A so-so Weekend

Connie and I spent Saturday night in a hotel for a romantic getaway. My food choices were spotty and I didn't track points. I'll re-create as best I can what I did just for accountability although right now I don't really care. I'm having one of those down type days. I'm bored and lonely and that usually equals giving in and eating. We shall see. The fact that it is Halloween may not help since candy will abound.

Saturday breakfast was breakfast sandwiches...that was the good part of that days food intake. We didn't eat lunch and had a lunch/dinner (if breakfast/lunch is brunch is lunch/dinner linner?) We ate at TGI Fridays and had the three for all appetizer which means I had two potato skins, two mozarella cheese sticks and 4 wings. All with appropriate (but not good for me) sauces.I got the sizzling southwest chicken and ate it all other than a couple of forkfulls of mashed potatoes that Connie ate for me. Isn't she good :) Later I had a chocolate chip cookie and an oatmeal raisin cookie that Connie brought up from the lobby. We also split a pack of chocolate graham crackers and had some cheese-its.

Saturday we did work in a good long walk to and from Fridays so at least I did that much right. Like I said I have no idea how many points all this was and I'm not going to worry about it. I'll just call this and Sunday's food my weekly points allowance (which I usually don't use so that could be a problem). I think a few days of good eating can fix it but right now I don't want to eat good.

Sunday we walked to Bob Evans for breakfast. I got a sausage and cheddar omelet. It came with two pancakes only one of which I ate. Connie again helped me out by eating one of the pancakes. Of course she gave me half her whipped cream off her french toast for my one remaining pancake so I'm not sure who came out ahead :)

For lunch/dinner during football I made veggie stuffed green peppers which is the one good thing I did on Sunday. They are VERY good and very low points. Two of them is only a couple of points. I also snacked on some weird low fat corn chips. I don't know the brand and wouldn't tell you anyway if I remembered cuz you do NOT want to try them! Didn't stop me from eating them but I won't do it again...but they were not too many points. I finished off the cheese-its from Saturday and had more graham crackers. I probably had something else too but if so I can't remember what now.

Such is the my life when I gooff the wagon. Still it could have been worse. At no time did I eat until I was stuffed and literally could not eat more at least. Be thankful for small blessings maybe?

Oh well. I'm not gonna stress about it. I did promise to report faithfully on what i've eaten though so there it is. Today I've done ok so far. I am hungry and need to decide on lunch. Part of me wants to go to Long John Silvers but I know I shouldn't. Oddly the main thing keeping me from going is that it would be crowded and I really don't want to go out anyway. I guess being lazy is helpful sometimes. I'll go see what I can find to cook.

Hope you all had good weekends whether or not you behaved foodwise. Take care :)

Friday's Food Journal

I had an excellent day Friday. I was over a tad on points but did it pretty much on purpose. I was in a great mood all day and it helped to behave. Even though I was over on points a bit I didn't do anything really bad. The worst was having too much of the Jalepeno Ranch Dressing with my salad for lunch. I just LOVE that stuff! The ten points for that salad and dressing is an estimate but it seems to work out.

If you can handle the sodium of canned soups I highly recommend Campbells Chunky Fajita Steak soup. It was really good. It's so nice to have soup weather here! I just can't eat hot soup when it's hot out. Now I have hopes of a few days cool enough to wear a sweat shirt and eat soup although there may not be many days that are cold enough for both at once. This is Florida after all!

Here's yesterday's food journal:

Daily Points Allowance:             28
Food Points Used:                   31
Activity Points earned:              6 (2 walks totaling 80 min)
Activity Points swapped:            -3
                     Point Total:   28

Weekly points allowance used:        0
Weekly points allowance balance:    35

Food Journal:

Morning
2 breakfast sandwiches               5

Midday
Crisper's Southwest chick salad
   and dressing                     10

evening
4 1/4 oz cooked bnls, skinless
 chicken breast                      4
Simply potatoes southwest hashbrowns 2
1 cup Campbells chunky Fajita Steak  2
1 WW round van ice cream sand        2
                   
snacks
1 WW round van ice cream sand        2
2c V8 low sodium Veggie juice        1
1c FF cottage cheese                 3

                 Total food points: 31

Thursday's food journal

Well I'm back to counting points and actualy think I may have gone a few days there when I was not counting points that I didn't eat ENOUGH. That could be why I only gained 2.8 pounds during the last two weeks. Looking at this list though while I stayed in my points my choices need to improve. I need to work in more veggies and fruits for snacks I think. That's just a personal preference though. I like the junk, even low fat junk but I know the fruits and veggies are better for me. I'll see what I can do on that front. Here, now, is what I ate yesterday.

Food journal:

Daily Points Allowance:             28
Food Points Used:                   28
Activity Points earned:              4 (50 min walk)
Activity Points swapped:             4
                     Point Total:    0

Weekly points allowance used:        0
Weekly points allowance balance:    35

Food Journal:

Morning
no breakfast before WW

Morning snack
2 Snackwells Devil's Food cookies    2

Midday
2 Gortons Cajun Blackened Fillets    5
2 Wonder Light Hamburger Buns        2.5
2 slices FF Sharp Cheddar            1
Lettuce, tomato, onion               0
                          sub total: 8.5

evening
1 Slice Pizza (mall)                 6
1/2 c FF cottage cheese             1.5
1 WW round vanilla Icecream sand     2
                           subtotal: 9.5

evening snack
1 WW round vanilla ice cream sand    2
1 Mrs Fields cookie (connie's fault) 6

                 Total food points: 28

I'm back

I've actually been back in Orlando since Saturday but now I'm officially back on plan and will resume posting here regularly. Tomorrow I will begin posting food journals again starting with what I end up eating today. So far today I've eaten nothing because it was my weigh in day.

Weigh in went much better than I expected. I was not very good in terms of food choices a lot of the past couple of weeks. On the other hand I guess I was not that bad either. I weighed in at 234.4 lbs. that is a gain of 2.8. That is a lot less than I expected. I really thought I had gained about five pounds.

My eating, especially in Tunica was a mixed bag. I did a couple of breakfast buffets and did NOT choose fruit. I guess what offset that is that, as usual when I'm off by myself playing poker, I ate only twice a day, breakfast and dinner, on most days. I walked a fair amount as well, never searching for close parking spots and never taking even the free casino shuttles. I also drink all my water when I play because I never drink anything else at the poker table.

I did not behave even when I got back home but even those choices were not as bad as they could have been. I can fully expect to lose the 2.8 lb gain back next week if I am a good little boy this week. I want to set a good example and hopefully encourage others so I'll do my best.

Having said that I'm now, shortly anyway, going to go out to lunch. I won't go overboard but I AM eating both my breakfast points AND lunch points, or I can...we'll see.

I'm glad to be back. I didn't feel good about not journaling while I was gone and I think next time I may at least journal the food even though I may make no attempt to figure the points values on a lot of it (which probably means there is little point to figuring them on anything) at least it will give you some idea of what I eat when I gain a bit. Of course there is always the chance I'll behave really good on my upcoming trip and not have any problems!

Let me know how ya'll are doing and remember....there is no try, only do or not do!

Thursday's food

As I said in the previous entry I didn't have a good evening for a few reasons. I went on a kind of mini binge. Mostly it was mini because there is not much left here that is really bad. I did stay away from the peanut butter for my toast (and oh how I was tempted) and stayed away from Lee's mozzarella cheese sticks, another temptation except that I was too lazy to cook 'em. Even when I binge now it tends to be healthy...this sucks! lol

I hope this wasn't the start of something. I want to do this. Not for me. I want to do it because I want so many others who've supported me for so long to stick with THEIR plan. So far I have not hurt anything much. I used 6 of my weekly points allowance. If I behave the rest of the week that will be no problem. Can I behave while out of town? (get your mind out of the gutter I'm too fat to get that kind of action! lol) I swear I'm going to try. I want to. I want to succeed at this.

Here is yesterday's food which I wasn't going to bother to post (even though it's not bad) but did because I will NOT give up. So YOU can't either :)

Daily Points Allowance:           28
Food Points Used:                 38
Activity Points earned:            4
Activity Points swapped:           4
                     Point Total: -6

Weekly points allowance used:      6
Weekly points allowance balance:  29

Food Journal:

Morning
Breakfast Burritos                             8

Midday
Applebee's Grilled Talapia                     7

evening
Chicken breast over rice with lf cheese sauce  6.5
Brocolli

snacks
3 nibblers cookies                             3

late night snack/binge
WW blueberry muffin                            3
1cup (est) fat free cottage cheese             3
Toast (lite bread) w/ simply fruit             4
Quakes carmel corn                             3.5

                           Total food points: 38

A stumble and near fall

This would be a good entry to skip. It's like when the news says "we caution viewers that the next story contains graphic footage and sensitive viewers may not want to watch it". Well the next few paragraphs contain the verbal equivalent for emotional eaters and will more than likely be demotivated. If you are in a good mood you might not want to read it. If you're in a bad mood it'll make it worse and you should definately not read it. Having said that more people will probably read this entry than any other. (sigh..I added this paragraph after I'd written the entry and I guess the feeble attempt at humor, such as I am capable of, means I am feeling better....and I guess I am...a little)

I have always been an emotional eater. I guess I always will be. It was ironic reading Robin's entry when I woke up this morning. Her eating was, at least initially triggered by something that went very right and made her feel happy. Celebrating with food. Lots of people do. The focal point of parties, weddings, festivals, almost anything tends to be food. Celebrating with food is an accepted norm. I guess I did it a couple weeks ago with Lee's birthday when I used up every point I could find and then some on pizza and cake. I fixed that. I was motivated to lose weight and I did my binge knowing I was doing it and planning to fix it. It worked out. I lost weight that week.

I'm worried right now though. My worse emotional eating is when I'm down. I'm way down now. I ate last night for comfort. Wasn't much comfort because I've pretty well cleaned my environment of all the crap. Obviously WW knows what they are doing when they tell you to clean up your environment lol. I didn't do too much damage last night. I was too lazy to go out and get anything really bad. Maybe I'm trying to hold on to the one thing that I might possibly be successful at, the one thing I can look at in my life and say that I was a success at. I, at one time, reached my goal. I lost over 100lbs. It felt good to achieve a goal to feel successful. That I screwed it up is not surprising. The good news, I guess, is that I know how to fix it. That's what I've been trying to do by posting this journal and doing what it takes to lose the weight and hopefully keep it off this time.

Then the down times come. I feel like I will never be worth anything to anybody. I get lonely. I get frustrated on so many levels and nobody seems to understand. I want to eat. I want comfort food. I want donuts. I want fried chicken. I want to go to a restaurant and not have to think about anything other than what I really WANT, not what I SHOULD eat. I know I'm not alone.

Today, this whole coming week, is going to be hard. I stumbled last night. Wanted to eat and did. So far little damage is done. I ate too much of basically healthy foods. Today is another day. I'll have the opportunity to go out. This week I will not be eating at home. I'll not be at home. I'll be surrounded by temptation. Right now I don't think I care. I kinda care. I guess. Part of me wants to say f**k it I'll eat until I die since sooner or later I'll die anyway it doesn't matter if it's sooner rather than later.

I'm going to disappoint some people here probably. I may not be much of a motivating factor in the JLand weightloss comunity for a bit. I went to bed unhappy about a number of things I can't begin to discuss. I woke up crying and feeling worse. So much for sleeping on it. Now I've got the guilt added on top of that of stumbling off my path here and contemplating a major deviation if not a one hundred eighty degree turn. (I can also add in the fact that in today's society men are not supposed to admit to crying but I don't give a s**t).

The only good news right now is that I know where the path is and know how to walk it so that if I screw up today, this coming week, I can get back on. At least writing here has made me feel a bit more like trying even though it seems pointless still.

Such are the travails of the emotional eater.

Another good Weigh In

Just got back from my weekly weigh in. It was not as good as last week but that is hardly surprising. It was, however, something that I think I can maintain relatively steadily if I stick with it and that is all I could ask.

I was down 2.0 lbs to 231.6 and have 30.6 to my goal weight. At this rate that could be just fifteen weeks. Of course with Thanksgiving and Christmas in there not to mention my upcoming Tunica trip that could be unreasonable to expect but on the other hand it's not impossible!

Here is yesterday's weight watcher journal:

Daily Points Allowance:            28
Food Points Used:                  25.5
Activity Points earned:             4
Activity Points swapped:            0
                     Point Total:  +2.5

Weekly points allowance used:       0
Weekly points allowance balance:   35

Food Journal:

Morning
Breakfast Sandwiches on light bread w/ham    6

Midday
Stir fry with squash, other veggies, chicken 3

Afternoon snack
WW blueberry muffin                          3
Yoplait light Boston Cream Pie yogurt        2
                                  subtotal:  6

evening
117g cooked lean beef steak (NY strip)       5
oven grilled veggies w/200g potato           2.5

snacks
Quakes ranch flavor                          2
nibblers                                     2

                         Total food points: 25.5

Baked Chimichangas

Stacy asked for the recipie for the Chimi's I made yesterday for dinner

I made it up from an idea in a WW cookbook and ingredients I happened to have on hand. I'm posting it for one serving of 2 chimis but you can do multiples and figure points from that pretty accurately.

2 soft taco size fat free tortillas (89cal, 0fat, 3g fiber check the package some vary) (3pts)
1/2 cup Old El Paso Fat free refried beans (1 point)
1/4 lb very lean (4%-7% fat) ground beef  (3.5 points)
chopped green chilis and/or onion to taste (0 pts)
2 tbsp Old El Paso Low Fat Medium Cheese Dip (1 point)

brown the ground beef with seasonings, chili powder, cumin, garlic, whatever floats your boat. drain it.

spread the beans on the tortillas, top with the beef and the green chilis and/or onions

roll the tortillas as you would for burritos.

spray a cookie sheet with Pam, put the chimis on it, spray them LIGHTLY with Pam. Bake in 350 degree oven until crisp and beginning to get a bit brown, or to taste. About 20 min.

transfer to a serving plate and top with 1 tbsp each of the cheese dip (heated in the microwave before hand)

approx 9 points for two Chimis.
serve with an additional 1/2 cup refried beans on the side for only 1 more point if desired.

I pretty much wing most of my means from ingredients I have on hand. I just calcuate points and add them together for each ingredient on the fly adding or removing or changing ingredients to get the target points i'd like for the meal.

This turned out to be really tasty and filling. It's cut the points to the bone about as far as I can see possible other than maybe taking the meat out and having just bean chimis which would probalby be very good too and would save 3 points or so.

Questions or Comments? Let me know!

Day before weigh in

The scale looks ok and I should not show a loss. I'm a little surprised it's not lower but who knows what it will be like tomorrow at weigh in. This time last week I thought I was going to show a gain so I'm just going to shut up and post yesterday's data and wait for my results tomorrow.

Daily Points Allowance:              28
Food Points Used:                    26.5
Activity Points earned:               4
Activity Points swapped:              0
                     Point Total:    +1.5

Weekly points allowance used:         0
Weekly points allowance balance:     35

Food Journal:

Morning
Egg Beater Omlette w/lf sausage & lf cheese sauce 4

Midday
Ham Sandwich on lite HB bun                       3
FF Hot dog on lite HD bun                         2

Afternoon snack
1 small banana                                    1.5
1 peach                                           1

evening
Oven baked Chimichangas                           9
TCBY non-fat no-sugar-added juniorcup            2

evening snacks
10 items Quaker Quakes - Ranch                    2
1 WW round vanilla ice cream sandwich             2

snacks

                             Total food points:  26.5

I had a pretty good day yesterday foodwise. I didn't really eat enough for lunch, the stir fry didn't stick with me that great. It was yummy since I love scallops and tons of veggies but I should have cooked rice and had at least a half cup of rice with it. It all worked out though with a good snack mid-afternoon. I kept to my points mostly, only having to swap out 2 activity points. That looks like it makes 6 activity points swapped out this week. You could also look at that as I'd used 6 points from my weekly allowance of 35 leaving me with 29, still a heck of a lot better than last week. The scale this morning was better than this time last week. That does not necessarily translate to mean I'll lose more than I did last week. I seriously doubt I'll lose another 4.4 pounds. I will be quite happy with 2 and any loss is a good lose, even a tiny one.

I'm getting a little nervous about my trip to Tunica in terms of eating. There is not a hotel with a kitchen available and the place i'm staying while nice i'm sure does not even have a fridge and microwave. I'll have to be VERY good at comped buffets (at least I hope the comp policy for poker players is generous enough to get one or two a day) I can do that though, just eating veggies. Buffet veggies seem to always have SOME butter on them but if you drain them well they don't seem too injurous. The problem will be avoiding much of the 'good' stuff. LOL. I'm hoping that Tunica has a Subway. That may be my saving grace. I can eat and get full on 7 points there. I can also do that once or even twice a day if I have to, at least for a short time. I'm not viewing this trip as a vacation of any sort so I won't, hopefully, be on a vacation eating mind set. Send me good thoughts on good eating next week I'll need all the help I can get! I should be still doing this journal though as I'm taking my laptop. I will post everything, the good the bad and the ugly. I still can't quite believe I'm doing this. The people at my WW meeting thought I was bonkers when I told them. None of them were prepared to have ANYBODY see their food journals. I don't understand that. If you eat good stuff why is it a secret? If you're not then there is the answer to why you're not losing more :) I don't think they liked me saying that :) I still maintain it's true...just maybe not politically correct.

And now before I ramble on all morning here is my WW journal from yesterday.

Daily Points Allowance:           28
Food Points Used:                 30  
Activity Points earned:            4
Activity Points swapped:           2
                     Point Total:  0

Weekly points allowance used:      0
Weekly points allowance balance:  35

Food Journal:

Morning
2 Breakfast sandwiches                5

Midday
scallop Stir fry (no rice)            3

Afternoon snack
6oz Yoplait Light Boston Cream yogurt 2
WW Blueberry muffin                   3

evening
Mashed potatos (203g potato, garlic,
                1/4c FF chick broth   2.5
147g(uncooked) BS Chicken Breast      3.5
108g broccoli                         0

Evening snacks
Quaker Quakes Ranch (30)              5
2 mrs fields nibblers                 2
2 WW Round vanilla ice cream sand     4

                  Total food points: 30

Again I was a couple of points over my daily allowance. That is not really a problem, I had more than enough activity points to swap and have not touched my weekly points allowance yet. The scale this morning indicates that I'm not doing badly but not spectacular either, that's normal for 3 days to weigh in. Odd how I seem to just shed weight the last couple of days before weigh in. I guess that's the reason they say to weigh once a week at the same time and day. Our bodies seem to be on a cycle and you want to catch the cycle in the same spot. Don't know if that's true but it fits the evidence and makes some sense.

One thing I don't like about Weight Watchers eTools is that, without getting really creative in your reporting, it forces you to use ALL your activity points for the day before using ANY of your weekly points allowance. Personally I'd rather not use the activity points most times and instead take the points from the weekly points allowance. But there's ways around it even if they are a bit clunky if you're like me and want to get credit for exercise done even if you don't want to use that credit.

The thing is I've noticed that one huge binge like I did a week ago Saturday at Lee's birthday party is less injurous to my results than the way I'm doing this week and going just a couple of points over on a few days. I'm not sure why that is but again it seems to fit the evidence. We'll see how this week turns out. It's way too early for me to start worrying yet :)

Here is yesterday's WW Journal:

Daily Points Allowance:           28
Food Points Used:                 30
Activity Points earned:            5 70min Brisk Walk
Activity Points swapped:           2
                     Point Total:  0

Weekly points allowance used:      0
Weekly points allowance balance:  35

Food Journal:

Morning
Banana, 81g                        1
6oz Yopolait Light Cherry Yogurt   2
                        subtotal:  3

Midday
1 medium apple                     1
burritos                           9
                        subtotal: 10

evening
2oz uncooked pasta                 4
1/2c Healthy Choice Spag Sauce     1
2 turkey meatballs                 2
Salad w/gorgonzola and bacon       4
                        subtotal: 11

snacks
2 WW round van Icecream sand       4
2 Mrs. Fields Nibblers cookies     2
                        subtotal:  6

               Total food points: 30

Much better saturday

This was a much better Saturday in terms of eating than last Saturday. I went ever so slightly over my daily points allowance but only had to swap out 2 activity points. Last week if you recall, and oh how I hope nobody does, I ate up all my activity points AND all my weekly points allowance on Saturday in the form of cake and pizza. Looking back though, and seeing how I still achieved the result I wanted, I'd give it a try again. Anybody want pizza and cake for their birthday? :)

Despite the weather remaining crappy off and on we still got in two nice walks. The first walk, right at our usual 50 minutes, was up to the BP Connect which is where the mornings apple fritter came from. At least when I eat junk like that I feel a little better if I had to walk up to get it...and it was yummy as usual.

The second walk was in the early evening when we couldn't think of much else to do. Turned out we were both really feeling like another walk. Once you get started and do it long enough it really does become a habit and something you actualy look forward to doing. I really like that. This one was only 40 min but was nice. We walked around the neighborhood. I can't wait for fall weather. You may not believe this but I'm betting you will see my walking time increase for a couple of weeks or a month or more when we get some cool dry weather here. It was like walking in a sauna yesterday. The upside is that you do work up a very good sweat...if you're into that kind of thing.

Hope everybody had a good Saturday and stayed on plan.

Here's yesterday's WW journal:

Daily Points Allowance:             28
Food Points Used:                   30
Activity Points earned:              7 50 min walk, 40 min walk
Activity Points swapped:             2
                     Point Total:   28

Weekly points allowance used:        0
Weekly points allowance balance:    35

Food Journal:

Morning
Apple fritter                                7

Midday
grilled chicken breast, 171 gm               5.5
4 slices Wonder Light Wheat Bread            2.5
2 slices Kraft FF Sharp Cheddar              1
lettuce, onion, tomato                       0
                                  subtotal:  9

evening
Burritos w FF beans,4% gb, LF cheese sauce   9

snacks
2 WW round vanilla ice cream sandwiches      4
2 nibblers cookies                           2
                                  subtotal:  6

                         Total food points: 30

Not a bad day, not a particularly good day. It rained all day. I didn't exercise although I did have options available. I stayed within my points though....at least if I'm close with the points value of the salad I had with Connie when she wanted to go to Bennigans after I picked her up at the airport. There were a lot of other things I'd have rather had though which would have been far worse choices so that is good.

Here is yesterday's WW journal

Daily Points Allowance:            28
Food Points Used:                  28
Activity Points earned:             0 no exercise today :(
Activity Points swapped:            0
                     Point Total:   0

Weekly points allowance used:       0
Weekly points allowance balance:   35

Food Journal:

Morning
2 Breakfast Sandwiches              5

Midday
Salad (see entry yesterday)         4

midday snack
pork tenderloin sandwich            3

evening
Bennigans Kilkenny Chicken Salad   12

snacks
2 WW ice cream sandwiches           4  

               Total food points:  28

All Salads are not created equal

I've had a similar discussion to this with many people but it bears repeating here. Besides it's my journal and it's what I want to write about. lol

Most, but by no means all, people agree with my opinion that salads bought out in restaurants are usually tastier than ones made at home. The downside, of course, is that they are also usually higher in points than you could and would make at home. Also you are never sure exactly that it was all low fat or fat free stuff or whatever.

I still take my chances most of the time. I love the salads at Crispers. No points available but based on ingredients you can figure reasonable estimates and most are not bad...without the dressings.

I also love California Pizza Kitchen's salads but they, I strongly suspect, are on the high points end. And of course there is the fact that they have pizza there and that is so hard to resist.

Bennigan's Killkenny Country Chicken Salad is great and if you really want to behave you can order it with grilled chicken not fried tenders on top. You don't get many tender pieces so I suspect the damage is not too bad even that way. If you don't care though the grilled is very good.

There are other places of course. Mostly I just love salads and have had them in just about every conceivable place.

Today for lunch though I made a salad that was every bit as good as one of CPK's chopped salads and was only 4 points. It could have been less, even zero. I started with a couple of cups of chopped lettuce (0 points). To that I mixed in two tablespoons of fat free Kraft Italian dressing (0 points). I spread that mixture on a large plate and topped it with 1/2 cup or so of Alfalfa sprouts (0 points) and 1/2 cup mushrooms (0 points). Around the edges I spread a chopped tomato (0 points). It looks good that way rather than sprinkled on top. Now the points start and you could put other items or skip these I suppose. I put 18g of crumbled cooked bacon (2 points), I used packaged already cooked bacon cuz I use very little and it's easier. That was almost a quarter cup loosely packed and when spread on top of the salad looked like plenty. On top I added 23g of crumbled gorgonzola cheese (2pts). It adds a good flavor and didn't raise the points that badly. To me the taste increase was worth the points cost. The 23g was plenty. The salad tasted great, was only 4 points and was very filling.

Now you're wondering how I picked 18g of bacon and 23g of cheese? You're not? Well I'm going to tell you anyway!

I was aiming at two points of each and, using Weightwatchers eTools I just found the number of grams of each that would give me two points for each one. Then I measured it out on my trusty scale and I was in business. That's another way I feel the scale helps. You can aim for exactly what you want in terms of points. Sometimes you'll be surprised and find that what you just measured is really more than you want. If you're like me though you probably eat it anyway :)

I'm done rambling...hope ya'll had a good lunch.

I gave myself a bit of a treat after my WW meeting and went to the Ale House for the Jambalaya I love so much. I just estimated the points for it. I think I'm close. If I have bad results next week and everything else seemed ok then I'll make a note to take more points for it next time. It could easily be divided into two meals and I should have. Connie and I have had a side salad and split the Jambalaya before. I'm just rambling about my rationalizations here. You can see from my food journals for last week and my results that I can exceed my points and still get excellent results. Last week was my first week back on plan in a long time so the results are not typical but I would have lost some regardless. We'll see how it goes. I hope it doesn't discourage anybody. You'll see, as my weight goes down that I will start to struggle with the lowering points allowance and my weight loss will slow down until at my goal weight I will have a real struggle to maintain my weight and be happy with what i'm eating. That is when I'll need the most help from everybody.

Here's yesterday's WW Journal:

Daily points allowance:          28
Food points used:                28
Activity points earned:           4
Activity points swapped:          0
                     Point total: 0

weekly points allowance used:     0
Weekly points allowance balance: 35

Food Journal:

Breakfast
none

Lunch
Ale House Jambalaya (estimate)   20

dinner
oven grilled veggies with potato  4

snacks
2 WW round ice cream sandwiches   4

              Total food points: 28

Yippee!!

I just got back from WW and the results were better than I thought. I knew it would be good, I could tell from the scale at home. I even picked out normal clothes. By that I mean I wore a polo shirt and dockers not a sleeveless tee shirt and gym shorts. Didn't have the guts for jeans although now I wish I had :)

I was down 4.4 pounds! It's always nice to see that this works if you just DO it. Now I have to ask myself why I waited so long but I won't beat myself up over something that is done. Just please ya'll, keep me on track this time!

I'm going to post this and go to lunch. I DID skip breakfast and have had only water today so I'm ready to eat!

Wednesday's WW Journal

Daily Points Allowance: 28
Food Points used:       21
Points Balance:         +7

Activity Points Earned:  5
Activity Points Swapped: 0

Breakfast
2 cups V8 Low Sodium             1
6 oz Yoplait Light Cherry Yogurt 2
                      Sub-Total: 3

Lunch
BBQ Chicken shredded in sauce    6
2 Merita Lite Wheat HB Buns      2
Broccoli Slaw                    0
                      Sub-Total: 8

Dinner
Pork Tenderloin                  3
Salad                            0
Oven Grilled Veggies             1
Jello Fat free pudding snack     2
                      Sub-Total: 6

Snacks
2 WW Ice Cream Sandwiches        4
                      Sub-Total: 4

                         Total: 21

Note that I did not eat all my points. That is something I usually try hard not to do. I've seen over time that it is very important to eat all my daily points (but not necessarily all my weekly points allowance) to lose weight optimally. I know lots of people try to eat under their points and I'd like to encourage them to try eating all the points (assuming they are calculated correctly) and exercise and I think you will see  a larger weight loss. But that's just my two cents worth. The results speak for themselves however :) Of course I'm a guy and know how all you ladies out there hate the way us guys lose weight. Keep plugging everybody and let me know how you'd done this week!

I was within my points Tuesday, at least as long if my estimate for the salad I had at dinner was right but it had to be close. The scale still looks decent so it can't be too far off. This shows you what I tend to do though when I eat out when I'm trying to work the plan. I will make decent choices and make what I hope is a generous estimate of the point value. As far as this salad was concerned I was not as good as I could have been...I could have ordered it with grilled not fried chicken but I wanted it the way I ordered it...and yes I ate the roll that comes with it! I did NOT use the butter though and as usual used less than half the dressing.

No exercise Tuesday but the weather is not good and that's the only excuse I can come up with. It's no better today so I either go for a walk in the rain or go to the gym...I MUST excercise today. My weigh in is in the morning and I want it to be decent even though I plan to eat a light breakfast and wear normal clothes instead of starving until the meeting and wearing the absolute lightest things I can find. Hopefully I'll show a loss anyway and this way I'll be able to do the same every week and it should balance out.

Here's Tuesday's journal:

Daily Points Allowance:   28
Points used:              28
Activity points earned:    0
Activity points swapped:   0
                         ___
Balance:                   0

Breakfast:
2 Lite English Muffins          2
2 slices FF sharp cheddar       1
1/2 cup egg beaters             1
3pcs Healthy Choice LF sausage  2
sub total:                      6

Lunch:
2 slices Light Wheat Bread      1
6 slices Hilshire Farm Ham      1
2 slices FF sharp cheddar       1
Lettuce, onion, tomato, pickle  0
broccoli slaw                   1
subtotal:                       4

Dinner
Bennigans Kilkenny Chick Salad 12  (est)
subtotal:                      12

Snacks
2 nibbler cookies               2
2 WW Round vanilla Ice cream    4
sub total:                      6

I did pretty good yesterday in spite of having a very stressful day. I was on plan eating all exactly to my daily points allowance. I also earned 4 Activity points which I did not use. The scale looked good this morning but I'm not going  to report any weights but 'official' Weight Watchers weigh ins here.

Here's yesterday's journal results:

Breakfast
2 Breakfast Sandwiches                           5

Lunch
1 Hamburger, lite bun, 4% GB, 1 Slice FF cheese  5
  Potato Salad (FF mayo)                         2

Dinner
146g flounder fillets                            5
1 Crab cake                                      2
2 servings (160g total) Simply Potatoes          2

Snacks
1 WW Giant Fudge Bar                             1
1 WW Round Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich            2
1 cup Fat-free cottage cheese                    3
3 Mrs. Fields cookie nibblers                    3

Total                                           28
Daily Points allowance                          28
Balance                                          0

Activity points
50 min Brisk walk                                4

The Return of the Scale Nazi

One thing that I did the whole time I was losing weight the first time was weigh virtually everything. I'm back to that now and curious how much difference it will make. It's the only way I feel absolutely sure about my points though.

Take tonight's dinner. I have stuffed flounder in the oven as I write this. I use a crab cake for the filling. I forget the brand but if anybody wants to know I'll look and tell you. I get 'em at BJ's. I put a piece of flounder (also from BJ's usually) on the bottom of a baking dish sprayed with Pam. Then I put the thawed crab cake on that mushing it up to spread it out nicely. Then I split the other piece of flounder and put it on top so that some of the stuffing shows in the middle. After that it gets a sprinkle of cajun seasoning, as much for color as anything so paprika works well too. Then it gets cooked in a 350 degree oven until its done by my food thermometer. It usually takes about half an hour. Tonight I surrounded it with two servings (for two points) of Simply Potatoes Southwest Hashbrowns.

The only good way to figure points for the flounder is to weigh it. The pieces are not the same size although using the package nutrition is a good second choice. I enter the weight right into Weight Watchers eTools and it gives me the exact points for the exact weight of flounder that I used. I also weighed the Simply potatoes since a serving is 2/3 of a cup or 80 grams for one point. The problem with 2/3 of a cup is it matters how much you mush it down. I can get a LOT more than 80 grams into 2/3 of a cup, that is cheating. Weight is weight though and 80 grams is 80 grams. So I measured out 160 grams giving myself two servings, spread that around the flounder and I was good to go. Now I can't wait until it's done :)

I tend to weigh everything I can because I know I'll cheat if I try to measure it by volume. I may not even cheat intentionally. It is just an inexact way to measure so many things whereas weighing it is fool proof and not that much trouble.

I know I take it to extremes but it's something to consider if you're having trouble losing...maybe you are un-intentionally cheating on portions. It does work the other way too you know, there are some things that you get MORE of by weight than you do by volume depending on how hard you mush them.

Now I guess I'll go see if dinner is ready...I waited too late and let myself get too hungry. Never a good idea. After dinner though I stillhave 9 points left so at least I can have some desert...and maybe a beer or two (light of course) during football.

I stayed within my points on Sunday and Connie and I took a nice long walk, 60 minutes, on the Cross Seminole Trail. I was gonna take pics, I took the camera...but I didn't take the memory chip. Duh! Next time.

Here's my journal results:

Breakfast
   1 banana                             2
  
LUnch
   3 fat free turkey hot dogs           2.5
   3 Light wheat Hot dog buns           4.5
   1/2 can del monte Rio Grande Veggies 2

Dinner
   Potato Salad                         2
   BBQ chicken shredded in sauce        6

Snacks
   1 WW round vanilla ice cream sand.   2
   1 Baby Ruth bar                      7

Total                                  28

Exercise
   60 min brisk walk                    4

But he only turns 18 once right?

Yesterday was the "Family" party for Lee's 18th birthday. He is a very picky eater so food was pizza and cake. It was really good Pizza and cake too. I had a lot of it.

I'm not sure how to count my points so what I'm doing is saying I used up the 6 activity points I earned over the course of two walks during the day (hey I did do something right!), all my daily points and the rest of my weekly points allowance. That would be almost 70 points for the day (28 + 6 + 34). If that doesn't cover it then oh well. I'm going to do my best to exercise every day until weigh in on Thursday and to stick within my points. That is all I can do at this point. I know it'll be enough to get me at least a small loss. Probably I'll do pretty good and have all the women pissed at me :)

Hopefully this will show you that you can lose control one day and recover. We'll see what Thursday morning brings. I'll be back to the thursday morning meeting in part because Connie will be out of town and I prefer morning meetings anyway and in part because I've not seen Belinda in a while and don't want her to think I died :)

 

Here are today's results:

Weekly points allowance left: 35

Today's Target points: 28

No formal exercise today.

Today's food:

2 breakfast sandwiches   5pts

 

Midday

 

Crispers Southwest Chicken Salad   10pts (est)

 

Evening

 

Stir fry with veggies and chicken 3pts

Cooked white rice, 1cup  4pts

 

Snacks

 

WW round Ice cream sandwiches (2) 4pts

WW Chocolate-carmel minibar (2) 3pt

 

Total 29

I was 1 point over today. New Weekly points Balance is now 34.

If anybody wants recipies for anything I cooked feel free to ask. I've given out the recipie for my breakfast sandwiches to several people so I won't repeat myself, if you want it and don't have it then ask. The stir fry is just whatever veggies turns you on, or that you have in stock, most are zero points and I try to use only zero point veggies. In this case it was squash, zucchini, brocolli, mushrooms, onion, green pepper, red pepper and garlic. I cooked it in a non-stick wok with a little Pam and added only some spices, in my case cajun ones but that's just me :)

Have I mentioned that I hate AOL stupid non-comforming HTML interface? I had my food info in a very nice looking table which pasted find but posted as a mess. Back to the drawing board on how to do that :( One of these days one of these entries will look good. For now you have to make do with the kludge I am producing, sorry.

First Step

This journal is something I've been thinking about for a long time. My weight loss struggle is a big part of my journey through life and I've been chronicling it in my other journal. I need maximum accountability though and to do that I need a place I can post my food and exercise journal. That other journal doesn't seem to me to be the place.

I would be tempted to call this journal a weight loss journal but really it's much more.It would be better off labled a healthy living journal. Weight loss is just a part of that. Once I lose the weight I hope to keep it off...this time.

You see I've done it before. In February of 2002 I began Weight Watchers. I needed it badly. I was on two different medications for high blood pressure. I could barely walk a few hundred yards without a rest. My pants had elastic and draw-string waists. At that first Weight Watchers weigh in I tipped the scales at 301 pounds.

It took me from then to August 19 of 2004 to reach my goal weight, as set by my Doctor, of 201 lbs. I did it though and it felt great. Even just beginning to lose weight felt great. I quickly got to where I could walk long distances without stopping if I chose. I liked the way I looked again. I just plain felt good.

In the year since then however, mostly through emotional eating, i've regained 37 pounds of that. Comes a time when you have to stand up and say enough is enough and this is that time.I will get back to my goal weight and possibly beyond. While I'm nothing like what I was at 301 I don't like the way I look at 237. I don't feel bad and can walk as far as ever but I suspect that I will feel better at, or below, my goal weight.

This journal then is dedicated to healthy living, to me returning to my goal weight and maintaining it. I'm not a food Nazi. I love food. I love foods that are bad for me. One thing I've found is that if I deprive myself, or more accurately if I feel deprived, then I will end up lashing out and messing up. What you'll see here is basically me following the Weight Watchers Flex Plan. I'm a guy though, and I have a lot of experience at this. I also know what works for me both physically and mentally. I also tend to screw up at times. None of that is news to anybody. My point is this, what you see here will not be duplicatable. Over time it will work for me but the way I do it may not work for you. You have to find what does work for you and do that. A lot of what I do, most of it really, will work for anybody though.

While this journal is mostly for me I also hope it will serve as an inspiration to others when I have successes and a warning when I don't. If you ever have any questions, or want to offer suggestions feel free to comment either here or in an email to me.

Now to the meat of today's entry. Thursday's are my weigh in day. I went to the evening meeting last night with Connie since it was her monthly weigh in. She made lifetime before me and has maintained it thus far.

This week's official Weight Watchers Weight: 238.0  +37 over goal.

Thursday's food:

Breakfast: 
5 Points     Ham and Veggie Eggbeater Omelet   

Lunch:
2 points     Stir fry w/115g chicken, Zucchini, yellow squash,
                 mushrooms, red, green and jalepeno peppers, onion

Dinner:
11.5 points 2 hamburgers using 4% fat ground beef (8oz) and
                 2 Merita light wheat hamburger buns, onion, pickles, ect.
                 8 'oven fried' potato wedges (1 potato, 157g),
                 cajun seasoning

Snacks:
7.5 points 4 WW chocolate/carmel mini bars
               1 WW cookies and cream bar
               1 WW giant fudge bar

Activity points earned: 4  50 min brisk walking

Total points allowed: 28
Total points used:     26
Over/Under:            -2
Activity points used:  0
flex points used:        0  (35 available)
net points today:      26

I was within points today :)