Day 4 - re-energized

I'm not sure how it happened, but I feel better about things today.  Maybe it was that I let myself indulge for dinner last night.  Don't get me wrong, I stayed on my points - in fact, 5 below - but I had lasagna and breadsticks for dinner.  The lasagna was FANTASTIC!  I'll post the recipe later on the recipes and tips blog.  It's truly phenomenal.  I can't wait to go home and have some for dinner TONIGHT!  Though it IS a hefty 7 points per serving, and of course, you want two servings (who am I kidding, I wanted 5 - I just chose to STOP at two).  That part is tough.  Breadsticks cost me even more - at 2 points each, but I felt like I NEEDED bread - I hadn't had any since I started.  I'll likely skip those this evening.

So, here's the thing, I think when I eat enough so that I'm satisfied, and still let myself indulge a little, or have something that seems like it's indulgent, even if it isn't, then, I get kick-started again.  Like "okay, I can do this!"  That's how I felt when I got up this morning.

well, that's how I felt about WeightWatchers - my dog was sick all night, so I was up every couple of hours.  I didn't feel like I could do much of anything in terms of actual exsistence!

I was starting to hit the doledroms (ever read "phantom tollbooth"??) and then got to eat my Strawberry greek yogurt.  Man that stuff ROCKS!  How did I not find that before now?  I mean, come on, 3 points, and 14g of Protein - that's a GREAT snack to keep you going for hours!

Late in the day . . . here come the munchies!

Munchies munchies munchies!  The munchies are KILLING me today!  I’m still on target on points, but I honestly don’t know WHY I’m soooooo hungry.  It’s not even hunger, it’s just . . . munchies.  I want to eat everything in sight today.  I’m not, because my desk wouldn’t taste very good – but I WANT to!

I just thought you should know.

Day Three - Talkin' it up!

Day 3 - Here we go, here we go, here we go – again! Are you tight-lipped about your weight loss efforts, and about your weight, or are you open and easy about it?  I’ve decided to change from tight-lipped to open and easy.  Here’s why. . .

I really think that by embracing that I’m doing WeightWatchers – that I’m doing ANYTHING about my weight, and by telling people I’m making these efforts, I find support in places I wouldn’t have otherwise had it.  I think if I tell people, I’ll be more successful.  People ask “hey, how’s It going? How do you feel?” or “so, what’s for lunch today?” I also have come to realize that by telling people, I actually feel BETTER about myself – no longer is it just fat me, walking around the halls.  It’s me, with my head held high, knowing that yeah, I gained weight, but you know what . . . I’m doing something about it!  It takes it out of the shadows and brings it out into the light of day.    I also get to hear people tell me THEIR stories, and what worked and didn’t work for them.  What snacks were good, what weren’t, etc.

Maybe there’s the “I might fail, and then everyone KNOWS” concern – enh.  Whatever.  Do you PLAN on failing? I don’t!  I’m not going to fail this time!  And who says what “success” is in this adventure, or how MUCH you need to lose to be successful?  Thinking “what if I fail, I don’t want to tell people because then they’ll KNOW I failed” is setting yourself up to do JUST that.  Everyone knows losing weight is hard.  NO ONE will judge you for not meeting your goals, but people WILL judge you (positively) for making the effort.

Now, what about saying your actual weight?  I say mine.  I’m not shy about it anymore.  I was, for a long time, and oddly, I’m shyer now about telling Men than Women.  But, honestly, if my diet comes up somehow, I don’t mind saying the number.  It’s JUST a number!  Again, I sort of embrace it.  “yeah, I’m 246 pounds – I pretty much have a small child to lose to get where I want to be.”  I try to put it in some humorous terms.  Usually this starts by my saying I need to lose 60-80 pounds and people saying “NO WAY!!!!” and me explaining that I USED to weigh 100 pounds less. . .not that I want to go back THAT far.  Then they look at me, and finally I admit the actual number.  They’re always surprised, and somehow I feel like they’re a little impressed that I’m confident enough to just throw it out there.

What if EVERYONE talked about their weight?  What if we did take this out of the shadows and brought it into the light of day?  Would people have more support societally to lose?  Would we have the obesity problems we have in this country?  What if we all just said “you know what, I gained weight, I’m taking my life back now!” I know women who have 5-10 pounds to lose, or who struggle just maintaining their VERY nice figures.  And I hear from them (one in my office recently) that they don’t feel like they have anyone to talk to, or to support them.  This isn’t easy for ANYONE!  We SHOULD talk about it.  We should tell people what WE are doing – we’ll get more support, and more motivation, and feel more accountable to ourselves, and to those around us, to succeed. . .and isn’t that what we all want? Success!

Oh yeah, I forgot . . .

Somehow I forgot that day two is always, ALWAYS harder than day one.   In fact, let’s face it, the whole first week is a bit of a downhill slide.  Day one, you’re pumped! You can do this! You’ve been mentally preparing for it for . . . well . . . for however long.  Finally it’s here, and you’re ready!  You’ve planned ahead, you’ve got your salad for lunch, and your snacks are all planned out, and it almost seems . . . fun.  You’re gathering your support network, talking it up, you are, dare I say, energized.

Enter Day Two – it’s not as fun.  You made it through day one, and feel proud of that, but day two is a little . . . harder.  Harder not to eat everything in sight.  Harder to leave the cookies sitting in the breakroom, or to avoid the automatic espresso machine you have at your work that makes great hot cocoa.  Just . . .harder.  It’s not HARD – just . . .not as easy as Day one.  You’re still energized, you’re still excited, you have your network around you, but . . somehow food is more difficult to ignore.

It doesn’t get better right away, but I do remember that it DOES get better.  I remember that the first week is, as I mentioned above, a downhill slide – day two being tougher than one, three being even harder than two, and so forth and so on.  Until you reach weigh-in day – and on that day, it all gets a bit easier!  Suddenly, if you’ve stayed on course, you have some positive reinforcement that keeps you going for the next week – and now you know you CAN survive a week on a diet of rabbit food and water.  You know that those points they give you – the points you guard and horde as if they were rubies and diamonds, those points WILL sustain you.  They’ll get you through.  There’s enough room in them to make smart choices and still indulge.  And you know that on Day 2, but still, on Day 2, you don’t really want to make smart choices.  Still, you do.  Because you WILL succeed!

At least there's chili in the crock pot when I get home!

My tip for today: Safeway brand mini-rice cakes (caramel flavor are my current indulgence).  They’re on sale this week for $1.50 per bag, and you get 8 for 2 points.  You can eat the first two, and put the other 6 aside for later, when you need another quick sweets pick me up.  They’re VERY good!

Recipe Time - Chili and Egg Cups

Breakfast this morning - and many mornings to come:
Egg Cups! - 3 points each (if you make 11 from 12 eggs)
Scramble 12 eggs
toss in all the veggies you can think of: mushrooms, cooked spinach, zuccini, onion, etc.
Add about 1/2 cup of shredded, low-fat cheddar cheese (you don't REALLY need to add this, but I chose to for a little flavor)
add salt and pepper to taste
Pour into 11 or 12 sprayed (with cooking spray) muffin tins - IF you're using liners, use foil liners and still spray them!
Bake at 350 until set.

You can freeze them, or just toss them in the fridge and enjoy one per day for breakfast.

Dinner tonight:
Vegetarian Chili - 2 points per cup
2 zuccini - chopped up
1 yellow crook-neck squash - chopped up
1 full stalk of celery - chopped up (not just one stick, the whole thing!)
2 bell peppers (any color) - chopped up
1 large yellow or white onion - chopped up
1 28oz can chopped tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 package morning star crumbles (fake meat) - I believe you can use lean turkey, but you should calculate the points if you do, to make sure you're still on 2 points per cup.
1 package of chili seasoning
@ 2cups of broth (whatever kind you want)

Spray a pan, and sautee your onions and "brown" your crumbles or cook your meat with the onions.  Throw everything into a crock pot, and set to cook for the day - I go high for 4 hours, then on heat, but you could also put it on low for 8 hours, I suppose.

2 points per cup, so you can afford to add some cheese/sour cream if you want.  This is FANTASTIC and it's always nice to come home to dinner already done!

Day 2 - Good morning!

So, last night I went to my first meeting. The scale there screamed even louder than mine did at home, and I've adjusted my weight to 246.8.  I picked up a couple of munchie foods there - some cheddar twists which are quite good at 3 points per pouch, and some protein type shakes that come in at 10 grams of protein each, for just 2 ponits a peice.  I haven't tried those yet.

I also went to Safeway, where I found that the Chobani greek yogurt is on sale for a buck a peice for the individual serving sizes.  Those come in at OVER 10 grams of protein each, and will cost me 2-3 points.  I picked up 6 of those to try, along with string cheese, everything I need for Chili, lasagna, etc. 

I feel ready!

Let's start with last night - last night I had SERIOUS munchies - I ate some smartfood, and had a cookie.  I accounted for all of it, but still, this is NOT what I'm supposed to be doing.  I need to choose healthier habits.  I know that.  I didn't feel like I was full after dinner, and felt like I had ill-prepared for that.  Also, I wasn't really prepared for the meeting - I think on meeting days I'm going to have to make sure dinner is something that's "ready to go" when I get home, so I don't find myself at home, foraging for ANYTHING to stuff in my mouth until dinner is ready.

I still came in a solid 8 points UNDER my points total yesterday.  Today I simply removed 5 points off the top. I really feel they give you FAR too many points on this system - at least at my weight. I think that NOW, but we'll see how I feel later.  The leader did say it's okay to come in under, just make sure you're satisfied, and not hungry. . . so I'm going by those rules for now.

Now it's time to focus on work, and quit messing around with Weight Watchers Stuff.  2 recipes to follow in the next blog posting.

After lunch munchies

So, I've had lunch (a big salad with red onions, mushrooms, celery, hard boiled egg, and creamy basalmic dressing), and now I'm craving sweets.  I ALWAYS crave sweets in the afternoon!  I may have to adjust my snacking habits to figure this out.  I also haven't had any real carbs today (bread, etc.), and I'm feeling like crackers would rock!  I will probably make some popcorn tonight, so that I have it as an afternoon snack tomorrow.  The Parm - thyme popcorn on the WW site looks like it may be a really good way to go - or just plain, air popped popcorn.  We'll see.  But I'll be better prepared tomorrow!

Day 1 - IT starts!

Good morning!  Well, day one has started, and without the usual sense of dread or trepedation I feel when embarking on a new dieting adventure!  The key is simply, really - eat less, excersize more - fewer calories in, than out, right?  This shouldn't be hard.  It SHOULDN'T be, and yet, it always is.  We all know the formula, the problem is - damn if I don't LOVE creamy, rich, fabulous, fat-laden foods!  The good news is, I also love yummy fresh vegetables too - and that's why this is the PERFECT time to re-start my weight loss saga!

Unlike the usual dread, this time I feel energized and ready.  Perhaps being in a relationship with an incredibly supportive man has somethign to do with that feeling, or maybe I'm just finally ready to shed this extra weight and re-find myself under the layers of clothes and fat that have covered me up for so long.  Either way, I'm absolutely going to take advantage of it, and get moving!

This morning I got up and made myself ONE scrambled egg - I've really got to get on the ball and make the egg cups I love so much.  They make this whole thing so much easier!  Anyhow, that was breakfast.  2 points and going strong.  I've also had some grapes for a snack - I'll talk about my thoughts on how the new program calculates fruit in another blog!  I did fill a 1.5 gallon water container with pink lemonade flavored water, so I can have easy-access and no excuses.  My hands are dry, so I know I'm getting close to being dangerously dehydrated.  WW will kick my ass on the water thing, too!  Woo-Hoo!

I do love that the new program seems to focus on increasing protein, something I definitely need to do.  I'm excited!  I feel good! I'm not hungry, and I'm ready to take over the world! or at least my own weight! :)

Now for the fun part - the stats!  I'm going to post them here, but weekly I'll also update them in the "about me" frame.

Current Weight: 240 (I heard my scale scream a little when I climbed on board this morning!)
Current Goal Weight: 228 (5% loss)
Total Lost So Far: 0
Days On Plan: 1
Points Per Day: 39
Additional Weekly Points: 49 (but I don't plan on using those!)

Most importantly, Attitude: Positive!
Hunger Level: very low (so far!)