Losing It - Week 2

So, here we are. The end of our second week of Losing It: Not Just Our Sanity. Each week for the next 9 weeks, Jessie from Vanderbilt Wife, Ashleigh from Heart & Home and I will be sharing a peek (or in the case of this wordy ramble, an oversized bay window) into our weight loss journeys.

If you’d like to take the challenge to Lose It (#LosingIt10 on Twitter, by the way), write about your own journey, link to this site in your post, and share a link to your blog post in our weekly carnival. The bloggers who link up at least six out of the 10 weeks will be eligible for our prize package of a six-month subscription to The Six O'Clock Scramble (a meal planning service), a Weight Watchers pedometer and a gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods.

The winner will be the person who loses the largest percentage of his or her body weight during the 10 weeks.

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This week I was on my weight loss game. Mostly. Kind of. Okay, let’s just compare my week to my goals (and then, yes, I want you to compare YOUR week to YOUR goals. It’s only fair.).

• Drink 10-12 cups of water a day. I’m all over this one. If I have one good habit, it’s drinking water. Of course, it means I spend half my day walking back and forth to the bathroom. But I think it’s worth it to be able to say things like, “I’m all over this one.”
• Stick to my weekly allowance of points (Weight Watchers). As my daughter has taken to saying, “Welllll . . .” I haven’t stayed within my points. But I did write down my food and count all my points almost every day. So there’s that.
• Exercise three times a week. I did a Walk Away the Pounds video on Monday after work. Annalyn alternated between marching along with me and saying, “No, Mommy! Not dance!” I know I need to exercise to complete my healthy transformation. But I can admit that I’m going to have to work up to the multiple times a week thing.
• Lose 20 pounds during our competition. I’ll let you know after my weigh-in today!

Edited to add: I lost 1.2% this week! Woo-hoo!

All right, that’s how I did. Now tell me how you did!

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Losing It

On Monday, I said this on Twitter: “My mom said my brother's lost a bunch of weight. So I'm back on the healthy wagon today. Is that bad?”

According to my friends on Twitter, that is not bad motivation at all. As a matter of fact, two of my friends suggested we put our bloggy powers to work and start a weight loss competition.

I’m kidding. We don’t have special bloggy powers.

We are, however, holding a weight loss competition.

For the next 10 weeks, Jessie from Vanderbilt Wife, Ashleigh from Heart & Home and I are going to be making healthy choices and talking about it. And then we’re going to tell you if we’ve lost weight and how much. Kind of.

I can’t be more specific than that, because we’re each going about weight loss differently. For example, Ashleigh and Jessie are big believers in whole foods. On the other hand, I’m a fan of food that comes from a can or my freezer and gets cooked in the microwave.

But no matter how we differ in food choices, exercise plans or calorie/point/carb counts, we’re all aiming for the same thing: healthy, lasting weight loss.

And we’d like you to join us. Every Friday for the next 10 weeks, we're going to host a carnival called Losing It (and Not Just Our Sanity). I’ll tell you if I met my goals for the week and what percentage of my body weight I lost.

(Sorry, friends. I only share my actual weight with my Weight Watchers leader. And . . . strangely enough, I pay for that privilege . . .)

If you join us, you could not only lose weight, but you could GAIN a prize! Anyone who links up at least six of the ten weeks will be eligible to win a six-month subscription to The Six O'Clock Scramble (a meal planning service), a Weight Watchers pedometer, and a gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods.

The winner? The person who loses the biggest percentage of body weight!

What do you say? Are you ready to make some healthier choices over the next 10 weeks? I know I am! Here are my goals:

• Drink 10-12 cups of water a day.
• Stick to my weekly allowance of points (Weight Watchers).
• Exercise three times a week.
• Lose 20 pounds during our competition.

Who’s in?



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Better than carrot sticks

Photo by nanaow2006

I have this aversion to plain, raw carrots. I chew and chew, but they never go away. Hey, you don't have to tell me that's gross. I live it. That's how much I dislike carrots.

Add a little dip (and calories) or cook them with a roast (again with the calories), and they're fine. But raw? And plain? No thanks.

Thankfully, our society is so overweight and diet-obsessed that I have lots of healthy eating options. And we talked about our favorite "diet" foods at my Weight Watchers meeting last week. It made me want to go shopping right away!

The meeting also reminded me of some of the tricks I'd forgotten to losing weight. Here are a few of the foods I rely on when I'm on program, as they call it at WW:

• Apple and cinnamon instant oatmeal
• Sugar-free hot chocolate
• Fiber One (or Great Value) granola bars
• Oroweat sandwich thins (These are new, and I highly recommend them!)
• 98% fat-free Mission tortillas
• 98% fat-free popcorn (I like kettle corn the best.)
• Light or lowfat cheese or other milk products. (I do not do fat-free milk products. Ick.)
• Reduced fat peanut butter
• Apples, bananas, strawberries and grapes
• Lots and lots of green beans

Edited to add: How could I have forgotten Laughing Cow cheese?! I love that stuff, especially with reduced fat Wheat Thins! Yum! Also, have you all discovered Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta yet? It comes in spaghetti, macaroni, penne and probably several other shapes, and looks, tastes and feels just like white pasta (because you will never convince me that the wheat stuff is good) - but it has extra fiber and other vitamins/minerals/good stuff. Check out Jill's post and this funny video about it!

What healthy (or healthier) foods do you rely on to maintain a healthy diet?

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I do not heart HTML.

I have just spent the last 47 hours fixing the text on this blog. It involved spacing and fonts and HTML and I don’t even know what has happened.

Or, as Annalyn likes to say, “Hap. In?”

I had my first Weight Watchers weigh-in last Friday, and I was down 1.6 lbs. That’s not much, but it’s definitely a start.

And, umm, probably more than I’ve lost this last week. This week has not gone so well. I didn’t eat brownies at the family barbecue. And I had every intention of walking. And I used low-fat sour cream and mayo when I made up six dips for my party on Tuesday.

But this week may also have included pizza. And chips with that dip. And beer bread (oh, my goodness, the beer bread was sooo good!). And no walking, due to rain and crazy schedules. And did I mention the chips?

So. My second weigh-in may not be so hot. I know that. But I’m still looking forward and making goals and not quitting. My goal for next week is to write down everything I eat.

All of it.

Do you have a goal for next week?

I have a big weekend coming up. Tonight is Light the Night (and there’s still time to donate if you’d like to join my team in fighting cancer!). On Saturday, Chelleybutton is coming down for a visit. And on Sunday, we have nursery duty (yay.) and small group (yay!).

What are your weekend plans?

What’s the point?

Last Friday was The Big Day. The day I joined Weight Watchers . . . for the sixth time.

I know.

I’d like to say that this time it’s going to work, that this time will be different, that I’m tired of worrying about my weight and my health, and I’m ready to make a change.

But I’ve said that before.

So I think I’ll stick with this instead: I’m going to do my best today.

In case you don’t know how Weight Watchers works, the basic plan helps you manage your diet by giving you a set number of points you can eat each day. Your number of points is determined by age, gender, typical day’s activity and starting weight.

That means the heavier you are, the more points you get. Yay.

But back to Friday. My co-worker and I went to a meeting over our lunch break, where we signed up and weighed in. It’s a necessary evil, that scale.

The meeting was inspiring, if only because it put me back in the lose weight mindset. I get off track easily – yes, I realize this is shocking information – and I need the weekly reminder meetings provide.

I also won’t turn down the free samples of Weight Watchers snacks. And that is unfortunate, because those pizza pretzel thins were disgusting.

Not even worth the two points. Good thing I only ate one before pitching them in the trash. (I know, I know – wasting food is bad. But you know what’s worse? Eating a bag of pizza pretzel thins, thinking they’re going to get better and knowing they’re going to leave one nasty aftertaste.)

The best moment of our first meeting? When our leader, trying to prompt us, asked, “What’s a good appetizer to order at a restaurant?” That girl sitting across the room who answered, “Mozzarella sticks!” – I want to be her friend.

I suppose I should tell you how I did in my first week back on plan (or, OP, as we like to say). The bad news is that the weekend kicked my butt. I fixed my chocolate éclair dessert for my day o’ scrapping – and then finished it off myself. (NO, not all in one day. Thank you.) I didn’t even end up counting points on Saturday and Sunday.

But I did make some good decisions! I walked with my friend Brittany (and Annalyn, who likes to call Brittany “Bernie”) on Monday and Wednesday. I ordered soup and salad at On the Border and the TenderGrill Chicken Sandwich at Burger King (no mayo, even!). And when I “needed” to pig out one night after Annalyn went to bed, I ate chips and salsa (That’s a veggie! Really!) and a cheese sandwich (on whole wheat bread with low-fat cheese). Sure, I overindulged, but it only cost me 12 points.

Believe me, even if that sounds like a lot, it could have – and has been, many times – way worse.

So, I’m making progress. Wednesday was the first day that I actually stuck to my points allowance, but I’ll get better. I’m looking up every little thing, even when I think I remember the nutritional value. That’s a good thing, because even though I actually do remember most things (like I said, I’ve done this five times before), it’s good to be reminded that honey mustard is not fat-free. Or point-free.

But it is tasty . . .

Overall, my first week has gone pretty well. I’ll weigh in over lunch today, but even if I haven’t lost a pound (oh, please say I’ve lost a pound!), I know I’m back on track.

And that feels good.

My goal for this next week is to write down everything I eat; that habit really keeps me accountable and mindful of my choices.

What’s your goal for this week?

But I'm on my feet four hours a day, three days a week!

What's that? You thought that because I watched the GLEE premiere the first time around that I wouldn't watch it again last night?

Wrong!

I couldn't do much more than that. After all, I did walk an entire mile last night. Oh, I didn't tell you? That's right - I've started exercising. Again.

And next week, I'll be joining Weight Watchers. Again.

I'd love nothing more than to never say those words again. So I'm thinking about starting some sort of weekly fitness / weight loss / dieting / accountability THING on this blog.

What do you all think? Would you be interested in something like that? Would you be bored by that? Annoyed? Excited? Love it so much you want to marry it?

Let me know.

Until then, I'll be stretching my legs. When you're used to an exercise routine that consists only of lifting a gallon of milk out of the fridge and shuffling down the hall behind a slowly walking baby girl, a short mile feels like a 5K.

That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run.

I’ve been thinking lately that I should do an update on my 2009 goals. So here are the short answers:

• Quiet time – not so daily, but I’m still working on it.
• Finances – have paid off some debt and have saved some, too. We’re going to be sidetracked for the next year, thanks to Uncle Sam. But I’m still working toward sticking to our budget and moving forward (instead of backwards!!).
• Quality time with the kiddo – yep. She doesn’t always want to read before bed, but we’re getting in time doing something fun each day.
• Recycling – our trash service doesn’t offer recycling in our neighborhood. I have bought bins and identified nearby drop-off locations. But . . . I have to admit that the bins haven’t been put to use yet.

The long answer, of course, is about my never-ending quest to lose weight. Let’s see . . . where to start?

First, I quit Weight Watchers, because I wasn’t going to meetings and it was really a waste of money. (However, let me state here that the problem was me, not the program! The program definitely works when you follow it!)

Second, I’ve considered various options for exercise, from jazzercise to Curves to water aerobics at my local gym.

I haven’t started any of them.

And then there’s the latest craze being talked about like, well, crazy on the internets: Shred. For about four seconds, I considered trying it out.

Until I remembered the stack of workout tapes and DVDs that already live in my house.

Have I mentioned that we’re now just eight weeks away from a trip to Florida? Where I will, presumably, be forced to don a swimsuit?!

So last night, I set the alarm to get up early. To use one of those workout videos. Which I would have done, had I not hit snooze about six times. Luckily, the day didn’t end there.

After work, Annalyn and I headed to the park for a walk. The weather today was beautiful – about 70 degrees, and no rain. Sure, we’d all like a nice sunny day. But when it’s rained almost every day lately, I take what I can get.

Anyway, I plopped her in the stroller – the regular kind from Walmart, not a fancy jogging stroller, mind you – and headed out. My original plan was to take the trail twice, for a total of one miles.

But something happened on that trail. And it sounded like this, “Do you want Mommy to go fast?”

Yeah. I decided to try running. I’ll tell you some other time about my previous relationship with running. But suffice it to say it’s not been a good one. And it’s been quite a while since we even met, running and me.

I don’t know what came over me. But as Annalyn and I made our way around the slightly hilly half-mile trail, I decided to try running a few yards at a time. Turns out it wasn’t as hard as I would have assumed. Then again, that could be due to the fact that I ran for, literally, a few yards at a time. Three times.

We spent the rest of the time huffing and puffing and wondering why I left my inhaler in the car. Or . . . maybe that was just me.

Annalyn spent the rest of the time playing with her phone and greeting the other walkers and one tiny dog.

See? We do fun stuff together!

** Extra credit to anyone who can name the movie I got the title quote from! **

Tag! You're it.

Last week, Rochelle tagged me to write a post about 8 Things. I’ve never actually been tagged before, so this was exciting. Really. I'm so easily excited. Anyway, in just a moment, I’ll start my listing (you know how I love lists!).

But first, I want to encourage you, ask you, beg you (!) to come back tomorrow. I know most people check out of the blog world and into real life on the weekends. I do, too, and I think that’s great. But tomorrow, I’m going to share with you some of the most touching posts I’ve read about this week’s Compassion trip to India, and I don’t want you to miss it.

And now . . . (drumroll, if you like) . . . The Lists of 8 Things.

8 things I'm looking forward to:

• Date night with Mark tomorrow. We’re finally using the movie passes I got for my birthday (in December)!
• Finishing Annalyn’s scrapbook in a couple weeks at my monthly crop with my friend, Christelle
• Smitty finishing her teaching program and moving back home
• Going to Columbia for a weekend getaway to celebrate our 10th anniversary
• Starting a new Bible study with our small group (We’re plowing through our current, church-mandated study now – I’ll just say that it’s not what we would have picked!)
• Vacation in Florida this summer
• Seeing Annalyn take her first steps
• Season 5 of So You Think You Can Dance

8 things I did yesterday (also known as Wednesday, because sometimes it takes me two days to finish a post):

• Ate a bagel for breakfast (Not donuts, thankyouverymuch, and that’s my point.)
• Sent several press releases to various newspapers across the country
• Went home for lunch to see Mark and Annalyn
• Talked to the CEO of our company about a new project
• Complained about the rain
• Watched reruns of Will & Grace instead of the President’s address
• Halfheartedly watched the American Idol results show (Why can’t they just say who’s kicked off and let us get on with our night?)
• Read a couple chapters of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day (Already I can tell, this one is going to be life-changing.)

8 things I wish I could do:

• Lose weight
• Spend more time with Annalyn
• Dance
• Develop my photography skills
• Pay off our debt
• Go on a Compassion bloggers’ trip
• Sell our house
• Move to Nashville

8 TV shows I watch:

• How I Met Your Mother
• Chuck
• Castle
• American Idol
• NCIS
• Bones
• Grey’s Anatomy
• My Boys

And during the summer, I can add So You Think You Can Dance, Burn Notice and Psych. Is it a bad thing that I can come up with more than eight shows I watch but had a hard time thinking of eight things I did yesterday…?

8 bloggers I tagged:

• I’m not going to tag anyone, because I don’t want anyone to feel obligated.
• However, if it makes you feel special, then maybe I should tag you.
• I’ll start with Chelley, Mel, Busy and HM. Then I’ll add Amy, Brenda, Erin and Kimberly.
• And then I’ll feel guilty for not tagging every single one of my readers.
• So I’ll consider deleting this whole list.
• But then I’ll decide that I just want to get this post posted!
• So I’ll ask forgiveness from everyone – those who were tagged and are now annoyed, and those who were not tagged and are now sad.
• Then I’ll say that I think if you want to use this meme on your blog, just go for it, tagged or not!

The end. Please come back tomorrow.

Why do I wait? Or do I mean "weight"?

Last week, for about half a day, I thought I might be pregnant. (I’m not.) As my goal for losing weight this year is just as much about being healthy and prepared for another possible pregnancy (in the future, people, so don’t get any crazy ideas) as it is about lookin’ good, well, this possibility kind of freaked me out.

I know that the complications during my last pregnancy weren’t my fault and might have happened even if I’d been the picture of good health. But I also know my chances of a repeat performance are higher if I don’t lose weight.

So when I had this little episode last week, one of my first thoughts was, “Oh no! Now I won’t be able to lose weight!”

And then I thought, “Well, that’s okay. I’ll just start immediately walking every day and eating lots of fruits and vegetables. And I’ll be so healthy! Yay! I can do this! I will do this!”

And then…then, I thought, “Hunh. Wonder why I couldn’t be this motivated before? Back when it wasn’t too late?”

I mean, really. Why is it that when the time is perfect for doing the right thing, I don’t do it. It’s only when I’m face to face with the consequences of my laziness, my lack of motivation, my sin – it’s then that I’m finally able to find within me the commitment to doing that right thing.

But sometimes it’s too late. Why don’t I act before it’s too late?

Does anyone else have this problem?

I know for me it doesn’t just apply to healthy eating and exercise. This happens with finances and how I talk to my husband and spending enough time with my family and finishing work projects and sharing my faith with a friend and, well, the list is quite long, now that I think about it.

What about you? What do you find yourself waiting – possibly too long – to do? And if you have mastered this habit, how do you motivate yourself before it’s too late?

Have it your way?

Part of my weight loss journey relies on my ability to make different food choices. And that’s hard, after 30 glorious years of enjoying pounds of M&Ms and bags of Doritos. I mean, those were good years!

Then again, they were also years fraught with agony over shopping in the women’s section and panic over once life-threatening blood pressure.

I guess the different choices might not be so bad after all.

And really, they aren’t. Granted, forcing myself to eat more fruits and vegetables is harder than it sounds. (I’m telling you, I don’t care if carrots could somehow eliminate my blind-as-a-bat need for glasses, they would still taste gross.) But let’s be honest – I’m not going to give up good-tasting food, and I’m not going to completely revamp the way I live (or magically find three extra hours in the day to cook those healthy meals I see on TV). So I’ve got to find some compromises – different choices that fit within my life, different choices that I can stick with.

Today I’m happy to report that I have found a couple good ones. Maybe they’ll help some of you in your health goals, too. Those of you who eat out more than you should and aren’t afraid of the golden arches or flame-broiled anything.

First, the fast food winner: McDonald’s Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich. It’s 9 points (420 calories/10g fat/3g fiber), which is a lot for a sandwich but not a lot for fast food. And it’s good! So far, I’ve gotten it with the mayo, but as I progress in my different choices strategy, I’ll probably leave it off. It’s that good.

And now for the fast food loser: Burger King’s TenderGrill Chicken Sandwich. This one is 11 points (510 calories/19g fat/4g fiber), and it’s not nearly as good as McDonald’s offering. My chicken was dry and overcooked, and there’s no way I’d attempt it without some sort of sauce (you can get it with honey mustard instead of mayo, and the stats are a bit lower). I was pretty disappointed in this choice…and glad I opted for onion rings, despite the 7-point price.

Finally, the best healthier food choice I’ve made recently was at California Pizza Kitchen. I had a cup of tortilla soup, which I’d classify as okay but filling, and then I had the most delicious salad I’ve had in a long time: the BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad (I had a half salad). According to the information I could find, this perfect-sized salad was only 7 points. If they would have brought it with the dressing on the side (as I requested), it would have been even lower.

I know that many of us start new diets – or healthy lifestyle programs – in January, and some of you have mentioned being a part of that group. In your efforts to eat better, have you made any discoveries? (I know Brenda has – check out her delicious grapefruit photo!)

Post-Thanksgiving Diet

Call it food poisoning. Call it the stomach flu. Call it an ingenious post-Thanksgiving diet. But please, just don't call it for dinner.

ha. haha.

That weak laughter? It's about all I can manage on Day Three of the stomach yuck.

Looking on the bright side, though...I'm pretty sure I've lost the 10 pounds I surely gained between last Monday and Friday!

Product Review: No, I Don’t Work for Fiber One

I don’t work for Fiber One, but I tend to try all their foods in an attempt to lower my WW point intake. I’m also not a big fan of yogurt, but I know it’s a healthy, stick-to-you snack. So I tried the new Fiber One yogurt.

Actually, I bought two six-packs and let them go bad in my fridge. So I threw them away. And bought another six-pack, vowing to eat them, even if they did taste like yogurt.

The first time I tried the peach-flavored yogurt, I was actually feeding it to Photobaby. It was at that point that I realized two things: first, I was an idiot for wasting two packs of yogurts, and second, I didn’t want to share it with Photobaby!

Fiber One yogurt is creamy and light and tasty. I actually thought as I was eating it, “This is almost like a dessert.” Coming from someone who can eat half a pan of brownies in one sitting, that’s pretty high praise.

Each little container has just 1 point, or for those of you not counting points, 80 calories, no fat and 5 grams of fiber. It comes in strawberry, peach (yum!), vanilla and key lime pie flavors.

And just to prove that I’m not in Fiber One’s pocket, I’ll tell you that they have a new product I will be avoiding: toaster pastries. Or, if you’d like, fake Pop Tarts.

I may have mentioned before that I’m not allowed to buy Pop Tarts. I’ve banned myself from doing so, because it never fails to result in a guilty binge, where I eat Pop Tart after Pop Tart after…well, you get the point. No pun intended, although I will tell you that regular, delicious, wonderful Pop Tarts are more than 4 points EACH.

Given my outrageous addiction to Pop Tarts, I was cautiously excited to learn Fiber One was making a high fiber version of this life-enhancing food. But then. Then I read that the FO version still has 3 points EACH. And then my co-worker tried them and said they’re so not worth it that she ended up throwing hers away after just a couple bites.

So, to sum it up: Fiber One yogurt is good. Fiber One toaster pastries are bad. And oh yeah – my name is Photoqueen, and I’m in love with – I mean, addicted to – Pop Tarts.

This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday. Fiber One yogurt works for me - click here to see other tips for things that work!

Your turn: What food are you hooked on? Or, if you're not like that (really?), what healthy food would you recommend?