Week 5 - Crutches Suck

So I sprained my foot yesterday. I went for a dog walk with my pet-sitter friend, and halfway stepped in a little ditch and landed so hard on the right side of my right foot.

And then I continued to walk because I thought I was being a baby and just needed to shake it off. All was well for the rest of the walk, got home and went about my business, and then around 6pm I left to go to bingo. I'm sitting at the bar with my friend Grace, and around 8, my foot started to ache a bit. By the time we left at 10, I couldn't put any weight on it and was near tears.

So Grace drove me to the ER and they took x-rays and decided that "nothing's busted," which is good, but it was pretty swollen and very painful, so they put me in a splint and gave me crutches. Now I'm stuck on my couch all day, and all I want to do is eat.

Also, I won't be going to my meeting tonight. I might weigh in at home if I muster up the will to take my splint off and hop (literally) on the scale.

I was worried that this was going to hinder my exercise for the week, but just getting back and forth to work on crutches is more cardio than I usually get in a normal walk. Not to mention my biceps are going to be huge. :)

End of Week 4

Tuesday's weigh-in went pretty well. I tried to make it a point to exercise more last week, and it paid off. I lost 2.8 pounds, bringing my total so far to 9.8. I think I might be able to hit my 5% goal a week earlier than planned. That just means this week I need to lose 2.2.

I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but I've started stocking up on more frozen dinners. Smart Ones and Kashi. Mostly for lunch, actually. I'm just finding that I don't want to cook or calculate recipes on my lunch break, and I also don't like trying to decide the night before what I'll have the next day. So, that being said, I've never really enjoyed frozen meals before. But the Smart Ones are just so convenient what with the points printed right on the box, and the Kashi meals are sooooo good.

I'm hoping to have a super productive and active weekend and get that 5% on Tuesday!

Day 27

Forgot to post on Tuesday after my weigh-in. I lost 1.6 pounds last week, which wasn't as bad as I was expecting. So that brings my total to 7 pounds. I feel like 7 pounds should feel and look like a lot more than it does. I have three weeks to meet my first goal of 5%, or 12lbs.

So, 5 pounds in 3 weeks, I think I can handle it. I know I need more activity, though. Not only for my weight loss, but also for my mental health.

Day 24 - Feeling Fat

I'm nervous about my weigh-in tomorrow. I don't think I'll see the same results I've gotten the last couple times. I had a very low-activity week, and I have a general feeling of fat. So, we'll see, I suppose.

Day 22

Today I realized that for the last three weeks, I've been avoiding using my weekly points. And I think it's because I've been afraid that if I use them, I won't have them later in the week if I need them. I guess it's a good thing that I've been very strict with myself about tracking and not going over points, almost as if I'm going to get in trouble if I don't do it right, but it's also causing a little bit of stress, especially on weekends when I don't have a set routine. I found myself just not eating in fear of not having enough points for later in the day, or later in the week.

Well, today I was forced to get over this little phobia of mine. It snowed on Nantucket today. All day. I'm thankful to be borrowing a vehicle from a friend, but it's not incredibly snow-friendly, so I was trying to minimize my driving, but I had things to do!

I slept in and took my time getting ready, and didn't end up eating breakfast until 11ish. So obviously I wasn't hungry around lunchtime. I had to be in town for something at noon, and also in town for something at 5 (which ended up being canceled, but oh well). So I decided to bring my backpack along and just camp out in town all day. Well, this meant a chai latte at The Bean, and then when the music got really terrible there, I headed over to the Starlight, where some nice older gentlemen were buying me drinks. Now, all of this alcohol and sugar on an empty stomach was not going well, so I then headed to 12 Degrees for dinner. And they had this magical lobster special for $12. A 1.5 pound lobster, cornbread, potato, and cole slaw. It was sooooo good. And I ate every last bite of it. Turns out lobster isn't a whole lot of points, which is good, but the other things added up for sure. Plus with all the drinks... Let's just say I definitely dipped into my weeklies today.

Maybe I was too drunk to worry about it, or maybe something made me realize that I only have two more days until my points re-set, and I can surely get through those with my daily and the weekly/activity points that are left. Either way, it was a pretty good, interesting day.

Day 20 - a little forgetful

Somehow, until this morning when I read Lauren's comment on my last entry, I forgot I had a blog. Weird. Anyway, I haven't updated in a few days, so here's the gist.

Tuesday's weigh-in went super well. I lost 3.2 last week, bringing me to a total of 6 pounds in 2 weeks. That's making my 6-week goal of 5% (12 pounds) seem super easy and attainable. So I'm pretty excited for that. I'm trying to wait until I get to the first goal before setting a second one, I just can't help but thinking about it a little bit.

On a sort of side note, I went on a bit of an emotional roller coaster today. Actually, I might still be on it. My head hurts too much to tell. It made me feel kinda sick to my stomach and I haven't really been able to eat. Hoping the feeling goes away in time for dinner.

Day 16/17

This is my fourth day in a row of not being able to eat all of my points. Maybe it's because I've been traveling, or maybe it's because my body is just learning to not want as much food. I was considering talking to my leader about lowering my daily point goals, but I think I'll wait until next week when my schedule is back to normal before I make any changes.

I also finally got my scales today. Both my human scale and my food scale were accidentally shipped to my old house in Wellesley because I forgot to change my shipping address in Amazon. I'm not weighing myself until right before or after my meeting tomorrow because I want to compare to see how accurate mine is. It's an actual Weight Watchers scale, so it should be pretty close. I'm really excited to weigh some food as soon as possible. :)

Day 15 - 13 extra points

I don't know what happened yesterday. I ate a really good breakfast, then lunchtime got crazy and all I could do was eat an apple in the car. Then came dinner time and I ended up going to the movies, so I got some popcorn, and by the time the movie was over I wasn't hungry. So I ended up with 13 points left at the end of the day. I'm amazed I didn't wake up eating my own arm today.

Day 14 - 9 points left?!?!

I don't know how it's even possible that I have 9 points left today. I guess it's because I've been traveling and super busy with the Bennett kids all afternoon. Not sure how or if I'm going to eat that many points in the next two hours. Maybe some popcorn and chocolate milk?

Day 13 - Saved by the Sprouts

I almost forgot how intense my carb cravings get the first couple days of my period. Yesterday I blamed it on being emotional, but today I realized there was another underlying cause. I'm pretty low on food in my house because I'm going away for a long weekend and didn't want to stock up on anything before leaving, so I tried to eat super smart all day so that I could save up a few extra points for pizza for dinner to hopefully kick these cravings. I ate dinner around 5:30, and then around 6:15 I just felt like eating everything in my house.

So I had a few options. 1- eat more pizza. 2- raid my pantry for crackers or pretzels or any starchy salty snack I could find. Or 3- eat something good for me.

I knew I would regret it in the morning if I chose 1 or 2, and I would especially regret it next Tuesday. So, I made some Brussels sprouts instead, and they were totally satisfying. Now I think I'll go brush my teeth so I'm not tempted to eat anything else.

Day 12 - mushroom meltdown

I had a very emotional day today. Not entirely sure why, but I somehow ended up crying over my mushrooms on my lunch break. This helped me realize how much of an emotional eater I once was, because I started craving carbs like nobody's business. Instead of indulging in things I knew weren't good for me, I made some tea and went back to work. It was hard. Really hard. But it made me feel better by the end of the day, knowing that I had the will-power to resist my cravings.

I'm hoping that this long weekend helps me relax a bit.

Day 11 - Woo hoo!

2.8 pounds this week! I can't think of anything to say other than, woo hoo!

Day 10 - Bingo!

Yesterday was a pretty hectic day for me. We switched classrooms over the weekend, and I moved into a room where I am much busier, and don't get any breaks to do things like sit down, pee, or have a snack. I could barely take a sip of water. I went home for lunch, as usual, and had two servings of clam chowder for 10 points. All that cream and potatoes was exactly what I needed to energize me for the rest of the day. But by the time I got home from work at 3:30, I was wiped. I knew that part of it was hunger, but a huge part of it was just that I had woken up so early to send my cousin off to the boat. So I made myself a big plate of fruit, and sat down on the couch for an hour before going off to teach a guitar lesson. I walked to the lesson, carrying two guitars (it was a first lesson for this student, so she's borrowing one of mine), and then my student's mother drove me to where I was meeting some friends in town for bingo. It seemed a little bit like fate that I had just enough points for the day to order my favorite meal there, which I had already calculated a few days ago.

I think that's going to be a huge part of my success, because I do enjoy going out to eat, and it is often one of the only social things to do here in the winter. So I'm going to make it a point to make a list of my most frequented restaurants, and figure out the PPV for some of my favorite dishes there, that way I don't have to think twice about going out. Or worry about figuring all of that stuff out in front of a group of people.

Another successful part of the night was that I realized I am already starting to feel more confident in social situations again. I was at a table where I didn't know 50% of the people prior to this, and I was back to my old talkative, social self with them. And, there were a few passersby that I may have thrown a coy smile or two. :)

Days 8 and 9

I fell asleep pretty early last night and didn't have a chance to blog about my day. I actually wasn't able to eat all my points yesterday before falling asleep, and I sure felt it today. I couldn't seem to eat enough. It's pretty amazing how noticeable a mere 6 points can be when you're really tuned in to what and how much food your body needs.

Oh, yesterday I also changed my weigh-in day to Tuesday so that it's lined up with my meetings here. That shifted my weekly/activity points, so now it's like I'm still in the middle of a week. So I'm trying not to eat any of my extra points until everything re-sets on Tuesday.

I'm really hoping to see some results on Tuesday.

Day 7 - end of week 1

All I can really say is, it was way easier than I thought. I got to the last day of my first week, and still had 41 weekly/activity points to spare. Which was good, because for dinner I had pizza. :)

I didn't exercise today. When I got home from work, I was just feeling tired and cold, so I napped for a bit, watched Harry Potter with my cousin, ordered pizza, and played some guitar. I feel okay about it, especially considering I've probably worked out more consistently this week than any other week of my life. And I feel good knowing that I already have activity plans for tomorrow, and hopefully Sunday as well.

Well, 1 week down. Cheers to that (with celebratory chocolate milk). :)

Day 6 - activity goals

It's amazing how much better you can feel just by doing a little bit of walking each day. When I hit my 14-point activity goal earlier in the week, I decided that perhaps I should boost my weekly goal up to 20 points instead. Well, I'm already past that, too. I need to start thinking of better ways to challenge myself actively. It's not the easiest thing right now, what with not having a gym membership, and it being dark for 2/3 of the day. But I think I'll start trying some of the exercise videos with OnDemand. Maybe I'll try out some new things over the next week or two, and keep a careful record of what I'm doing and how it makes me feel, and use that to help set my goals.

In addition to losing weight, I do want to set other activity goals for myself. I would really like to be able to run long distances within the next year or so. And by long, I'm not talking a marathon, just a couple of miles or so. I would also like to work on becoming more flexible, and stronger in general. One very specific thing that I would like to attain, is the ability to stand up from a criss-cross applesauce position without using my hands. I remember that being one of our fitness tests in gym class in grade school, and it was so exciting when I was able to do it. Imagine my excitement when I'm able to do it again now that I truly understand how difficult it can be. :)

Day 5 - low energy/Thai change

As you may have heard, I foolishly went out after a meeting last night and didn't return until after midnight. Still had to get up at 6 this morning, so, needless to say, I was pretty tired all day. I didn't get in any really strenuous exercising, but I did walk from my house to the Thai carry-out place with my visiting cousin to get some dinner.

Speaking of the Thai place. I looked up the PPV for pad Thai, which is what I used to get regularly, and discovered that it's 10 points for just a cup of it. :( So there's one thing I probably won't be treating myself to for a long while. I went with a shrimp and vegetable stir-fry instead, and measured out 1/4 cup of the rice. It wasn't quite the same, but pretty tasty, anyway.

I'm still very tired, so I'm going to try to get to bed at a decent hour tonight, and then hopefully wake up a little early tomorrow for some morning yoga to clear my mind before having a chat with my boss.

Day 4 - first Nantucket meeting/first loss

Well, this meeting was a whole lot different than the one I attended in Maryland. To be honest, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. Maybe I just need some time to warm up to this leader a little bit. She just wasn't as fun and positive and energetic as the one I saw in Annapolis. It seems like a pretty good group of people, though. Mostly women, only 2 men. And one of my students' mothers was there, so it was nice to have a familiar face.

Okay, let's get right to the good news. I'm already down a pound since Saturday!

I would love to write more, but it's wicked late and I have school tomorrow, so I'm gonna end this one on a positive note and call it a night. :)

Day 3 - tracking while traveling

I was a little nervous when I woke up this morning about my trip from Maryland to Nantucket., what with flying on standby and then depending on a bus, and then worrying whether it might be too busy to get here from the cape. Fortunately for me, however, every leg of the trip was positively flawless, so the only meal I had to deal with en route was breakfast. And, as usual, it was e-tools for the win! They have a lot of Au Bon Pain products already calculated, plus I used the barcode scanner to find out the PPV of a Naked mango juice.

Upon my arrival, I was picked up at the airport by a dear friend, who also took me to the grocery store and helped me earn some activity points this afternoon. I think next time I go grocery shopping, I'm going to do a little more leg-work beforehand and come up with a more specific list. The important thing was, I bought as many fruits and veggies as I thought I might eat over the next week or so. At the last meeting I went to, the leader reminded us that, "If you don't have it, you won't eat it."

Which reminds me. I think I'll pack a lunchbox for work tomorrow with some portioned snacks so that I'm not tempted to munch on snacks there without keeping track.

Tomorrow if my first Nantucket Weight Watchers meeting. I'm pretty excited. And even though it's only been 3 days, I'm also excited to weigh in again. I'm only 4 away from my goal activity points for the week, which I will earn by jogging to and from the meeting tomorrow!

Now to decide what I'll use those activity points on tonight... :)

Day 2 - the stress cupcake

So far, after two very successful days, my favorite thing about WW is the flexibility to eat whatever your body feels you need. For instance, tonight I needed a cupcake. So I ate one. And that's okay because a cupcake is 5 points, and I earned 5 activity points today that I wasn't planning on eating. That is, not until my recent bout with UPS.com. I got very frustrated trying to ship a package from home, something I've done a zillion times. I don't know why it was so difficult, but I was in serious need of some chocolate therapy, and there happened to be some cupcakes leftover from my aunt's birthday party. And for the first time in so long, I didn't feel any guilt about having one. Which is also how I felt last night when I dumped butter on my baked potato.

Another fun thing I learned today is that sushi has a surprisingly low PPV (points plus value). A tuna roll, even with white rice, is only 3 points. So guess what I had for lunch. Tons of yummy, filling sushi.

This whole thing has been a lot easier to get started than I thought. I'm excited to go to my meeting on Nantucket this week and meet the other people in the group there. I feel like the e-tools app is what's made it so easy, so I'm thankful for that.

Overall, day 2 was a pretty big success. More to come.