Just Another...

Manic Monday.

This weekend was a bugger and I totally fell off the bandwagon.  Friday we got busy after school and I rushed to grab takeout Thai for dinner.  This in itself isn't bad and if I would have divided the serving in half and put it in the fridge right away I would have been fine but instead, I ate the entire Pad Se Eww.  A yummy noodle dish with probably a zillion calories and 50 WW points.  Saturday was a baby shower for a friend and we were invited to dinner at another friends house.  Both included lots of sweets and nothing super WW friendly.  Sunday my kids wanted to go to Moes after church and not being in the mood to fight over food we did.  Ugh!  What a waste of a weekend food wise.  Here's my takeaway lesson... don't fall victim to take out woes.  Plan ahead and be smart about your food choices when at a restaurant.  While the Pad Se Eww was delicious, I am regretting it today and to be honest, I didn't feel all that great after eating it.  I think three weeks of cutting back on my calories consumption and making smarter choices about what foods I was eating has given me less of a tolerance for rich foods.

So, now what?  Well, the beauty of WW is it's ok to fall off the wagon.  Today I'm back tracking diligently and making sure I eat foods that keep me full.  This will not be the only setback on my journey and I'm going to use this as a learning experience for what not to do.

Happy Monday everyone.  Get out and move.

Blog Schedule

This blog is more for me to be accountable to myself in and to track and see my progress.  But it's also a place where I can share what's worked, what hasn't, and what I want to try.  It's a place to generate new ideas and get feedback on ones tried.  As with weight loss, it's important to be consistent with blogging.  To make blogging a routine for me I'm setting up a schedule and hopefully that will make things easier for you to.

Manic Monday- weekend recap
Tasty Tuesday- favorite new recipe
Workout Wednesday- what I am doing to not only get skinny but toned as well
Takeout Thursday- alternatives to fast food and solutions for when you do eat out.
Fabulous Friday- my weigh in day and a day to reflect on how far I've come

Helpful Websites

I rely heavily on the internet to help me with this journey and I am so thankful there are people who have taken the time to write really amazing recipes for me to make and have gone through food menus and figured out the point values for common foods.  This has saved me so much time and has made it easier to stay on track.

Here are my go to sites:

http://www.justdietnow.com/
http://www.dwlz.com/restaurants.html
http://www.restaurantpoints.com/
http://www.laaloosh.com/
http://www.skinnytaste.com/
http://www.slenderkitchen.com/
http://yumm.com/recipes/points-plus
http://www.snack-girl.com/recipes/?r=weightwatchers
http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/p/recipe-box_20.html

I hope these help you as much as they have helped me.

Week 3

This was my first week with my husband gone and it also involved two parties.  Yikes!  How was I going to maintain my wight loss and not backtrack into my old habits of late night snacking with no one to be accountable to and not fall off the wagon around all of the yummy deserts that were going to be at both parties.  This week it was a mind over matter battle and I am happy to say my mind won.  I chose to clean rather than eat and I'm pretty sure when my husband came home he appreciated this new found change in my habits.

As for the desserts, I enjoyed them.  What I really love about Weight Watchers is the freedom to do that.  I have 49 extra points to burn each week on whatever I want.  I personally really love my nightly glass of wine and that's fine.  One small glass of red wine is 4 points.  I feel a little foolish doing this but I do measure out 4oz of wine with a cup and then pour it into my wine glass to make sure I am only drinking those 4 points.  So at the parties I enjoyed a brownie and a slice of birthday cake.  I just counted them as extras and moved on.  If the joy of eating is taken away a person is much more likely to eat the "forbidden" food.  Enjoy your wine, eat your cake, just make sure you're doing so in moderation.

Weight loss for this week... 2 pounds.  I am now down FIVE pounds and I am very proud of myself.  I am really doing this!

Week 2

I am still trying to get a hang of Weight Watchers and what is worth what.  Here's what I've learned this week... if you bite it write it.  Sounds simple right?  I was biting a lot and eating a good 300-500 extra calories a day that I didn't even realize I was consuming.  I'd grab a handful of veggie straw chips (they are made from veggies they must be better than eating salt and vinegar potato chips), a few crackers, a cookie, a Starbucks venti latte, a few left over french fries, etc.  And before I knew it I had eaten my days allotment of point and calories in junk.  I was still hungry and unsatisfied.

The invention of the iPhone has saved me with my food journal.  I have the Weight Watchers app downloaded and I document all day.  If you are looking to document with out joining WW there's a My Fitness Pal app that also keeps track of your daily food intake, there's SparkPeople, and there's the old fashioned pen and paper way.  You have to find what works for you and do it.  Take a week to write down what you eat you will be shocked at the end to see how much you do consume.

This week I lost 1 pound.  And while I was hoping for more a pound is a pound and a loss is a loss.

Week 1

Foolishly I thought that I would have this major weight loss in the first week and that I would be be down at least 5 pounds.  That wasn't the case.  I did loose... just not the 5 pounds I was hoping for.  Instead I dropped 1.8 pounds.

According to the Mayo Clinic healthy sustainable weight loss happens by loosing 1-2 pounds on average per week.  And I did just that.  So why was I so disappointed in my just shy of 2 pounds loss?  I think the many fad diets and weight loss shows on television set average people up to fail.

Take the Biggest Loser for example.  Granted the people on the show are starting at a much heavier weight than I am but in all reality they eventually get to my weight and then continue to loose.  And loose at rapid speed.  In the first few weeks of the show the contestants loose 10, 15, 20 pounds in a week.  And as the weeks continue they still loose at an unhealthy rate with 4, 6, 8 pounds.  And while we as average people know those results aren't typical, we still expect them because obviously someone has.  Realistically, they have put their lives on hold, eat very restrictive diets, have personal trainers, and are in it to win it.  They are hyper-motivated.  So the average person trying to loose weight cannot compare themselves to the contestants as hard as that it.

So I go into week two 1.8 pounds lighter and definitely more motivated because I did it.  I lost weight.

Make a Choice

One of the things I have learned since starting Weight Watchers is that it's all about choices.  You can choose to eat the entire bag of chips but you will be stuck eating carrots and lettuce with no dressing the rest of the day and feel unsatisfied and crummy.  Or you can choose to eat a power food, one of the ones they list as low in fat, calories, and high in fiber, calcium, vitamins.  The foods that are not processed and man made but rather clean and free of preservatives.  Cheese, lean meats, veggies, fruit.

As I've said before, I used to take my kids to Sonic, Chick-Fil-A, Panera, etc and not even think twice about what I was putting in my mouth.  I would happily eat a Bacon Turkey Bravo from Panera and the chips, and even have the last few bites of macaroni and cheese off of my daughters plate.  The first time I went to Panera with my family after starting Weight Watchers I was in for a rude awakening.  That sandwich alone was 21 points.  The chips, 7, the few bits of her leftovers, another 3.  31 points for lunch alone.  WOW!  At lunch I was eating my entire day's allotment of points.  By searching online for points values I have been able to finally start making smarter choices when it comes to eating out and those choices are showing themselves on the scale each week.