Weigh In - Hollah!!

First off, earlier today, I was feeling a little blah about this whole weight loss thing.  Sometimes it feels okay and doable but other times it feels daunting, overwhelming, discouraging.  When I came home from work today I logged into blogger and went through the blog roll and my eyes fell on the word Perseverance and after reading this post by Keelie, I felt a lot better.  I am a quitter too.  I'm not the only one.  It is completely hard to do this. It's hard to change.  It's hard to give up, even partially, the food that you like or the amount that you couch.  It's even harder to do it long enough to make it a new habit, a new lifestyle, a new you.  And worse?  It takes time and we always want it to happen faster than time will allow or our bodies will allow.  Anyhow, I digress . . . on to the weigh in!

I was down 5 pounds!  I knew I was going to be down 2 - 3 pounds but to be down 5 was awesome.  I'm glad to have lost the three I gained last week and then some.  And I desperately needed the boost and to know that I wasn't wasting my time & energy.

Usually during the meeting, I'm hungry.  No one eats supper and then heads to a meeting to a weigh in.  That's just silly!  Today was no exception, I was really hungry.  On a normal night, I go to WW, weigh in, find a seat and then listen to the motivating talk and participate.  But in the back of my head, I'm going through all the options of the 'something horrible' that I'm going to have after the meeting.  I know so many people who have a bad reward meal after the weigh in and then start fresh the next day.  Because it's 8 pm by the time I get out of the meeting, I usually go for fast food.  Whopper with cheese combo or Big Mac combo or pizza.  Last week, I went to Subway which isn't too terrible but I did get the mayo, cheese and cookies.  This time was different though, and I actually felt the change somehow. Tonight, I was thinking about all the bad food options and I didn't feel like any of it.  None of it!  McDonald's nope, Burger King nope, Taco Bell/KFC nope, Dairy Queen blizzard nope.

I knew I had healthy yummy options at home and started thinking about those things.  I needed something to be ready quickly.  I came home and made an open-faced tuna melt, some veggies, and a protein float.  I can't explain how much I'm enjoying this protein float.  I got it from Daisygirl over at A Future Success Story and while it's not exactly like a Root Beer float, it's close enough that it feels like such a treat and really curbs that sweet craving.  She has also used orange soda and says it tastes like a creamsicle.  Ummm . . . come on!  I could not be more excited!

Also, as far as meal planning and food prep goes, I made a big pot of rice, (this recipe also came from Daisygirl and it's great!)  I thawed a couple of turkey sausages and I have salmon & cod fillets in the freezer and fresh & frozen veggies.  For breakfast, I usually go with a granola bar, fruit & yogurt or a smoothie.  Stuff that's easy because I have very little time in the morning as I'm out the door to catch the bus downtown by 6:45 am.  My favorite granola bars right now are the Special K bars.  The Mocha one tastes like puffed wheat cake.  Yum yum yum!!  I'd really like to make my own granola bars sometime but I would like to find a low point recipe.  Somewhere in the 2 - 3 points range so no more that 100 - 150 calories.  Although I don't have everything written down for each meal, I feel this is a good start to my future in meal planning & preparation. :)

Damn, I feel good!!

Michelle

Oh Yes I Did!

I lost a pound this weekend.  Oh Yes I Did! (insert happy dance to Club Can't Handle Me by Flo Rida).  I went to Weight Watchers for the first time since returning from vacation and was happy to see a familiar face;  a friend who is also a lifetime member like me but she's just a bit over her goal right now.   Oh how hard it was to get on that scale to register the vacation gain.  The leader just smiled and said "did you have a good time?".  Oh Yes I Did!  The scale read 225.0.  In my head, I'm down one pound.

The leader is awesome.  I can never be sure of her name.  Susan, Suze, Suzie?  Anyway, she is a great speaker and motivator and the best WW leader I've ever been to.  I'm always happy I went and feel better when I leave.  Her talk last night was about goals and commitment.  The timing was perfect.

I've managed to stick to my goals every day so far even though yesterday was terribly difficult.  I was in a mood.  An everything sucks mood.  An I'm too old mood.  An I'm too fat mood.  An I'm not good enough mood.  By the time that mood got to the end of a Monday work day, I was in no mood to go to the gym.  But Oh Yes I Did!  Between the endorphins (I'm told this makes you happy when you exercise so I'll go with it) and The Office episode where Michael is wearing a woman's suit, I was feeling somewhat better when I got off the treadmill.  It's a pretty hilarious episode.  Anyhow, I went to the gym again today and did my treadmill time, hehe, another funny one from The Office kept me company.

The eating was great.  I stuck to my points.  Had a delicious smoothie that I got out of Oxygen magazine.  Basically like the one I always make but they use cooled green tea instead of water.  Genius!  And I added spinach as well.  Great way to get veggies while barely noticing and it does NOT taste like spinach.   This is my recipe.

Fruity Green Tea Smoothie (no idea what to call it as it would change depending on what fruit I have)
1 cup mixed frozen berries
1 cup skim milk
3/4 - 1 cup cooled green tea
1 1/2 cups spinach leaves
1/2 scoop whey vanilla protein powder

Blend blend blend!  4 points.

And for supper I had spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce.  I used my garden tomatoes and a few tablespoons of the Epicure Marinara seasoning and blended it.  Then just let it simmer for about 15 minutes.  I would definitely do that again.

Starting to think about what I can add to my goals for next week.  I can't believe I've gone to the gym for four days in a row!  Can't remember the last time that happened!

I'll finish here with a little excerpt from The Office.  ☺

Darryl: Are you wearin' lady clothes?
Michael: What?
Darryl: Are you wearin' lady clothes? Those look like lady... pants.
Michael: No, this is a power suit.
Darryl: That there's a woman's suit.
Michael: [Darryl laughs] I do not buy woman's clothes. I would not make that mistake again.
Darryl: I'ma call Roy, man.
Michael: Ohh... kay.
Darryl: This is gonna make him feel better.
Michael: All right.
Darryl: This is too good.
Michael: Alright, you know what? Pam, could you please tell Darryl that this is not a woman's suit?
Pam: Oh my God, that's a woman's suit!
Kevin: You're wearing a woman's suit?
Michael: No, I do, I, I wear men's suits, OK? I got this out of a bin.

 

Michael: There were these huge bins of clothes, and everybody was rifling through them like crazy, and I grabbed one. And it fit! So I don't think that this is totally just a woman's suit. At the very least it's bisexual.

Today IS Tomorrow

For months now I've been saying, "I'll start tomorrow".  Every time I have a plan to "start tomorrow", there is a last supper of sorts.  I have the bad stuff I will miss once I start on my diet.  Then tomorrow never comes and I've once again ingested more calories than I likely would have had I not given myself the tomorrow deadline.  About one hundred "last suppers" over the last 6 months eventually equated to another 30 pounds!  So hard to swallow these situations I created myself.  But . . . TODAY IS MY TOMORROW!  It's Saturday today.  I figured it would be easier to get myself back into the gym if I started on the weekend so I wasn't waiting for the Monday (last supper-ing away my weekend) and by Monday I will have two gym visits under my belt.

My Goals for Week One
1. Walk 30 minutes per day.
2. Drink 3 litres of water per day.
3. Eat at least 5 servings of fruits & veggies per day.
4. Try a new recipe.

I've decided that I'm starting small and will add/increase goals every week.  So many times I've created this crazy all-out plan and then I last a week and burnout and gain back more than I lost in that week.  I want this time to be the time that the weight stays off.  Forever.

The Beginning of the End of the Last 75 Pounds

I've started this blog to keep track of my goals and weight loss and for some accountability. A little background on me . . . I'm 36 and I started gaining weight when I was about 22. By the time I was 25, I was 170 pounds. I could pull it off easily enough because I'm 5 feet 9 inches tall and I gain weight fairly evenly. This also made it easier to deny the path I was on. Enter a new desk job and three years later I was 219 pounds and desperate. I had yo-yo and crash dieted at some points but always gained it back. At 219 pounds, I joined Weight Watchers. Over the next year and a half, I lost 69 pounds and became a lifetime member. I maintained that for about a year and slowly but surely, it started coming back. I spent a few years around the 170 - 180 mark and over the last 6 months I've ballooned to my all-time highest weight ever of 226 pounds where I sit now. Disappointed and devastated and I can hardly believe it. I can't believe I've done this to myself again.

Some goals to kick this plan into effect:

1. Go back to Weight Watchers. Next meeting closest to my place is Monday. Because I'm a lifetime member I can get away with not joining up completely and just paying to weigh in. I also don't have to pay for every single week, thank goodness because I can't afford it! So every two weeks I'm going to weigh in and go to the meeting.

2. Create weekly goals, gradually adding elements of exercise and routine for consistency.

3. Have a few friends to be accountable too who will ask me how things are going and come to the gym with me sometimes.

I'm off to work on my first week of goals now.  I will update what they are tomorrow and get started!  I'm both excited and scared.

Bye for now!