my week without artificial sweetener...

Well, yesterday finished my week without artificial sweetener. I did it! I made it!! I really didn't think I could do it. But I did!!!

I cut out all artificial sweeteners in everything I eat and drink. The hardest part was the drink. I have always had an aversion to plain ole water. It's always made me upset to my stomach. So being as I have to have at least 100 ounces of water a day (based on the theory that you should drink half of your weight in ounces every day) there was no way I could do it unless I put something sweet in it. So, I added Crystal Light to my water bottles before I drank my 6 bottles of water a day.

So on Saturday, I walked the 5K MS walk with my coworkers and friends and no Chrystal Light. Boy was that hard. I got so dehydrated. I only drank a half a bottle during the whole walk. And it was like drinking poison. I had a hard time swallowing.

That's how most of Saturday, Sunday and Monday went. I'll bet I drank a combined 6 bottles those three days. I missed my Chrystal Light SOOOOO bad. By Tuesday, I tried adding fruit concentrate to my water to try and take the edge of the taste of the plain ole water in my stomach. That was worse. I had to find a fruit concentrate that was low in sugar and had no artificial sweeteners in it. The only thing I could find was pineapple juice. And it really wasn't all that good. Though i normally LOVE pineapple juice. I even tried Limeade. And although it was yummy, it still wasn't all that great. It was no Chrystal Light!!

So then by Thursday, I went cold turkey and just drank water.


And then, something really weird happened. I started enjoying drinking plain ole water. I actually started craving it. I couldn't get enough of the stuff. I'll bet I drank 8 to 10 bottles a day. It was almost like I was constantly dehydrated or something because I couldn't get enough of it.

So, now, I can honestly say, I've kicked the Chrystal Light habit.

In looking back, I think what I was really craving was something sweet, not the Chrystal Light at all. In the artificial sweetener study I blogged about earlier, they said that what artificial sweetener can do is make your body crave sweets because it's being fooled into thinking that it's getting sugar but it's really not. So unbeknownst to me I was perpetually making myself addicted to Chrystal Light and all sweets for that matter. So I think the study is right. I remember craving Chrystal Light after every meal. I thought I was craving some sort of sweet dessert and I would grab a Chrystal Light to satisfy the urge. But now I see I was just enabling the habit. The addiction to sweets.

Ugh!! I can't believe I was doing that to myself. As if this whole weight loss thing isn't hard enough as it is. Then on top of that, I was sabotaging myself!!!

Well, now that's over. I vow never to have another Chrystal Light the rest of my days. I'm sure you'll see the stock prices in Chrystal Light drop from here on out. But sorry, guys. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to lose weight!

As for the other foods that I eat with artificial sweetener in them, I think I'm just going to limit my intake and watch the label for aspartame and avoid that one at all costs. I don't think it will be an issue, though, because now that I don't crave sweets I won't be eating much of them anyway.

Now I'm going to have to work on the quality of my water. I just read the label of the Nestle Pure Life water I've been drinking for months (maybe years) and it says that portions of the water come from public water sources. And it has been purified, which I don't know a whole lot about the process so I'll have to look into that as well. And then there's the whole "recycled plastic" issue that's been bugging me for a while.

But hey, baby steps, right?

my first guest blogger...

I have invited my first guest blogger to blog on my behalf on my blog. (Okay, I think I said "blog" once too many times in that sentence.)

My mother.

She's been losing weight on WW as well. Though we live 15 hours apart, we are losing weight together. She has it much harder than me, though. She's doing it all alone. I have my husband, daughter, and close friends all around me to help me through the tough days. She's all alone on her mountain that she only leaves one day a week for supplies. I am so proud of her for sticking with it. I know I could never have lost a pound if I were in her shoes. She's my hero in more ways than one.

So, here is her blog...

Journey From Obesity to Health

What a journey this is! It is really hard being addicted to food. And that’s exactly what I have, an addiction. Food is in my every waking thought and sometimes in my sleeping thoughts.

I’ve heard it said (by non-food-addict persons) to just avoid it and it will be alright. Well, how do you avoid food? It is all around us, it is the sustenance of life. How do you avoid something that is necessary for life? Obviously you can’t. When you get up in the morning you start with breakfast, then comes lunch and then supper. When you open a magazine you find ads for food. When you turn on the television, one out of every three commercials is about food. When you drive somewhere you pass fast food places or restaurants. You can’t even fill your car up with fuel anymore because when you pay for the fuel you are accosted by food when you hit the door. So you tell me, how can you avoid food?

I have been obese in the past and gone down to a healthy weight only to return to obesity (several times) as have most obese persons. I am on that journey again and this time (at 61 years young) it is harder than ever. I am retired and therefore not as active or distracted as I was on my previous journeys. All I think about all day long is food. When is my next meal? What can I eat that will taste good? What can I eat that will satisfy? What can I eat and still loose weight?

What about advice from the “weight loss experts?” I haven’t heard any that have helped yet. One of the funny ones is to eat things that you like but in smaller portions. Well, the things that I like are not good for you even in smaller portions. How do you eat gravy on your mashed potatoes in smaller portions? Even one tablespoon of gravy (the way I like to make it) is extremely fattening. And one tablespoon of gravy is a joke. Chicken is wonderful fried in deep fat with the skin on and nice and crusty. Baked or broiled chicken (boneless and skinless) just isn’t the same and doesn’t satisfy the way a good ole piece of fried chicken does. I am not a fish eater and rarely ate it during my obese days. I could tolerate it battered and fried with lots of tarter sauce, but that surely isn’t low-fat. Another tidbit of advice from those “weight loss experts” is to spice up your food so that it satisfies the taste buds. Oh, I love spicy food and do that often but it still doesn’t satisfy as much as a big glob of butter or sour cream would.

The only advice I can give is to look at your journey closely. If you are just starting, look at the way you were. Ask yourself, “Do I want to look like that and feel like that the rest of your life?” If your answer is no then you need to get a plan and if the answer is yes then you have just wasted time reading this. If you are already on this long journey, look back at the progress you have made. Ask yourself, “Do I want to continue or just give up and destroy all the progress I’ve already made?” Then look ahead. Look at what you see in your future. Will you turn the head of the opposite sex? (You sure wouldn’t in the old self.) Do you want to be able to climb stairs without huffing and puffing? Do you want to shop in the regular section of the department store? Those are the things that keep me going. I have lost 47 pounds and have approximately 50 more to go. I want to get there and that is the only thing that is keeping me on this horrible weight loss program. And yes they are all horrible in my eyes. I’ve tried dozens of them.

Support from friends and family help some but you have to dig deep within yourself to find the strength. You can do it but not for someone else just for yourself.

--Debbie

pumpkin, the super food...

I read an article a while back on iVillage called "5 Superfoods for Weight Loss". The 5 foods on the list were:

Grapefruit
Sardines
Pumpkin
Grass-fed Beef
Green Tea

The one that interested me the most was pumpkin. The article said it was one of the greatest weight loss foods ever. And I like pumpkin. But I don't have the occasion to eat it unless it's around the holidays: pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin mousse, etc. I started looking for pumpkin recipes and found mostly breads, muffins, pies, and pastries. All of which aren't that great on the WW diet.

Then I got an email last week from VeryBestBaking.com a website (I think) published by Nestle. I've been a member of their site for years. They have a great community for really good recipes. Anyway, the email had a small little box at the bottom that says "Find out the power of pumpkin". So I clicked on it and was taken to a phenomenal website about pumpkin. Looks like its sponsored by Libby's. It has a bunch of recipes, games, nutritional informatoin, etc.

But the most exciting part of the website is a page called PlusPumpkin (or rather +Pumpkin).

It shows how you can add pumpkin to every day meals to add fiber and vitamin A. And by doing this it will reduce the fat and sodium in your regular meals. How great is that!??! I know I could use a lot less fat and sodium in my meals, how about you??

It has suggestions to add pumpkin to:

Spaghetti Sauce
Chili
Macaroni and Cheese
Mashed Potatoes
Hot Cocoa
Rice
and a bunch of other stuff.

It's exactly what I was looking for. A way to add pumpkin to my diet without having to eat pumpkin pie or pumpkin milk shakes.

I'm going to try it and then start experimenting with adding pumpkin to other things, too.

Have you ever put pumpkin in something weird (like the list above) and it turned out normal tasting?

daily sugar allowance...

Okay, thanks to Donna's link, I was able to determine how much sugar I should have every day. Or rather, how much I can have without going over.

So the USDA recommends that you have no more than 8% of your daily calories be from sugar. So I figure I'm on a 1200 calorie per day diet because I can have 24 points a day and each point is about 50 calories.

Okay, so that would be 96 calories a day from sugar. And one teaspoon of sugar is 16 calories. So that would be 6 teaspoons of calories from sugar a day.

Most foods measure their sugar by grams so I need to find out how many grams are in 6 teaspoons.

6 tsp = 1 oz

1 oz = 28 grams

So, that would be 28 grams of sugar a day for a 1200 calorie per day diet. Right? (Please someone check my math!!!)

Now, I figure I'm on a diet, so my sugar intake would probably need to be less than this. But as long as I don't go over, I should be okay, right?

Boy, I wish a dietitian or doctor was reading this blog so they could weigh in on my theory.

Check this out. Coca-Cola's website says that their 12oz can of Coke Classic contains 30 grams of sugar. They say that it's the same amount of sugar that's in a glass of orange juice. That should be false advertising, you think? I think the sugar in Coke is not quite the same as the sugar from natural oranges.

so how bad is sugar...

It’s like I’ve adopted a whole new set of taste buds.

Coffee without sugar/sweetener is definitely different. I used to have it either with sf hazelnut creamer or with heavy cream and Spelnda. Now I can’t have either. I had my coffee with about double the heavy cream I usually use (which I’m sure is worse for me than the sweetener) and no sweetener. I can’t say it’s bad. Just different. I found a ff hazelnut creamer that’s sweetened with “sugar” and “corn syrup solids”. I’ve always heard corn syrup was just as bad for you as sweetener but Wikipedia touts it as being good because it comes from glucose which is supposed to be good for you. So now I’m confused.

I was sitting there comparing regular creamer with 6 grams of sugar and fat free creamer with 4 grams of sugar. Sure they both have drastically different calories (regular has 40 and ff has 15) which make the points go up, but it almost seems like it would be worth the exchange.

I'm thinking that my body needs sugar. Not alot. But a healthy balance of sugar. I've been dieting for almost a year and in that time I've almost entirely eliminated sugar from my diet (except for the occasional splurge). And last week when I hear that my brain might be suffering from the effect of low sugar levels in my blood stream because my heart rate was over 160 bpm while I was on the elliptical for a half hour it got me to thinking that maybe I need to keep a healthy level of sugar in my system. Real sugar.

Okay, I’ve got a question. Being as now I’m cutting out the artificial sweetener, I’m going to start adding small amounts of real sugar back into my diet but I don’t know how many grams of sugar are “reasonable” to have each day. Or does it even matter. Is it simply based on calories??

I always thought sugar was a bad thing for you. Now I'm learning that it's only bad in excess. Who knew?? Sugar is actually good for you.

artificial sweetener-free...

Well, I started a small challenge for myself yesterday and quite frankly I don't know how on God's green Earth I'm going to be able to stick to it!!!

I'm refraining from eating anything sweetened with artificial sugar... sucralose, aspartame, saccharin. I had no idea how many things I eat every day contain these things.

My first and BIGGEST sacrifice is my Crystal Light. I have an aversion to water. It make me a little upset to my stomach with I drink it. I think it's a mental aversion, but nonetheless the result is the same. The only way I've been able to drink my daily water allowance is by putting Crystal Light in my water bottle. But it has sucralose in it (splenda). Now I can't drink as much water. Today, I've only drank about a full bottles worth (1 pint). I have a bottle sitting by my keyboard right now starring at me, intimidating me, taunting me to drink it. But I just can't bring myself to do it. I don't know what I'm going to do!!

I tried mixing some grapefruit concentrate in one bottle. I could barely get it down it was so gross. I tried squeezing a lemon in the bottle. That was worse. I tried a lime. It wasn't that bad but still I couldn't finish it. I'M CRAVING CRYSTAL LIGHT SO BAD RIGHT NOW!!!

What am I going to do???

And then there's the whole rest of my diet that apparently is complete saturated with artificial sweetener. My morning yogurt. My mid-morning pudding snack. My WW candy. My 100 calorie cookie snack packs. My ice cream at night. Anything I have in my fridge and cupboard that's sugar free!!! AAAAHHHH!!!!
I'm craving something sweet all the time, now. How is this supposed to help me? If I don't have something sweet I think I'm going to have to over-indulge and devour something that I really don't want to eat.

In case you missed it, this is the reason for me trying to cut back on artificial sweeteners.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how I can satisfy my sweet tooth without having too much sugar or any sweetener at all??

I don't think I can do this.

msWalk today...

I went on my first officially sponsored 5k walk today. It was a walk for MS. Was around a popular lake downtown. They had short route (3k) around the lake and then a longer walk (5k) through local neighborhoods. So naturally we took the longer walk. It wasn't a competition, just for fun. And what fun it was. Here's a picture of me (on the right) with my daughter and mother-in-law at my side.

The father of a lady I work with has MS so she told us all about the walk and I immediately signed up. I could do a 5k walk. Heck, I walk 3 miles every morning (well, just about every morning). And it was of course a piece of cake to walk. Last year this time I would have said NO WAY. I don't think I could have even done the short walk. With an additional 70 pounds on me and no exercise AT ALL for almost 20 years, I would have passed out in the first 10 minutes! So this was quite an accomplishment for me. And for a GREAT cause, too!!!

We had so much fun. Was a gorgeous neighborhood, too. Beautiful brick streets. Big lazy looking trees with moss. Lakes scattered throughout. And tons of houses for sale! :(

We started the day with a WW bagel with WW cream cheese. Sure, it's no Bagel Factory bagel (a wonderful bagel place in Anchorage, AK with the absolute BEST bagels on the planet!). But they are okay. The cream cheese was surprisingly good. Tasted like real cream cheese. I was surprised. I thought it would be gross being as it was WW. The bagel was dry and gritty, but I just used an extra "tub" of cream cheese (the servings are little 1 oz. tubs in the box). I toasted the bagels in the oven and they were delish.

The best part was that the bagel lasted me until almost 11am. I couldn't believe it. I ate the bagel at around 7am. It used to be that my breakfasts would wear off by 9 or 9:30 and then I'd need a mid-morning snack. And it was wonderful on my stomach during the walk, too. Had just water with it. No Crystal Light or anything with sweetener.

We had lunch afterwards at a new BBQ restaurant that opened up by the mall. The food was overpriced and very greasy. But I loved it! Haven't had grease like that in a long time. Had creamed spinach as my side dish. Yummy. And sweet potato french fries (without the cinnamon butter).

Came home and took a nap.

All in all was a pretty great day.

my pals at work...

I have such a great support system at work and I wanted them to know that they've each individually been a piece of the path on my weight loss journey.

I sent an email out to them this past week telling them about my blog. I was surprised at the comments I got back and I wanted to share them with you guys:

Co-worker #1: "That is really cool! I have been thinking about blogging about my weight loss on my "Myspace" and now you got me ready to do it. I already put a "ticker" on there that shows how much I have lost so far and what my goal is."

Co-worker #2: "Awesome.....You are an inspiration....and just look fantastic..."

C0-worker #3: "...you have inspired me. It seems more like overnight you looked so different, oppose to a year of change. So it’s part of my motivation on my way to the gym and when watching what I eat (except for now while I eat the pizza hot pocket). :)"

Co-worker #4: "You're doing a great job and are a great example to me. For the life of me I cannot seem to create a positive momentum for my personal weight loss. I look forward to reading and learning from all your tips."

Co-worker #4: "Hey! 75 pounds, way to go! That's a great accomplishment."

Well, I won't go on. There were alot more, but these were my favorites. It just goes to show you that you think you're being inspired and motivated by the people around you and then it turns out that they're being inspired by you.

The moral of this story, for me anyway, is to tell as many people as possible about my weight loss. The more people who know, the more likely I'm going to stick with it. And then who knows, maybe it'll help other people, too.

artificial sweetener may not be our friend...

I read an article a last month that was shocking. And now I'm wondering if there isn't something really to all of this. (there are actually a couple of versions of the story here and here.

They're saying that people who eat artificial sweetener are more likely to have a hard time losing weight than people who eat regular sugar. "...the study does suggest artificial sweeteners somehow disrupt the body's ability to regulate incoming calories. "It's still a bit of a mystery why they are overeating, but we definitely have evidence that the animals getting artificially sweetened yogurt end up eating more calories than the ones getting calorically sweetened yogurt."" They're saying it basically leads to overeating.

I wonder if there isn't more to it though. It would be worth doing a little research of our own, you think? What if we gave up artificial sweetener for one week and replaced it with natural sweeteners (fruits or fruit juices, etc.) or even real sugar (in moderation) and see if we had less cravings, ate less, had a less desire to eat, or lost weight.

I think I'm up for the challenge. How about you?

my walking buddies...

If you're having a hard time sticking to your exercise regiment, I recommend finding a buddy.

For the life of me, I couldn't keep getting up every morning to go walking. I tried everything. I tried listening to new CDs (I'd buy especially for walking and NOT listen to them anywhere else). I tried listening to audio books (again, only when I'm walking). I tried listening to podcasts. Training sessions. I even tried walking CDs (this lady would talk you through your walk, pacing you and encouraging you). I tried mixing up the path I walked. Always walking in a different direction and for different amounts of time and lengths. NONE of these worked!!

Sure they worked for a few weeks or maybe even a month at a time. But as soon as I got bored with them, I couldn't get up in the morning to go walking.

You know what I found that works??

Buddies!!


It's like going to a WW meeting. Being accountable to someone else to weigh me in. But with exercise buddies, I was accountable to them for my exercise. If I didn't get up and go meet them, they'd be sitting there waiting on me. How awful would that be??

So I've found that this is the ONLY way I can exercise in the mornings. I have to go meet someone else or I simply will not do it.

Do you guys have exercise buddies? How do you work it? Do you meet at a common place? Meet at the gym? Meet at their house?

I had one walking buddy who didn't want to have to drive that early in the morning so I'd always go meet her at her house. It wasn't so bad once I got used to it. Now I have a buddy who will meet me at my house. I also have 3 other buddies that I'll meet at a prearranged location (which is usually different each time) and then we'll walk together, the 4 of us.

I LOVE WALKING WITH THEM!

The walks go by so fast, too. With the good conversation, the walk is over in no time.

One time, I tried bringing my chihuahua along for the walk and he kept us very distracted. That was the fastest walk I ever remember doing. But he kept trying to walk under one of my walking buddies feet. So that was his last time going on our walks.

I even get up and go to the gym with my hubbie on the off days that I'm not walking with my buddies. I'm telling you. I simply will not get up out of bed if it's just me going to exercise.

We just added the 4th person to our walks. Tomorrow morning is the first morning with the 4 of us. I can't wait. I'm really looking forward to it.

too much exercise CAN be a bad thing...

I just found out from a friend at work that I might be exercising too much. She said that if your heart rate goes to high for too long that it'll start depleting your body of needed sugar which will cause your brain to shut down. She said it'll make you tired.

Well, I've been doing the elliptical for a half hour maybe 3 or 4 times a week. And as soon as I get done, I'm so tired I have to take a nap. I mean, I'm not physically tired like "wow, what a work out!" but tired like "man I'm sleepy" and I can barely keep my eyes open.

Have you ever heard of that before?

I've never heard of it.

Now I'm going to have to do some research and find out what it all means.

She recommended keeping my heart rate between 120 and 130 for fat burn (for my age) but no higher. My heart rate has been pretty steady at 160 to 170 doing the elliptical.

I had no idea!

happy, happy sunday...

So, today started off good because I was down a pound from yesterday. And so for breakfast, I ate sensible... 2 egg beaters with some 2% shredded cheddar cheese melted in. And when it came to lunch, I was sensible again and had a salad.

It was a Southwest Salmon Skewer salad from Uno's Chicago Grill. I chose it because it was in their "600 Calorie Club" section of the menu. The menu said "Each of the salads below have 600 or less calories, 6 or less grams of saturated fat and 7 or more grams of fiber" So I figured I was safe. The most it could be would be 12 points. My breakfast was only 3 points so I figured I was doing good.

So on our way out of the restaurant, after eating, I stopped at their "nutrition" kiosk computer that they have at the front of the store. I pulled up the Southwest Salmon Skewer salad and saw that it was in fact WAY over 6 grams of fat. Then I looked at the menu again and noticed the word "saturated" was next to fat. OMG, what a trick!!! The stupid salad had 37 grams of fat!!

Then I checked the nutritional info for the dressing. It came with a avocado ranch dressing which was extremely yummy! It was a whopping 6 points. So my whole stinkin' salad that I thought was going to be a "sensible choice" ended up being 18 points.

So at that point, I realized I only had ONE POINT LEFT for the day. :"(

So I thought it was a good time for a bike ride, right???!!!! I had to get some exercise in so I could eat something, anything, for the rest of the day.

So I just got back from a 10 mile bike ride. Whew!!!

Had a blast, though. Went with my daughter and I always have a great time when the two of us do anything together. She's so much fun! We stopped about half way and took photos. We went on a foot bridge that goes right across a major 8 lane interstate. It's a suspension bridge which is beautiful and towering. So we got some great shots.

I sat down a few minutes ago to log my activity points and figured that I got a whopping 13 activity points for that bike ride. Woohoo!!!! I can eat, again!!!

Then I got to thinking about that salad and how it seemed awfully high in points for being nothing more than about 3 ounces of grilled salmon on top of veggies and couldn't figure out why it was so high in points. So I went to their website and looked up the ingredients of the salad in their nutritional guide and would you believe the calories and fat INCLUDED the dressing!!!???

AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

A 10 mile bike ride for NOTHING!!!!

Ok, maybe not nothing. It was really a great work out and I really, really needed it. I was supposed to get up early before church this morning and go for a 3 mile walk, but overslept (forgot about the time change last night). So, okay, I really needed the exercise!!

So all is well again. I have 5 points left for today and 13 activity points I can eat some of.

What a day!!!

what the??

so i weighed myself this morning and lost a pound. what???

i ate a dozen FRIED shrimp yesterday for lunch and last night at about midnight i had 7, SEVEN, tollhouse home baked chocolate chip cookies!!!

i ate a total of 56.5 points yesterday.

i only have 2.5 of my extra 35 points left!!!

how on God's green earth could i LOSE A POUND?????

okay, so i care...

i gained .6 lb today.

ugh!!

i guess if i looked at the glass half full, i could say, woohoo, i lost 2.4 lbs this week. BUT, i had GAINED 3 lbs the beginning of the week. so i don't count those 2.4 pounds as a victory!

nevertheless, here i am, up a half a pound for no good reason.

i ate the food i was supposed to eat. exercised. resisted all temptations. etc. etc.

and as my reward, i had 7 home made chocolate chip cookies!!!

i know, i should have. but i did and that's that. i even had fried shrimp (10 pts) for lunch, but i said that was okay because i had green beans (0 pts), carrots (0 pts) and pinto beans (1 pt) with it so that balanced it out, right?? well, that's what i'm gonna keep telling myself.

the way i see it, is if i'm going to gain, i might as well enjoy it a little bit, right??!!

seriously though i'm back on track. got it out of my system. no more cheats.

i found these wonderfully yummy snacks that i'm totally head over heals about. Keebler makes them. they're called Fudge Shoppe Grasshopper Fudge Dipped Mint Cookies. They're the 100 Calorie Snack Pack so they're only two points. The best thing is they taste JUST like the Girl Scout Cookies called Thin Mints. YUMMY!!!

now the trick is to only eat one pack at a time. :)

can i do it???

gaining weight and not caring...

well, i was able to get down two pounds this week, but i'm still up one pound from last week's weigh in. Oh, well, what are ya gonna do?

i'm eating everything i should be. nice and balanced with a good variety of foods. veggies. dairy. oils. fiber. protein. meat. it's all there.

i even exercised 4 days this week. good workouts too. i've walked between 8,000 to 10,000 steps every day this week.

i don't know what i'm missing, but i still gained a pound this week. tomorrow morning is weigh in. we'll see how i did...

something i was thinking about doing at work was starting a "diet club". you have to tell me what you think about this idea. i know so many people at work that are either on a diet or want to be on a diet or have just lost a ton of weight. so i thought we could all get together and just chat about what we're doing, what works, what doesn't, and brag some about what we've lost. i think it would be encouraging for the people who are either struggling to lose or maybe have been wanting to lose but haven't found the will to do it yet.

the only thing is, i'm a terrible organizer. i organized a bake sale for a lady at work who was going on a mission trip to the Czech Republic and it only made $200. i posted flyers. i put an ad in the company newsletter. i circulated emails. i even asked for volunteers to serve or bake. so i don't know what it did wrong.

but i would love to give this one a try. i wonder if anyone else has ever done anything like this?? i could really use some advice. i really want to do this.

good workout...

had a great workout this morning. i just started going to the gym a couple of weeks ago. i've only done the elliptical so far, but what a work out! being as i'm only used to walking as my chosen form of exercise, the elliptical is such a work out.

i'll bet i burn as many calories in a half hour on the elliptical as i do in an hour of walking. (btw, that's not a pic of me on the elliptical up there :)

i got a new audio book to listen to while working out. it's actually a book i bought about 8 years ago and have never finished. i really like the book, i just don't have much time to read. i've been trying to make more time to read, but it just isn't happening. so i figured the audio book was the way to go. it REALLY helps the time fly by while working out.

yo yo effect, again...

not sure why, but i'm up 3 pounds right now. i don't weigh in until saturday so hopefully something will kick in gear and help me lose something. i've been eating what i'm supposed to eat. exercising every day like i should. i'm getting a well balanced diet. i'm not stressed at work or at home. i'm not hungry all the time. i have plenty of points to keep me full during the day and at night.

so who knows. i think my weight loss is cyclical. does that even make sense??

i lost 4.4 pounds two weeks ago. then last week i list 1.6 pounds. so does it make sense that my body is tired of losing so much so it starts sabotaging me?

i don't know, but it seems to happen to me alot.

i think i'm just going to have to be patient with it and watch and see what happens. if i gain this week, ok. but if i gain next week too, then we've got a problem.

i fixed a yummy sandwich for lunch today. was 8 points. not that great, but very filling. not something i want to eat every day, but a great distraction from the diet.

i had a turkey, ham and swiss sandwich heated up like a grilled cheese sandwich.

i used regular ole oscar meyer brown sugar ham (6 slices) and misquite roasted turkey slices (again, oscar meyer and 6 slices). then i put two slices of regular ole swiss cheese (kraft) and then put it all between two slices of wonder light italian bread. i then grilled it all in a small pan and had baked cheetoes to compliment it.

was a great lunch. sure, i could have done it for less points, but what's the point, right? was very yummy!

now i'm off to have another moo milk! :),

moo magic...

i found a wonderful treat last night... chocolate milk that's only 2 points!!!

i found this thing called "Moo Magic". it's a chocolate mix-in that you can add to your fat free milk that tastes so rich and creamy you'll swear you're drinking a cup of real, whole milk chocolate milk with Nestle's Quick!

it's that good!!!

i found it in WalMart, but here's a list of where they sell it:

Food Lion
Fleet Farm
Giant
Stop & Shop
Kvat

resisting temptation...

today at work, someone baked a yummy dessert to share with the office.

i had to have a taste.

it was spectacularly yummy!!!

but i only had a taste... well, two tastes... but that was it. and they were very small bite sized tastes, too. i resisted having a regular sized portion and i was fine with that.

every time i walked past the baked delight, i could smell it. it was haunting me all day long. i have to walk past it to get to the laser printer.

but i resisted it!! for the rest of the day!!! not one more bite!!!

then, some smarty pants put a whole jar of hershey's miniature chocolate bars. UGH!!! i had just seen a commercial the night before talking about how milky ways (though i can't stand them) are lower in fat than any other candy bar. then... there was a whole jar of them (and other flavors too). what a challenge!!!!

but i did not partake!

i think i'm starting to overcome my food addictions. maybe?

what a challenge!!!

i reached another milestone...

i've lost a total of 70 pounds as of today!!!

it was really cool because after the ww meeting this morning, several people came up to me and asked me questions about how i did it or great job or congratulations. it was so cool. i've never had that happen before. sure, people have told me off and on 'great job' or 'you're looking great' etc., but never at a ww meeting. and just when i was giving up hope on the meetings.

i was so chiming in with another cara about her blog about how the meetings are total a waste of time and hokey and then this happens.

i guess they are few and far between but i think i'm changing my mind about what I said to Cara i'll stick with my meetings for now.

i guess they are what you make of them. it's all attitude and perspective.

i don't know, all i know is that i'm so psyched that i've lost 70 pounds!!!

to weigh or not to weigh...

that's the question...

do i weigh myself every day or once a week?

is excessive weighing bad? is it obsessive compulsive? is it obsessing over something to where it rules your life?

well, yes, it can. but it doesn't have to. i once had the philosophy that should only weigh myself once a week. if i weighed myself more than that, i would obsess over it. it would put me in a bad mood if i gained or didn't lose anything from day to day. so i quit doing that and just weighed myself once a week. i did that for years. i did it until i was ready to take weighing responsibly.

i know that sounds silly. but i had to be reasonable when I weighed myself every day. i had to know that the scale was going to weigh me heavier after a day of heavy eating or little or no exercise. i had to know that it's nothing to get discouraged about. i had to remember that my body will fluctuate from day to day... up a pound down a pound.

and that the only weigh in that mattered was saturday mornings. once a week. that would be the weight i logged in my journal. and usually by the end of the week, i'd be down even if it was a fraction of a pound. and it was perfectly normal that i had gained a pound on tuesday only to have to lose that pound again during the rest of the week. so long as i was down or broke even on saturday.

it's a different mind set. i just had to get my mind off the obsession and know that it was the overall picture not the day to day nitty gritty details of this weight loss thing.

how do you weigh yourself? once a week? once a month??? once an hour???

what works for you?