So this week, I’m back to watching what I stuff in my face. I’m not officially tracking with Weight Watchers, but I did it for long enough that I can keep a pretty good mental tally through the day on my own.

I always do better when I start my day out with a good breakfast. Cereal is okay- and quick which is great when you have a toddler demanding WAFFLES! and BLUEBERRIES! and MILK! and CEREAL! first thing in the morning (good Lord my kid eats a TON for breakfast) But most cereal is very high in points (carbs!) and I’m usually starving within 2 hours. So I came up with some good alternatives to cereal. One of my favorites is an egg burrito. It’s low in points, delicious, and surprisingly not that involved to make. And it keeps me full for way longer than cereal.

Start with some diced onions and peppers (usually I leave these out unless it’s a day when I’m not in a hurry… which is pretty much just the weekend day I took these pictures. heh) Put them in a skillet sprayed with some cooking spray.

You can use real eggs if you prefer, but those are a lot more points/calories. 1/2 cup of egg substitute is only 2 WW points! (1/4 cup = 1 egg)

Add the eggs to the skillet.

Give it a stir and then add some black pepper. I also add a splash of milk to make the eggs a little more ‘fluffy’.

Start it cooking on low-medium heat.

When it starts to cook on the edges (usually only takes a minute or so), use a spatula to scramble it all up.

While the eggs are cooking some more, get out a wheat tortilla.

Microwave it for 10 seconds, just enough to warm it up.

Let’s check the eggs!

Everyone likes their eggs cooked to a different extent. I like mine starting to brown a bit. I HATE wet scrambled eggs. GAG.

Load the warmed tortilla with the eggs and top with some cheese (just a little bit, if you’re trying to keep points low!)

And now for the best part: KETCHUP. If you don’t like ketchup on your eggs… well, then I can’t be your friend anymore. Sorry.

(I kind of went crazy with the ketchup on this one. I usually try to skimp on the ketchup, it’s got a lot of sugar.)

Roll it all up!

YUM. Breakfast to go! (Just be careful if you try to eat it in the car… I dripped watery ketchup all over my khakis on my way to an in-office job once and ARGH was I mad.) And it’s only about 4 points.

Breakfast Egg Burrito

Ingredients
1/2 cup egg substitute (EggBeaters or generic store brand)
onions & peppers, diced (optional)
splash of milk
whole wheat tortilla
shredded cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, whatever you like!)
cooking spray
ketchup

Preparation
Spray a small skillet with cooking spray. Add diced onions and peppers, and 1/4 cup egg substitute. Add some black pepper and a splash of milk. Cook eggs to desired done-ness. Place in warmed tortilla; top with cheese and ketchup. Roll and enjoy!

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Before I proceed, I thought I’d give you an update on my own weight status. It’s been a month since I officially reached my goal of 120 pounds (which was 11 pounds lost from Thanksgiving to January) I also stopped tracking my daily food intake, just to see if I could keep the weight off and do it ‘on my own’. I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t been very careful with what I eat every day. Mostly on the weekends- we’ve had a lot of family get-togethers and dinners out lately, and it’s always hard to eat right during those things. But, I’m happy to report that I haven’t gained anything back! I haven’t lost any more (I’ve been fluctuating between 118 and 120, which is pretty normal) but I’m still holding steady without the daily check of entering my food. So yay for that! And yay for needing to go shopping for shorts for the spring, because I HAVE NONE THAT FIT. They are all too big!

On to the advice!

Today’s Topic: Drink more water!

The first week of Weight Watchers- or any lifestyle change involving cutting back on food- is KILLER. Especially if you’re like me and you were previously eating enough for a Steelers linebacker (you know, the Steelers? From SIX-BURGH?) Which, I guess eating like a linebacker isn’t bad… if you’re actually, you know, a linebacker. But if you’re 5’3″ and only supposed to weigh 115-125, then maybe you shouldn’t be eating 3,000 calories a day, you think? So cutting those calories (or Points, as WW calls them) in half can make you cranky and hungry.

So what do you do? Somehow, you have to trick your body into not feeling hungry. Just for a little while, during that adjustment phase until things even out for you. When I really paid attention to how I was feeling, I realized that I wasn’t hungry in the sense that I was shaky and weak and had low blood sugar (because I do get that way, on occasion.) My stomach simply felt empty. And my brain said EAT EAT EAT.

Instead, I filled my stomach with water. Which is zero points! Plus, there are so many other benefits to water. It helps flush your body of toxins, which can make your skin and hair appear healthier, and it can give you more energy too. The end goal of any weight loss plan is yes, to lose pounds- but also to be healthier. Water helps with all of that.

The hardest time of day for me, hunger-wise, is late afternoon (3-5pm, right smack between lunch and dinner, PRIME snacking time!) and in the evenings before bed, usually 9 or 10pm. And of course at night after dinner when I’m hungry, I’m not looking for something healthy like a banana or a carrot. I want sugar and salt and fat and lots of it. Getting over that was tough. The first week I drank so much water and peed so often, I felt like I was 9 months pregnant again. But slowly- after about 7 or 8 days- I started not feeling so hungry during those times.

The idea was to fill my body with something else in place of high-calorie, high-fat snacks. Late-afternoon snacking is where I always load up on points, and then by dinner time I’m all, mmm, this piece of lettuce is DIVINE. What a great dinner! because that’s all the points I have left for the day. Most of it was mental, really. I just had to decide, hey, DRINK SOME WATER instead of (insert delicious but calorie-packed snack here).

Now, I know not everyone likes water. Me, I love it. I’ve been addicted to the stuff since college (yeah I know, I’m Hard Core. heh) I have never tried them myself, but I have heard quite a few people sing the praises of those fancy flavored waters. Still no points, but not as boring as water (if you consider water boring, which I don’t, actually)

For me, drinking lots of water is just a matter of habit. I try to always have a glass of fresh water nearby- on the desk, on the end table (away from curious toddler hands, of course!) and I never leave the house without my travel mug. If I forget to bring my travel mug, oh man do I feel lost and naked. I’ll keep reaching down to the cup holder at stop lights and DANG IT WHERE’S MY CUP OF WATER?

Water. H2O, baby. Drink it. Love it. It will help you! Promise.
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1. Maggie was sick again this week (yeah I realize that’s not a good thing) but the good thing was that when I took her to the doctor, it was just a nasty cold. Not an ear infection, not bronchitis. So thank goodness for that! Another tidbit of info from the drs appointment: she weight 22.8 lbs. Yes, she is almost 2 years old and hasn’t hit 23 pounds yet. PEANUT.

2. Even though she’s a light little thing, she’s been growing like a weed. I just had to pack away pants that I KNOW fit her 2 or 3 weeks ago, and now they’re way too short. I’m a little sad about this because it means she’s growing up, but I also think it’s a good thing because it means… she’s growing up.

3. I mentioned it quickly in a post last week but didn’t elaborate: Dan got a new job. Wait, didn’t he just do this not too long ago? Um yeah. He started his current job when Maggie was just a few weeks old. It’s been almost 2 years, and for various reasons, he felt it was time to move on. He started looking around and interviewing, not entirely sure he’d have much luck given the state of the economy right now. But thankfully, Computer Geek Programmers are in high demand in our area so he found something great pretty quickly. He starts on Feb 9. His last day at his current job is Tuesday, which means he has a few days off in between. So yay! He’s very excited about the new job- it’s farther away (downtown Pittsburgh) but he’s done the drive before and says it will be worth it.

4. Tomorrow. Steelers. Super Bowl. Party at our house. I don’t think I need to say much more than that.

5. My new smaller jeans from NY&Co are getting a little baggy on me. w00t.

6. Work for me has been BUSY. Several new jobs in the last month, launched a few sites, a couple of new leads and meetings coming up. Again, very surprised that I’m so busy. Usually January and February are slow so I was worried about things would be this year. Very blessed. And a bit overwhelmed.

7. Possibly planning a trip with a blogger-friend to visit another blogger-friend. SQUEEEE!

8. Maggie has learned about a bazillion new things recently. She knows Mommy and Maggie are a girls and Daddy is a boy. She’s very concerned with who owns things- ‘MINE!’ and ‘MOMMY’S!’ and ‘MANNIE’S!’ (that’s how she says ‘Maggie’). Every time she eats something, she proclaims it ‘delicious‘.

9. Much-needed night out last night with the Burgh Mom Bloggers.

10. Today Maggie refused to snuggle with Dan. ‘Snuggle Mommy!??!’ she kept insisting. So I got to snuggle on the couch with her and watch Gilmore Girls while Daddy cleaned up the kitchen. I love my kid.
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Could I stand to lose a few more pounds? Probably. Mostly, I could stand to get some more muscle on my body, but between Maggie and work and life lately, I don’t always have the energy or the time to do what I want to do. If I can make it to power yoga or pilates once a week, that’s pretty much a miracle. I’m longing for warmer weather so we can go for walks in the sunshine (unfortunately, that’s a long way off…) But I feel great about where I am now weight-wise (and pants-wise!!! NO MORE MUFFIN TOP.) so at least I’ve made that progress.

Since I posted about my progress, I’ve received quite a few questions about Weight Watchers, how it works, and just weight loss in general. I am BY NO MEANS an expert, but over the next few weeks, I thought I would share some things that I have learned- about food, about the mental hurdles I had to leap over, recipes, tricks for beating hunger- that sort of thing. I don’t know about you, but I can read those articles in magazines written by ‘experts’ until my eyeballs fall out of my head, but until someone in Real Life tells me their story or method, it doesn’t actually sink in.

NOTE: I am NOT a nutritionist. I am NOT a doctor. I am NOT an employee for Weight Watchers, nor am I getting paid to say good things about Weight Watchers. I am just a mother who needed to lose some weight and wanted to do it in the most healthy way I could for myself. DO NOT SUE ME IF IT DOESN’T WORK FOR YOU. heh.

Today’s Topic: Weight Watchers Online and Why I Love It So.

I’m a big fan of Weight Watchers- at least the online version. I have never been to a Real Life Weight Watchers meeting, so I can’t really give an opinion on that aspect of it. But the online tool is fantastic. I’ve used it twice now- last fall, when I still had 20+ pounds on me left over from being pregnant with Maggie, and again during these past few months to lose that last 10 pounds, once and for all. It’s not really magic or anything- it all comes down to basic math, really- but believe me, when you see the number on the scale and the number on your pants size dropping, it certainly feels like magic.

I need something that keeps me honest and holds me accountable. And really, I could probably do it all myself by hand or use a free tool to track calories. I have actually done that before, back in 2003 when I lost 25 pounds using a free online food tracker. But honestly, Weight Watchers works much faster. It took me nearly a year to lose what I lost in 3 months using WW last year, and about 4 months to lose what I just lost in under 2 months using WW. It’s more efficient and a lot simpler to use, in my opinion.

Also, for me, the online tool is enough. However, I have talked to some other people who have used Weight Watchers who say that they needed the motivation of an upcoming meeting to keep them accountable. But either way, the end result is the same: keeping track of what you eat- HONESTLY keeping track, no cheating or lying or fudging the numbers!- is a nearly fool-proof way of losing weight, at least in my experience.

Weight Watchers Online is a subscription service. There are several different membership options- you can read more about them here.

When you first sign up, you’ll be asked a series of questions about your weight loss goals, your height and current weight, your daily activity level, and whether or not you are a nursing mom (I believe nursing moms get an extra 10 points per day, but I’m not positive. Can anyone confirm that?) Your responses are used to calculate your daily points allowance- in my case, that was 21. You also get 35 weekly points that you can use or not use, it’s completely up to you. Weight Watchers does recommend that you always use your daily points though- you want to make sure you’re eating enough to keep your metabolism going. But don’t worry- 21 points is NOT very much. I never ever had a problem reaching that number, heh.

And just to clarify: Weight Watchers does not have specific food you have to eat. You can eat your own food, you can go out to restaurants, you can eat whatever you want. You just have to keep track of what you eat so you know if you’ve pigged out too much. If you want to spend all your daily points on a burger from Red Robin (because OH YES, they are that many points, ASK ME HOW I KNOW.), you are welcome to do that… though it’s not recommended, obviously. Weight Watchers does have some frozen meals that are pre-labeled with points values, but they are not required by any means. (However, some of them aren’t bad at all- I like to keep a few on hand for quick and easy lunches, especially if I know we’re going to be eating a less-than-healthy dinner. I can keep an easier handle on my daily points that way.)

The Points Tracker tool itself is simple: you enter your food from breakfast, lunch, dinner, plus any snacks you eat throughout the day, and it calculates your points for you. The database has a TON of common foods, restaurant foods, condiments, beverages, etc. If for some reason you can’t find your food in their list, you can always create it and enter the nutritional information yourself. I’ve done this for a few things (mostly restaurant items- I found the calories and fat info via Google) You can also save favorite items and even meals in an easy to access list, which is great- saves time, especially if you eat the same thing for breakfast each morning, for example.

One of my favorite parts of the Points Tracker is that I can add my own recipes into my library and it will calculate the points for me. This is extremely helpful in making recipes more healthy too- I can mess with the ingredients, use less cheese (*CRY*), use low-fat sour cream, leaner meat, etc and I can see immediately how that will help me save on points. Awesome.

Another feature of the online tool is the Activity Tracker. I will embarrassingly admit that I didn’t get as much use out of this feature as I should have, because my workouts have been few and far between. But they do have a nice way of tracking your activities and workouts- and when you add something in, you get some credit points toward your weekly Points allowance! And believe me- any extra points you can get are much appreciated.

There is also a Weight Tracker, which was both my favorite and least favorite part. Least favorite because Tuesday night (my weigh-in day was Wednesday) I would start stressing about the weight I probably didn’t lose that week. It ended up being my favorite though, because every Wednesday morning, I would find that I had lost at least a pound. Also- I love graphs, so I could view my progress with neat little stars marking the milestones and see it all in a nice, descending line. Talk about satisfying!

So that’s the basic run-down of Weight Watchers Online based on my experience with it. I hope I answered everyone’s questions! You can always find out more on the Weight Watchers website, or leave a comment or email me with your questions and I’ll answer it in the next ‘installment’!

Happy Weight Loss :)
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I owe it mostly to Weight Watchers, which is the tool I use- the tool I NEED- in order to keep track of what I’m putting into my body. If I’m not forced to face the music each night and write down what I ate that day, I play oblivious and pretend that I didn’t actually eat that third chocolate covered pretzel. It’s all about accountability, I guess. Last year I used WW (just the online version, no real-life meetings) to lose the last 20 pounds of baby weight, and it worked wonderfully. But then I stopped using it, and gradually over about 8 or 9 months, I started back to my old habits of Eating Like A Pig and I gained weight again. Not a ton of weight- maybe 5 pounds- but it was noticeable and I hated how it made me feel. Which was… Like A Pig.

So the day before Thanksgiving, I decided to give it a try again. And the same day, I stumbled upon The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans and took it as another sign that Yes Jen, you need to do this. You need to do this NOW. So I slapped their little badge on my sidebar and officially joined their Current Challenge – to be lighter by the holidays. I found the irony of starting all of it right before the most notorious eating day of the year kind of hilarious. But even if I didn’t lose much weight – or any weight- I hoped that maybe I wouldn’t have quite as much work to do after the holidays.

And as it turns out, I don’t have ANY work to do. I’m back in a size 6, my shirts and bras and even my underwear fit better. I was even able to take back some dress pants I gave to my mom a few months ago (she says they’re too ‘young’ for her, what with the boot-cut legs and low-cut waist, heh). I went clothes shopping last week and I actually had FUN. It was awesome.

All that being said, I still have more I’d like to do. Not really weight loss, but getting in shape. I haven’t been able to make it to yoga more than once a week, and my plans of working out at home in between those classes have been foiled by things like Christmas, New Years, a sick kid, and just plain not feeling like it. Exercise has always been a hard thing for me to stick to- especially when I have such success with watching what I eat, I think mentally I’m all, ‘bah, who wants to get sweaty and tired? I’ll just skip that second helping of spaghetti at dinner tonight.’ So that’s definitely something I want to work on.

My only disappointment in all of this: that I forgot to take a before picture to compare to after! The only physical evidence I have is the pile of size 8 jeans that fall off of my butt. Which I guess is good enough ;)

Obviously, I’m ecstatic about my progress. I reflected a few weeks ago about how miserable and awful I felt 2 years ago after giving birth- which I know is normal and every mom goes through it. I think back to then and think about how I feel now, and I barely feel like the same person!

If you have weight to lose- 5 pounds, 30 pounds, 100 pounds- YOU CAN DO IT. It takes a commitment above anything else, and there are so many tools out there to help you. I chose Weight Watchers, but that might not be right for you. Find what works. If I can do it- a notorious Over-Eater among my friends & family (seriously- I had a co-worker time me once at lunch, I eat fast and I eat A LOT if I get carried away.)- then anyone can.
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Since then, I have lost 8.6 pounds. I’m calling it 8 because I don’t want to be accused of cheating or anything. But yeah. This morning I weighed 122.4. ONE TWENTY-TWO! I haven’t seen that number on the scale since 2005, just after my sister got married. I had just switched jobs/careers to one where I was sitting in a cubicle and very quickly I gained 10 pounds or so, and then I got knocked up and… well, here we are.

I am absolutely thrilled and amazed that I’ve lost so much so quickly. I was even able to get into my ‘skinny’ jeans earlier this week (not as in skinny jeans, but my jeans I can only wear when I’m skinny. just wanted to clarify.)

When I first decided to join in The Challenge, I wasn’t sure what my goal was. basically I figured even if I didn’t lose much or any at all by the end of the month, at least I would hopefully not have quite as much work to do after the holidays. I knew I wanted to lose at least 5, possibly 10 pounds. Which isn’t much compared to the 20 I lost last year or the 25 I lost a few years earlier, but that last 5-10 is the hardest, right?

And for some reason, this time, it’s even more exciting. I think it’s because after you have a kid, everything about you changes- mentally and physically. My body is so very different now. I have stretch marks I didn’t used to have, my hips are permanently wider (the bones MOVED and I could feel it while pregnant and LORDY DID IT HURT.)

The other night Maggie climbed up on the couch next to me while I was on the computer and asked to see ‘the baby’. She likes when I go through baby pictures of her on the computer and let her look at them- she likes to point out ‘Gramma!’ and ‘Shell!’ and ‘Michael!’ and ‘PapPap!’. So I went all the way back to the first day and first week of her life. While we were going through the pictures, I was remembering how awful I felt during those days. I was so happy and elated and in love with my baby, but physically and mentally I was a mess. I hated the way I felt and looked (and I STILL cringe when I see pictures of my puffy-self in those first days after she was born- those are the ones I have never shared on Flickr, heh) I just knew I would never, ever feel normal again.

But here I am, feeling normal. Actually, BETTER than normal. I am, dare I say it, happy with my body again. That’s something I doubted would ever happen again. Sure, I still have those stretch marks on my belly and my legs, but I’m fine with those. They are reminders of my beautiful baby girl.

And plus, jeans cover those up. SKINNY JEANS, even.
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I haven’t worked out since last Monday. I had grand plans to go to yoga Saturday morning, but those were thwarted by The Sick that arrived Friday night. So perhaps I’ll try for this Saturday. I’ll pencil it into my calendar.

Today was a meh day as far as eating goes. I think because I went a few days without having any desire to eat real food, now that I’m feeling better, I’m all FOOD, MORE FOOD! MUST EAT FOOD! and I had a (half-)sandwich and a bowl of French Onion soup and pretty much my whole baguette at Panera today for lunch and promptly reached my point limit for the day before dinner. Whoops. But, tomorrow is a new day.

So in total, since the day before Thanksgiving, I’ve lost (almost!) 7 pounds. I weighed 124.8 this morning, compared to 131.something when I started. Not bad. My jeans are definitely Not Tight On Me- they were freshly washed and dried, and they fit today like they do after a few days of wearing (please tell me I’m not the only one who wears jeans multiple times before washing them if they don’t actually get dirty…?) They were especially baggy in the butt. So that’s exciting!

My goal weight is 120. I’m not sure if I’ll get there, and if I do, I have my doubts as to how well I’ll be able to maintain. I think that my body is more naturally suited for 125ish as a ‘maintenance’ weight and I’ll have to REALLY be careful with what I eat if I want to stay at 120.

That being said, I’m still going to finish out the Challenge and see where I end up! It will be really awesome not to have ‘Lose some weight’ at the top of my Resolution List come January 1.
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So today was weighing-in day for the Challenge, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I lost another 2 pounds, making my weight this morning 125. I have lost a total of 6 pounds since the day before Thanksgiving, which makes me want to do a little dance around the room.

I’m a bit shocked at how quickly it has come off so far, partly because during the last 2 weeks I had 2 Thanksgiving dinners and about a bazillion cookies appear at my house. But I’ve been behaving myself pretty well. I haven’t deprived myself of anything I really wanted (like, I WANTED- no, NEEDED- a Snickers brownie yesterday after lunch.), however that first week was really tough because I was hungry basically all day long. But my body adjusted last week and since then, it hasn’t been too bad. I’m also drinking TONS of water.

I still haven’t stayed within my daily points on any given day, which apparently hasn’t mattered too much, but today I just might. Between breakfast and lunch today I’ve only eaten 9 points, so I have 11 left for dinner! I might even HAVE to eat a cookie tonight, ha! What a tough problem to have…

I also went to yoga again on Monday night (still sore from it, ow ow ow, damn you Power Yoga!). It was one of those nights where really all I wanted to do was stay home in my pajamas and NOT go out into the cold after dark, but I made myself go anyway and I felt so refreshed after my workout.

One thing I wish I had done before I started this was take some measurements in addition to weighing myself. My pants are already fitting SO much better, and my bras too. I don’t have numbers to look at, but just buttoning my dress pants this morning (size SIX!) and not feeling like I’m getting cut in half let me know that I’m definitely on the right track.

5 more pounds to go! Think I can do it before 2009?
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• Work drama. Wow. Not going into it too much here, because you never know who’s reading. BUT. Let’s just say that I’m fairly certain I’m not being taken seriously in certain people’s (read: MEN’S) minds, and it just plain pisses me off. Not paying your bill for 4 months does not give you the right to call me names in an email, nor does it permit you to make vague threats. Okay? Okay. Glad we got that settled.
• You can see evidence of how ‘helpful’ Maggie was in my big drawing for the blog design. Otherwise known as: Not Very Helpful At All. But she is cute, so I guess that counts for something.
• I hosted a cookie swap at my house on Saturday (yes, Burgh Moms, I had ANOTHER ONE! gah! SO MANY COOKIES!) It was a lot of fun, even if it was a little bit crazy. We had 10 adult women in the house, plus 9 babies/kids… and 2 of the women were pregnant. So technically you could say we were outnumbered, at least until Dan got home from Christmas shopping. There sure were lots of yummy cookies.

  

  A couple of them may have made their way into my mouth today while I was divvying them up for freezing. Maybe.

• Maggie has been sick since Friday, complete with a croaky, squeaky voice. It’s actually quite adorable, except for at 3am when she’s crying, and then it’s heartbreaking. Thankfully we didn’t hear that heartbreaking cry last night and she slept 13.5 hours. We all needed that desperately.
• I started receiving Christmas cards today. I’m thinking that means I should get moving on mine. You all are cramping my procrastination style, you know that?
• I went to yoga for the 2nd time tonight- this time it was Power Yoga. All I have to say about that is DANG, IT’S HOT IN THAT ROOM.
• Instead of addressing my Christmas cards, I Elfed my kid. Way more fun than licking envelopes.

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It’s going okay so far.

I’m not being nearly as strict as I was last year when I had 20+ pounds of post-pregnancy flab to lose. This time, I only really have about 5-10 pounds I’d like to lose. This time, it’s more about getting rid of the bad habits I’ve developed over the past few months and getting back to eating healthy… or really, just eating LESS. I’ve been a pig lately. OINK.

I have always been very into food. I love food. No, really- I LOVE IT. I have been known to eat burritos bigger than my head (Dan and any of the Burgh Moms can attest to that!) and still have room for a pile of chips and salsa, plus possibly a cookie or two for dessert. Doing that every once in a while is fine- it’s good to treat yourself sometimes. But I tend to start down a slippery slope and CANNOT STOP SHOVELING THE FOOD IN. It’s not really sweets that get me either. It’s the actual lunch or dinner part. That second helping of pasta, when the first one was already enough for 2 people. That third (FOURTH?) slice of pizza. That extra handful of peanuts/chips/whatever.

October was a crappy month for me. I had to deal with some issues involving my business- my First Baby, if you will- and it was kind of rough on me. I don’t think I realized how upset I was by everything that happened until I got further away from it. I hate to dramatize it TOO much (who, ME??! ha!) because everything is totally fine now, lessons learned, and all that stuff. But at the time, I was hurt and disappointed and basically just pissed off at People. And I think I let that drive my eating (Emotional Eating, Party Of One) and hello, Five Extra Pounds I Totally Didn’t Need!

So! Weight Watchers has me limited to 21 points a day. Well, actually, it said 19 points a day, to which I said ARE YOU INSANE? because if you know anything about WW points, you’d know that is like EATING AIR and DRINKING A GLASS OF WATER and hi, you’re done eating for the day! And 21 points is what I did last time, and while I only actually stayed under that limit a few times (thank goodness for those 35 weekly points you can borrow from!) it worked for me and I lost 20lbs in 3 months.

Last Wednesday, I weighed 131 pounds. Monday morning (my WW weigh day) I weighed- GET THIS!- 127 pounds. I nearly fell over when I saw that number. Srsly. I didn’t believe it, so I thought I’d weigh myself Tuesday as well, and today… both yesterday and today the number was 128, which I guess I have to go with as my Official Progress. Which is great, considering last Thursday was Thanksgiving and I didn’t track points (well, that’s not entirely true- I started to, then the Points Tracker began laughing at me when I was already to 25 points and I hadn’t even added the stuffing yet.) and I also made stuffed shells on Saturday night and while they were absolutely DELICIOUS, those suckers are like 3 or 4 points EACH- and I had 5 of them. Whoops.

But it obviously all evened out, and at the very least, I was able to kick my metabolism into gear by cutting out my snacking, and also drinking a BUTTLOAD of water. I usually drink a lot of water anyway, but at night when I’m hungry, instead of having pretzels or chips or cookies, I drink water. And then I wake up 6,728 times to pee at night.

Another big thing I did today: yoga (well technically ‘yogilates’). I hadn’t been to class since July, and wow, I missed it. I forgot how great it feels to stretch and work my muscles and how much energy I have when I’m done. And thankfully, my knee held up great! It was a little tired-feeling at the end, but I took some ibuprofen when I got home (the dr recommended doing that before and/or after any activity for the next few weeks) and it was fine the rest of the day. I’m going to go at least once each week, possibly twice if I can, and work in some BowFlex workouts here and there (as much as I don’t really like it, BowFlex/weight training IS beneficial. It’s just so booooring.)

So Week 1 is considered a success. I’m also feeling like my body might be adjusting a little bit to eating smaller portions at meals, because I still feel pretty full from the 4 leftover stuffed shells I ate for dinner 4 hours ago.

I suppose I could have only eaten three… but I did yoga this morning for 60 minutes, so I get an extra shell, dammit.
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