Rough Week

After my attempt 5 days ago to get myself fired up about my progress, for some reason this week I’m having a tough time staying completely on track.  I haven’t gone crazy and loaded up on Oreos or anything, but I also haven’t stuck to my points strictly this week.  I’ve been over each day by anywhere from 3-6 points.

Now this doesn’t actually “hurt” my overall point target – I’m borrowing from my FlexPoints for the week (35 total), but I know I’m not going to do as well at the weigh-in on Saturday if I don’t stick better to my 24 point limit for each day.

It may partly be due to the doctor’s appointment I had yesterday which didn’t go well and has depressed me a little (for more on that, see my regular blog post).  It might also be partly driven by the fact I only was down .8 pounds last week and that bummed me out a little too.

If anyone has any encouragement to give, now would be the time!

Not Easy, But Worth It!

I just suddenly felt the need to comment on the fact that this whole changing-your-eating-habits thing is NOT easy.  Not in the least.  Today is Friday and I would love to stop by the grocery store on my way home and pick up a frozen pizza for dinner and maybe a some Oreos or a half-pint of Ben & Jerry’s or some other “treat” for the weekend.  But I won’t.

Changing my eating habits (and the amount of food I consume) is a challenge (to put it mildly).  But it’s also a challenge I believe is worth taking on.  To see progress week after week is certainly a motivator.  Being able to wear the pants I’m wearing today without them cutting off my circulation is also a motivator.  Eventually I’ll be able to fit back into the other clothes in my closet as well which is a bigger motivator.

The biggest thing driving me (and keeping me from eating tons of stuff I know I shouldn’t) is how good I know I’ll feel when I get to the end of this road and am back at a weight I feel comfortable with.  When I lost weight after my surgery a few years ago and was able to keep it off for 3 years, nothing felt better!  To feel comfortable in my own skin and not be constantly preoccupied with how much I weighed, or how my clothes were (or were not) fitting was an amazing feeling.  I had less stress and I felt good – confident & comfortable.

I can’t wait to feel that way again.  I know it’ll take some time, but I’ll get there.  The top picture is me (on the right) just after starting WW.  The second picture is from my happy thin days – taken at a party on a work trip I had to San Antonio.  I can’t wait to be able to fit into those jeans again!

Choose Your Drinks Wisely

Yesterday I was a bit “off” and forgot to bring my lunch to work so I resorted to getting some food from the horrid cafeteria we have here.  For me, this translated into a soft pretzel, honey mustard sauce, yogurt, and a Tropical Punch Fuze.  In case you haven’t had one, Fuze drinks are REALLY good and packed with vitamins and minerals.  However there are different types of Fuze and, if you’re doing WW or even just trying to eat more healthy, you may want to be careful of the type of Fuze you select.

I was horrified to discover that the Vitalize Fuze drinks have a whopping 100 calories of almost pure sugar per serving (that’s 200 calories per bottle) making it equal to 4 WW points per bottle!  If you choose a Slenderize Fuze, you’re a lot better off.  Those come in at only 20 calories per serving (40 calories per bottle) and are billed as “low carb” as well (read: “low sugar”).  So WW points per bottle of Slenderize Fuze: 1.

I ended up deciding that the bottle I had gotten was not worth 4 points of my day, so I drank about 1/3 of the bottle and saved the rest for later.  Next time I’ll be more careful and will definitely pick up a Slenderize if anything at all.  Clearly it’s important to remember to stay away from sugary drinks – even ones that seem “healthy.”

Potato Chips (and other snack food)

The biggest problem I have with ‘dieting’ (which, in fact, we aren’t doing…we are changing how we eat altogether) is the lack of snacking foods. I don’t mean the occasional carrot stick (although they are quite satisfying since I can eat a lot of them and they keep me busy) but rather the potato chip variety. On that note I went to the market to search for an alternative and I found a great one: Synder’s of Hanover’s EatSmart Veggie Crisps. Yum!

Check out the nutritional facts (courtesy of Snyders of Hanover)

Nutritional Facts: Calories: 140; Fat: 7g; Protein: 1g; Carbs 18g; Fiber: 2g.

The Biggest Loser

Last night I turned on the TV (in direct opposition to my new Tivo MO) I happened to watch The Biggest Loser.  I’ve never seen it before, but naturally understood the premise.  What a great show!  I mean really, really great.  Aside from the message that it sends, I found it extremely encouraging to watch these teams of people struggle through the exercise and challenges all because they want to stop the cycle they’ve been stuck in.  Good for them, but let me share a couple of things that really struck me about last night’s show:

This episode was only week 2 of this season which is good because I’m only in week 1 of my own attempt to become a big loser.  At one point they had something I think they called “The Hall of Truth” where contestants had been recorded before the start of the show and asked about their eating habits.  The show then took those habits and quantified the results.  For example, if Susie drank 3 cans of soda everyday, this would translate roughly 100 pounds of sugar per year.  It was pretty sobering stuff.  At one point, a husband and wife team that was in there listening to themselves and seeing these numbers flash up on the screens just started to cry.  The husband turned to his wife towards the end and said, “We are killing ourselves.  This has got to stop.”

The second thing that absolutely made me cry was when one contestant who won a challenge got to make a call home and completely lost it at hearing his baby boy’s voice over the phone.  His own voice-over from the video diary said that, as much as he missed his family, he knew that he was taking 4 months away from them now so that he could potentially have 15 more years to spend with them.  Wow.  Talk about a tearjerker.

Again, what a great show.  If you go to the website, they have before and after pictures of previous contestants.  Pretty amazing stuff, and very encouraging.  I may just watch it again next week.