I found freedom and grace in Weight Watchers

I rejoined Weight Watchers.. again.

The last month or so I have really been battling a head game and I while I needed the consistency and accountability of tracking my food, what I saw yesterday is that I needed the freedom and grace more.

I know. FREEDOM and GRACE while tracking food??? 

Yep.

Here is why. When I'm just doing my thing and going with the flow, unless I am hard core shake in the morning, and totally healthy choices for lunch and dinner, in my mind, I have failed on the food choices that day. I start beating myself up over the cookie(s) that I ate or the whatever and I immediately go into a negative head space.

With Weight Watchers, I don't do that. I track my food and at the end of the day when I sit down with my glass of Pinot Grigio (4 points) I enjoy it.

So yes, I am back on the Weight Watchers wagon. I really like the updated app and options. I totally think that the WW mindset would be great for those that want to gain weight as well as for those that want to lose/maintain weight. Tracking food can be overwhelming and for people like me with obsessive personalities, counting calories can be addictive and push us into a negative head space as we use calories as a means of control. not good.

Here is a screenshot from my dashboard. With the latest WW update I get more points each day even though I weigh the same that I did in January when I deleted the app from my phone! I like more points. :) 

I also really like the updated activity log. I am a very active person and I never felt like the old activity counter truly recorded my daily life. But for example yesterday, I shoveled and hauled dirt around the pool for a long time. I recorded 65 minutes of hard labor and earned 16 points for my efforts. I like that!  I set my goal to earn 55 FitPoints each week. I figure that is a very doable goal for me. Even with a stress fracture on my left foot and no running. (bummer, but soon I hope!)

And there you have it. 

And in case you were wondering, yes I am still using Isagenix products. The IsaLean Shake is 7 points and that is a lot for me for breakfast, but totally worth it as I feel good and stay full during the morning. In fact, if I wanted to do Isagenix hardcore with Weight Watchers, I totally could as a shake for breakfast and lunch with healthy snacks during the day would leave me with more than enough points to have a quality evening meal. 

So there you have it. 

I'll keep you posted on the journey. For now, I'm going to go enjoy my cup of coffee with my 2point creamer. Yes, that is a splurge I will take every time!

Oh, and want to know what my goal is? To drop my body fat percentage by 7%. yep. Sounds crazy doesn't it.  But, my body fat percentage is too high. yuck. And it lives on my abdomen, thighs and the underside of my arms.  A 7% drop won't even put me into the "fitness" category for body fat.. it will just be in the middle of the acceptable range! OUCH! 

In order to lose the body fat I know that I will lose some on the scale too, but that isn't my motivation this time around. I'm not worried about what the scale says, nor am I interested in dropping clothes sizes. I really like my size 6. I just want to be healthy.

Thanks for joining me on this path.

Learning to be Brave

I've never considered myself to be a scaredy-cat. 

Sure, I don't like scary movies, cause with my active imagination it doesn't take much to put myself in the movie in my head and then there is no sleep for me!

But I've never been afraid of a challenge, be it physical or mental.

But something about my body image makes me a self-conscious and ready to hide.  And for the majority of my life, I have felt this way. Even as a high school student and a physically fit and active college theatre major! I've had highs, were I felt good and was willing to wear something more revealing, but for the majority of my life, I have felt the need to cover and hide.

I am learning to overcome that. I am learning to be brave. to risk ridicule and scorn.

I am learning that my daughters need me to show that I am confident in who I am. That I am brave and willing to try new things. That I am happy in the skin God gave me.

So I did something CRAZY this week.

I wore a two piece swimsuit to the community pool. 

It was hard. I struggled mentally the entire time. But my little girls were so fun. When I walked out with the two piece on, Lexi said "oh mama, you look great!" and Kylie was so excited and jabbered on about my swimsuit.  So I did it.

Here we are at the pool. It was just a Kylie and me day.

So... ta da.

Here I am.

In a two piece no less.

I have to say, when I look at this picture, I feel proud. 

I can see every workout and every struggle in those arms and in the smaller waistline. 

It's not easy.

And in case you or I forgot... 

 Wow.

And I'm not finished. I am a work in progress.

Eat to Live, My 6 week recap and the OFFICIAL RESULTS

My 6 week Eat to Live trial run is complete. It should have been complete last Monday, but since I basically took the week of Maddie's birthday off, I added a week to the complete the full six week challenge.

And here are the official results.

I lost 10.5 pounds 

(based on today's weigh-in... which is 1.5 pounds up from Wednesday.. Wednesdays are my light days.. so really, we could say that I lost 12 pounds.)

But the eye-popping changes are:

• Waist -4 inches
• Hips -3 inches
• Chest - 2 inches
• Right Thigh -6.25 inches
• Left Thigh -6 inches
• Right Bicep -1.25 inches
• Left Bicep -1.25 inches
• Shoulder -.75 inch
• Right Calf -1.5 inches
• Left Calf -2 inches

That's a total of 28 inches GoNe since April 6th.

AMAZING!!

Did you read that? 

I LOST TWENTY-EIGHT INCHES in 6 weeks.

Even better, I feel great and am committed to this lifestyle! 

Want to learn more about Eat to Live? Check out Dr. Furhman's website.

What? These pants are tooo big!!

When I started this journey, I knew that I wanted to feel better, but I really wasn't expecting to LOOK different, or to lose enough weight and inches that my clothes would be too big.

But here I am..

Here is my week 5 midweek report.

I am 4 pounds from weighing what I weighed when I went to the doctor for my first OB visit with Maddie, SIXTEEN YEARS AGO! 

Yeah. 

And, my size 6 pants are HUGE on me. 

I never imagined that I would need a smaller size than 6, so over the last year I have restocked my wardrobe a few pieces at a time.  All of my pants are too big now.  Time to buy size 4. 

WHAT? 

That is CRAZY talk.

Anyone want to go shopping? :)

I'm not even dreading swimsuit season this year!

Eat to Live. Day 17 Update... you are not going to believe it

I sound like an infomercial. 

Too bad I'm not being paid for my results!!

Day 17 of Eat to Live.

Here I am this morning.

(Sidenote: I'd like to go on record for saying that I don't have toothpaste on my chin. 

That's a weird spot in the picture? No clue, but I don't really have two white spots on my face... just sayin.)

Okay for the results....so far!

Day 17: 

Pounds lost: 9!!!!! 

Yes, that is NINE pounds in 17 days!! 

Inches lost: 10.5!!!

Yes, that is 10.5 inches from my thighs, waist and hips..

I'm not even keeping up with the inches from other areas right now!

And my size 6 pants are too big. 

Oh my gravy. I am pumped.

I'm telling you, this veggie, fruit and bean lifestyle works. It is easier and easier to pass up the breads, dairy and fried foods. And I'm not even giving up everything.. I have my coffee (with non-dairy peppermint mocha creamer) every morning and a glass of white wine most evenings.

I truly can't get over how my body has responded to cutting out all of the junk. I eat fresh fruits and veggies for meals (raw and cooked). I eat a little meat, some fish, at least one good serving of any variety of bean every day and occasionally I have a cookie or something like that. 

In fact, we ate at Cotton Patch the other night. I had the Heart Healthy Salmon and Veggies. I ate one piece of cornbread with dinner and it was like eating a donut it was so sweet! Oh how my taste buds have changed.

Don't know how this will continue to play out, but right now, I AM ON FIRE! :)

Day 1.. Eat to Live

I read Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live book a couple of years ago after talking with one of my running buddies for months about her eating choices, her energy and her attitude. One of the things that Fuhrman states is that you have to be willing to NOT JUST give it a try for six weeks..but to make a commitment to the eating lifestyle. With that, I said, no thanks.

Well, periodically something would come up and I would ask the friend her take on a food choice or health issue. She always has a great common sense approach and is willing to give me lots of advice knowing that in the end, I'm only going to do probably 10% of her suggestions.. cause really, I don't want to have to work too hard at this healthy lifestyle approach!

Spring forward a year or so and one of my other running buddies and her husband decided to tackle the six week challenge and they have been transformed. My friend has lost a over 10 pounds and at least that many inches (she wasn't overweight to begin with.. just "healthy" like me) in six weeks. More than that, she comments about how good she feels.  All I know is that since she starting eating like this, she has become increasingly fast on our morning runs!

Anyway, the last year I have really struggled with the 10 pounds that I have gained back from my original goal weight in 2012. I lose them, I gain them.. back and forth, over and over again.  Besides the fact that I really wanted to lose another 8 pounds as that was my dream weight goal...

So, all that to say, I borrowed the book again and reread it and decided to just take the plunge and go for it!  The hardcore 6 weeks plan (in my opinion) is really more for the morbidly obese as that is where his case studies fit.  But I am going to give it my best effort.

What am I eating? Well.. no dairy, no animal products, no sugar. LOTS and lots of raw vegetables (1 pound a day is the goal), LOTS and lots of cooked vegetables (another pound goal), four servings of fruit, a cup of beans and a small serving of oil.

Specifically...what did I eat today?

Well...here is my day:

• Got up and ran 4 miles at 5am
• Had a strawberry, banana, peach smoothie with 1/2 cup almond milk and a scoop of Rockin Wellness for breakfast. I also had a cup of coffee with a little bit of non-dairy creamer and some cinnamon in it. (yes, that is cheating.. but let me refer you to page 306.. if a cup of coffee makes me able to stick to the eating, then he says have the cup of coffee!) My goal is to eradicate the non-dairy creamer soon...
• For lunch I had a huge salad with the normal salad veggies plus black beans, a handful of frozen corn and a tablespoon or so of salsa. No dressing. I also had some snap peas, carrots and celery that I dipped in roasted pepper hummus. I had a peach and a pear for dessert/snack during the rest of the school day.
• For dinner, I had a medium baked potato topped with pico de gallo and grilled onions. I ate that with a side of roasted brussel sprouts. I had some peach for desert along with and 4 Wasabi almonds.

And where does that leave me? Well, it's 8:40pm and I'm not hungry.. I had decided that I was going to allow myself to have a glass of wine that was 1/2 cut with water.  But I'm full.

Originally, I wasn't going to broadcast my Eat to Live journey, but it's such a departure from anything else I've ever done foodwise, I figure why not!

And for all of you Weight Watcher's people out there.. this is tough on my mental state!  I went ahead and logged all of my food today, just to see what it would say. Well, with every morsel accounted for, I used 12 points for food and I earned 8 activity points. Those remaining 14 points are playing with my mind.. I could eat an entire candy bar and still not use any of my weekly extras!

Well, I'll keep you posted. I've already packed my lunch tomorrow (that is more than 1/2 the battle for me!). Can't wait to see if I drop any of my middle, my mommy pouch.. more than that, I am proud of the fact that I ate all of those veggies today! 

Changing the way I respond

I rejoined Weight Watchers yesterday. I did pretty well. I worked out, ate healthy foods and played with my little girls. I used all of my daily allowance, 1 weekly point and banked my exercise points.

Good thing!

This morning Maddie, at almost 15 years old, had tubes put in her ears. For the first time. Crazy stuff. We left the house at 4:45am in order to be at the hospital at 6am for check in.

before being called back to pre-op. it was EARLY!

Then we waited and the nurses did paperwork and we waited and finally at 8am they took her back to surgery.

We were at Ihop (Maddie's choice) at 9:30am.

It is possible to make healthy food choices at Ihop. I didn't.

Something about my kid being put under general anesthesia for at least the 9th time in her 14 years made me regress to my crappy food choices.

I was completely aware that I was doing it.. but I did it anyway.

I ordered the Swedish crepes.

I enjoyed the first one. I ate the second one. I stopped one bite in on the third one.

That was 12 Weight Watcher points. Ouch.

At least I only ate 1/2 of the order!! oh. my.

We got home and got Maddie to bed and I sewed some "bum warmers" (a fleece wrap thing you tie around your waist..) for cold weather running. I felt better.

I realize that so many of my eating choices over the last 14 years have been in response to Maddie's health. It's very easy to say "the heck with it, I want french fries or donuts.. I deserve it.. don't you know about my child's struggle." My response has to change. For the most part, it has changed.

This year I am committing myself to making better food choices 80% of the day.

I am looking forward to hitting my goal weight with Weight Watchers. There is just something about those points and that accountability that I need. My extreme, you have to be kidding me goal is 20 pounds. My realistic finish this journey off well goal is 12 pounds.

I'll keep you posted.

Let the measurements do the talking!

So long scale, you are a finicky friend. You are wishy washy and high maintenance. Some mornings you are my best friend and give me all kinds of love. But the next morning you spew hatred at me.

 

So see ya. I'll still check in with you occasionally, but our relationship is not healthy. I'm going to have to move on.  My new friend is a tape measure. It doesn't need me to call it every morning and every night. Infact, our friendship is best if I only check in once a month or so!

 

 

Yes, my bloggy friends, I am finally forcing myself to move beyond the scale.

Why? Becuase the 2-4 pound swing drives me CRAZY.  Perfect example was yesterday. I was at the gym at 4:30am. I biked for 5 miles, I ran for 3 miles and then lifted weights for 30 minutes. I ate healthy food, worked, and then swam 600 meters. I ate a healthy (smaller portion) dinner and got a good amount of sleep.

I weighed another 1/2 pound heavier this morning. GRR!

However, I remembered that a while back I took some measurements because I was frustrated with the weight loss, but I knew I was doing better physically.

I pulled up my measurement note from January 13, 2014 and retook my measurements!

So while the scale has gone up and down, my overall size has gone down.

Thigh: -1 inch
Hips: - 1.5 inch
Waist: -2 inches
Bust: -1 inch

That is progress!! I'm so glad I did the measurements! I needed that pick me up!

The Payoff

There are mornings when I really don't want to get up
before 5 am to run in the dark.

There are evenings when really all I want to do is eat
ice cream and sit on the couch.

But most of the time I am able to overcome those feelings and keep on trucking with my healthy lifestyle.

And I am so glad I am.

Cause running and races have become a normal part of our life, so much so that the girls have started asking for races too!

A couple of weeks ago was the Fuel Up To Play Fun Run.

Lexi and Kylie were so excited to race.

The night before the race, they spent the night with my parents along with their cousin Aspen and stayed up way too late, but Lexi and Aspen were still ready to run. Kylie... not so much.

Doug and I got there right before the race and found out that it was a 2 mile race, not the 1 mile that I thought. Oops! :)

I love this picture of Lexi. She is such a natural runner!

As Kylie came around the bend at about 1/2 mile, she bailed. 

And here are Lexi and Aspen at the end of the race. They did great!

Part of the excitement about the race was that the participants would receive a pedometer. Lexi was pumped. 3528 for 2 miles.. would have thought she'd get credit for more, but she was happy!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Maddie is running her first 5K! And I'm not going to be there! :( But I am thrilled that she is running it with her cousin! Then on Saturday the little girls are doing another 1 mile race and Doug and I are doing a 5k. It's the same race as one we did last year. Fun... I have a time to beat!

So Long Weight Watchers, It's been fun.

I've been renewing my membership to Weight Watchers and their Active Link for months now... not because I was tracking food, but because I wanted to see how many activity points I could earn while training for a marathon.

Well, now I know. And so do you! 

Do you see that? From August 2 to November 2 I earned 827 points! And don't forget, I had bronchitis TWICE during that time!

Wow!!

So what's next? 

Well... I'm going to try to lose another 15 pounds before April 5th. I'd like to get rid of the love handles and the need for a sports bra for my HIPS!! Man, pictures from races don't lie!

So it's soo long Weight Watchers. Since May 2012 you have become a dear friend, but I think that I can take it from here. And if not, I can always renew my membership!

30 Day Fitness Challenge.. You with Me?

One of the coolest things about Facebook is the random (and really not interesting) things about your life are archived for you to find later. Sorry facebook friends.. I use status updates for this reason a lot!
Anyhoo. As you all are more than aware, I am a year into reclaiming my life and as I sit here tonight eating McDonald's, I am feeling the need to put a new challenge in front of me. Yes, feel free to groan. In the last year I have lost close to 40 pounds, have run a couple of 1/2 marathons and have become stronger. And while yes, I am training to run the Dallas Marathon, running has become fun and social and not as challenging. I need to change that. 
So here is what I am doing. First, I am going back and looking at what I was doing last summer and am going to give myself a FITNESS TEST tomorrow morning. Then, over the next 30 days I am going to bust it and see where I stand. I know my running is way, way better, but can I still do the deck of cards workout? Probably not. I’m thinking I’ve let things slide! Then at the end of 30 days I'm going to do the Fitness test again!

A quick recap from last summer… these are my facebook posts!!
July 26: Warning: when the instructor says "it's just 10 moves today and then we go home..." don't get excited. What she didn't say was that it was 10 moves with 100 reps of each plus "bonus" running laps between each exercise! Let it be known, I did EVERY single REP. Ouch!
July 27: Accomplishment for the day.. Doing better headstands than my children!

August 7: Who is this new me? A couple of months ago I would have used my sore muscles from yesterday's workout as an excuse to not do anything for a week. Today, I did an hour of bootcamp followed by a 2.5 mile run! And guess what, I feel better now than when I got up this morning!

September 10: Deck of Cards workout = 111 reverse leg lowers with crunch, 111 pushups, 111 tuck jumps, 111 jump squats, 200 squats, 200 jumping jacks and 40 burpees for grins.

August 16: Best way to start day 2 of inservice? Doing more than 100 burpees. oh yeah.

August 25: I RAN 5.04 miles this morning at an average pace of 10:54!! AWESOME!!!
September 30: 4 months ago I decided to take back control of my life. In doing so, I started running. On June 1st I posted a 2.46 mile jog with an average pace of 14 minutes. Today, September 30th, I just finished an easy 4 mile run with a pace of 9:50. Yep. I'm proud of myself!!



I have to say, I miss that excitement.
I ran 12 miles on Sunday and guess what, it wasn’t a big deal. 

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!

12 miles! And it was hohum. Crazy stuff.

So tomorrow at 5am… I am doing the Deck of Cards Workout. (Minus the deck of cards, because when it’s just me, the drama of flipping the card and moaning gets lost!) Anyone want to join me…

What’s my game plan?

• 100 reverse leg lowers with crunch
• 100 pushups
• 100 tuck jumps
• 100 jump squats
• 200 squats
• 200 jumping jacks
• 20 burpess

I’m going to do them in sets of 10 and (20’s for squats and jumping jacks and 2 burpees) and then jog for .25 miles then do another set. Will I make it through 10 rounds? Probably not. But I have to start somewhere. And it’s not like I’ve been a total slacker, I put in two workouts today!

Should you want to join my fitness challenge meet me at 5am. Text me for more info!

It's been quite a year!

It was a year ago that I decided I had to change my life. Don't know why Memorial Day was the day, but it was!  And what a year of change it has been! I didn't change the big things, like husband or family... just the everyday choices that made for an overweight and unhealthy me.

So, let's recap.

My first weigh-in for Weight Watchers had me at 173. ouch. I weighed on the Tuesday after Memorial Day. I did so purposely because I knew that weighing in on Monday mornings would be difficult after the weekend. Loosing the weight was going to be hard enough, I didn't the need emotional ups and downs of a Monday morning ouch!

Here is a picture right before I started on the new me.

 

Looking at that picture makes my heart hurt. I'm so glad I did something. In the the first three weeks I lost 11 pounds.  The below picture is me at the one month mark. I started running and even exercised while at the scrapbook retreat. But oh these pictures are not kind.

 

Sometimes we need to see the brutal reality we have created for ourselves.

 

Over the next couple of months as the weight came off and I exercised more, a new me began to emerge.

 

 

And then in August, I got up the nerve to start running with some ladies. This was huge! The idea that I could run with others.. crazy! This changed my world. I went from running 3 or 4 miles tops to knowing that I could keep a decent pace and run more miles. Awesome!!

So I decided to run a 10k. I hadn't even run a 5k in 15 years, but heck, I've never let things like that get in my way! And I did it and found out through the process that I love running and love races!

From October 20th to this past weekend I ran nine races. Five 5ks, one 10k, two half marathons and one adventure race!

 

 

And there you have it. I met my original Weight Watcher goal in November and got as low as 136 on December 11th. Then the holidays hit and the winter blahs and then the crazy spring..Today I am at 142. I'd really like to get to 135, but I'm not putting much pressure on myself as summer is about here and I get to start water aerobics!!

 

I think what I have been most amazed at over this year is that while I have lost a lot of weight, I have dropped a lot of sizes. I never imagined that I would wear size 6 jeans and small shirts. So yeah, I'd like to loose a few more pounds, but really, that's more about my mental issues with the scale cause I sure am happy with the me that has been uncovered!

 

 

oh and I've started training for a marathon!

2012 vs 2013

Mother's Day 2012.



 

Mother's Day 2013

 

The 2012 picture isn't a great picture to begin with as it is a from a photo taken with my phone. But I must say, I like the 2013 me much better.

 

It says a lot that I didn't even blog these pictures last year.

 

I'm a work in progress, as we all are, but I am just more aware of it right now than I was this time last year.

The Donut Shop vs The Frozen Breakfast Sandwhich

Donuts. I love donuts. It's a horrible addiction I know. Donuts are the reason I carry 10 extra pounds around my middle. It's bad that I know this and yet I can't break the hold they have on me.  Worse, my girls feel the same way about donuts.

Why am I telling you about this addiction of mine? Because like any addiction, its not good for me, I know I should change the behavior, but I DON'T WANT TO!

Anyway...

Yesterday I was in the grocery store picking up a few items and was looking at the frozen breakfast sandwiches. I really like the spinach and egg sandwich. Even better its only 160 calories.

But alas, they didn't have any. And as I looked for other options, I was frustrated with the fact all of the rest were over 200 calories. I was about to walk away when I got a hold of myself and said (in my head, not out loud... at least I hope) are you CRAZY?? You don't want to eat a breakfast sandwich that is 250 calories, but you will eat a DONUT SHOP CINNAMON ROLL???

So, I looked at the options and decided to go with the croissant sandwich! Yup, a whole 280 calories. And it was good!



And there you have it. I made a good choice this morning. Will I make it tomorrow? I don't know. To be honest, probably not. I run on Tuesdays... 4 or 5 miles is 400+ calories burned.. that equals a donut in my book.

Yes, I'm an addict. Good thing I like to run!

Warning: IMPOSTOR Alert!

If you have read even one of my blog posts, you know that I am a nut case. So go with me on my nutso journey again this evening.  If you just happened upon my blog and this is your first post to read, well, thanks for stopping by. Beware, I am rather strange. :)

 

So...I haven't posted recently about my weight journey. Mainly, because I'm eating donuts for breakfast regularly and feel like an impostor. I made it to my original moderate goal weight and petered out.  I keep thinking that as soon as summer gets here I will get back into gear and start focusing on my love handles.  But... I really like donuts.

 

Now to my update on my self-image. To update you, I'm going to tell you about shopping for a new pair of jeans tonight.

 

So.. I go into a store and look around, try on a few, and am not impressed as I am not a teenager and really, really don't need skinny jeans that have a 1 inch zipper to wear to school to teach teenagers! So I leave and head to my default store these days. It happens to be Maurices, not because the clothes are that awesome, but the workers are! I love walking into a store and having a sales clerk ask what I need and then HELP me!! But I digress.

 

The sales clerk asked me my size. EEK!! This is where IMPOSTOR screams in my head. I say 6 or 8 in a question-y voice. I'm waiting for her to yell LIAR to me. I'm expecting her to go get a size 10 off the shelf. She brings me an 8 and they are too big. WHAT? Really? So I try on a size 5/6 and they fit and I'm buying those jeans. THOSE EXACT JEANS, cause any others might not fit.

 

And that's what is bothering me. I can't seem to get the overweight girl out of my head. She yells at me for trying on a 7/8. She calls me a liar when I buy and wear a 5/6. She laughs at me when I consider myself a runner. She won't even let me think of myself as a distance runner, even though I completed a 1/2 marathon just a couple of weeks ago. She tells me to not get used to this as it's "only a matter of time." That's why every time I try something on I'm shocked that I can still wear that size. Truly, it's hard to always fight yourself for a decent self-image.

 

So in order to quiet the overweight girl once and for all, I am setting goals and keeping them. 

 

1. I am going to buy a swimsuit that is cute this year. Then, I'm going to WEAR it!

2. I'm going to celebrate on May 28th my new me as that will be my one year anniversary of taking control of my health.

3. I'm going to start saying my size to sales clerks with confidence.

4. I am going to run a marathon this year. I'm training for the Fort Worth Marathon in November. This gives me plenty of time to train, but also keeps me motivated. Also as part of this, I plan on running a number of 5k, 10k, and a maybe a couple of 1/2 marathons as they come my way.

 

And there you have it. I'm going to conquer my poor self image!

My Top Ten Tips for Weight Watchers Success

Wow, this ended up being a super long post. SORRY!!

As most of you know by now, I am a whole-hearted Weight Watchers supporter. After having a number of conversations about how to do WW well with a number of friends and family members, my mom suggested that I do my top tips.. so here they are!!

(first let me recap... started ww on May 28th and hit goal weight on October 16th having lost 35 pounds. I am still working on losing a few more, but I am well within my target range!!)


TOP TEN TIPS FOR WEIGHT WATCHER SUCCESS

1. Understand how your points work. For most of my journey I had 26 daily points. Plus you get the weekly allotment of 49 points and then you can earn activity points. What I learned early and had to remind myself is that I needed to eat within my daily points for my meals and to use my allotment for my snacks and extras. I did my absolute best to not use activity points at all!! If I did, I was sure to not lose any weight that week. I didn't gain, but I didn't lose.

2.  Decide on what you are going to eat for dinner before you put that first bite of food in your mouth in the morning. When you have as few points as I had, eating a 10+ point breakfast was nuts. So I had to plan. If we were eating pasta for dinner, I new that a 5 point breakfast was going to be pushing my daily allotment, so I had better be super good for lunch. But on the flip side, if I knew that we were eating a low point dinner, I'd scatter my points throughout the day and provide some variety to my day!!

3. Eat breakfast. I never ate breakfast before Weight Watchers. I'd drink a cup of coffee and be on my way.. unless I stopped for a donut. But with WW, I decided to go with their recommendation (and every medical professionals) and eat breakfast.  Hungry Girl had a very timely post about egg mugs and so I tried it and ended up eating eggs for breakfast almost every morning!

http://www.hungry-girl.com/home

http://www.hungry-girl.com/newsletters/raw/1256 (egg mug recipes)

What worked best about the egg mugs was that it was a 2 point, yet filling breakfast. Add some coffee and creamer and I was still in the 5 point range. This allowed me to eat a smaller lunch because I wasn't starving!!

4. Exercise. The more you exercise the better. Any kind of exercise works. Walking, running, biking, swimming, sweeping, cleaning... if it gets you moving, it's earning you points!!

So, here is what I learned.. I'm competitive about everything, even earning activity points each week. During the summer, I would run and do water aerobics. Every week I would try to earn at least ONE more activity point than the week prior. And I really, really tried to not use any of them. I think the best thing about activity points is that it makes a relationship between food and activities. Now if I want a donut, I know that I am going to have to run for 40 minutes to earn the 6 points that I need to get the cost of that donut back. Many times I can ask myself if the donut is worth 40 minutes of running and this allows me to move on without the donut. Sometimes however, I say, yep it's worth it and I enjoy the treat. That's the great thing about Weight Watchers, I have the choice!!

5. Learn what the point range is for your favorite foods. For example... just because one Hawaiian roll is 2 points, 2 rolls are not 4 points. they are 5! Learn it and remember it. 5 points is a lot for bread. Personally, I lOVE Hawaiian rolls for sandwiches, but I found that the Hawaiian hot dog buns mentally felt like 2 rolls, but only cost me 3 points! A way better deal.

So, find a food that you like and play with the portion. You might find, like I did, that while you enjoyed eating potato straws, you enjoyed playing with the system just as much. For the record..

• 38 potato straws is 4 points.
•  28 (3/4 serving) is 3 points.
• 25 (2/3 serving) is 2 points.
• 19 (1/2 serving) is 2 points.
• 11 (1/3) is 1 point.
• 9 (1/4) is 1 point.

If you follow my logic and math.. you might, like me choose to eat either 25 straws at 2 points or 11 at 1 point. That's maximizing those points!!

6. Understand that some weeks you are not going to lose weight. The goal here is that you don't gain. If you have lost 3-4 weeks in a row, expect that the 4th or 5th week isn't going to be so hot. One of the cool things about Weight Watchers online are the reports. (I love charts and graphs.. you know that visual part of me again!  I may not remember the number, but put it in a color and I've got it!!) anyway.. the reports on Weight Watchers help you to see that you are losing and that you are going in the right direction!! So use those reports on the bummer weeks.

7. Figure out the restaurants that are easy to eat at! I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if you are on weight watchers you are probably like me and eat out a lot and don't necessarily eat grilled tilapia and broiled kale regularly.  If you do, you probably don't need my tips!

Okay, back to restaurants.  I have two favorite WW friendly restaurants in our small town. McDonalds and Quiznos. Yes, I know Subway is good too,  but you already know about Subway. 

Many people balk at McDonalds, but man, it is soo easy to eat healthy there! Shocking isn't it!!  My favorite meal is the Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad. It's 8 points and you get tortilla strips, cheese, black beans and corn!! They put a sauce on the chicken so you can eat it without the dressing and the salad tastes great, or you can put a LITTLE dressing on it and bump up the value a point.

Another option is the Filet O Fish sandwich WITHOUT the tarter sauce. But you get a little fried fish, a slice of cheese and a bun! I add ketchup so it's not too dry. Add apple slices and you are ready to eat for just 8 points.

That tarter sauce on there makes me go YUCK.. but really without the sauce the sandwich is pretty good!

For Quiznos..

My hands down favorite is the Harvest Chicken salad. Eaten WITHOUT the dressing, you don't need it! A small salad is 3 points!!

Another fav of mine is the Basil Pesto Chicken Flatbread. It's not as friendly on points, but worth the splurge sometimes. A small flatbread WITH cheese and dressing is 10 points. 

The biggest tip on restaurants is to ASK for the nutritional information!! I was absolutely horrified when one day we were eating at Cotten Patch and found out how many points their entrees have. There is a reason they make finding the nutritional information so hard to find!!

8. Use the weekly allotment for eating out and guilty pleasures! I like a glass of wine and a package of chocolate dream clusters at night. That is 8 points. That's what I used my weekly allotment on. This way I know that if I go over during the day, my guilty pleasure is cut.

9. Stick with it. Don't expect overnight success. If you have a bad week, start over and look past it. Just stick with it!!

10. Buy new clothes as you need them. Even if you need to purchase them at Goodwill or the consignment store! As I lost weight, I had to buy new clothes, but I still kept a lot of my tshirts and clothes that I keep on as I didn't want to buy "in-between" sizes. WHY DID I DO THAT? I should have CELEBRATED the "in-between"!! If you need more information on this, see my previous post about re-framing my mind!

And there you have it. My very long top tips for a successful weight loss journey! 

Did you notice the change? ... Do you notice change?

Do you notice change?

Do you notice new and different immediately or does it have to be pointed out to you?

I ask for a reason...

First for some fun... Did you notice my header change? It had been a while so I decided that it was time for a new header!! If you didn't notice, scroll back up and take a peak!

Second, I ask because I'm pretty observant and notice lots of details. I pick up on new hairstyles, lost pounds, new clothes and accessories, new seating arrangements, the trash can in a new place.... and on and on. It's the visual part of me I realize. That's why I was so good at the Memory Game as a child!!

And why I love putting puzzles together (as long as all of the pieces have a "home".. every piece placed on trays organized by color and picture..)

But I digress.

The reason I ask, is because I am having a hard time processing and remembering the "new" me. As one of my friends said, I need to reframe my mind.

It really is sad, but when I think of myself and look in the mirror, I still see an overweight mom who needs to lose 40 pounds and is out of shape. The other day I caught a glimpse of my legs in a window as I was going in the store and didn't realize they were mine until I got to the door and the rest of me was in the picture! Crazy!!

So to help me reframe my mind... I've gotten rid of all of my too big clothes. I gave the last of the shirts away last night. I think seeing myself in the same shirts was reinforcing in my mind that I still needed to lose the weight. I need to get a new visual picture embedded into my brain.

Part of this reframing is also in the way I view my "athleticism." I have never been an athlete. I now realize that I never really had a chance. As a junior-high student having never played youth league basketball, I was made to feel like I was inferior and not worth the effort by the coaches. I can't imagine that I would have been any good, but man, I was worth speaking too!

The problem was that my family moved to the small town where all kids played ball from before they could speak so everyone knew the fundamentals and the rules by 1st grade. I however, knew nothing. Therefore I was nothing. From that point on, my mental picture of ability to be any kind of athlete was as a failure. This was only reinforced when we started track. I was slow but had all kinds of endurance. I was assigned the mile in 7th grade and I think the 2 mile in 8th grade.??? But even then, I wasn't worth Coach Black's time.

Now here we are 25 years later and I am trying to reframe my mind. I am an athlete. By God, I ran 15 miles on Saturday, 9.5 today and will run 17 more this Saturday. But when I look in the mirror.. well you know...

That's why I'm trying to notice the changes in me. It's not easy to reframe what has been set for so long, but I am trying.

My Main Squeeze

Just in case you thought I was on this weight loss/excerise journey alone, I'm not.

 

My main squeeze, Doug joined me in the quest for good health the week after the picture below was taken. You can see why we needed to do something.

 

This week, he made his goal weight!! Yay Doug!! Doesn't he look great!!

Wow.Between the two of us we have lost 65 pounds since May 28th!

Yes, I am proud.

2012. The year of ME!

I've named 2012 as the year of ME. That sound very selfish, but it's not.  The reality of it is that I made myself a priority in 2012.  Instead of continuing to push me to the bottom of the priority list, I found that I could be on the list and that there would still be enough of me for the rest of the family.

The quick recap...

1. I started Weight Watchers on May 28th.
2. I spent the summer exercising. I learned that I love to run. I'm good at bootcamp and that water aerobics feels like more fun than work...until you get out of the pool.
3. I hit my goal weight of 140 on October 16th.
4. I ran my first 10k on October 27th with a time that was better than I dreamed possible.
5. I took 2nd place in my age group in a 5k Thanksgiving weekend. This truly opened my eyes to what could be possible.
6. I've started training for a marathon.
7. I've decided that 130 would be a better goal weight and I've been flirting with 135 for the last few weeks.
8. Over the holidays I've eaten way, way too much bad food. I'll be starting Weight Watchers again when school starts. It keeps me in check.
9. I ran 12 miles yesterday.
10. I like this me better.

Here Doug and I are celebrating our 14th Anniversary this week. Don't we look fabulous!!

14 years of adventure, fun and love

Today is my 14th anniversary. I truly can't believe 14 years have flown by!  We have done sooo much in these years.  I can't fathom what the next 14 will bring :)

 

Back in the early fall I thought about the upcoming anniversary and what I wanted to get for Doug. With all of my weight loss, I really wanted to do something that encompassed my new vitality and I kept thinking about my wedding dress.

 

My wedding dress symbolized all of the love and excitement and hope that we started our marriage with.  Over the years with kids and work and weight gain there was still a lot of love, but energy and excitement was lacking.

 

So, on Thanksgiving with my sister's and my brother-in-law we went and took pictures of me WEARING FOR REAL my wedding dress. We didn't have to pin it together in the back to make extra room and we didn't have to give me oxygen. I was super pumped!!

 

It took a little planning and I know that Doug caught a glimpse and wondered what the heck we were doing, but he didn't ask (thank you!).

 

Here are a few of the pictures.

 

When I saw the pictures, I decided to do something different with one. (you know, different for me.. not a scrapbook.) So I ordered one on metal. It is really cool.

 



It says:

14 years ago a

young bride married

her true love.

 

She would do it all again

now that she knows

 what true love really means.