Meeting Talk

On Saturday I was so excited to decorate my Christmas tree that I forgot to write about what we talked about in the meeting.  So I will do it now.  We talked about ways to Move More.  It is very easy to slum around during the winter because of the not so nice weather, so we made a list of things we can do for exercise FOR FREE at home using things that most of us already have.  

• Upper Body Moving

1. Carrying around a baby (maybe most of us don't have one of those but I do)
2. Arm exercises using water bottles or soup cans instead of free weights
3. Pushing a shopping cart while grocery shopping (place a couple boxes of water bottles on the bottom and the cart can get pretty heavy)
4. Push-ups against the wall
5. Vacuuming

*I should have written it down because there were many many more that I can't remember.

• Lower Body Moving

1. Running or walking up and down the stairs
2. Squats
3. Walking in place

*Again, I really can't remember the rest.

My leader Lisa also talked about how much time we spend doing nothing.  One example she used was when we're popping microwave popcorn, how many of us just stand there and watch it pop?  We could have a water bottle or soup can in each hand doing biceps curls or lifting them over our heads while walking in place for the 2 1/2 minutes it takes for the popping.  

That's the main example I remember.  I can think of a bunch of other examples, but I really don't feel like sitting here anymore.  I just moved, I have a bunch of organizing to do.  

Week #10 / 213 lbs

So I'm up a little.  At least it's just a partial pound.  Bo woke me up this morning at 4 o'clock and completely forgetting about having to weigh in a couple hours later, I drank two cups of coffee.  Can we blame the gain on the coffee??  I really should stop playing the blame game and take ownership.  I had a bad week.  In fact, I'm really surprised that I wasn't up a lot more.  I've been so busy unpacking that I never cooked a single meal all week.  Lunches all week were fast food and dinners were take out or delivered pizza.  And I joined right in.  I'm talking french fries, chicken sandwiches, full fat lattes, and everything else you can imagine.  And, I enjoyed it.  It was a little disturbing that every time I stepped on the scale, I hadn't gained any weight.  So I kept eating whatever I wanted.  Perhaps if the scale had shown a gain It would have been more discouraging and I may have stopped sooner.  But what's done is done, so on to week #11!

The first time I joined WW, I joined with my sister-in-law Jacque.  She and I dropped the weight so fast because we talked and text messaged with each other all day long.  We were great food police.  When I started this time, I did it alone.  I still lost weight, but it's just not as easy when I don't have anyone to share recipes and ideas with.  Jacque called me a couple days ago and asked if I wanted to do it with her again.  What a GREAT motivation to get back on the wagon. So, we officially started together today, and so far so good.  It's only 2 o'clock and I think we've already text messaged each other about what we're eating like one hundred times.  This will be very fun and I am very very excited to have someone to do it with again.

Till next time...

Week #9 / DID NOT WEIGH IN AGAIN

Bad Bad Heather!  This time I have a good excuse though.  We are moving today and I was up late late late the night before, packing up the old house & unpacking at the new house.  I didn't gain any weight last week, but I didn't lose any either.  I think we'll place the blame on Thanksgiving this time.

Week #8 / DID NOT WEIGH IN

I had every intention of going to weigh in this morning, but my little 8 week old alarm clock didn't wake me up at 5 o'clock like he usually does.  I welcomed the extra sleep though.  I missed the big "thanksgiving meeting" though and that annoys me, so maybe I'll go tomorrow morning.  I was really dreading weighing in and if I go tomorrow, I may use my "no weigh in pass".  On my scale this morning I was up .6 lbs from last week.  

For some reason, I've lost my motivation.  The first time I joined WW (2 years ago), I lost my motivation shortly after reaching my 10% goal.  I don't know why.  Maybe I'm bored with it?  Maybe I need to change it up a little and try some new recipes.  I don't know.  Yesterday I was at my brother's house and my sister-in-law baked some very yummy pumpkin spice cookies.  I'm sure you all know by now how addicted to pumpkin I am.  Well, she sent me home with 2 dozen cookies and by 8 o'clock last night, they were gone.  I'd like to say that my family really enjoyed them, but my family can only account for 2 of them.  Yes, I ate 22 cookies yesterday and that's not counting the 2 or 3 I ate at her house.  And since I did that and was already feeling down on myself, I thought I'd eat some other things I was craving.  Maybe I'll just make a list of everything I ate yesterday.

• pumpkin spice cookies (25)
• peanut butter cookies (2)
• corn dogs (2)
• spoonfuls of peanut butter (3)

I don't see anything healthy on that list.  Oh, and to top it off, since I was having a eat anything I want evening, at 9:15 I hopped in the car and headed for the Starbucks drive-thru.  I ordered a Venti Eggnogg Latte...  640 calories (14 points).  WOW!

But it's not like yesterday was my only downfall.  I pretty much cheated every day.  Thursday I ordered pizza "for the family", but ate two pieces myself.  Oh, and Three Musketeer Bars have 45% less fat than regular candy bars, so I've been treating myself to a king-size one of those every night.  Like 45% really matters.  It's just been a really bad bad week.  

I am happy to say though that I am getting back on track today (at least so far).  I made the family french toast with eggs and bacon for breakfast.  And I made myself french toast too only with egg beaters, Sara Lee 45 calorie bread and sugar free calorie free syrup.  The kids seemed to enjoy theirs, but mine tasted like cardboard.  Seriously.  I'll have to play around with that and see if I can make it taste any better.  So, hopefully, after having a week of not doing so well, I will be able to stick with it for a while longer.  Keeping my fingers crossed.  

Winter Squash Soup

Since we are moving in two weeks, Jeff decided to move everything we don't use in the garage over to the new house this weekend.  I had a box of weird squashes that he and the kids picked out when we went to the pumpkin patch last month.  He was going to throw them away, but for some reason, I couldn't part with them.  What if I wanted to make something with them?  Well he called my bluff, so today while the kids were napping, I decided to figure out something.  

I grabbed two squashes and looked them up online to see what kind they were.  One was a Turban Squash and one was a Carnival Squash.  The Turban Squash was the hardest squash I've ever tried to peel.  Even softening it in the microwave first didn't help.  So after peeling half of it, I decided half was enough and moved on to the Carnival Squash (which wasn't a fun chore either).  I think I spent over an hour peeling squash.  I pretty much followed the Butternut Squash Recipe that I previously posted except used these squashes instead.  And to tell you the truth, it tasted pretty much the same, except maybe a little nuttier.  

Carnival Squash

Turban Squash

So, I'm enjoying a delicious cup right now and it tastes even better knowing that it's good for me and is only costing one point.  Maybe I'll cook more squash tomorrow and do something with them other than soup.  

Week #7 / 212.4 lbs

I was down 2.2 lbs this week which I'm pretty impressed with considering how bad my week was.  I did not win the trophy this week, but I did get a 25 lb medallion for my ugly gold 10% key chain.  So that's something to be proud of.  That's a total weight loss of 26.8 lbs so far.  Not too shabby.

What did we discuss at this weeks meeting?  It was a subject for the guys (we have about 6 of them).  

Lessons From the Gridiron  (The Football Connection)

• Success starts in the huddle ~ Pick your strategy:  good health guidelines, track, follow plan
• Keep your eye on the goal ~ weight-loss
• We all fumble ~ make mistakes, but get back on track
• There is no I in team ~ enlist the help of others to help motivate you

As a Saturday's at 6:15 ww team, our goal this week is to lose a total of 50 lbs (or more).  Maybe that's the motivation I need to get back on track.  I am going to stop the Wendie Plan like I said last night.  We'll see if that makes a difference.  

Blood Pressure

I forgot to mention, but I had my 6 week postpartum check up yesterday.  My blood pressure was 90/60.  That is the lowest my blood pressure has ever been.  Even when I was pregnant (when your blood pressure is typically low anyway) it was never that low.  YAY, I'm not going to die!!! 

Really Struggling

I cannot believe what a struggle this week has been.  I did not accomplish any of the yes's and no's I set for myself last night.  And today, I've been snacking all day and nothing is satisfying me.  As I'm sitting here the phrase "out of control" comes to mind.  I don't feel in control of my eating at all.  I just stood in the kitchen and ate three spoonfuls of peanut butter.  What is going on with me???  All I can think about is how I can't wait to get the meeting over with tomorrow morning so I can have a day of pigging out.  And why would I want to sabotage my whole week again...  I pigged out last weekend and it's taken all of this week just to get those pounds to go away.  I have no motivation to do anything either.  We are moving in two weeks and I should be packing, organizing, taking loads to the goodwill.  Instead, I sit around and think about what I should be doing....  INSTEAD OF ACTUALLY DOING IT!  I really hope that tomorrow's meeting is a good one.  I need something to set me straight.  

Here's my list of possible explanations for why this is happening to me:

1. I've been doing the Wendie Plan ~  Saturday is my highest point day (since the points per day rotate) so in my head I think I can over eat?  WRONG WAY OF THINKING!
   
2. Since my points are rotating and I get to eat more every other day, on the days where my points are really low (like today), I'm really hungry because I'm used to eating more?
3. I've been drinking more coffee and maybe it's making me hungry?  I've never heard of that, but I've definitely been drinking a lot more this week.  
4. Maybe 'that time of the month' is right around the corner?

Some things to think about.  Maybe I'll quit the Wendie Plan and go back to the same amount of points every day.  We'll see.  

Thanks for letting me vent.

Banana Cream Pie Wannabe

So this isn't really banana cream pie, but I'm excited about it anyway and thought write it down so I don't forget.  I got a box of instant fat free sugar free banana pudding and made it.  Then I put that yummy fat free Reddi Whip on it and wow, it was so good.  To me, it tasted like the banana cream pie we had last weekend at my moms house.  Jeff tasted it and said I was way off.  But hey, it's good anyway.  And, it's only 2 points for one 1/2 cup of pudding with the whip, and who could ask for more than that.  I think next time I'll add some chopped up banana to the pudding before it sets.  Give it a little more bulk and nutrition.  

Yes's & No's

I was cleaning off my desk today and came across my paper from the activity we did at my meeting last Saturday, so I thought I'd share.  We took a 3x5 card and made two columns.  In one column, we wrote 'YES' and in the other we wrote 'NO'.  We were suppose to put it on the fridge (or somewhere else we look often) to be a constant reminder to stay on track.  

I will say YES to:

• following the good health guidelines
• exercise
• writing everything I eat down
• water, water, water, water, water
• sleep
• time to myself
• ww meetings
• smaller servings

I will say NO to:

• food pushers (people who tell you it's okay to cheat "just this once")
• eating in front of the tv or computer
• eating after 7:30 pm (night time noshing)
• doing things that stress me out

After reviewing this little list of yes's and no's, I realize that I haven't followed a single goal this week.  All week long I've been eating in front of the tv & computer and I'm always snacking right up until bed time (10:00 ish).  I haven't been following the good health guidelines, in fact, I haven't been drinking any milk or eating any veggies.  I've been saving up my points to eat sweets at night.  And water just hasn't tasted good lately (even with the crystal light packets), so I've been a Coke Zero junkie.  I have been writing everything down, but I haven't exercised AT ALL.  I did pilates one night about three weeks ago, (the night I made my Winning Outcomes goal of exercising at least 5 times a week), but I haven't done them again since.  I do get plenty of sleep, but I really don't have any time to myself.  Well actually, I dropped the two older kids (5 & 2) off at the Fred Meyer play place yesterday for an hour and sat at the in-store Starbucks and just had some nice quiet time.  That was nice.  I need to find more places that have daycares.  

So, now I know what I need to work on.  And, as of today, I weigh the same as I did at last Saturday's meeting (because of all my night time snacking and lack of water I think), so I will be shocked if I'm down anything at this weeks meeting.  Oh well, I'm sure everyone has a bad week every once in a while and it's never too late to get back on track.  

Tonight I WILL:

• Eat my 1 point snack before 7:30 pm
• Do my 20 minute pilates routine
• Drink at least 2 bottles of water
• Go to sleep at a decent time

Tonight I WILL NOT:

• Eat in front of the TV (I still have a one point snack coming after I put the kids to bed at 7 o'clock)
• Eat after 7:30 pm

New Found Treats

I'm always looking for new things to dress up my coffee with.  Lately, I've just been drinking regular coffee but adding sugar free De Vinci syrups to flavor it.  They give great flavor with no calories.  

I love whip cream too and I recently found at the store a fat free Reddi Whip.  I can have 2 tablespoons on the top of my coffee for zero points (only 5 calories).  

Coffee just keeps getting better and better.  

Another thing I found recently is Old Wisconsin Snack Bites made with turkey.  I've always bought this brand's beef bites to cut up and put in pasta salad for my husbands lunches.  But the other day when I found the turkey kind, I thought I'd help him be just a little healthier without him actually knowing.  Unfortunately for him, when I was standing there with the fridge door open with my ww points calculator in hand, I thought I'd check the points on these babies.  Turns out I can eat 6 little bites for only 1 point.  There wont be any left for Jeff's lunch now.  

Week #6 / 214.6 lbs

Well it's official.  I have now reached my first official WW goal...  10% of my body weight gone!  They gave me a neat keychain as a reward.  I reached the 10% goal the first time I joined WW, but stopped going shortly after.  The keychain was silver colored before, and now it's gold colored.  I don't think I will actually put it on my keys because I'm not really a gold person.  

I was down 3.8 lbs this morning which I think is a pretty big accomplishment since I "fell off the wagon" a couple times this week.  I did not write about it earlier because I was ashamed and really thought that I screwed my whole week.  Guess I was wrong.  But, after overeating last Saturday, I decided to do the Wendie Plan (you can find the link in a previous post) which I guess made up for the over indulging.  And, to top it off, I felt so sick Saturday night and almost threw up twice.  I ate way to much cookie dough and cookies.  After feeling so sick, I did very good the rest of the week until last night when we were at my Mom's house.  My Grammy was visiting from California and cooked a feast.  I hadn't had many of the foods since I was little and while I only sampled most things, I went a little crazy on the banana cream pie.  Oops :)  

But, today is a new day and the start of a new week and a great time to get back on track.  

Oh, and one more thing...  I got the trophy again.

Biggest Loser Trophy

Everyone has been asking to see the trophy so here it is.  Not the best shots, but it's all you get.  And it's not really a weight loss trophy at all, it's probably just some silly trophy that someone donated.  I was looking online and there isn't anything better out there anyway.  Oh well.  So there you have it.

Chocolate Fix

I found something better to satisfy my chocolate cravings..  Even better than the diet coke brownies (which I threw away because they were nasty gross).  

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes!!!

I mixed 1 cup of canned pumpkin with a small box (12 muffin size) of devils food cake mix.  The batter was really thick, but produced the most delicious fudgy brownie like cupcakes after being cooked (according to the cake box instructions).  I couldn't even taste the pumpkin, but adding the pumpkin gave it a little extra fiber (gotta at least try to be healthy).  And the cake mix had just 90 calories per muffin making one muffin only 2 points.  

YAY for chocolate :)

Free Coffee!!!!!

It's a calorie free, free sample, YAY!!!

I've actually never had Dunkin' Donut's coffee, but I hear it's great. We don't have any Dunkin' Donut's around here, but I see it at Safeway, so maybe if I like it, I will switch.

Week #5 / 218.4 lbs

I just completed my fourth week following the WW plan.  Got up early (again) and made it to my meeting.  I was down 2.8 lbs this week.  Amazingly enough, even with only losing 2.8 lbs I was still the biggest loser and came home with the trophy.  I guess that feels kinda good.  2.8 doesn't seem like that much, but if I lost 2.8 lbs each week until the new year that would be another 22 lbs and that does seem like a lot.  I guess it all adds up.  

What did we talk about in the meeting today?  Eating foods that are both visually and physically satisfying.  Which pretty much means to me, the more food the merrier.  It's all about quantity and not quality.  I would rather eat 3 cups of nonfat plain yogurt for 3 points than 1 cup of regular flavored yogurt for 3 points, even though the latter would taste so much better.  But enough about that.  

I seem to be on a funky weight loss pattern.  10 lbs, 2 lbs, 4 lbs, 2 lbs...  will I lose more than 2 lbs this coming week to continue the pattern?  They say (they being Jillian from The Biggest Loser), that for women, 1/2 lb per day is healthy to lose when eating good and exercising.  So even though I feel like my weight loss is slowing down, it may not be.  The first time I did WW, I hit a plateau and stopped losing.  I wasn't gaining, but I wasn't losing either.  I read some of the message boards on ww.com and was introduced to The Wendie Plan.  The point is to trick your metabolism into never knowing how much you're going to eat, so it constantly has to work hard.  I tried it and it worked.  It really makes sense too.  So, if I hit another plateau, I guess I know what to try.  It makes me wonder though if it wouldn't be such a bad idea to try now.  Maybe I'd have another awesome week (like week #1).  Something to think about. 

By the way, I love the show The Biggest Loser.  It's a good mid-week motivational.  

McD's Iced Coffee

We went to a harvest party at my grandpa's retirement center yesterday and it got over after 5 pm.  The kids needed to eat and the last thing I wanted to do when we got home was think about what to cook for dinner.  So, we went through the drive-thru at McDonald's for the old chicken nugget and french fry stand by.  There is not anything on the McD's menu that I want to waste points on, so I decided to wait until we got home and eat a Lean Cuisine.  But then I saw it, a Sugar Free Vanilla flavor for the Iced Coffee.  I immediately started craving coffee and while I still knew it would be a lot of points, that was something worth spending them on.  Lisa, my WW leader always says "don't drink your points because it will not satisfy you like eating them", but when you're a busy mom with three little kids, sometimes drinking them is all there is time for.  So, I decided on a medium size iced coffee.  I figured it would do less damage than a large.  It was so yummy and so creamy that I knew I was in big trouble.  Once we got home and I got the kids set up at the table eating, I looked up the nutrition facts for McDonald's.  YAY!!!  A medium sized sugar free vanilla iced coffee is only 2 points.  And a large, only 3 points.  I was in McDonald's heaven (if there is such a place).  I really lucked out this time, but I better be careful because next time, I might not be so lucky.

Red Lobster for Dinner Tonight... YUMMY!

My in-laws invited us to Red Lobster tonight for dinner.  My husband loves "All You Can Eat Shrimp" and it's going on right now.  I've been to Red Lobster many times while on WW, but I've had a hard time remembering what I usually get (pregnancy has warped my memory).  So, I was able to find the restaurant's LightHouse Menu on the internet and I now know exactly what I will be eating and how many points it will cost me.  

• Garlic-Grilled Jumbo Shrimp 3 points
• Wild Rice Pilaf 4 points
• Side Salad w/ red wine vinaigrette 2 points
• Seasoned Broccoli 0 points

The cheddar bay biscuits are a whopping 4 points a piece, so I will not be enjoying any of those.  I can abstain, I've done it before. 

So, my meal will be 9 points, which is exactly how many I have left for the day.  And when I get home, after putting the kids to bed, I will do my 20 minute Windsor Pilates routine.  That will give me one activity point which is just enough for a 100 calorie bag of kettle corn to snack on while watching Private Practice.  It feels so good to plan in advance.

Visions of a Bacon Cheeseburger

I don't know what the deal is, but today I've been really craving a big juicy bacon cheeseburger and french fries.  So, just to wet my taste buds even more, I decided to torture myself and google some pictures.  I'm glad I did because the first picture I came across looked quite delicious, but all the other pictures looked disgusting.  

This is the first picture I saw...  YUMMY!

But all the rest...  YUCKY!

I am happy to say...

I AM NO LONGER CRAVING A BACON CHEESEBURGER!!!

Week #4 / 221.2 lbs

Another Saturday, another early morning meeting.  I lost 4.6 lbs this week.  Yay me!  I realized something as I was sitting in the meeting this morning.  Weight Watchers meetings are kinda like Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.  No, I've never been to an AA meeting, but from what I hear from other people or see on tv (not that you can really take tv for real life), it's a lot like the meetings I go to.

Today we talked about what triggers overeating or mindless snacking.  Other than boredom,  it was mostly emotional reasons (stress, anxiety, depression, guilt, sadness, hurt, loneliness, etc.).  I don't know if I can actually say that at one time I was an alcoholic, but I sure can remember drinking to cope with all of those feelings.  And today, I realize that I eat to cope with those same feelings.  At one point during the meeting, everyone got a chance to say what makes them want to eat and if they give in, or if they have ways of distracting themselves.  After each persons turn, everyone clapped...  much like an AA meeting.  And at the end, everyone went around and said how much weight they'd lost to date (-18 for me), and again, everyone clapped.

  

The topic of addictions comes up pretty often in my everyday life.  After much consideration (and other's may disagree), I've come to the conclusion that an addiction is an addiction, weather it be alcohol, cigarettes, food, gambling, shopping or drugs, to list a few.  And all addictions most likely stem from the same emotional reasons.  There are some people at my meeting who have been going to meetings for over 5 years.  They reached their goals years ago, but they recognize their addiction and know that if they don't want to gain weight (fall off the wagon), they need to stay accountable to someone and the meetings provide that outlet (again, much like AA).  

All addictions are harmful to ones self and if you really think about it, all addictions are also harmful to others.  

• Smoking around other people = other people getting sick from second hand smoke
  
• Drinking alcohol = altered state of mind, causing irrationalism, impaired reflexes, and emotional numbness / all harm other's in one way or another (irrational fighting, drunk driving, spending money that's not there to get your fix, etc.)
• Drugs = pretty much the same as alcohol
• Shopping = spending money that you don't really have (hurts the whole family)
• Gambling = again, spending money (hurts the whole family)
• Eating = spending money on food, getting fat so people are embarrassed to be around you (shallow, but ultimately true)

So, I guess what I'm saying is that if I expect alcoholics, drug addicts and compulsive gamblers to go to meetings for the rest of their lives to stay clean, then I have to be willing to do the same.  How is it fair that I can cheat when I feel like it, but that an alcoholic or drug addict can't cheat whenever they feel like it?  It's not fair.  

I commit to not cheating.  By not cheating, I will feel better about myself weight wise, health wise and just by knowing that I can follow through with something.  

Butternut Squash Soup

I made some butternut squash soup the other day with some of the squash I loaded up on at the pumpkin patch.  It was so good I wanted to eat the whole pot.  Here's the recipe.   

Ingredients :

• medium size (25 to 30 oz) butternut squash, cubed
• 1/2 medium size onion, chopped
• 1 small apple, chopped
• 3 cans fat free vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1+ tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg

Add all ingredients to crock pot (slow cooker) and cook on low 8 to 10 hours or on high 3 to 5 hours.  When squash is soft, put all in blender and puree.  

1 cup is just 1 point or 1/2 cup is zero points.  

Pumpkin Spice Latte

I am addicted to Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte...  or really anything pumpkin right now.  I can't afford to get an expensive latte every day, so I looked online and found recipes I can make at home.  Now the espresso machine the kids gave me for Christmas will get some use.

Pumpkin Spice Latte :

Ingredients ~

• 3 tbsp canned pumpkin
• 2 tbsp sugar free vanilla syrup
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 c nonfat milk
• 2 shots espresso or 3 oz super strong coffee

Pumpkin Pie Latte :

Ingredients ~

• 2 tbsp sugar free pumpkin pie syrup
• 1 tbsp sugar free vanilla syrup
• 1 c nonfat milk
• 2 shots espresso or 3 oz super strong coffee
• sprinkle of nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice

***If you don't have an espresso maker or frothing wand, the milk, pumpkin, vanilla syrup and spice can be heated on the stove in a small saucepan until foam appears.***

I've tried both of them and I like the second one the best.  They are both only 2 points.  For some stupid reason that I really can't explain, they taste better out of a cardboard cup with a lid too.  I know, all in my head.

Winning Outcomes

Yesterday at my WW meeting, Lisa (my leader) handed out a sheet for us to fill out.  There are 11 weeks until the new year.  We had to make our own personal goal to accomplish by then.  This is mine.

Week #3 / 225.8

I got up early again yesterday morning to go weigh in at 6:15.  I didn't want to go that early because Bo and Ty had kept me up much of the night, but I had the "Biggest Loser" trophy that I had to return.  Anyway, I was only down 2.6 lbs, but at least it's a loss and not a gain.  I don't know why I was expecting more...  my scale at home said the same thing.  I guess after my big 10.8 lb loss the week before, I was hoping for another fantastic week.  

It turns out, it was a good thing that I got up so early because I was able to go grocery shopping right after the meeting and still get home before anyone was up.  We had plans to spend the day pumpkin patch hopping, so I'm glad I got everything taken care of in the morning.  Spending the day away from home made it hard to follow plan.  I did pack healthy snacks and water bottles and brought along my tracker and eating out guide though.  So, for the most part, i was able to stick to it.  

Dinner time was a little harder though.  We went to Chang's Mongolian Grill (a stir-fry wok bar) and I indulged a little.  I was tired and hungry and for the life of me couldn't think of anything healthy I could eat there, so I just thought 'forget it' and ate my normal plate.  Chicken, shrimp, onions, noodles and lots of ginger sauce and sesame oil.  It wasn't until I was almost done with my plate that I realized I could have just had a big plate of stir-fried veggies with no oil and it would have satisfied and filled me up.  Going out to eat and trying to make decisions while overcome with tiredness and hunger is not a good idea.  

I still had 18 points left for dinner and my extra weekly 35.  I didn't bother to add up all the points for what I ate, but now that I'm thinking about it, I think I will right now so I can be aware of how many points I actually ate.  

Soba Noodles (2-3 cups) : 6

Chicken (1 cup) : 8

Shrimp (2 cups) : 4

Sesame Oil (3 tbsp) : 12

Ginger Sauce (3 tbsp) : 3

Onion (1 cup) : 0

Hot & Sour Soup (1 cup) : 2

Total points for dinner : 35

So, it's pretty bad, but it didn't use all my extra points for the week.  I still have 17 left.  Honestly though, I usually never even touch my extra 35.  But I guess that's what they're here for.  Oh, but I did have 1 cup of Baskin & Robbins peppermint ice-cream at 14 points a cup, so I only have 4 extra points left for the week.  

I think that having an extra 35 points a week is crap.  It just makes you want to overeat knowing that they are there.  

NO MORE EXTRA 35 POINTS!  THEY DO NOT EXIST!

Vitatops

I was going to mention this in my last post but I forgot.  I ordered a box of Vitatops and received them in the mail yesterday.  My combination box consisted of Triple Chocolate Chunk, Golden Corn & Appleberry.  I haven't tried the Golden Corn yet, but the chocolate and berry are sooooo delicious.  They are filling and only 2 points a piece.  HungryGirl (a newsletter I get delivered to my email daily) has always raved about them, so I finally broke down and bought some.  I'm glad I did.  My family loves corn bread muffins so I make them all the time (pretty much every night for dinner). I never get to eat any though because for one little muffin it's 6 points.  I am very excited to have my own corn bread muffin tops to eat now.  Also, the chocolate muffin tops are way better than the diet coke brownies and are bigger too, so more worth the 2 points.  

Diet Coke Brownies

I keep seeing recipes for Diet Coke Brownies in random places, so last night I thought I'd try them.  I guess the whole point is to make the brownies low points and WW worthy. 

The recipe:

• 1 box of brownie mix
• 1 can of diet coke

Then follow the cooking directions on the brownie box.

Results:   

I probably should have used a little less diet coke.  They were very wet even after being cooked.  I kept putting them in the oven longer thinking they would dry out, but then the edges burned, so that was a bad idea.  I also should have put them in the fridge and let them get completely cold before I tried to cut them because even luke warm, they crumbled.  Also, I can totally taste the coke in them.  I cut them into 20 brownies which made the points value 2.  I am eating one right now and they are filling and do satisfy that chocolate craving I have all too often.  

I did a google search and read a bunch of message boards about the diet soda brownies and cakes.  Other people said that their family members didn't even notice.  Jeff took one bite and said "yuck", so I find that hard to believe.  That's fine though.  All the more for me.  I put each one in a snack size baggy and put them in the freezer so when I do have a chocolate craving, I'll be ready.  

I think next time I will try things a little differently though.  I will probably use Diet Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper.  And I will use maybe 10 oz instead of the whole can.  I may add a couple egg whites as well to help it cook better (wont change the points value).  

Back Down!

Yay, that salty Chinese food must not have made me retain too much water because I'm back down today.  Honestly, I felt much better and slept much better last night after eating on plan yesterday.  I even went to Baskin & Robbin for Jeff last night and resisted temptation.  My addiction right now though, 100 calorie packs of chocolate covered pretzels.  I had 6 points leftover by the end of the day and ate 3 packs.  Jeff said that I really have an eating disorder.  He said that even though I'm eating foods on plan, I'm still eating and thinking about food all the time.  He's right.  And things I hear from other people at the WW meetings makes me think I'm not the only one that dwells on it.  Does that ever go away, or will I forever be a prisoner to food?

Chinese Food?

My family wants Chinese food for dinner tonight.  Rather than eat something completely different (which is what I usually do), I'm going to join them and attempt to eat only things on plan.  The plan is to eat only the following:

• Broccoli Chicken, 1 cup for 2 points
• Shrimp Foo Young, 1 patty for 4 points (or only 2 points for 1/2 a patty)
• Egg Flower Soup, 1 cup for 1 point

This is the plan.  This is my 7 point dinner.  This sounds very yummy and I better leave to go pick it up.  I'll write again after dinner and we'll see if I was able to stick to the plan.  (fingers crossed)

After Dinner

This is what I actually had for dinner:

• 2 1/2 cups of Broccoli Chicken - 5 points
• 1/2 patty of Shrimp Foo Young - 2 points
• 1 cup egg flower soup - 1 point
• 1 cup nonfat milk - 2 points

Total points for dinner:  10*

*Food was way too good.  I have a hard time believing the points are right.  I got the point values from the WW Dining Out Companion.  I don't feel overly stuffed though like I usually do after Chinese food.  I feel satisfied.  Food was very salty though which can't be a good thing.

I'm In Trouble

Today is not a weigh in day, but there are some things I need to talk about.  

First of all, it's not going to work out having a free day.  While I didn't gain any weight after that free day (Saturday), I didn't feel good Sunday.  I felt like I wasted a whole day eating and not losing.  If I had followed my WW plan on Saturday, I could have dropped a pound or two instead of staying the same.  

NO MORE FREE DAYS!

Secondly, I think having that free day and not gaining anything, put the idea in my head that any other day I didn't feel like following plan, I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain anything. 

 BIG MISTAKE!

Yesterday I was really stressed out.  I forgot to eat most of the day, so when dinnertime rolled around, I was starving.  I decided that pizza was the only thing that would make me happy and since I ate whatever I wanted on Saturday and didn't gain anything, I could have pizza tonight and start again tomorrow.  So I ordered two large pizza's (buy one get one free) and proceeded to eat half a pizza.  

This morning, the scale didn't like me.  It didn't bother reminding me that I had lost 2 lbs over Sunday and Monday.  It only showed me that I failed.  I weighed 230 lbs this morning.  So, not only did I gain back the 2 lbs I had just lost, but I weighed more than I did at my meeting on Saturday.  Now I'm going to have to be extra careful about what goes in my mouth today, tomorrow and Friday, so that I can show a loss on Saturday.  

My husband Jeff came home from work last night pretty late, after the pizza eating was over.  He was sitting on the couch holding Baby Bo, looked down at him and said, "I guess Mommy doesn't want to keep that trophy for another week".  That hit hard.  He was right.  Here I was sabotaging my whole week because I wanted pizza.  Lesson learned!  I may not bring that trophy home again this Saturday, but it will be here again.  

Week #2 / 228.4

Made it to the 6:15 am meeting again.  This week I lost 10.8 lbs.   I am also proud to say that I was the biggest loser this week and I got to bring home the trophy.  It is really a silly looking trophy (I'll take a picture of it before I take it back next week).  I'm sure it's all baby weight though since it usually takes a while to lose all the extra weight one puts on during pregnancy.  But, it's all weight the same, so I'm glad it's gone.  I'm thinking about having a free day though.  There are so many things I've been craving this week (like peanut butter) that I need to indulge in.  So, since I weigh in every Saturday morning, I think I'll try it out today and see how it goes, before making it a permanent occasion.  

Starting Weight / 239.2

Today was my first WW meeting.  I got up early enough to feed the baby, get us both dressed and make it to the 6:15 am meeting.  I chose this meeting because it is the least crowded so if for some reason my baby is a distraction, there aren't too many people to distract.  My starting weight is 239.2 lbs.  I did just have a baby a week ago though, so cut me some slack.  However, embarrassing enough as it is to say, I weighed more than this when I was 23 at my brother's wedding.  Yikes!  I am excited to get started.  In fact, starting this morning, I switched to a grande non-fat no whip pumpkin spice latte which only has a point value of 5 as opposed to a point value of 9.  And it's got two servings of milk which I need since I'm nursing.  I don't know how much longer I'll be able to afford them though with this financial crisis the country is in.  We'll see.