Happy Woofie Dance!!!

4 pounds, baby! I'm pretty sure it could have been 5 if I'd had a slightly lighter hand on the salt shaker last night @ supper. But, I'm taking my victory anyway and not dwelling on the "what if I'd..." Those "what if I'd..."'s have gotten me into nothing but trouble and depression and they are hereby verboten. So there. It was so exciting to be able to go the Ticker Factory and update my weightloss ticker to say 241. I now have less than 100 pounds to lose. Wow. Sure, I still have a ways to go and it won't all be wine and roses, but, allow me to bask in the glow of losing 4 pounds. If we want to get all technical about it, when I weighed on 02/19 (my start date) I was @ 250. So, I've really lost 9 pounds. How kewl is that?

I also found out when I was grocery shopping last night (which I did with my Points Finder) that I've been short changing myself 2 Pts/day because my string cheese is actually only 1 Point per serving. Oh, well. :-)

I stayed within my DPAs yesterday, even with going out to eat. I'm darn proud of that fact!

On a whim, I checked my fasting blood sugar this AM. It was 113. That means that I need to add my metformin back in the evening, but that's okay. It's only temporary because I'm certain that when I've lost a bit more weight I won't need it to keep my blood sugar under control. Thankfully, with this program, I'm not having hypoglycemia attacks. I just don't want it to swing the other direction. I've thus far managed to not become Type 2 diabetic, and I would like that to continue. I'm also hoping that the program will also help me get my triglycerides and total cholesterol down so that I can get off the gemfibrozil, too. That would be awesome.

S. & I are supposed to go work out this evening when I get off the bus. It's gonna depend on how he's feeling if we go work out. He had a bad night and his ankle was hurting yesterday. I did bring my clothes so I can go even if he doesn't feel up to it. If he doesn't want to, I may see if he'll meet me @ the transfer point and take my bookbag & stuff home so I don't have to worry about stowing it. I don't know if the lockers @ the Y have locks. If not, I'll see what their regulations for locks are and if combos are allowed, I'll get one in the bookstore tomorrow.

Anyway. Week 1 down. :-)

Happy Tuesday

Still doing well. I stayed within (got to 0) my DPAs and earned 3 APs yesterday. Since we've planned to go out to supper tonight before we go to the supermarket, I didn't bring the brekkie casserole to save those 4 points. Instead, I had an apple dipped in my yogurt, which was quite tasty. I have a piece of string cheese to have for my snack, which I'm doing now. I'm a bit hungrier at this point in the day than I was yesterday or last week, but not too bad. This week, I'm really going to make the effort to not use any of my WPAs so I can see what that does to my weight. Then, next week, I'm going to eat all of them and see what that does. Some people say that you lose better when you eat all of your Points. We'll see. I might alternate like this, just so my body doesn't get used to the same old thing, sort of like changing up your exercise routine.

I saw an interesting idea for the brekkie casserole. It should further reduce the number of Points/serving... make it in a muffin pan. I'll just have to see how nasty my muffin pan is and get a new one if it's truly pathetic (which I full expect it to be). Anyway, I thought it was an interesting idea. :-)

I'm really looking forward to getting back into the gym, even if I can't swim for a while. Upon further research, it seems like the rash on my legs is a fungal infection. So, I'll get some anti-fungal cream and treat it for a couple of weeks. If it's not gone in 2 weeks, then I'll see the doc about it, because it's probably not a fungal infection. Even if it is gone by then, I'll need to keep up with the treatment for a further two weeks to make sure it's gone gone. So, that means no pool for me for the first month, but that's alright. There should be plenty of cardio equipment for me to use in the interim. Plus, it's getting nice enough to walk outside, too. It's mostly the weights and the pool we're joining for (and the body composition analysis/personal trainer), so it's all good. I'll have to make sure that I don't over do the weights at the outset; that I remind myself that it's been quite some time since I lifted & I won't be at that same level for a while.

So, this week is off to a good start. I'm actually looking forward to weighing in tomorrow. This AM it was 241, so we'll just hope it stays in that basic area (241/242) or edges a bit lower by tomorrow AM. That would so totally rock! It's so gorram difficult for me to lose weight that 5 pounds my first week would be awesome! I guess we'll just have to see, eh? If I can lose 5 pounds at this week's WI and another 3-4 at next week's, I'll feel assured that this is, indeed, the program for me. I know that my weight loss will inch to a crawl after that, but that's okay. If I'm seeing the overall trend as a downward progression, it's all good. :-)

To sleep, perchance to dream...

I'm still not sleeping like I'd like to. I might have had a better shot at it last night if Miss Cleo hadn't decided to start caterwauling at about 2:30AM. S. got up and got her and brought her into the bedroom, whereupon she laid down on me and went to sleep. She got up about 20 minutes later and went back into the living room, but was mostly quiet the rest of the night. I hope that it's not something wrong with her, but we've already decided we won't wait to take her to the vet if it keeps up.

I stepped on the scale and stepped off and back on just to make sure it really said what I thought I'd seen... While not my "official" WI, I was at 242 this morning. Damn! So, unofficially, I've lost 8 pounds so far. I am hoping that it's something even close to that (starting from 245) by Wednesday. S. & I have decided to move our Y joining date up to tomorrow so we can make sure we can get in there and start working out. I may have to wait on the pool for a bit to see if the rash on my legs goes away. If it does, then no problem. If not, I'll have the doctor check it out to make sure it's nothing contagious. I'd hate to give something to someone. It looked better this morning, so I don't know. If I can't get in the pool right away, I'll use the stationary bike or the treadmill as my cardio equipment until I can get into the pool. Besides, I need to dig my bathing suit out of the back room where it was "packed". S. is going Wednesday to buy some workout clothes & athletic shoes & we're gonna start working out on Wednesday. Yay! He's not actually following the program with me to a T, but he's at least willing to eat OP with me for supper, which helps.

I dunno how it'll work, but I'm gonna shoot for not going into my WPAs or use any of my APs this week. I'll make sure I'm eating all my DPAs, but not go over. I don't know if that will be do-able, but that's my goal. Here's to another healthy week!

The insomnia daemon

Well, I decided to "cheat" a little yesterday and have some coconut drops while I was out at the desk. The bag had 10 Points, but that's okay. I ended up eating about 15 Points worth of food while we were @ Ryan's, which I counted in my WPAs because the coconut drops used up the last of my DPAs. That's OK. I have plenty of WPAs, so I figured it was a good use of them, to go out to supper with my Wolf. :-) I had set myself the goal of earning 7 APs this week, and I've earned 3 so far. I'm getting ready to go do a 10-15 minute walk, so I'll get another AP. At my weight, I have to walk 20 minutes to earn 2, but that's okay. I expect I'll earn the rest of them tomorrow at the Indoor Track Championships that I'm volunteering at.

I'm still not sleeping well and I'm beginning not to trust my perceptions or my balance. I'm going to go home tonight and have some supper and then take a hot shower and take 2 Tylenol PMs and go to bed EARLY (like 9:30PM or so). Maybe that will give me enough time in the bed to catch up some. I know you can't really catch up on lost sleep, but I've got to pretend to. Otherwise, I just don't know what I'm gonna do.

Anyway. I'm back on program for today. I don't even feel that old "well, I screwed up yesterday, so I might as well give up and have a bag of Oreos" thing. I'm just back on program. Maybe this will actually work for me. Gods! Wouldn't that be nice for a change? A weightloss program that actually helps me lose weight? Oh, and get healthy? What a novel concept.

Maybe my walk (outside, where it's cooled down a LOT since yesterday) will help me wake up some. Let's find out.

Still going strong...

Day 4 & I'm still going strong. P. & I are going out for supper tonight, so we'll see how I do @ a buffet. Since there is a salad bar, I should be able to mitigate the damage and get some of my daily servings of veggies. :-) I'm doing great with my water... maybe too good. I'll look up the effects of too much water and see if that's what's causing my insomnia. If so, I'll have to find something else to drink. For this week, I've been getting around 4 32 oz. bottles. I don't think that's too much, but I guess it could be. All I know is that this bout of insomnia is kicking my ass in a serious way. While I'm at the desk, I'll see if I can research insomnia and what I can do about it. I'm hoping that it's just a combination of too much stress lately and not enough exercise and that, now that I'm getting more exercise and am not under nearly the amount of stress, I'll start sleeping better. I'm not sure if there are other medical conditions that can cause insomnia, but I'm going to see Dr. M on 03/09, so we'll start ruling them out if there are.

I'm wearing my new khakis today. I really think that, by the time I go see the doc, I'll be in a 22. These are actually a bit looser than they seemed to be @ the store. I'm really okay with that, even if I am wierded out by the fact that I'm wearing the first pants with a button and zipper in at least 2 years.

Our kit came yesterday, so I'm eagerly pouring over all of the information (of which there is a plethora). I've got just at 2 weeks before my doctors' appointments. Is it the height of wishful thinking to hope for at least a 5 pound loss by then? By my scale, that will put me at 240 & their scale will weigh me approximately 10 pounds higher. I guess we'll just have to see. We'll have joined the Y between now & then and I'll be eating on plan, so I suppose anything is possible.

Adventures in shopping & Staying on Program

I really want to congratulate myself on staying on program for three days in a row so far. That may not seem like a lot, but... Granted, I didn't quite get all of my Points on Monday, but I got up late and had a headache/migraine, so... I find it interesting that I didn't eat all my Points on Monday, and the scale said 250 on Tuesday... I eat all of them yesterday, and this AM the scale said 245. *shrug* I guess there is something to the idea that you have to eat to lose weight. I'm probably going to continue weighing everyday until we join the Y and we hide the home scale and only weigh in at the Y. I do need to make sure that I'm taking my meds like I should... I've been mostly ok, but I've been spotty, too. They really do me no good if I don't take them.

I had to go out and get a pair of khaki pants for my volunteer gig this weekend. I was, to be honest, a bit nervous about that because I've not bought anything with a button and zipper in a LONG time. It also turns out that most of the "normal" stores like Penney's, Sears and the like only go up to 24. Actually, I think that Sears only went up to 22 - or they were completely out of 24s or something. Anyway. My knit pants are a 24 so I wasn't really holding out much hope that I'd be able to find any, but I found a couple of pairs @ Penney's and held my breath that I could fit into them. I didn't want to try on those pants and have them be too small, you know? Thankfully, they have some stretch to them so they fit okay. I look HUGE in them, but at least they fit. I decided then and there that those are the absolutely LAST pair I buy in that size or larger. Every other pair of pants I buy for myself will be smaller, dammit.

I'm realistic enough to know that I will most likely never fit into a single digit size, though that would be nice - even once. However, I'll be thrilled with a 10/12 or 12/14. Once I'm approaching those sizes, I'm gonna start looking for some club wear. I don't know precisely how much time or inclination I'll have for the club scene at my age, but, darn it... I've never really had the body for the club scene, and I will soon, so. There. Plus, even if I never wear it out, my hubby will like seeing me in it anyway. :-)

Well, that explains some things...

Okay, it's been a long time since my last post (again). But, in the intervening 6+ months, I've discovered some things...

Thing 1: South Beach Diet does work, but not for the reasons that I thought it did...

Thing 2: I'm at least sensitive to gluten, if not downright intolerant of it. That means that my body dislikes anything with wheat, barley, or rye in it... I've further pinpointed it to know that, while my body doesn't like any of those things, it really doesn't like wheat.

So, late last year, I tried giving up gluten. Even eating copious amounts of rice, corn, potatoes and other carb-filled goodies, I lost about 5 pounds almost overnight. The weightloss then stalled, but it was a good indicator that I needed to stay far away from gluten. So, it wasn't really the carbs that were doing me in, it was the carbs full of gluten. I've stayed mostly gluten free since then, but I do occasionally try wheat to see if it was an abberation, only to find out that, no, it really does make me sick.

But, I was still not losing weight.

I know several people who have had really good luck with Weight Watchers. Unfortunately, I don't have a way to the meetings (even if I could scrape up the $50/month), so I was left with minimal options. I looked into the online program, but it's also kind of pricey. I did find, however, that they have an At Home program. Since S. has agreed to do it with me, I figured that the At Home kit would be a good investment. So, we're gonna start WW. Well, I kind of already have, since C. sent me some info about points and whatnot. S. & I need to find a scale that will weigh him accurately and designate it as our "Weigh In" scale, which we will then use once a week. At the end of the month, we're planning to join the Y, so I'm hoping there will be one there. If not, then we'll have to find one we can use at home and hide it except for WI day. I get so obsessed about the numbers on the scale that weighing in once a week will just have to do. I'll keep my food journal and make sure I'm hitting, but not exceeding, my Points, drinking my water, and doing my exercise. If I'm doing everything OP, then the scale will reflect that. If it doesn't, then Dr. M and I will be having another talk. But, for now, I'm going to take it on faith that, if I eat quality foods of the correct point total (31/day + 35/week), drink at least 64oz of water and get at least 30 min/day of exercise, my weight will go down. I'm having issues with taking things on faith lately, so we'll consider this an exercise. :-)

According to our scale @ home, I'm starting this journey at 250 pounds. My 10% goal, then, is 25 pounds and you're supposed to allow 6 months for that. Part of me whines "that's sooooo slow", but I know that they want to set your first goal as very acheivable, and that is (at least in theory). So, I'll suck it up and set that as my goal. 25 pounds by August 1. We'll just have to see.