WW Weigh-In: Week 7

Hurray! Today was a ridiculously fantastic weigh-in, and I am super stoked!!! After last week’s disastrous 4.2 pound gain, I found my focus, made some changes, and this week I lost 8 whole pounds!!! Seriously. 8 pounds. That puts my total at 14 pounds lost and my weight at 321.2. My leader was sweet and gave me a whole bunch of bravo stickers!

Now, what were the changes I made? 3 major things:

1. I didn’t bring trigger foods into the house. I have learned that I can’t be trusted to eat chocolate or ice cream in moderation. I will eat it all until it’s gone which will trigger a bigger binge, then all hope is lost.
2. I was very aware of boredom eating. This is a huge win for me. If I wanted to eat but knew I wasn’t actually hungry, I didn’t eat. Imagine that!
3. I stopped eating when I was full. With the crazy amount of points I have (55), some days I can eat all of them (and more) no problem, but some days I feel full and satisfied for the day and still have points left over. This week I listened to my body and was ok leaving points on the table and not getting my blue dot every day.

Weight Watchers wants you to eat all of your points, and I know they have good reasons for that (it’s not like I think I’m out-smarting them or anything), but everyone is different and I’m comfortable with the way I ate this week. I’m not trying to starve myself by any means, just trying not to over-eat.

Now, how was I able to exercise such self-control and execute these changes so well? No clue. Your guess is as good as mine. I like the way it felt though, being in control, and I hope I can remember that feeling and hold on to that behavior going forward.

This week I start my new job which will totally shake up my routine. Being out of the house should help with boredom eating, but I am sure there will be new challenges as well. Hopefully my 8 pound loss will encourage me to do well this week! I have 1 pound to lose to hit my next 5 pound star, so that is my goal this week. I have 3 pounds to lose for my 5% charm, so that is my stretch goal.

I hope everyone has a great week!!!

Gen

WW Weigh-In: Week 6

This week was very frustrating. Mostly because I can’t pinpoint exactly why I did so poorly. I over-ate like crazy this whole week. I wish I could point to a particular trigger so I could learn from it, but I don’t know what happened. So terribly frustrating.

This morning I did not want to go to my meeting. I lay in bed for about 25 minutes after my alarm went off, just trying to convince myself to get up and go. I thought for sure that lazy and upset Genevieve would win and I would miss my meeting. But somehow reasonable and motivated Genevieve won that argument. I need to listen to her more.

The gain was even worse than I had expected. I gained a whopping 4.2 pounds. That was quite a blow. But I owned it and moved on as best as I could. The meeting topic was great – it was about emotional eating. I’m not sure if that was my problem this week, but it was nice to hear everyone talk about their struggles, it was nice to hear that it’s not just me. We talked about finding something else to do instead of emotional eating, and I want to try going for a walk. I keep saying that I want to walk more and I haven’t been doing it, so this could help with two problems at once. And hopefully my job starts this week so I won’t be at home tempted by the kitchen all day.

This week I will 1) track everything, even if I go over my daily points, and 2) go for a walk if I feel the need to eat when I am not actually hungry.

We’ll see how it goes! I’m not giving up, even if it gets worse before it gets better. Here’s to a week of better focus and control!

Gen

 

WW Weigh-In: Week 5

So! This week was tough. Monday everything was going fine until around dinner time, then I started eating ALL THE THINGS!! I ate every snack in the house, then went to the store and bought all the junk I haven’t had in the past month – pizza and ice cream and burgers, and I can’t even remember what else. It was bad. I only stopped eating when my stomach hurt too much to keep going.

The next day I tried getting back on track, but the same thing happened again. Not as frightfully bad, but definitely over my points. Day 3 was the same. Day 4 I was back on track like there had never been a problem! I stayed in my daily points and went for a walk. Did the same for 2 days after that.

Went to my meeting this morning knowing that I was going to be up, but guess what? It was only by .4. I thought I would gain at least 3 or 4 pounds from my 3 day binge fest, but I guess having 3 good days after that almost negated it! I was so very happy with a .4 gain.

I’m not sure what started the binge in the first place. It might have been stress or anxiety because I had just applied for a job. I’m not exactly sure what got me back on track either. I know that I didn’t get angry with myself, I didn’t feel disgusted or sad. I normally would and that would normally make me completely give up. Instead I was patient. Each night I told myself that I would just start over and stay on track the next day. Eventually it worked.

My mindset seems to be in a pretty good place. Old habits are going to sneak back in, sometimes with a vengeance, but I’m learning how to not let it completely derail me.

By the way, I got the job! It’s going to be a bit of a shift, I’ve mostly been on WW while staying home all the time, I’ll have to adjust to work life! I’m looking forward to it.

Gen

 

WW Weigh-In: Week 4

Down .6 this week for a total of 10.6 down. I would have liked it to be more, but honestly I am very happy with any loss!

I stayed in my healthy point range all week, but didn’t make particularly healthy choices to fill those points. Just last night (the night before weigh-in!) I had a big serving of lasagna and chocolate for desert. Not my smartest move. I unfortunately just impulse-bought a bunch of other not-fantastic-for-you-but-yummy-sounding food yesterday, so that trend might continue this week. I am going to try to throw more salads and more chicken in the mix though.

I did have a little victory this week: I bought these delicious-sounding apple cider chocolates from Trader Joe’s. I tried one and didn’t much care for it (so disappointing!), so I gave the rest to my brother! In the past I would have eaten all of them anyway because chocolate is chocolate, but now it wasn’t worth the points so it had to go!

I also got my four week charm at my meeting, which makes me very happy because I feel like I am really sticking with it this time.

My goal this week is to try to walk more (I walked 5 out of 7 days this past week), and to make better choices when I go shopping.

Gen

 

WW Weigh-In: Week 3

Down 3 pounds exactly this morning, for a total of 10 pounds gone! Hurray! That puts me at 325.2.

I had bought beads and a bracelet from Michael’s so I could add a bead for every 10 pounds I lose. I thought I would have to wait until at least next week, but I got to put a bead on today! It made me kind of ridiculously happy.

I didn’t make the best food choices this past week (chocolate and pizza both made appearances), and I ate over my daily points almost every day. I did however stay in my healthy point range. Even so, I thought my loss would be smaller, but I am thrilled with 3 pounds!

This week I want to try to hit my points on the nose and go for at least a 30 minute walk every day. We’ll see how that goes!

Gen

 

WW Weigh-In: Week 2

I was down 1.2 pounds this week! Not as spectacular as last week, but I will take it! I have decided to be very happy with any loss, even if it’s less than I would have liked. That puts my WW weight loss at 7 pounds and puts me at 328.2.

This meeting was my leader’s last meeting. I actually missed some of work so I could go, I really wanted to say goodbye. I am not good at goodbyes, I cried a lot. It put me in a bit of a funk for the past few days, I think that’s why it took me longer than usual to update this blog. I’m trying to remember that it will still be the same meeting, in a sense, it will still be the same awesome members attending anyway, and I will still get lots of laughs and support from them. We did get to meet our new leader very briefly, and she seems super nice, so I think everything will be just fine. Change is always hard.

Other than that I had a pretty good week. Although I think I am eating too much junk. I have stayed in my healthy point range every day, but it’s been at the top of that range, and it’s been with a lot of snacks (mostly caramel corn and brownies). I’m learning what’s dangerous to have around the house. I’ve learned anything chocolate is probably a bad idea. It’s like it sits in the cupboard and calls to me. It’s time to stock up on some healthier alternatives. Work brought in pizza for us, and I am a sucker for free food. It’s so hard to turn down!! So I had pizza 3 days in a row. Again, I stayed in my points, but I’d like to be eating better. I must say though, in the past I would have had 3 or 4 pieces and now I stuck to 2, so that’s progress at least!

I think that’s about it for this week’s update, I’ll talk to you next week!

Gen

 

WW Weigh-In: Week 1

Today was weigh-in and I lost 5.8 pounds this week!!! That puts me at 329.4 with 164.4 to lose before goal.

I was shocked. I had already had my big water-weight loss before I started weight watchers, so I did not think that this week would be very big. Even weighing myself as often as I do, I did not see this coming.

I stayed within my healthy point range every day (except when I under-ate the first day), and I walked every day. Some days only the 8 minute walk to the grocery store and back. This morning I did walk the 3.3 miles to my meeting, so I’m sure that helped. Now I have to make that a weekly thing. I am thinking of getting a fitbit to help encourage me to walk. I think that could be fun.

There was one bad part about the meeting this morning – my leader is retiring! She is the same leader I had when I was on the program years ago and lost over 100 pounds, and I think she is a part of my success. I will definitely miss her, and I am worried that I won’t vibe with whoever replaces her. We will see.

But, no sense in worrying about that now, I’m gonna go be happy about my loss. Bye!

Gen

 

Wins and Loses

I don’t know how to feel about today. It was a mixed bag.

First of all, I was craving Chipotle. Chipotle is my very favorite fast food kinda place. I get the barbacoa burrito and it is heaven. I looked up the points and I gave it some thought. The nearest Chipotle to me is 3.3 miles away. I figured I could work the points into my dailies and get some fit points in by walking all the way there.

So that’s what I did! That’s longer than I’ve walked in a very long time. But I made it!

I got my burrito. The problem was that I got full about 2/3 of the way through, yet I didn’t stop eating. I gave myself a little stomach ache. Yes, I was in my points, but I should’ve stopped eating when I was full. I felt so stupid afterword.

I walked around the mall some, and I came across a Jamba Juice. I figured, as far as treats go, I could do worse. So I looked up the points and got a damned smoothie. And you know what? It was delicious.

I didn’t make the healthiest choices, or the smartest use of my points, but I tracked it and stayed in my points. Although it did take up all of my points for the day, so if I want to use any points for dinner I’ll have to use some weeklies.

I’m not beating myself up over anything, just examining my behavior and seeing what I can learn from it. I am proud of those 3.3 miles though! Yay!

Gen

Uh Oh… Snacks.

Ok. I bought a few snacks. And not the “carrot stick” kind of snacks.

As I said yesterday I needed food with higher points. What has lots of points? Crap. But I bought it at Trader Joe’s so it can’t be that bad, right? 🙂 But honestly I don’t think I did too bad, as long as I can exercise some self-discipline.

That’s the kicker though, right? That’s the crux of the whole problem. Self-discipline.

I bought these baby ice cream cones which are adorable and 4 points each, which is fine and will help me reach my daily goal. The problem starts if I don’t stop at 1. I bought a chocolate bar and want to try to eat just 1 (large) square a day. Is it possible? I don’t know. I bought fruit bars and kettle corn. The trick will be moderation, to eat them as snacks and not my main source of points.

This will be a huge test of my willpower. This is inviting some serious disappointment in myself. BUT, if I can stay in control it will be a nice success! I bought them mindfully, I feel optimistic that I can eat them the same way. We’ll see how this experiment goes…

Gen

Not Eating ENOUGH???

I never thought I’d have this problem. My whole life I’ve struggled with eating too much, suddenly I’m eating too little??

I am now in the weird position of having too many daily points. Weight Watchers assigns point values to food, then gives you a daily goal number. The heavier you are the more points you get, so I have quite a few. 58 to be exact. Now that I’m eating healthier I don’t know how to eat all my points! And you are supposed to eat all of them. If I was still eating pizza and ice cream every day I could hit it no problem, but I don’t want to go back to that, that’s the type of behavior I’m trying to change! I need to figure out what healthier foods are higher in points.

I asked on connect and I got the response: avocados, peanut butter, and nuts – all of which I can’t stand (I know, I’m weird!). They also said dairy products and pasta, which I can do.

I don’t know. I have to go back to the store I think. What I have in my house is so low in points that I was forcing myself to eat more when I wasn’t hungry, and that’s not good!! We’ll see how I can adjust throughout the week and we’ll see if I actually lose weight this way (I’m skeptical). If it doesn’t go well I might try simply filling instead. Most of the food in my fridge works with the simply filling plan anyway.

On the other hand, that might be why I gained a few pounds back already – I actually was eating too little and my body started trying to hold on to the weight? I dunno.

If anyone else has ideas for healthy foods that might be high in points, let me know!

Gen