. That’s the hardest, believe me!)

And, finally, my marriage works because of compromise. Last week, Chris didn’t think we needed the huge vintage schoolroom chalkboard that I’d seen in a nearby shop. Once he saw how bright the dining area looked with the new paint, he changed his mind. I was soooo afraid it would be gone since chalkboards are SO hot right now (as seen here and here), and it was really cheap ($65). But I called the shop right when it opened, and they said it was still there! (Ok, technically I called back after leaving a message 15 minutes before they opened because I’m impatient like that.)Now that’s love: Chris cleaning the chalkboard he hadn’t even wanted but knew I desired. Not to mention the fact he rode back from the shop with 75 lbs of Cady on his lap so the chalkboard would fit in the back of the car.

Sigh.

That’s simply how it works.

I know I said I was recommitting to my WeightWatchers plan after a bad week. Well, I have to confess that the week after I said that was no bueno too, and that’s not even counting my Droolworthy Weekend! There seems to have been an epidemic among folks (including my WW Buddy) who fell off the wagon HARD. When I finally weighed in last Friday, after skipping a week, it was the single biggest gain I’ve had and a significant percentage of the total weight I’ve lost on the program since January. Facing it was hard, and I warned the receptionist, “This is not going to be pretty.”

(On Twitter, someone reported that their receptionist blurted out, “Oh my God, how could you have put on so much weight overnight?” At least my gal didn’t say that!)

The thing that bothered me and my Buddy the most was that it wasn’t like we’d spent the weekend in Paris eating fantastic creamy cheese along the Champs-Élysées. We’d just been eating crap in our own houses for no compelling reason. We know we are smarter than that.

www.popcornindiana.com

Not crap. Totally delicious. Bought with a coupon for killer deal, but I ate the whole bag. Wanh wanh.

The other thing was that I knew this weight gain wasn’t totally real. Some of it was, and I needed to own that, but I knew about half of it would be gone as soon as I flushed out the salt, etc. (Let’s just call it “etc.”) I’m guessing that half of my gain is real and will set me back a few weeks. I can recover from that. It actually motivates me just a little bit more to work harder.

This is when I really rely on the amazing bloggers who inspire me every day. Here are some of my new-to-me favorites:

Loser for Life – Marisa has been doing great on WeightWatchers, and she posts terrific photos and recipes. I cannot wait to make her Breakfast Bakes!

Shannon’s Kitchen Creations – Shannon posts the Points on her recipes and reminds me that I have to give Zumba another try.

Gina’s Skinny Recipes – Otherwise known as SkinnyTaste, Gina posts gorgeous, easy recipes and includes the Points count on each. I made her Chicken Divan, a dish I would never have thought of in a million years, and it was awesome!

These lovely ladies make cooking on WeightWatchers a no-brainer. Which is great when we’ve been acting, er, not so smart.

Have you discovered a new site recently that’s put an extra spring in your step?

Source

A week ago, I received a gold star at my WeightWatchers meeting for losing 10 pounds. It was pretty amazing considering I’ve been eating cheese, chocolate, pasta, bananas…all the foods that might have caused me to gain weight in the past. I have also been eating fat-free dairy, lean meats, lots of fresh fruits and veggies – all the good stuff. I am losing weight at about 2 lbs a month. Not bad considering my only exercise is walking the dog, and she’s getting more slow and pokey every day.

But really, losing weight has been the only highlight of life for a while, and I couldn’t hold onto it. Last week was not good. I was cheating and not tracking. Then I went to my meeting on Friday and chose not to weigh in. I later realized that was a big mistake.

No matter what, face the scale. It’s the only way to see where you really are and move forward.

I went from my WeightWatchers meeting to a casino buffet. Not kidding. I didn’t necessarily overeat, but I did sample about five desserts. I felt like an alcoholic on a bender. The rest of the weekend was not good. (Although I did win $100 at Blackjack, so there’s that.)

My home scale says I’m up 2.5 lbs. I know that’s not the end of the world, but it’s certainly not a move in the right direction.

It’s time to get back on track (oh hello Holiday Weekend!).

Of course, the big question is not HOW – I know how to do this – the question is WHY? The WHY is that I’m angry and anxious. Those are two very strong feelings that drive food into my face. I won’t go into the details, but just know that I know, and I’m on it.

I am recommitting NOW.

And now a funny story from my WW meeting: my buddy and I sit in front of two sisters who are probably in their 60′s. One sister has been doing very well on the program and the other keeps sabotaging herself by eating bread and butter at night. When the struggling sister learned that her sister was .2 lbs away from goal, she said, “POINT TWO??? That’s a fart, for God’s sake!”

We died. Our meetings are the best laugh of the week.

Here’s to a better week!