I'm so very happy to report that today at weigh in I discovered that I made my 10% goal of 26 pounds lost! I lost 4.6 pounds this week for a total loss of 28.4 pounds since starting WW, 2.4 pounds over my 10% goal actually. :-)
The next step in WW is to set your overall goal (mine is 140) and your next little goal, for which I've chosen to do another 10%, so 23 pounds. It was nice to see my EP tracker say "Congratulations! You made your goal!" but I've reset everything to reflect the newest goal of getting down to 209.4 pounds. I have a mini goal and that's to get into the 220's, my lowest weight ever since I've started my weight loss journey. I'm only 3.4 pounds away from that feat so here's hoping to reach it in the next couple weeks.
I have inlaws in this weekend so I haven't had time to check out your blogs but I am going to set aside time to do that this evening. I hope everyone is doing well and hooray for all of us for trying to get into better health! I feel good, I can't deny it!
So my determination to stay on track has been holding. I have been tracking my points, drinking my water, and even squeezing in some activity. I stepped on the scale at home this morning and it said 234.8, which would put me at my first goal of a 10% weight loss of 26 pounds. I'm happy but I don't count home weigh ins, just the ones at WW, so I hope the loss stays put for Sunday's meeting. I've already chosen my next big goal, another 10% weight loss, and a mini goal to get into the 220's. But we'll see what Sunday's weigh in says. Maybe I'll weigh even less! I'm on my period now and I'm hoping that when I'm done the scale will show me a nice number.
I'm still trying to find a part time job but with no luck. We really could use the money because I sure am tired of playing the telephone tango with bill collectors. Meanwhile I am trying my hand at homeschooling my son and so far so good. He already knows his complete alphabet, numbers from 1 - 20, and his colors and he just turned 2 a month ago. Allow me to brag by sharing some videos of these amazing feats: Bailey's colors and alphabet. I'm the big Momma in the background.
I'm feeling the need to get more in tuned with my spiritual side. With all the stress that I experienced over the summer I feel like I really need to let myself be more submissive to a higher power, if that makes sense. I think if I could have more faith in God, that He is there for me and will help me that it might make my outlook on things more positive. I get sent e-mails full of scripture and passages all the time but I'm only now starting to really read them, and I've found that lots of them do have comforting messages and advice I need to heed for a happier existence.
Oh, can you tell I'm on my period? I'm getting all sensitive and stuff. Let me end this post before I start talking about my childhood issues! LOL! Take care y'all!
I know this because I found out that I lost 7 pounds at yesterday's weigh in. So as much as I love my Korean food, especially the kim chee, I think I'm going to have to keep my distance while trying to lose weight. My TOM is due this week so I wonder if the scale would have been even lower. We'll have to see what happens next week I suppose.
Although I did well last week I admit that I did not count points. I'm just fed up with the points! Instead I just tried to eat reasonably, eating my veggies first, then my protein, saving my carbs for last. But I'm back to counting points for the next few weeks because I am so close to getting to my 10% weight loss goal of 26 pounds. The last time I got close I totally fell off the wagon and went back up, but this time I'd like to achieve the goal and get my keychain from WW!
Hubby and I plan on TTC during my next fertile days which is this month. I wanted to be down to my 220's by the time I tried again but time and age are against me so we opted for sooner than later. But who knows? I still might make it to the 220's by the time I get pregnant. Might not happen on the first try. But I know whenever I get preggo I will be a lot healthier than I was when I had my miscarriage at 260 pounds heavy.
I have to get off here as my son is getting impatient with my typing. It's a nice, cool, sunny day and there is no reason we should be inside. Hope everyone is doing well!
I've managed to squeeze out the four pounds of water I gained, thank goodness! I've been drinking a lot of water/Crystal Light and staying away from as much salt as I can. Another plus is that I'm getting in a little cardio because drinking all that water keeps me running to the bathroom and our only bathroom is upstairs. :-)
On Monday I went for a two mile walk with my friend. It was actually really nice and I enjoyed myself. She and I have never gone walking so she was impressed that I made the two miles without complaining or getting winded and that I pushed both our kids in a double stroller. Of course, stretching is so important because I didn't and the next day I felt it in my calves and my shins, but not too bad.
I'm going to be testing my willpower today as I have much baking to do. I have a whole bunch of super ripe bananas that are just right for making banana bread so that's what I'm going to make. I'm thinking that I'll just give them away to friends and have my husband take some to work just to get it out of the house. I also have to make a flan for my father...it's his 1st wedding anniversary (to his 3rd wife!) and he'll be spending it alone as she's not here in the states right now. I love flan and this recipe is just pure sugar and eggs. I made sure to only buy enough ingredients to make only one large flan.
So so far I haven't been ticked off at the scale but I'm hoping for the number to drop a bit more, at least under 239. Hope all is well with everyone else!
Okay, I got back on track and, although I had my MSG/salt issues I managed to stay within points. Granted I ate all my flex points but I never went over. But what the freak! I GAINED ALMOST FOUR POUNDS!!! :-(
I'm still feeling bloaty and icky and swollen but it's not time for my period (I have another two weeks) and I've cut back on the salt. A friend on another weight loss list I'm on says it's probably ovulation weight gain because she gains a few pounds during that time. I hope that's what it is but I wonder why it's affecting me so badly this time as opposed to other times. Maybe I'm still getting too much salt in.
So this next week I'll keep on track but I'll boost the water and water rich foods and hopefully I'll lose some weight. I hope everyone is doing better than I am.
*Note: lots of hyperlinks in this post! Okay, so being all newly motivated and things I decided that the best way to jump start everything again was to eat differently. During my "break" my eating had turned back to processed foods and junk food and all things unhealthy. So I decide that maybe going back to my Korean roots would be the best option for me. After all, how many fat Koreans do you run into? Few and far between. So I head out to the local Korean market and stock up on food but mainly rice, kim (or nori to you sushi lovers), tofu and lots of kim chee.
I knew I had to take it easy on the rice, a whopping 4 points per cup, but the kim chee is only half a point per cup so I could pretty much eat as much of that as I wanted. Another dish I made to eat was something called kim chee chige, which is a soup made from kim chee. I added bean sprouts and tofu and a tiny bit of beef dashi and had a nice healthy meal I could eat until my heart's content. So I had my healthy, low cal, low fat food to fill up on and was happy and staying within my points. Should be a great week of weight loss.
NOT! I stepped on the scale last night, just to check out how I was doing and almost died! I had GAINED six pounds! What???? I knew I wasn't eating that much rice, no more than 6 points worth a day, and I knew I was keeping within my points. As soon as my husband said "Maybe it's just water weight" I realized where I had made my mistake. MSG! I totally forgot to take into account that Asians love their MSG and that it's virtually in everything. Salt is bad but MSG is like mega salt! It was in the kim chee, the dashi, and on the seaweed and here I was eating tons of the stuff! You would have thought I would have been clued off the morning after my first Korean feast when I was brushing my teeth and observed that my face looked a little puffy. I blamed it on just waking up.
So anyway, I'm still eating my kim chee and stuff but not as much as I was and I'm in the process of desaltifying (that's my homemade word) myself by drinking about a pint, more or less, of water every hour-hour and a half. Guess I'm going to have to go back to just behaving and counting my points as usual and not trying to take an easier way out. Hopefully I will wash the sodium out of my system in time for weigh in. But hey, at least my motivation is still in tact and I did keep on track, right?
After skipping weigh in last week for fear of seeing how much I have gained in my weeks of slackitude I have to admit that I was still shocked when I went to WW yesterday only to find that I have gained. I weighed in at 239.6 pounds, a full 3 pound gain from that weight that had me within arms reach of meeting my first 10% goal. I was back to pushing 240 again! I talked to my WW leader and she helped me come to the conclusion that my issue is that I didn't set enough goals for myself. See, my 10% goal was a goal WW set for me, and although I really want to meet it the goal I set for myself personally was just to get under 240. When I reached that goal all the motivation went out the window.
I had to ask myself: Why am I just satisfied with that? Knowing that I have been somewhat successful on WW, why not want to go further? Why did stopping short satisfy me? I have no idea. I really wanted to lose as much weight as I could (so I thought) before my husband and I started TTC again so the motivation should be there, but getting under 240 was where I was happy...or so I thought. The only explanation I can give myself was that about 235-236 was lower than I was when I got preggo with my DS, so maybe I figured I was "okay" now because I surpassed that weight. I don't know but that weight is not good enough.
Two things, I believe, helped to contribute to my gaining weight, other than that lackluster attitude of mine. First, I stopped attending my WW meetings. I go in to weigh in but I wouldn't stay. I would always bring my son along so that I would have an excuse not to stay. The second is that I stopped blogging and reading blogs here on EP. This site has been my main source of support and willpower and I pushed it to the backburner. It's true, I was busy and had a lot of "life" interrupting my usual schedule, but I still found times to do the things I really wanted, so not getting on here or going to meetings was not because I couldn't, but because I wouldn't.
So here I am. I started counting points again today. I'm drinking my water again. I'm going to start exercising again. I've set new goals for myself. First off, I want to reach my 10% goal by the end of the month, God willing. Secondly, we want to start TTC sometime during my next fertile cycle which is in mid-October. I'd like to be at least in the 220's when we start trying. We can't wait until I am down to my total goal because of age and other factors, so even though I will be TTC before I am at my ideal weight I want to retrain myself to eat well and live a healthy lifestyle so that I can try and maintain that same attitude while pregnant and not use my pregnancy as an excuse to eat unhealthy.
So here I am, back on EP full force. I'm going to try and make sure I'm back on here every day because reading your blogs helps me so much.
I hope everyone else is doing well and I look forward to getting reacquainted with you again.
Okay, so it's a new week and as promised I'm back on the WW program. I let counting points fall to the wayside in the last few weeks as I was dealing with my Granddad but now that he's gone, I hate to say it, but the stress is gone. I can now refocus my attention back on my weight loss. Oh, to read about some of the hilarious happenings at the funeral (yes, I said hilarious!) go here to check out my blog on MySpace.
I didn't go to my meeting/weigh in today because my son and hubs are sick. I stepped on the scale at home and it looks like I went up a 1.5 pounds. I am hoping that being back on track will knock off that weight I gained. I have to admit I am disappointed in the gain since I was so close to my 1st goal of 26 pounds that I could taste it.
Even though I can't see that drastic of a change in my weight loss other people can. At the funeral the relatives I hadn't seen since my son's 1st birthday party a year ago would say things like "You've lost a LOT of weight!" I guess 22 pounds is a lot of weight but when you have so much to lose and have already lost so much it seems like just a drop in the bucket. I did find out, when shopping for shoes to wear to the funeral, that my foot has shrunk another half size. I am now in a 9 but a few years ago I was in an 11. I'm ecstatic about that because smaller feet mean cuter shoes!
So lets see how well I do this week now that I'm back on track. I'm hoping that at next week's weigh in I am at least back down to 236 like I was two weeks ago, but we'll see. This week is my PMS week and I tend to get crazy hungry and bloaty. Anyone know if taking a diuretic/water pill is cheating? Anyone taking one?
...I had a gain this week, but I was expecting it. I didn't each much during the week with sitting at the hospital with my Grandfather and helping with funeral arrangements/family things and when I stepped on my scale at home on Thursday I registered at around 234. However, on Friday and Saturday I think I did damage with the way I was eating. I had the fried Oreos, as I mentioned in my previous post, which wasn't so bad but Saturday I had to eat on the run that night so we had a late dinner of Afghan food (kabobs, chick peas, and rice) that was absolutely delicious but salty. I'm 99% sure that my 2.2 pound weight gain was from the salt. So here I've been pounding down the water and hopefully this next weigh in will show my true progress.
My biggest challenge for the week will be at the after-funeral repast. If I remember correctly it will feature a ton of salty comfort foods...fried chicken, ham, potato salad, and lots of desserts. If it were being catered by a professional company we might have had some control over the menu but the Comfort Guild at the church where the funeral is being held is cooking and they are comprised of older women who like to throw down in the kitchen. The one thing I have on my side is that unlike most people I don't eat when I get stressed or emotional, I'm the complete opposite. That and the fact that I'll probably be spending a lot of time meeting and greeting relatives might prevent me from stuffing my face.
I'm still not counting points this week as it's too much for me to do right now, but I'm trying to eat healthy and in small portions. Next week, after all this is done, I'm set to get back on track with WW and hopefully start up an exercise routine...again. I had one before but I let it get away from me.
Finally, some free time! I've missed logging on to EP to read blogs. It was my way to unwind some evenings. I just haven't had the time...well, I had the time but by the end of my day I just wanted to do mindless things like watch television or sleep.
The past two weeks have been full of emotion. My paternal Grandfather died this past Tuesday of colon cancer, his 3rd bout with it. Up to the time he died he had been in and out of hospitals but this last trip to the hospital we knew he wasn't going to be leaving, not alive anyway. My Grandfather has three sons, but my Dad being the eldest and the only one local, took on the full responsibility of his care. Knowing that it was getting to my Grandfather's last days and the stress that was falling completely on my Dad's shoulders compelled me to devote as much time as I could to my Granddad. Since there really wasn't much I could do as far as personal care for Granddad I opted to show support and stay with my Dad while he kept a bedside vigil. I'm happy to say that I was there when my Grandfather breathed his last breath so that my Dad didn't have to go it alone. I was happy to do that for him but traveling to the hospital in Maryland (I'm in VA), making sure my Dad had a shoulder to lean on and then coming home to manage my house and take care of my family was stressful. That's what I attribute my great weight loss these last couple weeks to.
I'm hoping and praying that I'll have reached my 10% goal at tomorrow's meeting but I think I might have jacked that up yesterday and today. Last night we went to the county fair because we all needed the distraction and I broke down and ate three deep fried Oreos. They sounded so nasty and bad for you that I had to try them. I'm here to tell you...YUM! Sinfully good! I did skip the fair fare (corn dogs, funnel cakes, etc.) and chose to eat a grilled steak cabob and curry chick peas for dinner instead. This morning we had an early start and grabbed some McDonald's on our way to run errands and I ate a McSkillet burrito, an order of hash browns, and half a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit given to us by mistake. I know it's not so bad and I can recover from it but I'm afraid that after a couple weeks of barely eating (I was eating about 1 meal a day only) that my body will not only hold on to the calories but also retain water because of the salt. I guess we'll see tomorrow. I'm chugging H2O as we speak trying to combat that.
But anyhoo, my son is napping and the hubs is out running errands for me so I'm going to go read some EP blogs! I can't wait to get back into full on blogger mode again. I hope everyone is doing well!
