Plans change, but the train doesn't have to derail.

We had a few unplanned events this week, plus one planned one, all which gave me a different week than I'd set out to have in the beginning. the first was that I was sick on Monday. (I'm not posting my points from that day, since it wasn't really much of a day for eating). But both Tuesday and Wednesday nights, we had the honor and pleasure of having plans with friends who each wanted to give us wedding gifts! So, we had these very fun evenings both nights, but I knew going into each that alcohol and good food were going to be involved. As with everything else here in this diet, it's okay to have the plan change; I just have to find ways to make good choices.

Let's do eating from Tuesday:

Breakfast: Cottage Cheese and Pineapple
Lunch: Turkey/Cheese/Sandwich thins, 2 hard boiled egg whites, fat free yogurt, fiber one bar
Dinner: 1 glass of red wine, 1 dinner roll (they're awesome at this restaurant), heirloom tomato with mozzarella salad, grilled salmon without a sauce, but with a couscous salad underneath. (2 bites of a butterscotch pudding that we did not order, but the waiter gifted us).

Total points: 23.5

So, this isn't bad. In fact, the meal I ate that night was a good and healthy-ish one, and much better than one I'd have if left to my own devices at home. Plus, I certainly haven't done much in terms of using my extra points in a week, (in fact, 3.5 points is more than I used in previous weeks). One thing that really helped is that I know this restaurant very well, know the food and cooking style, and knew when I was ordering what I was getting into in terms of sauces and such. It made it a LOT easier and I had none of the anxiety that looking at the Not Your Average Joe's menu a few days earlier had brought on.

I'll post Weds points later (to be honest, haven't fully figured them out yet), but it wasn't too bad... I'd gone out for lunch as well that day, so I expect I'm closer to the 20 point mark for yesterday, if not over a smidge, too.

But what you're NOT seeing here is "I went to the gym". My intentions were to go Monday and Wednesday. Neither happened. My new intention is to go tonight, and, as of now, nothing's in my way for that, but I'm trying to stay focused on not getting that derailed, either.

With the long weekend coming up, we're taking an extra day in NH, and that means I won't be weighing in next week until WEDNESDAY. Maybe gives me an extra couple of days to make a better effort.



Thanks for reading!

Bad news, and some not-so-terrible news

Well, the weigh in today... not so great. I didn't lose any weight, though I didn't gain any weight. BUT, some good news was that my body fat percentage went down 1.5%. So that is definitely something -- a measurement of progress, even if not the particular measurement I'm paying attention to. I'm okay with the answer. Last week was SO good, that I probably got 2 weeks worth in the first week. But the body fat percentage movement is good -- I'll take it.

Today I was under the weather, and ended up not doing much of anything, let alone go to the gym today. Now THAT feels like a failure, given that I had the best of intentions when I went to bed last night about how today would go.

I wanted to share a story about something I experienced yesterday. Robert was up in Burlington, and I was going to pick him up. I thought maybe it might be nice if we went out to dinner, and I knew I had a bunch of points I could spend on my dinner -- plenty, really. So I thought about going to "Not Your Average Joe's", which is a fun restaurant that we'll eat at maybe once a year or so. So, before I left the house, I took some time to review the menu. They had nutrition information on the site, so I thought for sure I could find something that would be healthy enough to have for dinner, even if it meant a good chunk of my points.

Some examples of "healthy" meals I found:

• Cedar Salmon (without any toppings or sides): 795 calories, and 63 grams of fat.
• Veggie Burger: 694 calories, 29 grams of fat
• Baked Haddock (without the sides or sauce): 539 calories, and 21 grams of fat. (with the sauce and sides, fat content goes up to 90 grams).

These are just some examples, and not meant to be exhaustive. But reviewing the menu was exhausting. And discouraging. By the time I was done, I'd decided all I could feel good about was a small house salad and an appetizer salad of seared ahi.

This was really frustrating and scary, because I don't want to feel paralyzed going to a restaurant. Truth is, I had plenty of points for the day, and the extra points for the week, and it wouldn't have been a problem. I'm just feeling a bit afraid to eat indulgent things like that, and it's making me fear eating out more than I should fear it. Especially on a weekend, where I've been good during the week.

This weekend is a holiday weekend, and I'm sure there will be one night of eating out, maybe even something traditionally not so good for me... like barbecue pork and onion rings or something. With a beer. But I need to shake it out of my head that there is going to be serious damage done if I do that.

Oh, we didn't go out to dinner, by the way. I never even mentioned it to Robert.

Eating so much... and yet, not enough. Still.

Sitting here at the end of a nice weekend, with not-great-weather, but some relaxing time and fun with friends. But it's been a few days since a decent update on the blog, and I've got a lot of to catch up on for eating summaries... here goes:

Thursday:

Breakfast: cottage cheese and no-sugar-added granny smith applesauce
Lunch: Turkey/cheese/sandwich thins, 2 hard boiled egg whites, fiber one yogurt
Dinner: brown rice, reduced-fat Mexican cheese, hot dog (at cirque du soleil)
Snacks/Dessert: fiber one bar

Total Points: 22.5 (2.5 come from weekly extra 35 points and my activity points)

Friday:

Breakfast: cottage cheese and pineapple tidbits, coffee with skim milk
Lunch: fiber one yogurt, chicken tenders (3 oz), turkey/cheese/sandwich thin
Dinner: 1 cup cheese ravioli (no sauce)
Snacks/Dessert: nectarine, Quaker Oats mini delights chocolate drizzle, 2 glasses red wine

Total Points: 19

Saturday:

Breakfast: sandwich thin toasted with 1 Tbsp of peanut butter, 1 Tbsp strawberry preserves, fat-free black cherry yogurt
Lunch: turkey/cheese/sandwich thin
Dinner: baked pork chop with breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup cooked carrots, 1/2 cup brown rice
Snacks/Dessert: 2 cups popcorn from machine (has oil or whatever makes it so yummy, but no extra butter), 1 pint beer, fiber one bar, Special K crackers

Total Points: 17.5 points

So, I think there are a few observations:

1) On Thursday, I had 5 points left to eat before going to Cirque du Soleil. I had a hot dog (no bun) and was surprised it 7 points just like that!

2) If I look at what I ate Saturday, I feel like I was eating ALL DAY and yet still didn't get all the points I needed (Sunday's story will be similar). I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I keep making these "these are low points, so it's good for me" choices, but I feel like I have to eat much more in terms of volume than just eating smaller amounts of, um, super crappy food. I still haven't figured out the balance.

3) I did well on Friday night -- I didn't snack much on the trip up to NH (just a nectarine in the car) and spread my lunch out into an early serving and a later serving so that I was stretching some food a bit closer to getting on the road. And within 2 minutes of arriving in NH, there was water on the stove ready to boil to make ravioli.

Here's the bad news. Bad weather in NH made going outside and going for a walk impossible. And when our friends offered to have us join them at a fitness center they were going to try out, I realized I didn't have the kinds of clothes I'd need for a trip to the gym, so we passed. So, a weekend went by without any real exercise. I felt lazy today, and I am certain that, tomorrow, weigh-in day, if I even have lost one pound, it will be a surprise. I'm already bummed about about the results I won't even have until tomorrow.

I do have 2 planned gym days for this week, at least -- Monday and Wednesday. And I'll definitely make sure that Labor Day weekend, I'm a bit more prepared for good or bad weather exercising. No excuses next weekend!

Thanks for reading!

Better points, but challenges ahead.

Today was a good day of eating.. or so it's going so far. I'm saving a few more points for any snacks I get tonight -- Robert and I are headed to see Cirque du Soleil! But I have to start planning for my day tomorrow.

I did try one of those Fiber One bars today. It was good - much better than I thought it would be. I had the chocolate mocha flavor. I can see that being a good go-to hunger killer for me, especially late afternoon.

Let's revisit yesterday's eating:

Breakfast: Trader Joe's Steel Cut Oatmeal, dunks coffee with skim milk
Lunch: Turkey and Cheese on Sandwich thins, yogurt, 3 ounces baked chicken tenders
Dinner: Smart Ones potato, cheddar and broccoli entree
Snacks/Dessert: 100 cal pack of cocoa almonds, Special K crackers, Skinny Cow low fat fudge bar

Total points: 20.5

My next challenge: Tomorrow, we head up to NH after work, and dealing with food on the way is always a struggle.

We normally either (a) pack a few snack size bags of chips, pretzels, smartfood, etc. in order to tide us over to dinner, which we wouldn't eat until 8:30 or later... and who knows what kind of a dinner we'd be eating or (b) buy a sandwich at a shop downtown before heading out of town to eat along the way (c) stop half way there and I get my only fast-food meal indulgence: Whopper Junior, no pickles, no ketchup, no cheese and a medium french fry. We probably do that stop once a month. It's a guilty pleasure for me to indulge in that meal.

That Burger King meal right there -- Whopper Junior, Medium Fry -- is 20 Weight Watchers Points. MY WHOLE DAY'S POINTS. Yeah, so, um, that's not happening.

So, I need to plan for that differently going forward. I don't know if it's going to be packing meals before hand, or working on buying a good sandwich or something downtown before we head up. I'm thinking we'll have dinner up in NH when we get there, but I need a decent and smart snacking for the trip. I'm certain I'll figure it out, if not this trip, then a future one. I'll let you know how it goes... probably won't post again until this weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Day 10! Do I get a prize?

Yesterday, all in all, was pretty good. I did go to the gym, and that was fine. I did 30 minutes, and am happier with my mix, though it could use some shifting. I was right about the "Glee" cast version of "Don't Stop Believin'" was a perfect add to the mix. Yay, me.

Food wise, the only challenge was that I didn't get enough points. I'm still struggling with that a bit. Here's the run down:

Breakfast: Trader Joe's Steel Cut Oatmeal (Heat and Eat)
Lunch: Turkey/Cheese/Sandwich Thin sandwich, 2 hardboiled egg whites, Stonyfield strawberry fat-free yogurt
Dinner: Healthy Choice Fire Tomato and Chicken meal
Snacks/Dessert: Emerald Cocoa Almonds 100-cal pack, 1 point of jelly bellies

Total Points: 17.5

I feel like I eat ALL DAY now at work, and by the time dinner comes around, I still have to make up 9 or 10 points! It's a lot of pressure to do that, but to do it smartly. So, in a hedge, I go smaller. I did better today (post tomorrow), but mainly because I was a lot more focused on it.

A new thing for my arsenal next week is going to having the "go to" items when I have points left over, that don't necessarily feel like I'm eating crap. I mean, I feel lik I'm getting away with a great treat if I eat a Skinny Cow fudge bar, but I don't really need to be doing that every night, do I? (No comment from the ice-cream-every-day girls!) So, next week, that might be my "tweak" opportunity.

Speaking of tweak opportunity, thanks to my friends who posted some suggestions about fiber the last couple of days. I bought some Fiber One bars and yogurt, baby carrots and the oatmeal should help, too. I'll post my progress as I experiment with those products.

Robert and I are going to Cirque du Soleil tomorrow night, but not going out to dinner before hand, so I'll have one more solid day to focus on 3 meals I can fully control before heading up to NH this weekend, where it will be a new place and new things to plan around, new challenges to face. I definitely am planning on some nice walks around the neighborhood loop!

Thanks for reading!

Time to start tweaking.

I've mentioned before (I think) that the first month, I'm really only focusing on food. I'll do the gym, but that's just about getting in there and doing some cardio -- nothing too fancy just yet.

First, yesterday's food:

Breakfast: cottage cheese/pineapple tidbits/dunks with skim milk
Lunch: turkey and cheese on sandwich thin, 2 hard-boiled egg whites, Stonyfield lemon fat-free yogurt
Dinner: CHINESE RESTAURANT - steamed chicken and vegetables (ate about 3 ounces of the chicken), 1 cup of brown rice
Snacks/Dessert: fortune cookie

Total Points: 19

So, the first week was just about getting used to Weight Watchers, understanding different points, trying to eat the right amount. This week, I'd like to start focusing on a little bit of balance in the diet. I'm trying to target a good chunk of protein (60 g if I can, with 40-50 during the day before dinner), lower fat contents, and, if possible, the other key factor in the WW plan -- getting good sources of fiber.

I did an excel spreadsheet yesterday (I'll spare you the details) to try and track the breakfast/lunch daytime eating I was doing on week days. Turns out, I'm certainly in the 50g of protein range. Between the cottage cheese, the turkey and cheese sandwich, the yogurt, and the hard boiled eggs or the baked chicken tenders, I'm doing very well. The fat is pretty low, too. Under 10 grams. The problem? My fiber is kind of like Fiber One, only for me, that means I get about One gram of Fiber. Okay, maybe 8. And most of that is from my Arnold's whole wheat sandwich thin. And I think I'm supposed to be looking at closer to about 3 times that or something. Don't even get me started on soluble v. insoluble. That's a lost cause.

So, for this week, I'm trying to figure out where I can ADD additional fiber food, and where I can SUBSTITUTE fiber. For instance - can I substitute my 2 or 3 point Stonyfield Fat-Free Yogurt for FiberOne yogurt? Sure I can! Can I substitute Trader Joe's Heat and Eat Steel Cut Oatmeal for my cottage cheese and fruit ? Well, sure, I can do that, too... but what about the dip in protein? Maybe stir in some peanut butter? We're back on track! How about one of those FiberOne bars? Sure! So, that's my tweak for this week. The Quest For Fiber.

Oh. Also, I'm not a strong hard-boiled-egg-peeler. I'm going to have to get much better at this if I think that hard boiled egg whites are going to be a regular part of this shindig.

One other piece of good news -- I did find out that Tuckerman's Ale has about 160 calories in a pint... only 3 WW points! At that rate, I'll have TWO!

Thanks for reading!

First Weekly Weigh-in Results...

What we've all been waiting for -- the first weigh-in. Drum roll, pleeeeeease....

4.1 pounds down!

Not sure what I was expecting, but I can say I was very happy when I saw the number! It definitely reinforced my hard work last week. I know it's just water and stuff, and working through all that early detox kind of stuff, but it was still a great first week's result. You know when you watch the Biggest Loser and they lose 20 pounds the first week? That was my 4.1.

Yesterday's food:

Breakfast: eggo waffle with peanut butter
Lunch:
Fat free yogurt, a salad with chicken, fruit and walnuts (from Sunset cantina) (ate half for lunch, half for dinner)
Snacks/Dessert: 2 cups of grapes, 2 servings of the special K crackers, and a 100 cal pack of the mini cakesters.

Total points: 19.5

All in all for the week, ate 6 of my extra 35 points, and none of my 8 activity points.

I have more to post about, like my quest for more fiber, and my inability to effectively peel a hardboiled egg, but this post should really be all about the weigh-in. I'll hit the other stuff later.

Thanks for reading!