Lose For Good Campaign

TODAY ONLY!

Weight Watchers is donating $1 ($25,000 max) to Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger for every mention of the Lose for Good Campaign on blogs, facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

Help me spread the word!

What's your goal for the duration of the Lose For Good Campaign? I hope to lose an average of 1 pound per week and earn 5o AP by October 17th.

Easter Dinner :(

This past Monday I weighed in at 168.8 pounds. I only lost 0.6 pounds, but oh well, it was still 0.6 pounds in the right direction.

At the previous meeting, everyone was panicking about the upcoming Easter festivities and so was I. My mother usually makes a fairly large, fatty meal with a side of sugar-infused deserts. All the same, I was looking forward to the meal. I had a feeling she would try a sweet treat from the WW site or cookbook for me and her husband to have, but unfortunately that was not the case. When I got home from my 9 hour day at work it was already past 8 o'clock and I had to get my food out of the secondary fridge on the other side of the house. To my dismay, the ham was already firmly held in place by the cooled animal fat around it, but that wasn't even the worst part. I spotted a chocolate cream pie. When I went back across the house and into the kitchen I asked my mom if it was made with fat-free, sugar-free pudding. Her response was not the nicest. She informed me that we didn't have any and she didn't feel like going to the store to buy some when in fact...she had already gone to the store to buy corn smothered in butter sauce AND we actually did have said pudding in the cabinets on a clearly marked shelf. 

What I learned from this experience is that I cannot rely on other people, but I had hoped that I could rely on my mother to provide me with some healthy alternatives for a holiday meal. Instead, everything was covered in butter, sugar, molasses, and fat. Oh joy. 

She has said before that she can't eat as healthy as I do because she'd lose weight, so I understand that most of the meals she cooks aren't going to be endorsed by Weight Watchers anytime soon, but I really wanted her support with that particular meal. It just wasn't there, but I did fine. I had 4 ounces of ham with the fat scraped off, threw the buttered corn in the garbage when I realized what it was, picked at the pre-buttered squash, and treated myself to giant latte mousse bar. At the end, I was satisfied with myself, but not the meal because it wasn't anything special. 

Sorry, just felt like venting...

Still Truckin'

Things are still  moving along rather well with this whole diet/lifestyle change. I am loving the changes to my body... I feel young and vibrant again, people are noticing a drastic change in my figure, and best of all, I am feeling healthier. 

Conventional exercise is not going so well. I have started getting one type of exercise on a regular basis, but I am not one to "kiss and tell" or gross out my more reserved family members. I was actually getting ready to do my Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga DVD today when my mom and her co-worker walked in and dragged me off to bingo. Ok, so they didn't drag me. I went quite willingly and actually ended up winning $87. 

Weight-loss is still continuing. As of yet, I have not plateaued. Yesterday at the Monday meeting weigh-in I lost 1.8 pounds. My total weight loss is 28.8 pounds in the 9 weeks I have been on the WW plan. YAY! I have started scrap-booking my journey. As a gift, I got a scrap-book where so far I have put all my Momentum Plan materials, my 10% key chain, 10% post card, and a print out of this weeks updated weight-loss ticker. I have started using eTools these past couple of days so that I may electronically archive my food journal and weight-loss. By doing this I can also print out charts and food summaries to get a visual of my progress and see what works best.

Things are going well and I am ecstatic. So far I am like one of the individuals on the WW commercial where it says in a caption beneath them, "Results not typical". But here's the thing. The results can be typical! All it takes is willpower and a commitment to a healthier life style. I hope that eventually I will rub off on my mother's husband, so that he will take the reigns of his eating habits and steer them down a healthier path.

Even though things are pretty dandy, I do have some things to work on. I know I have said this many times, but EXERCISE needs to start happening. NO EXCUSES. I am so disgusted with myself for dragging my feet on this. 

On a happier note, my next mini-weight goal is to reach the 15% mark. All I have to lose is 1.8 pounds. I hope to reach this within the next two weeks, but I would like to hit the 30 pound mark by this next weigh-in. After I reach 15% my next goal is to get down to 163.4 (20%). I would like to reach this goal by May 4th. I don't know if anyone remembers, but I had wanted to reach goal (125 pounds) by the end of this summer. My original goal was 135, but I have since modified it and I don't think it is attainable by the end of the summer. Hopefully, I should be able to get there by the end of October.

There are 50.4 pounds standing between me and my ultimate goal. 

To lose by my birthday in the end of September, I would have to lose an average of 1.7 pounds per week.

By the end of Oct: 1.5

By Nov: 1.3

By Dec: 1.2

Well, it's off to bed for me; however, before I go, I want to tell you all that I can almost comfortably wear my old size 10 jeans. My belly is still visibly squished a little, but who cares...YATTA!

I'm a Naughty Woman!

I have been naughty for a plethora of reasons. For one, exercise has been minimal, which is why I haven't been posting. Secondly, yesterday I ate 2 late night pizza slices. Not just 1...2! A friend of my significant other put it into my head that technically it was tomorrow's points I was eating because it was after midnight. I stopped after eating the first piece, but the rest of the pizza was sitting there in front of my face and it smelled soooo good. I don't even like pizza, but there I was, reaching for another slice. I had already used about 17 of my flex points because for "some reason" my hunger has spiked this week.

Afterwards, I felt like crap, and I still do... I want to exercise tomorrow. Can somebody make me? I really need to earn some activity points to both feel better about my slip up and become more healthy.

But as they say, with each dark cloud there is a silver lining. I have not blogged about my Monday weigh-in, but I lost .6 pounds. I was a little disappointed, but as I had said last week, it wasn't my goal to lose. The weigh-in before I had lost almost 6 pounds in one week, so I was hoping (for my skin's sake) that the weight loss would slow down a little.

My next weigh-in is in two days and for the first time I am GENUINELY nervous because I feel that there is a possibility I might gain. I hadn't utilized more than 3 of my flex points TOTAL (to date) until this week and now I am quite sure I used more than I am alotted. It's hard to know because that pizza was from some obscure restaurant. Most likely it was an 18+ POINT binge.

I am not a fan of losing control. This is really bothering me.

Monday Night Weigh-in

I was so nervous today! I wore the lightest clothing possible to the weigh-in and everything...

I should not have been such a mess about the whole thing. Everything worked out and balanced just fine. I lost another 3.2 pounds this week, totalling 16.6! I am so excited and proud of myself; losing weight is something I've been saying I'll do, but now I've actually stuck to a plan for a month and I don't plan on stopping.

I feel better, my clothes fit better or are too big, I'm wearing old jeans, and I don't feel tired all the time. I used to always feel tired and I couldn't sleep enough to satisfy me. Now I am starting to even wake up before my alarm, and on days off when I don't set it, I wake up fairly early.

Tonight I bought a bottle of "REAL" Sangria imported from Spain...or so the bottle says, to celebrate. It's 2 points per 4 ounces, so I am going to mix it with sparkling water to have 2 spritzers :).

With other things going wrong, it feels nice to have something to celebrate.

NEWS BULLETIN #2

Goodbye 190's, hello 180's!

I weighed myself both last night and this morning and it's true... gosh I haven't been in the 180's in a long time (since I had just started living with JoJo in SB).

For those of you that aren't familiar with Weight Watchers that means that I now get to eat one less POINT per day because the formula for the amount of points you eat per day includes the first two numbers of your weight.

I am fine with this. I was not sure whether to wait til the Monday meeting to go down a point, but I decided that changing my points right now is probably the best choice. Some days I find myself still trying to get points in at the end of the evening and most of the time that last 1 POINT isn't exactly a healthy last POINT. For instance, last night it was a Weight Watcher's brand cookie.

Upcoming goals to meet:

Incorporating Exercise

Increment of 5 (189.2) -will determine whether I met this goal at weigh-in on Monday

10% of my body weight/an increment of 5 (184.2)

The 170's

Due Dates:

Meet 10% by Monday 2/16/09

Monday Night Weigh-In

Almost back to the 180's!!! It's been about a year and a half, or maybe more, since I have been in the 180's. I think I was about 180 when I met my ex-fiance.

Tonight I weighed in at 190.8. I didn't reach any goals, such as weight loss in an increment of five or a percentage marker, but I am still happy. I lost 3.4 pounds when I was almost convinced that I wasn't going to lose much.

Goal for this week: add in exercise!!! I have been really , really naughty and haven't exercised yet. I have three new DVD's and exercise equipment, so I really have no excuse for myself.

Even work isn't really keeping me from working out. With some of my excess weight gone, I am not in a whole lot of pain by the time I finish a 9-hour shift on concrete floors. I do ache, but maybe I could try getting up early??? Not something I like to do, but maybe I can learn to like it :)

Yummyness

My plan for the afternoon was successful. It turns out I didn't need to be so worried about the pudding because it's hard to raid the cabinets when you have to be consistently stirring for 10 minutes.

Tonight I had a 4 POINT taco soup and homemade guacamole. I believe both recipes are on WW.com although I did add minced sweet red peppers and garlic to the guac as well as about 2 tablespoons of diced pear tomatoes. I didn't have any cilantro on hand, but it still had a wonderful flavor. I also found tortilla chips that were 2 POINTS per serving (Price Chopper Naturals). Somehow I was able to have just one serving because the meal was very filling. I also had refried beans (only 1 POINT for 1/2 cup).

Even still, I am having a fat day. Some days my POINTS allowance just seems too high and by the end of the day I am just a little more full than I want to be and I get that "gross" feeling that I am trying to avoid.

I can't wait to fit into those old jeans...

Filling Recipe!

I don't know if I am supposed to post Weight Watchers recipes, but tonight I made this recipe that was delicious and reminded me more of homestyle cooking. Lately, I have been experimenting with different texture, ingredients, and flavors, so this was a nice change.

Stroganoff-topped Potato, Serves 2, 7 POINTS per serving

1 medium baking potato
1 tsp. olive oil
4oz beef flank steak, cut across grain into bite-size strips
1 c. sliced mushrooms
1 small onion, cut into thin wedges
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 can Progresso Light Savory Vegatable Barley Soup
14 c. fat free sour cream
2 tbsp. chopped parsley

Very easy, 1 pan

Heat oil over high heat, add mushrooms, onions, and beef. Add garlic powder and and pepper. Cook 5-7 minutes; until the meat is just browned and veggies are beginning to soften. Stir in soup and heat to boil. Cover and simmer 7-10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.

Serve over half of a baked potato. Top each with a sprinkling of parsley.