Uninspired week leads to Tool for Living #4

It's Friday and although I haven't had a bad week point wise, I feel like I'm slacking in the healthy lifestyle department. One reason is I haven't gone food shopping in a while so my fridge is no longer stocked with healthy items, fruits, veggies, etc, so I'm resorting to my unhealthy stash of snacks when I'm home. And I haven't been going on my daily walks for a variety of reasons--none of them really good reasons. And after all the excitement about getting my bike...have I actually ridden it? Nope. I don't think I'm completely off track this week, but I feel like I'm losing my way & I want to get back to that.

In this week's Tool for Living I'm going to skip to Reframing (#7 down the list) because I think it will help me get my priorities back in order.

Reframing discusses the fact that bad habits tend to get in the way of good intentions of moving towards a goal or my winning outcome.
WW recommends using this strategy for the following reasons:

• When you want to stop a negative or unwanted behavior.
• If you let your emotions govern your food choices.
• If you eat under stress.

While the last two aren't really my issue, the first one is what I will focus on.

So what behavior do I want to change?
Lazy eating habits during the week

What does that behavior get for me?
Convenience of not having to think about what I'm eating

How else can I get that benefit?
Keeping my kitchen stocked with good food choices
Making meal lists for the week with different options
Having quick meals/snacks that are healthy & quick to grab
Leave enough time for dinner
Keeping my kitchen clean and organized for easy cooking

Which of these new behaviors would I be willing to try?
Maybe I should start with keeping my kitchen clean and organized as well as keeping it stocked with good food choices. That will lead to the rest.

I think if it were this easy, I would have been doing this from the start. But I will try to put things in order this weekend and get back on track. Plus the weekends are always good for exercise--walking...biking :)

I just have to keep thinking, the more I keep this up, the easier it will be to move towards my winning outcomes!

Until next time

Tools for Living #3

So I haven't blogged lately. It's been busy. Memorial Day weekend wasn't as disastrous as I thought it would be. Well...except when I tried to calculate drinks in (margarita madness on Saturday). Fortunately I took advantage of the fantastic weather and got some outdoor activity in. Friday & Monday I walked the Croton Aqueduct trail (which is just beautiful) for an hour which I calculate about 3 miles round trip. And Sunday I went to the zoo and walked everywhere. We were there from about 11:30 til about 6pm, so I calculated about 4 hours of walking after taking out the stop & go of staring at animals. I was very happy about that.

The highlight of my weekend was Saturday night and dressing up for my birthday outing in a fabulous red dress I had purchased two years ago (the last time I was in good shape), and i was so happy with the way I looked in it. I accessorized with my white blazer & gold jewelry and shoes. I wish I had a full length photo because I looked amazing (if I can gloat).

Since Monday was a holiday, we didn't have our meeting which means I didn't get weighed in. I did weigh myself on the scale at my parents house which I am sure is not all that accurate, but I did just to record it. According to them I am now down another 2.6 lbs. Ha...if that's correct I'll be ecstatic. But I'm not counting on it. I think I'll go tonight to get a more accurate reading however painful it may be.

So here we go with today's tool: Empowering Beliefs (finally right?)

This enforces the concept of if we believe we can achieve. Just not quite as cheesy.
Beliefs, ideas that we think are true, strongly influence what we do, because they live in our hearts as well as our heads. The Empowering Beliefs Tool teaches you that you're more likely to succeed if you believe.

• That your weight goal is desirable and worth it.

• That you're capable of achieving your goal.

• That you deserve to achieve your goal.

I really don't think I have too much of a problem with this one. I do desire to reach my weight goal, I am capable (most days), and I definitely deserve to achieve it. But I do notice a difference in my motivation when I'm feeling good about myself and how I look. Like Saturday night. I felt like I should be in the Sex & the City movie because I felt that classy. And with that I proceeded to ignore my massive amount of calories & points consumed in the form of alcohol earlier that day. But the days where I feel crappy, look crappy etc., I am so much less motivated to keep working towards that goal.

Lately though I've been using that as motivation to say I know I feel crappy now, but I'll feel better if I go for a walk...or have some fruit, etc.

So how can I improve upon these empowering beliefs? Let's take the first one.
Is my goal desirable and worth it? Yes. I had several goals though. One of my favorites is to look good or as I had put it to "kick ass" in my bridesmaid dress at my brother's wedding at the end of August. It's definitely desirable. Why? Because it's a big family function, there will be lots of photos being taken, and I want to look good. Plus I will be surrounded by my skinny sister-in-law (to be), and her skinny friends. Now while I know there's no way I will be skinny like them (or really have a desire to be), and I know I'll stick out like a sore thumb no matter what, I just want to know I look good for the event. Plus I expect there to be hot guys there to flirt with.

Am I capable of achieving my goal? Yes. Hell, I am down 10lbs already, and I've only been doing WW just over a month. Another 10 lbs and I will be at my lowest weight since...well I really can't remember. And if I continue at this rate, by the end of August I could potentially be down almost 40 lbs. Again, that's a lot to ask for, but I truly feel I am capable of doing this and intend to stick to my goals and my plan. By storyboarding my path to success, I am able to break it down into smaller steps & smaller goals that I can achieve.

Do I deserve to reach my goal? Hell yes. No question. I deserve to be healthy. I deserve to be happy. I deserve to spend exorbitant amounts of money which I don't have to buy new sexy clothes. They suggest listing people who appreciate me & why and looking at me through their eyes. Or listing ways I've contributed to the richness of lives of the people around me. Uh...again we're bordering on cheesy, but I think of myself as a genuine and friendly person. I know my friends turn to me for advice and a shoulder to lean on. I have helped some of my friends through some emotional situations. My family appreciates me for my reliable personality and my grounded personality. My co-workers appreciate me for the ideas and energy I bring to the office, my knowledge of the organization, and my willingness to help and my positive outlook on our work environment.

Yay. That wasn't so bad.

Well, now I am pretty energized. I sort of want to go do stuff to continue my goals and plans. This could be an incredible summer if I keep it up.

Until next time!

La la la la To meeeeeeee

I'm 28 today. That's not as scary as I thought it would be. I've always enjoyed celebrating my birthday. Never hid embarrassingly when someone ordered a song at a restaurant. (Well, maybe in the 13-15 year stage) So I've been looking forward to my birthday since the calendar changed over to my favorite month.

Anyway--the past few days since my WW meeting, I've been having major point issues. I think it's because it's PMS week, so I'm craving either more food or less healthy food. Or I didn't have the right choices to make (/made the wrong choices). I'm not even to Friday and I only have 17 pts left for the week. I can make it through without going over, but I really have to make a good effort to keep my points down and get in more exercise.

Of course that might be a little difficult with Memorial Day weekend being here. And the fact that tonight I'm going out to dinner w/my family so it might be point heavy. I'm checking out the menu right now and it's definitely looking quite...fattening (but oh so good).

Maybe I'll go for a walk after I leave work. No wait...it's raining again. Boo.

Until next time.

Weigh-ins Rock! Bravo!

Okay--well they did this week. So I'm down another 1.8 lbs, which brings me to 9lbs overall. So it's taking me a little longer than I had hoped to make it to the 10lb mark, but I am not complaining.

And yesterday I skipped my last meditation class to actually stay for the meeting. I did this for two reasons...one, I was just not feeling dealing with the group or pretending to have meditated during the week for one lousy class which I obviously have been slacking on...And two, the topic of the WW meeting was getting through the holidays & parties, which with Birthday season here, and labor day weekend, I definitely needed this meeting.

And although it wasn't quite what I had hoped for in terms of discussion, it did give me some ideas. I'm going to be researching some guilt free cakes & stuff for celebrating birthdays, including mine on Thursday, and my dad's and some other friends. That way I can have my dessert & not be racking up the points.

The best part of yesterday's meeting though was the end when the leader goes around asking about people's successes for the week and giving out little "Bravo" star stickers. And since I had a good week both weigh-in wise & portioning & activity wise, I raised my hand, and attributed it to the fact that I started a blog (yay me!) tracking my progress and highlighting the Tools for Success. Well--she was so excited about this that she gave me a whole STRIP of stars (seriously, there must be about 40) for using the tools. Go me.

So tomorrow I plan to highlight the next tool for success. I had mentioned "Empowering Beliefs," but I might pick another one...just to spice things up :) Plus something more appropriate for my state of mind at the moment. We'll see.

Until next time!

Monday...for better or worse

Well, it's Monday again. Another weigh-in day...

Actually, I'm not dreading today. Even though I had a pretty dead weekend, I didn't go above my points Saturday or Sunday. And even Friday with the Bowl-a-thon, I was only a few points over. Plus I got in a solid hour of walking on both Saturday and Sunday. That's not to say my food intake was all that great. I did have a bag of microwaved popcorn (94% fat free) when I should have portioned it out. And I had a little bit of a chocolate craving, but the Hershey's miniatures aren't too bad. I sadly did not get in too many fruits & veggies or water the past couple of days, but overall I didn't do too bad.

Plus since I'm starting to see physical results, I'm excited to see if the numbers drop too.

My favorite meal from this weekend was my hamburger & butternut squash fries I made last night after a little too much effort. I mixed the ground meat with teriyaki sauce and dijon mustard and let marinate, then I had it on a WW roll with a slice of FF cheese. Then I decided to use a recipe from the Hungry Girl book for the butternut squash fries which were baked & really good. Though the squash was ridiculously hard to try and cut. And next time I have to keep an eye on the fries a bit more since some of them were extra-extra crispy. But it was yummy. And the whole thing was only 9 points. For a burger & fries--not bad!

I wanted to try another recipe from that book for french toast, but I found my loaf of bread had gotten moldy. Yuck. Next time.

And I learned the process of making egg whites instead of scrambled eggs. I had an egg white & cheese muffin Saturday morning after my walk, and then an egg white omelet w/turkey & cheese & peppers on Sunday. Both were really good. I am just excited that I'm expanding my cooking skills & food selection.

Just a note about a new blog I found from the WW community boards. It is from a member in Minneapolis who is basically doing the same thing I'm doing...but for longer. I figure it's another useful reference and motivational blog to use as I go through my journey.
From Fat to Fit to Forty

So we'll see tonight what the scales say!

Until next time

The tide is changing

So this morning as I was getting dressed (and running rather late), I was pleasantly surprised to find that my clothes although aren't noticeably looser on me, but they are definitely looking better. Not quite as many bulges...or at least the bulges aren't quite as big :) The weight may be coming off slowly, but at least it's starting to show.

I noticed that yesterday too when I was dressed up for our fundraiser breakfast, but the skirt that I wore was always sort of big on me, so I didn't pay much attention. I did look good though :) And last night for my evening wear, I donned a pair of pants (my pirate pants to be exact) which were always on the tight side, but lately were much more unbearable to wear, but now seem to be quite comfortable. Hooray. I wish I had another pair of those. But that's besides the point.

So this is kind of motivating. And I've been really good this week, not spending any of my weekly points.

Until yesterday that is--but that was partially the fault of the no-choice-but-to-eat-eggs-and-bacon breakfast I had yesterday (though I only ate bits of everything) and a dinner consisting of wine & homemade blackberry pie which was SOOOO yummy. I had to estimate the points based on what I knew was in the recipe, and I figured it's better to overestimate than underestimate, so I went with 11 points for a slice, which in combination with the fatty breakfast & the wine put me over by about 7.5 pts. I did however go for a nice long walk with my friend down to the river & enjoyed the beautiful spring evening, and then had a nice brisk walk back up the hill...and then proceeded to find that I locked myself out--took my car key rather than my house key. That was quite the adventure.

Ah-I'm just very happy it's the weekend. Now let's see how good I can be this weekend :)

Until next time.

They took away a point!!

Damn weight loss...because I started on the cusp of one weight category, I guess I should have calculated that in...but when I weighed in this week online, I was asked to recalculate my points...and because I was in a different category than when I started, I dropped one daily point!!! That blows. And essentially for each 10 lbs I lose...or every time I go under the 10 lb marker, I lose another point! That blows.

I guess the point is that I'm supposed to be eating less as I lose more and am supposed to be less hungry or something. Booo...

So now I'm down to 28 pts. per day.

On the bright side, I have been under my daily values since Monday. Hooray! :) And this won't be a big festive weekend so I might actually get to keep my weekly points. Double hooray! And if I actually get in some more exercise this week, Monday's weigh in could be quite grand. Hooray Hooray Hoooooray!!!!

Maybe I shouldn't hooray too soon...

Until next time

Tools for Living #2

Okay, so despite the fact that this week was monumentally better than the week before, I only lost one pound compared to the 1.8 from the previous weigh in. I contribute that to two things...previous week overload catching up with me, and end of week bad points. But I'm still down a pound, so it's not an entire disappointment.

So onto Tools for Living #2:
Storyboarding

This step encourages you to make a step by step action plan to reach your "winning outcome" which we discussed last week. By breaking it down into smaller steps, or smaller goals, it makes the long term winning outcome more attainable. And then by writing or drawing (yeah, okay) these steps, you are visualizing them to make them a reality. I suppose I sort of did that last week, but let's put this baby to work Storyboard style.

Winning outcome: I want to get to my goal weight of 162 lbs and to improve my lifestyle by making healthy choices in my life.

First I have to decide my mini-goals which will help achieve this...
1. Walking for at least 20 minutes on Sunny/nice weather days
2. Days that I can't walk...uhh...
3. Filling my cabinet & fridge with healthy food, snacks, prep foods, etc.
4. Thinking of alternative ways to move more: taking the stairs if under 4 flights...
5. Using more creative & healthy ways to prepare my foods.
6.

I can't think of any more. WW says they should be specific. Should they be time specific with deadlines? And to put them in an order so I can see outcomes.

1. Filling my cabinet & fridge with healthy food choices
2. May: Get in three days of walking for at least 20 minutes during the week, and at least one 40+ minute physical activity on the weekend.
3. Think of alternative ways to move more. Do at least different movement per day in addition to exercise
4. June: Increase to five days of 20 minute exercise plus at least one day of 60 min physical activity or 2 days x 30 minutes.
5. Make an effort to cook more trying some of the WW recipes or Hungry Girl recipes.
6. July: Month #7=7 days of exercise. If not seven days, lengthen daily exercise to 30 minutes.
7. For each 10lbs and/or clothing size dropped, celebrate with a new outfit.

Okay, I just threw in that last one to make 7 items. I will be drawing this out on an actual storyboard soon. I will scan & post.

Next week's tool: Empowering beliefs. Right.

Until next time!

Weekend recovery

Boy I'm tired today. I usually am on Mondays, but I have that so tired my bones ache feeling today.

This weekend was a visit to my grandparents in South Jersey for Mother's Day. It was an interesting weekend...and though not a point disaster as my weekend out to dinner was, it still had it's elements of struggle, trying to figure out what I should eat, and balancing eating healthy with grandparent cooking guilt. And the fact that home cooked food in any sense is hard to pass up.

I guess my biggest blunders were the pastries at the end of the day. Saturday I had a 1/2 cannoli and a piece of my favorite Napoleon cake. And then Sunday I had only a piece of Lemon Meringue pie. The cannoli wasn't that bad, especially with only half. The pie was somewhere between 7 and 9 points...and the Napoleon cake??? 14 points!!! Though I don't know what size slice that would be, so I think I gave myself about 11 for a smaller piece. Egad.

These weekends are killing me. Luckily my points were much lower during this week than they were last week. So unlike last week's point pandemonium where I was about 6 or 7 points over my weekly allowance, I am still a few points under this week. And plan to keep it that way. I just hope the fact that these points came at the end of my week doesn't screw up my weigh in today. Though I did make an effort to walk more this week. I got about 5 activity points which exceeded my goal of three.

But we shall see.

Tomorrow I'll let you know how it went and be talking about the next Tool for Living.

Until next time!

Quick blog

I'm tiiiiiiiiired. I had a long day at a school taking photos and then doing an impromptu teaching session on top of that. I am ready for beddy.

However, I still have plans tonight with my fellow WW bud Robyn who has been on the program with her husband for at least a month or so before I joined. Even before WW, she was one of those people always looking for and finding healthy & great tasting choices of food. And she would get very excited about her finds and share them with everyone. Or at least share them with me. Obsessive-compulsive in a good way :) So we're going out to dinner.

Fortunately I have a lot of points left for the day because I had a very light breakfast/lunch at the school event. Apparently half a serving of a whole wheat veggie wrap is zero points. It filled me up at the time. I'm currently hungry though. But dinner will be soon.

Ciao!

Feel like hell today

So instead of rejoicing in the springtime sunshine as I should be, I am sick. I hate being sick, but even more-so in the nice weather. Head colds suck.

Anyway--as per my weigh-in on Monday, I was very surprised and excited to learn that even though I had a terrible point pandemonium week, I still managed to lose 1.8 lbs, bringing me past my 5lb mark to a 6.2 lb loss in the past 3 weeks. I am happy about that.

Also this weekend I purchased the Hungry Girl book. It has lots of great recipes and ideas for food & substitutions. I'm excited to try some of them out!

And I'm very proud of myself--yesterday we had our golf outing for work & it was mostly buffet style food. Lunch was a lot of vegetables & good food, and even with dinner and the buffet & hors d'oeuvres plates being passed around, I only went over my daily points by 2. And I even managed to avoid the fried calamari after reading the exorbitant number of points it contains. My only downfalls were the cookies (1 peanut butter, and 1/2PB, 1/2 chocolate chip)...and the yummy tortellini primavera which I don't know the exact number of points, but I allotted five for a small serving. It was worth it. I kind of wish I had a little calamari though. It's better this way.

6.2 baby!!

Weigh in day #2

So I'm not quite as excited about today's weigh in day as I was last week. It's been a point-astrophe since Thursday. I managed to go 10pts over Thursday & Friday, and a whole 20 points over on Saturday thanks to point heavy breakfast & lunch and then a big dinner out w/my parents. Ugh. Which brought me way over my 35 weekly points. I think I ended about 7 points over.

So like I said...not all that excited.

But it will be a reality check. I think I got so excited about last week's 4.4 lbs. that I just forgot to really manage what I was eating. I did write everything down & track points & stuff, but I wasn't abiding by the good choices I should have. Like that waldorf chicken salad last week. Or the parmesean crusted filet of sole on Saturday. BTW--did you know that 3/4 cup of creme brulee is a whole 11 points?!?!?! That's NUTS! I didn't know, but luckily I only had 1/2 at about 7 points.

Luckily I did put in some effort to get exercise this week. Sort of. The exercise I included was mostly running around for work or something. 20 minutes here, 10 minutes there...yesterday I had a great walk along the Saw Mill river pathway. My goal this week is to get outside to walk every sunny day, at least for a little bit.

And yesterday I looked into getting a bike...it will be expensive, but so worth it in the long run (if I actually use it that is).

As per last week's goals...
1) Walking at least 3 days. Check
2) Meditation. Uh...not so much
3) Drink more water. Some days yes, some days no.

We'll see what the scales say tonight!

Friday point blues

So my second week into WW points system & I'm noticing a trend. The beginning of the week is point friendly. The end of the week is a point disaster.

Maybe it's because the beginning of the week I'm motivated to stay on track, planning out my meals & everything, and by the end of the week I'm lazy and doing stuff & using more points in the process.

Tuesday was only 1/2 point over, Wednesday because of my lack of food during the day I was way under, and actually had to eat more that night to make up points. Then came yesterday--I suppose it all started with not bringing lunch & the decision to have the waldorf chicken salad from the cafeteria for lunch. Loaded with Mayo, it cost me 6 points for only half a cup. I had half the sandwich yesterday and half today which brought my lunch points on both days way up. I only had about 10 points yesterday and I only have 8 points left for tonight.

Yesterday's dinner was at the diner. And even though I was tempted by all the yummy fried and cheese drenched food which i would normally select, I went for a grilled portabello and veggie panini with pesto. When it came, I immediately had the pickle as to try to ignore the pile of fries that came with it (I know, I should have ordered another side. I was testing my willpower). The bread for the panini was a very large focaccia style bread which I knew was going to kill me, and the thing was dripping with mozzarella and pesto sauce. Literally.

I only ate half, which was REALLY good, and had a few fries (I really was being good). But when I got home and added everything up, it came up to a whopping 21 points with the bread & the cheese. If I hadn't already used most of my points at lunch, I wouldn't have been so frustrated I suppose. But I did, and I was. And then I proceeded to go home & have an entire bag of popcorn for no good reason. I didn't even really want it. But I was sitting down watching the DVRed Thursday night shows & felt like I needed to munch. And I started portioning off a bowl...then another, then another...finally just eating it from the bag. Luckily it was the 94% fat free so even the whole bag was only 2.5 points. But still--there was no good reason for it.

So tonight we have an event which we generally don't eat at, but we usually do head to the diner afterward for some good fried food. But I must remember that I still only have 8 points. I'm bringing my tangerine to the event. And a water bottle. And gum. I'll survive. I hope. :)

And I still have the rest of the weekend...for better or worse.

Until next time.

Happy May! And another website

May Day! One of my favorite days of the year, celebrating my favorite MONTH of the year...for a variety of reasons, one being my birthday - but moreso, I think of May as the epitome of Spring, and with Spring being my favorite season...everything is coming back to life...I celebrate today. May even has a song introduced by Lerner & Lowe's 1960s musical Camelot which is called "The Lusty Month of May" which just about says everything.

But I digress.

What I wanted to mention was another site for food information I found which is a partner of WW and I've read several articles from it before I actually visited the main site.
www.hungry-girl.com
This fun and very useful website was designed by an average woman who, as she puts it, is not a nutritionist, she's just hungry. Clever. But she features not only tips on eating well and recipes, she actively pursues everyday foods and reports back on them. She features different low fat/low calorie foods from the grocery aisles and reviews the taste & the calorie, fat (and point) count and if it's worth exploring. She features familiar restaurants and reports back not only on the (outrageous) nutritional info of their food, but provides ideas of healthier choices when visiting that specific restaurant. She seems to do a lot of interacting with her audience, taking their suggestions for foods to try & review. All in all, it's a great website with a Julia-esque design and will be coming in handy on a regular basis in my quest for good & healthier food.

Enjoy!

Great website for nutrition info and more!

I came across this while searching for the calorie/fat contents of Ghirardelli Caramel Dark Chocolate squares that I had gotten as a gift but there was no nutrient info on the wrapper...
www.thedailyplate.com
It seems to have any and every food brand you could possibly want to know the nutritional info on...or not want to know. Apparently it also helps you calculate how much exercise you would need to do to burn off those calories, and it gives you different suggestions for alternate brands or versions of that food. Very useful for this mad mad world of point counting :) I highly recommend it. I will put list it in my useful sites section.

I guess it's like a free version of WW online. Ah well. It'll be very helpful in my quest. If it can give me Ghirardelli info...I'm happy. :)

Ciao!

Hunger brings delerious journal entries

Written earlier this afternoon:

So today I was at a work event. And since it started early, there was no time for breakfast other than a few pieces of mozzarella. And I ordered lunch for the volunteers, and planned to partake in a point heavy slice of pizza - but that plan quickly evaporated when the hoards of high school seniors devoured all 8 pizzas, the salad, and soda which I had ordered.

When I host these events with adults, there's almost a stigma of eating too much or finishing off the plates of food. There are always leftovers. Not so much with the high schoolers.

I'm STARVING! And the only thing that remains is a cheese-less slice of cold pizza (yuck) and a few scraps of lettuce. Lucky thing I saved the larger half of yesterday's sandwich back at the office. And sitting here watching the kids eating...doesn't help my rumbling insides. Nor does the incessant chatter help my head suffering from not eating.

And the thought of having to go back to work and actually...attempt to work - isn't helping.

On the other hand, I can't help feeling a bit nostalgic that this class is my ten year legacy class. now that I think about it, we should have organized some sore of '98/'08 scholarship fund in September for this class. Then it might have spurned the makings for the non-existent 10-year reunion.

Sorry about the rambling. I was hungry and my brain was fried from trying to smooth out some of the event issues. And now that I not only had a caffeine fix (Dunkin Donuts Caramel Swirl Iced Latte...which I will in the future think of the CRAZY Caramel Latte), I had food (thank heavens for leftovers. At least I only used 10.5 points rather than the million I would have wasted on pizza. I should probably balance the non-eating with healthy veggies & protein for tonight.

And tonight is il classe italiano in Dobbs...would i be crazy to walk over? Ha--I know myself. It'll never happen.

Until next time.

Inspiration & Motivation

Quote of the Day: `The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.`
- Eleanor Roosevelt

I get a quote of the day :)

Oh--and the result from yesterday's weigh-in? I'm down 4.4lbs!! Okay, so like I said, that's partially due to the de-bloating, and partially due to the typical beginning of the diet success...but still, it's kind of inspiring. And when I tracked it on the WW website...I got the motivational quote :) That was kind of exciting.

Also what's exciting is I'm only .6lbs away from a 5lb star! hahahah. I know that's not a big deal...it's only a sticker really...but it is something that is motivating. I always was a sucker for star stickers.

And all this has got me thinking about stepping up my exercise which is part of the week 2 information. I was looking up the Sunday Biking on the Bronx River Parkway which I haven't done in years. I don't have a bike, but you can walk or rollerblade...and if I do get a bike, then the whole biking to work would be an option.

I didn't stay for most of the meeting yesterday because I also started my meditation class which was quite interesting. I wasn't too upset that I didn't have to listen to Jill and her vocal antics. Instead I had a nice relaxing atmospheric meditation session with a quirky instructor. Granted I was by far the youngest out of the whole group, but it was fun hearing different perspectives of why people were taking this class. And we learned a simple breathing meditation which I am surprised nobody fell asleep from because we were so relaxed. Especially with the rain coming down in sheets outside on the glass windows. Other than the headache I acquired from laying on a hard carpeted floor, it was just what I needed on a Monday night.

And now for this week's goals (something I want to set once a week)
1) Get in 10-20 minutes of exercise (walking or something) at least 3 times this week
2) Practice meditation technique at least once a day
3) Drink more water--meet at least 5 out of the 6 required servings each day

Until next time!

Weigh in day!

So today is my first weigh in day. It'll be interesting to see what the scale says because not only have I been following the plan, I'm halfway through my period (yeah, sorry, TMI), which will probably account for some loss as well.

I'm kind of excited, but also kind of nervous, because I guess you never know. What if the numbers go up? That would be just my luck: work hard to follow the plan and it doesn't work. I'm not really worried, because obviously you can't feel a pound or two difference. Once it starts becoming 5lbs, 10lbs...then it'll make a difference. Plus the first week is usually the biggest drop.

This weekend's festivities were pretty successful on the Hibachi front--I did very well only accumulating 10 points for dinner. The problem came with drinks (plum wine 3.5, sherbert, 3.5, part of chocolate cake for Jaiby's birthday 4.5)...and then going out for fondue and drinks which was much harder to calculate. Another drink for another 3 pts...and though I tried to behave by sticking to only the fruit...and a couple of small rice krispie treats, I was a grand total of 27.5 pts for the evening's meal. That's almost my entire day's allotment, and I was 9.5pts over for the day. Good thing we have those extra points! But it was SOOOO worth it. I love hibachi :) I was stuffed.

Speaking of those extra points...the WW week runs Mon-Sun, so my weekly points started over again...so does that mean I should have counted my food last Monday too? Maybe I won't lose the weight I wanted because I have gone over? That's kind of annoying. I had five more points to use for today. I am just going to try to make sure I don't go over.

Actually, with this being week two, I am going to try to stick to the plan more carefully and not go over on a daily basis and save those extra points for special occasions. And this week we get the exercise manual, so I am going to start adding that to my routine too.

Tonight I can't really stay for the meeting though--I start my meditation class at Ardsley HS for the next four Mondays. I'm excited about that, but the class starts at 7:30 and the WW meeting is 7pm for a half an hour. I want to go, get weighed, and talk to the leaders there with some of the questions I have, but then I'm going to have to try to make another meeting this week. It might end up being Saturday or Sunday. Now that i think of it, I should have gone this Sat/Sun to check them out since I didn't do a damn thing.

Alright--I'll give the update later tonight!!
Until then :)

Hibachi tonight!

I'm so hungry right now!!

I've been trying to save my points for going out to dinner tonight...celebrating my friend's birthday at Noda's Japanese/Hibachi restaurant in White Plains. But I could seriously eat a horse. My stomach's been rumbling most of the day and although I definitely haven't been starving myself, I keep craving everything in my fridge. But even the healthy stuff uses points.

Breakfast was scrambled egg & salsa & cheese on an English muffin, Lunch was turkey, red pepper, cucumber & mustard (NO CHEESE!) on bread, and I've been having carrots and fruit & stuff in between & I'M STILL HUNGRY!!!! DAMNIT.

I did save a good amount of points for tonight's dinner, though as long as I keep to the basics, it shouldn't be too bad, even leaving room for dessert which is apparently including fondue! I'll have the fruit. Okay...maybe a little chocolate :)

Can't wait for Hibachi!!!

I survived my first restaurant!

Well last night was the first time I ordered at a restaurant while trying to follow my points system. Since I had a pretty healthy breakfast & lunch, I had a whole 20 points for dinner & dessert (out of 29!)

So after trying on bridesmaid dresses which was OH so much fun, we ventured to one of the outdoor cafés in Stamford. It had an Italian-ish menu, which meant a lot of pastas, a lot of point-ridden foods, etc. So I went with the thin crust pizza which was pretty simple: tomato sauce & mozzarella with some grilled chicken, and pesto sauce. Yum. So when it finally arrived--it took ages, then they mixed up the order...it was delicious! And although when I calculated it later I saw that 1/2 that I ate was like 11 points or something, it was well worth it, especially since I had saved the points. Then for dessert I indulged in some crepes with nutella & strawberry gelato. The crepes were small, so I ate them all, but I spared myself from eating all the gelato and I didn't eat the whipped cream. Though I did have the walnuts which were in the dish and SOOO good. So although I did go over my daily points by a tiny bit (the walnuts and the pesto did it), it wasn't that bad.

Plus I have half of that pizza for today's lunch! Though now I have to be careful about tonight's meal. But I'm not going anywhere, so I should be fine. I think. :)

And then tomorrow is Hibachi for my friend's birthday! yay!

Until next time