Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

Okay, after my dance with the hormonally-driven and emotionally-driven eating I did starting Thursday of last week, I fully expected to step on the scale this AM for my weekly weigh-in and see a maintain or a gain. Nope. In fact, I'm down 6.2 pounds, which is my 2nd highest loss in a week since I've started WW. I'm really not entirely sure I can explain what happened, though I think the cause was 2-fold. One: my body has now let go of all the fluid it retained during my moon. Two: my body needed a "vacation" from the program for a couple of days. I have been doing the program almost letter-perfect since I started about 6 weeks ago. So, I'm going to stay almost letter-perfect (as much as I can) until the Beltaine Gathering in May, where I'll be in the position to be more worried about getting gluten-ed than I will be about Points. That's another 6 weeks & I'll probably be ready for another "vacation". Until then, I'll make sure I'm working the program as well as I can, keep getting my exercise and staying withing my Points. I do really need to get better about my fruits/veggies checkmark. I'm not getting nearly what I need, and I'm not sure what to add to my day that isn't really heavy in Points, though most green veggies are 0 Points, so... I'll see if, when we go to the supermarket this weekend, if I can't get some cans of green veggies to have with my suppers. That'll work. Plus, green veggies are a perfect vehicle for my healthy oils. :-)

So, with this 6.2 pounds, I am now down a total of 29.2 pounds and am within 5 pounds of my 10% goal which I set to reach in June. Unless my loss really slows down, I think I'll do it. ;-) Hells, I might do it by next week... who knows?

S. & I are set to go to the gym tonite & lift weights. I went yesterday by myself and walked on the treadmill for half an hour. I'm trying to get some hills whenever I walk right now (which meant incline on the treadmill) because the site where the Beltaine Gathering is held is, well, hilly. It seems wierd to say that I'm in "training" for a Gathering, but if you have ever run one, you'll completely understand. If not, well... It's hard to describe.

I'm also training for a 5K. I'm aiming to participate in one the weekend before the Gathering and I want to be able to finish it in under an hour. I'm not really sure how to go about this, because most of the training programs are for runners and I'm not there yet (and I may never be, thanks to blowing out my knees cheering). So, I'm sorta doing my own program where I'm trying to shave time off of my walks around the pond and then, when I'm on the treadmill, I'm trying to walk at speeds greater than 3.1 MPH to get my legs & lungs used to it. :-) So far, so good. I guess we'll just have to see. But, at least the 5K I'm wanting to walk is actually open to walkers (in fact, encourages them). Most of them around here cater to runners. Well, except for the Race for the Cure... you can walk that one, too, and not get looked @ funny. :-) So, I'm going to do this one in April and then the Race in October. Next year, when I'm in better shape & weigh much less, I may try to add 2 more. We'll just have to see.

*le sigh*

While the initial purpose of this blog was to wax rhapsodic about my wellness program and how well I was doing (or not) with it, I believe this is where the bulk of my semi-serious blogging will be done because a lot of the people on my LJ flist are poopy-heads. I'm still keeping up with folks there but I'm not posting anything of real import and am only skimming my flist. I know, I know... I could just unfriend the poopyheads, but that, friends and fiends, is a political position and I just don't want to go there. If you understand this, I'm sorry. If you don't, kneel and give thanks to your God(s) of choice that your life has not been touched by this nonsense.

Anyway, hardly anyone reads my blog anymore anyway, so... *pbbbbt*

So, about this wellness thing... it's going mostly okay. I had that chocolate/sugar binge thing on Thursday, then had a migraine on Friday (and yes, Virginia, I recognize that there is probably a relationship between the two...). Saturday, I was off to the wilds of Splendour Hollow, wherein I was much more concerned about not getting gluten than I was counting my Points to a T. Plus, it was an extremely (and I mean extremely) emotional weekend in a lot of ways. I'm gonna leave talking about that for my paper journal, but suffice to say, emotional eating won the day.

I'm back on track today and have done well with my Points and I am pretty sure that I didn't do any sort of permanent damage, scale-wise. We'll just have to see on Wednesday, when I weigh in.

The plus side to all of this is that we've turned the Wheel and Spring is officially here! I challenge you to get out and enjoy it!

Bump in the road

Well, I've hit a bump in the road and that bump is called hormone-driven food cravings. All I seem to want today is sugar, sugar, and more sugar. Oh, and did I mention sugar? I know that this is just a temporary problem and that it will ease off in a day or so, but I also know that I am finishing a tube of gummy bears (at 9 Pts) and am planning with malice of forethought a Hershey Kiss binge when I get home. I fully intend to document said binge and count the points, and then start fresh in the AM. I have GOT to start getting some protein in the AM with my breakfast. I believe that is what started this train rolling. So, I'll either have S. get some eggs on his way home and I'll boil 'em up or I'll buy the two boiled egg bowl in the cafeteria or something. I'm even tempted to try the Ezekiel bread with a slather of PB. I am hoping (possibly beyond hope) that I am one of the gluten sensitive people who can tolerate sprouted grain bread. It is a great deal more expensive than regular bread, but it's still bread I can do. The cinnamon raisin I got is 1 Pt/slice. I need to clean out the toaster cuz it's been a while since we used it last, and try a piece. Each slice has something like 4g of protein, so that would help in the AM until I can get some eggs. We even have a toaster here, so I could just bring my slice of bread and toast it here. Yeah, that would possibly contaminate me with gluten-y bread crumbs... I dunno. All I know is that I've got to find less point-heavy ways of dealing with these cravings and hopefully circumvent them.

*sigh*

I'm so proud of me...

I went to the gym yesterday and worked out, even though S. overdid it on Tuesday and decided not to go yesterday. I even worked out in my sports bra and leggings. Wow! Who am I? I decided that I'm not going to the gym to be a fashion plate. I'm not there to find a potential partner cuz I already have one, so I'm not worried about impressing anyone. I'm there to work out. It's that simple. I worked out in a sports bra (well, technically a yoga top, but still) because I'd gotten overheated on Tuesday working out in a T-shirt. I figured I'd be able to work out a bit harder if I was cooler. And I was. :-) I did my weights, wherein I raised the weight on my triceps, abs and back. Then, I went and did 30 minutes on the treadmill. I had to put it on 1.0 incline and 3.2 MPH to get my heartrate above 120, so I guess this is all having a positive effect on my cardiovascular health. Das is sehr, sehr gut!. Unfortunately, my legs aren't up for working out that hard. So, one of my goals for today is to look up ways to increase muscular endurance. Cross-training with the swimming should help some, and I'm going to swim for my cardio tomorrow & Saturday if S. doesn't go with me to the gym. Giving my joints the day off, but still getting my cardio in will be a good thing. :-)

I've decided that I'm not going to eat my APs today. I've already earned 4 (which is plenty for the day) by walking for 45 minutes outside. I also need to really push the water today and really watch the Na+ because I'm retaining fluid for some reason and I need it to go! :-) Heck, I might try the suggestion someone gave on my list of laying on my left side and putting my right foot up above my heart. Heck, just putting my feet up like I encourage S. to do couldn't hurt. :-)

What I learned from a gain...

Rather than re-invent the wheel, I'm just going to cut/paste the email I sent to my WW Yahoo group this morning....

Okay, it's official. I'm actually learning something being on this program. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I am in recovery from an eating disorder - because you are never completely OVER one. Anyway, for a very long time, my metabolism was completely screwed up from it and I had a lot of trouble losing weight except for on very, very little food or very strict low-carb. I finally gave up on dieting because I decided (erroneously, as it turns out) I would never lose the weight I needed to and it was just making me crazy to try. Before, if I gained even part of a pound, I'd give up and eat the house. Or, if I "cheated" I'd figure that, since I'd blown it, I might as well blow off the rest of the day (which turned, inevitably into the week, month... you get the picture). Well, then a very dear friend (*waves at Cindy*) told me she was going on WW. I watched her progress from a far, then decided that I would give this one last program an honest shot...

The first week's weigh in, I lost 4 pounds. The second, 3. Last week, 8.4. Yeah, it was working great! In the midst of this, I discovered that my scale at home was weighing me 15 pounds lighter than my doctor's scale was. That would have, not long ago, freaked me out and caused me to give up then and there. But, not this time. This time, I just went out and got a new scale that weighs me at nearly the same (give or take 2 or 3 tenths of a pound) and re-set my weights to account for the 15-pound discrepency.

Then, this week was TOM. I'm retaining fluid and am tired. The old me would have used this week as an excuse to eat whatever, no matter the consequences. She would have decided she was too tired to exercise. She would have stayed home from work today because of the migraine I have (always get one the day before I start). Not the new me. I've planned for chocolate "binges" and have counted the points for them when I have had them. I exercised both Monday and Tuesday of this week and have my gym bag with me to go tonight after work. I came to work with a headache because I knew that getting off of my routine would cause more problems than it solved.

Yes, with my WI this morning, I did gain. But it was only 0.4 pounds. That means I'm still down 23 pounds overall. I've decided that I've got to focus on the bigger picture and focusing on the bigger picture is what is gonna get me smaller. That's what I learned from a gain.

I'm staying OP and I know that I'll have that 0.4 pounds off, plus a few of it's friends, at my next WI.

Good Workout

I went to the Y yesterday evening and had a good workout. I did my weightlifting and then did 30 minutes on the treadmill. By the end, I was sweating like a pig. :-) Still, it felt good. My muscles today are a bit tired but not terribly sore. I expect that will come tomorrow, when it's time to lift weight again. S. & I are planning a cardio workout for this evening. I'd thought about swimming, but it's supposed to rain, and in the Spring, that can quickly turn to thunderstorms, so... Instead, I'll probably do another treadmill or recumbent bike workout today. I'm not sure what he'll want to do/be up to doing, but I'll leave that up to him. If he decides he doesn't want to go, then I guess I'll be going by myself. *shrug* I can't make him work out & I can't make him change his diet. All I can do is show what it's doing for me, and encourage his decisions to get healthy. Otherwise, he's a big boy and can make his own decisions for himself.

I'm kind of tired today, and more than a little apathetic, but I expect that's due to hormones. Hopefully I'll be able to move past that in another day or so. I'm still doing well with the program... seems like one of the few things I -am- doing well with. That could -also- be the hormones talking...

Guess I should try to get some work done...

Getting my act together... or trying to

So, I've set up my schedule to get to the gym. I'm set to go M & W to lift weights, then T, F, Sat for cardio. I figure I'll walk @ work on Thursday AM (weather permitting) and take Sun off. I need to do a bit of cardio on M/W, but it won't be a full-out cardio day like T, F, & Sat. There are always going to be days that S. can't go with me, and I need to go anyway. I'm hoping that he will also do the same when I can't go with him. We're paying for this membership and we are, by Goddess, gonna use it. :-)

I'm trying to prepare myself for either a no-loss week or a slight gain week this week due to Aunt Flo. I'm also a tad constipated, and I hope that gets worked out before too much longer. I'm going to also be retaining fluid this week, so I need to make sure I watch my Na+ and get plenty of water to try to combat that. Still, I had an 8 pound loss last week, so I can probably afford a minimal/no loss week and not get too far off track. I'm staying OP, so it'll be fine.

I didn't earn the APs I wanted to last week, hence the re-commitment to get my tushie to the gym. I want there to be less and less of my tushie. :-)

I'm also re-committing to doing FlyLady. The more de-cluttering we can get done, the easier a move to our very own house would be. I don't think we'll be able to do that at the end of this lease, but maybe in 2009, unless we suddenly come into a bunch of $$, which I don't think likely. :-) We still have a bunch of bills to pay to clean up S.'s credit and I need to re-establish credit in some way. Maybe if his is clean enough, my lack thereof won't matter too much, especially if we have a chunk to put down.

Anyway. I'm re-committing this week to eat OP every day, get to the gym at least 3/5 days, and work on my Zone work and my German every day. I can do this. Really.

We've made it to Friday

While I have lots to do this weekend so I can't just play the lady of leisure and sleep all day, I am looking forward to sleeping til about 8AM tomorrow. That's still sleeping in, but it's also still getting up in time to get some stuff done tomorrow. I need to work on my game plan for the weekend, so I make sure I actually get done what I need to. The three priorities are housework, studying, and working out. I need to be a bit more specific with regards to the housework I need to get done, but the apartment is starting to drive me crazy... not that it's a long trip at any given time. :-)

If Dr. R has our workbooks graded (which is doubtful at best, but possible), I need to work on that this weekend to make sure I get all of chap. 10 done in good order. I may have to go to either the downtown library or UTs library or some other "not home" place to get some studying done. I tend to make up some sort of reason not to study as much as I need to at home.

Part of that is that the house is such a wreck. I will study this weekend cuz I need to before the Dative case munches my skull, but I want to make the #1 priority this weekend getting at least the living room into living order. I want to get the shelf in the bedroom cleaned off so that we can move it out to the LR and get the DVDs out of the box. Then, we'll work on getting the cedar chest emptied out long enough to get it moved into the bedroom. That will really open up space in the living room so that we both can stretch. I desperately need to start doing ritual again on my own. Okay... I think I have a kind-of idea of what I need to do. I'll make my list and then get 'er done.

Another NSV to report... the underwear that I bought the same time as the 22/24 pants (which -also- didn't fit) now fit. Yay! They are a teensy bit snug, but I think losing maybe one more pound will fix that. They fit well enough that I'm wearing a pair today, so...

Yep, it's official.

I need a belt. I knew that, intellectually, but I got solid, irrefutable proof this morning. I went to the restroom this morning before I came in to work. As I was doing my bidness, I realized that I had pulled my pants down as though they had an elastic waist, rather than unbuttoning/unzipping them. I sat there and laughed for 5 full minutes.

I splurged this afternoon and got a box of Junior Mints. They are 5 Points for the box, but that still leaves me with 10 Points for supper. Since it's just me, I don't think that's gonna be an issue. I'll probably have some cottage cheese and lunch meat, which will be like 8 points. That leaves me 2 points for some milk. I didn't get my oils today... gotta get better about that. If I feel up to it when I get home, I'll do 30 minutes on the pedaler to earn enough for the oil on a salad (0 Pts). I'll use lemon juice as my "dressing" and it'll be fine. Or, I'll forgo the milk because my yogurt, string cheese & cottage cheese should be enough dairy for the day.

I'm getting a lot better at this planning thing. :-)

S. & I are going to be having corned beef & cabbage for St. Patrick's Day on Saturday. It's going to blow a bunch of my Points, but it'll be worth it. It's only once a year. I still have all of my WPAs, so it'll be fine. I'll just need to make sure that I'm drinking a lot of water because corned beef is soooooo high in Na+.

My order from Avon is here. Well... at home. :-) I ordered a set of duffle bags. One of them will be for my gym stuff, so I can have my bag packed to go to the gym. I'll put my workout clothes, my swim suit, flip flops, shorts to wear over the swim suit, &c. Now, if I can just figure out what keeps aggravating the skin on my legs, I'll be all set.

Woot!

Well, I was right. I had a hell of a weigh in this morning. I'm down 8.4 pounds from last week. I can hardly believe it! That puts me down a total of about 23 pounds from my highest weight and down 15.4 pounds since starting WW. I know that these losses aren't going to continue indefinitely (nor should they... I don't want to lose weight too fast), but I'm enjoying them while they're here because they'll make the much slower loss easier to cope with.

Another Woot! for today is the fact that I bought a pair of 22/24 pants about a year ago and didn't try them on... consequently, they didn't fit. But, I kept them instead of returning them because I was determined to get into them eventually. Well, this morning I put them on and wore them to work. Sure, they have some stretch to them, but they are still a size smaller than the khakis I bought a month ago. :-) Speaking of my khakis... I've got to get a belt. They are about to the point where they're gonna be sliding down if I'm not careful. Gee, that just sucks. *smirk*

So, I've got 10.6 pounds to go before I hit my 10% goal of 26 pounds. I've set the time on that for S.'s birthday in June. I expect to hit it before then, but I want to make sure I have plenty of time. Then, my goals will probably be 10-pound increments until I've lost the full 115 pounds I needed to (down to 99.6 now!!!).

I just can't believe this program is working so well for me. I fully expect I would be having the same middling success I've had on every other program if I hadn't discovered (thanks Cat!) my gluten sensitivity. Doing WW and gluten-free has been kind of a challenge, but not onerously so. Since all fruits & veggies are naturally gluten free, I'm okay there. I'm just having to be careful with low-fat dairy because they sometimes use wheat as filler. Still, it's not too bad.

I can so do this!

Dagnabbit

I'm not sure if there's something in this one pair of knit pants I wear or if I'm having a delayed reaction to whatever I ate Sunday that made my throat swell or what, but when I got home from the Y (more on that in a mo') the insides of my thighs were bright red again. It's much calmer today, so I'm not really sure what happened. *shrug* I'm keeping an eye on it, especially since the pool should be opening back up today (it's been closed due to electrical problems).

Anyway, I actually made myself go to the Y yesterday, even though I was going by myself. I did 10 minutes on the bike and 10 minutes on the treadmill. I'm okay with that. I brought my bathing suit with me to try to swim this evening. However, it's gonna depend on how my legs are doing. I don't want to aggravate anything with chlorine and I'm really tired and I need to study. So, we'll just have to see. I know that swimming will be much easier on my joints and, thusly, I can do it longer. Plus, it's full-body exercise. I guess I'll stop at the Y on the way home. If I don't feel up to swimming, I can walk on the track for a half hour or so. It's all good. I do need to make sure I'm stretching my calves well because I'm starting to have issues with plantar faciitis. So... There we go.

I'm still doing well with WW, but I'm trying to come up with protein ideas for during the day because I'm just not getting enough. Man cannot live by string cheese alone. *smirk* I think I'm gonna have another good weigh in this week. I know that my loss will slow down to a pound or less per week, so I'm enjoying these big losses while I can. :-)

Back after a week off

So, okay. I went to the doc's on Thursday. I knew, intellectually, that my scale @ home weighed lighter than his does, but I didn't expect it to weigh 15 pounds lighter. Oh, well. Still, it showed that I'd lost 9 pounds since my last visit, which was nice. He also said it didn't really matter about the number, so long as it's going down. I'm okay with that. After we got done there, we went to Wal-Mart, where we found a digital scale that weighs up to 400 so S. can weigh in, too. That's a good thing.

Anyway, so I adjusted my weights accordingly. I'm still down 7 pounds (more by Wednesday's weigh-in, I'm sure) but down from 260 instead of 245. That didn't freak me out as much as I thought it would... My Ob/Gyn's scale shows that I've lost 19 pounds since August, so it's going down and that is the correct direction.

I'm planning on going to the Y after work (depending on how I'm feeling with this gorram time change) and at least do cardio. I need to get into the habit of going. Hopefully, they'll have gotten whatever electrical problem they were having fixed so I can start swimming soon. I found my suit, my legs are healed... :-) It'll be much kinder on my joints than some of the other options for cardio. Still, I'll prolly use the bike or something tonight. I'm saving my weights for W/F so that S. & I can work out together.

It was kinda difficult to stay on program (by making sure I got all of my DPAs) while off routine, but I'm sure that I'll be back in the swing of things this week. Anyway, I'm gonna go take my AM walk and try to wake up.

TGIF and all that jazz

We've made it to Friday, Kinders. I'm so bouncy today I almost can't stand myself. I keep having to get up and move around because sitting still doesn't use up enough energy. WTF? Who am I? Thankfully, I've had a lot to do moving around. I've spent yesterday and part of today pulling and bagging old magazines. It's a dusty job so I'll be glad for my renewal of Allegra, but it's not too bad. I've already earned 6 activity points just doing that. Wow! Hopefully, that will help me get some more fluid off and show another loss on the scale. I'm a bit behind on my water today (just started drinking it), but I'll get caught up. I can tell now when I've not had enough, which is good. I also think that I pegged the rash on my legs as a fungal infection because it is responding to the topical antifungal I've been using. Das ist sehr gut. Hopefully, another week of the treatment will have kicked it's tukus enough that I can get in the pool/hot tub.

S. & I are going to the Y tonight. Even if we don't feel up to working out, we decided that we'd go and at least let them "orient" us. :-) I hope that just the effort to get there will be enough to convince us to at least do some cardio. :-) We'll see.

I'm away from the office for a week, so... I hope to write next time about another successful week on the program and another loss. I'll prolly also have stuff from the doctor to talk about.

Tschüss

Well drat!

My thought to not use any of my WPAs this week sorta fell by the wayside. Oh, well. I waited too long to eat supper last night and was starving, so I ate too much and had to go into my weekly points. I know that, for next time, if we're planning an outing like we did last night, I need to have a small 0 or 1 Point snack so that I can stay under control at supper. At least I learned something from the experience, which is, after all, what this program is for. We also learned that we'll have to come up with a different "quick meal" to replace the keilbasa stuff because it's just got way too many Points.

I ended up not going to work out last night, but S. & I have made a date to go tomorrow after I get off work. I've decided that, if he wusses out on me, I'll go anyway. I've got to start working out again. I think I'll make an appointment for a fitness assessment while I'm there. I know I won't like what I see, but it will give me a benchmark so that, when I get re-assessed in three months, I'll know how far I've come. :-)

Onward.