Weight Watchers: Week Two - Saint Progresso Light

After a shopping trip and a week tracking points, we've learned a lot. For one, there aren't a lot of Weight Watchers brand foods in our area. We tried Wal-mart and King Sooper's. We did find the SmartOnes brand, but not much of the actual Weight Watchers name brand foods. I have decided (in aid of those who are skeptical of trying some of the frozen entrees) that I am going to start posting period blogs on the different choices individually. So far, I've only had the Satisfying Selections Chicken Teriyaki Stir Fry. It was okay but not what I'd want to eat for a dinner meal (too much sweet sauce and had a weird after-taste).

Anyway, the shopping trip was successful. Jake bought quite a few different things from SmartOnes (anytime appetizers, satisfying selections and bistro selections). He's enjoyed all of them so far. The upside, he can eat one of them for dinner + fruit and be satisfied almost all night. The test was whether he woke up with hunger pains in the middle of the night. He did once, but he ate some cuties. He's doing a great job curbing his cravings. I have tried and almost failed a lot this week (something I like to call the great Jose O'Shea's debacle of 2012). Also making it into our shopping cart were several cans of Progresso Light soups.

The reason Progresso soups made it into our basket was because of the endorsement from Weight Watchers. A can of Light Chicken Noodle soup has two servings. Each serving is 2 points. If you eat the whole can, it's 4 points. If you add saltines to your soup, you can add about 5 or 6 points for several crackers. That's a 10 point meal in a can or less. Most of the time, the soup fills me up for hours and I don't even eat 2 whole servings. That's a great deal considering larger portions for fewer points makes a huge difference in how hungry you are hours later. With over 30 different soups to try in traditional, light, reduced sodium and high fiber versions, you'll find several to keep on hand.

If you're into the regular soups, don't worry. One of my favorite flavors is Rich & Hearty Creamy Roasted Chicken Wild Rice. 1 serving is 4 points. I can only eat about 3/4 the can before I'm full, so I end up with 6 points and a leftover 1/2 serving for lunch the next day. For my friends who read this, you all know my obsession with rice. This brand really hits the spot for me, and I don't even have to open my rice pot for more.

Tracking points with me? Don't forget to stock the pantry with Progresso soup.

Weight Watchers: Week 1 - Days 1 and 2

Two days ago I asked friends on Facebook if they had experience with Weight Watchers and other diet plans. My goal for the next two years is to lose until I'm near 130 lbs. I have just been obese and unhappy about it for far too long. It's time to look and feel the way I did when I was a senior in high school headed for college. I was a size 10, not a 16-18. I could find clothing almost everywhere I went and fit into the things that I really wanted to wear (things that they don't make for women my size).

I don't want to huff and puff up stairs or not be able to tie my shoes right. I don't want to have this stomach that prevents me from cutting my toenails unless I'm sitting a special way. I don't want to feel sensitive about my tummy stretchmarks in a bathing suit on the beach.

Therefore, as of two days, I have subscribed to Weight Watchers Online with my husband. We've been faithfully tracking points since yesterday. I know that doesn't seem like a long time to be so "faithful," but we've really noticed a huge difference in the way we approach eating throughout the day. To be fair, Jake didn't realize I joined until he came from work at 7pm, so he had fast food for lunch (which knocked the socks off his daily point allowance). I only went 4 points over mine.

Throughout the day, I really start to consider the things I'm eating. For instance, when I eat ramen, I eat the whole ramen, soup and all. I also put in about a cup or more of rice into the soup and add in a hotdog. For those of you who need the math:

• 1 whole ramen is two servings: 10 points
• 1 cup of rice: 5 points
• 1 hotdog: 5 points (or more depending on the dog you choose)

My daily points allowance is 32, so in that one meal I would have eaten over half and almost all of my points for the day! That would mean eating a lunch and dinner of 12 points combined! I would have to eat salad with a non-creamy dressing and other fruits and veggies to stay at my points goal. This is why I only ate the whole ramen yesterday morning instead of adding in the extras I usually do.

I was also surprised to see that most fruits and veggies yield 0 points! This means I can eat all the fruits and veggies I want, for the most part, without having to worry about dumping my points for the day. This made me really happy last night when I went a little overboard with butter when I cooked chicken last night. I happily scooped almost a whole can's worth of green beans on my plate next to a cup of rice and 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast.

I'll be checking in at least once a week on my Weight Watchers journey so that you can hear about my progress. I'll post pictures at milestones, as well. If you're doing weight watchers and want a buddy, my name is synformis, and my husband's is anguisinherba. Look us up and we'll lose weight together!

My husband and I at our engagement photo shoot last March.

Note: If anyone is thinking about joining, they are running a special now where you pay for 3 months up front  ($55) and they waive the start-up fee ($30). After that, it's about $20 a month. All amounts I just listed are estimations. I can't remember the exact amounts so I rounded up.

I'm an idiot.

Today, I had the awesome fortune of being called a bitch and mentally retarded. I take offense to just one of those terms today.

1. I was called a bitch for a good reason, and I take responsibility for it.
2. I was called mentally retarded concerning a situation where my friend in the hospital could wake up and have extensive brain damage to the point of mental retardation.

So I suppose we need to know the situation. Right?

The car Jaleel was driving.

I was trolling Facebook to avoid working on the take-home portion of my biology final when I stumbled upon a photo of the car Jaleel was driving. However, at the time, I had been led to believe that the other boy in the car had been driving and that Jaleel was the passenger. I posted a reply with that boy's name and how the two boys were both responsible for the accident and the consequences. They both made decisions to wear or not to wear a seat belt. They both decided it was okay to let the driver speed to catch up to their friend in the car in front of them.

What I didn't know was that Jaleel had been the driver. The police report says that he was ejected from the driver's seat and that there is no way he could have been the passenger.

Anyway, after they set the record straight, I apologized to the boy and everyone who had been following the post for saying that, explaining the misunderstanding and where it had come from.

The real source of my anger lies in the fact that people were writing comments about how no one is to blame and that it was a mistake, a freak accident. It absolutely was NOT a freak accident. Both both made conscious decisions to wear and not to wear seatbelts. One did and the other didn't. The driver, Jaleel, who didn't wear a seat belt, was ejected through the front windshield and is in a coma. The passenger was wearing a seat belt and walked away from the hospital with bruises, scrapes, and a concussion. Jaleel was the driver and was responsible for both of their lives. The passenger should have insisted on Jaleel's seat belt being worn and that he should not speed. Jaleel put both their lives in danger, and now, he's paying the ultimate price for it.

A lot of these words are hypothetical. It's all circumstantial. I honestly know in my heart that no car rolls three times because they were driving the speed limit (35), even if something darts in front of your car and surprises you. You can swerve and miss it (or even hit it) and still just end up doing a donut or flip your car or in the dutch. You wouldn't be rolling 3 times.

Jaleel could be breathing on his own, recovering from a few bruises and the whopping his grandfather would have given him when he found out that Jaleel wrecked a car. He would be present at Christmas dinner, laughing with us and playing video games. He would be having a birthday party on Wednesday with his friends. He would be going fishing over the summer and hunting next fall. He'd graduate from high school and join the air force. He'd get to live out his entire life.

He may never have those opportunities now because he got behind the wheel of a car without wearing a seat belt. He drove that car recklessly and endangered his life and his friend's life.

I am so angry at Jaleel. I am so upset that this happened. I want him to survive and be alive. I want him to live so that I can scare the shit out of him when he wakes up.

Jaleel and I hugging after my wedding ceremony in June.

This was all a sober reminder to me why I make every person in my car wear a seat belt before I start the engine. This is why I choose to not drive more than 5mph over the speed limit, if that, when I'm behind the wheel.

I truly hope that you do, too.

God bless.

Ditching the baby stuff....

For several months now, I've been thinking about how I was raised versus how my husband was raised. They say that people with similar backgrounds usually end up coming together and getting married because they can compliment each other better than people with very different backgrounds. They also say that opposites attract. I think that the two of us are a great pair that complement each other. We have a lot of similar thoughts and convictions, but we also have very different ones, as well.

The greatest example of this is a simple matter of choice. I am pro-choice. My husband is pro-life. We talked before we were married about this issue and what we would do if the situation arose. We didn't really get that far in the conversation (aside from assuring each other that we'd be open and honest and not make any rash decisions without informing one another first).

Another of these is how we will discipline our children. I am for spanking, and he is against. I was raised getting spanked for all kinds of things but never for everything. I was talked to and given warnings. I had time-outs and was grounded from things. I'll admit: I was not an easy child to raise. My husband grew up in a family where there was no spanking because one of his parents was spanked often as a child. Instead, his family deals with things as passively as possible, never directly confronting anyone about anything. They were appeased and allowed to do what they pleased and never really got into heaps of trouble (like my sister and I often did). We both turned out fine, I think... I just notice that my parents were disciplined for the most part in raising my sister and I, and his parents took a very cautious approach in making sure he was happy and carefree most of the time.

No Asian guilt in his white, Midwestern family. (Not that I'm guilty of anything).

Let's fast forward to right now...

We recently spent Thanksgiving with my husband's family in Nebraska. We stayed at his parents' house and got to spend a lot of time with our nephew (he's 3). Over the course of getting to know the family, I have really bonded with the little guy. I've watched him slowly progress from being in diapers as a baby to speaking and playing as a toddler. He's already working on potty training! It's so neat to be able to watch him grow and learn and become more and more mature and capable. I really cherish the moments I get to spend with him and teach him things (mostly good things).

The biggest downside of visiting and seeing my nephew is the drama that surrounds him...

For a few months now, my brother and sister-in-law have been trying to get him to ditch his bink. I support it. I should be choosing sides, but I already did months ago, so it's a little late now. He's old enough to talk and understand what you're saying and what he's saying. He knows when he's being told he can't do something and when to stop doing it (whether he does so or not). The battle has two fronts: baby and grandma. Convincing the little tike to give up the bink is a difficult task in itself. However, if the bink disappears one day and he doesn't see it for a while, he'll learn to cope without it and probably not ask for it very often over time. For a short time, this was the case. He didn't ask for the pacifier and didn't need it to sleep. However, at some point he went to grandma's and had them again all of a sudden.

Despite most efforts, binks disappear to God-knows-where, and Grandma just keeps buying more. Every time he asks for one, he gets not one but TWO! If he throws a fit, he gets a pacifier. If he is cranky, he gets a pacifier. If he is sleepy and tired, he gets a pacifier. If he's a bit obstinate, he gets a pacifier.

Noticing a trend yet??

From my point of view, it's time to let go of the baby stuff. He's almost out of diapers. Kids in kindergarten do not have bottles or binks (this is another problem for another time). He already doesn't pronounce certain letters that are difficult. Imagine trying to get him to make them with a pacifier in his mouth! Letters like J and R fall short when you've got something taking up 2/3 of your mouth. I worry about this a little because my husband had trouble with his Rs when he was little and had to have someone coach him into pronouncing them correctly. He had a bottle and a pacifier until he was 5 or 6 according to his mother...

Again.... Noticing a trend??

Whatever the reason is: grandma not being able to handle standing up to a 3 year old and setting him straight or her worrying he'll start putting other things in his mouth if he doesn't have a pacifier, it's time for the pacifier to say bye-bye and never come back. It is causing too much anxiety and worry for Mom and Dad and is not necessarily all that beneficial to our growing nephew.

Some of my worries in thinking about having a child in the near future have been centered around what my parents might do that I might not approve of or want for our child. I worry about what his parents will do to my child. I worry that I'll raise my baby to not know what candy and soda is and to not care for pacifiers or fingers only to have grandparents thwart all of our work and progress every time they visit.

Closing thought for the day: Let Mom and Dad be the parents and take a back seat, Grandparents. It's not your place.