Happy weekend!

End of Friday, at last! There is always a surge of energy on Fridays at 4 when I leave my office. If only I could focus that energy on something productive.
All in all, it has been a great week. I have been completely on plan, and that's what is important to me at this point. On Wednesday I went on another walk, earning myself 3 activity points. And I used a really cool app on my phone that tracked the walk, told me my average speed, distance, etc., and exported it to Google Maps. I didn't walk Thursday or Friday and I don't have any excuse besides laziness.

I had my weigh in at Weight Watchers last night. It was my first one in five weeks. And boy did it show. I was up 8.6 pounds. That puts me at 179.6, only 4.8 pounds lower than when I started in July. And I'm okay with that. Of course I am disappointed that I let it get that far before kicking myself in the butt. But I do know it was because of my last semester. Finals were nuts, and at that point in life, that was my focus. 

Now I'm at my latest challenge: the weekend. I'll be honest, I have not had a single completely on plan weekend. Ever. At the beginning and most consistent part of my journey, my weeks were golden, and my weekends were pretty far off mark. But with my meetings being on Thursdays, I pretty much got away with that. I still lost weight. But I don't want to live like that. I know there will be vacations and such (like Las Vegas next weekend!), but on normal weekends, I have to keep my eating in check. And I feel pretty great about what's in store for me. I went grocery shopping so I'm stocked up on fruit, veggies, "exciting" breakfasts (oatmeal at work is getting old), and main meals. It's pretty much still frozen food, but I can't keep putting off eating better just because I can't get myself to cook. 

Also, part of the reason why I get along with frozen meals so well is because I kind of live in three different places. I live at my grandfather's house for work (where I went to college), my boyfriend's house more often than not, and my parent's house on some weekends and holidays. So really, I have some ingredients here, some there, and others elsewhere. It is really tough to get all the base ingredients (spices, vinegars, oils, sauces, etc.) all in one place. Maybe soon I'll just get a cooking itch.

Well, I need to take a shower before the boyfriend gets home. Hopefully I'll check back in tomorrow and/or Sunday. I feel really good about this weekend. I feel like I am in control.

Sunshine!

After several weeks of horrible weather, it's finally nice out. The sun was shining and it was blue skies. Just lovely. It really made it easy to get out and go on a walk during lunch. I did about 45 minutes, estimating an earned 3 activity points (based on a low intensity level). And I felt good afterwards. I think it's helping me make it through the afternoon stretch at work.

My diet went well today, too.
Oatmeal + Protein Powder: 6pts
Banana: 0pts
Greek Yogurt: 2pts
Edamame: 3pts
Apple slices with yogurt and granola: 3pts
Ham Slices with tomatoes and salsa on a Tortilla: 3pts
Brussels Sprouts in Butter Sauce: 4pts
Frozen Dinner (I think it's meatloaf with mashed potatoes): 9pts


That totals nicely up to my allotted 30pts for the day. I'm not a big fan of the oatmeal, but it's easy and breakfast is the easiest meal of the day for it to be boring. I'm over the Edamame, but I've got one more serving for tomorrow. I'm out of Greek Yogurt, and I don't think I like it enough to get it again, though it will be a definite substitute for sour cream. 


I think I'm going to burn out on this food rather quickly. I can deal with frozen dinners, but sometimes they cause me to overeat. I'd like to cook, but I don't really feel like it during the week. My goal this weekend will be to make two or so recipes that will last for next week.


My weight was up from yesterday this morning. I was at 178.4. I'm sure that has to do with me eating most of my points after 10pm last night. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Still nervous about Thursdays "official" weigh-in. I always feel like a fraud when I go into my meetings. I haven't done well consistently since August, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be close to my starting weight. I have to keep telling myself that they have all been in my shoes and they aren't judging me.


Well, that's all for now. Sleep well!

Free fruit!

Day one is winding down...and what a weird day it has been.

First off, it was raining. Again. I mean, I know rain this time of year isn't abnormal, but I live in Southern California for goodness sake. Isn't is supposed to be a perfect 75 degrees and blue skies all year long? Well, I hate driving in the rain, but made it to work on time without dying (yeah, I'm pretty much deathly afraid of driving in the rain). I had the planned oatmeal for breakfast, then an apple for a snack, Greek yogurt and edamame for lunch and a pear for a snack (I tend to graze all day). The rain stopped by the time lunch rolled around and I did my walk. It lasted about 40 minutes and I avoided the hills, but I'm calling it a success. Now tomorrow I'll need to remember my iPod. 

So I get home around 4:15 with the WORST headache (okay, I used to get migraines, so really I'm just whining here, it wasn't that bad) so I decide to cuddle with Skittles (my mystery flavored cat) and take a quick nap. That lasted until 10pm. Yeah, I'm screwed tonight, huh? The upside is even after eating pot stickers for dinner I still have 11 points left, thanks to free fruit! The new WW plan is kind of awesome. Bananas once two points...FREE! Apples...FREE! Pears...FREE! It basically rocks my mismatched socks. 

Overall, I'm feeling good. I went grocery shopping and wrote the points on everything I got. I wanted to do some cooking, but who am I kidding? That either happens on the weekends, or it just doesn't happen. So frozen dinners and low-sodium soup it is this week. When Saturday and Sunday come around, I'll re-assess. 

I weighed-in at 177.6 on my personal scale this morning. That's pretty bad. But it'll go down. Off to enjoy some apple slices with caramel and cheese cubes! <3

It's (almost) game time!

Well, today was my planned last day of eating whatever I wanted. And let me tell you, I ate like we are either headed for a famine or the world is ending tomorrow. And who is to say either of those couldn't happen? For lunch I ate at Chili's. I had southwestern egg rolls (complete with ranch-ish dipping sauce), a bowl of chili (topped with cheese), and TWO cherry cokes. Dinner was sushi and consisted of a #5 roll (rice, spicy tuna, and other stuff, covered in some oil, eel sauce, ginger, and dipped in reduced-sodium soy sauce), vegetable tempura, a couple of bites of beef deliciousness, a bite of chicken breaded in what looked like mini-Kix (cereal), and TWO cokes. And as I sit here and type this, I'm munching on dark chocolate and diet soda. 

Other than my less than healthy food choices, it was a productive day. I went to the book store and picked up a fresh copy of the Beck Diet Solution Workbook and also a copy of The SuperFoodsRx Diet. 

The Beck Diet Solution is a cognitive therapy book. The idea is that by following the program, you will change the way you think. I tried it in August, school started, and I stopped. I also didn't do everything it said to do, which could have been part of the problem.

I'm still doing Weight Watchers (which I'll be shortening to "WW"), but I pretty much just wanted to see what this book had to say about these "SuperFoods". Plus, it comes with recipes, and there are never too many recipes.

After dinner I also stopped at Trader Joe's (hence the diet soda and the dark chocolate). Picked me up some fruit, nuts, and other "good" stuff to get me through the day tomorrow. Tomorrow is also pay day, and designated "I'm not going to the boyfriend's house after work" day so I'll have time to go grocery shopping for more interesting food then. My hope for tomorrow is that this rain stops, so I can get my walk in during my lunch hour. 

I'm feeling optimistic. I'm a bit nervous about what the scale is going to say to me in the morning, but there is nothing I can do about it now (except perhaps put down the chocolate?)...I've got some final preparations to do, so farewell for now!

New year, new me?

It's that time again. You know, that time where you tell yourself you are going to change. Really, truly, honestly going to change. That this time, something is going to be different. That this year, you are going to set a New Year's resolution, and that this year, you are really going to follow through. Yeah, it's that time for me, too.

I hate New Year's resolutions. They never last. I've never made one and stuck with it for more than a couple of months (and the year that it lasted months rather than days was just a fluke...). So, though I'm starting this around the New Year, it's not a "New Year's Resolution"; we'll call it my "New Life Resolution." 

So, about me: I'm 22. I just finished college two weeks ago. With a degree I may never use [Geography]. Luckily I've been working on campus for a little over four years, and in that time I was eventually promoted to a temporary staff member...meaning I finished school with a job pretty much lined up. Yay me. So that takes away the stress of finding a job (for now). And with school being over, I feel like I really want to focus on me for a while. I'm going to have to figure out how to balance working full time, seeing my family (that lives about 60 miles away), and seeing my boyfriend (that lives 40 miles away...in the opposite direction from my family), all with my main priority of getting healthy.

Getting healthy history: In July this past year I joined Weight Watchers. It worked for my mom, and I got to the point where I knew I needed to make a change (needing a nap everyday after work [which is a desk job] really puts things into perspective). It isn't that I'm obese. At this point, I'm only mildly overweight. But if I continue down the path I'm on, I will be very overweight, and probably obese, before I hit 30. At 5'9", 169 is considered a normal weight (...though normalcy is relative). In July I weighed-in at 184. By the end of August, I was down to 175. That is when I began to fall off track. School started and I used that as an excuse to stop focusing of my diet. And during that time I did nothing as far as exercise goes. I could not get myself to do it. Laziness, at its finest. I have been on and off of my diet for about a month now, and I have not weighed-in recently (I'd guess Weight Watchers would put me at about 176-179).

So here I am, declaring to the world (or perhaps declaring to my imaginary world) that I will get fit. I will eat healthy. I will workout. And I will do this for me.

As far as my method, I'm still a bit iffy on that one. I plan to continue Weight Watchers. They rolled out their new plan in November, but I haven't followed it for a single week yet. So that's part one. I'll need to figure out some sort of exercise routine. Jillian Michaels videos? P90X? C25K? I have no idea. Maybe I'll just start by using my lunch breaks to walk around campus (it is hilly). Or join a boot camp. 

I'm also not sure exactly what I'll be using the blog for (food blog? exercise accountability? random rants? all of the above?). But I'm going to play around with it and try to keep it entertaining. 

Day one will be Monday, January 3rd. Sunday will be planning day. And I look forward to sharing this experience with the world. Good night!