Not Reindeer, But We'll Take Them Anyway!

We have had a lot of deer in the last few months visiting our feeders at Old House.  Sometimes they are alone, and sometimes there is a group.  We've seen as many as 5 females together, and as many as 2 males together.  The males and females never show up together.  Here are some clips from Dec. 26 - the girls were here about midnight, and the buck came at 7 am.  I'm not positive, but I think this is the smaller of the 2 bucks we've seen.  I think the other one has 6-7 pts.  

Thanks for visiting - come back again soon!

:)Amy

Merry Christmas to Us!

Because it was sunny and in the 50s here on this Christmas Eve, we decided to take a late afternoon walk at our favorite park - Inniswood.  We got a fabulous present when we got to see the first owl that either of us have ever seen in the wild.

There was a man with a very large camera on a tripod focused on something.  As we approached and looked where the camera was pointed, we saw what we thought was a huge owl.  The photographer told us that this one in fact is not that big - his female companion is even bigger.  Turns out they like to follow the creek in that quadrant of the park, and this photographer has been following them for years.  He calls this one Grumpy.

We called this one Beautiful!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night... and happy birdwatching!

:)Amy

Another Divergence into the Music World

Have you heard of this group?  If you haven't, then you need to get them on your radar.  They are FANTABULOUS!  On Friday night, I attended my 2nd live concert with them.  My first rondezvous with them was about a year ago.  (I can't figure out why I didn't blog about it then!)  Once I saw them, I knew that I HAD to have tickets if they ever came back to Columbus.  The minute I found out they were going to be here again this year, I was on TicketMaster ordering!  

Friday, December 18, 2015 - Palace Theatre - seat T2.  WHOOO HOOO!!!

Ok, let me calm myself here and give some history of the group.  The group was founded in 1996 at Indiana University in Bloomington.  They were popular/famous just locally until about 2006 when a video of one of their most popular songs went viral online.  That led to a contract with Atlantic Records, and then the TV appearances and national tour began, followed by an international tour and even more appearances.  Now, the quantity of their music online is HUGE.  If you search them on YouTube (they have their own channel), you will find just about every version of every song they've ever done.  There are also videos available on their website. They make videos that are separate from their concerts, but they also encourage audience members to record their concerts and post them online, so that is the source of many videos.  

So, here's the thing.  The group sings a cappella - no instruments or sound effects or anything other than what comes out of their mouths into microphones.  10 guys (the individuals have varied somewhat over the years) - made up of 4 tenors, 3 baritones, 2 basses and a vocal percussionist. 

Enough talking from me.  Let's listen to some GREAT Music!  

Here is the 1998 version of The 12 Day of Christmas which is really what started this ball rolling:

Next is the video version of a song I heard for the first time on Friday.  It is a great example of one of the many songs that they have created or arranged for their own performance, and it is also another great example of their use of humor:

Here is one of my faves from last year's concert  (the concert version) - the Broadway Medley:

So far, everything I've shared here has been humorous, but they also do just "straight" amazing singing without the humor.  Here is a song from Friday night that I recorded on my phone - Take Me To Church:

  This is one of my favorites of theirs - All About That Bass: 

I'm going to leave you with one last upload from my phone.  This intro is done by Seggie Isho - he's my FAVE!  ;)  - you will recognize the song....

Ok - I'm not leaving yet - I've got more photos to share - Here is this year's tour photo:

OK - Now I'm done!  Hope you enjoyed this fun romp with me. 

Go see them!  I promise you won't be disappointed!  

Bye for now!

:)Amy

The Odyssey Continues - Plateaus

Today is Saturday, December 19, 2015.  As of this morning, I was at -25 lbs.  I first saw this weight on Tuesday, Nov. 17.  About 2 weeks later, I was down to -27 (Nov. 28).  The last time I saw -27 was Dec. 4.  Since then, I've been bouncing around between -26 and -24.

I have hit a plateau.  Weight Loss Plateaus are very common.  Everyone who is trying to lose a lot of weight hits them.  It is usually because the metabolism of your body changes as it gets used to the new pattern of reduced calorie eating.  Also, as body mass changes, the amount of calories needed to sustain that body mass changes.

At the Dec. 9 Weight Watchers meeting, we had a sub leader.  Her name is Liz.  She has lost 103 pounds.  She did it in a little over 3 years when she was in her 30s.  She has maintained this weight loss for 27 years.  I talked with her about the dreaded plateau.  She said she went through 3 of them, and the longest was 5 months.  I talked with her as well as my regular leader Janet about ways to break the plateau.  They both recommended changing things up by eating different things, and moving in different ways.

Tonight, out of curiosity, I did some online research into the subject, and I found 2 very good articles.  One is by professional fitness expert Jillian Michaels. It's called, "Break Through Any Weight Loss Plateau" .  She recommends being sure you are eating fewer calories than are being burned and changing up the work out routine.  Beyond that, it could be a hormone imbalance.

The next article I read was by fitness trainer Marc Perry who has his own program online called Built Lean.  His article is called, "Weight Loss Plateau: Tips on How to Break It."  Most of the points he makes are similar to Jillians, he just goes into more detail.  He also mentions something called Calorie Cycling.  This is a concept that I've heard about before, which makes sense to me.  This is the idea that you have a high calorie day periodically in order to keep the body from getting too used to the low calorie routine.  Example: 1 high day, followed by 3 low days - repeat that pattern.  Individuals have to find what works for them.  This is something I've seriously thought about trying.  At one time, I thought about eating whatever I wanted on weekends, and then being very careful and good the other 5 days.  I kind of did that at times, but I wasn't tracking everything I ate, so I'm sure I wasn't very accurate or consistent.

As far as I can tell, Weight Watchers' official recommendation is to stay-the-course and eventually the plateau will break itself.  One thing I thought about was just going off WW for the holidays, and then starting back up in January, to see if that makes a difference.  I certainly don't want to gain though, and that is what scares me about going off of the point tracking.   Of course, I can still track points, but just keep each day to a higher point count unless I see the scale going up.

I have a doc appt next week so I'm going to ask her about it and see what she recommends.  As an interesting side note to all of this, for about a month (mid-Nov to mid-Dec) I was having a strange sensation in my upper left abdomen.  It was a muscle tightness that came and went.  At first I thought it was stress/tension, but it kept happening after I felt the stress I was under should have been lifted.  There was no pattern to it as far as time of day or connection to eating. Each time it happens, it only lasts a minute or 2 at most.   I talked with a friend who has lost about 60 lbs, and he said he had pains when he was losing.  I mentioned this to my doc and she said that gall-stones can result from rapid weight loss (since I lost the first 16 lbs in 5 weeks), and she is having me get an abdominal ultra-sound.  Of couse, as soon as she recommended this, the muscle tightness pretty much stopped happening.  She also did an EKG to rule out heart-related issues.  So far, that looks good, but she's also having me get a stress test, just in case.

I knew when I started this that the road would not be straight, and the weight-loss would not be consistent.  My optimistic objective of -10/month is obviously not very realistic.  WW recommends 1-2 lbs/ week.  I would be happy with losing 8 lbs a month or even 4 right now!  Actually, right now I'll be happy to make it through the holidays without gaining!

Stay tuned.  I'll let you know what the doc says next week.  If any of you have plateau-breaking suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks for sticking with me!

:)Amy

The Odyssey Continues - Milestones

The December 2 WW meeting was interesting.  I took off just about everything I could take off before getting on the scales - including jewelry and glasses, and I weighed EXACTLY the same as I had 2 weeks before, so....  with only WW Leader Janet and one other lady in the room, I whipped off my shirt.  That was enough to get me down by .2 lbs which got me to my official -25 mark in my meeting book.  As of that day, I was -25 at p.m. meeting and -27 at morning home weigh-in.  As of today, I am up a pound in the morning, so -26.

Clearly I am stuck.  I've been in this 2 pound range for weeks now.  I think I need to start moving more.  I am still trying to eat all my daily points.  I think I am going to start walking the building at school.  I will wear my pedometer and see how many steps I can log.  If I can get to 10,000/day, that
"should" help.  We'll see.  Maybe that will help me break this stall.

Stay tuned....

:)Amy

The Odyssey Continues - Brief Update

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

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

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

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

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