I am happy to report that although the scale has been a series of ups and downs for the past 2-3 months, the same is not true for my spirits. I decided that this crazy semester was a difficult time to focus on my weight loss, so I’ve been more concerned with maintaining and taking care of everything I have to get done. After a 2.5 lb gain from Thanksgiving, my morning scale reading is down 1.5 lbs. My graph for for the past 2 months looks like this /\/\/\/\/\ I haven’t effectively lost any weight for several weeks, but I still feel good and my clothes fit (or are too big) and people notice regularly that I look better. I’m going to get back to losing when this semester ends and I have time to cook again, but for now I’m taking the ups and downs as they come. Happy Friday everyone!

It feels good… and I knew that it would. Hope everyone else had a great day back on plan after a weekend of pigging out. I think I did pretty well:

Well I ate too much every day this weekend starting with my family dinner on Wednesday night. I am looking forward to counting points and getting back to 6 and 7 point meals instead of 20! Ooh, the pie was good and the yams were better, but tomorrow it’s back to the regular stuff. I’m throwing out the leftover pie and stuffing as we speak. Only thing left is turkey, but we’ll use that for sandwiches tomorrow then the evidence of Thanksgiving will be officially GONE (except for the bad news I’m expecting at the scale on Wednesday.) Hope everyone had a great weekend with family and friends.  Now bring on Christmas!!

Things I am grateful for:

1. A loving husband and great family
2. The happiest dog in the world
3. A job I love
4. Good health
5. A beautiful home
6. Plenty to eat (too much at times)
7. My education
8. My faith
9. Good friends
10. Being an American

What are you thankful for?

Today is our family’s traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. We have always had our meal the night before Thanksgiving for some reason. It’s worked out well being married because now we get to be with both sides of the family every year and keep everyone happy. The downside is that there are two huge meals 2 days in a row and tons of leftovers.

My strategy for tonight is to make sure I have had enough to eat during the day so I don’t show up starving. The plan is cereal & banana for breakfast and salad for lunch.

Of course I am going to have all my favorites tonight (yams, stuffing, pie) but I’m going to do it in moderation; A tiny bit of everything… instead of a lot of everything and seconds like I’ve done in past years.

Today was also WI day for me. I was down 2.5 from last week! That probably means I was holding some water weight or something last week. It is 1/2 lb below two weeks ago putting me at an all time low and making my weight loss over the past two months at about 1 lb per month. Better than a gain per month I suppose.

I am sad to say it, but I think the battle with weight loss the past few months is going to the opposing team. I have not lost a pound since school started in September. (I am a teacher & sign language interpreter at a Community College, plus a graduate student.) With my crazy schedule I just haven’t had time to prepare meals like I was doing before and to exercise. All the free time I have I’m spending on my homework so I can graduate in the Spring. I think I have just resolved myself to doing the best I can and being happy with maintaining until this crazy semester is over. I’m still counting points and I am still following the habits I  have gotten into, but I just can’t seem to lose when I am constantly eating out or eating from the freezer. December 17 is a magic date in my mind - it the day that grades are due and my official last day of work until January. So that means I can actually COOK a meal.  Next semester will be MUCH lighter with only teaching one evening per week instead of two, and taking my last and only graduate class instead of 2-3 at a time. I’m bummed that I haven’t lost in a while, but its relieved some pressure to tell myself that it’s ok to maintain for a couple of weeks  then I can work on losing again.

+1.9

What more can I say.

..and I forgot to weigh! I just weigh in at home, but I like to do it on the same day every week in the mornings. My day is Wednesdays, but today I totally forgot until just now (9:30 on Wed)

I am trying to dig out from work and school and all the other stuff I’m  doing and my weight loss plan has definitely taken a backseat! <sigh> I know the holidays are bad for many people but I’m actually hoping to regain my life with a few weeks off from work and get back into some of my habits and routines when I have time to fix meals at home again.

Anyhoo.. I’ll weigh and post my progress on Thursday this week instead of Wednesday.

Every once in a while it’s good to take a self assessment. Since I’ve been at a plateau for the past 4 weeks, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at what I’m doing (or should I say not doing) and figure out what I can do better.

1. 5 Servings of Veggies and Fruits per day - I am honestly only averaging about 2 per day. Some days I have 3 or maybe 4, and some days only 1 or none at all. The easiest fruits for me to eat are: pineapple, clementines, applesauce and bananas. For vegetables it’s carrots, peas, salads, potatoes, onions and green beans. I am going to set a goal for 3 per day (baby steps!) and try to get one fruit or vegetable in per meal.

2. Choose whole-grain foods - This one is a little easier. I have switched to whole wheat bread and pasta. For breakfast I have oatmeal, nutrigrain eggos or cereal. I eat corn or wheat tortillas, etc. We’ll say this one is a but I am going to try to do more with brown rice and more of my own baking with own ground wheat.

3. 2 servings of milk products per day - I love milk. This one is easy for me. I drink milk nearly every day, plus I love dairy products like cottage cheese and yogurt. I usually don’t have a problem getting my 2 servings.

4. Healthy Oil - Ok, this one just doesn’t appeal to me. When I cook, I always use Olive or canola oil, but I am not going to add oil to anything that doesn’t normally call for it. Sorry WW .. I’m not saying the oil isn’t healthy or a part of losing weight, but I just can’t stomach it. If I’m sauteeing veggies or something I’ll use it, but you won’t find me putting it on salads or in a shake or anything.

5. Adequate protein. Well, for the last week I have had beef or turkey every day. I’ve also had a lot of peanut butter and dairy products. I think I’m doing OK on this one, but I want to start cooking more fish (love the Tilapia from Costco!) and chicken.

6. Limit added sugar and alcohol. Well, the alcohol is easy - I don’t drink. As for added sugar, I have switched to sugar-free drinks and jello. I still like the occasional treat like lo-fat ice cream or a mini candy bar. Halloween had it’s challenges, but overall I think the sugar consumption is down dramatically from where it was a few months ago

7. Drink 6 glasses of water per day. <– That about says it all. I bring a water bottle nearly every day to work. I usually drink all of it and occasionally fill it up and drink a little more. The water bottle is = to 2 glasses. Another glass or two in the evening with dinner and I’m probably still short at least 2 glasses. Gotta step this one up. I think I need to try to get some water in with my breakfast and lunches too.

8. Multi-vitamin daily. I’m hit and miss with this.. I think this could help with #7. If I start getting my vitamin in every morning then I can get a glass of water in, too. I’m probably getting my vitamin in 50% of the time. This is one of the easier ones on the list so there’s really no excuse for not having 100%.

*** 6***

Overall today was probably a 6 on a scale of 1-10. I had 3 fruits/veggies, 2 protein servings, and whole grain pasta. I only had one milk, though, forgot my vitamin and only 4 glasses of water. No oil .. and I did have some Hershey kisses (darn Halloween Candy is still hanging around!) Exercise was limited to walking between classes on campus and taking the stairs. (It was my 12 hr day.)

-1.6

The best loss I’ve had in a month. Can’t complain about that!
Of course I had to go and have pie in the middle of the day today. They were giving it out free at the college where I work, so I took the smallest piece of apple I could see. I definitely didn’t need it, but the thing I love about WW is that I can count the points and move on. I balanced it out with a 4 point lunch, so hopefully the damage will be minimal.

Today wasn’t too bad. It was great to be back at Irish Dance to get my few extra points. I’m hoping with TOM over and a few good days this week the scale might actually go the right direction this week.

It’s starting to get cold again so I am getting in the mood for crock pot meals. Someone posted a link once to a great site with WW friendly crock pot recipes. Anyone remember the site or have some good recipes to share?