Weigh in day- 1/30

Down 1.4 lbs. this week! Total for the year so far is 9.2 lbs and total since my journey that started in Jan. of 09 is exactly 30 pounds!

I "restarted" again at meetings after several months of being gone so I'm truly only tracking my weight loss since 1/1/10 to meet my goals. This week I hit my 5% target which means I've lost 5% of my body weight since 1/1/10. If I lose .8 lbs next week I will be down 10 pounds so far this year! I'm currently at 173 and my original goal was to get down to 160. I may reassess that the closer I get based on how I feel and think I look. Even so, that's only 13 pounds away!! I'm come SO far in a year and a month and I've ENJOYED my life while doing it. I could've lost weight MUCH faster by weeding out all the bad things I like to eat and do but in moderation, i'm still able to enjoy those things AND still lose weight! It's all about balance and I feel like i'm getting the hang of it all. It's not a chore to eat healthy and plan ahead of time, it's a lifestyle that seems to suit me well!

Here's to antoher week!!

The good, the bad, and the ugly! Weigh in Day 1/23

Well I told myself that I wasn't going to go weigh in today because I knew that i was going to be heading out to Joe T Garcia's last night with a group of friends. I LOVE that place but there's nothing "good" to eat there as they only serve 2 items. In addition to that, I LOVE their margaritas which are extremely high in points. So all week I had the mindset of going there, enjoying myself within moderation but not weighing in because I was certain I would show a gain due to water retention from the margs.

Well I did, I went ahead and went to the meeting this morning anyway to weigh in and face the music. I figured at the least, it would provide motivation for this week. So I went, I gained .4 pounds. So not even half of a pound but I don't like seeing a gain so it definitely helped motivate me. I'm also glad though that it's not more because I did eat well this week and work out. I'm confident that gain is going to be gone next week PLUS more!!

So what did I learn this week from this experience?

1) It IS okay to go out occassionally and have a little fun. I tend to not be as social when i'm trying watch my weight but i can do both in moderation so I'm going to work on that more!

2) Go weigh in and face the music no matter what. I had already expected a gain so seeing the number helps motivate me more for the next week. I don't need to only go weigh in when I feel like I've lost weight because it's not a race, it's a lifestyle

3) I CAN go out and have fun and have more control than i did last night. I am happy with the control i did have but I could've easily switched to a glass a wine instead of having another margarita. Little things like that can make a difference. I didn't have to put that little dab of sour cream on my fajita. I wouldn't have missed it and again, it could be a better choice. There's almost always a better choice.

Here's to another great week!!! I need to lose 1.4 pounds to hit my 5% goal and 2.4 pounds to hit 10 pounds! I want to knock out the 5% goal next week!!

Monday!

Monday's really aren't exciting so I'm just trying to psych myself out! Great work out this morning. It's BEAUTIFUL in Dallas today which makes this Monday even easier! Wish I was outside though.

So I'm essentially eating around 1150 calories per day (based on each pt. being approximately 50 calories) and I'm full pretty much most of the time. That's attributed to eating healthy snacks and more importantly, really concentrating on choosing filling foods as opposed to foods that meet my point requirement but might not fill me up long term. It's just insane to me to think that I'm eating less than 1200 calories a day and I'm not starving. And on top of that, I'm eating stuff that's good! I made a WW recipe last night called Old Fashioned Chicken Pot Pie and it was great. It made 6 servings so Brandon and I each had 1 and then I brought 1 for lunch today so there are still 3 servings left! It tasted better today than yesterday too. It was pretty good!

Tonight I'm making my current favorite recipe of 4 oz. of turkey meat mixed with bell pepper, onions, mushrooms, and diced tomatoes over 1 cup of whole wheat spaghetti! It's so good and so filling. I pair it with a spinach salad. Yum!

1/16/10 Weigh in Day

This week I lost a total of 3.2 pounds for a total of 8.2 pounds since 1/2/10! My original goal was to lose 5 pounds a month so I am getting a little ahead of myself but I do know that very soon the large numbers will be much smaller as I continue on my journey. I'm very excited though!! I don't see it yet in the mirror but can feel it a little in my clothes. I hope to meet my 55 goal which will be 9 pounds in the very near future. I will not get the opportunity to weigh in at a meeting on Saturday morning as I'll be away but I will go ahead and weigh myself at home on Friday and see how i've done. Wohoo!!

Where has the week gone?!

I can't believe it's already Thursday! So far I've only got in 3 work outs so I need to make sure to get myself up in the morning for a good work out. I could've gotten up today and now regret it as I already have plans tonight and can't work out. I think that's called self sabotage? Either way, i'm getting up in the morning to meet my personal goal of working out 4 times this week.

Why is it such a struggle? I enjoy my workouts, I have fun while I'm doing them and I feel so much better when I'm done. So why is it a struggle to get up and do them? I'm sure that's a timeless question.

I've stayed on point this week but I feel like I need to add some new stuff in to my routine. Maybe introduce some different types of fruits and veggies. For the last 2 weeks i've been snacking on limited portions of baby carrots, clementines, and green apples, and blueberries. I think this next week I may throw in grapes and strawberries to mix it up. I also want to make sure I make some large dinners so that I can bring the leftovers for lunch. I love it when I have something really healthy mixed with proteins and veggies for lunch. Not only is it filling, it's a lot more satisfying than making a sandwich and eating soup. Don't get me wrong, that's good too, but the other is more satisfying to me. I need to start looking up some more recipes. I have 23 points a day and I am TERRIBLE at getting in my oils. I hit almost every GHG (good health guideline) except for oils and I'm usually short on dairy.

I have no idea how to "count" my square of fat free cheese or 1 stick of string cheese. Neither are an entire cup and i have no idea if they're even half a cup so I dont' know if i'm getting it in or not. I'm excited to see my progress for the week on Saturday!!!

Monday Monday

Got a great work out in this morning! I almost didn't get up and told myself I would work out tonight but I knew I wouldn't, I want to watch The Bachelor!! ;) So I got up and I'm very glad that I did. Yesterday was a great day. The hubs and I went to Walmart (he never goes with me) and I watched The Chronicles of Narnia on TV while he watched football. We made a delicious WW recipe called Easy Fried Rice for dinner. We added in chicken and shrimp to give it a little more oomph and it made 6 servings! I'm having it for lunch today and there's still 3 more servings at home! We paired that with a salad made with baby spinach, grape tomatoes, carrots, onions, and a fat free ranch dressing that I made that's very low in points. By the way, it's good, not great, but it doesn't exactly taste like ranch and it's a little runny. But it's 1 pt for 1/4 of a cup which is a TON of dresssing (more than you need on a small salad).

Here's the menu for today. I feel like it's kind of bland but it is Monday:

Breakfast:
1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup of blueberries
1/4 cup of pineapple chunks

Snack:
Baby carrots

Lunch:
1 serving of the easy fried rice I made
Large clementine
String cheese

Snack:
Apple
sugar free jello pudding

Dinner:
3 oz of grilled chicken breast
baked potato with 1/4 cup of both ff sour cream and ff cheese
10 sprays of I can't believe it's not butter
1 cup of green beans

Dessert:
skinny cow vanilla ice cream sandwich and 1 cup of ff milk (to enjoy while watching The Bachelor!!)

Weigh in day- 1/9/10

After 1 week back on the program i'm down 5 pounds! I know this is dramatic and i certainly would never want to maintain losing 5 pounds a week but it's great motivation to keep going! Now i'm only 1 pound away from losing the 6 that I put back on! My goal is to get that off this week. I'm confident I can do it. This week was filled with reintroducing a LOT of water back in to my life and eating mostly fresh foods like fruits and vegetables. One thing I'm doing differently this time too is that I'm not eating a frozen meal (lean cuisine or smart ones) for lunch every day. There's nothing wrong with them but they do contain a lot of sodium and there are better options so I'll reserve those for every once in a while as opposed to every day.

My husband lost 15 pounds this week! Now he's a decently sized man to begin with but I couldn't believe it when I saw it with my own eyes!! 15 pounds! I'm so proud of him and it gives him additional motivation to keep on going too! Here's to another week!

Friday

I weigh in tomorrow!

Beyond freezing

It's incredibly cold here right now! I'm not even at work yet because the roads are too icy but I will be heading in soon so i'll have to speed through this entry!

Worked out this morning- yay!

Menu:

B-
whole wheat english muffin with 1 wedge of laughing cow cheese spread on it

Snack-
Special K bar

Lunch-
Oro wheat sandwich thin with 2 pcs of turkey meat, 1 slice fat free cheese, baby spinach, and 1 tbsp of dijon mustard
Soup at hand reduced sodium chicken with noodles
Orange

Snack-
Apple
Jello

Dinner-
Grilled chicken breast
Baked Potato with 10 sprays of I can't believe it's butter, 1/4 cup of fat free sour cream and 1/4 cup of fat free shredded cheddar
Baby spinach tossed with tomato, carrots, onion, and 2 tsp light ranch

I'm supposed to be getting my hair done tonight at 7:30 but we'll see how the weather holds up! have a great day!!

I did...

Not get up and work out this morning. I was insanely tired but it's back at it tomorrow. I'm working on getting in workouts at least 3 days a week so I'm still on target. Once I get it done tomorrow morning i'll be good. I weigh in again on Saturday. I have no expectations because I've been through this process before. When I say no expectations I definitely expect to have lost weight this week but as far as a number there's no way to tell. It could be extremely small or larger, i'm happy with either just as long as it's something!

My dinner last night was good. I could've used a little more flavor but over all it was flavorful enough to make again. It very well may become one of my go to meals. Brandon cooked 8 ounces of the lean turkey meat and then added tons of veggies so the amount it made was way more than what just 8 ounces of meat and 1 cup noodles would've made. I have left overs for lunch today! Here's my menu for today:

Breakfast:
1/2 cup of low fat vanilla yogurt and 1/4 cup of blueberries and 1/4 cup of pineapple

Snack:
Special K Bar

Lunch:
Left over dinner. I'm counting it as 3 points even though i'm not getting even close to 4 ounces of meat. I did not bring any noodles so it's literally turkey meat and a bunch of veggies (onions, bell pepper, tomatoes)
Orange
16 reduced fat wheat thins with 1 wedge of laughing cow light swiss cheese (delicious!)

Snack:
apple
jello


Dinner:
Chicken with brocolli in garlic sauce (WW recipe) I've never made this before but it's 7 pts a serving, i'm excited!
Salad with baby spinach, carrots, tomatoes, and 2 tbsp of light ranch dressing

I still have 2 points left over so i'll either drink some milk or have some yogurt for dessert!

Dawn of a new day!

I'm not gonna lie, i didn't want to get up this morning and work out. It's incredibly too cold in Texas and I wanted to stay snuggled in my bed, BUT i stayed committed and got in 2 miles of Leslie Sansone with weights. And I felt really good afterwards. It's amazing how much faster I can get ready for work too in the morning when I'm already awake before I get in the shower! :)

Todays meal plan is very similar to yesterdays, in fact the only thing different is dinner. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks are the same but I will need to change that up tomorrow so that I don't become bored.

Dinner is:

1 cup of whole wheat spaghetti
4 oz of 97% fat free ground turkey
cut up bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms
diced tomatoes

All this is mixed together in a skillet (after the noodles are cooked) for yummy goodness. I'll be having a salad with this meal consisting of baby spinach, grape tomatoes, diced onions, and 1/4 cup of ff cheese and 2 tsp of light ranch.

What the?!

My mind is seriously messed up! I'm currently excited about eating well and working out. I got up this morning like I had planned and worked out and i'm full of energy!! I will say this day has gone by slow though since it started so early! Here's my menu for today:

TONS of water!

Breakfast:
1 cup of low fat vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup of blueberries
1/4 cup of pineapple

Snack 1:
Special K Bar

Lunch:
Oro Wheat Sandwich thin with lean turkey, spinach, fat free slice of cheese, and mustard
Fat free black bean soup
Orange

Snack 2:
baby carrots

Snack 3:
Green apple with 1 laughing cow light swiss cheese wedge

Dinner:
6 oz. salmon
1 cup of green giant frozen vegetables
1 cup of baby spinach mixed with onion, tomato, reduced feta cheese, 10 sprays of light ranch dressing

Dessert:
WW ice cream

So far I have 64 ounces of water down for the day and am working on my next 32!

Back in Action

Ick, i've felt disgusting since about mid-October. Even though i know all of the tools to eat correctly and work out, I chose to ignore them. I have 6 more lbs. on my body to show for it too but I have a plan to get it off and more! I went back to WW meetings on Saturday to a new location over by our new house. My "excuse" for not going was that there wasn't a meeting close to our house. It's true, it's not exactly close but my health and well being is worth a 25 minute drive! So I made the journey and am excited and once again have momentum to keep going! My mini goal is to lose at least 1 lb per week for the first 6 weeks. This would get me down to my lowest weight of the year thus far and still leaves room for me to lose 16 more pounds to get to my ultimate goal. So my goal for the year is to lose a total of 22 pounds. I'm not going to give myself a specific time limit other than for it to be off by the end of the year.

My husband and I have our 5 year anniversary in May and we are planning to go to the beach! My biggest motivation is to lose as much as I can prior to that time but in a healthy and productive way. Overall, I am very proud of myself. I'm embarking on a year anniversary of using WW as a tool to help me over come some of my food issues and i'm starting a new year. I have a great attitude and a plan! I will be working out in the mornings as much as possible rather than the evenings. I think working out in the mornings will help me be motivated during the day to continue to eat the right things, provide more energy, and free up my evenings to relax and enjoy time with my hubby!

Here's to a fantastic 2010!!!!