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 Three - Weigh In

Well, I lost 0.2 lbs.

I think the biggest reason I didn't lose as much weight was that I had several meals with steak and bacon. The first week, I lost nearly 3 lbs. from eating very little over my daily limit and eating healthy most of the time. The second week is the hardest. Trust me. We even rounded out the week with pizza and wings from Papa John's because I did a lot of walking and working out. I still find this a success, however. I've lost more weight in two weeks than I did over all of last year. This is success in my book, a huge success.

If you didn't know, they count weight loss as anything over 0.2 lbs. in a week because weight loss is variable. You eat more some weeks than you do others for various reasons. Also, what you eat factors into that, too. If you use all of your points to eat carbs and don't work out, it will affect you more than using all of your points on healthy meals with more veggies and fruit.

I'll take the 0.2 lbs.

As I mentioned from the beginning of this journey, I am losing weight for a variety of reasons. Aside from fitting into old clothes and being able to feel less self-conscious buying clothes from my favorite stores, I'm preparing myself to have some children with less risk. It seems odd to some that I would be losing weight to have a baby, where I will most likely gain a portion of it back. It's just a choice I have made to prepare the best possible environment for our baby to grow. It's no different than child-proofing a house or interviewing babysitters. If I'm healthy, my baby has a great chance of being healthy, as well.

Anyway, here's to the next week of weight loss. Some of my friends have already begun to join me. Don't forget to check out Weight Watchers if weight loss is on your list.

Weight Watchers: Week Two - Surprise Foods to Enjoy

There is always something new to learn when on Weight Watchers. I realize that I have only been doing this for two weeks now. I have been so surprised as I go through my refrigerator and cupboards! Some of the foods that I have been told to avoid are actually not all that bad for me, even better than some foods I was told are "healthier" (if I don't eat the whole pan of it, of course). Here's my short list:

1. Bacon: While eating gobs of greasy, thick-cut bacon isn't going to help your arteries or your blood pressure, bacon (in moderation) is not a point succubus. Tonight for dinner, I had 4 slices of bacon cut up over leftover pesto. Add in some veggies or fruit and you've got a delicious meal for less than 10 pts.
2. Vienna Sausage: I grew up on this stuff. It was a way for my mom to feed my sister and I some protein on road trips (of which there were very many). Just to tickle my interest, I used the barcode scanner app for iPhone to see how many points consuming a whole can would be: 6 pts. That means that I can eat the whole can with rice for 13 pts. or less (depending on how much rice I give myself). This may not be a delectable meal for most people, but it's one of my guilty pleasures. Learning that I can indulge that pleasure without breaking the bank really made me happy.
3. Progresso Soups: I already wrote about this joy a few days ago.
4. Pasta: I fell in love with pasta in college because I had a huge lacking in the rice department. One of my favorite sauces is pesto. What I have found while grocery shopping is that spinach-based and artichoke flour noodles are considerably less points that the semolina wheat noodles are. You simply have to scan the package with your mobile phone app, punch it into a calculator or check the box. The brand we love is De Boles. They make every type of pasta, even the mini kinds like piccollini, in organic and gluten-free forms. It's also pretty cheap compared to other brands. Just check for sales.
5. American cheese: I was thinking about what to do for a late breakfast the other day and wondered if an omelette with cheese would cost me big time. I found that it really doesn't. One slice of non-fat American cheese is 0 pts. You read right. My husband and I often make one egg omelettes with onion and a slice of cheese (you can throw in leftover steak or chicken in with it, too). Jake also throws salsa on top of his (which brings me to my next food).
6. Salsa: I thought for sure that a chip dip of any kind would be bad. However, salsa yields 0 pts. in most cases. We choose to buy Newman's Own salsas because they are veggie-packed and delicious. We haven't found one that we don't like yet.

That's the short list. I hope I've provided you with some valuable knowledge and the ingredients for quick and lazy meals. I weigh in tomorrow. I'm also hoping to get in some measurements. Jake and I have gone down a hole in our belt loops. Happy news! Another short post later to see if I've made progress.

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.