Just a quick note to say I was able to log 1 more pound of loss today on the website, so officially I am at -27 now. There was no WW meeting the day before Thanksgiving, so a lot rests on the Dec. 2 meeting now. My last meeting weigh-in on 11/18 was -24.2.
As far as I can tell, the status of the website and the app remain the same. I can log my food, but I have to put each thing in individually as my meals and recipes are still messed up. I can easily do it on my desktop at home, but I'm going to miss the app at school.
That's all - Bye for now.
:)Amy
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Friday, November 27, 2015
The Odyssey Continues - Adaptations and Frustrations
Hello and Happy Thanksgiving!
As anyone who has ever tried to lose weight will tell you, the winter holidays present challenges to the dieter that are not present for the rest of the year. Our culture has rich traditions of big food at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it is hard to escape those traditions if you have to interact in society for family, work or social reasons.
For me, things are a little easier in that regard because Hubs and I now live a fairly simple lifestyle at holidays. Since neither of us have family in the area, we usually have quiet holidays which we plan ourselves. We don't have to cook for others, and we don't have to eat with others and be influenced by their needs and desires for holiday fare.
This year, we had several conversations about what we could have for Thanksgiving that would be special. Both of us like pumpkin pie, and Hubs makes a WICKED-GOOD pie with my grandmother's crust recipe. After putting his recipe into my Weight Watchers Recipe Builder, we found that 1/8 pie slice would be 11 pts. That's very high. That's 1/3 of my daily allotment of points. Then we discussed other options. I did some online research about lower calorie options, and we decided that it is the crust that is the problem. The canned pie filling itself is relatively low. Grandma's pie dough recipe calls for 2/3 cup of vegetable shortening. She used to use Crisco. Remember the Crisco of the '60s? O-M-G ! Both of my grandmothers and my mother used Crisco A LOT! I think my mother fried something in Crisco probably 2-3 times a week. If you've seen the movie The Help, you will remember Minnie's instructions to Celia about frying chicken in Crisco. In fact, it does make fried-chicken-to-die-for, but it was also highly unhealthy! Crisco has since been reformulated, but any vegetable shortening is still very high in WW points. Even though Hubs now uses Canola oil, it's still high. (Side-note: I blame 2 staples of the '60s for at least some of my excess bulk - Crisco and High Fructose Corn Syrup, which also used to be in just about everything I ate. Additionally, my mother put sugar on strawberries! We NEVER ate them in their natural state, and every vegetable we ever ate had to be cooked in butter - green beans, carrots, peas, everything!) Anyway, I digress....
Back to the pumpkin pie dilemma. What to do? Hubs suggested maybe we should not have pie at all, but I was determined to have it because I know that if I start denying myself the things I like, then the whole attitude thing is going to kick in and hurt my chances for success. WE MUST HAVE PIE!
Next I looked into alternative pie crusts. I settled on 2 options: Keebler reduced fat graham cracker crust, and shortbread crust. I brought home one of each. For each of them, a 1/8 pie slice would be 3 pts for the crust. With the filling being 4 pts, that brings the total for 1/8 slice down to 7 pts. That is more manageable than 11 pts. So, that's what we went with. I chose shortbread for this time, and we can do the graham cracker for the next hazard-laden holiday in December.
So much for the "adaptations" portion of this entry. Now let's get to the "frustrations".
Technology. Oh how we love it....... when it works. Oh how dependent we've become on it! If you will remember it was the WW App for my smart phone that really got me started on this Odyssey. It was also the straw that led me to get my iPhone 6. Well, let me tell you about frustrations..... WW decided that Thanksgiving week was the best time to launch its "new & improved" website. It also decided that the day before Thankgiving was the day to "update" its App. Seriously. Thankgiving week. When all of us who have become totally dependent on the WW technology for our very survivial and success in weight-loss are facing some of the biggest food challenges of the year! Of course, there are MAJOR bugs in both the website and the App because we all know that "new & improved" websites NEVER work right when they are launched. (Remember the Obama-Care website-launch debacle?)
WW has a "give feedback" button at the top of the new website. I can't even count how many feedback messages I gave in the first few days of using the new website. I'm guessing I was not alone because even though the feedback button is still there, when you try to send a message on it, an error message pops up. I'm guessing they got so much feedback they had to disable the button. Also, when I tried to go to the Tech Help Chat thingy, they gave a link to a page that basically says they know there are problems and they are working to correct them, and they apologized for the inconvenience. The good news is they get it. The bad news is I have NO confidence in their ability to fix the problems. All of the meals I set up are wrong, and my recipes are also incomplete. I have no idea if I can trust the other "favorites" that I set up in my account. It also randomly reduced me from 30 pts a day to 29 even though it was in the middle of a week with no recorded changes in my weight. Trust. Trust is essential. I am heart-broken that I can't trust WW any more. I have hope that they will make things right, but when? Soon? I have been doing this long enough, that I know the pts for most of my common foods, and I can look things up in a book, but ........... I have no idea how long I will be able to tolerate doing this without the convenience of the App. How long before my attitude says "F--- it" and I give up? My motivation HAS to carry me over this hump!
As far as progress goes, I have been stuck at -26 lbs for 12 days. I'm not gaining, but right now it doesn't look like I'm going to make -30 by Nov. 30. 4 days of 7pt pie slices, not withstanding, I am determined to hang on. (Lucky for me, dark meat turkey is only 1 pt per oz.!)
Ok folks! That's it for the Thanksgiving edition of Amy's Odyssey. Stay tuned for tech updates and that other holiday......
Thanks for stopping by!
:)Amy
As anyone who has ever tried to lose weight will tell you, the winter holidays present challenges to the dieter that are not present for the rest of the year. Our culture has rich traditions of big food at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it is hard to escape those traditions if you have to interact in society for family, work or social reasons.
For me, things are a little easier in that regard because Hubs and I now live a fairly simple lifestyle at holidays. Since neither of us have family in the area, we usually have quiet holidays which we plan ourselves. We don't have to cook for others, and we don't have to eat with others and be influenced by their needs and desires for holiday fare.
This year, we had several conversations about what we could have for Thanksgiving that would be special. Both of us like pumpkin pie, and Hubs makes a WICKED-GOOD pie with my grandmother's crust recipe. After putting his recipe into my Weight Watchers Recipe Builder, we found that 1/8 pie slice would be 11 pts. That's very high. That's 1/3 of my daily allotment of points. Then we discussed other options. I did some online research about lower calorie options, and we decided that it is the crust that is the problem. The canned pie filling itself is relatively low. Grandma's pie dough recipe calls for 2/3 cup of vegetable shortening. She used to use Crisco. Remember the Crisco of the '60s? O-M-G ! Both of my grandmothers and my mother used Crisco A LOT! I think my mother fried something in Crisco probably 2-3 times a week. If you've seen the movie The Help, you will remember Minnie's instructions to Celia about frying chicken in Crisco. In fact, it does make fried-chicken-to-die-for, but it was also highly unhealthy! Crisco has since been reformulated, but any vegetable shortening is still very high in WW points. Even though Hubs now uses Canola oil, it's still high. (Side-note: I blame 2 staples of the '60s for at least some of my excess bulk - Crisco and High Fructose Corn Syrup, which also used to be in just about everything I ate. Additionally, my mother put sugar on strawberries! We NEVER ate them in their natural state, and every vegetable we ever ate had to be cooked in butter - green beans, carrots, peas, everything!) Anyway, I digress....
Back to the pumpkin pie dilemma. What to do? Hubs suggested maybe we should not have pie at all, but I was determined to have it because I know that if I start denying myself the things I like, then the whole attitude thing is going to kick in and hurt my chances for success. WE MUST HAVE PIE!
Next I looked into alternative pie crusts. I settled on 2 options: Keebler reduced fat graham cracker crust, and shortbread crust. I brought home one of each. For each of them, a 1/8 pie slice would be 3 pts for the crust. With the filling being 4 pts, that brings the total for 1/8 slice down to 7 pts. That is more manageable than 11 pts. So, that's what we went with. I chose shortbread for this time, and we can do the graham cracker for the next hazard-laden holiday in December.
So much for the "adaptations" portion of this entry. Now let's get to the "frustrations".
Technology. Oh how we love it....... when it works. Oh how dependent we've become on it! If you will remember it was the WW App for my smart phone that really got me started on this Odyssey. It was also the straw that led me to get my iPhone 6. Well, let me tell you about frustrations..... WW decided that Thanksgiving week was the best time to launch its "new & improved" website. It also decided that the day before Thankgiving was the day to "update" its App. Seriously. Thankgiving week. When all of us who have become totally dependent on the WW technology for our very survivial and success in weight-loss are facing some of the biggest food challenges of the year! Of course, there are MAJOR bugs in both the website and the App because we all know that "new & improved" websites NEVER work right when they are launched. (Remember the Obama-Care website-launch debacle?)
WW has a "give feedback" button at the top of the new website. I can't even count how many feedback messages I gave in the first few days of using the new website. I'm guessing I was not alone because even though the feedback button is still there, when you try to send a message on it, an error message pops up. I'm guessing they got so much feedback they had to disable the button. Also, when I tried to go to the Tech Help Chat thingy, they gave a link to a page that basically says they know there are problems and they are working to correct them, and they apologized for the inconvenience. The good news is they get it. The bad news is I have NO confidence in their ability to fix the problems. All of the meals I set up are wrong, and my recipes are also incomplete. I have no idea if I can trust the other "favorites" that I set up in my account. It also randomly reduced me from 30 pts a day to 29 even though it was in the middle of a week with no recorded changes in my weight. Trust. Trust is essential. I am heart-broken that I can't trust WW any more. I have hope that they will make things right, but when? Soon? I have been doing this long enough, that I know the pts for most of my common foods, and I can look things up in a book, but ........... I have no idea how long I will be able to tolerate doing this without the convenience of the App. How long before my attitude says "F--- it" and I give up? My motivation HAS to carry me over this hump!
As far as progress goes, I have been stuck at -26 lbs for 12 days. I'm not gaining, but right now it doesn't look like I'm going to make -30 by Nov. 30. 4 days of 7pt pie slices, not withstanding, I am determined to hang on. (Lucky for me, dark meat turkey is only 1 pt per oz.!)
Ok folks! That's it for the Thanksgiving edition of Amy's Odyssey. Stay tuned for tech updates and that other holiday......
Thanks for stopping by!
:)Amy
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
The Odyssey Continues - Food Details
Good Morning,
Let me start by sharing my morning weigh-in of -26 lbs. Yesterday it was -24. I've bypassed -25 somehow. I can live with that!
Weigh-ins are interesting. I now weigh myself every morning - naked - after going to the bathroom - and before showering. That gives me the lowest possible weight for the day. I've also learned that my digital scale can vary. I have weighed myself, gone out to the bedroom for a minute and come back, weighed myself again and gotten a different number. Sometimes the 2nd time is higher and sometimes it's lower. If I don't like the first number I see, I try again in a minute or two and go with the best reading. Almost always, I weigh anywhere from 2-4 lbs more later in the day (late afternoon or evening) - even after going to the bathroom and being naked. That's why the 4:30 -5:00 weigh-in at the WW meeting is frustrating, although I do think the scale there is lower than my home scale anyway.
Before I weighed myself daily, I never realized how much weight fluctuates normally. Up-Down-Up-Down. Daily. Hourly. It usually defies logic.
Today, I want to focus on the specifics of what I'm actually eating, because that defies logic, too. For most of my life, I've heard "Move More + Eat Less = Lose Weight." Well, I'm here to tell you, I am living proof that that's not always true. For a number of years, I took Water Aerobics classes off and on. I would go 1-2 times a week for 10-12 weeks at a time. In doing that I NEVER lost a pound. Not 1. Last spring, I worked out at the Rec Center with a personal trainer - lifting weights, using the gym machines, "walking or jogging" on a Nu-step machine. Never lost a pound. Not 1. How is it possible that I was moving more than in my usual fairly sedentary life, and didn't lose a pound? I still don't get it, but it was sooooo discouraging because I would be doing things that I was told were good for me, and it wasn't showing on the scale. Of course, I realize that doesn't mean it wasn't still good for me, but if the goal is to lose weight.... You get my point. For me, the "move more" thing has never equated with losing weight.
That leaves "eat less". Now, I used to think that eating "healthy" food was all that was necessary. It turns out that the definition of "healthy" varies from one source to another. If the idea of "healthy" is living on salads with light dressing and fruit, then one probably isn't going to lose weight. At least I'm not. According to WW, healthy food is basically any food "within moderation". As I've talked about before, I am losing more weight faster by eating all the points that WW has assigned to me for a day. I started at 33 points. I went down to 32 after 10 pounds, 31 after 15 pounds, and now I am at 30.
Let's talk about a typical day's worth of Amy's points. Breakfast usually consists of a bowl of Cherrios. A "bowl" for me is 1/2 cup with 1/2 cup of 2% milk. If I have fruit in the house, I include that - a banana or strawberries in the bowl, or a separate cup of melon or pineapple. In my WW Tracker, I have a Meal set up which includes these items, so I can easily add my "cereal w/fruit" each morning from my Favorites list. That combo is 3 points. Sometimes I add 1 piece of toast with margarine and jelly - that is 4 pts. I usually only add the toast on weekends because many times on weekends, I have breakfast late and don't eat much lunch. (Hubby only eats 2 meals a day - ever. So if I am trying to coordinate with him, that affects my choices.)
Lunch on a school day often consists of a sandwich - 1 slice of bread, usually Pepperidge Farm Swirl Rye/Pumpernickle, a little mayo, 3 oz of deli turkey. All of that is 4 pts. A low moisture, part skim cheese stick is 2 pts. Chobani Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt is 4 pts. If I add a WW chocolate candy treat, that is 2 pts. Lunch: 12 pts.
Subtotal breakfast 3 +lunch 12 = 15 pts (half my day's allotment)
Dinner: Salmon - 5oz = 6 pts, 1/4 cup coucous= 1 pt, green beans = 0, 2 Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits = 9, WW ice cream bar = 3. Total for dinner = 19. I could have just had 1 biscuit, but I love them and so I ate 2 and now I don't feel deprived.
Day total = 34 - which takes 4 pts from my extra 49 weekly points.
What I'm learning is the importance of portion control and choices. Before I was on WW, I used to eat Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal. A serving is defined at 28 biscuits. Add 2/3 c of 2% milk to that, and you have a breakfast of 7 points. That's a lot of points to invest in breakfast, and it's not really that much more satisfying than the 1/2 c of Cherrios.
Well, that's it for today. Thanks for joining me on this life-changing Odyssey!
Come back again soon and don't forget to feed the fish. Their food is 1 pt per click! They get 30!
:)Amy
Let me start by sharing my morning weigh-in of -26 lbs. Yesterday it was -24. I've bypassed -25 somehow. I can live with that!
Weigh-ins are interesting. I now weigh myself every morning - naked - after going to the bathroom - and before showering. That gives me the lowest possible weight for the day. I've also learned that my digital scale can vary. I have weighed myself, gone out to the bedroom for a minute and come back, weighed myself again and gotten a different number. Sometimes the 2nd time is higher and sometimes it's lower. If I don't like the first number I see, I try again in a minute or two and go with the best reading. Almost always, I weigh anywhere from 2-4 lbs more later in the day (late afternoon or evening) - even after going to the bathroom and being naked. That's why the 4:30 -5:00 weigh-in at the WW meeting is frustrating, although I do think the scale there is lower than my home scale anyway.
Before I weighed myself daily, I never realized how much weight fluctuates normally. Up-Down-Up-Down. Daily. Hourly. It usually defies logic.
Today, I want to focus on the specifics of what I'm actually eating, because that defies logic, too. For most of my life, I've heard "Move More + Eat Less = Lose Weight." Well, I'm here to tell you, I am living proof that that's not always true. For a number of years, I took Water Aerobics classes off and on. I would go 1-2 times a week for 10-12 weeks at a time. In doing that I NEVER lost a pound. Not 1. Last spring, I worked out at the Rec Center with a personal trainer - lifting weights, using the gym machines, "walking or jogging" on a Nu-step machine. Never lost a pound. Not 1. How is it possible that I was moving more than in my usual fairly sedentary life, and didn't lose a pound? I still don't get it, but it was sooooo discouraging because I would be doing things that I was told were good for me, and it wasn't showing on the scale. Of course, I realize that doesn't mean it wasn't still good for me, but if the goal is to lose weight.... You get my point. For me, the "move more" thing has never equated with losing weight.
That leaves "eat less". Now, I used to think that eating "healthy" food was all that was necessary. It turns out that the definition of "healthy" varies from one source to another. If the idea of "healthy" is living on salads with light dressing and fruit, then one probably isn't going to lose weight. At least I'm not. According to WW, healthy food is basically any food "within moderation". As I've talked about before, I am losing more weight faster by eating all the points that WW has assigned to me for a day. I started at 33 points. I went down to 32 after 10 pounds, 31 after 15 pounds, and now I am at 30.
Let's talk about a typical day's worth of Amy's points. Breakfast usually consists of a bowl of Cherrios. A "bowl" for me is 1/2 cup with 1/2 cup of 2% milk. If I have fruit in the house, I include that - a banana or strawberries in the bowl, or a separate cup of melon or pineapple. In my WW Tracker, I have a Meal set up which includes these items, so I can easily add my "cereal w/fruit" each morning from my Favorites list. That combo is 3 points. Sometimes I add 1 piece of toast with margarine and jelly - that is 4 pts. I usually only add the toast on weekends because many times on weekends, I have breakfast late and don't eat much lunch. (Hubby only eats 2 meals a day - ever. So if I am trying to coordinate with him, that affects my choices.)
Lunch on a school day often consists of a sandwich - 1 slice of bread, usually Pepperidge Farm Swirl Rye/Pumpernickle, a little mayo, 3 oz of deli turkey. All of that is 4 pts. A low moisture, part skim cheese stick is 2 pts. Chobani Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt is 4 pts. If I add a WW chocolate candy treat, that is 2 pts. Lunch: 12 pts.
Subtotal breakfast 3 +lunch 12 = 15 pts (half my day's allotment)
Dinner: Salmon - 5oz = 6 pts, 1/4 cup coucous= 1 pt, green beans = 0, 2 Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits = 9, WW ice cream bar = 3. Total for dinner = 19. I could have just had 1 biscuit, but I love them and so I ate 2 and now I don't feel deprived.
Day total = 34 - which takes 4 pts from my extra 49 weekly points.
What I'm learning is the importance of portion control and choices. Before I was on WW, I used to eat Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal. A serving is defined at 28 biscuits. Add 2/3 c of 2% milk to that, and you have a breakfast of 7 points. That's a lot of points to invest in breakfast, and it's not really that much more satisfying than the 1/2 c of Cherrios.
Well, that's it for today. Thanks for joining me on this life-changing Odyssey!
Come back again soon and don't forget to feed the fish. Their food is 1 pt per click! They get 30!
:)Amy
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
The Odyssey Continues - I've Got Stickers!!!
Today was WW Meeting day, and I met my goal! I broke -20 and got my 4th 5lb sticker!
It is really amazing how much these little victories motivate me! It turns out Leader Janet was right. I have eaten all my daily points for the last week, and it worked - or something worked. Officially according to my Wednesday Meeting Book, I've lost 21.2. According to my Saturday morning weigh-in for the website, I'm at -23. I have been either -21, -22, or -23 every morning since Nov. 1. I think I am well on my way to -30 by Dec. 1 !!
It is interesting how much of a difference the time of day makes! Today's weigh-in was at 5:15. Believe me, I took off everything I could take off in public before I got on that scale, even my earrings!
Ok - that's it for today. I just wanted to share my stickers! Yay Me!
:)Amy
Saturday, November 7, 2015
The Odyssey Continues - It's a Learning Process
Hello Friends,
In my last entry I talked about how excited I was going to be to get my 4th -5lb star. Well, I am still waiting! OMG! I had Janet (my WW Leader) weigh me twice on Wednesday, and I was still .2 away from -20. "Are you kidding me," I declared!!! I told her I'd been working extra hard since Saturday's weigh in to be SURE I was at or beyond -20. I said I hadn't even been eating my daily points. She said, "WHAT?" She then told me that I HAVE to eat my daily points if I want to keep losing steadily. How can that be, I asked. She said, "trust me on this. If you want to keep losing you HAVE to eat your daily points!" She told me I don't have to eat my extra 49 weekly pts.
*sigh*
The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. The point total is calculated for my size to insure a steady 2lb/wk loss. If I eat less than that, I can be sending my body into a starvation mindset where it holds on to fat because it thinks it's in danger of starvation. It's not even that I was eating all that much less in total quantity, but I was consciously eating more 0 point foods - fruits and veggies. For example, Instead of something worth more points, I had a big salad with only 4 pts of dressing, a dish of fruit at lunch instead of a 4 pt yogurt container, or slices of zuchini as an after school snack instead of a 2 pt cheese stick.
Ok, so I promised Janet that I would TRY to eat my daily points. I've been doing so since Wed's meeting, and guess what? Today I saw my first glimpse of -23 !!!! I swear it's magic!
Today I bought a food scale. That will help keep me from having to estimate on things like deli turkey. And so the learning process continues....
Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
:)Amy
In my last entry I talked about how excited I was going to be to get my 4th -5lb star. Well, I am still waiting! OMG! I had Janet (my WW Leader) weigh me twice on Wednesday, and I was still .2 away from -20. "Are you kidding me," I declared!!! I told her I'd been working extra hard since Saturday's weigh in to be SURE I was at or beyond -20. I said I hadn't even been eating my daily points. She said, "WHAT?" She then told me that I HAVE to eat my daily points if I want to keep losing steadily. How can that be, I asked. She said, "trust me on this. If you want to keep losing you HAVE to eat your daily points!" She told me I don't have to eat my extra 49 weekly pts.
*sigh*
The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. The point total is calculated for my size to insure a steady 2lb/wk loss. If I eat less than that, I can be sending my body into a starvation mindset where it holds on to fat because it thinks it's in danger of starvation. It's not even that I was eating all that much less in total quantity, but I was consciously eating more 0 point foods - fruits and veggies. For example, Instead of something worth more points, I had a big salad with only 4 pts of dressing, a dish of fruit at lunch instead of a 4 pt yogurt container, or slices of zuchini as an after school snack instead of a 2 pt cheese stick.
Ok, so I promised Janet that I would TRY to eat my daily points. I've been doing so since Wed's meeting, and guess what? Today I saw my first glimpse of -23 !!!! I swear it's magic!
Today I bought a food scale. That will help keep me from having to estimate on things like deli turkey. And so the learning process continues....
Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
:)Amy
Sunday, November 1, 2015
The Odyssey Continues - A New Experience
My loyal readers will probably remember my comments about wanting/needing to buy new clothes. Today was the day! As I was driving home, I realized that today is the first day in my life when I walked into a clothing store, asked for smaller sizes than I'd been wearing, tried them on, and BOUGHT THEM! What an amazing feeling! I'm so used to dreading the shopping experience, and I'm so used to being disappointed in the results, that today's success was a whole new experience for me!
My retired "fat jeans" are size 26wp. I also have a pair of jeans that I've been wearing that are 24. Today, I explained to the clerk that I wanted to try size 22. She found 3 pairs for me to try on. Every single one of them fit! SERIOUSLY! No Baggie Butts! Then I took them out to the register and said, "I'd also like these same styles in size 20." The other clerk was very confused, but my clerk understood. I had to explain to the other clerk that I wanted a total of 6 pairs of jeans. I brought home 3 pairs of jeans that I can wear now, and I have 3 pairs that I can wear when the 22s are too big!
I also bought 2 tops in 1x. I've been in 2x tops for DECADES! It was so much fun to try on smaller sizes and have them FIT!!! YAY! Talk about motivation! WOW!
As far as progress goes... I dropped the first 16 very quickly and easily. The next 4 pounds have been teasing me for 2 weeks! My first glimpse of -20 was Oct. 18. Since then I've seen that number only very sparingly. Today, I actually had my first glimpse of -21. WOW was I excited! :) I am determined that when I go to the WW meeting on Wed, I will be able to get my 4th -5 Star! The month of November is going to be -20 to -30. Just you watch and see!
Thanks for hanging in here with me! I'll see you next time, and don't forget to feed the fish!
:)Amy
My retired "fat jeans" are size 26wp. I also have a pair of jeans that I've been wearing that are 24. Today, I explained to the clerk that I wanted to try size 22. She found 3 pairs for me to try on. Every single one of them fit! SERIOUSLY! No Baggie Butts! Then I took them out to the register and said, "I'd also like these same styles in size 20." The other clerk was very confused, but my clerk understood. I had to explain to the other clerk that I wanted a total of 6 pairs of jeans. I brought home 3 pairs of jeans that I can wear now, and I have 3 pairs that I can wear when the 22s are too big!
I also bought 2 tops in 1x. I've been in 2x tops for DECADES! It was so much fun to try on smaller sizes and have them FIT!!! YAY! Talk about motivation! WOW!
As far as progress goes... I dropped the first 16 very quickly and easily. The next 4 pounds have been teasing me for 2 weeks! My first glimpse of -20 was Oct. 18. Since then I've seen that number only very sparingly. Today, I actually had my first glimpse of -21. WOW was I excited! :) I am determined that when I go to the WW meeting on Wed, I will be able to get my 4th -5 Star! The month of November is going to be -20 to -30. Just you watch and see!
Thanks for hanging in here with me! I'll see you next time, and don't forget to feed the fish!
:)Amy
Sunday, October 25, 2015
The Odyssey Continues - It's All About the Food!
Let’s talk about FOOD, shall we? After all, that’s what this whole Weight-Watchers-Diet thing is all about, right?
For those of you who are not familiar with how Weight Watchers works, let me give you some basics. There are 2 ways to join: Online for about $20/month, or At Weekly Meetings for significantly more $. (The group I am in is through my school. It was $156 for one session of about 4 months, and we are getting a $50 rebate from our insurance company if we attend almost all of the weekly sessions.) It was news to me that it was possible to join online and not attend meetings. I learned that at my first meeting.
For your membership fee you are getting support in several different ways: access to the online food tracker (more about that later), access to recipes and information about healthy eating. Online there is a “helpline” where you can chat with someone at WW and ask questions. The website also has a blog section where members can share their experiences. It was partly because of reading someone else’s blog that I decided to start blogging here about my experience as well. At meetings, you are getting the support of the WW Leader who has a mini-lesson plan for each meeting. (Our last meeting was all about protein and its important role in healthy eating.) You also get the support and comradery of the other members. My group is mostly made up of people who have been members previously, so they have good experiences to share. I am one of the few newbies in the group. I am trying to pick their brains every chance I get. My group leader has lost more than 70 pounds herself, and her history of having been over-weight since about 3rd grade matches mine, so we’ve been able to connect on that. Other members of the group used to be thin and gained after having babies or as they’ve approached middle age. It was interesting to me to hear that different experience.
Before I joined, I used to think this was going to be about deprivation. It’s not. I want to make that very clear. I can eat ANYTHING I want to eat. It’s largely about portion control and about understanding what foods are healthy. For someone who is addicted to food, as I am, it’s important to get the concept of “eating to live” rather than “living to eat”. My group leader likes to say, “No one ever got fat from eating too many fruits and vegetables!” I love that line! When was the last time you pigged-out on a bag of apples? Does this mean I can never eat cookies or cake? Of course not! I just have to be aware of how much I’m eating and strike a balance between those sweet treats and the foods I really need to live on.
To me, the food tracker is the most essential piece of the Weight Watchers puzzle. Consistent and correct use of the food tracker is what is leading my successful weight loss. The food tracker is based on each food being given a point value. It’s now called Points Plus because it isn’t just about calories anymore. They take into consideration the content of food: fat, carbs, fiber and protein, before assigning it a point value. Weight Watchers has invested a lot of time building a bank of information behind its food tracker that makes it an incredibly versatile and useful tool. There are many many brand name items included. For example, if Hubs and I decide we want to have dinner at Panera Bread, I can search the tracker by the Brand Name items and know exactly how much each thing is worth. Most national chain restaurants are listed in the tracker bank. Also, there is a Tracker App for smart phones which includes a bar-code scanner. I can be at the grocery trying to decide between two items, and I can scan the bar-codes and compare the points for each item. (This is great for things like salad dressing.) If I try to scan something that is a local brand and isn’t in the tracker by name, it allows me to input the item by telling it what fat, carbs, fiber and protein content is on the label.
Another great feature of the Food Tracker is the Recipe Builder feature. I have built a collection of recipes that Hubs and I use regularly by putting in all the ingredients and listing how many servings we get out of that recipe - then it gives me a point value per serving. I can tag things as “favorites” making them easy to find as I put in my daily meals.
On the website, when I set up my account, I was asked some basic facts - gender, age, weight - and then I was asked to set a weight loss goal. It then gave me a Points Plus Number. That is the number of points I should have per day in order to reach my goal. Additionally, there is a second number for the week. If I go over my daily allotment, it pulls points from my weekly amount. This is very handy if you go to a party or have a special day when you kind of blow through your daily allotment. WW encourages tracker users to use all their points - both daily and weekly - to maintain a steady weight-loss of about 2 pounds a week. One reason I am averaging 3 pounds a week is because I never use all my weekly points. I almost always use my daily points, and sometimes I go over by a point or two. When I started, I got 33 points a day. After I lost 10 pounds, it went down to 32 points a day and now it is down to 31 points. My weekly allotment is 49, and that hasn’t changed.
The website also keeps track of all your daily info and then it shows fancy graphs and charts so you can analyze your progress. If you want to slow or speed up your progress you can adjust your own point totals. This really could not be any easier. I’ve done the whole calorie-counting, weighing-food thing, and I can’t do that. THIS I can do. Easily.
Another important point to remember here is that ALL fresh fruit and veggies are FREE - no points! NONE! The banana I put on my cereal is free. The grapes and cherry tomatoes that I snack on are free. The apple I eat at lunch is free. AND Weight Watchers sells some great snack foods that have the point values right on the box. They have fabulous ice cream bars that are as good as any other brand of ice cream - 3 points. Did you know that Progresso Soup now puts the WW points ON the can? A cup of soup is 2 points - the whole can is 4. AMAZING!
So, there you have it. The basics of how this whole program works. I never go to bed feeling hungry or deprived. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. I can’t even imagine ever NOT doing this until I get to my goal weight. By then, my lifestyle change will be so ingrained in me that I really don’t think it will be hard to maintain. As a total food addict with a life-long sense of entitlement, I can tell you this works! The “high” I get from seeing my success is better than any high I’ve ever felt from eating any one of the many foods I love. It feels good to finally feel proud of myself instead of going to bed every night thinking about how “bad” I was for over-eating, AGAIN.
Ok - that’s the speech for today. Go have yourself a nice juicy pear and think about how good it feels to eat something healthy!
:)Amy
Saturday, October 24, 2015
The Odyssey Continues - Let The Changes Begin
First, let me give an update on progress. As of Wednesday’s official weigh-in at the meeting, I had lost 18.2 pounds. As of today’s weigh-in for the website, it was 19. Last Sunday, I had a brief glimpse of 20 pounds, but that number has been elusive this week. My goal for this week is to hit 20 pounds for the Wednesday Meeting weigh-in. Then I will get my 4th 5-pound star for my little book!
I felt very good after the last meeting because some of the other ladies there said my progress is an inspiration to them. One of them asked me how I am losing so steadily, and I said I am tracking every morsel of food. She said, “Oh, I can’t do that.” WHAT? Why are you in Weight Watchers if you aren’t going to track your food? Isn’t that a huge part of what this is all about? That conversation left me very confused.
One of the big questions I had when I started my weight loss odyssey was when I would first start to notice real changes as a result of my progress. At last week’s meeting, I asked some of the veteran members when they had to start buying new clothes. One of the members, who has lost 75 pounds since January, said that it took her awhile to buy new clothes because a lot of what she had been wearing was baggy anyway. I think this is a very common thing for women. When we are wearing the larger sizes, we typically buy clothes that are stretchy with elastic waists because we are trying to hide our bulk and also to be comfortable. Tight clothes just aren’t comfortable. I think a general rule is that one size typically represents about 10 pounds in the lower sizes and about 20 pounds in the higher sizes. I think it is safe to say that someone who wears a size 20 is about 200 pounds, 24 is about 240 pounds, etc… That isn’t exact, and it may vary depending on height and proportions of the person or make and style of clothing, but it is an estimate that seems to make sense based on what I’ve worn over the years.
During the last week, I realized that I am ready for some new “good” jeans. The jeans I’ve been wearing since the spring are size 26 petite (short), and they are now so big that I keep having to hitch them up as I walk. I could wear a belt, but I don’t have any belts because I hate them. I really don’t know how men can stand to wear belts all the time! If they are tight enough when you are standing to hold your pants up, they are too tight when you sit down. That’s never worked for me! My plan is to go to the store tomorrow and buy a new pair of jeans that fit now, and another pair in a size smaller to have when I get to the next size change. I am going to save these large jeans for my “Look how big my fat-jeans were” photograph! I hope to get to do one of those pictures where I stand with both of my legs in one leg of the fat jeans and hold the waist way out to show how much space there is.
Other than my jeans being too big, I really haven’t noticed much difference yet. I think my feet look a little thinner. Hubby says he thinks my butt is smaller, but I don’t know if I trust him to be totally honest. We walked up to the park today and I think I felt like I had more stamina than I used to have. I didn’t get as tired and wasn’t desperate to sit down when I got home as I was the last time we walked to the park. Also, I noticed my hips and knees didn’t hurt as much as they have in the past.
That’s about it for my current status. Thanks for reading and come back again soon!
:)Amy
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
The Odyssey Continues - with Attitude!
Have you ever thought of yourself as having “an attitude”? You know, one of those attitudes that puts a nasty, sarcastic tone in your voice? I like to think I don’t get “attitude” with others, although Hubs tells me I do. The attitude that I’m more concerned about right now is the attitude that I have with myself. I think it is one of the reasons I’ve been over-weight since I was about 8.
Let me give you some background. I apologize now if this entry ends up being TMI. My birth weight was only 5 lbs,3 oz., and there was a note on my birth chart where the doc said to watch me closely because I was very small. (I think my birth-mother was a smoker which may account for low birth-weight.) Once I started eating however, I always had a very healthy appetite. With the exception of my newborn photos, I appear very chubby in every baby picture ever taken of me.
I matured physically very quickly, and by the time I was in school, I was the tallest in my class. I can remember that in grades 2-3-4-5 and even 6, we had class photos taken and we were lined up by height. I was always the tallest in my class. By the time I was 11, I was taller and heavier than my mother. I was over 5’ tall in 6th grade. After that, I stopped getting taller and everyone else kept going. I am 5’ 2” now. Even after I was no longer the tallest, I was always the heaviest. When I was in high school, there was only 1 person I knew who was heavier than I was. I’m not sure when I topped 200#, but I think it was early in college. I can remember going to a doctor and being put on a diet of 2000 calories a day. I did that for a summer and lost 17 pounds which took me down to 200. Once I went back to college, there was no way I was going to weigh my food and count calories, so I gave that up.
Here’s where the attitude thing comes in. One thing I remember very clearly about myself in my early years was that I always felt a strong sense of entitlement when it came to food. It was one of those “I can eat what I want to and you can’t stop me.” sort of things. I know I always felt like I was constantly being told by others what to do, and this was one thing that I wasn’t going to let anyone else control - damn it! If I want to eat an entire sleeve of girl scout cookies in one sitting, I can because I deserve them! Eventually, when my mother started trying to tell me not to eat so much, I started sneaking food. That will teach her!
So, it was about control and about entitlement. As I entered my adult years, I used food to reward myself for accomplishments. I deserved a treat because I did well at something. Maybe I got an A in a grad class paper or maybe I was complimented at school for something I did well. I know this makes no logical sense, but I used food to make myself feel better when I felt bad about the way I looked. I would complain about being fat, and not being able to wear clothes I wanted to wear, and then I would drown my sorrows in crap food - chips, cookies, Mountain Dew. I can’t even tell you how much Mountain Dew I drank in college!
When I look back on it, I realize I was a food addict. Being a food addict is worse than other addictions because you can’t just stop eating cold-turkey like you can stop drinking or smoking or doing drugs. You still have to eat, and you have to be around food all the time because it is everywhere in our culture. Then if you don’t limit your intake of the food that surrounds you, you are made to feel like a failure because you don’t have any will-power. So, then you eat because you feel like a failure!
The other attitude thing I had going on was the one where I said even though I am over-weight, I’m still “healthy” because I can move the way I want and need to move. I played tennis, I played golf. I was agile and could get down on the floor and back up again with no problems. Really until I turned 40, I didn’t have any specific physical ailments that I could blame on being over-weight. I didn’t feel inhibited by my weight = therefore, I was healthy, so it was ok.
Once I hit my 40s the physical problems started. There was the sleep-apnea, then the need for thyroid meds, and then came the cholesterol and blood pressure medicine. Next came the type 2 Diabetes, and then of course, the knee replacement surgery. Most recently, I’ve been diagnosed with degenerative spondylolisthesis - a condition of the mis-alignment of the lower vertebra of the spine. Even though it is common and not necessarily weight related, it is certainly exacerbated by carrying excessive weight.
And so with this Odyssey comes the need for a new attitude. I remember once I was watching a show on TV where someone was being profiled who had lost a lot of weight. One thing she said really made an impression on me. She said she realized she was digging her own grave with a fork. For some reason that stuck with me. I realized this summer when my back issue started that I have to stop living to eat and start eating to live. I need to stop poisoning my own body. It is self-harm just as much as taking drugs or cutting or any other form of physical self-abuse. So I have to stop thinking about how much food I deserve and start thinking about how much I deserve to be healthy. I deserve more than abusing myself with food just because I can. I’ve proven that I can control my over-eating, now I have to prove that I can also control my correct eating.
At last week’s Weight Watchers meeting, one of the other ladies in the group said that she feels she has very little control over much of her life, but she knows that what she eats is the one thing she CAN control. That’s true. We can control what we put in our mouths, and no one else can do it for us.
I know that for me, this tracking of food on the WW App is working. I know that I really CAN control my eating and do it in healthy ways. Sometimes the old entitlement attitude starts to creep in, but I’ve managed to keep it at bay. I just keep telling myself “I deserve to be as healthy as I can be!”
Thanks for letting me share my Odyssey with you. I guarantee I have more to say on the topic, so stay tuned!
:)Amy
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Crowing About Music
I need to take a few minutes to crow about the wonders of living in Westerville where I get to attend phenomenal music events! Today I attended a performance of the Westerville Symphony Orchestra with guest Gavin George performing.
Allow me to introduce you to Gavin:
Hear him at the piano by clicking here.
This video was done when he was 11. He is now 12. This was one of 3 pieces he played tonight for encores as the audience begged him to continue!
Here he is at age 7 with a fun variation.
Gavin is from Newark, Ohio and has now played all over the world! At tonight's event, Gavin played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, op. 1. I honestly don't know how it is physically possible for anyone to move their fingers as fast as Gavin did. WOW he was amazing!!!
If I could figure out how to upload the videos from my phone to this page, I would do that for you. Come back later and see if I figured it out!
In the meantime, search youtube and let Gavin amaze you!
Happy Viewing!
:)Amy
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