As much as I crave variety and spontaneity, the truth is: I thrive on routine. I’ve fallen into some eating routines for the past few weeks, and they seem to be working in my favor.
Every morning: One sliced up apple (I’ll be sticking to honeycrisps as long as they are in season!) and a piece of low-fat string cheese. Put a bit of string cheese on an apple slice, munch, and repeat. Easy, only 2 points total, and pretty filling.
Every lunch: A frozen meal, which I went into with VERY low expectations. It’s been several years since I tried to eat a microwave dinner, and I didn’t have very fond memories of the ones I’ve tried. But nowadays? There are some pretty incredible ones! The Healthy Choice “steamer” meals in particular are really, really good — they taste really fresh and are super tasty. And the best part is, they are only 4-6 points each!
Every lunch dessert: Greek yogurt. So good! Right now I’m hooked on Oikos caramel greek yogurt…amazing.
I’ve also been making sure to keep my work drawer stocked with low-point snacks throughout the day for when I feel hungry. Quaker has started making “healthy” granola bars — they’re made with real cocoa and don’t have any HFCS, and they are delish (and only 2 points!).
Other favorite snacks are Sensible Portions Veggie Straws (so salty, crunchy and chiptastic), which I’ve found at Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart. And Baked Cheetos are the shit, except I’ve discovered that I have to buy them in the pre-portioned 100-calorie bags, because otherwise I go a little nuts with them.
Today’s weigh-in revealed I’ve hit the 5% mark. Five percent of myself is gone! When I got home and entered in my new stats on the WW website, it flashed a congratulations message, followed by a “caring notice” that I’m losing weight too quickly. Is two to three pounds a week really too fast? It feels too slow to me. If they think I’m going to slow down on purpose, they can suck on it.
Okay, so at last week’s weigh-in, I found out I last half a pound. HALF A POUND. NOT OKAY. I had behaved really well all week and even gone under my points allowance by several points every day. Finding out I barely lost anything pissed me off, so I was a little more freewheeling with my points this week, culminating in a disaster day on Saturday — I had a greasy diner brunch with a friend, followed by a gigantic cupcake at Gigi’s, followed by more greasy fried stuff, followed by lots of booze. Basically I was eating the equivalent of a “FUCK YOU WEIGHT WATCHERS.”
After that little…episode, I was kinda nervous to weigh in yesterday and find out what kind of damage I’d done…only to find out I lost 3.5 pounds last week. WTF. Apparently I actually needed to eat more to lose weight, and when I go under the point so much every day it makes my body hang on to fat. Good to know…and um, not exactly the worst news.
Yesterday included, I’ve lost a total of 13.5 pounds so far. It’s exciting, but it’s frustrating because I feel like I really can’t see much of a difference. A few different people have made comments that I look smaller, but I can’t see it. I hope that’ll change soon.
i have developed an unhealthy relationship with these little fuckers.
i don’t mean nutritionally unhealthy (they are only 3 points each!)…i mean obsession, codependency, straight-up love. breakfast lunch and dinner. i bought a 20-pack of them at Sam’s club last week and i don’t even want to tell you how many are still standing at this moment.
After last week’s disappointing weigh-in, I was kind of dreading this week’s. But!!! I showed up for the Sunday meeting, stepped on the scale
and found out I’d lost seven pounds!!!!!
Then this morning I hopped on the scale just out of curiosity and found out I’ve hit then 10 lb mark!!!
In all seriousness though, I’m pretty stoked about this. I know I still have a long way to go, and I’m still in the “honeymoon phase” of dieting or whatever…but it feels so good to finally be doing something about it — and having it work!
I think the best part so far has been how easy it’s been. I haven’t felt deprived or even like I’m on a diet really…just making better choices throughout the day. And now that I’m seeing results, it’s making me want to make even better choices.
And I know that losing weight won’t really be the answer to all of my problems — but I can’t help fantasizing about being smaller and all of the things that come with that. So yeah. Great week!
I was out of town this past weekend so I missed the cult gathering meeting. By yesterday afternoon, I was dying to know how much I’d lost — most people lose a lot of weight pretty quickly in their first few weeks, and aside from a few alcohol missteps I’d stuck to the plan so I was just SURE I’d be down by over 5 pounds. My bathroom scale showed me a different weight every day, but it’s 40 years old and unreliable, so I needed some gold-star-sticker verification.
I ran over there on my lunchbreak yesterday to get the good news. I made sure to pee right beforehand and take off my shoes (every ounce counts!) and held my breath while I waited to hear the lady say “congratulations!”…and waited…and waited. Finally she just said “hmm, 2.3 pounds. good job.” 2.3 pounds?? TWO-POINT-THREE POUNDS?!? In 10 days??? What.
I’m trying really hard not to let this discourage me, but I have to be honest — it’s really fucking discouraging. I keep telling myself it’s just because I’m about to start my period, so I’m probably retaining water or whatever. While that might be true, it’s just a big let down after my anticipated “big loss.” Plus, I’m starting to get paranoid that my PCOS is going to make it super difficult to lose anything at all. Ugh. Bummer.
One reassuring thing is this — if I stay on this path and only lose two pounds a week or so, in a year I could lose 100 pounds. I probably shouldn’t lose that much but I’m just saying I COULD. In six months I could lose 50 pounds! It’s just really hard when you’re like me and crave instant gratification, only to find out it’s just not happening.
I got really excited this morning because my jeans felt kind of loose when I put them on. Instant results! Yes!!!
Then I realized they are probably just baggy because I haven’t washed them in 2+ weeks (don’t judge, I know you all do it too).
Even though I know logically that it takes time and effort to get results, I’m always so disappointed when I eat healthy for a couple of days or hit the gym once and am not immediately transformed into Britney Spears (circa Slave 4 U era). Fuck flying cars, when is science gonna figure out how we can do THAT?
I’ve been a Weight Watchers drop out twice now.
Yes, you heard me right. Twice.
I have failed myself twice. Well, not completely as I have been successful each time. The first time around losing 60+ lbs (mostly due to WW and the other due to me getting off my ass) the second dropping the 20 lbs I put back on from the first go around give or take a few more extra. I’m not sure what keeps me from being entirely successful, but I’m hoping this will be it for me.
The biggest thing I loathe about WW is that I hate having to pay someone to help me lose weight. I know I can do it. I have done it, but why is that paying 39.95 a month to overly happy people who get off on pretzel sticks helps me drop the weight?
Basically, I know my 200 lb + ass is not healthy. I know I need help and I’m glad K is along with me this time.
Also it helps to channel my spirit animal at times like these.
After much deliberation (and cupcake consumption), I decided to join up with my friend N and do something about dat azz.
We attended our first Weight Watchers meeting yesterday. It was my first time (I refuse to count my Weight Watcher adventures as an 11-year-old, because that’s just fucked up) and N’s third. My first weigh-in was a bit horrifying — I weigh ten pounds more than I thought I did, and I’m having a hard time dealing with the fact that I’ve let myself get this out of control, that I’ve let my weight creep to such shocking heights.
After the weigh-in, we joined the group of ladies waiting for the meeting to start. There were a few too many smiles and high-fives and “WOO GIRL!!”s for me.
This feels like a cult initiation, I whispered to N.
It is, she whispered back.
Stickers were handed out for weightloss milestones, grocery shopping tips were shared (I’ve never heard so much obsessing about string cheese in my life), and then we were sent on our way with our new member packets in hand.
Honestly, it hasn’t been hard at all so far. Then again, I’m only on my second day…maybe I should wait a week and report back on that.
I went grocery shopping last night with my carefully planned-out list gripped tightly in my fist. It actually felt pretty good to have a cart full of healthy, nutritious stuff — no bags of chips for late-night binges, no cartons of cookies to strategically hide under fruit on the check-out conveyor belt.
I’m really hoping I can stick with this. I celebrated my golden birthday a few months back (26 on the 26th), and I’m determined that this is going to be my best year ever. I’ve already ended an unhealthy relationship and stopped smoking, so who’s to say I can’t do this?*
* I also joined a gym and have not been in two months, but we don’t really need to discuss that right now.
