Monday, February 23, 2009

Week #2 Results In!

And I'm down another 4 pounds! So, in 2 weeks, I've dropped 11 pounds with Weight Watchers! I am excited about this because I didn't really feel like I lost weight, not like last week. AND I know that my 7 pound loss was not likely to be repeated. And, of course, because I had that ice cream last night. Even though I stayed within my weekly points by a comfortable margin, I was worried that the ice cream would somehow expand and make me gain weight.

My 11 pound loss brings me to my 1st weight loss goal - losing 5% of my weight. On my plan, this means that my points get adjusted. WW took 2 daily points away from me, but I don't think they changed my weekly points. I'm a little worried, but I did manage to go under my daily points at least once during the past two weeks. And I do have that 35 point security blanket.

So now it's on to week 3!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Drumroll, please!

Sorry I haven't written in a while. Life keeps getting in the way. My first week of the diet is over and I lost SEVEN POUNDS! YAY me! The week wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. My daily points allowance let me eat a decent amount - of the right food. And the weekly points allowance absorbed my mistakes and my overages. I didn't even eat all of my weekly point allowance!

I have had to start eating better. But that's not a bad thing, is it? More veggies, more fruit and actually THINKING about what I'm eating instead of just eating. The hunger between meals is pretty much gone, which is wonderful, since I thought I'd be starving myself.

Special Occasions
We went out to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse to celebrate my daughter's acceptance into a high school magnet program. I looked up points before we left and did pretty well. I stuck with the chicken and shrimp hibachi. It was great but I think the restaurant's portions were double WW's portions. But even accounting for that, I stayed within my points.

Friday night, my DH and I went out to the local pizza place for dinner. I looked up the points for pizza and figured I couldn't afford to eat as much pizza as I wanted. What is a "small" slice of pizza anyway? So, I ordered a gyro (no fries). I looked it up when I came home and it was a whopping 15 points. I went over my daily points, but I had more than enough weekly points to take care of it.
It was worth it though. Yum.

Concession Stands
Yesterday was not such a good day. My son had a wrestling tournament which lasted ALL DAY. Since this is my 1st tournament, I wasn't prepared for the amount of time it would take. We were at the mercy of the concession stand for food. Pizza or hot dogs. Pizza and hot dogs. Who knew that a small plain hot dog would be 8 points? I figured a piece of pizza would cost me some, but the hot dog blindsided me.

I did drink two Cokes that I ordinarily wouldn't have. I usually drink diet soda. I had the first one because I was feeling a little strange, a little off, because it was such a long time since breakfast. I also wanted to get some sugar and caffeine into my son so he could bring that energy to his wrestling. He didn't have any of my 1st Coke, but he did have a little of my 2nd. The wrestling tournament concession stand food cost me 18 points. By the way, my son came in fourth in his weight class!

Chinese food
After the wrestling tournament, I decided my daughter and I deserved a treat (my son went to a friend's house for an sleepover). We went to the local Chinese "sushi bistro". Again, I was feeling a little "off", probably from screaming so much, so I ordered hot and sour soup, which I ordinarily wouldn't. My "usual" order would be a California roll, steamed dumplings and an entree of General Tso's or Orange Chicken. Instead of ordering a "main course", I settled for the roll and the dumplings. We ordered an extra serving of dumplings for my husband, but he had come home and left for a weekend trip before we got home with the food. So my daughter and I split his dumplings.

This was an expensive meal, points-wise. It "cost" 22 points, when my daily allowance is 28. Add it to the concession stand nightmare and my total for yesterday was a whopping 46 points. I know, YIKES! I went well into the weekly points allowance for that, but I still have 15 left over and they expire tonight.

Tonight
Tonight we go to a Scouting banquet. I'm bringing a Stouffer's Lasagna. I think I'm going to need those 15 points!




Sunday, February 15, 2009

McDonald's and My Mother-in-Law

I wanted to post yesterday, but I am lame. I'm at my mother-in-law's (MIL) house and didn't set up my laptop until this morning. My father-in-law was on his computer all yesterday, the selfish bastard. I'm joking about FIL and MIL, they are the most generous, most selfless people I have ever met.

McDonald's
I started out yesterday being good. My DS8 had a wrestling match in the morning, so I was going to get breakfast from Mickey D's. I checked on WW's site for points values for an Egg McMuffin and ordered that, while DD13 ordered a Sausage McGriddle meal. An Egg McMuffin is 7 points.

I haven't yet learned to check out my food before leaving the drive-through at this Mickey D's because I really don't have to at any other Mickey D's I've been to. You order something and they give it to you. Simple, right? It didn't work that way yesterday. I ordered my Egg McMuffin and got an egg and cheese bagel. Hmmm.

Of course, we were running late to the wrestling match so returning and getting what we ordered wasn't an option. So, I ate the bagel and looked up the points when I got home. WW doesn't have it. Bagels apparently aren't in McDonald's list of "core" menu items and they don't list the nutritional information on their website. So I just counted it as the same as the Egg McMuffin. Hey, I tried!

Mother-in-Law
I brought my kids up to see my MIL this weekend and I made the mistake of telling her that I've started Weight Watchers. MIL is very supportive. Very supportive. Unfortunately, MIL has been on every single diet known to man and womankind, including WW. She has memorized the calories of just about everything. And she has memorized just about every diet.

MIL did WW in the 70s. She was talking about what you could eat and what you couldn't eat and saving your milk or fat portion up and using it on something else and being supposed to eat 5 fish dishes per week. The points system is a HUGE improvement over that.

I told her about the points system and how I can eat whatever I want as long as I don't go over my points for the day and/or week. She doesn't quite get it. She asked me if I was allowed 4 ounces of shrimp for lunch. I just went along with it. It's easier.

So, so far at 5:20 pm, I've only used up 7 of my points for the day. I'm HUNGRY!!! AND I have 19 weekly points that will expire tonight. That's 40 whole points!! I'm afraid I'm going to go on a rampage tonight.

This is a house of good food. A 2 second peek into the fridge showed me a plate of lasagna (6 points) and a baggie with fried chicken (7 points). Plus, she told me that she has Girl Scout cookies (a billion points, if I eat my fill). I need to plan my attack.

Dinner tonight is going to be Chinese food. I've chosen scallops with vegetables (7 points) and I'll have some of her homemade wonton soup (4 points), which is frozen dumplings with chicken broth.

Then I'll have 29 points to spend whichever way I wish!!!

Friday, February 13, 2009

In the Beginning . . .

I'm fat. Obese. I've known this for a while. I've also known for a while that I really ought to do something about it. It wasn't easy to make the commitment to give up my big bowl of ice cream every night habit so I procrastinated.

But the New Year brought new determination and this past Sunday, I signed up for Weight Watchers. Our health plan, Kaiser-Tormente (my son made this up when he was five), offers a discount for WW.

I signed up for a year. Why? I'm asking myself that question right now. But the other option was to sign up for three months. I need to lose WAY more weight than can be safely lost in three months.

I'm glad I picked the one year plan. I have a definite end date for my diet. If I would have picked the three month plan, I would have had to renew and renew and renew. There would be no set end date. I would have gotten discouraged and quit. I might have already quit. But now I can say to myself, "It's only a year. I can do this for a year." And I know I can.

I picked Weight Watchers because it works. That and the health insurance discount. I did lose 35 pounds with eDiets and might have done that again, but I also wanted something new. And I like the points system. It makes things easier. I like the idea that I can eat what I want, as long as it fits into my points allowance for the day or for the week.

So the next question is - why blog about it? To keep me honest, to look for support and motivation, to use as an outlet for frustration. The question is - can I keep up the diet for a year, and can I keep up the blog for a year?