My WW journey.

 

      It has been 10 months since I started weight watchers and almost a decade since I decided to lose this weight.  In 6 pounds I will be down 100 pounds, 60 since I joined WW.   I am finally getting to where I want to be.

   I am not sure why WW is the program that seemed to click with me.  I have been logging my foods for years, but with WW you just do points.   Actually I still log my food on my fitness pal every day also.  I need the accountability.   Things I have noticed using WW is they are death on any type of smoothie, carbs or meat other then fish, chicken and turkey.   You eat regular bread and bam, 17 points.  I one had a piece of buttermilk pie since I had never tried it before, yikes, 33 points.  I get 23 points a day.  That was a day and a half with one small slice of pie.  I made the mistake of eating before checking the points.  I check first now.   

     This has been the longest journey.  Many stops and stalls along the way.   I always kept active which helped since when I did gain I never gained it all back but it got harder and harder to get it back.   I am not getting younger.   I had to have several surgeries which really stopped my progress and my exercise.   Also several seriously terrible times in my life made me not put my health on the front burner and I spiraled down a deep hole of despair.  But, I can't stay down for long and was not happy with being that sad fat person so I would climb on my trusty bike and start logging food again.  And that is the secret to success.  Never giving up.  

   When I first started WW  I made a few mistakes.  They have over 200 free point foods.   I once ate a bag of grapes, great grapes because I kept thinking they were free, in fact I ate several free foods in great quantities.   Fortunately common sense and logging on my fitness pal woke me up.  In proper portions those foods are free, but they do have calories and many people, myself included made this mistake.  Eat a normal portion though and it is great.  Now a days I don't do many free foods, I have found out eating too many fruits will make me stall.  Even eating what they say you should eat a day will make me stall.  So a couple a day work for me. 

   The first couple of weeks I had a headache from getting the sugar out they say.  I have to admit I was eating way to many treats.   I was also hungry and staying in my points was a challenge but it is easy now.  I have points left over in fact most days.  Another thing I don't do, but many do with success is eat my weeklies, extra points often.   I learned the hard way that I found myself exercising more so I could eat more and that is the beginning of making bad choices and eating too much for me.  I always ate healthy but too much.  The ole guy always cooked to much and I hate to waste food.  Just an excuse but it is the fact of the matter.

  I also made changes in WW.  When I started back to the gym and was working out a lot plus riding my bike and down 35 pounds I was bummed I still didn't feel better, I was tired all the time, no energy.  I expected to feel great.   After reading though my old journal I found a entry about micronutrients and the importance of fat and carbs for energy so I have added some more carbs, in reason and good fats like olive oil and coconut oil to  routine and now have the energy I need to make my workouts counts.

   I am now considered overweight.   No longer morbidly obese and it feels great.  I can wear medium clothes and shop in normal sections.  That is a thrill.  Things I have noticed.   Being bony hurts,  I have banged my shoulder blades which used to be covered in flesh.  My tailbone hurts on my bike and I had to get a new seat.   Sadly also since it took me so long to figure out this weight loss thing instead of getting tone and looking great I now have a lot of saggy flesh.  Sagging neck, sagging arms and saggy gut.  But, I have muscles and my biking calves are amazing and I feel amazing and fully clothed I don't look too bad.  So win win.  

   Well, that is my update.   If your thinking of weight watchers and wonder if it works it does.  The weight loss is slow, which is better as it keeps you from feeling deprived.  Everything you want to eat you can with planning.  If I now I am going out to eat that night I eat a zero or low point breakfast and lunch, eggs are free and save my points for supper.   I try to plan before I get there what I can eat and figure out my points first.  I have pizza once a week, but do the thin slice mostly veggie kind.   I had a piece of heavenly strawberry rhubarb pie but had a small slice which still tasted great.   Finally I am doing this weight loss thing.  Correctly.  Yippy to me.

Weight watchers 9 months in

  Slowly but surely the weight is coming off.   From a size 22 or 3X to a 14.   This new WW makes its pretty easy if you follow the plan.   This has taken me a long time and I am a ways yet before I get to where I want to go.  

   When I first joined I put my goal weight pretty high.  I reached my first goal fairly easily.

 Wow. I did it.  But I knew I wasn't finished.   I could do better and get lower.  So I committed to a new goal weight of 20 pounds less, and I am now 8 pounds away from that goal and am pretty sure I will just keep on going.

   The best thing is I am back on my bike and working out at the gym again.   I bought a bike helmet for the first time and am feeling great for a 64 year old woman.  And I took a selfie, harder then it looks.

   If you think you can't do it your wrong.  You can.  Just never think you have failed when you have a bad day.   Just start fresh the next.  

Weight watchers 4 months in

Winter is around the corner and we are getting cold.

 It has been 4 months since I started weight watchers.  I am down 15 pounds.  Slow.  But my clothes are fitting better and I had to get new uniforms because the bag lady look is sloppy.

   They said this new freestyle is a more slow weight loss geared to eating healthier then the old WW and staying off.

   I like this point system.  The problem I am having is I was never much of a snacker, more of a portion control problem with me.   I think with this program you have to eat your zero points and be mindful of what they are.  I love fruit and vegetables so that isn't a problem but feeling like snacking is, so I am still just making my meals worth it and loading up on my vegetables then.

   The recipes on WW are surprisingly good also, most of them.  The taco soup and chili is to die for and I love making stir fry so that is good but I hate the way your almost penalized for eating any kind of bread or noodle.  Or butter.  I don't like noodles make of vegetables, I want my wheat noodles so I just eat them and count them.  I hate fake butter so I still use butter in small amounts.  I want to eat healthy and hate sugar free products that taste like chemicals and have chemicals in them so I stay clear of them also.

   I have been cooking a lot.  I don't mind cooking when I have everything but I hate shopping.  I might make a recipe list and order on line and then just go pick it up, lazy I am.  I tried to get the ole guy to make the recipes but he has decided this year to not cook much.  We are both getting lazy as we get older.   Eating out is such a problem because they cook everything in butter and sauces so  I have a hard time figuring out what to eat and don't want salads every single day.   I wish I had been born thin with a really good metabolism.  Unfortunately I wasn't so this struggle has been going on for years.

   I did have a large weight loss a few years back and never regained all of that weight but go up and down, up and down.  Now that I am older then dirt my knees and ankles are a pain so getting the weight off will help but exercising is becoming more difficult.  And for each 5 pounds lost I gained 100 wrinkles, I am looking like a prune and I have to admit that bothers me, but I am 64.  My mom always used to say for each new wrinkle you have to put on 5 pounds, but when deflated my old skin looks saggy, but eating so healthy makes me feel great so I will just not look in the mirror anymore. haha.

Weight watchers

   So a week ago Tuesday I joined weight watchers.  All the diets I have been on this most popular one is one I never joined because with my work schedule I knew I would never make the meetings.  I am doing the new freestyle on line program.

  This point system seemed so strange to me, what, no counting calories?  All these foods with zero count making them free foods, also very strange.  I must admit I didn't trust it at first.  I did what they said to do but also journal my eating in my fitness pal to see exactly how many calories I was eating and how close it was to that calorie range. I was surprised to see it was pretty close so I feel better.

  Well, it has been a week and a half and I am down 3 and a half pounds.   The freestyle is designed to make the weight loss slow and steady.  So, since I haven't died yet I guess I have time.

  One thing that is weird.  With only this small amount of weight loss I have lost some inches in my waist and my face is thinner.  At 64 I expect I am going to look older with this weight loss, but heck, I am old.

   Just to give you an idea of my typical day eating.
 Breakfast,  scrambled eggs, 2, seasoned with pepper.  I could have unlimited veggies with these but am always in a hurry.  Or fruit.

  Lunch, a turkey sandwich on thin multigrain bun with lettuce, mustard and tomato.  Turkey is a free zero point food so  I have a nice thick sandwich.  Steamed vegetables or fruit of some kind. Or both, usually both.

  Supper, turkey burger or chicken, white meat.  Steam veggie of some sort,

  I still have my daily coffee with 2 shots of espresso, can not give that up.

  Desert, right now I have only tried the chocolate graham cracker which I eat slowly and enjoy, the rich chocolate taste is surprisingly satisfying.

  I was miserable and hungry the first week.  I think lack of carbs and you can get sick quickly of chicken and turkey, but all seafood are zero points and if I do decide on a steak I can just adjust my points around it.

   I think I must be the only one in the world at my age that has not done WW.  But, it is still a very successful diet for thousands of people, why not me.  I may be getting older but I still, for my knees and ankles sake, want to get thinner.

Tick's

  
   I hate these little buggers.  Do they really serve a purpose in the world?  For the last 2 nights, thanks to the dogs laying on my bed I have woke up feeling ticks crawling on me.  2 last night, 2 the night before.  I am so glad sometimes that I am a light sleeper and feel them rather then wake up and have them attached.  Ugh.

    I started back to work 2 nights ago after being off for 10 weeks with a extensor tendon repair and removal of hardware from my wrist.  It has been going good but by the end of the night my wrist is pretty sore and swollen.  Hopefully that gets better soon.   I had to wear that lovely brace for 9 weeks.  I added the glove because it was driving me crazy pinching and hot.

   We had a nice good old sky blasting thunderstorm last night and got a much needed inch and a half of rain.  Anything that cuts down on the dust makes me happy.

      Momma deer had her babies, twins.  Unfortunately on must not have made it because for the last week I have only seen one of the baby.  I really like this doe, not skittish and lets me get lots of photos.  Just what I need, more deer pictures.

    I paid my house off yesterday.  What a wonderful feeling that is.  One less payment to make.  I will have my truck paid off by the end of the month, 2 less payments.  My goal, dept free again in 3 months.  As long as I can keep from injuring myself and keep working.
  
   Well, that's all for today.

 

Happy 4th of July

     Happy Independence Day to you all.   A day of remembrance and celebration across the country, other countries also.  

     Denmark, England, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. Denmark  Danes and Norwegians celebrate American Independence Day because thousands emigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s. Other European countries, like England, Portugal and Sweden, hold celebrations near American military bases and or spots frequented by American tourists to boost travel during early July.

    On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (the New York delegation abstained, but later voted affirmatively). On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2 “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.” On July 4th, the Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, which had been written largely by Jefferson. Though the vote for actual independence took place on July 2nd, from then on the 4th became the day that was celebrated as the birth of American independence.
    
   Personally I don't set off any fireworks, first because it is illegal in Iowa, which doesn't stop most of the state and 2nd, I am cheap.  They are expensive!  I listened last night, and all week, to my neighbors burning up thousands of dollars in a quick pop of noise.   I live in a lower middle class neighborhood,  money is tight for us all I believe, but not so tight my one neighbor isn't welling to spend a few hundred on the biggest and loudest noise makers he can buy.  I have nothing against them doing so,  just don't want to waste my money on them.  For one thing my city has had a large firework display going off every day for the last 4 days.  After their spectacular display, anything else seems rather silly.

   So building trust.   Hoss came to us 3 years ago a fearful and untrusting dog.  Having been shot and abused he was sure every blast he heard was aimed at him.  It would break my heart watching him shake and tremble, his panting so fast I thought he would collapse.  We tried hard to comfort him and distract him, Music, treats, lots of loving.  Last year he went 14 hours without peeing because every time we talked him into venturing out, a firecracker would go off and back in and under the bed he went.

   This year, we have completely won his trust and during the worse of it last night we were so happy to have him dosing on the floor, breathing relaxed, not a care in the world.  Took him out and even with firecrackers going off he went potty and even sat out in the yard for awhile.  We promised him we would never hurt him and he seems to know it.   He's happy, we are happy.

   Piper on the other hand is fearless.  I think she could go though a mine field going off and not be bothered, as long as there was a bug she could hunt she is just fine.  Tiny but mighty.

   The other night I took her out.  The lightening bugs have a bumper crop this year and she was thrilled.  Watching her leap and try to catch them was so funny.  Fortunately she didn't catch any.  

   Piper is so funny,  running across the yard the other day she ran into a Hoss poo.  She stopped dead in her tracks and lifted her foot, a sneer across her face.  She looked at me and came over on 3 legs, looking totally disgusted.   I washed off her foot and cleaned up Hoss's poo but she won't go to that side of the yard anymore.  Silly girl.

   Well, that's it.  Happy 4th.  I am going to bake a Old fashion rhubarb pudding cake and take it easy.  Tomorrow back to work for the first time in 10 weeks.  Please let it go well.