Week 3

Last weekend was so LONG! I'm having problems on my home computer. I don't know what the problem is, but I suddenly can't get on Weight Watchers. I can go to EVERY other website, but that one. Its so frustrating. I can't cook the meals I planned, because I can't see the recipe. I think about starving, because I can't look up the points value for anything. Or I decide I'm starving, and just eat hoping it won't be too many points.

Then I get to work and I can get on just fine. I've had a few suggestions, but nothing has worked so far, I still couldn't get on last night. I have tried all three Internet programs. I can't find a firewall anywhere. I have the most current version of adobe flash player. I have no idea where to clear out the cache memory.

I did think to keep a list of what I ate over the weekend, and after I plugged everything in, I was okay. But the stress was too much! Now I feel like I need to know exactly what I'm going to eat on Friday, Saturday and Sunday before leaving work on Thursday so I can plug it in and make sure its okay.

I'm not down as much as I hoped. I know its going to be hard, but I had hoped at least the first few weeks I would shed the weight faster. The first week I lost 5 1/2 pounds. But It took me 2 weeks to loose 5 more pounds. I'm now down 11 pounds. Nothing to brag about, but its progress. I'd say its like eating an elephant one bite at a time, but this is a diet so I'm not eating an elephant. I just need to remind myself that each pound lost is one pound closer to my goal.

My goal weight, that is another thing that keeps changing. I honestly can't tell you how much I weighed in high school. Growing up, I felt like weight was ignored, it wasn't a big deal. Which I kind of agree with. Just because your overweight doesn't mean you need to stop living and be unhappy all the time. No matter how much you weigh, you are still a person who deserves happiness, fulfillment, a fun life, etc.

I'm also not sure what size of pants I wore when I got married. Maybe a 12? Wow, to be a 12 again would be awesome! I really don't think I have the body that can be a size 2 or 4. And that doesn't matter. I remember feeling so pretty when I was a teenager, and I wasn't a size 2 or 4 then either. I just want to get back to that.

My original goal was 150, but I'm flexible there. I will be beyond the moon happy when I get below 200. And I will beyond the sun happy to get to 175. Everything after that would just be icing on the cake. (The cake I'm not eating right now. )

Exercise? Still a struggle. I don't think I got on my bike once last week. I get home from work and I just want to relax. I work a 10 hour day with another half hour commute, one way, so I'm away from my house at least 11 hours a day. No wonder I want to just sit and relax.

I have a smaller bladder. I usually end up waking up once or twice a night to go to the restroom. The second time is usually within 45 minutes of the alarm clock going off. I HATE that. I know if I just hold it and try to sleep, I won't sleep well. But if I get up and then come back to bed, I won't sleep well.

So I've decided to take this to my advantage. My body seems to think it needs to get up at that time, so I'm going to do it. The last two days I have set the alarm for 4:30, but I've woken up before it goes off. Yesterday I was going to just exercise for 30 minutes, but when I woke up 15 minutes early, I decided to watch an episode of Desperate Housewives on Netflix. They are about 44 minutes long, so I went for 45 minutes. Got my exercise in and also got to watch my new favorite show. Win win!

This morning went just as well. I set the alarm 10 minutes earlier, just so I could watch another episode. ;) I was a bit tired driving to work, but for the most part I don't feel like missing that extra hour of sleep is affecting me for the worse. I hope I can keep this up.

I think I can finally tell my pants feel looser. Josh was flirting with me one day this weekend and he pulled on my jeans. They came off and the best part, they were still buttoned closed. Instead of getting mad at him, I pulled them up and tried it again.

I still mostly have a smoothie for breakfast, but on the weekends I have cereal instead so I hopefully won't tire of the smoothies soon. I bought a pineapple and chopped it up and froze it. My favorite smoothie is some vanilla yogurt, frozen mango, half a frozen banana (which I also freeze myself), frozen pineapple, frozen spinach and some orange juice. I'm so glad Barb bought me a Ninja. It whips them together so fast.

I found a cookie recipe on Weight Watchers that I want to try. Maybe I'll make them this weekend. I've been planning meals just a few at a time, which means I have to go shopping every week, but so far that is working for me, so I guess I'll keep doing it. Shopping, that is something I have improved on. I used to buy just a bag of cookies or candies "just because." Now I just walk right on by and ignore them.

Which reminds me, I've been craving french fries, I need to figure out something to try to take away the cravings.

Yay, I made it yesterday without a soda pop. (On a side note, in real life I say just pop, but for some reason when I blog I always say soda pop. Not sure why.) But I'm going to go get me a Diet Coke as soon as I'm done with this post because I am DRAGGING today. I went to bed a little earlier, but it must have not been enough.

Just a few things I learned yesterday while browsing the internet. I finally found my favorites recipes on Weight Watchers! They've been right in front of me all this time. Grrrr. So now I can go back to marking recipes to try and then be able to hurry and print a few when its time to go grocery shopping.

A few weeks before I was even thinking about going on a diet, the boy scouts came around selling the Little Ceasars Pizza Kits. I LOVE THOSE! So I ordered several. They came the week after I started my diet. Several times now I wanted one, but didn't know how it would affect my diet. Or if I could just have one? But last night I was so tired, I didn't want to think about dinner. So I cooked one. Then to make it feel like it was more, I cut it into 8 peices instead of just 4. Then I just slowly ate it. It ws so GOOD! I probably can't have those often, but I did stay low on my points yesterday so I'm probably okay. And I finally dropped another half of a pound when I weighed this morning. (I've been stuck at the same weight for a few days now!)

I must be getting better at my diet, because during my dream, I was dieting. Josh and I were out to some restauarant and when my meal came it was HUGE! I wanted to eat it all, but knew better. So before the waiter left, I asked for a take home container. Then I put half of my meal into it so I wouldn't eat as much.

I think I read that somewhere online and that is probably what inpspired the crazy dream.

One of the gals I work with gave me a tip. Keep some small chocolates in teh freezer, like Hershey Kisses or the mini candy bars. Then when the cravings get really bad, pull one out and just suck on it. Because its frozen it will last a lot longer. So last night I threw a chocolate in the freezer. I'll try it later this weekend.

Well, I wasn't kidding about that Diet Coke. I'm off to get one now so I can make it through the day with my eyes half way open. At least I can sleep in tomorrow. :)

I caved. I had a Pepsi Max last night. But in my defense, it was a late night. I went to a photography class in Vernal that was going to go until at least 9:30 and I was worried about the late night drive home. When I got dinner before class, I saw the Pepsi Max and thought I would get it and hopefully the caffiene would help me stay alert. Which is did, so I'm glad I did it. Class went until 10:00 so I didn't get home until 11:15.

Dinner was awesome. I went to Quizno's and got my favorite sandwich, but I was a good girl and got a small instead of large. I hate eating alone so I wanted to just scarf my dinner down so I could leave. But I made myself eat slowly and made sure to enjoy eat bite. (Mostly because I still can't get over that disgusting Spaghetti Carbonara.) I also made sure to skip out on the chips and a cookie, even though their cookies looked so good! (Dark Chocolate covered cookie? WISH I could!)

I hope last nights soda pop isn't enough to bring back the caffeine headaches. Although, I must admit, its not even 9:00 am yet and I am already dragging. If I don't wake up some more, I might cave again this afternoon just to make it through the day. But I'm going to try to not.

It really was okay, for a diet drink. But I don't felt like I usually do when I drink a soda pop, so hopefully I'm learning to be okay without. By that I mean, the first sip was kind of disappointing. Not because it tasted nasty, but just... I don't know. It just didn't hit the spot like I thought it would after going with out soda pop for two and a half weeks. Or maybe Dr. Pepper really is just the best. ;)

I really haven't lost anything yet this week. I hope I'm not already hitting a slump. Time to buckle down and eat even less I guess. When some meals are only 4 or 5 points, I have a double serving if I have enough points left at the end of the day. Today's menu is looking pretty light so hopefully I see a difference in the morning. And I don't have plans for the next for nights so I should be able to get some exercises in. I figured out how to do the preset workout on my bike and they seem to push me harder because the intensity level changes on its own.

Week 2

I think I'm proud of myself for last week. I'm now done 9 pounds, but I think it could be even more, except I was a slacker in a few areas.

I didn't exercise at all last week and I'm kicking myself for it. But I had some late nights out with the girls. I know I should excise in the morning, but already I have to get up at 5:00 to get ready for work, I don't know if I can make myself get up any earlier then that. Also, I like to shower at night so my hair can air dry. If I exercise too hard in the morning, then I would be sweaty. There is no way I can exercise intensely, shower, blow dry my hair, and get ready all before work unless I get up at like 3:30! So for now, I'm just going to have to be better at exercising at night, even if I get home at 10:00.

I think my eating was okay. I weighed myself Thursday morning and I was down 9 pounds. But then I just held that all weekend. Which really is a good thing. If I can't loose it, at least I can stay at the same weight.

Thursday I went to the Jr. High to help with one of their programs called Reality Town. This is the 3rd year I've gone. I knew they fed us lunch, but I still should have thought ahead. Lunch was a 6 inch sub from Subway. When I saw the white bread, I questioned how hungry I really was. I'm pretty sure wheat would have been more healthy, but what could I do, it was a catered lunch. But I should have stopped there. The lunch also came with a drink and chips. I lucked out and my box contained water instead of pop, so I didn't have to try to trade. The chips I got weren't the best, so I dug through some boxes until I found some baked chips. But really, I should have skipped the chips, because I think I overate. I did however NOT eat my cookie. That wasn't hard to do because I got oatmeal raisin, which is my least favorite. But I did eat the chocolates that were set up at my station. Bad Savannah!

Also on Thursday, we went to a St. Patrick's Day Party. Dinner was so good, but I kept eating the chocolate coins setting on the table! Bad Savannah! Then when dessert was dished up, I should have asked for a smaller piece, but it was so GOOD!

Then on Friday we hosted a Wii party. I made chili and even though I wanted seconds, I didn't have any. But that didn't stop me from having a big chunk of corn bread (the kind you make with cake batter too) heaped with butter and honey. I also made Blondies for dessert using a recipe I found on the Taste of Home website that was "light". It had wheat flour in it. I had one, but didn't think it was very good. I was worried that my first diet dessert failed, but Josh loved it and he told me he really didn't think I'd like Blondies because they aren't as sweet. So hopefully everyone enjoyed them.

Dinner on Saturday was a big FAIL. I have been craving spaghetti, so I found a recipe on Weight Watchers for Spaghetti Carbonara. I did not like it at all. It had no taste to it! Josh told me it was good, but I think he was just being nice so I wouldn't cry. Now I need to find another spaghetti recipe to try out.

Which brings me to how frustrated Weight Watcher website is! I have spent a few hours now going through their thousands of recipes and just marking some as favorites that I want to try. I did this thinking that when I need to go to the grocery store, I can just hop onto the website and go to my favorites and print them off. This also comes in handy so if Josh cooks dinner, he can easily find the recipe. I CAN'T FIND my favorites! I finally found them in one spot, well kind of. But instead of it being a printable page, its an edit page for if I want to change it around a bit. I have been in tears (and cursing) because of this. I had to get up an hour early on Friday just so I could find some recipes and hand write my grocery list (I don't have a printer at home). ARGH!

And to top off this week, I'm still craving Dr. Pepper. I hope those cravings go away soon. I try not to think about it because I really think my pop addiction is mostly in my head. But sometimes I just want one! But I'm still holding strong there. Its been just over 2 weeks since my last one.

Now some TMI stuff, feel free to skip this paragraph. I been constipated for a few days now. On Friday and most of Saturday I didn't have any bowel movements. I finally had one on Saturday night and one again yesterday, but that's not normal for me. Really, I don't know what is normal, but I'm pretty sure my bowels are still not right. I know of one medicine I can take. I had to take it when I was young. The doctor told me to find a good book and then drink this (very nasty) stuff. I asked why I needed the book and he told me I wouldn't get far from the toilet for a few hours. Of course I can't buy the stuff where we live (stupid small store). I think if I feel likes its still a problem I will buy some on Thursday. I don't want to make mad dashes all day at work to the restroom so I guess I'll just get over it on my own, or wait until the weekend and then try to deal with it.

K, its safe to read again. I don't know why, but the first week of my diet, I didn't drink ANY milk. I think its because I like to drink milk while eating rich foods, like chocolate and ice cream. Now that I'm not eating those sweets, I guess I don't really think about milk. But I bought some Special K cereal and it reminded me how much I love milk. I used to drink 2%, but now I'm drinking 1%. I can't bring myself to drink Skim. That is just water colored like milk.

Its a new week and I'm determined to keep doing well. Really, I shouldn't be so hard on myself, I did really good this week. I just wish I had lost a few more pounds then I did.

March 15, 2011

I was only going to post once a week, but yesterday was a tough day so I thought I'd post about it.

I have missed Dr. Pepper and I have missed huge amounts of sugar. Yesterday I was looking out the window at work and I saw a Keebler Cookie truck. I wanted to run and chase it down and demand all of their chocolate cookies. That just led to me craving cookies ALL. DAY. LONG. And the cravings led to me thinking I was hungry, even though I knew I wasn't.

I know its okay to have one cookie, but I don't trust myself to buy a carton of cookies and then just stop after one cookie. It would probably go something like this....

After eating just one cookie, I would tell myself that it didn't quite hit the spot and stop the craving, so I'll have just one more. It can't hurt. Four or five (or six) cookies later I would be over come with guilt so I would stop. Until later that day or the next day. Then the cycle would just repeat itself and in 2 or 3 days the entire carton of cookies would be gone.

I've gone to Jessica's house to craft the last two nights. Each night I took some carrots to munch on. That helped. Especially since each night I ended up staying there late, well past dinner time.

But I'm posting today to remind myself that even though yesterday was tough, when I got on the scale this morning I was down 7 pounds from when I started. I just started my diet a week ago and I am pretty proud of that 7 pounds. So later today when I crave those cookies or soda pops, I'll just remind myself about those 7 pounds and hope to see another one drop soon.

Week 1 Update

That pudding I talked about, the one that was 32 points? I was telling my friends about it last night and Randi asked me what was in it. After telling her, she said it shouldn't be that many points. Did I change serving size?

Um, no. I thought Weight Watchers calculated that for me also.

I got home late after "girl's night" last night, but I still got online to check it out. I'm not sure how many servings the pudding makes, but I think it will be 4-6 servings. So I plugged in four and now its only 8 points!!!!!!

Looks like I just might have pudding this weekend. :) That is when I'll really have to watch myself and my portion control.

And on a side note, I'm trying to figure out the best time of day to check my weight. Last night I weighed myself, and then this morning I did it again. I thought I would weigh more in the morning because we ate dinner and went right to bed. Versus after eating during the day, I have a chance to get up and move a little bit. But this morning the scale said almost 4 pounds lighter then it did last night. Yippee!

Week 1

I hope the first week will be the hardest week! I thought I was going to starve at times! A big thing I am working on is portion control, I know I eat more then I should. A serving of meat is the size of your fist. A serving of cheese is the size of your thumb. Your thumb! I am going to miss cheese so much. I'm not giving it up completely, but I probably usually have four times more then I should. If I have cheese on a food, I will sprinkle it on, until you can't see food beneath it. Now I just sprinkle on the smallest amount. :(

Because I love misery, I also quit Dr. Pepper. I had my last soda pop on March 5th. I spent all week with a caffeine headache and it was torture. I think I grumped at Josh several times and it was always followed by "I just want a Dr. Pepper." But finally, by Saturday, the headaches cleared up. That is when I figured out I could drink Diet Soda Pops and it wouldn't hurt my points.

It was so tempting! But then I thought about my headache and I told myself I needed to make that worth it, so for now, I'm still off of soda pop. I can't just drink plain old water all the time, so now I spend my money on Crystal Light. I've tried several flavors now and found only one I don't like so far, so I'm keeping hope that I can stay clear of sodas.

The first day of the diet was so scary. Weight Watchers has a ton of recipes (like 15,000). I am a super picky eater, and I was worried I wouldn't find anything I liked. So far I am loving Weight Watchers, except I think their website is kind of hard to navigate. So I just went to main courses and started at the top of the list. Every recipe terrified me. Would I like that? Would that fill me and leave me feeling full until the next meal?

Then in desperation I remember that my favorite food blog, Better Than Burgers, has started posting some Weight Watchers Recipes. Thank you Better Than Burgers! I went over there and found some recipes I knew I would like. That night, dinner was a success. Since then I've tried a few recipes on Weight Watchers and they have not disappointed me yet. In fact, they are so good, that I have to remind myself to watch my portions, or else I would go back for seconds and thirds.

Each morning I start the day off with a shake. I need to figure out how to lower my points there, because some days they are worth 11 points. I know part of my problem is I bought regular yogurt because I found it in a big container. But maybe after I run out of it, I'll just start buying the small cartons that are fat free. I also know I need to find unsweetened frozen berries, but that's hard when you live in a town with 2 grocery stores. A friend suggested looking at Sam's Club, but I'm never around one of those. So I guess I'll keep working on the frozen fruit and lowering my points there.

My favorite smoothie so far has been yogurt, orange juice, half a frozen banana (which I froze myself), a chunk of frozen pineapple (which I also froze myself), some frozen mangoes, and frozen spinach. I was very skeptical about the spinach, but another friend suggested that it added nutrients without adding flavor. After a few days of smoothies for breakfast, I felt like I was hungry way before lunch time. So then next morning I added the spinach and I haven't stopped since.

I was about to say the hardest part of this diet has been...., but then I thought about the Dr. Pepper. So lets say, another hard part of this diet has been snacking. I did okay at work, but one the weekend was here, I caught myself several times thinking about what I could munch on. Not because I was hungry, but because I was bored. So I'm really working on that too. I usually like to have a treat right after eating because I don't want to keep tasting my lunch or dinner after I'm done. So sometimes I have a mint after eating.

Last night was just about my undoing. I had a few points left and I was in the mood for chocolate pudding. And not just any chocolate pudding, I wanted Grandma Vonne's chocolate pudding. So I got online to Weight Watchers recipe builder. I plugged the recipe in and the point value was....32 points! I started to laugh and cry at the same time. Yes, I know there is sugar free pudding, but its not the same as Grandma's. Since I only get 39 points a day, I decided to skip the pudding and instead I had 6 pieces of salt water taffy. It wasn't chocolate, but it did seem to take the edge off of my cravings.

I do get a weekly allowance of 49 extra points, but I've been pretty stingy with those. I figure if I don't use them, that is less I am eating. So I've not splurged on them at all. Some days I need a point or 2 to finish out the day, so I think I only used like 8 of those extra points last week. You can also build points up by excising, but once again, I'm stingy there. I want to burn my calories, not just swap them out. I don't even want to know how long I would have to ride on my exercise bike to build up enough points for a cup of chocolate pudding. I'm sure other weeks I'll feel differently, but for now, if I can go through my week only using my daily points, I'm okay with that.

I didn't exercise every day, but I'm still proud of myself. The fist day I got on my bike, I barely made it to 15 minutes, on the easy level. But yesterday I was on for an hour and I increased my intensity level 3 times.

I'm to embarrassed and self conscious to post my starting weight, but I can brag that in my first week I lost 5 pounds! Weight Watchers suggest I start with a small goal so its easier to achieve, so right now my goal is 12 pounds. But in the long run I'm shooting for at least 80 pounds.

Starting on my weight loss journey

Each time I've gone up a pant size, I have promised myself that it won't happen again. But then it does. I am at a pant size I never thought I would reach and I have come to hate my body. PCOS makes it hard to loose weight, so I've never really tried. But it only makes it hard, it doesn't make it impossible.

This year, one of my resolutions, was to get my body in better shape. That included getting my foot looked at (and maybe my shoulder too), starting an excersice program, and starting a diet. It was probably the most important (and the hardest) goal I set for 2011, but I am just now getting started on it.

I know diets can't be taken lightly. I want to loose a lot of weight (I'm still deciding exactly how much) and that is going to take time. I'm still trying to figure out what is realistic, but I'm hoping if I can just shed a few pounds week, then maybe in a year I will be at the size I want to be.

Last week I finally joined Weight Watchers online. It was a big step for me to take, I really didn't want to PAY for services to help me loose weight. But since I really have no idea what I'm doing I decided it was worth the money to help me along.

I'm a little scared, but I am determined to loose this weight. And I have an awesome husband who is promising to support me and help me along. He was a little sad when I gave most of the candy in our house to his little brother, but he also understood that I couldn't have it around tempting me. Then he hurried and finished off what little was left.

This diet is already hard on me, so I thought I would start a journal to keep track of it and to hopefully boost me up when I get discouraged.