The Skinny On January

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Weight Watchers- Day 3

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

A Healthy Breakfast

Today was pretty good. I like our usual breakfast. The oatmeal is filling and according to our friend Ryan, via his wife Staci (can’t wait until he gets his site up), it is the best grain in that it contains a lot of magnesium and helps to heal the gut. When I was in Utah visiting my great friend Staci, she made oatmeal every morning and served it with blueberries. I picked up this good habit from her and we have been making it every morning since then. I use raw agave (love this stuff and got the idea to use it on oatmeal from her as well) instead of brown sugar. I also like that I get a serving of antioxidant-rich blueberries every morning. It’s just a great breakfast! So, I at least start every morning "on the right foot".

Going Out To Eat

We went to Chompie’s today for my brother’s birthday. If you want to have a heart attack, that is your restaurant! Even the "healthy" choices were full of unneeded calories. I attempted to eat a vegetarian sandwich. It was made up of 3 layers. So, I took off one piece of bread and attempted to make it a normal sandwich. After the first bite, I realized I was going to drown in veggie cream cheese. After 5 minutes of trying to scrape enough cream cheese of, I gave up and pushed it away. It would not my my choice for a Weight Watcher friendly place to dine. Yes, there was a fruit platter and we ordered it, but it left much to be wanted. It wasn’t that great. The desserts are so full of crap that is what they taste like…crap! Sorry, but it’s true.

If you are going to be watching calories or doing points, then I’d go to a much friendlier place to eat. The Dining Out Companion that WW has made is helpful. If you find yourself needing to eat out, then you can quickly look up the lower point options.

I also made the soup again today and enjoyed that. I wonder what I’ll replace that with when I get sick of it. Maybe a different soup or bowls of fruit or veggies. Having a low calorie/low point snack around helps a lot. I fill up on healthy foods while not over eating.

What I Ate

I’m going to break down my points today for you. I mean, that is what Weight Watcher’s Flex Plan is about, eating and keeping track of points, right?

Breakfast:
2 cups oatmeal- 4 points
1 tablespoon raw agave nectar- 1 point
1/2 cup wild organic blueberries- 0 points

Mid-morning Snack (this was Chompie’s):
1/2 small bagel with butter- 5 points
2/3 cup home fries- 5 points

Lunch at Home:
a little over 1 cup of home made fried rice: 8 points
an orange: 1 points
one of grandma Ellen’s rolls: 4 points (honestly, this is a guess)

Afternoon Snack:
another roll: 4 points
a banana: 1 point
a McDonald’s ice cream cone: 3 points

Dinner at Home:
the garden veggie soup: 0 points
blueberries and blackberries: 1 point
one more roll: 4 points

Total points: 41 points
1 under my allowed points.

Overview So Far

I did pretty well today. I liked that I have the soup at 0 points and then can have my points to eat a roll with it. That works out great! I am liking that I am more aware of what I am eating and that I am being more accountable and responsible. I got so used to just eating whatever I wanted while I was pregnant. When I was pregnant with my second child, Trent, it was opposite. It was like an automatic portion control set into my body. That was wonderful. During this last pregnancy though, I ate a ton! Literally! I would go out to eat and order an appetizer, 2 meals and dessert, just for me. I didn’t think twice about it or feel bad about it either. I thought it would subside after I had her, but once my milk came in and I was fully nursing it continued.

I also notice that I am becoming more health conscious again. I am stopping to think about what I’m eating; what it’s made up of and if there is anything harmful in it. I might still eat it, but hey, I’m starting to care again.

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Day 2 on Weight Watchers

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

How Day 2 Went

So, today was interesting. I went over my points, but I was able to recognize why. For one, I didn’t have the soup today. That was such a great help. I became really hungry before lunch and ended up making home made cheese quesadillas. While they were darn tasty, the were not filling. After that I went on a serious carb craving binge. It could have been worse, but I noticed I just was not satisfied.

What I Ate

Breakfast: 2 cups oatmeal with 1 tbsp raw agave and 1/2 cup organic wild blueberries
Morning Snack: banana, orange and 1/2 avocado
Lunch: 2 tortillas with raw cheese and salsa
Snack: hot chocolate with whipped cream, 1 roll (Grandma Ellen made rolls and brought them over…dangerous!), Air popped popcorn w/2 tbsp organic butter
Dinner: 1/2 serving of Chic-fil-a chicken*, small fries, few sips lemonade, my McDonald’s ice cream cone
Snack: an orange

Total points today was actually 52! I went 10 over.
I have spent 10/35 of my extra free points for the week.

*This is the first time I have eaten chicken in months. I go through spurts of no chicken, because I read about how nasty it is processed, then I’ll give in and eat it for a while. When I am eating meat I really try to eat it from local farms where I know they are raised, what they are fed and how they are killed. I guess it makes me feel better.

What’s Up For Tomorrow

Make the soup! Seriously, I need the soup. OK, this is starting to remind me of Seinfeld. "NO SOUP FOR YOU!" I fell better having the treats when I’m eating more fruits and veggies, plus they fill me up and are low in calories.

Weight Watchers seems to knock ya for higher fat, but I like fat, especially when it comes from raw dairy. I’m gonna focus on eating good fats and protein. We’ll see how it goes.

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Weight Watchers; A 30 Day Trial

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

The Low Down

That’s right, you read it right. I have officially signed up for Weight Watchers. If someone told me a year ago that I would join WW I would have told them to get off the crack! Seriously, I was eating healthy and on top of the world. When I lost 60 lbs before becoming pregnant with Annabelle, I had it good. We spent about $1200/month on food. We were members of 4 farms and 2 organic produce co-ops, shopped at Whole Foods and Central Market. We ate all raw dairy, sprouted grains, mostly organic and a ton of delicious produce. I walked 6 days a week with Tatum and Trent in a double jogger with a friend or my husband. It was great. I was at a really good place.

Then we moved. I didn’t realize it would have such a big impact. I did know the main thing (besides some great friends) that I would miss about Dallas was the good food we had there. After being back in AZ over 8 months now, I am just beginning to get the resources I want and they are nothing like TX. That’s OK though. Also, I don’t have the same support. I am at home, with 3 kids and no car. Bummer.

I would normally tell you I don’t believe in counting calories. Interesting and humbling that I find myself in this position. I just haven’t had the motivation to stop and look at what I’m eating. I have taken all my good habits, crumbled them up and thrown them out the window, while opening the door to crappy old habits. So, I’m searching in myself to find those great habits I had formed. Why not do that with some support and with a breath of fresh air?!

Weight Watcher Plans

Right now, WW has 2 plans. The Flex Plan and The Core Plan. They give you a run down of what they are on their website. You can choose either plan and actually switch back and forth between them week by week.

The Flex Plan is their one and only Points System. It’s just like counting calories. Each food is given a point value based on calories, fat and fiber grams. You can use a slider given to you when you sign up and use the label to figure out the points. Also, there is a food companion and dining out guide you can buy to tell you the points of thousands of foods. Let’s say you eat a tortilla at a restaurant. They take 3 tortillas and average the nutritional value of the 3 and give you the points of the average. Pretty nifty, huh?

So, you are given a point value based on things like gender, age, if you are nursing (oh ya baby, I get extra points!), height and so on. You add up your points throughout the day and try to eat them all with out going over unless you are using some of your extra 35 free points you get for the week.

Then there is the newer Core Plan. Now, I personally think this rocks, because it is basically how I ate when I lost weight before. On the core plan you get a freakin’ awesome list of healthy foods that you can eat all you want of. You get 35 points for the week to use for things that aren’t on the list, like bread and ice cream. This way you can have a treat and not go nuts that it’s not on the list!

Personally, I think the Core Plan is healthier, but the Flex Plan is by far easier. I’m starting on the Flex Plan this week and counting points.

The Break Down

All right, I get 42 points (32 normally and 10 for nursing). That’s right, I’m fat. Get over it. That’s why were here though, right? Because I need to get skinny, not because I already am. If I was skinny, then maybe I could have named this, "Ha ha, I’m already skinny and you’re not". Just kidding. That would feel nice though, I won’t lie.

I weighed in at 246.6.pounds. OK, that totally sucks. It sucks bad. I want to scream at that. Did I mention it’s sucky?

Size 20.

First Goal is supposed to be 10% of your weight, so that will be a loss of 24 lbs for me.

My Healthy Weight starts at 160 pounds according to WW.

My Personal Goals is to get to 200 again and a size 16, then get to 150!

Day One

Today was fun. Of course it was, because it’s all new stuff. It’s like opening a new present that you get to mess with and play around with. The problem with something like this is that you can get bored of it just like the novelty of the new present may wear off. That’s what’s supposed to be great about WW though, is that you go every week and get support to stay on track. Actually, WW says that people who attend all their meeting and use their etools online are 50% more successful.

I actually ate 11 points under what I’m supposed to, finishing the day at 31 points eaten. I wasn’t going to post what I eat, but isn’t that what you really want to see?

Here goes:

Breakfast: 1.5 cups oatmeal, 1 tbsp. raw agave nectar, 1/2 cup wild organic blueberries
Morning Snack: an orange and a small banana
Lunch: Garden Veggie Soup (recipe by WW and 0 points), crackers
Early Afternoon snack: handful of pecans and handful of grape tomatoes, small banana, a little later I had a McDonald’s vanilla cone (only 3 points)*
Late Afternoon snack: G.T.’s Synergy Kombucha, another bowl of the veggie soup, few bites of a tortilla
Dinner: tomatoes, sea salt, basil, fresh and minced garlic, 1 tbsp olive oil all baked and served on multigrain pasta.

*Somehow McDonald’s vanilla cones have become my weakness and treat right now. I’m such a hypocrite, I’ll admit it. Don’t start throwing the stones though, I am human. They need to open a Paciugo’s here, like NOW!

What’s Next?

I was right. Doing this made me stop and think about what I was eating. I didn’t have my usual 10 handfuls of chocolate chips today. So sad. That’s OK, I can have them if I want to use all my points/calories on them! What’s the fun in that though? I also think the soup is great, because I get my veggies with very low calories and it’s a filler.

I didn’t like my meeting. My leader was an old lady that had no spunk. She’d ask a question and you could hear the crickets in the back ground. I answered a few times out of pity. I’ll be finding a different meeting.

On to Day 2…

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Idea Brewing

Monday, February 4th, 2008

Hi! I’m still here. Sorry I haven’t posted in a bit. I have had a very hormonal week! Seems like 4 months after having a baby isn’t enough time to be back to "normal" again. Thinking about it though, what is normal?

I have a 30 day trial I am brewing right now. I am deciding what I want to do and how to do it. I will be back soon to post about it and to get started!

January

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Finding Balance for an Inner Peace

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

Yes, I ate a McDonald’s ice cream cone yesterday and I loved every minute of it. In fact my daughter didn’t want her’s so I had 2! You can call me a hypocrite, crazy, or say good for you! I don’t care. I need a balance between being healthy and enjoying life! When I became healthier and lost weight before I would still get treats, but always the best. I used to eat Pacuigo’s gelato once or twice a week! I had found a good balance that worked for me.

It’s this balance that I am struggling with now. I’m in a different state (TX vs. AZ), environment, around different people, the elements of my family have changed (a new baby), my body is different (another pregnancy and now nursing). Finding the right balance can be a bit tricky. It’s kind of touch and go until one day you realize things feel right. You feel great, look great, have a good rhythm to your day and your family is happier. This is what I am working on now. This is where my journey is at the moment. It’s kind of exciting actually. I get to write my life. I am the author with a pen in my hand (or a keyboard in front of me) getting to decide not only what is going to happen today, but also what the next chapter will hold for me.

I am ready Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace. Now that’s quite a bit to ingest at first. To tell you the truth it’s a pretty book. That may sound strange, but it really does feel good to have around.

Chapter one or the first secret is to "Have a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing". That is a big concept to grasp. To do this, you must let go of all conditioning, preconceived ideas and what you have learned to be true. This is so much more to this life, this world, than we know. What we know is nothing, but a tiny piece of a bigger picture. Anything is possible. Anything! If you realize that you know just about nothing about anything, then you will see that there is no reason to have a closed mind about anything.

Since anything is possible, and there is much to this universe we don’t know then you can create anything you want, right? Have you heard the quote, "With God all things are possible."? I love that Wayne Dyer used this in his book. It is so true. If you do not think that you can do anything your heart desires, then you do not believe that with God all things are possible. It’s that simple. Do you believe or don’t you? Break down those barriers and layers of crap and get to your core. Have the faith of child. Believe!

How can you be open to everything? Wayne Dyer makes a bold statement. When someone suggest something to you that goes against you conditioning, instead of saying, "That’s ridiculous or impossible", say, "I’ve never considered that before, I’ll think about it!" Try doing this for a week and see if it opens your mind. You might realize that you are more negative than you think of yourself to be.

Another statement to make you think is this. "Let go of your attachments to what you’ve been trained to believe. Open your mind to all possibilities, because whether you believe something is possible or impossible, either way you’ll be right."

He believes that your attachments are a source of all your problems. You can be attached to things, people, the need to be right, to win, etc. By being open minded you can resist these attachments and have inner peace and success.

So, how do you release attachments? Change how you see yourself. There are two sides to people. Their ego and their spirit. Taming your ego and letting your spirit shine through to guide your life is key. Be a witness in your life. Have peaceful thoughts and then you’ll have peaceful emotions. You can still desire, but don’t be attached.

One more thing from the book. Let’s say you have two wands. With Wand A you can have anything physical you desire and with Wand B you can have a sense of peace for the rest of your life regardless of anything that comes up in your life. If you pick peace then you already have Wand B. Think about it. If you can love someone enough for them to be what they choose to be without any expectations or attachments from you then you will have true peace in your life. "True love means you love a person for what they are , not for what you think they should be. This is an open mine—and an absence of attachment"

That is awesome! It is very inspiring. Thank you Dr. Wayne Dyer!

I’ll give an example of how I had to let go of a physical attachment just a few minutes ago. I received a birthday present from a good friend. Something I had wanted that was cute and just for me. It just arrived and I pulled it out of the package. I had used a pair of scissors to open the package. I walked away for a minute to grab something and my 4 year old daughter jumped up on the counter, grabbed the scissor and cut the beautiful ribbon that went across the present. The ribbon was not on the packaging, but was actually part of the object. My first reaction was to be upset. I wanted to feel sorry for myself because I had just received it and already it was "ruined"! I wanted my daughter to feel bad, to have remorse. Then I stopped myself. It is a thing, an object. Does it really matter? Why am I attached to the point of being upset over it? So, I grabbed the scissor and cut off the ribbon and left the pretty bow and no one will even know.

It is interesting to me how attached we can be. Here are some things I am going to work on not being attached to:

-Anything physical in my life including bags, clothes, our TV, computer, and my phone. I learned that it was easy to live without a phone this week as I had left it in Utah and haven’t had an alternative. It wasn’t so bad. More peaceful actually!

-My hurt feelings and pride.

-Food :roll: