Do what works for you . . . BUT . . .

I’m all for telling people to do what works best for them, and I believe that different things work for different people.  All of that said, I’m going to go into my Judgey McJudgerton mode here for a moment.  I’ve considered fad diets, I’ve maybe even tried one or two in the past.  I’ve thought about medical interventions (inter-gastric ballooning seems somewhat reasonable to me), but ultimately, I’ve decided I need to try eating smaller portions of the right foods, and exercising before I try anything too drastic.  And with THAT said (jumping on my soap box) people who try this new fangled HCG diet are absolutely NUTS! 

Okay, go ahead, throw the stones and sticks at me and tell me I’m not supportive.  I am supportive, supportive enough to worry about people who think injecting their bodies with a hormone derived/extracted from placenta, while cutting their diets to 500 calories a day to help them lose weight is a “normal” or “reasonable” method of weight loss. 

First, there’s the fact that this is NOT FDA approved.  I don’t like the FDA, to be honest.  I think their approval methods are crap, and are largely driven by politics and money, and they haven’t approved inter-gastric ballooning either.  Still, this method involves giving yourself shots (for the most “effective” method) or drinking some crazy potion, and then cutting your calories to 500 per day.  These don’t sound relatively low-risk to me.  More importantly, many of the people trying this insane method aren’t even aware it’s not approved.  That alone scares the hell out of me!

Next, let’s address the fact that 500 calories is less than a rabbit eats!  Alright, I admit it, I don’t know if that’s true.  What I do know is that 500 calories is NOT a healthy diet.  You’re not eating “normal” foods, nor normal amounts of them.  OF COURSE YOUR GOING TO LOSE WEIGHT!  Just because the scale goes down doesn’t mean it’s healthy!  Eating 500 calories a day starves your system of the necessary nutrients for muscle building – hell – for muscle maintenance.  Are you going to lose weight? Sure you are.  Is it safe? NO! 

Lastly, and here’s my REAL point – what are these folks going to do when they STOP taking the shots? When they’re left to their own devices to eat healthy, small portion foods to keep the weight off? Have they truly learned how to eat under “normal” circumstances? My understanding is that the shots surpress their appetite, which is why they can eat so little and not go postal.  Have they learned how to indulge at that office party, and then what choices to make so that it doesn’t bounce their weight?  What does this crazy diet do to their blood sugar?  UGH! I could go on and on.

I know four people doing this diet right now.  I’m supportive, but cautiously so.  ONE of these people is thin as a rail, but has maybe . . . 5 pounds to lose.  She isn’t doing 500 calories, she’s cut to 1200, and is doing the drops of HCG.  I’d like to get a hold of the doctor pushing this, the doctor who prescribed this to her, and drop kick him.  She doesn’t NEED an untested, non-approved diet, she needs to lower her intake and up her activity a little.

I’m all for doing what works for you – but please, don’t go out and think that drugs are the answer to one more of life’s little problems.  Come on – be strong, make good choices, and do it the hard way, because when you do it the hard way, eating right and exercising, you’re going to keep it off, and you’re going to appreciate it SO much more!

5%!

I did it, I hit 5%!  Last night I hopped on my scale at home before going to the meeting, so I knew what the result would be - a total of 12.2 pounds lost, at meeting my 5% goal.  I was extremely happy!  I've worked pretty hard for it - I mean, I've totally changed the way I eat - from WHAT goes in my mouth, to how much of it and how often.  I've still got a LONG, LONG way to go - I want to lose a total of 66 pounds, so 54 to go, but this feels like a VERY solid start! 

I've done WW before, but I have never managed to hit 10% - it always seemed completely unattainable to me, and I always quit before I got there.  The coach would tell me at the beginning that most people reach it around the 12 week mark. . . which is perfectly reasonable . . . I just never had the tenacity to hang on that long.  This time I will!  12 more pounds - that's not that tough, really.  I know it won't come off as quickly as the first 12, but hey, even if it takes another 12 weeks, I know how amazing it would feel to lose that weight, and I WILL do it.

I love feeling motivated and good about what I'm doing.  I know I'm healthier, and my kids are healthier, and generally everything we're doing is better for our bodies than what we did before.

Splurging, and surprises.

Okay, first off, I totally went overboard last night.  I had a couple of reeses peanut butter cups, then got home and had two cookies.  CRAZY!! I went over my points by just a couple, which, by the way, I NEVER EVER do.  Oh well.  Today is a new day, and I had the 'weekly' points to do it, but still, I dont' think it was a GOOD idea at all.  I'll make up for it tonight, I'm having roasted tomatoes for dinner, and they're only 1 point each.  Even if I put two of them with a cup of brown rice, I'm lookin' at a total of 7 points for dinner.

Next, I left my water bottle at home today.  Talk about a HUGE bummer!  I can drink cups of water at work, but it's really not the same as drinking from a big water bottle.  I may just decide that the bulk of my water intake has to happen tonight.  Besides, that way I won't snack as much once I'm home, right?

Finally, and this is the surprise/good news - I've been totally obsessed about getting on the scale this week.  I think the low loss on Monday kicked me into wanting to check and make sure it was a fluke.  Or more to the point, was the result of water retention due to dehydration from getting stupidly drunk.  Apparently it was, because this morning the scale registered 234.1 pounds - now, granted, that's a MORNING weigh, with NO clothes on (don't try to imagine it, it's NOT a pretty site!), and I know the weight will fluctuate.  In fact, last night it was 235.4, so there's a pound of fluctuation right there.  Still, it was AMAZING to see it that low.  That's the LOWEST I've seen it, even in all of it's fluctuations.  If I get to 234.0 by Monday, I'll have met my first goal of 5%!! and more importantly, I'll have lost a total of 12 (nearly 13) pounds!  To me that's just incredible.  And I DONT feel deprived, or grumpy about this, I've stayed positive, and remain that way now.  It's a little crazy.  Maybe this time, it really WILL work and I WILL stick with it!

:)

eating eating eating - UGH!

Today I have had the appetite from HELL!!  I have already had 17 points, which is quite a lot for me at this point in the day - especially consdidering that I brought chili for lunch - just 4 points.  And breakfast was only 3 points - so what does that tell you?  I've SNACKED and MUNCHED my way through an extra TEN points today!

I'm like the very hungry caterpiller!!  It's insanity people! "drink your water" yeah, I'm drinkin' my water, you worry about your OWN water!  No, seriously, I've had a ton of water, and lots of food.  I wonder if being on my period has anything to do with my eating habits.  Maybe it does.  All I know is I'm totally craving chocolate (already spent 6 points on sweet things - 3 on a reeses peanut butter cup, and another 3 on a 100 calorie peanut butter kudos bar.  BTW, the cup was worth it, the bar totally wasn't!)

Anyhow, I'll stay in points today, because I'll have chili with brown rice for supper, but I am SERIOUSLY wanting to eat my DESK today!  It's a little crazy!

Okay, okay, I'll post something!

Okay out there in cyber-land, I had my week two weigh-in, and it went fine.  Well, first, I should say that I partied my ass off on Saturday, and had 5 drinks, all of which were poured as AT LEAST doubles, even though I had asked for singles - so I figured it was at least 10 shots of alcohol, for a total of 40 points.  Even if it was more, I had the room to spare in my points allowance, so I should have been fine.  Still, Alcohol calories are NOT the same as say . . . whole grain and veggie calories!

I didn't expect much loss at the weigh-in, I'd actually weighed myself that morning and it looked as though there was going to be NO change, so when I got there, and saw a 1 pound reduction, I was quite happy.  I don't think the drinking stalled my fast losses, what I think happened is science, or elementary if you prefer a little Sherlock in your world.

Drinking causes you to dehydrate.  Dehydration causes your body to horde water when you DO drink.  Given I drink A LOT of water every day, I was likely retaining quite a bit when I weighed in.  As the days get further from the drinking, I will shed that extra water - which is why people lose so much in the first couple of weeks anyhow - a lot of it is water weight.

I guess the bottom line is, I'm remarkably still totally fired up about losing weight and getting healthy.  I'm starting to feel a little difference, though I still don't see any - I know that for me the first 10 pounds are totally and utterly unnoticeable.  Still, I'm now officially below 240 - so I can wave goodbye and say . . . "I'll never see you again, 240!" because I won't!!  It's just a little mini-celebration for passing another mile-stone.  Woo-Hoo!

Trouble in Weightloss Paradise

I found a pitfall in my weightloss plan today.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m THRILLED with how things are going – I’m not hungry, I eat something small at least every 2 hours or so, and I eat decent sized meals.  Obviously I have no complaints. 

Still, I found something that is not helping me.  I usually try to go home with 20 points left (well, 25 if you count the 5 I steal from myself in the morning by putting in “points removed – 5 in the tracker).  That means I eat 15 points (14 now, after my loss last night) between breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  I started this because I knew I would want to snack in the evening – here’s the downfall  . . . having that many points left over encourages me to eat poorly at night.

Here’s an example – last night I actually went into the evening with some ridiculous number of points – I believe I had 28 points left (Including my 5 stolen points).  I had a 10 point slice of pizza (well, I ate half of a slice, which came to 10 points), I still had 18 left!  I didn’t get home until about 8 p.m., at which point I ate a breadstick (2), a skinny cow ice cream bar (3) and a piece of candy (1) Top Raman (5), and Mashed potatoes (2) – I STILL ended with 5 points left over.  I should add, after the skinnycow, I REALLY wasn’t even hungry anymore.

The night before I had a bunch of points left over so I ate a SECOND skinny Cow bar for the day (3),  reeses peanutbutter cup (3) a piece of chocolate candy (1), a breadstick (2), and STILL had 7 points leftover at the end of all of that and that’s just my evening eating.

I NEED to eat more during the day unless I have something planned for the evening that is going to use my points.  I neither need nor, honestly, WANT to eat that much junk in the evenings.  I would rather stay on track and eat healthy.  I actually felt “obligated” to eat more last night, because my points were SO low.  I’d rather not feel that way.  Another option would be having lots of fruit in the house, and eating that instead – I realize that’s a better choice.  I also know I stayed in my points and still had some to spare, but do I really want to be in the habit of snacking on crap and junk that’s full of fat and sugar, or would I rather eat more reasonably during the day, and retrain myself not to eat so much junk at night?  I know you’ll say “what the hell are you doing with Reeses Peanutbutter cups and chocolate candy in your freezer!!!” but I want those things there.  I crave them less if I have them in the house, AND occasionally it’s fine – I can have EITHER a skinny cow, OR a peanutbutter cup, but not both.

It just seems to me that in the future, this little habit I’m developing will come back to bite me in the ass, so I’m gonna try to stop it now!  Wish me luck!

First Weigh-In!

Well, I weighed in last night, and the news was fantastic!  I've lost 6.8 pounds so far.  Now, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely shocked by how high that number is.  I know I've been really good - I've counted every point, I've shaved points off, etc., still - that's A LOT of weight, even taking into consideration water weight.  But hey, that's NOT a complaint!

My "goal" for next week would be to lose another 3.2 - that would put me at having lost my first 10 - which is huge for me.  If I don't make it, it's okay.  I know the weightloss will slow down, and I also know that I made a few not great choice in the past few days (though still within my ponits!).  But hey, it's good to have a goal, and so mine is 3.2!  After that, I'll drop my goal to 1.5 per week.  Obviously I'll be THRILLED with more than that, but I'll be satisfied if I'm losing at around 1.5 a week.

Woo-Hoo!  I'm so glad this is working for me!

Costco Pizza - holy mother of . . .

Okay, I'm headed to Costco tonight so my boyfriend can buy himself the patch because well, I DO NOT date smokers.  To be honest, he was trying to quit before he met me.  So, I've been craving Costco food-court pizza ALLLLLL day.  Then I found their nutritional information online and found out that ONE slice is 19 points!  NINETEEN POINTS!!  While I HAVE the points to spare, I'm not sure I NEED 22 or 24, or however-ridiculous-many grams of fat are in that thing!  So, I'm going to make a deal with myself.

I get to buy a slice of pizza (come on, who are we kidding? you didn't think I was going to NOT have the pizza did you?) BUT I'm going to have them cut it in half for me.  If I stop at half, and bring the other half home for TOMORROW (not for a late night snack tonight, and midnight doesn't count as "tomorrow"), then I get to have a skinny cow chocolate truffle ice cream bar (3 points and worth every single one of 'em).  If, however, I choose to eat the entire slice of pizza, then I get NO skinny cow tonight.

I should say that I have 31 points left right now.  I've only eaten 9 today, and I'll probably have ONE more at my meeting, because I'm pretty hungry right now, but I'm resisting.  Generally, I don't deny myself at all - I totally let myself have my 1 point snacks all day long.  Today I've been particularly good, because I KNEW the pizza was going to be really, really bad on the points scale. 

Still, I know WW is about making choices, and not denying yourself - but being conscious of the decisions you make regarding food.  I'm not going to deny myself the pizza, but I AM going to acknowledge that eating the entire slice would put me in a rather "no more food" position.

I'll let you know what I choose - pizza or chocolate.  HMMMmmmmm.. . .

Day 8 - Time to weigh in!!

Tonight's the moment of truth - right after work I'll drive straight over to my meeting and get the good - or bad - news.  Okay, I'll be honest, I already KNOW it's going to be GOOD news, it's just a question of HOW good.  I weighed this morning, so I do have SOME idea of what I'm lookin' at for the evening, but I'll keep that to myself!

I'm actually excited to weigh in.  I've behaved - I've BEYOND behaved, other than a few sweets I allowed myself (a skinny cow truffle bar AND reeses peanut butter cup last night) but I counted the points, and plugged them in.  I haven't used any of my weekly points, and I've been below my daily points by at least 4 every single day. 

While I think this is a GREAT strategy, I have to say that when my points drop, it's going to be even harder to manage.  At some point I suspect I'll come up to actually eating the points I'm allocated, and I worry what that will do to my weightloss progress, but for now, I'm excited.

I can't wait to blog tomorrow about my NEW and IMPROVED number.  I also really want to take measurements tonight, maybe I'll walk over to big lots and get a measuring tape after the meeting - I wonder if they have one that is big enough! :)

Day 5 - Leftovers

So, one things I've noticed about this whole adventure is that when you make a big batch of something, you have WAY more leftovers than is reasonable.  I'm all about leftovers, don't get me wrong, but normally I have fewer - first, I've eaten MORE of the item in my initial offering, and then, the second night, I finish it off, or come close!  NOW, however, with watching portions, I find that leftovers are lingering longer (oooooo . . . allitteration!). 

Take last night - I had two more peices of my fabulous lasagna (recipe to be posted soon at http://www.sheddingpoundsrecipes.blogspot.com/)  Still, there were three more peices taunting me!!  Thank god my ex came by with the kids, who had been at the science fair and math night all evening, and who were clearly going to need something to eat once they got back to his place.  The three pieces went off with him.  But today, I had chili for lunch (again).  I love the chili, and I don't mind, but . . . it seems to me I need to be more cautious about HOW MUCH I make of things.  Maybe I need to cut recipes in half? I don't know. Just a thought!