Working out

I'm only down 2 lbs. While that's 2 lbs less that I have to lose, it's still a struggle. As a result, I've decided to try focusing on working out instead of my food intake. I've found when I work out, I'm less likely to make poor food choices. I started doing the Couch to 5k workouts and joined a gym. I have my first race October 30th and I'm excited and nervous. I'll be running with a few of my mom friends and hopefully we can push each other to finish!

Back (again)

I don't know why this has been so hard this time. I went to WW meetings for almost 4 months, and I never managed to get lower than 173. Thankfully, I haven't gone up much, but I'm definitely not losing. This weekend I was just feeling awful. I can see the weight creeping up my arms and legs. I can hardly see the tone in my arms and thighs. It's awful. I feel horrible, am beginning to deal with depression, and am just not happy all around.

My husband and I decided to recommit to Weight Watchers yesterday. This is the first time we've done it together, which I'm hoping will help. Neither of us are feeling good physically and mentally. I'm sure out eating habits have not helped our situation, so we're going to do it together. Here's to new goals and a new start.

::jawdrop::

No wonder my jeans are getting tight.

The first label is from the meeting I went to Wednesday night. In jeans. At 630PM. I figured since Saturdays would be my weigh in days, I'd go again this morning and get weighed in for realsies. I expected to be around 173 (so says my scale at home) but. . . no. BIG FAT NO. Yikes.

This means I'm only 7 lbs away from when I originally started WW 2 years ago. That is so discouraging. I'm upset with myself that I let myself get this far off. Now instead of 15(ish) lbs to lose, I have closer to 30 lbs.

30 lbs. Punch in my gut.

However, at the meeting today the leader said something so obvious, but something I had never considered.

{Sidebar: For those not familiar with the WW system, you get daily points to use for food. The number is determined by your height and weight, and fluctuates as you lose. You also get a bank of 35 "flex" points, to be used as you wish for treats and splurges, and then you can also add activity points to your bank by working out. Points are only good for that week, so they don't carry over.}

She said your daily points should be spent on filling foods, and your flex points should be saved for those things you really want to splurge on. Like, a serving of potato chips. Or, a piece of cake at the birthday party. Obvious right? Well, I had been doing things a little bit differently. I had been basically dividing up those points and giving myself an extra 5 points a day. It increased the amount of food I could eat, but I never put much thought into WHAT I was really eating. Well, how am I supposed to learn proper eating habits when I'm eating whatever I want and not making really good choices? Revelation.

I threw out the cake.

Blasphemy in a past life. How things are in my new one.

My daughter's birthday party was on Sunday, and as most hosts do I overestimated the number of people that would be attending. Hence, TONS of leftover chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. I'm talking half a sheet. So yum. . . Anyway, I found myself taking bites here and there (and there and here and there) and realized at this point in my journey, having chocolate cake in my house was not conducive to my weight loss. So I tossed it in the trash.

And actually felt good about it.

In other news, I've upgraded my online WW tools to a monthly pass and will be going to meetings. As a child of an alcoholic, I found the meeting that I went to last night eerily similar to an AA meeting I went to with my father. First names only, bravo stickers, sharing stories. . . Am I addicted to food?? Perhaps. But if it can help my father (who is 8 years sober!) than maybe it can help me!

I've been avoiding you.

*sigh*

As anyone who has attempted to lose weight knows, the journey is full of stops and starts. I fell off the wagon big time and am not sure how much I'm up (since AF is here) but it's at least a couple pounds. Essentially, I'm back where I started and no where near where I need to be at this point. But, the part of this journey is learning and not giving up.

I leave for Europe March 25th, and my first mini goal is to lose 10 lbs by then. I need to buy some clothes for the trip but I've decided to wait until the week we leave so (hopefully) the stuff I buy will be at least a size smaller. That should help motivate me to stay on track! I've also enlisted a "weight loss buddy" who is going to Europe with me, and we will work together on WW to lose the weight.

So, starting over, with some tweaks. We'll see how this works!

Need to find a way to manage my sweet tooth.

As I sit here writing on my WEIGHT LOSS BLOG, I'm eating a microwave brownie. ::sigh:: I have had raging sweet cravings after lunch and dinner. I had my sandwich, and the sweets started coming. I had a peach, hoping to compromise with myself. Nope. And then I remembered. . . Schwans brownie in the freezer. It was like something came over me, and before I knew it I was on the couch with a spoon and brownie in hand. Last night it was peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. And we just ran out of mini chocolates from Christmas. I think on my grocery list I'll have to add those Dove dark chocolate Promises or something.

The good news is, despite the sweet cravings (and indulgences), I haven't gained this week. That's good, but it's not what I'm supposed to be doing!

On the exercise front, I haven't been to the gym in almost 2 weeks. I'm thinking about buying a Wii Fit from my mom and working on that while the kids play in the play room. Something's better than nothing, right?

Weigh-in and I'm leaving my gym.

Weight: 168.8 Woohoo!

I've decided that I need to leave my gym though. The lack of flexibility in childcare and the way it takes up my whole day just doesn't work for me. Off to find somewhere else to work out!

What's for dinner (and breakfast, and lunch. . . )?

Planning meals has been one of the easiest ways for me to keep my eating in control. Before we moved to the new house in November, I was really good at meal planning. I'd make my list every week, get what I needed and would never be staring in the fridge at 5PM asking myself what I could make from American cheese and OJ.

My arsenal includes these:


I love the WW magazines, and I have their most recent cookbook. However, I also love my crockpot. For some reason, the WW company doesn't share a lot of crockpot recipes, even though using your crockpot is a great way to reduce fat in your cooking! I found this "Fix it and Forget It Lightly" at the grocery store one day and have recently rediscovered it. For tonight's dinner I made a lovely sweet potato-apple-sausage bake.




The plus side to this is the sweet potatoes created a wonderful mash that I could feed to my 8 month old while we sat and ate!

The point to my story is I need to get back into doing this. I planned out meals for last week, but I always neglect to plan for lunch. Lunch is a big problem. So my goal for this week is to plan lunches and dinners in the hopes that I'm able to answer that question every time a meal comes around-- "What's for dinner?"

I've been here before

When I got pregnant with DS, I was 9.5 lbs away from my goal weight. I was in a groove. Pregnancy is good to me, however, and shoots my metabolism through the roof. As a result I can eat whatever I want and not gain a pound; for 9 months I get to be those girls that I hated in high school. Except, with a baby. Two weeks after he was born I was back to that weight. But as with many things you lose shortly after giving birth, my sky high metabolism quickly plummeted to the basement and everything that went into my mouth translated into weight gain.

Since I can't stay pregnant for the rest of my life, I'm back to relearning how to eat properly, and for some reason it doesn't get easier. Couple that with the fact that I'm approaching thirty (and the dreaded additional drop in metabolism) and I need to get my ass in gear.

So I'm here at 8AM, the day of my exercise class. But I can't motivate myself to go. I really need a shower, but what sense is showering before you get all sweaty?? The class I'm currently taking is a bootcamp class. I'm not as into it as I was when I was taking it before I got pregnant. Two days a week I get the crap beaten out of me. There's a Zumba class Wednesday mornings that I want to try, but I'm finding it hard to make a balance between working out, the kids, and the housework. Classes are at 930 for an hour. By the time I'm done with that and back home, it's time for lunch and nap. My whole morning is gone! And since it's nearly impossible for the children and I to get out of the house after nap, working out in the morning basically takes up my whole day.

My membership at this gym is up at the end of the month. I think I need to look into other options.

It's not good.

Weight: 172.2 lbs

I managed to gain 2 lbs this weekend (I weighed myself Thursday before we left too). Ugh. I swear my body just sucks up any extra calories and immediately converts them to pounds gained! I guess knowledge is power, but it sucks to feel like I don't have a lot of leeway when it comes to my eating habits. Le sigh. Onto next week, and hopefully this is the last time I see this number (unless there's a baby involved!)

Vacation

What is it about vacation that makes sticking to a meal plan so difficult?

Every time I go away I seem to throw my plan out the window. This weekend we were in Stowe with the family and there was so much yummy food (and some alcohol) that my self- control was left at home and refused to show up. I did a full day of skiing on Friday and some light snowshoeing on Saturday to try to counteract the damage I did but I'm pretty sure it wasn't enough! Not looking forward to the scale tomorrow but I will post an update. Maybe seeing the numbers (and putting them out there for everyone else to see) will remind me the next time I go away what can happen!

Day one, January 4 2010

Well, technically it's not day one. But it's the beginning, after the new year, of my efforts to lose weight (again). It's been done before, a few times, but I'm not sure I was really ever in the place to do it right. When I joined the military, there was no instruction on how to maintain the losses or muscle tone I achieved, it was do-and-do-it-now mentality. Before I got pregnant with my son, it was summer time and I wanted to look good in a bathing suit. Now, I just want to be around for my kids (and their kids, and maybe even their kids). I want to teach them the right attitudes toward food and exercise, so someday they won't be in the same place I am-- blogging about their own weight loss.



THE STATS

28 year old mother of two
Height: 5'6"
Starting weight: 170.2 lbs

THE PLAN

Diet: Weight Watchers. Love it. Helped me lose 25 lbs before I got pregnant, and I'm sure it will help me again.
Exercise: I joined a gym with a fearful leader. She intimidates me and I think she judges me if I'm not at class when I'm supposed to be. She rocks though and got me into great shape before I got pregnant. She will also do it again. Right now I'm there 2 days/wk, but will probably bump it up to 3 or 4.

MY GOAL

Lose 20 lbs and be toned by my son's first birthday (May 26th). That leaves a reasonable 1 lb/week weight loss. And as a bonus, if I can resolve my food issues int he meantime, that would be great as well.

You keep me accountable, blog readers, and I won't let you down.