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.