Strawberry Weekend

      13 Comments on Strawberry Weekend

Jam Canning Weekend 2013 was a success!  How much of a success?  How about 84 jars worth, lol!?

 

 

The strawberries were delicious this year, like always.    I bought 27 quarts at my local farm market (from a guy who has a farm right in my county), and ended up using almost 23 for jam.  The rest have been either frozen or put in the fridge for eating this week.  I love strawberries, and I eat them nearly every day, but each year at this time, I’m reminded of just how inferior those “big store” berries are.  When I run out of the local ones, I’ll be sad to go back to eating the ones shipped in from God knows where. 🙁

But in the meantime, I have some delightful berries to enjoy.  Last year’s crop was kind of small due to some weird spring weather, but this year’s crop was also big and plentiful.  See?

 

 

It’s a good thing he’s cute, because he sure is a handful. 😉

I’m also excited to report that, for the first time since we moved into our “house in the country,” we finally got strawberries to grow successfully!  There weren’t many, but we had about a dozen!

 

 

It took us 11 years to successfully grow strawberries in our garden.  It took us 7 years to grow the model. 😉

We had a fun weekend with the strawberries.  It was a lot of work but well worth it, and I also enjoyed some quality time with my boys, who helped quite a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

One thing about canning that kind of stinks is that the actual cooking of the jam is very time-consuming: you have to sit and stir…and stir…and stir…until it maintains a boil while you’re stirring it. It takes forever (if you don’t want to burn it, of course).  I’m happy I now have my iPad, though…I caught up on most of my favorite blogs this weekend—one hand swiping the screen, one hand stirring the jam! 😉

In addition to the canning, I also found time to run five miles on Saturday (when I got to the farm market at 6am and discovered they now don’t open until 7am!).  I also ran 2 miles on Sunday afternoon with Jamie, who is maintaining a running program, though we don’t have a specific race we’re training for.  He’s hoping to improve his speed, and so I’ve offered to help him learn how to do speed work. (The blind leading the blind…) It was a warm run, but not as warm as my Monday run!  Monday morning, I was supposed to run 3 miles, but I just could not drag myself out of bed at 6am and thus, I skipped it.  Of course, then I felt guilty all day, until eventually, at 6pm, I said heck with it and decided to go for the run.  Only problem was that by that time, the temperature wasn’t quite ideal.

 

 

Dude.  It was HOT.  But I had a surprise “guest appearance” when I was about 1 mile in—Jamie! He rode his bike down and shadowed me the rest of the way.  He even held my water and phone and took a picture of me.  

 The best part was that he enjoyed being the “cheerleader” for a change.  I absolutely loved hearing him offer me encouragement when I was getting tired and near the end.  It was so sweet. 🙂  And then, when I finally finished and got home, I jumped right into the pool and had a half a glass of wine.  It was awesome! 

All in all, it was a very good weekend with lots of quality family time and only minimal cursing over my sore feet, ha ha!  As far as the diet goes, I tracked all weekend, and kept the wine to a minimum (one glass Saturday, half a glass Sunday).  All my meals were planned around the fact that I knew I wouldn’t have time to cook…Saturday was a crockpot recipe, and Sunday my husband made beef quesadillas.  Unfortunately, we ate late both nights, including dessert on Sunday night made with—what else—strawberries and jam. 😀  I’ll share that in another post.

 

Despite the fact that I kept within my points (and didn’t use my weeklies, which I never do), I knew that eating late on Sunday would hurt me, not to mention the fact that I didn’t run Monday morning before weighing in.  Although I’m in “weight loss mode” (aka, I get less points per day), I was really hoping to just stay the same, since I was coming off a good weigh-in the week before.  Remember that three pounds I lost a week ago Monday?

 

 

Yeah, I found ‘em.  That puts me right back up to six pounds above goal.  I was so disheartened.  I won’t lie…I cried.  I really don’t know what to do at this point.  It’s been thirteen weeks since I have been within even 2 pounds of my goal weight. 🙁  I really, really want this 6 pounds gone, but honestly, I’d be happy to be back down to 115 to get back to within 2 pounds of goal.  It would be a start!!  It would be different if I hadn’t been tracking, but I have been.  Have I been absolutely perfect? Heck no…I’ve had my nibbles or Hershey’s kisses here and there, but then again, I don’t use the weeklies, so I think it should balance out.  That’s how it worked for me for over a year to get me to goal and then through the first 9 months of maintenance, so I’m really struggling with why my tried-and-true formula hasn’t worked.

I’m not sure what I’ll do at this point.  I’m getting really, really close to the point of saying eff it and not tracking.  But the truth is, tracking has been so engrained into my life for so long (every day since November 2011), I’m not sure I could stop without an immense amount of guilt. 😛

So, I will guess I will just press on…still tracking, still running, still trying to lose this damn six pounds.  Wish me luck!

Thanks so much for reading!

 

13 thoughts on “Strawberry Weekend

  1. Dena

    Wow, that sounds like you had a busy weekend! Oy. I know how you feel about the weight gain. 🙁 I have currently decided that I am not going to weigh myself for the rest of the summer. As in not until September 30th. I made my goal on Sparkpeople to lose 30 pounds by then, but then I realized I can’t let it dictate my life. It’s a number. Not who I am. So starting next week my Wednesday weigh in’s are going to be a tad bit different 🙂 It’s an interesting experiment, I can’t wait to try. But I’m gonna post about it too.

    You will find your groove. Have you started any new medicines or anything like that? Don’t give up on tracking. You can do it!

    Reply
    1. steph Post author

      Dena, you’re a better woman than me. I just couldn’t stop myself from weighing in even if I tried really hard! I’ll look forward to see how you change up your routine! Thanks for the support!!

      Reply
      1. Dena

        Haha..well I know that you have to for WW right? It’s going to be hard to not weigh in..And it’s so easy to say forget about it…like I really haven’t done anything this week spectacular to make me think I would have lost any weight anyways…but yeah..I’m gonna get on that :0)

        Reply
  2. Jenn

    I can feel your frustration, sweetie. I wish I had an answer for you or some great gem of wisdom. All I can say is that you are worth what you are putting into the program. Do you think are gaining more muscle? It might be worth a chat with your doctor. I know the program provides progress reports and it might be worth talking to your leader about them, maybe she will see something that you aren’t. I tend to have a 2 week delay in any weight changes, so what I did last week won’t show up for another week. This makes monitoring and assessing hard to do. Hang in there, know you have a huge cheering squad, and good wishes.

    Reply
    1. steph Post author

      That’s a good point about the 2-week delays. And God knows, every day my body does something different. Thanks for being my rock of support, sweetie!! xoxo

      Reply
  3. Lorenda

    I’ve been hanging out at 2-3 lbs above my goal weight lately. Last Thursday I was right on goal but by Saturday was 4 over and was in tears.
    How are your clothes fitting? If your clothes aren’t getting tight, it’s probably just the usual fluctuations. (I know, easy for me to say!)
    I think maintaining can be harder than it was to lose.
    I’m glad Jamie is continuing to run. Next year, he’ll be up there with the 60 min pacer at Kona!

    Reply
    1. steph Post author

      Dude, I so know what you mean about the tears…why do we let ourselves get that way?! My clothes were a bit tight this week. 🙁 Argh!! Maintaining definitely is harder than losing.

      I really think he’ll be doing 60 minute 10ks next year. I just hope I can keep up with him, lol!!

      Thanks for commenting!

      Reply
  4. Angela @ Honey, I Shrunk the Mom

    Darn it, I’m sorry you’re struggling. But you know you’re doing what’s right and that’s all you can do. Have you thought about actually eating more? Using the weekly points? You work your body hard and maybe it just needs more fuel to burn more fat (I hate to say fat because you are so far from fat, LOL, but you know what I mean. 😉 ) Or, maybe your body is just finding a new “comfortable place”. Good luck! I know you’ll figure it out in no time.

    Reply
    1. steph Post author

      I actually have thought about eating more…but then I just can’t get myself to do it. 🙁 I have a real mental barrier with that that I need to get over.

      Thank you for supporting me!

      Reply
  5. MountainHawk

    Mmm…strawberries. That’s a lot of jam!

    It was sweet of Jamie to be your cheerleader. He’s obviously learned from the very best.

    Reply
    1. steph Post author

      Aw, thanks. 🙂 He surprises me with his enthusiasm and determination, that’s for sure!!

      Reply

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