Hooray For Sunday.
I woke up this morning anxious for the weigh in. I didn’t know if I had done enough this week so I kind of expected the worst (I’m not saying this for dramatic effect, I was scared.) So I got on the scale and much to my surprise, I lost 2.8 pounds this week! Hooray! So now I am 97.2 lbs away from my 100 pound goal. Megan lost exactly 1 pound this week so she has lost a total of 10.6 pounds so far. Right now, I’m exactlty 1 pound away from 20 pounds so hopefully we can get rid of that this week!
Breakfast: I had 2 multigrain waffles (3 points) with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (5 points) and 1 tsp of honey (1 point.) Usually on Sunday I have to eat something pretty hearty because I’m starving after church (to me, sitting in church when you are hungry is like the worst thing ever.) This filled me up for a good while.
Lunch: So we had a luncheon at church for new members so the church prepared the lunch. They had fried chicken, I thought “oh crap, I’m screwed.” I thought about getting a drumstick, but instead I got some corn (1 point,) steamed squash (1 point,) a serving of baked beans (2 points) and a deviled egg (2 points.) I thought a drumstick would be really bad, but they are only 3 points so in hind sight I should have just bit the fried bullet.
I still feel like I’m walking on egg shells every time I’m eating something that I don’t know the points of, but I guess this is something that is up for debate: is it better to just eat it and use your flex points if it is super bad or is it better to be safe than sorry? Thoughts?
Here’s what I think, it’s really easy to give an inch, and before you know it that inch becomes a foot. I thought that if I could justify the drumstick, then I would have easily justified the broccoli casserole and then the mac n’ cheese. I think if we were truly honest with ourselves, we do that all the time and it is such a slippery slope. I feel like I have made such progress with my addiction to food that I can’t let myself get in to those situations because I have done that time and time again. Some people might think that I am depriving myself of those foods because with WW you really can eat what you want, but frankly I have had those delicious-but-unhealthy foods all my life. What I have really been depriving is my health and my body all this time. To some this might be extreme, but it’s what I need to do for myself to get this weight thing under control. On a side note, I just want to thank my friends at lunch for their support, the whole time they were impressed with what they called my discipline, it was what I needed then to just keep on keepin’ on (they know who they are.)
Wow.. blogging is super cathartic.
Snack/Continuation of Lunch: When we were grocery shopping, we bought some Hebrew National 94% Fat Free Hot Dogs and I’m so glad we did. When we were watching the Rangers slowing unravel my heart out by out, I cooked up 2 dogs (which are only 1 point a dog so 2 points.) and wrapped them up in bread (total of 4 points) and then added some ketchup and mustard, oh and a pickle to each since they are zero calories (holla!) I’m sure that looks gross to you but it was the comfort food I needed to get through a devastating loss.
Dinner: We made our stellar Tamale Casserole. It was 12 points of amazing happiness. That’s all that needs to be said. (Yes, this is a stock photo. I like this picture. Sue me.)
So after a roller coaster of an emotional day, I totaled out at 33 points which was right at my points for the day. Hooray! See ya tomorrow.
Congrats on the continued losses!
Here’s my thoughts on the indulgence foods: you have to play it by ear. Weight Watchers (or any serious attempt to lose weight and change your eating habits) isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle change. If you always think of it as a diet, then its easy to think of it as something you’ll stop doing one day, and then you risk going back to the way things were. The ultimate goal should be to develop a healthy relationship with all foods.
In the early stages, I think it is probably better to avoid trigger foods entirely. You’re still learning to listen to your body and discovering how much better it feels when you eat well, and it is better to avoid temptation until you are ready to handle it. I still won’t order a pizza or make cookies unless I’m going to be sharing with other people because I know I can’t control myself.
That said, once you get more comfortable with the changes you’ve made, it’s absolutely okay to splurge every now and then, so long as you know that you can stop before you go overboard. Life will occasionally throw you fried chicken, and lets face it, a life completely devoid of fried chicken is no life at all. If you’ve been good, an occasional piece of fried chicken, or cake, or pizza, or pie, or whatever else (note the “occasional” and “or”) isn’t going to derail the whole works, so long as you’re reasonable. That’s my experience, anyway.
Congrats on the loss! That’s awesome!!! I totally understand the fear of being in a situation where you aren’t in control of your food and you don’t know the points. I agree with Sarah that once you get control of your food and have more time on plan you can learn how to splurge without going overboard. I ate two cupcakes on Saturday but I planned for them. It was a huge celebration and if I don’t show a loss tomorrow I’m okay with that because I worked really hard and had an amazing time at the party where I ate mostly fruit and veggies so I was completely proud of my food choices. You’ll learn a lot on this journey and you’re doing a fabulous job! Keep up the great work!
A tip about fried chicken, you can take off the skin and it will only be 3pts or so. The grease doesn’t hit the actual meat. 🙂
As for filling food suggestions, I’m a big fan of bananas. And any way you can get veggies into your diet is great. Green giant has single servings of stuff that already has the points on it! One of my fave veggie dishes is mixed veggies with a wedge of laughing cow cheese mixed in. SO GOOD!
If you haven’t discovered the amazingness of Laughing Cow, you’re missing out. 😉
Oh and congrats on the loss! Rockstar!!
Yah for an awesome weigh in day! 😀
I think avoiding the foods with unknown points values is the way to go; I set a rule for myself, if I can’t calculate the points I don’t eat the food, that way I have a reason to not indulge in a donut someone brings in to work, or a cupcake, or a cookie – a lot of people bring in a lot of bad-for-you foods at my work. lol.
Really, it’s not like any of us need that random cupcake or fried chicken so why waste the points on it? I totally agree with your inch/mile thing. I know with me, if I tell myself it’s ok to have a slice of cake at work then it becomes that much easier to say yes to the donuts that show up the next day, or the cookies or whatever. Those little unplanned indulgences can lead to larger mistakes and worse choices.
For me, when really tempted by something I know I don’t really need and will regret later I visualize my scale and how unhappy I will be if my next weigh in doesn’t have me at a lower weight, it helps me to fully realize the food isn’t worth the set back to my weight loss timeline. 🙂
Keep up the good work, Nathan!! So proud of you!