Week 50, Day 1

Weight: 223 Points Target: 27

Breakfast - 3 points
2 1c Kashi Go Lean
.5 Clementine Cutie
.5 1/2c Unsweetened Almond Breeze (20 cal)

I had this with a cup of Vanilla Caramel tea with about a teaspoon of Almond Breeze & a Sweet 'n Low. Also had a pint bottle of water.

I really should have had more points than this, or at least a snack, but I was in and out of my office all morning and didn't have time.

Lunch - 8.5 points

6 Beans w/Brown Rice
1 Lite Laughing Cow cheese - stirred in gives it a real comfort food texture
1 1T Lite Ranch
0 1c Romaine leaves (forgot all my other stuff at home)
.5 1 Clementine Cutie

I also had another pint of bottled water and a Diet RC.


Nothing fancy like some of the others I've seen, but this is all made from stuff I already had in my desk and the work fridge. Not bad considering it wasn't planned and brought from home right?

I have 14.5 points left which is more than I like to leave for the end of the day. I need to get a snack before I go home I think.

I'm also having trouble with these pictures. When I add them they automatically go to the top and won't let me move them - I can skootch them down and type above them, but I can't swap their positions. So what I can't figure out is how you guys go back into a post and add pics since the last one added goes to the top. Are you editing the HTML? I tried cut and paste, but couldn't get that to work. Any help here would be greatly appreciated!

More later - I hope!

Week 50 HYC Check In

Weight: 223

Healthy You Challenge Goals for Week 50:
1. Journal all my food
2. Stay on plan
3. 64+ ounces water per day
4. Earn 20 APs
5. Walk minimum of 25 minutes, 7 days
6. Run minimum of 20 minutes, 3 days
7. Minimum 50 ab crunches, 7 days
8. Eat 5 fruit/veg servings per day, 7 days

I'll be posting something longer hopefully today, but I'm trying very hard to get back on track. I think I know what my problem has been and I'll share that with you guys in that post.

I'm going to try 1 old thing - posting all my food, and 1 new thing - taking food pics. I love looking at Angie's blog and seeing all that beautiful food. It looks so wholesome. I think taking pics and posting them will also force me to eat healthier as I won't want you guys to see me eating crap will I?

I'll be in a class for work Wed-Fri this week, so I'm not sure how much I will be able to photo without being a weirdo, but I'll see what I can do.

I set goals that I should be able to attain this week, and that should net me a couple pound loss. Wish me luck!

Week 34 HYC Check In

Checking in after about 2 months away...

As you may have noticed, I've been gone for a while. I'll go more into this later (tomorrow hopefully), but basically I traveled for business for most of a month during which I worked insane hours in a town where the food choices are very limited. I did ok for that month, up and down about 6 pounds.

When I got back home, the hurricanes (Gustav and Ike) resulted in 2 of my projects getting jammed up with 2 others. I just thought the hours were crazy until October! I ended up working hours like 5 am to 7:30 pm and then 6 to 8 hours on both Saturday and Sundays. Again, more bad eating and worse, no exercise. Seriously, I haven't been able to go running in well over a month. I think I went once. There were only a few days when I got home before dark, and all but 2 of them I was so tired that I just went to bed.

Anyway, long and short of it is - I've been eating poorly, not drinking enough water, and getting virtually no exercise for way too long. I've gained some weight back, but not all of it. I'm not going to weigh myself this week because I think I need to be completely positive for a while. I may not weigh next week either. I will commit to blogging my food so that you guys can keep me on track. It worked for me in the past, I know it will work this time as well. As for the exercise, I'm still working some long hours (10-12 hours a day) until Thanksgiving anyway. I think I finally can get away long enough at lunch to walk for 30 minutes - I brought my shoes today, but I couldn't get away. I am really upset about the running. I was up to almost 3 miles in August and was planning on running a 5K on Thanksgiving. I probably couldn't run 5 blocks right now. Total bummer to have lost all that fitness. Anyway, I am hoping to get my treadmill in on Saturday so keep your fingers crossed. I hate that I have to start all over, but what can I do about it?

So guys, I'm calling on you all for support. I really need it to get back on track here. Once I've made it 2 weeks without going off plan, I know that I will be steady again. Until then, I need your help.

Well, lunch is over - gotta get to a meeting. Here's my food for today:

Breakfast:

4 pts 1c Kashi Go Lean w/Kroger Lite Vanilla yogurt

Snack:

1 Banana

Lunch:

13 Brown rice pilaf w/red beans
1 Salad with 1 t. Ranch

That's 19 pts . I'm having an orange for an afternoon snack, and then I have 6 points for dinner. I'll update all that tomorrow. I'm doing 26 points and trying to not use any flex in this week 1.

I won't earn any APs today - Does exercising my right to vote count for points? lol

I have had 2 veg and 1 fruit so far. Will have 1 more with the orange later, and 2+ in a salad tonight. So I'm doing good there.

I'm behind on water, so I'm going to fill up my glass now.

Wish me luck guys! It's good to be back.

Weight Watchers Success and Props to My Peeps

I've had several people ask me lately how I'm losing weight. There's always someone that when I say WW, they roll their eyes and say, "I've tried that. It didn't work."

I can relate. I did it once before in the late 80's and lost weight pretty fast for several weeks and then lost interest. So what's different this time around?

For one thing, this time I was inspired by reading the blogs of some really cool ladies that lost large amounts of weight with WW - Gettin' Shrunk, Angie All the Way, and Mousearoo to name a few. They offered me something that I desperately needed - HOPE. I read their stories (all the way back from the beginning) and looked at the pictures, and for the first time I actually could envision myself losing 100 pounds. It never even occurred to me that it was possible before. The most I was even aiming for was maybe 20 or 30 pounds because 100 just seemed like too much to hope for - until I saw the proof right there in front of me. They also made me want to blog. I knew that it would help me to be accountable and stay interested.

From there, I found other blogs. I started commenting, which led to people commenting back in return as well as new people following the comment back to me. I never imagined how much the support of my new blogging friends would come to mean to me. Just knowing that there are people that actually care enough to read what I write and to leave comments motivates me to try my hardest. The encouragement I receive is just invaluable.

From my blogger idols, I learned to set goals - and break them down into smaller, easier to achieve goals. This has helped me tremendously. Trying to lose 100 pounds is HUGE. Trying to lose 10 is something I can look in the eye.

I also learned about all kinds of new and exciting food from reading blogs. Thanks to Angie we're using Almond Breeze in place of the more expensive and (I feel) less healthy cow or soy milk. I learned about barley and quinoa, and the wonders of brown rice.

I learned that the successful WW'ers are pretty faithful with food journaling and keeping up with AP's and Flex. I learned that not eating enough food can really REALLY result in weight gain or plateau. I mean, really, I'd heard that before but I didn't believe it until the people I believed in told me their real, true stories.

I have learned so much from blogs, blogging, and the web in general. If someone were to ask me what the most important weight loss tool in my arsenal is, I'd have to say 'an internet connection'.

So thank you my friends for never failing to teach and inspire me.

Here's a list of some other helpful hints How to Make Weight Watchers Work for You.

HYC Week 30 Check In & Goals

Weight: 203 Check out the new trophy in my case!

Hello all!

I am back after a long, and much needed, break. More about that in another post. Suffice it to say that I am refocused and ready to get back to work and get serious about knocking off my remaining 60 pounds.

One thing I have learned from experience is that my success is dependent upon setting achievable goals that I know will get me where I want to go. Otherwise, I'm just wandering aimlessly, getting nowhere really.

Here are my HYC Goals for Week 30:

Goal	Status
Water 64+ oz 7/7	0/7
Journal food 7/7	0/7
Stay on plan 7/7	0/7
Run 30 min per day 4/4	0/4
Earn 25 AP's 25/25	0/25
Take vitamins 7/7	0/7
5 fruits/veg 4/4	0/4
Pushup Challenge 3/3	0/3
200 Crunches 200/200	0/200

This sounds like a lot, but it should be achievable. I often find that I do better when I have more to do than when I have less to do. Is that strange?

Anyway, my real focus is to stick to these goals with the hope of hitting 199 over the next 2 weeks. I think that's realistic. I guess we'll see.

I may be posting daily achievements to keep me on track and accountable. That's helped me in the past.

Can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs.

I've been on a break...

As you may have noticed (I hope anyway!), I have been away for a while.

It started when I took the week of July 4th off from work. I haven't been blogging or consistently counting/journalling points since then.

Everything is still going well (check my tickers and stats!) and I have been keeping up with the exercising - I can run 40 minutes without stopping and I can run about 2.5 miles now.

I will be getting back to counting points, journalling food, setting goals, and blogging starting with tomorrow's HYC check in.

I can't wait to catch up on what everyone is doing, I've missed you all terribly. I just needed some time away from having my entire life focused on the mechanics of weight loss. I am now ready to jump back in and tackle my remaining 60 pounds.

More tomorrow...

Week 25 HYC Check In

As you may, or may not, have noticed I've been away for a few days. I don't have to tell any fellow blogger that rarely means that it's because we're just working the program so hard we didn't have time to write. I got a little off track for a few days. Not sure why, although it's TOM and I have had the emotional symptoms of that pretty bad for a few days - all antsy, hungry, and mean - really, ask DH if you don't believe me ;)

Anyway, I really didn't do anything bad or eat a bunch of junk, I just didn't do most of the things I normally do. I was fine up until Friday afternoon. Since then I didn't drink all of my water some days, didn't get my 5 fruits/veg every day, didn't journal, didn't 'officially' count points, etc... I did keep rough track in my head, just didn't feel like writing it down. I also did NOT weigh myself today as TOM has my guts feeling all heavy and swollen. After being off track for a few days, I did not need any mental crap to deal with. I am back today counting, writing, fruiting/vegging, hydrating, etc... so I have already moved on.

Things did go pretty well on the exercise front at least. On Friday I met one of my BIG personal mini goals. Are you ready........

I RAN 30 MINUTES WITHOUT STOPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It wasn't even that hard!

I was so excited I just couldn't believe I had really done that. I remember when we first started exercising and we would huff and puff up this one really big hill. More often than not, runner-guy (that's what we call him) would run past us up the hill and then once or twice more before we'd made the big park loop. I remember saying, "That's ok. One day I will run the entire park loop, including the hills." When I said it, I only kind of believed it, but I kept saying it just the same. It was so cool to actually achieve that goal. Saturday I just walked because neither of us felt well, and I wanted to give my legs a well-deserved rest. Sunday we didn't do anything but chores. Now you know how obsessive my personality is, so you can guess what I did last night. I had told myself that I wasn't going to do the 30 again for a week, and instead go back to interval runs - upping the time. Well, last night I got to worrying that it was all some kind of fluke and that I couldn't REALLY run 30 minutes straight. So I did it again - 32 minutes actually, just for good measure - just to prove I can really do it. I am still in shock. I think I will only do the 30 once a week and do the intervals the other days. I don't want to risk injury, and I think the interval training is helping. I have actually chilled and am only running M/W/F/Sa now, and walking or doing some other exercise the other days. I think I've proven to my stupid brain that I actually do better when I don't run every day.

Not so good news on the 100 Pushup Challenge. I actually forgot to do them on Wednesday and Friday. Seriously. Is that not sad? I guess I need to write it in my journal. I was going to start over yesterday, but we moved a sectional sofa on Sunday and I hurt my left bicep. The right one is just sore - like I moved a couch - but the left feels like I actually HURT it. It hurts just to touch it. My elbow on that arm hurts also. So pushups, even girly ones, are out until it heals. I am planning to re-start that program on Monday.

So, that's it. Sorry it's so long. Hope you all had a good week.

Here are my Week 25 goals - which I promise to work a little harder this time:

Goal	Status
Water 64+ oz 7/7	0/7
Journal food 7/7	0/7
5 fruits & veg 7/7	0/7
Stay on plan 7/7	0/7
Run 30 min per day 4/4	0/4
Earn 30 AP's 30/30	0/30

HYC Check In - Week 24

Weight: 207 (-3)

Well the 206 didn't stick, but I ate late again last night, so maybe it'll be back. I'll gladly take the 207 which puts me 8 pounds down from the fake weight that scale boy gave me last Wednesday, and 3 pounds down from what I'm pretty sure I really weighed which was 210. I had weighed 210 every day that week except WI day - and now that it's a week later and I'm 207 I'm even more convinced that I really weighed 210 because it's hard to believe I lost 8 pounds. Anyway 3 pounds sounds good and I'll take it.

I did good on my HYC goals for Week 23. Here's the final status report:

Goal	Status
Water 64+ oz 7/7	7/7
Journal food 7/7	7/7
5 fruits & veg 7/7	6/7
Stay on plan 7/7	7/7
Run 30 min per day 4/4	6/4
Earn 30 AP's 30/30	36/30

I actually hit every goal except for the 5 fruits/veg. I had one day where I was short by 3. But 6 out of 7 days for me is still most excellent.

So I am awarding myself the following:





Not too bad huh? Looking forward to checking in on all of you.

100 Pushup Challenge - Week 1, Day 1

Sad really. Honestly, I don't know how I get through life with so little upper body strength. It's downright embarrassing.

That said, here's my

Week 1, Day 1 100 Pushup Challenge Report:

Level 1: 2 DONE
Level 2: 2 DONE
Level 3: 2 DONE
Level 4: 2 DONE
Level 5: 5 DONE

What's so sad is that not even one of those was a real 'true form' pushup - even of the girly variety. As I remember telling someone back when I actually could do pushups years ago, "You can't do a pushup without trying to do a pushup." In other words, the only way that you can develop the muscles that you need to do a pushup is to do the closest thing to a pushup that you can. So, that's what I did. I really did try to do a good form girl push up, but I fell to the ground and could NOT lift back up. So what I did was to just go as low as I could without going so far down I fell. It was a good work out. The muscles in front of my armpits are still twitching.

So what I'm going to have to do is to go through the program doing bad girl pushups until I can do a good one. Then I'll start over with that until I can do a true pushup, then I'll start over with that. After all, the goal is not to be 'finished' in 6 weeks, but rather to achieve 100 real pushups without stopping. It's just going to take me a while to get there, but I WILL NOT GIVE UP!!!

Onward and upward - or downward maybe since it's pushups.

Hope you all did better than I did. :)

Weekend update...

Well, I've done pretty well this week. Scale boy seems to actually be reflecting that too. He's been giving me progressively smaller numbers over the last few days. This morning, he actually said 206! I don't know if that will stick or not, but I sure hope it does. That would put me only 7 pounds away from One-derland - where I so long to take up permanent residence.

I actually decided to take Saturday off from exercising. I decided early in the day, so I didn't feel like I just lazed out - it was a decision that I actively made. I know I sound a little obsessive - because I am - about the exercise thing. It's just that I'm so determined not to lose any ground on the progress I've made, or risk slipping into a non-exercising slump. So, decision made, I enjoyed giving my shrinking body a well-deserved rest.

I almost ended up missing running last night - that had miss obsessive freaked out let me tell you - because DH kept f*cking around and it got late. Then he got a phone call that he really did have to take, and that took about 40 minutes. It was 8pm then and he didn't want to go any more. I was going to take Turnip (my agressive little pride 'n joy) with me and go alone, but DH then decided he didn't want me going there alone so he came with and sat on the tailgate making sure no one got me while I was running. Since I took Saturday off, I was determined to do my 3 10/1's. My legs were not so sure. It was like running through molasses. 3 minutes into the 2nd 10 I was already making deals with myself about only running for 20 minutes, or maybe at least splitting it up into 5's or 6's. When it actually came time to the end of the 2nd 10, my obsessive voice overpowered my old fat voice and said, "Are you kidding me? You're not going backwards to running 20 minutes. Just for that, you'll do 35. Do you have anything to say about that, cause we can keep adding minutes if that's what you want?" So, fat-voice shut up and my legs somehow kept running for a 3rd 10 minutes. After 1 minute walking, I did another 5 minutes just to show me who was boss. Also, I had it in my head that I needed to get 6 APs...

I have done pretty well on the HYC challenge except that was one short of getting my 5 fruits/vegs in yesterday. Poop! Other than that, I've done well.

64+ oz water - CHECK
journal food - CHECK
5 fruits/veg - 4/5 days
stay on plan - CHECK
Run 30 min 4/7 days - CHECK (5/7 days so far)
Earn 30 APs - CHECK

Also today I am starting my 100 pushup challenge. I'll be starting with girl pushups because I can't do even 1 of the other kind. I'm ashamed to say that I can only do a couple of girl ones. I'm getting ready to run to the grocery at lunch to pick up some lunch stuff for the week. When I return I'll shut the door and get started on them. Hope no one walks in to see me on the floor in my skirt doing girly pushups and looking (I'm sure) like I'm gonna die. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm so exicted to see so many familiar names on the challenge list. This is going to be great!

Gotta go now - wish me luck on staying at 206 or lower for WI tomorrow!