The death of me…

omg, i have most certainly GOT to stopbuying these!

Weekly Weigh-in

Let me just tell you that last week sucked, I mean totally blew in every way. This week so far has turned out to be somewhat better.

I had a huge fight with my husband Tuesday night and it went on for several days. This sort of thing is incredibly rare for us and it completely zapped all my energy. We bicker a lot, that’s just how we are, always have been but we hardly ever have real fights. And in the middle of that negative stuff I weighed in last week and found that I’d gained 0.5. Ugh, talk about adding insult to injury.

I think I’m gonna be in the 160s forever. This week has been better. We talked about and resolved our fight. And I down 1.6 this week. Still in the 160s but at least it’s a loss. I’m not really sure what’s going on but I seem to have hit a pretty large plateau. Let’s just say I’m not a fan of the plateau. I’m not sure how but I think I need to change something up in order to break out of the stall.

I might try going back to the traditional plan rather than the Wendi Plan for a week or so and then switch back again. Maybe that will help. I can’t possibly exercise more than I already do. I simply don’t have the time. I wish that I could take up running but my tendency to get wicked painful shin splints has that right out. I may try and bump up the exercise to an hour and a half on Saturdays. Maybe that will help.

I have to start the search for a bathing suit soon which is a depressing task all in itself. I do have a glimmer of hope in that area though, believe it or not. I decided to go with Land’s End and their little computer thingie spit out a recommended size based on my measurements and it told me to buy a 12. A 12!

I haven’t worn a 12 in years. As my son would say “I HAPPY!”

-Weight Loss Warrior

Red + Green = Brown

Brown Monster? Blech, even less appetizing to look at than the Green Monster. Apparently that’s what happens when you add more red fruit to a smoothie already containing quite a bit of spinach. Yesterday’s “green” monster featured strawberries and cherries which made for a rather unappetizing brown monster. Still tasted awesome though and I drank every last drop.

I remembered to do my measurements yesterday and although I thought it had been two weeks since the last time it turned out to be three weeks. I so wish I’d started with the measurements back in February so I could really see those numbers. I’m not willing to put that 25 lbs back on just so I can see that though. ;)

Since June 24th I’m down 0.5 in the hips, 0.5 in the thighs, 0.75 in the waist, 0.5 in the bust and 0.5 in the arms. Not too bad. Not too bad at all. Overall, since I started measuring on June 10th, I’m down a total of 5 inches with the most being from my arms. Here’s hoping I continue to shrink!

-Weight Loss Warrior

Stall!

I only lost 0.1 lb this week. Ugh. I’ve been pretty lucky with only a few set backs this whole time so I’m not terribly upset but it’s always disappointing to see such a small loss. At least it’s not a gain I suppose.

I took an extra day off in exercise this week and I probably indulged on Saturday a little more than I should have but oh well today is the start of a new week and that’s another chance to shed some more pounds.

I forgot to do my measurements last week so I’ll try to remember to do that later today. Maybe I lost some more inches. My pants are certainly feeling a bit looser. I don’t think I’m quite ready to move down a size but soon maybe.

I think I’ll venture out to the Y today to attend an actual spinning class. I feel like I get a better workout when I attend a class as opposed to using the bike at home. Plus I like the bikes at the Y better than our bike at home.

I feel like I want to try some new workout DVDs too, I’m kinda bored even though we switch it up each day. It has to be only 20-30 minutes a day however and that’s the challenge. I’m open to suggestions.

Hope everyone has a great week!

-Weight Loss Warrior

One of my new favorite lunches

It’s quick, it’s filling and it clocks in at about 4.5 points so what more could you ask for. That would be a flatout wrap (1), 2 TBSP hummus (1), 2 oz. oven roasted deli turkey (1), 1 oz. crumbled fat free feta cheese (1), 1 TBSP Newman’s Own Light Balsamic Vinegrette (0.5), cucumber (0), roma tomato (0), and baby spring mix (0). Whew, that’s a lot of ingredients.

I typically pair it with a 1 oz. serving of Baked Salt and Vinegar chips (2). Yum Yum, 6.5 pts.

-Weight Loss Warrior

The Joys of Summer

Although I still despise the heat of summer I am finding a new appreciation in what this time of year can offer. In the past my diet has been lacking in anything that really depended on a growing season. Not this year.

I am thoroughly enjoying all the bounty of fresh produce that this time of year has to offer. I start many of my days with a bowl of fresh fruit the size of my head. And I’ve discovered that there are some vegetables I only like if they are fresh.

It seems like a silly realization because well duh, food grows better in the summer but I really had never thought about it before now. I love strawberries and I’ve been buying and eating them by the pound. I just bought my first bag of cherries this week and they too are yummy.

I’ve also been eating lots of blueberries and I finally bought some plums this week as well. I went through a serious mango phase but that seems to have waned. My son is all about some cantaloupe this week and he’s been eating it like it’s going out of style.

We have yet to have a really good watermelon but I keep trying. I do buy some produce that it more convenience packaged like pre-washed and cut carrots, broccoli, and spinach. But even the quality of those items is better right now.

In addition to all this bounty at the store, I have co-workers and friends whose gardens are overflowing and they are generous enough to pass on the wealth. I had some lovely Roma tomatoes and a big ‘ole zucchini from a co-worker’s garden this week, both were delicious.

I suppose I can see the benefit in what was once my most dreaded season. I do so hate to be hot. Maybe that will change too when I’ve shed some of my insulating layers. Stranger things have happened I suppose.

-Weight Loss Warrior

25 pounds gone!

I met my next goal this morning, on the dot. The weigh in resulted in a 1.4 pound loss which puts me exactly at 25 lbs lost! Yay!!!

I feel good but I can’t help but thinking that I not even really half way to where I want to be. I am very proud at the amount I’ve lost already but I know I still have a lot of work left to do.

My next goal is 141 pounds. The will be the very top range of my “healthy weight” and also a 46.2 lb total loss. That’s another 21.2 lbs for another reward. I suspect it’s gonna take me a while seeing as my weight loss has really slowed down.

I know that happens and I’m fine with it as long as I’m still getting a loss. I do miss seeing 2 and 3 lbs fall off the scale each week but I’d much rather see something go than nothing.

I’m feeling thinner these days and my clothes are feeling looser for sure but I know I still have work to do. I’m still soft and doughy and flabby in most areas. I want to feel good about the clothes I’m wearing and what I see in the mirror.

I did have a minor break though this weekend. I actually went out and bought a pair of shorts that I intend to wear in public. AND they are a size 12. I haven’t worn shorts during the summer in years and let me tell you it is HOT where I live.

I was just always so self conscious about my flabby legs. I’m still self conscious but less so and it’s hot so I went out in search of a decent pair of shorts that I thought I could live with. Old Navy already had all there’s on clearance (um, hello, it’s 97 degress outside) but I was able to find one pair of navy shorts that fit. It was even more of a surprise that they were a size 12.

Here’s to pleasant surprises!

-Weight Loss Warrior

My Green Monster

I finally got around to trying the infamous green monster smoothie that everyone raves about. Mine had 72 gm of spinach (2 big ole handfuls), 96 gm of banana (1 medium), 100 gm strawberries (5 med-large), 1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk, splenda, 2 Tbsp of uncooked oat bran, ice, and water. It ended up being 2 points.

It filled that glass pictured above 1.5 times. I did have to breakout the full sized blender for this one though. I didn’t want to take any chances with half blended spinach, blech. I am not the biggest fan of spinach as it is. I’m only just now getting to where I can tolerate it raw and unless it is buried deep inside something with a lot of cheese and tomato sauce you can forget about me eating cooked spinach at all.

I was pleasantly surprised. Not that I didn’t believe everyone’s account of how awesome the green monster is but I just think it’s one of those things you have to try yourself. I’d like to find a way to bump up the protein without shifting to points all that much. Maybe pasteurized liquid egg whites? I used to put those in smoothies once upon a time.

This little adventure made me start thinking about how I log my food for Weight Watchers. You see if I log all these ingredients it comes up as 2 points because the only things that have enough calories to have points are the banana and the oat bran. However, if I plug all these ingredients into the Recipe Builder it says it’s worth three points.

Now which way is correct? Generally, I don’t use the recipe builder much. Especially for my day to day stuff. Things that I eat a lot I will log and then “make a meal” so that I have easier access to it later but I hardly ever create a recipe for things that I assemble. If I use the Recipe Builder it is generally because I want to find out how many points are in a given recipe that I already use but just don’t know the points for.

I think using the recipe builder is probably more accurate because it looks at the total for everything and then divides it by the servings. I take advantage of a lot of 0 point items (like just a few strawberries) and it seems that the recipe builder still accounts for those accumulated points in a recipe. Sometimes two 0 point foods can equal 1 point. Of course that statement is completely illogical with respect to actual math but we all know WW math is a different subject altogether.

So how do you calculate things, meals? recipes? individually?

-Weight Loss Warrior

Loving the scale

Not THAT scale, but my food scale. I have a new weakness…salt & vinegar potato chips. I’ve never been big on chips. I don’t typically like flavored chips and plain ones just weren’t my thing. I was shopping at a local store and they had samples of salt & vinegar kettle chips so I tried one and OMG were they good. I’m totally hooked.

I prefer the Baked Kettle brand of chips but the Popchips pictured above are a close second (both 2 pts per serving). Here’s the thing though, I HAVE to weigh out a portion or I will eat the whole bag. If I know what I have is a portion I can stop but without knowing exactly somehow I will convince myself that I haven’t had that many until the whole dang bag is gone.

My new strategy to combat this tendency is to portion out the whole bag as soon as I open it. I weigh each serving and place each one in it’s own individual sandwich bag and then put all the bags in a storage bag. This way I can grab a serving and stop there.

I’ve started doing this with any type of chip from the salt & vinegar variety to the cinnamon sugar Quaker multigrain crisps as well. Those are only 1 pt per serving but I can totally eat a whole bag of those as well. It’s something about crunchy type snacks that just makes you want to keep going.

Some other things I’ve learned with the scale…

• 1.5 oz of fat free feta cheese is A LOT of cheese
• 15 grams of chocolate chunks is NOT a lot of chocolate :(
• a serving of tater tots is actually closer to 10 tots than 9 (score!)
• when weighing pasta, the serving size is UNCOOKED pasta not cooked pasta, 2 oz of cooked pasta is like 4 noodles
• it takes a whole bunch of strawberries to equal 1 point
• and it takes surprisingly few blueberries to equal 1 point

I’ve got some other meals planned for this weekend where I’ll be doing some measuring. Especially my meat servings. We’ll see just how big a 4 oz. serving of pork tenderloin really is.

-Weight Loss Warrior

A new addition and Weekly Weigh-in

I’m only down 0.5 lbs this week. I expected as much. I was sick and super busy at work last week so I only got in 4 days of exercise as opposed to my usual 6 days. And one of those days was a spinning class so that’s a big chunk of exercise right there.

It will be much easier to get in the spinning now that my husband has gone out and bought this…

That’s right, he took 3 spinning classes and decided that we needed one in the house. My husband has developed some injuries related to running and jumping (30 day shred) so he was in need of a low/no impact exercise substitute. Spinning fit that bill nicely but because of his work schedule he’s unable to make it to the gym regularly for a spinning class.

Ordinarily, spinner bikes are upwards of $1000, even used. This one was $400 brand new at Academy Sports. He did his research beforehand and discovered that this particular bike is a commercial grade bike made by a really reputable company. I’m not sure why Academy Sports had it for such a good price but I’m not complaining.

The bike itself definitely has a harder seat than the ones at the Y and I’m feeling that familiar spinning soreness this morning after my first “ride” yesterday. I also want my husband to adjust the resistance settings before I ride it again. It is so sensitive that you barely touch it and it adjusts the resistance A LOT one way or the other. I found I need more of a range between barely any and OMG I can’t turn the peddles.

Other than that I’m excited to have more access to a bike. I might try to bump up my spinning days to three instead of two. I’ll have to think on that to see how it might fit in with my schedule.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend!

-Weight Loss Warrior