This Weight in History...

Well, I lost 2.6 lbs over the past 2 weeks, which means I'm now 183.8 - and that just happens to be how much I weighed when we got married. That was 9 years and 2 babies ago, of course. I find it interesting how differently the weight is distributed after the babies - I'm much plumper in the middle now than I was then, but I'm thinner in the face than I was then. Interesting.

I also happened to weigh exactly 183 when I got pregnant with William - so just thought I'd show a pic of that too - this is me like 1 month pregnant.

Just thought I'd give you all a little history lesson there. :o)

APs - 3 down, 2 to go

I did pilates again this evening for 1 AP and I'm gonna call my weeding the flowerbeds yesterday another 1 AP. I know it seems like a stretch, but it was physical activity and for me it was something. It's been tough this week to get out at all cuz the weather here has been NASTY. So, this week, I will try to get my 5 APs, in whatever pathetic way I can. And next week, I'll try for 5 solid APs as my goal. :o)

How Stupid Am I??

Okay, I know we're not supposed to talk about ourselves like that. Sorry. But, I just wanted to share a wee little story. Earlier this week I had to miss my WW meeting and my weigh-in for the week. I somehow had gotten it in my head that I probably hadn't lost weight last week and so I was a little bit down. I got on my scale at home, which is not digital - its one of those spinny dial kind. The numbers are only labeled at every 20 pounds. So, when I weighed myself, I thought it said just below 190 - like maybe 189 pounds. And I was so sad that I had gained a few pounds, cuz I'd really been trying last week.

SO, what did I do? I got all depressed and fell a bit off the bandwagon this week - overate in the evenings and stuff. WHY?? Why, when I think I'm failing do I have to make it worse by failing some more??

THEN, yesterday I got on the scale again, and at first thought it said the same thing. BUT then I realized - it was actually saying just below 185 - not 190. So, I was actually 184ish pounds - which would be a loss of 2 pounds for me!!

And so WHAT DO I DO?? I think to myself - "wow, if I've lost 2 pounds, that means I can really do this! I'd better keep up the good work!!" And I get back on the bandwagon.

How's that for backwards thinking?? Oh, I am just so silly. Silly, silly, silly!

Pilates

I just wanted to tell you that I just did my pilates work out for the first time since Elan was born. Its only 20 minutes long, and I'm so glad I did it again, because now I'll do it regularily - its so not that hard and feels good to have it done.

So, thats one AP for me. Four to go...

WW Lesson for the Week

So, I thought after Shayne asked me to tell more about WW, that I could actually tell you MORE about it. Some people would say I'm "giving away" the secrets, but I think the main reason that people pay to go to the meetings isn't for the info, so much as for the support, the motivation, accountability and for the STICKERS!! :o) At least that's why I go anyway... for the stickers.

So, this week's little lesson is going to be how to know how many points you have to eat each day. Here is the formula:

1. If you're female, 2 points. If you're male, 8 points. If you're a nursing mom, 12 points. (I LOVE the nursing mom bit - eating 10 more points a day than usual, and still loosing weight!) weehoo.

2. Your age: if you're 17-26 its 4 points, 27-37 is 3 points, 38-47 is 2 points, 48-58 is 1 point, over 58 is 0 points.

3. What you weigh: Take the first 2 digits of your weight in pounds, and add that to your points. So, for example, if you're 178, its 17 points; if you're 250 its 25 points.

4. Your height: Under 5'1" is 0 points, between 5'1" and 5'10" is 1 point, and over 5'10" is 2 points.

5. Your activity level: If you spend most of your day sitting down, its 0 points. If you are occasionally sitting, but usually standing, 2 points. If you are walking most of the time, its 4 points. If you're doing physically hard work most of the time, its 6 points.

Add them all up and see what you get. Note that if your total is less than 18, you stick with 18 - its the bottom end. If you're above 44, then you stick with 44 - its the top end.

This amount of points will help you to lose weight. If you're just trying to maintain or if you're trying to gain - you would add points until you find the amount that's right for you. Generally to maintain, you'll need 2 to 4 more points than if you were trying to lose.

AND you also get 35 bonus points per week to use as you please - either all in one sitting on one mamba-jamba awesome peice of cheesecake... or spread out over the days for just 5 extra a day. Its up to you. :o)

And that's my WW lesson for this week. Tune in next week for more info.
:o)

Update

Hi guys,
Thanks for the encouragement. I did it - I found the gum and didn't eat any pizza. I was actually really very good in Saskatoon. On Sunday evening, when everyone else was having homemade Vanilla milkshakes (MY FAVORITE!) made with breyers super fatty double churned deluxe ice cream and popcorn with real butter (YUM)... I just decided to get out of the house. I went to Starbucks (took me 3 trys to find one that was open!) and got a frappucino lite which turned out to be one of the best frappucinos I'd ever had because I remembered to get it "double blended" so its smoother and creamier. ANYWAY, then I went back home and had that with one of those individual sized bags of popcorn for one point.

So, all in all it went pretty well. Really the wheels only fell off the wagon on Monday evening after we were already home. oops.

And, I didn't have a weigh-in this week because I didn't make it to WW yesterday. William was sick and so we just stayed home. So, we'll have to try for next week. I didn't make my goal of APs for last week. But I'm going to try again this week - for 5 points of activity points.

Focus...

Okay, I came here to blog to you all instead of snitching pizza while everyone else is outside...
I WILL NOT OVEREAT, I WILL NOT OVEREAT, I WILL NOT OVEREAT....

ok.

I think maybe I can do this. Maybe I'll go put some gum in my mouth to stop the compulsive eating, and maybe we'll head out to the mall...

I've been doing pretty well here in S'toon this weekend - pretty well. Until this moment.
OK.

I've gotta go find the gum...

One Way Not to Overeat... Thank You Elan!

Well, we're in Saskatoon and I'm trying to stick to the plan. We had pizza for supper and delicious cupcakes for dessert. I was probably going to eat too much pizza, but luckily right in the middle of supper Elan decided that she was hungry and needed to eat NOW! And so, I had to leave the table right in the middle of the meal. That sure helped me to take a little break and re-think things!! So, when I came back it was time for dessert and I shared a cupcake with Trevor's Auntie Sheila. :o) Now, I'm pretty sure my points are gone for the day - maybe one or two left. So, its all done eating for me - maybe just a small snack before bed (I packed some healthy things along...)

Having this blog to come and report back to is actually really helping me to be good. So, thank you to all 3 of you who read this for keeping me accountable. Maybe I'll come and report to you before bed again... Probably should.

See you later!

A Weight Watchers Lingo Lesson

:o)
Thanks Shayne, you are so right. Yeah, just to explain Weight Watchers (WW) a bit more - the way it works is that every day we have a certain number of points worth of food that we can eat. Each point represents a certain number of calories. Every food has a points value. SO, for example, someone might have 25 points worth of food that they can eat in a day. So, they'll write down everything they eat and keep track of their points. For example, an apple is worth 1 point, a peice of bread is worth 2 points, a teaspoon of butter is worth 2 points, a bag of chips is like a zillion points :o) and so on. Vegetables are FREE, by the way - zero points for as many carrots or cucumbers or whatever that you can eat (as long as they're not covered in butter or dipped in dressing!!)

Activity points (APs) are when you exercise to get some points back. How this works really depends on what your current weight is. The heavier you are, the easier it is to get APs. The lighter you are, the longer or harder you have to exercise to gain a point back. SO, an example of this is if I go for a 20 minute walk, I will gain back 1 point. Or, if I run for 10 minutes, I'll probably get 2 points. The way we figure this out is with a points "slider" that helps us to calculate the number of points a certain amount of exercise will be for our weight. We also have a points slider that can calculate how many points food is based on the number of calories in it, and the amount of fat and fibre in it. For example, if a food had 60 calories, 2 grams of fat, and 1 gram of fibre it would be worth one point.

I was gonna type more but William is freaking out needing me and we're just about to go to Saskatoon for the weekend, so I'm gonna have to leave this at that. Hope that helps you a bit! I know that you knew most of that Shayne, but just thought I'd type it all in case there is someone that didn't know!
:o)

Goals

Okay, my friend Amanda just posted some WW goals on her blog and made me realize that I don't currently have any goals set for myself. And I know that goals are a good thing and they help to keep me motivated (that and STICKERS)... (I live for stickers) heehee.

And so, I think that I will do like Amanda did and set 2 goals - one exercise related and one weight related. I think I will try to get 5 activity points this week (thats alot for me - I can't believe Amanda is doing 4 per day...WOW).

Okay, and as for the weight goal - I am currently still going to WW for free because I was a lifetime member who had a baby. But I am only free until June 3oth. SO, my goal is to have lost 25 pounds TOTAL by July 1st's WW meeting. That means that I want to lose 13.6 pounds in the next 7 weeks, which is just about 2 pounds a week, which is pretty darn steep, BUT I want to try. If I actually TRY, then I am capable of doing it.

HMMM...I wonder if this is do-able or if I should choose something a little more achievable? Maybe I should rather say that I want to be 175 by July 1st - that would be a loss of 11.4 pounds in 7 weeks...a little more realistic.

Okay, that was a lot of babbling and thinking "out loud" - but at least I've thought about it. SO, to review - my SUPER goal is to have lost 25 pounds by July 1st. My REALISTIC goal is to be 175 by July 1st. Good luck to me.
:o)
Thanks Amanda for making me think this through.
And sorry to the rest of you who tried to read this and make sense of it. It's more for ME than anything.

OH, AND third goal - is to lose weight this week even though I'm going to Saskatoon to visit Trevor's parents for the long weekend. I want to try to eat properly and count my points every day I'm there, even though I'm there. Its so easy for me to take a break from WW when I'm away for the weekend. But, I don't want to this week! So, THAT is the most important goal I've set here today.

A Loss

Well, I lost 2.2 pounds this week, which is good. I actually ate less food and exercised some this week, and so it makes sense to lose weight. I wish that I would actually BELIEVE EVERYDAY that eating less food and exercising more will actually make me lose weight. I think that if more overweight people actually believed that, then - well, there wouldn't be more overweight people!! Anyway, that's my update.

OH, but P.S. Another bonus is that I am now officially wearing my next size smaller jeans!! YEAY!! :o)

Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year, I got to buy myself this double stroller (that I talked about earlier). I'm loving having it. This morning I packed the kids in and went for a nice walk, ending up at the South Side Park playground. There's a great walking path really close to us here, and so we use that for our walks. Luckily, William loves stroller rides still, so its fun for us all.

Yesterday was not too good for me in terms of sticking to the program, but today I'm back on track. Even having some treats - but within my points, so I'm happy about that. It feels so good to be doing it right. Why can't I remember that when I'm doing it wrong???

Elinor Dashwood

I think I always knew this, but now it is official...

Take the Quiz here!

Ice Cream and Double Stroller

Well, this week I showed a gain of 0.2 pounds. Which, really isn't bad considering that this week, I ate ice cream cake twice, and went to dairy queen for supper on Sunday, where I had 1/2 a cheese burger and a whole small blizzard plus some french fries. Now, I know its possible to still lose weight while enjoying these foods, but well, I just kinda enjoyed them a little too much. :o) But that's okay with me. Really, staying at about the same weight this week isn't the end of the world to me.

I also wanted to say that I have officially purchased a double stroller and am enjoying using it to get some exercise. It was pretty much impossible to go for a speed walk with both kids in tow, until now. So, I'm pretty excited about the double stroller. It's heavy with both kids in it, but that adds to my exercise, so that's okay with me. Our house is only 2 blocks away from the bike path in Swift Current, and so I'm loving having the chance to walk along the path beside the creek with the sun shining and the birds chirping. It's been WAAAY too long since I've been able to get out and walk. ((But I do miss my walking friend Shayne now that we're no longer in Gull Lake)).

Okay, those are my ramblings about this week...must go to bed, since both kids are sound asleep already. Why on earth am I still up? :o)

Something to Work Towards...

Just a few pics of how I looked at my goal last summer. I did it once before on WW and I can do it again! Just needed to put these up to remind myself...