PMS sucks!

I hate PMS! I am usually not that bad of a PMSer, but for some reason, this week has been HORRENDOUS. I cannot get enough to eat, I am always hungry and I have no self-control. There is so much good stuff in the house, fresh French Bread, cookies, rice crispy treats, cookies, fudge, Roman Roca. All the yummy, yummy, yummy stuff I love.

I did very well on Sunday and came in under points. Monday, yesterday, started out strong, but degraded down when I couldn't control my eating. My darling husband made a healthy spaghetti dinner and I smartly, but the snacking that I had no control over, made me not too hungry for dinner.

I woke up today with cramps, so PMS is over, but the insatiable urge to eat is still here. I did something smart and took all the sweets, and put them in a box, in a difficult location to get to in the garage. I am hoping that if it isn't in easy reach, I will stay away from it.

I don't have much hope for this weigh-in. I know I have been eating way too much. I still have a few days, maybe I can salvage this week.

2 1/2 days

I have not tracked my food in 2 1/2 days. I have no idea how much I have eaten, how many points I have, nothing. Yesterday was Christmas and I decided to treat myself and eat what tasted good. The way I figure it, I am out of points for the rest of the week. I am going to try to stay on plan for the rest of the week and see how I do.

It's not going to be easy because there is still a bunch of Christmas goodies in the house, but I have been telling myself to have some self-control.

John took the kids out so I could get a nap. That is where I am going.

who wudda thunk?

Who would've thought after all that Christmas baking, after all those bites, licks and tastes of deliciously evil food, that I would have lost an entire pound? I don't know how I did it! I don't know how it was possible! But, it happened. The WW scales don't lie (unlike mine). So, my total for the year is 29.6! I am truly, truly, truly hoping to get the last 0.4 pounds next week, that way I will have lost 30 pounds since Sept 16th!

Honestly, I can't believe I have been this motivated and this successful and it hasn't been all on my own. I have to thank my supportive family, my mom for wanting me to call her every Thursday with my results. I especially have to thank my darling and supportive husband, who has encouraged me, believed in me and supported me through all of this. He never fails to tell me he is proud of me and that I am sexy! I love EWE sweetie pie, you are my sunshine! Also, my friends, Lori, Darlene, Leigha and Stephanie for all your support, thank you!

I have been at this for 14 weeks and am averaging 1.7 pounds a week. At this rate, I will reach my goal weight next August. It seems sooooo far away, but back in September, I would never have thought I would have lost 30 pounds by the end of the year.

Well, it's time for Santa's little helpers to go wrap presents. Until next time.

Blown, blown, blown, blown and blown!

I have totally blown my diet! Or, shall I say, my new way of eating. It all started on Sunday, when my Christmas baking extravaganza started. I thought it would only take 1 day to complete all the baking I wanted to do. I figured, I could get away with one bad day. Nope! It took me 3 days to finish everything and get it all packed up and ready to be given out. 3 days of not knowing how many points passed my lips to go directly to my hips.

It's not like I was baking anything healthy....Oh no!! Toffee (1 cup butter 1 cup sugar, all boiled together, add nuts and chocolate), Roman Roca, Pumpkin Chocolate chip cookies, chocolate mint chocolate chip cookies, rice krispy treats, cake bon bons. I tried my best to guesstimate, but it was impossible. I wasn't drinking enough water and wasn't eating planned meals. I was too busy snacking to ever get hungry for a real meal.

I loved all that baking, even when I was stressed out, I loved it. It was fun to watch separate ingredients come together to be something yummy that others will enjoy.

I go to weigh in tomorrow. I don't know what is going to happen. Will I gain? Will I lose? Will I stay the same? Who knows? So, tomorrow, after weigh in we shall see.

I tried to be so good and not snack or taste. But, as you may recall from previous posts, I am a slave to all things sweet. And I was surrounded by sweet, sweet, sweet stuff. My new favorite is Roman Roca! So easy, yet sooooo yummy!

I am headed to bed.

Next post - the results.....

I feel like SYTYCD or American Idol - the results show

Wow!

So, I weighed in Thursday night, totally expecting a gain since I ate like such crap the previous week. I was also in the middle of an IBS flair and expected that swelling and bloating to cause me to gain water weight. Well, lo and behold, I lost a pound!! My total is 28.6. I can't believe I've actually lost that much. I hope to do so well this week that I get my 5 pound star again next week.

I am eating better, my stomach is feeling a little better, but I am not eating that much because it is still really tender. I am also drinking more water, which is good, because now I don't feel so lightheaded. I am hoping that I feel well enough to start my Christmas baking.

So, here's to a good week of eating healthier food and a good loss on Thursday.

Yesterday was my birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. My darling husband thought it would be a great idea to take the kids and we all go to Newport for the night, to change things up and to celebrate my birthday. I had great hopes, but in the back of my mind, I knew it would be the nightmare it turned out to be. The kids were misbehaving little brats, didn't want to go to bed, and didn't want to stay asleep. But, this blog isn't about my life, it's about my weight loss challenges. And yesterday was my biggest challenge to date, and I lost (or rather, gained.)

By dinnertime at 5 or so, I had had it. I haven't been feeling well lately. Every few months I go through this strange illness. I am slightly nauseated, lightheaded and my abdomen is bloated and tender to the touch. A few times I have even run fevers and had to stay in bed. It doesn't seem to follow any hormonal cycle or dietary issues.I thought it was because I wasn't eating enough.

You see, all the food I like is higher points than it was on the old plan. This new plan really forces you to eat healthier (which is not a bad thing, if you have the time, inclination, etc). The old plan, I could eat more of the yuckier stuff and still stay below points, with this new plan it is definitely harder, since everything is worth more points.And, I was losing weight on that plan.

Back to yesterday, so I decided to eat a little more, even if it was unhealthier. I ate McDonald's which, strangely enough, usually settles my stomach. Nope, nauseated. I was so tired of being sick and tired that I decided to throw the plan to the wind and eat what I wanted to. It was Wednesday, the day before my points reset, so I was going to use them all up and if I gained, I gained. We went out to dinner and I had 2 alcoholic beverages (which did nothing to help my stomach, but I sure relaxed) ate Prime Rib (wasn't that great), hardly touched any of the potato. Got back to the hotel and ate a slice of cake and another adult beverage. Nothing was helping my stomach feel better.

This morning, I was so nauseated that I have hardly eaten anything, healthy, or unhealthy all day. Water was even getting me nauseous. I want this illness to go away, but I still have 2 or 3 days left of it. Yuck.

So, in an hour, I go to face my worst enemy, the scale. I know it is coming and I am prepared for it. The first gain. It will not be a happy time, but, I will use it to re-energize my healthier eating dietary changes. I will make an effort to eat more fruit and veggies and stay away from the bad stuff (or the good tasting stuff). Maybe, just maybe, the junk I have been eating has caused my gastric distress.

I'll let you know.

Children's Breakfast Cereal

I grew up on Lucky Charms. I love that cereal. I also like Froot Loops and Trix, but have never been a Cap'n Crunch fan. What I really love about Lucky Charms are the "Marshmallows", puh-leeze, aerated sugar is all it is. Lucky Charms is a comfort food for me, and with this week being the way it has,I indulged. I hadn't even thought of Lucky Charms until after our ER visit with Jack and his croup. We went out to breakfast (what else do you do at 0630 in the morning?) and the restaurant we went to had a kid's menu and it had Lucky Charms. Jack pointed to it and said, "I want Cheerios with Lucky Farms." If it was something he wanted, and would finally eat, then I was all for it.

Later that day we went to the store to get his prescription filled. I picked up a box of Lucky Charms and a bag of Western Family's Fruity Mallows. (Think Froot Loops with Lucky Charms marshmallows, YUM!) I got home and started thinking, if I want some of this I need to plug it into my new WW calculator which calculates the points based on Fat, Carbs, Protein and Fiber (note the lack of calories). It finally hit my that this new system, even though a pain in the butt to relearn everything, might just be worth it. Instead of looking at just calories, fat and fiber, it looks at everything. I was shocked (and a little dismayed) to find out that the cereal that is my comfort food is 0 fat, 27 G carbs, 0 protein, 0 fiber. It is nothing but sugar. Now, I had heard this a time or two, but it wasn't until I looked at everything else did I realize that eating a bowl of cereal is like drinking a glass of chocolate milk. The milk has the nutrients, but the other things just add sweetness and flavor.

I did eat the bowl of cereal. But instead of pouring myself a second or third, I kept it at one. The dawn of realization finally hit about how little nutrition there is in kid's cereal.

One other thing that I'd like to mention. I think I am finally learning not to emotionally eat. On the way home from my very last Molalla Class, I was a little frustrated because of a speaker we had in class that freaked my students out. I got it resolved, but I was pretty frustrated and upset. Now, we had had a potluck with all sorts of goodies. I had my fill, but I was restrained. On the way home, I kept thinking that I was frustrated and I needed to vent, but I wasn't hungry and wasn't going to rely on food to calm me down. I passed several convenience stores and did not stop. By the time I got home, I had calmed down enough to go to bed. (Only to be woken up at 0445 to take a certain croupy boy to the hospital.)

It's getting late and I have a ton of laundry to fold and a bed. to make. Night.

I totally forgot to mention something

I totally forgot to mention that with this week's weight loss, I am down another decade. That is WW speech to say you've gone from (in my case) a 23? to a 22? weight. It is also the time to recalculate points and I am down to 36. I can deal - it means I am on the right track.

I haven't been in the 220's since early 2007, right after Jack was born. 220 is my wedding weight, which is my next mini-goal.

Portion Control

The only reason I can fathom why I didn't gain weight this week was portion control and self-restraint. I look back on my weekly diary of food and it is full of CRAP food. McDonald's, Dairy Queen, adult beverages, and BAKLAVA! Yet, somehow, someway, I managed to lose 1.2 pounds this week, bringing my total to 27.6.

I indulged, but I indulged wisely-ish. Instead of a whole piece of Baklava, I ate a half, then a few hours later the other half, but at least it wasn't 2 pieces. I went out to eat and chose the smaller portions, I even ate a Big Mac without the french fries.

The past few days have been very stressful (what an understatement for h - e - double toothpicks). First the kids came down with sinus infections and I got laryngitis, now I have a sinus infection and they have croup. (Did you know adults get croup, we just call it laryngitis. Our airways are larger so we don't get the coarse seal-like bark that kids get with the same infection.) Jack got so bad this morning that we took him to the ER for his yearly dose of prednisone. And he has been a complete and utter hellion. He doesn't feel good, he is tired and cranky, but doesn't want to sleep because he has trouble breathing. So, he can't get better because he isn't sleeping. And, when he doesn't sleep, no one does. Sigh.

I'm tired, next post - Breakfast cereals

A little hint and a memory aid for me, I didn't realize how little nutrition there was in a box of Cheerios with Lucky Farms.

Ready for a Break

I found this old picture of me. It was when I was at my absolute heaviest right before I got pregnant with Jack in 2006. I lost 30 pounds because of morning sickness, but from this picture, you can see it was a good thing. This picture is only 10 pounds heavier than when I started WW in September. After my son was born I was actually in size 18 clothes and under 200 lbs (for a little while.) Once again, I my weight crept up and up and up. So, I was well on my way to looking like this again.

For the past 2 nights, I have been up past midnight working on stuff for my basic class. And I am tired (pun intended) of it. The past few days haven't been good. Yesterday I hardly ate anything because I was so busy with the lab final and I ate a Big Mac on the way home and had a few adult beverages. Today, the kids were monsters and we were all cranky. I didn't go over too far on points yesterday, and I am still below for today. And, I ate at Taco Del Mar and have fallen in love with their Mondito burrito.



Well, actually, make that yesterday, I just saw it is past midnight.



I don't like the new points system. I used to know the points value, now I have no idea. What used to be 1 point is now 3 and I don't like eating 3 point food when it used to be one. Illogical I know, but this is a huge paradigm shift, specially since I was getting so comfortable on the plan. Maybe that is why we needed the shake up. Hmm, I don't know.

That's enough of my tired rambling. I am going to bed with 1 point left for the (yester)day.

Laryngitis

Well, after a challenging week and no idea what the heck is going on with my home scale, I actually managed to lose a 0.8 tonight, for a grand total of 26.4. I really can't complain, since it was a short week and the weight loss last week was so big. At least I know that I truly did lose that weight last week.

I have reached one of my first mini-milestones. I wanted to lose as much as my daughter weighs. I was carrying her up the stairs the other day when I realized this, that I used to weigh what she and I weighed together. I am walking up the stairs much easier without all that weight. I also reached another mini-milestone and that was to weigh what I weighed when I started working for WVFD. Now the next mini-milestone is to weigh what I weighed what I did when I got married. Then, lose the weight my son weighs. Then, to get to below 200 for the first time in almost 10 years.

I'd also like to congratulate Bernie on her 9 pound loss and coming back to plan. I am so glad to see you at the meetings.