Maybe Needs to Take a Hike!

Two posts in one day, what’s wrong with me?  Well, someone said something that really struck me.   On our support group on Facebook I read the comment “maybe I’ll start walking today” and thought . . . what is that “maybe” doing in that sentence?  That maybe gives the person an out.  I actually commented on the post and stated that Maybe needs to take a hike.  But I realize I do it too.

“Maybe if I have this chocolate, I can just work out later . . . “

“Maybe I’ll find the time to clean the room after this program”

“Maybe I can go out tonight, I’m just not sure right now, but I’ll get back to you.”

“Maybe we can walk on our second break, since the first one is already past”

“Maybe I’ll turn on the exercise video when I get home, and do that before I cook dinner . . .”

I don’t know about you, but Maybe provides me an awesome out every time I use it.  I’ve decided, starting today, that MAYBE I just won’t say maybe anymore.  Scratch that, I simply WON’T.  I’m a 38 year old woman, and I’m more than capable of committing to things that are important.  My health, my well being, are important.  Even after the Walk-it! Challenge on Sunday I thought . . . “maybe I should make this a weekly thing – walk down to the lake, walk around it, and walk back up.” 

Well . . . here it is . . . MAYBE I shouldn’t be such a wuss, and I should just commit that I WILL find time, once a week, to walk down to, around, and back up from the lake.  It’s a three mile walk, it’s not the end of the world.  I can do it with my kids, we can rollerblade sometimes, but MAYBE has no place in this.  Maybe can take a hike, because I’m going for a walk.

No one ever maybe’s on the important stuff.  You don’t hear “maybe I’ll marry you” or “maybe I’ll make my house payment”  When you DO hear it on important things, it’s because the person genuinely isn’t ready to commit – “maybe your mother can come live with us,” or “maybe I’ll go back to school.”  You and I both know that when the person talking is in the maybe boat, it just ISN’T going to happen!  We both know that the only way to MAKE it happen is to get them out of the maybe boat – it’s a sinking ship.  With maybe, it’s more often a no than a yes. 

The point is – stop maybe-ing!  Maybe you’ll go for a walk? Come on, GO for a walk.  This isn’t a life and death decision, just decide to DO it, and then follow through.  Just like you decided to lose weight.  I decided to go on weight watchers and lose weight – so I’m doing that.  I haven’t waffled, there was no maybe this time.  When I said I was doing it, I said “that’s it, enough is enough, I’m joining.  I’m done.  I’m losing this weight, and I’m NEVER going to let myself slide this far again!”  and you know, since I said that, both out loud and to myself, it’s been easy.  It wasn’t a maybe.  There is no escape hatch.  No possible out.  I’m DOING it. 

Your health, my health, our weight loss goals, matter.  Maybe is gone, commitment is here. 

Look Ma! No Spare Tire!

Okay, the title might be pushing it a little, but I AM sporting a very cute skirt (used to be a touch snug, now I’ve got room to spare) and a very fitted tank top of the cotton/spandex family.  My tummy isn’t sticking out over the top of the skirt in a fabulous roll, in fact, I actually look like I have a waist, and some curves – in the RIGHT places. 

I still have a long ways to go, but last week was the week of clothes fitting me properly, or being loose.  It was the first week where almost EVERY day, I noticed how my clothes fit, in a good way.  It all started when  I wore this cute little black and white spring dress that I’ve worn before.  I bought it a while back because I needed SOMETHING cute – but to be honest, my girth had grown to at least meet the fabric, if not push a bit against it, at the waist.  I wore that, and a little black cropped jacket. 

My friend, who is also on WW commented that day “you’re not going to be able to wear that dress much longer!” By golly, I noticed she was right!  The dress was loose.  It was BIG in the waist!!  I’ll go buy a belt today so I can get away with it a bit longer, but man did that feel good.  From then on, all week, I noticed how my clothes fit.  My jeans are getting loose, clothes I used to have to pour myself into fit right, a skirt I hadn’t worn in a while, because the back was significantly higher than the front (due to a large booty and hips) fell equally in the front and back, and was loose!

I had a crummy week last week, as far as food goes – but even a “bad” week for me means SOME weight loss.  A “bad” week means I used some of my weekly points, and I usually try not to.  Today, Monday, is weigh day.  We’ll see what happens when I hop on that scale, but no matter WHAT it says, my clothes tell me I’m headed in the right direction, and I love it!

Been a while . . .

Wow, okay, I didn't think anyone would mind my missing a few . . .ahem . . . weeks of posting.  I trust no one did.  Anyhow, today was a GREAT day.  I have come to figure out that my naked morning weight is usually about 2-2.5 pounds off of what I will weigh at the weigh-in.  Still, today, my morning weight was only 223.5, so at 2 extra pounds, I'm down to 225.5, which is GREAT.  Now, it's not as far as I want to be by Monday.  My goal is to hit 10% one week from THIS monday, so I was hoping to get down to AT LEAST 224.5, but I still have the weekend to get there, and it's only one pound!  I'm pretty sure that's do-able!!  I know that probably sounds a little like I'm riding the crazy train, but whe you figure I lose 2-3 pounds per week, and then you figure there are still technically 3 more days in my week (almost 1/2 of it!) then you realize trying to lose another pound shouldn't be the end of the world.

More than all of that, I just feel GOOD!  I feel like I'm finally starting to be able to SEE the body I used to have.  Not a GREAT body, mind you, but at least the body I had when I first left Jason.  I'll need to do more work - more exercise is definitely necessary to tone my tummy up - but hey, getting rid of the large layer of fat is helping!  I see it in my face, and in the clothes I wear as well.  I'm not down to a size 16 yet (I know, crazy, right? Who the hell loses 20+ pounds, and DOESNT lose a dress size?  Oh yeah - that would be me! ugh!)  but I'll be there eventually.  Right now, I'm happy in my less-tight 18's.  My hope is to be solidly in a 16 by July 4, when I want to wear my pretty dress.

That, and I'd like to be significantly smaller when Sean gets home, than I was when he left.  Perhaps a dumb motivation, but . . .one I'm okay with.  My initial goal was to lose 20 before he got home - well - we passed that one, now on to bigger and better things!

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!

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!)