1st Weigh in, 1st training session and UGHH!!!!

I am way behind in my blog post.  First things first: my first weigh in.  I have been avoiding the scale at home because it has to much power in my life. If the scale goes up I have a bad day and I eat and then sometimes even when the scale goes down I eat figuring hey I am not doing to bad I can splurge a little.  I really had no idea going into this weigh in what I was going to get.  I wore the same clothing for my initial weigh in and I was down 3.2 lbs!!! YAY!! I was hoping for 3 so 3.2 is great.

The very next day was my first training session with my new trainer.  I like her style, so far.  Lots of free weight and balance stuff.  She had me do these sumo squats and press up with a kettle bell and that worked my legs so much.  Alone with balancing on a boesu while doing reverse flys. My form was spot on, which I kind of pride myself in.  When my Dad trained me he was such a stickler for form and I really learned how to use the muscle he told me to use to do each exercise. It is very simple for me if someone says you should feel this in your shoulders not your arms. I can very easily make sure I am only using my shoulders. She said she thinks I have really good muscle memory and that we'll get back to where I left on pretty quick.  Next week I just meet with her on Thursday again and then the following week we'll start meeting on twice a week.

Now for the UGH!!!!  After my great weigh in I was doing really well until yesterday.  Yesterday I found my self feeling the need for some junk foods. I was craving chips and salsa and chocolate. I don't know if I am PMSing or if it was all the talk about getting ready to sell our house and move or purely the fact that I've been sick for the last few days. But I felt the NEED to eat.  Now I know just as well as you do I didn't NEED to eat but I couldn't get past it. I talked to hubby about it and felt it was better to take the points hit and get it out of my system.  So I ate chips and salsa and it was amazing.  But that also lead to a couple extra little Dark chocolate Dove promises.  Then today I was to be back on track, right back at it, none of this I am a failure crap just pick up where you left off and keep moving forward. We had quite the plans for today and they were to go up to the pass about an hour and half away and going sliding for my nieces birthday.  Breakfast was Starbucks and I packed snacks for the kids but really didn't pack anything for myself.  After a day of sledding and building snowmen I was starving by the time we left.  On the way home we stopped at a McDonald's so my youngest boy could use the bathroom and he wanted a Happy meal.  To be more accurate he wanted fries and the toy. They don't eat anything from McDonald's.  So I figured I'd eat his cheese burger.  Which ok that isn't to bad but then I ordered fry to go with it.   We came home and were just beat and we kind of sat around until 6PM and realized we hadn't even thought about dinner yet. So we ordered pizza.  I only ate one piece of pizza but still I have not been eating well for the last two days! Weigh in is the day after tomorrow and I am just not sure I can correct what I've done in the last two days.

My house has been full of sickness for what feels like months. Just one thing after another after another. Right now we have some horrible bug started with hubby then to me and I was hoping that it was just something the kids had a few weeks ago that maybe we got worse but today proved me to be wrong. Both my boys came down with this thing and I am still not over it yet either it is just hanging on.  Hubby is doing much better and that is because he can get sleep. He sent me to be early one day and that was amazing but after getting up at 6AM today and spending the day outside I realized how much I am not over this thing yet. I felt knocked for a loop.  And I have already had to deal with my youngest waking up crying twice and the oldest is even not sleeping well. Because hubby has to get up so early for work and isn't a night person, I always take the night shift and then if need be call into work, which is a whole other stress we won't talk about.

Tomorrow is another day to get it right.  I can't go back and I shouldn't dwell on what happened just need to plan better and make better choices from here on out.

Points Plus vs Smart Points, with a small rant..

First week of tracking has gone very well.  Even with the couple of splurges I used my weekly points for with the new smart points I have found I can feel satisfied using only my daily points.  Which I feel was never the case on the points plus plan.  On points plus I lived for my activity points and my weekly points. I never seemed to have enough to go around.  On the points plus program I got 26 daily points and 49 weekly and there was never a day where I didn't have to dip into my weekly points.  And with points plus it was cheaper points wise to eat a Hershey bar than to have a steak.  I would succeed for the first couple weeks and then my loss would go down to less than a pound a week, and that is when I'd start saying stuff like I am tracking everything and staying with in my points why am I not losing more weight.  Sure I knew what I was eating wasn't the best choice but gosh darn it, I tracked it and didn't go over my points so what the heck!  With the points plus plan there was also a simply filling plan, they still have this now.  When you would hit a plateau on Points Plus they would recommend you do Simply Filling for a week. Simply Filling is eating whole foods until you are satisfied, not full or stuffed.  There is no points tracking with simply filling but you still got your weekly points that you could spend on non Simply Filling foods.  Everyone got the same amount of extra weekly points for both SF & PP. Smart Points is basically encouraging eating like Simply Filling, those foods cost much less points and are much healthier for you to eat. And they are giving your individual weekly point allowance based on questions about your activity and I think that makes so much more sense.

Now let me go on a little rant.....(if you would like to skip this rant, scroll down to rant over)

While Fruits and Veggies stayed free with the change to SP the cost for treats, processed food, comfort foods have double or even tripled. That made allot of people angry.  I've been seeing post on WW Facebook wall that say they have ruined the program!! "My pizza went from 18 PP to 29 SP. " Then there are the group of people who hate Oprah. LOL! Oprah is the new spokeswomen  for WW and people are saying how they will not join because of Oprah is now involved.  Really people?? Saying that you will not eat healthy because of a famous person chose to eat healthy using the same program, is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  While I am not an Oprah super fan by any means you better believe if I made a product and she ordered it from me I would shout it from the roof tops because of the amount of people that would bring into my business. This is just smart business. WW used to have Jennifer Hudson now they have Oprah. Another complaint that people are posting every day it seems  is: WW is just out to make a buck by changing their plan and making us buy all new materials. Let me shine some light on to this for ya'll.  If you were a paying monthly pass member with Points Plus you should still be with Smart Points, this price did not change. This gives you access to all the info you need. But what about our cook books!?! All our cook book have PP values, they want us to buy new stuff. Well no, the online tools we get with our monthly pass includes the ability to enter your favorite recipes and get the SP value. Simply load your favorite ones from previous WW cookbooks and BAM you have the new point value with out spending a single penny more than you are for your membership.

Another post stated that PP was the only plan she could lose on because it taught her how to keep her sweet tooth.  While I agree learning moderation is key, you can still use your weekly points for that but it is going to cost you more points.  For example I got a mini oreo blizzard tonight and found it was 18 points with PP it was a 9 points. Needless to say that wasn't worth 18 points to me.  But let me ask you this? If you are making sure you get your sugar fix sure you may be losing weight but are you healthy?   There is a common misconception out there that Skinny=Healthy, it doesn't!!  There are many very unhealthy skinny people out there. I saw a documentary about a woman who was not over weight and had a good BMI according to the number on the scale but they put her in one of those machines that actually measure the percentage of fat on your body and she was over 50% fat, her muscles were practically non existent.

                          

In conclusion did Points Plus work?  Yes! Was it a good program? Yes! Was there more wiggle room in what we ate? Yes!  BUT... Will the new Smart Point system work? Yes!  Are we eating better with the Smart Points vs Points Plus?  Yes!! We will all probably be healthier over all?  I believe we will.

Rant over......

Tomorrow is weigh in and I am not sure what the scale is going to say I am hoping for 2 lbs. I did very well this week but I did have those splurges I talked about, so we will see. See you tomorrow on Weight in Wednesday.

My First weigh in Wednesday

Well today was the day!! I met with my new trainer and went to my first Weight Watchers meeting for my official first weigh in. My new trainer weighed me in and so did WW and the scales are basically the same.  WW had me at 182.4 and the gym had me at 182.2.  I met my MIL at WW and we stayed for both the regular meeting and the orientation meeting which was super full being the first meeting of January.  From our orientation, I found out all the details of Beyond the Scale is basically what I thought it was going to be; lots of lean protein, fruits, veggies and complex carbs. While I can technically eat anything I want, the point value on things with sugar, besides fruits, and fat has sky rocketed. For example I spent all day after the meeting today grocery shopping and there were some WW fudgesicle bars that were valued at 1 Points Plus, the last couple years program and now on the new Smart Points program that same fudgsicle is now 4 Smart Points. This is what I was expecting so I was totally on board. My MIL however looked over at me after the meeting and said "Well I still don't know what the hell I am suppose to do" and "this is not what I was expecting."  So I asked her what was she expecting and she said she didn't know but "I guess I'll give this crap a try" REALLY!?!?!  She is the only reason I joined the meeting and not just online, because she didn't want to go to the meetings alone.  I don't think she is a regular reader of my blog but even if she is WTH man!!  It kind of irked me that she was so negative because a few weeks ago she was very scared and worried because her heart is going into a-fib more regularly. Her Dr said that losing weight and activity will help.  She was terrified about the news and the test the Dr's had to run and as scared and worried but she is being negative!?!?!  I've always wondered what would it take to scare me healthy, like the do on Biggest Loser, and I kind of thought this was her scare straight moment.  Then the next day she called and had me check the points value of something on my app and I find out she is only paying weekly instead of a monthly pass so she has no access to the app or the website. I told hubby I feel like she isn't even trying to commit to this.  Then she was telling me that she was using her old WW slide rule points thing and that was introduced in 1997.   Granted it did work and I am sure it would still work, but the fact is that isn't the program we are on now.  I told her the points value and she said well that isn't what my slide thing says.  I reminded her that the new program thats much more into account when giving a point value and told her that had calories and grams of fat only. The new program calculator takes: Calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, carbs, fiber & protein and she groaned.  She also said she had eye balled and guess the value of her lunch.

After all this I was venting to hubby and I told him I feel like I have no choice but to kick ass this time around.   I am hoping my success will motivate not only my MIL but also my Mom who is joining will continue as well.  I have made a promise to myself that I am going to stick to it all for a month.  After a month I feel like I will have gained the momentum to keep going with out it being such a struggle. Right now I have a birthday party next weekend and I am making the cake for it.  One cupcake, only ONE cupcake is 11 points!  I get 30 daily points and 35 weekly points.  I can plan for it and I need to stick to just one cupcake.  It takes planning but it is all workable and doable.
Slow and steady wins the race. Hoping for 5 lbs weight loss a month. My body has never don't more than that, if it wants to that would be amazing but having a nice slow loss will help me keep it off in the long run.  Now that I am fully stocked with good food choices I am ready to start tomorrow.

Plan, Prep and Purge

Plan: As the great Benjamin Franklin said "if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."  I have been spending lots of time researching new point values for certain foods and making lists of meals we eat that I know are pretty healthy. This Wed I will attend my first meeting to get all my documents and info about the program.
At the end of last year I was really frustrated with the fact that there was no real fitness, food journal out there that was the way I really wanted. I started making one on my computer and toyed with the idea of having it published.  It was full of inspirational quotes, bible verses, spots for meal planning, goals, training, food tracking. I never quite finished it but I had purchased some Erin Condren Life Planners for my Niece and my SIL for Christmas.  I had never heard of them before but I love planners and they were both kind of obsessed with them.  After I got them theirs I started researching them, watched a couple youtube videos and found out that people personalize them with these stickers.  As fast as my fingers could take me I went and looked up stickers on etsy and found like EVERYTHING I could ever want in a planner.  My own Life Planner and it arrives next Wed. I have purchased special stickers for tracking my WW points, my water intake, my budget will even be in here.  I think I may have truly found the planner I've been looking for for years.  I even have stickers to track my C25K and my running and work outs.  After I start using it I'll do a review here and show you how I am using it to track everything.

Prep:  The prep stage will be full of grocery shopping and portioning out my food into baggies  and labeling point values on them, so I can just grab and go.  This is very tedious and time consuming, but every time I've done this in the past I am successful at my diet.  It is because it takes some of the work out of the whole eating healthy.  Lets be 100% honest, I don't eat healthy because I am to lazy to put to work into it.  I know what I should be eating but it is just so much easier to not think about it and grab fast food on the way home.  Dinner and evenings are always the hardest for me it is when I want to snack and when I don't want to cook.  But for the next 4 months I'll be getting off a little earlier so that should help. I just need to be determined to take food out the night before for dinner the next day.  But this too will be on my daily planner. I need

Purge: While this may not be the last step, it'll probably happened at the same time as Prep step and that is to rid my house of foods that are not good for me or are trigger foods.  Get rid of all my go to comfort foods. These foods come at a much higher cost in points now and while I will still be able to have a treat every now and then but for now will be a big detox.  I have my 24 day challenge from Advocare and that includes the cleanse that should help with my cravings.

I am feeling very scared and determined all at the same time.  I am excited for this year, a year ago today my BFF and I finished our first "long run" on our half marathon training. I still can't believe that was only a year ago it feels like forever ago.

Happy Healthy New Year

"Do not remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing!" Isaiah 43:18-19

I think I've already said my husband and I have decided that 2016 needs to be the year of health.  We have many medical situations and pending problems to put them off any longer.  While I am not the biggest fan of New Years Resolutions because 9/10 people give them up in just a few weeks. But there is that 1, that 1 out of 10 that does it.  Why can't I be the 1? One of the definitions of resolution is "The Action of solving a problem."  Well my health is a problem and I am working on a solution to fix this problem so here it is I am making a resolution to get healthy.

My health issues are as follows: Anxiety, Depression, High blood pressure, acid reflux/ulcer, high risk of type 2 diabetes(not pre diabetic yet).  These are reason enough to get healthy. My husbands Mom's side of the family has major history of heart problems. His grandpa had a heart transplant, grandma's heart is always in a-fib, his Mom's heart goes in and out of a-fib & she has high blood pressure.  His younger brother has had high blood pressure for years and had a heart attack scare when he was only 26!  He had chest pains and fell down the stairs and the called 911.  They found that his body had released the hormone your body releases after you have a heart attack. So they went up to investigate his heart and said they found no damage.  Then they said he might have thither condition that would require a pace maker and had him wear a heart monitor for a month. After all this when we asked he said well I guess every thing was fine.  It's been 7 years since this happened and I can't help but think that maybe he really did have a heart attack but his heart was strong enough to not take on any damage. And the thought of that is terrifying. My MIL is going through all kinds of tests right now because of her heart going into a-fib more.  All this makes my hubby really want to focus on keeping his heart as healthy as possible. And he worries about me getting Type 2 Diabetes because it EVERYONE on my Dad's side has it.

So what is the plan?  I have rejoined Weight Watchers to try out their new plan and my MIL & Mom are going to join too! I am thrilled because it is always better to have buddies to change your diet with. My MIL and I will be going to the meetings while my mom is just joining the online but we'll all be doing the program. I did the math and I need to lose 58.4 pounds that is just over 32% of my body weight basically 1/3 of myself.  My number one goal is health and a side effect of eating better and working out is weight loss. Our first WW meeting is 1/6 and that is also the day I am finally meeting me new personal trainer.  I am looking forward to blogging updates and I will have Weigh in Wednesday's plus My fitness plans for next year is not long distance runs but I want to be able to run a while 5K with out stopping. So to start I am hoping to run a mile with out stopping. So I am going back to my trusty C25K program and after my body is ready to actual run again I'll start some speed drills maybe. I am looking forward to see what this year will bring!