I did it! I got through all of my exercise sessions yesterday even though I was stiff and tight from Monday. I was so tired by the end of the day that dinner was an hour and a half late though. That part's not so good. I tried a new recipe last night too, a stuffed chicken marsala. I tend to watch the Food Network while I'm doing my stepping in the afternoon and it sounded good. It was good, but only half a keeper I think. The sauce was excellent, but making the stuffed, rolled chicken breasts was more of a pain than it was worth. The recipe is here if you want to try it.
Anyway, yesterday's food:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad - 12 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Stuffed chicken marsala, Rice-a-Roni, zucchini, milk - 27 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 53 points
Calories: 2514
Calorie deficit: 2577
Short post again today...I'll try to make tomorrow's longer!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Exercise Surprise
I surprised the hell out of myself yesterday. My intention was to increase all of my exercise sessions to 25 minutes and add a second step session in the afternoon - but when the timer went off at the end of 25 minutes for my first round of step, I said, "25 minutes already?" So I went ahead and did 5 more minutes for a full 30! I did 30 for my afternoon round, too. That means between 2 30-minute step sessions and 2 25-minute boxing sessions, I exercised for an hour and 50 minutes! Almost two hours of exercise for somebody who not that long ago got out of breath going out to get the mail is fairly amazing, at least it seems so to me.
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Meatloaf, baked potato, carrots, milk - 25 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 53 points
Calories: 2545
Calorie deficit: 2276
My whole body's feeling pretty stiff and tight from all the exercise yesterday, but surprisingly I'm not actually sore...I'm going to get through the sessions today in spite of being stiff, though. Sometimes being stubborn is a good thing!
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Meatloaf, baked potato, carrots, milk - 25 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 53 points
Calories: 2545
Calorie deficit: 2276
My whole body's feeling pretty stiff and tight from all the exercise yesterday, but surprisingly I'm not actually sore...I'm going to get through the sessions today in spite of being stiff, though. Sometimes being stubborn is a good thing!
Monday, March 28, 2011
A Somewhat Disappointing Weigh-In
It's Monday again...that means another weigh-in day has arrived. After increasing my activity level again last week, I was really hoping for a good number on the scale today, but I didn't get it. I did lose, but only 1.8 pounds. I know it's better than nothing, but I was anticipating a more significant loss.
The main reason for that was the numbers I've gotten for the last three days as I've double-entered my intake and exercise into both the WW tracker and the fatsecret.com tracker. Well, see for yourselves:
Friday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken with teriyaki, Rice-a-Roni, green beans - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 53 points
Calorie deficit: 2276
Saturday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad - 12 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Flaky herb chicken, au gratin potatoes, corn, milk - 27 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 54 points
Calorie deficit: 2625
Sunday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Sauerkraut & sausage, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 55 points
Calorie deficit: 1831
At least over the three days I've done the double tracking, I averaged 2244 more calories burned than consumed, and they were pretty typical days. I've already met and surpassed my goal of a 2000 calorie deficit per day. With 3500 calories in a pound of fat, if I'm burning 14000 more calories than I'm consuming in a week, I should be losing about 4 pounds! I really don't understand what's going on here. I considered the possibility that I've built some muscle and that's offset the fat loss, but the types of exercise I'm doing at this point really aren't big muscle builders.
I'm not giving up, though, and in fact, I'm increasing my exercise again this week. Both of my Wii Boxing sessions are going from 20 to 25 minutes, and I'm planning to increase my Wii Fit Free Step session the same amount in the morning, plus possibly add another session in the afternoon. I'm not sure about the afternoon session yet, we'll see how it goes today. I don't want to overdo it and end up not doing anything. I'll let you know tomorrow!
The main reason for that was the numbers I've gotten for the last three days as I've double-entered my intake and exercise into both the WW tracker and the fatsecret.com tracker. Well, see for yourselves:
Friday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken with teriyaki, Rice-a-Roni, green beans - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 53 points
Calorie deficit: 2276
Saturday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad - 12 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Flaky herb chicken, au gratin potatoes, corn, milk - 27 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 54 points
Calorie deficit: 2625
Sunday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Sauerkraut & sausage, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 55 points
Calorie deficit: 1831
At least over the three days I've done the double tracking, I averaged 2244 more calories burned than consumed, and they were pretty typical days. I've already met and surpassed my goal of a 2000 calorie deficit per day. With 3500 calories in a pound of fat, if I'm burning 14000 more calories than I'm consuming in a week, I should be losing about 4 pounds! I really don't understand what's going on here. I considered the possibility that I've built some muscle and that's offset the fat loss, but the types of exercise I'm doing at this point really aren't big muscle builders.
I'm not giving up, though, and in fact, I'm increasing my exercise again this week. Both of my Wii Boxing sessions are going from 20 to 25 minutes, and I'm planning to increase my Wii Fit Free Step session the same amount in the morning, plus possibly add another session in the afternoon. I'm not sure about the afternoon session yet, we'll see how it goes today. I don't want to overdo it and end up not doing anything. I'll let you know tomorrow!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Yes, Exercise!
So the last couple of days have been very interesting. I was really excited on Wednesday when I finally figured out what I think is the issue underlying my lack of progress even when I stick to my program like glue. Since I believe the issue is that I'm not exercising enough, I immediately began trying to think of ways to get more.
The most obvious answer is walking, but unfortunately that's not very practical right now. After falling and spraining my ankle and hurting my knee last fall while walking on the gravel outside the trailer, I'm very reluctant to do that any more. The footing simply isn't good enough. At the beginning of the year, I was using my father-in-law's treadmill, but he's moved things around and it's no longer accessible. So if walking is out, what about other types of exercise? Well, there's certainly no room in here for any type of exercise equipment, and even if I wanted to leave the house, which I don't, we can't afford a gym membership. Finally, I decided that since I've been using the Wii for exercise up to this point, I'd just step it up a notch and get the Wii Fit. The software's got a 330 lb weight limit, but there are workarounds for that.
So yesterday morning, very excited to start out with it, I started setting it up. The workarounds for the weight limit are annoying, but I eventually got it ready to go and started trying some of the aerobic exercises. Rhythmic boxing? Fail. Hula hoop? Fail. Basic step? Fail, plus run into the furniture. Ouch. I was very upset and discouraged, and about ready to give up on trying to lose weight altogether, but Chad said he'd help me try to figure out a way that I could actually successfully use it once he got home. I wasn't very hopeful that he'd be able to, but I figured it was worth a shot...and he did!
He discovered that an activity called "Free Step" is very simple, doesn't take much space at all, and best of all, is actually designed to be used while you watch something else on TV! Basically, all it involves is stepping back and forth onto and off of the Wii Fit Board. Even I can do that - most of the time. I did it for 20 minutes this morning...I had planned to do it for 30 minutes, but I just couldn't make it. It was probably a little overambitious anyway. The software even gives you a formula for figuring out how many calories you burned during your activity. I was a little disappointed when I discovered that my 20 minutes only burned about 175 calories, but it's a start. When I add that 175 calories to my 350 for boxing (yes, I'm doing the Wii Fit in addition to the boxing) I'm up to 525! Over a quarter of the way to my goal of 2000 per day!
Anyway, food for the last two days:
Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken and dumplings, milk - 25 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 54 points
Thursday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad- 12 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Beef & vegetable stir-fry, rice, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
It's going to be a bit labor-intensive, but I think I'm going to start double-tracking my food and exercise. The WW tracker tells me my points values for everything, but since I'm trying to increase my exercise until I'm burning 2000 calories per day more than my intake, it would be somewhat helpful to actually know how many calories I'm consuming and burning, don't you think? So I'm going to go back to fatsecret.com and its associated Android app (thanks to Travis for reminding me of it!) to record everything as well. One of the really nice things about that site is that it automatically calculates the calories burned in 8 hours of sleeping and 16 hours of resting at your current weight, so once I enter my activities and exercise I'll actually get a fairly accurate number for my daily calorie deficit. Double-tracking is kind of a pain, but I can't think of another way to get all the relevant information, and once I get most of my main recipes entered it shouldn't take too long.
The most obvious answer is walking, but unfortunately that's not very practical right now. After falling and spraining my ankle and hurting my knee last fall while walking on the gravel outside the trailer, I'm very reluctant to do that any more. The footing simply isn't good enough. At the beginning of the year, I was using my father-in-law's treadmill, but he's moved things around and it's no longer accessible. So if walking is out, what about other types of exercise? Well, there's certainly no room in here for any type of exercise equipment, and even if I wanted to leave the house, which I don't, we can't afford a gym membership. Finally, I decided that since I've been using the Wii for exercise up to this point, I'd just step it up a notch and get the Wii Fit. The software's got a 330 lb weight limit, but there are workarounds for that.
So yesterday morning, very excited to start out with it, I started setting it up. The workarounds for the weight limit are annoying, but I eventually got it ready to go and started trying some of the aerobic exercises. Rhythmic boxing? Fail. Hula hoop? Fail. Basic step? Fail, plus run into the furniture. Ouch. I was very upset and discouraged, and about ready to give up on trying to lose weight altogether, but Chad said he'd help me try to figure out a way that I could actually successfully use it once he got home. I wasn't very hopeful that he'd be able to, but I figured it was worth a shot...and he did!
He discovered that an activity called "Free Step" is very simple, doesn't take much space at all, and best of all, is actually designed to be used while you watch something else on TV! Basically, all it involves is stepping back and forth onto and off of the Wii Fit Board. Even I can do that - most of the time. I did it for 20 minutes this morning...I had planned to do it for 30 minutes, but I just couldn't make it. It was probably a little overambitious anyway. The software even gives you a formula for figuring out how many calories you burned during your activity. I was a little disappointed when I discovered that my 20 minutes only burned about 175 calories, but it's a start. When I add that 175 calories to my 350 for boxing (yes, I'm doing the Wii Fit in addition to the boxing) I'm up to 525! Over a quarter of the way to my goal of 2000 per day!
Anyway, food for the last two days:
Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken and dumplings, milk - 25 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 54 points
Thursday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad- 12 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Beef & vegetable stir-fry, rice, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
It's going to be a bit labor-intensive, but I think I'm going to start double-tracking my food and exercise. The WW tracker tells me my points values for everything, but since I'm trying to increase my exercise until I'm burning 2000 calories per day more than my intake, it would be somewhat helpful to actually know how many calories I'm consuming and burning, don't you think? So I'm going to go back to fatsecret.com and its associated Android app (thanks to Travis for reminding me of it!) to record everything as well. One of the really nice things about that site is that it automatically calculates the calories burned in 8 hours of sleeping and 16 hours of resting at your current weight, so once I enter my activities and exercise I'll actually get a fairly accurate number for my daily calorie deficit. Double-tracking is kind of a pain, but I can't think of another way to get all the relevant information, and once I get most of my main recipes entered it shouldn't take too long.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Exercise?
Last night marked my first real attempt at taking one of my old staple recipes and adjusting it to fit into my available WW points. Chad's mentioned a number of times that he really misses my beef stroganoff, so I entered it into the recipe calculator to see if it was anywhere close to a reasonable number of points. To put it mildly, it wasn't...37 points per serving. Generally, my entire dinner is in the neighborhood of 25 points.
Ouch.
So I started adjusting...light sour cream instead of regular, half the amount of butter, ¾ lb of meat instead of 1 ¼ lb (partially offset by increasing the mushrooms from ¾ lb to 1 lb), and 6 oz of no-yolk noodles instead of 8 oz of regular noodles. All these changes resulted in reducing the points value to 25 per serving. Much better! I was a little concerned about there being enough to eat after having reduced the meat by almost half and the noodles by a quarter, but there was plenty and then some. I wasn't even able to finish my half. I was afraid the no-yolk noodles wouldn't be very good, but they weren't bad...a little odd, particularly in texture, but not bad.
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad- 12 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Beef stroganoff, green beans, milk - 30 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 57 points
So obviously over the last week or so I've been doing a lot of thinking about my program and my success - or lack of it - in losing weight. Since even in the weeks where I stick to my program like glue I'm usually not losing much, I've reached the conclusion that the problem must be in the other half of the equation - exercise.
The WW points system is not based solely on calories, but on relative amounts of protein, fat, carbs, and fiber. While I think this nutrition-based approach is a good one, in the end the basis of weight loss is burning more calories than you consume. Since the WW tracker doesn't give calorie counts, I entered a typical 55-point day in another tracker and came out at about 2400 calories. I find that interesting, since I calculated my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) with a couple of different calculators and came out with that same number: 2400 calories. Your BMR is the number of calories that you burn simply by being alive. If I were to stay in bed all day and not do anything, that's the number of calories I'd use. Basically, then, since my intake is equal to my BMR, the weight I lose is dependent on the amount of exercising I do.
Over the last 3 weeks, I've increased my daily exercise quite a bit. The week before last, I started doing 15 minutes of Wii boxing every morning. Last week I increased that to 15 minutes of boxing in the morning and 15 minutes of swordfighting in the afternoon, for a total of 30 minutes daily. This week I've increased it again - 20 minutes of boxing in the morning and in the afternoon for a daily total of 40 minutes. I thought that was pretty good...until I looked up the number of calories it's burning. For every 15 minutes, Wii boxing burns 125 calories. That means that my 40 minutes is only burning about 350 calories or so.
There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. If I'm only burning an extra 350 calories per day, that means I'm only going to lose a pound every 10 days! Obviously those 350 calories from boxing aren't the only calories beyond my BMR that I'm burning, since I'm not in bed all day, but I'm not entirely sure how to calculate the calories I'm burning doing the dishes and vacuuming and making dinner and sitting at the computer and so on. With 3500 calories in a pound of fat, if I want to average 4 pounds per week, I need to burn about 2000 extra calories per day. Now I just need to figure out how to do that...
Ouch.
So I started adjusting...light sour cream instead of regular, half the amount of butter, ¾ lb of meat instead of 1 ¼ lb (partially offset by increasing the mushrooms from ¾ lb to 1 lb), and 6 oz of no-yolk noodles instead of 8 oz of regular noodles. All these changes resulted in reducing the points value to 25 per serving. Much better! I was a little concerned about there being enough to eat after having reduced the meat by almost half and the noodles by a quarter, but there was plenty and then some. I wasn't even able to finish my half. I was afraid the no-yolk noodles wouldn't be very good, but they weren't bad...a little odd, particularly in texture, but not bad.
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad- 12 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Beef stroganoff, green beans, milk - 30 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 57 points
So obviously over the last week or so I've been doing a lot of thinking about my program and my success - or lack of it - in losing weight. Since even in the weeks where I stick to my program like glue I'm usually not losing much, I've reached the conclusion that the problem must be in the other half of the equation - exercise.
The WW points system is not based solely on calories, but on relative amounts of protein, fat, carbs, and fiber. While I think this nutrition-based approach is a good one, in the end the basis of weight loss is burning more calories than you consume. Since the WW tracker doesn't give calorie counts, I entered a typical 55-point day in another tracker and came out at about 2400 calories. I find that interesting, since I calculated my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) with a couple of different calculators and came out with that same number: 2400 calories. Your BMR is the number of calories that you burn simply by being alive. If I were to stay in bed all day and not do anything, that's the number of calories I'd use. Basically, then, since my intake is equal to my BMR, the weight I lose is dependent on the amount of exercising I do.
Over the last 3 weeks, I've increased my daily exercise quite a bit. The week before last, I started doing 15 minutes of Wii boxing every morning. Last week I increased that to 15 minutes of boxing in the morning and 15 minutes of swordfighting in the afternoon, for a total of 30 minutes daily. This week I've increased it again - 20 minutes of boxing in the morning and in the afternoon for a daily total of 40 minutes. I thought that was pretty good...until I looked up the number of calories it's burning. For every 15 minutes, Wii boxing burns 125 calories. That means that my 40 minutes is only burning about 350 calories or so.
There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. If I'm only burning an extra 350 calories per day, that means I'm only going to lose a pound every 10 days! Obviously those 350 calories from boxing aren't the only calories beyond my BMR that I'm burning, since I'm not in bed all day, but I'm not entirely sure how to calculate the calories I'm burning doing the dishes and vacuuming and making dinner and sitting at the computer and so on. With 3500 calories in a pound of fat, if I want to average 4 pounds per week, I need to burn about 2000 extra calories per day. Now I just need to figure out how to do that...
Monday, March 21, 2011
A New Deadline
Sorry about not posting yesterday, guys...I started this post yesterday morning and came back to it about 20 times over the course of the day, but it just wasn't happening.
Weigh-in day yesterday. I was really, really hoping for a good loss to help me get remotivated and back on track...didn't happen. I stayed right on program all week with my food, I did 30 min of exercise every day, as far as I know I did everything right - and I lost a lousy 1.2 pounds. Yes, I know it's better than not losing anything and it's definitely better than gaining. It's certainly not very encouraging or motivating though. I wish I could figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Meals for the weekend:
Saturday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap- 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: "Gourmet" pork chops, rice pilaf, peas, milk - 30 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 58 points
Sunday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad- 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Sauerkraut & sausage, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 54 points
Monday
Breakfast: Oatmeal - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap- 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Pork chops with sweet potatoes and pears, peas, milk - 24 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
Thank you so very much to those of you who commented on my last couple of posts or had conversations with me about them. I really, really appreciate your support and input on this. I think what I'm going to do as far as my deadline is concerned is change it to the end of this year. Since I was off program for so long at the end of last year, I think it makes at least some sense to call the switch to Weight Watchers a new start. The actual date of the one-year weigh-in will be January 2 of next year. In order to make the deadline, I'll have to lose an average of 4.8 pounds per week, which means I really have to figure out what I'm doing wrong, but at least it's a little more possible than the original one.
Weigh-in day yesterday. I was really, really hoping for a good loss to help me get remotivated and back on track...didn't happen. I stayed right on program all week with my food, I did 30 min of exercise every day, as far as I know I did everything right - and I lost a lousy 1.2 pounds. Yes, I know it's better than not losing anything and it's definitely better than gaining. It's certainly not very encouraging or motivating though. I wish I could figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Meals for the weekend:
Saturday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap- 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: "Gourmet" pork chops, rice pilaf, peas, milk - 30 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 58 points
Sunday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad- 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Sauerkraut & sausage, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 54 points
Monday
Breakfast: Oatmeal - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap- 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Pork chops with sweet potatoes and pears, peas, milk - 24 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
Thank you so very much to those of you who commented on my last couple of posts or had conversations with me about them. I really, really appreciate your support and input on this. I think what I'm going to do as far as my deadline is concerned is change it to the end of this year. Since I was off program for so long at the end of last year, I think it makes at least some sense to call the switch to Weight Watchers a new start. The actual date of the one-year weigh-in will be January 2 of next year. In order to make the deadline, I'll have to lose an average of 4.8 pounds per week, which means I really have to figure out what I'm doing wrong, but at least it's a little more possible than the original one.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Still Stressing
Short post today, I'm still stressing out about yesterday's topic. I've managed to keep myself on the program, mainly I think due to already having the meals planned and sheer habit and stubbornness.
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap- 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Curried chicken & rice, milk - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 53 points
On a slightly positive note, I did next week's meal plan and grocery list this morning and it went pretty smoothly. I'll talk about what I did differently in one of next week's posts.
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap- 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Curried chicken & rice, milk - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 53 points
On a slightly positive note, I did next week's meal plan and grocery list this morning and it went pretty smoothly. I'll talk about what I did differently in one of next week's posts.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Motivation Zero
So I did a little math yesterday and discovered something really depressing. I'm not sure if I mentioned it when I started writing or not, but when I first decided that I was going to try to lose this weight once and for all, I gave myself one year to do it. I needed to lose 222 pounds to get to my goal weight of 175, which works out to about 4.25 pounds per week. That seemed to be a reasonable sort of number. From another perspective, I wanted to lose about 56% of my body weight, so I needed to lose just over 1% of my weight per week, which seems even more doable.
Now I'm 27 weeks in, and I've managed to lose a whopping 24.4 pounds. In order to succeed on my diet, I would need to lose 7.9 pounds per week from now until Sept. 6, which marks the one-year deadline. That's obviously not going to happen. Even people on weight-loss TV shows who have professional trainers and medical support and so on don't average that kind of weight loss. So basically no matter what I do, no matter how well I follow my program and how good I am about exercising, I'm absolutely guaranteed to fail. My motivation just went to zero. How do you stay motivated to do something when you've got no chance at all to succeed at it?
Realizing this is somehow even more depressing because I've been doing so well over the last couple of weeks and I was feeling really proud of myself. Except for one meal last Saturday, I've been right on track with my eating. I exercised for 15 minutes every day last week, and for 30 minutes every day so far this week. I lost 3.2 pounds at Monday's weigh-in, I've started the weekly meal planning, I've written every day but one, and I've even been doing really well on my daily schedule...and all this in spite of the refrigerator being broken! And now it seems like it's all for nothing. I know, I know, each of these things is good in and of itself, but with the knowledge that a little less than 6 months from now I'm going to have failed at the overall plan, they seem pretty pointless.
It's been suggested to me by a couple of different people that I change the deadline based on the fact that of the 27 weeks since I started, I've only actually been on program (either Atkins or WW) for 17 weeks. To me, that seems rather like rewarding myself for screwing up. And a deadline is a deadline, isn't it? Deadlines aren't the sort of things you can just change around to suit your whims. To try to see if there was any justification for this suggestion, though, I did a little more math. It seems like I spent the entire day yesterday and most of today doing math. In the 17 weeks on one program or the other, I've lost 36.6 pounds - 12.2 pounds of it I've lost twice because of the weeks off program - for a net total of 24.4 pounds. Even using those numbers, though, I only come out to 2.1 pounds per week on program, which is only half of what I needed to lose. If I add 10 weeks to my deadline based on the 10 weeks I was off program, it reduces the number I need per week to 5.7 pounds, which is still probably out of reach. I haven't lost even close to that much in a single week since I started. The best week I had I lost 4.4 pounds.
The other idea I had, also involving changing the deadline, is to make January 3 my "new" starting date. The justification for this, such as it is, is based on the fact that I was off Atkins almost as long as I was on it and that I started "fresh" with a totally new program when I switched to Weight Watchers. That would make my weekly number 4.7 pounds, which might be just barely reachable, although very difficult. So far I've averaged about 2.3 pounds per week on program with WW.
I'm still quite doubtful about changing the deadline, though - it seems to me to be cheating, "justification" or not. Please give me some feedback on this, guys...comment on the post, comment on FB, email me, IM me, text me, whatever. I really need some input here.
I think the only reason I was able to stay on plan yesterday was that I had the meal plan already in place. There's another item for the "plus" column...weekly meal planning is very helpful in case of personal emotional meltdown. Anyway, yesterday's food...
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad - 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken with teryaki, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 21 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
Sorry today's post was so long-winded. Thanks for wading through it, and please let me know what you think.
Now I'm 27 weeks in, and I've managed to lose a whopping 24.4 pounds. In order to succeed on my diet, I would need to lose 7.9 pounds per week from now until Sept. 6, which marks the one-year deadline. That's obviously not going to happen. Even people on weight-loss TV shows who have professional trainers and medical support and so on don't average that kind of weight loss. So basically no matter what I do, no matter how well I follow my program and how good I am about exercising, I'm absolutely guaranteed to fail. My motivation just went to zero. How do you stay motivated to do something when you've got no chance at all to succeed at it?
Realizing this is somehow even more depressing because I've been doing so well over the last couple of weeks and I was feeling really proud of myself. Except for one meal last Saturday, I've been right on track with my eating. I exercised for 15 minutes every day last week, and for 30 minutes every day so far this week. I lost 3.2 pounds at Monday's weigh-in, I've started the weekly meal planning, I've written every day but one, and I've even been doing really well on my daily schedule...and all this in spite of the refrigerator being broken! And now it seems like it's all for nothing. I know, I know, each of these things is good in and of itself, but with the knowledge that a little less than 6 months from now I'm going to have failed at the overall plan, they seem pretty pointless.
It's been suggested to me by a couple of different people that I change the deadline based on the fact that of the 27 weeks since I started, I've only actually been on program (either Atkins or WW) for 17 weeks. To me, that seems rather like rewarding myself for screwing up. And a deadline is a deadline, isn't it? Deadlines aren't the sort of things you can just change around to suit your whims. To try to see if there was any justification for this suggestion, though, I did a little more math. It seems like I spent the entire day yesterday and most of today doing math. In the 17 weeks on one program or the other, I've lost 36.6 pounds - 12.2 pounds of it I've lost twice because of the weeks off program - for a net total of 24.4 pounds. Even using those numbers, though, I only come out to 2.1 pounds per week on program, which is only half of what I needed to lose. If I add 10 weeks to my deadline based on the 10 weeks I was off program, it reduces the number I need per week to 5.7 pounds, which is still probably out of reach. I haven't lost even close to that much in a single week since I started. The best week I had I lost 4.4 pounds.
The other idea I had, also involving changing the deadline, is to make January 3 my "new" starting date. The justification for this, such as it is, is based on the fact that I was off Atkins almost as long as I was on it and that I started "fresh" with a totally new program when I switched to Weight Watchers. That would make my weekly number 4.7 pounds, which might be just barely reachable, although very difficult. So far I've averaged about 2.3 pounds per week on program with WW.
I'm still quite doubtful about changing the deadline, though - it seems to me to be cheating, "justification" or not. Please give me some feedback on this, guys...comment on the post, comment on FB, email me, IM me, text me, whatever. I really need some input here.
I think the only reason I was able to stay on plan yesterday was that I had the meal plan already in place. There's another item for the "plus" column...weekly meal planning is very helpful in case of personal emotional meltdown. Anyway, yesterday's food...
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad - 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken with teryaki, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 21 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
Sorry today's post was so long-winded. Thanks for wading through it, and please let me know what you think.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Oops!
Oops! Got on today to do my blog entry and realized that I missed yesterday. Don't worry, I didn't go off my program again or anything, just completely spaced my blog.
So last time I was talking about my laughable attempts at Wii canoeing...since that's not gonna happen, I decided to try Wii swordfighting Tuesday afternoon. Much better! It's a lot of fun, and definitely a good workout. It also uses a somewhat different set of muscles than boxing, which is good. Lots more forearm movement in swordfighting - they're sore enough today that I even noticed it when I was boxing this morning. I'm trying not to think about what they're going to feel like this afternoon!
Meals for the last two days:
Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken with Red Wine Sauce, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 27 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 55 points
Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Beef and vegetable stir-fry, rice, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 54 points
I did really, really well at hitting my points target! I was exactly right on Tuesday, and only 1 point short yesterday. Figuring out my meals ahead of time with the weekly meal planning has really helped immensely with getting the right number of points per day.
Speaking of the weekly meal planning, I haven't talked about it for the last few days. After the stress and difficulty of figuring out the plan and creating the shopping list, I was very unsure about the entire idea. So far, though, I'm really liking actually using the plan. I know every day exactly what I need to eat to be at or close to my points target. I know what I'm going to make for dinner, so when it's time to start getting ready to cook I can immediately grab the right meat to thaw and the right ingredients to prep - and I know I have all the ingredients.
I was very concerned that I wasn't going to be hungry for whatever I had on the plan for a given night, but that hasn't been an issue. I look at the plan in the morning while I'm eating breakfast so I know whether it's a salad or wrap day for lunch, what my afternoon snack is supposed to be, and what I'm planning for dinner. Somehow that knowledge must prepare my appetite for the scheduled meal, because it's sounded good every night so far! The issue of not being able to prepare the meal I've planned because of unforeseen circumstances hasn't happened yet, so I can't speak to that at this point. As far as preparing the meal plan and shopping list causing more stress than it saves, for this week I'd call it about even. It's been smooth sailing all week, but Saturday and Sunday were pretty bad. Since it was the first time, I think some difficulty was to be expected, and I'm going to be doing a couple of things differently this week, so hopefully the process will be much smoother the second time around.
So last time I was talking about my laughable attempts at Wii canoeing...since that's not gonna happen, I decided to try Wii swordfighting Tuesday afternoon. Much better! It's a lot of fun, and definitely a good workout. It also uses a somewhat different set of muscles than boxing, which is good. Lots more forearm movement in swordfighting - they're sore enough today that I even noticed it when I was boxing this morning. I'm trying not to think about what they're going to feel like this afternoon!
Meals for the last two days:
Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken with Red Wine Sauce, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 27 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 55 points
Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Beef and vegetable stir-fry, rice, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 54 points
I did really, really well at hitting my points target! I was exactly right on Tuesday, and only 1 point short yesterday. Figuring out my meals ahead of time with the weekly meal planning has really helped immensely with getting the right number of points per day.
Speaking of the weekly meal planning, I haven't talked about it for the last few days. After the stress and difficulty of figuring out the plan and creating the shopping list, I was very unsure about the entire idea. So far, though, I'm really liking actually using the plan. I know every day exactly what I need to eat to be at or close to my points target. I know what I'm going to make for dinner, so when it's time to start getting ready to cook I can immediately grab the right meat to thaw and the right ingredients to prep - and I know I have all the ingredients.
I was very concerned that I wasn't going to be hungry for whatever I had on the plan for a given night, but that hasn't been an issue. I look at the plan in the morning while I'm eating breakfast so I know whether it's a salad or wrap day for lunch, what my afternoon snack is supposed to be, and what I'm planning for dinner. Somehow that knowledge must prepare my appetite for the scheduled meal, because it's sounded good every night so far! The issue of not being able to prepare the meal I've planned because of unforeseen circumstances hasn't happened yet, so I can't speak to that at this point. As far as preparing the meal plan and shopping list causing more stress than it saves, for this week I'd call it about even. It's been smooth sailing all week, but Saturday and Sunday were pretty bad. Since it was the first time, I think some difficulty was to be expected, and I'm going to be doing a couple of things differently this week, so hopefully the process will be much smoother the second time around.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Chicken and Dumplings...Mmmm
My experimental recipe last night was a reasonable success! It's definitely one to add to the list and keep in the rotation, with a few changes. I was concerned while I was making it that it was going to be a little bland, and I was right, but it was still quite edible, and bland is very easy to fix. A little more salt & pepper, a little garlic, some sage in the stew as well as in the dumplings, possibly some celery seed or a chicken bouillon cube, and it should be greatly improved. The recipe made a lot of food, too - I couldn't quite finish my portion. Full is good!
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Turkey pastrami wrap - 13 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken and dumplings - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
Meal timing and the meals themselves were a little messed up yesterday as a result of needing to wait for the refrigerator repairman to get here. I didn't have the stuff to make my soup for lunch, so I missed a point there and was very hungry by snack time at 3:00. Which didn't actually happen until about 4:30 because I didn't have any yogurt until Chad got back from the grocery store. As a result, dinner didn't happen until about 7:15...more than an hour late. I'm actually rather proud of myself for sticking to the program and the meal plan even though meal timing was off and I was starving. That's frequently a combination of circumstances that ends up with me going off plan badly.
I was 3 points short of target yesterday. The original plan called for 54 points, one short of my daily allowance of 55, but not having my soup at lunch reduced it by 1, forgetting my milk at dinner reduced it by 2, and a miscommunication about the type of biscuit mix to get for the dumplings increased it by 1. All in all, considering it was a bit of a crazy day, I think I did pretty well.
I even managed to get not one but two exercise sessions in! I did my 15 minutes of Wii boxing in the morning, and tried out Wii canoeing for the first time in the afternoon. I am a miserable failure at Wii canoeing. A video of my pathetic attempts at it yesterday would quite possibly win the grand prize on America's Funniest Videos. It definitely got me tired, though! I got Chad to try to help me with it last night, and we determined that my...uhhh...errr...figure...is the issue. I'm simply not built for Wii canoeing. Things get in the way. I'm going to try something else this afternoon. Possibly with no greater success, but we'll see!
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Turkey pastrami wrap - 13 points
Snack: Greek yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken and dumplings - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
Meal timing and the meals themselves were a little messed up yesterday as a result of needing to wait for the refrigerator repairman to get here. I didn't have the stuff to make my soup for lunch, so I missed a point there and was very hungry by snack time at 3:00. Which didn't actually happen until about 4:30 because I didn't have any yogurt until Chad got back from the grocery store. As a result, dinner didn't happen until about 7:15...more than an hour late. I'm actually rather proud of myself for sticking to the program and the meal plan even though meal timing was off and I was starving. That's frequently a combination of circumstances that ends up with me going off plan badly.
I was 3 points short of target yesterday. The original plan called for 54 points, one short of my daily allowance of 55, but not having my soup at lunch reduced it by 1, forgetting my milk at dinner reduced it by 2, and a miscommunication about the type of biscuit mix to get for the dumplings increased it by 1. All in all, considering it was a bit of a crazy day, I think I did pretty well.
I even managed to get not one but two exercise sessions in! I did my 15 minutes of Wii boxing in the morning, and tried out Wii canoeing for the first time in the afternoon. I am a miserable failure at Wii canoeing. A video of my pathetic attempts at it yesterday would quite possibly win the grand prize on America's Funniest Videos. It definitely got me tired, though! I got Chad to try to help me with it last night, and we determined that my...uhhh...errr...figure...is the issue. I'm simply not built for Wii canoeing. Things get in the way. I'm going to try something else this afternoon. Possibly with no greater success, but we'll see!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Hooray!
Hooray! I lost 3.2 pounds! Definitely encouraging, and I can use all the encouragement I can get right now. I can put up with looking and feeling ridiculous while flailing around with my Wii controllers, stressing out while trying to create a weekly meal plan for the first time, and even with the refrigerator breaking down again after just a week - as long as I'm losing weight.
This meal plan thing is rough, though. I did finally manage to get a week's worth of meals figured out on Saturday, and tonight will be my first try at a new recipe I found on the WW site. When I read the recipe it sounded pretty good, so I'm going to ignore the contradictory comments and just make it and hope it's edible. Making the grocery list once I got the meal plan figured out was almost harder than figuring out the meals, though. That's a lot of ingredients to write down at once, pretty overwhelming. I've got a couple of plans for different ways to do it this week so that hopefully it won't be quite so bad, because I was so overwhelmed by it by dinnertime on Saturday that I ended up going off plan.
The weekend's consumption:
Saturday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Salad, tomato-beef broth - 14 points
Snack: None
Dinner: 2 Burger King double cheeseburgers, large fries - 40 points
Dessert: None
Total: 64 points
Sunday
Breakfast: Oatmeal - 10 points
Lunch: Salad, tomato-beef broth - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Sauerkraut & sausage - 21 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 49 points
So obviously Saturday night wasn't so good. It wasn't horrible either, though...I hadn't had a ton of points during the day, so even with going way off program for dinner, I only ended up 9 points over my daily allotment. That was covered with quite a lot to spare by my 49 weekly flex-points, and I went right back on my program Sunday morning and didn't beat myself up about falling off too badly. Sunday I ended up 6 points short. Having my meal plan in place should hopefully mean I don't have many more days where I'm more than a couple of points off my target. We'll see how it goes!
This meal plan thing is rough, though. I did finally manage to get a week's worth of meals figured out on Saturday, and tonight will be my first try at a new recipe I found on the WW site. When I read the recipe it sounded pretty good, so I'm going to ignore the contradictory comments and just make it and hope it's edible. Making the grocery list once I got the meal plan figured out was almost harder than figuring out the meals, though. That's a lot of ingredients to write down at once, pretty overwhelming. I've got a couple of plans for different ways to do it this week so that hopefully it won't be quite so bad, because I was so overwhelmed by it by dinnertime on Saturday that I ended up going off plan.
The weekend's consumption:
Saturday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Salad, tomato-beef broth - 14 points
Snack: None
Dinner: 2 Burger King double cheeseburgers, large fries - 40 points
Dessert: None
Total: 64 points
Sunday
Breakfast: Oatmeal - 10 points
Lunch: Salad, tomato-beef broth - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Sauerkraut & sausage - 21 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 49 points
So obviously Saturday night wasn't so good. It wasn't horrible either, though...I hadn't had a ton of points during the day, so even with going way off program for dinner, I only ended up 9 points over my daily allotment. That was covered with quite a lot to spare by my 49 weekly flex-points, and I went right back on my program Sunday morning and didn't beat myself up about falling off too badly. Sunday I ended up 6 points short. Having my meal plan in place should hopefully mean I don't have many more days where I'm more than a couple of points off my target. We'll see how it goes!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Food List Frustration
Well, yesterday's attempt at adding recipes to my list was an exercise in complete frustration. I spent about two hours working on it, and in the end I had added exactly zero items.
I started with my own recipe book, but everything I tried to enter ended up being way over on points, mainly because most of them are pasta recipes, and apparently pasta of any sort is going to be completely out of the question. So since pasta seemed to be a problem, I switched to one of my Atkins cookbooks. No pasta there, right? Well, no, there's no pasta...but there is rather a lot of fat. Also a problem. So much for the Atkins cookbook. Ok, surely the recipes on the Weight Watchers website itself should work for the WW program, so I decided to look there. Aside from some ridiculous numbers of servings per recipe (6 servings? Really? Why on earth would I want to make enough food for 6 people?) some of their entrees sounded pretty good - until I started reading the reviews. "This is the best meal I've ever eaten!"..."This was pretty good, after I made some changes to it."..."This is horrible! I ate one bite and threw the rest out!" All for the same recipe. On every single recipe I looked at. I gave up. I'll give it another try today with some of my other cookbooks, and hope I have a little more success.
Yesterday's intake:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Salad - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken with Szechuan sauce, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 21 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 49 points
Six points short yesterday, not terrible but not great either. Hopefully I can hold it together today, all signs so far this morning indicate it's going to be one of my bad days. So far so good...
I started with my own recipe book, but everything I tried to enter ended up being way over on points, mainly because most of them are pasta recipes, and apparently pasta of any sort is going to be completely out of the question. So since pasta seemed to be a problem, I switched to one of my Atkins cookbooks. No pasta there, right? Well, no, there's no pasta...but there is rather a lot of fat. Also a problem. So much for the Atkins cookbook. Ok, surely the recipes on the Weight Watchers website itself should work for the WW program, so I decided to look there. Aside from some ridiculous numbers of servings per recipe (6 servings? Really? Why on earth would I want to make enough food for 6 people?) some of their entrees sounded pretty good - until I started reading the reviews. "This is the best meal I've ever eaten!"..."This was pretty good, after I made some changes to it."..."This is horrible! I ate one bite and threw the rest out!" All for the same recipe. On every single recipe I looked at. I gave up. I'll give it another try today with some of my other cookbooks, and hope I have a little more success.
Yesterday's intake:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Salad - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken with Szechuan sauce, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 21 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 49 points
Six points short yesterday, not terrible but not great either. Hopefully I can hold it together today, all signs so far this morning indicate it's going to be one of my bad days. So far so good...
Friday, March 11, 2011
Boxing or Random Flailing?
So yesterday and today I had to really force myself to do my daily Wii Boxing exercise. Partly it was just that I haven't been sleeping very well so I'm tired, but I think it's also partly the game itself. It really seems that all I'm doing is flailing around and hoping that it connects; there doesn't seem to be much in the way of skill or a learning curve, and trying to throw a punch while holding a controller is a bit awkward. I think I need to try out some of the other "sport" games that came with the Wii and see if any of them give me as good a workout as the boxing does.
Yesterday's intake:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken with teriyaki, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 53 points
You'll see that I made my cop-out meal from the other night again, but this time I actually did it on purpose. It was good and it was easy, so I decided it was a keeper. I spent a little time yesterday making a list of all of the dinner entrees that I've made since I started the WW program. It's a pretty short list. I hadn't realized quite how much I was repetitively making the same meals. There are only about 10 items, and I know a couple of them I've only made once. Boring!
Today's task is to go through some of my cookbooks and recipes and the WW site and add a bunch of entrees to my list and calculate their points values. I'm actually getting kind of excited about this meal-planning idea. At the very least I'm going to have a wider range of options entered into my recipe calculator to draw from, and if I'm not bored with what I'm eating I'm more likely to stick with it.
Yesterday's intake:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Chicken with teriyaki, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 53 points
You'll see that I made my cop-out meal from the other night again, but this time I actually did it on purpose. It was good and it was easy, so I decided it was a keeper. I spent a little time yesterday making a list of all of the dinner entrees that I've made since I started the WW program. It's a pretty short list. I hadn't realized quite how much I was repetitively making the same meals. There are only about 10 items, and I know a couple of them I've only made once. Boring!
Today's task is to go through some of my cookbooks and recipes and the WW site and add a bunch of entrees to my list and calculate their points values. I'm actually getting kind of excited about this meal-planning idea. At the very least I'm going to have a wider range of options entered into my recipe calculator to draw from, and if I'm not bored with what I'm eating I'm more likely to stick with it.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Weekly Meal Planning
Well, I think I've decided to give the weekly meal planning thing a shot. If it works out, I think it could be very beneficial, and if it doesn't, I haven't really lost anything. I was informed yesterday that I was overthinking it and going crazy about every little detail...who, me? Overthink things? Stress myself out over tiny details that nobody else would notice? Never!....uhhh yeah. Anyway...
I've decided I'll do my planning on Sunday mornings for the following week. Since Chad has Sundays and Mondays off, that will be the most practical for grocery shopping, and I prefer to start things on Mondays anyway. For this first week, I think I'll start the planning process a little ahead of time. That way I'll have a little more time and hopefully not get too stressed out about it. Since one of the things that I need to do in order to make this work well is add quite a number of recipes to my WW tracker in order to calculate their points value and that's a fairly time-consuming process, extra time is a definite plus. I think I'm also going to create a list of main dish ideas that I can refer to while I'm making my meal plan so that I don't end up making the same things over and over (which is what I tend to do now) or drawing a complete mental blank when I try to think of things to cook. Perhaps I'll post the list here on the blog if you guys are interested in seeing it.
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal (with raisins!), banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad - 15 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken & broccoli stir-fry with General Tso sauce, rice, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
Only 3 points short of my target, I did pretty well yesterday! I've actually done well all week so far, both with diet and exercise...I really hope I lose when I weigh in on Monday.
I've decided I'll do my planning on Sunday mornings for the following week. Since Chad has Sundays and Mondays off, that will be the most practical for grocery shopping, and I prefer to start things on Mondays anyway. For this first week, I think I'll start the planning process a little ahead of time. That way I'll have a little more time and hopefully not get too stressed out about it. Since one of the things that I need to do in order to make this work well is add quite a number of recipes to my WW tracker in order to calculate their points value and that's a fairly time-consuming process, extra time is a definite plus. I think I'm also going to create a list of main dish ideas that I can refer to while I'm making my meal plan so that I don't end up making the same things over and over (which is what I tend to do now) or drawing a complete mental blank when I try to think of things to cook. Perhaps I'll post the list here on the blog if you guys are interested in seeing it.
Yesterday's meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal (with raisins!), banana - 10 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, salad - 15 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken & broccoli stir-fry with General Tso sauce, rice, milk - 23 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 52 points
Only 3 points short of my target, I did pretty well yesterday! I've actually done well all week so far, both with diet and exercise...I really hope I lose when I weigh in on Monday.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Raisins! Raisins!
I had raisins in my oatmeal this morning! I feel so decadent...
I'm a lot less sore today than I was yesterday, boxing is going to be much easier! The dogs look at me so strangely when I'm exercising. I'm sure it's quite funny to watch, but hey, if it works it works.
Yesterday's meals...
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 7 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken with teriyaki, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 48 points
I was 7 points short yesterday, which isn't so good. On the other hand, I had a terrible time figuring out what to do for dinner, but I still managed to cook something and not go off my program, which is very good. It was kind of a cop-out, since all I did was saute some chicken breast and pour a little teriyaki sauce to dip it in, but it filled my stomach and stayed within my points, so I guess it works.
I've been considering off and on trying something I've read about in a number of different places as being a good idea: weekly meal planning. A lot of people seem to swear by it for lowering stress, saving money, and reducing food waste as well as for weight loss. In theory, it sounds like a good idea, but I have a number of concerns about it.
First and foremost, how do I know on Sunday what I'm going to be hungry for on Thursday? Or will the act of having planned to make stir-fry (or whatever) that day somehow automatically put me in the mood for it? Also, will trying to figure out an entire week's worth of meals at once cause me more stress than it saves? It seems like it might be overwhelming. And finally, what if something unavoidable happens that causes me to be unable to stick to the preplanned menu? I'm afraid that might freak me out to the point that I mess up the whole week.
On the positive side, knowing in advance what I'm going to make for each meal would eliminate the hour or more of trying to figure out what I want for dinner, if I have the ingredients, how many points it's worth, etc. It would at least reduce the number of times I look in the produce drawer and wonder what on earth the puddle of slime in that bag used to be. I think it would also be helpful in adding some variety to our meals, since I tend to fall back on the same few recipes over and over again as a result of not being able to decide what I want to make. And of course it would help me be closer to hitting the mark on my points target every day.
Have any of you tried weekly meal planning in the past? Do you do it now? How did you like it?
I'm a lot less sore today than I was yesterday, boxing is going to be much easier! The dogs look at me so strangely when I'm exercising. I'm sure it's quite funny to watch, but hey, if it works it works.
Yesterday's meals...
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 7 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Apple - 0 points
Dinner: Chicken with teriyaki, Rice-a-Roni, green beans, milk - 22 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 48 points
I was 7 points short yesterday, which isn't so good. On the other hand, I had a terrible time figuring out what to do for dinner, but I still managed to cook something and not go off my program, which is very good. It was kind of a cop-out, since all I did was saute some chicken breast and pour a little teriyaki sauce to dip it in, but it filled my stomach and stayed within my points, so I guess it works.
I've been considering off and on trying something I've read about in a number of different places as being a good idea: weekly meal planning. A lot of people seem to swear by it for lowering stress, saving money, and reducing food waste as well as for weight loss. In theory, it sounds like a good idea, but I have a number of concerns about it.
First and foremost, how do I know on Sunday what I'm going to be hungry for on Thursday? Or will the act of having planned to make stir-fry (or whatever) that day somehow automatically put me in the mood for it? Also, will trying to figure out an entire week's worth of meals at once cause me more stress than it saves? It seems like it might be overwhelming. And finally, what if something unavoidable happens that causes me to be unable to stick to the preplanned menu? I'm afraid that might freak me out to the point that I mess up the whole week.
On the positive side, knowing in advance what I'm going to make for each meal would eliminate the hour or more of trying to figure out what I want for dinner, if I have the ingredients, how many points it's worth, etc. It would at least reduce the number of times I look in the produce drawer and wonder what on earth the puddle of slime in that bag used to be. I think it would also be helpful in adding some variety to our meals, since I tend to fall back on the same few recipes over and over again as a result of not being able to decide what I want to make. And of course it would help me be closer to hitting the mark on my points target every day.
Have any of you tried weekly meal planning in the past? Do you do it now? How did you like it?
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sore, Sore, Sore
Wow, a lot more of you read my ramblings than I thought! Eight of you "liked" yesterday's post on Facebook. I had no idea so many people were following this process, and I'm really encouraged and motivated by that! Thanks, guys.
I am so sore through the arms and shoulders today from doing Wii Boxing the last two days! Obviously, it's doing me some good. I just finished this morning's session...painful, but I got through it. I had a lot more trouble winning my fights today, though - my poor overused muscles!
Anyway, on to yesterday's menu...
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 7 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Ham, red potatoes, peas, milk - 24 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 53 points
I actually did pretty well yesterday on getting to my points total, only 2 points short. I didn't feel very good after dinner, though - I think I might have eaten too much in my quest to use all my points. Looking at the distribution of points through the day, I'm wondering if I should eat more points at breakfast and fewer at dinner. It would be easy to add a few more points in the morning simply by adding some raisins to my oatmeal, which is the way that I would normally eat it anyway. The only issue with that is that I'm afraid that as I lose weight and reduce the number of points I have available per day, I'll feel deprived and resentful when I inevitably have to remove the raisins again. I'll have to think about it.
I am so sore through the arms and shoulders today from doing Wii Boxing the last two days! Obviously, it's doing me some good. I just finished this morning's session...painful, but I got through it. I had a lot more trouble winning my fights today, though - my poor overused muscles!
Anyway, on to yesterday's menu...
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 7 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Ham, red potatoes, peas, milk - 24 points
Dessert: Pudding with Cool Whip - 5 points
Total: 53 points
I actually did pretty well yesterday on getting to my points total, only 2 points short. I didn't feel very good after dinner, though - I think I might have eaten too much in my quest to use all my points. Looking at the distribution of points through the day, I'm wondering if I should eat more points at breakfast and fewer at dinner. It would be easy to add a few more points in the morning simply by adding some raisins to my oatmeal, which is the way that I would normally eat it anyway. The only issue with that is that I'm afraid that as I lose weight and reduce the number of points I have available per day, I'll feel deprived and resentful when I inevitably have to remove the raisins again. I'll have to think about it.
Monday, March 7, 2011
I'm Baaaaack...
So I obviously haven't been keeping up on the blog lately.
Wow, I just looked, and I haven't posted in 7 weeks. In that 7 weeks, I've lost a net total of 1.6 pounds. Obviously I do a lot better when I write about what's going on. I don't think more than about 4 people actually read what I write, but I'm beginning to think that just the act of writing helps. Anyway, back to it I go!
Yesterday's meals...
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 7 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Sauerkraut and sausage - 21 points
Dessert: Pudding and Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 49 points
I currently have a total daily allowance of 55 points. According to the program, I'm supposed to use them all every day, but I rarely make it. I think as long as I'm within 5 points or less I'm doing fine. As it is, I'm eating every 3 hours and rarely or never getting the recommended number of vegetable servings. Most vegetables and fruits have a zero points value, and I'm supposed to have nine servings per day, in addition to my 55 points?! There's no way I can eat that much, so I do what I can.
I'm starting back with exercising this week as well. The treadmill I was using is no longer accessible, and it's pretty uncomfortable for me to go in and use it anyway, so last night I fired up the Wii and tried out the Wii Sports boxing game for the first time. It feels a lot more like random, frenetic flailing than actual fighting, but at least it's energetic, random, frenetic flailing that definitely gets my heart rate up and tires me out. I started out with 15 minutes and I'll increase it weekly as I've done with my other types of exercising.
Wow, I just looked, and I haven't posted in 7 weeks. In that 7 weeks, I've lost a net total of 1.6 pounds. Obviously I do a lot better when I write about what's going on. I don't think more than about 4 people actually read what I write, but I'm beginning to think that just the act of writing helps. Anyway, back to it I go!
Yesterday's meals...
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana - 7 points
Lunch: Tomato-beef broth, turkey pastrami wrap - 14 points
Snack: Yogurt with applesauce - 3 points
Dinner: Sauerkraut and sausage - 21 points
Dessert: Pudding and Cool Whip - 4 points
Total: 49 points
I currently have a total daily allowance of 55 points. According to the program, I'm supposed to use them all every day, but I rarely make it. I think as long as I'm within 5 points or less I'm doing fine. As it is, I'm eating every 3 hours and rarely or never getting the recommended number of vegetable servings. Most vegetables and fruits have a zero points value, and I'm supposed to have nine servings per day, in addition to my 55 points?! There's no way I can eat that much, so I do what I can.
I'm starting back with exercising this week as well. The treadmill I was using is no longer accessible, and it's pretty uncomfortable for me to go in and use it anyway, so last night I fired up the Wii and tried out the Wii Sports boxing game for the first time. It feels a lot more like random, frenetic flailing than actual fighting, but at least it's energetic, random, frenetic flailing that definitely gets my heart rate up and tires me out. I started out with 15 minutes and I'll increase it weekly as I've done with my other types of exercising.
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