Fearless Loser

I've moved

2010-03-08T03:46:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've moved everything over to my other blog, Homemade Living. The main focus on Homemade Living is the cooking I do for my family, but I also touch on our weight loss and other family stuff. Combining everything into one made sense to me, so I hope that you'll consider joining me there.

See you soon!

Biggest Loser!

2010-01-05T23:27:00.004-05:00

BIGGEST LOSER is back!

I am so very excited for another season. Last year when I started Weight Watchers, I watched Season 7 and I found it so very inspiring. I called it my weekly crying-while-eating-dinner event - LOL. I think seeing the family dynamics is what makes it even better for me than the Biggest Loser seasons where it's individuals. Since I am in the journey with my husband, I love seeing other people doing it with their friends or family as well.

One things I am so happy about this time is that every episode I can watch with David. Season 7 I would watch by myself most night since he was working and then as time allowed, I would rewatch it with him. This time around, like with Season 8, we can enjoy it together. It's good for us.

I have a hard time picking my favorites at this time. I do like the green team - they seem to be very strong women and I like that. Ashley on the pink team has me feeling like I am looking at myself before I started losing weight since my highest weight was 380 lbs (she started out a bit under that). Michael, who started out at 526 lbs, is someone we are rooting for. But gosh, I'm really happy for all of them with what they are accomplishing.

I'm sure as we get to know the teams more, I will have more definite favorites and not-so favorites.

Our Current 2010 Weights

2010-01-03T00:08:00.003-05:00

Today I wanted to post our current weights -- here they are:

Brandie: 278.0 lbs (total loss 79 lbs)

David: 261.2 lbs (total loss 111.7 lbs)

I'm very fine with this total -- during the holidays I didn't track at all and many times (Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas Week, etc) I ate exactly what I wanted to eat. I think I gained about 5.8 lbs during November and December. David isn't as happy and says that he gained 17 lbs, but I am thinking this isn't accurate. But either way, there it is - our new, start of 2010 weights.

Our weigh in days are Fridays so next Friday I will share our weigh in.

The Turning Point (also known as How A Hysterectomy Changed My Life)

2010-01-01T13:13:00.015-05:00

Tomorrow, January 2, will be my one year anniversary of joining Weight Watchers. David asked me last night when I decided to join Weight Watchers and honestly, I couldn't remember an exact date, but it was during the holidays of 2008 that I knew I had to do something more to become healthier.

(start of some gross stuff - might not want to read if squeamish)

In February of 2008, I had a complete hysterectomy at the age of 34 (complete meaning EVERYTHING). I had two grapefruit sized cysts on each ovary causing me excruciating amounts of pain. I was anemic. Horrible back pain if I stood for more than 5 minutes. I menstruated so heavily with such large clots (sorry to gross you out) that I couldn't go anywhere or do anything without fearing that I wouldn't be able to finish my shopping without ruining my clothes. I had to wear two pads, plus a super plus sized tampon and sometimes those would last me only 30 minutes maximum. It was ruining my life.

I had been to the emergency room many times with my cysts, but in February 2008, I had an attack of pain that felt 1000 times worse than any of the ones before. I knew something wasn't right. I went to the emergency room and I was weighed on a big scale (the first time I had been weighed in a long time) and I weighed 380 lbs. I couldn't believe I weighed that much.

The end result of that ER visit was a emergency hysterectomy.

During the prep for my surgery, I had countless people working with me and with each new person, I found myself more and more embarrassed. There was constant concern over my size. "Due to your size blah, blah, blah...", "We have concern over your size...". I had to lay on the bed on top of a blow up mattress so that after the surgery they would be able to slide me easily from one bed to another.

I was so scared before the surgery from all the concern over my size that I wrote love notes to my children and husband because I literally thought there was a good chance that I wasn't coming out of my anesthesia or there would be some other complication.

After the surgery, but still groggy from the anesthesia, I realized I was alive. And that I would see David and the kids again. And I was happy.

There is a lot more to my story I can share about my hysterectomy. Like how they say that one of my ovaries and fallopian tubes black and twisted up. I could share the emotions just before: wanting to rip out the IV and run out of the hospital. To the emotions after: not being a "real" woman and would I ever enjoy sex again. Maybe I'll share those stories at a later time, but let me just say: having that surgery was one of the very best things that ever happen to me. It was the start of giving me back my life.

After I recovered, I realized that just about all the pain and discomfort that I felt pre-op, was related to my cysts. So once they was gone, I started to feel so much better.

During 2008, I lost some weight. I went from 380 lbs to 357 lbs just by making some simple dietary changes in my life. During the year I thought often to how scared I was of dying on the operating table. That I didn't want my children to continue their lives without me. That I wanted to continue my hot love affair with my sexy husband :). So during the holidays, I decided enough was enough...and it was time to get serious about it. My decision was to join Weight Watchers and I did. I joined on January 2, 2009, and got started. Two weeks after, my husband started with me.

The last four months have brought some great challenges to our family and our weight loss has slowed. For the last two months, we have even stopped my daily weigh in's (the weights on the right are out-dated and we've lost more than that). But we are determined that 2010 will be the year we reach our goals and I KNOW we will.

I plan to keep blogging daily here about our weight loss. We need accountability and while we have it with each other, I believe that our friends online, on Twitter, and those we've met through blogs are a huge part of the success we've had so far.

So, here's to 2010 - a year of learning to live healthy! Tomorrow I will share our current weights (which haven't been done in a while).

Renewed Enthusiasm

2009-09-16T06:51:00.004-04:00

While watching the premiere of The Biggest Loser last night (loved it, of course, but I'll share my thoughts on that at another time), I thought several times how I MUST start updating this blog more often. I think this blog - and journaling our weight loss - is a huge component for our success. Plus, I enjoy it and want to have this to look back on; and I want to be able to share this experience with others.

I got to also to thinking about all the weight loss blogs that have been abandoned on the web. Some because the person lost interest or just doesn't have the time, but I would imagine that many are because the person lost their commitment to losing - even if only temporarily.

Well, that is not our situation, but I wonder if my lack of posting might tell others that. The truth is that while we've had weeks that we've gained a bit, David and I are still going strong. The past few weeks have been crazy, with stressful situations hitting us at every turn, but under the circumstances, I think we are doing good.

So my goal at this point is to post 5x's a week, but I would prefer daily. I think with most everything in my life, it's a matter of it becoming more of a routine. Once it does, I won't forget about it so often. So here's to a renewed enthusiasm to our weight loss blog! I don't know if anyone is actually reading along, but even if no one is, I'll just keep doing it for us - that's the most important thing.

weighing more than him

2009-07-10T22:06:00.009-04:00

Today's weigh in was a 3.4 lb loss! It feels so great. That brings my total to 67.8 lbs GONE since January 2, 2009.

David had another phenomenal loss of 6 lbs this week for a total loss of 117.9 lbs. He's looking amazing, and is now wearing a size 38" waist jeans. His weekly loss average is about 3.5 lbs per week. Seriously, he was always so sexy to me, but oh boy...he's even looking even hotter! :)

He has lost a lot more weight than I have and, I'm going to bring this up again: it is hard sometimes. It's a hard balance to be supportive of him, but also realize that I am so much further behind him. I know it's not a race. But it's that thing I've mentioned before -- I've NEVER weighed more than him and now I weigh almost 30 lbs more than him.

I don't want to be a wife that weighs more than her husband. I mean no offense to anyone who does weigh more than their husband, but for me, well, he was always a big guy and I was always smaller than him...when we dated, when we married, and all through our years. But, while I don't want to weigh more than him, I also don't want to be a total b*tch and make him feel bad for his great loss. I refuse to do that.

Other than just that he is male and I'm female, but I understand why his loss is greater: his job is physically demanding. He's standing or active most of his day. My job has me sitting most of the day at my computer. Huge contrast there. He also eats almost exactly what I eat. I get (now, as of today) 34 pts. Our dinner plates are pretty much the same. I eat basically all my points each day and he really doesn't eat all his (I think he still gets 40 pts?) because he eats what I eat.

And in addition to all his physically aspects of his job, anytime I walk for exercise, he walks for exercise. The same miles. The same speed.

We've consulted with his doctor on his loss and while his doctor does agree that 2 lbs a week by Weight Watcher standards is best, he also says that he doesn't want him to stop what's working for him because being as obese as he was was a greater health risk than losing over the recommended weekly average. Makes sense to me. And the health benefits - related to his diabetes and asthma - have already been wonderful. He's been taken off all his diabetes medications.

I support him and I am VERY proud of him. He's totally changed his attitude about food. TOTAL change. He is working hard for it, but will tell anyone that it hasn't been as hard as he thought it would be. It's so much easier than you are really ready and really motivated. He was really ready for this change in his life and it shows.

And sometimes get (happily) emotional. While we were/are both so obese, he's the one who had a lot of health problems because of his weight. Seeing his health improve makes me so happy....and that is what I focus on any time I start to stupidly feel sorry for myself.

Next month we will have been married for 19 years and it's pretty awesome to think about what another 19 years will be like. I love him dearly and I love that we are doing this together.

Just some thoughts I had. Funny thing is that I didn't plan to blog these thoughts at all tonight - I had planned to talk more about now being able to sit in restaurant booths. Ha. Funny. It totally took off in a new direction. I'll talk about the booths next time (or maybe not...LOL). Or maybe about how I need new bras. ;)

101.3

2009-06-10T05:37:00.003-04:00

This week, David has officially lost over 100 lbs -- 101.3lbs to be exact. I am so very proud of him. He's done fabulous and looks awesome. I can put my arms around him, his tattoo is getting smaller (I now call it his baby tattoo since it's so much smaller than before), and he just tried on a pair of 38" waist short and guess what? They FIT.

Seeing how happy this weight loss is making him just makes me SO happy too. And, gosh, that man is such a hottie! Congratulations to him!

Random thought: doesn't 101.3 that sound like a radio station? Kinda crazy to think that our weight loss can be the frequency of actual radio stations. LOL And, I googled 101.3 to see what I came up with. There is lots of 101.3 FM radio stations. Here's three of them: STAR 101.3 in San Francisco, 101.3 KDWB in Minnesota, and KC 101.3 in Southern Connecticut.

Can't wait until my weight loss can be measured in radio frequencies. :)

Table or booth?

2009-06-09T04:52:00.002-04:00

Ok, so we went to Chili's for dinner on Sunday night. As we pulled in the parking lot, I asked him if we should sit in a table or in a booth. He said booth. Ok, booth it is. So we go into the restaurant and we sit in a booth. And we are comfortable. David asked me "do you have enough room?" I told him that "oh yeah, I am more than fine. Are you?" and he said "It's perfect". He smiled and he told me how happy that makes him. Being able to sit in a booth.

I guess all this booth sitting makes us feel NORMAL. It sucked when we would go to a restaurant and have to be the only party sitting at a table when there was lots of more private, and comfortable, booths available. I felt like we were on display: "LOOK AT US, WE ARE FAT AND CAN'T SIT IN THE BOOTHS LIKE THE REST OF YOU".

Well, no offense, tables - but we hate sitting at you. We prefer your cousin, the booth, anyday.

A major goal

2009-06-08T04:18:00.002-04:00

At my weigh in this past Friday, I reached a major goal. I am now officially under 300 lbs. I am THRILLED with this, but I thought I would be more emotional about it. I tend to be emotional about everything. I seriously cried in the dressing room at Walmart when I recently tried on a pair of smaller pants that fit. So why didn't I cry on this milestone?

I'm not sure, but I guess it doesn't matter. What does matter is that I have reached this goal and I am still just as determined to reach even more of these milestones.

It feels wonderful to say goodbye to the 300's. I can assertively say that I WILL NOT see them again. EVER.

But I realize I have many things I must still work on improving.

I MUST improve on working out. I MUST get moving even more and for even longer.
I MUST continue to make ME a priority - this means doing things that make me feel great, such as painting my nails, getting my hair cut, getting 8 hours of sleep each night. And more.
I MUST work on eating slower. I need to be more mindful of each bite I take. I still have times that I eat something and I really don't remember eating it because I've ate it while watching a favorite TV show. This bugs me.
I MUST make smaller portions my "normal". As my points start to get lower, I realize that I need to up my intake of vegetables even more and lower other servings of things. It's such a habit to have TWO burgers with dinner. I'm still doing that. Yes, it's still falling within my point range for the day, but I would like to get to the point where one burger is my usual and then I get to eat even more of other healthier items throughout the day.

I know I'll reach these goals - every single day I'm learning and doing better. This is such an exciting point in my life and in the life of my family...I almost feel like we are starting new. Like we are just now starting to live FOR REAL.

It's not the end of the world if you eat french fries

2009-05-15T17:46:00.007-04:00

I lost 3 lbs this week and I am thrilled, but surprised.

David lost 4 lbs this week - I'm so proud of him! He has hit a total loss of 90.4 lbs!

On Mother's Day, the kids and David took me to Chili's.

Wellie saw on the menu that they had some new fried onions and jalapenos. Only $2.99. She asked me if she could order that for her and her brother, and said she would pay for it. I said yes, and well, I ate several of the deep fried jalapeno slices and onions. And they were greasy, but good. (I didn't make her pay for it)

Now, Chili's does have a pretty awesome healthy menu now. But since it was Mother's Day, I decided to try something that I wouldn't normally get, but that wasn't horrible for me either. I had their Mushroom Swiss burger, but subbed the meat for a portabella mushroom (no mayo). And it was AWESOME. I seriously could eat mushrooms everyday, so for me this, this was pretty close to heaven.

David couldn't deal with getting the portabella mushroom, so he subbed his meat for a more manly black bean burger with no mayo. I had a taste of his and it was really good too. I will definitely order that at some point.

We do love Chili's black beans so we ordered a side of those. Those are good for you though - and low in points.

And we wanted salads, so we added on house salads, but didn't ask them to omit the cheese or croutons. We got their no fat honey mustard, which is a favorite of ours.

The huge error came in with my TOTALLY FORGETTING to tell the server that I didn't want the fries, but rather the steamed veggies. I have had Chili's steamed veggies (the ones they serve with their healthier meals) and they are really good. And while I like french fries like anyone else does, I'm not a fry fanatic like David. So subbing the veggies for the fries was the plan for both of us, but I guess we got sidetracked with the meal substitutions and add-ons that we forgot that one major detail.

As we sat waiting for our meal, I realized this about 1 minute before our food came. I started to panic. I told David and I kept looking around for the server to maybe catch them before they plated our food? But no such luck. The next time I see our server, here comes our food.

David and I decided to screw it and just eat the fries. And while I have had french fries since being on Weight Watchers, this time I didn't give away half of them. I ate them all.

We left Chili's and went to Walmart to pick up sundae makings. The plan was to watch movies when we got home and have ice cream with it. We used to do this from time to time, but not since we've changed our eating. So we got our fixings for it, but everything we bought was lighter options - sugar free, fat free ice cream and sugar free hot fudge topping. We got some cherries. And I knew I had honey roasted peanuts at home, so we chopped those up. Oh, and we got some sugar free whipped cream.

And, did I forget to tell you one of my Mother's Day gifts? A big canister of Almond Roca candy. Almond Roca is my favorite candy and in the pre-eating lighter days, the kids would get me Almond Roca for Mother's Day or birthdays or Christmas. One part of me wanted to cry "UGH!!", but I realized that there was nothing wrong with this and what mattered was how I handled it.

So we all shared it. It used to be me eating the whole canister (about 30 pieces = 2000 calories), but this time I had about 8 pieces. Yeah, I know that's still a lot, but it's less than what I would have had before. And the Almond Roca is gone now...not tempting me each day...and I shared it with the people I love.

So the rest of the week, we got back on track for the most part. Watched what we ate, kept our points at our daily limit or a bit under. And I'm drinking lots of water too - I'm doing well with that goal. Exercise is still a struggle.

Goals for the coming week:

1. Walk one mile or more at least 3x's this week
2. Take a daily multi-vitamin
3. Get up out of my office chair at least 1x per hour, even if I just take a walk around the house, fill up my water bottle, and stretch.

I didn't put water on my goals as I've done really well with meeting that previous goal, but it's still something I am going to keep working on improving.

So, thrilled with the 3 lbs, but I've learned a lot about moderation this week. It's not the end of the world if you eat french fries.

First weigh in of May + a few goals for the week

2009-05-02T03:53:00.006-04:00

We've had another good week - some of us even BETTER than others. David lost 4.8 lbs this week and I lost 1.8 lbs. Not too shabby, eh? I got to thinking too - some of those Biggest Loser contestants lose those amounts and they had to work out 4-6 hours a day. Us? We did not work out 4-6 hours per day. So, what can I say? I'm happy.

I will be posting David's weights on the sidebar soon, for those of you who are curious about his weight loss. He's really doing phenomenal and when you look at him you are truly see that he's lost a lot of weight.

Some goals for the coming week:

Keep drinking more water. I did pretty good this week, but my goal is to fill my 20 oz Rubbermaid bottle up at least 3 times per day. David doesn't tend to drink much water at home, but does drink it at work. While he will drink plain water, he prefers flavored packets, so he uses whatever we have coupons for. Right now he's using Kellogg's™ All-Bran™ Fiber Drink Mix. He likes it and it has 10 grams of dietary fiber! The flavor he has is Pink Lemonade - which is not really his favorite flavor choice, but it was the only one available at our Walmart.
Walk one mile 3x's this week - minimum. We've totally slacked on our walking and that is NOT good. The weather has started to get much warmer lately and our usual walking time of 3pm isn't working out so well. We definitely have to come up with a different schedule, something that will work for us.
Take a multivitamin everyday. I seriously have not taken a multivitamin in probably 3 weeks. I totally forget them. And I don't believe David has taken them much lately either.

If you are curious about our weekly menus, please be sure to check our Our Table For Five where I share our weekly menu and do my best to post recipes for those menu items. I also share shopping trips and other typical adventures.

I wasn't expecting THAT much (down 4.2 lbs)

2009-04-17T15:27:00.005-04:00

Today was yet another weigh in. And, honestly, I wasn't really worried about this week. I "felt" like I had lost weight. But maybe 2 lbs? I was surprised to see that I had lost 4.2 lbs! WOW!

So here's some notes on how the weekend went --

On the Saturday night before Easter I put together the baskets for the kids. We gave them much less this year - I think partially because they always have access to sweets (we buy ice cream regularly, plus we have a chocolate stash in the kitchen that gets occasional visits) so they aren't really a BIG deal in our house, plus, our own healthier living attitudes made us realize they didn't need as much as we've given them in previous years.

But as I put together their baskets myself (dh was at work) and snacked on candy. I had:

a marshmallow peep
4-5 mini Reese peanut butter cups
3-4 Hershey's Bliss chocolate eggs
2 little Hershey's Treasures...I think one was a Mr. Goodbar
Several jelly beans

On Easter, dh and I decided to not track our points. We also decided that we would eat what we wanted. We both had a Reese peanut butter cup or two. We ate ham, potato casserole (I made it as a "light" as possible), mixed veggies, and rolls (two each). Oh, and deviled eggs. But even though we didn't track, I think we did great. We did have seconds of a few things, but our servings were SO much less than anything we would have had before.

We ended up not tracking on Monday, as well.

On Monday I planned our dinner's for the week. I made sure to plan lots of meals that were good for us and somewhat lower in points (you can see what I planned by visiting my main family blog). I knew we needed to get back on track.

Then I started getting sick. And I'm still sick. At first it wasn't so bad, just a head cold. Now it's settled in my chest, I'm coughing, and my throat is killing me. So while I am still eating -- and eating much of my typical foods, I would suppose that I'm not eating quite as much. I don't think I am reaching for snacks quite a much.

I would say that I haven't been eating all my points this week though. I probably went over on Easter, but for the rest of the week I kept it under.

I've been drinking more water this week. It's something I have been working on and while I still need to do best with it, I have definitely been drinking much more than in the past.

As far as walking, we haven't done well this week. The weather has been awful here until the last two days and with being sick, and walking in the mall isn't my favorite place to walk. We did walk yesterday even though I felt horrible. But I think it was best to do it even though I didn't want to.

So there is my recap -- dh will have his weigh in later today, so I'm hoping he's done well too.

Thursdays Food (wow - only ate 23 of my 37 points)

2009-04-09T23:18:00.000-04:00

I'm going to start posting some of my food here on the blog, not sure I will post each day, but I'll try to share as often as I can. If you really want updates, the best thing to do would be to follow my food dairy on Twitter.

I definitely didn't eat all my points yesterday. Even though I can have 37 each day, I try to only have up to 32. And my plan was to have a 2 pt ice cream bar before bed, so I planned for that, but when I got to the freezer, I realized we didn't have any left. Bummer.

Food	Units
i'm starting my tweet eat post journal #tep
quaker instant oatmeal high fiber maple & brown sugar packet	3
slice of nature's own double fiber wheat bread w/ 1 tbl ww cream cheese	.5
apple [1] #tep	1
2 cups coffee w/ 3 tbl sugar free french vanilla coffeemate in each	2
wheat thins w/ light laughing cow cheese wedge	2.5
cup of turkey strognoff w/ two cups no yolks broad egg noodles & 1 cup green beans	14
Total:	23

Table provided by Roni's Food Tweet, Eat, Post Generator.

I am tweeting just my food (and the occasional weigh in result post) at:
http://www.twitter.com/brandiesfood

Still alive and kicking!

2009-04-05T21:04:00.003-04:00

I realize I haven't posted in a little while, but I'm determined to get back on track with my blog. I want to post at least once a week, if not more. I figure if I don't post, you all might think I've stopped trying to lose weight. Well, not this mama! I'm still on track, although this week I cried after weigh in and I can say that I feel bad for doing that. I'll tell you how ridiculous I am and what I was upset about....

My husband weighs less than me.

It sucks to admit that I let that bother me, because it makes me look heartless.

The TRUTH is that I am THRILLED that he's done so well on Weight Watchers. I really wanted him to start with me on January 2 and he didn't. But within two weeks he was on board and now he's lost a total of 62.3 pounds! His old clothes aren't fitting him anymore, and you can really tell that he's lost the weight. I truly, honestly LOVE that he is doing this with me and that it is working for him too.

But, we've been married for 18 years and in all that time, I have NEVER weighed more than him. He's taller than me, and well, just always been a bigger person that me. But he's passed me up. I guess men lose the weight easier? I don't know if that's true or not, but he is doing great and it's very exciting to think about the direction our life is going in.

I apologized to him for getting upset. I was not mad at him, but just disappointed in myself. And now thinking back, I realize I shouldn't NOT be disappointed in myself. At this week's weigh in I had my first time of not losing. But I also didn't gain. I realize that it's still good and I need to learn better to accept that this journey will have ups and downs...and even days of level ground.

So for the record, I've now lost a total of 39 pounds.

Here's the stats of my last 3 weeks of weigh in's:

4/3/2009 318 lbs (0 lbs lost)
3/27/2009 318 lbs (3 lbs lost)
3/20/2009 321 lbs (0.6 lbs lost)

And, dh's stats, who has lost a total of 62.3 lbs:

4/3/2009 311 lbs (4 lbs lost)
3/27/2009 315 lbs (8 lbs lost)
3/20/2009 323.4 (gain 0.2 lbs)

I'll name this week "Fast Food Week"

2009-03-06T14:22:00.004-05:00

Today was my weigh in and I am happy to report that I weighed 322.6 lbs. which is a loss of 3 pounds! I've now lost a total of 34.4 pounds. It's so exciting for me, I'm so happy. And I should meet my 10% goal this week which is 321.3 lbs. Stayed tuned to see if I do it!

My report of the week:

One thing I've noticed is that it does seem like I am almost on auto-pilot now. I supposed that would start happening. I've been on Weight Watchers for 9 weeks and for the first month (easily) it was a HUGE change. There was so much learning to be done. Not only was I changing what I was eating, but everything had to be calculated to find the points. I was a bit tiring on some days.

But, of course, I hung in there. Just kept doing it. I think there has only been one day in the 9 weeks that I didn't track my food well. But I still think that one day I was within my target. I think I was. But now I just keep doing what's been working. I track my food, I eat within my point range. I only use extra weekly points on a special occasion.

I've learned over the 9 weeks I come back repeatedly to certain foods. One of my favorite foods is Light Thomas' English Muffins (Multigrain) with 1 tablespoon of Weight Watchers cream cheese on each half of the muffin. This is a total of 2 points, but it's nice now, because I don't have to calculate points over and over again for stuff like that. I know what my favorites "cost" me, and I record them in my point tracker. Tracking points isn't as time consuming now.

I do a lot of cooking of our old recipes, which I have changed to make them more healthy. And EVERY recipe I made, I use the Recipe Builder (it's part of the Weight Watchers online tools) to figure out the points of each serving. You should see my desk -- last night I had the trash from all my packages - a container of fat free cottage cheese, a container of ricotta, a box of pasta shells. You get the idea. But I do this each time I make one of my own recipes -- there is nothing I've cooked that I made blindly without knowing how many points it was.

One crazy note about this week is that we ate out much more and cooked at home much less than normal. I ate a fast food restaurant 4x's (Subway, McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Wendy's). But we ate healthier options at all these places and never went over my points for the day. I'm not proud of eating at fast foods this much (mostly from the financial standpoint), but I'm not upset with myself either. It's what it is. Whatever.

So some of this week's foods we ate:

Spinach Cheese Stuffed Shells
Wendy's Ultimate Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Wendy's Baked Potato
McDonald's Bacon Ranch Salad w/ Grilled Chicken (had the lite balsamic vinaigrette, instead of ranch)
Subway Oven Roasted Chicken Breast - a whole 12" (I have this 1x most weeks)
Taco Bell Fresco Steak Soft Taco
Taco Bell Fresco Bean Burrito
Taco Bell Fresco Chicken Border Bowl
Turkey Sandwiches
Grilled Fish & Shrimp Tacos

Until next week, my friends...

Most people wouldn't be happy to fit into a size 26

2009-02-27T23:52:00.000-05:00

Today was weigh-in and I lost 2.4 lbs for a total loss of 31.4 lbs. It's pretty cool to break over that 30 lbs mark.

So a catch up of the past week. David and I went out shopping and we both tried on pants that were smaller than our usual size. I tried on a size 26, which I was wearing everything from 28 on up to a 32. Now the 32's have been big on me for a while, but 30 did fit probably the best. Now I am at a point where my size 30's are a big pain, I don't wear a belt so I am constantly tugging them up.

But the 26, THEY FIT! Now, they were material that would "stretch", but still, most of my clothes are like that and before a size 26 didn't fit, even with any stretch. It was a rather emotional moment for me in the dressing room. It felt so good to be down to a size that I can at least buy in Walmart or Target more easily.

David usually wears as a size 46, but he tried on a 42. He could get them on but they weren't very comfortable, so it's clear that he's easily a size 44 now. He should be in a 42 in no time.

I'm looking forward to lots of new smaller sizes coming our way. The one question is: when do we go buy new clothes? We don't intend to be in any particular size for long until we reach our goal weights. Seems like such a waste to buy clothes that will only fit for a short while. But oh, well, it's a good thing. I should mention that on that shopping trip we didn't buy any of the clothes we tried on - it wasn't our intention. We just wanted to know if they would fit. But I know we are going to have to buy soon (yay!).

I thought I would share a bit about what I have ate this week - the types of foods. Please understand that we are not in an attempt to give up processed foods at this point in our life. We might come to that point in our life, but right now we aren't. We are simply eating better by lowering our caloric intake, eating less fat, eating more fiber & vitamin rich foods, more fruits and veggies, more water, and more exercise. This is working for us. Some of the items I have listed below aren't necessarily healthy, but the portion I ate fits into my daily points. I hear SO many people saying that they can't have this or they can't have that. Well, yes, you can, if that's what you want. The key is moderation.

So here's my list - this doesn't include fruits, veggies, salads, etc I eat those daily and usually several times a day, but these are other things that have passed my lips this past week:

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas (w/ rice and beans)
Eggrolls (w/ rice and veggies)
Tricuits & Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges
Sugar Free Ice Cream (Butter Pecan)
Sugar Free Ice Cream Sandwiches (I've had 3 of these)
Dark Chocolate (mint, yum)
Meatball Sandwiches
Pizza (delivered - Papa Johns)
Subway sandwiches (with Baked Lays)
Coffee w/ Sugar Free French Vanilla Creamer (16-oz cup daily for me)
Broccoli & Cheese Sauce (frozen - Green Giant, I think)
English Muffins w/ WW Cream Cheese
Tuna Salad sandwiches
Flat Earth Chips
Hot Dogs (w/ homemade potato wedges)
Tostino Pizza Rolls

So that's some of what I ate this week. Most everything above was a "light" or reduced fat food. For example, the meatball sandwiches were with turkey meatballs, whole wheat rolls, light cheese. The english muffins are light. The eggrolls were baked and full of veggies. And so on.

So have a great week everyone -- I might post again before next week's weigh in, but if I don't, you'll see me next Friday.

Weigh In Friday 2/20 - a great week

2009-02-20T22:01:00.004-05:00

Today was weigh in day.

I lost 3.6 lbs for a total loss of 29 lbs since January 2. So my current weight is 328 lbs. So excited to be out of the 330's once and for all! It's just such a great feeling. And I'm getting close to my 10% weight loss goal.

One note about this week is that I actually ate more. I don't always consume all my points each day, but this week just about everyday I did eat almost all my points. Didn't use any of my bonus weekly points, but I still think that if I had, I would have still had a nice loss this week.

As a matter of fact, I realized I had 14 points left after dinner last night and I ate a couple snacks before heading to bed. And 6 of those points was two good-sized brownies (one brownie mix + 15 oz can of pumpkin; baked according to directions - no oil, eggs, or water). And, no, I'm not starving myself, but some/most days I just eat REALLY well. Low point breakfast, low point lunch, low point dinner. Low point snacks. And I end up with leftover points at night. I do track everything I eat and I measure everything unless it's something I have ate so often that I know exactly what my portion looks like.

So, a great week. I'm drinking more water, but still need to improve more there. And for some reason, I keep forgetting my multi-vitamin. Need to work on remembering that.

Dh had his weigh-in too. He did even better; he lost 8.6 lbs, for a total of 40.7. He's not sure how or why that happened, but he did (it's really a bit too much as he does want to lose it slowly). I was also on his case this week about eating all his points each day, so I know he pretty much always did. One great thing for him: some clothes that he hasn't been able to wear are now fitting him. I'm so proud of him.

My favorite 1-2 point snack options

2009-02-11T21:48:00.004-05:00

At Scrap Girls we have a Weight Watchers support forum for those who follow WW and someone asked today for low point snacks. I shared mine in this thread, but thought I would post them here too.

There are lots of 0-1 pt veggie or fruit snacks (those are easy to come by), and while I do enjoy those, I like knowing lots of low point non-veggie or non-fruit ideas that I can have too. Especially my husband...he likes to snack a lot so I've helped him find options.

Anyway, my all time favorite snack is about half of a serving Wheat Thins Fiber Selects 5-grain crackers (which is 6.5 crackers) and a light Laughing Cow swiss cheese wedge. There's something I enjoy about the the process of spreading cheese on crackers. Anyway, that snack is 2 pts -- 1 for the crackers and 1 for the cheese wedge.

Other favorites of mine & my husband:

I LOVE homemade tortilla chips...two corn tortillas are 1 pt...cut into 8 wedges that's 16 chips! Bake in the oven until crisp and use for salsa. You can also scoop/dip salsa with raw carrot chips or celery.

Frigo light string cheese is 1pt

A whole mini bag of 94% fat free (100 calorie) microwave popcorn are 1 pt.

Dannon "Light & Fit" yogurt (4oz) = 1pt

Jello Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding Cups = 1pt

Curves Chocolate Peanut Chewy Granola Bar = 1pt

I really love Thomas' Light Multi-Grain english muffins, they are 1 pt and you can add a 0pt jam or jelly or the other day I added 1Tbl weight watchers cream cheese to each one and if I remember right that was 1 pt...so 2 pts total for english muffin with cream cheese.

I also keep Progresso light soups (0-1 pt per serving) on hand...for me these are usually something I might have as part of dinner or lunch, but I like having them around and they could be a light, easy-to-fix, snack.

I have others that I have enjoyed, but these seem to be the ones I keep coming back to often.

Friday Weigh In & Pizza

2009-02-07T05:20:00.005-05:00

Today was weigh in day and I am proud to report that I lost 3.6 lbs this week for a total of 23.2 lbs. And hubby lost 5.7 lbs (his loss was over 1 week + 4 days as he changed his weigh in day from Mondays to Fridays with me). I'm so proud of him, but also of myself. Some days are definitely harder than others, but all in all, we've been working hard and it shows.
Tonight we ordered pizza from Papa Johns. This is the first time we've ordered pizza since being on Weight Watchers. I ordered a large Garden Fresh pizza with whole wheat crust and light cheese -- and it was so yummy. But, here's the thing -- I did have 4 pieces (3 for dinner and one piece later). Each piece is supposed to be 5 points per piece, but that's with the full cheese, and I ordered light cheese. And when you eat multiple servings of items, most of the time the points don't simply double. So two pieces of pizza is 11.5 points (not 10). But I figured that absence of that extra cheese made it much more realistic of being 5 points per piece, so I figure consumed a total of 20 points in pizza. (note: the above is not the actual picture of my pizza...mine has much less cheese on it, in case you were wondering)

I know that might sound super crazy to lots of Weight Watchers, but this was a rare time of having delivery pizza AND I still didn't use quite all my points for the day due to eating well the rest of the day. I feel good about it.

Emotional times

2009-02-06T02:24:00.003-05:00

Things have been extremely stressful lately. I've cried more this week than I have in a long time. I feel totally emotionally drained. My sister, Blythe, is in the hospital and we have been warned that she would not be expected to survive. I never imagine how something like this would feel. It's horrible. This week has totally sucked.

I haven't felt like posting to my blogs or twittering, but tonight, in an attempt to keep myself busy, I thought I would say a few words about my eating during this emotional time. I have to be honest and say that there have been times this week that I have wanted to say "screw it" to watching what I eat. I've literally thought that. I am a BIG emotional eater and when bad things happen, I find that I want to eat all those comforting foods - mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, anything with cheese, you name it. BUT, while I thought of saying "screw it" -- I didn't. And actually, there was also a day or two there that I forgot to eat. Which isn't good either.

So, all in all, I've stayed on track. I haven't even used my weekly points. The one thing though that I haven't done is that I haven't drank enough water (not good especially considering all the crying I have been doing), I haven't been taking my multi-vitamin (not sure why), and I haven't been eating a balanced diet. So, yeah, within my points allowed, but not exactly living the way I should. But I plan to get back on track with those things right now.

So today has brought some wonderful news about my sister and while we are definitely not out of the woods, it feels so good to hear something positive. I love her so much and I just want her to be well.

Lesson Learned

2009-01-13T18:24:00.003-05:00

I learned a huge lesson today. Don't eat somewhere that I am not totally sure of how many points the food is going to be. I know this might not be able to always be done, but I certainly need to do my very best to not let it happen.

Today we planned to go out to our weekly lunch with the family. We weren't sure of where to go, but we all really enjoy Ruby Tuesdays and their salad bar so we went there. I didn't look up nutritional information ahead of time.

Hubby and I knew we wanted the salad bar and we do know what to get and not to get. We did great there -- we both had big plates of salad with carrots, bell peppers, mushrooms (for me), cucumbers (for him), and so on. I did get about 1 tablespoon of blue cheese. I also got a spoonful of their pasta salad with ham in it. Hubby got some of their fruit salad. We both used low fat balsamic vinaigrette, which is something I already enjoy and he's just starting to try.

The entrees are what killed us. We both thought the Boston Blue Burger sounded delicious. We knew it wasn't going to be low fat, but just how high in fat, well, we had no clue. That burger works out to be 36 points. Ugh. Double ugh.

We did do something that I am proud of us doing -- something I never would have done before WW -- and that was that I order a veggie burger with no mayo, he order the Boston Blue and we each cut our burgers in half and shared with each other. This way we both got a bit of both, but without the consequence of both.

Well, it all sounds nice, but honestly, their veggie burger is high in points too -- 23 points (with mayo, however, I ordered mine without). Good news: we did both order baked potatoes plain with butter and sour cream on the side and we both used one small spoonful of each in our potatoes.

So all in all, my lunch was:

1 large potato(es), baked 3
1 tbsp sour cream 1
1 tbsp whipped salted butter 2
half of a Boston blue burger Ruby Tuesdays 18
half of a veggie burger Ruby Tuesdays 11.5
1 tbsp blue cheese 1
1/2 cup(s) carrot(s) 0
1/8 item(s) whole hard-boiled egg(s) 0.5
2 serving(s) Ruby Tuesdays balsamic vinaigrette 1 serving 1 oz 1.5
1 cup(s) mushroom(s) 0
2 tbsp canned green peas 0
1 item(s) bell pepper(s) 0
3/4 cup(s) macaroni Salad (best I can figure) 3.5

Total 42

So, while I am SUPER disappointed in myself, I am starting to feel better after typing all this out. I had not used any of my weekly points yet, so of course I had to dip into them. I still have 27 weekly points left and it will be reset on Friday, so I know I will be okay. Just getting back on track and making this a learning experience. All is not lost - as long as I learned from it.

1st Weigh In

2009-01-09T20:18:00.002-05:00

Today was my first weigh in and....are you ready for it? I lost 10 lbs! Woohoo! Now I do know that this won't happen every week (nor do I want it to happen) and it was probably a lot of water weight, but it's still good to say goodbye to those pounds.

Eating out at Logan's Roadhouse

2009-01-05T23:42:00.001-05:00

Today was my husband's day off from work. When he is off from work we usually go out to dinner or lunch so while I was planning to keep on track, I knew that today I might want to use some of my extra weekly point allowance. Which I did...I used 5 of them.

We went to Logan's Roadhouse and I researched my option ahead of time. Unfortunately, there was not much on the web to find for nutritional information, but I did the best estimates I could on what I ordered and overall, I did a good job with it. Notice that I used 11 points on two friggin' rolls. They are good, but just not worth it in hindsight (no added butter to them). I also ordered my baked potato plan and had sour cream and butter on the side, which I did use a little bit of each.

Also, while I am not a big "sweets" eater, we watched X Files movie when we got home and I had some treats while watching it.

Here's what my Monday food log:

1 serving(s) Special K Vanilla Almond Cereal 2
1/2 cup(s) fat-free skim milk 1

2 serving(s) Logan's Yeast Roll 11
1 large potato(es), baked 3
3/4 cup(s) rice pilaf 4
2 tbsp Teriyaki sauce 0.5
1 item(s) canned pineapple slices (rings) in juice 0
1 item(s) cooked chicken fillet 3
1 tbsp whipped salted butter 2
1 tbsp sour cream 1
1 1/2 cup(s) mixed greens 0
1/8 cup(s) Balsamic vinaigrette 1.5
1 tbsp Bacon Bits 1
2 tbsp Medium Shredded Cheddar Cheese 1.5

1 serving(s) Seagrams Escapes Strawberry Daiquiri 3
2 serving(s) People Chow treat 9.5
1 serving(s) mini peanut butter cups 2

A Cracker Barrel Breakfast Day

2009-01-03T23:32:00.000-05:00

I stayed on track with my WW points today, even though I had breakfast at Cracker Barrel. I was a bit nervous about going there as Cracker Barrel doesn't post their nutritional information -- and their food isn't what I would consider healthy. But I did my homework ahead of time on the web for some of my favorites there. I did find this site was a help.

I ordered Uncle Hershel's Favorite breakfast and asked for grilled chicken tenderloins. I also asked for scrambled eggs with Egg Beaters (they do this at no extra charge). I usually add butter to my grits, but I only used one Splenda packet on them. I asked for a fat free honey mustard salad dressing packet - rather than their usual honey mustard that they serve with tenders as I am not sure if that is fat free or not. I know the salad dressing packets are so I went with that (it's not included below in my points, not sure if the 1 point had to be included for a fat free dressing?)

The other big deal was the yummy hashbrown casserole. I did eat mine and most places said the calories were something like 500 cal. I find that so hard to believe. So I searched for Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole copycat recipes online and found everything ranging to the points being between 6 on the low end to 13 on the high end. I recorded only 6 points below, but purposely reserved about 6 points or so for the possibility that they were on the high end. Another point to mention, the portion I received was small, whereas my husband received a larger portion. So who knows was the real point value was, but I think my method of handling this worked out ok.

The breakfast came with 2 biscuits & gravy, but I just ate one biscuit and no gravy and brought the extras home which Wellie & Mattie ate. In hindsight, I think it might have been better to get sourdough toast instead of the biscuit. I'll look into that more before I go next time.

Keeping track has also made me realize I need to work harder on getting more veggies during my day and also dairy/milk. We do tend to eat out frequently, so I know I will n eed to work harder to get the nutrional requirements I need while also staying within my points.

Here's my food tracking for Saturday:

1 cup cooked corn grits 3 (estimate, I don't think it was a full cup)
1 Buttermilk Biscuit 3
4 Grilled Chicken Tenderloins 3
3/4 cup fat-free egg substitute 3.5 (counted high on this, it was equivilant to 2 eggs, so 1/2 cup)
1 serving Hashbrown Casserole - Cracker Barrel 6

6 servings Coffee-Mate French Vanilla, fat free, creamer 3
16 oz black coffee 0
4 tbsp nondairy powdered creamer 3.5

2 cups fresh pineapple 2.5
1 serving One Pot Tuna Noodle 6

1 Reese's Peanut Butter Cup miniature 1

total used 34.5
total remaining 6.5 (or not really due to awesome hashbrown casserole!)

One Pot Tuna Noodle

2009-01-03T22:12:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the first night I've really cooked one of my own meals since starting WW, but the meal we had was super simple and I think I figured out the whole "Recipe Builder" on the WW website. Tonight we had One Pot Tuna Noodle:

One Pot Tuna Noodle
POINTS® Value: 6
Servings: 5

12 oz Egg Free Wide Pasta Ribbons (Noodles), cooked and drained
2 cans Chunk Light Tuna in Water, 5 oz each, drained
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup 98% fat free
1/2 cup fat-free skim milk
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
2 tsp table salt, optional
1 tsp black pepper, optional

Gently mix cooked and drained noodles with tuna, cream of mushroom soup, peas, milk, salt and pepper. Serve.

My review: the previous version we would make of Tuna Noodle include a whole block of Velveeta which was the way my husband loved it - which is the way his mother made it. So this one wasn't cheesy, but I was VERY okay with that. While it is one pot, I think next time I will put it into a casserole pan, top with a bit of breadcrumbs, and bake it a bit. I did add crushed red pepper flakes to my plated portion for added zip. I also think next time I will add more peas or maybe try other veggies - like maybe broccoli.