Incentive Clothing

Well, I'm pretty excited about losing 6 pounds in the last 2 weeks, especially considering being gone and eating out for a whole weekend for my conference.

We stopped by Goodwill on Saturday as I was looking for some daycare items. I decided to browse the clothing and found some great buys. I found a pair of jeans that look brand new and they were super cheap. I also got a bright red long and flowy skirt and a pair of brown corduroy capris. The jeans are the size I wear now, but they're in a brand that runs smaller, so they're a bit snug. After getting them home and wearing them around the house, I realized that they're even more snug than I originally though. So they're now the designated "incentive jeans." Granted, I have a whole pile of "incentive clothing" that I lent to my mom until I lose my weight. However, they're all about 5-7 sizes too small for me, whereas these jeans will probably fit great after the loss of just 5-10 pounds. So, it's nice to have something that will be a much more immediate reward. So here's to those incentive jeans fitting in a few weeks!

The Weigh In

Well, I had my second weigh in since restarting weight watchers. The verdict????

I've LOST 6 pounds. YAY...Woo..Woo!

Here's hoping for a successful week until next weigh in. I'm going to continue to focus on staying within my points. Today I'm starving. I was in such a rush to get to Weight Watchers that I didn't have time for breakfast. I ate a little bit for lunch around 1:30. It took me forever to get Boo down for nap and I was wanting to wait for lunch until after that. So I've had a bagel with cream cheese and chips (a single serving, mind you). I think I'm going to head to the kitchen and scrounge around for some veggies after I get off of here. I know that missing meals contributes to overeating later in the day to make up for it. So I'm trying to be sensible. Hopefully if I fill my tummy with some veggies I'll resist the temptation to overeat!

Staying on the Steady Path

Well, I'm happy to say that I still feel like I'm doing great. The nice thing about weight watchers is that it's not overly restrictive. I can eat whatever food I want pretty much. It's just that splurges have to be accounted for by cutting back elsewhere. Yes, I'm talking about balance, that elusive concept that baffles so many of us.

I'm proud to say that we have boxes upon boxes of Girl Scout cookies just sitting in the pantry. Now, mind you, I've had a cookie or two now and then, but I've accounted for it within my allowed points. I'm proud that I haven't sat down and eaten through a whole box in one sitting. Anyone who cherishes Girl Scout cookies the way I do will understand the amount of restraint this takes. But honestly, I haven't even really thought about them that much. I eat one or two, okay usually two, when I think about it and that's it. They're not off limits, so I guess I don't feel the need to gorge on them. In fact, the less I eat, the longer they'll be around and I get to enjoy them. After all, Girl Scouts are a once a year opportunity. So I'd hate to gobble them up too fast!

Lowered Points

Yesterday was my first day that I ate with lowered points. My points lowered because I changed the way I answered some of the questions on their online quiz that tells you how many points to eat. I took away the 5 extra points for nursing. Apparently there's some conflicting research out there as to whether or not women really need to eat extra calories for nursing. Some women do feel hungrier and should eat to satisfy that hunger, while others are content without adding in extra calories. The breastmilk will still be great either way. So I've decided to take out those extra points and see what happens. While I definitely wouldn't want my points to be too low and risk slowing my metabolism, I don't want too many points as that will slow my weight loss unnecessarily. So I decided to take those points out and see how it goes. Not to mention, Boo is nursing - but he's also a toddler with a wide variety in his diet. So I don't think he's taking in all that much milk. So the nursing points just don't seem necessary to me right now. I also adjusted my activity level on the quiz. I had it at a higher level. It will probably go higher as it gets warmer and I get out more with the kids and do more walks. But I admit that with winter I've done a lot more sitting, even with two toddlers around all day. So I changed the activity level to reflect that. So I lost 9 points. This means a little less room for my splurges - beer, wine, ice cream, whatever. So I have to be a bit more mindful if I'd like to have that little treat at the end of my day!

Anyways, I feel that I did okay yesterday. I did dip into some weekly points, but hey, that's okay. Overall I feel okay about it. I did feel a bit hungrier. So we'll see how it goes and if my body adjusts to this lower point level.

Feeling Good

I have to say that I'm feeling pretty good about my Weight Watchers despite the rough weekend. I feel like I got back on track pretty quickly. Today I redid the questions on the site and my daily points dropped down a bit. So now I'll have to be a bit more careful as I adjust to eating with less points.

That's the thing about Weight watchers that will be difficult. As I lose weight, I'll have less points to eat with and it will get harder to eat within my points. I think this has been my problem in the past. I've lost weight by working out tons and eating reasonably. But when I stopped working out as much, I didn't reduce my eating to coincide with a lowered activity level. A lot of the time, I've still been eating healthy foods - just too much of them for my activity level. Or...a major problem...too many sweets!

I'm really excited about losing this weight. I know it's going to happen because I've made my mind up. It's a familiar state of mind as I experienced this state of mind the other times in my life when I lost tons of weight. But I really believe that weight watchers is going to give me the tools to keep it off - something that I didn't have before.

Didn't Do So Hot With That

Well, I must say that it was incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for me to count over the weekend while at my conference. I think one thing that made it harder is that we were on the go the entire time. Lunch time flew by. We usually ate lunch at a restaurant on the street that we were on or at the university's food court. So it was all fast food type stuff. I'd love to say that I cut down on portion sizes to make up for it, but I was starving every meal. I even finished an entire Qdoba burrito - usually I can only eat half of one of those things! I'm hoping maybe it's because I was on the go so much that I was burning it off. I guess the scale will tell the truth on that one when I step on it on Saturday. I'd weigh myself here but I'm trying not to obsess. Also, it's a different scale than the weight watchers one, so it's not like it'd tell me much if I weighed on a different scale, know what I mean? We had Olive Garden one night and the angel on my shoulder told me to go for a red sauce. Well, the little devil won out on that one. I got the fettuccine alfredo - and boy was it good! Boo split it with me, so I didn't eat the entire thing. But once again, I can usually only eat about half of their serving - if that much - and I scarfed the entire thing down. I will say on a positive note that there wasn't much munching or eating sweets, something I usually reserve some points for at home. So hopefully the fact that I didn't have anything sweet will help. Okay - I did have a Girl Scout thin mint - but only one.

We had Panera a couple of the mornings for breakfast. I ordered a "Power Sandwich" which looked like a pretty healthy option. I know better than to go near those bagels. That probably would've been over half my daily points right there! Anyways, the sandwich only had 340 calories. I didn't have the fat and fiber information, so I couldn't calculate the points. But it was advertised as one of their healthy options. So hopefully it was as healthy as they made it out to be. When I had Chick fillet one day I got a grilled chicken instead of breaded. So I did put forth some sort of effort. But I did not actually track points. So I'm a bit curious to see the scale this Saturday.

Anyways, I'll post on how that all turns out after my meeting on Saturday.

Anyways, it was just terribly difficult as my choices were pretty limited and I was pressed for time most meals.

Not Sure How I'm Going to Manage This One!

I'm going to a conference this weekend. I'll be leaving with a friend tomorrow evening and will be gone until Sunday evening. That's A LOT of eating out. So I'm trying to figure out how to prepare myself. Part of me wants to say, "Ah, screw it" and eat whatever and get back on track after I get him. Thing is, I don't really want to do that. I want to stay somewhat on track so that I can see some good progress at my next meeting. I won't be able to go to this Saturday's meeting due to being out of town. So my next weigh in will be a week from Saturday. And I know I'll need to see some progress for two weeks on weight watchers.

I'm going to take my weight watcher's books. They have common food items listed with point values. I have one that's a guide specifically for eating out that has popular restaurants and their food. So, I think I'll be able to find stuff to stay in my points. Problem is, will I be able to find enough filling food so that I'm not insanely hungry by the end of each day. I wonder if I should try to purchase some healthy snacks to take with me. Any ideas?

No I will NOT gorge myself on Girl Scout Cookies!

I placed an order for Girl Scout cookies a month ago and they're finally here. I picked them up today. I forgot how many I ordered. Ummm...I missed out Girl Scout cookies the past 2-3 years because no one asked me and I found out they were being sold after the fact. This year a Girl Scout called me to ask me to buy some. YAY - I was so excited that I decided to stock up so that I'd have GS cookies to eat all year long!

Yeah - there's a lot there. I haven't even counted them yet. Maybe 10 boxes or so? I've had 2 samoas today (worth 3 points total). And I made myself wait to eat them until after I'd already eaten lunch! Samoas are so good - I could easily eat a box of them without thinking about it if I let myself.

So, NO I WILL NOT GORGE MYSELF ON GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. I WILL NOT. I WILL NOT. I WILL NOT.

My 20.5 point lunch

Yes...20.5 points for lunch. That will mean something for those who have been on weight watchers before. For those who haven't...well...for someone who is a decent weight that might be close to all of their daily points!

What did I have? A crispy chicken wrap and a small hot fudge shake from Dairy Queen. The crispy chicken wrap was sooooo tiny too. It's smaller than the similar one that Taco Bell has.

Anyhoo, that left me with not very many points for dinner. But, the nice thing with weight watchers, is that I was very aware of the need to cut back for dinner. This doesn't mean that I starved myself. I still ate dinner and finished out the night pretty satisfied. I probably could've been a little more satisfied if I hadn't splurged on lunch. But I definitely didn't go to bed hungry or anything like that. The key to that??? LOTS of veggies at dinner time! I still had 1/2 cup of mac 'n' cheese too! I did cut into my weekly points a bit so that I could have a beer.

The ability to use weekly points at my discretion is one of the things that I LOVE about weight watchers. Granted, I could choose to not use them and lose weight quicker. But I would end up feeling deprived and binging. Using my weekly points ensures that I get a little something almost every day. Usually it's beer. I often don't have enough extra points for both beer(or wine) and ice cream. And wouldn't you know it that most days I'd actually prefer the alcohol? That's a good thing. Alcohol in moderation (such as once a day or once every other day) is not bad for you and in fact has some health benefits. I don't know that ice cream has any known health benefits, except maybe mentally! :) Anyways, I was really getting into a bad habit of eating ice cream almost every night while I was preggo. In fact, Boo had started to ask for "ice keem" in the evenings. This is not something I want to pass onto my son...the need to gorge on ice cream in the evenings. So I will definitely continue to include ice cream in my life as it's a huge love of mine, but it will be less frequently enjoyed!

So, while a 20.5 point lunch is not the wisest thing that I've done lately, I still made it work!

First Day Complete and Ticker Added

Well, I stayed within my points today. Woo hoo. Wasn't great...could've had more veggies, but I need to go grocery shopping. So I'm just going to be content with the fact that I stayed within my points. I'm sure that I'll get back into the swing of things more and more as time goes by.

I created my weight loss ticker and added that to the bottom. I can't wait to see it start to move!

Welcome

Given recent events, I'll be resuming my weight loss journey. I want to focus on something positive and getting healthy is positive. I'll be rejoining weight watchers and getting back on track.

So, as with the original blog, sexyby30, I have a lot of reasons for wanting to do this.

I want to be healthy for myself. I want to feel good when I look in the mirror. I want to be in good shape and able to keep up with my kiddo and any future kiddos.

I want to stop using food as an emotional crutch, craft more, and mindlessly munch less.

I want this extra weight gone as it's putting a lot of stress on my body!

So join me on my journey. I'm hoping this will add a greater sense of accountability and also that this will inspire others to make healthy changes!