The Illusion that isn't Weight Watchers

Ya know, it's kind of funny. Growing up my mom talked about weight watchers this, weight watchers that. I didn't get what she meant. Around the time that I was pregnant with my son, my mom and dad were living with my brother and sil. My mom and sil decided to do ww together. I would often eat dinner with them, and see them eating stuff that made me want to gag. They had a recipe for a veggie soup that was 0 points if I remember right, and were eating fat free, everything. Going shopping with them was like torture because my sil would stop and check the points for EVERYTHING! drove me nuts. Watching them, and how they did ww made me want to NEVER ever ever ever EVER! (did I mention never ever?) want to do ww because if that was the way you had to live on ww it so wasn't for me. They were ww nazi's! But a couple years ago, a friend of mine mentioned she was on ww and talked about some of the food that she ate, and I realized, you don't have to be a nazi to enjoy ww and actually succeed with the program. You can eat regular stuff and still loose weight. It works for people like that think most veggies need to be dropped into the deepest part of the ocean so they can never surface. LOL. I don't have to eat that nasty ff miracle whip/mayo or go completely ff. I can enjoy my normal lifestyle, I just have to tweak it a bit and not eat so much of the foods I love. It was a moment I wished I could share with my mom, she passed away 4 years ago. My mom would be so proud of me, and I wish we could enjoy this journey together. Anyway, I just wanted to share what my previous illusion of what ww was and how it really isn't. :-)


**Note** This is a picture of my mom at the age of 74. This was close to when she hit lifetime status.

Challenge day 11 out of 30 - In a funk

I know I've been quiet for several days, but for whatever reason I've just been in this funk. I'm not sure what's going on, but I think I may be done with it.. I'm hoping. Yesterday was my "bad" day. I went over my daily points and dipped into my weekly points. Now going over points isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the way I did it was not a good thing. I did track everything I ate, and I ate like crazy too. I had 14 points for breakfast, 5 for lunch and 18 for dinner plus 4 for snack, so that's a grand total of 41 points. Not bad since there are many people that use up their weekly points and that's the point of weekly points, to use. But my choices weren't the best on the food I ate, and because my choices weren't great, I gained .7lbs. I'm not upset by it, everyone at somepoint has days where they just don't feel like doing anything, and that was my day yesterday. I did good by tracking everything that I did eat and realizing what I was doing. I just have to make sure that I make better choices next time, and part of why I was making bad choices is because I ran out of some of my go-to foods and just thought I could wing it, I couldn't. I have to remember I can't do this. Another reason that I gained (and I actually may not have because I found a kit kat under my scale) is because I haven't worked out since Friday. Because I started feeling muscle weakness and having "tired" legs when exercising I decided to give myself a break and not work out, but last night I did do a little something. I did 20 basic crunches, 20 cross-over crunches, and 20 reverse crunches, or at least that's what I'm calling them. I laid on the floor and raised my legs up to a 90 degree angle from the floor then lowered them back down. It was quite hard. Oh and I did 10 push ups. Not a great start to getting started again, but it was a start. I plan on doing just as much today if not more (shooting for more especially the push ups). I'm glad I'm out of my funk, (at least I hope I am) and I'm back to being 150% commited. I have worked so hard to loose the weight I have, that I really don't want to gain it all back in just a few short days because I have gained that amount back plus some. I've gained 30lbs in 30 days, and I've gained 20lbs in 30 days, I know how easy it is to gain... I will succeed and reach my goal.

Challenge day 5 out of 30 - Running out of steam

Today was an odd day for me. I woke up very refreshed and got in a good 30 minute workout first thing this morning. But by the end of that 30 minutes I just wasn't in the mood to do anything anymore. I think I am getting bored with doing my wii fit. This is the 2nd time this has happened, first time was when I was doing richard simmon's sweatin' to the oldies. I just got tired of it. I had the energy to do it, but not the umph. So, I think I am going to have to change up my routine after this week ends. I think I am done with doing a full week of just one thing because I just don't feel it. So, my new idea starting Saturday will be to alternate between all of the different workouts, Saturday I will do the steps, Sunday a video, Monday Wii, Tuesday a different video, Wednesday steps, Thursday another video, and Friday the Wii again. Hopefully this will help me not get so bored. Plus if I feel the urge to do the other workouts on their off days, I can add that to my list. It's an idea... we'll see how it works.

Weight: 242.5 - no change from yesterday, but that's ok. Hopefully there will be a huge drop tomorrow and Saturday. If not, I'm still down 1.6lbs for the week. Not gonna stress it, but It would really be nice if it happened.

Breakfast: 6 pts
Today I decided to change things up a bit. While I really like my waffles, I decided I needed to use up my bread so I made French Toast. Now this isn't your normal french toast; it's from the website Sparkpeople.com. You do have to register with them to access their recipes. The recipe is called French (Women Don't Get Fat) Toast. Kinda neat huh? It's just a basic french toast but very yummy. I think tomorrow I am going to make a big batch of them so I can just throw them in the freezer and defrost when I feel the urge instead of cooking each morning.

I topped my french toast with my normal topping of fresh cut strawberries w/ 1 TBSP strawberry glaze and reddi wip. And since I had some points available I decided to drink 1 cup of fat free milk.

Lunch: 14 pts
I had a grilled cheese sandwich with 1 slice of fat free turkey meat and 1 cup 2% cottage cheese and a dole peach cup. To get in a few extra veggies I drank 1 cup of v8 juice.

Dinner: 11pts
I made chicken enchiladas. I don't think i'm going to make them very often because 11 points for 2 enchiladas with no side dishes is a lot of points for just a little bit of food. I'm not fond of just a little food. I like to eat and I want as much food as I possibly can get. So Chicken Enchiladas are now off my list of to go to foods.

Snack: 5 pts
My morning snack was 2 celery stalks w/ 2 tbsp of jif creamy peanut butter. My afternoon snack was a weight watchers ice cream cone.

Exercise: 65 minutes - Calories burned 310. Activity points 6
I tried to make my tracking a lot easier today. Instead of doing just a couple minutes here and there and a lot of cardio I decided to give myself even numbers. I did 10 minutes yoga, 10 minutes strength training, 20 minutes cardio, 10 minutes balance and a few other things that I cannot remember anymore. :-). It did make tracking a lot easier. I did a few exercises on one leg and my balance totally sucks. I really need to figure out how to fix this. I use to have good balance. I'm hoping that as I get thinner it will be easier for my leg to support my weight, but I don't know if that will happen. Also, my left leg has always been my weaker leg. I was born with 2 clubbed feet and what that means is that my feet were twisted completely around. My heels were where my toes should be. At the age of 2 weeks the doctor manually straightened them, and at the age of 6 I had surgery on them to fix it permanetly. While I have suffered from arthritis in my knees from the casts and such, I haven't really suffered any ill effects from the clubbed feet other than my left foot is very stiff. I have very little range of motion in it. So doing balance exercises on my left leg is very hard. I am going to keep at it and hopefully the more I do it the stonger and more flexible it will get, here's to hoping.

Non-Scale Victories (NSV)

I started weight watchers for the 2^nd (well actually I think it was the 4^th) time on March 1, 2012 with the intention of just losing weight. I was tired of being fat and knew it was time to “put my big girl panties on” and just do it. There were some issues that I knew I couldn’t fix without losing weight. Never did I realize that I would also succeed at making other changes. I knew I had a flexibility problem. My muscles had become so tight that normal every day activities were hard. I would wake up in the morning and pretty much roll out of bed because I didn’t have the stomach muscles to actually sit up in bed. ***TMI*** I would go to the bathroom and could barely clean myself properly because my back hurt too much to twist right. I am very embarrassed by this fact. I’m only 34 years old! I should have these problems, but I did, and it was my own fault! I was in constant pain from my back being out of align and had to take muscle relaxers to help me even just sleep because of the pain. It was horrible. I never realized that in just 1 short month (well 1 month and 5 days) that I would overcome these issues. I can stand from my couch without pushing myself off with my arms. I can twist like a child. My back no longer hurts 24/7. I’m still working on fixing my neck problems and once I find the right activities to fix that I should be golden. J I no longer wake up multiple times each night just to roll over in bed, in fact, I am actually feeling rested so much so that I will wake up at odd hours at night and cannot go back to sleep. I have only lost 7.7lbs in this last month, and while that is a victory in and of itself, it’s not the ultimate victory. The victory is knowing that my pants are no longer tight. That I can move and that I am no longer in pain. For that, I will be truly thankful to weight watchers for helping me change my life!

Challenge day 4 out of 30 - A new light

I think a new light has finally clicked in my head. I had to wait until my kids were in bed before I could exercise cause my wii board was out of batteries and I had to wait for the batteries to charge... *note to self, don't let all the batteries die at once. :-p* Anyway, I know I could have done other activities, but I really wanted to complete my week of doing the wii, so I waited. Every little bit I kept checking my charger to see if they were finished... nope, not yet...nope, not yet...nope not yet. It was driving me nuts! Finally around 7pm the charging light turned off... YAY! but of course my kids wanted to play, dang it! LOL. Plus it was very close to their bedtime, so again, I waited. But I did get my workout in even though my body was saying, "nope, not gonna do it. I'm tired and I want to go to bed." I'm very pleased. I did 35 minutes with a calorie burn of 222. How's that for a round number? LOL. I do play to do at least 10 more minutes before bed, but I figure even if I don't, I'm ok with this type of calorie burn.

OH! Best thing ever, remember how I was worried that I was going to see a gain on the scale this morning after eating that yummy but high calorie/high point cake yesterday? Well, the good news is it didn't have a negative effect on me. :) I lost .4 ounces. Many people think .4 isn't a lot but every little bit helps and I will gladly take a .4ounce loss over a .4 gain. Hmmm, I just realized something, it's not .4ounces, it's .4 lbs. LOL. Oh well. That is my crowing glory today. On to tomorrow.

Weight: 242.5lbs, total loss 7.7lbs
Breakfast was the same, eggs and waffles - 9 points

For lunch I decided to mix it up a bit. I decided I just couldn't stomach another chicken sandwich. I think I ruined it for myself yesterday with all that extra sweetness, so today I went for a more savory type dish, grilled cheese with 1 slice of sargento colby jack cheese on Sara Lee 45 cal bread. I also cut up 1 cucumber and a couple carrots and had 1 tbsp of ranch to dip them in. It was a pretty good lunch but I should have added in a couple pieces of turkey or ham to my meal for some protein. It didn't give me the "full" signal even after drinking my 24oz of water and waiting 20 or so minutes. I still felt hungry, so what'd I do to fix it? Had a weight watcher's sundae cone for 2 pts. :) That did it. LOL. Total points for lunch and my snack was 10 pts.

Dinner was Tacos and a side salad for 10 pts. That left me with a total of 7 pts that I needed to fill, so for my evening snack I had 1 cup of 2% cottage cheese w/ 1 dole peaches cup - 7 pts. I would have been plenty happy to not have had the cottage cheese and peaches but I felt it was important to use up my points.

Exercise: 35 minutes wii fit plus including running, boxing, yoga, balance, strength (lunges YUCK!). The high light for me though was to be able to pass the advanced level on the bubble game and to also complete the add to 15 game also on advanced. YAY! Both of these I've worked for quite some time to figure out how to do it and finally did. SO AWESOME! lol. The little joys I find in life. HAHA.

Ok, Now it's off to dream land. gotta be up @ 6:30 to get the boy off to school. night!

Challenge Day 3 out of 30 - Bad Choices = Learning Experiences

Ok, so I'm going to admit it, but only 1 time so pay attention. I'm not perfect. That's right, I said it. I'm not perfect. Now that I've cleared up that point, I wanted to share my whoops for the month. I can honestly admit that I since March 1, 2012 I have partaken of fast food a total of 3 times. Yup, 3. For me, that's actually pretty good because I've been known to buy fast food 4-5 times in one week (I went through a no cooking phase). Since I have been committed to loosing weight I have tried really hard to be good and not feed those nasty habits. My first indulgence was when I was on vacation at my sister's house. Because I was off my routine, I was extremely hungry one day while out shopping, so I purchased me a $1 McDouble from McDonalds. I already knew that those sandwiches are a little less than 400 calories. I've never really figured out the Weight Watcher's points, but figured it was around 7-10 pts just guesstimating. My next indulgence was on my way home from vacation. I usually try to travel between meals when I'm only going 3-4 hours away, but this time, I was on the road right at dinner time, so I again went to McDonalds and purchased Chicken nuggets and fries for me and my kids. I gave the fries to the kids split the 20 nuggets between the 3 of us, and had 8 nuggets while each kid had 6. My final indulgence was tonight. I went to my sister's house for my niece's birthday. I had already used up my day's points so I knew I would be using some of my weekly points and wasn't really worried about it. My sister ended up purchasing an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. It looked very delicious. I requested a small piece, but ended up with one bigger than I was hoping for. I should have cut the piece in half, but didn't: Mistake 1. Mistake 2 was eating the whole piece. It wasn't very large, but it was large enough. When I came home I searched the Dairy Queen website to find the nutritional information so I could track it. The closest thing I came to was the Oreo Blizzard cake. My sister purchased a sheet cake, and the website only had 8" and 10" round cakes listed. So I decided to go by the 10" cake information. My jaw dropped when I found out how many points that small piece was... guess... come on, guess... you'll never guess. Ok, I'll tell ya, that one piece of cake was about 21 points. GO FIGURE! I know that a large turtle blizzard is like 25 points (don't ask me how I know ;-). If I had known that I was going to blow half my weekly points on that one piece of cake I so wouldn't have eaten it. **Note to self, take Ipod anywhere I go. ** So, because a moment on my lips, I just spent the last 40 minutes busting my butt to keep that moment off my hips. LOL. Lesson learned!

Weight: 242.9 (yay! so excited. I don't expect to see a loss in the morning due to my bad choice tonight though.)

Breakfast: 9 points - Egg and Waffle breakfast

Lunch: 12 points - Chicken salad from yesterday, grapes, light strawberry yogurt and salad

Dinner: 14 points - Chicken Parmesan and salad

Snack: 21 points - DQ ice cream cake

Total points for the day - 56

Exercise: 75 minutes, Calorie burn 561
Exercise included running, steps, yoga, tummy exercises, and balance

Here's to a better tomorrow :)

Challenge Day 2 out of 30

Things are going pretty good so far. I accomplished a feat that I have never done before; I ran for 20 minutes straight with no stopping. Ok, so I mostly ran in place, but I still consider it a win. That is something I have never before accomplished. According to my Wii fit I ran 3.1 miles. I've ran outside and I know without a doubt that I didn't actually run 3.1 miles, but that's ok. That's not the success part of this post, the success part is I DID IT! I also worked on some core activities and some yoga (I'm a yoga trainer! go me! Lol). My balance is getting better. I only needed to hold onto my daughter's head for one of the activities. :-p. I did the single leg extensions and did pretty good with my right leg, but my left leg is a lot weaker than the right, so that is where I had to hold on to her head. I'm very proud of this. I have a very hard time with my balance, so yay, it's getting better. (And now I feel that I am rambling. lol). So, my total exercise for the day was 49 minutes with a calorie burn of 300 calories. In 2 days I've burned 608 calories. Not bad for a beginner. One day I will reach 500 calories in 50 minutes and then my next goal is 1000. I can do this!

Weight: 243.5 (YAY! I'm almost half way to my next 5lb goal!) Total weightloss of 7.3lbs

Food:
Since I usually have the same breakfast of 2 eggo nutrigrain waffles w/ 1 cup strawberries, whipped cream and 2 "fried" eggs, I am not going to post that... kind of repetitive. If I change up my breakfast then I will post that info.

Lunch I made a Chicken Salad with Grapes and Apples - from the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook
Chicken, Light vanilla yogurt, Honey Dijon Mustard, Apples, Grapes, Celery, All on 2 slices of Sara Lee 45 Calorie Bread (BEST BREAD EVER!!!).

I also had 1/2 cup of 2% cottage cheese and 1 dole peaches cup (easiest way to "measure" your canned fruit :)

Dinner was the best. Chicken Cordon Bleu (Recipe on my cooking page) with 1/2 cup of Idahoan loaded Mashed potatoes and 1/4 c brown gravy, 1 cup pickled beets and 1 1/2 cup salad with 2 tbsp of fat free Italian dressing.

Water: 96 oz (4-24oz glasses)

Exercise: 49 minutes with a 300 calorie burn. Exercise included running, yoga, strength training moves, and balance.

Challenge Day 1 out of 30

Have you ever had days where you think... na, I'm not going to do it... it won't make a difference? That was me today. I knew today was day 1 of my 30 day exercise challenge. I kept pushing it off thinking, oh, I'll do it later, it's only x o'clock. I have plenty of time! I went and bought a ton of groceries, and still... I can do it later. Had lunch, had dinner, yet still, I kept pushing it off. Na, not feeling it now, I'd rather watch The Pretender than exercise. But in the back of my head the nagging thought would not go away, "It's day 1, gotta get off your butt and exercise" yet my lazy/devil side kept saying "Oh, you have plenty of time, you can do it later." 7:30 rolled around and I realized it was time to get the kids into bed. Bed time means a good 30 minute story to the kids, baths, etc. yet I kept pushing. Kids finally in bed and I still kept pushing it off. Finally, I decided, enough, and pulled out my Wii Fit Plus game. I wasn't sure what I wanted to work on tonight, so I decided to just do my favorites. I did 6 minutes of the Hulu Hoop Plus... killer ab workout. Then I did 20 minutes of free stepping, hit over 2000 steps. GO ME! Next was the free run for 10 minutes. Other than a few seconds where I was trying to get stuff off my feet I ran in place the whole time. Finally I ended with some yoga and balance games. I'm highly impressed with myself tonight. I did 48 minutes worth of exercise for a total calorie burn of 308. When I logged it into my Weight Watcher's Tracker, it said I did 5 activity points. Not a bad start at all for my 1st day! Tomorrow I plan to add in some strength training exercises.

My food for today, well, it wasn't as good as it normally is. I had ran out of pretty much all my breakfast stuff, so I decided to go grocery shopping before I ate breakfast. Yeah, not so great of an idea. I bought way too much stuff, but I am pretty well stocked for the month on most things. :) Due to my shopping trip then subsequent need to put the groceries away I completely missed breakfast and was STARVING by the time I did eat. But I tried to be good. I had 1 cup low fat cottage cheese and 1 dole individual cup of peaches, then had a grilled cheese sandwich. That did pretty good to fill me up and used up 12 points. (Cottage cheese is a high point item. :( ) For a snack I had 1/12 of a piece of pie for less than 10 points (I can't cut things into odd numbers so I cut it into 12 pieces into 10 and yes, I understand that 10 and 12 are both even numbers. LOL.) so that left me with a total of 14 points for the rest of the day, which I happily used them for a VERY yummy dinner of flat enchiladas, where I measured everything precisely... I'm so impressed with myself I can hardly stand it! LOL. I had 2 enchiladas with 2 oz of 96% fat free ground beef, and .13g of finely shredded fiesta cheese from walmart. Topped that with 1/8 cup of sauce, and lettuce and tomato. did that 1 more time. then I made me a pretty good sized side salad with the left over tomatoes and lettuce... my plate was heaping full!!! The kids raved about how yummy the food was. I'd say it was a success. I used up all my points and finished up the day with gosh, 4-5 24oz cups of water. no wonder I feel so waterlogged... Time to hit the hay for my 8 hours of beauty sleep.. (haha I wish) because tomorrow is my weigh in day for my biggest loser challenge... wish me luck!