Starting to feel a little out of control

I am getting that over the honeymoon feeling ... the one that can either sabotage me or strengthen my resolve to lose weight. I can still see me on the other side of this, 100 and some pounds thinner, so I think we are looking at strengthening the resolve. But I feel like I have been on a salt binge for 3 days now (I know I have) and I need to get more fresh fruit into me.


Yesterday, I was fine in the morning ... then we had Taco Bell for lunch. I was good... a Fresco soft taco and an order of pintos and cheese. But there is salt in that. Then for dinner, I had my Mom's spaghetti pie (it was good) but it had cheese all over it. I am pretty sure it was about 11 points for a slice of that. I didn't go over points yesterday. I know that for a fact, but I know that better, less salty, food choices could have been made.

Of course, every day is a new day and I know that today will be a better one. I just need to lay off the salt, and life will feel a little more in control. For the time being. :)

Have you lost weight?

I was at church this morning, and I was walking out to get a glass of water. I had had a donut that morning (1/2) and then someone brought in a thing of donuts, and I had another 1/2 ... well, I ate two bites of it. I needed to go throw it away and get some water. I wasn't feeling the hottest ... lightheaded, really ...

A friend of mine, who ushers, was in the back and she asked me the question: have you lost weight?

Why yes, I sure have. I didn't think it was too noticeable. Of course, my parents said something to me, but you can kind of expect that. But when someone else notices, then it feels good.

So this week, we return to some sort of normalcy around here. We don't have anything at night (well, I have a few meetings), but we don't have that nightly commitment of 4 hours being gone. I need to make some meals this week, too.

Oh and another thing I have added: activity points. I mowed the front lawn on Friday and the backyard yesterday. And it was h.o.t. I gave myself 4 AP each for each session, which in turn gives me 8 extra points for the week. However,I have been UBER careful in not using those 35 weekly points. I can't see me needing to eat 40 extra points on top of what I eat this week. I understand that these are given for those times when I can't always count on being able to eat within my daily allowance.

Now I am off to dye some yarn. Off to sweat in the basement.

Another successful weigh in!

Three more pounds have bit the dust!!!! A total of 13.8 pounds has been lost, and I have 1.2 more pounds to go to reach my first five percent lost.

I am appreciating the program SO much more now. I allow myself for little decadences here and there. I allow myself a piece of fudge or a cube of cheese. I allow myself some ice cream every once in a while. But I am very, very careful throughout the day. I make so many better decisions than I did a month ago. I am more mindful of what goes in my mouth.

And now, the kids are having to make better eating decisions. They want a snack, they have to eat a piece of fruit. They want something to drink, someone tries to reach for some pop, and I tell them they have to have water. Of course, my hater of all things water (# 1) bemoans the fact that she has to consume something that tastes like nothing. She can't stand it. My sister suggested that she add some lemon to it. I told her that would be a no because then it would turn into her squeezing as much lemon juice into a cup of water, and adding sugar to it.

So this week has been our vacation Bible school, which has allowed me to be very careful with what I am eating. We have been eating dinner there beforehand, and the first few nights were pretty good. The first night we had baked chicken, cooked carrots, and green beans. There was also a salad, so that made for a good meal. The second night was spaghetti, so I had some of that. Last night, we went to pork tenderloin (fine) and scalloped potatoes. I ate five bites... it allowed me to have some, but I didn't have to eat them all. Tonight, we decided to stay home and get pizza.

Pizza... six points a slice for a slice of cheese pizza. I cut mine in half, and call it 2/3 of a slice. What I find that works best is me going in and putting in my points ... so tonight I said I would have 2 slices and 2 pieces of Crazy Bread. Instead, I cut a piece in half, ate it, and had 2 pieces of Crazy Bread. I didn't have that second piece, and I was just fine with that.

I am on week five, which is hard to believe. It seems like I just started, really.

The journey has begun. 1.2 pounds to the first goal, then 14 more pounds to my second goal of 10 percent lost. Then I start all over again with a new five percent and 10 percent goal.

Now I have to go convince my girls that bedtime actually means going to bed.

And the week starts again

This week, we have Vacation Bible School. My husband and I are shopkeepers (we do a re-enactment-type of school every other year), and we are basketweavers. However, these basketweavers are not masters at their trade. I fear that these basketweavers will be bringing staplers to attach the reeds to the basket base, just to get started. We'll remove them .. eventually.

The weekend went fairly well, eating-wise. We ate out twice yesterday, and that always proves to be a challenge trying to find something. I have decided that Arby's is one of the worst places to find something healthy to eat. I know they have those salads, but they seemed to be loaded with all sorts of stuff ... and they are already pre-made, so it isn't like you can ask them to hold off on the cheese or anything.

I had a Jr. Ham and Swiss Melt ... 4 points. But I am a sucker for their cherry turnovers. Get this .... EIGHT!!!! (had to spell it out to get the point across) points. Had that been at lunch, I would have bypassed it. But we all know I am a points-hoarder at the end of the day, so I had like 16 points left for the day.

So I splurged and got the turnover. It was good.... flaky and cherry and just the right amount of frosting. I have to thank my dear old father for starting me on those.

So on to another hectic week of yarn dyeing, basket making, and four softball games. Add in there staying on program, getting some grocery shopping done, and maintaining my sanity ... it should make for a very good week.

I gotta feelin'

I am sitting here listening to Black Eyed Peas right now .... I Gotta Feelin' ... LOVE that song. It is so upbeat. Just love it.

And as I am sitting here, typing, I'm thinking yeah, I do gotta feeling. I have a feeling that things are turning in a direction where I am gaining control back of my life. I have been in that hole of "so what?" for so long. So long that I lost myself.

I gotta feelin' that tonight's gonna be a good, good night....

This year's gonna be a good, good year.

This is the year I lose weight.

This is the year I start to feel better about me.

This is the year I start to buy all new clothes.

This is the year I feel like I am going to get a full time job after not having one for almost two years now.

This is the year.

I gotta feelin'...

On another note, today was weigh in day. I have lost another 1.6 pounds, for a total of 10.8 lost in 4 weeks! Not too shabby!!!!!

Slow and steady wins the race. The race for life.

What a week this has been!

As soon as I turned around today, the weekend seemed to be over!!!

We had meetings all weekend (I am on a pastoral search committee) and we have another one this afternoon.

But what I realized: I eat HORRIBLY on days that I am really busy. And I don't mean pig out. I ate in moderation, but I had my bowl of bran flakes before I left, and then ate 1/2 chocolate donut in the meeting. I didn't get into the box anymore after that, but I have a whole thing of Panera bagels on my kitchen table. I ate 1/2 chocolate chip bagel yesterday afternoon, and then had a blueberry bagel last night (but I did have points left over so I had to eat something, and I was hungry).

But it just seemed like the day ... I don't know. I was surrounded by my two biggest temptations: donuts and bagels. I was proud of my willpower, though and proceeded to drink quite a few bottles of water.

So this week should be settling down a tad. I have a lot of yarn dyeing to do, and tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be stormy, so I won't have the "can we go to the pool?" question looming over my head every 20 minutes.

I am looking forward to this week's weigh in. I hope there is a loss. If there is, it will be a small one, but that is what I expect. At some point, the small ones need to start catching up with me. As long as it isn't a large gain.

TOTM is around the corner, too so I will be battling the pre-TOTM bloating. Lovely!!!

All right ... I am off to meeting # 234501449222 of my life.

Another small victory for my body

I have SO much stuff going on this weekend (I keep living in the land of denial) that I needed to get in to weigh in before time got away from me. I chose to go in this am and wasn't sure what the result would be. There are times when I think I have lost, and I haven't. But today was a loss of....


4 pounds!!!

I was VERY pleasantly surprised, considering it was about 3 hours later in the morning than when I normally weigh in, and it was only 5 days after my weigh in last weekend.

But hey.. I will take it. That makes a total of 9.2 pounds down. I can handle that. I have six more pounds to go to hit my first goal of 5 percent. Weight Watchers sets it up to lose the first five percent and then 10 percent and then we can set our own goals after that. I have decided to keep up with this same goal setting pattern: 5 and 10 and then re-set when I hit those goals.

I also calculated the points of a Ben and Jerry's pint of ice cream, which is something I would have consumed, or close to have consumed, before WW. It is terrible. Let's just say it was over my daily Points allotment by 3 points.

Now I have gone down in my Points allotment by one, so I have one less point a day to play with.

Last night I was left with 7.5 points for the rest of the day. I had a whole wheat tortilla with reduced fat cheese and some salsa for a quesidilla. I ate half of it, and gave the other two quarters to my girls. It was all I needed.

I am loving the 100 Calorie packs of Fudge Stripes. LOVING them.

I picked up a box of WW mint cookie bars at the center today and ate one on the way to Wendy's. YUMMY and CHOCOLATEY! They were good.

All right, I have three kids breathing down my back to go to the pool.

Yes we ain't got no strawberries....

I took the kids strawberry picking today at a local strawberry farm, and now we have more strawberries than I know what to do with. I am contemplating turning some of it into freezer jam, or freeze them for later, but I don't have a vacuum freeze dry system, so I think they will end up with freezer burn.

I cleaned half a bucket, offered some to my Mom, contemplated the freezer jam, will incorporate them into my turning seven on Wednesday child's cake as she is the queen of strawberries. But other than that, that's all I got.

I am finding that I have become very stingy with my points at night. I get to dinner, and I have between 15 to 20 to spend. It seems to be my larger meal. I had a tuna salad sandwich tonight with some Cheezits and some strawberries. I had 8 points left!!!! So I splurged on fat-filled dressing and croutons on my Very Veggie salad after a committee meeting tonight.

I need to find another time that I can weigh in this week, but I don't want to go at night as I normally WI in the morning. I don't want to add weight to my loss because I know it will happen. I might just pop in on them during their drop in times on Thursday so I can get it done and over with.

I am appreciating the food choices I am making now. While I crave every once a while something (tonight it was puffy Cheetos), I realize that won't get me where I need to go. And yes, I could use my weekly points for that, but that is silly.

I am tired. I am going to bed.

Two Weeks OP

This is me at my second week of being OP. I wanted to get a picture up of me at the beginning so I could watch the progress. I don't know if I will just re-take my picture in the same dress, of if it will just be in what I am wearing.

I bought this dress last year, and I really like it ... just don't like what I look like in it. But that will change.

And then I will need to find another use for that dress when it doesn't fit anymore.

Day Eight

Keeping busy today. Had church this morning (after sleeping terribly last night as some storms were going up north of us that were spawning tornadoes). Had a brief meeting after church, and then we were off to the University of Findlay's Arts Festival. It was really nice to go there. Lots of things for the kids to do, except the face painting was a total bust. They ended up having to raffle off that and the balloon animals.

There was ice cream that could be made, as well as chocolate lollipops (which the kids chose). I took a small bite of someone's to see what the chocolate tasted like but that was all.

And then I started to tally up my points for the day, and realized that I have quite a few left for the day. I think like 20 right now? I need to get eating.

The thing is: I HAVE been eating ... I had bran flakes for breakfast with an apple, I had a Boca veggie burger and I found these really cool sandwich toppers .... they are 1 point for these things that resemble English muffins, but they are more like bread and thinner.

So I had a burger on this sandwich topper thingy with some ketchup, onion, and lettuce, and I also had a salad with some light dressing.

I did splurge on some Twizzlers at the pool today. I have to get over there and record those points. I am eating a five point frozen dinner and hope that it is semi good.

Things have been going well. I bought a rather large water bottle to consume my daily allotment of water (certainly not the amount the water bottle suggests (2.3 liters).

Off to eat dinner.

Day Seven and Weigh In

I am always nervous when I weigh in. While I think I would have lost weight, there have been times when I have been disappointed that it wasn't as much or that there was no loss. Of course, I knew this first week would result in a loss. I just wasn't sure how much.

I went to the 9:00 meeting, and this one was really active. There seems to be a group of older people who sit in the back row and ... talk. All. The. Time. To the point that it was being disrespectful to the other members and the leader as she is trying to celebrate the members' victories.

I wasn't going to "out" myself but she called my name because I lost ....

5.2 POUNDS!!!!!

I was pleasantly surprised. Initially, it was a 5 pound loss, but then I remembered the keys in my pocket and poof ... .2 pounds more gone. I didn't realize they weighed that much!

So I am off on a new week ... with new 35 points weekly allotment for extra points. I didn't use them all last week, but I did use about 12 of them.

Grocery store today and moving into incorporating exercise this week.

And I can't believe I didn't blog at all yesterday. Nothing too remarkable except we went to Applebee's for dinner last night and I chose the Steak and Portabellos from their WW selection. Steak, mushrooms, broccoli, and potatoes, for only 7 points. And I decided to treat myself last night with some Dietsch's ice cream .... it was yummy!!!!! I dipped a little into the week's allotment, but not a whole bunch because I didn't go overboard yesterday.

End of Day Five

It was a busy one today,but it was a good one. I was busy with yarn stuff, so I was on the computer quite a bit. What I need to incorporate next week is ACTIVITY!!! No reason why I can't fire up the treadmill for 10 to 15 minutes a day to build up to more.

I am at a stressful point in my evening, so I need to unwind. I would LOVE to pop open a Smirnoff Ice right now and then go to bed. But I don't have one and I don't need one.

Today I had:

My Cheerios breakfast
Fruit and walnut salad and a tossed salad with Catalina dressing and a Diet Coke
Chicken chunks from a local restaurant, Frickers and a salad with Catalina dressing and water

Points were all used and I did dip in to my weekly allotment. But its all good.

Now I am off the computer for the day.

Day Five

And here we are .... Thursday morning. Two more days until WI. I am wondering if I have lost, what I have lost ...it is like a present at the end of the week. My WI time is 10:15 (I might go to the 9:00 WI since we have to be somewhere at 11). I will decide on Saturday morning.

I need to get some new cereal. I am getting sick of Cheerios. Well, not sick of them, but I need to mix it up a little bit. Cereal for me (and really lunch) is kind of a creature of habit thing.

Ok ... so I have to admit this: I had a 3 Musketeers bar last night. Best 6 points I have had in a long time. I have the 35 weekly points, I was still sitting on 32 of them last night. Since I have WI in two days now, I need to start dipping into those. Not use all of them, but use them every once in a while for a splurge.

We do have a cookout tomorrow night, so I will need to keep an eye on consumption there.

All right ... off I go to take care of some yarn orders. A busy day on that end.

End of Day Four

So this afternoon/evening, we went to a friend's house, where she had prepared two cakes and cupcakes. I took two small pieces of cake and called it a day. I knew I was going to be eating them, so it was fine.

Then we went to City BBQ, a local restaurant. I had pulled pork, minus the bun, 4 fried pickles, and some green beans. I took the salad home so I could eat that later. I will probably have that here in a bit, but I really need to invest in some lower point dressings. I'm a lover of my salad dressings.

Day was fine. I don't really need to recap what I ate, but I have consumed all my points.

We were looking at the nutrition facts on the package of salad dressing I chose (loaded honey french) and it is amazing how many empty calories there are in dressings!!! 210 calories and 18!!!! g of fat. The points for that little gem: 6!!!! For DRESSING! Yeah, the salad is 0 points, but still! For a little side salad? I have other ideas on how I want to spend my points!

I am trying to decide if I am going to pop to the grocery store right now and get some things. Probably not ...I think we will do that tomorrow morning.

Talked myself right out of that one.

Day Four

What a day so far! Dog woke me up at 5:15 with her neurotic barking (she senses weather changes about 4 hours before they happen). Couldn't get back to sleep. Took the dog out at 5:45. Stayed up. Drank some coffee, had some Cheerios and milk and knitted.



Went over to my niece's house where my mom was watching my great nephew. The kids had the opportunity to play with him while Mom and I got lunch around. I ran to the local grocery store and I picked up for myself some yogurt, some lunch meat (turkey), some 35 calorie bread, and a Diet Dr.Pepper. I splurged on some mayo with Grey Poupon mixed in. Bypassed the Goldfish crackers because they looked to contain too many points. Had 1/2 a banana.



Then I received a phone call from my "boss" (i teach part, part time at a community college) and she decided I was the whipping child for a procedural flub on my end. Whatever. Its over now.



But this dog has REALLY been grating on my last nerves.



Off to journal on etools.Haven't even done that yet!

Almost the end of day three

As rushed as I was pretty much all day today, I didn't do too badly. My niece and I ran through Wendys and you know, on the go, there really isn't anything too healthy you can eat when you are the one driving the car. Can't eat a salad or a baked potato. So I chose the chicken wrap. I am NO fan of Wendy's nasty, slimy grilled chicken so I got the all out breaded and deep-fried homestyle chicken. However, I did have them leave the ranch dressing off, which would have been 2 points more (8 vs. 6). I still think 6 is enough for a small thing. I did leave the cheese on. I wasn't sacrificing EVERYthing on it. Please.

Then my niece, who is pregnant with mono/mono twins, orders two jr. bacon cheeseburgers, fries, 5 piece chicken nuggets, and an orange frosty thingy. I couldn't believe (1) that she wouldn't get major heartburn and (2) she could pack it all away, considering she looks to be 9 1/2 months pregnant and she's only 27 w 6 d. But oh well....

My mom made dinner for my niece, and she went ahead and made our dinner, too. I have had some fruit salad and penne pasta with pesto. It is nummy cold. I will be eating some more of that for lunch tomorrow. She also made a taco salad, so that will be good, too. I have already considered myself having eaten dinner though so the salad will be for tomorrow.

Today, I have consumed:

Breakfast:
1 c Cheerios
1 c 1 % milk
coffee with creamer
baby carrots
1/2 c grape juice

Mid-morning:
McDonalds fruit and yogurt parfait without the granola

Lunch:
Wendy's snack wrap
Diet Coke

Dinner:
Penna pasta
Fruit salad

Need to get in all my water tonight (haven't had any today) and I also need to get my vitamin taken.

Day Three

Wanted to pop on really quick this morning before the ball starts rolling to say how excited I get when I sign on to etools on Weight Watchers and I see that new total of points, starting my day all over again.

That is the nice thing about Weight Watchers. Even if you have a really bad points day the day before, you get to start all over the next day.

Not that I had a bad day yesterday...just an observation.

All right ... off to pour those Cheerios and make that coffee. I will be getting the fat free version of the creamer the next time I purchase it because I keep giving myself 3 points for it (because I am sure it is probably that much (maybe 2)).

A full day in front of me. Hope to make good eating choices.