Staying on plan when sick

This week I have come down with an ear infection and a sinus infection. I think I might be getting strep throat also. My ears hurt, my throat hurts, and I feel like crap. I haven't exercised at all since Tuesday. Yesterday I didn't eat all of my Points, and today isn't looking so good either. I have no idea what the scale is going to show tomorrow, but this definitely was not a good week for me.

Affirmations

I AM getting stronger every day.

I AM getting leaner every day.

I AM getting healthier every day.

Leslie Sansone kicks my butt!

I just got 7 Leslie Sansone DVDs from ebay. I already had one, and have been using it for a little while now. This morning I used one of the new ones. It amazes me how much I sweat when I use them. Trust me folks, it is a real workout!

Keeping myself accountable

I've come up with a few ways to keep myself accountable about exercise. First, I emailed my friend Tanya & asked if she could be my accountability buddy. She doesn't live close enough to drag my butt off the couch, but she's a good friend who won't be afraid to yell at me. Second, I put up a whiteboard at my desk that I will see every day. I plan to record my daily activity Points there. I wrote down yesterday's date, and wrote a big fat 0 next to it. Hopefully that will help motivate me.

Becoming accountable

Lately I have been slacking off when it comes to exercise. It's getting cold out. It has been rainy. Blah, blah, blah. Any excuse. I really need to get up off my lazy butt and get in some more exercise EVERY DAY. Not just a few times a week. I think I need to make myself accountable to not just myself, but someone else. Someone who will yell at me if I don't exercise. Someone who will harass me, and ask me how much exercise I did that day. Hmmm... who should it be?

Boredom sets in

We are really slow right now, and it shows. I am bored out of my mind. I want to eat. A little while ago, I took a walk down the street to our other building, just to get up out of my seat. It at least helped cure the boredom for a few minutes. Only 15 minutes to go... I can make it!

Weekly Weigh In

I lost 4.4 pounds last week! Holy Cheez-Its! I have now lost 52.6 pounds! Woo hoo! 2.4 pounds more, and I will be back down to my lowest weight in the last 10 years.

Change

As I was driving home the other day, down a 1 mile stretch of road that I drive down every day, I noticed the beautiful leaves on the trees. Here in Michigan the leaves turn incredible shades of red, yellow and orange. On this particular day, the sun was shining just right to show off the beauty of the leaves.

It made me realize that change can be a very good thing. Without change, I would never get to see leaves those colors. I also wouldn't get to see my waist this small. I wouldn't get to see the scale move every week (even if it's not always the way I want it). I wouldn't be able to run with my daughter. Change is a very good thing indeed.

Walking/jogging

Today at lunch I did a walk/jog combination. I felt like a moron, but I'm glad I did it. I did about 8 seconds of jogging every minute. It was definitely more of a workout than I'm used to. After my workout I felt different. Better. More energy. I'll have to do this a few times a week.. as long as the weather is nice.

Coffee creamer

So for the last 5 months I have been using a coffee creamer that is sugar free. I THOUGHT that it was 0 Points per serving. Guess what... I was wrong! I figured it out last night when I was at the grocery store. I was looking at a creamer that isn't sugar free, but that sounded really good. I decided to compare the nutritional stats on the back of each bottle. Then I got out my Points calculator and figured out what each of them was. I was shocked to see that the sugar free creamer I have been using this whole time is actually 1 Point per serving. 1 Point! I have about 2 cups of coffee each day, and use 1 Point worth of creamer each time. That's 2 Points per day. That's 14 Points per week!

Clothing

As I keep dropping weight, I keep tossing clothes into a bag to get rid of. I think I'm going to donate most of them to a women's shelter, or something similar. I'm left with fewer and fewer clothes that actually fit. I really don't want to buy much though, because I know that I am a long way from my goal. I don't want to spend a ton of money now. I did discover a new Dots clothing store by my mom's house. Their clothes are very reasonable, and they have a lot of cute stuff. Maybe I'll go buy a pair of jeans. Just to get rid of that "new clothes" urge.

You say it's your birthday!

It's a great feeling to weigh almost 50 pounds less as I turn 35 than I did when I turned 34. I am seriously starting to think about a career that would help people lose weight or get healthier. I think it would be a much better fit for me. Tonight I am celebrating my birthday by getting take-out from Qdoba. My burrito will be naked. No cheese or sour cream. I can add my own toppings and low carb tortilla at home.

Blue jeans

Blue jeans. Such a simple thing. And yet I wonder why they sometimes cost over $100. I never thought that I would be as excited about blue jeans as I am lately. When I was at my highest weight, I couldn't even contemplate wearing a pair of jeans. I didn't own any that fit. Now I have several pairs that fit. One pair is even falling off. I need a belt to keep them up. Today I put on a pair of jeans that I honestly don't think I ever wore before. I think I bought them, they didn't fit, and I didn't take them back for some reason. Maybe I lost the receipt. I'm not sure. Today they fit. Not in the lay-down-on-the-floor-and-zip-them way that I wore them when I was a teenager. They truly fit. I ate a big lunch, and they still fit. It's amazing!

Cold weather

I feel like I'm training to be a stripper today! It was cold this morning, with frost on the ground. When I went for a walk at lunch I had on a shirt, sweatshirt, gloves, and earmuffs. I soon had to take off the gloves. Then the earmuffs. Then pushed my sleeves up. When I came back in, I had to take my sweatshirt off. Ugh!

Lentil soup

1 cup dry lentils
1 quart vegetable broth
1 cup fat free chicken broth (or vegetable, or water, or leave out if you like your soup thick)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2 Tbp canned tomato paste
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tsp ground cumin (more or less to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover & simmer until lentils are soft, about 30-45 minutes.

4 servings, 3 Points each

Activity Points

How do you earn 9 activity Points in one day? Clean the house for 2 1/2 hours, and then go walk around the mall!

Weekly Weigh In

Today I went to my weekly WW meeting. I lost 3 pounds this past week! Woo hoo! I am now up to 44.4 pounds lost! I'm so excited!

I honestly can't wait for the cooler weather to get here. Just over 4 years ago, I worked briefly as an assistant manager in a clothing store. During the time that I worked there I lost 50 pounds. Because I lost so much weight, I had to buy new clothes. Over the last 4 years, that 50 pounds had come back, along with some friends. Those new clothes stopped fitting. So they were tossed to the side. Now I'm bringing them back out. I have a ton of long-sleeved and 3/4-length sleeve tops. I can't wait to wear them again! It will be like having a whole new wardrobe! I may need to go buy some new pants though, since I spent more money on tops than pants back then. I do have some pants that will work... a few pairs of jeans that I'm back into, and a few other pairs of pants that might work. I really don't want to go buy much though. Although my end goal is about 135, I had decided on a smaller goal of losing 25 pounds by Christmas. I have already lost 5.6 pounds towards that goal. If I succeed, I will be just under 200 pounds by Christmas. I know I can do it! I had set my goal a little on the low side because my birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and my daughter's birthday are all coming up before Christmas. So I knew I had to be realistic. I honestly don't have a clue what size I will be by Christmas. I haven't been under 200 pounds in 15 years. All I want for Christmas is gift cards so that I can go buy new clothes.

My Weight Loss Journey

I probably should have started this blog months ago. But that's ok.

6 months ago I weight 262 pounds. I'm not quite 5'1". So I'm short and round. My husband's company decided to change their health insurance plan. The new plan required everyone to get physicals. The physicals checked for 3 things: BMI, blood pressure, and tobacco use. I knew that my BMI was going to be an issue. It doesn't take a genius to know when you're overweight. You might be able to live in denial for a little while, but at some point it sinks in. What was worse was that I would have to find a new doctor for this physical. Our old doctor didn't accept our new insurance. I knew that I was going to get yelled at by my new doctor.

By the time that I went to the new doctor, my weight was already down to 253. I had made a few simple changes. I had started taking walks at night with my daughter, and was paying more attention to my eating. My OB/GYN had also put me back on my oral diabetes medication.

My new doctor didn't yell at me. She did show me what my BMI was, and suggested that I join Weight Watchers. I knew that I could get a discount from the new insurance company, so I went to a meeting to see what it was like. I really enjoyed the meeting, so I joined right away. By the time I went for my first official weigh-in, my weight was down to 249.2 pounds. What a big difference already from 262 pounds!

Today I weigh 220.6 pounds. That's a difference of 41.4 pounds! My clothes are all falling off of me, and I have more energy than I've had in years. I still have a long way to go. My goal is roughly 135 pounds. It will probably take me about another year to get there. So join me on my journey.