Finally losin’ it

I actually have Points left over. Yep. I’ve only had 25 of my 28 Points today, so I get to have a legal snack tonight. Haven’t decided what it’ll be yet, but I’m leaning toward a quesadilla. That tends to be my go-to snack.

This is after I had a HUGE dinner. OK, dinner wasn’t all that huge — a cup of shredded cabbage and turkey smoked sausage for 4 Points. I got the recipe out of a WW “5 ingredient, 15-minute” cookbook I found at Wal-Mart Monday. I also had strawberries over angel food cake with whipped cream for dessert. It was delicious!

Didn’t get to the gym today, though. I slept in ’til 10 a.m. at the Boyfriend’s, then headed back up the mountain to my place in time to go to work at 3 p.m. The thing is, missing a workout doesn’t feel right. I’ve felt kind of “blah” all day … not to mention what it’s doing to my step goal for the week. Doubt I’ll make it … again.

Tomorrow’s my team’s first softball game of the season. Our team shirts really look sharp … let’s hope we also look good out there. It’s a lot more fun to win than to lose!

Thanks for the encouraging comments on my last post. You were right: The week wasn’t a total loss!

Yep. I actually posted a loss … down 1 pound from last Monday’s weigh-in. (And since I did the evening weigh-in instead of my usual noon one, and I’d just taken a 40-minute walk, I may actually have lost more than that!)

I was glad to see the scale go down, even if it didn’t go down the full two pounds I wanted it to. (I figured out that I need to lose 2 pounds a week to get to my goal weight before my brother and sister-in-law have their baby in November … and since I don’t want to be the fat, unhealthy aunt, I definitely want to reach that goal. I was the fat bridesmaid, and that was enough.)

It’s funny, though. I should have been really happy to have lost a pound, but all I could think was “I wish it had been more.” Why can’t I just be happy with what I DID achieve? It’s no small task after all.

I’d been having such a good week … but blew it today.

Exercise-wise, things were good. I did a Zumba class and took the dogs on a 40-minute walk. But food was a different story.

Breakfast and lunch were OK. I had an egg and a tablespoon of LF cream cheese on half a light English muffin for breakfast. Lunch was a sub and baked chips from Subway. Even my afternoon snack — a child-sized movie popcorn — wasn’t too out of control.

Dinner, however, could have been much, much better. I took myself to the Outback. Ordered a bloomin’ onion, since I had a card for a free one. (Ate about a quarter, but still …) I also had the mixed grill: a small steak, two shrimp and two delectable scallops with wild rice and sauteed spinach. It was tasty

For dessert, I had an oatmeal scotchie from a bakery at the mall… AND a slice of Red Velvet cake. The cake was one of those totally stupid choices: I’d seen it at the store earlier in the day, and couldn’t get it out of my head. So I went back to buy a slice on my way back home from the mall, and ate it when I got home, with a glass of milk (so at least I got in some dairy!).

Why do I do that? It happens more often than I’d like. Someone mentions a food and then I end up eating it just because I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m not satisfied until I get it …

Very dumb. Anyone out there have any suggestions on how to stop that?

I think I’ve made a discovery: Eating a little of a really good food is better than eating a lot of junk.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But I tend to “treat” myself with larger quantities of fast food. Not today. This time, I went to a gourmet pizza place and ordered the lunch combo: a slice of pizza (with veggies on top) and a small caesar salad.

The salad was gone pretty quickly, since it is one of my favorites, and I don’t let myself eat it often anymore. But I savored each bite of the pizza … and by the time I was nearly done, I was satisfied. (I had two bites left and I did polish them off, but I wasn’t ready to go out and seek something else to eat right away.)

This is a sharp contrast to LAST Friday, when I hit the grocery store for carrot cake, then Del Taco for chili cheese fries. Four hours later, I was at Wendy’s, where I got not only chicken nuggets but also a double cheeseburger.

Quality really is better than quantity. Who knew?

Now for the check-in: Worked out for an hour (45 minutes treadmill, which included 2 minutes of running in 30-second bursts and 15 minutes weights). Saturday it’s Zumba time!

Eating-wise, even with the salad and pizza lunch, I’ve only had 30 Points … and that’s before I subtract 3 APs for half the workout I did. (That’s my MO: If I earn 6, I can eat 3. If I earn 10, I count 5 and eat the other 5. It seems to work OK.)

I’m hungry now, though, so I may end up having another snack before bed.

That makes two in a row!

The best part of today was the workout. I went to another “boot camp express” class at the gym. 45 minutes of rebounding, jumping rope, kick boxing and jumping jacks was hard (I slowed down a couple of times to the standard “step-touch” move) but afterward, I felt great. Stayed for 15 minutes of abs and buns (I still feel it in the buns now), then headed upstairs for 20 minutes on the treadmill and 10 of weights work.

After all that working out, I was sorely tempted to treat myself for lunch. (Pizza Hut has been tempting me with its new “pasta hut” commercials.) I probably would have, had the roommate not already eaten. But she had, so I ended up grabbing a Subway sub and baked chips instead. A much better choice!

Points-wise, I ate 34 1/2 total, but subtracted 5 of my 10 APs and 1 1/2 FPs to get down to 28. My meals themselves were sensible … it’s the snacks that add up for me. I need to start opting for lower-Points snacks … or fewer of them. Haven’t decided which to try yet.

I actually needed a snack when I got home from work tonight. Usually I want a little something to eat but don’t need it because I’ve already had all my Points for the day.

Today, I slept through my alarm (’til 11 a.m., actually) and didn’t really eat breakfast (had half a 1-Point bagel and 1 T LF cream cheese). By the time I got home, I’d only eaten 24 1/2 of my 28 Points, so …

Snack time! Yay! I had a low-carb, 1-Point tortilla with a Laughing Cow cheese wedge and 3/4 cup of skim milk with SF chocolate syrup. (I hadn’t had any dairy servings yet for the day, in case you couldn’t tell.)

The bad thing about it was, since I got up late, I didn’t have time to get to the gym before work. In fact, my step total for the day was in the 5,000s. Ugh. I’m going to have to do some makeup work to still get my 11,000/day goal for the week.

I think I’ll try another Boot Camp Express class tomorrow (or later today, if you want to get technical. Until I get some sleep, I always think of it as tomorrow, even if it’s after midnight). I won’t get any better at them unless I keep trying things I don’t really like, right?

Come Thanksgiving time, I’m going to be an aunt … and I want to be a healthy one!

I’ve read a lot of blogs that say “I got healthy for my kids.” Since I don’t have any, I’ll use my brother’s impending arrival as an extra push to reach that weight-loss goal. I have about 57 pounds to lose to get there, but I can do it.

I figured out that’s an average of 2 pounds a week from now through November … which may be tough, but it’s still do-able. The experts recommend you lose 1-2 pounds a week, after all.

That means it’s up to me to do a better job of resisting the BF’s temptation, and keep up the good workouts. Today, I hit another boot camp express class — with a different instructor. (It was a harder class … I got a little woozy at one point and ended up sitting down on my mini-trampoline. Maybe I should just stick to Zumba!) I also did 30 minutes on the treadmill after class.

Points-wise, it’s been a pretty good day. I’m at 31 1/2 of my 28, but that’s before I figure in a few of those APs.  I ate all my fruits and veggies, managed to get in all my oil, but I’m shy on dairy … maybe I’ll go home and fix a glass of skim “chocolate” milk with FF chocolate syrup.

It’d sure be nice to have a good, OP day on my first day with that added motivation!

AAC: 1.5/3 (I’m counting Monday’s 20-minute workout as a half, because it wasn’t as long as it should have been.)

Sorry this is a little late. I was at the Boyfriend’s last night and didn’t have access to my computer. Then again, I wasn’t all that excited to post about weigh-in anyway.

That’s right, the scale didn’t budge … not even one measly tenth of a pound. With the Friday night I had, I suppose I should be grateful that I didn’t gain … but for some reason, no change at all is harder for me to take than a gain. (Don’t ask me why. I haven’t been able to figure that out.)

So I’ve been a little bummed about seeing no progress at all. I’m rationalizing that it’s that TOM, and I’m probably retaining water … so were I not, I’d probably have seen at least a small loss.

Guess I’ll know next Monday!

The rest of my Sunday was fine … maybe even better than fine. We finished the paper early, and I didn’t let my food choices get out of control. My dinner was a total of 9 Points, with 2 Points invested in after-dinner snacking … for a total of 32 Points. If I subtract 2 of my 5 APs, that brings my day’s total down to 30.

And that would mean that I’ve used just 2 FPs for the day. (Of course, if I factor in the fact that I probably used up a week’s worth of FPs on Friday night, that’s not so great … but I’ll ignore that fact and hope to still see a loss on the scale at tomorrow’s weigh-in.)

I’m still hopeful that it’ll be a good weigh-in. After all, I’ve had worse weeks (less exercise and more bad food choices) and still posted a loss.

Keep your fingers crossed!

P.S.: While I was at the gym Saturday, hanging out at the smoothie bar after Zumba class, the guy making the smoothies said he was one of the PT students who took our measurements at the start of the Lose to Win program and again just a week or so ago … and he said he remembered that I’d dropped my body fat percentage! He couldn’t remember how much, though … and they’re not going to tell us our results until the end of the program in another two weeks.

I’m thinking it had to be a pretty spectacular drop for him to remember … but the scale hasn’t budged all that much, so who knows? And after my earlier post today, we all know what I get for thinking!

I’ll keep you posted when I find out those changes.

Almost forgot: AAC — 7/3. (I definitely aimed too low!)

After spending nearly 2 hours at softball practice, I was starving. And after spending 2 hours at softball practice, I figured I could treat myself to a cookie while I was picking up my Subway sub and baked chip lunch.

Little did I know that, at low intensity, nearly 2 hours of softball practice only racked up 5 APs … and the cookie I had (M&M with chocolate chips) has just that many Points, according to the Dining Out Companion.

Aargh! I thought I’d be OK.

Actually, I will still be OK. I’ll use 2 APs to cut the impact of the cookie and probably use 3 FPs to erase it the rest of the way.  (Otherwise, my dinner will have to be too small to satisfy.)

Live and learn, right?