First Mini Goal! 10 lbs down!

This morning the scale edged past my first mini goal. From April 1 to April 30, I've lost 10.2 lbs. WOOHOO!

I also note that I'm now at my 2001 Weight Watchers starting weight. :(

But the good news is that it's going in the right direction.

W2D1

Busy day, I'm beat.

I had intended to do W2D1 on Monday night. It was POURING rain. So I resolved to get up early Tuesday and do it before work. Well, still pouring. Tuesday night was right out because I had to attend a friend's birthday celebration 40 miles away and would then spend the night with my BF. This morning wouldn't work because I had to commute an hour from my BF's place to work....

Anyway, yeah, life was conspiring against me. Boohoo poor me.

I almost gave up on today, but the last minute decided that I would drive home after work, immediately change, and go to the park before running the pets the 35 miles to my parent's house.

It meant that I didn't get home to start packing until 9:30 pm, but I feel like I've kept my fitness committment to myself and have a plan for finishing out the week while I'm on the road. If I can fit in a jogging workout on one of my busiest weeks this month, I can do anything!

The workout? It went fine. I kept reminding myself that it was only six intervals (compared to W1's interminable eight) and only 30 seconds longer. The two minute breaks were just enough time to catch my breath but not so long that the faster pace was a shock. Once again, the 2nd to last interval felt the hardest, but I'm sure that it'll get easier as I repeat it. I'm going to try for W2D2 on Friday morning along the road near my motel (Texas Hill Country).

Eating on the Road - Motorcycle Touring Edition

If staying on program while traveling weren't difficult enough, making good choices while motorcycle touring presents it's own set of challenges.

Away from my normal routine and resources, I have little direct control over what (and often when) I eat, other than attempting to make good choices when I order food. When in remote areas, I'm generally limited to chain fast food restaurants, or local places that are a complete unknown. Also, many rural areas have little understanding of nutrition so designated "healthy plates" are generally mushy vegetable and dry chicken, ordered infrequently and prepared indifferently.


I got on the road really early. My stomach wasn't ready for food, but I didn't know when I'd next find a source of sustenance. During my morning fuel up, I purchased a glazed Krispy Kreme donut and a bottled Starbucks Frappuccino. About an hour later, I pulled over at a vista point up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and had my breakfast. (9 points)

Analyzing the situation, (I wasn't on a diet at the time) I could have made better choices. My breakfast was almost pure sugar and probably didn't keep me going for very long.

Anyway, I've resolved to do better this time. I'll journal my food intake on my Ipaq/E-book reader and try not to go too far over points while forgiving myself if I do end up gaining a little weight. My primary goal for this trip is to maintain the weight loss I've already achieved.

These restaurants are ones that are common to small towns along the interstates. The items listed are things that I'm likely to order and feel satisfied after eating. (and this post is mostly for me to print out and use as a cheat sheet)

Breakfast (4-6 pts):

McDonalds:
Fruit n Yogurt Parfait w/granola (small) - 3 pts
Egg McMuffin - 6.5 pts
Coffee w/ 2 creams and splenda - 1 pt

Denny's:
Oatmeal or Cereal - 2-4 pts
2 slices toast w/ eggbeaters - 4 pts
Coffee w/ 2 creams and sweetener (no refills) - 1 pt

Starbucks:
grande nonfat iced latte - 2 pts
oatmeal w/ fruit topping - 4 pts

Motel Continental Breakfast:
Cereal, Yogurt, Oatmeal
Fruit
Coffee

Lunch (5-9 pts)/Dinner (7-15 pts):

McDonalds:
6pc nuggets w/honey (1) - 7.5pts
Honey mustard grilled chx snack wrap - 6 pts
Premium Grilled chicken sandwich - 8.5 pts
Filet o' Fish - 9.5 pts
small fries - 5.5 pts

Subway:
6" Turkey Sub, wheat bread, no cheese/mayo - 5.5 pts
Baked Lays - 3 pts
Iced tea - 0 pts

Quiznos:
Small Honey Bourbon Chicken Sandwich, wheat bread - 7 pts
Small Tomato Basil soup - 2 pts
Iced tea - 0 pts

Sonic:
Chicken Club Toaster, no bacon - 14 pts
Peach Iced Tea (large) - 1 pt

Pizza Hut:
Personal Pan Pizza with Ham & Pineapple - 12.5 pts
Personal Pan Pizza Veggie Lovers - 12 pts
Personal Pan Pizza Chicken Supreme - 13.5
Iced Tea - 0 pts

Denny's:
Grilled Chicken (4) with green beans and plain baked potato - 8 pts
Grilled Tilapia (10.5) with corn and plain baked potato - 15.5 pts
Grilled Chicken sandwich, no mayo, no fries - 10 pts
Side Salad w FF Ranch or FF Italian, no croutons (+2.5) - 3 pts
Iced Tea - 0 pts

Special Treats (1-5 pts):

McDonalds:
Vanilla Ice Cream Cone - 3.5 pts

Starbucks:
T/G Coffee Light Frappuccino (no whip) - 2/2.5 pts
T/G Caramel Light Frappuccino (no whip) - 2.5/3 pts

Sonic:
Vanilla Cone - 4.5 pts
Jr M&M sundae - 4.5 pts

Wendy's:
Jr Frosty - 3.5 pts

Week 4 Weigh in

I'm down 1.4 lbs this week for a grand total of 8.8 lbs since April 1.

This is within the recommended 1-2 lbs/week. I'd be lying if I said I was completely happy with my weekly progress, but when I look at my overall losses in the first 4 weeks of this lifestyle change, I'm ecstatic.

I'm hopeful that I can lose 1.2 lbs this next week and hit 10 lbs lost. However, I've got a challenge ahead of me. I'll be away from home and my normal routine for 4 days. I will need to stay on top of myself and commit to making good choices at restaurants.

Adventures in Dinner

I've been planning to do a series of posts on my "usual" dinners/lunches/breakfasts. Tonight's dinner has inspired me to start off with the last meal of the day.


Who says dinner has to be boring when you're dieting?

(clockwise - Green Giant steamed carrots + zucchini + green beans in rosemary butter sauce, chicken cordon bleu (Target meat counter, 6 points), and baked sweet potato with ICBINB spray and one wedge of Laughing Cow garlic & herb cheese mashed in. Whole meal counted as 11 points.)

I tend to keep it fairly simple when it's just me. I've been trying to keep the freezer and cabinets stocked so that I can plan my meal from work, taking into account points available and how I feel.

My typical dinner will have three components: a meat, a veggie, and a starch.

Staple Meats:
(toaster-broiled or toaster-baked, seasoned or marinated)
- chicken thigh (boneless, skinless - I prefer dark meat)
- turkey italian sausage
- filet of fish (tilapia, catfish, salmon, tuna, halibut)
- scallops or shrimp

Staple Veggies:
(veggies add bulk to my meals without costing lots of points. When I can have a big pile of veggies with dinner, I tend to feel more satisfied)
- Green Giant has recently come out with these absolutely AWESOME veggie mixes in 7-8oz boxes. One whole box is generally 1-2 points for a huge, filling serving of veggies. They are seasoned with somewhat sophisticated flavors (my favorite is rosemary butter) and (microwave) steam in the bag in less than 5 minutes. I keep a stack of boxes to choose from in the freezer at all times.
- I'm a big fan of steamed veggies. When I want something other than a frozen mix, I have a steamer basket for my pots or when in a hurry, ziploc brand microwave steamer bags.

Staple Starch:
(I can't live without carbs...)
- baked potato
- baked sweet potato
- rice (Minute Rice Ready to Serve cups)
- stuffing (Stovetop Quick Cups)
- pasta (various, 1 cup serving)
- biscuit (individualy frozen dough rounds)

Simplicity is very important to me. I'm a good cook, but I also live alone. Most recipes have too much yield for me and fresh veggies tend to go to my refrigerator drawers to die. At the end of a work day or after a jog, I just want to come home and have a filling dinner in front of me in 20 minutes or less with minimal clean up.

That is not to say that I don't sometimes get more elaborate (especially when you add cooking for my BF to the mix). On days when I can afford the points and have a little more ambition, I take my 3 components and add some kind of sauce or special prep. Among my favorites are Thai red curry, Indian korma, lite alfredo or marinara, mushroom marsala, or teriyaki/general tsao's stir fry.

Incentive clothing

Some people have incentive pants, drastically smaller pants that they buy or retain in hope of eventually fitting. I have an incentive dress.

It's the dress I wore to my senior prom. In high school. It's a size 11/12 and was worn exactly once. The dress has been hanging in my closet for 12 years now and I haven't been able to get it zipped up in all that time.

I would absolutely die to be able to fit into this dress again. I'm really really hoping to be able to wear it to my BF's company Christmas party this December. Hoping hoping hoping.

If I stick to this diet/exercise, it's very possible.

Threads like this one (in which a girl is raving about fitting into size 8 jeans) are so incredibly inspiring.

I currently wear size 14 jeans comfortably. I have several size 12s and, though I can stuff myself into them, the muffin-top is not pretty. In about 6 more pounds, the 12s should make it to daily wear again. But as I know from trying, size 12 jeans do not necessarily mean that the dress fits. I've got to go lower. I don't even remember a time when I fit into anything in the single digits.

It's an awfully pretty dress, a classic black sheath, empire waist, with some tasteful rhinestones and sparkly embroidery at the bodice. God I want to wear it again.

W1D3

Lucy and I just got back from Memorial Park and our W1D3 workout. It was warm out and I'm more and more certain that carrying a camelbak is worth the extra weight on these runs.

I'm saying that I "completed" the workout, but truthfully I had only gotten through about half of the last interval when I noticed a woman walking a dog the other direction pointing worriedly behind me. I turned to see Lucy limping. I immediately stopped and checked her paws. I found a spot of blood on one of her front paws (a small cut). I washed it with some water from my camelbak and took it easy the next few minutes. Soon she was again trotting happily and didn't seem affected. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

As for me, my legs aren't nearly as sore as they were last time. I think my body just might be acclimating to running (a teeny bit).

Next week is going to be challenging. On Tuesday night I'll be driving down to my BF's house to spend the night with him. On Wednesday night I need to take the dog, cat, and bunny to my parent's house (Mom is petsitting for me). Aaaand on Thursday I'm leaving immediately after work for a weekend motorcycle meet in New Mexico.

I'm thinking that the only way to get the workouts in is to do them in the mornings. Lucy will be around Tuesday morning, so that should be fine. I'll have to do one alone on Thursday morning and then manage to get out of my hotel room bed early on Saturday morning and see if I can find a safe place to run near the hotel. (I doubt the hotel will have a gym).

Challenge is what Couch to 5K is all about, right? Here I goooooooooo.....

W1D2

Lucy and I just got back from Meyer Park and our week 1, day 2 Couch to 5K workout. Like last time, my legs were (and still are) feeling a little sore when I climbed out of the car after my short drive home. This probably means that I actually accomplished something. My legs have never felt sore after just walking/hiking in the park.

The weather cooperated beautifully. It was a glorious 79 degrees with a slight breeze. Our entire Houston summer lies ahead.

Funny thing: This workout felt more difficult today than it did on Tuesday. It seemed that the 2nd and 2nd to last intervals were the hardest. Perhaps during the 2nd I was no longer fresh, and had the entire workout ahead of me. During the 2nd to last, it felt like I'd been running for ages (and had lost track of what interval I was on) and from Ullrey's words, I knew that I still had more to go.

Anyway...I'm looking forward to the next (and last) week 1 workout this weekend.

W1D1

...of the Couch to 5k is complete. I heard Robert Ullrey's "Congrats" at the end of the podcast for the first time and boy did it feel good.

This is so huge for me.

For some reason it was much easier than previous attempts.

The weight loss may have been a factor, but I've been scouring the internet for tips on getting through it. The two that really helped were:

- Don't be afraid to breathe through your mouth. It can pull in so much more air than your nose and the last thing you need when trying to run is a restriction on your air.

- Slow Down! It's not a race. The objective is to jog, distance doesn't matter.

I don't know if the new shoes helped physically, but in my mind, they were bouncier than my old shoes. I wore moleskin over my heels to make sure no blisters formed (an old trick from backpacking).

As for other gear, I'm sure I looked ridiculous. I wore my 70oz motorcycling camelbak (the stripped down one compared to my 100oz hiking one) with an old phone beltcase from the early 90's strapped to it on the front (for my phone/mp3 player and a portable water bowl (just in case) for Lucy on the back.

Speaking of Lucy, she barely broke a sweat, although I spent two running intervals carrying a bag of poo.

I plan to do the 2nd workout on Thursday, perhaps on the other side of Meyer Park. BF and I are going to a party on Friday night, so if I bring my gear to his house then, I should be able to do the 3rd workout at Memorial Park on Saturday morning. A change of venue will be nice.

Week 3 Weigh in - Woohoo!

I did GREAT this week. I stayed OP (on points) all week long and the scale reflected it with a loss of 2.8 lbs for a total loss of 7.4 lbs since April 1.

I would like to get more exercise in though. I went to Academy Sports over lunch today and got some new Asics trail running shoes to replace my aging trail runners (also Asics). I'm planning to take Lucy to Meyer Park tonight so we can once again try W1D1 of the Couch to 5K program.

Doing Well

I'm now down a little over 2 lbs since Tuesday.

This puts me at my lowest recorded weight this year. (I recorded for most of January when I was toying with dieting but not getting very serious about it.)

I think the difference this time is I'm very serious about journaling my food and I'm keeping my attention constantly on the diet by blogging and using a weight tracker publically posted.

I've also asked my BF to obtain some charms for my Pandora bracelet. We'll use them as awards for each 15 lbs lost. I'm diligently working toward the first one.

At about 2.5 weeks in, my body appears to have acclimated to my diet. I'm no longer running to the bathroom every hour because of the extra water. I no longer get crazy hunger pangs at night. On the contrary, I'm having to force myself to eat to the bottom end of my points range some days.

Wednesday and Saturday nights are the hardest to plan. I usually spend the evening with my boyfriend. About 50% of the time we go out to eat. The rest of the time we scrounge his cupboards (usually well stocked with staples). I never quite know how many points I'll need, so I try to leave myself a minimum of 10. At least when with him, I never do any snacking. He's also on informal WW, so he understands.

Week 2 Weigh in

So, at the end of week 2, I'm down a total of 4.6 lbs, 1.6 lbs for the week.

Not bad. They say it's healthy to lose 1-2 lbs per week. I'm right in the middle of that range. I confess that I'd hoped for a greater loss (to maintain that 5 lbs down), but the week did include a large holiday dinner.

I went over to Becca's new house last night for dinner. She is on Nutrasystem, so we stayed pretty healthy: bite size chicken breast in a stewed tomato sauce on white rice with a steamed veggie mix and "heart healthy" Bisquick biscuits. I calculated it to about 11 points for the meal, but the passover roll I had as a snack probably put me over points. I don't know what to count that as, so I put it down as 4 points.

No guilt. Move on.

I need to find a way to get more dairy into my diet. I think I'm going to add about 1 point worth of yogurt to my breakfast each day and try to drink a cup of skim milk with my evening meal. Also, I need to add more veggies, so I'll work on keeping salad in the fridge and get some more varieties of 0-point spray dressing so that I don't have to count it. I usually buy spring mix for Sorscha, but I think I might try to keep some other salad mixes around. Spring mix gets old fast.

I survived Passover

When I weighed on Saturday morning, I was up 0.6 lbs. I didn't get upset. Slight day to day fluctuations are natural and to be expected.

After an *in control but not counting points* Passover dinner on Sunday night, I was a little more nervous this morning when I got on the scale. I was quite happy to see that my weight hadn't changed since Saturday morning.

I've been diligently recording my consumption today and plan to eat at the bottom end of my points range today. In any case, I should be comfortably down for my "semi-official weekly" weigh-in tomorrow morning. (I weigh most days, but for purposes of keeping track of an overall weekly number, I've been circling each tuesday on my ledger and putting a delta next to it.

5 pounds down!

As of this morning, I'm down 5 lbs since April 1st! Woo!

I'm half way to my Vegas goal of 10 lbs by mid-May. I'll probably be slowing down from here, but It's looking like a very attainable goal.

I don't really feel any different, but then I've been seesawing around this weight for a few years now. It does feel good to finally be doing something about it.

In other news, Lucy and I went hiking in Timberlane Park last night. We walked for over an hour on the narrow single-track mtn biking trails there.

Lunch Success

As thanks for us throwing a baby shower for her, Karen (co-worker) brought lunch. Knowing that many of us were dieting, she thoughtfully brought grilled chicken breast, spanish rice, veggie salad, and fruit salad. I only had a little rice and figured that I had a 5 point lunch.

I'd been worried about what she'd bring, so I'd had a low-point oatmeal breakfast. Now I face tonight with plenty of points for dinner with BF and a late afternoon snack.

Two successes to note: I am down another pound this morning, and I resisted the delectable looking frosted chocolate cupcakes Karen brought for dessert.

Go me! (And GO KAREN!)

Week 1 Weigh In - Struggling to a success

I weighed this morning. Down 3 lbs since the 1st. Wooo!

So, last night I really really wanted to toss a frozen biscuit (4pts) in the microwave for some buttery, doughy goodness. I didn't have the points for it. I struggled all night, rationalizing that just once was ok.

Well, really, "just once" is the first step on the slippery slope to dropping my diet. I CAN'T let "just once" happen if I want to be successful overall. At least not in the first few weeks!

I distracted myself by adding a salad (spring mix, spray 0-point dressing, fat free croutons = 1pt) to my dinner, drinking lots of tea, and keeping busy by cleaning the kitchen.

This morning, looking back, I was sooo happy with myself. It was worth it.

As a reward, I worked that biscuit into my dinner tonight, except this time I actually baked it in the toaster oven. It was delicious. And On Points.

Starting Weight Watchers Again

I started on my first diet in 2001, during college. I remember sitting on a bench while waiting for a prescription and blurting to my BF that I had been thinking of joining Weight Watchers.

That first diet was incredibly successful. During 2001, I lost around 20 lbs. I was happy and felt great. It was fairly easy.

Then I plateaued. For the next year my weight was static, even though I was still on Weight Watchers and still actively working to drop pounds.

I graduated in 2002 and moved back to San Jose. My office secretary was an incredible baker. She made the best coffee cakes and cookies you've ever had. I was also attending lots of bike nights and eating out all the time. My weight ballooned back up to where I'd been when I started. I rejoined Weight Watchers a couple of times, but nothing much happened. I didn't stick with it. I'd learned how to *game* the system.

My weight was a factor in my 2006 break-up with a boyfriend of 3 years. That was devastating.

I've see-sawed around the same 15 lbs during the last 3 years (2006-2009) in Texas. There have been a few half-hearted attempts to lose weight. My only major success happened when I got sick and didn't eat for a week. Others fizzled out in the first month.

In April 2009 I finally got serious about losing weight again. I didn't rejoin Weight Watchers, but I did use the principles learned from my past success. Most days I kept my meals fairly boring. I learned to love broiled chicken breast, baked potatoes, and convenience frozen steamed vegetables. I used my dog as a motivator for taking more walks and eventually picked up running.

By the end of 2009, I had dropped just over 25 lbs and ran my first 10k race. I looked and felt different. A major milestone was actually being happy with most of the photographs taken of me over the holidays.

I took a short break from focused weight loss in December 2009, but am right back at it for 2010! Among my goals for the year are losing another 20 lbs and running a November 2010 half marathon in San Antonio.

(revised 1/4/10)