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 Four - Weight In

Jake and I have been particularly naughty the last two weeks by eating all of our points and then some almost every day. Still, I lost about a pound and am now at 202.0 lbs. This fluctuated a ton during the week. I was weighing in at 199.0 lbs. on Wednesday. There is some truth in weighing yourself once a week. It makes the official weigh-ins less aggravating. Still, it's a pound of loss that brings me closer to my goal. My 10% goal is around 189 lbs. I hope to be there by a friend's wedding in June. That hopefully means I can buy a new dress and be back in some of my older jeans from college.

I will keep reporting back.

I would write more today, but I've got a test in Bio II. It's more important than blogging since I missed a day for being sick last week. Enjoy and let's keep losing!

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.