Perfect Weather For a Run

Had a good week last week. Lost .5lb from the week before. The weekend was a little crazy, and I used up the rest of my weekly PointsPlus values. But hey, that's what they are there for, right? With football season rapidly approaching, Sunday will be full of goodness! My Good Health Guidelines look pretty fulfilled, with the exception of essential oils. I'm finding it difficult to regularly get in 2 tsp of olive oil. I don't cook with it often, I suppose I should start. I worked out every day except Wednesday which I took as a day off to rest my muscles. Everyday last week I worked out with my Fit in Six for the PS3, a workout "game" that I've raved about before. 

Path through the forest preserve 

Lake behind city hall

This week so far, Monday and Tuesday I've worked out with my "game" and this morning I went for a nice 3.27 mile run through my town. I live near city hall and there is a nice lake behind it with a track that stretches around the lake and through a forest preserve. It was a perfect 53 degrees and no wind this morning so while my husband snuggled up with the pups this cool morning, I threw on my running shoes and sprinted out the door. It took me about 41 minutes to complete which is longer than normal, however, I stopped to take a few pictures and enjoy the scenery. It won't be long before the leaves are all on the ground, covered with snow.

Next week my husband will be out of town. He leaves Saturday and returns Friday possibly. This will either make or break me next week. I tend to go one way or the other when he is out of town - I'm either perfect because I don't have to cook really so I make just enough for myself and it's nothing spectacular, whereas, when he is home I cook a big dinner every night. Or, I make so many plans with friends I haven't seen in a while that I end up meeting up with girlfriends almost every night of the week for dinner and/or drinks. We'll see how this goes. Right now I'm focused on having a perfect week. Tomorrow I may take off of working out to left my muscles recover, but then again I said I was going to take today off. I always feel guilty when I'm on a workout streak and then I take a day off. Maybe I'll just make it lighter.

On a closing note, today is mine and my husbands 3 year wedding anniversary! We really aren't the anniversary celebrating type, so I won't have to worry about dinner out or anything. Although just in case, I've got activity pointsplus and all my weeklies left. <3

What Unemployment Does to a Person, Specifically...Me.

I suppose technically, I'm not unemployed, however, I consider working for WW a hobby more than a job. So I retract "unemployment" from my title and change it to "not having a 5 day, 9am-5pm job."

There. That's better.

So let's chat...

First and foremost, what not having a 5 day, 9am-5pm job does to me specifically? I putz around on Facebook a lot. Mostly playing mindless games. Please, stop judging me. In a short break from my games I decided to create a "page" for my blog. Really, my friend FitMommaBoom encouraged it. I figured it would be a good way to condense my Facebook from flooding it with weight loss things that some people may not care to follow and will make this blog and my site more organized. So, if you follow this blog and we are not Facebook friends, feel free to "like" my Facebook page and follow me here.

Secondly, this weekend I ate something that I hadn't eaten since before beginning my journey. My husband and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings. There are two places that we use to eat at when we would choose to go out. Buffalo Wild Wings is one and Red Robin is the other. Neither of which I've been too since before February 2010. Not because I couldn't make a healthy choice, because I definitely COULD. It's that I would choose NOT to and I did not want to put myself in that position.

This far into my journey, I made the choice that I wanted to go to Buffalo Wild Wings and order whatever I chose to order. I wasn't going to feel guilty, as I haven't so much as looked at wings in almost two years. Needless to say, I went a little crazy and ordered what I typically would have ordered. 12 boneless wings (medium sauce) and we shared a basket of buffalo chips with cheese. I even had actual ranch dressing. Oh, and two tall Black & Blue's (Guinness & Blue Moon). I ate (and drank) it all. And I tracked.

I also ended the week -15PPV. Luckily, I only had a slight gain. Phew!

At first I wasn't going to blog about this but as I thought about it, why not? I made the conscious decision to do what I did. I didn't feel guilty about it and if I wanted to hide it then maybe I did feel guilty. So I'm blogging and I'm not guilty. I'm accountable.

I'm glad I decided to go. Every time I pass a Buffalo Wild Wings I always think to myself how much I miss it and how much I love wings. Quite honestly, after we left I told my husband I'm really glad we went and that I indulged a bit. It wasn't as good as I remembered and now when I pass one I won't feel as if I'm depriving myself of that restaurant. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the wings. But I don't feel it's something I'll crave.

Lesson learned? Don't deprive yourself of your favorites. If I hadn't chosen to go there I wouldn't know that it's just not that great anymore and I'd still feel like I was depriving myself every time I see one. I also learned that if I keep my daily eating habits in check 95% of the time, it's okay to indulge every once in a (Black &) Blue Moon!

Success! Progress Report Follow-Up

In my last post, I talked about the Progress Report that you get at the end of every week when using eTools with Weight Watchers. I also talked about how I love this tool because it really puts things into perspective and clearly I stunk at achieving a high rating. So this past week, my goal was to focus on the Good Health Guidelines and to receive as many smiley faces as possible.

Here are the results...

This is quite epic! Look at all those smiley faces! Also notice how Sunday I didn't track. It's hard to be upset about that when I had such a fantastic six days and I still lost .2lb. What I noticed and you can see by my tracking (the green bar graph) is that when I got in all of the GHGs, by the end of the day I still had PPV left and I wasn't hungry. Especially look at Tuesday. I had 8 PPV left at the end of the day and had no desire to eat dessert or anything else to finish those 8PPV. It's amazing...the GHGs really are GOOD for you!

I hadn't used and of my Weekly 49 PPV until Saturday plus I had 18 Activity PPV. I definitely used those up on Saturday. I went out to dinner with some girlfriends and then out to some bars. BUT, I tracked most of Saturday which I think is a success. I also believe I only lost .2lb because I was still retaining water from a weekend of eating out and a few alcoholic beverages. No big thing, I know I'll see the rest on the scale next Monday.

To add to my Activity PPV, I bought a pedometer on Friday. I put in all my information (height, weight, etc) and it calculates my steps and for me, at 7,000 something steps, I get 1 Activity PPV. I think I got my 2 APPV around 12,000 which I did on Saturday.This has been a great tool for me to make sure I get up and move, even after two workouts on Friday, I still hadn't even hit 10,000 steps. So it pushes me to do even extra on top of regular workouts.

Finally, I talked myself into what was a very difficult workout for me. I got a bicycle this summer but rarely brought it out and when I did ride it, it wasn't far at all. On Wednesday, we went to dinner at my in-laws house and they live roughly 13 miles from our house. I wasn't sure when I was going to be able to get in a workout on Wednesday because we were super busy. So I decided that since I have to go to my in-laws anyway, why not bike there? My husband drove the car because I certainly was not going to bike 13 miles in the dark along a two lane highway. It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to go 13 miles and I was drenched when I got there. It was 90 degree with 90 percent humidity, so it was a big mental game with myself to keep at it. But I completed the ride, longest one I've done and I'd probably do it again!

I would put this down as a successful week and achieving my goal of really focusing on the GHGs. I haven't come up with a goal for this week. Perhaps it should be tracking my food accurately over Saturday and Sunday.

To end on another positive note - tonight is my last mentoring session as a Weight Watchers leader. Tonight I conduct the entire meeting myself, which I've gradually been taking over different parts these past few weeks. My territory manager will be there to observe and after that I am 100% on my own as a Weight Watcher leader! It feels great to achieve a goal I've worked towards for so long!

Next goal? Finish off these last 10 lbs.

In Celebration of School Starting...

...this is my first year not in school...since I began as a 3 year old in preschool. Seriously. I've been in school for 22 years and this is the very first time I have no classes this fall. Sigh. I love school. Wish I would have been hired for the fall since I am a teacher and all.

I digress...

During the week I track my food on eTools, provided free of charge with a monthly pass membership to Weight Watchers. A very helpful new tool is the weekly progress reports (this is what reminded me of school, progress reports/report cards). A fellow weight loss blogger I follow blogs about her progress report each week and I have decided to follow suite. So thank you J.D.

So let's chat about my progress from August 15th through August 21st

KC, you gained 1.4lbs.

Screw You Progress Report!! Who asked you anyway!?!

Really, it's okay. My goal is to maintain throughout summer and I'm actually down 1.2lbs since the beginning of summer.

A trend I've seen all summer is Saturday and Sunday. See that Daily Target line? I'm constantly below on the weekends. Naturally, that is when we BBQ with friends or have graduation parties or baptisms or weddings, etc., etc. That's fine. That's why I'm really good Monday-Friday. Then it balances out on the weekends and I end up maintaining. Thursday you can see I was a bit over. You see, I had gone out for a "Ladies Night" at a local restaurant and well, margaritas were only $5. But you know what? I tracked it didn't I?

I like the ActivityPointsPlus value box in the lower right hand corner. I earned 2 APPV for that week. Ahh right, that's when I took my youngest beagle for a run while I rollerbladed. Yeah, definitely slacked on the activity last week. Although, that's not to say I didn't move around. I definitely got normal activity in, just no extra workout. I see that I need to get in more workouts. Quite honestly, since it had been so hot throughout the month of July (like 115 degree kinda hot), I've slacked. It's too hot to exercise outside and it's too hot to workout inside. Even with the air conditioner on, it was very warm in my loft which is where I have the PS3 that had my workout games on it. Excuses. I know. And I suffered the consequence.

Moving on...

Tracking Healthy Checks - these are the Good Health Guidelines that I truly am not great at fulling. But now that I have the Progress Report to show me where I lack and exceed I've become better. The smiley face indicates that I've had the recommended daily intake and the check mark indicates that I've had at least one serving.

The first health check is water or any liquid that is non-alcoholic. I'm quite terrible at getting in liquids but have definitely been working on drinking more water. At least 4 out of 7 days I had at least or more than 48 oz which is recommended. I'll say I passed.
Next is dairy. I will usually drink one 8oz glass of Smart Balance Fat Free Milk which equals one serving of dairy. Or I will eat one serving of Greek yogurt which is one serving of dairy. Rarely will I do both in the same day. Clearly, only 2 days did I get at least one of those. Fail.
Fruits and Veggies! This is an easy one for me. It's easier in the beginning of the week when I have just replenished my fresh fruit supply. I can eat fruits and veggies all day. The recommendation is 5 servings of either 1/2 cup for fruit and veggies or 1 cup of leafy greens. 3 out of 7 I exceeds and the other 3 I had at least one serving but less than five servings. Pass.
Multivitamin. Definitely passed that one. Every evening before bed I take a prenatal vitamin. Not because I want babies, but because I know they are packed with lots of vitamins. My outrageously long and strong nails will prove it!
Healthy Oils - The healthy oils are those such as olive, safflower, sunflower, flaxseed and canola and it's recommended to get 2 teaspoons a day, unless you are a nursing mom, then you should get 3. This is hard for me to figure out if I get my intake or not. I don't use any oil other than extra virgin olive oil and I rarely use it. However, thanks to the Progress Report, I definitely try. At least two days I had one serving and two days I had at least two servings. A for effort.
Activity - Finally we track activity. At least 30 minutes is recommended. If I don't get in a regular routine workout, I consider cleaning the house or some kind of movement like that part of my "activity" for the day. Whereas, if I'm feeling like lazy bones I won't check that box. And actually, Saturday should be checked because we were downtown all day walking around. So I pass. I'm rarely sedentary.

Summer is coming to an end and while I've maintained all summer, I'm tired of losing and gaining the same 5lbs. On Monday at my weigh-in the scale read 130.2lbs. That's fine with me, but I've still 10.2lbs until goal and I'm pack on plan to start losing.

This week I'm focused on getting at least one serving of dairy every day and also getting at least 48 oz of water, everyday. Yesterday was day one on the new progress report and just a sneak peek...I hit my daily recommendations for everything. It's a good start to the week!

A Typical Day in Food

I've been asked a few times, mainly by those who are not on Weight Watchers, to show what a typical day in food looks like for me. These non-WW members have a hard time seeing food as points plus like I do.

So, here is a day in the life of a 29 plus point Weight Watcher...

Breakfast...

Most importantly, I start with coffee. I <3 coffee. I usually have one or two cups of black coffee. No cream and no sugar, making this 0 points plus! Great start to my day!

Then, on this particular day I made two poached eggs (4), one Pepperidge Farm Deli Flat with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spray (2), fresh strawberries and blueberries (0) and an ice cold glass of Smart Balance Milk (3). 9 points plus in all. 20 points plus left for the day!

That high protein breakfast kept me really full and satisfied until lunch. So for lunch I had one Hebrew National 97% FF Hot Dog (1), Chicago-style (all the veggies and mustard = 0) on a regular hot dog bun (4) with a crunchy Cheddar Twist side (3). 8 points plus for lunch, 12 to go!

I always can count on fresh fruits to stave off hunger pang in between meals. They are 0 points plus so it's a GREAT option! Still 12 to go!

Finally for dinner, I enjoyed 3 cheese ravioli's (6) with 1/4 cup vodka sauce (2), one piece of Lite Texas Toast Garlic Bread (3) and a side of Green Giant Just For One Broccoli and Cheese (1). 12 points plus! Perfect!





As for dessert, I go back to the fresh fruit but with a little something extra on top. Fat Free Cool Whip! Just a spoonful is enough to dip your berries and not cost any points plus.

So, there you have it. 29 points plus in a day!

I Can Always Rely on Monday

I love Monday. It's the start of a fresh week.

This is good when it comes to staying on track. Whatever mishaps were last week stay in last week. And believe me when I say last week had plenty of mishaps. Today when I woke up it was a clean slate.

The past few weekends have been non-stop action. Friday through Sunday; parties, BBQs, friends visiting, etc. This weekend we have no plans. None. This feels amazing. I, and the scale, will appreciate this come NEXT Monday at my weigh-in. However, the next month following this calm weekend, is booked solid. I need to better prepare myself for this.

I like being able to leave the previous week in the past. It really helps me, mentally, when it comes to my weight loss efforts. I don't dwell on everything I ate and drank yesterday because yesterday was last week. And today was great.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of my husband and I from last week, enjoying the 110 degree weather in his parent's pool.

Hopefully next week I'll be able to blog about a good weight loss and getting back to my lowest weight, which I'm about 5lbs from.

Oh, and this post about Monday reminds me of something I came up with about a month ago to one of my friends who was having a really crappy Monday. I said to her, "The best thing about Monday is that it only lasts 24 hours and doesn't come back for 72 hours more."

Trying New Things - Bikram Yoga

Summer is no doubt the hardest time for me to lose weight. I know I've mentioned that multiple times before. What, with all the BBQ's and perfect weather for margaritas. So long as I choose to partake in these events, which I do, I need to stay more active than usual. So I thought I'd try something new. Bikram Yoga.

There is a Bikram Yoga studio about a quarter mile from my house. They have this great deal, new students who sign up get 30 days of unlimited classes for $30. I figured I'd give it a try. At $17 a class, even if I only went twice I'd be saving money. I've gone five or six times already since June 28th when I signed up.

For those who aren't familiar, Bikram Yoga (Hot Yoga) is a yoga series that was founded by Bikram Choudhury in the 1970s. It contains 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises and is practiced in a heat room of 105 F (40.6 C) with 40% humidity. Each session lasts 90 minutes.

My favorite pose

I was intrigued by this form of exercise for a few reasons. One, I don't typically practice yoga and I know it focuses on flexibility and balance, two things I've made a focal point to improve. Two, it is estimated that one burns between 500-1250 calories in the 90 minute session. There are calculators you can use, I used this calculator, to determine approximately how many calories you burn. For my weight, I burn around 890 calories in one session! I've been doing it about 3 times a week. Lastly, I was convinced I couldn't meditate but wanted to see if I could get to that state of mind. I can honestly say, when I am in my Bikram class, I focus on nothing but improving my postures and holding them as long and properly as possible. I was impressed with myself after even my first class, that I could twist in ways I didn't think I could.

I haven't abandoned my favorite exercise, Fit in Six. On the days I don't go to Bikram I either run outside or do my Fit in Six. I will admit, the week of the 4th of July I think I worked out maybe once, and in two weeks put on 3lbs. I was half expecting it and I'm actually about 5 lbs from my lowest weight. I know the holiday played a big part - I didn't track like I typically would and I had a lot of foods I typically wouldn't eat. I know though, now that I'm back on my regular schedule, that I should be able to get those extra 5 lbs off in a week or two. I'm to the point, where I am happy with how my body looks but I am still number obsessed. I will hit that 120lb mark, no doubt. I'm just not as in a huge rush as I thought I would be. I like how I look in shorts or a swim suit, for the first time in a long time.

So, Bikram Yoga is my "NEW" thing, for the month of July. Once my 30 days run out, I can't afford to spend $130/month to continue. Next month, I'll find something new. Any suggestions on what I could try?

All 26 postures done in the 90 minutes