Apple pie & m&m's

I gained half a pound this week. Bummer. I just have a few things to say about that:
Apple pie, mint m&m's, haagen dazs ice cream (twice), kettle corn, brownies, soft pretzel, sonic cheeseburger & tots, wendys frosty, and dairy queen.
Ok, that feels good to get this off my chest!

Let me explain a little, so you know that I did not go on some crazy binge. (But it sure sounds like I did)
I went to phoenix for the CTMH regional celebration. It was so much fun and I actually planned and tried hard to not lose control.

I really thought I was doing pretty good, but looking back, I really should have been tracking everything in my journal. (It is hard to do when I'm not near my computer, because my phone app takes too long)

My WW leader Jeff says I should "write it before I bite it.". That is great advice! Instead of biting it first and then writing it... Which is what I am pretty good at. It is easy to bite first and then discover that I ate too much. A better way is to write it down first, then I know how many points it is and I can decide if I really want it after all.

Sooo, I planned my trip and packed a small cooler with eggs (for my brekfasts), light yogurts, cucumbers, & carrots. I was kinda good all week before the trip, and thursday I had my yummy egg white omlett before we left, and I ate cucumbers on the road. For dinner that night I was caught off guard and was not familliar with light options at an italian place. I panicked and ordered a yummy really fresh salad and the butternut squash ravioli with veggies. It was good, and I think it was a good choice. I won't go so far as to suggest that I came in under points, but if I had actually been tracking, I would know how many points I really spent.

Friday morning I was soooo tired and I took too long getting ready. I whipped up a quick egg white scramble and packed some veggies and a yoplait light for the day.

The conference was awesome and exciting! We started with a fun card project and then some great business classes. I drank a ton of water and had an apple for a snack around 11 am.

Lunch was fabulous! They had a beautiful assortment of veggies for a salad. I loaded up on the yummiest grilled portobello mushrooms ever! I also had beets (I only get them when dave isn't around cause he hates them) and wonderful grilled yellow peppers. They had all the fixings for hot dogs and hamburgers, but that isn't my thing. I had a small skewer of grilled fish and veggies. Wow! I was so stuffed, I didn't have room for the lettuce in the salad. Or room for the desserts. I don't even know what was there because I didn't even look.

So, right about now you may be thinking: hmm, this doesn't sound too bad at all. Starr is doing a great job!

Thanks!

I was doing a great job. Then came the afternoon snack attack. I did this to myself and can't blame anyone. (Oohhhh, I just recalled that I had a bunch of those yummy mint m&m's as I was packing up on thursday. Hhhmmm.)
Ok. So around 4 pm I wanted something to munch on. If I remembered my neglected cherry cobler yoplait I would have had that. Or the apple I had in my bag. But I reached over the baby carrots and grabbed my small package of delicious mint m&m's. What??? I was being generous and shared them with my friends Denise & Jody. But jody hates mint, and I got to eat them all myself. (I didn't eat them ALL... Maybe about 15. And still have most of the package calling to me)

Then I was back on track and when we went out to DQ for dinner I didn't even get fries or ice cream or anything crazy. I ordered a panini type sandwich with turkey and mustard and no mayo. It was pretty good and I didn't feel deprived and my friends didn't even notice that I skipped out on treats. (One even recalled that I had a buger.)

We went back for the crop. It was great! In the past the crop was just free time. This time they gave us extra projects to work on! And they had 2 Q&A's for business ideas AND they served treats! Wow! They had a buffett with soda, water, candy bars, pop corn and soft pretzels. Too cool! Sooo, I had a soft pretzel. It was really yummy! (I <3 soft pretzels)
The crop was a sucess!

We got back to our time share around 10:30 pm. I was exauhsted and ready for bed, but our roommates wanted to check out our pics. I stayed up as late as I could & then crashed around 11:30.

I woke up as late as I could on Saturday and I still had lots of time to get ready.  I ironed my shirt and even had time to whip up some sautéed mushrooms, bell pepper, hash browns and egg whites.  I didn't set off the smoke alarm, but it did get pretty smoky in the house.  (sorry roommates)  I tossed out the old carrots and yogurt that I forgot about and sliced up some bell peppers to take with me. 
 
Lots more water today.  Someone even commented on my bell peppers.  Did I eat them?  Nope. (But I didn't have m&m's that day either.)  I did have an apple around 11 am.
 
Lunch was another fabulous vegetarian delight!!!  I piled my plate with artichoke hearts (the actual heart, without all the leaves) sun dried tomatoes, egg plant and other yummy veggies.  Ohhh, it was so so good!  Then I had a small bowl of tomato soup.  That was wonderful and instead of dessert, I went back and got more of the yummy soup because maybe it really was tastier than cheesecake.  Well, maybe not, but I didn't even look at the desserts… my veggies were just that good.  (and for the meat eaters, there were sandwich fixings too.)
 
Afternoon snack time rolled around, and before I could reach for my bell peppers, CTMH provided an ice cream sundae bar.  Really???  Wow!!!  I went through toward the end of the line, and I asked for the tiniest little scoop of chocolate Haagen-Dazs. (1/4 cup) I couldn't resist the topping bar, but went easy and got a teaspoon of walnuts, and of course, a squirt of whipped cream, because it is my fave!  So, it looked like I really had a sundae after all, and I got to enjoy the treat with everyone else and not feel like I was missing out.
 
The wonderful conference ended and it was dinner time.  Jody's boyfriend Duane picked us up and we drove to Gilbert to the nearest Sonic.  The drive wasn't long enough for me to figure out what was the best WW choice on my Blackberry.  So I almost panicked.  I got a diet cherry limeade (not the yummiest thing, but hopefully lo-cal)  and I wanted tater tots, so I got a small and then I was having a hard time choosing and Jody said since I was at Sonic, I had to get a burger.  (I guess it would be like going to in-n-out and not getting a burger there) sooo, I ended up not knowing and rushed and got a double cheeseburger since I wasn't paying and it was the cheapest.  The burger was a small little thing, like a McDonalds burger, and I only had half since I was really trying to be good. 
 
Duane bought us all movie tickets and since I am normally in bed by 10 pm, and there was a time change this Really was out of my comfort zone, and if it had been some other movie, I would have stayed at the timeshare and slept, but instead, we all went to see the Shopaholic movie.  It was really cute and I loved it and we had a great time, but I was REALLY tired, since it started at 10:40, and after all the previews, it really started at 11 pm.  WOW!!!!  I am never out of the house that late on purpose.  It was fun! 
 
We got back to the time share around 1 am and I was hungry because I am never up that late and I didn't get any popcorn, even though it we had stopped by the concession stand I totally would have gotten some buttery goodness.  So instead, we had fresh baked apple pie at 1 am.  It was really good.  I was too tired to think about ice cream.  It was all I could do to stay awake long enough to watch the movie. 
 
I got to bed at 2 am and slept until whenever.  I woke up at 9:30 am and raced to pack everything up because we were supposed to be checked out by 11 am.  We did pretty good; got a later check out time and were ready to go around 11. 
 
I made another egg white scramble with the rest of my mushrooms and some hash browns.  Lots more water, and the last cherry cobbler Yoplait light.  (sadly, I had to throw the 1st two away because I never did eat them and left them in my bag overnight.  L)
 
Well, we were packing up, and Duane still had lots and lots of those little tiny single serving Haagen-Dazs cups in the freezer and they had to drive back to CA too, and I didn't want to just throw them out.  Sooo, I took the strawberry one, because strawberry is pretty much the yummiest ever!  (well, there is a really good peanut butter-chocolate one too, but let's not go there)
I put it in my cooler that I packed with my left over veggies (2 cucumbers, carrots and grape tomatoes that I never ate) and hoped that I would have a chance to get to the ice cream before it melted. 
 
Once we were packed up, I made time to eat some of the ice cream calling my name.  Since I had just eaten breakfast, I really wasn't hungry yet.  So I just had about a quarter of that tiny container and actually threw out the rest.  (making sure that no one saw me waste perfectly delicious haagen-dazs)

We stopped in quartzsite, a swapmeet the size of a town. Very odd place. I bought the biggest bag of kettle corn. I didn't eat the whole thing. In fact there was tons left when I got home. After we got the kettle corn, we stopped at wendys and I got a child's sized frosty. See, I'm still doing good, right?

I got home at 5 pm and was so tired I just wanted to go to sleep. Buuuut I stayed up and ate more kettle corn with dave and the boys till it was gone.

Then we went to don & elly's for dinner. Don made his yummy burritos and even though I picked off as much cheese as I could, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a "light" burrito.

I was totally tired by the end of dinner and almost fell asleep on the couch. Dave actually noticed and we left after everyone (but me) got a brownie. And I love brownies!!!

So I got to hold the pan on my lap in the truck on the way home and shoved several pieces of very yummy brownies into my mouth. And they were good.

And that is why I gained half a pound last week.