3.4 baby!!

-3.4 lbs! So pumped!!! I was pleasantly surprised! Sooooo, sooooo excited!

Current weight: 174
Total weight-loss: 7.6 lbs
Goal for this week: -1

First, I love Weight Watchers. In the beginning, I almost didn't believe the system would work. This system is awesome. I am not hungry and I do not feel deprived. I feel like this plan is very "doable". Yes, I do have to plan, prepare meals, track what I eat, work my butt off in the gym, and spend more money at the grocery. I guess that sounds like a lot, but I promise, I am the biggest advocate of weight watchers. Before I joined, I was trying to lose weight with counting calories. It seemed impossible. I felt hungry all the time, and I wasn't losing weight. I felt deprived. That feeling led to tons of temptation to cheat. With weight watchers, I can have chocolate. I can have cake. I can have whatever I want. As long as I track my points. Since joining, I have had cake, chocolate, pasta, and bread. But in moderation of course. Also, my diet mainly consist of fresh veggies, fruit, lean chicken, grilled shrimp, and grilled fish. I just love the fact that if I want a piece of 7 point cake, I can have it. Obviously, this system is not for everyone, but it is for me!

This week, my goal is going to be one pound. I have talked a lot about not setting myself up for failure. So many times, I set unrealistic goals and when I don't achieve them, I feel like a failure and want to give up. With that being said, I want to be in the 160's sooooo bad! :) But I will focus on one pound. I will not be greedy. Although, I want to be greedy :). The 160's will come soon enough. I have to continually remind myself, I am in this for the long run, for life change. I want to weigh 140 for the rest of my life, not for one month. Change is hard. Weight watchers teaches when you lose it the right way, the hard way, you are more likely to keep the weight off. I want to keep my ultimate goal in mind.

I signed up for the mini-marathon last night. I am glad Danielle is running it with me. It should be a good time... did I really just say that??? Haha.

I have been thinking about this week's goal. First, I want to drink five bottles of water each day. I will allow myself to also have diet coke but I must drink five bottles of water. This sounds silly, but this will be challenging because I can not go to the bathroom whenever I want at school. I have four opportunities, (this sentence cracks me up) and when I drink a lot of water, I have to pee CONSTANTLY. But regardless of the bathroom issue, I will still drink at least five bottles of water. This week, I have not been drinking enough and I can tell. I am thirsty a lot. So I will up the water intake. If five bottles seems simple, I will bump it to six. We shall see.

Second goal for this week: I want to burn 2,500 calories doing cardio, lift weights four times, and do abs four times. Life has been kind of hectic. I feel like I leave my apartment at 7:30am and don't return until 8 or 9 each night. Hopefully, when cheerleading ends, I will have the chance to workout RIGHT after school. If I can workout right after school, I will be able to be home around 5-5:30-6 at the latest. That would be much much better.

Third (and last) goal of the week: I really want to focus on eating five+ fruits and veggies each day. I also want to focus on getting a good source of protein. I don't really care if I use my flex points or not, I just want to really focus on getting those fruits and veggies. I am already doing this, but I feel like I could do a better job.

5% goal. WW sets goals for you when you sign up. They give you a 5% goal and a 10% goal. My five percent goal is nine pounds. I am 1.4lbs away from my 5% goal. I would like to meet that goal this week, but we will see.

I am excited to start this week! I went grocery shopping tonight and got lots of goodies. Can't wait to see what my weight-loss will be next week!

Week 2

This week has been interesting. The exciting part of WW has kind of worn off and now it seems, I am trying to figure out eating out and exploring all my options for food. For example, I am going to the grocery tomorrow( I got paid yesterday :)) and I am trying to figure out what I want to buy. Low calorie popcorn, fish, and so much more! I haven't fully decided yet, but I will put some more thought into tonight.

My workouts have been pretty consistent. Towards the beginning of this week, I was taking a break from running because of shin pain. Thursday, I ran four miles. Friday, I walked for thirty minutes. Today, I ran a 5k and I am feeling it. I think I may need new running shoes. I understand that shin pain is almost inevitable with running. But, I mean I am in PAIN. I had shin pain last year when I was training for the triple crown, but not like this. SO new running shoes may be in the works.

Today, I got on the scale for the first time since Tuesday and I am showing another big loss. I am not getting my hopes up, but I was pleasantly surprised. I am still going into the weigh-in on Tuesday only expecting a one pound loss, mainly so I am not let down and then want to quit.

Lastly, today I got my tire fixed. Totally random that I bring this up, I know. Butttttt they fixed it for free. That put a smile on my face :D

4.2 Yessssssssssssss! (fist pump)

Starting weight: 181.6
Current weight: 177.4

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!

hahaha

I am excited. Yes, Yes I am!

A few reflections from last week. First, it really wasn't that difficult to "stay on target". I want to continue to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, each and every day. My best days this last week is when I planned ahead and ate plenty of fruits and vegetables. Also, I want to continue to eat continuously throughout the day. When I ate every hour or two hours (eating good food), I never felt hungry or tempted. I will admit,

I had two days this week when I felt like I could have had more self control. The first time was when I ate a 17 point meal from Q'doba. It really wasn't worth it. Andddd, if I would have planned ahead, I could have ate something tasty for much less points. I ordered my food, having no clue how many points I was consuming. The good new is that I now know what I can eat at Q'doba and get the most for the points :) The second day, I had a piece of cake. THe mistake was not the cake. The mistake was I didn't really want cake, I just wanted something sweet. So after I ate seven points of cake, I definitely felt as if it wasn't worth it. I wish I would have had a snickers or something chocolate. Something that would have been worth the points in my eyes.

Lastly, I am not eating enough vegetables. I honestly don't have enough veggies available at my apt. to eat. I will change this when I go to the grocery.

I'm setting goals, tonight, for this week. I will post more about that later.

Gooooood night :)

Ahhhhhhh!

My WW points calculator bit the dust tonight. It's crazy how dependent I have became in a matter of days. Tomorrow, I will make my way to WW to hopefully get it exchanged. Especially considering that I have owned the thing for five days. I assume it has something to do with the battery, but the battery is a lithium battery=not cheap. Hopefully, they will exchange mine with a new one, without any issues.

Other than that, I had a mediocre workout today. Tomorrow will be my big day. I would like to burn a good amount of calories.

I am thinking ahead for Tuesday. I believe I will attend the 5:30 meeting, but I don't want to workout before my weigh-in. Mainly because I drink at least two bottles of water before/during my workout and I don't want that to affect my weigh-in. I want it to be as accurate as possible. In light of me wanting to keep my weigh-ins as accurate as possible, I have decided each week I will keep the same routine on Tuesday. I will eat breakfast and lunch, not dinner. Also, I will wear the same thing for each weigh-in. Call me extreme, I don't care. I want to do this thing right and I want to meet my goal. Because I am so set on meeting my goal, I really care about the accuracy of my weigh-ins.

On another note, an exciting note I might add, I do believe I will be teaching tomorrow. Hooray! :) Also, something very exciting, I finished some paperwork tonight that has been looming over my head for quite some time. I'm pretty sure my to-do list has not been this short in quite some time. AND. I. AM. ECSTATIC. Please do not be fooled, I still have things to do on my list, just not as many! Catching up on bible study, laundry, vacuuming, and tidying up the kitchen will be tackled tonight.

2 days until the weigh-in! My goal is to finish strong and see a decent weigh-in on Tuesday. GO me :)

28:47

Today, I set a personal best. I ran a 5k in twenty-eight minutes and forty-seven seconds. Yay for me!!!

Running is so mental. From about four minutes into my run until I was finished, I wanted to stop. I took my friend's advice and continued to tell myself to keep going. Every time I would have the urge to jump on the side rails, I told myself, "NO". Haha.. I actually said it outloud a few times. Buttttt, hey it obviously worked.

On another note, yesterday, I went sledding. I wasn't at home and really didn't have the option of packing food. I didn't make the best food choices. I used 17 of my flex points. Embarrassing, but hey that's what they are there for. I will definitely not make a habit of going over that much. Today, I am having quite the opposite problem. It's 5pm and I have 14 points left. That's almost half of my day. It's not actually a problem. It's perfect! I am going to a friend's housewarming party tonight, sooooo it will be good to have a few points for snacks.

Speaking of the housewarming party. This is the first event that I will attend(since I have started WW), that will more than likely have unhealthy food. So, I have a plan. <<< Side note: I have to explain a little background info before I proceed. My mom is on a weightloss plan through the hospital. It's a very good weightloss plan but it's also very expensive. My mom lost 70-80ish pounds the last time she did the program. She did that in 2008. It is now 2011 and she has only gained back 15 pounds! WOW! SOunds pretty good to me. Anyway, she has decided she is ready to lose 40-50ish more, so she is back on the plan. Sooo, you may be asking why I am telling you this. Well, she shares info with me that she learns at her meetings. HMR teaches their people to frontload. Frontloading is when you stuff yourself with healthy food, like vegetables and fruit, before you attend an event where you may be tempted.>>> My plan is to frontload. So, I will be eating a good amount of vegetables and a little bit of fruit before I attend. This will prevent me from filling up on foods like spinach dip, crackers, cheese, etc.

Back to running for a few. Today while running, I was trying to keep my mind on things other than the fact that I had 27, 26, 25, and so on minutes left. So, I was thinking about how fast I could finish the 5k on February 26th. My friend Danielle is also running the 5k. She was talking about her goals to me the other day and it got me thinking. Last year, I ran it in 30 minutes. It was my second race I had ever ran in. It was kinda crazy. Really packed and really new. This year, I have more experience and I know what it will take mentally. SO, I want to set a goal. I want to be realistic though. I have exactly 1 month and 4 days. Also, I want to take into account that it is going to be freaking cold. It's harder to run when you feel like you have icicles in your throat. Therefore, I have not set the goal yet. I have to think about it. I want to see how hard I can push myself on the treadmill. Andddd, even though I don't want to, I'm going to have to start training outside on some days. It's just soooooo cold. But, I honestly think it will continue to be this cold for awhile. So, I just need to get over it and get my butt outside.

I think I mentioned in another post about setting goals each week. This week my goal was to burn 3,000 calories. I have already been thinking about next weeks goal and I am leaning towards a weight-lifting/abs goal. Jillian Michaels, the chick off of Biggest Loser, speaks a lot about the advantages of weight-lifting. She believes, and I guess has data to prove, that when you weight-lift you continue to burn calories for 24 hours but when you do cardio, you only continue to burn calories for 1 hour. That's a pretty big deal. In her book, Making the Cut, she says that the focus should be on weight-lifting rather than cardio. Which is completely opposite of what I have thought, basically my whole working out life. But, she does look amazing, and the people she trains on The Biggest Loser always lose a ton of weight, so I'll trust her.

I'm getting pretty excited for my FIRST weigh-in on Tuesday. I don't want to be too excited, because I don't want to set myself up for failure. But, I'm pretty excited :)! I don't want to have specific expectations this week; I just want to lose weight. Two days away until the big day! Wish me luck!

Day 2

So far, so good. Yesterday was the first day of the diet. Honestly, it was really easy. I think weekends are going to be harder than school days, because the busy-ness of the school day keeps my mind off of food. I thought the first day would be difficult, much more difficult than it was. I am starting to get worried that I won't lose weight because it seems impossible to be this full and lose weight. Buttt, I talked to one of my friends and her mom and sister have lost 6 and 8 lbs in two weeks with weight watchers. Sooo, I will trust the system and we will see on Tuesday what the scale says. 

Each week, we are to set goals. This weeks goal for me is to burn 3,000 calories in the gym. Seeing that I am training for the triple crown, I don't think this is impossible but it won't be cake. In the past two days I have burned 880. I plan to workout 6 days a week. We shall see, whatever it takes, I am willing to meet that goal of 3,000. 

Another thing that has me baffled is this- I get to eat 31 points. The lowest you can eat is 29 points. Which sounds like a lot but it's not a ton. I mean I was easily satisfied yesterday, but I also ate a lot of fruits and vegetables. Fruit is completely free (zero points), and most vegetables. Basically all the vegetables minus the starchy ones. Anywho, on top of these daily points you also get 49 flex points. Flex points are extra points to use throughout the week. YOu can split up these points any way you like throughout the 7 days, but once the week is done, the points are done whether you used them or not. This is so weird to me. Seems like a lot of extra points. How are you going to lose weight, eating the flex points??? Butttt, at the meeting Tuesday night, the leader said, statistics show those who use their flex points make it to goal! Wowzers. Opposed to those who don't use the flexpoints, they usually don't make it to goal. Interesting. Very, interesting. She did make a good point. The flexpoints are there so you don't feel deprived. If you don't feel deprived, you are more than likely to stick with the program. If you don't use your flexpoints, you will more than likely feel deprived and want to quit. 

MOving right along to today. Today is a snow day. I am teacher, so I have the day off. It hasn't been horrible, but I have felt more tempted to just eat, eat, eat. I think one of the biggest things to do is fill up on fruits and veggies so you aren't hungry. Butttt, it's snowing and I have a very limited supply of fruits and veggies. 

I hope this diet works. I am committed. I am committed to being in weightloss mode for the next forty weeks. Currently we are in week 1. Although, it would be easy to expect results overnight. It's not realistic. I will trudge through forty weeks. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it! 

5 days until my next weigh-in. I am trying to not get too excited. I really want to see weightloss!

On a side note, it's snowing like crazy outside and I want to go sledding!!! :)