Tipping the Scales

One of my weight loss essentials is a food scale. I purchased a digital food scale that can read in grams and oz and it is one of my best investments.

Here's why.

I think when you're overweight you have a "perception problem".

I've spent alot of time looking in the mirror over the last year but not very much time ACTUALLY LOOKING at myself.

I sort of focus on the highlights. My face, my hair, occasionally hands.

So when one day you see a picture of yourself that someone else took...it hits you that you had NO IDEA that you looked like that.

Who IS that fat chic?

I think the same thing applies to portions of food.

One serving of chips when measured in my hand is WAY bigger than one serving of baked chips when weighed on the food scale.

I use it for everything.

If i have cereal, i put the bowl on the scale and weigh the milk, zero it out and add the cereal, zero it out and add the banana and then there is no guessing. No fudging the numbers to get an extra bite.

I may not weigh everything forever but for right now...when i'm just starting out...it's essential. Because i know that my perception is still way off.

So if you don't have one...GET ONE. And use it. I'm even bringing it to florida.

I just ate mcdonald's

But it's okay!

I was supposed to be wining and dining someone at lunch today but they canceled.

Which left me sort of lunch-less. That is an emergency in my book.

So I ended up going to McDonald's and ordering the Southewest Salad without chicken (2 points) and the southwest dressing (1/2 packet = 1.5 points).

This is the salad with black beans, corn, romaine lettuce and a sprinkling of Monetary Jack cheese.

I skipped the tortilla sprinkles ( but honestly..it's b/c they forgot to put them in my bag).

A fountain Diet Coke ( summertime bliss).

And...I also picked up a lean cuisine. I know! But I'm dependent!

It was an incredibly filling lunch.

And i got my " I MUST ORDER FROM A FAST FOOD PLACE" lunch time fix.

Moving Down

Hooray!

Another 1.5 pounds GONE.

The scale is going in the right direction!

Every pound will lead to another pound and before I know it...all my unwanted poundage will be burned up by Billy Blanks.

My husband and I did Tae Bo last night. It's fun to do it together.

I pretend to punch him and he  pretends to kick me...it's very therapeutic. ( I kid)

After all my years "being" an athlete, i had forgotten how wonderful it is to crawl into bed with a truly tired body.

Not tired because of work, or lack of sleep, or eating junk.

Tired because for 60 minutes I pushed myself to exhaustion.

The sweat, and the sore muscles and the feeling of heavy eyelids is exhilerating. Taking a shower because you need to wash the sweat off is a reward in it self.

Feeling it.

Weigh-in day is tomorrow.

Usually by now i can FEEL my weight loss.

It's sort of a lightening or even a loosening of skin.

But this week, i don't feel anything.

I moved all weekend. We walked 5 miles yesterday and went swimming at the pool. I stuck to my points.

The only thing i didn't do was drink enough water.

It's been REALLY hot here and on the weekends i'm so focused on my family, i forget to take care of myself.

On Wednesday we leave for Florida. It's a family vacation and i'm a little worried about maintaining a loss. As long as I don't gain, i'll be happy. But when you stay at someone else's house it's hard to know what healthy food i'll have available.

But i just have to remind myself that it's about choices. Big breakfast? small lunch. Going out for Dinner? eat light all day.

I'll let you know tomorrow if my "feeling" is correct.

Billy and I

Billy Blanks and I got in a fight last night.

Our DVD player wasn't working and I desperately didn't want to do the same workout.

The Get Ripped DVD has three workouts and I very much wanted to do work-out 2, since I've memorized workout 1.

But i couldn't get it to work.

So I told Billy that I needed a break from him  last night and instead did a strength training dvd for 45 minutes.

I didn't sweat. So i felt like a failure.

But this morning i feel better about it because my triceps are sore and so is my rear end, so something was accomplished.

I also left 2 points on the table last night. I wasn't even hungry!

OUT to eat.

Last night we had to clear out of the house so my in-laws could throw a fancy pants dinner party.

So we decided to take The Cub out to eat.

This was my first "out-to eat" since being on plan.

I banked up 13 points plus I had my 35 weekly points. For those of you that don't speak Weight Watchers. ( your daily points are what you stick to all day, and the weekly points are your "splurge points" that you can use all at once or a little each day).

I decided i wanted buffalo wings. I LOVE wings. We ordered them without breading.

So my husband and I split an order. I ate them painstakingly slow. They tasted AMAZING. Worth every bit of the 9 points they cost me.

Then b/c weight watching is all about choices. I ordered a grilled chicken salad with dressing on the side.

I left the restaurant satisfied, not stuffed.

It's hard to get used to NOT being stuffed. For so long that over full, bloated, stomach exploding feeling was the only thing that stopped me from eating.

But last night...i didn't even have to unbutton my pants!

Reminding Myself!

These are the things that I have to constantly remind myself of.

These will be the cornerstones of making this a permanent change of lifestyle.

Each of these bullet points helps contribute to success as I travel down the scale.

These are my "Must Remember" points.

• TRACK EVERYTHING. Even the mess ups. Even the days where i consume 100 points. I will track it and forget it. ONE DAY does not destroy success but ONE WEEK, ONE MONTH and ONE YEAR have brought me to where i am today.
• Wear a pedometer. I will see how lazy i am and it helps me be competitive and try to sneak in extra steps to beat the number.
• PLAN. Going out to eat? I will find the menu and pick my food ahead of time. I will BRING my lunch. And set myself up for success. Control your environment. If there are no chips in the house, I won't binge on chips!
• Water yourself. Living things need water. Pudgy living things need more water.

The Irony

The Irony of losing weight comes when you start getting attention for it.

Because when your overweight you don't want any.

At all.

You can't STAND for people to mention your outfit, your arms, your legs, your stomach.

Because in YOUR head ( even if they are complimenting your new pants) you THINK they are secretly disgusted with your junk in the trunk.

Or you wonder if they'll go back to their office and twitter about your thunder thighs busting out of your new skirt.

But when you're actively trying to shed some poundage you can't WAIT for people to notice.

However, when you're an amazon, like me. It takes a really long time for people to notice.

On the flip side no one ever believes me when i tell them that when i was pregnant...I outweighed my own father.

Because when you're tall you can hide flab...in lots of places.

So now my weight loss is still a secret.

Only me, the scale, and you guys know that i'm just a little bit smaller than yesterday.

I'm Co-dependant

ON Lean Cuisine's.

 Here's the thing. They take all the work out of figuring out lunch.

I simply don't have time.

Between getting my toddler ready for the day and making my own healthy breakfast...the only time I have left for lunch creation is the 2 minutes in between cleaning breakfast dishes and changing the 1st poopy diaper of the day.

My husband tries to help but men seem to have the inability to do more than one thing at a time. So even if I have him focusing on making breakfast, it still leaves 1,230,000 other things to do before we leave the house at 8:00am.

So i always end up tossing a Lean Cuisine in my environmentally friendly reusable lunch satchel with some fruit a yogurt and a 100 calorie snack and calling it lunch.

I know the points. I know they taste marginally better than cardboard and eggshells.

And I mean..it could be worse.

There were a few weeks I "forgot" lunch and had to make a Hardee's run.

But i know they are packed with sodium and I want to get to the point where I whip together a healthy, wholesome from scratch lunch....the night before.

So I"m calling a Lean Cuisine Intervention on myself and only allowing 3 per week.

that is all.

Breakfast of Champions

I heart breakfast.

I have NEVER been one of those people who "forgetgs to eat breakfast."

My mind simply does not function without morning fuel.

This is my favorite WW friendly breakfast. (not the real picture unfortunately)

1 Lite English Muffin ( 1point)
5 Sprays of butter (0 points)
1 Slice of White American Cheese ( 1.5 points)
1 Egg White with a TINY dot  of yolk ( 0 points)
1 Morning Star Farms Veggie Sausage ( 2 points)
or 
2 Slices of turkey Bacon ( 1.5 points)


4.5 or 4 point breakfast. Filled until lunch.

Point Loss

Weigh In Day!

I have successfully lost another TWO pounds.

Funny, b/c even though that is a great loss and on the high end of recommened weekly poundage loss...

...it still feels INSIGNIFICANT.

I have trouble realizing that i should focus on the MINI-goals...not the big ones.

Fifty pounds seems DAUNTING but losing 2 pounds this week is doable and healthy and in the right direction.

What is very ironic about celebrating weight loss is that I generally celebrate things with food.

"Oh you just scored an A on your exam? Let's go out for pizza!"

"Oh you finished your dinner! Let's have dessert!"

My first time around on the weight loss train my BFF decided that my first 20 pound loss should be celebrated with Nachos. Yeah, she's skinny.

But when you celebrate weight loss...you have to find other ways to mark the happiness.

Yet it's hard to be happy when WW tells you that they are TAKING AWAY A DAILY FOOD POINT.

I know it's just one point.

And I KNOW that i've been leaving a point on the table every day anyway..but that POINT means so much!

See...it's a mini bag of popcorn, a cup of grapes, a half of banana!

Anyhoo...

I managed another dance with Billy Blanks last night.

I felt stronger.

Less jiggly.

Not MUCH less...but less.

ALMOST Two Weeks In

So I'm two weeks into my journey down the scale.

I already feel better. Lighter. More in-control. Happier.

I've dug out the Tae-Bo and reaquainted myself with Billy Blanks.

I've missed him and his spandex.

My in-laws actually have a HUGE tv and so when I do the work out it feels like Billy is life-sized and personally motivating me.

I try to punch him and kick him. This makes me happy.

I need all the motivating I can get, because Tae-bo is a BITCH. One 55 minute work-out earns me 9 activity points. I managed to bank 23 this week so far. And I'm hoping to get in one more workout tonight to get me over 30 activity points for the week.

My weigh in day is Tuesday.

Skinny Jeans

I wasn't blessed with skinny jeans.

In fact, my jeans have always been big.

I may have been BORN a small baby ( 6lb 12 oz) but ever since that day, I've managed to have one-up on the growth chart.

In 2005 I joined weight watchers at my highest weight ever. We're talking football player contender.

And within a year I had lost nearly 65 pounds.

I kept it off ( mostly) for 3.5 years.

But then, i sort of let it all go.

And then even though I ran a half marathon a few months before I got pregnant...i wasn't in the best shape.

Add to that growing a  9lb baby and i eventually packed on 55 pounds, to take me to a whole other stratosphere of overweight.

After my son's birth the 55 came off without trying but for the last few months I"ve been stuck in this no man's land of unfit, overweight and no time.

So i decided to stop THINKING about it and start DOING something about it.