Am I crazy?

This morning I registered to do this in April.

When you end up covered in pink from head to toe, how could it be wrong???

Unlucky 13? Nah, just bad timing.

*Note: I wrote this 3 days ago and then had to quickly stop because a certain 2-year-old felt like it was his turn to type. I was almost done and just plum forgot to publish.

So technically this is week 13. I didn't weigh in this week because I usually go on Tuesday mornings and it was Christmas this week so they were closed and I was too busy putting together kids' toys and a special breakfast. I had planned to go in on Wednesday just to weigh in but they didn't open until 4 and your weight can fluctuate so much in a day so I decided against it. I want to have consistency. It's still to recently that I had my little gain and I just didn't want to set myself up for disappointment. So I'm skipping this week and I'll weigh in next Tuesday. I'm not slacking off this week, however. I've been sticking to the plan and I think I've done rather well! I cooked a Christmas feast that added up to 21 points. We learned that an average Thanksgiving plate can have at least 83 points so I think 21 is pretty good. It was so delicious and I was stuffed by the end. It even included a delicious dessert I made up so I'll post that recipe soon. So good! Yesterday morning I woke up and really wanted to get some exercise in but it was 23 degrees with a wind chill of 8 so I was a little scared. After living in a tropical climate for 4 years, this north Texas chilliness is really getting to me! Gosh I'm a wuss. But I wanted to get out and walk/run. My sister-in-law asked me to run a 5K with her in April and I'm going to do it! So I donned my best looking layers (I looked ridiculous) and went out for a half hour. I ran about half and walked about half. Not bad. My face was numb but it felt really good to run. I used to want to die after .2 miles. I've noticed that I am beginning to get some kind of endurance. A 5K in April seems so possible!!
And here's the best part. I got some gift cards for Christmas and had the chance to go shopping without kids last night. Yay for YaYa! (Corey's mom) I tried on a dress that was a 12. Too big! I tried on some jeans that were a 12. Too big! It was AWESOME!!!! Last September I went to that same store and was squeezing in 16's and almost filling out the 18's.  I ended up buying two pairs of jeans and love them! When I sat in Chick-fil-a talking about Weight Watchers with my friend I never would have guessed that I would have so much success. I remember her saying that she LOVED Weight Watchers and thinking that was a little much. Who LOVES their weight loss program? Apparently I do! I can honestly say that I LOVE Weight Watchers. I have seen in work not only in helping people lose weight, but it works in the mind too. I have such a positive outlook on food and exercise now. It's a whole life plan, not just a weight loss plan.On to next week!

Week Twelve: A major award!

First off, I can't believe it's been 12 weeks since I started this whole thing. Time has flown by! Everything else I've ever tried dies out after about 8 weeks. Tops. I think it just goes to show how important it is for me to attend meetings. I really think they have made a huge difference for me. I knew that my problem before was that I was always doing it alone. I never knew how great an impact a room full of strangers would have on my life. They are all becoming like my family. I know we just see each other once a week and talk about food and living our lives better, but I would so jump in front of a bus to save any of them.
Now that you all have a morbid image in your minds, I'll move on to my progress. To be honest, I think I was a little more bummed about my gain last week than I let on. I try to be totally open on this blog and not let anything hold me back, but maybe I didn't know how bummed I was until I wrote it. I was pretty bummed. I was nervous I'd never get lower than 172 pounds for the rest of my life. I was trying to convince myself that if this was it I'd be fine. Then I woke up and realized that I'm better than that and I still have a ways to go if I want to be at a healthy weight. So I picked myself up and pulled it together. I didn't quite know what to expect when I got on the scale. I don't even know what I was hoping for. Just a negative number I guess. Well, I got a negative number. 2.6 negative numbers! It just goes to show that one week is not going to kill you. A little gain is not going to ruin your whole progress. The best part is, I broke the 170 barrier! Okay, by .2 pounds but hey, 169.8 looks a whole lot smaller than 170! I am 6 pounds away from no longer being considered overweight. It is an amazing feeling.
As for my major award...I got my 25 pound charm!

Source

Yeah, I'm to busy to take my own photo. But mine looks exactly the same. Seriously, these little tokens and stickers are so juvenile but totally work! It is so awesome to win a prize. No, not win. Winning is by chance. I earned this! I am truly becoming the person I want to be. Not just from a weight perspective, but I am slowly learning how to control my life and really by the person I imagine myself to be. One day at a time.

My Progress:
Week one:   4.6 lost
Week two:   2.2 lost
Week three: 0.8 lost
Week four:   2.2 lost
Week five:    3.2 lost
Week six:     1.6 lost
Week seven: 2.2 lost
Week eight:  1.2 lost
Week nine:   2.0 lost
Week ten:    3.4  lost
Week eleven: 0.4 gained
Week twelve: 2.6 lost

Total: 25.6 pounds lost!!

Ohhhh...Oatmeal

It's been chilly in Central Texas all week. Chilly even by my Utah standards. We have been waking up to below freezing temperatures with wind chills in the teens. This week has been a great day to experiment with oatmeal. I grew up eating oatmeal with a splash of milk and some brown sugar. To be honest, I don't really love it. But that's all I knew. Until I discovered Pinterest! It was there that my eyes were opened to about 452 different oatmeal recipes. I knew you could put oatmeal in cookies and facial scrubs, but that was about as far as I imagined. I have yet to try the overnight refrigerated oatmeal, but I came across a blog with a bunch of oatmeal recipes and had to try some. Mainly because one was chocolate. It's from Chocolate Covered Katie so of course she'd have chocolate. And she has lots with chocolate!!! I tried the 5-minute Chocolate Oatmeal and had a wonderful, chocolatey breakfast. I didn't love the banana in it (too healthy I guess) so I made it a few days later and it was fantastic!  Later, I came across another oatmeal pin (among literally thousands) and was intrigued by the Peanut Butter and Jelly Oatmeal. Sorry, I don't remember the site I saw it on, but I just did an image search on Google and oh boy... Basically, you make oatmeal and add a spoonful of peanut butter, and a spoonful of jelly. Or jam. Or preserves. Or whatever you want to call it. Then I got creative. This morning, I added peanut butter and CHOCOLATE!!! I only needed a tablespoon of semi-sweet chocolate chips (0 PointsPlus) to get a great chocolate effect.
I have been having a great time experimenting with oatmeal. My favorite by far has been this morning's chocolate peanut butter oatmeal. I love no bake cookies and that's pretty much what this tastes like. Only it's 5 points and keeps me full til lunch. I am now fully entangled in a love affair with oatmeal. If you have a favorite, leave me a comment. Or try some of these and let me know if you like them. I think I'll venture to baked oatmeal next!

Week Eleven: My First Gain

I didn't gain 5 pounds or anything. I gained 0.4 pounds. Emphasis on the zero. I knew my number was a little skewed last week because of my pukeyness the two days before. And may I just emphasize that I am not pregnant. When you're in your childbearing years that's the first thing people think when you throw up or even get nauseous. No, I just had a bug. So my goal was to maintain that weight loss this week and gaining 0.4 (emphasis on zero) really isn't too bad. It made me a little bummed, but now that I am two days out and have seen my own scale start to go down again I'm a little more optimistic. And...I put on some size 12 jeans today. They fit. They look good. I can breathe in them. I can walk in them too. Pretty amazing!
Here's another pretty amazing thing. I stayed after the meeting for a little Power Start session. It's for newbies to kind of teach them the program, but I stayed because Weight Watchers has just rolled out their new Weight Watchers 360 and I felt like I needed a little boost what with the gain and all. I just needed a refresher. So the session was pretty much like the one I had attended before but with a different name. We discussed routines and just like the previous class, we were asked to build a sandwich. I remembered that when I first went to that class, I wanted a sandwich on artisan bread with a lot of juicy meat, gooey cheese, creamy avocado and bacon. Bacon needs no adjective. As I built my sandwich, I noticed that I didn't care so much about the bread. And I really didn't even want meat. I just wanted a bulky, veggie sandwich with some laughing cow spread. I pretty much built a 5 point sandwich (mainly because there was avocado). The one I wanted before was about 12 points. I added bacon because I felt like I should, but if it was a real sandwich, I wouldn't have put bacon. I do like bacon, don't get me wrong. I just saw that my desires are truly becoming healthier today.
One thing I love about Christmastime is mint M&M's. I think you can buy them year-round now, but for me they're a holiday treat. I succumbed today and bought a package. I got some out for Jack, then I carefully measured out some for me. I gave myself a good sized serving. But I ate about 6 and realized I was done. Granted, I have been snacking on them throughout the day, but just a few at a time. Before, I could have sat down with the giant bag and eaten all of them in one sitting! What I'm getting at here is that I am starting to see myself making good choices without even thinking about it. Sweet things are almost too sweet. I don't need a lot to be satisfied. I'm subconsciously thinking like a skinny person I guess. It has all just kind of gradually happened. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. It's a really great feeling.
So even if I packed on 0.4 pounds this week, I am really on track to the change in my life I have set out to make. It is possible!!!

Progress so far:

Week one:   4.6 lost
Week two:   2.2 lost
Week three: 0.8 lost
Week four:   2.2 lost
Week five:    3.2 lost
Week six:     1.6 lost
Week seven: 2.2 lost
Week eight:  1.2 lost
Week nine:   2.0 lost
Week ten:    3.4  lost
Week eleven: 0.4 gained

total: 23 pounds lost

Week Ten: The Ultimate Goal

Last week I reached my 10% weight loss goal. I think it was pretty obvious how awesome I thought that was. When you join Weight Watchers they encourage you to start by losing 5% of your starting weight, then 10%, then choosing your ultimate weight loss goal and work toward that. I've hit the first two milestones so I decided today was the day to set that ultimate goal. A weight healthy for me is anywhere between 132 and 164 pounds. I set a goal of 160. I know it's towards the high end of a healthy BMI, but I'll be honest. I'm a chicken. I'm afraid if I set a goal of 140 pounds I'll freak out and give up. Or even worse, I would never make it. I know both of those are stupid but it is what it is and I've learned that small steps are what work for me. So 160 it is. We'll see what my body does after that. 160 isn't bad though, right? I'm still in the 170's and honestly feeling pretty good about it. I went to Kohl's the other day and tried on a dress that was a 12. It fit!!! The last time I was trying on clothes, I was squeezing into 16's and looking for 18's that didn't exist because they were at Lane Bryant. I would have bought that size 12 dress but it was too short. It was satisfaction enough to zip that thing up and have breathing room. Imagine what I could zip up at 160! Last Christmas my sister-in-law handed down some jeans to me. Two are size 10 and one is a 12. The 12 fits but they're tighter than I feel comfortable. My goal is to get comfortably in the 10's.
Ultimate goal. It kind of sounds final, but as I've said before, this is a relocation, not a journey where I'll turn back once I get there and enjoy the sights. Just because I hit my ultimate goal doesn't mean that I still can't lose right? And even then, if I don't lose any more, I'll be at a healthy weight which was the ultimate goal anyway right? So 160 is okay? Maybe I'm just looking for validation.
As for this week, I'm kind of a cheater since I didn't eat anything on Sunday since I was fasting, and from Sunday night until Monday afternoon I was throwing up thanks to either some bug or sheer exhaustion from taking care of a girl with a raging ear infection with no husband to back me up. (He's out of town). So my numbers are probably a little skewed this week. 3.4 pounds lost this week! I'd say 2 of those are cheater points. We'll see what happens next week.

Progress so far:
Week one:   4.6 lost
Week two:   2.2 lost
Week three: 0.8 lost
Week four:   2.2 lost
Week five:    3.2 lost
Week six:     1.6 lost
Week seven: 2.2 lost
Week eight:  1.2 lost
Week nine:   2.0 lost
Week ten:    3.4  lost

Total:  23.4 pounds lost!!!