First Day on the New Plan

This morning I lost .4 lbs. for the week. And I’ll take it. It’s better than a gain. I weighed in at 209.3.

And now I embark on my new adventure! Counting calories. I’m not just counting calories, but I will be using the skills and knowledge that I picked up over these last few years on Weight Watchers and apply that. Hopefully I can become healthier and reach my goal.

I decided to change my weight loss goal to losing 1.5 lbs. per week. Mostly because it said I will reach my goal by December 31, 2012. Now I know that probably won’t happen knowing my slow weight loss, but that would make me SO happy. So I’m going to try. This plan allows me 1,702 calories per day.

For breakfast, I ate Egg Beaters with Laughing Cow cheese and turkey, oatmeal with strawberries and a glass of skim milk.

Instead of listing calories for each meal, I will list the totals at the end of the day.

I wanted to make sure I got a workout in first thing this morning because I wouldn’t have any more free time throughout the day for it. I biked 9.3 miles in 40 minutes and burned 230 calories.

While working, I sipped on coffee with Almond Joy creamer.

On my first break, I went outside of my normal snack food comfort zone and ate a whole 1 oz. serving of almonds! I know, right? No eating 1/2 serving to save points. And at 160 calories, it seemed like a good snack.

For lunch, I ate baked blue hake (try saying that 10 times fast) with black beans and a side salad with lettuce, tomato, feta and FF French dressing.

A very healthy lunch! I finished it up with FF/SF chocolate pudding.

On my break, I tried out a product I was sent to review. Adora calcium supplements. This one is dark chocolate.

Stay tuned for a review of these!

I also ate a Weight Watchers smoked string cheese.

It was a really windy day today! So windy that it blew one of our storm windows out in the porch and made this sound like a power saw! Needless to say, I was really scared to walk out into the porch and find out what was making that noise!

Since it sounded so cold outside, I thought another cup of coffee with creamer sounded perfect.

I try to limit myself to coffee once a day, but some days just require more!

Hubby had supper ready when I got off of work. He made his famous creamed beef over toast along with green beans.

So good! And even better since I don’t have to cook!

I finished it up with a serving of Thin Mints.

So that’s my first day on my new tracking system.

So how did I do?

 

Daily calorie budget	1,702
Food calories consumed	1,750
Exercise calories burned	230
Net calories so far today	1,520

I can eat 182 more calories today.

Nutrient wise:

Fat: 26.4%, Carbs: 35.2%, Protein: 38.4%

I am happy with those numbers!

My sodium was still pretty high at 2,487.5 mg. But one thing at a time here.

I am slightly confused by the tracking system because it factors in exercise calories that you can eat if you want. Even if I eat them, I should still lose 1.5 lbs. per week, according to this. But obviously NOT eating them would help too. I’m really not sure if I should eat them or not? Today I did eat a few.

If I want a snack tonight, I’m going to try to stick with some grapes or something low calorie and keep it within the 182 calories that I have left. That’s perfectly attainable!

Trying Something New

I weigh every morning and this morning it slipped my mind. I hate not having somewhat of an idea of what will happen for my official weigh in tomorrow!

For breakfast this morning, I ate toast with PB and a sliced banana, Egg Beaters with Laughing Cow and FF turkey along with a glass of milk for 7 points. 32 grams of protein. 417 calories.

I decided to track my protein today. I think I read somewhere that we should be eating about half our body weight in protein. So if I weigh 210 lbs., I should be eating 105 grams of protein. I was interested to see where I stack up.

And then I also decided to see how many calories I’m actually eating vs. points on WW.

I made an appointment at a consignment store to drop off more items to sell. This gave me a chance to drive my new Jeep and hopefully I will make some more money! While driving, I drank my coffee with Almond Joy Creamer for 1 point. 50 calories. 0 Protein.

The program I am using to track calories counts calories for plain coffee…that’s new to me!

The consignment store ended up taking about 20 items. So that’s good!

For lunch, I ate tuna with light Miracle Whip, sliced tomatoes, green beans, and squash soup for 7 points. 30 grams of protein. 297 calories.

I love those vine ripened tomatoes. They cost a little more but the flavor is so much better.

I finished it up with a small apple and PB for 3 points. 4 grams of protein. 172 calories.

Filled me up, as always!

Starting tomorrow, I am going to start counting calories instead of points. I am using a free website that offers a free App for my phone and my iPad. I used it today and it is very intuitive and very easy to use. I’m going to see how this goes for a week and decide if I want to continue it. I won’t be making any quick decisions and canceling my WW membership right away, but I am considering it if I like this and it works for me. This means counting calories for fruits and vegetables and for everything that goes into my mouth. No “free” foods. It also shows me charts of the nutrients I am eating, etc. I will not be counting my points next week, like I’m doing today, as doing both gets a little time consuming. I will be interested to see what the results are!

After lunch, I cleaned out my second closet. I forgot to take a before picture, but it was in pretty bad shape! I was able to pack up A LOT of clothes from this closet to take to the consignment store. But here is my after:

I have WAY too many shoes. For now, I just put them in bags (which you can see are stuffed in the bottom of my closet), but I need to find a better way to organize them. And these aren’t all of them!

My next project is to clean out my clothes drawers. I am finally starting to have a lot more room in my closets! I don’t want to buy any new clothes for a while though. It was fun trying on a skirt that I’m saving to show my progress. I wore this skirt a tad big when it fit, because that felt comfortable to me, and now I could practically fit 1 1/2 of me in it! Someday I’ll post a picture—but probably not until I reach my goal!

If I ever get there… at least that’s how I’ve been feeling lately!

For a snack, I made a green smoothie with 1/3 cup light vanilla yogurt, 2 oranges, 2 cups of spinach, and 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder for 2 points. 234 calories. 14.4 grams of protein.

It seems to me that something that is only 2 points should not be 234 calories? I think this experiment will be an eye opener for me! This was almost as many calories as my lunch. But I do know that this is healthy for me.

I finally got some exercise in today. I biked 9.6 miles in 40 minutes and burned 229 calories. It felt great! Plus, I watched an episode of Ugly Betty and that made it go really fast!

For supper, I made fish tacos and I also ate tortilla chips for a total of 10 points. 512 calories. 20.4 grams of protein.

For dessert, I ate a serving of Girl Scout Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies along with FF/SF chocolate pudding for 6 points. 260 calories. 2 grams of protein.

More than I would normally eat for dessert, but I had the points for it! I actually still have 1 point left over.

I ended up eating 102.9 grams of protein today. Just short of my goal. I really had to add extra protein to my usual diet to get it even that high! So I have some work to do.

I ate 1,941 calories today. I can eat 1,964 calories per day and still lose 1 lb. per week. I will be interested to see if this works. If these numbers add up, how would I lose ANY weight if I were eating all of my daily points and eating weekly points too!

The program I am using also factors in exercise and you can eat those calories each day if you want to also. So it says I have 252 more calories to eat today if I so wish.

I would like to lose more than 1 lb. per week, but I don’t want to overdo it and feel deprived. I think I’ll start here.

I was also shocked to see that I ate 3,561.8 mg of sodium today!! And I thought I controlled the sodium in my diet…So many things to look at! So many areas to improve. But doing this today opened my eyes to quite a few things. I’m excited for this next week!

Monday Again

This weekend hubby and I purchased a new (to us) vehicle! We found a very nice black Jeep Liberty with low mileage and in our price range. The experience at the dealership was miserable, but I think we came out ok in the end. My brother bought our old car, which is a sports car, and he is LOVING it. So it all worked out well!

We bought the new Jeep in IL, so we got to spend some time with my Dad and brother over the weekend which was nice.

My eating could have been better this weekend. I did try to watch my portions. But the scale did not show me any love this morning…

For breakfast, I made egg beaters with turkey sausage and a half serving of oatmeal with blueberries and a glass of skim milk for 6 points.

I definitely had a case of delayed onset muscle soreness on Friday evening. I woke up Friday morning with a little muscle soreness after my hard workout, but towards the evening I could hardly move. This lasted all weekend. I have never been so sore in my entire life. I actually had to have my husband help me get out of a chair a few times because I just couldn’t stand to think of the pain I had to endure every time I tried to get up! I was feeling a little better this morning, but still sore in my arms and knee areas, so decided to take one more rest day.

While working, I sipped on coffee with Almond Joy creamer for 1 point.

On my break, I ate a turkey and cheese wrap for 3 points.

I also ate a banana for 0 points.

For lunch, I had a salad with lettuce, teriyaki chicken, strawberries, blueberries, feta cheese and RF Raspberry Vinaigrette for 7 points.

So good. I love that salad.

I finished it up with an apple and PB for 3 points.

This is my new “go to” lunch “dessert”. It fills me up and it’s so delicious.

I was hungry on my last break, so I ate leftover squash for 0 points.

For supper, I made chili dogs with FF hot dogs, vegetarian chili, and FF cheese on light bread, along with green beans for 7 points.

So good!

I finished it up with vanilla ice cream and caramel for 5 points.

That leaves me with 1 point leftover for the day… not so bad!

How was your Monday?

Only on my Mom's Calendar....

.......Would you find this. hehe but out of context it gave me a chuckle.

My First Group Fitness Class Experience

Last night, I participated in my very first group fitness class at a gym.

Let’s step back in time to about 10 years ago when I was a freshmen and sophomore in high school.

I dreaded P.E. class. Absolutely hated it. I felt humiliated trying to participate in group sports to only be laughed at by other kids in the class. I remember exactly how my silky navy blue shorts felt tight on my plump thighs. The largest they came in was XL, and they were way too tight on me. I was constantly pulling at them.

So when sophomore year came around and I had the option to take choir in place of P.E. class, you can bet I was all over that. And that was the end of my group fitness classes.

Fast forward to today.

When a friend at work asked me to go with her to a ROC Fit class at a local gym for free, I was both scared and excited to try it out. It was definitely a step outside of my comfort zone, but a step I needed to make. And even though I wanted to call and cancel on her a second time, I mustered up my courage and went.

I was nervous. I envisioned the days of P.E. class where I would be laughed at and pull inside myself a little more. I imagined going back to the very quiet me, who tried to hide. The girl who didn’t want to draw attention to herself. And at first, I felt that happening. I started to draw into myself a few times during the workout, but I quickly snapped myself out of it and told myself that I was just as good as everyone else in that room.

And I loved it. Loved almost every minute of it.

It was a class that involved kick boxing, something totally new to me. My friend showed me how to wrap up my wrists and put on the boxing gloves. I learned the 1-2-1-2 moves. I’m slightly uncoordinated so it took some coaching, but I could do it! It is an awesome feeling to be punching and kicking with all your might and power.

I gave it my all. I really did. Everything I had. I was drenched in sweat by the time we were done. I pushed my muscles to the limit. My body was literally shaking. And it felt so good.

I saw women there that I attain to be. A couple women could do pull ups like no other, their muscle definition showing in their arms.

Pulls ups were the only part of the class that I felt totally uncomfortable. We had to jump up on this bar and someone had to spot us if we couldn’t do a full pull up. Two women helped me. The whole time I was worried that they probably thought I was as heavy as a cow. I knew I had more in me, but I quit because I was embarrassed.

The second time, the trainer came over and pushed me harder to do it. He said, “three more” and I gave it all I had and pushed right through it, with Biggest Loser style grunts coming out of my mouth as I gave it all I had. What an empowering feeling. And my friend said, “Wow—you did more than me!” And that felt good too.

In the end, I learned that fitness classes can be fun. Everyone is so motivating and encouraging of each other. It’s nothing like P.E. class was in school. It helped me to push to my limits. I loved it.
I wish I could join this class, but I live too far away to go every day of the week like you’re supposed to. But I did talk to an employee at the gym about a personal trainer and she was super nice. She was so impressed with my story and said she has the perfect trainer for me to work with. She also stressed strength training, and I know that I need help with that.

Hiring a personal trainer would be WAY out of my comfort zone. But I think I’m ready. I am admitting that I need help and that I am willing to go out of my comfort zone to get it. That means that I want it bad enough. I’ve come this far and I’m ready to go the rest of the way!

Here’s a video that shows the workout:

Disappointed and I Was Here

Sleeping in during the week is so nice. And since I haven’t been feeling well, I know my body needs it too!

For breakfast this morning, I ate an egg sandwich with FF cheese and turkey along with a bowl of fresh fruit and skim milk for 9 points.

I picked up some hours for a friend at work today, so while working, I sipped on coffee with my beloved Almond Joy creamer for 1 point.

For lunch, I ate a spinach salad with tomato, avocado, a sliced smoked WW string cheese, teriyaki chicken topped with FF French and blue cheese for 10 points.

It felt great to finally get some leafy greens back into my diet. I was feeling quite a bit better today and it finally sounded good again.

I finished it up with an apple and PB for 3 points.

I got a few things done around the house and even baked some cookies. I found this recipe on Eat Yourself Skinny, for Skinny Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

There was this job that was just what I was looking for, related to my degree. I hadn’t heard anything back after submitting my resume, so I followed up only to find that the position had been filled by someone with more experience. Bummer. I was pretty disappointed, but I can’t expect to get the first job I apply for.

I ate a cookie for 2 points.

Hubby got home right about that time so he gave me lots of hugs and kisses to make me feel better. It’s been a long time since I’ve been really disappointed. I guess I really wanted that job!

But I know there are great things out there for me. That just wasn’t meant to be. But I am following the notion that if you follow your dreams and do what you love…everything will work out.

I have plans for tonight and hope to post tomorrow about what I’m doing. I’m so glad tomorrow is Friday!

And I love this song. I kind of make it my own personal theme song. And Beyonce is just an amazing singer. This song helps motivate me to chase after my dreams and truly make a difference. Enjoy.

I was Here- Beyonce

Keep on Trackin’

Weigh in day sucked this week. Yep. 3.3 lb. gain. Saw that one coming. My eating was terrible for a few different reasons. None of them excusable.

For breakfast this morning, I had an egg sandwich with FF cheese and turkey bacon along with a bowl of fruit and skim milk for 9 points.

I wasn’t feeling fabulous before I ate and afterwards I felt worse. I napped until I had to work. A little earlier than I like to take this stuff…

While working, I sipped on Duchess Grey tea for 0 points.

I was feeling hungry on my break, so I ate toast with laughing cow for 2 points.

And then that made me more hungry, so I ended up eating 7 wheat crackers for 3 points.

I was just eating what sounded good to me. Bland items, as you can see. But not really the best foods for me. Too many carbs! Why is it that when I don’t feel well, all I want is soup, crackers, and toast?

For lunch, I ate tuna with light miracle whip, everything pretzel crisps and squash soup for 9 points.

I finished it up with an apple and PB for 3 points.

On my break, I made a mango and strawberry smoothie for 1 point.

And ate some, but not all, of a bag of popcorn for 2 points.

That just left me feeling uncomfortable and slightly sick to my stomach. Not sure what’s wrong with me but I wish it would pass. I still had the headache and achiness all day too.

For supper, I had to make something quick. Whole wheat pasta with reduced fat alfredo along with teriyaki chicken wings for 12 points. I usually add veggies to this but we were in a rush. So I really messed up in the veggie dept. today!

I finished it up with a No Pudge! brownie for 3 points.

And there ya have it. I’ll be honest, not happy with how I’ve been eating the past few days since I’m not feeling the greatest. Although, I stayed out of those baking chips today! But I did use 9 weekly points. That’s what they’re for, I guess. Just keep on trackin!

Cleaning Out My Closet

I had the day off today, so I got to sleep in. Yay! I had a nice relaxing morning, I even got to watch an episode of Ugly Betty on Netflix. That show just lures me in for some reason. I’m on episode 3.

For breakfast, I attempted to make an omelet, but lately my omelets are flops—although they still taste good! I made the omelet with 1 egg, 2 egg whites, FF cheese, and FF turkey. I also had a bowl of fresh fruit—yummy—and a glass of skim milk for 7 points.

Every item of my breakfast was a WW filling food. I like that. 

After that, I cleaned the house. It doesn’t take nearly as long when I have the time to keep up on it regularly. A day off never hurt in the “keeping the house clean” department either!

And then I sat down with a cup of coffee mixed with my favorite creamer—International Delight, Almond Joy. 1 point.

SO good. The bottle says it’s Limited Edition, but I’ve been buying this “Limited Edition” for about a year. So I’m not sure how “Limited” it actually is. I hope it sticks around!

Today’s project was to clean out my closet. It was a mess. I assure you.

Believe me now? lol. So embarrassing!

I put this task off far too long. I wanted our bedroom to look nice and organized, and so everything that didn’t fit into the drawers was thrown into the closet. And I was embarrassed every time I opened the door! So after a couple of hours I had it all cleaned out:

And then it was time to sort, try on all of my clothes to see if they still fit, and throw stuff away. I ended up with this:

1 1/2 totes of “too big” clothes and 1 1/2 garbage bags of things to throw away. That’s a lot of stuff to clean out of the closet! This isn’t even close to the first trip of “too big” clothes. I’m starting to get rid of some of the “smaller” clothes that I bought along the way because they’re not too big!! And it looked MUCH better:

I even organized my clothes by short sleeves/ long sleeves and by color. That just makes me happy. tehehe. Nerd alert.

Now I just need to tackle my other closet…

For lunch, I ate a tuna sandwich with lettuce and tomato along with chicken noodle soup for 9 points.

It really makes a difference when you buy the white tuna instead of the cheapest stuff in the store. It tastes a lot better.

And then I finished it up with an apple and PB for 3 points.

I was supposed to go with a co-worker to a fitness class tonight, but I still just don’t feel right. Stomach aches off and on. And today I had a headache all day. My body feels really achy, and my wrist is still all bruised and tender—and since she told me it was a hard core workout with boxing involved, I decided I better just hold off on it. I was disappointed, but hopefully we can go later in the week! It’s important to listen to your body. I also wonder if this restaurant that always makes me sick puts MSG in their food or something? I couldn’t find any negative reviews of the place though. I guess it’s just me!

After the cleaning the closet thing was done, I sat down and read a book. I snacked on Special K crackers and hummus for 5 points.

And then I got those dark chocolate baking chips in my head and the rest is history. Now I remember why I don’t buy them. I don’t keep chocolate in the house anymore, so I need to stop buying the chocolate chips too because I obviously can’t handle them being in the house. Not to mention, it doesn’t really make my stomach feel so great. I think the fact that I do this over and over again means that it’s a behavior that needs addressing. It’s deeper than just, “I really shouldn’t do that.”

I need to work my self control muscle because it’s getting really weak!

For supper, I made Blue Hake along with roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli for 6 points.

It wasn’t until I sat down to actually write this that I realized I ate fish twice today. hmmm…is my body trying to tell me something? lol

If I ignore the chocolate episode, I had a pretty good day otherwise. I got all of my fruits/veggies servings and drank lots of water. Not doing so well on the exercise front right now. I could blame it on not feeling well, but maybe that’s just an excuse? I’ll be glad to start afresh after weigh in day tomorrow.

I need to change my thinking that instead of feeling like I’ve totally screwed everything up when I go over my weekly points after one bad day (which happened last week), that I break it down to each choice. If I can just make the right choice in that one decision, that’s all that matters. Little steps.

I think I get too caught up in the numbers game sometimes. Counting my points, tracking calories burned, etc. I forget that what I’m actually trying to do is build lasting, healthy habits. I’m still learning.

I am slowly but surely getting our house in order. While in school, I felt so overwhelmed with all that I had going on, that it was often neglected. It makes me feel more organized. I wouldn’t be as embarrassed if someone just popped in. But mostly, when you have a clean and organized house, you feel more put together in all areas of your life. One project after another. Maybe this will help me feel more organized and put together overall. Maybe a reorganization of the kitchen is in order…now there’s a thought! Reorganizing the kitchen to ensure the healthiest lifestyle possible! I’m going to think about that…what would you (or do you) do in your kitchen to ensure you made healthy choices?