Wow.  I am completely shocked by all the love that was sent my way yesterday!  Like, literally speechless.  

My boss needed to use my phone to do a Facetime interview, so I turned every single notification off.  That’s all I would have needed is to have all my social media notifications popping up while he was on the phone!  I got it back around 9:45, set it on my desk and went about my day.

It wasn’t until I got on the train that I realized that I never turned them back on, and was shocked!  505 direct messages on Instagram, 80+ comments on Facebook, 80 comments on WW Connect and 95+ comments on my blog post yesterday.  Just Wow.  And Tony used to say that online friends aren’t actually friends – he couldn’t have been more wrong. 

It will probably take me days to get through all the messages and respond, but please know I am grateful from the bottom of my heart. 

I could have let that hate mail get the better of me, but you know what – its not worth my time or energy.  I choose to Rise Above the hate. 😀

I have to say though, that the hate mail and all of the support put a renewed spark about my Weight Watchers journey.  I have several Insta friends who, just like me, haven’t been the best Weight Watchers.  The plan works only if you work at it.  We all know that, but yesterday I was determined to not only talk the talk, but walk it as well.

Breakfast started out with my beloved Chobani parfait – plain yogurt, banana and strawberries with 1/8 cup of chopped walnuts for crunch – 3 points.

Coincidentally as my sister and I were walking Macy’s getting our steps in, I came across this tank top – how appropriate – Rise Above!

Whenever I cook for a holiday, it’s rare that I do a full grocery shop because I know I can come up with something with what I have – makes you get a bit creative!  That’s where my Picky Plate comes in – a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.  The kofta meatballs will be posted on The Chopping Block’s blog next week – I’ll be sure to link to the recipe when its live.  

On my train ride home yesterday, I got through nearly 200 messages on Instagram, when Hannah texted me and said there were flowers on my back gazebo.   My friends Tia, Courtney and Mary Beth.  That was so thoughtful and the flowers are gorgeous!   It’s nice to know that these local friends have my back – in fact I think Tia was ready to get in a street fight for me if she had to.  Thank you!!

#love

 

I had leftover pork from the crock pot pork I made on Sunday – there is still time to leave a message on that post to win a copy of Nicole’s cookbook!  I’ll pick a winner tomorrow.

Some days call for pizza even if it isn’t Friday, am I right?!  This my friends is a pork bbq pizza with pickled jalapenos and it was amazeballs.  I used to not like bbq sauce on pizza, but this worked.  My skinny pizza dough is 1 point per ounce, so I used 4 ounces for the crust (4), two ounces of the pork (3), my BBQ sauce is 0 and I used 3 points of mozzarella so this whole pizza for one is 10 freestyle points.  Yum.

Of course I used my baking steel, so the crust was perfect.  I am now fully stocked with parchment paper, which makes it way easier to make – just build the pizza on the parchment paper and go straight to a 500 degree oven on the pizza steel for 8-10 minutes.  I cooked mine for 8.  

Check out my steps for the day!

And I came in at exactly 23 points yesterday – whoop!

While I normally lay in bed for 30 minutes on my phone while Hannah and Jacob get ready for work and leave the house, this morning I checked the weather and it was 68 degrees so I got my shoes on (while still in my pajamas – the bonus of living in the sticks!) and walked around my neighborhood for 20 minutes.  Um, pretty sure this view was worth getting my ass out of bed and when I got back I already had 2500 steps.  

So thank you, thank you again for all the love and support – it means more to me than you’ll ever know.  It’s a great day to have a great day!  

Rise Above!