Happy New Year!

I went to my final weigh in at Weight Watchers on Saturday and was pleased that I gained only .6 pounds during Christmas week.  So in 52 weeks I managed to gain 1.4 pounds – so call me the queen of maintenance!  If you’ve followed me all year, you’ll know I lost 20 pounds the first 10 weeks of 2017 – I tracked like a boss, I wasn’t even killing it at the gym, but made my focus the food.  I had a blue dot (stayed within my point range) every day for 10 weeks!

You know what else I did?  I ditched my wine.  So instead of sitting down at 9:00 p.m. with a glass of wine watching t.v., I went to the gym.  I really stopped tracking relgiously in March on or around my birthday.  I always think “I know what I am eating!”  But over the course of the next nine months, I managed to gain that all back.

I’ve said it before and will continue to day it again, without Weight Watchers I could have easily been up 30 pounds this year, so I am considering this a victory.

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A week and a half ago I posted a recipe for two point pancakes, and someone who follows me on Instagram wanted to know if the same recipe would work in a waffle maker.  Huh.  I thought it would be decided to give it a go on Saturday and the result?  Delicious.  I did get two waffles vs. three pancakes so each waffle is basically 2.5 points, but I’ll round it up to 3.  I added a Pam fried egg in the middle with 1 ounce of lite mozzarella cheese and thought I would eat both halves, but only ate one – it was plenty!  I love this sweet/savory combo.

Saturday I was in full blown organizaitonal mode.  I did a complete overhaul of our pantry – I seriously have about 10 pounds of pasta and rice so if someone sees me in the grocery store trying to put pasta or rice on my shopping cart, I give you full permission to punch me straight in the face.

New Years Eve Hannah had to open at the coffee shop.  I got there at 8:00 a.m. with my new Skinny Taste meal planner (which I love!), Hannah made me a delicious sugar free hazelnut latte, and I enjoyed 90 minutes of looking at recipes online, making a meal plan with what I already had on hand, it since it was slow, got to hang out with Hannah #winwin

My grocery list only had three things on it!  So you would have thought I would have spent less than $10 on my groceries this week.  Oh, but wait.  Hannah came with me and somehow by the end of the trip, my bill was $47 😛

Hannah had her friend Melody and her son over for New Years Eve.  This was the first time that I can remember that I didn’t have a deep fat fried party on NYE.  Usually I go all out and eat ALL the cheese, meat, crackers, fried food, etc.  I had a bag of shrimp in my freezer and defrosted it earlier in the day to make this skinny peel and eat New Orleans BBQ shrimp.  

You guys, this isn’t really a recipe at all with only 3 ingredients, but I got a lot of comments on my DM on Instagram, so I’ll post it here.  1/2 pound of shrimp, thawed, (I like the tails on to pick up, but you can take them off if you like).  Heat a non-stick pan with Pam and heat to medium-high.  Add shrimp, and when they are about 50% done, add in 1 tablespoon light whipped butter (3 points) and 3/4 teaspoon of creole seasoning.  That’s it.  This is ready in about 5 minutes from beginning to end, and they are great hot, room temp or cold.

I did have wine, but I sipped on it over the course of the night and it was lovely.  Hannah made the sushi below for her and her friend – the LOVE sushi!  If you follow me on Instagram, Hannah did a tutorial on my story.  So pretty!

While Jacob played video games, Hannah, Mel and I worked on our journals and started writing down our goals/ideas/inspirations for 2018.  

Some of my goals?

1. Work/life balance.  Meaning taking a lunch every day and getting away from my desk, and leaving at 5:00 on the days I am not night secretary.  And saying NO more often – I am not the only legal assistant in the firm and while I appreciate that they can rely on my to jump in at any given moment if something pops up, I can’t always do it, but the people pleaser in my always says yes when I know I can say no.
2. Monetize my blog.  I need to continue to update the SEO, etc., but I have too much content on here for the last 9 years not to make money – if I made enough to pay for my groceries that would make me very happy.
3. Write more letters.  I used to be such a letter writer growing up.  It’s a lost art, but something that I am happy to pick back up again.
4. Use my gym membership 3 times a week, and do Classical Stretch 2 times a week.  Nothing crazy, but I need to get back in the habit of working out.

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My top 9 for 2017  – I got nearly 100,000 likes on Instagram last year – I love that the highest liked photos are ones with Tony in them.  And of course Hannah and Jacob’s wedding!

I posted the following quote on the Weight Watchers connect yesterday, and this is going to be my mantra for 2018.  I can’t keep reliving the last few months of Tony’s life wondering if I could have made better choices, or if I should have insisted he stay at Mayo Clinic an extra week.  I need to focus on writing the next chapters without him, even if it makes me sad that I have to write the rest of my book without him being a main character.

I did have a great weekend.  Spent a lot of time with Hannah and Jacob, got some projects done around the house that were nagging me (well, Hannah mostly!) and rested and watched movies too.  It was a great balance of rest and productivity.

It’s super cold this morning – as I type this at 7:50 a.m., it’s – 8 but with the windchill feels like -23.  Gah.  But I’ll still take cold weather over snow any day. 

What are your goals for 2018?  Do you declare any, or just consider it the beginning of the next month?  I’d love to hear!

So Happy New Year from My Bizzy Kitchen, I thank everyone who takes time out of their day to stop by my little corner of the internet.  

Make it a great day!