Back on Track After a Short Break

I was a little worried about Thanksgiving and it turns out I needed to be. I had decided in advance not to track points that day, but to be careful with my eating. I did not want to deprive myself or drive myself crazy. I did not go too overboard. I took small servings of the Thanksgiving foods that I love and did not go back for seconds. I did eat way too much of the brie appetizer that was made. I also had a small piece of cake and a small piece of pie.

My sister-in-law told us that she had heard that the average person eats 4,800 calories on Thanksgiving. I do not think I did that. We did walk in the turkey trot on Thanksgiving, so I did get some exercise before eating all that food!

Unfortunately for me, my not keeping track of points on Thursday turned into not keeping track of points on Friday... or Saturday. I did not go crazy on either of those days, but I know I ate more than I should have. I had Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch and dinner on Friday (including dessert) and we had dinner out on Saturday.

I am back on track now. I will be counting my points daily again. I also decided not to weigh in this week. My weigh in day is Friday and I thought for my mental health, I shouldn't weigh myself the day after Thanksgiving. I'll be working hard the rest of the week to have a decent number on the scale this week.

Weigh-in and Thoughts on Thanksgiving

I'm down 1.8 pounds this week. That was a bit of a surprise since I didn't think I did very well, especially since there wasn't much exercising or fruit/veggie eating this week. I did stay within my points every day but one and didn't eat hardly any of my weekly points. So it's all good! I'm 2.6 pounds away from my Christmas goal. I'm not sure if that's going to happen this week - I'm being realistic.

Thanksgiving is going to be hard. It's one of my favorite days of the year. A lot of my very favorite foods... and lots of it. I did tell my mom that I'd like to make some of the dishes a little on the lighter side this year. I mentioned making carrots. She said "We could make Grandma's buttered carrots." Not quite what I had in mind. I'm going to do my very best and not beat myself up about what I eat.

A good thing that we are doing on Thanksgiving... a Turkey Trot. My husband and brother-in-law are going to run the 5K. My sister, brother, sister-in-law and I, along with the kids (most of them in strollers) are walking the 2 mile "fun walk." Although I've seen the weather forecast for that day - not sure how fun it's going to be walking 2 miles in the freezing cold. But we'll just make sure we're dressed for the weather and I'll earn some activity points before the big meal!

How do you hold yourself accountable?

I was talking to a friend this morning and that is what she asked me. We were talking about WW online, which is the program I'm using to lose weight right now. My answer was "I just do." She said that she would probably cheat. I told her if I had tried this six months ago, I may have failed. I was not ready then... I was ready on September 25th when I started. If I cheated, I would only be cheating myself. I have been being honest with myself and tracking all of my points... even when I ate 61 points in one day.

I have so far to go. But I am proud of the fact that I weigh less now than I have in at least two years. And 15 pounds from now, I'll be less than I've been in at least four and a half years.

I have noticed things in my head changing. I have been doing far less eating without thinking. There were donut holes when I was today. I did not eat any. There was coffee cake where I was yesterday. Again, none for me. Two months ago, I would have chowed down without even thinking twice about it.

I didn't get an official work out done yesterday during preschool. Instead, I went Christmas shopping. But that was a lot of walking. I walked over 7,000 steps yesterday - which is about what is on my pedometer on the days where I walk for 30 minutes.

Yikes... not the best choice!

I went to Pei Wei for dinner this evening. I just looked online for their nutritional info (which you can find at www.peiwei.com. Click "menu", then "nutritional information"). I had the Mongolian Beef for dinner, which, evidently, was not the best choice. Especially since I ate the whole thing. And it's supposed to be 2 servings. Whoops. That's 20 points. Good thing I hadn't had much to eat today - and I exercised, which gave me a few activity points. Yikes. Just shows you how bad things can go if you don't plan them. I should have checked the site BEFORE I went to eat there! I'll know better next time! I really should have had that salad I thought about - that would have only been 13 points for the whole thing.

So I still went over today (by 7 points) and, again, I didn't eat any fruits or vegetables. I really need to get my shit together and start eating the 4-5 recommended fruits and veggies I'm supposed to eat every day. That's something I'll start working on tomorrow!

Binging through the weekend

First a success... I did keep track of my points this weekend - and I stayed within my allotment. That said, I did not eat well. I did not have a single fruit or veggie on Sunday and the only one on Saturday was the veggies in the soup I had for lunch. I have been doing quite well staying on plan and have been getting good results. I can't quite understand how though because I'm not eating the way I should be and I know it.

Last night, I was craving cereal. I LOVE cereal. Not good for you cereal, but cereal like Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms. I decided to have a big bowl of Captain Crunch w/ Crunch Berries. I have only had one other bowl since I started WW. And when I have a bowl of cereal, it's not the 3/4 cup serving size recommended on the box. It's a big bowl - probably 2 - 2-1/2 cups of cereal. I did have the points to use, though, so it wasn't all bad. It's good to think about the fact I've only had two bowls of cereal in the past seven weeks... this used to be a daily occurrence (sometimes more than once a day!).

It's been quite cold here (they're calling for some snow tonight), so I'm having a hard time getting my walking in. I don't want to take my three year old out in the stroller (she'd complain the whole time anyway) and my husband is getting home well after dark from work. We have a gym in our neighborhood and I have used it twice in the past five days. I'm hoping to motivate myself to go during preschool time so I can at least get in two walks a week.

Recipe - Chicken Apple Chili

I can't remember which blog I found the recipe for Creamy Chicken Apple Chili, but I made it last night and it was delicious!

I modified it a bit (I used way less butter and oil than the recipe called for). I used chicken breasts and cooked them in the crock pot all day and shredded them (so no olive oil for that). I only used 1 tbsp of olive oil for the onion and apples. I used 2 tbsp of butter instead of 4. I also only used one can of cannelini beans instead of 2 (only because that's what I had in the pantry). When I added it all up, it was only 5 points for a one cup serving.

Even my kids liked it. So that's a success. And there's some left over, so I'm going to have some for lunch.

If you are the one that originally posted the recipe - thank you! Leave me a comment and I'll give you the kudos you deserve!

Friday Weigh-In

Remarkably, I lost 2.2 pounds this week. This after my 61 point binge last Friday. Thank you for the kind comments by the way - they really helped me put things into perspective. I used 33 of my weekly points that day and am proud to say I didn't use any others during the rest of the week. I'm down 12.6 pounds since 9/25/08. My total loss is 17.6 since the beginning of August.

I had hoped to be a certain number by Christmas and that number is only 4.4 pounds away. I know that's totally doable - perhaps even by the end of this month. And then I'll have to think of a new goal. It would be really awesome if I could lose another 9.4 pounds by the end of the year - that will put me at 10% since I started Weight Watchers. I am going to work very hard to achieve that. But I also know if I don't do it by New Years, I will do it soon afterward.

Nutritional Information

Like a lot of people, I eat out way too much. We've been trying to limit it due to our budget, but sometimes it's so much easier to eat out. Restaurants have come so far when it comes to giving us nutritional information. It's so much easier now to look up information on the restaurant's web site and figure out my points.

For lunch today, I ate at Potbelly. Not only do they have nutritional information, it's all interactive on their web site. You can click on the different aspects of the sandwich you ate - it gives you all the information you need to figure out your points. To get to the nutritional info, click on "Our Food" and then "nutritional information." I had 1/2 of a turkey sandwich (4 points) and a cup of garden veggie soup (1 point).

For dinner tonight, we met some friends at Moe's. Yummy. I usually get a kid's meal (it's really enough food), which is what I did today. I had the Moo Moo Mr. Cow, which is their kid's burrito and it was 8 points. I could have reduced the points by having no cheese or tortilla, but I had the points to use today so I had it the way I like it. Their web site nutritional information is the same as Potbelly - all interactive. Here's the link that goes directly to their nutritional info. And it even has the info for desserts, so I knew the cookie was "only" 4 points and since I had points to use, I ate it and it was delicious!

Ruby

Did you catch this new show on the Style Network last night? It's about a woman named Ruby that lives in Savannah, Georgia and weighs close to 500 pounds. She's beautiful, friendly and funny and I really liked her. I hope that she succeeds in her journey to get healthy. I've already set my dvr for next week.

61 Points

Yesterday I ate like I would have before I joined Weight Watchers. I had my normal breakfast, had a sandwich for lunch (an 11 point sandwich) and pizza and wine for dinner. When I added up the points I ate, the total was 61 points. SIXTY-ONE Freaking Points. Holy Moly. It's no wonder I've gained 14 pounds in 18 months (and more than 30 pounds in about 3-1/2 years... yikes, that's painful to write!).

Weigh-In Friday

I was very pleased this morning to see that I lost 1.8 pounds this week. My total WW loss is 10.2 since September 25 - six weeks ago. That brings my total loss since August to 16 pounds. I have a personal goal to lose 6 more pounds by the end of the year, which is completely doable.

Two years ago, during my yearly exam, I weighed one pound more than I do now. My doctor told me that I needed to lose some weight. I responded to that by gaining 15 pounds in about 18 months. Not good. But now I've lost those 15 pounds and will hopefully continue to lose.

My fat jeans are starting to get quite baggy. I tried on the size down (I have quite a collection of jeans in three or four different sizes) and I can get them up over my hips, but I cannot button them. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

I had bought two pairs of capris in the spring in a size lower than I wear - a little hopeful thinking, I believe. I don't like to try clothes on in the store, so I bought them and brought them home. Of course, they didn't fit AT ALL, but I kept them. Well, I put them on today and could button them. They don't look great - they are a little tight (my 3 year old asked me if I was wearing leggings). But they were on. I'm going to work towards them looking great in the spring. Or maybe they'll be way too big.

Something I Never Thought I'd Do

I've been craving a plain Hershey's bar since Halloween. I was going through my daughter's candy yesterday, sorting and getting rid of stuff, and I came across a Hershey's bar. Yum. I set it aside to eat today. I just opened it. It's NOT a plain Hershey's bar. It's white chocolate... if I'd looked closer, I would have seen that it says "Cookies'n'Creme". Shucks. Two months ago, I would have said "Oh well" and eaten it anyway. Not now. White chocolate is so not worth the points to me.

That's progress! Baby steps, right?

An idea from another blogger

Now that I'm a blogger, I spend a lot of time (way more than I should!) checking out other blogs. I came across this post on this blog about creating a list of things that you want to do in a certain amount of time. This blogger chose 65 things in 365 days. The person that inspired her made a list of 101 things she wants to do in 1001 days. I'm really going to think about things and come up with my list. I'm not sure how many things or how many days... although I'm thinking about having my birthday be the deadline. Stay tuned...

I've had a pretty good week, I think. We'll see what the scale says tomorrow. I cheated a bit and stood on the scale this morning and was pleased with the number so I'm hoping for a good result. Which would be amazing considering the weekend I had with Halloween and a party (and on both days I consumed quite a bit of beer). But I have been very honest with myself and kept track of my points. I've also been trying very hard to drink lots of water. And I even took a walk today (with my whiney three old) when I really did not want to.

I'll check in tomorrow with my weigh-in result.

GO VOTE!!!

I don't care who has your vote, but please go do your American duty and vote. I'm happy to say that I've voted in every election since I was 18. This will be the fifth Presidential election that I'm voting in. So far, I'm 2 for 2. This year is the tie breaker.

A New Day

It's been nearly a year since I started this blog with this post. A year. If I had actually been dedicated back then, I could have lost 50 or more pounds by now. But I spent the eight or so months after that post making excuses for why I didn't need to change my ways.

But now I'm dedicated to seeing this journey through. I will admit that I did not have the best weekend as far as eating. It was hard. We had Halloween on Friday and a party on Saturday. My kids stayed with my parents and my mom sent home the cookies they had frosted. And I've been eating the candy and the cookies. But I'm also counting my points. Granted I've gone over for the past two days, but that just means I need to be careful for the rest of the week. In the past, my "diet" probably would have been over by now. I would tell myself that I had blown it already, so why not forget about it?

But not this time. I will not do that to myself again. Today is a new day.