Week 9 Day 5 - and it all started with a Big Bang *bang*

No, no bangs.  But I love that show.  It makes me laugh so hard.  And laughter is good for life.  Tonight's episode was about the character Sheldon wanting to live longer and doing what he has to do to make that happen.  Of course the outcomes are hilarious.  He eats brussel sprouts one night and farts everyone out of the apartment.  He tries to go running and falls down the stairs.  He eventually decides to make a virtual self and sends this robot around to his work.  

I think I'm doing better than eating only brussel sprouts and falling down stairs.  Today's menu included some very good spinach rigatoni (Smart ones) and I still have points left for dessert (pudding) and had a strange green drink (looked like mouthwash) that my roommate made with Midori (2 points) and Blue Curacao (1 point) and diet 7up (0 points).  

Sorry, I haven't been reading the magazines or the website recently.  Should have something by the weekend.  Meantime, keep tracking what you eat.  Remember to move.  And believe in yourself.  Laughter helps.  Being able to believe in your ability to do anything you put your mind to is priceless.

One day.  One pound.  One step at a time.
~N

Week 9 Day 4 - Hump Day

Not much to say about today.  Was a busy day.  Feeling better.  Went to work and still worked 6 hours.  Came home and really wanted to curl up next to the cats and sleep in the sun.

But I had stuff to do so I'm settling for going to bed earlier than I have been.  Getting enough sleep is important.

Been a while since I shared what I ate and I came in under my points so here's what I had:

4 oz Dannon Light & Fit yogurt, blackberry
4 pieces of light string cheese
1 cup tomato 
Diet 7 up
2 cups Progresso Light Italian style vegetable soup
the last pack of Market Pantry (Target brand) cheese crackers
1 cup  lowfat cottage cheese
4 oz Dannon Light & Fit yogurt, vanilla
1 Jello Dulce Du Leche pudding cup (THIS IS SOOOOOOOO GOOD! and 1 point!)
1 vanilla coke zero
2 pieces Sara Lee bread
2 boca burgers (2 points each)
1 oz brandy (cause a friend came and gave me a GREAT deal on a bunch of booze, so 1.5 points is worth it)
1 cherry coke zero
1 Smart Ones Fiesta Quesadilla (4 points and great!)
one of my salads - 2 cups lettuce, 1 cup spinach, 1 cup cherry tomatos, 2 oz fat free feta, 2 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette (I need to get a new dressing, this is high in points)

And that's a lot of points, but for me?  It's 1 less than I get in a day.  And I will get less as the journey goes along.  But it's fine.  And I did some more calisthenics and weights for my arms, must remove the flaps. 

Meanwhile, I gotta go to bed.  Up to work again.  The great thing?  Boss is gone for a week.  :) 

One day.  One pound.  One step at a time.
~N

Week 9 Day 3 - Got to keep on movin.

Biggest Loser night tonight. Watching Jilian and Bob (yes even Bob, hilarious to see the gleam in his eye when the guy asked if they were almost done yet) put these people through the work outs on day 1 and 2.  Man oh man.  Puking and sweating. Looking like total hell.  Crying.

I hadn't walked since Saturday so I got my yoga mat out and I started doing push ups, leg lifts, some weights for my arms and spent 10 minutes doing that.  10 minutes is NOTHING compared to what the people were doing on my tv.  But when they were sitting in the kitchen talking about the things they used to eat and how much exercise they need to do to really speed up the weight loss I was thinking "that is me, that is something that I need to do.  To put myself in that burning mode." 

I need to make a yellow line for myself.  And the exercise is what needs to happen.  I am doing ok with my eating.  I even counted out 14 Cheezits today (because I ate all the Target crackers) and instead of thinking that's not enough cracker - it was just right.  Wow, the first guy stepped on the scale and lost 41 pounds.  In 2 weeks.  That's more than me in 9.  Exercise.  That's the key. 

So, the mat will stay out in the living room and I will do this again in the morning.  I can use what I'm watching on tv as a momentum, a reminder to keep going.  Because I've done this before, lost weight by moving and watching what I ate.  And I have to see this, to use this as my LIFE changer.  Not just a passing fancy or fad.

Being aware of what I eat and what it does to me.  They talked about that tonight, when looking at what the people were used to eating and holding it up and saying "THIS is what is killing you" - that's the stuff I have to look at.  I've been eating very healthy stuff for over 2 months now.  And it's not been difficult.  I found a new favorite - Jello sugar free Dulce Du Leche.  YUM.  1 point.  Yummy goodness.  And I found 100 calorie packs of popcorn.  1 point for the WHOLE BAG!!  Way better than 7.5 for a bag.  Still loving the progresso light soups.  And those sandwich thins are my new pick for bread and bagels.  I can't see going back to the other kind of bread.  Sara Lee or Sandwich Thins and I found some bagel thins too. 

I'm just going to keep doing this thing One day.  One pound.  One step at a time.  (And maybe make a yellow line somewhere on my scale before weigh in day next Sunday...)
~N

Week 9 Day 2 - The Hard Way

Yeah, so losing weight because you feel like crap is quite over-rated.  Well, maybe it's not even highly rated but yeah I am so ready to go back to work tomorrow.  I know I'm sleeping and getting rest and not eating all my points so I am sure to lose more, but the headache, body ache, generalized crappiness can go away ANY TIME.  Actually I do feel better.  Just not 100%

So today was a sleep, read, sleep, go to the nearest grocery store and buy basics and return to my divet on the couch day.  I got stuff for salad and soup and more of my Light & Fit yogurts and some Diet 7up (yeah, normally I'm not into that, but I was craving cherry 7up and now I just need to find some cherry flavoring to add to it - of I can just drink it and deal with it).

Tonight I will be having some more harvest stew (3 points per BIG bowl) and crackers and be very happy for my fuzzy blue robe and go to bed early.

I would assume I'm losing more pounds this week but I'm not counting on them being the kind of pounds that will stay off.  (but they still count!)

One day.  One pound.  One step at a time.
~N

Week 9 - Weigh-in day

I'm still sick.  In fact today there is an element of stomach bug that I'm feeling and oh boy, I really would like to NOT be stuck at home again tomorrow.  Yesterday went out for dinner for a friend's birthday and had a half-sandwich and a salad and a diet coke.  It was funny to hear the reaction from my friends that are used to my old ways.  In the old days I would have had a plate of bread and a pot of fondue at this place, as well as several mojitos.  And I might have shared some of the bread (MIGHT).  ;)   So a half sandwich with a salad and a diet soda was a big change.  And I had a bbq chicken breast and some bbq'd asparagus, corn on the cob and a small salad for dinner.  The thing I did NOT say no to was the fan-freakin-tastic chocolate cake with Guinnes/Irish Cream Gnosh frosting.  OMG.  I have no idea how many points but I ate it up. 

So, being sick I haven't been very active and add on the chocolate cake I was a bit worried to stand on the scale this morning.  But......I am now 4 pounds away from the next goal.  T minus 26 pounds and counting!!!

Ok, that's about all the excitement I can stand for now.  Going to go make some tea and watch football.

One day.  One pound.  One step at a time.
~N

Week 8 Day 6 - Still sick

Still home with this cold.  Sleeping a lot.  Definately staying under my points.  Soup, yogurt and tea along with lots of cold meds make me happy.

Of course having a laptop with netflix makes me happy too, as do my Sookie Stackhouse novels.  This too shall pass and I'm hoping to feel better enough to go outside tomorrow.

Here's to jammies, hot water for showers and tea and soup.  As the song says I'm "stayin alive".

One day.  One pound.  One day at a time.
~N

Week 8 Day 5 - Sick and tired

Well, what I thought was allergies for the last 2 or so weeks must not just be allergies cause I spent 80-90% of today asleep.  Sneezing, coughing, headache.  Yep, good old-fashioned cold.  And for this I take the night-time sneezing, coughing, fever, so you can rest medicine - Nyquil.  I buy the generic kind (cause if you look at the ingredients it makes zero difference if it is Walgreens or the actual Nyquil or Dayquil brand, just costs more) and I pop them like candy.  Totally don't follow the maximun dose.  And before you start writing in to tell me that's dangerous.  I know.  I don't mix them with other stuff and I don't go too far.  Just enough to knock me out so I can sleep and get rid of this.  

So I did not exercise today, except to walk to the bathroom and kitchen and back to my bed.  And I had the soup that my roommate made yesterday.  The thing is - I looked up the ingredients on the ww website today and I am afraid that it might be an 8 or 10 point per bowl soup.  Yikes.  Potato, celery, onion, squash, boullion, garlic, mushrooms and vegetable broth add up.  The site has a build your own recipe thing where you enter the ingredients and that's what I came up with.  So, I didn't eat much but that soup is costly.  The more you know the more you realize you have to watch it.  And the more I realize how little I paid attention to what I ate.  I have this erroneous thought process that says "if it's soup it must be low calorie" (except for the cheddar broccoli stuff) and now that I'm paying close attention I realize just how easy it is to slip into that pattern that will pack on the pounds.  And I'm not doing that.

In one of my brief awake states today I watched an episode of Nip/Tuck on Netflix and there was this lady that was literally fused to her couch.  She had back pain and in order to not be in pain she stayed on the couch.  Her fear of pain led to her becoming one with her couch.  They had to cut the side of her house open to move her out and put her on a back loader and take her to the hospital where she eventually died.  That type of life is one that I have a deep, dark fear of ever having.  I realize that I am actually not headed anywhere near that direction.  And that's great, but I think knowing that that exact scenario could indeed happen to someone is great motivation to get up and do stuff. 

So, not working again tomorrow.  I need to kick this bug completely and sleep will help.  And lots of water, tea and Lifewater.  And I think that tomorrow I will do some yoga.  Don't really feel like walking is a realistic option but yoga is.

Hope each of you is well.  I have a feeling there are a lot of different bugs going around out there so, rest up, get your rest and drink lots of fluids.  This too shall pass.

One day.  One pound.  One step at a time.
~N