Weighty Matters

Okay, first the good news: I am down!!!! I didn't look at the exact decimal figure but it's over 2.0 -- WHEW!!!! Monday night, I was given the privilege of sharing my story with another meeting. I truly mean it when I say that I love being able to tell people that all things are possible. I enjoy sharing my ups and downs, and reminding others - and myself - that persistence pays, determination delivers, and that it isn't failure, it's feedback. I know that sounds like a trite phrase but it is TRUE. "So what did you learn from this?" is a question that needs constant answering. On Monday night, I shared a Chicken BBQ recipe with the group. My leader told tonight's group about it, and I have been asked to post it here --- GLADLY!! I love BBQ, no doubt. Had WW ever said, "Give up the pig" I would have been gone! But a local chain does chopped/pulled chicken as well -- very handy years ago when I was having gallstone issues!! And I love good mustard-...

.... is not just a song by Bruce Springsteen. Up this week. But I understood why. It's been a slightly off-kilter week. I've carbed way more than usual this week, and haven't watched my sodium as much. This one is on me. So guess what? So is the solution. Part of that solution was meeting with Dave The Trainer tonight and getting a new workout. The current workout is still working, but it was time to shake it up and do something new. There is something to be said for the concept of muscle confusion! Tonight's was Upper Body Giant Sets.... two smaller Supersets .... one for chest/upper back; one for upper shoulders/biceps/triceps. Right now, my arms are a little sore..... heh. I asked Dave if I was going to be able to grip a steering wheel tomorrow; he laughed and said, "Yep! You'll be sore tonight and fine tomorrow." We shall see. Then next week, we'll work on Lower Body/Core. Tonight's core exercises were .... a little less successful. But with pr...

It's been a while but the scale moved significantly in a lower direction. W.H.E.W. As it turns out, this week's topic was all about NSV's - non-scale victories. I've been living off NSV's for a while now. They are important, more important than we realize! The funny thing is, several times this week, I've had people asking me, "How much more have you lost?" When I tell them I've actually put a little back on, they're like, "But you look so thinner!" To which I say: THANK YOU DAVE!!!! Dave is the personal trainer who is working with me, his workout is killer ... and it works! My leader has encouraged us to write in our trackers, or on e-Tools, or somehow to actually write each day, at least ONE good choice we made that day..... So for Thursday, mine was being satisfied with my lunch -- enough so that I completely forgot about the WW Giant Latte bar that I'd had on my mind not even 30 minutes earlier. I had told myself that I would ...

Many years ago, Susan Powter wrote her "diet" book called Stop the Insanity! Somewhere, I think I still have a worn-out copy of it. And out of all the diet/nutrition/fitness books I owned, even though I never followed the plan, hers at least seemed to make sense to me. And I loved the title... Right now, it feels sometimes that portions of my life are just insane. And I need to stop as much of it as I can..... so last night at the meeting, I made the decision to change my goal weight, by bumping it back up. It was not easy to do this... oh, yeah, filling out the paperwork was, but I was so reluctant. It feels like defeat. It feels like cheating. It feels like my body is telling me, "You wouldn't listen to me, would you? Well, let me show you ..." Which is purely insanity, isn't it? It's rumored that Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So I've changed things up to...

I'm not dropping my basket (to use the phrase from the Ya-Ya book), but I am setting some of the contents down for a while. The stress of the last couple of weeks has finally gotten to me this week, and it showed especially in my weigh-in. For starters, I am not sleeping well at all..... you know those little "5-Hour Energy" shot drinks? Yeah, I've used a couple of those this week to make it through. On the good side (I suppose), they didn't quite give me the boost that the ads promise, so I doubt I'll be getting any of them again. And a couple of times when I needed to go to bed early to wake earlier than usual, I've used Nytol. Again, not good, and I know this. The weight gain is giving me grief, and last night as I cried a little from being up YET AGAIN (though only 0.2 pounds), even my leader said, "This is not worth the stress you're putting yourself under; we'll figure out what to do...." So here's my plan: 1. I have to stop wor...

Okay, I FINALLY got my test results back on Tuesday: everything is in normal ranges. For two of the tests, my scores were pretty much in the dead center. For the last, it was toward the lower end of normal but not so much so that it was cause for concern. I have answers, but I still have more questions. I was up at this week's weigh-in ... it wasn't entirely unexpected but really, can one blowout meal cause that much of a gain? No. I still think there is SOMETHING going on, and while it's not my thyroid, I don't know what it could be. But I have bigger fish to fry right now: my mother's health. She has been feeling puny (that's a Southern phrase) for about 2 weeks. She went to the doctor last week because she could not kick a feeling of nausea. It would just come in waves but never so strong as to actually make her upchuck. Just that awful feeling of "I'm gonna be sick, I'm gonna be sick, no wait, yes, no...." So the doctor gave her some Phener...

I have been able to rearrange my schedule in order to attend the 5:30 meeting on Thursdays. It's a different group, but they seemed very nice so far. And I discovered that one of the 5:30 members (who had been attending the 7:00 a while back) is moving to Europe on a 3-year transfer assignment. WOW! Lots of changes in store for her - and smart girl, she has already found where WW meets in the area to which she's moving! You go!!!! Sara, wishing you all the best, and please stay in touch! In fantastic news, my weight was down. Not by much -- 0.4 pounds -- but I will take every single ounce or fraction thereof I can get. It's nearly 2 sticks of butter gone! I made a real effort this past week to listen to my body's hunger signals instead of those little signals from my head..... the ones that say, "What a day! You've earned a little wiggle room...." or "Man, this workout is something else; you can eat a little more today." Well, no, not really - no...

I weighed in at work Saturday morning, and I’m more or less holding steady. Part of me is happy about that, since I had some binge-y moments this week. In reflection on those moments, I know how it happened. On Tuesdays, I eat dinner at work (4:30 PM) in order to make my schedule work for a committee meeting each week. I don’t like this, since I usually finish lunch around 12:30. 4:30 is a little too soon for a full meal. By 10:00, I’m starving and shoveling in whatever's not nailed down (and that’s even with snacks at the meeting). So now, I’ve decided that I will simply have to stop and pick up something on the way to the meeting and eat it then. I hate the idea of spending money instead of taking something from home, but you do what you have to. And this week, I tended to listen to my "head hunger" instead of my "body hunger." I wasn't really caring whether or not I was physically hungry, but wanting to satisfy my emotional hunger instead. I was letting m...

I'm not sure I have a lot of words of wisdom this week. I'm not feeling very wise. I'm not discouraged, but I am .... well, I'm not sure there's a good descriptor for it. Baffled. Angry. Inquisitive. Perplexed. Not-Quite-But-Awful-Close-to-Helpless. Determined. (For what it's worth, the one on the list that kills me is the "helpless" phrase.... don't even get me started on my absolute dread/dislike of "helpless"!! I don't believe we're ever without help, whether it's from others or divine assistance. Help is always there. But it's the only way I can really describe the feeling.) I am still up, weight-wise. This week, I used 25 of my 35 weekly extra points. I use those extra very infrequently, but I did this week. Was it too many? Not enough? I know that maintenance is ongoing and one of those constant experiments to see what may work and what may not. But I hardly think that using 5/7ths of those points was enough to send...

I'm someone who loves my sleep. I mean, I love sleep like a fat kid loves chocolate cake. Like the quote from Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: "She used to say she could taste sleep and that it was as delicious as a BLT on fresh French bread." Even in elementary school, I had a late bedtime (compared to so many other kids) but my mother must have found it pure hell to try to drag me out of bed in the mornings. She asked, cajoled, threatened, demanded, and basically did whatever it took ...... my sleep needs simply didn't coincide with the demands of real life. Here I am 30+ years later, and nothing's changed. I cannot fall asleep before 11:00 but in order to accomplish everything I have to, I have to be up at 5:30 on a normal morning, 5:00 if I have to be at work at 8:00. No, I'm not kidding. Why 2 hours to get ready? You eat breakfast, unravel the leg bandages, roll them back up, hit the shower, dry off, put back on a pair of support hose, fix lunch (a...

After 4 years, it is the end of an era. I am losing my 7:00 meeting on Thursday nights. Several back-to-back meetings at various locations and centers are being consolidated, and this happens to be one of them. But oh my..... I've built so much of my schedule and my world around Thursday evenings being MY time. Right now, unless I can change my schedule to attend the 5:30 meeting, my only option is Sunday afternoons.... and really, do I want to weigh in after Sunday dinner? :D So I will do what I can to get to Thursdays at 5:30. To everyone who has been part of my life for those 7:00 meetings, I sure hope to see you soon. You have meant the world to me! **** Week 2 of the "Dave Workout, Plan One" ..... we upped the weight to a 15-pound dumbbell, and added yet another lifting/stretch thing to it. Oh. Em. Gee. I feel it this week in my abs and my shoulders/arms. It's still a good hurt. Strangely enough, I'm enjoying this. They have a word for that: masochism. :D

My personal trainer, that is. I started a new fitness routine this week. Medicine balls and twists. Dumbbells used as kettlebells. Learning to juggle (kinda sorta). Glutes & hams, with calf raises and lowers. Heavier weights than usual. Dave told me Monday night, "You are going to be sore tomorrow." Dave was wrong; I was getting sore 2 hours later!!! But it feels good . It is hard work that feels good to body and soul. Am I perfect, do I remember all the routine yet? No. And trying to do the routine in the mornings is tough because I only have so much time, but I do as much as time will allow, and I am finally at a point where my schedule is evening out. *** Last night, I had the opportunity to share a portion of my story at a WW meeting/open house. I really enjoyed getting to meet everyone, and hearing their stories and questions. If there's anything I want others to hear by sharing my tale, it's that there is hope, there is success, there is great joy in getting...

I'm reading the Geneen Roth book little bit by little bit. It's pretty deep, so I want to savor it and not just give it the speed-read treatment. In fact, tonight over dinner, I read more of it, and got just whammied by what I was reading. About paying attention to your body and to stop the obsessing (and get to what's really eating you instead....) This weekend, I experienced this for myself a little on Saturday night. I had a birthday party for a high school friend, and I didn't worry about the food. I ate what I wanted, to satisfaction, and earlier than my usual dinnertime. Amazingly enough, I didn't eat again until very late (just to have a snack before bed)..... I was very satisfied, to say the least. And I made it a point that I was going to count it against my weekly 35 points. I also worked out a little more this week, because I know I feel lousy when I don't. It is starting to pay off. I am down 1.6 from my official weigh-in, and only 2.8 to go in order...

I'm reading a new book, just in Chapter One right now, but it is quite an interesting premise: Geneen Roth's Women, Food and God -- about how the choices we've made with food (and other things) reflect our deepest core values and our spirituality. I cannot wait to keep reading it..... if I'm not dead asleep Sunday afternoon (after a pretty busy week and weekend), then I will be nose-deep in this book!

It is what it is. Yeah, I'm up. Not quite as much as February (oooh, a whole 6/10ths difference), but it's up. Oh well, weekly weigh-ins, here I come! So what do I do need to do differently to get this fixed and soon? Set a better schedule. The last couple of weeks have been a lot of curveballs and change-ups to my time frames. So that ends. Not only do I need to map out my day and eating plans to accommodate my new evening meetings, but my exercise as well. I've gotten off a good set schedule, and I need to get back. This will be a little easier once choir practice ends, so hopefully in about 2 weeks, I'll have a really good schedule set. Do more cooking. Another thing I haven't had time for, but really need to work on. I have new recipes to try out, and I can't wait!!! Figure out exactly (calorie-wise) what I should be eating each day -- not just the points, but the calories too. Points are a little different because I can use one point on something that...

I went on a much-needed retreat for women last weekend. I did not realize how desperately I needed a break from the everyday world, and just what sort of physical impact it would have on me. Knowing I was going to be busy with that all weekend, on Friday, I did a workout for my legs. This is important for later on...... I got up early Saturday, drove to the retreat, and -- oh my gosh, I can't begin to tell you about all the food that was there, and I proceeded to just enjoy myself with it. We were fed VERY well..... too well; not only were our bodies well-fed but our souls and spirits too. It was a beautiful weekend, with lots of emotion (at least on my part). I'm a pretty emotional person to start, so you know that means I will become a weepy mess pretty quickly. The stress of the last few weeks has honestly left me close to either a big ol' ugly outburst or a huge meltdown. But in the midst of all that emotional garbage, I found wonderful love and support from the women w...

"Not so fast, my friend....." I mentioned previously that I finally found some protein shake stuff at Vitamin Shoppe last weekend, and it was on clearance so, oh why not? I also stopped in at Wally World on Sunday and bought a nice little shaker/mixer thing -- "perfect for vinaigrettes, shakes, etc." (you see where this is heading, don't you?) I took the protein powder with me to work yesterday for a quick pre-workout boost. I even only used half the recommended portion, in part to control calories and also to see how I would like it. I mixed the powder with a cup of Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla almond milk. The verdict: the protein powder is at home again, where it will stay. One, I didn't like the taste. Had I used a whole portion, it might have been better. But also, my "perfect for..." mixer? Not so much. I had to open it a couple of times and stir. Perhaps the powder should have been sifted or something first? It might have been the unswe...

Okay, first....................... Some exciting news to report on the WW scene: a new location for our Clemson & Seneca area meetings!! Join us at the Heritage Point (a/k/a "Bloom") Shopping Center, on Highway 123 between Clemson & Seneca. We're actually right next to the Chinese restaurant in the center. If you live in the area, and you're interested in meetings at this location, just go to www.weightwatchers.com -- type in your zip code and look for the "Heritage Point" location in Seneca. After moving the East Clemson meeting's inventory and paperwork over, we started unpacking the Seneca paperwork and inventory. However, I had to take off before everything was finished -- I had an appointment in Travelers Rest yesterday afternoon. When that was finished, I headed to Vitamin Shoppe, since I knew they were having a sale. And I wanted to look into a few things. I don't know everything there is to know about nutrition, and especially perform...

Okay, I don't get political on this blog or any of my others, for that matter. I was a poli-sci major in college, and I would crawl if I had to in order to vote..... but otherwise, I don't delve too deeply unless it's a campaign season. Campaigning is another beast entirely - I love watching the tactics that politicians will use (read: depths they will sink to) in order to win. BUT..... no matter how you feel about the recent health-care legislation, one of the brightest shining provisions is the one requiring chain restaurants to post the calorie counts (if nothing else). Frankly, I wish they'd make them hand out a complete nutrition guide at the door, with fat, fiber, sodium, sugar, and a few other things listed..... but at least the calorie count is a starting point. And I love restaurants that WILLINGLY provide that information now. Regular readers know that I am totally kookoo for Jason's Deli, just because of the great information they provide and are willing ...

Quatro-Cero reporting in again..... Wednesday night, I did a nice workout at the gym. I had a few extra minutes, so I proceeded to do a new type of squat (okay, new to me) .... you know, just to get some in. With this move, you hold a dumbbell by one end and do a squat holding the weight. Easy enough, right? POP. That was the sound my left hip area made; at least I think it was just the hip bone popping (hard to hear when the Crue is playing in your headset). And something was definitely not feeling good in the left groin. Yeah, I think I have strained it. I put an ice pack on it when I went to bed that night, and I woke up Thursday morning hobbling a bit. Getting in and out of my car was an adventure, too. Most mornings I have my purse, my tote, my lunchbag, and some mornings, my gym gear too. Yesterday morning, it was just the purse and lunchkit, and still......... This morning, much better. ***** And I made my first weekly meeting in a long time. Holy mackerel, was it nice to get ba...