Weight Watchers: Week Six - Weigh In

Last week I lost nearly 2 lbs. I think this had a lot to do with not worrying about eating all my points. It was jut about eating and tracking. I've also noticed a lot I change in my choices of what constitutes a meal.

I had a spicy, marinated, skinless chicken thigh with green beans. That was just 3 points. I avoided making rice or pasta and adding those carbs in when I would most likely be eating as much rice or pasta as I could versus veggies.

I've learned that not every meal needs a starch. This has really changed my eating. I look for combinations of foods that would satisfy me without assuming that I need to make rice or pasta. I start with protein and add in veggies. If I need more after all that, I consider noodles over rice because I can gauge portions for noodles much better than I can with rice.

It has also led to me discovering new foods, like Indian! We ordered chicken vindaloo and lamb curry. Delicious! Stay away from lamb, though. It's almost as bad as beef for points.

A huge triumph for me was having valentines lunch with my husband and ordering a 6 oz. steak instead of a 12 oz. I also ordered a sirloin instead of ribeye. I saved the Texas rice for another day and only ate half of my mashed potatoes. It was delicious and filling, and I wasn't craving more afterwards. That's a huge triumph for me!!

Throughout college, I was always hungry. Between stress and just needing to eat at all, I would go out to eat and order a pizza hours later. I was constantly snacking. By snacking, I really mean "mealing." A snack was ramen or rice and a hotdog. Now, I'm snacking on popcorn or smoothies. I even eat a bunch of fruit.

It's really rewarding to be losing the weight. I can't wait to be in jeans I haven't been able to wear comfortably in a while. I can't wait to look at my body in the mirror and feel like I don't have to hide anything. I want the image of myself in the mirror I match the one in my mind.

1.6 lbs. lost last week. Can't wait for more.

Weight Watchers: Week Five: Weigh In

Here we are again! Unfortunately, I've been slightly ill and stressed over the last week. This meant that I was eating a lot more to keep myself hydrated and feeling well. I gained some weight as a result: 203.4 lbs.

A minor loss. I've realized that not having fruits on hand has really made it hard to stick to eating right. Despite being a lot better at portion sizing, I still chose some foods that I should have left alone (like ramen). 

On top of that, I was recently diagnoses with a urinary tract infection. May be too much information, but it has drastically changed my diet in the last week. I'm on meds to clear it up, but it made my energy level last week very low. I'm hoping to see it bounce right back up in the next few days. My doctor and I are hoping that this clears up a lot of the digestive issues I have been having, meaning I'm not lactose intolerant or allergic to gluten. We had quite the debate on whether or not rice had gluten in it (it doesn't). That will show him for suggesting that rice might be killing me slowly from the inside out. Haha...

Anyway, more updates very soon on Weight Watchers, the UTI, and on playing with my new camera!

If you didn't know, I recently purchased a Nikon D5100. I have been getting pretty good at it. I just purchased and received my copy of Photoshop Elements 5.0. I'll be sure to post about my new photography adventures in the coming weeks (culminating in a trip to the Bahamas aboard the Disney Dream with my husband and his parents). I'll be sure to take so many photos that I'll have to buy new memory cards on the ship.

Until then, keep losing weight and stay healthy!

Weight Watchers: Week Two - Weighing In

I know I posted yesterday already, but I had to post again due to my exciting weigh in today (I weigh in on the 2nd day of the week of my plan). Anyway, I can fully attest that over the first week of tracking points using PointsPlus with Weight Watchers Online I have lost 3.2 lbs. This is a little more weight loss than I'm needing to have over a week of tracking and exercising, but I'm not going to complain.

This first week has been brutal. I haven't noticed a lot of changes in my appetite aside from the occasional hunger pains from not eating a healthy, filling meal. The one thing I have noticed is that tracking points makes me honest about what I eat during the day. It makes me 100% consider the foods I'm choosing to snack on and what portions those snacks are. I'm more inclined to fill my plate with green beans instead of piling the rice high or going for seconds.

I'm posting today because I barely exercised aside from daily chores at home and walking around campus. I lost those 3 lbs. by simply making better choices and not overindulging on carbs and sugar. This is where I'll tell you an interesting story.

Last year, when I moved back to Colorado from North Dakota (undergrad years), I joined a gym and got a personal trainer. I worked with the first personal trainer for months and didn't lose any weight at all. I did get a lot of my strength and stamina back, though. I switched trainers and got much better workouts after a few months, but I still wasn't losing any weight. I was still getting stronger and stronger, but I still hadn't lost any weight. In fact, I was just maintaining. I fluctuated by a few pounds here and there, but I was still just maintaining weight.

It's such a tell-all when I lose 3lbs. by eating and not by exercising. It's a relief when I eat a healthy meal around 8 or 9 pts. and don't have that "so full I'll burst if you touch me" feeling. This really shows me the power of what I put into my body and how exercising on top of eating right will really help me lose weight and get back in shape.

Another plus? My husband and I have both noticed that we don't burp as often or feel like we have heart burn. We don't ever say that we're starving or that there is nothing to eat. We eat good meals (most of the time) and choose healthy, 0 pt. snacks (like fruits).

With everything that I have posted about since I started this blog (loss, yielding to pedestrians, Kim Kardashian's failed marriage, Rick Perry's flaws, etc.), losing weight with Weight Watchers Online has been the most significant. I honestly did not believe that I would lose weight the first week. I didn't think that I would ever have seen such a difference in my eating habits with another diet plan.

If you're still on the fence after my first week, please stick around for the following weeks or join now. I know that I will continue to lose weight. There may be a few weeks where I gain weight after starting to work out more seriously. I have to win this fight to lose 80 lbs. 75 lbs., and I definitely will with Weight Watchers.

If you want to fight with us, please find us (synformis and anguisinherba) on Weight Watchers and we'll support each other.

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 One - Days 3 & 4

So by some virtue, my home scale says I only weight 206.1 lbs. The scale at the spa at Saratoga Springs Resort at Disney World said I was 210 lbs. I have a feeling my doctor's scale would agree with the spa scale. I reported that I was 206.1 lbs. to Weight Watcher's, though. If I get weighed when I go to the doctor (even when it's not the day for me weigh-in), I'll list that, too. With the sudden weight loss according to the website, I lost one daily point. This brings my daily points to 31 instead of 32. For a whole day after I changed my loss goal from 10 lbs. (must have been a type) to 80 lbs., I didn't get any points added. I'm not complaining (maybe just a little).

Yesterday, we have bulgogi and rice with blackberry wine and kimchi. It was delicious and surprisingly not that indulging. The mini-muffin I had gave me more points than the rice did! I'll admit I had a munchies moment and ate 3 sausage patties with brown rice for lunch.... I just wanted to get rid of them so they didn't stare me in the face every time I look in the freezer. Shame on me.

Me posing with some vanilla ice-cream at
Tokyo Dining at Epcot. (Jan. 2012)

Those things aside, we're doing pretty well. We bought a bunch of frozen and fresh veggies and fruits. We also got a few of the Weight Watchers brand frozen meals and anytime snacks to try. Jake has noticed that some of the frozen meals are good but not completely satisfying. Also, we've learned that other brands that advertise lean frozen meals come out to about the same point values as the WW meals. This is good because knowing there is a variety out there is much more of an incentive to stick with the plan.

Jake and I have resolved to eat cuties and carrots instead of muffins (not that I eat them often at all) or rice and hot-dogs (which I eat very often). This way, we'll be helping our bodies fight off urges to eat more than we need to between meals. It will also help us to transition into eating smaller portions at meal times.

I have had several friends tell me that it's all about protein and portions. A friend I had in college was doing WW meetings freshman year. She always made it a goal for herself to not eat anything after 8pm and to only drink flavored water instead. She told me that it is so hard to get into the diet at first but that once you have trained yourself to eat smaller portions and to keep yourself accountable, it's easy.

That's really all it's about. Eating smaller portions and making hearty foods that are healthy.

Another example, we had PF Chang's on Saturday night. We opted for gluten-free because it usually contains less carbs = less points (confirmed by nutritional facts on their website). Jake had beef and broccoli, and I had chicken fried rice. What we forgot when looking at the points? Each entree is the equivalent of 3-4 servings. So, Jake had actually eaten 2 servings of beef and broccoli for 9 points (not counting the rice = 5 points per serving), and I ate 2 servings of chicken fried rice for 16 points. Not a huge binge for either of us, but it was a real eye-opener. Should we have put one serving on our plate, it would be a snack. There would be less than a cup of actual food on the plate at all.

Discovery! The chicken, rice and green bean dinner I made the other night fills an entire dinner plate and boasts 7-10 points depending on how much rice you eat. That's a huge difference in the amount of food one can eat.

Part of the reason is that WW programs in power foods. They are filling, nutritious alternatives to the things we usually love to eat. Chicken instead of pork or beef. Lettuce and kimchi are also considered power foods (yes, kimchi is in their database, as well).

To all my friends who are or will be starting WW, good luck on finding those foods you love that don't break your PointsPlus bank (or your wallet).

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.