The H2O Factor

So I've heard somewhere that water is good for you. Sounds like a new fangled idea doesn't it? WATER...good for you? OK, never mind. We all know water is good for us. I can't remember the last time I drank juice or pop. The only things I ever drink now are tea and water. Oh and alcohol. Over the last week, I've been trying to increase my water intake. I was trying to fool the scale at weigh in on Tuesday.

(It totally didn't work. I showed a 0.6 lb gain, which really ticked me off. I felt like I'd wasted a week of my life and I sat there brooding just a little more than is probably healthy, but then I got over it and vowed to lose this week. See isn't that a plucky attitude to have?)

Nonetheless, I've still kept up my water intake to the point of insanity. It's one thing to have to get up and go to the bathroom every 20 minutes while you're at work, but it's starting to affect my sleep as well. The other night I woke up around 3 or 4 am having to pee like you wouldn't believe. However, the thought of leaving my warm comfy bed, overrode the knowledge that my kindneys might burst. I figured if I didn't move around too much, I could convince myself I didn't have to go. It worked and I managed to drift off to sleep, but then my dreams were filled with thundering waterfalls, babbling brooks and trickling streams. Do you think that means something?

Food yesterday:
oatmeal and brown sugar - 3 pts
celery and hummus - 2 pts
pasta puttanesca - 6 pts
orange
eggplant and provolone pizza - 5 pts
chocolate - 4 pts
Total - 21 pts

I'm here, I'm here!

OK, I had a bit of a lapse here. I have no good reason other than I'm lazy or something like that. I'm now into week two of my WW meetings. My first weigh-in went great. I was down 3 lbs, which puts me at 140.6. Last week, I wore clothes from my closet I hadn't in a while and that felt great. Sometimes I'm stunned at just what a difference a few pounds makes.

This past week hasn't been as successful I feel. I had a couple of indulgent nights and I worry that I won't show a loss this week. I mean I was still pretty good compared to a normal week, but I don't know if it was enough to result in actually losing weight. I guess I can be happy that I didn't gain, but that's a pretty lame consolation prize.

I have my weigh-in today at lunch and I drank like a gallon of water yesterday hoping that might work, but I think it's pretty hard to fool the scale. If it were easy, then we'd all weigh 108 lbs.

Food yesterday:
oatmeal and brown sugar - 3 pts
salami sandwich - 4 pts
pudding - 2 pts
cheese and crackers - 2 pts
pasta puttanesca - 6 pts
pork - 3 pts
mini chocolate bar 2 pts
orange
Total 22 pts

My new religion

Give me a pat on the back, because I had every excuse to chicken out and not attend that WW meeting yesterday. We had a -40 windchill going, I had a lot of work to do and staying in my cozy warm office, instead of braving the cold to walk five blocks seemed like a much better option.

But I went and I signed myself up for six weeks dammit. The first surprise--I was convinced my scale at home was lying to me and that I'd get on the WW scale and it would say I was like 10 lbs heavier than I thought, except that it said I was actually one pound LESS than I believed I was (143.6 lbs). She stamped my little white sheet, which kind of made me nostalgic. I remember when my mom used to be a WW member when I was kid and I was always so envious of her little charts with the squares she got to check off. I'd often do it for her after she'd eaten something. Well looky, I now have my own squares to check off. Aint I lucky?

After I weighed in, I went to sit down for the meeting and just listened to the conversation around me. I felt like I had found my church. Everyone was talking about food! The woman behind me was telling the lady next to her that she'd gone bowling on the weekend and she'd pigged out on hot dogs and french fries. I loved it--these people truly understood what it was like to be 'spoken' to by food. In real life, the only place I can really bitch about how hard it is to lose weight is online, but I now have another avenue.

My leader is very loud and vivacious. At first, I was wondering why she was shouting and was on the verge of disliking her. (What can I say? Girls were mean to me in high school and now I have a healthy distrust of everyone I meet.) But then she started to go off on someone for whining that a 1 pt brownie was chalky. She then told us "What's one point? You have a sneeze and a fart and you burn that off!" It was at that moment that she won my heart. Anyone who would say something like that, can't possibly take themselves that seriously. And I can appreciate that.

Yesterday, Sherre commented that many of the women at her meeting don't look like they need to lose weight, and that they're all there to just lose a few pounds. Well she was right. In fact, I thought most of the women there looked just fine, which of course led me to all kinds of curiosity. I wondered if some had been very overweight at one point and they had lost it? Or were they like me? Just a little self concious and wanting to feel better about themselves? I really need to get a life.

Anyway, I was on OP yesterday and plan to be for the rest of the week. I've got my little books and charts to help me along the way. Who knew losing weight could be so much fun?

WW in the flesh?

Well I totally fell off whatever wagon I was riding the week before and had a very bad weekend. I broke my dates with Jillian (I'm scared she's going to hunt me down and make me do pushups until I weep like a little girl), and I ate everything in sight.

Miraculously, I only gained a pound when I got on the scale yesterday morning. That puts me at 145.6 lbs. I don't know what's wrong with me and why I can't get motivated this time. I've done WW twice in my life when I needed to lose 20-30 lbs, and once I decided I was doing it, I did it and nothing could stop me. This time, I just can't get into that zone and it's frustrating the crap out of me.

So, I'm making a bold move. Something I never thought I would do. I am contemplating attending a real life Weight Watchers meeting in the hopes that it will afford me a greater sense of accountability. I've always done it online, enjoying the anonymity of it and of course loving all the charts and graphs and that kind of thing--this is my definite nerdy side coming through.

I'm not sure why the thought of attending a meeting seems weird. I guess it feels like I'm putting the fact that I can't lose weight out in the open. I'm afraid people will hate me too. I'm not technically overweight, I just want to be thinner and I'm worried that women who are overweight will look at me and think "what is that cow doing here?" I know I would.

There is a lunch time meeting today at 12:15 near my office that I might go to if my workday allows for it. Otherwise, there is another one on Thursday. In the meantime, I've got my charts and graphs to keep me warm.

The truth is, I love the idea of becoming a lifetime member and knowing I’d have to literally pay if I gained weight again after reaching goal. Man I am so cheap…

Jillian Micheals

Well I am on Day 9 of the JM30DS or Jillian Micheals 30-Day Shred (in keeping with the irritating level of Rachel Ray, I like to say the acronym and then say what it stands for every single time), and today I am feeling the effects. I had been alternating between levels one and two and was feeling the burn, so to speak. It was hard, I'll give you that, but it wasn't THAT hard. I've done worse. Bootcamp, a marathon, rock climbing, half-marathons etc. These are all things where I actually believed I might die at some point. Level one and two were challenging, but not life changing.

Then I did level three and oh my goodness. I thought I was going to puke in my living room yesterday. I think that Jillian Micheals might be a genius (of fitness), and I think I'm developing a non-sexual crush on the woman. She's definitely a rough around the edges kind of gal and probably the reason finishing school was invented, but I love it when she says things like taking the stairs "is a false message of lethargy." To me, that's kind of magical. Look at her in that picture looking all ready to take you on.

I also love how she wails on her friends when they cheat during exercises (and have you noticed that Natalie cheats A LOT when she's not looking?)--I assume that to be friends with Jillian you have to be totally cut or she'll make you do 40 pushups every time you come over and then tell you to stop your bitching because she knows 400 lb people that can do jumping jacks and you should stop being such a wuss.

Now that's friendship.

Food yesterday:

I was really good on Monday, but had a bit of a lapse yesterday and ended up eating way too much cheese while I was cooking dinner. I don't know what's up with that, but I'll count it as a blip and move on.

oatmeal & brown sugar - 3 pts
pork sandwich -5 pts
cheese and crackers - 4 pts
cheeeeese - 8 pts? 10 pts? Yikes.
tortilla pie - 6 pts
drink - 3 pts (oops, did I foget to mention this one earlier?)

I'm down!

Well I've finally had a successful week and I gotta say it feels pretty damn good. Not bathing myself in a vat of milk chocolate good, but good nonetheless. I lost a 2.2 lbs and am down to 144.6 lbs.

I was pretty much OP all week which I felt was a bit of a miracle since there were some rather big roadblocks in my way. On Thursday we had a food photoshoot in my office whereby bowls of melted cheese and chocolate served in the form of fondue, were on the menu. (My favourite thing about fondue is that it becomes socially acceptable to eat a bowl of melted cheese, when such behavior would be considered gluttonous and perhaps even disgusting in any other setting. The Swiss are a brilliant people.) I barely touched any of it.

Then it was my husband Matthew's birthday this weekend so we went out for a nice dinner on Saturday. I limited myself to one glass of wine and skipped dessert. Granted I could feel the butter coating the inside of my mouth from the plate of escargot I had, but hey, a girl's gotta live right? Then last night we finished the birthday celebrations at my in-law's where there was more food and cake to be had.

I guess what probably saved me this week was that I earned a total of 17 activity points by exercising ever single day last week.  I don't think I have ever done that before. I did six days of JM30DS and on Saturday went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for an hour. My body has a dull ache all over from not getting a day of rest, but it's a good ache. It's right there under my slightly more toned ass.

K-9 Exercise

I hate to be one of those people who talks incessantly about their pets. I probably have become one of those people and I don't think it bodes well for when we eventually have kids. This is a warning to those I know in real life--I'm SO going to be one of those people. Deal with it.

I'm on day 3 of Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred. (I'm going to pull a Rachel Ray and be unbelievably annoying and give it a big long abbreviation like EVOO. So JM30D it is. That makes it sound like a can of lubricant.) This in itself isn't a big fat deal. I'll have to do a few more days before I'm allowed to pat myself on the back. However, there is one factor in my home workout I did not consider and that would be the 4.5 month old puppy we have.

Evidently jumping jacks, running on the spot and just swinging my arms means playtime in her world and she starts barking at me like mad. It's the same bark she makes when she wants to play. She's generally pretty quiet so it's a little jarring. Fine, I can deal with that. If I ignore it for long enough, then she'll stop eventually.

The real problem starts when I get on the floor to do pushups and situps. Apparently this means it's time to attack. During pushups she will butt her bum right up to my head and practically sit on it, thereby requiring me to do the work of lifting both my own fat ass and her little one. I'd like to think she's just trying to help me out, but I don't think that's it. During situps, I become a target for licking and pawing and general puppy love. While it's all rather cute, it's hardly conducive to losing weight.

I'm scared Jillian is going to pop out of the screen and start yelling at me. She sort of strikes me as the type of person who might do that.

And because I just must... here is our little girl Elphie at 7 weeks, right after we got her. Who could stay mad at that face?

Food yesterday (It wasn't a very good one, but I was good on Monday, which makes me wonder why I didn't post yesterday so I could brag instead of today when I must hang my head in shame.)
oatmeal and brown sugar 3 pts
cheese and crackers 4 pts
lunch 10 pts (I am estimating since I have no idea)
dinner bratwurst 14 pts (this is what I'm talking about)
Total=too much.